LEAST LIKELY
Introduction:
I want to talk about “Least Likely” today. It is important that some of greatest things can come from the least likely places, from the least likely people, in the least likely package.
This is illustrated by the story of a Boy Scout who showed up at his troop meeting with a black eye.
When his scoutmaster asked him what had happened, he replied that he had tried to help a little old lady across the street. "How in the world could you get a black eye doing that?" asked the scoutmaster.
Replied the scout, "She didn’t want to go."
You know that boy scout is a lot like Gods’ people, they forget that God is ready to use everyone hear today and he needs us to understand a few things.
That boy scout wasn’t expecting a movement but more importantly he wasn’t looking for it in a little old lady.
Exod 1:22-2:10
22 And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.
CHAPTER 2
1 And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi.
2 And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.
3 And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river’s brink.
4 And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him.
5 And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river’s side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it.
6 And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children.
7 Then said his sister to Pharaoh’s daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?
8 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child’s mother.
9 And Pharaoh’s daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it.
10 And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.
I. Great things can come from the least likely places
Flea Market/ discount bins/
A. Moses came from the least likely place.
1. He came floating down the river.
2. He was in a basket
3. He was from the wrong family
a. He was from the wrong side of the tracks.
b. Does this make Moses Less
c. Did it make anybody else better.
B. God used him in spite of the lineage
1. God took what man wanted gone and saved it for his purpose
2. God used us when we really weren’t worth using.
3. There are times in my life that man wanted me gone and God didn’t
C. Where your from is not what God sees.
1. Being from a good place doesn’t matter to God.
2. Having a nice home doesn’t matter to God.
3. Having good clothes doesn’t matter to God
4. God takes people where they are
John 10:9-11
9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
There is not a referance to where a man must come from
It doesn’t say you have to be good enough
It doesn’t say you have to give enough
It doesn’t say you have to come to church enough
He doesn’t measure your acceptance based on the lineage.
5. God sees us when others don’t want to
a. you and I were somewhere other than the right place when God loved us
b. It’s important for us to love others where they are not from where we are
I want to read from an account of Jesus life and it shows what he thought about where a person came from
Mark 2:16-17
16 And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners?
17 When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
The ones that were constantly rebuked were from the right families and the right side of the tracks.
It was the least likely that Jesus sat and dined with.
II. Great help can come from the least likely people
A. Moses needed help
1. His mother and sister defied the law
2. Pharos daughter defied her father
3. Sometimes we have to leave the comfort and defy mans power and lean on the Power of Jesus to help others
a. Achievment has to start somewhere.
b. Everyone is not who we want to help
Everyone is who Jesus wants us to help.
B. Help doesn’t always come from those who seem likely to help us
1. Moses need help all throughout his life
2. Moses needed help in his calling
a. God gave him his brother
b. He has given us each other to help us in our calling
c. He has given us to help others come to a real relationship with Jesus
d. He has given this Church to help this community, this county, this state, this nation, and this world to come to a relationship with Jesus.
We can never know who will grow and who they might change
C. It’s not important what you can do/ It’s important to just do it!
1. Doing something is better than doing nothing
a. What if Moses’ mother did nothing
b. What if Moses’ sister did nothing
c. What if Pharos daughter did nothing.
d. What if you and I do nothing
News commentator Dan Rather has a good way of keeping his professional objective always in mind. He says he looks often at a question he’s written on three slips of paper. He keeps one in his billfold, one in his pocket, and one on his desk. The probing reminder asks, "Is what you are doing now helping the broadcast?"
Is what we are doing today helping God and the people he wants us to help
Is it helping the broadcast?
We may be the least likely yet if we do nothing it’s not helping
III. Great things can come in the least likely packages
Diamond Ring
A. How did Moses come to us
1. He came in a basket
2. God didn’t pick the greatest to be the deliever of his people
B. God picks people even when they don’t pick themselves
1. Moses always had an excuse
a. Moses felt he wasn’t good enough/ He had no faith in himself
Moses had problem after problem and what it all boiled down to is he didn’t think he was good enough to do the job.
2. God didn’t see the package he saw the soul
3. There are people out there that look at the package and don’t see there soul.
a. God sees what a person misses
b. God sees what we miss
c. If we wait until everybody is good enough to come and serve none of us will be here today/ Me included
C. What is the diferance between us and Moses
1. Moses didn’t have the greatest package
a. What if the people that could help Moses didn’t because of the package
b. What if the people that could help you and I didn’t because of the package
c. What about the package we have today
2. Who can we help today that might be great tomorrow.
1. Someone had to help Billy Grahm
2. Someone had to help you.
c. Someone had to help me.
The man whispered, “God, speak to me” and a meadowlark sang, but the man didn’t hear.
So the man yelled, “God, speak to me!” and thunder rolled across the sky but the man didn’t listen.
The man looked around and said, “God, let me see you” and a star shone brightly but the man didn’t notice.
The man shouted, “God, show me a miracle!” and a life was born but the man did not know.
So the man cried out in despair: “Touch me, God, and let me know your hear!” Whereupon, God reached down and touched the man but the man brushed the butterfly away and walked on.
Don’t miss out on a blessing because it isn’t packaged the way you think it should be. Great things come in the least likely packages!
3. Paul said we all have a purpose, lets listen to God.
2 Cor 5:17-21
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
The implication is that all the packages are great.
IT DOESN’T CALL FOR A LOOK AT THE PACKAGE JUST A LOOK AT JESUS THE OPPORTUNITY TO BRING EACH OTHER TO CLOSER RELATIONSHIP AND THOSE WHO HAVE NONE TO A SAVING RELATIONSHIP
I’ve shut the door on Yesterday,
Its sorrows and mistakes;
I’ve locked within its gloomy walls
Past failures and heartaches,
And now I throw the key away
To seek another room,
And furnish it with hope and smiles
And every springtime bloom.
No thought shall enter this abode
That has a hint of pain,
And worry, malice and distrust
Shall never therein reign.
I’ve shut the door on Yesterday
and thrown the key away-
Tomorrow holds no doubt for me, Since I have found today.
Conclusion: I want to take a minute and I want you to look at the person to your right and to your left. I want you to see the things we talked about today. The likely. I want you to look up here in the pulpit. I want you to see the least likely.
I want you to see great thing can come from the least likely place. REALLY SEE IT!
JESUS DOES
I want you to see help in the least likely person! REALLY SEE IT!
JESUS DOES
I want you to look at each other and see great things in the least likely package! REALLY SEE IT
JESUS DOES
I want each of us here to see that we are a special package and I want each one of us to see that others are that special to.
What if God had given up on Moses and chose another.
We were all given the ministry of reconciliation and it’s important that every body may not be the best but we are commanded to remember that every one is great.
Jesus died once for all. For me, For you, For all!!
