Awakened to Grace

Chad Roberts: Welcome to Awakened to Grace. I'm Chad Roberts, and I'm so glad you're joining me today. Have you heard about my partnership with Lifeway and the new book that I am about to release called Blind Faith: Seeing God Through Darkness? This book will release nationwide on March 10th, 2026.

But my friends, in the world of books, pre-orders are everything. They matter so much. Large chains and retail chains base their decisions upon pre-orders. So if you're someone that follows Awakened to Grace, if you're someone that we have spoken into your life, we help you grow spiritually. You could help me out so much by pre-ordering this book. It really goes a long way.

I want to invite you to visit my website blindfaithlaunch.com and help us launch this book successfully. Because friends, we have a great message of hope, and we want to spread this message of hope as far and wide as we can. So I hope that you will support it because you are a big part of that. Go today to blindfaithlaunch.com, pre-order your book, and help us make this launch a success.

Let's go to Hebrews chapter 11. I don't know about you, but Hebrews 11 has been changing my life. We are 17 weeks this Sunday just in our study of chapter 11. 17 weeks, and I just can't tell you the transformations that have come into my heart, into my thinking, and into my faith as we study these great portraits of faith, what we've often called the hall of faith.

Well, where we've been parked for the last many weeks is verse number 32. We've stayed in verse 32 for a very specific reason. We've called it faith that falters. Why are we calling it faith that falters? We call it that because men like Gideon, men like Barak, and men like Samson were men that faltered in some way in their faith. Either they were a coward, or they were hesitant, or just flat-out rebellious.

How many of you can resonate with that? How many of you at times have felt like you've faltered in your faith? We've often heard of Gideon, we've often heard of Barak, and we've often heard of Samson. Everyone's heard of King David. Most people know Samuel. But probably the most obscure person of this entire verse is our subject today, and his name was Jephthah.

His story is found in the book of Judges. Judges chapters 10 and 11 is his narrative, and I want to invite you to chapter 11. I want to share with you some very specific lessons that we learn out of his life. If you're going to take notes, I want you to note this: his story is a story of rejection to redemption.

It's a story of God having purpose in our pain. It's a story that your past does not determine your future. How many of us are thankful for that? Jephthah is a very complex man. These are very challenging scriptures to navigate. If you know anything of Jephthah, then you know what he is famous for is that he foolishly and recklessly made a vow unto God.

When he made a vow to God, he told God that whatever is the first thing to come out of his house, he would offer as a burnt sacrifice to God. Foolish. Why do you suppose that was? As we go through his story today, as we go through his narrative, I want to ask you: do you believe that Jephthah did, in fact, sacrifice his daughter and make her a burnt offering to God? Do you think that?

I'm going to tell you some of my thinking as we get to the end of his narrative, and I'm going to argue and show you why I believe he did not sacrifice his daughter. But what you need to know about Jephthah before we even get there is the complexities of how he grew up. Judges chapter 11 verses 1 through 5 give us a little bit of context and a little bit of background of him.

He grew up under very difficult circumstances. His father was a man who had an affair with a prostitute. To his father's credit, he apparently took Jephthah in and he raised him as his own. But when his father died, all of his half-brothers cut him off from the family inheritance. In other words, they said, "Jephthah, you're not part of us. You don't belong in our family."

And not only did his family reject him, the people of the region rejected him, and he ended up leaving and going to a whole other region. I want to share with you today that as many of us have faced and we have experienced rejection in our lives, not many of us have contemplated how do we really deal with it? How do we move past it?

I want you to know that the Bible paints many pictures of people who are rejected. I want you to know that if there is rejection in your past, whether that was from family, the Bible knows that. Do you remember a man named Joseph who was rejected by all of his brothers? Down to Jephthah, who we're looking at today, who was rejected by his family. All the way to Jesus, who well knows and understands and is acquainted with rejection.

The Bible says in Isaiah 53 that he was despised and rejected. Jesus said of himself, based out of Matthew 21, that Christ was the stone that the builders rejected. The Bible says in John 1:11, "He came to his own, and his own received him not." Jesus knows and understands what rejection is. Even to this day, so many flatly reject him.

And as I have tried to put myself in the world of Jephthah this week, as I've tried to put myself in his situation and try to understand what he must have felt and what he must have gone through, the Lord keeps speaking to me that there are so many listening today that there is a root of rejection in your life.

It may have come from your childhood. It may be that you were raised in a family environment that rejected you. It might be that you were raised by parents who just so easily cut you off. It might be sibling rivalry that's never been resolved. It might have been favoritism, or it may be that you were given everything as a child except the main thing. You were never supported. You were never truly loved. You were given things but not affirmation.

So many can resonate with the idea of rejection. But what happens is then we grow up and then we enter into relationships and we go into our marriages and we begin parenting our own children. We don't realize how that root of rejection is affecting us and our decisions.

There are some of you listening right now that you have never understood why you react the way you react. You've never understood why you feel the way that you feel. You've not understood why things trigger the way they do or you respond the way that you do. I want you to hear today as I believe the Holy Spirit will give revelation to you: it may be a root of rejection.

And what so many of us do, we try to cut the branches off this thing. Do you know what the branch of rejection normally is? Depression. And what we do is we try to cut the branch, and then because we love God, because we follow Christ, because we love the word, we know the word, we hold to the word, we believe the word, and we're living for God, then we're absolutely stunned and we're shocked that that branch of rejection always grows back.

And we'll cut it and we'll prune it and we'll try to manage it, but it never goes away. Do you know why? Because there's a root that has not yet been severed. And how many of you know the Lord has the ability and the Lord has a way of severing that root of rejection? He has a way of severing things that we don't have the ability to ourselves.

But see, here's my whole point right now. You can't sever what you don't know. You can't sever what you don't see. And we need the Holy Spirit to bring that revelation into our life that yes, this is what I've been dealing with all these years. This is why I've felt the way I've felt. This is why I'm triggered the way I am. This is why I react the way that I do. It's because there is a root that's never been severed.

If you want to sever that, whether in the building or you're watching or you're listening online, I want to agree with you right now. Lord, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we take authority over every root of rejection in people's lives. We lay the axe of the word of God to it now and we sever it now in agreement, in faith, in the name of the Lord Jesus. Set us free from it in Jesus' name. Amen.

So here Jephthah is. He's the son of a prostitute, rejected by his family, and rejected by the region. I imagine everywhere Jephthah went, he was reminded, "You don't belong here." Everywhere he went, he heard rumors and whispers behind him. He was known as the prostitute's son. I'm sure that this plagued him no matter where he went, to the point where eventually he just left and he ran away.

Well, when you look at verses 6 through 11, the tables seem to turn. Now Israel is in trouble. Now they need help and they need a leader. And who do they come to? Jephthah. You've got to be kidding me. The same men that drove him out are now seeking him out. Isn't it funny how things turn?

And I'll be honest with you, I'm rather astonished at the way Jephthah responded. I can tell you this: he's a better man than I would be. If people rejected me and hurt me the way that they did Jephthah and then they came to me and said, "Hey, we changed our mind. We actually want you to be our leader," I think I would say, "Take a hike. Go find somebody else. Not interested." Right?

But no, Jephthah did something different, something that some of us listening today are not doing and we're missing. I think that when these people came and sought him out and said, "Jephthah, we've made a mistake. In reality, we need you to be our leader," Jephthah could have held that against them. He could have rightfully said, "You didn't want me then. Why do you want me now?"

But listen to what he did. Listen to what Jephthah did. He said, in essence, "The call of God means more to me. It is a higher priority of my life than how I feel about other people. I'm not going to allow other people, whether it's their sin, whether it's their mistakes, whether it's their regrets, whether it's their gossip, or it's their rejection, I'm not going to allow that to stop or prevent the call of God upon my life."

And I know within my spirit there's some listening today: you are not who you should be for God because of the actions of other people. Other people rejected you and therefore you are not pursuing God and his call the way you should be. Jephthah rose above it.

I listened to a pastor who lives up north that I love very much, and one day I was stunned to hear him share that he keeps a list of all of the people that have hurt, wounded, betrayed, and backstabbed him and his wife. A pastor. And I love this pastor, and I listen to him all the time. He really feeds my soul.

And this pastor begins to explain how through the years, all these people that rejected them and hurt them and backstabbed them and all this stuff, he and his wife keep a list in the drawer of their nightstand. And I thought, "What? A list? I don't even want to remember the people that hurt me. I don't even want to think about them, let alone hold on to a list of them." A list. A list.

And I could not believe what I heard. He said every so often, before they go to bed, he and his wife will pull out that list and that becomes their prayer list. And they begin to pray by name for every person that's ever wounded them. "God, will you help them? We forgive them. God, will you bless them? Let your favor come upon them." Wow.

My question today is not: have you been rejected or have you been wounded? I know the answer. The answer is yes, because we're all human and we all go through that. My question today is: what are you doing about it? Are you recoiling? Are you hiding? Are you isolating? Are you separating? Or are you going forward with God's call and God's plan upon your life?

So verses 1 through 5, we see his rejection. Verses 6 through 11, we see the tables turn and we see the same people that exiled him seek him out. So he does. He agrees to become their leader. Why? Not to appease them, not to satisfy them, but because he wanted to obey God. And he was not going to let the opinions and the sins of other people keep him from the call of God on him.

So then when you read verses 12 through 28, it's another intriguing twist to the story. The people that were picking the fight with the Israelites were a people group called the Ammonites. There's a lot of "-ites" in the Old Testament: Canaanites, Jebusites, a lot of "-ites." And this group called the Ammonites were trying to go to war with Israel. Being the wise leader that Jephthah was, rather than go straight into war, he tried diplomacy. He tried to reason. He tried to be at peace.

And so he gives a remarkable history lesson to the Ammonites, but they will not hear of it and war is inevitable. You know what I thought of when I pondered these scriptures? I thought of a wonderful scripture in the book of Romans, Romans 12:18. I want to say to some of you, may you speak just however you want to speak right now, Lord. I want to say to some of you: you are at war with others and you need to lay down your arms. You need to stop.

Is it okay if I just follow the Holy Spirit right now? Some of you are pot-stirrers. Pot-stirrers. You stir the pot. You need to quit. You need to give the Holy Spirit control over your tongue because your tongue's destroying your family. You can get mad at me all day long. Stand in line, take a number, I don't care. But some of you are ruining your family because of your tongue. You need to stop.

Now, there are others of you, and I want you to hear me right now: there are others of you that are all sideways and bent out of shape and have no peace and are upset because others are upset with you and you can't do nothing about it. And you've tried to reconcile. You've tried to talk to them. You've tried to offer an olive branch and they will not have it.

You know what the scriptures would say to those situations? Romans 12:18. It says, "If possible, be at peace among everyone, as much as it depends upon you." Now, that's a good word. There are some people you just can't be at peace with. I love that clause, "if possible." Hey, if it were possible, I would. I've tried to reconcile, I've tried to talk, I've tried to be at peace, right?

So those of you that you have tried to bring reconciliation but the other person won't allow that, stop letting that steal your peace. Be at peace with yourself that you have done what God's required of you. And now, as much as it depends upon you, you're at peace.

So verses 12 through 28, I mean, he does his best and war is inevitable. They are going to go to war. The other side won't have it. They won't listen. They won't reason. Verse 29 is a really interesting verse. So again, let's understand the text. Verses 1 to 5 is his rejection. Verses 6 to 11, the tables turn. Verses 12 to 28, he tries to be at peace; the Ammonites will not allow it. Now verse 29, look what happens. The Spirit of God comes upon him.

Now friends, I want to show you why that is a remarkable verse. See, the primary difference in the Old Testament and the New Testament, one of the most incredible truths, one of the most stark contrasts, is that in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit did not live, he did not dwell in people. So if the Holy Spirit was to empower, or if he was to influence, or if he was to guide, or if he was to comfort, or if he was to help or strengthen an individual, he would rush upon them.

The beauty of the church age, and the church age is from the day of Pentecost to the rapture of the church—that is the church age, that's the New Testament era, that's the New Testament blood-bought church. And what happened on the day of Pentecost is not only like a mighty rushing wind did the Holy Spirit rush upon them, but with tongues of fire, he indwelled them. Amen.

So do you know what that means? That means that people that are born again—you who are born again—the Holy Spirit indwells you. Did you know that I'm a pastor, husband, and father of four who suddenly went blind in 2018? Today, I teach people how life is not random, but it is actually orchestrated by God for a great purpose. Learn more about my story and Awakened to Grace at chadroberts.org.