Ehud & Eglon part 3 of 4

Ehud could have:

• dwelt on his disability

• doubted his value to God

• passed on the opportunity of taking the tribute to Eglon

• passed up the opportunity to deal with Eglon

• doubted and said, "How could God possibly use me?"

• But no, he didn’t.

• Ehud:

• accepted his potential in God’s eyes

• rested in his value to God

• We encounter these people all throughout the book of Judges

• What we have here are underdogs, obscure people, men and women whom God chose to use to his glory.

• Look a little bit later into the era of Israel’s first kings and you read the story of David, an unlikely hero – who defeated Goliath.

• The prophet Samuel looked at all the brothers in the family, and David was the last one—but he was the one God wanted to use.

• According to Isaiah, Jesus was a most unlikely hero.

• Isaiah 53:2-3 (NIV)2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

• Yet Jesus accomplished the single most important act in history

• He died for our sins, thus becoming the greatest hero of all

• No one recognized him when he came on the scene... except for John the Baptist

• There was no red carpet, no fanfare. An unlikely hero.

• Now here we are in Christ.

• We, too, might feel like underdogs

• that we don’t have the right credentials

• Our family background is not good enough

• we’re too ordinary

• But our text tells us that God can use us in amazing ways

• If you are watching this…you may be an Ehud

• It doesn’t matter what your family background is

• It doesn’t matter if you’re limited in some capacity

• God sees you as he sees you which is a different perspective than you see yourself

• He takes each one of us from our different backgrounds, with our different talents and our different gifts, and he molds us uniquely into a representation of himself.

• We don’t have to look alike. He uses us, each one of us, in unique ways.

• And God is excited about how he wants to use you!

• The miracle of Christ’s plan is that God takes someone ordinary, someone just like you and me, and uses him or her to his glory.

• He doesn’t heal all the problems or the handicaps.

• The miracle is, he uses us even though we are limited.

• This is how he used Ehud. He takes a life that the world discards and uses it to his glory.

• Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:2727 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

• Sometimes it takes only one person to motivate many to righteousness.

• That’s what happened in Ehud’s case.

• He was willing to go on the attack first

• ALONE

• then he blew the trumpet and all of Israel joined in the battle, routing the enemy!

• Do you recognize the name Edward Kimball?

• Here is an interesting chain of events:

• “Sunday School teacher Edward Kimball helped lead Dwight L. Moody to Christ

• D.L. Moody became a preacher

  • J. Wilbur Chapman was converted at a Dwight L. Moody evangelistic meeting • Billy Sunday was converted at a Chapman meeting; • Mordecai Ham was converted at Billy Sunday meeting; • and Billy Graham was converted at a Ham meeting.” - See more at: http://dbablogs.com/2011/08/09/butterfly-effect/#sthash.eDYjd2wl.dpuf

#legacy #church