God Can Use Someone Like You
Introduction
1. Let’s turn to Judges 3:1.
2. Remember back in the school yard days when we had pickup games.
a. There was always fighting over who would get to pick first.
b. We normally let second pick get 2 choices.
c. Then there was fighting over who had last pick.
3. Can God use someone like me? Would He ever pick me to do something for the kingdom?
4. We are continuing in our study of Judges.
a. What is the thematic verse for Judges?
· In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes (Judges 21:25)
b. We noted the book of Judges is filled with the cycle of sin.
· Serving the Lord, Succumbing to sin, En-Slaved to sin, Sorry and Sad about their situation, and Saved by the Lord and the people serve the Lord.
c. Last week we learned how important leadership is to the Body of Christ.
5. Tonight, I want us to see that has picked us so let’s get into the game.
I. Israel fails the test yet God graciously delivers them.
A. God leaves the nations in the land for a purpose.
1. God leaves the nations in the land to test Israel.
a. The five lords of the Philistines included: Ashdod, Ashkalon, Ekron, Gath, and Gaza.
b. God wanted to test Israel to see whether they would keep the words of Moses.
2. Israel intermarries with the inhabitants of the land leading to their downfall.
B. God graciously delivers them by sending Judges to defeat their enemies.
1. God sent Othniel to deliver them from Mesopotamia (Aram Naharaim).
a. They forgot the Lord.
· When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel.Judges 2:10
· The forgot him by forsaking the Lord and serving Baals and Ashteroths.
· Remembering and forgetting are evidenced by action (God remembered Noah – Genesis 8:1).
b. God sent judgment from Cushan from modern Syria-Iraq.
c. God sent Othniel to deliver the nation and they rested for 40 years.
2. God sent Ehud to deliver them from Moab.
a. The Children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord.
b. God strengthened the hands of Eglon to judge his people.
c. God sent a left handed man, Ehud, to deliver the people.
· The original language means impeded in the right hand – left handed.
· This is ironic since Benjamin means “son of my right hand.
· The Benjamites were known for left handed warriors (Judges 20:16, 1 Chronicles 12:2).
3. God sent them Shamgar to deliver them from the Philistines.
a. Not much is known about Shamgar; he is mentioned by Deborah in her song (Jud 5:6).
b. His name is non-Israeli probably Hittite.
c. Ben-Anoth could mean like Anoth (Canaanite war goddess) or son of a Canaanite named Anoth. There were two cities named Anoth – Naphtali and Judah.
II. Can God use someone like me?
A. God allows us to be tested to confirm our faith not to see us fail.
1. God allowed Christ to be tested to validate his ministry (Luke 4:1-14).
2. God will allow us to be tested to validate our faith and ministry (1 Corinthians 10:13).
· No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. (1 Corinthians 10:13)
B. God uses unusual people to bring his plan to pass in the Body of Christ.
1. God used some unusual and obscure people to deliver his people – Ehud and Shagmar.
2. God will use us; let’s make ourselves available.
a. God has chosen the foolish, weak, and despised (1 Corinthians 1:26-29)
b. Our memory verse can be Zechariah 4:6
· So he answered and said to me: “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the Lord of hosts.
Conclusion
1. Israel fails the test yet God graciously delivers them.
2. Can God use someone like me, like you? You bet! He can use us as we make ourselves available.
· God can do a lot with a little.
· He made the universe out of nothing, think of what he can do with us!