as i look out i see some people are hot some people are freezing so from what i understand that means it must be just about right so uh... you know you want half the people hot half the people cold uh... the average then is is perfect so uh... alright first corinthians chapter one first corinthians chapter one first Corinthians chapter 1 verse 26 well you see your calling brethren how that not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. Let us pray. Father, we come this morning and We know that Satan is very present, very alive, and very active in trying to distract every one of us, to keep our minds from listening to thy word, from hearing thy word, and even, Lord, from speaking thy word. May your Holy Spirit free us this morning from all distractions. May your Holy Spirit give us power and unction from on high. And whatever we say and do, may Jesus Christ be exalted. In His name we ask. Amen. Our verse tells us that God does choose some wise, some mighty, but not very many. I'm thankful that God used men like the Apostle Paul, who was well-educated, very scholarly, and wrote some of the greatest books that we have in our New Testament. I'm happy that God uses men like Moses, who was educated with the best education that Egypt and Pharaoh could possibly provide. He had the very best schools. He had the best of everything. He was trained in the best that Pharaoh could possibly give him. And I'm glad that God used Moses. And when Moses wrote the Pentateuch, I'm glad that he was able to write those things that God gave him. I'm glad that God calls men like Luke in the book of Acts or even the Luke who wrote the book of Luke. He was a doctor. He was a great man. He was an educated man. He traveled with the apostle Paul much of the time so that he could be Paul's own personal physician there. I'm thankful for men that are educated and men who are trained in all of those things. But even though God does occasionally use men like that, they're the exception rather than the rule. If you study the Old Testament, you'll find that many of the people that God used were not like Paul, educated in the greatest university. They were not like Moses, trained in the centers of Egypt. They were not like Luke, who was trained to be a physician. Most of them were just ordinary people. Now, God is sovereign, certainly. God can use anybody, anywhere, any way that he pleases. But our text tells us that for the most part, God had chosen the foolish things, the weak things, the base things, so that when something is accomplished, He gets the glory for it. My first point, I want to look at several people from the Bible who you will know most of them very well, but I want to show you that before God saved them and called them, they were nothing extraordinary at all. They were just plain, ordinary people. If you go all the way back to Genesis, you'll find a man there by the name of Abram. Abram was born in Ur of the Chaldees, and certainly he became a great man, but he didn't start off great. You know, when God called him, he lived in idolatry. When God saved him, he lived in an idolatrous city. And I know, knowing what we know about Abraham later, it's hard for us to picture Abram in a city of idolatry and ungodliness. But God called him out of that area and chose him to be the father of the Jewish nations. When God looked at Abraham, or Abram as he's called until his name was changed, God did not look down and say, you know, that guy's got brains. You know, I think with his brains and his talent, I think he can really accomplish something. So I'm going to help him along. I'm going to use his natural brains, his natural talent, and I'm going to let Abram become a great man. You won't find that in the Bible anywhere. In fact, you'll find quite the opposite. Genesis chapter 12 in verse 2, I've got it written down. God is telling Abram, I will make of thee a great nation. I will bless thee and make thy name great. In Hebrews 11, Paul wrote, therefore spring there even of one and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude and as the sand which is by the seashore." If you look at those two verses, God said, you're nothing, Abram. You're nobody. You're just a plain, ordinary man living in a city of idolatry, but I am going to make you a great nation. You're not going to make yourself a great nation. You're not able. You don't have the ability to. But I will make of thee a great nation. I will bless thee and I will make thy name great. Then in Hebrews, he said, even when Abraham was considered as good as dead, God sprang there as many as the stars in the sky. and the sand by the seashore. What does that mean? Well, if you know your Old Testament history, you know that Abraham and Sarai could not have children. And so they went and went for many, many years. And finally, Abraham was 99 years old. Sarah was 89 years old. God said, I'm going to give you a son. Now, had Abraham had children at 20, 30, even 40, it would not have been unusual. It would have been a normal act of marriage, a normal thing in your 20s, your 30s. You have children. That would have been perfectly normal. But God said, no, I don't want you to have children at 20 and 30 and 40. because I'm going to perform a miracle. I'm going to bypass everything that is considered normal and natural, and I'm going to make you wait until you're 99 years old to give you the promised son. I've often thought about that, and I'm not 99, but I'm pushing a lot closer than I was 50 years ago. At my age, having another child of our own. I love my grandkids, but they get to go home. You know, we don't have them 24 seven. God said, Abraham, I'm not going to use normal situations. I am going to make of you a great nation. And so Abraham and Sarah both were considered as good as dead. It ceased to be with Sarai as it was with women, and she could not bear children. And God said, now that it is impossible, humanly it's impossible for you to have children, I'm going to give you, Isaac, And when I do, you're not going to be able to say, well, look what we did. It's going to be, look what God did. God did the impossible with a man who started out in idolatry. A man who on several occasions lied. A man who was not perfect by any means. God said, leave her, leave your family, leave everybody. Abraham took his father and his nephew. He didn't obey 100%, and yet God used someone that we would have looked at and said, wow, he'll never amount to a hill of beans, and God used him to become the father of a great nation. Go over to the book of Joshua, and there we meet a lady that most people would have scorned in her day. We meet a lady by the name of Rahab. She's called usually, in many references in the Bible, she's called Rahab the harlot. If you're going to use somebody in the cause of Christ, you probably would not choose a harlot or a prostitute. If you were going to use somebody to serve God and be used of God in his service, you would have looked for someone who was more ideal, someone who had more morals, someone who was a little more religious. But when the two spies went in, nobody took the spies in except Rahab. She took the spies in. She let them flee and go back to the nation of Israel. God used her God used her to deliver his people and to lead to the conquest of Jericho. You know, as I thought about Rahab, there's a lot of people whose past has been anything but desirable. You know, there's a lot of people who would say, and I've heard many times over the years, Preacher, you don't know my past. I was an alcoholic. I was a prostitute. I was a murderer. I was a drug addict. I was this. I was that. And yet Rahab, who was considered the scum of her day, God saved her, used her, and she not only became part of Israel, she married into Israel, and she became part of the lineage of Jesus Christ himself. Oh, God could never use me because of my past. Oh, yes, he can. God chooses the foolishness. God chooses the base. God chooses the weak. God chooses the despised. So that when something is accomplished, you can't say, look what I did. You have to say, look what God did. And I've used Rahab many, many times. Because she shows me, and there's others in the Bible, but she especially shows me that God can save the vilest of sinners and God can use the vilest of sinners in his service. Well, we come on over to Kings. And when I mentioned this guy, you're going to think, oh, he was a great, great man. And he was. If you look over in Kings, you'll meet a man by the name of Elijah. Oh, Elijah was, oh, he was a mighty prophet. Elijah was a mighty warrior with God. Well, James says, Elias, which is the Greek form of Elijah, Elias was a man. Did you get that? He was a man. He wasn't a superman. He wasn't a super-duper special man. He was a man subject to like passions as we are. Elijah battled the same battles that we battle. He battles the same passions that we battle. He battled the same temptations that we battle. See, we think, oh, Elijah, he must have been some great, outstanding, dynamic, spiritual hero. He was a man just like you and me. See, God doesn't want superheroes. He wants people who will surrender to Him. He wants people that will follow Him, people that will obey Him. people just like you and me. Elijah was a man, and he had just the same passions that we do. Now, if you were around in Elijah's day, you probably would have got a kick out of his clothes. I'm not one for style, and I'm looking at you because you remind me of that occasionally. I'm not too worried about styles. But I don't think I could ever dress like Elijah did. Second Kings tells us he was a hairy man and he girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. He stood out in his day. It's mentioned because he stood out. I mean, he stood out in a crowd of people You would notice Elijah very quickly and very easily. He was very hairy and he wore clothes that were, well, they stood out. You study Elijah and I have on several occasions. There was really nothing real special about Elijah. He ran from trouble when Jezebel threatened him, he ran. He got depressed. He wanted to die. I was talking to someone, don't remember who it was, but we were talking about depression. And I understand that when I sin, sometimes my sin makes me depressed. When I'm out of God's will, my sin makes me depressed. And I grew up where depression was considered an abominable sin. You're depressed, you're the worst of sinners. Well, you know what? That puts me in the same category as Elijah. Elijah got so depressed. As he sat under the juniper tree, he got so depressed, he prayed and begged God to die. Let me die, please. See, we think of Elijah standing on Mount Carmel. We think of Elijah crossing the river on dry shod. We think of Elijah, you know, raising the dead and all of those great things. But Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are. And yet God used him to be one of the greatest prophets of the day. Well, let's go to the New Testament. And these are people that you know. The Apostle Peter, I love to study Peter, I love to read about Peter. In some ways, he reminds me of me in some ways. Now Peter, unlike me, was a strong, rugged, tough fisherman. As I said the other night, you know, when you're throwing out the ropes and you're catching fish, they didn't have cranes to just push a button and pull the, you know, the ropes out of the water. They had to do it manually. They had to do it with a crank. or they had to pull it when, by the way, when Peter and them were fishing and Jesus was on the shore and they looked out and saw Jesus, Peter dived into the water, swam to the shore and met Jesus. Have you ever read on past that? The other disciples came on this boat, bringing the fish, but they could only go so far. Peter goes out and pulls the ropes in and there were 150 big giant fish in those ropes. Now I'm not a fisherman, but if those fish weighed one pound each, which would not be anything gigantic, but if they weighed one pound each, Peter was a rugged man, he pulled those 150 pounds right in without any trouble. Now I don't know what a big fish is, what would a big, I'm looking at you because you're the fisherman, Five pound be a big fish. Let's don't make it too hard. Let's keep it reasonable. Let's say it was five, five pound each. Five times 150. That's a lot of weight. And yet Peter was strong enough, rugged enough, tough enough that he, after he met Jesus, he pulled those fish into shore. He was a tough man. In Acts chapter 4, he was called unlearned and ignorant. Wow, how would you like to be insulted like that? And this was by the Supreme Court. He stands there before the Supreme Court and he begins to talk about Jesus and the Supreme Court talks among themselves and they perceive that he was unlearned and ignorant. Never been to school, never been to graduate school, didn't have his doctorate degree like Paul, didn't have a doctorate degree like Luke, didn't have any of that. He was considered a dumb, idiotic person. He's a dummy. Peter often got in trouble because he talked too much. I said, he's a lot like me. Peter frequently spoke without thinking. He got into a lot of trouble, even with Jesus. Jesus had to rebuke him because Peter would speak without thinking and say something, and Jesus would have to say, no, Peter, that's not the way it is. He often acted impulsively. And he even on at least one occasion argued with Jesus and told Jesus that he was wrong. Now that takes something to tell Jesus Christ, you're wrong. And yet God chose Peter, and on the day of Pentecost, even though all of the apostles stood up to preach, Peter's sermon is the one that's recorded in the book of Acts. Later on, it was Peter that God sent to the house of Cornelius, the Gentile, to preach the gospel. It was Peter that wrote two of the books of the New Testament, and yet he was not well-educated. He was not well-learned. He was a strong, rugged fisherman that God saved and used in a miraculous way. Now let's go back to our text and just briefly look at the people that Paul says God chose. Not many wise. There are some. I'm thankful that over my years, I have known people who were very, very educated. I mean, extremely educated. I've known people who were extremely rich. But those are the exceptions. Look around, and I do as I go from churches sometimes. Look around in most of our kind of churches. I look at our membership. We don't have any millionaires that I know of. I don't think any of our members have a doctorate degree. I don't think many of our members would fit under Better be careful. Not many wise, not many mighty, not many noble are called. Here's the ones God has chosen, the foolish things of the world. I'll give you some examples in just a minute. God chosen the weak things of the world. you know we often think that well you have to be really strong to witness you know what i could give you instances where a little child witnessed to someone they didn't have a college degree they didn't have a theology degree they didn't have they didn't know the books of the bible they couldn't quote very many scriptures but god used a little child to witness to someone and god saved that individual he's chosen the weak things the weak things someone told me the other day and and i'm gonna it was just uh... i think it really was i think it was last week uh... someone told me they asked me about you know our building our print shop our property and they asked how did how did you all get all of this And I began telling him the history of our church and how we got to where we are. And he said, you know, you need to put that in writing for the younger generation that's coming up. They won't know all of these things. I'm going to have to think about that. But when we've got this building, when God gave us this building, we were so weak, not a bank in town would even talk to us. And yet, God chose the weak things to confound the things which are mighty. Now those same banks want to loan us more and more and more money, and it's like, no thanks. We're not interested. We're debt free. We're not going back. But God chose the weak things, base things, things which are despised. I was talking in Sunday school about this proud attitude that we see many times. You look at somebody and they've got a suit that's actually in style. They've got a shirt and a tie that's in style. This tie is about 24 years old. I still wear it. You look at somebody that is uneducated, not very wealthy, don't have much at all, and yet I've seen God take things which everybody else despised and thought unworthy of their attention, and God has used them in mighty, mighty ways. And He does it so that no flesh can glory in His presence. It's not going to be any pride in heaven. When we get to heaven and we see for the first time, visibly see Jesus Christ and His throne, and we see all the multitude of heaven worshiping Christ, there's not going to be anybody in heaven running around saying, you know how many people I wonder the Lord on earth? And I heard from a preacher several weeks ago. I invited him to our prayer breakfast. And he sent word back to me that he said, no, I appreciate it. He said, I used to go to prayer breakfasts at another church. And he said, all it was was every preacher stood around and bragged about their sermon the day before. They bragged about how many people they had baptized and they bragged about this. And I said, hey, you come to our prayer breakfast. You won't have that. I guarantee you. There's not going to be any bragging in heaven. There's not going to be anybody in heaven going around saying. You know how many members I had in my church? It's not gonna matter. It's not gonna matter whether you pastored 50 or 500, because when we get to heaven, the only thing that's gonna matter is we're gonna bow down and worship the Lord Jesus Christ. Nobody's gonna glory in the flesh. You know, if I were smart enough and I was able mentally to accomplish something magnificent, I'd be going around talking about, How smart I am. But when God takes an old dummy and uses him in ways that nobody could imagine, then you have to say, Lord, to you be honor and glory. My brother and I have talked a lot. Well, he's done most of the talking. He can remember everything we did as kids. Don't ask him what he ate for breakfast, but he can remember everything we did as kids. And, you know, looking back to runny nose, poverty stricken, had one pair of blue jeans we wore all week to school. Mom would wash them. Then we would wear them back Monday through Friday. And, you know, we lived on white beans and fried taters. If you looked around, we were two of the most unlikely people in our church that God would ever call to preach. And yet God called both of us to preach. He was a missionary for many years. He pastored several churches here. And you know, looking at us, There was nothing in our family, nothing in our home. Dad had a second grade education. There was nothing in our home that says, these kids are destined to fame. We were poor. And yet God said, you know what? I'm going to take those two runny nose, snotty nose kids, and I'm going to call them to preach and send them all over the world. Those are the ones that God wants because when we're honest, we know there is nothing about us that we could have done what God has done. Well, why God uses such people? As I just said, He's not going to allow any pride in heaven. If God used a great orator to move people, The orator would get the praise. Now, let me depart just for a minute. I'm still running a few minutes ahead. And I get asked this, and I'm sure you've been asked this. And people come to our church and think, what's wrong with you people? We never clap. You know why? We don't clap. When I preach, yay, good sermon. Yay, good job. Good job. Somebody sings, yay. Who gets the glory? The preacher, the singer. Those of you who have talent to sing, you know if you're honest that the only reason you're able to sing is because God used base things. God used weak things. And if you're truly serving God, you don't want people clapping to you and saying, what a great job, great job. I had a preacher one time, I was a young preacher and I was still struggling trying to find my style or whatever it was. And this preacher took me aside, he was an older preacher, and he said, what you need to do is get in front of a mirror and practice and practice and practice in front of a mirror till you've got it down pat. And I thought, and I did it for a few times, and it's like, wait a minute, why am I doing that? Well, because I want to make sure I've got everything perfect. I want to make sure I've got everything right. And I want to be the best expositor. And finally, I said, you know what? I'm going to study. I'm going to pray. I'm going to do the best I can. But when I get up to preach, I don't want to think, OK, now raise your right arm. Put your right arm down. Step your left foot back. Step. I don't want to have to go through mechanics. I want to get up and preach and let the Holy Spirit take the word. and apply it. If God used a talented person, that person would be very tempted to enjoy the praise and the clapping and everything else. If God used all educated people, you had to have an IQ of 160 and you had to have at least one doctorate degree. Most of us would never be saved and never be used of God. but rather God chooses people who have nothing to offer except a willing heart and a surrendered mind. We simply preach the gospel to lost people, and even though it's like talking to dead people, God can use it. When God uses little children, uneducated people, And I said, I don't know, to my knowledge, I don't think any of our members have their PhDs. We've got some educated people, but most of us are just ordinary people. And yet God has blessed many of you. We don't have the talent to sing, to play. We don't have the talent to accomplish great things. But we have a willing heart and a surrendered mind. And when God is pleased to accomplish something through us, we give Him the glory because I know there's no way I could ever, ever have done it. In thinking about God using foolish things, First Corinthians chapter one says, for after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Now I know we live in a society where, as I've said a bazillion times, I get the magazines, I get their articles, I get their newsletters. on how to double your attendance in three months, how to get 15 people saved a week. Well, you know, I have not found anything yet that beats the simple preaching of God's Word. If the Holy Spirit doesn't save them, there's nothing I can do. If the Holy Spirit doesn't take the gospel and plant it in their heart, as Paul said, one plants, one waters, but it's God that has to give the increase. If the Holy Spirit doesn't save people through the foolishness of preaching the gospel, then there's nothing man can come up with that's going to work any better than the biblical pattern. It said it pleased God. by the foolishness of preaching. Why did God choose to save people by preaching a simple message of the gospel? You'll have to ask Him if you get to heaven. You try any other method than preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and people will end up dying and going to hell. Who does God save? Paul said in 1 Timothy, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. He said in another passage that He didn't come to call the righteous, He came to call sinners. You may be here and you're thinking about yourself, and you think, I have nothing to offer. I have nothing. God can't save me. I am so vile. I have committed so many sins. I have done so many horrible things that God can't even save me. Well, let me put all that aside and ask you one question. Are you a sinner? Oh, yes, yes. No, no. I don't want an exposition. I don't want a dissertation. Are you a sinner? Oh, yes. Then Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. If you qualify as a sinner, Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. Don't have to be rich. Don't have to be educated. If you qualify as a sinner, you qualify for the receiving of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I ask each and every one of us today, is God using you? If not, why? Oh, I just don't have anything to offer. God doesn't want what you have to offer. God wants what you will allow Him to do through you. God doesn't want you to do anything except work out your own salvation as I preached last week. Work out your own salvation for it is God that works within you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Oh, I've got talent that God can use. Then you need a dose of humility. because God can take anybody and use them. If you're a Christian, or have you surrendered to God, have you given up your life, your all to follow God, and if you're lost, I cannot stress enough, if you're lost, you will die, and you will go to hell and you will be cast into the lake of fire forever and forever you will be tormented in these flames but the solution is so simple repent of your sins believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved father we come lord one of the hardest things perhaps that any of us could ever do is to humble ourself at the foot of the cross even as paul said there in ephesians all of this education all of this heritage everything that he had accomplished before he was saved he counted but done lord empty us of ourselves so that we may be filled with thy spirit for those that are here that are lost may your holy spirit even now crush their pride crush their resistance crush their stubbornness may your holy spirit grant them repentance and faith and may they come rejoicing that we may rejoice together in what you have done in Jesus' name. Amen.