God Uses Misfits and Turns Messes into Mission|11.30.25|Misfit Christmas pt.1

In the classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer story, there’s a place called the Island of Misfit Toys, which is painted as this lonely refuge for all the toys that were considered rejects or misfits.

There’s a cowboy who rides an ostrich instead of a horse.

There’s a bird that can’t fly, but swims instead.

There’s a train with square wheels.

Each one was made for a purpose, but they feel broken, or defective, or unwanted. And so they spend their days waiting…HOPING that someday, someone will come who sees value in them again.

And then in the story’s beautiful twist, who shows up? Rudolph, the misfit reindeer with the nose that glows.

He finds them and doesn’t see them as rejects. He sees them as friends worth saving. So he promises to tell Santa, and by the end of the story, the toys are rescued, restored, and given to children who love them.

Now, for the discerning ear, you can tell that this is so much more than a children’s story…it’s a picture of the gospel, the good news of a God who doesn’t discard anyone, but pursues every last misfit and redeems them into his story of love and restoration.

And this is meaningful to each of us because we live in a world of misfit toys: people who feel forgotten, overlooked, or disqualified. People who believe their flaws or their inexperience makes them unusable in the Kingdom of God.

But the good news of Christmas is that God sees value where the world only sees brokenness.

And Jesus is the one who didn’t take advantage of his status, but humbled himself to enter our humanity. He’s the King who left heaven to enter the manger, and he came to find the misfits.

Because each and every person is valuable to him. So Jesus came to restore our dignity and purpose, heal what’s been fractured, and commission every single rescued person to join his work of reaching the ones who are far from him.

The good news of Christmas is that God finds the forgotten, restores the broken, and gives each and every one of us a part in his story again.

And for many of us, that’s part of what we’ve experienced as we’ve felt God calling us in our hearts. But even when we first come to church, or if we’ve gone to church our whole lives, it can still be easy to feel like a MISFIT here in church.

We look at the other people around us and we start to hear the lies in our heads:

“I don’t belong here.” “My story is too messy, so I can’t open up about it.” “God can totally use OTHER people, but not me. I’m too… broken, inexperienced, too young, too old…”

But what if the place that you feel most disqualified is actually where God wants to show his grace the clearest?

[Scripture Ref]

Let me tell you about a lady named Rahab. We are introduced to her in Joshua ch2, so open your Bibles with me to that chapter. The book of Joshua tells the story of how the people of God enter into the promised land, after God had rescued them from slavery in Egypt, and they’ve been wandering in the desert for decades.

Moses has just died, and Joshua is the new leader of God’s people, and he sends in some spies into the land, especially to find the weaknesses of one of the larger cities, Jericho. And when the two spies from Israel get into the town, it seems like they get found out, because they choose to hideout in the home of a prostitute, Rahab.

And as we read, I want you to pay attention to Rahab, because it’s an incredible thing to see how God uses her. She is a Canaanite, which means she’s not part of God’s people. Her people follow different gods.

Also, she’s a woman, which meant she was definitely not high up in the hierarchy of status and power in her culture. And she’s a sex worker, so there’s definitely the stigma, shame, and assumptions that come with that about her character and value as a human.

But what I want us to notice today is that if God can work through Rahab, then nobody in this room is too far gone for God to redeem. And no one in this room is too unqualified for God to use for his mission.

[Joshua 2:1-24]

[Joshua 6:25]

And if we keep reading, we see that Israel’s plan works. They come in, surround the city, and God delivers a miraculous defeat, because the walls come down in an amazing way.

And Joshua gives the command to level the city, take no prisoners, and set it all on fire. Except for Rahab and her family, rescue her. So they keep their word, find Rahab in her house, rescue everyone with her, and the end of her saga in this story says that she lives among the people of Israel after that.

But I want to dig into her story more.

[Joshua 2:1]

First, we meet the misfit with a messy life. Because we’re introduced to Rahab in terms of her vocation: she’s a prostitute. Now, we don’t know if she's a victim of exploitation, or if she’s chosen this path in life, but we DO know that back then, similar to how many people would view her today, she would be judged as someone of ill-repute.

Men would look at her only as an object to use. Women would look at her as a threat to their marriage. She’d go to the market to get her groceries, and people would judge her for how she got her money. She’d probably constantly be subject to unwanted cat-calls, judging stares, and even probably be extorted by city officials asking for bribes to keep her business open, because they know she has money.

Everywhere she goes, she doesn’t fit. She’s isolated, even in a crowded city. And because of how the spies escape through her window, we find out that her house is built into the wall of the city. So she’s literally living on the margins.

[Joshua 2:4-5]

But when the guards from the king’s palace come searching for the two Israelite spies, she actually keeps them hidden, showing a level of hospitality that is surprising because she’s sticking her neck out for these men she’s just met.

And after she’s sent off the guards on a wild goose chase, she’s got a whole new level of mess on her hands. She was already operating on the margin of her town, only valued as something to be used and discarded, and now she’s risking getting on the wrong side of the king.

But she’s doing it because of the God who moves towards messy people.

[Joshua 2:9-10]

Rahab has already heard all the stories about the God of Israel. Everyone in Jericho has.

They’ve heard how God crushed Egypt’s power to rescue his people. And they’ve heard about the miraculous parting of the Red Sea. And they’ve heard how God took care of his people for a whole generation while travelling through the desert for forty years.

And Rahab believes it.

[Joshua 2:11]

In fact, she declares that she believes the Lord God of Israel is THE GOD over all heaven and earth.

That’s not a small statement. She’s saying that the God of Israel outranks every Canaanite god she grew up with.

And in our story, we learn all this about Rahab because of what she’s saying to the spies, but here’s the wild part: her faith in God formed before the spies ever arrived.

God was already stirring her heart with how he actually PROTECTS his people.

God was already moving towards her through the stories of how he actually RESCUES his people.

God was already calling this overlooked, marginalized woman to Himself…

…when two Israelite spies just HAPPEN to show up at her house?

That’s not coincidence. That’s the divine pursuit of a LOVING God who wants to make sure the misfits never feel forgotten or discarded ever again.

[blank]

Now, those of you who know that story of Jericho know this:

The spies didn’t bring back some ingenious plan to break down the walls. They didn’t discover some hidden weakness.

The Israelite army didn’t use any brilliant military strategy… God had them march in circles around the city and sing praise and worship songs to him for a week…

…And the walls crumbled on their own.

So I look at this, and I figure that God really didn’t even NEED the spies for military intelligence. So why did the spies go at all?

[Joshua 2:12-13]

Because it was a rescue operation…for Rahab. The misfit with a messy life who had heard about Yahweh God and had already put her faith in him. The one with a broken past who didn’t let that stop her from doing what was right, and being used by God for his plan.

Rahab hides the spies because she trusts Yahweh. She asks for rescue because she believes Yahweh is merciful.

[Joshua 2:21]

And then her faith becomes action. She ties the scarlet cord in her window. She gathers her family. And she trusts God’s promise of rescue.

The misfit on the margins suddenly stands at the center of this story of God’s redemption. And so when she is spared from the destruction of Jericho, she OF COURSE is adopted right into the people of Israel, because she already has been putting her faith into action and taking steps of obedience to Yahweh.

[Hebrews & James]

And her faith is remembered for centuries and centuries by the people of Israel. We know this because she’s named multiple times in the New Testament.

Hebrews 11 is a beautiful chapter that is all about people who demonstrated incredible faith in God, and Rahab is one of only TWO women who are named in that entire chapter that is hitting all the huge names of faith in Jewish history.

And James, the half-brother of Jesus, writes in his thesis about how faith that is real is shown by our actions and he points to Rahab as the poster-child for active faith.

And I just love the fact that this judged, foreign woman becomes such a powerful testimony for all of God’s people for centuries and centuries, because our God LOVES highlighting misfits in his Hall of Faith.

God LOVES to choose the unlikely, and restore the broken, and rewrite the stories of people that everyone else gave up on.

[blank]

And no matter what you’ve gone through in life, we ALL have a little bit of our story that connects with what Rahab experienced.

We all have some part of our past that we’re embarrassed about.

Maybe it’s that habit, or that part of your history that you think disqualifies you.

Maybe it’s that family reputation that you didn’t choose, but it’s followed you.

Maybe it’s that hidden sin or shame that you haven’t forgiven yourself for.

And then we come to church and we’re surrounded by all these smiling people and singing these uplifting songs, and hearing about heroes in the Bible, and we start to believe the LIE that…

…God only uses the clean, the polished, the put-together. God can’t use someone like me.

But Rahab destroys that lie. God doesn’t wait for perfection, he looks for trust, because your past doesn’t disqualify you from God’s mission.

And even for those of us that have been following Jesus for quite a while, we can still feel left behind by stories like this. Even though you’re a Christian, you still have yourself convinced…

…That you “haven’t done enough” for God.

You realize you’re still really judgmental, even after all this time.

You feel like you’ve failed your own family, so how could God ever use you to reach others?

And so the lie that you believe is that all you’re supposed to do is “just attend” church. Maybe that’s all you’re meant to do.

[Your past]

But Rahab yanks us out of passive Christianity, because Rahab didn’t have spiritual training. She didn’t have the “right background.” She didn’t have everything together… but she trusted God. She put her faith in action and took a next step of obedience.

Rahab shows us that whether you’re carrying a past you’re ashamed of, or carrying a quiet belief that you’re “not enough” for God to use… you’re not disqualified.

Rahab shows us that whether your story is marked by big, messy mistakes or small, persistent failures… God still calls you into his mission.

Your past doesn’t disqualify you. God recruits misfits throughout his redemption story.

The Christmas story shows us that God has ALWAYS recruited the unlikely. Jesus came for the people who “don’t fit.” And he intends to work THROUGH the very people that the world overlooks.

[Each one]

And so we want to follow the example of Rahab, and put our faith in action. Just like Rahab took her faith and then reached out to the people around her, we want to reach out to the One in our life.

Jesus left the 99 to find and rescue the One, and so will we. So who’s your One? I’ve mentioned before that “your One” is someone that is far from God, but is close to you.

Who is someone you know that is far from God currently? Maybe they’ve never drawn close to him. Maybe they USED to be close to him, but they’ve drifted off.

Maybe the person you’re thinking of would even consider themselves a misfit… because of their past… because of their choices… because of how they feel right now.

Who’s your one? Because at one time, YOU were the lost one that Jesus came to find. Jesus left heaven to reach YOU. And he’s been pursuing you your whole life. And he’s STILL pursuing you and inviting you to be a part of his work.

Whether you felt like a lost one a long time ago, or whether you showed up today STILL feeling like a lost misfit. Jesus is inviting you RIGHT NOW to join in his work of reaching out to those who are far from him.

He doesn’t need you to “get your act together” before you join his mission. He doesn’t need you to have a “sober streak” before you point others towards him. He came to rescue you, and part of his work IN you is how he is working THROUGH you!

So who’s your one? It might be someone you are even tempted to overlook or write off. But Jesus came for THEM!

Chances are, you have someone on your mind right now. When I said, someone who is far from God but close to you, someone came to mind. Here’s what I want you to do:

Write down their name. Grab the pen in front of you and a slip of paper and write it down. Or pull out your phone right now, and write down their name. The first step is to identity who your One is that God is putting on your heart.

But the next step of obedience is to pray for them. I want you to commit to praying for your One and reaching out to them somehow.

Maybe you’ll send a text to them. Maybe you’ll set up a coffee conversation.

Maybe you’ll drop off Christmas cookies for them.

Maybe you’ll invite them to join you for the Christmas concert or an advent service.

Just create a simple touchpoint, because that’s all it takes to show them that they matter to you, because they matter to God.

Rahab didn’t have perfect theology, she just took the next step. Her next step wasn’t perfect, but it was obedient. And God used her simple next step to rescue her whole family. Imagine what He could do through your simple step of obedience!

[Matthew 1:5]

And not only that, here’s one of the coolest parts of Rahab’s story. God, who doesn’t leave anyone discarded or forgotten, reached out to her and built faith in her heart before she ever met one of his followers.

Then she joined in his mission and reached out to those close to her, so that they could be saved as well. And we know that she lived among the Jewish people after that.

But in the gospel of Matthew, we see her mentioned again. It turns out that she actually married one of the Israelites, Salmon. The girl with a past full of exploitation and discarding, was chosen and wanted. And she had a son, Boaz.

We’re actually going to hear more about Boaz in a few weeks. But the reason Rahab is mentioned here in the first chapter of Matthew is because this is the list of all of the people in the family tree of Jesus.

[Your past doesn’t]

Rahab, the prostitute who was a foreigner actually becomes King David’s great-great-grandma and is grafted into the family line of Jesus!

Rahab shows us that your past doesn’t define you… Jesus does. And he always weaves misfits into his redemption story.

So we don’t need to feel unfit or unusable because of where we came from or what we’ve experienced. Jesus is the one who defines us now. His love declares with the loudest voice:

I choose you. I’ve never forgotten you. I’ve been pursuing you your whole life, and I’ll never stop pursuing you, even when you falter and wander from me, because I want you. And I want to work through you.

[END]

Jesus is the scarlet cord who rescues us from destruction.

Jesus is the one who gives misfits a home.

Jesus is the one who adopts outsiders into his family.

And Jesus doesn’t just save you, he sends you to be a part of his mission of reaching others who need him too.

So who’s your one? What’s your next step this Christmas season?

Because our faith doesn’t end with what we believe. It begins with our obedience. And our amazing God works through unlikely people who take the next step in faith.

Isn’t that good news?