why_me

Why Me? -Morgan Young 8.3.03

Today's talk is called "Why Me?" And I think when most of us see those two words, we think about why all the messy, bad stuff happens to us. The first song Jeremy sang this morning was sung by B.B. King. And B.B. King would call the tough stuff, or the stuff we don't like in life, The Blues."

Maybe you didn't know it, but the Bible is full of the Blues. Moses was one of the world's first blues singers!

(setup that Moses is shepherd now, we're at the burning bush.)

(Read Exodus ch 3- 4:17 The Message; read Moses responses a-la blues singing)

3Moses said, "What's going on here? I can't believe this! Amazing! Why doesn't the bush burn up?"

4GOD saw that he had stopped to look. God called to him from out of the bush, "Moses! Moses!"

He said, "Yes? I'm right here!"

5God said, "Don't come any closer. Remove your sandals from your feet. You're standing on holy ground."

6Then he said, "I am the God of your father: The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob."

Moses hid his face, afraid to look at God.

7GOD said, "I've taken a good, long look at the affliction of my people in Egypt. I've heard their cries for deliverance from their slave masters; I know all about their pain. 8And now I have come down to help them, pry them loose from the grip of Egypt, get them out of that country and bring them to a good land with wide-open spaces, a land lush with milk and honey, the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.

9"The Israelite cry for help has come to me, and I've seen for myself how cruelly they're being treated by the Egyptians. 10It's time for you to go back: I'm sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the People of Israel, out of Egypt."

11Moses answered God, "But why me? What makes you think that I could ever go to Pharaoh and lead the children of Israel out of Egypt?"

12"I'll be with you," God said. "And this will be the proof that I am the one who sent you: When you have brought my people out of Egypt, you will worship God right here at this very mountain."

13Then Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the People of Israel and I tell them, "The God of your fathers sent me to you'; and they ask me, "What is his name?' What do I tell them?"

14God said to Moses, "I-AM-WHO-I-AM. Tell the People of Israel, "I-AM sent me to you.'"

15God continued with Moses: "This is what you're to say to the Israelites: "GOD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob sent me to you.' This has always been my name, and this is how I always will be known.

16"Now be on your way. Gather the leaders of Israel. Tell them, "GOD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, appeared to me, saying, "I've looked into what's being done to you in Egypt, 17and I've determined to get you out of the affliction of Egypt and take you to the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, a land brimming over with milk and honey."'

18"Believe me, they will listen to you. Then you and the leaders of Israel will go to the king of Egypt and say to him: "GOD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness where we will worship GOD-our God.'

19"I know that the king of Egypt won't let you go unless forced to, 20so I'll intervene and hit Egypt where it hurts--oh, my miracles will send them reeling!-after which they'll be glad to send you off. 21I'll see to it that this people get a hearty send-off by the Egyptians--when you leave, you won't leave empty-handed! 22Each woman will ask her neighbor and any guests in her house for objects of silver and gold, for jewelry and extra clothes; you'll put them on your sons and daughters. Oh, you'll clean the Egyptians out!"

1Moses objected, "They won't trust me. They won't listen to a word I say. They're going to say, "GOD? Appear to him? Hardly!'"

2So GOD said, "What's that in your hand?"

3"Throw it on the ground." He threw it. It became a snake; Moses jumped back--fast!

4GOD said to Moses, "Reach out and grab it by the tail." He reached out and grabbed it--and he was holding his staff again. 5"That's so they will trust that GOD appeared to you, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."

6GOD then said, "Put your hand inside your shirt." He slipped his hand under his shirt, then took it out. His hand had turned leprous, like snow.

7He said, "Put your hand back under your shirt." He did it, then took it back out--as healthy as before.

8"So if they don't trust you and aren't convinced by the first sign, the second sign should do it. 9But if it doesn't, if even after these two signs they don't trust you and listen to your message, take some water out of the Nile and pour it out on the dry land; the Nile water that you pour out will turn to blood when it hits the ground."

10Moses raised another objection to GOD: "Master, please, I don't talk well. I've never been good with words, neither before nor after you spoke to me. I stutter and stammer."

11GOD said, "And who do you think made the human mouth? And who makes some mute, some deaf, some sighted, some blind? Isn't it I, GOD? 12So, get going. I'll be right there with you--with your mouth! I'll be right there to teach you what to say."

13He said, "Oh, Master, please! Send somebody else!"

14GOD got angry with Moses: "Don't you have a brother, Aaron the Levite? He's good with words, I know he is. He speaks very well. In fact, at this very moment he's on his way to meet you. When he sees you he's going to be glad. 15You'll speak to him and tell him what to say. I'll be right there with you as you speak and with him as he speaks, teaching you step by step. 16He will speak to the people for you. He'll act as your mouth, but you'll decide what comes out of it. 17Now take this staff in your hand; you'll use it to do the signs."

I love that story. God lays it out about as clear and detailed as it gets. (Don't you wish He was that clear with YOU?!) This is a huge task God lays on Moses. Moses, a murderer (Remember, killed Egyptian?), who doesn't speak well, who stutters and stammers. God chooses him to lead hundreds of thousands of people. And among these people he's leading, is the blood line of Jesus, the very ancestors of Jesus Christ.

And Moses says, "I'm not equipped to lead your people out of Egypt? Why me?"

The answer to Moses' question of "why me?" is today's big deal, today's "grip on reality":

(ppt) God chooses imperfect people to work His perfect plan. (say with me)

This is based on the Ephesians 1:11

(ppt)"Because of Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for He chose us from the beginning, and all things happen just as He decided long ago."

When we look at this verse, one of the things I want us to key in on is the phrase, (ppt) "He chose us." Throughout the Bible, we see no one luckily falling into God's plan; we don't find anyone stumbling upon God. What we find is the intentionality, the premeditated, calculated, planning of God to call everyone to Him, one by one.

Look at these "chosen" verses:

(ppt)"He loved your forefathers and chose their descendants after them" Deuteronomy 4:37

(ppt) "The LORD chose them to carry the ark of the Lord." 1 Chronicles 15:2

(ppt) "A voice came from the cloud, saying, 'This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.'" Luke 9:35

(ppt) "The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will" Acts 22:14

(ppt) "For he chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight." Ephesians 1:4

(ppt) "For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you." 1 Thessalonians 1:4

(ppt) "From the beginning God chose you..." 2 Thessalonians 2:13

(ppt) "When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them." Luke 6:13

Let's stop with this verse and look at the disciples for a minute. Here's Jesus, knowing that the plan is to save the whole world through Himself. I'm sure some of us have some pretty important mission statements, but you have to admit, having a mission statement like: "Saving the entire world." would be pretty large.

Wouldn't you imagine that if you or I had to do something that HUGE that we'd look for the 12 brightest guys we could find? The 12 sharpest tools in the shed? Wouldn't you or I look at the best universities at the top 1% of their graduates or better yet, their most respected professors?

Wouldn't we look in the marketplace for the Bill Gates, or the Jack Welchs of the world who had a track record of achieving unbelievable goals? Heck, wouldn't we go to the leading seminaries or Bible colleges and get the brightest and best men?

Jesus chose Matthew. Matthew was a Hebrew who was a tax-collector for the Romans, or a "publican" as it was called back in the day. The way the system was setup, it was legal for a tax collector to gouge you for more taxes than what you owed. It was legal for the tax collectors to extort money from people. What would YOU think of that kind of person?

The common name publicans back then was "leeches." Matthew and his fellow tax-collectors were not considered to be part of decent society; they weren't even considered welcome in the synagogue. A modern day social equivalent might be on the same level as a prostitute or a member of organized crime.

But Jesus chose Matthew, the tax-collector, the "leech" to be one of the twelve closest people to Him. This "leech" gave us the first book of the New Testament that bears his name; he was the only author who gave us the Sermon on the Mount.

Why Matthew? Why a societal outcast? Why not one of the trained scribes (one who writes) from the synagogue to write down things that would be folded into our Bible?

Why? Because God uses imperfect people to work His perfect plan.

Of the twelve disciples, Paul is arguably one of the boldest and strongest. Of the 27 books in the New Testament, Paul writes 14 of them! He made three history-changing missionary journeys.

But look closer at Paul. He was a Pharisee, the religious group that Jesus gave his harshest criticisms. Paul persecuted Christians and everything having to do with Jesus.

One of the early leaders in the movement we now know as Christianity was Stephen. Stephen was a martyr (someone who dies for what they believe); he was violently dragged out of the city and stoned to death because He believed Jesus was the Son of God. (Imagine a stoning for a second?) Acts 8:1-3 writes this:

"1And Saul (Paul) was there, giving approval to his death. 2On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. 3But Saul (Paul) began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison."

And Paul wasn't the most handsome guy either. A 2nd century writing describes him as, "A man little of stature, partly bald, with crooked legs, with eyes set close together and nose somewhat hooked."

But somehow, God doesn't choose the Jack Welch of Jerusalem to help lead this life-changing team of disciples who were to help save the entire world. He chose Paul, this hater of Jesus, this persecutor of Christianity to be one if not the MOST influential leader, missionary and author in all of Christianity.

Why? Why Paul? Because God uses imperfect people to work His perfect plan.

The apostle Mark deserted Paul on a missionary trip. Jesus nicknamed Peter "The Rock." Yet The Rock denied knowing Jesus 3 times one night. Thomas doubted. He wasn't even around the first time Jesus appeared after His death. And Judas, the one everyone trusted with the groups money, sold out Jesus for a few pieces of silver, then killed himself.

If we were looking through a stack of resumes to find 12 guys to help save the world, I don't imagine these guys would make the cut of the top 100, let alone the twelve. We'd be looking for guys who stood out as movers and shakers, guys who were respected leaders in the church already.

But Acts 4:13 says, (ppt)

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

When we look at this verse and the apostles and where they came from, we get a really interesting answer to the question, "Why did God choose those twelve men?"

Because God wanted to show us that it wasn't the person that was so important, it was God working through the person that is everything. On paper, only a handful of the 12 seemed really sharp. And Paul's past alone, (dragging away believers and condoning brutal murders) probably makes the most colorful past represented in this room, look tame.

(click 2x)A persecutor of Christianity,

(ppt)commercial fishermen,

(ppt)guys who didn't always stay the course,

(ppt)a traitor. Why? Why them?

Because God uses imperfect people to work His perfect plan. It's not us, it's GOD IN US that's amazing.

Let's look at today's verse again (ppt)

"Because of Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for He chose us from the beginning, and all things happen just as He decided long ago." Ephesians 1:11

That verse says that we didn't stumble on to God. We didn't get to a point in our life where we decided to choose God. We didn't get lucky. Us being in a relationship with Jesus isn't fate or happenstance. God chooses every Christ follower. He chooses us, warts and all, to work His perfect plan.

Why me? Why did He choose me (you) to save? He chooses us for two reasons:

1. He loves us. He loves us, just as we are; and He wants to be an integral part of our lives, everything we do. The "inheritance" (ppt) from our verse is an eternal relationship. He adopts us as His children to spend eternity with Him. That's our inheritance, that's the plan Jesus and the 12 were working on.

2. Because we're HERE. Physically & relationally where we are in the world. Let me explain. (ppt follow Morgan w/pics from Mid-East to home)

*******************FREE FLOW******************

Instead of looking at someone else from the Bible to see how God "choosing them" has played out, I thought we should hear a story that's a little closer to home. (Invite up Lillian Gurneypianist on music team.)(ppt)

(Lil's testimony) Good morning! My name is Lillian Gurney. To tell you the truth, even though I have been playing musical instruments before crowds for 30 years now, standing here talking to you is a whole different deal!

I was born and raised in Ontario, Canada. I grew up with my Mom and Dad, 2 sisters and 1 brother. My Dad was a music director at our home church and through his influence I began playing the piano in church at age 10. Music was a huge part of my life, and it still is.

In my early teens I became interested in the Rock 'n roll & disco music of the 70's. I decided I didn't enjoy my classical music and traditional church hymns quite as much any more. I decided to hook up with kids at school who smoked, drank and were musicians in a rock band. I quickly joined the crowd of kids who just wanted to have fun. I wanted to be cool and felt like I "belonged". It felt kind of neat to be a "rebel" and not a "nerd" or "fairy" as I was called because I played the violin and classical piano!!

By the time I was 17, I had become quite a rebellious teen, sneaking out at night with friends, drinking and doing drugs. I remember that I didn't care at all how my parents felt. I thought they were way too controlling and I would show them that they couldn't tell me what to do. At the end of that summer, I remember suddenly beginning to question my behavior and felt a sense of guilt about causing my parents so much grief. I thought to myself "What is wrong with me? Why am I feeling so lousy?"

After an intense week of fighting with so many feelings and voices going through my head, I asked my mom and dad to help me figure out what was going on inside me. They were Christ-followers and told me that God was talking to me. I finally got it that God wanted me to say YES to Him. I remember the feelings of peace and relief I had when I accepted Christ into my life! That night was August 27th 1980. I would love to tell you that my life became one very smooth ride with the Lord from then on, but it didn't.

When I was still 17 I met a guy at church who was 6 years older than me. I felt like this was the person I should marry, and would do so as soon as I finished high school. During our 2 year relationship, I struggled with anorexia, and was mentally abused by my fiancé. I finally broke up with him and decided to leave town. I headed for college 1500 miles away from my family and friends. I went though a really dark time of depression, loneliness and bitterness.

I spent much of my time at college in therapy, trying to figure out why I was so unhappy, bitter and angry. There, I read "Healing for Damaged Emotions" by David Seamands, and realized I needed to forgive myself and those who I felt had hurt me so badly. I felt like I was able to work through some of my issues at that time.

Shortly after reading this book, in 1984, I met Quentin or "Q" as he is called here at Oakbrook, and we got married in 1985. I didn't understand unconditional love, and struggled with un-forgiveness. I began keeping a record of wrongs against Q and the rebellious side of me showed up again. I began drinking, doing drugs, and spending late nights at clubs with "friends". I was totally confused about life and I gave little or no thought to the fact that I had said YES to Christ 8 years before. I grew more and more troubled, and thoughts of suicide filled my mind often. Voices in my head told me I was a failure, a loser, and everything wrong, was my fault. I remember crying myself to sleep at night. I felt like no one cared and everyone hated me.

Finally, in November 91, I was ready to try to turn away from all the dark stuff that I was holding on to in my life. I was at the end of my rope. It's too long to go into the details, but God, miraculously, through Quentin, helped me break free from the things that were controlling my life. The "long story short" version is that I remember feeling like a ton of bricks had been lifted off of me! I experienced a huge life-change!! I no longer looked at God as being someone that was just there to punish me. I no longer felt the desire to end my life. The voices went away, and they never came back. This was the start of a whole new level of freedom in Christ that I never knew was possible, even though I had said yes to Him years before.

On January 1, 1992 we moved to Kokomo and I knew once and for all that I needed to ground my life in God! I found out about a women's Bible study called PSALMS. Being in this study helped me learn what God's word, the Bible says, so I could live in a way that God wants me to live. I connected with some very special people through this study. One friend in particular, a member of Oakbrook is Lynn Deno. She has spent lots of time over the years praying with and for me!! I even began serving God as a music director at a local church. A few years ago Q and I started attending Oakbrook along with our 4 daughters. I remember a few times, that Mark Malin talked about the importance of spending quiet time with God, every day, and that it made such a big difference in his life. I asked some friends to pray for me so that I could start doing this too. I actually got started almost 2 years ago and I know this has made a difference in my life as well. Q and I joined a small group awhile back and we really have connected with people at Oakbrook. It has been such an awesome experience to serve God at this church.

There should be 100 reasons from my past that should keep me from serving God, but I've come to understand that that's not how God's Grace works!! I know He forgave me for all the things I did to hurt Him. I can't even fully express how thankful I am that God wanted me to really know how much He loves me and that He wanted me to be His child. I'm overwhelmed to think that God has been able to use me despite all the ways I messed up in the past. I know I'm a totally different wife and Mom than I would have been, if I hadn't said Yes to God. (pptdaughters pic)I often sit down with my daughters at bedtime and tell them that the only way I can have a smile on my face, show them true love, sing worship songs with feeling, is because of Jesus living in me. I want my girls to know the love and grace of God that freed me from the darkness in my life. I want them to spend Eternity in Heaven too. And that's my story.

One of the things I love about our stories is that they so often start with things like, "Why me? Why is all this crud falling on me?" And they almost always end with a "Why Me?" that's NOT the Blues but a totally different kind of "Why Me?" Because

sometimes in life really GOOD things happen to us: We get an unexpected bonus at work. Our child makes the honor roll. In a storm that flooded neighbors, our basement stays bone dry. On a whim we play the lotto and win $1,000. We find out we actually bought the extended warranty and the expensive repair IS covered. We come home and our wife says, "Can we just skip the part where I tell you every miniscule detail of my dayinstead can we just go look at motorcycles?"

If these amazing things were to happen to us, we would say (stunned & awed), "What? Why ME? I don't deserve this?"

A while back after the flooding, a friend of mine's basement was hit pretty hard and they lost some appliances, among other even more important things. Someone in the church felt led to make an anonymous cash gift to them to help them recoup their losses. I was the lucky person who handed this envelope to my friend. He said, "What? Why me? Other people had losses too"

For every Christ follower, for everyone who enters into a relationship with Jesus Christ, there needs to be times when we stop and say, "Why me? Why did You choose to adopt ME into Your family? Why did you wipe my entire slate clean? After all the time I ignored you, kept You at arms length, making up excuse why Christianity didn't make sense or wasn't for mewhy after all my stubbornness, did You choose me to give a "do over" on my life? Why did You choose me, God?

In one respect, we just need to savor what it is to be chosen by the Creator of the Universe; we need to bathe ourselves in the reality that God thought enough of us to bring us into a relationship with Him. We weren't the kid left on the playground who neither team wanted; we were chosen by God and adopted via Jesus Christ.

And in another respect, we need to say: "God, what is your perfect plan that You want to accomplish through me, this imperfect person? Lord, I know I'm everything short of perfection, but if I know anything about Your Word based on what I've heard today, it's that You have an incredible track record of using people who fall short to save this entire world. God, I don't know how, but I'm humbly asking You to use me, however You see fit."

Think about that; about God using You in some way. Think about the true Biblical accounts I've shared today; think about the kind of people God chose. Think about your life, the good, the bad & the ugly of it. And as you get those things in your mind, listen to the chorus of this song as if they are your very own words to God.

(song "Use Me")(ppt song title)

(1 minute silent on-your-own prayer ---- close out)