Wednesday, March 27, 2013
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I think I've been in the front row of almost every group picture I've ever been in. Now, I didn't put me there. No, "Let me be on the front row!" No, the photographer always seemed to put me there. Unfortunately it's not because of my leading man good looks. No, that's not a possibility at all. It's because of my inches...actually my lack of inches. They always put us short guys in front. If you're short, you know that. They always put the tall fellows in the rear of the picture, and that's for a good reason. They put the little guys in the front because the big guys block the view.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Pushed to the Front."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Corinthians 4, and I'll begin reading at verse 7. "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us." The treasure he's talking about is the message of light and deliverance through Jesus Christ. So many Christians I know have a spiritual inferiority complex, and it's causing them to retreat from really jumping into doing things for God. "I'm not very beautiful. I'm not really good looking. I don't have a lot of charisma. I'm not really very outgoing. You know, there are people who are so musical. I'm just not as talented as...whatever...I start to talk and my words get all tangled up. I'm so...I'm so average."
Did you know that makes you a primary candidate to be mightily used by God? Our scripture today says God likes to put His treasure in clay vessels, not in beautiful, expensive vases, but ones that will accentuate the treasure not the vessel. You put it in a beautiful vessel, everybody says, "Oh, isn't that a beautiful vessel." God wants the treasure to be called attention to. He loves average in people that He uses. He loves us to strive for excellence, but He loves to use average people.
In the book of 1 Samuel when Samuel is looking for a king, God sends him out to check out all these brothers, and he says, "Oh, it's surely going to be one of the older, taller, good looking brothers." It turns out to be the youngest kid out in a sheep pen - David. The problem with the superstar people is they block the view. Like the tall kids in our group photos, God wants to use people who will point others to Him.
The great ones end up getting the attention rather than the attention going to the Lord. But what happens when the Lord picks up Joe or Jane Average and starts doing His work through them? He starts leading through someone average, speaking, reaching the lost through someone average. People say, "It's got to be God. It can't be them!" That's the whole idea. The idea is that when God does a work, people are saying, "Isn't Jesus something?" Instead of, "Oh, what a great leader, what a great singer, what a great speaker."
You may have been holding back saying, "There's got to be someone better than I am." But see, it's you that God wants to use. It's your very "averageness," your weakness that makes you a prime candidate for Him to work through. He may be pushing you to the front of His picture. You know why? Because you won't block the view.
Often the ones the world calls big are on God's back row, and the ones the world calls small are the ones He wants in front.