How many of us look at preachers, missionaries or other great leaders in the kingdom and think, "I wish God would use me for some great work!" How many of us struggle because God just doesn't seem to be using us to do anything important? Maybe you think of it from the opposite perspective - perhaps you think, "God doesn't use people like me so I don't need to worry about doing anything for God - I'm just not his type."

However you view your life in God's hands, I think most of us have some misconceptions about who God uses for his purposes and why he uses them. In this lesson, we're going to look at who God does not use and who God does use. I hope that when we're through thinking about this topic, each of us will have a clearer picture of who God is, who we are, and what God wants from us while we're living this life.

From this passage, I believe we can learn three (3) lessons about who it is that God uses. But before we talk about who it is that God uses, let me clear the air about the excuses some of us use for not being used by God. From this passage I see at least for things you don't have to have to be used by God:

1. You don't have to have talent
2. You don't have to have money
3. You don't have to have skill

Most of us would like to believe that God isn't using us because we just don't have what it takes. That would be easy for us - because then, it wouldn't be our fault! If we have to have talent, skill or money to be used by God, and if God didn't give us those things, then it's not our fault we can't accomplish much for God, right? He made us this way!

I've got some bad news for those of us who think that way: it makes absolutely no difference whether you have talent, skill or money. God wants to use you regardless of these things. There is no one here who God can't use for his purposes. There is no one here who doesn't count. There is no one here who doesn't bear a responsibility to his creator to be used in God's purposes.

Now let's talk about how we can be used by God.

Absolutely nothing happens until someone starts dreaming. If you want to be used by God, you need to have a vision for what you would like to achieve. It's an interesting paradox - envisioning what God might do in our lives and through our lives. It's a paradox because in most cases, whatever we dream of, God will end up having us do something different. But if we don't dream, God won't be able to use us at all. Look at all the people of the Bible who had dreams about what God would do through them and for them that didn't come true! But then consider how much greater God's plans were than theirs! But had they not trusted God with their dreams, they would never have seen the way God exceeded their expectations and even their imaginations! (Think of Abraham, Moses, David, and the Apostles - their own dreams paled in comparison to the way God ultimately used them!)

The person who God uses is a person who aspires to do great things for God - who sets goals and has a vision for being used by God. So, rule number one in being used by God - set goals for yourself, and as you seek to meet them, see how God will use you in powerful ways!

1. We set them too low.
2. We try to reach them too quickly .

In our goal-setting we tend to overestimate: what we can do in one year - setting our sights far too high. But then we usually underestimate: what we can do in ten years - setting our sights far too low. Why do we do this? Because we are planning based on our strengths and abilities. Oddly enough, we tend to be prideful about our own abilities in the near team, but can't see very far down the road. God's plans tend to work out just the opposite - taking a while (by human standards) to get off the ground, but the end result is beyond belief. The ultimate lesson for us is that the goals we set should be based on what we believe God can do, not: what we think we can do!

But to some of us it may seem prideful to set big goals. But if we think about it, it takes great humility to set goals beyond our own ability to meet them. How Do Humility and Big Goals Go Together?

1. You will be criticized unjustly.
2. Other people will take credit for your work. (Remember 1 Corinthians 3:7 "So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.")
3. You will make stupid mistakes.
4. You will have problems that are solvable only through prayer.

It was Franklin Roosevelt who said, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." And I think there is a great truth in that statement. In the story we read, the thing that ended up destroying the one-talent man was his fear of losing what he'd been given - it was his fear of failure. The greatest limitation on any one of us is our own fear of failure. How many times in your own life have you passed up opportunities to do something great because you were afraid of failing? Now think of all the things the kingdom of God could be accomplishing if its citizens would simply take God at his word, act upon his promises, and leave the failure or success of the effort to Him.

There are basically three approaches to life - you can be a

In truth, the care-taker and the under-taker are just denying reality. We never really avoid risk - we just trade obvious risk for the ones we aren't aware of. The way of Christ is the way of the risk-taker. The way of Christ is the way of facing one's fears - not without fear, but with faith. The way of Christ is not timid, shy or hesitant. It is powerful, bold and urgent. Every moment that we spend on small living and small dreaming is a moment we spend apart from God. God begs us to step out with our hand in his - to step out of our fear, out of our limitations, beyond our doubts and inabilities and into his truth and power. Ambrose Redmon once said, "Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear." God, if he is going to use us, requires us to believe that his purposes are more important than our fears.

Who are you? Are you the undertaker - just hoping to avoid failure and pain long enough to grow old and die? Or are you the caretaker - only stepping where you know the path; only reaching within your grasp; only daring what your strength can supply? Or are the risktaker - living each day beyond your means - putting yourself into the hands of God for deliverance?

Satan has a great arsenal of weapons against the children of God. I would place several in the top five (not in any particular order):

I'm a realist. I know that there are times when our plans simply aren't working. I know that there are situations that are impossible. IN our lives, we will journey down roads that are truly dead-ends. I'm not suggesting that God expects us to keep beating our heads against brick walls when the evidence clearly says that the plans aren't working out.

What I am suggesting is that the person who stays the course of being faithful to God and in service to God when everything around them is falling apart will be used by God for great things. I said before that many times the goals you and I set for our service to God will not end up being the way God chooses to use us. Many times, our own plans and visions that launch us out in faith will fall by the wayside as God uses us in different ways. There will be plans and hopes of ours that will not come to be. But in the end, the things that do come to pass, for the believer, will be greater than their plans ever were.

And, there are times when doing God's will will require looking like a stubborn failure to everyone around us. There may be times when being faithful will appear to be the most ridiculous thing in the world to those around us - and even to ourselves. It is at those times that God can use us if we don't give up.

1. What would you attempt for God if you knew you couldn't fail?
2. What would be the first steps you would take to reach that goal?

The one common thread of these three traits is that all of them are up to you. None of them are determined by your race, your education, your talents, your skill, your wealth, your beauty. All of them are determined by two things (1) you desire to please God, and (2) your faith in His ability to care for you. In short, God uses people who let Him. He doesn't select people based on any other criteria than that. God will use you, too - if you will let Him. God is waiting for you to surrender to him. He will flood your life like light floods into a dark room - bursting into every corner at once.