Are Your Standards Causing You to Miss What God Is Saying?

I think sometimes we set our standards for people so high that we actually rob ourselves of the opportunity to learn from God through other people.

We decide what someone used by God should look like.

How they should speak.

What their past should look like.

How educated they should be.

How confident they should be.

What denomination they should belong to.

How polished their delivery should be.

And if they don't meet those standards, we decide there probably isn't anything we can learn from them.

But here's the problem:

Those might be our standards, but are they God's?

Sometimes we put our own standards in the way of hearing what God is trying to show us.

Would We Have Listened to Moses?

Think about Moses.

When God called Moses, Moses immediately brought up his weakness:

“And Moses said unto the LORD, O my Lord, I am not eloquent... but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.” — Exodus 4:10 KJV

Imagine Moses standing in front of us today.

Would we listen to him?

Or would some of us say:

“He doesn't speak very well.”

“He struggles getting his words out.”

“There are much better communicators.”

“Why would God choose him to speak?”

Yet God did choose him.

Moses' weakness didn't disqualify him from being used by God.

It simply meant that when God worked through him, nobody could pretend Moses' human ability was the source of God's power.

What About Paul?

Then there's Paul.

Imagine only knowing Paul by his past.

This was a man who persecuted Christians.

People suffered because of him.

Believers knew his reputation, and when he first became a follower of Jesus, people had legitimate reasons to be afraid of him.

Acts 9:26 tells us that when Paul came to Jerusalem and tried to join the disciples, they were afraid of him because they didn't believe he was really a disciple.

What if everyone had stopped there?

What if they had decided that Paul's past permanently determined his future?

They would have missed what grace had done in his life.

Sometimes we become so focused on what someone was that we cannot see what God's grace has made them.

Maybe instead of looking at someone's past and saying, “Why would I listen to them?” we should occasionally stop and say:

“Look what the grace of God has done in this person's weakness.”

Would We Have Ignored Gideon?

Then look at Gideon.

When we first meet Gideon, he isn't exactly the picture of a fearless warrior.

He is threshing wheat by the winepress because he is hiding from the Midianites.

Yet the angel of the LORD says:

“The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour.” — Judges 6:12 KJV

God saw something that Gideon's circumstances didn't show yet.

People looking only at the outside might have seen fear.

God saw what His grace was going to produce.

That's important because sometimes we judge people based on the chapter they're currently in while God is looking at the story He's still writing.

We see weakness.

God sees what happens when that weakness becomes surrendered to Him.

They Even Did It to Jesus

This might be the most sobering part.

People did this with Jesus.

They looked at what they thought they knew about Him and allowed familiarity to become a reason not to listen.

“Is not this the carpenter's son?” — Matthew 13:55 KJV

In other words:

We know where He came from.

We know His family.

Who does He think He is?

Why should we listen to Him?

They had already decided what someone important enough to listen to should look like.

Jesus didn't fit their expectations.

And because He didn't fit their standards, they struggled to recognize what was standing right in front of them.

That should make every one of us examine ourselves.

Have I ever dismissed something God wanted to show me because I didn't like the vessel He chose to use?

All Man Is Weak

Here's something we have to understand:

All man is weak.

There isn't a perfect person for God to use.

If you're waiting for a flawless teacher, pastor, leader, friend, mentor, or believer before you can learn something from them, you're going to be waiting forever.

Paul wrote:

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” — 2 Corinthians 4:7 KJV

That's the point.

The vessel isn't the treasure.

God is.

We are all earthen vessels.

Some people's cracks are simply easier for you to see than others.

The danger comes when we become so focused on the cracks that we completely miss the treasure God is pouring through them.

Look What Grace Has Done

Maybe we need to change the question.

Instead of looking at someone's weakness and saying:

“Why would I listen to them?”

Maybe we should sometimes say:

“Look what grace has done through this person.”

Paul understood this personally.

God told him:

“My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” — 2 Corinthians 12:9 KJV

And Paul eventually learned to see his weakness differently.

Why?

Because weakness gave God an opportunity to demonstrate His strength.

Yet sometimes the very weakness God is using to display His grace becomes the reason we refuse to listen.

They're not polished enough.

They're not educated enough.

They've made too many mistakes.

They're too young.

They're too old.

They're too quiet.

They're too different from us.

They don't communicate the way we communicate.

They don't come from our denomination.

They don't have the background we think they should have.

But maybe the question isn't whether they meet our standards.

Maybe the question is whether God is doing something through them.

God Doesn't Always Come in the Loudness

Elijah learned something powerful about this.

There was a great wind.

Then an earthquake.

Then a fire.

But the LORD wasn't in them.

After the fire came a “still small voice.” — 1 Kings 19:11–12 KJV

We tend to look for God in what is impressive.

We look for the thunder.

We look for the platform.

We look for the person who has everything put together.

We look for the person who sounds like we think someone used by God should sound.

But sometimes God speaks in subtle ways.

Sometimes He uses the person you weren't expecting.

Sometimes He uses the person whose weakness you noticed before you noticed their fruit.

And sometimes He might even use someone you don't particularly like to show you something you desperately need to see.

The question is whether we're humble enough to listen.

This Doesn't Mean We Throw Away Discernment

None of this means we blindly accept everything everyone says.

Scripture tells us to test things.

We should examine teaching against Scripture.

We should look at fruit.

We should exercise discernment.

But there is a massive difference between biblical discernment and personal preference.

Biblical discernment asks:

“Is this true?”

“Does this agree with Scripture?”

“What kind of fruit does this produce?”

Personal standards ask:

“Do they look like someone I think God would use?”

“Do they talk the way I think they should?”

“Do they come from the right background?”

“Do they do things the way I would do them?”

Those aren't the same thing.

Sometimes we call something discernment when what we're really saying is:

“This person doesn't meet my expectations.”

And if we're not careful, our expectations can become so loud that we can't hear what God is trying to teach us.

Don't Let Your Standards Become Louder Than God's Voice

There is something beautiful about learning to see God working through imperfect people.

Because that's all God has ever had to work with.

Imperfect people.

Weak people.

People with histories.

People with fears.

People with scars.

People still growing.

People who don't always say everything perfectly.

People who still need grace themselves.

Moses had weakness.

Gideon knew fear.

Paul had a past.

Peter failed.

David fell.

Yet God's grace continued working through imperfect vessels.

Maybe spiritual maturity isn't reaching the place where everyone you learn from meets your standards.

Maybe it's reaching the place where you're humble enough to recognize God working through people who don't.

So yes, test everything.

Use biblical discernment.

Look at the fruit.

But don't allow your personal standards for the vessel to become so high that you miss the treasure inside it.

Don't become so focused on someone's imperfections that you miss what the Perfect One is doing through them.

Because sometimes the weakness you're using as your reason not to listen may be the very place where God's grace is speaking the loudest.

Pastor Scott