Post Sunday November 2 2008

Judges 11:1-3 “Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, but he was the son of a harlot; and Gilead begot Jephthah. Gilead's wife bore sons; and when his wife's sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out, and said to him, "You shall have no inheritance in our father's house, for you are the son of another woman." Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and dwelt in the land of Tob; and worthless men banded together with Jephthah and went out raiding with him.”
We briefly touched upon Jephthah on Sunday and alluded to the fact that you may deem yourself lowly or even worthless, but your thoughts and the thoughts of others toward you do not deem you worthless in God’s eyes and does not disqualify you from being one of God’s cowboys/girls out in the Wild Frontier. In fact the emotional and life turmoil that you may have been through may actually give you a leg up in the wild frontier for you have a mental toughness and a passion for life that is different than those that grew up with the “comforts” of life.

Jephthah was what many of us see ourselves as, someone with strengths and someone with weaknesses. Jephthah “was a mighty man of valor” (certainly a strength) “but he was the son of a harlot;” (not his choice or fault, but certainly a weakness). There always seems to be two sides to us doesn’t there?

I’m a great communicator but I’m really shy.
I’ve got lots of good ideas, but I’m a lousy communicator.
I’ve got a brilliant mind, but my health is failing.
I truly love people, but I’m a control freak.
I’ve got a ton of energy to be involved, but I lack maturity.
I’m a great organizer, but I’m a poor people person.

These kinds of statements freeze us most of the time. They make us think more than act. They make us hesitate more than get involved. They make us hide instead of open up. They are statements that are pretty much anti anything God desires to accomplish through us.

Jephthah on the other hand seemed to do just fine, so much so that the author of Hebrews even included Jephthah as one with great faith:

Hebrews 11:32-34 “And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.”
Notice these verses state “out of weakness were made strong…” Jephthah was banished into the wild. “Worthless men banded together” with him. King David prior to his establishment of his reign was banded together with all the lowly men as well. (1 Samuel 22:1-2). Despite these two seemingly huge negatives (can it sound more negative, banishment and then hanging out with worthless men!) Jephthah was the one called upon by those living in comfort when their comfort was disturbed. Jephthah was the one whose faith was pointed out by one of the writers of the New Testament. How is this possible?

Is it simply possible that Jephthah refused to allow the negative side of his life to govern him? Is it simply possible that Jephthah woke up every morning expecting the day to be different? Jephthah didn’t forget about his home (Judges 11:9 “If you take me back home…). There was somewhere within Jephthah a desire to be home again, but there was clearly a desire to survive and thrive in whatever environment he found himself in. And he clearly did for he had to have made a name for himself for the people of comfort went to get Jephthah specifically (Judges 11:5). They knew he was the only one tough enough to handle the problem that they were faced with. They knew he was the only one with the appropriate skill to not simply handle the problem they were faced with, but then the one with the skill to lead them into the future. This only came about because Jephthah went into the wild and learned to use his skills in the wild instead of taking up his dwelling in “PoorOldMeVille.” (Population of 1. PoorOldMeVille will never grow in population it can only be reduced to 0).

People like Jephthah make it very difficult to find excuses in our lives. Go out into the wild and begin honing your skills. Don’t say you’re not being allowed to, for who in the wild is not allowing you to? Jephthah was kicked out of his home, and then banded together with worthless men, yet he still found a way to use his strength of being a mighty man of valor.

Confront your weaknesses. Stop allowing your weakness to run your life. Why would you want your weakness to run your life anyway? If you are a negative person, stop surrounding yourself with other negative people and stop surrounding yourself with people who are too scared to say anything about your negativity. If someone is bold enough to tell you that you are too negative and you know you are negative put the two together and praise God He brought someone in your life that won’t accept the weakness in your life to control you.

How do you know what your weakness is and how can you know if it is controlling you? Ask someone who will tell you the truth. Be very conscious about the conversations/actions/behaviors you are having each day and make mental notes or journal notes during the day and begin to review where a majority of your words/thoughts/actions are taking you.

I have been very fortunate over the years to have individuals in my life who have no problem telling me where I am weak and where I am strong. It was very painful at first and I was very defensive, but over time I realized that my defensiveness was simply my mechanism to keep me in control and to keep me in a seeming “box of comfort.” Not exactly mighty man of valor stuff going on when I was responding like that. I have resolved that a life with God does not include statements such as “I Can’t” or “What else am I supposed to do?” If God has called me to a task out in the wild frontier than He will complete that task, the task may include numerous failures, which may simply be failures to drive me to a deeper relationship with him, or to expose truth about myself or others, but ultimately the task will be completed as God desires, so it always ends in success regardless of what the earthly outcome is. My role is to remain a faithful man of God through it all.
Life has certainly been more enjoyable living out fully exposed in the wild. I have found deeper friendships and I have found certain “landmines” that I need to avoid. There are setbacks and times in which the wild frontier seems like a never ending desert, but the fact is if I endure as I’ve been called to endure the desert ends and water is present once again. The parts of the wild frontier that are desert help shed unnecessary pounds and baggage that I seemingly desire to carry, they cause me to use my strengths more often and to openly confess my weaknesses to others in order for them to use their strengths to help me.

Jephthah is certainly an encouragement to all of us who have at times felt banished, but at the same time a strong challenge to us who feel ready to quit. Keep learning to live within that wild frontier and expect today to be different; there is great purpose in your life.

“Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer.” Winston Churchill

Questions to Ask Yourself:
1. What is your strength vs. weakness statement(s)?
2. What are you doing with those? What have you allowed them to do to you?
3. Who in your life can you go to receive real honest assessments of where/who you are?

pastor e