Useful for the Master - Part 5 — Jackie Pullinger

God's Choice of the Unremarkable

Influential and not many of noble birth. I believe that we have Princess Tonga here, and you may already know that there was another member of the Royal Youth Allot and read this verse, and used to say, I thank God for the M.

But it doesn't say not any wise by human standards, not any influential, not any of noble birth, it just says not many. So she said, I thank God, a few, a few wise, a few influential, a few of noble birth of a M.

That's changed, because most of us, in our efforts of evangelism, we start somewhere else. I've been to many, many missionary conferences in the last few years, and they're nearly all of them, I hope this one is an exception, but they're nearly all directed at students.

Evangelism Must Not Begin With Human Influence

They're nearly all directed at, they're nearly all directed at people whom they believe will be influential. And I believe they're unscriptural in starting there. I'm glad they're not those people, but they are going to be in a minority.

And the Kingdom of God is not going to be brought about by their influence, by their wisdom, by their education. He wasn't qualified even to be a church at those times. People kept asking him, by what authority, by what authority, by what authority?

His authority came from God the Father. I've got some friends in England, they're lovely friends, they love what they're doing. And they've always done evangelism the opposite way around. They've always had a lot of people in their city.

Revival Through the Poor and Weak

So they've got this big plan in mind, you know, this is a top banner, and they aim at top barristers, people. This is a big plan. You know, God doesn't need those men to bring about the Kingdom of God.

And if we look at the history of revival in any country, we are going to find that revival comes about when God does wonderful things for the poor, the under-incompetent, those who have nothing to recommend them.

That's why this really doesn't work. Because people love what the Lord Jesus does in us who are poor and weak and have not built a family and poor education. And they say, there could be no other way, that's how our people get here today.

God Chooses the Foolish to Display Christ

You know, he couldn't even come to Hong Kong, just visit, or New Zealand, and there's no way to get to New Zealand from Macau. So he had to be escorted through, he had to get off the boat in Hong Kong, and the customs officers had to march him to the airport and stay with him the whole time until he went on the train.

There's no way in man's wisdom or with man's influence that he could have come. But God chose the despised and the foolish so that everyone could see the Lord Jesus. Because when the customs officers left, they said to him, when they saw him, and when they saw him, they asked him not to do that.

Because he could walk through Hong Kong, he has a plan for life. It's very unfair. The religion is unfair, you see, because it multiplies itself. When you've done your little bit, you've chosen the foolish things in your world to shame the wise.

Trusting God's Wisdom When We Feel Inadequate

The march himself is not quite as fun in your bedroom. And the reason, not without him. If you felt up to it, he couldn't choose you. If you feel quite unequal to the trust, you're going to have to believe in his wisdom and his ability to do the job.

Then you see you'll get the glory. And you'll start counting on him. It won't be your work any longer. It will be just what he chooses to do, let's you be in it. It's always that way around. It's kind of an unfair thing to do in high school.

He does it and you get to be in it. I remember when my first, for around about six years I suppose, in Hong Kong, I used to visit friends in prison. And they were all friends, I didn't just visit prisoners, I visited men I knew.

The Repeated Struggles of Prison Ministry

And there was a governor who used to say, he said, The problem with Japanese human rights losers. And I could see that was true. Because for the first few years, I didn't see anyone. And the people I visited were in prison.

And they didn't change. And they came out and they made lovely promises and they went back and they went in and they went back and they went in.