Disqualified by Sin?

There are people who have committed sins that have caused them to think that somehow they’ve struck out, and God can never take their life and use it for His glory. They have believed the lie that you can commit sins so serious and so wrong that God will, as they say, set you aside and not ever be able to work through your life again. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The message of grace is that God can redeem you and take the circumstances of your life, no matter what you might have done, and he can redeem your choices and turn things around and use you for his glory.

I used to say, "You can’t unscramble eggs," but the truth is, we serve a God who can unscramble eggs. For that matter, He seems to like scrambled eggs if that means using lives that have come to brokenness and are now yielded completely to Him. There’s nothing you’ve ever done, or nothing you ever could do, that would keep God from pouring out His blessings on you and allowing His life to flow through you. The idea that you can commit sins that would disqualify you from being used by God is a lie that will keep you in bondage as long as you believe it.

Consider Hebrews 11, and examine the people that are mentioned there. God mentioned people like Noah. Noah was a man who had no sooner come off the ark until he got falling down drunk. Or look at Moses. Exodus 2 tells how he killed a man. Samson and David are on this list, even though they both committed adultery and their sin is remembered until this day. In Hebrews 11:31, the Bible mentions Rahab the harlot. By God's grace, she was used by the Lord to protect his people in Israel. The fact is that there’s no sin that you can commit that is so terrible that God cannot turn things around and work through you to influence others.

Look back over your past and think about the very worst thing you’ve ever done...
Now take that in your mind, carry it to the cross and lay it down at the foot of the cross, and then, visually -- in your own thinking, walk away and leave it there. The idea that you can commit sins that will disqualify you from seeing your Father work through your life is unnecessarily crippling because it just isn't true.

If I were to ask you who was the greatest Christian who ever lived, whose name comes to mind? I suspect many would say the Apostle Paul. The apostle Paul had been a murderer, and yet the Lord used him to write two-thirds of the New Testament.

You might think, “Well, my sins were committed after I became a Christian." Okay, then you're in good company. Remember Simon Peter? He denied Jesus at his crucifixion and ran out in shame and guilt. It seems reasonable to imagine that he probably wondered if the Lord would ever be able to work through his life again.

When Jesus was raised from the dead and he spoke to the ladies, He said “Go tell the disciples and Peter that I’m alive.” He specifically mentioned him by name. I think the reason he mentioned Peter by name is because he wanted to let him know, "you’ve not done something so terrible that I can’t use your life." It was in fact, Peter on the day of Pentecost, who preached that great Pentecostal message.

Hebrews 11 - read it. Look at those giants of faith mentioned there. Don’t just read their names in chapter 11, but go back and look in the Old Testament, and the history of those people and see some of the sins they committed. I think there’s a subliminal message in Hebrews chapter 11 that says to you and me, "No matter what you’ve done, no matter how low you’ve gone, no matter how far from God’s plan for your life you think you might have drifted, God has redeemed you, and He will take all the circumstances of your life, and He will use your life for his glory."

Whatever you might have done, God has forgiven you and your life can now glorify Him. It's called the gospel of grace for a reason. Put your past behind you, believe it, get up and live the Life He has given you.