GOD’S HALL OF FAME
1 Corinthians 1:26-2:4
INTRO: Ask those who received an honor such as class president, all Americans Beta club, etc. Not talking to those today, but to the rest of the audience. God can use the others too, but it will be a little harder.
It is not scholarship that matters, but relationship. Not ability, but availability. Not fame, but faith. Not who you know, but whose you are that matters.
I. QUALIFICATIONS (vs. 26-28).
A. Doesn’t say not any mighty.
1. Paul was one of the wise men of the world. He said: “I count them but dung” (refuse).
2. God does choose some mighty.
3. He does use some rich.
Thank God for those who are in this category and love God.
B. Not a reason for excuses.
1. Not a good voice – but you should try to be the best singer you possibly can be.
2. Not a high I.Q. – but you should give every point of it to God.
“It doesn’t take much of a man to be a Christian, but it takes all there is of him.”
C. God gives all his people extra ordinary power. He wants to take ordinary people and fill them with the Holy Spirit and do extraordinary things.
II. ILLUSTRATIONS.
A. Chosen the foolish things (Greek: moron) non-intellectual.
1. Nathan 2 Kings 5.
a. Had leprosy.
b. Slave girl told him where he could to go to be cured.
c. It was who she knew. She didn’t know the answer, but she knew where it could be found.
2. Billy Sunday – baseball player – only a H.S. grad. God’s laugh at the preachers.
a. Antics he performed on pulpit.
b. Pulled a man’s beard in invitation.
B. Weak things. Physically (Greek: sickly)
1. Pharaoh – all boys should be slain.
a. Pharaoh’s daughter bathed in the river – she could have bathed in the palace – she heard Moses crying (Exodus 2:6).
b. At the crying of a baby, God set aside Pharaoh’s decree.
Paul said: “When I’ am weak, I am the strongest.”
C. Base things. Low worth. People from the wrong side of the tracks.
1. Gideon chosen. Judges 6:11.
a. My family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my fathers house.
b. Manasseh is worst of all the tribes.
2. God took him and defeated the Midianites.
D. Despised things. Things that the world hates, and writes off.
1. David and Goliath. 1 Samuel 17:43-46.
2. Rest of the people thought this giant was to big to hit – David thought he was to big to miss.
E. Things which are not. These are the Nobodies. These people didn’t make the who’s who list. They didn’t even make the who’s not list.
III. APPLICATIONS.
A. Vs. 29 No flesh should glory. This is a rebuke to our pride.
Today there is in our churches flesh on parade, and God hates it.
ILLUS: of woodpecker hit the tree just as a bolt of lightning struck it. He stood back and looked at it then brought about 10 other woodpeckers around. There it is brethren
B. A dependence on Jesus. God chose each of us to do a certain job.
It is not your job to persuade God to use you, just to permit him to do so.
