Would God Really Choose Me?
Speaker
Pastor Jacque Clowers. Juniper Church - Knoxville, TN.
Scripture References
Galatians 1:15-16, Judges 6:11-16, Judges 8:18.
Key Takeaways
Never question if you are worthy or enough. We are chosen for a purpose and born with an eternity mindset, commissioned by God
Life on earth is more than just getting through today, working your entire life toward retirement, surviving the week or getting the newest gadget or buying the coolest fashion.
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And Lord, I pray.
That only your words come forth, what you have for each person in this space to hear. Oh, Lord, I pray that they you've knowing you better. That's all we're about is introducing us to you better. And I just thank you for that in Jesus name, Amen.
So after Easter and after hearing Tim's message last week, I really felt like I was supposed to change what I thought I was going to talk about to what I feel like the Lord gave me for all of us today.
As I sit here, too, I also want to just do a quick happy birthday to Nikki and race our drummer. Happy birthday today and any other April birthdays. It's a good month for for birthdays. So but I wanted to follow up on one scripture and then I'm going to lead us into a Bible story.
But the scripture Tim talked about last week was Galatians one, 15 and 16. And it says, but even before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace. Then it pleased him to reveal his son to me so that I would proclaim the good news of Jesus to the Gentiles.
So as he was speaking and I was listening to that scripture, which I've heard many times, but even before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace. How easy is it to read that scripture?
But how hard can it be to fully believe that scripture? How many of us we work our days just to get to the weekend? We might think we just got to work this job long enough to retire. We live a life of being unfulfilled many times.
I mean, right? Am I alone in that? Am I the only person who's had those thoughts? I don't think so. So I'm here today to say life is more than surviving our week. Life is more than just getting the newest fashion or the next gadget or the newest golf club or the newest kitchen knives or the newest whatever you're into.
The newest flowers at the greenhouse for me right now. So I'm like, life is more than that. Not saying those things can't be a great part of the life he gave us, but it's more than that. So my message from mom today that I could not get away from, that my heart was beating so fast when I was reading this story that the Lord was like, this is what you're supposed to talk about.
So I'm going to read. About Gideon in the Bible, that's where we're going to go, but I'm going to start with talking about this. I listened to a podcast. Maybe last week, and it was talking about. Leaders or ministers and how we're really great at standing up here cheering you on, telling you God created you with purpose.
Life is going to be great if you say yes to Jesus and it will. But there's a percentage in our lives of things that aren't so great, right? We have a past. Maybe we have things we deal with right now.
Maybe we have fears and anxieties that we live through on a daily basis that are happening to us right now. And that's the 2% that we don't talk about. Well, I wanted to give you just a little insight before I start the story, and I'm gonna close with a little insight.
So my first memory as a child, really my first memory, and this makes me so sad, but I was about eight years old, and I remember my mom and dad fighting. And I remember them saying, "'Go roll up the windows in the truck.'" And this is back when you had to like crank windows up, and he had this old truck, and I go out and his windows were up.
And I'm like, as an eight -year -old -ish, thinking it's not even raining, that's weird. And I come back in the house, and I'm like, your windows were up. And I realized now that they were fighting, and they didn't want me to hear them fighting.
And then my dad left. He walked out, and I really never saw him again. And I think that started a thread of rejection in my life that as a 52 -year -old woman, I still have to overcome sometimes. I remember memories in school as a young girl, and they're not really fun.
I remember being made fun of, and there's a couple stories, and almost, it's kind of funny, but they're so painful that they would be hard for me to tell you. And they're dumb, really, but it was so painful.
And those are some of my first memories. And even this weekend, I was with a group of women, and I'll just be super transparent. We were at dinner, and they were talking about things that they're good at.
They played softball, they were twirlers, they were in gymnastics, they did cheer, and I did nothing. I wasn't allowed, we couldn't afford it. I was poor, I never had the opportunity. And still to this day, if I dwell there, I can feel like I'm not enough.
And I'm just being honest. Maybe everyone else out here, y 'all are like, we're it, but I struggle. So I'm gonna tell us a story in the Bible about someone else who struggled with his worth, okay? And then at the end, I hope I'm gonna show you how we can overcome these struggles.
And I'm gonna also say, I was probably sitting at a table with women who probably admire me or love me, right? But I could sit in my mind and go, man, I am not as good as them, right? So I'm just being honest.
So my prayer is that after today, we're gonna know that that not enough is a lie from the pit of hell. And the truth is found in Galatians that God knew us and formed us with purpose. So let's read here this story of Gideon.
And this is found in the book of Judges. So this story, a little backdrop on it, is it's a time in history of great disobedience, idolatry and violence. Does that sound a little bit like today? A little bit, right?
This is where these people had been rescued. They had gone through the Red Sea. They were brought out of slavery. These are the people during this time where all this disobedience, they had stopped following God.
So God had rescued them, but they refused to obey. And now what were they doing? Crying out to God again for a savior. Who's done that? Who's messed up the same thing over and over and you go to God again and you cry out again for help.
That's the kind of God we serve. He'll show up again for us. But let's read this. And this is found in Judges six and we're gonna start with verse 11. And I think I'm gonna just read it and then I'm gonna come back to some parts.
And it says, then the angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the great tree. I was really hoping that was a juniper tree, but it was an oak tree. But we'll say a juniper tree, which belonged to Joash, the clan of Abazur.
Gideon, son of Joash was threshing wheat. Let's listen to this. At the bottom of a wine press to hide the grain from the Midianites. The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, mighty hero, the Lord is with you.
Sir Gideon replied, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles of our ancestors told us about? Didn't they say the Lord brought us up out of Egypt? But now the Lord has abandoned us.
. and handed us over to the Midianites. Then the Lord turned to him and said, go with strength you have, and go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you, listen to this.
But Lord Gideon replied, how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe, and I'm the least in my entire family. And the Lord said to him, I will be with you, and will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.
Okay, so I know that was a lot of words, and I wanna break down a couple of them. So number one, God calls Gideon a mighty hero, and I want y 'all to see this. Gideon was in the bottom of a wine press, threshing wheat, because he was afraid he was gonna get caught.
You should be threshing wheat out in the open so that the chaff blows away. But he brings it down underground to do it because he's in fear hiding. He wasn't down there, because that's where you thresh wheat.
He was down there hiding. Okay, so he was afraid. He was in fear. The message translation says the angel called Gideon oh mighty warrior, this Gideon who's hiding and afraid. Do you think Gideon saw himself as a mighty warrior, or did you think Gideon saw himself as weak and small?
He even says, my clan's the weakest and I'm the smallest in that clan. But you know what? I believe God was saying, and God was seeing what he was gonna make Gideon. God was speaking to the Gideon that he saw, that he created, that he planned, that he had a purpose for.
God was speaking to Gideon's future, right? Gideon was seeing himself afraid, scared. God was speaking to his future. So I think that's really important for us to see. And then I was gonna say pretty much chapter six.
I was talking with Kelsey this week and I was so excited it was like I couldn't get this out of my head. But the entire chapter six, Gideon is spending. Lord, is this really you? Is this really you speaking to me?
If it's you, can you, I'm gonna lay this towel down and can you get the dew around the towel and keep the towel dry? God does that. Gideon's like, well, let's do this again and can you just wet the towel and keep the ground around it dry?
God does that for him. So over and over, God gives us an entire chapter six showing the fear of a weak man that God is calling mighty. And I think that's big for us to know that if we are afraid, God's still with us and we can still do our purpose and our calling.
Another 2% in my life that I wanted to say like Gideon and I know I talk about and I hope it doesn't come across in any way other than this great excitement I have found in studying the word of God that many mornings I'm up at 4 .30 or five and I'm in a season of life where I don't have little kids and I don't have a job deadline that I'm able to spend time but I want y 'all to know that some mornings at 4 .30 and five I'm on my knees crying going,
God, have you really called me to do this? Am I really the one? Am I really good enough? Did you really choose me when my dad walked out on me and said, you weren't wanted. I wish your mom had cancer instead of you.
So some of those mornings aren't this glorious. It's me saying just like Gideon, am I enough? And you know, I'm here to tell you today that God shows up for us just like he showed up for Gideon and it might be in a song or a scripture or a word or a phone call.
Some of y 'all send me a text at the right moment and I'm like, okay, God, I've got this. God will show up for you in your weaknesses and in your fears and you know, we're just like Gideon. So I wanna skip forward here.
Gideon was the fifth judge. And during his time of becoming a judge, he became a military expert. I read some like history on Gideon. And one of the positives is he became a really good military effect of surprise.
He would surprise his enemy and cut him down like surprise. That's the gift God gave him, was able to sneak up on his enemy. You know, and at this point, Gideon had defeated the Midianites and so this part of this scripture, Gideon was talking to a couple of Midianite kings.
And I want to read this, Judges 818. It's one scripture. And it said, then Gideon asked, I'm going to kill this, Zebba and Zalmuna. OK, so this is Gideon asking this question. The men you killed at four, what were they like?
So these kings said they were like you, they replied. They all had the look of a king's son. So this is the same Gideon that was hiding, threshing wheat. Now these other two kings are like, they're like you.
They have the look of a king's son. So Gideon said yes to his purpose and he took on the look of his king. He took ownership of the calling God put on him. So now when people look at him, they don't see weak, scared, smallest tribe, weakest person.
They're like, you have the look of a king's son. Not to mention Gideon and strikes those two men down because they had killed his brother. So the book of Judges, I have said, I like, oh, I need to read some New Testament because it is like a harsh book, but I love that I want you all to capture that.
I don't know if I'm being clear enough that this same Gideon who saw himself as worthless and weak and scared. Fast forward. These are two kings he's talking to. And they had just killed his brother and Gideon is like, well, what did they look like?
They look like you. They had the look of a king's son. So somewhere along the way, Gideon went from the scared person in the basement to the look of a king's son. And I'm just here today to say that in our lives, wherever we find ourselves, we can put on the purpose and the plan that God has for us.
And I love to think that we can become it's a process restore, grow, become. We can become what we're supposed to be in Christ. And it's not easy always, and it's not always glorious. Sometimes it's hard work.
And it's a yes, maybe it's easier to not say yes. But we can do it just like Gideon. And and I think, you know, Gideon ends up in Hebrews, chapter 11. And for anyone who's not familiar with the New Testament and the Bible, that's considered our book of the heroes of the faith.
So that's people who were mentioned from the Old Testament who are like heroes of the faith. And Gideon makes it to chapter 11. And I just think that's powerful. You know, most times the things that God calls us to.
You know, most times you got to do it afraid. A lot of times there's some risk involved. A lot of times you have to do it. When you're like, God, am I enough? Am I what's called? I just think I'm just here today.
Courage you that God's chosen you. And I've pulled out a glove here and I wanted to see if I could have Kayla. Can you come up here for me? Pam, can you run up here really quick? And I know you're fixing to hop on the piano.
And I want to give you a glove. Nicky, can you come up here? And then Aaron, will you run up here? And I just wanted to do this little visual that I was sitting. Obviously, we have boxes of kitchen gloves all over our house.
And I was sitting here thinking about a glove that, you know, what is this? Just plastic, right? It's probably non whatever that's not people don't get allergic. It's just a black kitchen glove. What can this glove do?
Nothing, it just lays here, right? It's just a glove. It does protect your hand. That's why we have them at our house for cooking. But I want you to see. The glove gets power when we put it on. So now this glove can preach the gospel.
Now this glove can feed the homeless. Now this glove can mother my children. Now this glove can work in treehouse and teach the next generations. Now this glove can manage a business and can be a businesswoman that takes Jesus out to the world.
Now this glove can play the piano and do all kinds of things. And now this glove can teach children speech, right? It just had to put it on and do it. And then it gives it power. And you don't have to put it on.
You don't have to say yes. But I'm hitting y 'all can sit down and, Pam, you could come use your glove and play the piano. And so it really hit me that the glove is God and the hand represents us. So we can choose to live a life of average, of safety, of easy.
You can choose to live a life saying, oh, I'm enough. I can take care of myself. This business I've built, it provides for me. You know, I've got a degree. I've got a way. I don't need any help. This anxiety I feel, I can take care of this myself.
I don't need God. I'm just living for tomorrow. I'm living for the next good time. Or you can say yes, and you can put on this glove. And as you put on this glove, you grab God's hand and you say, okay, God, I say, yes, let's go back and read Galatians 1, 15 and 16 from the beginning.
And it says, but even before I was born, God chose me and called me by His marvelous grace. Then it pleased Him. I'm just telling you, as a mom, my kids, when they were born, when I knew that I was carrying life, it pleased me.
I had dreams for them. I had plans for them. I had hope for them. I would have died for them before I even met them. I loved them with a fierce love. So we pleased God, but it pleased Him to reveal His son so that I would proclaim the good news about Jesus to the Gentiles.
And so I'm just closing here today with an offer of saying yes to God. And I really felt like the Lord said that, Jackie, you're not alone. You're not alone with the insecurities. Yours might look different.
They do look different. You're not alone in the thinking, oh, God, you made a mistake. It's not me that you called. And we're not all called to the same thing. That's the beauty. Can the band come on up?
That's the beauty of this. That we're not all called to the same thing, but we're all called to say yes, to say yes to whatever it is. That's our Gideon story. And so I just want to as the band's going to come up and they're going to start playing.
I want to do things a little bit different this morning. Number one, I want to offer, you know, just a prayer. If there's someone here in this room today and you are here saying, you know, I've not really said yes to giving God my future.
I've not really said yes to selling out to Jesus. I've not really said yes to trusting that God has a better plan. Well, I'm just here to say today, if you want to say yes, he's ready. He formed you and he's pleased with that.
So let's just bow our heads. And I just want to right now, if that's you room and you feel that you want to say yes to Jesus, maybe for the first time or maybe a fresh new. I want you just to slip your hand up this morning.
And I want you to know, I see your hand, and I want you to know that we at Juniper Church, that's what this is about, is us saying yes to our purpose in Jesus. So can everybody just repeat after me? Let's just say a prayer together.
Dear Jesus, I thank you for loving me. And I say yes to you today, fresh and new. And I love you, and I thank you for the plan you have for my life. In Jesus' name, Amen.