God Uses Ordinary People

It's easy to scroll through Instagram and feel like God could only ever use the people who are confident, talented, and have it all together. But this sermon is a direct challenge to that lie. God isn't looking for the most impressive — He's looking for the most available. Your age, your insecurities, your past mistakes, and your 'ordinariness' are not disqualifiers. In fact, they might be exactly the conditions under which God does His best work in and through you.

1. When you think about being used by God, what's the first thing that makes you feel like you're not the right person? Where do you think that feeling comes from?
2. David was literally forgotten by his own dad on the day his destiny was being decided. Have you ever felt overlooked or left out? How does it change things to know God sees you even when others don't?
3. Moses kept giving God reasons why he couldn't do what God was asking. What's your go-to excuse when God nudges you to step up or step out?
4. Mary said 'I am the Lord's servant' even though what God was asking her to do was scary and confusing. What would it look like for you to say that in your own life this week?
5. Can you think of someone in your life — a teacher, a youth leader, a friend's parent — who seems 'ordinary' but has had a big impact on you? What made them effective?

Your twenties and thirties are often defined by a nagging sense of not being enough — not experienced enough for the job, not sorted enough for a relationship, not together enough to lead anything. This sermon speaks directly into that. The Bible's most used people were not the most polished — they were the most surrendered. As you navigate career decisions, relationships, and working out what your life is actually for, the invitation is to stop waiting until you're 'ready' and start practising daily availability to God.

1. In your career or studies, do you tend to wait until you feel fully qualified before you take a step forward? How might the principle of 'God equips the called' challenge that approach?
2. Paul says God's power is made perfect in weakness. Can you think of a time in your life where your weakness or limitation actually became the thing that opened a door or built a relationship?
3. What's one area of your life right now where you feel like God might be nudging you toward something, but you keep talking yourself out of it?
4. Availability is described as a daily posture, not a one-time decision. What does your daily life look like — is there space in it for God to redirect you, or is it pretty locked in?
5. How does the pressure to build a personal brand or impressive CV sit alongside the idea that God chooses 'the foolish things of the world to shame the wise'?

Parenting and family life can feel incredibly ordinary — and exhausting. Packed lunches, school drop-offs, homework battles, and trying to keep the household running doesn't feel like the stuff of God's great purposes. But this sermon reminds us that God does His most significant work through the ordinary, faithful moments of everyday life. The way you love your kids, speak life into them, and model a surrendered heart in front of them is a profound act of Kingdom building — even if no one outside your home ever sees it.

1. How do you tend to speak about yourself in front of your kids — do you model confidence in who God made you to be, or do you frequently put yourself down? How might that shape how they see themselves?
2. God told Samuel that He looks at the heart, not the outward appearance. As parents, how do we guard against valuing achievement and performance in our kids over character and heart?
3. Moses felt completely unequipped for what God called him to do. What's an area of parenting or family life where you feel out of your depth — and how might you invite God into that gap?
4. What's one 'ordinary' thing you do consistently as a family that you believe God uses more than you realise?
5. Mary's 'yes' to God had enormous consequences for her family and her community. What would it look like for your family to collectively say 'we are available' to God this season?

There's a cultural narrative — sometimes reinforced even in church — that your 'real' life begins when you meet someone, settle down, and start a family. This sermon pushes back on that completely. God used Mary before marriage defined her story. He used Paul, who remained single, to write half the New Testament. Your life right now — as a single person — is not a waiting room. It is the arena in which God wants to work through you. Your availability, your freedom, and your individual faith are powerful tools in His hands.

1. Do you ever feel like your life is 'on hold' until a certain relationship milestone arrives? How does today's message challenge or reframe that feeling?
2. Of all the people mentioned in this sermon — Moses, David, Mary, Paul — which one resonates most with you right now, and why?
3. The sermon says availability matters more than ability. As a single person, what unique forms of availability do you have that others might not? How are you using them?
4. God sees what others overlook. In what area of your life do you most need to hear that truth right now?
5. What's one practical step you could take this week to shift from waiting to be used by God, to actively making yourself available to Him?

There's a version of masculinity that says you only step up when you're certain, confident, and fully prepared. But the men God used most powerfully in Scripture were often riddled with doubt, fear, and a very clear sense of their own inadequacy. Moses argued with God. Gideon needed multiple signs. David made catastrophic mistakes. What they shared wasn't a flawless track record — it was a willingness to keep showing up and to lead from a place of dependence on God rather than self-sufficiency. That's the kind of leadership God is after.

1. Men are often socialised to project confidence and competence even when they don't feel it. How does that tendency get in the way of the kind of surrender and availability God is looking for?
2. Moses' objections to God's call were rooted in genuine insecurity about his ability. What's an area of your life — at work, at home, in the church — where you've been holding back because you don't feel qualified?
3. God's response to Moses wasn't to fix his weakness — it was to promise His presence. How does the promise 'I will be with you' change the way you approach something you've been avoiding?
4. David was doing the ordinary, unglamorous work of looking after sheep when his destiny was decided. What 'ordinary' responsibilities are you in right now that might actually be God's preparation ground for something more?
5. Who is a man in your life who has modelled the kind of humble, available leadership this sermon describes? What specifically did you observe in him?

So much of the pressure women carry is tied to an internal script that says you need to be more — more capable, more together, more confident — before you can truly be used by God. But Mary, arguably the most significantly used woman in all of Scripture, was simply willing. Not the most experienced, not the most established, not the most anything — just available. God is not waiting for you to reach some imaginary threshold of readiness. He is looking at your heart, right now, and asking: will you be My servant?

1. What's the internal voice that most often tells you you're not ready or not enough to be used by God? Where do you think that voice comes from?
2. The sermon says God looks at the heart, not the outward appearance. In a world that puts enormous pressure on women to look and perform a certain way, how does that truth land for you personally?
3. Mary said yes to God in a moment that was both confusing and costly. Have you ever felt God calling you into something that didn't make obvious sense but felt right in your heart? What did you do?
4. Think about the women in your life — friends, colleagues, family members — who don't yet know Jesus. How might today's message equip or encourage you to be God's instrument in their lives?
5. What would it practically look like for you to adopt the posture of 'I am the Lord's servant' in your everyday life this week — in your home, your work, your relationships?

A lifetime of following Jesus gives you something that cannot be manufactured — lived wisdom, a tested faith, and the credibility that only comes through years of showing up in both the mountain-top moments and the valleys. The people in this sermon — Moses, David, Mary — each had a story that unfolded over decades, not moments. As Connect Together, you carry the fruit of a long obedience, and the stories of God's faithfulness in your life are one of the most powerful tools the Kingdom has. Your chapter is not finished. God still uses ordinary, available people — and that includes you.

1. Looking back over your life of faith, can you identify a moment where God used you in a way that genuinely surprised you — where you felt completely unqualified but He showed up anyway?
2. The sermon describes availability as a daily posture. How has the shape of your availability to God changed across different seasons of your life? What does it look like now?
3. Moses was 80 years old when God called him to his greatest assignment. What does that say to us about the idea that our most significant contributions to God's Kingdom might still be ahead of us?
4. Who are the 'Davids' in your community — the younger people who might be overlooked or underestimated — who need someone to speak into their potential? How might you be that voice?
5. What is the most important thing you've learned about being used by God that you wish you could pass on to the next generation at Connect Christian Church?