God Gave It To Me

1:07 What a wonderful time of worship today. I trust that wherever you are, you've been able to worship to prepare your heart, warm your heart to God's presence. I want to take you over to Judges chapter 15 for just a moment. There is a classic rock radio host I listen to, and he has a segment called Benz That Should Have Been Huge But Weren't. 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 you face.

2:04 Judges, chapter 15, verses 14 through 20. We're going to talk about Samson for a moment today. Not that story, not the one where he got his hair cut off and lost his strength. Popeye didn't eat his spinach. Not the cartoon part. Yeah, we cartoonize these Bible characters, and we kind of make them like these mythical figures. but the only real hero in the Bible is Jesus. Everybody else we study, they're human, and we love that because they do heroic things, but they have human tendencies. 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 and the way you love and the way 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. 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 15, verse 14, As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting, and the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him.

3:45 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 outmanned. 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 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 better modulate this sermon real quick. They became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands. What was God doing? He was freeing him for the fight.

4:52 God is freeing you for the fight. Not from the fight. You still have to fight, but you're going to have two free hands to do it with and the Spirit of God. Now look at verse 15. He has two free hands, but he needs a weapon. The Bible says, "'Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a 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." has a little rap career over there on SoundCloud. Listen to this. This is crazy. When he finished speaking, finished killing a thousand enemies, one man with a donkey's jawbone, when he finished speaking his little diss track to the Philistines, when he finished that, he threw away the jawbone, and the place was called Ramath-Lehi, which means Jawbone Hill.

6:02 creative guy, Samson. 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? The Bible says then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned, and he revived. So the spring was called En-Hakori, and it is still there in Lehi. Samson led Israel for 20 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.

6:58 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 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. That was the first week. Then the next week I came back and talked about how God… I fuss at y'all for forgetting my sermons. I forget my sermons. I said, God will work it in. We were surprised because we were expecting to hear God will work it out. But when we realize 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. 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.

8:39 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. When they got there, they found out that God dispatches angels in advance of your arrival, and the angel had already rolled the stone. 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 you can make whenever you find yourself in a fight. and wherever that fight breaks out. I talked earlier about you're freed up to fight. Well, you also have to have, I believe, sometimes some faith statements to fight with. 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.

9:41 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 coming, you say, oh, oh, oh, God will work it in. 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 and 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.

10:21 God gave it to me. Say that out loud. God gave it to me. Don't say it timid like you have to be shy about it. Look at your neighbor and say, God gave it to me. 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.

10:50 This view toward life will keep you from becoming prideful, because you will realize that even the things you are good at are things that came from grace and were grown by God. You will never boast again in a gift 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. In 1 Corinthians 4-7, the church was fighting about different leaders, and they liked this leader and that leader and this preacher and that preacher. Paul asked a series of three questions. Watch, please. 1 Corinthians 4, 7. 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?

11:40 Tell your neighbor, you're not that smart. The idea you had, that hurt your feelings a little bit? You feel like I'm attacking your IQ? No, I'm just saying 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 know 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 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. So, we learn to value what God gives. It's different when God gives it.

12:30 Another scripture 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 gives. 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 the Lord has made. So the one who gave you the day, 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. That is so important that the gifts God has put inside of you, the ways he has blessed you, the things he has put in your life and called you a steward over, you take care of what God gave you. You take care of the car I gave you.

13:43 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, is very big, and secondly, it's very special. This Bible belonged to my father-in-law. He had it for 20 years. He's still living. It sounded like I was doing his funeral for a minute there, didn't it? I told him over and over again I would go sneak and read this Bible at his house because he was a pastor for 20 years, and he put every note he ever preached from in this Bible. I would go down there and steal sermons. I'd go in his basement and flip 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. You couldn't buy this Bible from me, because a couple of Christmases ago he said, you don't have to wait for me to die. I'll just give it to you now.

14:38 That way you'll pray for me to stay alive longer. 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. It's got 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 $100. You can't have it. Don't offer me $1,000. You can't have it. You get the $10,000 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.

15:38 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. I just want to say 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.

16:35 It's different when it's given. If we're just unified over some good ideas… This is what is remarkable to me about the story of Samson. 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. I don't know if you know this about Samson, because all we ever talk 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 summarize their whole life down to one thing. their gift or their 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 dude on Instagram messaged me one time, and I just told y'all not to get caught up in this stuff, but sometimes I do.

17:51 I was singing a song that I wrote, and he said, Preachers preach. Singers sing. Stick to preaching, Stephen. 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 God put in my heart. It's different when it's given.

18:15 Now I'm up here carnal, and I need to pray just to reset the whole tone of the 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 addict. You are 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 you do for them, because you are so much more than that. Married couples, quit being your kids' administrative assistant before you're each other's spouses, and you end up without a marriage, and they left your house, and they don't even come see you when they go.

19:11 Don't let people shrink you down to one thing. I am preaching like Dr. 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 20 years, and he flirted with the Philistines he delivered them from. As a matter of fact, when I read you the passage in Judges chapter 15, I didn't get to tell you much of the background to flashback 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. 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 he was called to fight against.

20:24 So now I understand in my life the complication of my desires, that some of the things God has called me to do and be effective in will be wrapped up in things I struggle with. Some of the things God will call me to make my contribution in will be wrapped up the things I am in constant conflict with. This was the case with Samson. So he marries this woman, who is 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. When Samson found out about that, he was very angry, and since Samson 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.

21:21 Innovative, impulsive Samson found 300 foxes, tied their tails together, found a match, and set their tails on fire. This is in your Bible. The Bible you say is boring. The Bible you don't read enough. This is the greatest Bible story you've never heard before. He takes 300 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 Samson did. They send their army to Samson's ex-wife's house, burned the house down. Samson is mad about that. They're mad at him. They're looking for Samson. They come to the people of Judah. They say, We want Samson. 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.

22:16 So they come to Samson, and they tie him up, and they turn him over. As he's walking down to the Philistines, we come upon verse 14, chapter 15 that I read to you a moment ago where the Bible says that suddenly the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson. 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 ropes with muscles. He broke those ropes with God.

23:33 You didn't break those ropes with muscles. You broke those ropes with God. Just to realize how much God has done in your life is reason enough to come to church every Sunday. 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. Samson is now free to fight, and there are a thousand Philistines coming at 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. I just want to ask a question, Elevation Church. I want to ask a question to everybody online. Of all of the weapons God could have put in Samson's path, if Samson had been given the option to select a weapon, do you think he would have chosen this one?

24:47 Read again in Judges chapter 15, verse 15. 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 a thousand men with no explanation of how one jawbone in the hands of one hot-tempered man killed a 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. When he was a little boy, he used to 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. Since he was a little boy, he always had a thing for donkeys, a fascination with donkeys, the curvature of their jawbones specifically, the density of their jawbones. It was absolutely incredible.

25:42 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 Judges 15 this week, but just work with me for a moment. What would be a better weapon that existed in this time… Okay, I have to clarify. I'll be shouting out all kinds of illegal stuff. But something that existed in this time… Yeah, a spear would have been better. Definitely I'd rather stab him with a spear than hit him with the jawbone of a donkey. A sword? Yeah. Yeah, I'd rather have a sword. If I have to fight 1,000 Philistines, I'd rather fight him with the sword. What else? A slingshot. Yeah, I kind of like that too, because then you can keep your distance. That way you can know they're coming. The jawbone of a donkey… This is bloody? You say the Bible doesn't say it was bloody. Yes, it does.

26:52 Look at verse 15 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 he didn't expect.

27:54 Who am I preaching to today? You have no weapon in your hand for the fight you didn't expect. Added to this, the one you found is not the one you would have chosen if you had been asked about what weapon to fight with. But God says… I don't care about what your mind says. But God says… I don't care what the economy says. But God says… I don't care what your background is. But God says… I don't know how big they are. God says the worst weapon with him is better than the best one without him.

28:38 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 jawbone. Give me that jawbone. You know you have to touch your neighbor and tell them that. Give me that jawbone. 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 equipped 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 have experience enough to be a pastor. I just don't know if I'm the pastor that people need. 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 race in you. I might not be the parent you would have picked, it, 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.

30:19 Samson. Impressive. I even brought my preaching folder today. I put my notes in this folder 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. I was trying to make a list. I was thinking about how… Okay, this is going to be really corny, but I'm going to try to do it. The ultimate warrior… That was a wrestling character from back in our day. I know wrestling is fake, and men in kites and all that grosses you out and all of 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 when it's just an ultimate expression of masculinity.

31:28 We would think of Samson 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 Samson ends in a crushing defeat for his own life. I want to point something out to you from this passage is that when it starts with God, it ends in victory.

32:07 When it starts with me, it ends in defeat. 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.

32:38 If it started with God, there may be a season of defeat, a silent 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, You're going to have a baby. Samson's dad wasn't there. Her husband wasn't there. When he came back, she said, An angel just told me I'm going to have a baby. like, what angel? Who came and told you you were going to have a baby? The angel came back and said, you're going to have a baby. Because this child is special, protect it.

33:32 God is giving you this child. 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 in a very special way, because he is given. It's different when it's given. When something is given by God, it must be guarded. 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 does something so stupid, it, and I do it too, and you do it too, is that after Samson won a great victory… 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 16, Then Samson said, With a donkey's jawbone, I have made donkeys of them.

35:07 With a 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,

35:34 with a donkey's jawbone. 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 sing about? With a donkey's jawbone, I have killed a thousand men. No. Let me put this in there. A donkey's jawbone, 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 singing about donkeys when God just delivered you? Why are you praising the thing 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 jawbones? Why do we get so addicted to jawbones? What do you mean by that, Pastor Stephen?

36:37 I mean when you start to think that the thing God did through you proves how great you are, I read Samson's song over and over again. Put it back up. Verse 16. 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 you used.

37:34 Praise the one that kept it from breaking. Don't depend on the donkey's jawbone. Depend on the one who could use something as ridiculous, as small as a donkey's jawbone. 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? 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. The truth of the matter is, Samson, if God had left your hand tied, you couldn't have even used the jawbone to begin with. If God wouldn't have brought you out of that situation, you wouldn't even be here today. If God would have let you get caught, you wouldn't have had mercy. You'd be locked up.

38:30 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 it came. Worship the one who gave it, and turn your song around and turn your spirit. I don't care what melody you put to that. That's a dumb song to sing. 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. the Word of God, with the promise of God. That's what I'm praising. Not a jawbone. 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. How many have 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. I didn't have a sword. I grabbed what I had.

39:51 I didn't have a spear. I grabbed what I had. Some of you didn't have a dad to raise you. I grabbed what I had. Some of you didn't get a college education. I 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. 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 jawbone. Yeah, but God gave it to me. And a jawbone with Jesus, a simple thing with Jesus, a silly thing with Jesus, a small thing with Jesus, is better than the world's best weapons without him.

41:00 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 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.

41:26 And if that one goes away, God will 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. The miracle of the jawbone is that it was fresh, so it didn't break. That is the miracle of your life, that you didn't break. The jawbone is only 18 inches.

42:20 It isn't big, but it didn't break. It isn'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. Yeah, 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. Samson throws that bone away, and the place was called Ramoth-Lehi, which means Jawbone Hill. Of course, rather than naming the place something about God, Samson names it something about the jawbone. We name stuff wrong. We get caught up… Then I want to show you something that can happen in your life. Samson is winning, but he's worn out.

43:34 Did you know that's possible? You can be winning and worn out. People think the only people who need preaching of encouragement and inspiration are those who are losing. You're in a losing season. You just lost a relationship. You just lost someone you love. Uh-uh. You can be winning and worn out. 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.

44:16 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 your 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. That's a dangerous place, because then you get to where Samson was in verse 18, and he begins to feel like, even though I won, for what? It can be very empty to stand in a victory that you believe you produced.

45:13 It can be impossible to sustain a victory you think you started. Samson's whole life started in a barren womb. It started with God. Samson's strength was given by God. The thing Samson forgot while he was busy making up poems about the instrument 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. 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. The whole time he was playing it, they were all talking about how wonderful the guitar was.

46:10 Finally, just very quietly and humbly, he took the guitar, set 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 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 18. 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. 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 19. Something very interesting the Bible says, Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, somewhere that water should have never been.

47:42 And then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, 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. When Samson drank, his strength returned, and he revived. So the spring was called in Hekori, and it's still there in Leot. 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 he has called me and named me and known me and empowered me and graced me and freed me and raised me and appointed me and assigned me to do.

48:42 It is so simple you almost miss it in verse 18. 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. Then he goes on to complain. Must I now die and fall in the hands of the unsaved? He didn't even pray right. Just the fact that he did… Next verse, verse 19. Amen. When he said, you, then, then. I have to 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 Samson'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.

49:51 Verse 18. You did it, God. You made it happen. You gave me victory. You made it enough. You supplied my needs. You brought me through that. You gave me victory. You, you, you, you, you. Then God opened 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 come into somebody's life today. I feel a fresh flow come into somebody's family today. I feel fresh strength come into your freed hands today. focus. 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.

50:56 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 I gave him. Stand up, E, and show him that Viore hoodie thingy that I gave you. Now I want you to find him in the lobby and try to take it from him.

51:19 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. I wanted him to have it. Offer him $100. He won't sell it. Offer him $1,000. He might take it, buy 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 fought for this. I bled for this. I cried for this. I survived for this. I did not come this far to give it over. Besides how hard I fought, I did not earn it. It was given.

52:17 I want you to hold to this word in this season of your life. Everything God has spoken over you, everything you know is supposed to come to pass, every seed he put in your heart that hasn't become a stalk yet, you just haven't made it to your were then yet, but if you will stop singing about donkey jawbones 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 spring in Lehi. Oh yeah, there's a joy spring. There's a hope spring. There's a peace spring. There's a new spring. Do you not see it? Do you not perceive it? God gave it to me. Take 20 seconds and praise him for this day.

53:12 Take 20 seconds and praise him for your breath. Why am I praising him? Because he gave it to me. I have to make a boast. He gave it to me. I can't go down just yet. He gave me this assignment. High-five at least 10 people and say, Praise him for what he gave you. Don't praise what he gave you. Praise him for what he gave you. Because if it goes away, he can give you another one. I want you to get grateful. I want you to get joyful. I want you to start listing some victories and start giving some credit to the God who made you like he wanted to make you to use you how he wanted. Listen to me.

54:11 Stop despising what God gave you, how he made you. You are glitches and you are gifts, but you are neither. You are gods. Everyone's standing. I went through a season a few years ago where I hated the sound of my own voice. You would too if you had to listen to yourself as much as I do. Somebody told me recently it was my dental hygienist. She was talking my head off, cleaning up. I didn't know how to have a conversation with the thing in my mouth. She said, I saw a clip of you on Instagram. I said, huh? She said, the one you posted today? I said, I don't post those. I don't know which one they posted today.

55:06 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 like to hear your own voice if you ever hear it back on a recording? How many of you really just enjoy that? What repent of pride? No, I think it's great, because honestly, God had to deal with me about that, and he He did it through a conversation I had with Abby. I was talking to her about singing, and she said something negative about her voice. At that time, I was going through such a season of dealing with this. She was much smaller, so I don't even know if she remembers this. As she was saying, 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.

56:03 I'm not one of these parents who tells their kids, you can sing better than Adele, because she can't. 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. As I was going through a season… I said, Come here, Chris. I get to work with all these incredible singers. You would think that would be wonderful, but it's also… to stand next to Chris Brown in a songwriting room and sing something. I would listen to myself sing, and I would hear them sing. Oh, the vibrato and the timbre and the beauty of the instrument.

56:53 I went home one day, and I was thinking, I hate my voice. I hate my voice. This was a few years ago. The Lord said, You hate what I gave you? I realized the Enemy was trying to get me in a cycle. I'm telling you a me story for a you 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. One side of it is pride. I killed a thousand men. The other side of it is insecurity. I have nothing to give. Both of them are rooted in the wrong starting place. God gave it to me.

57:49 My voice, your voice, your personality, your listening ear, your wisdom, your guidance, your experience, your style… God gave it to you. 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. On one hand, I'm tempted to diminish it. I hate my voice. I hate my height. Well, what are you going to do about that? You better get some heels. Get a couple extra inches, but that's about as good as it's going to get. Better take your 5'4 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.

58:50 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 too. 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. 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.

59:47 Do you remember the parable about the man who was given a talent and he hid it? he had one and somebody else had five. God gave you that one. Do something with it. Use it. You are listening to a preacher 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't do. I want to hear it. He is the God of the jawbone. I want to pray over those things in your life right now, whether they are gifts or glitches. I want you to see them 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. As you take responsibility for that thing, he is calling you to reframe it and refocus it. The starting 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 you've won for your people, and we thank you for all the times all we had was a donkey's jawbone, but you did it. Say it out loud. You did it. He's the one who cleansed you. Tell him again. You did it. He's the one who set you free. Tell him 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. Salvation is not spelled D-O. It is spelled D-O-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

1:01:54 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. In this prayer, it's not magical, but it is miraculous. 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. 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 Today I make Jesus the Lord of my life.

1:02:55 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 count of three, shoot your hands up if you prayed that. One, two, three. We're celebrating you all over this room. God bless you. God keep you. you. God, make His face shine on you. God, be gracious to you. Let's celebrate all those who just placed their faith in Christ. Come on, lift up a great sound of praise, church.

1:03:49 or serve with us, or just share these messages, it's because of you that we're able to reach people all around the world. And if you want more information on how to be a part of Elevation, click the link in the description. Thanks again for listening. Make sure to leave a review, share the message, and subscribe. God bless you.