The Unlikely God / 1 Corinthians 1:26-31

Introduction: The Unlikely Journey

Alright, church. Well, it is good to be with you again. I want to say something up front. If you’re a guest with us here this evening—maybe this is your very first time at The Well—I have got some good news and some bad news for you.

The good news is that for the last seven weeks, we’ve been in a series called The Unlikely, where we’ve been studying through the Old Testament book of Judges, looking at some very unlikely characters that God used in some very unlikely ways for His glory and His purposes. It has been a really good and intentional series here this summer. That’s the good news.

The bad news is you’ve caught us on the final message. It’s kind of like walking in during the last fifteen minutes of a movie. But the cool thing is, hopefully, it’s the best fifteen minutes of the movie! So we’re just going to put that down right now.

The other good news is we have this crazy invention called a podcast. If you missed any of it, you can go to our website, journey back in time, and watch where we’ve been this summer. Hopefully it will be an encouragement to you.

For those who have been with us for the bulk of this series, I’m curious: just by a quick show of hands, how many of you have benefited from this study? God has used it in your life to some degree? Alright, a handful of you. That means the rest of you either weren’t here or don’t care! That’s fine. We can work with that tonight.

As we entered into this series, we had two primary hopes up front—two prayers that we asked God, through His Spirit, to show us and accomplish in us throughout this study. I want to land this final message around those two prayers.

Seeing Ourselves in the Story of Redemption

The first hope and prayer was that through our study, we might see ourselves a bit more clearly in the lives and characters of Judges. We hoped that through their brokenness, their struggles, and God’s redemption of them, we might see the power of the gospel to redeem our own lives as well.

We looked at six character studies this summer, and each of them had something distinctly unlikely about how God used them:

First, we studied Othniel. What made Othniel unlikely as a judge in Israel was that he was in the twilight years of his life. He was an elderly man who probably faced the temptation to feel washed up, past his prime, and too old to be a national leader delivering people from bondage. He could have thought God couldn’t use him like that. Yet, we saw that God redeemed Othniel’s elderly years. They weren’t wasted or squandered; they were redeemed so God could bring deliverance through him.

Then we looked at Ehud. Ehud was unlikely because, for all practical purposes, he was physically disabled in his right hand. Here was a man who likely felt, There’s no way God can use me. What was once my strong arm is now my weakness. Surely I don’t qualify to fulfill God’s purposes as a deliverer. Yet God redeemed him, took that weakness, turned it into a strength, and used Ehud to deliver His people from bondage.

Next came Jephthah. Jephthah came from a severely broken background: his father was an adulterer, his mother was a prostitute, and he was kicked out of his home at a young age. He took to the streets and lived a life of crime. He easily could have thought, I am damaged goods. I’m too far gone. God’s reach can’t extend to someone who has been where I’ve been. Yet God met Jephthah right in the midst of his darkness and redeemed him. Before long, God not only delivered Jephthah, but used him to deliver the entire nation.

Then, who could forget Samson? Samson had all the bulk and muscle, but what made him unlikely was his incredible arrogance, his pride, and his lustful eyes. Everything was about feeding his flesh and glorifying himself at the expense of everything else. Our culture—and certainly his culture—would say there’s no way God could use someone that cocky, arrogant, and indulgent. Yet God intervened despite Samson’s flaws and used him to bring deliverance.

After Samson, we met the unlikely trio: a Jewish woman named Deborah, a Gentile woman named Jael, and their passive military commander, Barak. Together, they were cultural misfits. Nobody expected a Jewish woman, a Gentile woman, and a passive man to lead a military rescue. Yet God used the three of them in tandem to deliver the nation.

Finally, last week, we looked at Gideon. Gideon was exceptionally fearful, timid, constantly doubting, and convinced God couldn’t do anything through him. He hid away, asking, Who am I? God would never use somebody like me. Go pick someone cool. Yet God took this man’s fears and inhibitions and used them to magnify His own power and strength, bringing deliverance through Gideon.

Our prayer was that all of us would connect to at least one of these characters and realize: None of us are beyond the reach and redemption of God. There is not one person in this room who is too far gone or such damaged goods that God cannot redeem, restore, and use for His glory. Not one of us.

Just this past midweek, a couple came up to me weeping and broken. They were visiting the church for the first time, saying, “I’ve made a mess of my marriage. I cheated, everything is falling apart, and we’ve tried everything in our own strength to fix this, but it just seems unfixable.”

What an opportunity to sit with them and say, “God has the power to restore anything.” It is almost as if we forget who God is, as if He’s saying, Have you not read My business card lately? This is what I do. I take old, broken things and make them new.

Paul captures this redemptive heart of God so powerfully in his letter to the Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 5:17-20 (NASB)

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, [he is] a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all [these] things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

Paul is saying, This is your identity. You are no longer identified by your past, your brokenness, or your marred, rebellious nature. You are identified in Jesus Christ, who has made you a new creation.

And notice: he doesn’t stop at redemption. God reconciles us to Himself through Christ, and then He hands us the ministry of reconciliation. He doesn’t just save us off the scrap heap; He makes us His ambassadors. Every story in Judges points to this scandalous grace—God taking what is broken, restoring it, and using it for His kingdom purposes.

The True Hero: An Unlikely God

That brings us to the second and even greater hope for this series.

As we read the stories in Judges, we need to realize that the central theme of the entire book is not actually about an unlikely people—it is entirely about an unlikely God.

As great as the stories of Samson, Gideon, Deborah, and Jephthah are, they are not the heroes of the book. God is the hero. They are not the saviors. God is the Savior and the Deliverer. These stories were never meant to end with us gazing at human characters; they were designed to point us directly to God through Jesus Christ.

We do this all the time with Bible stories. How many times have you heard a sermon on David and Goliath where the pastor says, “You are David! You just need to build up your confidence and slay the giants in your life!” That is not the point of the story. If you want to insert yourself into the David and Goliath narrative, do you know who we are? We are the trembling Israelites on the sidelines, terrified because we have zero ability within ourselves to overcome the enemy. We need an outside champion. We need an unlikely deliverer to step in and rescue us. David was a prototype pointing forward to Christ.

In the same way, the Book of Judges shows us an unlikely God who does for us what we could never do for ourselves.

If you and I were scripting the story of Judges, we would never have written God the way He actually is. Think about it: if you were God, and you had a people who constantly rebelled against you, constantly turned away to do what was right in their own eyes, and constantly traded you for cheap idols, what would you do?

If we’re honest, we would incinerate them! We would go Hunger Games on them and turn them into crispy critters. But not our God. That is what makes Him so unlikely. He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He is quick to forgive, faithful to redeem, and relentlessly pursues those who spit in His face, offering them mercy.

Furthermore, if you were casting a military rescue, who would you choose? You probably wouldn’t pick an elderly man whose strength is gone. You wouldn’t pick a soldier with a crippled hand. You wouldn’t pick a passive commander and two women in an ancient patriarchal culture. You’d go looking for Liam Neeson or Jason Bourne! You’d want someone with a lethal set of skills.

Yet our God chooses the weak to demonstrate His strength. This is the very heart of the gospel, just as Paul reminded the church in Corinth.

1 Corinthians 1:26-31 (NASB)

For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, ‘LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.’

Paul says: Look around the room! Are we the best and brightest? God help us if this is the elite squad! No—God chose the foolish, the weak, and the despised so that no human being could boast in His presence.

It is not the characters in Judges that are the most unlikely; it is God Himself. He takes our checkered pasts, our insufficiencies, our fears, and our pride, and He redeems them so that all the glory belongs to Him.

2 Corinthians 4:7 (NASB)

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves;

Judges primes us for the gospel. It shows us that apart from God’s grace in Christ, we are completely helpless. God offered His own Son, Jesus Christ, unconditionally on a cross to pay the penalty for our sins, raising Him from the dead so that by faith in Him alone, we might be reconciled, made new, and used for His glory.

Pastor Tim Keller summarized the book of Judges brilliantly in his study Judges for You:

“Judges can be described as despicable people doing deplorable things, and as trashy tales about dysfunctional characters. As the history unfolds, even the heroes, the judges, become increasingly flawed and failing. They do many appalling things, and their efforts have less and less redemptive effect as the story goes on. It’s a dismal story, and it’s all history, so the reader will be led to ask again and again, What in the world is this doing in the Bible?

The answer is an important one: It is all about the gospel. The book of Judges shows us that the Bible is not a book of virtues. It is not full of inspirational stories. Why? Because the Bible, unlike the books on which other religions are based, is not about following a moral code. It is about a God of mercy and long-suffering who continually works in and through us despite our constant resistance to His purposes. Ultimately, there is one hero in this book, and it is God. Ultimately, there is one Savior in this book, and it is God.“

Here is the good news for every single one of us who feels broken, disqualified, or damaged: You are not the hero of your story. You are not your own savior. You are not your own deliverer.

You might ask, “How is that good news? All the self-help books at Barnes & Noble tell me I am the hero!” Don’t read those books. You are not the hero—and that is good news because God has provided a Deliverer who actually has the power to heal, restore, and make all things new through Jesus Christ.

Responding to the Unlikely God

As we close this series, I don’t want us to just walk away saying, “Well, I learned some cool trivia about Samson and Gideon.” I want us to sit in this truth and wrestle with three vital questions.

1. Have you truly placed your trust in the God of the Bible, or are you trusting in a cultural counterfeit? Everything starts here. Before we talk about deliverance, redemption, or how God wants to use your life, where is your trust anchored? Have you transferred your trust completely from yourself to Jesus Christ as your sole Savior? Or are you relying on worldly security and acting as your own functional savior? If you have never surrendered your life to Him, there is no better time than tonight to do business with God.

2. In what areas of your life are you expectantly asking Jesus to deliver, heal, restore, or use you? What prayers are you praying right now that, if answered, the only possible explanation would be God? If your prayers are so small that you could accomplish them in your own strength, your view of God is too small. Where do you need to trust this unlikely God to do what only He can do—in your marriage, your family, your friendships, your workplace, and our city?

3. In what ways are you allowing God to be magnified through your life, and where might you be stealing His glory? Are there areas of pride, fear, or unrepentant sin where you are trying to make yourself look like the hero? When people read the story of your life, is it clear that Jesus is the Deliverer and Redeemer? Tonight is the time to repent of self-reliance, surrender those areas to God, and run toward Him in faith.

I’m going to invite the band to come up and play softly over us. We are going to take a few minutes right where we are to process these questions.

Some of you are journalers—take out a notebook and write through these questions. For others, spend this time on your face in prayer. Grab the person next to you and pray together. For someone else, maybe you need to step out into the lobby, make a phone call, and apologize to someone you’ve wronged.

Whatever you need to do, let’s bring our mess and our brokenness to the only God who can redeem and restore it. Spend time with the Lord, and in a few moments, I will come back up and lead us in communion together.