It never ceases to amaze me the people that God chooses to do His work.
Such as…
(1) David.
In 1 Samuel 16:1-12 we read how…
• Saul had been rejected as king and God sent Samuel to anoint a new king. Vs. 1-3
• Samuel went. Vs. 4-5
• Jesse and his sons were summoned to the sacrifice vs 5
• The sons were lined up….
• Surely the oldest (Eliab) would be chosen. (vs 6-7)
• Surely the second to the oldest (Abinadab). Vs 8
• Surely the third (Shammah)
• All seven were rejected. Vs 10
• God’s standards are not man’s standards. Vs 7
• Samuel asked, “Are these all your children”. Vs 11
• There was one more…David. 11
• The youngest - keeper of sheep- sunburn - good looking…
• ANOINT HIM FOR THIS IS HE Vs. 11
• The one that was not even considered worthy to be called to the lineup was chosen by God.
• David became Israel’s greatest king ever
• God used David to establish His kingdom.
• To gather the materials to build the Temple.
• To write most of the Psalms.
• If God can use a little Shepard boy and turn him into a great king…God can use you!!!
This is an Old Testament example of God using someone but let me give you a Modern example.
• There was a man born nearly 300 years ago.
• He was 11 years old when he began working on ships in the Mediterranean Sea.
• He once tried to run away, and he was demoted to the lowest rank on the ship.
• He had a reputation as being one of the most undisciplined, rude, foul-mouthed sailors.
• He was so bad the few captains wanted him on their vessel.
• Eventually, he was given his own ship…it was a slave ship.
• He would take slaves by the hundreds to the new world.
• Till one night he was caught in a storm…it seemed that the ship would sink, and all would be lost.
• On May 10th, 1748, He gave his life to Jesus Christ.
• He soon quit as the captain of the slave ships.
• He would go on the study for the ministry and God used JOHN NEWTON to write one of the greatest Hymns in all of Christianity. AMAZING GRACE…HOW SWEET THE SOUND.
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By God’s grace He can use you…
• No matter who you are…
• No matter what you’ve done.
• God can use you….
When the Lord chose His twelve disciples, He chose them from ORDINARY MEN.
If these men were just ordinary people, why did Jesus call them instead of not calling the extraordinary men who were more gifted?
Why?
So often the extraordinary men/women God cannot use them because they are so swollen with PRIDE because of their achievements in life.
Notice, He did not…
• Choose a single Rabbi
• Choose a single Scribe
• Choose a single Pharisee
• Choose a single Sadducee
• Choose a single Priest
• He did not choose a single person from the religious establishment
Why?
His selection of these twelve disciples was a rejection of extraordinary men that belonged to the establishment.
Illus: In his book, “Twelve Ordinary Men”, John MacArthur said this on page 8: “Their rejection of Him was complete. They were hostile to the gospel He preached. They despised the doctrine of grace He stood for, spurned the repentance He demanded, looked with disdain upon the forgiveness He offered, and repudiated the faith He epitomized. In spite of the many miracles that proved His messianic credentials - despite actually seeing Him cast out demons, heal every conceivable sickness, and raise the dead people to life - they would not accept the fact that He was God in human flesh. They hated Him. They hated his message. He was a threat to their power. And they desperately wanted Him dead.
So when it was time for Jesus to select twelve apostles, He naturally did not choose people from the establishment that was so determined to destroy Him. He chose twelve ordinary men to be His disciples.”
This passage of scripture in my text gives us a picture of these special qualities, a picture of the kind of person Jesus calls, then and now.
In this sermon I would like to point out three things kinds of people that God can use.
I. HE LOOKED FOR MEN WHO WOULD WORK
Look at verse 16, we read, “Now as he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.”
They had lazy people during their time as we do today.
They had some that would say things like:
• “The worst day of fishing is better than the best day of working.”
• “Hard work may not kill me, but why take a chance?”
It is not difficult to find LAZY people, but you have to look for HARD-WORKING PEOPLE!
And when the Lord was looking for His twelve disciples, He looked for men who were working men.
Notice, in the selection of Simon and Andrew, the Bible makes a point to say, “…He saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea…”
They were working!!!
Illus: Often times when a church wants something done they will look around and find someone who hardly ever does anything, and assign the job to that person.
THIS IS A BIG MISTAKE!
The reason they are not working is because they do not want to WORK!
Illus: It is not hard to find a person that will wear a TITLE, but getting them to do the job is another thing.
Illus: They are like the men who stand at the roadside with signs in their hand that read, “Will work for food.”
• But if you offer them a job, they will walk away from you.
• What they want is the least they can do, and want foolish people to work for them.
As a pastor, I learned a long time ago, when you need something done look around and find someone who is doing something, and assign them the job, and somehow they will find the time to get the job done.
I know there is such a thing as an overload, and we have to be careful about that!
But the reason so many are loaded down and do not have time to serve the Lord today is because Satan has loaded them down with fishing, golfing, hunting, ballgames, sport they do not have time to work for God.
For example:
• Many can sit around each evening for 3 or 4 hours watching a bunch of nonsense on television
• Many can spend hours on the telephone each week talking about bunch of nonsense
• Many spend hours wasting time on the Internet and their telephones.
There are a lot of folks working, but they are spending their hours working at the wrong things.
They remind me of…
Illus: A fellow stopped at a rural gas station and, after filling his tank, he paid the bill and bought a soft drink. He stood by his car to drink his drink and he watched a couple of men working along the roadside.
• One man would dig a hole two or three feet deep and then move on.
• The other man came along behind and filled in the hole. While one was digging a new hole, the other was about 25 feet behind filling in the hole.
These two men worked right past the fellow with the soft drink and went on down the road.
"I can't stand this," said the man tossing the can in a trash container and heading down the road toward the men.
• "Hold it, hold it," he said to the men.
• "Can you tell me what's going on here with this digging?"
• "Well, we work for the county government," one of the men said.
• "But one of you is digging a hole and the other is filling it up. You're not accomplishing anything. Aren't you wasting the county's money?"
• "You don't understand, mister," one of the men said, leaning on his shovel and wiping his brow. "Normally there's three of us, me, Joe and Mike. I dig the hole, Joe sticks in the tree and Mike here puts the dirt back."
• "Yea," piped up Mike. "Now just because Joe's sick, that doesn’t mean we can't work, does it?"
Many in our society live their life working at things that are absolutely wasteful!
We live in a wasteful society, but the biggest waste of all is the TIME that people waste each day.
The devil has many folks wasting their life to the point that they do not have time to serve God.
Illus: If you asked them to do something, they will tell you they do not have time. But what they will not tell you is that the devil has them living a wasted life and that is why they do not have time to serve the Lord.
But notice, when the Lord got ready to choose his twelve disciples he looked for men who knew how to work in a productive manner!
The disciples of Jesus were industrious, hard-working men.
Look again at verse 16, we read, “Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.”
• They were not sitting under a shade tree wasting time.
• The Bible said the Lord saw them, “…Casting a net into the sea…”
How much weight did fishing net weigh?
A fisherman's net typically weighs between (15 to 25 pounds). However, when filled with fish, its weight
Can exceed (150 to 2000 pounds).
The Lord is always looking for hard working people.
Notice in verse 19, a little farther up the lake, "He saw James...and John his brother...mending their nets"
Throughout scripture, this is the kind of persons the Lord used.
• The prophet Amos was such a person. Look at Amos 7:14-15, we read, "Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit: And the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel."
• The prophet Elisha was such a person. Look at 1 Kings 19:19, "So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth: and Elijah passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him"
• Saul of Tarsus was such a person. Look at 1 Cor. 15:58, "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord"
The Lord has never been able to use a lazy person because they do not want to work.
It is a good thing we are saved by grace because if heaven depended on works they would not make it.
But the sad thing heaven is going to be full of people who are saved by grace but will have no rewards in heaven for eternity.
Illus: They remind me of someone at an intersection who, when the light turns green, just sits there.
• You have to wonder what it will take to get them to move forward.
• How green will the light have to get before they will move?
Many have chosen a route in life that wastes the precious days, weeks, months and years God has given them!
One day they will breathe their last breath and they will be buried and forgotten in no time, because the life they chose to live only took up space and sucked up oxygen and they left no legacy behind as a child of god.
God has always looked for men and women who knew how to make each day count.
HE LOOKED FOR MEN WHO WOULD WORK, and also-
II. HE LOOKED FOR MEN WHO WOULD ACCEPT A CHALLENGE
Look at verses 17-18, we read, “And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him.”
The Lord Jesus challenged these men to follow Him and He said He would make them FISHERS OF MEN.
Every fisherman knows it takes two things to be a good fisherman.
And the same things that you find in a fisherman are traits that the Lord is looking for in finding disciples.
(1) FISHERMAN ARE DETERMINED
Listen; if a fisherman goes fishing today and does not catch anything, sometime in the near future he will be out there trying it again. THEY ARE DETERMINED!
They remind me of a…
Illus: Fishermen with their determination remind me of a store clerk in a grocery store not doing anything, when all of a sudden the door opens and a duck walks in and says:
• "Do you have any duck food?"
• "No we do not have any duck food."
"Okay, thanks anyway", says the duck, and walks out.
• The next day the doors swing open again, and the same duck walks in. "Got any duck food?" he asks.
• The clerk is a little annoyed "No! We don't have any duck food!" "Fine." the duck says and walks out.
• The third day the doors swing open and the duck walks in and asks, "Got any duck food?"
• By now the clerk so getting very annoyed: "No" he yells, "We don't have any duck food! We didn't have any yesterday we don't have any today and we wont have any tomorrow! And if you come in here again and ask if we have any duck food I'll nail your little web feet to the floor!!!!" All the duck does is turn and walk out the door.
• On the fourth day at the doors swing open and the duck walks in: "Got any nails?" the duck asks. "No we don't have any nails."
• "Well then," the duck says, "got any duck food?"
Fishermen are determined people.
And this is a quality that the Lord Jesus is looking for in finding disciples. Fishermen keep fishing and fishing! They can never fish enough it seems.
The Lord saw in these disciples the same thing you see in a fisherman.
Also…
(2) THEY KNOW HOW TO SACRIFICE
Notice, once these men accepted the challenge, that verse 18 says, “…And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him.”
Fishermen are not only DETERMINED, they know how to SACRIFICE.
Notice, these men that the Lord chose wasted no time forsaking their nets to follow him.
Now they could have said, “Wait a minute, you expect me to give up my livelihood to follow you. That’s ridiculous!”
One of the reasons that the Lord can’t use many people is because they do not know the first thing about SACRIFICING!
• To be a good Pastor you have to sacrifice.
• To be a good Deacon you have to sacrifice.
• To be a good Sunday school teacher you have to sacrifice.
• To be a good Choir member you have to sacrifice.
• To be a good Christian you have to sacrifice.
If you are not willing to Sacrifice. God cannot use you!!!
Why?
Because you do not want to be used.
Many New Testament Christians had to sacrifice their lives to follow the Lord.
Let me mention just a few:
• Andrew was the brother of Simon Peter. After the death of Christ, he continued to minister in Scythia, Greece and Asia Minor, until he was crucified.
• Philip, after the death of Christ, preached in Phrygia and died a martyr.
• Thomas, after the death of Christ, continued to preach. While ministering in Calamina, a city in India, he was slain by a dart thrown by an assassin.
• Bartholomew preached and he was beaten down with sticks, crucified, and after having the skin removed from his body, beheaded.
• Matthew, before becoming a disciple he was a tax collector. After the death of Christ, he died a martyr in Ethiopia.
• James wrote the Letters of James in the Bible. After the death of Christ, he preached in Palestine and Egypt, and was eventually crucified in Egypt.
• Jude, after the death of Christ, preached in Assyria and Persia. He died a martyr in Persia.
• Simon became the Bishop of Jerusalem, and was eventually crucified in Egypt.
These New Testament disciples knew what it was to sacrifice.
Until the churches today learn the lesson of sacrifice, God will not be able to use them.
God chose these special men because they HAD DETERMINATION and UNDERSTOOD SACRIFICE.
Today, a lot of churches are preaching “Easy-Believism”.
There are two scriptures that greatly disturb me about this “Easy-Believism” that so many today have put their faith in.
• The Lord said, in Matthew 10:37-39, "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it."
• The Lord said, in Luke 14:33, "So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple"
We are saved by grace and grace alone. But when a person is saved by grace, their life should reflect they have been born again.
Jesus calls a person to a life of work, not to a life of ease and comfort. He calls a person to invest his life, not to waste his life.
The men that the Lord called were HARD WORKING MEN and they RESPONDED TO A CHALLENGE.
Conclusion:
We have seen in these verses what the Lord was looking for when he chose these twelve disciples. He is still looking for such men and women.
I. HE LOOKED FOR MEN WHO WOULD WORK
II. HE LOOKED FOR MEN WHO WOULD ACCEPT A CHALLENGE
And the only reason any of us are chosen is because of the AMAZING GRACE OF GOD.
