1. Cracked Pots
2 Corinthians 4:7
Hebrews 11:32

2. Four Flawed Men
• Gideon defeated the Midianites
• Barak defeated the Canaanites
• Samson defeated the Philistines
• Jephthah defeated the Ammonites.

3. Gideon (Judges 6ff)
• Gideon was fearful!
Turns out that Gideon made a fine military
leader once he got past his fear. As long as
Gideon thought he couldn’t do it, he was right.
But once faith replaced fear, he won a mighty
victory for the Lord.

4. Barak (Judges 4)
• Barak was timid!
Whenever you mention Barak’s name, you must
add another name with it. It’s not just “Barak,”
it’s “Deborah and Barak.” Barak was a good guy
who was too dependent on women.

5. Samson (Judges 13-16)
• Samson was out of control!
It is very possible to be empowered by the Spirit
of God to do great things and yet not to have
your life yielded to the full control of the Holy
Spirit. He was a man of God who lacked
common sense. He was empowered by the
Spirit yet he often lived in the flesh. That’s
Samson-"a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside
an enigma.”

6. Jephthah (Judges 11-12)
• Jephthah was Foolish!
“Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior.
His father was Gilead; his mother was a
prostitute.” When he grew up, his own family
turned against him so he ran away and gathered
a group of thugs who joined his gang. That’s
Jephthah, a man from a bad background who
becomes an Old Testament gang leader.

7. Lessons From Four Cracked Pots
1. God uses flawed people to demonstrate His
grace so that when the victory is won, He
alone gets the glory. Paul said the same thing
in 2 Corinthians 4:7, “Now we have this
treasure in clay jars, so that this
extraordinary power may be from God and
not from us”

8. Lessons From Four Cracked Pots
2. God honors faith, and He seeks it so much
that He will honor people who otherwise do
some very stupid things. We all labor under
a sense of our own failure.

9. Lessons From Four Cracked Pots
3. God’s redeeming grace of God covers a
multitude of sins. We should not be be
surprised that God includes these four flawed
heroes in the Hall of Fame. We should be
glad they made the Book because that means
God can use people like us too.