Steven Furtick - God Won't Let You Break
This is an excerpt from: God Gave It to Me
When it starts with God, it ends in victory. When it starts with me, it ends in defeat. Now take that and apply it over your day, over your business venture, over your relationship. I’ll say it again. If it starts with God…your day, your career, your relationship…it ends in victory, even if it goes through seasons of defeat. So, 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 mother and said, «You’re going to have a baby». Her husband wasn’t there. When he came back, she said, «An angel just told me I’m going to have a baby». He was like, «What angel? Who came and told you you’re going to have a baby»? The angel came back and said, «You’re going to have a baby, and because this child is special, protect it. God is giving you this child, and this child is not just given to you; 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 a donkey’s jawbone. It’s amazing what he did, but it’s ridiculous what he does next. You would think that after seeing such an incredible intervention of God, such a sovereign display of the strength of God… «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 he would praise God, but Samson does something so stupid. I do it too, and you do it too. 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. 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? Samson is like, «Oh, this is amazing. Wow! Incredible». He’s still holding the jawbone, and he goes, «'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. 'With 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 you singing about donkeys when God just delivered you? Why are you praising the thing he used when you know good and well 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 Steven»? I mean when you start to think the thing God did through you proves how great you are. I read Samson’s song over and over again. «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? You know the miracle did. You know it wasn’t a jawbone. You know it was only God who kept the jawbone from breaking. So, don’t praise the thing you used; praise the one who 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. How many of you, God has done so much through some ridiculous things in your life that it just doesn’t make sense?
All right. So, don’t sing to the thing that doesn’t make sense. Don’t worship the thing that doesn’t make sense. Don’t depend on the thing that doesn’t make sense, because the truth of the matter is, Samson, if God had left your hand tied, you couldn’t have even used the 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. 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.
«With a donkey’s jawbone…» 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, with 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. 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 health 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».
Grab what you have. You don’t need a better weapon. You need a more worshipful spirit. You need greater faith. You need more innovation. «God gave it to me. It’s a 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». «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. After you get done glorifying the jawbone… Hey, God gave you that job, but it’s just a jawbone. If that one goes away, God will kill another donkey. I don’t know who this is for, but you’d 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. 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: you didn’t break. A jawbone is only 18 inches. 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».
In verse 17, Samson throws that bone away, and the place was called Ramath 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… I want to show you something that can happen in your life. Samson is winning, but he’s worn out. Did you know that’s possible? You can be winning and worn out. People think the only people who need preaching of encouragement and inspiration are those who are losing. You know, you’re in a losing season. You just lost a relationship. You just lost someone you love. Nuh-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 cost you to win.
I’m preaching what I know. Everybody around you loves to lean on you when you’re like that. 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. 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. He begins to feel like, «Even though I won…for what»?
Have you ever felt that way? «Even though I won…for what»? It can be very empty to stand in a victory you believe you produced. 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. He was a great guitar player, a master musician. He played it, and everybody around him was talking about how beautiful the guitar was, the wood it was made from, the intonation of the guitar, even the inlays of the guitar, all of the ivory on the guitar, how expensive it was.
The whole time he was playing it, they were all talking about how wonderful the guitar was. Finally, 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»? While you were busy noticing the instrument, you did not realize the mastery was not in the wood; it was in the one who knew what to do with it. Your life gets confusing and hard when you start praising the guitar, the jawbone, the thing, the skill, the gift. 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»? He’s asking a question. «God, what good is winning if I’m just going to die of dehydration»? Look at 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. «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 En Hakkore, and it is still there in Lehi». 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. 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, named me, known me, empowered me, graced me, freed me, raised me, appointed me, and assigned me to do. It’s 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. When he said, «You have given your servant this great victory…» Then he goes on to complain. «Must I now die and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised»? He didn’t even pray right. Just the fact that he did… Verse 19: «Then…» When he said, «You,» 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 God to give all of this victory and you die because you have nothing to drink? When Samson’s song changed from «I have» to «You have…» «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.