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 going to do? How are you gonna You're gonna
Speaker 1: do like pros and cons or you're gonna like flip
Speaker 1: a coin if it comes to that. You gotta plan
Speaker 1: for this. You're gonna you're gonna do, Like, ask a
Speaker 1: lot of people till somebody tells you what you want
Speaker 1: to hear, like, like we all do you know? Just
Speaker 1: keep asking people till you get the answer that you
Speaker 1: wanted so they can confirm the thing that you were
Speaker 1: gonna do all along. Anyway, now you wasted everybody's time
Speaker 1: just asking them stuff that you already knew what you
Speaker 1: were gonna do. We're you gonna do? You're gonna like, uh,
Speaker 1: just stress, eat and put it off to the last minute.
Speaker 1: That's always a good plan. I like that. I like
Speaker 1: to just watch Netflix instead personally, put it off to
Speaker 1: the last minute, and then make the decision when the
Speaker 1: pressure's on. The crazy thing is when I say that
Speaker 1: a big decision. A lot of the decisions that you make,
Speaker 1: you don't know if they're big or not when you're
Speaker 1: making them. This is why 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 make 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, so they always
Speaker 1: had a lot of weapons, and they were moving in
Speaker 1: on the coast, and they were ruling them, but very loosely.
Speaker 1: Now this is the pivotal moment for the nation of Israel,
Speaker 1: and the Bible says again, the Israelites did evil in
Speaker 1: the eyes of the Lord, so the Lord delivered them
Speaker 1: into the hands of the Philistines. Stop. You always hear
Speaker 1: about God delivering us out of things, But here your
Speaker 1: Bible says that God delivered them into the hands of
Speaker 1: an enemy, and use their enemy. I don't know if
Speaker 1: your theology is about to break wide open and something's
Speaker 1: going to fall out on the floor. Let's get the
Speaker 1: ushers ready in case your brain just melts right there.
Speaker 1: But God didn't deliver them out of the hands of
Speaker 1: their enemies. But the same God who is able to
Speaker 1: deliver you out of the hands of your enemies. The
Speaker 1: Bible says that at least the perspective of the writer
Speaker 1: Samuel was, who we preached about last week, that God
Speaker 1: delivered them into the hands of their enemies. That's interesting me.
Speaker 1: I don't have a category for that. But God is
Speaker 1: bigger than my categories. I'm learning that. I'm learning that.
Speaker 1: So he did it for forty years, and a certain
Speaker 1: man of Zorah named Manoah from the clan of the Danites,
Speaker 1: had a wife who was childless, unable to give birth.
Speaker 1: Remember that barrenness in antiquity was a signal or a
Speaker 1: sign of the displeasure of God. It didn't mean the
Speaker 1: displeasure of God. But they perceived it to mean that,
Speaker 1: so it brought with it a great stigma. A certain
Speaker 1: man of Zora named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites,
Speaker 1: had a wife who was childless unable to give birth.
Speaker 1: The Angel of the Lord appeared to her and said,
Speaker 1: you are barren and childless, but you are going to
Speaker 1: become pregnant and give birth to a son. Now see
Speaker 1: to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink,
Speaker 1: and that you do not eat anything unclean. You will
Speaker 1: become pregnant and have a son whose head is never
Speaker 1: to be touched by a razor. And my dad was
Speaker 1: a barber, so that verse offends me because it would
Speaker 1: have taken money out of my family's pocket. But anyway,
Speaker 1: because here's the reason. The boy is to be a Nazarite,
Speaker 1: and the Nazarites don't cut their hair, they don't drink alcohol,
Speaker 1: they don't touch anything dead, as the basics of being
Speaker 1: a Nazarite. In case you were thinking about doing it,
Speaker 1: that's what you would do if you were going to
Speaker 1: be a Nazarie. He is to be dedicated to God
Speaker 1: from the womb. He will take the lead in delivering
Speaker 1: Israel from the hands of the Philistines, which God delivered
Speaker 1: them into so that he could deliver them from what
Speaker 1: was in them that caused them to get in this
Speaker 1: cycle to begin with. And he's going to use this
Speaker 1: child to deliver them out. I love your word, Lord,
Speaker 1: thank you for thank you for what you're showing me. Now.
Speaker 1: Now this is where it gets really, really, really good,
Speaker 1: because then everybody say, then, woman whose name we don't know,
Speaker 1: who's talking to a man whose name isn't given. These
Speaker 1: unnamed people have a conversation, and the woman went to
Speaker 1: her husband and told him a man of God came
Speaker 1: to me. He looked like an angel of God. Very awesome.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be like, hold up, a man come and
Speaker 1: talking to my wife anyway, you know, because he didn't
Speaker 1: have wings or heart how we think God shows up.
Speaker 1: She's like, I think it was maybe like an angel.
Speaker 1: It was kind of you know, because that's how it
Speaker 1: is when you hear from God. It's kind of like,
Speaker 1: I think this might be this maybe God. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean it like it looked like it felt like
Speaker 1: it was different. I don't know, it's just different. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I'm not sure. And she's telling her husband
Speaker 1: because it's always revealed in the context of relationship. I
Speaker 1: didn't ask him where he came from. He didn't tell
Speaker 1: me his name, but he said to me, you will
Speaker 1: become pregnant. Uh huh. So this awesome looking man came
Speaker 1: to my wife and said, what I love the Bible.
Speaker 1: Though I love the Bible, he said, you will be
Speaker 1: pregnant to have a son. Now, then drink no wine
Speaker 1: or other ferm men to drink, and do not eat
Speaker 1: anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazarite of
Speaker 1: God from the womb until the day of his death.
Speaker 1: Then Manoah name means resting place. Prayed to the Lord.
Speaker 1: Pardon your servant, Lord. I don't mean to bother you.
Speaker 1: I know you got a universe to run and all
Speaker 1: that I beg you. Let the man of God you
Speaker 1: sent to us because I didn't get to see him.
Speaker 1: Let him come again, if you could just send him
Speaker 1: back for a few minutes. I got a few questions
Speaker 1: I need to ask him. I need him to teach
Speaker 1: us how to bring up the boy who is to
Speaker 1: be born. So I need you to speak to me,
Speaker 1: because you know how you need God to speak to
Speaker 1: you and show you how I want to talk about
Speaker 1: the plan. That's the first thing I want to mention
Speaker 1: is the plan, because I understand that God wants to
Speaker 1: use me, but I need to know what that's going
Speaker 1: to look like. You understand I need some details. I
Speaker 1: need some specifics. I need some marching orders. I need
Speaker 1: some dates some times, some instructions. So please Lord, if
Speaker 1: it's not too much trouble, send that guy back. And
Speaker 1: he said we were going to have a son that
Speaker 1: was going to like change the world and stuff. But
Speaker 1: I need to hear it for myself, and I need
Speaker 1: to know the plan. Any planners in the house, any planners,
Speaker 1: any planners, any planners, Thank God for you, Thank God
Speaker 1: for you, because all the people without their hand up,
Speaker 1: they always come late and make the worship leaders lead
Speaker 1: to the first two rows and is empty and they
Speaker 1: come crawling in the last minute. But I don't hate
Speaker 1: you in the back. But I'm just saying that God
Speaker 1: for the planners. But it can become a problem, and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna show you why. I'm gonna show you why.
Speaker 1: He said we need to know the plan if it's
Speaker 1: going to be this big thing, you know, if you
Speaker 1: gave us this promise, I need to know the plan,
Speaker 1: because without a plan, the promise is just abstract rhetoric.
Speaker 1: Without the plan, I can know God has for me.
Speaker 1: He wants to use me. I'm spread the Gospel and
Speaker 1: all that sounds good, but just send him back. If
Speaker 1: I could get five minutes with this awesome looking man
Speaker 1: who was talking to my wife and told her she
Speaker 1: was about to get pregnant, I need to know the
Speaker 1: plan now. I love the next phrase, God heard Manoah.
Speaker 1: God heard Manoah, and interesting that the woman wasn't praying
Speaker 1: to get pregnant when the angel said it was going
Speaker 1: to happen. I don't know if she gave up. I
Speaker 1: don't know if she did pray. I don't know if
Speaker 1: she didn't pray. Bible doesn't say it doesn't matter. And
Speaker 1: then Manoah's begging God to show up and speak to him.
Speaker 1: You know, God initiates, we respond. God initiates, we respond.
Speaker 1: But God heard Manoah. And when when Manoah prayed, God
Speaker 1: didn't say figure it out yourself and trust me. Instead,
Speaker 1: he obliged Manoah's need for more information. Let the person
Speaker 1: next to you know something real quick, and it might
Speaker 1: sound cocky, but tell him anyway, it's truth say. He
Speaker 1: hears me. God hears me. He hears me better than
Speaker 1: Siri and Alexa. He hears me. He hears me, he
Speaker 1: knows my voice. He likes when I call him, When
Speaker 1: I say help, he says yes before I can even
Speaker 1: get out my mouth. He hears me. He hears my
Speaker 1: groans where words don't come. He hears me. He hears
Speaker 1: my heart and the secret petitions of things that people
Speaker 1: don't know that I'm dealing with. He hears me. He
Speaker 1: hears the unspoken. Did you go to youth group and
Speaker 1: we used to say? I have an unspoken He hears
Speaker 1: what I don't say, He hears what's behind what I
Speaker 1: said that's really driving the behavior. He hears me. He
Speaker 1: 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 say see will you
Speaker 1: trust him? So the angel God came again to the
Speaker 1: woman while 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 moren what we're
Speaker 1: gonna do? How many times you know, Manoah'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 sea some juu? You know? Should
Speaker 1: we be straight? Should we do what? Do we do it? How?
Speaker 1: Let 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 hearts. The pivot. It's funny
Speaker 1: thing about a pivot. Though it's a small move, but
Speaker 1: it sets a completely different direction. Man, 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 its too big to be anything
Speaker 1: I could do. I don't plan for it. I don't
Speaker 1: have a context for it. I don't know this maybe God.
Speaker 1: This is the Lord. This is from the Lord. This
Speaker 1: gift set that I have, this talent, this child that
Speaker 1: I'm raising, this is from the Lord. Somebody say this
Speaker 1: is from the Lord. And so since it's from the Lord,
Speaker 1: then I need him to show me how to do it.
Speaker 1: But sometimes he won't answer the question that I ask. Instead,
Speaker 1: he will give me the wisdom that I need because
Speaker 1: he knows a better question. My faith is not a formula,
Speaker 1: and I'm not good at pivoting with my feet. I
Speaker 1: don't do it a lot. That's so I had to
Speaker 1: practice it, and I'm still not very good at it.
Speaker 1: But I want to get good at it with my faith.
Speaker 1: I want to learn to pivot. And this is where
Speaker 1: it happens for Manah and his wife. And you're gonna
Speaker 1: see it in the text. It's just gonna blow up
Speaker 1: when you see it. It's gonna help you understand why
Speaker 1: you've been trying to classify everything in your life. You know,
Speaker 1: this is good and this is bad, and this is
Speaker 1: God and this is the devil, and this is it
Speaker 1: and this is that, and you keep trying to do that,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't work. And here's why, he said. Manoah
Speaker 1: said to the angel, we would like you to stay
Speaker 1: until we prepare a young goat for you. We want
Speaker 1: to cook you a goat. I make a delicious goat kebab,
Speaker 1: and I'll like you to stay and eat it because
Speaker 1: this hospitality is appropriate and we appreciate you coming by
Speaker 1: to encourage us. So stay, We're gonna do it and
Speaker 1: appreciate the worst and the Angel of the lure replot.
Speaker 1: Even though you detain me, I will not eat any
Speaker 1: of your food. I'm not gonna do it your way.
Speaker 1: You're dealing with God now, so you're not gonna do
Speaker 1: it like you do it with humans. It's gonna be different.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be different, different terms. It's gonna be a
Speaker 1: whole different thing this time. It's not going to be
Speaker 1: all up here and what you think you should do.
Speaker 1: It's gonna have to come from a different place. This
Speaker 1: is the pivot. This is the pivot. And he said,
Speaker 1: but if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to
Speaker 1: the Lord. See the pivot. It's not about this. It's
Speaker 1: about this. And I wonder if we would start deflecting
Speaker 1: some of the stuff in our life and say, you know,
Speaker 1: this is from the Lord. This is not from me.
Speaker 1: So I need God to do it through me. I
Speaker 1: cannot do it by myself. This is from the Lord.
Speaker 1: Somebody shop, this is from the Lord. This is from
Speaker 1: the Lord. But if you prepare a burn offering, offer
Speaker 1: it to the Lord. I love this in parentheses. Manoah
Speaker 1: did not realize it was the Angel of the Lord.
Speaker 1: Maybe and maybe. And then Manoah inquired of the Angel
Speaker 1: of the Lord, what's your name? So we may honor
Speaker 1: your any word comes true? And he replied, this most
Speaker 1: annointed verse I've read in the last five years. Why
Speaker 1: do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding. That's
Speaker 1: the pivot. That's where you find God, beyond what you
Speaker 1: can understand. And so everything you can name that's not God.
Speaker 1: Everything you can explain that's not God. Everything you can
Speaker 1: figure out on your own, and you can make it work,
Speaker 1: and you can do it. It worked for a little while.
Speaker 1: But everything you can't name, that's God. And we've been
Speaker 1: looking for a name for God. That's why we need
Speaker 1: so many And that's why he had to tell Moses
Speaker 1: in a very special way. I am because I need
Speaker 1: to leave room for you to know that when you
Speaker 1: get past the point of your ability to reconcile your situation,
Speaker 1: when you get beyond your ability to work it out,
Speaker 1: that's where I am. That's where I live. That's where
Speaker 1: I dwell, in the mystery, in the uncertainty, in the tension,
Speaker 1: beyond your understanding. And we keep trying to find God
Speaker 1: in our logic, but he is not found with logic.
Speaker 1: He is beyond your logic. Manoah took a young goat
Speaker 1: and together with the grain offering and sacrificed it on
Speaker 1: a rock to the Lord. And since the word came
Speaker 1: from the Lord, I'm gonna make the offering to the Lord.
Speaker 1: And since my breath came from the Lord, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: offer it back to the Lord. And since this situation
Speaker 1: came from the Lord, I'm gonna need the Lord to
Speaker 1: deal with it. I can't do it on my own,
Speaker 1: and the Lord did something amazing. While Manoah and his
Speaker 1: wife watched as the flame blazed up from the altar
Speaker 1: toward the heaven, the Angel of the Lord ascended in
Speaker 1: the flame. He was not found in the logic. He
Speaker 1: was found in the flame, not in figuring it out,
Speaker 1: but in the fire of sacrifice and needing God. That's
Speaker 1: where you're gonna find him. That's where you're gonna get it.
Speaker 1: That's where you're gonna unlock it. That's where it'll be unleashed.
Speaker 1: I wish I could preach about g Us for thirty
Speaker 1: seconds right now, because see, all my hope is in
Speaker 1: his blood, all my faith is in his cross, all
Speaker 1: my righteousness is in his sacrifice. And when the flames
Speaker 1: went off, the revelation came through and he was like
Speaker 1: he was like Mineau was like, uh, I think we
Speaker 1: just saw God. Because when the Angel of the Lord
Speaker 1: did not show himself again Verse twenty one to know
Speaker 1: and his wife, Manau realized that it was an Angel
Speaker 1: of the Lord. We're gonna die. He said to his wife,
Speaker 1: we've seen God. But his wife answered, if he meant
Speaker 1: to kill us, if God was out to get you,
Speaker 1: you'd be God. That's how I know he still has
Speaker 1: mercy for my mistakes, because I already made enough. If
Speaker 1: he was gonna squash me for screwing up, I'd be
Speaker 1: a bug on this stage. If the Lord had 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 delts, and about
Speaker 1: all the names of the quadriceps, calf 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 and it's going good.
Speaker 1: And God's hand is on this boy's life. He's a
Speaker 1: he's a he's a he's a star football player. He's
Speaker 1: he learned to ride his bike at the age of three.
Speaker 1: Good things have happened then. The pivot than the pivot. Now,
Speaker 1: if you just if you just watch my feet and
Speaker 1: don't think about it, you go like, well, what's the
Speaker 1: big deal about the pivot? We'll see, you don't really
Speaker 1: know how big the move is until you walk it out.
Speaker 1: Because if I walk this way and if I kept
Speaker 1: walking that way, it would be a different completely if
Speaker 1: I but but if I if I walk this way
Speaker 1: and all I did was this, it's a small move,
Speaker 1: but it sets the direction. And that's what's happening in
Speaker 1: your life. When you decide, like how to speak to people,
Speaker 1: When you decide, like whether or not you're gonna whether
Speaker 1: you're gonna come back next weekend to church. It's a
Speaker 1: small decision, but it sets a direction. When you decide,
Speaker 1: am I gonna tie and put God first? Oh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna put tithe Inn 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 Timna. 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 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. And this is the pivotal moment of my message.
Speaker 1: Is this is the part God showed me that got
Speaker 1: me so excited, because everyone in here knows what it
Speaker 1: is to have the plan that you made right in
Speaker 1: your head, the model that you had that doesn't match
Speaker 1: the life that you're living. And now, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: Samson whose name means son, Samson who's radiant, Samson who's blessed,
Speaker 1: Samson who's strong, Samson who carries the expectation of the
Speaker 1: deliverance of the nation on his shoulders, is making a
Speaker 1: dumb decision. And it doesn't have to be a kid,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't have to be a spouse, it doesn't
Speaker 1: have to be a relationship at all. You are going
Speaker 1: to go into some situations in your life that you
Speaker 1: will pray about, plead about, and plan about, and none
Speaker 1: of it will work, and you will be faced with
Speaker 1: the question, now what do I do? I want to
Speaker 1: suggest that when this happens, that you consider the parentheses.
Speaker 1: There's a little thing that Samuel will put into the record.
Speaker 1: And he was writing this record long after the events
Speaker 1: had happened, and all Sampson's parents knew us this is trouble.
Speaker 1: If he marries her, it's going to lead to all
Speaker 1: kinds of clashing values if he goes through with this,
Speaker 1: because that's all we know when we're in it is
Speaker 1: our plan. But watch how the text pivots with a
Speaker 1: parenthetical insert. Have you studied any grammar books lately? The
Speaker 1: parentheses is when you want to put something in the sentence,
Speaker 1: but the sentence makes sense without it, but you add
Speaker 1: it in to give additional information that might be helpful
Speaker 1: to the person reading it, but the sentence would make
Speaker 1: sense without it, But the parentheses. In Judges, chapter fourteen,
Speaker 1: verse four, says his parents did not know that this
Speaker 1: was from the Lord. They knew Sampson was from the
Speaker 1: Lord because the Angel spoke it and her wound was barren,
Speaker 1: So the only way it could have happened was that
Speaker 1: it was from the Lord. But now they've got to
Speaker 1: look at a disappointment. Look, it's no problem to look
Speaker 1: at your gifts, your blessings, and your strengths and say,
Speaker 1: this is from the Lord. I praise you for another day,
Speaker 1: how great and mighty you are, and I lift your
Speaker 1: name on high. But this this, have you ever had
Speaker 1: to walk through a situation where you thought, really, God,
Speaker 1: this like I didn't drink any wine and I didn't
Speaker 1: eat any unclean foods, and I did everything the Angel
Speaker 1: told me. And now this you're really gonna let this
Speaker 1: break out of my life. And the author said, yeah,
Speaker 1: this was from the Lord because he was seeking an occasion.
Speaker 1: The Hebrew really means he was picking a fight. God
Speaker 1: wanted to set his people free from the Phoenicians, from
Speaker 1: the Philistines, and he was gonna do it. But he
Speaker 1: wanted to do it not through a good decision, but
Speaker 1: through a bad decision. So watch what he does, because
Speaker 1: he's sovereign and almighty. The Lord is his name, and
Speaker 1: he is beyond understanding, and his ways no man can fathom.
Speaker 1: Watch what he does. He uses Sampson's dumb decision to
Speaker 1: deliver a nation. Now, if he did that for Samson,
Speaker 1: 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 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 face I'm gonna turn from what I don't understand
Speaker 1: to 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 and licked some and then went to the
Speaker 1: wedding and sat around the table with thirty boys talking
Speaker 1: about I got a riddle for you. Out as strong
Speaker 1: came something to eat, and out of the eater came
Speaker 1: something to eat. Out of fr came something sweetf you
Speaker 1: can solve my riddle, give you thirty sets of linen clothing.
Speaker 1: But if you can't solve it, you're gonna get me
Speaker 1: thirty sets of clothing. And the boys got to his
Speaker 1: wife and they were like, tell us the riddle, or
Speaker 1: we're gonna kill your whole family. And then she was like,
Speaker 1: tell me the riddle, Sampson, tell me the riddle. And
Speaker 1: then he said, oh, okay, well I'll tell it to you,
Speaker 1: but don't tell it to them. But then she told
Speaker 1: it to them, and then they solved the riddle, and
Speaker 1: then he had to he had to go to Ashaakt
Speaker 1: to kill thirty men and beat him up and kill
Speaker 1: him to take their clothes to bring them back because
Speaker 1: of his dumb decision. But that's what set him on
Speaker 1: a course to be able to be able to have
Speaker 1: an opportunity to then go back home. And after the wedding,
Speaker 1: he went back home and he was so mad at
Speaker 1: his wife for betraying him that he went back home
Speaker 1: and didn't even stay with her, and by the time
Speaker 1: he got back, she'd been married to another man because
Speaker 1: his father in law betrayed him, because he figured, you
Speaker 1: never want to marry her now after what she did
Speaker 1: to you. But he came back and got so mad
Speaker 1: that he took three hundred foxes and tied their tails
Speaker 1: together in pairs, lit them on fire, sent them loose
Speaker 1: in the Philistine fields, and when they tore up the fields,
Speaker 1: the Philistines were mad. But Samson killed them because he
Speaker 1: was strong. Now, he never would have killed them if
Speaker 1: they hadn't hurt him, and he never would have been
Speaker 1: hurt by them if he hadn't made the wrong decision.
Speaker 1: And so it goes to show that God is using everything.
Speaker 1: If he never would have set the foxes loosen everyone
Speaker 1: to come to Judah and tied him up and tried
Speaker 1: to deliver them so we could break them free and
Speaker 1: kill a thousand of them with a job one of
Speaker 1: a donkey. If it never would have happened the way
Speaker 1: it happened, it couldn't be what it is. So stop
Speaker 1: looking at what it was and ask God what he
Speaker 1: wants it to be. God wants to use the dumb
Speaker 1: stuff too. You can't control it anyway. The spirit of
Speaker 1: the Lord is on you. The spirit of the Lord
Speaker 1: is on you. If the lion comes to attack you,
Speaker 1: he will give you the ability to rip it open
Speaker 1: because the spirit of the Lord is on And it's
Speaker 1: a pivotal decision that you make when you find yourself
Speaker 1: in these disappointing situations where it seems like you can't win.
Speaker 1: Whether I'm going to believe that there is a bigger
Speaker 1: picture or if I'm going to minimize God's presence to
Speaker 1: the level of my understanding. Right now, let's turn it around.
Speaker 1: Let's turn it around and instead of trying to tell
Speaker 1: God what's best for us, and instead of trying to
Speaker 1: do 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 parenthesis 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 than 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 Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for more
Speaker 1: information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1: You can share it with your friends. You can click
Speaker 1: the share button, take a screenshot and share it on
Speaker 1: your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks
Speaker 1: again for listening. God bless you