In this sermon, the speaker reflects on his own journey of transformation and how he initially felt different from others. However, he realizes that he is like them in the sense that they all recognize their own insignificance before God. The speaker shares a personal experience of living in a park and witnessing people fighting over the best bench to sleep on, highlighting the desperation and struggle in life. Despite our limitations, God calls us to do the impossible and impact the world in extraordinary ways. The sermon then transitions to a series titled "God Is," where the attributes of God are explored, specifically focusing on the incredible nature of God. The speaker emphasizes that God can take the least likely person and use them to bring deliverance, victory, and liberty. The sermon references the story of Gideon in the book of Judges, where God chooses him, despite his lowly status, to lead and bring about great change.

We are doing a series on Friday nights and we've been having a great time entitled God is and I am so grateful that the Lord spoke to Pastor Carter and gave him this series. It's been a wonderful experience for me to study these attributes of God and to do what I can to express them and God has taken it to places that I never thought possible and taken me to places as a result of it. I'd like to continue with that series this afternoon, a message entitled God is incredible. God is incredible. Praise God. Hallelujah. You know about 60 years ago or so there was a great discovery that has helped many Bible scholars to develop some insight into the Judea and the Galilean Peninsula, that area, and also even into some areas I think of the diaspora into places where the Jewish people were dispersed and learned a lot about the culture, a lot about the customs, a lot, you know, these texts as you know are called the Dead Sea Scrolls and they were found by some shepherd boys who were just throwing rocks and they threw some rocks into cave and heard a clink and went inside and all these jars and all of these teachings and studies and all kinds of things and this was considered probably one of the greatest discoveries in at least in the 20th century with regard to biblical studies and so on and so forth. Now it's an awesome thing I'm hearing as it's coming along the wire that there has been another discovery very recently and this one is more likely than not going to even trump the one that I just mentioned actually so it turns out that some very studious archaeologists were studying and searching and came across strangely enough Gideon's high school yearbook and it's this I'm joking I'm joking I just figured how long could I pull this before people realize but anyways it turns out you know you can't you can barely you can't see the picture very good because it's just oh it's no picture you know what I mean but he doesn't look like the happiest kid in the world you know what I mean like he's just kind of making it through and unfortunately under his picture is the statement the boy least likely to succeed and that's what I'd like to talk to you about today you know this man Gideon who had absolutely nothing going for him absolutely no reason God should have used him and yet when we read in the book of Hebrews in the 11th chapter this man is mentioned in what's called the hall of faith this man is mentioned among some of the great luminaries or some among some of the great names as a man who exemplified faithfulness before the Lord a man who placed his trust in the Lord and a man whose name should be mentioned when we think about what it means to be faithful to God and to receive the full benefits of God's faithfulness now I would ask you if you don't mind turn with me in your Bible to the book of Judges the 6th chapter and the 11th verse Judges 6 verse 11 Father we thank you so much for your wonderful presence we know that we can't do anything without you Lord we could all have it said of us that we were the least likely to succeed that there is nothing in us that would commend us to you nothing that we've done in our own strength no talents no powers no upbringing Lord no pedigree we have nothing it's only you and so Father we thank you so much for drawing us to this place this afternoon that we might simply bless you and love you we thank you for your wonderful presence without which we have absolutely nothing we ask that you open your hearts to us oh Jesus and open our hearts to you cause your word to make manifest your glory cause your praise to be glorious in the Jesus we love you we bless you hallelujah hallelujah God is incredible what a wonderful and a glorious savior that we serve we serve a God who is able to take the boy least likely to succeed and make him someone that can be useful in God's hand to deliver an entire people to bring victory where there used to be defeat to bring liberty where there was only bondage this is a man who said about himself I am the least in my father's house and he pointed out the fact that his father's house was the least in the kingdom there was nothing that commended him to God and yet God came to him and God spoke to him and in the book of judges in the sixth chapter and around the 11th verse we begin to read now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in orpa which belonged to Joas you know his name I don't need to go into it right well his son Gideon thrust wheat in the winepress in order to hide it from the Midianites and the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him the Lord is with you you mighty man of valor Gideon said to him oh my Lord if the Lord is with us why then has all this happened to us and where are all his miracles which our fathers told us about saying did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt but now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites then the Lord turned to him and said go in this might of yours and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites have I not sent you so he said to him oh my Lord how can I save Israel indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the least in my father's house and the Lord said to him surely I will be with you and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man then he said to him if now I have found favor in your sight then show me a sign that it is you who talks with me Gideon was the least even in his own eyes there was nothing that he brought to the table there was nothing that he could negotiate with God regarding nothing in his life that made God richer nothing in his life that would commend him to God nothing that would allow him to say Lord you need me for this or you need me for that if he had given his testimony he would not be able to say I gave up this to serve the Lord or I gave up that to serve the Lord he would never have to say I left this behind for God or I made that sacrifice for God he would he wouldn't have any of that to say he would simply have to say that God chose me to serve him I had nothing God owed me nothing I did not impress God with my skills with my talents I had nothing to bring to the table I was not rich I was not smart I was not good-looking didn't have a lot of family didn't have anything that would commend me to God or to the thing that God was calling me to God just called me and it begins with him pointing out what he's not and then God begins to point out who he that is who God is and as God begins to point out who God is he begins to point out who Gideon is in as much as he belongs to God and so in essence Gideon says God I have absolutely nothing and God says but I have everything and if I am calling you then you have everything that you need basically what God is saying to the man is as long as God is incredible that is as long as God is great as long as God is awesome as long as God is mighty then you have everything that you need it's not about the fact that we don't have anything it's a fact that God is everything and therefore everything that we need is found in him he begins Gideon to point out firstly that he is and he knows and it says that as we read the text we have to read the all the chapters um the sixth the seventh the eighth chapters to really get a good feel of it but suffice to say he was the son of an idolater in other words he couldn't say for instance along with Isaac that he was the promised son of a godly man he couldn't say that he was born with promise he couldn't say that my name was like Isaac's name my name was was laughter and I brought joy to my family my family waited for me and my my family prayed for me and I and I when I came it meant everything to them he couldn't say that he was the son of an idolater born into a house we might say in our generation raised in a family that were in some sort of a cult or something like that not necessarily looked for not necessarily longed for and considered the least in his father's house and he might have been able to say like some people in this room nobody waited for me nobody longed for me nobody prayed for me and when I came on the scene I didn't bring a lot of laughter and a lot of cheer and a lot of joy he could have said clearly I am not even sure how much I was wanted notice what he says here I'm the least in my father's house it's a strange thing now he could be simply be meaning I'm the youngest but but sometimes a person is made to feel like they matter the the least that they are the least in this person's life or this person's house or this person's family or whatever the case they just feel like they are the last person that their parents wanted the least person in the house why would God come to that kind of a man that's what he's asking he's basically saying God I I'm not the son of a preacher you you you didn't find me as somebody that you might see you know crossing along the stage in the Bible school or whatever the case might be I wasn't considered in my class the valedictorian of of this theology school or that theology I don't I didn't have any of that I wasn't wanted wasn't needed didn't feel like I belonged but God the Bible says came to him again he could have said you know I'm threshing I'm trying to do what I can to to make ends meet and I'm and I'm trying to make some things happen and and and I and I'm trying to to feed myself and I'm trying to feed my family but but I'm barely able to put anything together and what little I'm able to put together I feel like I have to do it in secret I feel like no matter what I try to put together it seems like something or someone is always trying to take it from me that's what happened in his case every time they tried to grow anything every time they try to make anything happen well they the the Midianites would just kind of swoop down on them and take everything and maybe he was saying in some way or another I I'm barely able to feed my family I'm barely able to make anything happen I'm barely able to put anything together it seems like every time I take one step forward I'm pulled two steps back and I can't seem to to cope with what's going on around me I feel like the the only way that I can even have anything that remotely resembles comfort in is if I feel if is if I is if I hoard what little I have and sometimes people feel that way not only about their finances but sometimes about their emotions see like every time I try to be just a little bit open with my emotions every time I try to be a little bit free with them somebody just comes and snatches another thing from me and I feel like I just gotta hoard and hide what little I have and maybe share it among one or two and that kind of thing and and and I hear God coming to me saying no you're going to be useful to save many and sometimes we feel like God I just feel like I gotta hoard what little I have just to survive sometimes we feel that way about our our love even sometimes we feel that way about our our capacity to share our capacity to give and we just feel I can I'm just able to make it and God comes and say no you're going to be useful to save many your life is going to touch people and when we say many we talk not just about numbers we talk about reaching out into places and into hearts and whether it be two or whether it be two thousand whether it be two million it doesn't matter with God but what it means is we find ourselves reaching out into areas and into places that we never thought we'd reach out and he could look at his life and he could say you know my life is like uh you know I'm doing what I can to hold on to what I have I'm I'm I'm threshing in secret I can't say like I can't say like I'm like Isaac I can't say that I'm like David whatever little I have I'm hoarding to my I'm trying to hide onto David he wrote a psalm and he said you you put a spread in front of me you prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies David was able to say I don't care what kind of things come against me I am going to rejoice in what God has provided for me and I am going to eat I don't care if the devil's looking on or not but but Gideon at that stage in his life wasn't able to say that he said I'm a little bit scared and I get a little bit worried and every time I see the devil trying to peep over my table I think he's gonna try to snatch something out of there and sometimes we got that way and Gideon had to say at some stage in his life you know I'm not like Isaac and I'm not like David I didn't bring a lot of laughter when I was born I didn't bring a lot of laughter when I walked through the doors of the church people didn't when they saw me you know they didn't clap me on my back and say man I'm glad we got this guy here he's gonna push our church onward and so on and so forth they you know folks wouldn't that happen to be sitting next to me I mean you know that's where it works sometimes you know what I mean and that's the way it is I mean not everybody is born that way and again you know God is trying to spread a table before me in the presence of my enemy and I'm scared as anything I mean I've been hurt I've been you know what I mean I've been robbed and I don't I don't want too many people getting too close and I'm eating like this you know what I'm talking about you know this sometimes you know you're eating from the word of God like that yeah you know what I'm talking about and everybody somebody comes in with a little bit of word of constructive criticism and you're like you know get away get away this is my word you know what I mean you know this is what I believe this is what the Bible says and that kind of a thing you know what I'm talking about and this is where he was and yet God was still able to say somehow or another you're going to touch people's lives again when he heard this this news this this glorious news of salvation and how God was going to use him to make a difference in the world he started saying things like yeah I heard I heard that all before you know what I mean somebody might have whispered it into my ear when I was in Sunday school or you know maybe when I was younger I had a little bit of zeal and so on and so forth but but I've waited a long time and I heard all the stories and and and and all I see around me is pain and grief and it's hard for me to believe this thing you know the Bible talks about you know two sons you know and God you know gives the parable that the father asked the two sons go and do a certain thing and one says yes I'll go and do it and he never really goes the other one is honest about it he's like I'm tired I mean I've been out all day I'm just I don't feel like going thank you very much but then he finally goes I think there is a kind of despondency as he's hearing about this victory there's something in him that says I heard about victory a long time now whether it's how he's going to reach out or whether how God is going to reach in and maybe give him some victories over some things and so on and so forth this is where he is and he had to say you know I'm not like Isaac right now and I'm not like David right now and he probably had to say in this case I'm not like Joshua you know how when Joshua was told that you guys are going to take this great victory you're going to move into the Canaan land and so on and so forth and they went in and they most of the guys saw these great giants and they ran and they said no way we are not taking this land Joshua said no we are taking this land and and Gideon I know he wished he could have been like Joshua right there and sometimes there is something in us that rises up that says I can take the land but sometimes despondency sets in we see a lot of losses we see a lot of people get hurt we see a lot of things going on in our world and so on and so and and God says no but you're going to bring victory you're going to be used of God and there's something in this that says God I heard these stories before my parents told me about the great deliverances and and I hear about the great deliverances you might even say sometimes you come on a Sunday night and you hear about these great things that God is doing or you come on Sunday afternoon and you hear about people going out into the mission field or whatever the case might be and but but you've seen some things in your neighborhood and you you've seen some things in your children's lives and you've been praying for them and nothing seems to be happening and you're saying right now I I don't feel like a right now I want to but I don't feel like a Joshua just yet again God begins to tell him all these things and he just says you got to show me something Lord I I need a sign he said I I tell you the truth I I wish I wish I was like that that centurion who Jesus you know Jesus comes you know you know and and the centurion sees Jesus and he says I tell you my my my servant is sick you know his servant was like a son to him he said he's sick and he's dying and and and Jesus said I'll come and I'll heal the man said no you don't need to do that all you need to do is say the word and this man is going to be healed and I think Gideon would have liked to have been in a place where when he heard God say I am going to use you he could have simply said well Lord if you say it that's enough for me but at that stage he wasn't there so he began to ask for signs you know you know put a fleece in the you know and let me put a fleece on the floor and you send the rains and let it be that everything around the fleece gets wet except for the fleece and then after he saw that great miracle he asks for another and he said I tell you what now this time let the fleece get wet and everything around to be dry and sometimes we're like that you know what I mean we're like God you know I tell you what if you really really want me to do this thing you know if you want me to reach out to this person over here you want me to reach out or you want to reach in and make some changes in me then make this thing happen and it's like some crazy thing you know what I mean let this crazy thing happen and then the thing happens and then we're like but wait oh I didn't say that was all I was gonna ask now you know let this crazy thing happen and this is what goes on and we do that sometimes we're like God if you really really want me to to apologize to this person or that person let that person be standing right there when I walk into the room you know what I mean and we go into the room when that person's standing there he said but oh I meant to say let him be standing there and let him be wearing green he's wearing red he's wearing red oh god and then the guy takes off his jacket and he's got a green shirt you know basically you know that's what's going there you know he said you know I wish I could be like I wish I could be like Isaac sometimes or like David sometimes or like Luke or like this centurion again even after God makes this wonderful promise in his life and never asks him for anything in return God just says I just want you to be a vessel for me to go out and do what I asked him to do he said no I said look I remember my religion I remember now I remember my Sunday school so yes I I've gotten a little bit despondent a little bit discouraged but I remember my Sunday school let me run now and offer you all kinds of sacrifices now the Lord never asked him for anything except for himself but he felt like this is what I'm used to this is my religion this is how I do it so God patiently waited for him and he runs and he offers this sacrifice and I know there's something in him that says you know I wish I could be like Isaiah now of course I'm speaking anachronistically because we we have to jump up and jump back a few times but you understand he said I wish I could be like Isaiah because Isaiah said all my righteousness is like filthy rags I have nothing I have nothing I think was Isaiah nothing to offer nothing to give he said I wish I could come to that point where I feel like I don't have to impress God but sometimes sometimes based upon what I've been taught or what I've seen or just something innate in me I just feel like even though he's making these awesome promises about my life and asking me nothing but me nothing but me and I still feel like I got to impress him I still feel like I got to do this and I got to do that and I got to do the other thing somehow to earn it somehow to be sure I can't believe this is God and I can't believe God's actually talking to me and I can't believe he's actually talking about using me so I got to do something so that I can at least feel like I've earned it at least feel like I deserve it at least feel like I'm worthy of it God was only asking for him he said just bring your trust to me bring your heart to me and I know he probably wished he could have just been like Isaiah saying my filth my my righteousness is filthy rags I have nothing nothing to offer I'm just gonna come to him as I am I'm gonna lay my life down before him and then let's see what he does with it but sometimes we're not there we want to be there but sometimes we're not there again he was told go and break down your father's idols and break down his altars and and and he said you know okay okay I'm gonna obey Lord I'm gonna I'm gonna start to do the thing you asked me to do I'm gonna begin to destroy the idols in my home and in my household and so on and so forth but he said you know I'm I'm gonna do it but I'm gonna wait till tonight because that's the way it works sometimes with us you know we we don't want to do it right now we figure either we'll do it tonight because less people are going to see it we're going to feel less self-conscious about it or we just sometimes have a tendency to put things off and God is saying there's certain things that are going on certain idols and so on and so forth and that's got to go and there's something in us that says either I think I'd rather do it at night because if I try and do it in the daytime folks are gonna get mad at me maybe some people might even call me you know holier than thou so I'll make some changes but I'll keep it under the cover you know what I mean I'll you know I don't want people to think that I'm trying to be this and I'm trying to be that or I'm trying to be the other thing but sometimes we just we always have this latest date God has a time and we have a time God has a desire to see something happen and we always have a date that's just a little bit later than God but the truth of the matter is in both cases there is this fear of death that's going on fear of death on the one side it's that I don't want my identity challenged by people I don't want people thinking I'm this when I'm not I don't want this thing I don't I don't want to make enemies I don't want to make waves you know what I mean so a lot of times we will allow God to change us in secret or we will reach out in secret we'll try you know one level or another everything you know will try to be done under the cover of darkness just so that it doesn't get to a point where people who used to like us will stop liking us or people who like us now will stop liking us later God wants to make a change in our life where he wants us to do some ministry and there's somebody who might not be saved or maybe somebody who is saved but who's not living right and they see us starting to do the right thing they see us starting to do some ministry they see us starting to go when God sends us and they see us starting to change on the inside it's God is trying to move in and they they don't like us anymore they don't want to be around us anymore some people have experienced that even in their homes where your husband or your wife just they just don't have time for you anymore because you've been seeking God you've been going deeper and so now there is a temptation to hide the changes that God is making in your life or you've been trying to reach out and it's been an embarrassment to them and so now you can't even talk to them about what God is doing in your life and how you're being used of God and and and there's this sense that I I really want to be for instance like Esther and I want to be able to say if I perish I perish I don't really care how it affects me I don't care I'm not going to allow the fear of death to overwhelm me the other idea of fear of death is when God begins to try to move in there and there is that sense of dying to the self and we fear that again we have to be able to say along with Esther if I perish I perish but God's will is going to go through but as I mentioned there are times when as much as we want to be like Esther sometimes it's hard this is where Gideon was he was a man who wanted to have certain characteristics but he just didn't have them again he was a man of limited resources probably wanted to be like Solomon who had all the resources at his fingertips could do anything that he wanted to do could march into anywhere he wanted to march and could make changes wherever he wanted to make it thousands of people came to him to march on the the Midianites and God said no that's just too many and God kept whittling it down and whittling it down and whittling it down to this man just had 300 people it was from the world's perspective that would have been a joke and yet God did use him but I think there might have been something in him that would have liked to have been like a Solomon who had all these resources again this was a man who had absolutely no political popularity or power and he probably would have said you know if I could I think I'd like to be like Saul who had all of that I mean head and shoulders above all the people around him all the power the crowds loved him the people loved him I mean the nations loved him to a certain degree and so on man he had even made a certain amount of compromise with the enemy so that he wasn't even being attacked by the enemy on the same level the bible talks about him at a certain stage consulting witches in the senate and that happens all the time you see it a lot you see it in life a lot people are saying well if I'm going to make anything happen then I got to make some compromises Gideon didn't have that I mean his own father turned his back on him and then his father called down a curse if you will from Baal against him even called him by that name that this man contend with Baal and that kind of a thing his own people around about him despised him because he was rising up in the name of the Lord and all the nations rose up against him he had absolutely nothing but God and I know that there are going to be times in the life of the Christian person when all of these things happen and we tend to say I know Saul wasn't right I know he wasn't doing what he was supposed to be doing but sometimes I wish that I could have his favor if you will or we know that Solomon was not supposed to amass all of these riches to himself and and the horses to himself and and and the wives and so on and so forth and that it that represents uh alliances with the nations but but sometimes wouldn't it be easier if we just did that so you see it happening in the church all the time he could have had all of these things he could have the best of the best and the best of the worst and it would have made him from the ordinary perspective a very very worthy and competent leader and from that perspective he could have gone on and done all the things that God had promised that he would do it's the easiest trap in the world to fall into especially when it gets hard especially when the going gets rough especially when it seems like we are the least likely to succeed and yet we are asked to do the impossible it's bad enough if you or I are the least likely to succeed in natural things and to affect the world in an ordinary and natural manner but we are on this extreme over here the least likely to exceed and we're asked to do what is naturally impossible and so there is always this temptation to take the best characteristics of the best people and the even the best characteristics of the worst people and then try to incorporate that into our faith incorporate that into our ministry incorporate that into our relationships with one another so we say i'm going to love people but i'm going to do it in such and such a manner that i'm always protecting myself just like this person over here or i'm going to give but i'm going to give in such and such a manner that i'm always receiving just like that person over there i'm going to try and reach out but i'm going to do it in such a way that you know i don't have to deal with any of the negative talk from the people over here and i'm going to get all the popularity from the people over there just like this person over there but that's not what Gideon ultimately did instead he simply recognized that the only way that anyone can do the impossible is if they are nothing in the hands of the incredible there is no good thing that i can do in my own strength but if i am in the hands of the incredible then i can do the impossible Paul was able to say i can do all things through him through Christ who strengthens me and so all Gideon needed was God to speak into his life so God comes to him and he's not asking Gideon to be a superman he's not asking Gideon to be immune from fear to be immune from doubt to be immune from worry he's asking Gideon to bring all of those things to God and he's asking Gideon to compare all the things that he's worrying about and all the things that he's fearful of and all the things that bring about despondency and despair and depression all those things he said bring all those things and then compare them to me take everything that worries you and compare it to God now i don't want you to misunderstand what i'm saying right now this is not some difficult concept this is really easy take the thing that causes you the most fear the thing that causes you the most worry and i'm going to give you a hint that thing is common to all of us so you might say well it's this thing over here that troubles me you might say that it's thing over here the troubles me and the other might say it's this thing over here the trouble me but the bottom line is our fear is that we are incapable of handling it whatever that thing is the common denominator is we are not up to the task and that's the thing that causes us the most fear now God says take that that fear of being incompetent that fear of being least likely to succeed that fear of not having any power to handle the call of God on your life and the thing that God has called you to take that and compare it to God take your weakness and compare it to God take your inability and compare it to God take your unwillingness at time and compare it to God and when you and i do that we are confronted with this awesome majesty this God for whom nothing is impossible and this God who was able to take his wholeness and somehow transfer that to us this is what Gideon said he sees this glory and he makes that comparison and his first instinct is I am a dead man just like Isaiah just like Moses just like David just like Esther just like John just like everybody else who has stood in his presence he fell upon his face and acknowledged that he had nothing now one time he compared himself to the other people and he compared himself to the other families and you know how when you compare yourself to somebody else yeah you might feel like you're you're nothing in front of this person so what do we usually do we go hang out with people who are even more nothing than we are so that we can feel like we're something you know what I'm talking about you know we might feel like we're short in this crowd so we go hang out with some folks that are a little bit shorter than us and then we walk around feel like we're pretty tall so he was calling himself nothing but nothing in comparison to a group of people that doesn't last very long now he stands in the presence of the God and then he realizes something I'm not just talking humble anymore I'm not just saying Christianese you know God chooses the lowly things and so on and so forth I realize right now I am nothing and this is because he chooses to stand in God's presence and God stands in his presence and he says I'm a dead man I'm standing in the presence of the holy God and God speaks some words over him but suffice to say when God spoke over him he called the name of that place Jehovah Shalom the wholeness of the Lord this man least likely to succeed heard God say things like I'm going to use you to change human lives and he heard God say things like you are favored of the Lord and heard God say some wonderful things to him that incorporated him in the awesome plan of God but above everything above everything he realized that God's wholeness was his strength the Lord was able to say to him go in this your strength what there was nothing in Gideon that was his strength God called him a mighty man Gideon was not a mighty man Gideon had no strength in himself but God is able to translate his holiness and his wholeness to us by his Holy Spirit who lives in us and you and I can talk all day about how incredible God is but until we realize until we honestly recognize how weak we are without him we really don't know how incredible he is when we see him using us when we see his name being glorified in us when we realize he's touching lives through us when we hear him call us men and women of valor when we hear him call us his sons and his daughters when we find ourselves living lives that are well beyond us when we recognize that it is not about us it's at times like that that we call God incredible you understand if I'm strong in my own strength and if I can do this in my own might God doesn't have to be incredible if I can live this life in my own strength if I can make things happen in my own mind if I can read this book and all of a sudden somehow in my own strength I believe every word in it and I begin to practice every word in it if I could do that in my own strength if I could open up this text and understand it in my own strength God wouldn't have to be mighty he wouldn't have to be awesome he wouldn't have to be incredible but I can't do anything and yet somehow I'm doing it I can't be anything somehow I'm being it I can't even want to do right and somehow I want to do right God came to me the least likely to succeed I had nothing to offer to God I was like David if you were scrapped the only thing that I had in common with David was I was scrabbling on the wall just like he was in those days making a fool out of myself for fear of men when God called me I don't have a testimony that talks about what I gave up for Jesus I had nothing he scooped me up with the holy ghost spatula from the streets of this city and caused me to realize God is incredible God is incredible God is incredible hallelujah I wasn't like David I wasn't like Moses I wasn't like Esther I wasn't like Ruth I wasn't like anybody I wasn't like anybody and one day God simply came to me he said I'm going to use you to help somebody going to use you to change some people's lives and I'm going to change you I'm going to do some good stuff in your heart and I said God I'm not like I'm not like these people I want to be like them and the minute I opened up this book I said man oh man this is what it's about but I I looked at them and I'm God I'm not like them he said you are like them in this one since one day they all saw me and fell on their face and said I'm nothing you know I say this and I close because I don't want to go any longer I used to live in the park and do you realize people in the park will will fight over the best bench to sleep on you know what I mean you know you you think you got to get away from that you know what I'm talking about you know you know you say I'm going to get out of the rat race and it's not the other and the rats are racing in there too believe me literally and figuratively right you know what the point is even when I felt like I was nothing I thought I was less nothing than the guy beside me and I came into the Timothy house I thought I was better than everybody in there I did I'm not going to lie to you because they had addictions and I didn't I was just out there you know everybody's got their reason for thinking they're better than somebody else I was a fool I was an idiot that's the truth I had nothing one day by God's grace he appeared to me and I saw him with the eyes of my heart and I saw this incredible savior and I fell on my face and said God I'm nothing and I said I need you to be incredible I need you to be wonderful I need you to be miraculous I need you to be marvelous because up until that time I just didn't need him to be there I just needed him to be there when I needed him somebody in this room God has spoken some wonderful thing to your heart and you think you have to be like Moses you think you have to be like Abraham you think you have to be like Esther you think you have to be like Mary you think you have to be like these people in order for this to happen and striving in your strength to be like that the only thing you need to have in common with them is an encounter with God that causes you to say I need you to be incredible because I'm not I need you to be wonderful because I'm not I need you to be glorious because I'm not and God will say to you I will gladly share my peace with you I'll gladly share my wholeness with you I will gladly cause my name to dwell in you and to manifest out from you if you're in this house and you say God I'm tired of trying in my own strength to be like somebody else I just want to serve you then I would ask you would you when we begin to stand come to the front of this auditorium I just want to pray with you God wants to embrace you and share his peace that passes understanding with you his wholeness so that your only testimony will ultimately be God is incredible and I don't have to be God is wonderful and I don't have to be would you stand with me please my brothers and my sisters praise God if God is speaking to your heart you're tired of having to be Mr. Incredible Mrs. Incredible and you just want God to be incredible now would you come to the front of this auditorium we'll pray together in Jesus name amen praise God praise the Lord you know I I'm not sure but I think there was a an animated show called the Incredibles not too long ago you know I mean it's this family of incredible folk you know what I mean and each one of them able to do this great thing in that thing thank God the church doesn't have to be the Incredibles thank God there's only one incredible there's only one God there's only one savior there's only one deliverer there's only one redeemer hallelujah and we get to just be people we just get to be people who trust him father in Jesus name we thank you God we come against every life Satan now every lie that would dare cause us to believe or attempt to cause us to believe that we have to be anything in our own strength Lord we look to you you are incredible you are wonderful you are glorious you are awesome we bow the knee before you we fall on our face before you we say we are nothing but you are all that we need Lord we ask you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to simply speak your peace to us even as you did to Gideon oh God the peace that passes understanding a peace that transcends our weaknesses our fears our frailties oh God oh God in Jesus name would you share your wholeness with us your completeness with us God so that we can be everything that you said we would be Lord but nothing outside of you we could say along with Paul that I can do all things the Christ who strengthens me and we can be reminded even as Jeremiah was reminded that there was nothing too difficult for you oh God God in Jesus name I pray for every soul here everyone here but particularly those who have come to say I don't have to be incredible I don't have to be somebody special I don't have to be like this person or that person or the other person God's wholeness is enough God's peace is enough Lord we thank you we love you we bless you in Jesus name hallelujah