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