In the service today we have people from all walks of life. When you look at the overall background and current status of each person individually, we are a very diverse group of people. We are from all walks of life, but to use the title of this sermon series, This Is Us! We are a church family and this is how God put us together.
In 2 Cor. 12, the apostle Paul revealed to us that God put us together as the body of Christ, just as he put our physical bodies together. He did it as it pleased Him. Just as a body has many members that are all different, so are we put together as the body of Christ. We all are different, but that’s how God planned it, to use us in different ways.
No matter what walk of life you come from, God has a plan for you!
Let’s look at Matt. 10:1-8 where Jesus called His twelve disciples or apostles from all walks of life and gave them the power to do amazing things in other people’s lives.
From studying the people that Jesus called to be His disciples from all walks of life, I learned that there was a lot of variety among them. Peter, Andrew, James, and John were fishermen. Matthew was a tax collector that was hated by the Jews. Simon came from a group of zealots that opposed the government. A group that was even known to be violent at times. Judas, who was considered by many to be a thief.
From these twelve disciples, here are three things about God calling us from all walks of life that I learned:
- God Sees Us With All Kinds of Imperfections.
Peter was known to be very outspoken. James and John were called the Sons of Thunder because of their flashy tempers. The disciples were known to have a lot of imperfections in their personalities, yet God chose them to follow Jesus and to be His key leaders. If God chose these men with their imperfections and used them, I’m sure God can take you and use you. - God Sees Us With All Kinds of Baggage.
Matthew was a tax collector and tax collectors were hated by the Jews. Simon came from a very aggressive group called zealots and Judas was thought by many to have thievery in his background. Some of Jesus’s disciples came into the group with baggage that wasn’t ideal for being a servant of God, but God used them in a powerful way. Among us today, there are a lot of us with baggage from our life, but God still does amazing things in spite of our past. - God Sees Us With All Kinds of Potential.
God wasn’t as concerned about the imperfections and baggage of the disciples that He called as He was about their potential that He knew they had. God sees the potential in you much more than any concerns about your imperfections and baggage. God has great plans to use you!
Today is your day to choose to let go of everything that is holding you back and follow Him!
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