Veritas April 2008 - Dallas Theological Seminary

So with that caution as our background, I want toshow you how anyone who has a genuine heart for Godand is willing to take some risks can be great in God’seyes and do things for Him. Usually, when someonetalks about greatness, too many people excusethemselves because they figure they aren’t smartenough, talented enough, wealthy enough, influentialenough, or whatever enough to make a huge difference.But let me clue you in on something. Being sharpand smart and talented and all of that is overratedin God’s economy. The first time I read the OldTestament, I began to think about the kind of peopleGod really uses. And what I discovered is that Goduses ordinary people to do extraordinary things. God’scriterion for greatness is not what we think of as greathuman skills or abilities, because He is looking forsomeone whose heart is fully His.So the fundamental question you and I need toask ourselves is, How do we knowif our hearts fully belong to God?To answer this question, I wantto give you some principles fromthe life of Nehemiah. One reasonI like Nehemiah is because he’swhat we would call a layman, aguy from the business world. Asthe cupbearer and confidant tothe king of Persia, Nehemiah isa person of influence. But it’snot his influence in the Persianpalace that makes Nehemiah great,but the fact that his heart fullybelonged to the Lord.So what God did inNehemiah’s life was raise up aperson who would take stepsthat changed the entire course ofhistory and fulfill the promisesDa l l a s Th e o l o g i c a l Se m i n a r y3