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Faith in Imperfect Vessels · 5-Minutes of Good News

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, Christians.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is Dallas Beecham.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Stand by for good news.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: A line in Hebrews 11 almost makes it sound like the writer is in a hurry.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: He has already spoken of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Rahab, and others.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Then he says, And what shall I say more?
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: For the time would fail me.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Then he starts naming names Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: It is as though he is saying, I could keep going.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: I could tell story after story.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Faith has left footprints all across the old record.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: But here is what catches my attention.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Some of those names are not polished trophies in a glass case.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: They are rough.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: They are complicated.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: They are men with fear, weakness, hesitation, failure, and sorrow in stories.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yet God placed their names in the chapter of faith.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Gideon was threshing wheat by the wine press, hidden from the Minnesota, when the angel of the Lord called him a mighty man of valor.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Gideon did not feel mighty.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: He had questions.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: He asked for signs.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: But when God reduced his army to 300 men, Gideon still went forward.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Faith is not always the absence of fear.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes faith is obeying God while your knees are still shaking.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Barak heard the word of the Lord through Deborah.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: He was told to go to Mount Tabor and face Sisera with 900 chariots of iron.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Baerach wanted Deborah to go with him, and because of that, the honor of the victory would not rest on him alone.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: But still, when the day came, Baera went down, he went down the mountainside.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Faith may begin with trembling, but it moves when God says, Get up, for this is the day.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Samson is another name we might not expect to find in Hebrews 11.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: His life was marked by strength and weakness, victory and failure, but at the end, blinded and bound, Samson prayed, O Lord, God, remember me.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: His final act was not confidence in himself, but dependence on God.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Faith can still cry out from the ruins and say, Lord, remember me.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Then there is Jepta, rejected by his own family, driven away from his father's house.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: He became the man Israel called when trouble came.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: His story carries pain and warning, but Hebrews still remembers him for faith.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: He went before the Lord.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: He trusted God for deliverance.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: He stood when his own past could have made him bitter.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now, why would God include men like these in the great chapter of faith?
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe to remind us that faith is not the story of flawless people reaching up to God.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Faith is the story of a faithful God working through weak people who believe him.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians 4 and 7 says, We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: That is what Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephthah show us.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: The vessel may be earthen, it may be cracked and ordinary, but the treasure belongs to God.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: And that brings us back to the promise.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: These men lived before Calvary.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: They lived before Pentecost.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: They did not receive the Holy Ghost as Peter preached it in Acts chapter 2.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: But by faith they were part of the road that led there.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Their victories were not the end of the story.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: They were signs along the way.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Hebrews says, through faith they subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, escaped the edge of the sword, and out of weakness were made strong.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Notice that phrase, out of weakness were made strong.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: That is not just their story.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: That is the good news for us too.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because on this side of Calvary, God does not merely call us to remember the promise.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: He lets us receive it.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Peter said, Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: The same God who made weak men strong in battle now fills ordinary people with his spirit.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: So do not count yourself out because you know your own weakness.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Gideon knew fear, Barak knew hesitation, Samson knew failure, Jephthah knew rejection, but faith put their names in God's record book, and the promise of the Holy Ghost means God is still putting his treasure in earthen vessels today.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: If God could use them before the promise was fully revealed, what can he do with a surrendered heart now that the promise has come?
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: That, my friends, is good news.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: This has been Five Minutes of Good News.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: I hope today's message has touched your heart and causes you to have a good day.