Timothy…what It Will Take For God To Use You!

It must be nice in this life when someone can be more than a NORMAL PERSON and become an “EXCEPTIONAL” PERSON.

That is, when normal people die the preachers who do the eulogy can pretty much sum up their entire lives in 15 to 30 minutes. When the funeral is finished the family and friends can gather around the supper table and eat potato salad and the next day many go back to the routine of life. The closest loved ones will miss the deceased and hurt for a long time, but many folks will go on almost as if the person had never existed.

But there are some in this life have been able to become MORE THAN NORMAL. They have done outstanding things.

Illus: For example, Arnold Schwarzenegger has done a lot of bad things with his life, but also he has done some wonderful things with his life. He would have to be classified as an EXCEPTIONAL PERSON. For example:

He was born July 30, 1947. He is an:

? Austrian American bodybuilder,

? Actor,

? Model,

? Businessman,

? And a politician who served as the 38th Governor of California.

He has become very successful today and his personal wealth is listed as somewhere around $800 million. That’s a nice round figure, wouldn’t you say?

To achieve such a goal he certainly could not be classified as a NORMAL person.

It must be very gratifying to know when life comes to an end for him that he can look back and say, “I DID SOMETHING WITH MY LIFE THAT WAS EXCEPTIONAL!”

? Listen, we normal people will never be able to achieve the things in life he has been able to achieve in THE PHYSICAL/SECULAR WORLD.

? But every one of us has within our reach the possibility of becoming EXCEPTIONAL in the SPIRITUAL WORLD.

The most USELFUL way we can use our life is in the SPIRITUAL REALM.

In this passage of scripture Paul is writing to a young preacher by the name of Timothy. Paul is telling him what it will take for God to use him. Listen, if anybody was qualified to tell someone what it takes for God to use a person, PAUL WAS THE MAN! Notice, he said that-

I. GOD CAN ONLY USE CLEAN VESSELS.

Look at verses 20-21. We read, “But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.”

Illus: We are told that Isabella of Spain bragged that she had had only two baths in her life:

? One when she was born,

? And the other when she married Ferdinand.

? They gave her a third bath when she died.

Probably when the funeral home did the third one they had to have her sand blasted she was so dirty.

This was a crazy woman but her husband Ferdinand had to be crazier than she was to marry such a woman.

Illus: We are told that the custom of women carrying flowers in their weddings came from the olden days when women got married in the winter and did not have water heaters to warm the water so they could take a bath so they would carry a bunch of flowers to override the smell. I do not know…I was told this!

But if this is true it took a lot of roses to make old Isabella smell good!

She probably smelled like “Midnight Breeze In the Junk Yard!”

I can just hear the preacher performing the wedding as he held his nose and addressed her he could have said, “Do you Stinky take Ferdinand to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

We all have had the unfortunate experience of being around someone that smelled like a hog trough!!!

When this is the situation we do as much as we can put as much distance as possible between them and ourselves!

Most people don’t want to be around someone who stinks to high heaven!

Illus: It was a really hot day at the office. There were about twenty people in close quarters and everyone was sweating, even with a fan on.

All of a sudden, people started to wrinkle their noses at an odor passing through the air. It was the most hideous smell anyone had ever smelled as they looked at a certain man that this odor was coming from.

? One man said, "Uh oh, someone's deodorant isn't working."

? The man said from the distant corner, "It can't be mine. I'm not wearing any."

And God will never use or bless someone for His glory that is living in the filth of sin.