Southpaw Savior, Part 2

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. God can do more through one act of obedience than all the apostles could do in a hundred lifetimes or a thousand mission trips. What God needs is He just wants you to obey. It is not about you changing the world or your friends to the right hand of strength. It is about you yielding yourself to Him. It's all about obedience. Welcome back to Summit Life with Pastor J.D. Greer.

As always, I'm your host, Molly Vitovich. Okay, nobody truly enjoys pain, right? In fact, when we suffer, we usually look for any means possible to escape. But according to Scripture, sometimes God uses our pain to actually draw us back to Him. Today, Pastor J.D. invites us to follow along as we trace the footsteps of an Old Testament character. His story helps us understand God's compassion and love, even when He chooses to discipline us.

For additional resources designed to help you learn more, be sure to visit jdgreer.com. But for now, let's pick up our study in Judges, Chapter 3. J.D. titled this message Southpaw Savior. The story that we're going to look at today is about a man named Ahud.

Ahud. Do you have a Bible? Judges, Chapter 3 contains his story, so begin to open it there. As you're opening, before I really jump into his story, I want to show you a little phrase that the author of Judges uses to set up these stories because it shows you how God wants you to interpret these stories and how they apply to your life. So he introduces the stories of the judges like this in Judges, Chapter 3, Verse 1.

Watch very closely. Now, these are the nations that the Lord left to test Israel by them, that is all in Israel who had not experienced all the wars of Canaan. You remember Israel had come in and there was all these Canaanites there and God had promised to give them the land. And when Joshua died, there were still some left. Verse 2, it was in order that the generations of the people of Israel might know war, to teach war to those who had not known it before.

What is the answer to the question of why God had left all these pockets of Canaanites in the land? According to Judges 3, 1, and 2, it is to teach us to rely on His grace, to teach us to fight in His strength. The Apostle Paul said that God leaves trials and weaknesses in our lives to keep us humble. Sometimes, listen to this, God will allow you to struggle with a lesser sin like anger or lust in order to keep you from a greater sin, maybe the greatest sin, and that is pride. Because if God suddenly cured all of your sinful tendencies in one kind of fell swoop the moment you got saved, you would probably get really proud and think that you just dripped with spiritual awesomesauce and that you were really something that people ought to admire. So God allows you to continue to struggle because He wants you to learn throughout your life that you are not saved because you became morally perfect.

You are saved as a gift of grace and God will allow these things to continue to plague you so that you will grow ever more dependent on grace because that's what spiritual growth means. That's what sets up the story in chapter 3. So if you look down in verse 12, you'll see the story of Ehud. Again, the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and because they did this evil, the Lord gave Eglon, the king of Moab, power over Israel. Now, Eglon was a bad man. For 18 years, he raped, pillaged, and murdered the Israelites. Again, the Israelites cried out to the Lord and he gave them a deliverer, Ehud, a left-handed man, which means he was probably disabled.

His right hand maybe had been crushed or was just born withered. Ehud was brave and he was a man of faith. He volunteered to deliver a tribute payment of gold to Eglon. So he loads up his wagon with all this tax money and tribute money and extortion and he heads off to Eglon but he packs a little surprise. Verse 16, Now Ehud had made a double-edged sword, which he strapped to his right thigh under his clothing.

He presented the tribute to Eglon. Verse 18, after Ehud had presented the tribute, he said, Your majesty, I have a secret message just for you. So the king said to his attendants, Leave us. And they all left. Maybe he was hoping that Ehud had brought him a snack and he didn't want to share it.

I don't know. Verse 20, As the king rose from his seat, Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh, and plunged it into the king's belly. Then Ehud went out to the porch. He shut the doors of the upper room behind him and then he locked them. After he had gone, the servants came and found the doors of the upper room locked. Verse 25, They waited to the point of embarrassment.

When he did not open the doors of the room, they took a key and unlocked them. And there they saw their Lord fall into the floor dead. Well, by now Ehud is safely away from the palace and he rallies all the tribes of Israel who amassed their armies. They rise up as one against Moab. And verse 30, That day Moab was made subject to Israel and the land had peace for 80 years. Well, again, believe it or not, some of the most essential keys for spiritual victory are found in this story. Let me start with the most important.

I have five of them. Number one, this story teaches us that God's savior would come in weakness. He tells us, this story tells us that God's savior would come in weakness. Number two, this story tells us that God saves us now through the weakness of faith. God saves us now through the weakness of faith. To get this point, you got to understand that in our lives, we're all trying to save ourselves.

Israel in captivity, under the subjugation of cruel forces, gives us a picture of every human being, whether you're religious or not. We all know that we need some kind of salvation that in the promised land of our lives, there are things that aren't right. Now there are both religious and irreligious ways to seek salvation. Both religious and irreligious people are seeking salvation just in different ways. Religious people try to earn salvation from God by being good enough. If morally they're strong enough, then God will reward them with his blessing. Irreligious people try to find salvation outside of God, but they use the same approach. They try to be strong enough to obtain meaning and purpose and fulfillment for themselves.

So they think, for example, if I'm rich enough, if I'm strong enough financially, if I make enough money, then I'll be safe and happy and fulfilled. I remember seeing an interview with Drake a couple of years ago after he'd been nominated for a couple of Grammys. And he said, you know, he said, I sleep with a different woman almost every single night. He says, and I've realized that I'm doing this as a way to try to feel this void. He says, but the first 15 or 20 seconds after I've had sex are the realest moment that I have in my life because I know it's not working. He said, the next day I'll convince myself that it's gonna work that night.

He said, but that 15 or 20 seconds, he said, is where I know that it's just not working. These are all ways of trying to find salvation, freedom from the bondage of futility and dissatisfaction, the Canaanites of meaninglessness and pain. What the story of Ehud shows you is that God's salvation would come in a different way. It wasn't gonna come through religious strength. It wasn't gonna come through career strength. It wasn't gonna come through beauty. It wasn't gonna come through money.

It was gonna come as a gift. Number three, from this story of Ehud, we see that God mocks those who oppose him. A biblical scholar named Dale Ralph Davis said that most commentators miss the humor of the story.

And having read several commentators in preparation for this, I would definitely agree with him. Commentators tend to be a stuffy bunch and they don't realize that this story was told with giggles. It's not that it wasn't true. It's just that as they told it, they were mocking Eglon. They would have told it with laughter.

That's why there's all those bizarre details in there. I see two implications for us in that. The first is point number three, and that is that we can be assured that God will mock those who oppose him. Charles Spurgeon said to his congregation in 1856, listen to this, listen to this, he who would place himself in front of a fast moving train car will be crushed and will be no more foolish than you who are opposing the gospel. If the gospel is true and truth is mighty, then truth must prevail. Who are you to attempt to stand against it? You will be crushed.

But let me tell you, when the railway car, when the train car runs over you, the will will not be raised even an inch by your size. For what are you? A tiny gnat, a creeping worm, which that will will crush to less than nothing and not leave you even a name as having ever been an opponent of the gospel. Let everyone in the world know assuredly that the gospel will win its way, whatever they may do.

Poor creatures, their efforts to oppose the gospel are not even worthy of our notice and we need not fear they can stop the truth. They're like a gnat who thinks he can quench the sun. Go tiny insect and do it if you can. You will only burn your wings and die. Likewise, there may be a fly who thinks it could drink the ocean dry. Drink the ocean if you can, old fly.

More likely you will sink in it and it will drink you. I'm pretty sure that doesn't really need any explanations. Those who stand against God have a day where they look like they're in charge. They have a day where their taunts seem threatening, but God is working history so that his agenda will be accomplished. His name will be glorified and those who stood against him, all the eglons of the world, will seem like a gnat who stood on a train track and tried to defy a train.

Let me ask you a question. Do you get angry when people mock Christianity? If you saw people who are mocking the progress of what God is doing in the world, if you saw them in that image that Spurgeon used, a blind man on the train track with the train coming at in full speed, him mocking and taunting the train and saying the train does not exist. Does that make you angry if you're on the train? No, it breaks your heart because you don't want to say, I don't need to jump out and defend the train.

I need you to open your eyes and I need you to get on board and not stand in the way. When we are angry at people who mock us, all we do is demonstrate that we're not really confident of our place on the train. That's why we feel like we got to justify ourselves. That's why we get angry. You ever, you know, your work and you start watching YouTube and like an hour and a half later, you've watched 58 YouTube videos. Shame on you. That never happens to me.

This week, this week it started. And an hour and a half later, I'd watched 58 Bill Maher YouTube clips or give or take a few, but you know, it was a lot. And at the end I was so mad because I just want to go on there and I want to be like, we're not all dumb. We're not all dumb.

We're not all knuckle dragon Neanderthals. I can give you an intelligent answer to that question. And I realized that what was making me mad is that it's like, there's an insecurity. If I see Bill Maher and Eglin and the other people in the world like that is really what they are.

And that is someone like a Nat trying to oppose the progress of a train. I don't feel anger. What I feel is deep compassion. And I say, God, would you open their eyes?

Anger toward others who oppose you as a sign of insecurity in your faith. Here's the other lesson I learned from the rather humorous way this story is told. Number four, one day we will retell the stories of our suffering with laughter and joy. You realize the oppression they felt for those 18 years was real. It was bitter. It was painful. But here they tell it with laughter. They look back on that painful chapter and they retell it.

They recast it in the colors of joy. Your pain and your oppression is real. I don't want to take away from that one bit, but I'm just telling you one day, you will look back on those chapters, that 18 years of oppression. And one day you will tell those stories without tears. The joy that so enshrouds you will not take away the fact that the pain happened. It'll just so envelop it with joy that you won't tell it with the tear of pain.

You'll tell it with the laughter of triumph. God's resolution to our pain makes the oppression almost seem trivial. We'll get back to our teaching in just a moment, but first let me tell you about our latest resource created exclusively for our Summit Life listeners. In this latest book, Honest Questions, Quick Answers, Pastor JD tackles big questions with short, concise answers.

They're the kind of responses you can give when chatting at the coffee shop with a friend or even a stranger. In this new resource, we cover lots of topics, ethics, morality, everyday theology, and the answers to these questions haven't changed over the centuries, but the way we talk about them has changed with our context. We'd love to get you this new book right now, and if you missed volume one a couple of years ago when we offered it, we've printed a new edition of that as well. Reserve your copy today by calling 866-335-5220 or visit us online at jdgreer.com. Thanks for being with us today. Now let's return to today's message. Here's Pastor JD.

I love C.S. Lewis imagery and mere Christianity. He said, our suffering on earth from the perspective of eternity will seem like a bad night in a cheap hotel. You ever had a bad night in a cheap hotel?

I have. I had one a couple of years ago when we were, my family was driving down to Florida to see some of our college students serving on one of the mission projects there and a couple other pastors went with us and one of them was Pastor Rick. I asked Pastor Rick if he would arrange a night for us to stay halfway down. So he chose a hotel in Florence, South Carolina, that was the worst hotel in the United States of America. It smelled. It was dark. The hallway smelled like urine. At night when we went, my kid, my youngest child was still in his pack and play.

Whenever we had him like in a closet and when they flushed the toilet, water came through the ceiling and dropped on his head. This was our entire night. We got hardly any sleep. I was angry.

I was tired. I was like, Rick, I realize we're not high rollers. I get that, but is this what we've come to?

Are we paupers? Couldn't we have just stayed in the car, in the van? That would have been better. I was, my wife and I, we were not happy about it. Now we tell it as a big joke. I laughed about it with Rick this week.

Why? Because it's one bad night in a cheap hotel and hardly worth remembering. It's more funny to us now than it was irritating. I'm not saying your pain is not real and I'm not saying we should just laugh about it. What I'm saying is that there is a joy that is coming that will make you look back and tell even the dark chapters of your pain through the laughter of triumph. Here's the last lesson that Ahud's story teaches us. Number five, in God's kingdom, Ahud shows you that availability is more important than ability. I think you would agree that Ahud was a very unlikely candidate for a hero.

He didn't even have a strong right hand. Yet he was willing to yield himself to be used by the spirit of God. God's kingdom in the world today does not advance through our ability, through the right hand of our strength, it advances through availability. Jesus taught his disciples in numerous places and numerous ways that it was not about their strength to win the world, it was about them gilding themselves to him. Maybe one of the clearest of that is to me, John chapter six, the feeding of the 5,000. Jesus stood before a crowd of 5,000 men.

Scholars say probably a total of around 15 to 20,000 people. You know the story. If you've been in church, Jesus says to his disciples, man, these guys are hungry. They've been with them for three days. Why don't you give them something to eat? And Philip, one of the disciples says rather sarcastically, give them something to eat. Jesus, we could all go out and get jobs for eight months, combine our money. We might be able to buy them a donut hole and a cup of coffee.

What do you mean give them something to eat? You know the story. Jesus takes the little boys, Hebrew Lunchables is what we call it, the Hebrew Happy Meal, and he takes it and he divides, and he spreads it out so that not only are all 15,000 fully satisfied, they have 12 baskets left over. That is the only miracle that's recorded in all four gospels.

You want to know why I think that is? Because it made such an impression on the disciples because Jesus was teaching them how his work would go forward in the world. Because one day they weren't going to stand in front of 15,000 hungry bellies, they were going to stand in front of millions of unreached people starving for the gospel. And Jesus wanted them to know that it wasn't about their ability to strategize and fundraise and figure that out. It was simply about them yielding themselves to him because Jesus could do more to end world hunger in 10 minutes with the boys five loaves and two fish than Bill Gates could do in 10 lifetimes with all of his vast riches.

It is not about your ability. It is simply you saying, Jesus, use me. Jesus, here I am. Why don't you put your spirit in me?

And why don't you use me in the assignments that you've given to me? You see another example of this in Acts 8. This time Philip, a different Philip, but also named Philip, is preaching in a city called Samaria.

And Samaria, there's lots of people getting saved, hundreds, maybe thousands of people are coming to Christ. And the spirit of God says to Philip, I want you to leave here where the ministry is hot. And I want you to go 150 miles away out to a dusty dirt road.

And I want you to stand there and wait. Philip is confused. He's like, what are you talking about? I'm having an awesome ministry here. Lots of people are getting saved. And the spirit of God says, don't argue, just do it. So Philip goes up there.

He stands there in this dusty road. And after a few minutes in the distance comes a chariot. And it now holds in it what we now call the Ethiopian eunuch. And Philip shares Christ with the Ethiopian eunuch. The Ethiopian eunuch trusts Christ, goes back to Africa.

And Eusebius, the third century historian in the church, says that that Ethiopian eunuch founded the church in Africa, a church that is still alive today. What is the writer of Acts trying to show you? He is trying to show you that God can do more through one act of obedience than all the apostles could do in a hundred lifetimes or a thousand mission trips. What God needs is he just wants you to obey. It is not about you changing the world or your friends to the right hand of strength. It is about you yielding yourself to him.

It's all about obedience. On Friday, I received the most extraordinary note from someone at our Cary campus. The girl says, on the way home from Bible study on Thursday night, we were driving up Lake Wheeler road and an older Muslim woman was standing next to a stock car. And as we pulled our car onto the shoulder, she started running up to our car. Much to my protest, Bobby, the guy that she was with, who is also part of the Cary campus, Bobby stayed with her.

I didn't want to because I just don't trust people. And so she gave him money to get gas and he went to buy a container and fill up a tank for him and bring it back. When he got back, he was trying to give her money back.

She didn't speak English well. Bobby told her to keep the tank of gas and her money and told her the reason is he had just come from small group where he had been reflecting on how much God had blessed him over the last few years, how much he had learned about the gospel, how much she'd grown, how much God had done in his life. And he felt like in light of how generous God had been to him, he didn't want to keep her money.

He wanted to give. At this point, as they were trying to communicate, another Muslim woman got out of the car and thanked him profusely and said that he was a God sin. And it meant so much to her because her son had just been murdered in Chapel Hill. Bobby told her that we had just left small group and had prayed for them there. We had literally just left small group where the last thing we did was pray over this family and the loved ones of those murdered in Chapel Hill two days ago.

I think it is amazing in a time where Muslims in America feel so persecuted that Bobby could be a light in a difficult situation tonight and perhaps that he could be a tiny witness of God's love to them. You may not feel like you have much to offer. God doesn't need the much that you have to offer. All God needs is availability. God can use you. You say, but I don't have much talent. I don't have a right hand of strength.

It's never been about the right hand of strength. Not with Ehud, not with the apostles, not with you. I remember being at a pastor's conference where Adrian, old Southern Baptist preacher named Adrian Rogers looked out this group of pastors, thousands of pastors. He said, how many of you were valedictorian? Stand up. There's a handful of people in the audience stood up and some people started clapping.

He said, no, don't clap yet. He said, how many of you, he said remain standing. How many of you went to school, college on an academic scholarship, an athletic scholarship? How many of you were on the homecoming court? How many of you, I just went through all these honorifics.

How many of you were in these categories? And at the end, there was about 30% of the audience standing up. He said, well, there they are. Those standing are the who's who.

These are the ones that have something to brag about. He looks at that group standing up and he says this. He said, I've got good news and bad news for those of you that are standing up. He said, the good news is that God can use you too.

The bad news is that you're not his first choice. His first choice are those that are seated beside you because God chooses the weak to shame the strong. And God wants to do things in the world in a way that the glory will not go to the strength of the man or the speed of the horse, but will go to God who fights to the left hand of weakness.

God doesn't need your ability. He just wants your availability. Where has God told you to act that you're not obeying him? Maybe there is a ministry vision he's put on your heart that you have yet to pursue. Maybe he has told you to start doing something that you're not doing it. Maybe he's told you about a person that you need to reach out to. But every time you're like, God, they're going to ask me questions I don't know.

They might mock me. I don't want to be in that situation. And what you're saying is, God, my arm's not strong enough. And God's like, I don't need.

Oh, you don't have all the answers. I don't need your arm. All I need is for you to obey me. And to when I tell you to stop the car, I want you to stop. God does his work in the world through ordinary people, obeying him in ordinary ways. And God takes those weak acts of obedience and infuses them with his power so that you in your life can say like Ehud and like Philip and like the little boy, it is Zachariah. It is not by might or by my power. It is by your spirit. And this is what the Lord has said. Have you discovered the secret of Christianity?

Have you discovered it? The secret of Christianity is if you don't save yourself by your strength, God gives it as a gift. Christ purchased it in your place and offered it to you. God can use anyone, even the most unlikely people to serve his purposes. It all begins with simple steps of obedience. That's one of the many lessons that we find in Judges chapter three. You're listening to Summit Life with pastor and Bible teacher J.D.

Greer. I'd like to encourage you to get a copy of our newest resource inspired by Pastor J.D. 's Ask Me Anything podcast, the new book titled Honest Questions, Quick Answers, Volume Two tackles some tough questions from listeners like you, such as, can you lose your salvation?

Or if a child wanders from the faith, is it the parent's fault? Or how can I trust Christians when so many are hypocritical? And the answers are short and concise.

Our goal isn't to give overly deep, comprehensive responses, but quick, accessible answers. This is a great resource that you don't want to miss. Get your copy today when you give a financial gift of $35 or more. Call 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220. Or give online at jdgreer.com. You can also write to us and request the Bible study at J.D. Greer Ministries, P.O.

Box 122-93, Durham, North Carolina, 27709. I'm Molly Vitovich. Tomorrow our attention turns to the subject of empowering men and women in leadership. Listen Thursday when J.D. Greer teaches on the topic from judges four and five right here on Summit Life. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.