Brace Yourself

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Hey, this is Stephen Furtick

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 fate

Hope it gives you perspective to see God as moving in your life

Enjoy the message

Let's go in our Bibles for this fourth week of Unqualified

Which is incidentally the last week

I know

I know you still feel broken

You still feel unqualified

Well, the good news is that

That realization is just the beginning of a new reality

And I thought we would call on the author of Hebrews

So find the book in your Bible that's called Hebrews

It's not the name of a Christian coffee shop anymore

It's just a book in the Bible

And put it right there on the 11th chapter

When you find it is coming up on the screen

We do that for the lazy people

Let's get it

And together I want to look at three verses

Towards the conclusion of this book

It was a letter that was written to a persecuted church

By an anonymous author

And he's finishing up his sermon

Or really his illustration in this chapter that has been referred to as the hall of fate

Because he's talking about people who demonstrated great fate throughout history

And he comes upon an issue that all preachers come upon at some point in time

And this is something you get real nervous when you hear a preacher say this

What he says in verse 32 he says

And what more shall I say

That's kind of like when the preacher says I'm closing

And around here you know what that means when I say I'm closing

It means absolutely nothing, okay?

And what more shall I say?

I don't have time to tell you about Gideon, Barack, Samson, and Jeff the about David and Samuel

And the prophets

Who through fate, listen what they did

Who through fate conquered kingdoms

Administer justice

And gained what was promised

Would you touch your neighbor one more time?

This is like you're only going to do it 20 times after this

Just touch on one more time and tell them you're going to get it

Tell them twice you're going to get it, you're going to get it

Now you might have to go through some things

Because to gain what was promised, look what they had to do

They had to shut the mouths of lions

It's a great thing when you can go to bed with the lions and wake up in one piece

Come on, have you ever had to go to bed with something that scared you

But you woke up the next morning and realized I'm still here

This is the day the Lord has made

So I might as well rejoice

And they quench the fury of the flames

And they escape the edge of the sword

Sometimes you cut it close

And sometimes it feels like you're going down

But they escape the edge of the sword

God will always make a way of escape

Sometimes it just won't be when you want it

They escape the edge of the sword

And this is the part of the verse

That I thought would be appropriate for our study

And I'll give you this and give you my title

And we'll sit down and look at it

But it says that these people

Had their weakness turned to strength

Whose weakness was turned to strength

So I want to give you my title

But I need your help because it's really more of an admonition

Or an instruction than it is a sermon title

Would you shove your neighbor and tell him, brace yourself

You may be seated

brace yourself

brace yourself

The weird thing to me about the disciples

Is that when Jesus died they were surprised

Like he didn't tell them

Over and over again

It's the whole reason he was born

Was to die and then he did it

And they were shocked

I understand them being sad

I understand them even feeling shame

That Barabbas was chosen over Jesus

That a criminal was chosen over the Christ

I just don't understand the shock factor

He told you he's going to Jerusalem

He told you not only did he tell you Isaiah told you

It's like not only prophecy

But Jesus personally told you he's going to die

And then it shook their faith

So badly when he did the very thing that he was destined to do

That's kind of weird to me

What's even weirder

Was that they were even more surprised by his resurrection

than they were by his crucifixion

And he predicted that part too

You know he told him

It's only going to be three days

That's why I'm borrowing this tomb

It doesn't make sense to purchase something that you only need a short term lease on

And so it's weird

It's weird to me that they would be shocked when his body wasn't there

And instead of assuming, well, I guess he got up

I guess it was for real

I guess he's legitimately the savior of the world with all power in his hand

I guess he is the resurrection in the life

If it worked on Lazarus, I guess he could do it to himself too

Instead of that conclusion, they thought, oh, they must have snatched his body

They were surprised

And I guess it's easy for me to be surprised that they were surprised

Because, you know, I'm not them

And we've had 2,000 years to think about it

You know, some things

Nobody can prepare you for

You can see them better in hindsight than you can when you're going through them

And some things just are difficult to prepare for and no matter how many books you read about it

There's nothing like living it

Can all the parents say amen?

Now, I don't care how many classes you talk and how you breathe

And, you know, what to expect when you're expecting whatever they can't put that in a book

That is a horror movie that you must live through to fully understand

Just some things you can't

Touch your neighbor, say, brace yourself

And Jesus has spent all this time preparing his disciples for the very thing that he came to do

To redeem humanity through his death

And when he actually did the thing that he was destined to do they were surprised

Now, we have a group of Christians decades later

Who are part of this same lineage that the author of Hebrews is encouraging it

And he's encouraging them in a specific way

He's encouraging them to endure

And sometimes you need somebody to tell you to keep going

Sometimes you need somebody to tell you you're going to make it

Sometimes you need a coach to tell you that I know you feel out of breath

And I know you feel out of luck and I know you feel out of love

But you've got more to give

And so keep pressing

And this group really needed to hear it because they were suffering the confiscation of their rights

And the loss of their property and many of them had experienced the loss of their freedom

Many of them had been imprisoned and some of them had lost their lives

And he's writing back to the ones who are still trying to really find a footing for this newfound faith

You understand that Christianity was a fledgling religion

It was considered a sect of Judaism

It was like almost a cult

And it was an upstart organization

And it was still in question as to whether or not it was really going to have any true influence

Or was it just a bunch of maniacs

And in the church that's addressed at Hebrews, the people who grew up in the Jewish temple system

They're getting accustomed to a new way of approaching God

They'd always approached him through sacrifices and through sacrificing lambs and goats

But now they're approaching God through the sacrifice once for all of Jesus Christ

And he's the spotless Lamb of God and he's without blemish and he's the lamb's lane from the foundation of the earth

But it's new to them

And anything that's new creates a sense of instability

Anything that's new, that's why you're your first kid, you drive home from the hospital 20 miles an hour

Now if you have three like we did, we drove home with Abby on the roof, we didn't care we strapped her on

But when something is new, it takes a little while and Christianity was really just...

It wasn't even called Christianity yet, it was called the way

There wasn't jewelry about it yet

They didn't have their non-profit tax exempt status yet

And they were under immense pressure in a time of political and religious instability

And so the writer of Hebrews writes from that theme and he tells him things like

You're running a race and you got to make sure that whatever is dislocated is strengthened

And so you can keep going

So this thing can become something in order to do it

He doesn't just empty himself of aphorisms that will encourage them in the general direction of endurance and faithfulness

But he calls forth to the witness stand some characters that have gone before them

He refers to them as a great cloud of witnesses

And he says, we're surrounded by people who made us and maybe we can find strength in the support system of those who went through more and did it

And sometimes you just need to come to church to be reminded, I'm not the only one

I'm not the only one

He starts listing people and all of chapter 11, if you want to look at it, has people big headliners of the faith

And now he's running out of ink, he's running out of time, he's got to finish this letter

And so he wants to throw out a few names, he wants to call forth people who exemplify this kind of perseverance that is now necessary for this new church

And so he calls on people that we would recognize like David, the shepherd who became a king

He uses David as an illustration that God can turn weakness into strength

And David's a great example of that because, well, he was the last one in his family

They didn't even think to bring him in when Samuel was trying to identify the next king

David took a slingshot and killed a giant

Everybody always doubted David, the odds were against him, Saul told him not to even bother fighting

But now to a church that is fighting against odds, he brings up the name of somebody who against Saul odds prevailed

He said, you know, it's like David, David, David had a slingshot

Sometimes you got to go up against whatever standing between you and your destiny with what you've got

Sometimes you can't let the fact that you feel weak stop you from acting strong

Sometimes you even have to fake it till you make it

And just stand in the face of your fear and say, I'm not going anywhere

That's what David did

So I get why he would mention David, I get why he would connect David to Samuel

Because Samuel, as I just mentioned, was the prophet who anointed David

And Samuel was born out of a barren situation, his mother, Hannah couldn't have a baby

And she prayed to the Lord and she was provoked by her rival every day

And she was provoked to the point that it drove her to prayer

Sometimes you need people not to like you by the way so that you'll go to God

And you need things not to turn out right the first time so you'll have to depend on him

And when she prayed, God heard her and she had a baby

And she took that baby to the temple and he served under a priest named Eli

And Eli had some degenerate sons and so the temple system had totally fallen apart

To the point that it needed not only renovation but it needed restoration and renewal

And Samuel was a part of bringing that to the forefront

And he served as a prophet and I understand why you'd bring him up

Because he's trying to say that God can bring somebody from a barren situation to redeem a broken system

So it makes sense that he would mention Samuel, the one who anointed the first king

And then if you back up from there, it makes sense

Since he's speaking to a Jewish audience that he would mention some of the judges

Because before Israel had kings, they had judges

Judges were the ones that God would raise up to deliver them from their enemies

When they went into the Promised Land, it didn't mean they didn't have any more problems

So they would fight against these groups like the Philistines and the Ammonites

And God would raise up a deliverer, they called him a judge like Gideon

And I understand why he would bring up Gideon because

Well, Gideon was a wimp who was stretching wheat in a wine press but God called him a warrior

And see, God will contradict the way you see yourself

And remind you of your calling

And he did that for Gideon and so Gideon had to get up and go

And he felt like the least and the littlest in his tribe

But he got up and God used him in a great way anyway

And Gideon ended up doing a great thing for God

If you want to show weakness and the strength, show me Gideon

Who was in a wine press who became a warrior

I can get with that, I understand why you would bring up Gideon

Because Gideon started at the bottom

Weakness and the strength

I don't just read the Bible, you understand

I even understand some of these lesser characters

The one that you never heard of is probably Jeff though

He was kind of weird, but he had a reason

His mother was a prostitute

And they didn't know who his father was

So when it says who his father was in scripture, it just names the town he was from

That means it could have been anybody in town

That's how much his mother got around

His brothers despised him because of his background, his half-brothers

And kicked him out of his house

And the Bible says that he found himself surrounded by worthless men

The Bible's words, not mine

Yet from a worthless surrounding, God raised him up

And he was a deliverer, and God used to

He made bad decisions, you usually do when you come from a difficult background

But God used him anyway

So I get why they would mention Jeff though

And I get why they would mention Barack

I mean, from Hawaii to a senator in Chicago

To the 44th President of the United States of America

He definitely deserves a shout out

But there's another Barack that they're mentioning

Who was raised up, and he's delivered Israel

He was a judge also, but he was paired up with this woman named Deborah

And he kind of hid behind the woman

Because he said, I'll go if you go

But God gave him a victory anyway

And so I see how somebody who was actually reluctant

Kind of like Moses didn't want to deliver the children

That God can still use you in spite of your reluctance

And so you don't have to do it all exactly right

What I can't quite reconcile is why you would bring up Samson

And Samson is the one that tripped me up

Because when I say his name, what do you think of?

Well, that's good, somebody said strength

And somebody said hair

And it's actually one of those Bible stories

It's not like Jeff, though, where you kind of have to be paid to read the Bible to know stuff like that

It's like one of those stories that if you ever even walked by a church, you heard of him

He's like iconic, he's legendary

He's known for strength and he's also known for a trip to the barbershop

You know, weird how life will define you by your worst decision, by the way

That Samson was very strong and he became weak

And that's what tripped me up when I was reading the words of the author

Who is up until this point so brilliantly built the case that God can take you from weakness to strength

Now he's telling me about somebody who didn't go from weakness to strength but went from strength to weakness

He went from strength to weakness

I mean, Samson was strong

And he was, whoever said strength, he was very strong

One day he was going somewhere and a lion ran up on him

Now think about how you react when you see a mouse, okay?

The Samson saw a lion, he said, I got something for you

He tore the lion in half with his hands

Wow, strong

He one time lost a bet

And because he lost the bet, he had to give the people that he lost the bet to 30 outfits of clothing

That was what the bet was

But instead of going to Old Navy, Samson found 30 Philistines and killed them and took their bridges and their shirts

And their boots and said, here's your outfit

That's one way to do it

That's how strong he was, he just handled everything with brute strength

Just overpowered it, just whatever

One time his own people, the people from Judah, they were frustrated with the decision that he made

And they came to him and tied him up and handed him over to the Philistines

And that was the people he was called to deliver Israel from

And they handed him over and they tied him up

But how many know when God is with you, nothing that people put on you can hold you

Yeah, because he broke free

And when he broke free, he needed something to fight with, he didn't have anything

So he saw the jawbone of a donkey

And he reached out and grabbed the jawbone

I feel like this microphone is my jawbone, by the way

He took that jawbone of a donkey and beat, watch this, a thousand Philistines

Sometimes you got to use what you have, no matter how many are against you

If God is for you, he could take a stick in your hand or the jawbone of a donkey

And give you a great victory

And he was that strong, he was that strong

He started strong

He was the product of a miraculous birth

But he went weak

He went weak

And I want to look at a frame

Because the writer of Hebrews mentioned him

And I got to figure out why he would say weakness and to strengthen about how this man

Had so much power and so much potential

But the end of his life was so pitiful

So much power, so much potential

Have you ever seen somebody who just could have been so much?

Just could have done so much?

Have you ever been that person who didn't live up to your own expectations?

It says that after 20 years of Samson having fits of rage and feats of strength

Because sometimes the two go hand in hand

That Samson was in the lap of a Philistine woman

And I don't have time to do the whole story

But I do have time to read you this one verse in 1719

It says that after Delilah put Samson to sleep on her lap

She called for someone to shave off the seven braids of his hair

This would not have been a big deal if he didn't take the Nazarite vow

Because the Nazarite vow was a way of being set apart to God for a special purpose

And there's three things you can't do

You can't drink any alcohol

You can't touch a dead body and you can't cut your hair

He's already done the first two

And so this is the last association, the last strand, if you will, of his connection with his identity

And when he laid his head in her lap and fell asleep, she began to subdue him

And the Bible says something that to me is really sad that his strength left him

That his strength left him

That his strength left him

Maybe you're in a season of your life where you feel like your strength has left you too

Maybe you're in a season of your life where you can't do what you used to do

Or you can't be who you were meant to be, his strength left him

And that's why I don't understand why he would be an example of weakness into strength

The other day I went to lift weights with but

And for the last couple of years I've really been trying to improve my strength

And I've gotten a lot stronger

And so I'm like, I'm like bench pressing more than I've ever been stressed in my life

And for you women you don't understand what a big deal that is

Before a man, our ego is inextricably bound to our bench press number

For as long as we shall live, we'll be 97 years old, tell me, what do you bench, bro?

Do you even lift?

I've been working and I've been working on my weight training

And I got to the point now where I can bench press now for 12 reps

What I used to couldn't bench one time when I was 25

I'm glad that you're proud of me, it just feels good that you celebrate my accomplishments

I've been working, I've been working hard at it

And the other day I went down because we do chest day on Monday

Because I work hard on the weekend

And Monday is international chest day, at least it is in my workout circles

And so we went in to do the bench press and Buck had put the weight on the bar for me to warm up

And it was weird because even as I was warming up, everything felt heavy

Which I attributed to the fact that you guys make me work on the weekend

And so I'm a little tired, I had actually done quite a lot the week for more than I normally do

But that didn't make sense while I would feel weak

And the moment that was really almost creepy to me was when he put the weight on that I could normally do 12 times

And when I went to do it, I couldn't get it once

And I know that's not as tragic as some situations in the world

But to me, I've been spending two years getting stronger and to lose my strength

Just all at once like that

I was like, look, Delilah!

I forgot my spinach or something, I didn't know what was going on

So I texted chunks, now chunks is the CFO of our church

And chunks used to be a doctor

By which I mean, he is an ex-physical therapist with a lapsed license

But he was all I had, so I texted him, I said, I don't get, I said, this is crazy

And I told him the weight that I was trying to do 12 times, I'm not going to tell you what the weight was

Because you might not think it's that much

And then you hurt my feelings, or I might make you feel bad

I won't make you feel bad, Dom

But I told him the weight and he said, well that makes no sense

It wasn't that I had done, it was at the end of my workout, it was the beginning of my workout

So I wasn't, I wasn't tired

And it wasn't like my shoulder went out

You know, sometimes you go to do something because I'm getting close to 40 now

So I'm expecting stuff to just pop and slip

I'm just waiting on it, I'm waiting for stuff to blow up like fireworks and my lower back

And I know that's coming, but not yet

And so I go, I go to push it, I can't push it

And I texted him, I said, I don't get it, I said, I should do it

I couldn't even get it once, and he said, that's weird

He said, you're too strong for that

I said, no, that's what I'm trying to say

Got me back to my 1995 weight, like I'm a sophomore

And then he sent another text

He said, you know how your shoulder gives you trouble because now he knows about all my aches and pains

Because I'm always complaining

That back around my shoulder blade

I always carry a lot of tension and sometimes it flares up

And he told me something because he's a doctor

He said, he said, it's not a lack of strength

It's a lack of stability

When he said that, I forgot all about my bench press

And I started thinking about the Bible

Because I started thinking about Samson immediately

That's the first thing I thought about, I might be kind of weird to make these connections

But he explained to me how when you have instability in one part of your body

It affects your strength in other parts of your body

Have any of you ever hurt yourself before in one area

Yeah, and it led to pain

In another, now the weird thing about this was

I didn't feel any pain

I would have understood that, you know, you understand you go to do it

You cracked a sternum, okay, I got that

Get this weight off of me, I'm hurt

But I wasn't even feeling it at that point

It's just the fact that something is damaged in my scapula

Did I say it right in my scapula

Something is damaged in my scapula

And when I'm going to push, what's unstable back here

Is causing me to not be able to do what I can do

And so the message to the Lord gave me out of this little experience is

Some of you are stronger than you think you are

And if you ever stabilize in the areas where you're injured

You're about to see some strength released in your life

On a level like you've never known

So my message is this

It's time for you to stabilize

Would you hit five people in your general seating area until

Stabilize

Stabilize

Stabilize

The nation of Israel was in trouble in judges

Because they were unstable

They were strong, they had the promise

They had the power, but they weren't stable

They would serve God a little while

Serve themselves a little while

They'd follow God a little while

Follow their desires and the rituals of the pagans

That they were surrounded with a little while

They never lost their strength

They just lost their stability

And I came to tell you today that you're not weak

It's not that you're weak

It's not that you lost your strength

I'm still just as strong on that bench as I was

But what I got to do is regain my stability in this season

Because stuff will come along in your life

And take your stability

But when your stability is leaving, watch this

I found out they have a piece of equipment in the gym called

The Stability Ball

The Stability Ball

I don't understand how it can be called a Stability Ball

If it's stability, it ought to be a box

Right?

If it's a Stability Ball

How can it be a Stability Ball

Let's move it all around

What they're doing is they're creating an unstable situation

So that I can stabilize the muscles

So that I can grow the strength

This is a message for somebody who's in an unstable situation

God is trying to strengthen your faith

God is trying to grow you on the inside

God is trying to create a faith within you

That is not shaken by the storms

God is trying to give you an anchor

So that when the winds blow

You got something to stand on

And the problem was

That Samson was an unstable deliverer

Sent to an unstable people

And they got him in all kinds of trouble

There is a connection between your strength

And your stability

And some of you are much stronger than life is making you look

I'm so weak

I'm not fit to be a dad

Of course you feel that way

You grew up in an unstable environment

Now you assume you're not strong

You've just never been stabilized

Our nation is a strong nation

But a strong nation that is not a stable nation

Is a dangerous nation

Samson didn't lose his strength

And it didn't happen all at once

Little by little he made some decisions

I'm going to show him to you real quick

And I won't take long with this

But God gave me five pillars to check in your life

To see if you're stable

And as I give you these

I ask that you will write them down

So you can use them against your husband

Ask your neighbors say are you stable

Come on we're going to check your stability

You know how you go by in the mall

And they have those people in the middle of the mall

With the magnet bracelets

And they put the magnet on

And they push down on you

And then they push down on you again

Well the reason that they didn't push me over the second time

Is because I braced myself

Now see when you know what to look for

When you know where your instabilities are

You can work around them and strengthen

That's what Trump says had me doing

The last couple of weeks

He's had me doing all these weird exercises

To stabilize

I want to check your stability today

Okay?

I want to check your emotional stability

Are your emotions stable

I should probably ask your kids

I should probably ask your boss

Oh man

Samson was a drama queen

Operated

Not just by emotion

But he operated for emotion

There's a difference

You need to have emotions

I mean come on

What kind of preacher would I be if I didn't have emotions

Can you imagine like

You know the bands finishing a song

And I walk up with no emotion

How would just kill the whole thing

Well praise the lord if you want to

I mean you don't have to

Like his heart

I'm glad God gave me my emotions

But he gave them to me

That means I get to use them

For his purpose

And some of you

You don't have emotions

They have you

I'm gonna scan the room real quick

Yeah

It's about 50-50 men and women

See when I say emotions

You think I'm talking about her

I think men are 10 times more emotional than women

Oh yeah, yeah

Governor Hockey, oh yeah, yeah, you are too

Because look, Samson's wives would cry

But Samson would kill

Who's more emotional

I mean I need my emotions

And you need your emotions to do what we're called to do

If you're gonna preach you need to feel it when you preach

I don't care what any of y'all say

You need me to holler every once in a while

When I'm preaching

You do you need me to holler at you one time

Nothing more than to wake you up

And you need me every once in a while

When I'm preaching

To that level of intensity

With the hushed

Forced

Devotional whisper

Design to communicate

Intensity with intimacy

Emotions

And it's crazy though

The same emotions that could make me a good preacher

Could make me a crazy driver

Because I could get just as loud behind the wheel as I can

And the mic

It's what you do with them

And I believe God gave Samson

If you wanna read his story this week from

Judges 13 to 16

That would be your homework

And read how God called him to deliver the Philistines

And he gave him the emotional

Passion to do it

But Samson

Took his passion and

Spended on his preference

Instead of applying it to his purpose

So instead of delivering his people from the Philistines

He reacted out of rage and married the Philistines

Are you stable in your emotions

And are you stable in your commitment

Because if you consult your emotions

To determine whether or not to keep your commitment

You'll never be stable

Three things Samson was told not to do

And he did all three of them

Because he wasn't committed

And I'm gonna take something I didn't tell any of the other

Worship experiences if you wanna hear it say

Oh yeah

Say I totally wanna hear this pastor Steve Anna

When the angel came to tell Samson's mom

That he was supposed to be a deliver of Israel

She never told his dad that

And I wondered did anybody ever tell him

Or did he just grow up knowing that he was strong

And not know what he was strong for

Because when you have a strength that you don't give an assignment to it turns into apathy

And you spend it in all kinds of crazy ways

So I want you to check your ambition

That's the third thing your ambition

Are you stable in your ambition

Because if what you want isn't what God wants

Even if you get it it'll destroy you

And all I can find in the Bible that Samson ever wanted

Bad enough to do something to get it

Was revenge and women

So he had the strength to accomplish it

But he didn't have the ambition to point the strength in the right direction

Elijah asked me regularly

If I think he's gonna be a great musician

And I tell him honestly

Because I'm a dad

Mom can tell him yeah baby you're gonna be the best

That's not my job

My job is to say it depends

Because when coach that I had said

I need to be great in sports and I believe it applies to anything in life

He said you need talent

And Elijah's got talent

He's always been beaten on something in rhythms

And he was like he's beaten on holly

When he was inside of her

He feel him kicking and stuff

And he's got the second thing you need which is opportunity

Because I bought him the instruments

And I put him in the classes

But he said the third thing you need is drive

And nobody can put the desire in you

Nobody can put it in you to want it

Can I tell you the problem with a lot of us

We don't want enough

We don't want enough

We just want a job

We don't want to make a difference there

We just want enough for us

We don't ever ask our God

Would you give me more than enough

And I'm not just talking about money

I'm talking about other resources as well

I need more opportunity to be a blessing

I don't just want to be blessed

I want to be a blessing

Samson was only strong enough to get what he wanted

Nothing more

And he underperformed his potential

Because he didn't have

A stable ambition

He saw one and he wanted or he took her

He took what he wanted

But if your ambition is not aligned with your assignment

Even your achievements will be empty

And he lost his strength

He lost it in stages with every compromise

And eventually came to the point where he felt weak

But he wasn't weak, he was unstable

An unstable man in an unstable nation

And you know what I think Samson's big deal was

And maybe this is just a breakout session for the students in the church

Is are you stable in your relationships

Samson got into all of his trouble listening to the wrong people

Wanting to be around the wrong people

He was hooking up with the Philistines that he was supposed to kill

I'm not telling you to kill anybody

But I am saying

That in this season of your life

If God is to stabilize you

So that you can be stronger

You can't keep leaning on weak people

Thank you

Thanks for the applause

I feel the love, there's very little of it

But what little there is, I feel it

Because if you get around the wrong group of friends

And you think I'm just talking to teenagers

I'm talking about some of us that live in isolation

It's not that we have the wrong people

We have nobody

Samson wouldn't listen to his parents

Who told him don't marry that Philistines

He wouldn't listen to the ones who really loved him

He fell in love with the ones who hated him

So if you keep leaning on weak people

Don't be surprised when they let you down

If you put your head into Lila's lap

Don't be surprised when you wake up all

Come on in this season

You might need some new people

You might have to join a new group

You might need a new squad

To somebody say I got goals

I don't know what to do

You might need a new squad

To somebody say I got goals

I got squad goals

And in this season of my life

I need somebody who's stable

I can't just be around people

Who are this way one day

And another way the next

I need to be around some people

Who have faith

Check your neighbor and say are you stable

Come on check them out

Push on them a little bit

Can you take a storm and stay with me

Persevere I need some stable people

Stable

Stable

Stable

Stable it means that you know

It can't just be pushed around

See this camera is on a tripod

You can't see it

But the reason

That it's able to hold steady

Is because of what's under it

God said it's not what's happening

At the surface

That's causing your life

So up and down

You just need a stable foundation

Are you stable

And so he's going to stabilize

This is the fifth thing

My belief

How many believers do I have

But belief

Belief

And what you can't see

They cut Samson's hair

And after they cut his hair

And lost his stability

And then so once they took his stability

They took his sight

They gouged out his eyes

But when they took out his eyes physically

It was only an external indication

Of what had already happened internally

Because Samson hadn't had vision for 20 years

Any

Any became a slave

A strong man became a slave

His strength

And they let him out one day

To the temple of Dagon

That was their grain god

The Philistines

This oppressive people

They brought him out and they had 3000 people watching him

And the one who had made a laughing stock of them

They were now laughing at

And I want to show it to you real quick

Because it says

While they were in high spirits 25

Let's bring out Samson

To entertain us

So they called Samson out of the prison

And he performed for them

But then they made a mistake

What they did next

Was their downfall

Because the Bible says

That they stood him among the pillars

What do pillars do

To a building

They stabilized the building

So they put him

Among the pillars

And when they put him among the pillars

See he can't see

He doesn't have his eyes anymore

And I want you to watch with me

How it was in his most vulnerable state

That Samson accomplished his greatest victory

I came to preach this message today

For somebody who needs a second chance

Maybe your strength has seemed very low lately

Maybe you've collapsed under the pressure

Of an unstable life

But Samson now

And Samson is standing there

And he doesn't have his sight

And they shaved his hair

But another mistake that they made

When they shaved his head

When they shaved his head

They should have taken his scalp

Because one thing about hair is

See that's when Holly sometimes just say

I'm thinking about getting a haircut

What do you think?

And I say try it

If you don't like it

It'll always

In a what

And so Samson now has been a while

And they cut his hair

And he gave up his strength

But guess what?

It's growing back

I came with an announcement

Your strength

Is coming

Back

Touch three people

Tell them it's growing back

It's growing back

I see it

It's growing back

And he said to the servant

Oh this sermon is a blessing to me

Thank you Lord for second chances

Thank you for new strength

Thank you for renewing my mind

Thank you for placing me among the pillars

He said, put me where I can feel the pillars

So they put him where he could feel the pillars

Everybody say dumb move

They put him where he could feel the pillars

And he's with his eyes gouged out

He said, I want to feel the pillars that I may lean against now

And then I want to go to verse 29

Because I think it brings full circle

What I've been trying to say

What I've been trying to say to you today

Then Samson reached

Okay

He can't see

But he can reach

He's reached Samson

Reached

Towards the two central pillars on which the temple stood

Now the next two words I'm going to need your help with

I can't see

But the Bible says that Samson did something in this moment

That created his greatest victory

And when I say three I want you to shout out what he did next

What did he do one, two, three

He did what

He did what

What you're going to do in this next season

What you're going to do in the storm's rage

What you're going to do when it seems like hope is lost

What you're going to do when friends forsake you

When you don't know what to do

I'm a grace

Myself

Praise yourself

I has not seen

Here has not heard

Neither has it entered into the hearts of man

What God has prepared

I'm refuted by a spirit

It was when he couldn't see that he believed

And Samson prayed to the Lord in his weak state

To understand it

He turned weakness into strength

Because he believed when he couldn't see

And he

He did

In his death

What he was never able to do in his life

He braced himself

And when he braced himself

He pushed the pillars

And when he pushed the pillars with all of his might

Because he braced himself

He found out his strength never left him

It was there all along

And you're about to discover today

This is a stabilizing word

God sent me

With a message to stabilize you today

You've been tossed and driven

Like James says

You've been like a wave of the sea

Tossed and driven with the wind

A double-minded man is unstable

In all of his ways

And you hadn't been strong because you hadn't been stable

But if you braced yourself

Well look, there's my sermon points

Look how that turned out

Would you do me the proud honor of locating 12 people

And reprieaching my sermon and tell them brace yourself

Would you do it? Would you find them right now

And tell them brace yourself

For what God's about to do in your life

You can't be shaky

You can't believe it one day

And not believe it

You can't be emotional

You can't be overly emotional

You can't kind of have faith

You can't think so, you can't hope so

You can't wish it to be so

Come on, you're about to get your strength back

You're stronger than you think you are

You're stronger than you've been before

Your hair is growing back

You're standing amongst pillars

And this is your moment

To stabilize

And push

With all your might

And struggle

That's so

So

Thank you for joining us

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God bless you

Thanks again

Have a great day

Have a great day