God Equips the Called

Second Sunday of Lent

Genesis 11:30 & 12:1-5

 

 

^ESV Genesis 11:30 & 12:1-5 ³⁰ Now Sarai was barren; she had no child…. ¹Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.  ² And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  ³ I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."  ⁴ So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran .  ⁵ And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran , and they set out to go to the land of Canaan .

 

            I want to share with you one memorable evening in Japan .  Before I begin, I ask you to remember something:  I make no bones about the fact that my Japanese language ability was about par with a first or second grader; deep conversation in Japanese just did not happen for me.

            One of Jen’s teaching gigs through the church was at a local high school, assisting the English teachers there with “naturalizing” the English taught in their classes.  Naturalizing meaning that Jen was in the classroom helping the students to speak English like an English speaker. She grew close to one teacher, Mrs. Sato.  Mrs. Sato invited us over to her house one evening to have dinner with her and her husband.  We happily accepted.  As we arrived at their house, we observed that their house was right next to a Shinto shrine, where some sort of celebration was taking place.  Loud pounding drums could yet be heard in their house, giving a strange beat to our conversation during dinner.

            While having after dinner tea, Mr. Sato, who spoke no English, began challenging us regarding our faith.  I confess I do not remember details of each sentence exchanged, but I can tell you this: I spoke more easily in “adult” Japanese that night than ever before, and I understood more of what Mr. Sato said in Japanese than I ever thought possible.  I began sharing the tenets of the Christian faith, MY faith. All the while the celebratory beating of the shrine’s drums continued on, and the exchange with Mr. Sato continued.  After a while, the drums stopped, and eventually the conversation returned to more neutral territory.

            As Jen and I rode the train back home, we were acutely aware of the Holy Spirit’s presence with us that evening.  I realized that the Holy Spirit was with me, speaking through me and allowing me to understand so much of what Mr. Sato said.  As I look back at that evening, I realized that God used the nothing of me to speak the truths about the Gospel in a language that I did not have mastered.

In my study of the text this week, I discovered that God has a tendency to bring out of the nothingness of the broken humans we are something wonderful. The major matriarchs in the Bible were all barren—meaning that they were unable to have children. Many of you may recall that in the culture of the time, the inability to bear children was extremely shameful for a woman. These major matriarchs being: Sarai, Rebecca, Rachel, Hannah and Elizabeth. These women all underwent personal struggles and difficulties because of they could not have children.

Going backwards in time, we look first at Elizabeth .  Elizabeth ’s story is found in the first chapters of Luke’s Gospel. You will remember that Elizabeth and Zechariah were very old and they had no children. The angel Gabriel appeared to her husband Zechariah in the temple and told him that they would have a son and name him John. John then grew up to be John the Baptist, the final prophet who prepared the way for Jesus Christ.

Several centuries before, you will find the story of Hannah as told in the book of First Samuel. Hannah was one of two wives to a man named Elkanah. Hannah was tormented by her husband’s other wife because she had many children. Hannah prayed to God asking that He would bless her with a child. She vowed to God that she would dedicate her son to the Lord. God heard her prayer, and gave her a son and she named him Samuel. When Samuel was weaned, she presented her son in the temple. From that point on, Samuel lived in the temple and ministered before the Lord with the priest Eli. Samuel went on to anoint the first two kings of Israel : Saul and David.

Rachel had a similar story to Hannah. She was one of the wives of Jacob. You will probably remember the competition she had with Leah, Jacob’s other wife. God eventually heard her prayer, opened her womb and she gave birth to Joseph. Joseph then went on to be one of the leaders of Egypt , saving all of Egypt and his family from famine.

Rebecca was the wife of Isaac, and was also unable to have children. Isaac prayed to God and opened Rebecca’s womb and she gave birth to Jacob and Esau. And just a generation before, we come to know Sarai, who in our text this morning, we hear is also barren. We know from our knowledge of the Bible that Sarai will soon give birth to Isaac.

God used these five women in an amazing way. He used the brokenness of their human bodies to clearly demonstrate his power over all of creation. He allowed each of these women to have the children that everyone thought was impossible, doing so to His own glory. God turned the shame that they experienced in their culture because of their childlessness, into His glory—by giving each of these women the ability to have children. This reminds me of something that Jen’s father often told me as I was thinking about going to seminary: God doesn’t call the equipped; God equips the called.

In the lives of the five women that I profiled a few moments ago, we saw that each one of these women were the last ones that anyone would think something great would come from. Yet, God in his infinite and divine mercy, chose to reveal to Abram and Sarai his promises, and His ultimate plan of salvation. God used the brokenness of Abram and Sarai, and He created something wonderful, using them in the fulfillment of the promises that He made to Adam and Eve generations before.

How many times do we focus on our inadequacies when it comes to our Christian walk and our involvement in the church? I am terrible at speaking in public or speaking my mind. Whenever I try to say something my tongue gets all tied up, and I cannot speak. I couldn’t possibly talk to someone about my faith. My knowledge of the Bible is not adequate enough for me to lead a Sunday school class or youth group. I can’t spend any more time at church; I barely make it on Sundays as it is.  I just don’t have time to commit to one more thing—I am just too busy to do that project justice, so I won’t even try.

When the volunteer lists go up, we are quick to pull out our date books and PDA’s and point out how busy we have made ourselves to be, or how we have no talent to serve. Between ABC and XYZ we have no extra time that we can dedicate to the mission of the church, and we don’t seriously consider how to rearrange our life to reprioritize. We do not have the talent, abilities or time to dedicate ourselves to such a project. We feel that we have nothing to offer to the church.

We can praise our God that He was never too busy for us. God has made a habit of creating something out of nothing. He did it when he created the earth. The first two sentences in Genesis tell us: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep…” The beauty of all of creation was created out of nothing, by our Heavenly Father. God has called the most simple of people to do great things for Him. God called Abram and Sarai, barren and without children, to become a great nation. God called Moses, who was terrible at public speaking, to free the nation of Israel out of slavery in Egypt and lead them into the Promised Land. God called David to be King over Israel , amidst all his sinful faults. God called a young teenage girl, Mary, to carry and give birth to the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

Jesus didn’t come to this earth to lead a life filled with glory and honor, but rather His life was very simple. He wasn’t searching for earthly glory, but rather He came to this earth for you. Jesus came and He lived the perfect life that none of us could ever live and He sacrificed himself on a cross. Jesus did not die a noble death, but rather Jesus died the death of a slave—Crucifixion. And all along that long path to the cross, He never once made excuses, said “oh I couldn’t possibly”, or let his tongue be tied.  Focused on the Father, and His will, Jesus was equipped for each step of His earthly life by His Father in Heaven.

Jesus did all that for you. Jesus’ sole purpose for coming to this earth was not to bring Himself glory and honor, but rather Jesus came to die for you. On the cross, Jesus took all your sins, He took your selfish pride, He took all of those deeds that you have tried your best to cover up and He paid for them all on the cross. Jesus’ death was not glorious, it was not noble—in fact it was humiliating. Jesus was practically naked on that cross. He was spit on, whipped, beaten and scourged, all for you. Jesus went through all His sufferings and pain so that you could be freed from your debt of sin, and live forever with Him in heaven.

Jesus didn’t surround himself with the best of society. He didn’t call the extraordinary or noble people to be His disciples. He had in His group of friends tax collectors, fishermen and sinners—the outcasts of society. Jesus used these men to do great things in His church. Jesus’ disciples were hardly fit to lead a church. The disciples were not already equipped. Jesus was the one who equipped the disciples.

Jesus equipped Paul, an avid persecutor of Christians and murderer of those same Christians, to be a missionary to the Mediterranean region. Paul spent the first half of his life killing Christians and preventing the spread of the Gospel message and God used that to accomplish great things. The second half of Paul’s life was spent ministering to several churches, and spreading the Gospel that he spent so much time trying to extinguish.

            Paul himself told us in I Corinthians chapter one: ²⁶ For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. ²⁷ But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;…, ²⁹ so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. God does not call the wise or the powerful. He calls everyday, normal human beings like me and you.

            Our forefather in the faith, Abraham demonstrated great faith. We saw it in our text this morning. It said:

The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. ^2 “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. ^3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” 

            We don’t see Abram pulling out his date book or PDA saying God, this is really not a good time. Your promises sound great and all, but I don’t think I am going to be able to move my family for at least a couple more years. I can stick that on my to-do list and possibly in the next several years I can move. After all, God I am 75 years old. This is hardly the best time for me to make such a drastic move. And did you forget to notice that my wife, Sarai, is unable to have children. How do you plan to remedy that situation? Nations are filled with people and offspring—of which Sarai and I have none.

            Abram did not give God the laundry list of impossibilities. The text says that Abram heard God’s call and he responded right away. It says:

^4 So Abram left, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran . ^5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran , and they set out for the land of Canaan , and they arrived there.

            Abram was a man of great faith. He heard the call of God, and he answered it. He did it without complaining and griping. He simply did what THE LORD commanded him to do. In doing so, God equipped Abram and Sarai with everything that they needed along the way. By the grace of God, Sarai eventually did become pregnant, and they had a son Isaac who was of the ancestry and lineage of our Savior and Messiah Jesus Christ. THE LORD fulfilled His promises to Abram, and He made Abram and Sarai into the great nation that He promised.

God will do the same for you. He has called each one of you to do great things here on this earth. God doesn’t make mistakes or bad judgment calls. God sees greatness in each one of you, despite the laundry list of impossibilities that we see in ourselves. Not everyone is called to be a pastor or leader of a church, but we have all been called to do great things for God here on this earth. Maybe God is calling you to assist in our Community Nursery School or Sunday School. Maybe God is calling you to work with the youth of our church. Maybe God has called you to reach out to your friends, neighbors, co-workers, family members who do not yet know Christ.  We may be able to list pages and pages of our inadequacies; however, God can use us, despite our inadequacies, to accomplish great things here on this earth. God will use you to be a great man or woman of God.

God will equip you to do great things for Him here on this earth because:

 God does not Call the Equipped, God Equips the Called.

Amen.