Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message. Now it is time for the Word of God. What a wonderful time of worship today. I trust that wherever you are, you've been able to worship too. Prepare your heart, warm your heart to God's presence. I want to take you over to Judges chapter fifteen for just a moment. There is a classic rock radio host I listened to and he has a segment called bens that should have been huge but weren't.
And I think one day I'll get to do a series called Bible Stories that should have been huge but weren't. So this is one of those. Never preached it before on a Sunday. I was privileged to share it with some leaders a year and a half ago, and today I would like to share it with you. Prayerfully that God would open your heart as I opened my mouth, and that He would open the heavens over your life and your home to speak to you exactly what you
need for the challenges that you face. Judges, Chapter fifteen, Verses fourteen through twenty. We're gonna talk about Samson for a moment today. Not that story, not the one where he got his hair cut off and lost his strength and pop, I didn't need a spinach. Not the cartoon part. Yeah, we cartoonized these Bible characters, and we kind of make them like these mythical figures. But the only real hero
in the Bible is Jesus. And everybody else that we study, they're human, and we love that because they do heroic things, but they have humancies. And if I looked long enough at your life, I'm sure i'd find some heroic things, some amazing accomplishments, some incredible characteristics about your life and your kindness in the way that you love, in the way that you are used by God. But if I looked a little bit closer, I'm sure I would find
some human tendencies. Even these singers behind me, don't let the fact that they sing like angels fool you, because all of us, whether we preach or sing or parent, we have deeply heroic capacities and deeply human instincts, and Samson, of course, is used as a model for that. But I want to tell you about something in his life today that you probably never heard about before. The Bible says in Judges, chapter fifteen.
Verse fourteen, as he approached Lehi.
The Philistines that was the enemy that he was delivering Israel from, the Philistines came toward him, shouting. The spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him. Now, let's note something real quick. It says the Philistines plural came toward him singular. So he's outnumbered. So he's outmatched, so he's out manned. So whatever is going to happen, if he's going to survive, it is going to have to be supernatural.
Somebody in here is looking at something running toward you in your life right now, and for you to survive it, something supernatural is going to have to happen. Well, the spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him, and the ropes on his arms became like charred flax. I didn't even see a fire. No, some of the stuff that God does to set you free, you won't see. He'll just do it. You won't even see the fire, but he'll free you. They became like charred flax. I'm preaching
too early. Let me calm back down for a moment. I'm just reading my scripture. I'd better modulate this sermon real quick. They became like charred flas and the bindings dropped from his hands. What was God doing? He was freeing him for the fight. God is freeing you for the fight, not from the fight. You still got a fight, but you're gonna have two free hands to do it with and the spirit of God. Now look at verse fifteen. He's got two free hands, but he needs a weapon.
The Bible says, finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down one thousand men. Then Samson said, with a donkey's jawbone, I have made donkeys of them. With a donkey's jawbone, I have killed a thousand men. Sampson has a little rap career over there on soundfloul. Now listen to this. This is crazy. When he finished speaking, finished kill him enemies one man with a donkey's jawbone. When he finished speaking his little distract
to the Philistines. When he finished that, he threw away the jawbone and the place was called raymac Lehigh, which means jawbone hill. Real creative guy Samson, And because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the Lord, you have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised, into the hands of my enemy, into the hands of these Philistines. And the Bible says then God opened up the hollow place in Lehigh, and water came out of it.
When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived. So the spring was called in Hakori, and it is still there in Lehigh. Simpson led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines. Before you take your seat, touch your neighbor and say, God's not through with you yet. You may be seated. Don't summarize me too soon, because God's not through with me yet. Hey, the last several weeks, I've been in a little spontaneous series. I didn't even realize it was a series when I started it off.
Many of the things that you start on in your life, God doesn't show you what they are until you get through them, So don't give up. But I preached a few weeks ago a sermon called God can use this too.
Everybody say, God can use this too.
And that was the first week. Then the next week I came back and talked about how God put it up there. I don't remember it at the moment. Yeah, God, And I fussy y'all for forgetting my sermons. I forget my sermons. Yeah, I said, God will work it in. And we were surprised because we were expecting to hear God will work it out. But when we realized that a lot of times the external conflict in our life
is not God's primary priority, it is our character. We realize that He is building us up on the inside so that whatever He blesses us with, we will be able to accommodate that blessing. God will work it in, and that anything that is shocking or surprising to you in your life does not have that same effect on God. He's seen whatever it is you're dealing with before, and
he uses all of those things for his purpose. Then last week I had a really good time talking about God's got the hard part, just to remind you that when you get there, God might have already done the thing that you thought you were going to have to do that kept you from wanting to show up. Like I just thought of this example real quick. When the women went to the tomb and they were like, who's going to roll the stone away? We're not strong enough
for that. And when they got there, they found out that God dispassed dispatches angels in advance of your arrival, and the angel had already rolled the stone, and they were like, oh, God already did that. Oh I could have just relaxed and enjoyed the journey. Oh I didn't have to stress about that so much, because God's got the hard part. Well, these are three statements that you can make whenever you find yourself in a fight wherever
that fight breaks out. I talked earlier about your freed up to fight, Well, you also have to have, I believe sometimes some faith statements to fight with. And these three things are powerful tools so that when the enemy says to you, you know, I can't do this, and you get that thought in your head and you say I can't do this, Well, that's the devil talking. But he's just using your voice to do it, and you're saying I can't do this, and so you just remind him.
God's got the hard part, or when something comes up it just pops up and you didn't see it come in. You say, oh, oh, oh, God will work it in. And then when something happens that you didn't want to happen, you just say, oh, God can use this too, the good and the bad, the happy end, the sad, the emotions I want and the emotions that I can't get counseling to cast out. God can use this too. Today I want to give you a fourth statement, and the title of my sermon is God gave it to me.
God gave it to me.
Say that out loud, God gave.
It to me, and don't say it timid like you know you have to be shy about it. Look at your neighbors, say God gave it to me. Yeah, ask him. You like my hair, God gave it to me. If you think I ought to have more, take it up with him. He gave me the follicles, He gave me. God gave it to me. This view toward life will keep you from becoming prideful, because you will realize that even the things that you are good at are things that came from grace and were grown by God. You
will never boast again. In a gift that God gave you, because if it was a gift, what are you bragging about? If it was a gift, then why would you feel puffed up? I'll show you a scripture real quick about this. And First Corinthians four to seven. The church was fighting about different leaders, and they liked this leader and that leader in this preacher and that preacher. And Paul ask a series of three questions. Watch please, first Corinthians four seven,
for who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not tell your neighbor? You're not that smart the idea that you had that hurts your feelings a little bit. You feel like I'm attacking your IQ. Now. I'm just saying that there's a difference between a good idea and a God idea, and the ones that really change our
lives are the ideas that come from God. How many no God can give you one idea that can revolutionize your company, one idea, one person to reach out to that can help you with the challenge that you're dealing with that you don't know who to ask about God can give you one idea that can result in a brand new path for your life.
And so we learn to value what God gives.
And it's different when God gives it. It's different when God gives it. Another scripture that I would share with you before we talk about Samson briefly, is when Jesus told his disciples, I'm leaving you physically, but I'm giving my peace to you internally.
And I do not.
Give as the world give. What does that mean? They can't take it away because they didn't put it there. So nobody can steal your peace without your permission. Nobody can ruin your day unless you turn the responsibility over to them. The Bible says, this is the day that the Lord has made. So the one who gave you today, the one who put you in this moment of your life, the one who gave it to you, also expects you to guard it, to guard what you have been given.
And that is so important that the gifts that God has put inside of you, the ways that He has blessed you, the things that He has put in your life and called you a steward over that you take care of what God gave you.
Yeah, you take care of the car I gave you. Take care of it.
Clean that thing up. I gave it to you. I know you paid a little bit of it, but I paid most of it. So take care of what I gave you. The Bible I'm preaching from today. First of all, it's very big, and secondly, it's very special. This Bible belonged to my father in law. He had it for twenty years. He's still living. Sounded like I was doing
his funeral for a minute. They're didn't it? And I told him over and over again, I would go sneak and read this Bible at his house because he was a pastor for twenty years, and he put every note that he ever preached from in this Bible. And I would go down there and steal sermons of going his basement and look through pages and steal sermons from him and outlines because they're all there in the margin. I don't know if you can see that, but it's very
special to me. And you couldn't buy this Bible from me because a couple Christmases ago he said, you don't have to wait for me to die. I'll just give it to you now. That way you'll pray for me to stay alive longer, and he gave it to me. He gave it to me. So if you want a Bible today here at church, we will give you one. We have them to give to you for free, but not this one. You can't have this one because it was given to me. And it's got the same words.
You know, the same words as the free one on the phone, but it was given to me, so it's different. So don't offer me one hundred dollars, you can't have it. Don't offer me a thousand dollars, you can't have it. You get the ten thousand dollars. We can talk and maybe you just copy the notes and you take the Bible and I take the wisdom.
But I'm saying it would take a lot, it would take a lot. There is a number. Oh, there's a number.
But this one's different because of who gave it to me.
And sometimes I worry.
About you because I think you give stuff away too cheap.
That was given to you by somebody really important.
I see you giving away your dignity sometimes just to defend a political position. But you would give away your dignity and your respect and your kindness and the fruit of the spirit, which is love, to come down to a hateful level that was dictated by a cancerous culture.
You would give away your healthy heart.
To engage in a hellish debate.
And I just want to say, if this isn't a political.
Message, but Jesus gave us unity as his church, so let's don't let a devil divide us over stupid stuff when.
It took his precious blood to bring us together.
When it's given. If we're just unified over some good ideas, you know, this is what is remarkable to me about the story of Samson is that he represents a flawed figure who was given at a specific time in history to deliver a people from their sin. One of the interesting things about Samson is that from his very birth he was different. If you know this about Samson, because all we ever talked about is Delilah cut his hair off and he was a dummy and he shouldn't have
done that. Just like we do with everybody, by the way, we just summarized their whole life down to one thing, either their gift or their glitch glitch one time, and we will write your biography with one sentence on your one glitch on the other hand, we are just as good at deifying people for what they do well so that we will call you a singer.
This student's instagram messaged me one time.
And I just told y'all not to get caught up in this stuff, but sometimes I do. I was singing a song that I wrote, and he said, preachers preach. Singers sing stick to preaching, Stephen, and I wanted to tell him what he could do with that comment, because you don't get to tell me what to do with the song that God put in my heart. It's different when it's given. But now I'm up here carnal and I need to pray, just to reset the whole tone of auditorium for the Holy Spirit. But let me encourage
you with this. Never let anybody identify you with your gift or with your glitch, because you are so much more than both of those. You are so much more than both of those. You are so much more than addict, so much more than that. You are so much more than organist, guitarist. You are so much more than mom. Don't even let your kids narrow your life down to the one thing that you do for them, because you
are so much more than that. Married couples quit be in your kid's administrative assistant before you're each other spouses and you end up without a marriage and they left your house and they don't even come see you when they go.
Don't let people shrink you down to one thing.
I am preaching, like doctor Phil I love Samson because he gives me hope to know that God gives great callings to flawed people. He delivered Israel from the Philistines for twenty years, and he flirted with the Philistines that he delivered them from. A matter of fact, when I read you the passage in Judges chapter fifteen, I didn't get to tell you much of the background to flash back to all of the things that led Samson here.
But in fact, it was his insistence to go get a Philistine wife that caused this issue to begin with. His parents warned him against it, his parents tried to dissuade him from it, but he had to have this Philistine girl. And the problem with it was that he liked what God had given him to fight. He liked the Philistine but the Philistines were the one that he
was called to fight against. So now I understand in my life the complication of my desires that some of the things that God has called me to do and be effective in will be wrapped up in things that I struggle with. Some of the things that God will call me to make my contribution in will be wrapped up in the things that I am in constant conflict with. This. This was the case with Samson. So he marries this woman who's a philistine, who his parents said, I'm telling
you this is not going to end well. And it didn't because she was given to another man in marriage while Samson was away. And when Samson found out about that, he was very angry. And since Sampson was very impulsive, and since Samson was very innovative, oh yeah, he was both. He was impulsive and innovative. Tell your neighbor, I'm both. I can be both things at once and innovative impulsive. Samson found three hundred foxes, tied their tails together, found a match, and set their tails on fire.
This is in your Bible.
The Bible that you say is boring, the Bible that you don't read enough. This is the greatest Bible story that you'd never heard before. He takes three hundred foxtails, ties them together, lights the tails on fire, sends them running through the fields of the Philistines, destroys their fields.
The Philistines hear about what Sampson did.
They send their army to Sampson's ex wife's house, burn the house down. Sampson is mad about that. They're mad at him. They're looking for Sampson. They come to the people of Judah. They say, we want Samson. And they said, you want Samson, we'll give you Samson. We'd rather you take Samson than take us, because when it comes down to it, we're all kind of selfish in our heart. And so they come to Sampson and they tie him
up and they turn him over. And as he's walking down to the Philistines, we come upon verse fourteen, chapter fifteen that I read to you a moment ago, where the Bible says that suddenly the spirit of the Lord came upon Sampson.
Oh, I feel like preaching to somebody today.
And when the spirit of the Lord came on Samson, the ropes that were holding him became weak. Because of the spirit of the Lord. He was stronger than what bound him. Because of the spirit of the Lord, he was free from what held him. Because of the spirit of the Lord. The thing that restrained him one moment had to release him the next. When the spirit of the Lord comes on your life, you might be surprised what you can do that you couldn't do before you knew to.
Call on God.
And the strength that Samson needed to break the ropes in the passage was given to him from God.
He didn't break those strength those ropes with muscles.
He broke those ropes with God. With God. You didn't break those ropes with muscles. You broke those ropes with God. I mean, just to realize how much God has done in your life is reason enough to come to church every Sunday. Because a whole week passes, and you don't remember what he released you from. A whole week passes, and you don't remember what he redeemed you from. A whole week passes, and you are so consumed by the next struggle that you didn't even give credit for the
last blessing. And so Sampson is now free to fight, and there's a thousand Philistines coming at him, and he's got two hands, but he's only one man. So he needs a weapon, and we all need weapons. From time to time, and I just want to ask a question Elevation Church. I want to ask a question to everybody online. Of all of the weapons that God could have put in Sampson's path, if Sampson had been given the option to select a weapon, do you think he would have
chosen this one? Read again in Judges, chapter fifteen, verse fifteen. I love how the Bible says it just like it makes sense, But it doesn't make any sense. Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down one thousand men, with no explanation.
Of how one jawbone.
In the hands of one hot tempered man killed one thousand men. There is no nuance given to it. There is no mention of his prowess or his skill. There is no talk of his training. That when he was a little boy, he's the practice with jawbones of donkeys.
He always had a thing for donkeys, ever since he was little.
When they would talk about donkeys in elementary school, he was drawn to donkeys, he says, he was a little boy, he always had a thing for donkey's, a fascination with donkeys, the curvature of their jaw bones, specifically the density of their jawbones. It was absolutely incredible. So if Simpson would have been able to select a weapon, don't you think he would have selected a better one than the jawbone of a donkey. Let's just name a few, just off
the top of your head. I know you didn't study Judge's fifteen this week, but just work with me for a moment. What would be a better weapon that existed in this time? Okay, I gotta clarify. Ye, I'll be shouting out all kinds of illegal stuff, but something that was existing in this time. Yeah, a spear would have been better. Definitely. I'd rather stab them with a spear than hit them with a jawbone of a donkey.
A sword, Yeah, yeah, I'd rather have a sword.
If I gotta fight a thousand Philistines, I'd rather fight them with the sword. Yeah. What else? A slingshot? Yeah? I kind of like that too, because then you can keep your distance right that way you can know their comment, and that way there's no I mean, the jawbone of a donkey. This is bloody, you said. The Bible doesn't say it was bloody. Yes it does. Look at verse fifteen again, did you see it? It said he found the jawbone of a donkey, but not just any jawbone.
Yeah, it's a fresh jawbone of a donkey.
Oh well, that makes it better. Think about this. It's a thousand of them and one of me, and I've got the jawbone of a donkey.
But at least it's fresh.
At least it's a fresh one. At least it's not a dry one.
At least it's not brittle.
If it was a dry one, it would be brittle, and if it was brittle, it would break.
But the Bible says.
That Samson, with a thousand Philistines shouting at him and running toward him and his life on the line, he needs something in this moment, and his hands are free, but he has no weapon for the fight that he didn't expect. Who am I preaching to today? You have no weapon in your hand for the fight that you didn't expect. And added to this, the one that you found is not the one that you would have chosen if you had been asked about what weapon to fight with.
But God says, and I don't care about what they say. But God says, and I don't care about what your mind says. But God says, and I don't care what the economy says, but God says, and I don't care what your background is, but God says, and I don't know how big they are. God says that the worst weapon with him is better than the best one without him. So I'd rather have a jawbone of a donkey than a semi automatic weapon.
If God is with.
The donkey, I'll take the donkey every time.
Give me that jaw bone.
Give me that jaw bone. You know you got to touch your neighbor and tell them that.
Give me that jaw bone.
It's not the best weapon, but it's a fresh weapon. It's not the.
Best weapon, but it's.
The one I've got. I used to come home telling Holly all the time. I don't know if I'm a quif to be a pastor. I don't know if I'm good at being a pastor. I don't know if I know enough to be a pastor. I don't know if I've experienced enough to be a pastor.
I just don't know if I'm the pastor the people need.
And she would say, well, you're the one we've got. Which weapon is the best the one you've got, which one is the best, the one you've got. Look at your kids today and tell them.
I know I might not be the best at this raising you.
I might not be the pairing you would have picked, but I'm the one you got.
I might be a donkey, but I have.
A destiny and God made me to be this in your life right now. So I feel kind of confident about it because I feel kind of like it doesn't have to look like much to do a lot. I feel kind of like it doesn't have to be that impressive to be effective. That's what the Donkey's jawbone teaches me. It's effective even though it isn't impressive. Samson m impressive. I even brought my preaching folder today. I put my notes in this folder that I bought from a thrift store.
In honor of Samson. All that baby oil, The Ultimate Warrior.
Y'all don't know nothing. Don't make me start calling on the Lord. And I was trying to make a list. I was thinking about, how, Okay, this is gonna be really corny, but I'm gonna try to do it. The Ultimate Warrior, right that was a wrestling character from back in our day. I know wrestling is fake and men in tights and all that grosses you out and all that, but some of us love it. We don't know why we love it.
We don't even admit that we love it sometimes, but it's just it's just an ultimate It's an ultimate expression of masculine Anyway, we would think of Sampson as being a warrior with weaknesses, and we would say that he accomplished great things externally, although he battled with greater things internally. We would know that the story of Sampson ends in
a crushing defeat for his own life. Because I want to point something out to you from this passage, is that when it starts with God, it ends in victory. When it starts with me, it ends in defeat. Now take that and apply it over your day, over your business, venture, over your relationship. I'll say it again. If it starts with God, your day, your career, your relationship, it ends in victory. Even if it goes through seasons of defeat,
that's so annoyted. I'm afraid you missed it. So if it started with God, there may be a season of defeat, a island Saturday, a bloody cross, but it will end in victory. An empty tomb. The sad thing about Samson is that he was born supernaturally. His mother's womb was barren. An angel came to his father, well, first came to his mother and said. The angel came to his mother and said, You're going to have a baby. And Simpson's
dad wasn't there, future dad, her husband wasn't there. And when he came back, she said, an angel just told me I'm gonna have a baby. And he's like, what angel who came and told you you're gonna have a baby. And the angel came back and said, you're gonna have a baby. And because this child is special, protected, protect it. Because God is giving you this child. And this child is not just given to you, but this child is going to be given to the whole nation. This child
is going to do amazing things. So you need to raise this child a very special way because he is given. And it's different when it's given. When something is given by God, it must be guarded. When something is given by God, it must be guarded. And here we see Samson doing something amazing with the donkey's jawbone.
It's amazing what he did, but it's ridiculous what he does next, because.
You would think that after seeing such an incredible intervention of God, such a sovereign display of the strength of God.
That hey, a minute ago, i.
Couldn't even use my hands, and now I'm looking at a thousand dead Philistines and I'm still breathing.
You would think that he would praise God.
But Samson, Samson does something so stupid, and I do it too, and you do it too.
Is that after Sampson won.
A great victory, and some of you are in here, and you have won a great victory.
You have seen God do amazing things in your life.
But here comes the mistake verse sixteen. Then Sampson said, with the donkey's jawbone, I have made donkeys of them. With the donkey's jawbone, I have killed a thousand men. You mean God just saved your life, and you want to write a song about a donkey's jawbone. Put the lyrics back up there to his song. Samson's like, oh, this is amazing, Wow, incredible. He's still holding the jawbone, and he goes with the donkey's jaw bone. Let's see, God just gave me a great miracle. God just gave
me a great success. God just did a great thing. What should I think about? With a donkey's jaw bone? I have kid a thousand men. No, put this in there, a donkey's jaw bone. I have made donkeys of them. Yeah, that's clever, see because I'm talking about donkeys and I made them donkeys. Why are we thinking about donkeys when God just delivered you? Why are you praising the thing that he used.
When you know good and well that it wasn't enough to get the job done. Why do we become so attached to jaw bones? Why do we get so.
Addicted to jaw bones? Well you mean by that, Pastor Stephen, I mean when you start to think that the thing that God did through you, you start to think that the thing that God did through you proves how great you are.
Because I recked Simpson song over and over again.
Put it back ut verse sixteen, with a donkey's jawbone, I have made donkeys of them. He's talking about them, he's talking about the donkey, he's talking about the jawbone. He's definitely talking about himself. He's talking about killing. This is a violent song, This is a specific song. But where is God in your song? Why? Didn't your song start with God? Because you know the miracle? Did you know it wasn't a jawbone? You know it was only God that kept the jawbone from breaking. So don't praise
the thing that you used. Praise the one that kept it from breaking. Don't depend on the donkey's jawbon, depend on the one who could use something as ridiculous, as small as a donkey's jaw bone. Now, I just need to see who I'm preaching to. How many of you God has done so much through some ridiculous things in your life that it just doesn't make sense, all right, So don't sing to the thing that doesn't make sense. Don't worship the thing that doesn't make sense. Don't depend
on the thing that doesn't make sense. Because the truth of the matter is, Samson, if God had left your hand tied, you couldn't have even used the job bone to begin with. And if God wouldn't have brought you out of that situation, you wouldn't even be here today. And if God would have let you get caught, you wouldn't have had mercy. You'd be locked up. And if God wouldn't have brought you through that season, you wouldn't be singing about the joy of the Lord. So don't
worship the way that it came. Worship the one who gave it, and.
Turn your song around and turn your spirit.
You see what I'm saying with the donkey's jaw bone, I don't care what melody you put to that. That's a dumb song to say. With a donkey's jawbone. With the power of God, with the strength of God, with the anointing of the Holy Spirit, with the get up and go of God, with the resurrection power of Jesus, with the word of God, with the promise of God. That's what I'm praising, Not a jaw bone.
I'm praising the.
God of the jawbone. I'm praising the God who knew I would need a donkey to decompose.
Right there and have something for me to grab. The truth of the matter is the only reason we're.
Here today is because we grabbed what we had and God did what he does. Howbody had that testimony, It wasn't enough, it didn't make sense, it didn't look good. They were screaming and coming my way. But I grabbed what I had, didn't have a sword, grabbed what I had didn't have a spear.
Grabbed what I had.
Some of you didn't have a dad to raise you, grabbed what I had. Some of you didn't get a college education, grabbed what I had. Some of you don't have the best help right now. I grabbed what I had. I didn't have the best team around me. I grabbed what I had. I wasn't raised in that culture. But I grabbed what I had, and God did what he does. And I'm not singing to a donkey.
I thought your neighbors say, grab what you have, grab what you have.
You don't need a better weapon. You need a more worshipful spirit. You need greater faith, you need more innovation. God gave it to me.
It's a jewel bone, yeah, but God gave it to me, and a jaw bone with Jesus, a job bone with Jesus, a simple thing with Jesus, a silly thing with Jesus, a small thing with Jesus.
It's better than the world's best weapons without him. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God. For the pulling down of strongholds. So a crazy thing happens to Samson. He praises the thing that he has to throw away because after you get done glorifying the jawbone, Hey, hey, God gave you that job, but it's just a jawbone. And if that one goes away, God to kill another donkey.
I don't know who this is for, but you better get this while you can, because God gave this message to me for you, because he wants you to know you don't need better weapons.
He can do it with a jawbone. And you don't even have to like your job for God to use it to provide for you. When did we start raising a generation that thought I have to like everything. I have to like my job. I don't even like myself half the time, let alone people I work with. But God can use it. And the miracle of the jawbone is that it was fresh, so it didn't break. And that is the miracle of your life that you didn't break. Jaw bones only eighteen inches. It isn't big, but it
didn't break. It didn't bougie, but it didn't break. Am I talking about a jawbone or your car?
It isn't the best.
One, but it didn't break. That's the miracle. It didn't break. Come on, get this in your spirit. It didn't break. Think about the miracle of God in your life. It didn't break. My heart was torn, but it didn't break. It's still beating, it's still loving, it's still pumping. God still has a purpose for me. It didn't break. Yeah, And Samson verse seventeen throws that bone away. And the
place was called raymonth Lehigh, which means shawbone hill. Because of course, rather than name in the place something about God, Samson names it something about the jawbone. Because we name stuff wrong, we get caught up. And then I want to show you something that can happen in your life. Samson is winning, but he's worn out. Did you know that's possible? You can be winning and worn out. People think that the only people who need preaching of encourage
and an inspiration are those who are losing. You know, you're in a losing season, you're in a you just lost a relationship, you just lost someone you love. Uh uh. You can be winning and worn out and everybody can look at you and envy you and not have empathy for you because their envy doesn't know how much energy
it costs you to win. Preaching what I know and everybody around you loves to lean on you when you're like that, and they'll say things like, oh, you're just my rock, You're just my everything.
Well, I'm not supposed to be your everything. Please don't make me your everything.
I'm not supposed to be. I don't want you to come to me as you're a full time giver of love and joy, because see, you can be winning and worn out because the people who are with you don't even know what it takes. And that that's a dangerous place, because then you get to where Samson was in verse eighteen, and he begins to feel like, even though I won for what, you ever felt that way, even though I won for what? It can be very empty to stand
in a victory that you believe you produced. It can be impossible to sustain a victory that you think you started. Samson's whole life started in a barren womb. It started with God. Samson's strength was given by God. And the thing that Samson forgot while he was busy making up poems about the instrument that God used, I heard a story about a guitar player. He was playing a very
expensive guitar, and he was playing it so beautifully. A great guitar player, a master musician, and he played it, and everybody around him was talking about how beautiful the guitar was, the wood it was made from, the intonation of the guitar, even the inlays of the guitar, all of the ivory on the guitar, how expensive it was, and the whole time he was playing it, they were
all talking about how wonderful the guitar was. And finally, just very quietly and humbly, he took the guitar, said it gently in the stand, looked back at the audience and said, how does the guitar sound now? Because while you were busy noticing the instrument, you did not realize is that the mastery was not in the wood. It was in the one who knew what to do with it.
Your life gets confusing and gets hard when you start praising the guitar, the jawbone, the thing, the skill, the gift.
The thing. When you start praising that, here's what happens. Verse eighteen. Samson was very thirsty because he won, but he was worn out. He won, he was delivered, but he was dry.
He won a victory, but he was thirsty.
Keep it up. I'm not done.
He cried out to the Lord, you have given.
Your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised. Now he's asking a question, God, what good is winning if I'm just going to die of dehydration. But look what happens in verse nineteen something very interesting. The Bible says, then God opened up the hollow place in Lehigh.
Somewhere that waters should have never been.
And then everybody say, then God opened up the hollow place in Lehigh, and water came out of it. So it was a dry basin, but then it was a depressed place. But then God opened up the hollow place and water that was beneath the ground came up out of the ground. And when Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived.
So the spring was called in Hakori and is still there in Leon.
But I want to focus on that one word then, because I want to go back to the verse before it and see what happened that made God open the spring so Samson.
Could be revived. Because I want to see in this season of my life, what.
Is going to have to happen for God to refresh me so that I can do everything that He has called me and named me, and nun me, and empowered me, and graced me, and freed me, and raised me, and appointed me and assigned me to do. And it is so simple you almost miss it. In eighteen because he was very thirsty. He cried out to the Lord you. That's the first time he talked to God in this
whole passage. And when he said, you have given your servant this great victory, and then he goes on to complaint, must I know die and full in the hands of the unset He didn't even pray right, just the fact that he did next verse verse nineteen.
Then when he said you then.
Then I gotta get you to then, because you can't die in this dry place. You can't die in this discouragement. What good is it for you for God to give all of this victory and you die because you have nothing to drink? So God said when the Sampson's song changed from I have to you have.
Oh that's so good. They keep taking down my verse I'm not done with it verse eighteen.
You did it, God, You've made it happen.
You gave me victory.
You've made it enough. You supplied my needs. You brought me through that, You gave me victory. Then God open the spring. Then God did what only he could do. Here's the principle. When you refocus, God refills. Let me say that again all the way to rock Hill. When you refocus, God refills. I feel a fresh flow coming to somebody's life today. I feel a fresh flow coming to somebody's stanley today. I feel fresh strength coming to
your breed hands today. Refocus not on the donkey, not on the dryness.
But God gave it to me, I said, God gave it to me.
God gave it to me.
And if he gave me this calling, no one can take it. My very best.
Friend in the world comes to church every week and sits in this seat. And this week he happened to wear and I saw him while I was preaching.
A jacket that I gave him.
Stand up he and show him that Viori hoodie thingy that I gave you.
Now, I want you to find him in the lobby.
And try to take it from him. He doesn't even know how to fight, but he'll fight you so good you'll think he's Brazilian jiu jitsu.
You will think he's a UFC fighter.
If you try to take it, why because I gave it to him, because it means something to him, because I wanted him to have it.
Offer him one hundred dollars, he won't sell it.
Offer him a thousand. He might take it by another one and not tell me what happened. But what I'm saying is it's different. When it's given. You can't take it because it was given.
It's different. It's special to me.
I thought for this, I bleded for this, I cried for this.
I survived for this.
I did not come this stark to give it over. And besides how hard I fought, I did not earn it.
It was given. I want you to hold to this word in this season of your life. Everything that God has funken over you, everything that you know is supposed to come to pass, every seed that He put in your heart. I'm tying it into last week that hasn't become a stalk yet. You just haven't made it to your then yet. But if you will stop singing about donkey jaw bones, and if you will stop crying about donkeys who left your life, and if you will stop focusing on the donkey and start focusing on what God
did for you. I'm telling you there is a springing lee high. Oh yeah, there's there's a joy spring. There's a hoop spring. There's a peace spring. There's a new spring.
Will you not see it? Will you not perceive it?
God gave it to me.
Twenty seconds in praising for this day. That twenty seconds in praising for your breast. Why am I praising him something?
Gave it to me. I gotta make the gongs.
He gave it to me. I can't go down just yet. He gave me this assignment. I five at least ten people have saved. Praise him for what he gave you.
Don't praise what he gave you. Praise him for what he gave you us.
If it goes away, he could give you another one.
I want you to get grateful.
I want you to get joyful.
I want you to start listening.
Some victories and start giving some credit to the God who made you like He wanted to make you, to use your how he wanted. Listen to me, stop despising what God gave you how he made you. You are glitches and you are gifts, but you are neither. You are God's everyone's standing. I went through a season a few years ago where I hated the sound of my own voice. And you would too if you had to listen to yourself as much as I do. Somebody told me recently it was my dental hygienis. She is talking
my head off, cleaning up. I answer, I didn't know how to have a conversation with the thing in my mouth. Ah. She said, I saw a clip of you on Instagram. I said, huh, said the one you posted today. I said, I don't post those. I don't know which one they posted today. And she said, you don't post your own clips. I said, would you want to go through everything you said and have to listen to yourself say it again and think of how you could have said it better?
It's torture. How many of you liked to hear your own voice if you ever hear it back on a recording. How mean you really just enjoy that well repent of pride. No. I think it's great, because honestly, God had to deal with me about that, and he did it through a conversation that I had with Abby. I was talking to her about singing, and she said something negative about her voice.
And at that time, listen to me. I was going through such a season of dealing with this, and she was much smaller, so I don't even know if she remembers this. As she was saying, Oh, I don't have a great voice, or I'm not a great singer, or this or that, I said, hey, let's make a deal. God gave you your voice, and I want you to value it. And I'm not one of these parents who tells their kids you can sing better than Adele, because she can't. So what I was trying to get her
to do. I said, you don't know how God wants to use that voice, so let's value your voice. And as I was going through a season, come here, Chris. I get to work with all these incredible singers. And you would think that that would be wonderful, but it's also try to stand next to Chris Brown in a songwriting room and sing something. And I would listen to myself singing, and I would hear them singing and all the vibrato and the tambour and the beauty of the instrument.
And I went home one day and I was thinking, I hate my voice. I hate my voice. This a few years ago, and the Lord said, you hate what I gave you. So I realized that the enemy was trying to get me in a cycle. Now I'm telling you a me story for a U application. This is not confession time for me. It's illustration time. God said, you can't hate what I gave you and pray for me to use it. Because one side of it is pride. I killed one thousand men. The other side of it
is insecurity. I have nothing to give, and both of them are rooted in the wrong starting place. God gave it to me. My voice, your voice, your personality, your listening ear, your wisdom, your guidance, your experience, your style. God gave it to you. And you know what this means. You don't have to be jealous of what he gave anybody else. You are not in competition with them. You don't have to apologize for it. Diminish it. I saw it like this all on one hand, I'm tempted to
diminish it. I hate my voice, I hate my height. Well what are you gonna do about that? You better get some heels, get a couple extra interests. But that's about as good as it's gonna get. Better take your five foot four self and get out there and be God's jawbone. The beautiful thing about it is, I'm no longer tempted to diminish it, and I'm not tempted to depend on it because I know it had nothing to do with the success of the weapon. It had to do with the strength of my God. God gave it
to me. Say it again, God gave it to me. Now, I want you to confess that over this challenge you're going through to God gave it to me, even the challenge, even the giant, even the fight. God gave me this fight. He must know I can win it. He must be planning to do something to show how great he is. God gave it to me. God gave me this thing to face. It's a matter of stewardship. And when Samson's life comes down to it, all it has to do with how he used his strength. What are you doing
with the strength God gave you? What are you doing with the stuff he gave you? What are you doing with the days he gave you? If God gave it, you don't get to waste it. If God gave it, you don't get to bury it. You remember the parable about the man who was given a talent and he hid it because he had one and somebody else had five. God gave you that one. Do something with it. Use it. You are listening to a preach or preach to you right now who doesn't even naturally like the sound of
his own voice. Don't tell me what you can't do for God. Don't tell me what God can't use. Don't tell me what God can do. I want to hear it. He is the God of the jawbone, and I want to pray over those things in your life right now, whether they are gifts or glitches. I want you to see him as in the same hands, the hands of God.
Bow your head and close your eyes. There's something significant that God is trying to get you to take responsibility for today, and as you take responsibility for that thing, he is calling you to reframe it and refocus it. Place is not the problem. The starting place is God. So now, God, we worship you because you're great, and we thank you for all of the battles that you've won for your people, and we thank you for all the times that all we had was a donkey's jawbone.
But you did it. Say it that loud you did it. He's the one who cleansed you. Tell them again, you did it. He's the one who set you free. Tell them again, you did it. God. We're not going to get to this place in our life and think that we've got to do it by ourselves. We have a really good record of what you've done. Right now, I want to give somebody an invitation to receive Christ who has never placed your faith in Jesus. The starting place
of your salvation is not you, It is God. And salvation is not spelled d O, it is spelled d N E done. The work for you to be saved is finished by Jesus Christ. Right now, God is calling some of you to repent of your sin and give your life to Him. He gave it to you to begin with. If God has brought you here this day and he's calling you right now to come to Jesus, I'm going to lead you in a prayer. And in
this prayer it's not magical, but it is miraculous. For the Bible says that if you will call on the name of Jesus, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, not might be saved, not could be saved, will be saved today. If you will call on his name, he will save you and change you from the inside out. So as a church family for all of those coming to God, repeat after me, Heavenly Father, Today is my day of salvation. I am
a sinner in need of a savior. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the savior of the world. And today I make Jesus the Lord of my life. I believe he died that I would be forgiven and rose again to give me life.
I receive this new life. This is my new beginning.
On the counter.
Three shoot your hands up if you prayed that one, two three.
We're celebrating you.
All over this rumle. God bless you, God, geek you, God make his faith sign on you. God be gracious to you.
Let's celebrate all those and just play sat.
Faith in Christ the lod lived up with grace. God of praise, Schirch.
Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description give now or visit Elevationchurch dot org. Slash podcast for more information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it with your friends. You can click the share button, take a screenshot and share it on your social stories and tag us at
Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you.