- Take Inventoryof how the Lord has equipped you (Judges 11:1-2)
- Make an Investment in those the Lord gathers to you (Judges 11:3)
- Take the Inventations the Lord provides (Judges 11:4-11)
My disadvantages are not God’s disadvantages in using me.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:16
Open up your Bibles today. We're going to be in Judges chapter 11. So open up your Bibles and open them up really nice and loud. Don't rip them. Oh, you got one of those Bibles on the electronic thing.
00:17-00:19
Sorry, I'm trying to make it better for you.
00:21-00:23
Oh, pray for our worship leader.
00:25-00:26
That's yours to pray for.
00:26-00:27
(laughs)
00:29-00:37
Well, I've been called a lot of things over the years.
00:40-00:41
Right now some of you are thinking, I know that's true.
00:44-00:49
But when I was a kid, I was always only ever called one thing.
00:51-00:54
And I was called Darren's little brother.
00:56-00:56
That's how I was then.
00:58-01:01
Do we have that picture, Ashley, of my brother?
01:02-01:03
Can we put that up there?
01:06-01:08
That's my brother, Darren.
01:08-01:11
He is 3 and 1/2 years older than me.
01:12-01:14
And I love this picture.
01:14-01:16
Now, first of all, that is an actual horse.
01:17-01:19
OK, that's not like a Great Dane or anything.
01:19-01:21
That's an actual horse.
01:21-01:26
But what I love about this picture is if you look very closely at the horse, you can see that he's crying.
01:28-01:32
The horse is thinking, you know, one at a time, please, right?
01:34-01:35
And some of you have met my brother.
01:35-01:37
He comes here on occasion.
01:37-01:39
He usually sits back by Paul Persick there.
01:41-01:43
But my brother is a large man.
01:44-01:46
He is a very large man.
01:46-01:51
Well, all right, I'm getting self-conscious here.
01:51-01:51
You can get rid of that.
01:53-01:55
But I love my brother to death.
01:55-01:57
We've been best friends since I was born, actually.
01:59-02:05
Outside of my wife, there's not a person on this planet that I am closer to than that guy on the horse.
02:06-02:10
But I got to tell you, though, to be honest with you, growing up it was rough.
02:12-02:15
Because I was always Darren's little brother.
02:18-02:19
Hey, aren't you Darren's little brother?
02:21-02:27
And no matter where I went, who I'd run into, hey, you're Darren's little brother.
02:28-02:29
Because people would see the resemblance.
02:29-02:30
I looked like Darren.
02:32-02:37
But I looked like Darren in the way that Bruce Banner looks like the Hulk, OK?
02:37-02:39
So you could kind of see the resemblance.
02:41-02:48
But it was tough, because my brother, Darren, he was-- when I go through high school, he was a hit with the ladies.
02:51-02:53
And then there's me.
02:54-02:57
And my brother is actually a guitar player in a band.
02:57-02:59
He's going to be playing guitar up here.
03:00-03:05
He was the guitar player, the musician, and up there rocking out.
03:05-03:07
And then there's what?
03:08-03:08
Then there's me.
03:10-03:12
Well, my brother, he's an artist.
03:12-03:13
He's a graphic designer.
03:13-03:18
And he can draw or paint you a picture that looks like a photograph.
03:19-03:25
He's a top-notch artist, and he was known for his works of art.
03:25-03:27
And then there's what?
03:29-03:29
And then there's me.
03:32-03:34
My brother was always the athlete.
03:36-03:37
He could play anything.
03:38-03:41
You name a sport, he not only played it, but he excelled at it.
03:42-03:45
And baseball fans-- how powerful is this?
03:46-03:48
My brother's a-- he's left-handed.
03:48-03:51
He would pitch left-handed, but he would bat right-handed.
03:52-03:53
Like, what?
03:54-03:56
Like, you're not good enough just like being regular?
03:56-03:58
You gotta do all this switching around.
03:58-04:01
So my brother was this phenomenal athlete, and then there's what?
04:03-04:04
You can say it.
04:04-04:05
Little Jeff.
04:07-04:08
That's more, that's Little Jeff.
04:09-04:11
Then there's me, all right?
04:12-04:17
So, you know, a lot of times, honestly, growing up, I just felt like I don't have anything going for me.
04:17-04:19
I'll just be honest with you, I'm over it now.
04:19-04:25
I'm 36 and many years of therapy kind of helped with that.
04:27-04:29
But I'm somewhat over it now, kind of over it now.
04:29-04:32
It still bothers me sometimes, every day.
04:33-04:35
But I always felt like I had nothing wrong for me.
04:35-04:43
I look at this guy, this rock star artist, athlete, tall, handsome, and then there's-- oh, you must be Darren's little brother.
04:45-04:56
Well, many people deal with not only that kind of sentiment, but even worse, feeling like they're disadvantaged.
04:58-04:59
And I want to talk about that today.
05:01-05:03
How do we deal with disadvantages?
05:03-05:05
You're like, well, what do you mean by disadvantages?
05:05-05:06
Can you unpack that a little bit for me?
05:06-05:07
I sure can.
05:08-05:10
Here's what we mean by being disadvantaged.
05:10-05:11
Have you ever felt like this?
05:13-05:15
You know, I just feel like the deck is stacked against me.
05:15-05:16
Has anybody ever felt like that?
05:17-05:20
You know, I just feel like the deck is stacked against me.
05:20-05:21
You ever felt like that?
05:23-05:25
Do you ever feel like, you know what, I just feel like life gave me a raw deal.
05:26-05:30
No matter what I try to do, I feel like life gave me a raw deal.
05:31-05:32
Ever felt like that?
05:33-05:36
Ever felt like I just never got a fair shake.
05:36-05:36
Anybody?
05:37-05:38
Anybody at all, just me?
05:41-05:44
Anybody ever feel like, you know what, life gave me lemons?
05:46-05:47
And I hate lemonade.
05:48-05:49
You ever felt like that?
05:50-05:53
Well, that's what I wanna talk about today.
05:53-05:54
How do we deal with disadvantages?
05:55-05:58
Here's my definition of disadvantages, if you wanna jot this down.
05:58-06:13
Something outside of my control that has made me feel disqualified from having a normal life or being used by God.
06:13-06:14
I'm gonna read that again.
06:16-06:26
Something outside of my control that has made me feel disqualified from having a normal life or being used by God.
06:27-06:31
Maybe you felt rejected or you felt like a second-class citizen.
06:32-06:36
And for some of us here, maybe it was something you were born with, right?
06:37-06:41
Maybe it's something like a disability that you were born with.
06:42-06:49
Maybe there's someone here that has struggled with a disease, a chronic, it doesn't go away.
06:49-06:52
And it's always weighing me down.
06:55-06:57
Maybe there's someone here that it's a mental health issue.
06:58-07:04
It's like, you know, my body's fine, but I'll tell you what, I struggle, I struggle upstairs, man.
07:05-07:08
And I've always seemed to have that struggle.
07:10-07:11
I feel disadvantaged.
07:13-07:19
If only, if only, maybe it's not something you're born with, maybe it's a circumstance that happened to you.
07:21-07:22
Maybe it's a divorce.
07:25-07:31
Or maybe you've been abused by someone physically or sexually.
07:33-07:43
Or maybe it's abandonment, that you felt like, you know, my family, for the most part, has abandoned me.
07:43-07:45
I feel like people that I thought were friends have abandoned me.
07:47-07:49
And it's tough.
07:50-07:53
Well, you're not alone, actually.
07:53-07:55
You're in the company of millions of people.
07:55-07:56
Listen to these statistics here.
07:57-07:58
This is from the Census Bureau.
07:59-08:33
just a couple of years ago, they said 13.7 million single parents in the United States today. And those parents are responsible for raising 21.8 million children. Listen to this, approximately 26% of children under 21 are being raised by single parents. One out of children are dealing with some disadvantages.
08:35-08:56
It's estimated that, again, 1 out of 4 children, 19 million children or 29% of children, up to 17 years of age, this was a different stat, this went up to 17, But one in four is exposed to, sometimes, a familial alcohol abuse, alcohol dependence, or both.
08:58-09:00
We talk about a disadvantage, so to speak.
09:02-09:09
More and more children are finding that life in the home isn't like the Brady Bunch or the Clevers.
09:12-09:13
It's getting harder.
09:14-09:21
The divorce rate in America for the first marriage, according to this stat, is 41%.
09:21-09:25
The divorce rate in America for the second marriage is 60%.
09:25-09:29
And the divorce rate in America for the third marriage, 73%.
09:31-09:35
There are a lot of people out there that are feeling like life dealt me a bad hand.
09:38-09:40
That's a very secular way of thinking.
09:42-09:45
But sometimes we are tempted to look at life that way.
09:48-09:50
I've been guilty of that myself.
09:50-09:52
As you know, I have two children.
09:53-09:58
They are seven and six, and they are both on the autism spectrum.
09:58-09:59
One much worse than the other.
10:01-10:09
And I'm just like, "What a disadvantage!" I love my kids to death. I couldn't love them any more than I do.
10:09-10:14
but you understand, can I be honest with you, if you can understand what I mean by that?
10:15-10:15
All of it.
10:16-10:22
I think my ministry would be so much better if my kids were neurotypical.
10:23-10:27
Or I think I could be a better discipler in the home to them.
10:28-10:35
How much do they understand anyways, and we try, and I can be a better husband, and...
10:36-10:38
That's a very secular way of thinking.
10:40-10:48
But sometimes we feel that maybe we can't be used by God because life dealt you a bad hand, and life dealt me a bad hand.
10:49-10:55
But I want to teach you a saying today that I want you to leave with, and it's in the middle of your outline.
10:56-11:03
Just like Sammy taught you a song, I'm a preacher and I'm going to teach you a sermon that you're going to preach to yourself.
11:05-11:11
So when you leave here, you're going to be singing that song that Sammy taught you, and you're going to be preaching this sermon to yourself.
11:11-11:11
Are you ready?
11:12-11:24
The sermon is this, "My disadvantages are not God's disadvantages in using me." Alright, that's your sermon, and get ready because I'm going to give you a chance in unison to preach it.
11:25-11:25
Are you ready?
11:26-11:27
Let's hear it.
11:28-11:39
"My disadvantages are not God's disadvantages in using me." And I know we're early on in the sermon here, so the conviction's not there yet, but I'm going to give you a couple more runs at it.
11:40-12:03
That by the time you leave today, you're going to walk out of that, you're not going to walk out of the door, you're going to kick that door open, and you're going to say, "My disadvantages are not God's disadvantages in using me." And when you have that temptation to preach that negative message to yourself of, "I'm I'm no good. Life's not fair.
12:04-12:07
You're going to say my disadvantages are not God's disadvantages in using me.
12:08-12:11
Okay? So how can I overcome my disadvantages?
12:11-12:12
Judges chapter 11.
12:15-12:21
If you've read the book of Judges, the context is Israel at this point is in the promised land.
12:21-12:25
Remember Moses led the Israelites to the threshold.
12:25-12:27
Joshua took them the rest of the way.
12:28-12:30
Conquered the land from the book of Joshua.
12:31-13:19
divided the land. Then we get to the book of Judges. But there's a cycle that goes throughout the book of Judges. And the cycle is this. Israel falls into sin. They start worshipping other gods and, you know, putting up idols. And they fall into sin, and as an act of judgment, God sends another nation to invade Israel. Basically and you're going to realize your utter dependence upon me." So he would send another nation to conquer Israel, to attack Israel, to fight against Israel.
13:20-13:36
Well then Israel would cry out to God, "God, we've been wrong, we do need you." And we were wrong. And then God would raise a judge. Now when we think of a judge, we think of a guy with a long black robe, right, and a gavel, and, you know, like Judge Judy, right?
13:37-13:48
That's not what these kind of judges were. These were actually military leaders. Okay, these were people that would come in, rally the troops, and lead the nation of Israel to a military victory.
13:51-14:07
and God would bring deliverance through them and as soon as things settled down the enemy was driven away what did Israel do? Back into sin, right? Back into sin.
14:09-14:43
And, "Oh, things are calmed down, things aren't that bad, let's start worshiping other gods. That's the cycle, you know, rinse and repeat throughout the book of Judges. Well, if you look at the end of chapter 10, verse 17 says, "Then the Ammonites were called to arms and they encamped in Gilead." Okay, the Ammonites were going to be God's next instrument to come upon Israel for judgment/ discipline. "And the people of Israel came together and they encamped at Mishpat.
14:44-15:40
And the people, the leaders of Gilead said to one another, "Who is the man who will begin to fight against the Ammonites? He shall be head of all the inhabitants of Gilead." And then chapter 11 introduces to me one of the most interesting people in the entire history of the nation of Israel, and his name is Jephthah. Now, when they ask this question at the end of verse ten, I'm sorry, verse eighteen, who is the man that will begin to fight against the Ammonites? That's sort of a question leading into chapter 11 with this introduction of Jephthah. I call that the dun dun dun. Okay, so I'm going to give you a crack at that, all right? So man who will begin to fight against the Ammonites.
15:42-15:43
Wait, let's try that again.
15:46-15:47
The Ammonites are attacking.
15:49-15:52
We can't win. Okay? So they huddle up.
15:53-15:57
We can't do this. We need help. Who is the man who will begin to fight against the Ammonites?
15:59-15:59
Alright.
16:01-16:03
Now Jephthah. Chapter 11.
16:05-16:07
Now, Jephthah.
16:09-16:13
So three things I want to share with you, because we're going to see that Jephthah was a disadvantaged person.
16:14-16:19
But what I want you to see today is how God used him.
16:19-16:23
And how Jephthah's disadvantages were not God's disadvantages.
16:24-16:24
Alright?
16:26-16:28
So, how do we overcome our disadvantages?
16:29-16:32
Well, look at the first two verses in chapter 11.
16:32-16:42
Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior, but he was the son of a prostitute.
16:44-16:46
Gilead was the father of Jephthah.
16:48-17:01
And Gilead's wife also bore him sons, and when his wife's sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, "You shall not have an inheritance in our father's house, for you are the son of another woman.
17:03-17:07
So the first thing I want you to do-- jot this down in your outline.
17:07-17:09
Number one, how do we overcome our disadvantages?
17:10-17:13
Number one, take inventory of how the Lord has equipped you.
17:15-17:22
Now, these first three verses in chapter 11-- we're going to get to verse 3 here in a second-- but these first three verses are a flashback.
17:23-17:30
You know, if you read Judges, almost like a cinematic experience, you know, Who's going to be the one that's going to fight the Ammonites?
17:30-17:31
Dun, dun, dun.
17:31-17:33
Then it's like flashback scene.
17:33-17:36
You know, the sides get all wavy, and we're going to have a flashback.
17:37-17:45
And the writer of Judges was saying, let me give you a little on-ramp to introduce this Jephthah, because he's going to come into play here.
17:46-17:48
So it's sort of a flashback versus one through three.
17:48-17:52
But do you see how the deck was stacked against him, so to speak?
17:53-17:54
Did you see that?
17:55-17:57
Now, Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior.
17:57-17:58
Like, yep, there's our answer.
17:59-17:59
Who's gonna fight?
18:00-18:01
This guy's a mighty warrior.
18:02-18:03
But he had a disadvantage.
18:04-18:05
And what is it?
18:05-18:06
What does your Bible say?
18:08-18:10
He was the son of a prostitute.
18:12-18:17
And we're going to see here as we go through this text even more, that was a big issue for them.
18:18-18:20
That was a big issue for Jeffrey.
18:23-18:26
But here's sort of the painful thing about that.
18:28-18:30
That was something he had no control over.
18:33-18:35
Show of hands, how many people here picked their parents?
18:35-18:36
Anybody?
18:37-18:38
Anybody pick their parents?
18:38-18:38
Anybody?
18:39-18:39
Yeah, me neither.
18:41-18:47
That's sort of under the "God is sovereign and He chose" kind of thing, those things we leave to God.
18:48-18:49
Nobody picks their parents.
18:50-18:51
Well, Jeff is no exception.
18:51-18:52
He didn't pick his parents.
18:54-18:57
And you can imagine the childhood that he had.
18:58-18:59
Because kids can be cruel.
19:01-19:04
I've been called a lot worse than Darren's little brother.
19:04-19:05
Kids can be cruel.
19:05-19:07
What do you think they called him?
19:08-19:10
Don't say anything out loud.
19:12-19:15
But what do you think they called the son of a prostitute?
19:16-19:17
You can imagine the names.
19:18-19:20
You can imagine the insults.
19:20-19:24
You can imagine the taunts that he had to deal with.
19:27-19:32
You're like, "Was it really that bad?" Well, it's something that made him leave town.
19:35-19:41
But what I want you to see here very simply, in verse 1, there are two definitions on the table.
19:43-19:44
There are two definitions on the table.
19:45-19:49
Geoffrey the Gileadite was a mighty warrior, He was the son of a prostitute.
19:51-19:52
So who's God going to use?
19:52-19:53
Who's God going to use?
19:56-19:57
Here's a mighty warrior.
19:57-19:59
Oh, but didn't you know?
20:02-20:03
You didn't know, did you?
20:05-20:06
He's the son of a prostitute.
20:08-20:16
But listen, you have two definitions that you can go with too in your life.
20:17-20:24
You can go with the definition of how other people see you, or you can go with the definition of how God sees you.
20:26-20:29
And my question for you is, which definition are you going to go with?
20:31-20:33
Which definition are you going to go with?
20:36-20:41
What the world says about you, or with what God says about you?
20:42-20:43
Which one?
20:45-20:52
You know, Jephthah, he could have said, "Well, I can't do much.
20:52-21:14
I'm the son of a prostitute." Or he could have said, "I am gifted by God to deliver Israel." And you know, maybe there are some people here today that would say things like, "Well, I'm the divorced lady, or to say, I am gifted by God to encourage others in my church.
21:16-21:18
Some might say, well, I have this disability that limits me.
21:20-21:23
And others would say, well, I'm gifted by God to show compassion and mercy.
21:25-21:30
Some here might say, well, I was raised in an addicted home, and I have that propensity for addiction.
21:35-21:45
but instead could say, "I'm gifted by God to teach His word." Maybe someone here would say, "Well, I was sexually abused.
21:45-21:58
"I have trouble having healthy relationships." Or you could say, "Well, I'm gifted by God "to be a generous person." Now, understand this, you have worth to God.
22:00-22:04
He has gifted and equipped each of us for a task.
22:05-22:10
good works that he prepared for us beforehand, that he prepares us to accomplish.
22:11-22:16
So the first thing you need to do is to take inventory on how God has equipped you.
22:19-22:20
Because my disadvantages, what?
22:23-22:26
Are not God's disadvantages in using me.
22:27-22:29
Let's hear it again, say it.
22:29-22:35
I agree.
22:37-22:51
Listen, jot this down. My past does not have to define me. Even beyond that. If you're a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, your past does not define you.
22:53-23:15
But I want you to personalize that. I want you to personalize that because sometimes we get the theology right in here but we miss it in here. My past does not have to define me because my past does not define me. And it doesn't matter what the world says about me. What matters is what has God said about me?
23:16-23:40
What has God said about me? Why do we allow the banner to hang over us? Why do we take so much stock in worldly definitions of ourselves and how God defines us? Now listen, if you're here today and you don't know the Lord, you know the Bible describes you as a child of wrath, alienated from God.
23:43-23:45
But that's not how God wants you to remain.
23:47-23:58
God came to the earth personally, taking on flesh as Jesus Christ, died on the cross so that our sins could be forgiven, and rose from the dead so that we could have eternal life.
24:02-24:06
And for those of us who have received that, how has God defined us?
24:06-24:07
Well, here are a few.
24:09-24:10
The Bible says we are a child of God.
24:11-24:18
John 1 12, "To those who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." That's how God defines you.
24:19-24:21
We are fellow heirs with Christ.
24:22-24:22
You realize that?
24:23-24:25
We are fellow heirs with Christ.
24:27-24:29
That's how God defines you.
24:31-24:40
We are spiritually filled and gifted by God, empowered by God, to carry out his work.
24:40-24:42
That's how God defines you.
24:43-24:44
So which definition are you going with?
24:46-24:48
I encourage people to take inventory.
24:48-24:49
Just draw it down in your outline.
24:49-24:51
How has God gifted you?
24:52-24:53
How has God gifted you?
24:55-25:04
Maybe some of you have taken a spiritual gift assessment test and you know my gift is exhortation, my gift is teaching, my gift is mercy.
25:06-25:16
But even in addition to that, the talents that God has gifted you with to use for His glory.
25:16-25:17
How has God equipped you?
25:22-25:24
So take inventory of how the Lord has equipped you.
25:25-25:28
My disadvantages are not God's disadvantages in using me.
25:29-25:33
Number two, make an investment in those the Lord gathers around you.
25:34-25:38
an investment in those the Lord gathers around you.
25:41-25:42
Look at verse 3.
25:43-25:50
It says, "Then Jephthah fled from his brothers." See, that's how bad the insults got.
25:53-25:57
They said, "You're not going to have an inheritance with us, you son of a prostitute.
25:58-25:58
You're not one of us.
25:59-26:00
You're not really part of our family.
26:01-26:15
You have no place here." 3 "And he left, and Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob." Tob was actually a hotbed for fighting at this time in the nation of Israel.
26:15-26:24
There was a lot of fighting going on as Israel had conquered the land, but part of the problem was, we find out in Judges, was they didn't conquer the land thoroughly.
26:26-26:35
They compromised. "Well, we're just going to let this one go." Well, we did most of the job, but there's still a pocket of enemies here that we didn't drive out.
26:35-26:39
But that can't come back to bite us.
26:40-26:43
And, well, Tom was a hotbed of fighting.
26:44-26:45
So the mighty warrior, where did he flee to?
26:47-26:50
He lived in the land of Tom. But look at this next phrase.
26:50-27:02
"And worthless fellows collected around Jephthah and went out with him." "worthless fellows." Like, what does that mean?
27:04-27:11
You know, it could be translated "empty fellows." Basically what it means is these are people that have nothing going for them.
27:13-27:22
Kind of like the way my father referred to my friends in high school. "You've surrounded yourself with worthless fellows." But these were people that had nothing going for them.
27:22-27:53
So Jefka, driven out from his home, goes out and he's surrounded by Basically, he's surrounded by other people just like him Other people that felt like they had nothing going for them If you'll pardon the term rejects from society, right? Isn't that what's going on here all the rejects from society clustered together and it says That they went out with him. That doesn't mean Hey, you want to catch dinner or movie?
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They went out with him.
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Let's go to Panera and see the Three Stooges after that.
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That's not what that means.
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It means they went out fighting.
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They formed sort of a band of mercenaries.
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And they went out fighting.
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But you too, just like Jephthah, you need to make an investment in those the Lord gathers around you.
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Jephthah, the rejected warrior, became a magnet for other rejected warriors and led them to victory.
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My disadvantages are not God's disadvantages in using me.
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There are some people here that might say, "Well, how can God use me?" You know, I'm just a single mom.
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The only friends I have are other single moms.
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How can God use me?
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Really? Do I have to spell that one out?
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Or, you know, I've struggled with addiction and, you know, really the only friends I have are other people that are getting over addictions and struggling with it.
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Really, God can't really use me because really the only people that I'm around are like AA guys.
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So, who's God going to use me to minister to?
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What's the answer to that one?
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How about the people that God's gathered around you, right?
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How about that?
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Or, my family has all but abandoned me.
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They don't call me.
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Occasionally I'll get an email. I find out about what they're doing through Facebook.
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My family has all but abandoned me.
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The only real people that I'm around are like the people in my small group.
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So how could God use me? Who's God going to use me to minister to?
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What's the answer to that?
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I get an idea.
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How about the people in your small group?
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So not only do you need to take inventory of how the Lord's equipped you, you need to make an investment in the people that God has gathered around you.
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So look around at where God has put you and who God has put you with that you can be investing in.
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The people that call on you and come to you.
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These are the people that God put in your life to minister to.
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I want you to think about this.
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Have you ever considered that God in His sovereignty maybe is using your disadvantages so that you can sympathize with and minister to other people in the same situation?
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Did you ever think about that?
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And here, Jeff, with the rejected warrior, obviously gathered these other rejected warriors, but I've seen that over and over and over again in ministry.
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I've seen, you know, I used to do prison ministry, and one of the guys that went in with me who was so effective in prison ministry, you know how the Lord prepared him?
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I met him in jail.
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He was an inmate.
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I know another guy that runs an addiction recovery ministry.
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So effective, and do you know why he's so effective?
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Because he's come from that type of a background himself.
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And you see, I'm not saying God causes these hardships on us, but in God's sovereignty, He allows things that we can turn around and use so that we can sympathize with people.
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So that we can say, you know what, man, I've been there, and I've experienced a deliverance from that that only Jesus Christ can offer.
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You know what, man, I know it's struggles when you're hurting in this relationship, but that happened to me, And I found a relationship with God who will never abandon you.
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God in His sovereignty uses these things.
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Uses these things so that we can sympathize with and minister to others.
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You know, I shared with you before, just my story with autistic kids.
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Do you know how many parents of autistic kids I've met I never would have met other lives that I've had opportunity to minister to.
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And another, a book project coming up that will minister to who knows, only God knows who are gonna get their hands on it.
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That will be ministered to, why?
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Because God's doing things in and through me, not just despite my circumstances or disadvantages, but he's using them so that I can effectively minister to others in the same situation by his grace.
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Believe me, it's not me.
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It's not me.
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I'm just a walking display case because the glory belongs to God, right?
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So make investments in the people the Lord gathers around you.
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One more way to deal with disadvantages.
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Take the invitations that the Lord provides.
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Take the invitations that the Lord provides.
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OK, you witnessed in the story through Judges 11.
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So Jephthah, driven out of Gilead and assembles the mercenaries and goes in the hotbed of fighting Tog.
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for after a time the Ammonites made war against Israel.
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Okay, so that's like flashback over.
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Okay, I was just kind of stepping aside here to tell you about Jephthah.
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Flashback's over.
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Ammonites made war against Israel.
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Now when the Ammonites made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah from the land of Taw.
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Who is the man who will begin to fight against the Ammonites?
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Dun, dun, dun.
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They were like, we know the guy.
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We know a guy that can whoop them with one hand behind his back.
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Problem, though, right?
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We drove him out of town.
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Verse 6, "And they said to Jephthah, come and be our leader, that we may fight against the Ammonites.
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But Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, did you not hate me and drive me out of my father's house?
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Why have you come to me now when you are in distress?
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You feel like the emotion in that verse?
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You guys hated me and drove me out of town.
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And now you want me to come back because you're in trouble.
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It kind of puts a challenge on me.
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Why are you after me now in verse eight?
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And I'm going to lay an excuse.
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The owners of Gilead said to Jephthah, "That is why we have turned to you now, that you may go with us and fight against the Ammonites and be our header over all the inhabitants of Gilead." That's like a lame response, isn't it?
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Like, "Why did you come back for me?" "Yeah, we need you to fight." Like, "Yeah, I caught that the first time you came, but didn't you hate me and drive me out?
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Why are you back?" "Yeah, the fighting thing.
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Could you, would you, please, you can be our leader.
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Jephthah says to the elders of Gilead, verse nine, "If you bring me home again to fight against the Ammonites "and the Lord gives them over to me, "I will be your head." And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "The Lord will be witness between us "if we do not do as you say." So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead And the people made him head and leader over them.
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And Jephthah spoke all his words before the Lord, that mizpah.
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We're going to stop there in the text, but I encourage you to keep reading, because he is a fascinating story.
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But finally, when they take the invitations that the Lord provides, we saw that the Lord in his time and his sovereignty had the people of Gilead call back the very person they rejected.
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And how often the people who need our message reject us.
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Anybody ever felt that?
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You need to hear the gospel.
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You need to know the Lord.
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And because the message is rejected, you're rejected.
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Right?
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And if you've ever felt rejected, you're in good biblical company because it seems that those are the type of people God prefers to use rejected people.
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Did you know that?
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Genesis 37, Joseph was rejected because his brothers were jealous.
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Exodus chapter 4, Moses had the speech impediment.
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He sort of rejected himself, so to speak.
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For example, in 16, David was overlooked in king selection because of his age, because of the birth order.
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I'm sure David heard the "Hey, aren't you so-and-so's little brother?" I'm sure he heard that a lot.
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And he was rejected from the king selection at first. Like, yeah, I'm still not convinced.
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How about Jesus? Isaiah 53 says that Jesus was despised and rejected by men.
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It seems that God prefers to use those that the world rejects. You know the hardest part for me in reading this story is I can be happy for Jephthah to right off into the sunset with the worthless fellows.
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But God had plans for him, and God had plans for Israel.
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As we saw in the text, the same family that rejected him called him back, not because of a change of heart, but because they needed him.
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And you might be saying, well, that stinks.
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You know that just stinks.
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Driven out because of a circumstance beyond his control, and now they come crawling back.
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That stinks.
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It's not fair.
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It's not fair.
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You know what Jeff just should have said?
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He should have said, you drove me out.
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It's your problem.
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Deal with it.
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Right?
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Wrong.
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Why?
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Why should he?
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The answer is grace, right? Isn't that the answer? Grace? It's grace.
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Here's another little saying for you to learn. This way you'll have two sermons.
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Then if some Sunday I can't make it, you can get up and preach one of these.
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So here's another one.
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My conduct is not based on how others treat me.
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Alright?
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Can you say that?
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My conduct is not based on how other people treat me.
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My conduct is based on Christ living in me and through me.
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Through the living Word.
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That's the basis of my conduct.
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But that's not the American way.
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He insulted me, I'm going to insult him.
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She was mean to me, I'm going to be mean back to her.
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It's grace.
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Grace says, you know what?
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I'm going to let go of some hurts.
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That's grace.
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Yeah, yeah, he hurt me.
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I'm going to let it go.
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Grace is, God has a bigger picture for me and my little standoff to get in the way of.
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Not that you can get in the way of God's big picture.
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But we have the audacity to try sometimes.
40:55-41:20
You know, I would love to have the ability To take any stigma away from you any disadvantage you might be feeling this morning On the way out to harvest you we were going through one of those here see those books that are like Would you rather this or you know, it's these philosophical question. What was that called Sam?
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It was called "If." Okay, there's a book called "If" and it's just all the...
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And the one question was, my inner nerd is loving this, but, "If you could have any superpower, what would it be?" Right?
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Ken, what would yours be? What did you say yours was?
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Ken was driving at the time, so he's like, "10-2, I'm not getting involved in your tomfoolery."
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[laughter]
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You don't remember what...
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Jane Dower, what would your superpower be?
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I'm not going to hold you to it. It's not like I'm dishing them out later.
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Like, "Sorry, Jay, this is the one you picked. From the hip."
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[laughter]
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Well, that is quite the superpower.
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All right.
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Well, the Avengers aren't going to be calling you unless they start a softball team.
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Just saying.
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Mark Bloomingdale, what superpower would you pick?
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Invisibility. Yeah, there's some Sundays I wish I had that right here.
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Like, "Oh, time for my powers, really?" Paul Persich, what would your superpower be?
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I'd like to be like a bird, just flying.
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Just fly.
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That was hard to argue with, honestly.
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I'd pick heat vision.
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Seriously.
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Seriously, how cool would that be?
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Heat vision.
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My burrito's cold.
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No problem.
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It's a microwave.
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Aaron's like, "Can you get me a blanket?" No need.
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(laughter)
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Well, here's one that I wish I had.
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I wish I had the ability to say, "Okay, after church, everybody's going to line up the aisle, and I'm going to take your disadvantage from you.
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I'm just going to take it." So you come down the aisle, and you're like, "Jeff, I've got this health problem." And I'm like, "Benny Hinn-ish." Bam! Gone.
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And you're like, "Jeff, I've been abused and I have a hard time with relationships and I'm just like BAM!
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Gone!
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Next!
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Jeff, I'm dealing with this issue or this hang up or whatever it is.
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I just yank it from you and you walk out of here different.
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I wish I had the ability to remove those circumstances that have been beyond your control.
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I can't.
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But if I could, I'd be working against the very thing that God is working through.
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You know, as we close up here, Hebrews 11.32, Jephthah's in the Faith Hall of Fame.
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Did you know that?
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Hebrews 11 is like the Faith Hall of Fame.
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Jephthah's in there.
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A man who went from zero to hero, bore a disadvantage, used what God gave him, went down in history as a man of faith.
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Well, I just jotted some of these down.
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Here are some future considerations if there's going to be another faith hall of fame, maybe in a new Jerusalem.
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Here's my inductees that I'd like to recommend.
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A sexually abused woman who grew up in poverty, lived most of her life having no self-esteem, quote, "felt like worthless garbage." Today, she is surrounded by tens of thousands of women every year dealing with their own insecurities and being led to victory.
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Her name is Beth Moore.
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A man born with cerebral palsy, orphaned at 14.
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Wow, talk about disadvantages.
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Today surrounded by tens of thousands of people every year, leading them to victory, telling them, "God is not limited by your limitations." One of his favorite quotes, "I have cerebral palsy, what's your problem?" His name is David Ray.
45:55-46:15
Although he was never charged with a crime related to the Watergate break-in or cover-up, the first man sent to federal prison for Watergate-related charges on obstruction of justice has been surrounded by tens of thousands looking for hope in prison, leading them to victory through prison fellowship.
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His name?
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Chuck Colson, who recently graduated.
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He's having a good day.
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How about a diving accident left her quadriplegic at age 17?
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Now she's surrounded by tens of thousands, leading them to victory on over a thousand radio broadcast outlets, and being appointed to Disability Advisory Committee of the U.S. State Department, and speaking at conferences, Jodi Erickson Tanaka.
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In 1982, a man was born with a rare disorder called Tetra-Amelia.
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He has no arms and no legs.
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Now, he is surrounded, last count I had, by 3 million people who have gone to see him speak, leading them to victory, preaching the true meaning of life.
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His name is Nicholas Utisik.
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What's the common denominator in all of these people?
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They are people who took inventory, saw how God has equipped them, despite or through their disadvantages, found themselves passionately leading to victory many people who are just like this.
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What's this church going to be like if we can finally get rid of the labels that the world slaps on us, ex-addict, drunk, divorcee, orphan, diseased, disabled, and instead live in the victory of how God has defined us.
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My disadvantages are not God's disadvantages in using me.
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Say it.
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My disadvantages are not God's disadvantages in using me.
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Do you believe that?
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We'll show you.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Judges 11:1-11
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.