Steven Furtick - Brace Yourself (02/14/2017)
In the final Unqualified message, Pastor Steven explores Hebrews 11:32-34—heroes who through faith turned weakness into strength—and centers on Samson (Judges 13–16). The core truth: God transforms weakness into strength when we stabilize our lives, brace ourselves in faith, and push against opposition. Samson lost strength through instability (emotional, relational, ambitious), but in his final act—bracing against pillars—he found renewed power. Your strength may feel gone, but it's often instability—stabilize, believe in darkness, and watch God restore power for victory.
Final Week of Unqualified – Weakness Turned to Strength
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.
Calling on Hebrews – The Hall of Faith
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. It's coming up on the screen. We do that for the lazy people. I'm just kidding.
And together I want to look at three verses toward 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 faith. Because he's talking about people who demonstrated great faith throughout history.
The Preacher's Dilemma – Running Out of Time
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, Barak, Samson, and Jephthah. About David and Samuel and the prophets.
Faith in Action – Conquering and Enduring
Who through faith, listen to what they did. Who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered 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 them one more time and tell them you're going to get it. 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.
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 quenched the fury of the flames and they escaped the edge of the sword. Sometimes you cut it close. Sometimes it feels like you're going down, but they escaped the edge of the sword. God will always make a way of escape. Sometimes it just won't be when you want it. They escaped 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.
The Title – Brace Yourself
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 them, brace yourself.
Disciples' Surprise at the Cross
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.
Even More Surprised by Resurrection
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 them 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. 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 and 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.
Some Things Can't Be Prepared For
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?
I don't care how many classes you took and how you breathed 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 and say, brace yourself. Brace yourself.
Hebrews' Encouragement – Endurance in Persecution
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 in. 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.
This group really needed to hear it because they were suffering the confiscation of their rights and the loss of their property. Many of them had experienced the loss of their freedom. Many of them had been imprisoned, and some of them had lost their lives.
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. 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.
In the church that's addressed in 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 slain 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 a 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 jury about it yet. I mean, they didn't have their nonprofit tax-exempt status yet, and they were under immense pressure in a time of political and religious instability.
The Call to Endurance – Running the Race
And so the writer of Hebrews writes from that theme, and he tells them things like, you're running a race, and you have to make sure that whatever is dislocated is strengthened so you can keep going so this thing can become something.
And 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.
Sometimes you just need to come to church to be reminded I'm not the only one. I'm not the only one.
Heroes of Faith – Examples of Strength from Weakness
He starts listing people, and all of chapter 11, if you want to look at it, has people, big headliners of the faith. 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.
David and Samuel – From Shepherd to King
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 all odds prevailed.
He said, you know, it's like David. David had a slingshot. Sometimes you have 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 until you make it and just stand in the face of your fear and say, I'm not going anywhere. And 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.
Samuel – From Barrenness to Renewal
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.
The Judges – Deliverers from Oppression
So it makes sense that he would, 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, 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, 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 threshing 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, tribe Manasseh, but he got up and God used him in a great way anyway.
And Gideon ended up doing a great thing for God. So it makes sense. If you want to show weakness into 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 into strength.
Jephthah – From Worthless to Deliverer
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 Jephthah. Jephthah.
He was kind of weird, but he had a reason. His mother was a prostitute. 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. 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. God used him. He made bad decisions. You usually do when you come from a difficult background, but God used him anyway.
I get why they would mention Jephthah, and I get why they would mention Barak from Hawaii to a senator in Chicago to the 44th president of the United States of America. He definitely deserves a shout-out.
There's another Barak they're mentioning who was raised up, and he delivered Israel. He was a judge also, but he was paired up with this woman named Deborah. 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. You don't have to do it all exactly right.
Samson – The Puzzle of Strength to Weakness
What I can't quite reconcile. is why it would bring up Samson. Samson is the one that tripped me up. When I say his name, what do you think of? Well, that's good. Somebody said strength, and somebody said hair.
It's actually one of those Bible stories. It's not like Jephthah 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've heard of him. He's iconic. He's legendary.
He's known for strength, and he's also known for a trip to the barbershop. Isn't it weird how life will define you by your worst decision, by the way?
Samson was very strong, and he became weak. That's what tripped me up when I was reading the words of the author who has 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. 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? Samson saw a lion. He said, I've 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 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 breeches and their shirts and their boots and said, here's your outfits. 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 have to use what you have, no matter how many are against you. If God is for you, he can take a stick in your hand or the jawbone of a donkey and give you a great victory. 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.
Samson's Downfall – Strength Lost in Stages
I want to look at a frame, because the writer of Hebrews mentioned him, and I have to figure out why he would say weakness into strength about how this man had so much power and so much potential.
But the end of his life was so pitiful, so much power and 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.
I don't have time to do the whole story, but I do have time to read you this one verse in Judges 16, 19. 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.
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 in 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.
Personal Story – Losing Bench Press Strength
The other day I went to lift weights with Buck, 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. But for a man, our ego is inextricably bound to our bench press number for as long as we shall live. We'd be 97 years old talking about what do you bench, bro? Do you even lift?
And so 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.
But 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 know, you guys make me work on the weekend. And so I'm a little tired. I had actually done quite a lot the week before, more than I normally do.
But that didn't make sense why 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, you know, 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, Lord, Delilah. 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 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. It won't make you feel bad, Dom.
But I told him to wait. 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 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 in my lower back. And I know that's coming, but not yet.
And so I go to push it. I can't push it. And I text 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, I know. 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, 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, 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 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 and tell them stabilize? Stabilize. Stabilize.
Samson's Instability – Five Pillars to Check
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. Now, 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? It's a ball. It's moving 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, give you an anchor so that when the winds blow, you have something to stand on.
The problem was that Samson was an unstable deliverer sent to an unstable people, and it got him in all kinds of trouble. There is a connection between your strength and your stability. Some of you are much stronger than life is making you look.
I'm so weak. I'm not fit to be a dad. Well, 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 them to you real quick. I won't take long with this, but God gave me five pillars to check in your life to see if you're stable. As I give you these, I ask that you will write them down so you can use them against your husband.
Ask your neighbor, 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 them. That's what Chunks has had me doing the last couple of weeks. He's had me doing all these weird exercises to stabilize.
So 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.
Pillar 1 – Emotional Stability
Samson was a drama queen. Operated not just by emotion, but he operated for emotion. There's the 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 it just kill the whole thing? Well, praise the Lord if you want to. I mean, you don't have to. You don't feel like this. All right.
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 going to scan the room real quick. Yeah. 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. Oh, 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 going to 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. Bring it down to that level of intensity with a hushed, forced, devotional whisper, designed to communicate intensity with intimacy.
Isn't it crazy, though, the same emotions that can make me a good preacher can make me a crazy driver? I can get just as loud behind the wheel as I can behind the mic. It's what you do with them.
I believe God gave Samson, if you want to 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 spent it 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?
Pillar 2 – Stability in Commitment
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.
Now, I'm going to tell you something I didn't tell any of the other worship experiences. If you want to hear it, say, oh yeah. Say, I totally want to hear this, Pastor Steven.
When the angel came to tell Samson's mom that he was supposed to be a deliverer 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.
Pillar 3 – Stability in 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 going to be a great musician. And I tell him honestly, because I'm a dad. Mom can tell him, yeah, baby, you're going to be the best. That's not my job. My job is to say it depends.
Because what one coach that I had said, there's three things you 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 rhythm since he was like, he's beaten on Holly when he was inside of her and 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, can, can, 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 God, 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, 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 a woman 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.
Pillar 4 – Stability in Relationships
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. 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 Philistine woman. 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 in Delilah's lap, don't be surprised when you wake up bald. 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. Touch somebody and say, I have goals. I have squad goals.
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? Can you put up with the trials of life and persevere? I need some stable people. Stable. Stable. Stable. Stable. Stable. Stable.
It means it can't just be pushed around. See, this camera is on a tripod. You can't see it, but the reason 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 to go up and down. You just need a stable foundation. Are you stable?
Pillar 5 – Stability in Belief
So he's going to stabilize my belief. How many believers do I have? Belief. Belief. Belief in what you can't see.
They cut Samson's hair, and after they cut his hair, he had forfeited his strength because he had lost his stability. 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.
He became a slave. A strong man became a slave. His strength was turned into weakness.
They led 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 3,000 people watching him, and the one who had made a laughing stock of them they were now laughing at.
I want to show it to you real quick because it says, while they were in high spirits, 25, they said, 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. 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. When they put him among the pillars, see, he can't see. He doesn't have his eyes anymore. 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, 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 is. they should have taken his scalp.
Because one thing about hair is… See, that's when Holly sometimes will 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… It'll what?
Samson now, it's 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 for somebody who's been living under oppression. Your strength is coming back. Such 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. He says, Thank you for a 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, Don't move. They put him where he could feel the pillars.
And with his eyes gouged out, he said, I want to feel the pillars that I may lean against them. And then I want to go to verse 29 because I think it brings full circle what I've been trying to say to you today.
Then Samson reached. He can't see, but he can reach. He's reaching. Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood.
Now, the next two words I'm going to need your help with because 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 when the storms rage? What you're going to do when it seems like hope is lost? What you're going to do when friends forsake you? What you're going to do when you don't know what to do?
The Climax – Bracing for Victory
I'm going to brace myself. Brace yourself. No, eye has not seen, ear has not heard, neither has it entered into the hearts of man what God has prepared. God revealed it by his Spirit.
It was when he couldn't see that he believed, and Samson prayed to the Lord in his weak state. Now I understand it. He turned weakness into strength because he believed when he couldn't see, and 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. 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 brace 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 re-preaching my sermon and tell them, brace yourself?
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 kinda 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.