Hafer: God Uses Ordinary People for Extraordinary Things

God Uses Ordinary People For Extraordinary Things

By Ron Hafer

Speaker 1:

Let's all stand together for those of us that are here. Let's open up with a word of prayer.

God, we just saw we come this morning. Acknowledging, Lord, that we are not worthy to worship you, but we pray, Lord, that you would cleanse us in the blood of Christ Lord. We pray that we'd be mindful of his mercy towards us, Lord; it's never ending in our lives. Lord, may we sing about that this morning in Christ's name, amen.

[Blessed Assurance by Phoebe Palmer Knapp is performed]

Lord, we pray this morning that that would be the cry of our hearts, that we would praise you all the day long both in worship, Lord, and in word, God, and in action. God, would that be true in our lives, in the name of Christ? Amen you may be seated.

I forgot to mention something on Tuesday about chapel accountability for this. It only counts towards makeup credit of the previous semester. And it is, it's expected, but not necessarily required for summer chapel attenders.

So today we have Mr. Needs No Introduction, our senior preacher, Ron Hafer. Let's give a warm welcome.

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Hafer: God Uses Ordinary People for Extraordinary Things

[Audience Applause]

Ron Hafer:

Hey, if I, if I understood that announcement correct, you could all be getting up and leaving right now, but stay, stay. I feel that we have something from the Lord (clears throat).

The Lord has a way, actually a habit of taking very ordinary, extremely ordinary people and doing extraordinary things for himself and for his kingdom. It could be documented, Old

Testament and New. God gave me kind of a living illustration of that when I was a youth pastor

(indistinguishable murmurs) years ago back in Colorado. Robert was, was a prayer request.

Every time we would gather in our college career group to pray, Carol, Robert's sister would say, pray for Robert. No, he won't come to church, and then she would give us a little by little, reports of Robert. I pictured him as a mean, gnarly ornery, a kind of a guy. They were from actually very wealthy homes. So I pictured him driving in a brand new car. Then it was, it wouldn't seem new to you, but. And, and, you know, well-dressed and just kind of this--a man about town. I put, I pieced together the story of Robert. He grew up in this wealthy home, but got into addictive behavior, was dismissed from high school, went into the military, and was honorably discharged, but it was a question. And he had trouble with employment. It was rumored that he had actually become so discouraged that he tried to take his own life. And those who would try to share with

Robert, they said he was so bright that he could, you know, put down every, every, an answer to every question. So pray for Robert. And I would say to Carol, well, you know, I could visit him if he didn't want to come here. We could take the mountain to Mohammed. She said, well, no, he doesn't live at home and, and he moves around. So he was kind of this mysterious prayer request.

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Hafer: God Uses Ordinary People for Extraordinary Things

One Sunday night in Denver, Colorado, where I was youth pastor, with the snow lightly falling on my brand new red 1963 Volkswagen standing in the lot was Robert, I had never met him. And there were no other cars and he didn't look intimidating. At my size, you know, everyone is bigger. So, but he was kind of skinny and it looked like he, he had a wrinkled sweater and he shouldn't have had a beard because he wasn't, it was hardly, almost non-existent.

Looking down at the ground and by now, snow had gathered on his head. But he was standing right there by the car. Normally it would be a little bit weird and spooky, but and I don't know why, but I just thought I'd never met him. I thought. That's Robert. So I went to the car because he had been described and looked a little like his sister. Unfortunately for him, not as much as he could have. And I said, I said, hi, I'm Ron. Actually, I said hi, I'm Buster than I was Buster until I was 30. I was Buster. That's a whole other story. Well, let me go into it--no.

And he didn't shake my hand. And he looked down and he didn't introduce himself. And I so I said, are you Robert? He nodded. And then he looked up, almost making eye contact. And he said, (sheepishly, stuttering) how do you pray? I thought, trick question (laughs), if this is gnarly, mean, nasty Robert, he's gonna--but I thought, so I thought, well, shoot right to the source. I said, sure. You know what? We could sit in the Volkswagen and then we wouldn't lose our lives out here. And he wasn't, he didn't see any humor in that but I thought it was incredibly funny. So we got in, and sat down, and brushed the humor off, I am, I'm a comedian. Most people just don't realize it, you know, and. And I said, Robert, you pray by, yeah. Actually, the contact is Jesus and you talk to God through Jesus. I thought, okay, we'll start there. Have you studied the Bible? Yes, I've read it all the way through. Which is, I'm a Biola grad, but I probably hadn't done that at that point. I said, whoa, impressive. I said, you know, stories of Jesus? Yeah.

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Hafer: God Uses Ordinary People for Extraordinary Things

You know his claims? Yes. That he's the son of God that he died for the sins of the world? Yes.

That he was buried and then he rose again? Yes, I've read that.

Well, let's go for the jugular. I mean, he didn't hear Jerry Route's message on evangelism,

But I did. So I said so I said, Robert, have you ever invited, prayed to invite Jesus Christ into your life as you Lord in your savior? He said, I didn't know I could. My five aggressive college guys that had talked with him, apparently were attacking it from every end, but the right. I said you can. And he didn't--his eyes never met. I said, would you like to invite Christ into your life as your Lord and Savior? He said, I guess so. And we bowed to pray, and as we did, God forgive me. It's Chapel and I'm the chaplain. You have to be, speak the truth in love. I thought, Lord.

God forgive me. What could you do with this guy? What? What will you do with this guy?

Because I--and that was pretty much the story of my early years as a youth pastor, I'm afraid that

I was assessing people for the gifts that maybe I saw; God had to take me through some deep, deep waters. And it's almost as though he whispered, he didn't, but it's almost as though the Lord whispered, why don't you point him to me and let me have a shot at him? And so I did.

We'll return to Robert in a moment. But I, I want, I want to make a reference. I'm not going to have you turn--you may if you want to-- Judges chapter six. But another, a very ordinary, almost less than ordinary individual was hanging out in a wine press while the

Midianites. This is the, this is my message called the Gideon-ites versus the Midianites. Gideon was going to become a judge of Israel, but I didn't know it and really didn't desire it. What he was good at this point was crushing, beating out wheat. Not on the top of the hill where those who were raised rurally will tell you is a place to thresh wheat and get rid of all of the impurities and get the wind to help you; but in a wine press at the bottom of a hill. He was there because he didn't want the Midianites to take his wheat or barley loaf away from him; this amazingly non-

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Hafer: God Uses Ordinary People for Extraordinary Things courageous, very average, very ordinary individual. And as God chose these judges one by one,

I'm convinced that he did it with a huge smile on his face.

During my years at Talbot seminary, I just throw that in to prove that I did, in fact, attend

Talbot seminary (laughs). They said to me when I graduated. Admit it, but don't boast of it

(laughs). During my years in my papers, I would continually get papers back, not with as high grades as I wished, saying Jesus--neither Jesus nor God are as funny as you think he is. But I think God has a great sense of humor. So he taps the angel of the Lord on the shoulder, says go to Ophrah, don't look on the top of the hill, go down in the valley and you'll find little Gideon beating out wheat. He finds him. The Angel of the Lord is just laid back, sitting there waiting.

Gideon is thrashing the wheat in the wine press. He has counted the Midianites. They are, I don't know the number now, but I know the odds were 450 to one on the side of the Midianites, and the Midianites were living in the homes of the Israelites. The Israelites not only had deferred to this godless enemy, but were living in caves and hills just trying to find some food because the previous chapter, chapter five and six says that these Midianites that were more than couldn't be counted. I smile at that because later God does count them. So he, I think he just means keep reading, you know. And so they they're eating all the cattle. They're eating all the sheep. They're eating everything in sight. And Gideon's greatest hope is to find yet one more barley loaf that he can eke out as life goes along.

And the Angel of the Lord spoke to him, and the angel of the Lord said to Gideon in

Judges, chapter six. We have to raise your hand, because angels always did in the play, didn't they? The Lord is with you all valiant warrior. And I don't think he was chuckling, and I know

Gideon wasn't, and Gideon is looking back over her shoulders (with sass) excuse me? The Lord is with you valiant warrior. Valiant means incredibly brave in the light of opposition in battle.

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Hafer: God Uses Ordinary People for Extraordinary Things

Valiant. And warrior means you've proven yourself in war. He wasn't valued and he wasn't warrior. He had never been to war. So why on earth would God, through the Angel of the Lord, say to Gideon, the Lord is with you, oh valiant, warrior? There isn't enough time to study the four chapters. So I'll give you the answer, because it's just, it's just a brief chapel. Because God saw in Gideon--and you and me--not where they were, where we are, but where we can be; empowered by God, encouraged by God, and with a vision for God in our hearts to do not our will, but his will.

One hundred years ago, when I was 12 in Denver, Colorado, I saw the town alcoholic, my father. Walk forward in a church, I can't remember which verse of Just As I Am it was, but it was toward the end. I think we had sung all four or five verses and we were humming a verse, and the town alcoholic, my dad gave his life to Jesus Christ. And in that year, our entire dysfunctional family, one by one, were called to not only trust Christ as Savior and Lord of our lives, but really were called into ministry. My mom is the best preacher in the bunch. But in our abomination, women don't preach. So she was just simply called a Bible teacher. But this incredible, dysfunctional family had the privilege of being thrust into ministry far beyond what we had ever dreamt or imagined. Back to Gideon, and then eventually back to Robert, and we'll do it all before Kyle sends us out of here, in this brief chapel time.

Gideon doesn't say, well, if God if the hand of God is on me, then I'm your man and I'll do your thing. No, he starts to argue with God. The Angel of the Lord said basically he didn't answer his question. He simply said God is going to empower you to do this. Gideon, not just in this chapter, but three different times in the three and a half chapters of his story, Gideon continually asks for signs. I'm not choosing to speak on the fleece because I still don't understand why God condescended to do that with Gideon. I know that that's not the plan for us. I know this:

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Hafer: God Uses Ordinary People for Extraordinary Things finally, Gideon, knowing that the angel wasn't going to leave, said, wait here. He prepared an altar. He actually, he actually surrendered not just the animal, but his life at this point. And he said, if this is of you, Lord, if you'll just give me a little sign. The Angel said, you bring me sacrifice, get it all ready, and we'll see what happens. He did that. The angel lit the fire--must have been very exciting. And then not the NIV that I'm using, but another translation says that the angel disappeared in the fire (laughs). And I, and I think, I think that probably got Gideon's attention. And what he did was start to take baby steps of obedience.

If you don't know the story, I'll give you just one quick shot. Gideon knew that the altars of the Ashara and, and the Baal's were all over the Israel hillsides. His father, who is kind of like the town mayor, apparently had the largest, filthy pagan idols. And the Lord said, if you want to start obeying me, you go tear those down. If I went from preaching to meddling, but I don't have time, I would ask us--well, I'm going to do it casually--about the idols in our lives and the things that need to happen so that the Spirit of God can work and move. I'd ask how long it's been since we, myself included, have intentionally presented our body back on the altar and said, Lord, I'm yours. You use me the way you would like. So Gideon has had his alter experience. Now he's challenged with obedience. He knew those idols were up there, those pagan idols and the Ashara and all of that filthy stuff--so filthy that most preachers don't even include it in a mixed audience.

Needless to say, Gideon knew those had to come down at the start.

So he waited till nighttime, you coward. Yes, and he took with him some of the servants because he couldn't do it on his own. But that's all right, because it was obedience, and he tore down the altars. The next day, the town was miffed. But it's interesting, because Gideon's father now has seen this spark of courage and, kind of, is aligning with his son. Story of Gideon is phenomenal. How do you beat 135000 wicked Midianites with a non-trained Israelite army? God

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Hafer: God Uses Ordinary People for Extraordinary Things said gather them all: 22000. God said, this is right. This is in the book. He said, give them the option--I wouldn't have done this, but God, our God is an awesome God. Oh, that would make a good course, wouldn't it (starts humming)? Yeah, I know. That's all right. Give them the option: if you're scared at all--Gideon probably said I wouldn't, I would say--no, no. If they're scared at all, they can leave. After that incident, there are 10000 left; 22000 thousand left immediately, 32-

-so now he has 10000 and God said, now take them down to the water. And you know the story.

Even if you don't nod, for heaven's sake, it's Biola. Most people will give you credit. Have him have him drink; 300 of them did kind of the water in the cup in the hand, bit the rest up and just kind of belly slurped, gulped it right out of the creek. And God said, well, the number is too great. And Gideon said, right, well, at least we can get rid of 300. God said no, get rid of the rest, keep the 300. Excuse me?

Now he has 300 and the odds are 450 to one. Gather them. Give them a pitcher, and a sword, and circle the hills, and wait till halfway through the night and yell and scream, bust the pitcher and scream a sword for the Lord and for Gideon! Gideon said, oh, great. So if it doesn't work, they'll know who the general is. How--what an insane, wild, crazy idea. I think God probably threw that and in there so that we would realize that it's not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit. They did just what he said, and those Midianites couldn't kill one another fast enough. By the time the sun was coming up, 300 wide eyed Israelis, the pitchers gone, so all they have left is a sword, were chasing the Midianites out of the land. My Bible says Gideon defeats the Midianties. But that's not the title, God defeated the Midianites. He chooses very ordinary people willing to yield to him everything and then watch God work.

Meanwhile, back in the red VW in Denver, Colorado in the parking lot of Judson Baptist

Church, Robert said that he wanted to pray. We bowed. I thought, now I'll lead him in prayer.

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Hafer: God Uses Ordinary People for Extraordinary Things

But he had the audacity to pray without waiting for my prayer. How can they do that? Didn't he know he had to wait for the prayer? And Robert prayed (pausing between each word): Oh, God, I am nothing. Wow. It it broke my heart, but I think God was saying, okay, yeah, right. Now, whatever happens in this guy's life, they all know it wasn't Robert. You know how I know he got saved? Not because he came to church, because Kenny Poor said you can walk into a garage and it doesn't make you a car, come to the church and make you a believer. But, but because he said,

I'm willing to get involved in ministry and I'll do it with the juniors (laughs). That's, that's a commitment. The linoleum lizards, the little rug rats, the ankle biters. And he started to drive a bus and pick up these little creatures and bring them to church. And Robert had this wild background. So he was so excited about God that in Wednesday night testimony time, got very exciting. Elder Jensen would say, well, I thank the Lord that I've been saved for 100 years and would like to quote the same verse. And Robert would stand up and say, I am so bleep-ity-bleep happy. I'm so bleep, and he'd just--and people are looking around. Wow. But, you know, he was bleep-ity-bleep happy, and God eventually saved his mouth, but he saved his heart and his soul; and people started to watch this gnarly creature and think what on earth. He came up after two years of driving the bus and doing work around the church, said he gonna go to Bible school. I tried to talk him out of it. He didn't listen to me; went to this little school in the Rocky Mountain area that I wouldn't recommend. But it's okay. I was there and he was there for a three year program to be a youth pastor.

In his third year--I was still single, by the way, and satisfied. That's before I had met the lovely Hilda. And Robert invited me to this crummy little school about an hour and half up in the

Colorado Rockies to a basketball game with this crummy little team. And they played another equally crummy team. And I thought the only exciting thing about that game was that Robert's

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Hafer: God Uses Ordinary People for Extraordinary Things school had three cheerleaders and one of them I thought was exceptional, just exceptional. In those days, we would have called her a babe, a fox, a sweet mama (laughs). I thought, well, she's very nice looking lady. And I thought maybe and Robert pointed to her, and it didn't matter because nobody was watching the game. He says do you see? Yeah, I said, I see. I thought maybe he's going to use me. He said, I'm going to (stutters) marry her. I said, are you dating that girl, Robert? He said (stuttering), no, not yet. I grabbed him by his little Bible school sweatshirt and I just watch my lips: don't just ask her to marry you. You ask her out. She went out.

Four days later, they came into Sunday school class. I was teaching. You're the youth pastor. You can do anything you want. He got there late, didn't matter. This gorgeous girl is with him. And I thought, how could that be on her left? No way. A diamond ring. And they walked in and I said, let's, let's get in small groups. Robert, you be in mine. It didn't matter. It didn't matter.

Everybody was listening. I said, Robert, would you like to introduce your guest? Yeah,

(stuttering) I'd like you to meet my fiancée. I thought, no way. Yeah we went out to eat at Casa

Bonita, this beautiful place in Denver. Oh, great place. I'll tell you about it when we have longer chapel and she said then we went out for a drive up to a place called Lookout Mountain in

Denver, where you go to memorize the scriptures and pray (snaps fingers a couple times).

[Audience Laughter]

Well, I mean, I did. She said he said to me (stuttering), I love you. She said, I love you, too, Robert. He said (stuttering, voice cracking), would you like, do you think we have be--she said, Do you think it's God's will that we get married? This isn't normal. Don't try this at home.

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Hafer: God Uses Ordinary People for Extraordinary Things

[Audience Laughter]

He said, yes. She said, so do I. And they were. She calls me. They're married. She says,

Ron, pray. We're going to interview at this church for Robert to be a youth pastor. I said I'll pray.

Oh, God. He could do anything he could be my intern for nothing. He could drive a truck. Surely there are other things. Oh, God, show him. And, you know, great prayer, faith. She called me a couple hours later. She said he got the job. I said, oh, good. No problem. Yeah. I went to Robert's first time with his youth group. Elders, five of them, had hired this guy without the youth ever meeting him. And when they met him, they met him the morning he taught 20, 25 teenagers.

They introduced him. Yes, I was in the back. His wife said, come, but don't stay in the back, cause you make Robert nervous (laughing). So I'm in the back. Oh, God. Now you can do it, I believe it, please. You know, they introduced him. Robert stood up, introduced his wife. That was smart. Then he said, turn in your (stuttering) Bibles to mm--they tried to help and they said,

Matthew? No, no, Mark. Yeah, yeah, good, Mark. And he, and he taught for 30, 35 minutes, probably covered far more scripture than I have during this time. And they hung literally on every word and fell in love with Robert, and loved him for three and a half, four years, till he went to another youth group and stuttered through every sentence that he spoke to prove that

God doesn't just take the wonderfully skilled, but on occasion, more often than not, he dips into the pool of ordinary people and he says, the Lord is with you, oh valiant warrior. At the end of, at the beginning of Robert's preaching to his youth group, he said (stuttering), turn in your

Bibles. This might take a while. And they chuckled and waited him out. As we yield mighty warriors of God, it will take a while. But that's the idea. It's the process of yielding to the

Lordship of Jesus Christ.

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Hafer: God Uses Ordinary People for Extraordinary Things

Father, bless these men and women during this time. It's a heavy, steady time. Cause us all to be faithful hearers and doers of your word in the strong name of Christ. We pray amen

(audio cuts off).

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