October 3, 2025 • 50 mins
We love comfort. But it may be getting in the way of God’s plan for our lives. See why being comfortable may not be what God wants for us.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message
today I want to share with you in this part
two on the subject of pivotal decisions. Pivotal decisions, I'm
(00:26):
going to Judges thirteen. I don't know if I'll get
there in the next few minutes. So if you don't
know where Judge is in is in the Bible, you're
gonna have a good head start. If you prefer to
just look at the screen, that's okay too. But I wonder,
as I get started, how many of you right now
are in the middle of making a big decision for
(00:49):
your life. Would you raise your hand if you're in
the middle of making a big decision for your life
and keep it up, keep it up. So what are
you gonna do? How are you gonna You're gonna do
like pros and cons or you're gonna like flip a
coin if it comes to that, you gotta plan for this.
(01:12):
You're gonna you're gonna do, like, ask a lot of
people till somebody tells you what you want to hear, like,
like we all do you know? Just keep asking people
till you get the answer that you wanted so they
can confirm the thing that you were gonna do all along. Anyway,
now you wasted everybody's time just asking them stuff that
you already knew what you were gonna do. We're you
gonna do? You're gonna like, uh, just stress, eat and
(01:33):
put it off to the last minute. That's always a
good plan. I like that. I like to just watch
Netflix instead personally, put it off to the last minute,
and then make the decision when the pressure's on. The
crazy thing is when I say that a big decision.
A lot of the decisions that you make, you don't
(01:54):
know if they're big or not when you're making them.
This is why I need God so much, because not
only can I not make the big decisions right without him,
but I don't even know which ones are big unless
he tells me. Because you know, big decisions, we get
(02:14):
caught up where we're gonna get married. That's me and
Holly spent so many weeks thinking about that, like the
big decision of where we were going to have our wedding.
You know what, it didn't really matter as much as
some other things. What was important about our marriage was like,
how are we going to resolve conflict? Y'all don't want
(02:37):
to talk to me today. Y'all were singing so good,
and then I started preaching and y'all went to sleep.
And the big decisions, you know, it's not always the
ones that you think are big. And that's why I
prefer the term pivotal decisions, because a big decision is
not necessarily what city you're going to live in. That's
(02:58):
a big one, I get it. But a bigger decision
for us was what church are we going to go to?
Because out of the church that we attended, that's where
we made the relationships that were really instrumental, and the
will of God was accomplished in our life, not by
just what city we lived in. But and it's funny
how people will move for a job, or they'll move
for a school, but they'll put church at the bottom
(03:21):
of the list and then kind of find one. But
I think the pivotal things are sometimes not what we
consider to be the big things, and that's that's confusing pivotal,
you know what I mean? Like, I guess because it's
All Star weekend. I don't play basketball. I don't even
really like basketball. I was always terrible at it. I
wrestled a little bit, played a little baseball. But when
(03:43):
I watched basketball, I always see them pivot. I always
see that their ability to pass and you know, without traveling,
without getting called, it's all from this foot that they
pivot on. And I'm not going to demonstrate it for you,
because again I'm not very athletic, but when I watch
them pivot, I notice like, well, that's pretty important. And
the only way that they can pivot is if they're planted.
(04:07):
Now I'm going to preach that in about twenty eight minutes,
but hang on, I'm coming to judges thirteen. And I
notice that, you know, pivoting is not only for athletes.
It's also for politicians. And I'll be honest with you.
As a preacher, I get it because sometimes you get
asked the weirdest questions, the weirdest, most unanswerable, most non
(04:30):
germane questions. I'll sometimes be doing a Q and A
or something and someone will ask me, you know what
kind of horse is Jesus coming back on? And there's
really no way to answer that without making them look
dumb or you know, because it is a dumb question.
But I love people and the sheep, and so I'm like,
I'm like, well, you know, that's a great question. And
(04:53):
regardless of what horse he comes on, I think what's
important is that we have a sense of urgency. See
how I just and now you don't feel dumb, and
I don't have to answer your question, and so we
all win because I know how to pivot. Touch. Somebody say,
the power is in the pivot. Let's go to Judges thirteen.
(05:15):
Are you ready? Because you got some big decisions you're making,
and then you've got some decisions that you don't think
are very big, but they're pivotal, Like how you start
your day. That's not a big decision, but it's pivotal
because how you start your day watch, it's a directional decision.
Watch watch me. It's directional. So I'm not watch watch, watch,
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I'm not moving much. It's not a big move. I'm
still standing where I was. But I get a completely
different perspective when I pivot. The Lord has really been
speaking to me. I can tell you want them to
speak to you too, And it means that sometimes it's
(06:02):
the small moves that set the direction, the small moves
that set the direction. And frankly, a lot of the
biggest things about your life will be decided outside of
your volition and will. Anyway, God is so much bigger
(06:22):
than your decisions. I know you're very successful in your business,
but you and I both know that the culmination of
everything that happened to you was bigger than you just
made good decisions. I mean, because honestly, you made some
really bad ones too, And even if you didn't, even
if you only made good decisions, you wouldn't have know,
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You wouldn't even had the opportunity to make those decisions
if God didn't position you where He positioned you. God
is bigger than my bad decisions. You know. It's not
like God is just a synonym for good decisions. You know,
being in the will of God the will of God.
And I want to ask you this question, is your
view of the will of God big enough to accommodate
(07:07):
even your bad decisions? And that's what I wanted to
look at. Judges thirteen is a passage of Scripture that
you've never heard a single sermon on before. I polled
at least thirty people this week. None of them had
heard it, and all of them went to vacation Bible
School and grew up going to Wednesday night church. So
if they didn't hear it, you didn't either. But the
(07:28):
Bible says in Judges thirteen, verse one, remember in a
pivotal time for the nation of Israel, A pivotal time
because they were in a cycle of sin, judgment and deliverance,
a pivotal time because they didn't have a king, and
they didn't really want God to be their king, so
God would keep having to raise up different people to
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lead them and deliver them from the hands of their enemies,
the Canaanites and Parasites, and Hittites, and the Philistines, the
Phoenician people who were good at metal working, so they
always had a lot of weapons, and they were moving
in on the coast, and they were ruling them, but
very loosely. Now this is the pivotal moment for the
nation of Israel, and the Bible says again, the Israelites
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did evil in the eyes of the Lord, so the
Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philistines. Stop.
You always hear about God delivering us out of things,
But here your Bible says that God delivered them into
the hands of an enemy and used their enemy. I
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don't know if your theology is about to break wide
open and something's going to fall out on the floor.
Let's get the ushers ready in case your brain just
melts right there. But God didn't deliver them out of
the hands of their enemies. But the same God who
is able to deliver you out of the hands of
your enemies. The Bible says that at least the perspective
of the writer Samuel was, who we preached about last week,
(08:54):
that God delivered them into the hands of their enemies.
That's interesting to me. I don't have a category for that.
But God is bigger than my categories. I'm learning that.
I'm learning that. So he did it for forty years,
and a certain man of Zorah named Manoah from the
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clan of the Danites, had a wife who was childless,
unable to give birth. Remember that barrenness in antiquity was
a signal or a sign of the displeasure of God.
It didn't mean the displeasure of God, but they perceived
it to mean that, so it brought with it a
great stigma. A certain man of Zora named Manoah, from
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the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was childless,
unable to give birth. The Angel of the Lord appeared
to her and said, you are barren and childless, but
you are going to become pregnant and give birth to
a son. Now see to it that you drink no
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wine or other fermented drink, and that you do not
eat anything unclean. You will become pregnant and have a
son whose head is never to be touched by a razor.
And my dad was a barber, so that verse offends
me because it would have taken money out of my
family's pocket. But anyway, because here's the reason. The boy
is to be a Nazarite. And the Nazarites don't cut
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their hair, they don't drink alcohol, they don't touch anything dead,
as the basics of being a Nazarite. In case you
were thinking about doing it, that's what you would do
if you were going to be a Nazarie. He is
to be dedicated to God from the womb. He will
take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of
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the Philistines, which God delivered them into so that he
could deliver them from what was in them that caused
them to get in this cycle to begin with. And
he's going to use this child to deliver them out.
I love your word, Lord, thank you for thank you
for what you're showing me. Now, now this is where
it gets really, really, really good, because then everybody say,
then a woman whose name we don't know, who's talking
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to a man whose name isn't given. These unnamed people
have a conversation, and the woman went to her husband
and told him a man of God came to me.
He looked like an angel of God. Very awesome. I'm
gonna be like, hold up, a man come and talking
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to my wife anyway, you know, because he didn't have
wings or heart how we think God shows up. She's like,
I think it was maybe like an angel. It was
kind of you know, because that's how it is when
you hear from God. It's kind of like, I think
this might be this maybe God. I don't know. I
mean it like it looked like I felt like it
was different. I don't know, it's just different. I don't know.
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I'm not sure. And she's telling her husband because it's
always revealed in the context of relationship. I didn't ask
him where he came from. He didn't tell me his name,
but he said to me, you will become pregnant. Uh huh.
So this awesome looking man came to my wife and said,
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what I love the Bible. Though I love the Bible,
he said, you will be pregnant to have a son. Now,
then drink no wine or other firm men to drink,
and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will
be a Nazarite of God from the womb until the
day of his death. Then Manoah name means resting place.
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Prayed to the Lord. Pardon your servant, Lord. I don't
mean to bother you. I know you got a universe
to run and all that. I beg you. Let the
man of God you sent to us because I didn't
get to see him. Let him come again, if you
could just send him back for a few minutes. I
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got a few questions I need to ask him. I
need him to teach us how to bring up the
boy who is to be born. So I need you
to speak to me, because you know how you need
God to speak to you and show you how I
want to talk about the plan. That's the first thing
I want to mention is the plan, because I understand
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that God wants to use me, but I need to
know what that's going to look like. You understand. I
need some details. I need some specifics. I need some
marching orders. I need some dates some times, some instructions.
So please Lord, if it's not too much trouble, send
that guy back. And he said we were going to
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have a son that was going to like change the
world and stuff. But I need to hear it for myself,
and I need to know the plan. Any planners in
the house, any planners, any planners, any planners, Thank God
for you, Thank God for you, because all the people
without their hand up, they always come late and make
the worship leaders lead to the first two rows and
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is empty and they come crawling in the last minute.
But I don't hate you in the back, but I'm
just saying, thank God for the planners. But it can
become a problem. And I'm gonna show you why. I'm
gonna sho you why. He said, we need to know
the plan if it's going to be this big thing.
You know, if you gave us this promise, I need
to know the plan, because without a plan, the promise
is just abstract rhetoric. Without the plan, I can know
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God has for me. He wants to use me. I'm
spread the gospel and all that sounds good, but just
send him back. If I could get five minutes with
this awesome looking man who was talking to my wife
and told her she was about to get pregnant, I
need to know the plan now. I love the next phrase,
God heard Manoah. God heard Manoah, and interesting that the
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woman wasn't praying to get pregnant when the angel said
it was going to happen. I don't know if she
gave up. I don't know if she did pray. I
don't know if she didn't pray. Bible doesn't say it
doesn't matter. And then Manoah's begging God to show up
and speak to him. You know, God initiates, we respond.
God initiates, we respond. But God heard Manoah. And when
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when Manoah prayed, God didn't say figure it out yourself
and trust me. Instead, he obliged Manoah's need for more information.
Let the person next to you know something real quick.
And it might sound cocky, but tell him anyway, it's
truth say. He hears me. God hears me. He hears
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me better than Siri and Alexa. He hears me. He
hears me, He knows my voice. He likes when I
call him, When I say help, he says yes before
I can even get out my mouth. He hears me.
He hears my groans where words don't come. He hears me.
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He hears my heart and the secret petitions of things
that people don't know that I'm dealing with. He hears me.
He hears the unspoken. Did you go to youth group
and we used to say? I have an unspoken He
hears what I don't say, He hears what's behind what
I said that's really driving the behavior. He hears me.
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He hears my secret frustration that I don't say around people,
because if I told him how frustrated I was, it
would scare him. But he hears me. He hears me
when I sing to him, when I tell him worthy
is the Lamb of God, he hears me. I know
there's better singers than me, and I know I don't
always sing on key, but he hears me. When I
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sing thank you Jesus, he hears me. It blesses his
heart to hear me, and the angel of God came
again to the woman. Wait wait, wait, wait, wait to
the woman, Manoah asked for the visit, and this angel
is back out talking to his what because God is
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not going to do it like you want him to
do it. He's gonna want to see will you trust him?
So the angel God came again to the woman while
she was out in the field, but her husband, Manoah,
was not with her. No. Woman hurried to tell her husband,
he's here the man who appeared to me the other day.
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Manoah got up and followed his wife, and when he
came to the man, he said, are you the man
who talked to my wife? Hold on, let me change
Manoah's accent. Are you the man who talked to my wife?
She said? An awesome looking man came and said that
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she was gonna be pregnant? Was that you? Angel said?
I am so, Manoah asked him. When your words are fulfilled,
I don't doubt you're going to do it. I just
need to know the plan. What is to be the
rule that governs the boy's life and work? How do
we do this? How do we do this. We're in
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a meeting this week about the church, and I know
what I want to see, but I don't know the
plan for it. And so a lot of times when
I get in that mode, I start trying to like
tweak stuff, and I start trying to manipulate stuff. I
know you don't do this, but I'm a control freak,
and so I'll be like, well, we could do this,
this and this, and it's all good. It's all good.
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But I want you to watch what the Angel does
instead of giving Manoah the plan, which is what he
asked for, what do we do with this boy that
you said is going to be born that's going to
do something great? What do I do with this calling?
What do I do in this situation? I need to
know the plan. I need to know the details. I
need to know the agenda. And the Bible says that
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the Angel verse thirteen answered your wife. So now the
Angel pivots from what Manoah asked to what he needed
to know right now. Now, sometimes when you pray to God,
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he's going to pivot, and you're gonna be like, I
need the plan, but God will pivot. I mean, this
angel would have made a great politician or preacher or
basketball player. He could have been in the All Star
Game because watch how quick he pivots. We need to
know what to do when the boys moorn, what we're
gonna do? How many times? You know, Manoa's full of questions?
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Right of course he is. Do we need to put
him in a special school? Do we need to get
him a tutor? Do we need to see some karate?
Do we need to see some jujitsu? You know? Should
we be straight? Should we what do we do? How
do me do it? And the angel says, just tell
your wife right now, don't drink anything or eat anything unclean.
That's all you need to know right now. The pivot
from what you think you need to know to what
you really need to know. And God, just watch his footwork. See,
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we always want to see God's hand, but sometimes you
gotta watch his feet because sometimes he wants to set
a different direction to say, you're not even looking at
the right side of this. Watch the pivot, and when
he pivots, you got to be quick to go with
him and say, God, I don't want your hand, I
want your face, I want to know you, I want
to seek you, I want to see you. I want
to feel you. I want to know you. I want
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to have you. I want to I want to understand
what you know I need to understand. And I wonder,
is God trying to pivot your prayer life? Is God
trying to pivot? You're strategizing. Is God trying to pivot
because you're always trying to look for him in logic,
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You're always trying to look for him in analysis and
in calculation. But God is spirit and you can't get
the spirit through strategy. You've got to come to God
like this. You've got to come to God with open arms,
open hands, and an open heart. Pivot it. It's funny
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thing about a pivot though it's a small move, but
it sets a completely different direction. Ma, Noah, you can't
handle the plan right now. You can't. My word is
a lamp unto your feet, a light into your path.
Funny thing about pivot. I've been doing this all week,
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just studying this sermon. It's trying to get God to
show me different ways to see situations and to see
his will. And what I think is this will. What
I thought was his will, and I thought he was
always doing this, But sometimes he's doing that and they
get this promises this is from the Lord. You know,
he didn't realize that at first, but he starts to sense.
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He starts to sense that this may be God. This
may be God, because's too big to be anything I
could do. I have a plan for it, I don't
have a context for it. I don't know. This may
be God. This is the Lord. This is from the Lord.
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This gift set that I have, this talent, this child
that I'm raising, this is from the Lord. Somebody say
this is from the Lord. And so since it's from
the Lord, then I need him to show me how
to do it. But sometimes he won't answer the question
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that I ask. Instead, he will give me the wisdom
that I need because he knows a better question. My
faith is not a formula, and I'm not good at
pivoting with my feet. I don't do it a lot,
so I had to practice it and I'm still not
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very good at it. But I want to get good
at it with my faith. I want to learn to pivot.
And this is where it happens for Manah and his wife.
And you're gonna see it in the text. It's just
gonna blow up when you see it. It's gonna help
you understand why you've been trying to classify everything in
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your life. You know, this is good and this is bad,
and this is God and this is the devil, and
this is it and this is that, and you keep
trying to do that, but it doesn't work. And here's why,
he said. Manoah said to the angel, we would like
you to stay until we prepare a young goat for you.
We want to cook you a goat. I make a
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delicious goat kebab, and I'll like you to stay and
eat it because this hospitality is appropriate and we appreciate
you coming by to encourage us. So stay, We're gonna
do it and appreciate the worst and the Angel of
the Law replot. Even though you detain me, I will
not eat any of your food. I'm not gonna do
it your way. You're dealing with God now, so you're
not gonna do it like you do it with humans.
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It's gonna be different. It's gonna be different, different terms.
It's gonna be a whole different thing this time. It's
not going to be all up here and what you
think you should do. It's going to have to come
from a different place. This is the pivot. This is
the pivot. And he said, but if you prepare a
burnt offering, offer it to the Lord. See the pivot.
It's not about this. It's about this. And I wonder
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if we would start deflecting some of the stuff in
our life and say, you know, this is from the Lord.
This is not from me. So I need God to
do it through me. I cannot do it by myself.
This is from the Lord. Somebody shop, this is from
the Lord. This is from the Lord. But if you
prepare a burn offering, offer it to the Lord. I
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love this in parentheses. Manoah did not realize it was
the Angel of the Lord. Maybe and maybe. And then
Manoah inquired of the Angel of the Lord, what's your name?
So we may honor your any word comes true? And
he replied, this most annointed verse I've read in the
last five years. Why do you ask my name? It
is beyond understanding. That's the pivot. That's where you find God,
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beyond what you can understand. And so everything you can
name that's not God. Everything you can explain that's not God.
Everything you can figure out on your own, and you
can make it work and you can do it. It
worked for a little while. But everything you can't name,
that's God. And we've been looking for a name for God.
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That's why we need so many And that's why he
had to tell Moses in a very special way. I
am because I need to leave room for you to
know that when you get past the point of your
ability to reconcile your situation, when you get beyond your
ability to work it out, that's where I am. That's
where I live. That's where I dwell, in the mystery,
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in the uncertainty, in the tension, beyond your understanding. And
we keep trying to find God in our logic, but
he is not found with logic. He is beyond your logic.
The Manoah took a young goat and together with the
grain offering, and sacrificed it on a rock to the Lord.
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And since the word came from the Lord, I'm gonna
make the offering to the Lord. And since my breath
came from the Lord, I'm gonna offer it back to
the Lord. And since this situation came from the Lord,
I'm gonna need the Lord to deal with it. I
can't do it on my own. And the Lord did
something amazing. While Manoah and his wife watched as the
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flame blazed up from the altar toward the heaven, the
Angel of the Lord ascended in the flame. He was
not found in the logic. He was found in the flame,
not in figuring it out, but in the fire of
sacrifice and needing God. That's where you're gonna find him.
That's where you're gonna get it. That's where you're gonna
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unlock it. That's where it'll be unleashed. I wish I
could preach about Jesus for thirty seconds right now, because see,
all my hope is in his blood, all my faith
is in his cross, all my righteousness is in his sacrifice.
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And when the flames went off, the revelation came through
and he was like he was like Mineau was like, uh,
I think we just saw God. Because when the Angel
of the Lord did not show himself again verse twenty
one to know and his wife, Manau realized that it
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was an Angel of the Lord. We're gonna die. He
said to his wife, we've seen God. But his wife answered,
if he meant to kill us, if God was out
to get you, you'd be God. That's how I know
he still has mercy for my mistakes, because I already
made enough. If he was gonna squash me for screwing up,
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I'd be a bug on this stage. The Lord meant
to kill us, he would have done it. He wouldn't
accepted the offering. He would he would he would have
wiped this out. He wouldn't have shown us all these things.
He wouldn't have shown you all these things. He wouldn't
have seen you through all these things. Look at all
he's shown you. Look at how many times you were
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off the path and somehow he got you back. Look
at all the times you were going this way, and
something just you know, he just turned stuff around. I mean,
just like you couldn't do it, and you were making
all these plans for it. But it was the pivot
that brought you back. And the woman gave birth twenty
four to a boy. Oh, I forgot to tell you
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this and named him Samson. I forgot to tell you
it got the haircut. You remember, because we always want
to remember people by their worst decisions. But Samson, the
strong one who was bench pressing three oh five and
seventh grade Samson, this is how it started. And a
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lot of people didn't know that because all they ever
saw was his head in Delilah's lap. But it was decisions.
It was decisions. It was decisions. And you have a destiny,
but you get to make decisions. And God is sovereign,
but you're responsible. And so how you process your desires
and your decisions right now is really critical. So she
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has a baby. She names him Samson, and the Lord
blessed him. Grew biceps, triceps, laps and belts, and about
all the names of the quadriceps, cap muscles. It's about
all I know. And the Lord blessed them. In the
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spirit of the Lord began to stir him. While he
was in man, I pronounced that wrong. He was in
this place. Now he's growing up, going good, and God's
hand is on this boy's life. He's a. He's a.
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He's a he's a star football player. He's uh. He
learned to ride his bike at the age of three.
Good things have happened. Then the pivot, then the pivot.
Now if you just if you just watch my feet
(30:30):
and don't think about it, you go like, well, what's
the big deal about the pivot, We'll see you don't
really know how big the move is until you walk
it out. Because if I walk this way and if
I kept walking that way, it would be a different
completely if I but but if I if I walk
(30:51):
this way and all I did was this, it's a
small move, but it sets the direction. And that's what's
happening in your life. When you decide, like how to
speak to people, When you decide, like whether or not
you're gonna whether you're gonna come back next weekend to church.
It's a small decision, but it sets a direction. When
(31:15):
you decide, am I gonna tie and put God first? Oh? Yeah,
I'm gonna put tithe in in the sermons series. I'm
gonna put it in because it's a decision. It is
the will of God for you to put Him first.
And when you decide like I'm gonna do that, it
sets a direction to seek God first. When you decide,
like you know what, I'm I'm gonna text my I'm
gonna text my wife. I'm gonna text her and tell
her I'm gonna be home at a certain time and
(31:36):
I'm actually gonna be home at that time. It's a
little decision, but it sets a direction. Because when you
set a direction, you know I can count on you,
and you're gonna do it. When you show up and
eat with your family. That's not a big decision. We
want big decisions, big things from God. No, No, it's
the pivotal decisions. It's just it's the little things that
you do that set the direction for your day and
(31:58):
for your decade and even for generations to come. Now,
it's all going good until one day. Chapter fourteen, verse
one says that Samson pivoted and went down to Timna.
Went down to Timnah, not very far from where he
(32:20):
was living at the time. But when he got there,
he saw a young Philistine woman who was he supposed
to deliver his people from. So now he's in love
with what he's called to defeat, and he has a desire.
(32:41):
Have you got some desires that don't look anything like
Bible verses? Just at least one or two I do.
He saw this young woman. This is not Delilah. That's
the only woman we ever talked about in Samson's life,
you know, the combed his hair and set him up
and got his eyes gouged out. That's in chapter sixteen.
(33:03):
We're not even close to that yet. This is just
his This is just his pivotal moment. Some of you
are in a pivotal moment right now, deciding things. And
he came back and said to his father and mother
verse too, I have seen a philistine woman. Oh, by
the way, The key verse in the Book of Judges
says many many different times, I don't know how many,
(33:25):
but it says at least three times they did what
was right in their own eyes. And so Samson says,
I saw with my senses. I saw my senses, my feelings,
my emotions. I saw a philistine woman in Timda. Now
dinner for me is my wife. And his father and
mother replied, I think heartbreaking. This is he's on the path,
(33:47):
he's growing, he's being blessed, spirit of the Lord stirring him. Oh,
it's just like I thought it was gonna be. You know,
I graduated college, I got the job, I did the thing,
and then all of a sudden, life will just pivot
on you. And the kid was so cute, so cute
until they started saying words, so cute until they start
(34:14):
saying mine. You know, not just with children, but things
in our life that just all of a suddenly is
headed this way, is headed this way. Just like I said, Oh,
trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not
on your own understanding. I hear you Proverbs three five
and six. In all your ways, acknowledge him. And you know,
I didn't drink the for a minute, drink like the
angel said, and I didn't eat the unclean food and
so and he's doing right. And all of a sudden,
(34:35):
Samson said, I saw something in tim whoa come back.
And now now watch this. The destiny of the nation
is threatened by Sampson's bad decision. And the parents are like, please,
please make a better decision. Please quit hanging out with
those friends. Please. I'm telling you it's dangerous. I'm telling
(34:58):
you it's wrong. Because the Philistines were known for child's sacrifice,
the Philistines were known for worshiping other gods. The Philistines
were known for very abusive practices that were contrary to
the word of God. And his father and mother replied,
isn't there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among
all our people. Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines
(35:22):
to get a wife. Bus Sampson had already made his decision,
and now this child, I'm just thinking as a parent
who had so much promise, so much potential, needs a haircut.
(35:43):
But even that's intentional. Now he's making the dumbest decision
he could possibly make, to run too what he's supposed
to be delivering the people from and they can't convince him. Now,
this is where it gets tricky, because it's hard enough
to make your own good decisions, but then you start,
(36:07):
you start throwing in the decisions that other people make
that you can't affect or control no matter how hard
you try. And everybody who writes parenting books, I want
to give them just one bad kid and see what
they still write it the same way, because all this
seven ways to raise your kid with the you know
(36:27):
from the Book of Ruth whatever, I'll give you one
demon child with a strong will, and you will burn
your own book. Get out of my face, because some
stuff you can't control. Hello, he was determined, he was determined,
he was already he was already gone. So they went
(36:48):
with him.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
And this is the pivotal moment of my message. This
is this is the part God showed me that got
me so excited, because everyone in here knows what it
is to have the plan that you made right in
your head, the model that you had that doesn't match
the life that you're living. And now, all of a sudden,
(37:11):
Samson whose name means son, Samson who's radiant, Samson who's blessed,
Samson who's strong, Samson who carries the expectation of the
deliverance of the nation on his shoulders.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
Is making a dumb decision. And it doesn't have to
be a kid, and it doesn't have to be a spouse,
it doesn't have to be a relationship at all. You
are going to go into some situations in your life
that you will pray about, plead about, and plan about,
and none of it will work, and you will be
faced with the question, now what do I do? I
want to suggest that when this happens, that you consider
(37:48):
the parentheses. There's a little thing that Samuel will put
into the record. And he was writing this record long
after the events had happened, and all Sampson's parents knew
us this is trouble. If he marries her, it's going
(38:09):
to lead to all kinds of clashing values if he
goes through with this, because that's all we know when
we're in it is our plan. But watch how the
text pivots with a parenthetical insert. Have you studied any
grammar books lately? The parentheses is when you want to
put something in the sentence, but the sentence makes sense
(38:30):
without it, but you add it in to give additional
information that might be helpful to the person reading it,
but the sentence would make sense without it, but the parentheses.
In Judges, chapter fourteen, verse four, says his parents did
not know that this was from the Lord. They knew
(38:53):
Sampson was from the Lord because the Angel spoke it
and her wound was barren, So the only way it
could have happened was that it was from the Lord.
But now they've got to look at a disappointment. Look,
it's no problem to look at your gifts, your blessings,
and your strengths and say, this is from the Lord.
(39:13):
I praise you for another day, how great and mighty
you are, and I lift your name on high. But
this this, have you ever had to walk through a
situation where you thought, really, God, this like I didn't
drink any wine and I didn't eat any unclean foods,
and I did everything the Angel told me, And now
(39:33):
this You're really gonna let this break out of my life?
And the author said, yeah, this was from the Lord
because he was seeking an occasion. The Hebrew really means
he was picking a fight. God wanted to set his
people free from the Phoenicians, from the Philistines, and he
was gonna do it. But he wanted to do it
not through a good decision, but through a bad decision.
(39:56):
So watch what he does. Because he's sovereign and almighty,
and the Lord is his name, and he is beyond understanding,
and his ways no man can fathom. Watch what he does.
He uses Samson's dumb decision to deliver a nation. Now,
if he did that for Samson.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
Won't he do it for you? Won't he use this too?
Speaker 1 (40:28):
The more things that I can look at my life
and say, this is from the Lord. Look he didn't
give me my verse again, verse four. It's so good,
and it's in parentheses because the sentence will make sense
without it, but your life will not make sense without this.
Trying to make sense of it, you need to put
a parenthesis on it and be like, there's something that
(40:52):
the author knows that I don't know of yet. And
he who began I'm looking for, whoever God gave me
this sermon? For because it couldn't have just been me.
Touch somebody say, put a purpose on it. Put a
purpose on it, because when you find yourself beyond your understanding,
(41:15):
you gotta pivot to the purpose. God. I don't like
this right now. I don't get this right now. I
can't explain this right now. I can't rationalize it right now.
But if you've started it, you'll finish it. There is
power in the pivot, there is power in praise, and
there is a purpose in your situation. There's a purpose
(41:37):
in it. There's a purpose in it. God's trying to
pick a fight with the devil, and he wants to
break some things free and shut some things down and
get some things through. And he's gonna use this to
This is from the Lord. I'm making a decision right now,
a pivotal decision. I'm gonna turn from facing this and
(41:59):
I'm I'm gonna turn from what I don't understand to
the God who, according to the mystery of his will,
has predestined, according to his good pleasure, that all things
work together for his purpose. I'm serving the God who
could take an instrument of death called a Roman cross,
hang on it and then get down in the ground
(42:20):
and come forward talking about I am resurrection power and
I have the keys of death, hell and the grave.
I hear the spirit of God saying, put a purpose
on it. I know you're going through some pain, and
I know your past was kind of rough and you
made a lot of mistakes. But put a purpose on it. God,
(42:46):
would you use even the dumb stuff that I did
to deliver your purpose. This is bigger than me. This
is bigger than what I feel right now. This is
bigger than what my mind can fathom. This is bigger
than what my heart can know. This is bigger than
my senses. This is bigger than my This is bigger
(43:09):
than this setback. This is this is bigger, This is bigger.
This is bigger. He called me, he chose me, and
I'm going to trust him that this is from the Lord.
With a parenthetical insert, the NIV Translation Committee decided to
let us know that there are some things that don't
make sense in your life, but the parentheses, that's where
(43:34):
you see the purpose. You just got to pivot and
trust that is there even when you can't fill it
in yet. I don't have to explain why people in
this room had children die husbands that left them addictions
that were passed on to them. I'm not talking about
whether God did that or not. We know that humans
make decisions, but God is a bigger god then you've
(43:57):
given him credit for. And he's above every human decision.
God is bigger than human decisions. And if Samson didn't
marry that woman, the one that he wasn't supposed to marry, yeah,
I know it's crazy because we teach like, if you
make good choices, God can use your life. I'm saying
(44:19):
this too us from the Lord. He was looking for something.
He's looking for something that he can work through, and
he'll even use the dumb stuff. Because if he didn't
marry this woman right when he was going down to
get her and to pay the dowry for her with
(44:39):
his parents and killed the lion and ripped the lion apart,
and then came back by after he came back for
the wedding and saw honey in the lion's carcass and
gave the honey, which he wasn't supposed to do because
he wasn't supposed touch anything dead, and gave it to
his parents, licked some, and then went to the wedding
and sat around the table with thirty boys talking about
I got a riddle for you. Out of the strong
came something to eat, and out of the eater came
something to eating. Out of came something swee. If you
(45:00):
can solve my riddle, I'll give you thirty sets of
Linden clothing. But if you can't solve it, you're gonna
get me thirty sets of clothing. And the boys got
to his wife and they were like, tell us the riddle,
or we're gonna kill your whole family. And then she
was like, tell me the riddle, Sampson, tell me the riddle.
And then he said, oh, okay, well I'll tell it
to you, but don't tell it to them. But then
she told it to them, and then they solved the riddle,
and then he had to he had to go to
Ashaakt to kill thirty men and beat him up and
kill him to take their clothes to bring them back
(45:22):
because of his dumb decision. But that's what set him
on a course to be able to be able to
have an opportunity to then go back home. And after
the wedding, he went back home and he was so
mad at his wife for betraying him that he went
back home and didn't even stay with her, and by
the time he got back, she had been married to
another man because his father in law betrayed him, because
he figured, you never want to marry her now after
what she did to you. But he came back and
got so mad that he took three hundred foxes and
tied their tails together in pairs, lit them on fire,
(45:43):
sent them loose in the Philistine fields, and when they
tore up the fields, the Philistines were mad. But Samson
killed them because he was strong. Now, he never would
have killed them if they hadn't hurt him, and he
never would have been hurt by them if he hadn't
made the wrong decision. And so it goes to show
that God is using everything. If he never would have
set the foxes loose, I never want to come to
Judah and tied him up and tried to deliver them
so we can break them free and kill a thousand
(46:04):
of them with the job one of a donkey. If
it never would have happened the way it happened, it
couldn't be what it is. So stop looking at what
it was and ask God what he wants it to be.
God wants to use the dumb stuff too. You can't
control it anyway. The spirit of the Lord is on you.
(46:26):
The spirit of the Lord is on you. If the
lion comes to attack you, he will give you the
ability to rip it open because the spirit of the
Lord is on And it's a pivotal decision that you
make when you find yourself in these disappointing situations where
(46:47):
it seems like you can't win. Whether I'm going to
believe that there is a bigger picture, or if I'm
going to minimize God's presence to the level of my
understanding right here, right now, Let's turn it around. Let's
turn it around, and instead of trying to tell God
(47:09):
what's best for us, and instead of trying to do
what's right in our own eyes, let's turn it around.
Instead of groveling in the guilt of things that are
already over, I'm telling you God uses the weirdest things
about you. God uses that big nose that you hate
(47:32):
and that little habit that you have. He uses that
because when he delivers you from it, you could be
a testimony and He's going to use that too. This
is from the Lord. How I don't know. I don't
know a plan. But when I don't know the plan,
I pivot to the purpose. And he's working it all in.
(47:57):
He's working it all in. God, help me make better
decisions in the future. But use the dumb stuff too.
That's maybe the best prayer I ever pray. God, use
the dumb stuff too. Father, I bless and honor your
great name today, as together your people offer you the
(48:18):
reverence of our attention and our affection. I don't know
what they did. I don't know what was done to them.
I don't know what they can't control. That's going down
to Timna today to make a dumb decision. I declare
over their life that this is from the Lord. Even
if you didn't cause it, there is nothing you can't
(48:43):
use with everyone standing, no one moving. You can pivot
when you're planted. You can pivot when you're planted. When
you know that he spoke it, you could be assured
(49:06):
he will perform it. God's trying to turn your attention
to something greater than your pain, greater than your insecurity.
This is from the Lord. It's easy to say that
when you're holding Samson, harder to say when you can't
(49:29):
control him. But Samuel will put it in parentheses to
let us know this is what makes life make sense,
that this is from the Lord. There's something bigger. I
can't tell you what it is right now, but his
name is beyond understanding. Father, Thank you for your sweet
(49:51):
holy spirit that gently reminds us of your love and
compassion and concern for us. Now that in this moment
you would administer the gifts of healing, the portion of
joy that belongs to your children but has often been robbed. Well,
(50:12):
come against the thief now who has come to cause
them to face in the wrong direction. We turn our
eyes on you. Thank you for joining us. Special thanks
to those of you who give generously to this ministry.
Is because of you that this ministry is possible. You
can click the link in the description to give now,
or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information
(50:36):
and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You
can share it with your friends. You can click the
share button, take a screenshot and share it on your
social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again
for listening. God bless you
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message
today I want to share with you in this part
two on the subject of pivotal decisions. Pivotal decisions, I'm
(00:26):
going to Judges thirteen. I don't know if I'll get
there in the next few minutes. So if you don't
know where Judge is in is in the Bible, you're
gonna have a good head start. If you prefer to
just look at the screen, that's okay too. But I wonder,
as I get started, how many of you right now
are in the middle of making a big decision for
(00:49):
your life. Would you raise your hand if you're in
the middle of making a big decision for your life
and keep it up, keep it up. So what are
you gonna do? How are you gonna You're gonna do
like pros and cons or you're gonna like flip a
coin if it comes to that, you gotta plan for this.
(01:12):
You're gonna you're gonna do, like, ask a lot of
people till somebody tells you what you want to hear, like,
like we all do you know? Just keep asking people
till you get the answer that you wanted so they
can confirm the thing that you were gonna do all along. Anyway,
now you wasted everybody's time just asking them stuff that
you already knew what you were gonna do. We're you
gonna do? You're gonna like, uh, just stress, eat and
(01:33):
put it off to the last minute. That's always a
good plan. I like that. I like to just watch
Netflix instead personally, put it off to the last minute,
and then make the decision when the pressure's on. The
crazy thing is when I say that a big decision.
A lot of the decisions that you make, you don't
(01:54):
know if they're big or not when you're making them.
This is why I need God so much, because not
only can I not make the big decisions right without him,
but I don't even know which ones are big unless
he tells me. Because you know, big decisions, we get
(02:14):
caught up where we're gonna get married. That's me and
Holly spent so many weeks thinking about that, like the
big decision of where we were going to have our wedding.
You know what, it didn't really matter as much as
some other things. What was important about our marriage was like,
how are we going to resolve conflict? Y'all don't want
(02:37):
to talk to me today. Y'all were singing so good,
and then I started preaching and y'all went to sleep.
And the big decisions, you know, it's not always the
ones that you think are big. And that's why I
prefer the term pivotal decisions, because a big decision is
not necessarily what city you're going to live in. That's
(02:58):
a big one, I get it. But a bigger decision
for us was what church are we going to go to?
Because out of the church that we attended, that's where
we made the relationships that were really instrumental, and the
will of God was accomplished in our life, not by
just what city we lived in. But and it's funny
how people will move for a job, or they'll move
for a school, but they'll put church at the bottom
(03:21):
of the list and then kind of find one. But
I think the pivotal things are sometimes not what we
consider to be the big things, and that's that's confusing pivotal,
you know what I mean? Like, I guess because it's
All Star weekend. I don't play basketball. I don't even
really like basketball. I was always terrible at it. I
wrestled a little bit, played a little baseball. But when
(03:43):
I watched basketball, I always see them pivot. I always
see that their ability to pass and you know, without traveling,
without getting called, it's all from this foot that they
pivot on. And I'm not going to demonstrate it for you,
because again I'm not very athletic, but when I watch
them pivot, I notice like, well, that's pretty important. And
the only way that they can pivot is if they're planted.
(04:07):
Now I'm going to preach that in about twenty eight minutes,
but hang on, I'm coming to judges thirteen. And I
notice that, you know, pivoting is not only for athletes.
It's also for politicians. And I'll be honest with you.
As a preacher, I get it because sometimes you get
asked the weirdest questions, the weirdest, most unanswerable, most non
(04:30):
germane questions. I'll sometimes be doing a Q and A
or something and someone will ask me, you know what
kind of horse is Jesus coming back on? And there's
really no way to answer that without making them look
dumb or you know, because it is a dumb question.
But I love people and the sheep, and so I'm like,
I'm like, well, you know, that's a great question. And
(04:53):
regardless of what horse he comes on, I think what's
important is that we have a sense of urgency. See
how I just and now you don't feel dumb, and
I don't have to answer your question, and so we
all win because I know how to pivot. Touch. Somebody say,
the power is in the pivot. Let's go to Judges thirteen.
(05:15):
Are you ready? Because you got some big decisions you're making,
and then you've got some decisions that you don't think
are very big, but they're pivotal, Like how you start
your day. That's not a big decision, but it's pivotal
because how you start your day watch, it's a directional decision.
Watch watch me. It's directional. So I'm not watch watch, watch,
(05:39):
I'm not moving much. It's not a big move. I'm
still standing where I was. But I get a completely
different perspective when I pivot. The Lord has really been
speaking to me. I can tell you want them to
speak to you too, And it means that sometimes it's
(06:02):
the small moves that set the direction, the small moves
that set the direction. And frankly, a lot of the
biggest things about your life will be decided outside of
your volition and will. Anyway, God is so much bigger
(06:22):
than your decisions. I know you're very successful in your business,
but you and I both know that the culmination of
everything that happened to you was bigger than you just
made good decisions. I mean, because honestly, you made some
really bad ones too, And even if you didn't, even
if you only made good decisions, you wouldn't have know,
(06:44):
You wouldn't even had the opportunity to make those decisions
if God didn't position you where He positioned you. God
is bigger than my bad decisions. You know. It's not
like God is just a synonym for good decisions. You know,
being in the will of God the will of God.
And I want to ask you this question, is your
view of the will of God big enough to accommodate
(07:07):
even your bad decisions? And that's what I wanted to
look at. Judges thirteen is a passage of Scripture that
you've never heard a single sermon on before. I polled
at least thirty people this week. None of them had
heard it, and all of them went to vacation Bible
School and grew up going to Wednesday night church. So
if they didn't hear it, you didn't either. But the
(07:28):
Bible says in Judges thirteen, verse one, remember in a
pivotal time for the nation of Israel, A pivotal time
because they were in a cycle of sin, judgment and deliverance,
a pivotal time because they didn't have a king, and
they didn't really want God to be their king, so
God would keep having to raise up different people to
(07:50):
lead them and deliver them from the hands of their enemies,
the Canaanites and Parasites, and Hittites, and the Philistines, the
Phoenician people who were good at metal working, so they
always had a lot of weapons, and they were moving
in on the coast, and they were ruling them, but
very loosely. Now this is the pivotal moment for the
nation of Israel, and the Bible says again, the Israelites
(08:10):
did evil in the eyes of the Lord, so the
Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philistines. Stop.
You always hear about God delivering us out of things,
But here your Bible says that God delivered them into
the hands of an enemy and used their enemy. I
(08:33):
don't know if your theology is about to break wide
open and something's going to fall out on the floor.
Let's get the ushers ready in case your brain just
melts right there. But God didn't deliver them out of
the hands of their enemies. But the same God who
is able to deliver you out of the hands of
your enemies. The Bible says that at least the perspective
of the writer Samuel was, who we preached about last week,
(08:54):
that God delivered them into the hands of their enemies.
That's interesting to me. I don't have a category for that.
But God is bigger than my categories. I'm learning that.
I'm learning that. So he did it for forty years,
and a certain man of Zorah named Manoah from the
(09:14):
clan of the Danites, had a wife who was childless,
unable to give birth. Remember that barrenness in antiquity was
a signal or a sign of the displeasure of God.
It didn't mean the displeasure of God, but they perceived
it to mean that, so it brought with it a
great stigma. A certain man of Zora named Manoah, from
(09:36):
the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was childless,
unable to give birth. The Angel of the Lord appeared
to her and said, you are barren and childless, but
you are going to become pregnant and give birth to
a son. Now see to it that you drink no
(09:57):
wine or other fermented drink, and that you do not
eat anything unclean. You will become pregnant and have a
son whose head is never to be touched by a razor.
And my dad was a barber, so that verse offends
me because it would have taken money out of my
family's pocket. But anyway, because here's the reason. The boy
is to be a Nazarite. And the Nazarites don't cut
(10:18):
their hair, they don't drink alcohol, they don't touch anything dead,
as the basics of being a Nazarite. In case you
were thinking about doing it, that's what you would do
if you were going to be a Nazarie. He is
to be dedicated to God from the womb. He will
take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of
(10:40):
the Philistines, which God delivered them into so that he
could deliver them from what was in them that caused
them to get in this cycle to begin with. And
he's going to use this child to deliver them out.
I love your word, Lord, thank you for thank you
for what you're showing me. Now, now this is where
it gets really, really, really good, because then everybody say,
then a woman whose name we don't know, who's talking
(11:03):
to a man whose name isn't given. These unnamed people
have a conversation, and the woman went to her husband
and told him a man of God came to me.
He looked like an angel of God. Very awesome. I'm
gonna be like, hold up, a man come and talking
(11:26):
to my wife anyway, you know, because he didn't have
wings or heart how we think God shows up. She's like,
I think it was maybe like an angel. It was
kind of you know, because that's how it is when
you hear from God. It's kind of like, I think
this might be this maybe God. I don't know. I
mean it like it looked like I felt like it
was different. I don't know, it's just different. I don't know.
(11:47):
I'm not sure. And she's telling her husband because it's
always revealed in the context of relationship. I didn't ask
him where he came from. He didn't tell me his name,
but he said to me, you will become pregnant. Uh huh.
So this awesome looking man came to my wife and said,
(12:11):
what I love the Bible. Though I love the Bible,
he said, you will be pregnant to have a son. Now,
then drink no wine or other firm men to drink,
and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will
be a Nazarite of God from the womb until the
day of his death. Then Manoah name means resting place.
(12:31):
Prayed to the Lord. Pardon your servant, Lord. I don't
mean to bother you. I know you got a universe
to run and all that. I beg you. Let the
man of God you sent to us because I didn't
get to see him. Let him come again, if you
could just send him back for a few minutes. I
(12:53):
got a few questions I need to ask him. I
need him to teach us how to bring up the
boy who is to be born. So I need you
to speak to me, because you know how you need
God to speak to you and show you how I
want to talk about the plan. That's the first thing
I want to mention is the plan, because I understand
(13:14):
that God wants to use me, but I need to
know what that's going to look like. You understand. I
need some details. I need some specifics. I need some
marching orders. I need some dates some times, some instructions.
So please Lord, if it's not too much trouble, send
that guy back. And he said we were going to
(13:34):
have a son that was going to like change the
world and stuff. But I need to hear it for myself,
and I need to know the plan. Any planners in
the house, any planners, any planners, any planners, Thank God
for you, Thank God for you, because all the people
without their hand up, they always come late and make
the worship leaders lead to the first two rows and
(13:55):
is empty and they come crawling in the last minute.
But I don't hate you in the back, but I'm
just saying, thank God for the planners. But it can
become a problem. And I'm gonna show you why. I'm
gonna sho you why. He said, we need to know
the plan if it's going to be this big thing.
You know, if you gave us this promise, I need
to know the plan, because without a plan, the promise
is just abstract rhetoric. Without the plan, I can know
(14:18):
God has for me. He wants to use me. I'm
spread the gospel and all that sounds good, but just
send him back. If I could get five minutes with
this awesome looking man who was talking to my wife
and told her she was about to get pregnant, I
need to know the plan now. I love the next phrase,
God heard Manoah. God heard Manoah, and interesting that the
(14:44):
woman wasn't praying to get pregnant when the angel said
it was going to happen. I don't know if she
gave up. I don't know if she did pray. I
don't know if she didn't pray. Bible doesn't say it
doesn't matter. And then Manoah's begging God to show up
and speak to him. You know, God initiates, we respond.
God initiates, we respond. But God heard Manoah. And when
(15:05):
when Manoah prayed, God didn't say figure it out yourself
and trust me. Instead, he obliged Manoah's need for more information.
Let the person next to you know something real quick.
And it might sound cocky, but tell him anyway, it's
truth say. He hears me. God hears me. He hears
(15:30):
me better than Siri and Alexa. He hears me. He
hears me, He knows my voice. He likes when I
call him, When I say help, he says yes before
I can even get out my mouth. He hears me.
He hears my groans where words don't come. He hears me.
(15:51):
He hears my heart and the secret petitions of things
that people don't know that I'm dealing with. He hears me.
He hears the unspoken. Did you go to youth group
and we used to say? I have an unspoken He
hears what I don't say, He hears what's behind what
I said that's really driving the behavior. He hears me.
(16:11):
He hears my secret frustration that I don't say around people,
because if I told him how frustrated I was, it
would scare him. But he hears me. He hears me
when I sing to him, when I tell him worthy
is the Lamb of God, he hears me. I know
there's better singers than me, and I know I don't
always sing on key, but he hears me. When I
(16:33):
sing thank you Jesus, he hears me. It blesses his
heart to hear me, and the angel of God came
again to the woman. Wait wait, wait, wait, wait to
the woman, Manoah asked for the visit, and this angel
is back out talking to his what because God is
(16:55):
not going to do it like you want him to
do it. He's gonna want to see will you trust him?
So the angel God came again to the woman while
she was out in the field, but her husband, Manoah,
was not with her. No. Woman hurried to tell her husband,
he's here the man who appeared to me the other day.
(17:16):
Manoah got up and followed his wife, and when he
came to the man, he said, are you the man
who talked to my wife? Hold on, let me change
Manoah's accent. Are you the man who talked to my wife?
She said? An awesome looking man came and said that
(17:38):
she was gonna be pregnant? Was that you? Angel said?
I am so, Manoah asked him. When your words are fulfilled,
I don't doubt you're going to do it. I just
need to know the plan. What is to be the
rule that governs the boy's life and work? How do
we do this? How do we do this. We're in
(18:02):
a meeting this week about the church, and I know
what I want to see, but I don't know the
plan for it. And so a lot of times when
I get in that mode, I start trying to like
tweak stuff, and I start trying to manipulate stuff. I
know you don't do this, but I'm a control freak,
and so I'll be like, well, we could do this,
this and this, and it's all good. It's all good.
(18:23):
But I want you to watch what the Angel does
instead of giving Manoah the plan, which is what he
asked for, what do we do with this boy that
you said is going to be born that's going to
do something great? What do I do with this calling?
What do I do in this situation? I need to
know the plan. I need to know the details. I
need to know the agenda. And the Bible says that
(18:44):
the Angel verse thirteen answered your wife. So now the
Angel pivots from what Manoah asked to what he needed
to know right now. Now, sometimes when you pray to God,
(19:08):
he's going to pivot, and you're gonna be like, I
need the plan, but God will pivot. I mean, this
angel would have made a great politician or preacher or
basketball player. He could have been in the All Star
Game because watch how quick he pivots. We need to
know what to do when the boys moorn, what we're
gonna do? How many times? You know, Manoa's full of questions?
(19:31):
Right of course he is. Do we need to put
him in a special school? Do we need to get
him a tutor? Do we need to see some karate?
Do we need to see some jujitsu? You know? Should
we be straight? Should we what do we do? How
do me do it? And the angel says, just tell
your wife right now, don't drink anything or eat anything unclean.
That's all you need to know right now. The pivot
from what you think you need to know to what
you really need to know. And God, just watch his footwork. See,
(19:54):
we always want to see God's hand, but sometimes you
gotta watch his feet because sometimes he wants to set
a different direction to say, you're not even looking at
the right side of this. Watch the pivot, and when
he pivots, you got to be quick to go with
him and say, God, I don't want your hand, I
want your face, I want to know you, I want
to seek you, I want to see you. I want
to feel you. I want to know you. I want
(20:16):
to have you. I want to I want to understand
what you know I need to understand. And I wonder,
is God trying to pivot your prayer life? Is God
trying to pivot? You're strategizing. Is God trying to pivot
because you're always trying to look for him in logic,
(20:37):
You're always trying to look for him in analysis and
in calculation. But God is spirit and you can't get
the spirit through strategy. You've got to come to God
like this. You've got to come to God with open arms,
open hands, and an open heart. Pivot it. It's funny
(21:02):
thing about a pivot though it's a small move, but
it sets a completely different direction. Ma, Noah, you can't
handle the plan right now. You can't. My word is
a lamp unto your feet, a light into your path.
Funny thing about pivot. I've been doing this all week,
(21:24):
just studying this sermon. It's trying to get God to
show me different ways to see situations and to see
his will. And what I think is this will. What
I thought was his will, and I thought he was
always doing this, But sometimes he's doing that and they
get this promises this is from the Lord. You know,
he didn't realize that at first, but he starts to sense.
(21:47):
He starts to sense that this may be God. This
may be God, because's too big to be anything I
could do. I have a plan for it, I don't
have a context for it. I don't know. This may
be God. This is the Lord. This is from the Lord.
(22:11):
This gift set that I have, this talent, this child
that I'm raising, this is from the Lord. Somebody say
this is from the Lord. And so since it's from
the Lord, then I need him to show me how
to do it. But sometimes he won't answer the question
(22:32):
that I ask. Instead, he will give me the wisdom
that I need because he knows a better question. My
faith is not a formula, and I'm not good at
pivoting with my feet. I don't do it a lot,
so I had to practice it and I'm still not
(22:54):
very good at it. But I want to get good
at it with my faith. I want to learn to pivot.
And this is where it happens for Manah and his wife.
And you're gonna see it in the text. It's just
gonna blow up when you see it. It's gonna help
you understand why you've been trying to classify everything in
(23:14):
your life. You know, this is good and this is bad,
and this is God and this is the devil, and
this is it and this is that, and you keep
trying to do that, but it doesn't work. And here's why,
he said. Manoah said to the angel, we would like
you to stay until we prepare a young goat for you.
We want to cook you a goat. I make a
(23:35):
delicious goat kebab, and I'll like you to stay and
eat it because this hospitality is appropriate and we appreciate
you coming by to encourage us. So stay, We're gonna
do it and appreciate the worst and the Angel of
the Law replot. Even though you detain me, I will
not eat any of your food. I'm not gonna do
it your way. You're dealing with God now, so you're
not gonna do it like you do it with humans.
(23:56):
It's gonna be different. It's gonna be different, different terms.
It's gonna be a whole different thing this time. It's
not going to be all up here and what you
think you should do. It's going to have to come
from a different place. This is the pivot. This is
the pivot. And he said, but if you prepare a
burnt offering, offer it to the Lord. See the pivot.
It's not about this. It's about this. And I wonder
(24:16):
if we would start deflecting some of the stuff in
our life and say, you know, this is from the Lord.
This is not from me. So I need God to
do it through me. I cannot do it by myself.
This is from the Lord. Somebody shop, this is from
the Lord. This is from the Lord. But if you
prepare a burn offering, offer it to the Lord. I
(24:36):
love this in parentheses. Manoah did not realize it was
the Angel of the Lord. Maybe and maybe. And then
Manoah inquired of the Angel of the Lord, what's your name?
So we may honor your any word comes true? And
he replied, this most annointed verse I've read in the
last five years. Why do you ask my name? It
is beyond understanding. That's the pivot. That's where you find God,
(25:05):
beyond what you can understand. And so everything you can
name that's not God. Everything you can explain that's not God.
Everything you can figure out on your own, and you
can make it work and you can do it. It
worked for a little while. But everything you can't name,
that's God. And we've been looking for a name for God.
(25:26):
That's why we need so many And that's why he
had to tell Moses in a very special way. I
am because I need to leave room for you to
know that when you get past the point of your
ability to reconcile your situation, when you get beyond your
ability to work it out, that's where I am. That's
where I live. That's where I dwell, in the mystery,
(25:49):
in the uncertainty, in the tension, beyond your understanding. And
we keep trying to find God in our logic, but
he is not found with logic. He is beyond your logic.
The Manoah took a young goat and together with the
grain offering, and sacrificed it on a rock to the Lord.
(26:11):
And since the word came from the Lord, I'm gonna
make the offering to the Lord. And since my breath
came from the Lord, I'm gonna offer it back to
the Lord. And since this situation came from the Lord,
I'm gonna need the Lord to deal with it. I
can't do it on my own. And the Lord did
something amazing. While Manoah and his wife watched as the
(26:32):
flame blazed up from the altar toward the heaven, the
Angel of the Lord ascended in the flame. He was
not found in the logic. He was found in the flame,
not in figuring it out, but in the fire of
sacrifice and needing God. That's where you're gonna find him.
That's where you're gonna get it. That's where you're gonna
(26:53):
unlock it. That's where it'll be unleashed. I wish I
could preach about Jesus for thirty seconds right now, because see,
all my hope is in his blood, all my faith
is in his cross, all my righteousness is in his sacrifice.
(27:14):
And when the flames went off, the revelation came through
and he was like he was like Mineau was like, uh,
I think we just saw God. Because when the Angel
of the Lord did not show himself again verse twenty
one to know and his wife, Manau realized that it
(27:34):
was an Angel of the Lord. We're gonna die. He
said to his wife, we've seen God. But his wife answered,
if he meant to kill us, if God was out
to get you, you'd be God. That's how I know
he still has mercy for my mistakes, because I already
made enough. If he was gonna squash me for screwing up,
(27:55):
I'd be a bug on this stage. The Lord meant
to kill us, he would have done it. He wouldn't
accepted the offering. He would he would he would have
wiped this out. He wouldn't have shown us all these things.
He wouldn't have shown you all these things. He wouldn't
have seen you through all these things. Look at all
he's shown you. Look at how many times you were
(28:16):
off the path and somehow he got you back. Look
at all the times you were going this way, and
something just you know, he just turned stuff around. I mean,
just like you couldn't do it, and you were making
all these plans for it. But it was the pivot
that brought you back. And the woman gave birth twenty
four to a boy. Oh, I forgot to tell you
(28:37):
this and named him Samson. I forgot to tell you
it got the haircut. You remember, because we always want
to remember people by their worst decisions. But Samson, the
strong one who was bench pressing three oh five and
seventh grade Samson, this is how it started. And a
(29:01):
lot of people didn't know that because all they ever
saw was his head in Delilah's lap. But it was decisions.
It was decisions. It was decisions. And you have a destiny,
but you get to make decisions. And God is sovereign,
but you're responsible. And so how you process your desires
and your decisions right now is really critical. So she
(29:25):
has a baby. She names him Samson, and the Lord
blessed him. Grew biceps, triceps, laps and belts, and about
all the names of the quadriceps, cap muscles. It's about
all I know. And the Lord blessed them. In the
(29:46):
spirit of the Lord began to stir him. While he
was in man, I pronounced that wrong. He was in
this place. Now he's growing up, going good, and God's
hand is on this boy's life. He's a. He's a.
(30:10):
He's a he's a star football player. He's uh. He
learned to ride his bike at the age of three.
Good things have happened. Then the pivot, then the pivot.
Now if you just if you just watch my feet
(30:30):
and don't think about it, you go like, well, what's
the big deal about the pivot, We'll see you don't
really know how big the move is until you walk
it out. Because if I walk this way and if
I kept walking that way, it would be a different
completely if I but but if I if I walk
(30:51):
this way and all I did was this, it's a
small move, but it sets the direction. And that's what's
happening in your life. When you decide, like how to
speak to people, When you decide, like whether or not
you're gonna whether you're gonna come back next weekend to church.
It's a small decision, but it sets a direction. When
(31:15):
you decide, am I gonna tie and put God first? Oh? Yeah,
I'm gonna put tithe in in the sermons series. I'm
gonna put it in because it's a decision. It is
the will of God for you to put Him first.
And when you decide like I'm gonna do that, it
sets a direction to seek God first. When you decide,
like you know what, I'm I'm gonna text my I'm
gonna text my wife. I'm gonna text her and tell
her I'm gonna be home at a certain time and
(31:36):
I'm actually gonna be home at that time. It's a
little decision, but it sets a direction. Because when you
set a direction, you know I can count on you,
and you're gonna do it. When you show up and
eat with your family. That's not a big decision. We
want big decisions, big things from God. No, No, it's
the pivotal decisions. It's just it's the little things that
you do that set the direction for your day and
(31:58):
for your decade and even for generations to come. Now,
it's all going good until one day. Chapter fourteen, verse
one says that Samson pivoted and went down to Timna.
Went down to Timnah, not very far from where he
(32:20):
was living at the time. But when he got there,
he saw a young Philistine woman who was he supposed
to deliver his people from. So now he's in love
with what he's called to defeat, and he has a desire.
(32:41):
Have you got some desires that don't look anything like
Bible verses? Just at least one or two I do.
He saw this young woman. This is not Delilah. That's
the only woman we ever talked about in Samson's life,
you know, the combed his hair and set him up
and got his eyes gouged out. That's in chapter sixteen.
(33:03):
We're not even close to that yet. This is just
his This is just his pivotal moment. Some of you
are in a pivotal moment right now, deciding things. And
he came back and said to his father and mother
verse too, I have seen a philistine woman. Oh, by
the way, The key verse in the Book of Judges
says many many different times, I don't know how many,
(33:25):
but it says at least three times they did what
was right in their own eyes. And so Samson says,
I saw with my senses. I saw my senses, my feelings,
my emotions. I saw a philistine woman in Timda. Now
dinner for me is my wife. And his father and
mother replied, I think heartbreaking. This is he's on the path,
(33:47):
he's growing, he's being blessed, spirit of the Lord stirring him. Oh,
it's just like I thought it was gonna be. You know,
I graduated college, I got the job, I did the thing,
and then all of a sudden, life will just pivot
on you. And the kid was so cute, so cute
until they started saying words, so cute until they start
(34:14):
saying mine. You know, not just with children, but things
in our life that just all of a suddenly is
headed this way, is headed this way. Just like I said, Oh,
trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not
on your own understanding. I hear you Proverbs three five
and six. In all your ways, acknowledge him. And you know,
I didn't drink the for a minute, drink like the
angel said, and I didn't eat the unclean food and
so and he's doing right. And all of a sudden,
(34:35):
Samson said, I saw something in tim whoa come back.
And now now watch this. The destiny of the nation
is threatened by Sampson's bad decision. And the parents are like, please,
please make a better decision. Please quit hanging out with
those friends. Please. I'm telling you it's dangerous. I'm telling
(34:58):
you it's wrong. Because the Philistines were known for child's sacrifice,
the Philistines were known for worshiping other gods. The Philistines
were known for very abusive practices that were contrary to
the word of God. And his father and mother replied,
isn't there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among
all our people. Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines
(35:22):
to get a wife. Bus Sampson had already made his decision,
and now this child, I'm just thinking as a parent
who had so much promise, so much potential, needs a haircut.
(35:43):
But even that's intentional. Now he's making the dumbest decision
he could possibly make, to run too what he's supposed
to be delivering the people from and they can't convince him. Now,
this is where it gets tricky, because it's hard enough
to make your own good decisions, but then you start,
(36:07):
you start throwing in the decisions that other people make
that you can't affect or control no matter how hard
you try. And everybody who writes parenting books, I want
to give them just one bad kid and see what
they still write it the same way, because all this
seven ways to raise your kid with the you know
(36:27):
from the Book of Ruth whatever, I'll give you one
demon child with a strong will, and you will burn
your own book. Get out of my face, because some
stuff you can't control. Hello, he was determined, he was determined,
he was already he was already gone. So they went
(36:48):
with him.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
And this is the pivotal moment of my message. This
is this is the part God showed me that got
me so excited, because everyone in here knows what it
is to have the plan that you made right in
your head, the model that you had that doesn't match
the life that you're living. And now, all of a sudden,
(37:11):
Samson whose name means son, Samson who's radiant, Samson who's blessed,
Samson who's strong, Samson who carries the expectation of the
deliverance of the nation on his shoulders.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
Is making a dumb decision. And it doesn't have to
be a kid, and it doesn't have to be a spouse,
it doesn't have to be a relationship at all. You
are going to go into some situations in your life
that you will pray about, plead about, and plan about,
and none of it will work, and you will be
faced with the question, now what do I do? I
want to suggest that when this happens, that you consider
(37:48):
the parentheses. There's a little thing that Samuel will put
into the record. And he was writing this record long
after the events had happened, and all Sampson's parents knew
us this is trouble. If he marries her, it's going
(38:09):
to lead to all kinds of clashing values if he
goes through with this, because that's all we know when
we're in it is our plan. But watch how the
text pivots with a parenthetical insert. Have you studied any
grammar books lately? The parentheses is when you want to
put something in the sentence, but the sentence makes sense
(38:30):
without it, but you add it in to give additional
information that might be helpful to the person reading it,
but the sentence would make sense without it, but the parentheses.
In Judges, chapter fourteen, verse four, says his parents did
not know that this was from the Lord. They knew
(38:53):
Sampson was from the Lord because the Angel spoke it
and her wound was barren, So the only way it
could have happened was that it was from the Lord.
But now they've got to look at a disappointment. Look,
it's no problem to look at your gifts, your blessings,
and your strengths and say, this is from the Lord.
(39:13):
I praise you for another day, how great and mighty
you are, and I lift your name on high. But
this this, have you ever had to walk through a
situation where you thought, really, God, this like I didn't
drink any wine and I didn't eat any unclean foods,
and I did everything the Angel told me, And now
(39:33):
this You're really gonna let this break out of my life?
And the author said, yeah, this was from the Lord
because he was seeking an occasion. The Hebrew really means
he was picking a fight. God wanted to set his
people free from the Phoenicians, from the Philistines, and he
was gonna do it. But he wanted to do it
not through a good decision, but through a bad decision.
(39:56):
So watch what he does. Because he's sovereign and almighty,
and the Lord is his name, and he is beyond understanding,
and his ways no man can fathom. Watch what he does.
He uses Samson's dumb decision to deliver a nation. Now,
if he did that for Samson.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
Won't he do it for you? Won't he use this too?
Speaker 1 (40:28):
The more things that I can look at my life
and say, this is from the Lord. Look he didn't
give me my verse again, verse four. It's so good,
and it's in parentheses because the sentence will make sense
without it, but your life will not make sense without this.
Trying to make sense of it, you need to put
a parenthesis on it and be like, there's something that
(40:52):
the author knows that I don't know of yet. And
he who began I'm looking for, whoever God gave me
this sermon? For because it couldn't have just been me.
Touch somebody say, put a purpose on it. Put a
purpose on it, because when you find yourself beyond your understanding,
(41:15):
you gotta pivot to the purpose. God. I don't like
this right now. I don't get this right now. I
can't explain this right now. I can't rationalize it right now.
But if you've started it, you'll finish it. There is
power in the pivot, there is power in praise, and
there is a purpose in your situation. There's a purpose
(41:37):
in it. There's a purpose in it. God's trying to
pick a fight with the devil, and he wants to
break some things free and shut some things down and
get some things through. And he's gonna use this to
This is from the Lord. I'm making a decision right now,
a pivotal decision. I'm gonna turn from facing this and
(41:59):
I'm I'm gonna turn from what I don't understand to
the God who, according to the mystery of his will,
has predestined, according to his good pleasure, that all things
work together for his purpose. I'm serving the God who
could take an instrument of death called a Roman cross,
hang on it and then get down in the ground
(42:20):
and come forward talking about I am resurrection power and
I have the keys of death, hell and the grave.
I hear the spirit of God saying, put a purpose
on it. I know you're going through some pain, and
I know your past was kind of rough and you
made a lot of mistakes. But put a purpose on it. God,
(42:46):
would you use even the dumb stuff that I did
to deliver your purpose. This is bigger than me. This
is bigger than what I feel right now. This is
bigger than what my mind can fathom. This is bigger
than what my heart can know. This is bigger than
my senses. This is bigger than my This is bigger
(43:09):
than this setback. This is this is bigger, This is bigger.
This is bigger. He called me, he chose me, and
I'm going to trust him that this is from the Lord.
With a parenthetical insert, the NIV Translation Committee decided to
let us know that there are some things that don't
make sense in your life, but the parentheses, that's where
(43:34):
you see the purpose. You just got to pivot and
trust that is there even when you can't fill it
in yet. I don't have to explain why people in
this room had children die husbands that left them addictions
that were passed on to them. I'm not talking about
whether God did that or not. We know that humans
make decisions, but God is a bigger god then you've
(43:57):
given him credit for. And he's above every human decision.
God is bigger than human decisions. And if Samson didn't
marry that woman, the one that he wasn't supposed to marry, yeah,
I know it's crazy because we teach like, if you
make good choices, God can use your life. I'm saying
(44:19):
this too us from the Lord. He was looking for something.
He's looking for something that he can work through, and
he'll even use the dumb stuff. Because if he didn't
marry this woman right when he was going down to
get her and to pay the dowry for her with
(44:39):
his parents and killed the lion and ripped the lion apart,
and then came back by after he came back for
the wedding and saw honey in the lion's carcass and
gave the honey, which he wasn't supposed to do because
he wasn't supposed touch anything dead, and gave it to
his parents, licked some, and then went to the wedding
and sat around the table with thirty boys talking about
I got a riddle for you. Out of the strong
came something to eat, and out of the eater came
something to eating. Out of came something swee. If you
(45:00):
can solve my riddle, I'll give you thirty sets of
Linden clothing. But if you can't solve it, you're gonna
get me thirty sets of clothing. And the boys got
to his wife and they were like, tell us the riddle,
or we're gonna kill your whole family. And then she
was like, tell me the riddle, Sampson, tell me the riddle.
And then he said, oh, okay, well I'll tell it
to you, but don't tell it to them. But then
she told it to them, and then they solved the riddle,
and then he had to he had to go to
Ashaakt to kill thirty men and beat him up and
kill him to take their clothes to bring them back
(45:22):
because of his dumb decision. But that's what set him
on a course to be able to be able to
have an opportunity to then go back home. And after
the wedding, he went back home and he was so
mad at his wife for betraying him that he went
back home and didn't even stay with her, and by
the time he got back, she had been married to
another man because his father in law betrayed him, because
he figured, you never want to marry her now after
what she did to you. But he came back and
got so mad that he took three hundred foxes and
tied their tails together in pairs, lit them on fire,
(45:43):
sent them loose in the Philistine fields, and when they
tore up the fields, the Philistines were mad. But Samson
killed them because he was strong. Now, he never would
have killed them if they hadn't hurt him, and he
never would have been hurt by them if he hadn't
made the wrong decision. And so it goes to show
that God is using everything. If he never would have
set the foxes loose, I never want to come to
Judah and tied him up and tried to deliver them
so we can break them free and kill a thousand
(46:04):
of them with the job one of a donkey. If
it never would have happened the way it happened, it
couldn't be what it is. So stop looking at what
it was and ask God what he wants it to be.
God wants to use the dumb stuff too. You can't
control it anyway. The spirit of the Lord is on you.
(46:26):
The spirit of the Lord is on you. If the
lion comes to attack you, he will give you the
ability to rip it open because the spirit of the
Lord is on And it's a pivotal decision that you
make when you find yourself in these disappointing situations where
(46:47):
it seems like you can't win. Whether I'm going to
believe that there is a bigger picture, or if I'm
going to minimize God's presence to the level of my
understanding right here, right now, Let's turn it around. Let's
turn it around, and instead of trying to tell God
(47:09):
what's best for us, and instead of trying to do
what's right in our own eyes, let's turn it around.
Instead of groveling in the guilt of things that are
already over, I'm telling you God uses the weirdest things
about you. God uses that big nose that you hate
(47:32):
and that little habit that you have. He uses that
because when he delivers you from it, you could be
a testimony and He's going to use that too. This
is from the Lord. How I don't know. I don't
know a plan. But when I don't know the plan,
I pivot to the purpose. And he's working it all in.
(47:57):
He's working it all in. God, help me make better
decisions in the future. But use the dumb stuff too.
That's maybe the best prayer I ever pray. God, use
the dumb stuff too. Father, I bless and honor your
great name today, as together your people offer you the
(48:18):
reverence of our attention and our affection. I don't know
what they did. I don't know what was done to them.
I don't know what they can't control. That's going down
to Timna today to make a dumb decision. I declare
over their life that this is from the Lord. Even
if you didn't cause it, there is nothing you can't
(48:43):
use with everyone standing, no one moving. You can pivot
when you're planted. You can pivot when you're planted. When
you know that he spoke it, you could be assured
(49:06):
he will perform it. God's trying to turn your attention
to something greater than your pain, greater than your insecurity.
This is from the Lord. It's easy to say that
when you're holding Samson, harder to say when you can't
(49:29):
control him. But Samuel will put it in parentheses to
let us know this is what makes life make sense,
that this is from the Lord. There's something bigger. I
can't tell you what it is right now, but his
name is beyond understanding. Father, Thank you for your sweet
(49:51):
holy spirit that gently reminds us of your love and
compassion and concern for us. Now that in this moment
you would administer the gifts of healing, the portion of
joy that belongs to your children but has often been robbed. Well,
(50:12):
come against the thief now who has come to cause
them to face in the wrong direction. We turn our
eyes on you. Thank you for joining us. Special thanks
to those of you who give generously to this ministry.
Is because of you that this ministry is possible. You
can click the link in the description to give now,
or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information
(50:36):
and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You
can share it with your friends. You can click the
share button, take a screenshot and share it on your
social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again
for listening. God bless you
Host
Steven Furtick
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