Judges 7:1-7 • Always More Grace
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
Bryan and Kathy Chapell and some of their family and friends are here with us this morning. It was on January 25th 1987 that Brian preached at grace for the very first time and only God knew 26 years ago that he'd be back here this morning with us as our candidate for senior pastor. Bryan is a family man, he's a pastor, he's a seminary leader, and he's with us this morning as our candidate for senior pastor. Let's welcome Dr. Bryan Chapell to our platform.
So it only took you 26 years to think this might be okay. Kathy and I are so thankful to be with you and to see what the Lord may unfold for us together. And you've seen pictures but they will hate my doing this but just so that you know family row, why don't you stand. So there's Kathy and next to her is Katie and Corinne and Josh Mather. So Corinne is our daughter and Josh her husband. So these are the the females of the family. Thank you.
And then Sue Ossian and Tricia Hunter, friends from St. Louis who've also come and just to be friends and supporters of us as a family. Two more sons not able to be here and they and their wives are in other cities at this time so we are thankful for the St. Louis crowd able to be here. St. Louis is probably an important mention just so that you know how things have unfolded here. I am here because Ben and Sherry took us to a Cardinal baseball game. So whoever gave them tickets, some of you were here last night and if you had asked us at mid-summer would I be talking to you in this way we would have not even dreamt of it. But somebody gave Ben and Sherry tickets, we've known them for quite a while so they came to town said would you like to go to a ball game and we learned what Ben and Sherry were going to be doing at that time. And as we learned what they were doing and you know we were similar ages and stages and just had that conversation what's the Lord doing in your life? What's the Lord doing in your life? And in that conversation at the ball game why I had mentioned that I had recently changed positions from a president's position to a chancellor position. I'd done the administration of a fairly large institution for about 25 years and I'd wanted to transfer to mainly ministry orientation teaching, preaching, representing the school nationally and internationally and yet had this deep longing still to be able to minister to a body of people. And Ben said well you know we're going to Australia what what about Grace? And I said well don't really want to go from the frying pan into the fire. You know it's a big church with a lot of administration and but Ben said no he said you know with Greg and Ron and the way this session has been trying to actually move the senior pastoral to focusing on preaching and teaching and the pastoral ministry functions more than administration and with the very able and you know wonderful people already in place here, Ben really asked me to consider this and we began a conversation with the public committee that results in my being here now. So the Lord putting things together from the time of Dr. Dunn all the way till now in our lives and so we are we are thankful for that. I want to take you to the book of Judges and perhaps just a little redundant for those of you here last night and so many of you are here last night thank you for that. I mentioned last night that part of our life's journey was a period in my early ministry where I actually considered leaving the ministry and the reason was we were in a church in downstate Illinois where the the farming economy in the 80s and the mining jobs were all closing down and while it was a large and and old established church there was just so much sorrow and so much depression and so much hurting among people and I was facing as a young man issues I was just not prepared to handle as a young pastor and I mean really my only answer to people who were depressed or facing drug addictions or alcohol increasing or abuse increasing all I need to do is just say to people stop it you know well that's not the best gospel message in the world you know it's in the Bible it says stop it but you know people needed hope and they needed joy and and I didn't know quite how to do that and the Lord did a wonderful thing in my life at that time he brought into my experience a book by a man who was talking about how do you preach the heroes of the Bible and I know that you can just kind of say you know David was a great guy and you should be a great guy to just forget that part about Bathsheba but more is going on I mean if you begin to examine the heroes of the Bible what you begin to find out is there a bunch of messed up people there's only one real hero who's that that's Jesus and all the Bible is saying not this even these people need the grace of God and everything's pointing toward the Savior coming and when you see that what you begin to say is God is not in his word just saying you just shape up and fly right and be as good as these good guys what the gospel is really about in all the Bible is saying you know what if God could help people as messed up as them maybe get help you and it wasn't me just learning that message for other people who really needed that message right then I did young pastor big church I felt like an absolute failure didn't know what to do and I began to learn to say if God could use messed up people not only can I give hope to other people I got hope again I got hope again and what I'd like to do today is take you to one of those heroes of the Bible and maybe see how through him God can give you hope again - let's look at Judges chapter 7 here's gonna be a familiar name his name is Gideon and he has a great victory in Judges the seventh chapter you'll recognize it I'll take you through the chapter we won't read all of it because it's long but you'll remember the story Judges chapter 7 write it verse 1 then Jerabale that is Gideon and all the people who were with him rose early and in camp beside the spring of Herod and the camp of Midian was north of them by the hill of Mora in the valley the Lord said to Gideon the people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands less Israel boast over me saying my own hand has saved me now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people saying whoever is fearful and trembling let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead then 22,000 of the people returned and 10,000 remained and the Lord said to Gideon the people are still too many take them down to the water and I will test them for you there and anyone of whom I say to you this one shall go with you shall go with you and anyone of whom I say to you this one shall not go with you shall not go so he brought the people down to the water and the Lord said to Gideon everyone who lapsed the water with his tongue as a dog lapsed you shall set him by himself likewise everyone who kneels down to drink and the number of those who lapped putting their hands to their mouths was 300 men but all the rest of the people knelt down to drink water and the Lord said to Gideon with the 300 men who lapped I will save you and give them Midianites into your hand and let all the others go every man to his own home now you know how the story unfolds a bit from there but go on to verse 16 and we'll get the specifics of the battle and he that is Gideon divided the 300 men into three companies and put trumpets into the hands of all of them and empty jars with torches inside the jars and he said to them look at me do likewise when I come to the outskirts of the camp do as I do when I blow the trumpet I and all who are with me then blow the trumpets also on every side of all the camp and shout for the Lord and for Gideon so Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch when they had just set the watch and they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars they held in their left hands the torches and their right hands the trumpets to blow and they cried out a sword for the Lord and for Gideon every man stood in his place around the camp and all the army ran they cried out and fled when they blew the 300 trumpets the Lord set every man's sword against his comrade and against all the army and the army fled as far as Bathshida towards Herrera as far as the border of Abel Mahola by Tabith now we'll stop there but I'll tell you a bit more of the story as we go but before we do that let's let's bow and ask the Lord to guide us through the study of his word.
Heavenly Father we bow before the reality of what happens when we study the Word of God the same spirit who inspired the word works in our hearts that we would receive it and so we pray for that continuing ministry of the Trinity even now the God who gave the word would be opening our hearts bending our wills enabling us to receive and act upon the goodness and the glory of the gospel we ask this not because of the ability of any person in fact we would ask that you would take away the words of men and instead would allow to settle into hearts only what the Holy Spirit wants to grow there this we ask in the name of Jesus amen in the book morning into dancing Walter Wangrin tells the story of a young single mom named Gloria who has lost the closest man to a father she has ever had an uncle who even when she was a child acted as her father but when she was a child was called away to war when he went away glory as a child got very scared and so her uncle said to her Gloria I want you to take this this Indian head nickel that I'm going to give you and you put it in your penny purse and if you will not lose it I'll come back she did not lose it and he came back but now Gloria's older has children of her own and this father figure in her life dies one night Gloria dreams and in her dream the uncle comes back and he says Gloria if you can find the Indian head nickel I'll come back she finds it he doesn't come back and the depression begins to settle over her as the reality of the loss of this person who has given her so much love and guidance is now gone forever she becomes depressed listless useless not only begins to affect her but her family one day a teenage son for reasons even he can't explain punches out the screen on the back door of the house the the pastor comes over settles the boy helps and repair the screen and then talks to Gloria she she sits on the sofa listening to him like a delinquent in a principal's office you know just hardly processing anything he's saying
and finally seeing it and knowing her life story he reaches out his hand and he touches her arms his glory Gloria listen to me I want you to put this in your penny purse and never lose it like that Indian head nickel Jesus loves you Gloria Jesus loves you really now because it's Walter Wang and it's a very touching story and very well told but if you're like me there's something of the reality of our world that makes us wonder could it really be so God looks at someone who is useless to herself and to her family and to his purposes and despite all that uselessness says I love you anyway could that really be true if you've if you've ever had those kinds of questions if you've ever felt like Gloria useless then Gideon is for you not the portion we read but what leads up to the portion that we read after all judges seven is what makes all the Sunday School literature but it is not our first introduction to Gideon you have to back up a chapter to really understand who Gideon is and how an unlikely hero he is in God's hand if you go to Judges chapter 6 just the preceding chapter our introduction to Gideon is in verse 11 of Judges chapter 6 there we read in verse 11 of Judges chapter 6 now the angel of the Lord came and set under the terraimeth now that's just a tree at Ophra which belonged to Joash the abbe as right while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press to hide it from the Midianites and the angel the Lord appeared to him and said the Lord is with you Oh mighty man of valor now you have to get the irony of this you know if you tread grapes in a wine press which is a covered area it is covered so dust and dirt doesn't blow in to the grapes but you thrash wheat in an open field so the wind will do what blow the chaff away Gideon is threshing wheat in a wine press why because he's afraid because he's hiding the Midianites have come into the lower valleys of Israel the Israelites have gone up into the mountains and lest they be discovered they're doing everything in secret Gideon is threshing wheat in a wine press and the angel is calling him mighty man of valor I mean it's kind of like you know talking to a teenager who's flipping hamburgers in McDonald's and saying greetings great chef you know
the setting kind of belies the title you know I mean I recognize the attempt at encouragement you know it's like when your three-year-old goes up to bat you know for the first time in the Little League you know and he's got that big bat that just you know and you can say go get them slugger you know you kind of he's no slug but you know you're trying to encourage him you know and and this mighty man of valor I mean you have to recognize the rest of the chapter is really just intended to describe for us the nerve of Gideon and tell us that God is willing to use people as fearful as he actually is I mean the the beginning is just telling us what's happening the questions now begin to follow there's this obvious fear of threshing wheat in a rind press wine press but then look what happens next verse 13 after the angel has said to him you're a mighty man of valor verse 13 Gideon said to him please sir if the Lord is with us why then has all this happened to us and where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us saying did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt I recognize those questions don't you they may be offensive but they are questions that we ask hey if God is God why is my daughter in the hospital hey if God is God then why did this job disappear if God is God why are we struggling like this in my family yeah yeah I remember he brought the Israelites out of Egypt years ago this is now why are we struggling so if God is really present like he says he is Gideon not only has fears as obvious he asked questions that are offensive and they're about to get worse because the questions are not only saying if God is God why is my family and why is this country why is everybody suffering like they are he's about to blame God for it all keep reading as you go further into verse 13 did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt that's the question but now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of minute you say he's sovereign you say he's in control well look what's happening I mean this is not just a question of the goodness of God this is now accusation that the problems are God's fault and you and I sometimes have our faith concepts assault us as we go through the trials of life and have the very same questions and accusations that are not only an obvious reflection of our fears but our offensive reflection of how those fears can be expressed it's it's not just offensive because of of the questions it's it's when getting has something to do he begins to evade it because of his fear remember verse 14 the Lord now in this messenger angel form turned to getting and said go in the might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian do not I send you and Gideon said to him please Lord how can I save Israel behold my clan is the weakest him a NASA and I'm the least in my father's house okay you ready for the translation Lord here am I send somebody else yeah you know I can't do this now remember getting has been complaining the Lord's not doing the job the Lord says I'll be with you and give you the job to do and Gideon says so the Lord wants to give him a little backbone even though the fear is going to show itself over and over again verse 17 he said to him that is Gideon to the messenger if now I have found favor in your eyes then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me now you have to recognize what Gideon is doing because this this sin is going to happen over and over again in the life of Gideon okay if you're really God and I'm gonna obey you then then give me a sign now what did Jesus say about people who ask for a sign it is a wicked and adulterous generation he said who asks for a sign but Gideon does if you're really God give me a sign that I should obey you and do what you ask and curiously the angel of God's willing to do that verse 21 of chapter 6 then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes and fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes and the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight now here's what's happened getting asked for a sign the angel Lord says well bring a meal to me and getting brings the meal and the angel touches it with the tip of his staff and it's consumed in fire and then the angel of the Lord disappears pretty good sign you know I mean this is now the time for getting to say wow I really faced the Lord and and now I'll do whatever he says so we hear what God says verse 25 of chapter 6 that night the Lord said to him take your father's bull and the second bull seven years old and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has did you catch that the altar of Baal that your father has and cut down the Asherah that is beside it which is a grove of idolatry and build and altar to the Lord your God on top of the stronghold there okay Gideon listen I'm about to send you against 125,000 Midianites and you've had the sign but let's have a little warm-up here okay first thing for you to do before facing 125,000 Midianites will you please go to your daddy's backyard and tear down his idol hear the test what does Gideon do with the test verse 27 so Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord had told them but because he was what too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day he did it at night I don't want dad to find out what I did is this the guy you want to be the general for your army and yet God is saying I know his fear I've given him a sign he's still afraid he has trouble even going to his own family to do the will of the Lord and yet God's still calling him despite all of those fears we're not done of course some of you may remember that Gideon finally gets the word from God gather the people together we are gonna go against the Midianites and and Gideon develops a little backbone and is ready to go and then in verse 36 of chapter 6 he asks for one more thing what does he ask for again another sign verse 36 Gideon said to God if you will save Israel by my hand as you have said now you just think of that if you'll do God as you God have said but nonetheless verse 37 behold I'm laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor if there's dew on the fleece alone and it is dry on all the ground then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand as you have said get the picture okay here's the threshing floor we're probably back inside the winepress and Gideon says now tonight I'm gonna put this this fleece on the floor and God here's what I want you to do you make the fleece wet and the ground dry and then I'll believe that you're really God here to help me now now despite the wrong of that what does God do he makes the fleece wet and he makes the ground dry finally getting is ready to go to battle is that right God would you do it again but this time do it backwards this time make the fleece dry and the ground wet and what does God do he does it and finally Gideon is ready to go despite despite the fear that is so obvious that is expressed so offensively and that it keeps happening over and over again God is willing to say even though you are fearful I'm going to be with you and use you and let me tell you something the reason that I have made so much of the fear of Gideon is because I so much identify with it don't you you know a few years ago believe it or not there was actually a controversy in the PCA that was meant to be a joke and and one day I got a call from a man and he said to me he said Brian now in this controversy that we're facing as a church don't want you to get hurt and I don't your family get hurt and I don't want the seminary to get hurt so so here's what I think you ought to do now it was worded caringly and subtly but I knew exactly what it was what was it it was a threat if you don't do this you're gonna be hurt now let me tell you this was about the middle of the day I'd had my coffee I was wide awake feeling pretty good and at that point I'm thinking to myself you don't scare me I face bigger fish than you you know no problem you know and and while I was polite no problem later that day Kathy and I were getting on a plane
to lead a tour to Israel it's a real long plane ride to Israel and what began to happen as I got tired and the plane ride got longer I began to play that tape in my brain could he hurt me could he hurt my family could he hurt the seminary and I must tell you I got afraid something wonderful happened then and for all of you who teach vacation Bible school believe it or not it can have an effect upon people even seminary presidents down the road a few years when I was a junior high my church made one of the worst decisions it could possibly have made about vacation Bible school it assigned and I'm going to change a name here for protection it assigned missed gentry the elderly church secretary to be the teacher to the junior high boys I mean there could hardly be a worse decision here you know and yet miss gentry was our teacher and her job that week was to teach us the 91st Psalm I'm telling you we junior high boys had no interest in memorizing the 91st Psalm with mr. I mean we were cutting up and clowning around and one day in absolute exasperation miss gentry said to us boys boys you have to listen to me you will need this Psalm at some point in life she said I have a friend who was was in an American city downtown one day and she was robbed and and as she was being robbed the words of the 91st Psalm came to her now some of you remember the words of the 91st Psalm he will cover you with his feather under his wings you will find refuge but she said all she could remember was the words under his wings so she just began to repeat it out loud to the robber under his wings she said the robber thought she was crazy and he got scared and ran away because she said boys even
when you are afraid God is with you do you remember what God said to Gideon right at the beginning the Lord is with you mighty man of valor it was the first promise you're afraid but God is with you I need that lots of times in life don't you I mean I think about right now I mean I was told that when you all met together as a congregation on Wednesday night I was presented as some mix of Moses and Superman and and you know I can't live up to that you know I've been the president of an institution for you know two decades and and I've been pastor to church in 27 years and I think to myself am I going to disappoint you am I going to disappoint me am I going to disappoint God and I can get really afraid and I need to remember something even when you are afraid God is with you some of you are facing some hard things and it may be I mean really bad things in the family or you may be waiting for a medical report or you don't know when the job is going to come and for the moment I'm not going to promise you miracles of the world just suddenly going to become Camelot I want you to hear me say something though even when you are afraid God is with you and that's one of the great graces of the gospel the strangeness about this account is that we don't just see how afraid Gideon is we begin to understand how frail he is by what unfolds next the seventh chapter of course is the hero chapter where this scaredy cat actually gets this amazing help from God and you know the story he starts out with this thirty two thousand and then you know there's such wonderful irony in the way that the biblical writer writes things down remember verse 3 of chapter 7 where God actually says to get in now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people saying whoever is fearful and trembling let him return home the Lord's talking to Gideon you know you kind of think getting going Lord can I be one of the ones but instead 22,000 of the 32,000 go home leading leaving only 10,000 to go against 125,000 Midianites and what does the Lord do he says there's still what there's still too many men and so we get this scenario of testing where God says listen I want you to identify who's gonna go you know so go to the stream and and go to the spring of Herod all right and and watch what happens some people are just gonna fall on their faces you know to get water and other people are going to kneel down and they're gonna lap with their hands to their mouths you know you've seen a dog lap with its tongue you're gonna lap with their hands to their mouths like a dog and and I want you to pick the ones who lap with their hands to their mouths and those are the ones that I want you to take with you now listen on that trip to Israel I was telling you about guess where one of the places was that we went the spring of Herod Gideon's spring we went there same trip and when we went there it was amazing to hear the explanation of the Israeli guide now if you're like me every time you've heard the story of Gideon you know from the Sunday School days on up you know the guys who who who lap with their hands to them what are they doing with their eyes while they're lapping with their hands they are keeping watch these are the good guys they are keeping surveillance for the enemy while they're doing that right do you know what the Israeli guide said she said now listen there were some soldiers who had been working so hard training so hard moving so fast doing everything with all the energy that they had no energy left and so they fall on their faces to drink but there have been some slackers who had just kind of been watching the others work you know so when they come to the water they don't need much water you know that's all I need the point of the Israeli guide was Gideon didn't get the best soldiers he got the what he got the worst ones now let me tell you something I don't think you can prove that you know I know you improve either way whether it was the good or the bad 300 you know what I think you can absolutely prove you don't want to go against 125,000 with 300 you know that is too frail of horse this is not the army you want to go and yet what does God do God says with 300 men and God there can be a great victory for God that what God actually needs from people who are those who understand how desperate they are for his hand and work in their life not people who think they can do it on their own people who know how desperate they are for God to work those are the ones in whom God actually brings his power to work those who say God I need you now there's there's that wonderful account in pilgrims progress of when Christian actually gets to the celestial city and we kind of that's the end of the journey but but at the celestial city Christian actually gets a tour of heaven and when he gets that tour the celestial city one of the places he goes is to the place where they store the munitions the weapons of God and when Christian opens the door to the storehouse of the weapons of God you know what weapons are in there trumpets and broken pitchers the instruments of Gideon's 300 who God simply used to overcome in a way an amazing bigger force by an amazing bigger grace I don't know what you're facing but at some point the Lord is wanting for you and me to say Lord we can't do this without you I mean look it's all kinds of things that grace is facing as a church right there's generational transfer there's the need to reach out to more in different kinds of people there's a debt out there there's all kinds of things that we're wondering what's it gonna be like I must tell you I don't know I haven't got a magic answer and I am NOT the magic answer but we have an amazing God who at some point is saying to you and me you need to call out to me alone not trust your resources not your ability you may still have too many men but what you need is to say desperately Lord we need you now and when that cry goes up the weapons of God come into play and what he intends to happens happens for the grace and the glory of Jesus Christ the fact that it has to be grace is made finally most clear by what happens after the great victory here's where we hardly ever go in the Sunday School literature not just where we don't learn about Gideon being so afraid or so fallible but I score frail but where we learn actually how fallible he really is you ready go with me one more chapter go after the hero chapter go chapter 8 what we learn about Gideon here is hard for us to take judges chapter 8 in verse 22 then the men of Israel said to Gideon who's just had this great victory rule over us you and your son and your grandson also for you have saved us from the hand of Midian Gideon said to them I will not rule over you and my son will not rule over you the Lord will rule over now isn't that a good guy no no no don't make me the king the Lord is to be your king well something the heart of Gideon is being revealed if you look down at verse 31 of chapter 8 and his concubine who was in check him also bore him a son and he called his name a bemalek now in some of your footnotes you are going to see what the name of bemalek means anybody know a bemalek means my father is the king Gideon would you be our king oh no no no no no I'm not gonna be your king only the Lord should rule over you by the way have you met my son his name is my father is the king
something's going on here and we really understand it as we read the details verse 24 of chapter 8 you ready Gideon said to the people however let me make a request of you even though I'm not your king let me make a request every one of you give me the earrings from his spoil for they had golden earrings that is the Midianites because they were Ishmaelites and the people answered we'll give them and they spread a cloak and every man threw in the earrings of his spoil and the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels of gold which is about 50 pounds of gold what's he gonna do with the gold look at verse 27 and Gideon made an ephod of it now that's like a vest or a shawl okay Gideon made an ephod of it and put it in his city in Ophra and all Israel hoard after it there and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family it became a sooth saying cloak if I put this on I can tell your fortune and I can tell what's gonna happen and I'm a voice of God to you no he wasn't their king he was the one they had to come to to hear the voice of God and he used it for his own profit and power and you begin to recognize that what Gideon actually did was he used the spoil of the great victory that God had given him to make an idol that would bring glory to Gideon himself now you'd be God for a moment if your God and Gideon has done this he has taken the spoil from the very victory that you give and he is using it to make an idol to his own profit what would you do to Gideon you got the lightning bolt in your hand right what would you do to Gideon what well let's actually see we're told here so verse 28 of chapter 8 so Midian was subdued before the people of Israel and they raised their heads no more and the land had rest 40 years in the days of well first of all God gives Gideon peace for 40 years well what else verse 32 and Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age and was buried in the tomb of Joash's father at Ophra the abbeir's rights well wait a second that can't be all there's something more here I mean I mean Gideon messed up I mean God's got to do something about this right now you have to hear me clearly there were consequences for Gideon's family right it says Gideon's family was ensnared by this ephod that he made and suffered but for Gideon peace and family and a good old age what is God saying to you and to me grace is absolutely amazing it does not go in standard paths that we expect God will do whatever is necessary to save his people some people need overwhelming blessing some people need correction God will do whatever is necessary to save his people and what he does in the life of Gideon and to tell you and me is he's going to take somebody who is as afraid and frail and fallible as Gideon to bring salvation to his people so that they will be maintained until the time of Jesus Christ and for people like you and me who sometimes say but God I'm afraid or God I don't have the resources or God you know what a sinner I am you know these failures and weaknesses that God says that doesn't mean I'm done with you that doesn't mean I don't have purpose for you that doesn't there's me there's there's no meaning in your life I I can use useless people so don't walk away from me yet I know this in ways that may be quite astounding for you to hear about five years ago in a in a holding cell in the state of Mississippi there was a man who was in his mid late 40s who was being held and he has the mind of only an eight-year-old he's mentally disabled and in the corner that holding cell with other men crowded around him who were much more sophisticated he was just trembling with fear and trying to hide in the corner and another man who was in the holding cell we didn't we're not quite sure why he was there probably on drug charges but the other man who was in the holding cell saw this this mature man with the mind of a child trembling in the corner and the other man walked across the cell and said something he'd probably learned in Sunday school years ago though he himself had abandoned and had been unfaithful to it this this man walked to the trembling childlike man and said if you will trust in Jesus he'll be with you through this now I know that's true because the man with the eight-year-old mind is my brother and when he got into his middle 40s and my parents got into their early 80s they lost control of him and he associated with people he should not have associated with and he did true crimes and he was arrested for reasons even now he can't quite understand but I'd witnessed him for years and we've tried to talk to him and never felt he was even comprehending but God didn't take a seminary president he took a man in a cell on drug charges to walk across the room and to speak to my brother about Jesus and some weeks later my brother who all of his adult life has spoken to the rest of his family basically in single syllables and grunts wrote us a letter we did not even know he could write he wrote us a letter saying Brian this is what I now believe
for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life that was five years ago I know your question did it stick I want to read you to the letter from two weeks ago I am glad says my brother who's gotten better as a writer in five years I am glad that I have the Holy Spirit in me I have faith in Jesus I'm like a whole new person I will hear now again it's the eight-year-old mind I will hear the harps playing rejoicing to the Lord in heaven I know that having faith in our Lord Jesus feels wonderful we all know it's wonderful that Jesus our Lord loves us so that when we are worshiping in his name he will be with us he will not let anything now this is my brother in prison he will not let anything harm us as long as we believe in him my soul belongs to Jesus he is my savor glory to the Lord that we have faith in Jesus Christ someday he will come and take us home to be with him in heaven forever take care have a nice day
God bless you love Jeff listen I want you to if you've heard nothing else I want you to hear me say the gospel is real there will come a day that my brother will be in heaven whole his mind made right his body made right his sin separated from him as far as the East is from the West and we will be one family with him and that will be glory and this is because a guy who was totally useless as society saw him a guy that had no right to be a carrier of the gospel walked across a prison cell and said something to my brother that a seminary president was never heard saying a guy that was useless as the site went and and saved my brother for eternity and that same brother who now sits in a prison cell with a mind of an eight-year-old just ministered to you
God can use useless people even when they're afraid even when they are frail even when they are fallible God can use people like me and he can use people like you and the great hope of the gospel is that we can say this not just to one another but to a world you think God is done with you you think you have no hope you think you think God God shouldn't love someone like did you ever read the account of Gideon if God could love and use someone like Gideon he can love and use someone like you and praise God like me too I don't know what you'll take from this place but what you take I hope is this the gospel of Jesus Christ is real and his love and grace will change people now and forever believe it and tell somebody and the joy of the Lord will flow from grace church Peoria father would you so work in our hearts and lives that we who know the gospel well and we who know it hardly at all would still find reason to rejoice together because we know that despite our fears and our frailty and our fallibility you are a God of amazing grace you sent Jesus to die for sinners like us father teach us the truths of the gospel that give us the joy that is our strength this we ask in Jesus name Amen