Andrew Was Not Average

What are the qualifications for being used of God? What does God expect for us to bring to the table before He can mightily use us? What kinds of qualifications did the men and women of God in the Bible have?

Who were some people that were mightily used of God? There were many; in fact just about every person in the Bible was used one way or the other to do some incredible things for the Lord. Think upon these things and consider whether they look good as qualifications for service.

• Noah – got drunk & exposed himself in a sexually immoral way

• Abraham – doubted God, lied about his wife & committed adultery

• Isaac – sinned as his father taught him, lying about his wife Rebekah to Abimelech

• Jacob – stole the birthright from his brother Esau, deceived his father & raised a family of immoral children

• Joseph – an outcast who hated by his brother

• Moses – a murderer who tried to steal God’s glory by striking a rock to get water instead of obeying God and refusing to do so

• Aaron – led Israel in the worship of a golden calf & a sexual orgy

• Joshua – was so deceived by the Gibeonites that he made a treaty with them instead of destroying them like God told him to do, and because of this disobedience all of Israel was continually troubled by them

• Gideon – had no confidence in God & less confidence in God’s plan or power

• Samson – marked by lustful love for a wicked woman

• Ruth – was in the line of the Messiah but said to be an accursed Moabitess

• David – an adulterer, murderer, poor father, a man with such bloody hands that God wouldn’t allow him to build the Temple

• Solomon – the world’s leading polygamist

• Isaiah – put his trust in a human king

• Ezekial – was well known for being brash, tough & a say-what-you-think prophet

• Hosea – married a prostitute

• Jonah – defied God by directly disobeying a command and got upset when the entire city of Nineveh repented

• Habakkuk – questioned God’s divine plan

• Elijah – able to handle 450 prophets of Baal but ran like a madman from one woman, Jezebel

• Paul – a former Christian killer

• Timothy – at one time ashamed of Christ & had to be rebuked by Paul

And I didn’t even mention the sins of the 12 disciples. That list is kind of like the “Who’s Who of Sinners,” isn’t it?  Those men and women don’t exactly seem that they have any spiritual qualifications God would be interested in. Yet, this is exactly the type of people God chooses to do His work. He chooses unqualified, irregular, weak vessels to serve Him.

Why would God choose people like this? Why not choose someone who is prominent or popular that could have more influence? God does this to demonstrate His perfect grace in the lives of people and prove that it is really He working through them. It is because of God’s power that a sinful, unqualified weak person is able to part the Red Sea or defeat the Midianite army with a few hundred men or be a key leader in the spread of Christianity during the beginning of the Church Age.

Over the next few days, I want to profile the disciple Andrew – who was an average disciple in our eyes – but from God’s eyes, he was exactly the right man. By earthly standards, Andrew didn’t much going for him. He had a regular job, lived in an uninteresting part of Israel, and had no political prominence. And yet, this man was the 1^st disciple to be called by Jesus Christ. His name was the 1^st on Jesus’ list of men to call to follow Him as a personal disciple. His name is Andrew.

In the next post, we will consider his origin and calling.