"the common man"

sorry it has taken me a few days to post, but i have been thinking about this since sunday. darrell preached on sunday because brother gary was a little bit busy, and ill be honest i wasnt really expecting too much out of the sermon- and i heard maybe the best ever(at least to me).
first of all, it is no secret and i have revealed to many of you that i feel i have an incredible calling on my life to do something great(im not sure when and where yet, but i have some ideas) and i think that this sermon was just what i needed to hear. it was basically a story and call to action all in one. and ill pose the same questions that darrelll opened with to you.
raise your hand if you have ever heard of billy graham? ok..everybody obviously knows who billy graham is, but go ahead and keep your hand up if you have ever heard of mordecai ham? wow. not many people know about him, and ill save you the time so you dont google it and can keep reading my blog(selfish i know). he was a evangelist preacher in the mountains of north carolina and one night he spoke to the audiance and a young man named billy graham accepted jesus christ as his personal lord and savior. ham was not and is not famous, rich, or even very popular, but because he was faithful to the calling of god in his life billy graham got saved and in turn has become the greatest preacher of all time. preaching to over a billion people and saving more people than anybody ever has(side note- i realize that jesus actually saves people. and some say that bill bright-founder of campus crusaders for christ has saved more, but that seems more like a ministry than a one man revival). its just incredible that a simple preacher from nc doing what he was called to do helped to give the world the greatest preacher that ever lived. what a testimony.
the biblical example came from acts chapter 9 and a common man named ananias. typically when people hear about the 9th chapter of acts they hear about saul who becomes paul, but i want to show you how ananias comes into play. god called ananias and his simple response was "here i am lord" once again just being honest, but i had trouble controlling my emotions during the sermon. god called ananias and he simply responded, "here i am god. what do you need me to do? where can i go? how can i bring glory to your name? how can i advance the kingdom of god?" obviously most of that i paraphrased, but i feel that is exactly what ananias was saying. the point is, just another common man, doing what god had called him to do, and because of his faithfulness and obediance to god, he helped get saul into the ministry. saul then became paul and then became the greatest missionary that ever lived. a man that used to persecute christians became maybe the most influential christian. missionary to over half of the known world, writer of most of the new testament, and suffered more than most people can ever imagine.
earlier this summer i did a study on the disciples, and while they were small in number(12) they completly changed the world. they werent super human or anything of that nature. just simple, regular, everyday, common men.
i think it is amazing what god can do with people. and hope and pray that someday god will give me the opportunity and the chance that i have been praying for. when and if that day comes i hope that i can respond much like ananias and say, "here i am lord, send me."
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