Ep 155 | Cover to Cover 34 | Pastor Ryan Clark | Aug 23, 2026

Hello, this is Pastor Ryan Clark.

You are listening to a message from St.

John's Lutheran Church in Buffalo, Minnesota.

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Amen.

He was perhaps the least likely to ever succeed at the Olympics.

Approaching 30 years old in speed skating, a sport for primarily young athletes, Steven Bradbury was once again at the Olympic Games for the nation of Australia.

This was by far not his first rodeo.

First of all, in the 1994 Olympic Games, Bradbury was knocked over by a rival and finished 24th out of 31 competitors.

Later on that year, a competitor's skate sliced into his leg, causing a great gash which resulted in Bradbury receiving four liters of blood and 111 stitches.

It took him 18 months to recover from this injury.

But somehow, some way, four years later at the 1998 Olympics, he was there again.

But this time, Bradbury finished 19th and 21st in individual events.

Later on that year, he broke his neck in a training accident.

He spent a month and a half in a halo brace and needed four pins to be inserted into his skull and screws and plates bolted into his back and his chest.

Doctors told Bradbury that he would never skate competitively again, but he was determined to try to make the Olympics one last time.

And against all odds, Steven Bradbury made it back for the 2002 Olympic Games.

But it looked like, once again, he was going to leave those Olympics disappointed.

In the semifinals, Bradbury finished third, where only the top two advance.

But it was announced after the race that one of the top two had been disqualified for cheating, propelling the very unlikely Bradbury into the finals.

But in the finals, Bradbury was outclassed by the other younger, faster competitors.

And going into the last turn, he was in last place, when amazingly, all of his competitors in front of him, in their jostling for position, all tripped and fell Bradbury, who had been 15 meters behind the field, was able to avoid all of the bodies strewn across the ice to win his first Winter Olympic gold medal, and the first Winter Olympic gold medal for the nation of Australia, ever.

What an unlikely event, and what an unlikely winner.

Well, as we continue on with our readings in our Cover-to-Cover two-year Bible story, we've entered into the books of 2 Samuel and, and 1 Chronicles, which talks about a whole bunch of very, very unlikely winners.

We see it in 1 Samuel 22.

It says, "David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam.

When his brothers and his father's household heard about it, they went down to him there.

All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their commander.

About 400 men were with him."

So this is during the time that David is still trying to escape from King Saul.

He's hiding in a cave, and all of a sudden, all of these guys, this riffraff bunch of misfits, join him in the cave.

All the Ds, those who were in distress, those who were in great debt, those who were discontented with their life, they all decided to come and join David in that cave.

Now, church, this was a motley crew These were guys that I'm not sure you would want to be on your side.

But God took this bunch of misfits, this discontented these people in great debt, and made them into a mighty army.

Look at this from 2 Samuel 5.

It says, "The king and his men marched to Jerusalem to attack the Jebusites who lived there.

The Jebusites looked down at this motley crew and say to David, 'You're not gonna get in here.

Even the blind and the lame can ward you off.'"

They thought, "David, there's no way he can get in here."

Why? Well, because they looked at the men that were standing on the outside of their city, and secondly, because their city was one of the most fortified cities in all of Israel.

Nevertheless, David and his men captured the fortress of Zion, which is the city of David.

And Jerusalem, from that point on, became like the capital city of all of Israel.

And then in 1 Chronicles 11 it says this about that motley crew.

It says, "This is the list of David's mighty warriors."

This is not what we would expect scripture to talk about this motley crew of discontented, in debt group of people.

But it says, "Jashobeam, a Hemonite, was chief of the officers.

He raised his spear against 300 men whom he killed in one encounter."

One man against 300, the one man wins.

"Next to him was Eleazar son of Dodai the Ahohite, one of the three mighty warriors.

He was with David at Pas Dammim when the Philistines gathered there for battle at a place where there was a field full of barley.

The troops fled from the Philistines, but they took their stand in the middle of the field.

They defended it and struck the Philistines down, and the Lord brought about a great victory."

So we have all of the Israelites scared to death of this group of Philistines, these powerful Philistines.

But Eleazar and a few others stand their ground and won a great battle that day.

"Abishai, the brother of Joab, raised his spear against 300 men whom he killed."

Once again, one man, 300 people, the one man wins.

"Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, performed great exploits.

He struck down Moab's two mightiest warriors.

He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion.

And he struck down an Egyptian who was five cubits tall."

That's seven and a half feet tall.

"Although the Egyptian had a spear like a weaver's rod in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a club.

He snatched the spear from the Egyptian's hand and killed him with his own spear."

We would never have expected something like this.

Not too bad from a bunch of riffraff, huh? Well, as I was thinking about this, that David had all of this riffraff, this, this mix of, of discontented, in-debt people around him that God used to do great things, it reminded me of another group gathered around a pretty great guy to do great things, and that was the 12 disciples that Jesus called to himself.

This was a motley crew as well.

It would not be the people that we would probably call to be disciples.

Many of them were middle school and high school dropouts.

How do we know that? Because many of them were working with their father, working out catching fish.

Why would you do that? Because you weren't smart enough to continue on in school, and so you had to drop out of school and go help your dad.

That's what many of these were.

In Acts 4, after Jesus died on that cross, rose again and ascended up into heaven, we see this verse, "When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus."

They look at this motley crew of guys and they say, "Wait a minute, these guys, they didn't even get all the way through school.

They're ordinary, unimpressive people."

And they were astonished at what God was doing through them, and there was one thing that made them extraordinary.

They recognized that they had been with Jesus, and that made all the difference in the world Church, God always calls riffraff.

He always calls people like that.

Look around you.

He's still calling people like that.

Your pastor is like that.

A bunch of riffraff.

A bunch of people that may not be too impressive to the rest of the world, but that is precisely who God calls to do extraordinary things in this world.

Are we a ragtag bunch of misfits, or does God see us as His mighty men and women? And I think it's pretty clear that He sees us as the second, God's mighty men and women Now you might be saying, "Ah, I don't know about that, Pastor.

I understand that God calls the unlikely, but you have no idea all the bad things that I've done in my life.

That pretty much disqualifies me from being used by God for great things, doesn't it?" Well, the Bible is actually crystal clear when it comes to that question.

In Psalm 103, one of our readings from this week, which is actually my favorite psalm and perhaps my favorite passage in all of the Bible, it describes the Lord this way.

It says, "The Lord is compassionate and gracious.

He's slow to anger, abounding in love.

He will not always accuse, nor will He harbor His anger forever.

He does not treat us like our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him.

As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us."

Does your sin, do the skeletons in your closet, the things that you regret in your life, does that disqualify you from being used by God? Not at all.

He does not treat us as our sins deserve, and He separates us as far as the east is from the west from our sins.

He's not even considering them anymore Why? Because of Jesus.

Jesus hanging on a cross is irrefutable evidence that God is not holding your sins against you.

How is that irrefutable evidence? Because when Jesus was hanging on the cross, the Bible tells us that He was taking our punishment for us.

And since Jesus took the full brunt of the punishment that you and I deserve, there's no more punishment left for us.

Therefore, God is not holding any of your sins, big or small, against you.

They don't disqualify you at all.

But maybe you're thinking, "Okay, well maybe I can understand that, but I am unimpressive, Pastor.

I don't have much to offer.

I'm not that gifted."

Well, look at what it says in 1 Corinthians 1, "Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called.

Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many of you were influential, not many of you were of noble birth.

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.

He chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong."

Once again, if you think you're unimpressive, if you think that you don't have, a whole lot to offer, if you think that you don't have much influence in this world, well, you are precisely the kind of person that God loves to use.

I love this passage from 2 Corinthians 12.

It says, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness.

For when I am weak, then I am strong because of the Lord."

The Lord loves to use what you and I perceive as our weaknesses to show how strong He is.

And so it's precisely those things that you think disqualify you, your unimpressiveness, that God says, "Oh, I can use that.

We say this all the time around here, but God doesn't call the equipped, He equips those that He calls.

You don't have to be equipped.

God says, "I'll take care of that."

And the things that God wants to do through you and me are mind-blowing.

Look at what Jesus says in John 14, "Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me," and that's the only qualif- qualifying factor there, "whoever believes in me will do the works that I have been doing," Jesus said.

"And not only that, they will do even greater things than these, because I'm going to the Father.

And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it."

What? We're gonna do the same things that Jesus did? Well, what did Jesus do when he was here? He loved on people.

He told people about the Father and the Father's love in such a way that people got closer to the Lord.

Many people came into a relationship with the Lord.

He wants to do that same thing through us.

What else did Jesus do? He laid his hands on the sick and prayed over them, and many of them got well.

And now he's calling us to do that as well.

In fact, he says, "Not only will you do what I did, but you're gonna do even greater things, because I'm just one person, and you're a whole church."

That's outstanding.

That's what God wants to do through riff-raff like you and me.

And the only thing that matters is that I believe in Jesus, number one, and then secondly, I just say to Him, "Yes, I'm in.

Lord, it's hard for me to believe because of all my sin and because of my unimpressive life, but if you wanna use me, here I am."

It kinda reminds me of Isaiah in Isaiah 6 where it says, "And I heard God ask, 'Who should I send?' And I said, 'Here am I.

Send me.'"

You see, God is a gentleman, and so he doesn't force himself on anybody.

He waits until he has our permission.

But when you say, "Lord, I'm willing.

I don't even know what it's gonna look like, but I'm willing," the Lord wants to take and use you for great things that'll transform this world for Christ.

Now maybe you're thinking, "Okay, I can get behind this, but I don't even know what that's going to entail, and you know what? There's, there's a lot of things that I still wanna do, in my life before I give my life completely over to Jesus in this way."

Here's a question.

Do you really want to leave this world never having given your whole self to Jesus for Him to use you? Really? Do you really wanna play it safe? Do you really wanna give Him 50% of who you are? 50% of your time, 50% of your talents and treasures? Do you really wanna do that deep down? Do you really wanna leave this world never having read the Bible from cover to cover? I know a lot of you are doing that right now for the first time, and it's been an exciting thing for you.

You don't wanna leave this world without reading the Bible, do you? Do you really wanna leave this world never having sought God until you found Him? You've heard the stories.

We've shared a lot of them about people that, that seek the Lord.

They take Him at His word.

He says in Jeremiah, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."

Do you really wanna go to your grave never having done that? You don't want to.

He's good to his word.

Do you really wanna leave this world never having shared your testimony with somebody? What God has done for you in your life? Do you really wanna leave this world never having led someone to Christ? For those of you that have led someone into a relationship with Jesus, it's exhilarating.

There's nothing better than that in the world.

Do you really wanna leave this world never having prayed over the sick to be made well? We're Minnesotans, right? And so we're a little cautious.

You know, I don't want to offend anybody.

But do you really never have wanted to do that in your life? Do you really wanna leave this world never having lived your life completely abandoned to God? I don't think so.

Deep down in each one of our hearts, we really do want to give it all to Him and not play it safe.

But with all of these things, when you say, "God, I'm game," know this: if you wanna walk on water, you gotta get out of the boat.

And that means that when you say, "Lord, I don't even know what it's gonna look like, but I'm on board.

Here am I, send me," He's probably gonna send you just one step or two steps out of your comfort zone.

But I guarantee you when you take that step, when you open your mouth to share what God has done for you, when you say to somebody, even though it's uncomfortable, "I see what you're going through.

Would you mind me putting my hand on your shoulder and praying for you?" When you start doing these kind of things, I guarantee you, you will never regret it, and you're gonna see that God still uses riffraff even today.

Because this is what God always does.

He did it during the time of David.

He did it during the time of Jesus, and He still wants to do it today.

Amen.

You've been listening to a sermon from St.

John's Lutheran Church in Buffalo, Minnesota.

If you would like more information about St.

John's and any of our ministries to our community and beyond, you can go to our website, www.stjohnsbuffalo.org.

Thank you and God bless you.