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Kinansela ang pagbabagong 931772 ni 210.5.69.3 (Usapan)
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*sa [[wikang Sebwano]].
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God Will Use You If You Say Yes
 
Today, I’ll talk to you about a woman named Rahab.
Who is Rahab? She’s a prostitute.
Shocked? But that’s our big message for today: God will use anyone who says yes.
The Israelites, under commander Joshua, sent spies into Jericho to scout the area. Out of all the thousands of people in Jericho, God chose a prostitute to help them. (See Joshua 2:1-12)
Let me summarize the story into two points:
1. God chose Rahab.
2. Rahab said Yes.
That’s it!
Think about it.
What if Rahab said, “Not me, Lord. I’m a bad woman. You can’t trust me. I’ve done bad stuff you can’t even imagine. This won’t work. Why don’t you talk to my neighbor, Liza. She goes to church. She doesn’t have a tattoo on her arm like I do. She doesn’t wear miniskirts like me. She reads the Bible everyday. She plays Christian music on her iPod. And most importantly, she hasn’t slept with 854 men like I have!”
Right now, you may be saying the same thing. You may be saying, “I’m not worthy. Let me clean up my act first before God will use me.”
But that’s not how God operates. Here’s the truth: You can’t clean up your act on your own. Just give yourself to Him, and both you and God will clean up your act together.
Here’s one of my favorite passages: God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong… (1 Corinthians 1:27)
Bad History? No Problem.
One day, I was reading the ancestors of Jesus.
Because Jesus was Jesus, His Genealogy was quite impressive. It had the heavy weights of the Bible in that list. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David,…
But in that Genealogy, inserted in various places were 4 surprising characters: Tamar, Bathsheeba, Ruth, and Rahab.
Tamar slept with her father-in-law. The story is so distasteful, I don’t want to write it down here. (See Genesis 38.)
The second woman is Bathsheba, an adulteress.
While her husband Uriah was fighting in the battlefield risking life and limb, she was lying on David’s comfortable king-sized bed making a baby.
Not a very good wife, if you ask me.
Next was Ruth. She was a Moabites widow.
That may mean nothing to you. But to the Jew, she meant bad luck. Let me explain a bit about the Jewish mindset. In their thinking, a foreigner was not saved. Not chosen by God. Not favored by God.
To top it all, Moab was a sinful place. It was like Sodom and Gomorrah.
Plus the fact that she was a widow.
And finally, there was Rahab.
A prostitute.
Oh my gosh.
Four women. Not very good choices at all.
Here’s my question: Couldn’t God have selected better women to be in the bloodline of Jesus?
Perhaps a woman who didn’t cheat on her husband?
Or a woman who didn’t sell her body for money?
A woman who was responsible, disciplined, mature?
But that’s how God operates.
If God found these 4 women good enough to become the blood ancestors of Jesus, He can really use anyone.
God isn’t interested in your background.
He’s not interested on where you came from—He’s interested in where you’re going. He’s not interested on what you did—He’s interested in what you’re going to do. He’s not interested on how you’ve failed Him in your past, He’s interested on how you’ll serve Him in your future.
He can use me.
He can use you.
In God’s equation, your past doesn’t define your future.
This Is How God Works
I’ve always wondered why God chose Peter.
He was temperamental. When some soldiers came to arrest Jesus, very impulsively, he pulled out a knife and cut one of the soldier’s ear.
Yet a couple of hours later, in front of a lowly maid, all his guts vanished. The girl asked, “Aren’t you with that Jesus guy? Aren’t you his disciple or something?”
And this brave man said, “Je… what? Jesus? Uh, I haven’t heard that name before.”
“No, I’m sure you’re with him,” the woman said.
Peter said, “Gee woman, you’ve got the wrong number. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Let’s review. Peter was temperamental. Peter was impulsive. Peter was violent. And Peter was a coward. And yet Jesus still chose him to be the leader of the disciples. He in fact became the first Pope of our Church.
That’s how God works. He chooses imperfect people all the time. What am I saying?
You have no excuse not to serve God.
You Have No Excuse
Go through the Bible and you’ll be shocked to see others who how were also unfit to serve God—yet ended up serving God.
• Abraham was too old.
• Jeremiah was too young.
• Gideon was too fearful.
• Elijah was too ugly.
• Moses was too un-eloquent.
• David was too frail.
• Deborah was too plain.
• Zacchaeus was too greedy.
• Mary Magdalene was too sinful.
• The Samaritan woman had too many husbands.
• Bartimaeus was too blind.
• Lazarus was too dead.
• Mother Mary was too unknown.
And yet God chose every single one of them and made them serve Him.
Perhaps you have been giving excuses so you won’t serve God.
• “I’m too bad.”
• “I’m too sinful.”
• “I’m too impatient.”
• “I’m too selfish.”
• “I’m too poor.”
• “I’m too ungifted.”
• “I’m too uneducated.”
• “I’m too quiet.”
• “I’m too sick.”
• “I’m too young.”
• “I’m too old.”
But if God wants you to serve Him, your weakness can’t stop God’s plan for your life. Your weakness, your fault, your sin, your flaw don’t disqualify you from God’s wonderful plan for your life.
God Will Not Waste Your Weaknesses
Don’t be discouraged by your weaknesses.
God will use your weaknesses to bless the world.
Just look at some of my friends who serve with me.
Pio Espanol had a weakness. He was a womanizer. As a married man, he was maintaining 3 girlfriends. Once upon a time, his marriage was on the brink of separation. But today, Pio and his wife Bebot have healed many marriage