I’ve been impressed as I’ve studied Christian history to see God so very oftentimes use ordinary people—those people who seem most unlikely to be used—to do his great work. All of us have heard of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great preacher of another generation. He spoke to 5,000 people every Sunday morning and 5,000 people every Sunday night. When he got through on Sunday morning, he would ask those who were present not to come back that night and make room for the other people who wanted to come and couldn’t get in. I suppose that his sermons in printed form are in the libraries of more preachers and teachers today than the sermons of any other man who has ever lived. But did you know that Charles Haddon Spurgeon was converted when he listened one day to the testimony of a simple workingman in an ordinary worship service? In fact, he slipped into that little chapel to get out of a terrible thunderstorm, and this simple workingman was giving his testimony. When he heard what God did in the life of that ordinary man, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great preacher became a Christian.
Dr. Abraham Kuyper, the Dutch scholar and theologian had finished preaching a marvelous sermon one day, and a very plain peasant lady came up to him with a shawl over her head and draped across her shoulders. “Dr. Kuyper,” she said, “that was a marvelous sermon, but you need to be born again.” It wasn’t long until he was, and for the rest of his life, he kept the picture of that peasant lady on his desk to remind him of what she had said to help him come to know the Lord.
Most of all of us have heard of D. L. Moody. He was to the last generation what Billy Graham is to ours—a man marvelously used of God to stir the masses and turn them back to him. But did you know that D. L. Moody was led to Christ by Edward Kimball, an obscure shoe salesman? Once Moody had been won to Christ, had started to grow in the Christian life, and had finally felt a call into Christian service, he went to England. While he was in England he heard Richard Barley speak. Richard Barley was a butcher and a lay preacher. And he went to hear this butcher lay preacher speak one day and Richard Barley said, “The world has yet to see what God can do with one man who is totally committed to his will.” Moody was so impressed by what this obscure lay preacher said that he committed his life to being that man.
Now, the world has built monuments to D. L. Moody. There is a Moody church in Chicago, Moody Bible Institute, Moody Press, Moody Monthly magazine. But if you want to know about Edward Kimball, the shoe salesman who led him to Christ, and Richard Barley, who challenged him to commitment and dedication to Christ, you have to read the footnotes. God has down through the years used ordinary people, obscure people, plain people to do some of his greatest things.