Speaker 1: Hey, I'm coming to you now from the basin. This
Speaker 1: is a special bonus teaching that I recorded just for
Speaker 1: you to break it down a little more, to take
Speaker 1: it a little deeper. I hope you enjoy this overflow message.
Speaker 1: Let me know, let's go. Sometimes God uses the wrong
Speaker 1: things from our perspective to accomplish his purpose in our life.
Speaker 1: Sometimes God uses something that we would never see coming,
Speaker 1: or someone that we would never see coming, to help us,
Speaker 1: or to instruct us, or to challenge us, or to
Speaker 1: grow us. So watch the left hand. I went out
Speaker 1: and took this boxing lesson the other day, and I
Speaker 1: don't know if I'm going to go back because I
Speaker 1: got these these injured shoulders, these forty three year old
Speaker 1: man injury. So I got to weigh the cost benefit
Speaker 1: of going out there and doing this this mma at
Speaker 1: this stage of my life. But when he was teaching
Speaker 1: me the boxing stuff, he said, I'm glad you know
Speaker 1: your stance because one time a guy showed me that
Speaker 1: because I'm right handed, I don't lead with my right foot,
Speaker 1: that the leg that my power comes from, boom my
Speaker 1: right hand, I'm going to pivot off that leg. So
Speaker 1: I don't want to stand up right now and demonstrate this,
Speaker 1: because I might scare you, but your left leg leads
Speaker 1: right and then you pivot from the hip to get
Speaker 1: the power from the right hand. So I'm leading with
Speaker 1: the leg that's not on my strong side, so power
Speaker 1: can come from the back. Now, I probably need to
Speaker 1: take another boxing lesson or two before I start teaching
Speaker 1: this principle publicly. But between me and you, I think
Speaker 1: that is in itself kind of a metaphor for the
Speaker 1: fact that sometimes God will lead with something that looks
Speaker 1: like weakness, left leg, weak side, because the power is
Speaker 1: in the pivot. So that his power. Watch this, his
Speaker 1: right hand can do the work. God sent a left
Speaker 1: handed deliver, and you know, I don't know the percentages,
Speaker 1: but there are less left handed people, and particularly in
Speaker 1: the military, some commentators say that it was unusual for
Speaker 1: a left handed a left handed marksman, or a left
Speaker 1: handed archer, or a left handed slinger to be promoted
Speaker 1: in the ranks, you know, the right handed people. But first, well,
Speaker 1: we're going to see all through the Book of Judges
Speaker 1: as I come back to these devotions while we're doing
Speaker 1: our personal family reading from the Book of Judges, We're
Speaker 1: going to see over and over again. He Sometimes God
Speaker 1: is going to do something and he's gonna lead with
Speaker 1: the left. He's gonna lead with the thing that we
Speaker 1: don't expect. And many times in your life you are
Speaker 1: diminishing what makes you different, and destiny is sometimes in
Speaker 1: your difference. You are comparing yourself so much to others
Speaker 1: who you think, Oh, they're the right person, they're they
Speaker 1: do it the right way. They got the right stuff.
Speaker 1: You know, the new kids on the block weren't the
Speaker 1: only ones singing about you got the right stuff. We
Speaker 1: all look at somebody else. Well, she got the right stuff.
Speaker 1: He's got the right stuff. Hmm, I guess God can
Speaker 1: use them. Now smart they are? Wow, I guess God
Speaker 1: can use them. We got charismatic there. I guess God
Speaker 1: can use them. Look what all their parents taught them,
Speaker 1: Look what they inherited. Stop them about that and look
Speaker 1: in the left hand, what do you you have that
Speaker 1: is uniquely you that God can use for his purpose?
Speaker 1: Isaiah said, I am like an arrow. My mouth is
Speaker 1: like an arrow that God has hidden. It is hidden
Speaker 1: because it is significant. You are hidden because you are significant,
Speaker 1: really important things You put away where thieves can't break in,
Speaker 1: and steal right. God has things locked inside of you.
Speaker 1: He's locked them because they are valuable. He has locked
Speaker 1: the treasure, the resource of your contribution, of your spiritual gift,
Speaker 1: of your acts of service. And when the time is right,
Speaker 1: he going to bring you forth and use you. And
Speaker 1: so the idea that he locked the door, what's the
Speaker 1: significance of him locking the door? And it says in
Speaker 1: a later verse that they found the key and unlocked
Speaker 1: the door where the king was sitting there dead with
Speaker 1: his gut spelling out. I'll leave that to your imagination.
Speaker 1: I could get real graphic here, you know.
Speaker 2: And as the interess spilled no, no, no, and they
Speaker 2: found the blade that had previously been on the thigh
Speaker 2: of the judge. Now, I just leave it to the imagination.
Speaker 2: You can't undersee this, right.
Speaker 1: The fat closes all in over the blades, so now
Speaker 1: the blade is still hidden. Sucks a blade up in there,
Speaker 1: and the weapon is hidden first on Iyhud's thigh and
Speaker 1: then in Egglon's belly. Everything in the passage is hidden.
Speaker 1: But when they found the key, they unlocked the door.
Speaker 1: And that spoke to me about how the unlocked for
Speaker 1: the nation of Israel. After eighteen years of chains of
Speaker 1: oppression metaphorically speaking, not that they were physically in chains,
Speaker 1: although some of them were, but the captivity that was
Speaker 1: a part of this cycle was unlocked by a man
Speaker 1: with the left hand from the tribe of the right hand.
Speaker 1: And many times in my life I have limited myself
Speaker 1: because I'm left handed. Again, just to be clear, in
Speaker 1: case this video is ever made public, or in case
Speaker 1: I send it to a friend who is left handed
Speaker 1: and you are offended, and you send me an article
Speaker 1: on seven reasons that left handed people are more likely
Speaker 1: to go to Harvard, be the president and win an oscar,
Speaker 1: and send me all the geniuses that were left handed
Speaker 1: and talk about woe Ambidexterrius and boom boom boom boom boom. No,
Speaker 1: I don't, I don't really. Okay, we'll send me the
Speaker 1: articles I'm sure I find I'm interesting, and then I'll
Speaker 1: put those in the illustration too, Because here there is
Speaker 1: a clear literary vice that the author of judges is saying,
Speaker 1: Benjamin Son of my right hand, he had a judge
Speaker 1: that the Bible doesn't even say. The spirit came on
Speaker 1: who was left handed, had a secret meeting, and God
Speaker 1: used an eighteen inch eighteen inch weapon a left handed
Speaker 1: man in a secret place to deliver a nation. I
Speaker 1: think there are secret weapons that you have that you
Speaker 1: sometimes don't recognize because you get discouraged. Right, Isaiah goes
Speaker 1: on to say in Isaiah forty nine, verse three, he
Speaker 1: said to me, you are my servant Israel, in whom
Speaker 1: I will display my splendor. Well, Isaiah comes long after
Speaker 1: the Book of Judges, but you know when he says
Speaker 1: you are my servant Israel, Isaiah's not just talking about himself.
Speaker 1: He's talking about the whole nation, and he's prophesying about
Speaker 1: Jesus the Messiah. But in this case, what's what he says?
Speaker 1: I said verse four, I have labored in vain. I've
Speaker 1: spent my strength for nothing at all. Wow, I have
Speaker 1: spent my strength for nothing at all. Man, I'm doing
Speaker 1: everything I know to do, but I'm left handed. I'm weak.
Speaker 1: And you know the next verse it really hit home
Speaker 1: for me and brought this thing together. In verse four,
Speaker 1: part B, he said, yet what is due me? Because
Speaker 1: he's feeling like a little bit of self pity. He's
Speaker 1: not seeing the results, he's not feeling like he's making
Speaker 1: a difference. The nation is not turning back in this
Speaker 1: particular instance, he's preaching and prophesying. But you might feel
Speaker 1: like that with the investments that you're making of your time.
Speaker 1: You might feel like that with the way that you're
Speaker 1: trying to create relationships. You may be in a season
Speaker 1: of feeling rejection. You may just feel like, Man, I'm
Speaker 1: not getting any progress or any traction. I keep getting
Speaker 1: sick in my body over and over again, and I
Speaker 1: keep having to reset, and I can't move forward. I
Speaker 1: keep going back into this old path, and it seems
Speaker 1: like it's all for nothing. Well, if you feel like that,
Speaker 1: and you've been saying things like that lately, I've spent
Speaker 1: my strength for nothing at all, you need this next
Speaker 1: part of the verse. Yet, verse four b Isaiah forty nine.
Speaker 1: Yet what is do me is in the lord hand?
Speaker 1: Excuse me? What is powerful? I messed it up? Yet?
Speaker 1: What is me is in the Lord's hand? And my
Speaker 1: reward is with my God? What is do me? Say
Speaker 1: this out loud? What is do me? Is in the
Speaker 1: Lord's hands? See? Because I'm his servant. It's his purpose,
Speaker 1: it's his will, it's his word, it's his word. So God,
Speaker 1: get me out of self pity. Oh, why does nobody
Speaker 1: appreciate me? Why don't they see and put the shine
Speaker 1: on me? Why is nobody thanking me? All of those
Speaker 1: things are natural to feel. But get this in your spirit. Yet,
Speaker 1: what is do me is in the Lord's hand, which one,
Speaker 1: sometimes the left one. Sometimes God is going to bless
Speaker 1: you out of his left hand. Look for it in
Speaker 1: the left hand. Watch for the left hand. Watch for
Speaker 1: God to take somebody that you weren't even trying to
Speaker 1: impress or get to notice you, and bring them over
Speaker 1: to help you with something that you needed help with.
Speaker 1: Watch for God point you to somebody who isn't looking
Speaker 1: for you. Let's don't just get in a selfish mindset.
Speaker 1: We got to think like servants of the Lord here
Speaker 1: and watch for God to say, I want you to
Speaker 1: be the left hand in this situation. I want you
Speaker 1: to offer to do that for them. I want you
Speaker 1: to make a difference in this situation. And nobody's expecting you,
Speaker 1: and you need to blow a trumpet. In fact, do
Speaker 1: it in secret. Don't even blow the trumpet about it,
Speaker 1: don't announce say oh I'm coming to help. Just be
Speaker 1: that that left handed, that sneaky secret weapon, that God
Speaker 1: can use. Don't have to preface things when you encourage people.
Speaker 1: I want to encourage you today, just slip a little
Speaker 1: encouragement in Boom. Do it so much that they don't
Speaker 1: even know it was you. They just get it like
Speaker 1: it was from God, or they think they thought of it.
Speaker 1: One of my favorite things people tell me after I
Speaker 1: preach is I loved when you said blank blank blank.
Speaker 1: And I didn't say any of that because I feel
Speaker 1: like I got them tapped into the Holy Spirit, and
Speaker 1: the Spirit said that, and the Spirit is way smarter
Speaker 1: than pastor Steven. So we did our job. Lord Boom.
Speaker 1: You got them with the left hand. Boom, got with
Speaker 1: left hand, bought a sneaky jab. That's that jab right there.
Speaker 1: That's God coming in to do a work in your
Speaker 1: life through the left hand. Watch for the left hand.
Speaker 1: The unlock is in the left hand. How many times
Speaker 1: did I think that I wasn't going to be a
Speaker 1: good songwriter for worship you sake because of my vocal limitations.
Speaker 1: Oh man, I can't like that guy or that person.
Speaker 1: I don't even know all the music theory, and maybe
Speaker 1: I should have studied more and learned the music theory.
Speaker 1: Maybe I could have. Maybe I could have. I'm sure
Speaker 1: I could have. I know I could have. I could
Speaker 1: have paid more attention to those lessons. I got a
Speaker 1: book somewhere around here where the lessons are sitting in
Speaker 1: a notebook. I'll find it. I don't want to distract
Speaker 1: myself right now, but it's a big, thick green binder
Speaker 1: where a guy named Darryl and Saint Stephen's, South Carolina
Speaker 1: taught me. I'd go out there and drive to Saint
Speaker 1: Stephen's every what was it Tuesday night? And my mom
Speaker 1: will give me the money to go pay. I'm sixteen
Speaker 1: years old. She's still paying for my guitar lessons like
Speaker 1: she did when I was ten. But I wouldn't practice.
Speaker 1: So I know. I know a little bit about a guitar.
Speaker 1: I probably know enough to say if you just heard
Speaker 1: me go uh boom, you'd be, oh, man, he knows
Speaker 1: his stuff. Well, I wouldn't that clean book if we
Speaker 1: just had it for a minute, you think I know,
Speaker 1: but my knowledge would run out. So you know, for years,
Speaker 1: when I was in a songwriting situation, I would think
Speaker 1: of myself as like the least musically knowledgeable person in
Speaker 1: the room, and I usually am as far as theory,
Speaker 1: you know, I only really can play this one instrument,
Speaker 1: and what I know about it is limited. But I
Speaker 1: have been able to work with great people who know
Speaker 1: things I don't know and bring the gift that I
Speaker 1: do have as a musician. I have an instinct that's
Speaker 1: unique to me. I have a way of phrasing things
Speaker 1: like one creative put it. Each personality is a prism,
Speaker 1: and the life light shines through us differently than it
Speaker 1: will anybody else. So when I get in there and
Speaker 1: see myself as a prism, rather than putting myself in
Speaker 1: the prison of what I don't know, what I can't do,
Speaker 1: how much better they are, how much better they sound. Though,
Speaker 1: Sometimes the fact that I only know so many chords
Speaker 1: helps me do something simple. That's the chords to a
Speaker 1: song called Graves into Gardens. That song has gone around
Speaker 1: the world. It's been one of the most powerful songs
Speaker 1: that I've ever been a part of writing with the
Speaker 1: people I wrote it with, And I was just playing
Speaker 1: these guitars out of tune. By the way, the simplest
Speaker 1: riff you can imagine with my left hand, so you
Speaker 1: can't see the right hand. The right hand is strumming
Speaker 1: down here, but the left hand is fretting. Just that
Speaker 1: suscort set the tone for.
Speaker 3: YouTube morn in today's You give beauty for ashes, you
Speaker 3: turn shame into glor You use left handed people. Now
Speaker 3: I'm right handed, but my left hand is fretting. Your
Speaker 3: left hand has a job too. In your weakness he
Speaker 3: has made strong. So look for the unlocked in the
Speaker 3: left hand. Offer not only your strengths to God, which
Speaker 3: are awesome. You know, is say say, that's not my
Speaker 3: strength in man. But the Lord said, I have hidden
Speaker 3: certain gifts in weaknesses. Not as an excuse not to
Speaker 3: practice your guitar, just to realize that your limitations sometimes.
Speaker 1: Are what God uses to unlock his power. You can
Speaker 1: see this over and over again in scripture, can't you.
Speaker 1: You can see God using an apparent limitation to unlock
Speaker 1: a miracle, to unlock a collaboration, to unlock a blessing,
Speaker 1: to unlock a healing. You know, to the crippled man
Speaker 1: with the crippled hand, he said, stretch out your hand.
Speaker 1: That's a limitation if your hand is shriveled and you
Speaker 1: can't stretch it out. And I really don't know which
Speaker 1: hand it was that was shriveled. I don't know if
Speaker 1: the Bible says or not. I haven't looked at that
Speaker 1: passage in a few months, but I think it's relevant
Speaker 1: to our discussion today to look for the blessings in
Speaker 1: the left hand, son of my right hand. That means blessing.
Speaker 1: But sometimes God blesses you on the left hand. And
Speaker 1: sometimes we're caught up on people who have left us.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we're caught up on things that have left us
Speaker 1: that we don't see what God has for us in
Speaker 1: our lives. Hey, I hope you enjoyed the podcast, and
Speaker 1: if you did, make sure to share it and subscribe
Speaker 1: so we can get you all of these new messages
Speaker 1: as soon as they're available. I also want to take
Speaker 1: a moment and thank all of you who are a
Speaker 1: part of Elevation. Whether you support us financially, or serve
Speaker 1: with us, or just share these messages, it's because of
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Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. Make sure to leave a review,
Speaker 1: share the message, and subscribe. God bless you