The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
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The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
God Trusts Nobodies with Sacred Things
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Hey friends, welcome back to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. I'm Todd Rhodes and this is day three of our unwrapped Christmas series. And today we're heading out of the hills to a group of people that nobody invited, but God chose anyway. And the implications for your life and your ministry might actually surprise you. Hi there. Welcome to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. As I said, my name's Todd Rhodes, one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffing.com, and I'm glad you're here for today's podcast. Who would you pick to announce the birth of the Messiah? Uh maybe a religious leader or a well-known politician or maybe a social media influencer, uh mega church pastors with a verified Instagram account, for example. Uh maybe, but you know who God picked? God picked shepherds. Shepherds, not just any shepherds. The kind of people that nobody ever really noticed, nobody ever really trusted, and nobody ever especially invited to anything sacred. And yet, they're the ones that got the angel choir. Why? Well, let's talk about shepherds, okay? Shepherds in the first century Palestine weren't actually admired. It wasn't uh great career move necessarily to be a shepherd. For the most part, they were considered low class, often unclean because they were with the sheep all day long. Sometimes, sometimes they kind of got a stereotype of being dishonest and definitely unqualified for for crying out loud anything else than watching sheep. And yet God chose them, not just as background characters, but really, if you think about it, as the first evangelists, the first worshippers, the first guests at the birth of Jesus. So let's pause there for a second. Think about it. God entrusted the most sacred moment in history, the most sacred moment in history to the least likely group of people. And when he did that, he skipped the insiders and he ignored the polished people, and he bypassed the alleged the religious elite. And he chose instead a bunch of nobodies that were working the night shift. Why? Well, because that's who God is. He doesn't operate on human hierarchies. Uh he's not impressed by platforms. Let me say he's not impressed by your platform or my platform. He chooses the humble, he chooses those that are available, he chooses those that are unlikely. Which means, quite honestly, he might just be choosing you. He might just be choosing me. Well, let's be honest. Some of us feel like the shepherds of our churches, but we're not the voice. You're not the voice, you're not in charge, you're not the guy or the gal. Uh you're out in the field doing your work, holding things together, and mostly out of sight. And in moments of discouragement, you might think something like this. You know, God uses other people, but not me. The Christmas story, that says something otherwise. The ones that God speaks to most clearly might be the ones furthest from the stage, the ones he entrusts with those sacred things. Uh, they aren't always the ones with titles, and if you're faithful in the field, you might just find yourself hearing angels. God doesn't need your status to entrust you with something sacred. He just needs your availability and your surrender. You know, I've worked with people who carry enormous kingdom responsibilities and very little recognition. They're faithful, they're present, they're steady. But they often wonder, does it really matter? Does anybody really notice? Is anything I'm doing making a difference? And when I think of the shepherds, I think of them. Because God saw them, God chose them, and they responded with joy and urgency. No resume, no credentials, just obedience. And that, my friend, still lose the heart of God. So I'm leaving you every day with a couple of reflection questions. Here are the questions for today. Where have you disqualified yourself in your own mind? Where have you kind of beat yourself up and say, you know, I'm just nothing? God's not going to really make any difference in me. What have you disqualified? How have you disqualified yourself in your mind, thinking that God only uses, you know, those kind of people? God only uses my senior pastor, or God only uses people much higher than me. And then the follow-up question is what sacred thing might God be entrusting to you right now? Think about that as you go through your day today. And I hope you'll join us again tomorrow, right here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. We're going to continue our unwrapped Christmas series. Thank you, Jesus, for trusting nobody's and for seeing the faithful in the field. And today help us to be able to see that in ourselves as well. In Jesus' name.
