The Humble Things God Uses

The sermon outlines an important principle in Scripture that God actively opposes pride and arrogance while giving grace to the humble. According to 1 Corinthians 1, God uses ordinary things, worthless things, and even despicable things to accomplish His program and purposes. The material God chose to create human beings is dust—an inexpensive and worthless substance—reminding us that all glory belongs to God, the Creator who gives the breath of life. The sermon is constructed to establish that the materials and tools God uses are insignificant in human eyes.

The sermon provides numerous biblical examples illustrating how God works through humble materials and insignificant tools. Moses, an obscure shepherd, was called by God through a burning bush in the wilderness to lead the people out of Egyptian slavery. God used Moses' simple shepherd's staff to part the Red Sea. Joshua erected a memorial of twelve ordinary stones from the Jordan River, not precious marble. Deborah used a tent peg and hammer to defeat an enemy commander. Samson used the jawbone of a dead donkey to defeat thousands of Philistine soldiers. David used an ordinary sling and stones picked from a stream to kill the giant Goliath.

In the New Testament, God chose Mary, an ordinary teenage girl from Nazareth, to bear the Savior. Jesus was born in a stable with a manger—in a dark, unclean place where animals were kept. The Gospel was first announced to shepherds, people despised in society. Jesus used five loaves of bread and two small fish from a boy to perform a miracle feeding five thousand people. Jesus chose twelve disciples who were uneducated fishermen, despised tax collectors, and political zealots—people nobody would select for high office. Billy Graham, a rural farm boy, was chosen by God to preach the Gospel to hundreds of millions of people. The Apostle Paul, who had arrested and sought to execute believers, was mercifully saved by God and used to write thirteen epistles in the New Testament and establish many churches.

Paul used the image of earthen vessels to describe people, because while the outer vessel is humble, it can contain precious treasure inside. The sermon emphasizes that supreme power comes from God, not from human beings. In 1 Corinthians 1:26-29, God chose foolish things, weak things, despised things to nullify great things, so that humanity cannot boast before God. The sermon concludes that on the day of judgment, those previously poor, sick, humble, ugly, and uneducated—those scorned and despised by the world—will sit at the same table with kings, scholars, and others, because God calls them His brothers and sisters.