TRANSCRIPTION | Sunday, February 20, 2022 | Meaningful Connections Series | That Was Awesome 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

So I get to preach this morning on the subject of meaningful connections and in the process of sharing in that vein, I'm going to take you to the Book of Judges Chapter 13. We've been taking a look at the life of Sampson, if at any point you want to spend some personal time with the life of Samson

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

You can take a look kind of at the middle of the book of judges. And because we're going to be talking about him at least today and possibly or probably definitely next Sunday, maybe even two more Sundays, just kind of trying to glean some things from his life about how to do things right and how to avoid doing things wrong. Some people don't realize this about the life of Sampson, but we actually get to see different segments of his life all the way from birth to death. And so the biography side of that gives us some things to glean with the help of the Holy Spirit.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Some people see Samson as a hero. Other people see him as a fool. I'm going to let you make your own decisions, and probably along the way you'll figure out which side of the fence I'm on. Judge is Chapter 13.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

We're going to read more verses today than we typically do. I did this in the first service in Campbellsville, and I asked mainly on the road over, is it too many verses? And she said, Eric, it's such an uncommon passage of text. I think it does people good to hear it. So we're going to we're going to read them again. And I'm just going to ask you to lean in and understand that this is providing context for what we're going to share in the message judge's chapter 13 verse number one.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And again, the children of Israel did evil in the side of the Lord. And what a statement. Again, they did evil. And so the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for 40 years. So God is basically saying because you've continued to do evil and because you're not learning how to operate in my presence and in my power, I'm going to allow the enemy to have a season in your life where hopefully that will get your attention. Verse number two, now there was a certain man he was with the family of the Knights, whose name was Manoah and his wife was barren and she had no children.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

We actually never learned his wife's name in scripture, and the Angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, Indeed, now you are barren and you have borne no children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. Now, therefore, please be careful. Do not drink wine or similar drink and do not eat anything unclean. For behold, you will conceive and you will bear a son and no razor shall come upon his head for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Then he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. So the woman came and she told her husband. She said a man of God came to me and his countenance was like the countenance of the Angel of God. Very awesome. Just look over somebody and tell them very awesome. And he said to me, Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son now. Drink no wine or similar drink, nor eat anything unclean for the child shall be Annadurai until the day of his death, and Manoah prayed to the Lord and he said, Oh Lord, please let this man of God come and visit us again. Let let him teach us what we shall do for this child that will be born and God. Listen to the voice of Noah and the Angel of God came back and the angel lord said to me, Noah, if you will offer a burnt offering, you must offer it to the Lord. So Manoah made a sacrifice under God, and it happened as the flame went up towards heaven that the aims of the Lord ascended into the flame. And when Noah and his wife saw this, they fell on their faces because of how amazing it was, how awesome it was. Just tell your neighbor. Very awesome. So the woman bore a son and she called his name Sampson and the child grew and the Lord blessed him, and the spirit of the Lord began to move up on his life.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Despite all of this, we later learned that Samson's life did not end very well. In fact, his life became known for a lack of wisdom and for repetitive, bad decisions. It seems like that his relationships, both with God and others, really never arrived at meaningful places.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

In fact, Samson's story becomes the epitome in scripture of a what if scenario. What if father ask you to help me to teach? Ask you to help me to preach, asking God that you would anoint me for this moment and that God each of us will be provoked by the work of your Holy Spirit to that next step that you have for us. God, may we leave this assembly this time of corporate worship closer to you, more impacted by you than even we walked into it or let it be done in Jesus name in this church?  Amen. When I was in middle school, I was assigned a research paper and we were allowed to come up with our own topic. And so I remember it was in a health class and I pursued the opportunity to write my paper about some basketball player, ultimately, with the help of my teacher, I settled on a basketball player by the name of Len Bias. You may not be familiar with him, his name or his story, but he was a very prominent college basketball player in the 1980s. In fact, he was a first team all-American. He was a two time all ICC Player of the year, and he was the eventual second round draft pick of the NBA. In 1986, when he was coming out of college, there were people who were beginning to say that they felt like he had a style of play that was comparable to Michael Jordan, and that in the same way that Jordan was beginning to take the sport by storm, that Lin bias was very possibly going to do the same thing. However, two days after he was drafted by the Boston Celtics as the number two pick in the NBA draft, he was found dead in his dormitory at the University of Maryland. What had happened is that he had overdosed on cocaine. And so there were a lot of what ifs associated with Len Bias. There were so many people that just wondered, Man, what if he had been able to finish out his career?

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

While there had been some comparisons to Michael Jordan, there were other journalists and commentators and even coaches that said he probably would have had a career more similar to Karl Malone, which in and of itself was significant. Malone was known for a particular body type and a particular style of play, and some thought that bias kind of had that same way about him. Malone went on to score 32,000 points and have 15,000 rebounds. And what if Len Bias said have just been able to continue his life what he went on and finished out his career with the Boston Celtics? Would he have been one of the greats in the line of Larry Bird and Bill Russell and Bob Cousy? What if would we have called him Lin, or would we have called him Lenny? How would he have been known?

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

How would he have been remembered? What if he could have finished his career? Unfortunately, his talent was trumped by his tragedy. And one of the things that you'll discover is that often. Especially in the realm of celebrity and fame.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Talent and tragedy. Too often wind up in the same biography. In fact, if you were to Google, just those two words talent. And tragedy. At least. In my internet browser. The two top responses. Are the story of Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Talent trumped tragedy, Michael Jackson at the age of 50, dealing with evidently an addiction. Fitting all. Heroin on steroids. It would take his life. Even though he had the talent to become the king of Pop. 20 6:00 a.m. Ace 40 Billboard Awards, 13 Grammys, ten Soul Train Awards and the list goes on and on talent trumped by tragedy. Whitney Houston. Cocaine took her life at the age of 48. She was found in a bathtub despite the fact that she had the talent that, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, she was the most awarded female vocalist of all time. She won such things as two Emmys, six Grammys, 16 Billboard Awards, 22 AMAs, and they say that she had a total of over 415 career awards associated with her talent. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers sang 66 years old died of an overdose. His talent trumped by tragedy. one Billboard. three Grammys. three MTV Awards. one Radio Music Award nominated many, many times over. But his talent overcome by his tragedy. Prince. The age of 57, another victim of the tragedy of overdose; one Academy Award, one Golden Globe for Emma, one Billboard, one Betty, seven Brit Awards, seven Grammys for MTV, the awards, the list goes on, but the tragedy. Overtook the tally. In fact, when you when you just Google talent and tragedy, it doesn't take much searching to arrive at what is known as the 27 Club. It's known to be a group of famous celebrities, specifically in the music industry, for the most part that all died at the age of 27. Almost every one of them in some way experiencing a tragedy associated with drug use.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

On that list are names like Jimi Hendrix, Robert Johnson, the father of the Blues. Brian Johnson, the original leader of the Rolling Stones. Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison of The Doors, Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse tragedy. Overtaking talent. I think the mistakes that we sometimes make that allow tragedy to to take over talent is that.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Inspiration gets mistaken for invincibility. And sometimes wit gets mistaken for wisdom, and too often charisma gets mistaken for character. And the result is that tragedy. Too often gets to wind. And any time tragedy wins over talent, it seems to me like that it leaves all of us with a lot of what ifs.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Even that list of the 27 Club, what if they had lived? Anger. Even those that were taken in their fifties, it still seems like a short life with today's modern medicine and all the things that are available to us.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

What if when you look at scripture, there's more than one what if story? There's more than one? What if biography? But at least in my mind recently, none has risen to the top above that of Samson. Because when I look at Samson's life, I mean, over and over again, I'm just like, What if, man?

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

What if? Like, what if he had prayed more than two prayers in his entire lifetime? What if? He would have at some point acknowledged that his parents had an incredibly meaningful connection with God and then to have sought to have that same kind of connection in his own life.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

What if at some point he would have fought for someone or something other than himself? Because the only time he ever even found something worth fighting for was when his pride and his arrogance and his narcissism were involved.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

What if he would have chosen holiness instead of hardiness? What if? You know, speaking of the faith that Sampson's parents exemplified, we read about them just a moment ago when we were kind of laying the groundwork for the message.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

His father's name was Manoa. Scripture does not choose to tell us the name of his mother, but the way that it kind of unfolds is that as you read and you noticed an angel of the Lord appears to his mom.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And the angel reveals that even though she is barren, she's going to be able to conceive a child and his name is going to be Sampson and that this child is going to be dedicated to God from the moment that he comes out of the womb.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

In fact, he's to be raised in an environment that is surrounded with holiness, consecration sanctification. She's so excited that she runs back to her husband and she's like, We're going to be able to have a baby like this house is not going to be barren anymore. God's going to give us a kid. And he's excited as well. And he says, How do you know all of this? And she says, Well, an angel showed up and talked to me, and he does a beautiful thing.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

He cries out to God, he says, God, if you're going to let this angel talk to my wife, then I'm asking you, let this angel talk to me and then you'll give us some instruction and that you'll give us some training and we'll have a better understanding of what it is that you're assigning us to. And guess what the Bible says? God heard his prayer and the angel shows up again and and it tells the husband and the father to be everything that's been said to the wife and the mom to be. And and upon hearing this, he's like, We need to make sacrifices like we need to worship God.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

We need to confirm that we receive his word over this family. And so what he does is he goes and he gets something that would be of great expense, something of great value, and then he lays it on a rock and according to Old Testament custom, he sets it on fire. And it becomes this act of worship. And the Bible says, while this is happening, this angel does something that is very awesome. We don't even get the total details of what it is that the Angel does, other than somehow associating himself with the fire in the act of worship.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

But it's amazing and and it's so amazing that they fall out on their face. They're like, Man, this is awesome. But just feel like that that's the kind of relationship that some of us need with God. I feel like that some of us need to come to that place of meaningfulness in our worship to her that we hear the word of God over our lives and we respond by bringing the greatest thing of value that we could ever bring our own bodies presented as a living sacrifice before the Lord. And we just say to God, I'm ready for you to do something very awesome.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I'm ready for you to do something amazing. God, I'm ready for you to do something. That coincidence cannot take the credit for God. I'm ready for you to give me a mile marker in my journey with you for the rest of my life. I'll look back at that moment and say, that's for the awesome thing. Happen for the amazing thing. Happen, that's pretty incredible. Thing happen. And if there is anything that is concerning about modern Christianity is that we have tamed the awesomeness.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

There has to be a willingness to sometimes just say, God, we invite you to do something that cannot be explained but only experienced, you want to know what this next generation is desperate for. They are desperate for the fate of their grandfathers and their grandmothers that know about an awesome experience with God, an amazing experience with God, the faith that maybe even you once knew. Where God did something awesome. Would you just look at somebody and tell them a very awesome, very awesome. You know, there's something so significant about the way in which that this moment revolutionizes his mom and dad's faith.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

You know, in this day when people would talk about God, especially Hebrew people, they they had a way of of using descriptive terms in association with it. And so if you were to look at the Hebrew of this text, there's some change in verbiage associated with how God is described when this whole thing starts out and they're just kind of getting this this relationship going to the next level. They describe God as Add and I. I deny. And all that means is that. There's a God. And we recognize him as the only God. But we don't really have a connection with him.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

We just have a general understanding that. He's got. Ed and I. But as you read through the text in the Hebrew, according to the scholars in the commentary, something changes. They stopped calling him out and I. And they start calling him Elohim.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And what they what he means is that I have a personal connection with him. I have a meaningful connection with him that he's not just a God that I have heard about or that others have testified in front of me concerning.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

But I have had a download from heaven on my own behalf. I have personally experienced something very awesome. And I just think that God is still in the clothing business. And quite frankly, I would say that he is ready to transition from your ad and I into your clothing, that he is ready to give you a meaningful connection that would be so incredible that you would have no words to describe it other than very. Awesome. Just just turn to somebody and tell them a very awesome, very awesome. There's only one issue with this whole ordeal.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And that is that Manoah and his wife, they hear the word of the Lord over their life and and they they respond with. Surrendered worship. He even if it cost them something like they're just ready to worship in response to what God is saying to them, and the result is that they get this incredibly meaningful connection with God to the point that they can't even call him Adena anymore. He's got to be l mean. But you can never find a place in Samson's entire life. Where he seems to refer to God. As living. It seems that Samson over and over again is never at a place with God that is truly meaningful. Despite the fact that from the time you come out of his mama's womb. He was raised in a house that valued holiness and sanctification.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

In fact, when God is putting this order over his life of what's known as the Nazare Valley, you can learn more about the needs right now and Deuteronomy Chapter six. That is the part of the association is that he's not supposed to do anything that resembles worldliness or the world having control over your mind or your body in a way that would be above what God is doing in your life. For instance. one of the things that are an element of the needs right now is that he is not allowed to cut his hair or cut his beard.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And later on, we know that one of the things that leads to him in a terrible situation is because he gives up this secret element of his covenant and and he winds up with his haircut. seven big locks of hair that are removed from his head and then the power is gone because the covenant is broken, and so the question becomes, well, why was God so interested in hair? Like, what's the big deal about him not cutting the hair on his head and not cutting the beard in his face? Well, what the cultural significance of the time was.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

The Philistines were known to be a people who shaved their bodies. Specifically, the men, their heads and their faces would be completely shaven in all time because slick shaven. And so it God seems to be implying is that when Samson shows up, I even want him to look different.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I don't want him to look like the pagans and I don't want him to blend in with the world that I want what I'm doing in his life to be evident from the moment that he walks in a room that he is not one of the Philistines who are serving someone other than the holy one of Israel

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And so we understand that that's an Old Testament covenant. We understand that that was something that God was stressing in a bygone ancient time. But that's probably the rationale behind it. That's probably the reasoning behind it is because God wanted his people to be different.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

He wanted it to be obvious from the moment that someone had an interaction with them, that they're different. They're not the same. And so despite all of these things surrounding Simpson's life, he never develops this meaningful connection with God until his dying breath.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

In fact, Samson seems to never really have this very awesome moment with God until his dying breath, and thank God for grace that will meet us in our dying breath. But aren't you also glad to know that there is a God that says that you don't have to spend your life separated and far away, but that you can come to know it, says God heard Manoah's prayer when God, when women. Noah realized he needed a little more of God today than he had yesterday, God heard his prayer when he recognized he had a man who wanted to do the right thing when he had a man that wanted to make sure he was in tune when he had a man, the Moon, to make sure he was calibrated with heaven, God said, I'll hear that prayer, then I'll do something very awesome in his life. And I came to tell some of you men this morning that you've been seven for too long for the wife of Manoah in that she was the one that was spiritually connected. She was the one that could hear God. She was the one who could tell you what God had last said about the family. She was the one that was having the dreams and having the visions and talking about the destiny and talking about the purpose.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

But thank God, Manoah finally threw his hand in the air. He said, If you can speak to my wife, I believe you can speak to me too. And I think that there are some men that God wants to take you from the backseat to the front seat, and it's in no way anything negative towards your wife.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

But it is simply that God's ready to turn you into a man of God that knows how to take a walk and come back and say it was very awesome. Who knows how to go into a worship service and leave that moment saying it was very awesome?

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Who knows how to open his word? Deliver the word of God and to himself to the help of the Holy Spirit, and say he just showed me something very awesome. Like, I believe that with everything in me that God wants to take some of you mean and give you a very awesome experience.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And I'll be honest with you. I've been praying it over my kids. Like, even when they don't know, I'm around and they're sound asleep at night. I found myself going in and just laying hands on them and just praying, God, please give them a meaningful connection with you, I've literally been using the terminology of this series.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

God, give them a meaningful connection with you and God. I'm asking you to do something that is so awesome that God, there'll never be any rationale that they'll never be any heretic or any false doctrine that would ever come into their life and try to convince them that you are not the author and the finisher, the Alpha and the Omega, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. The first and the last that Jesus. It should be about you. All about you and always about you. God, if you got to give him a dream, if you need to give him a vision, God give him a Damascus Road experience. I'm asking you to do something very awesome. Let them be standing in the middle of a church service, singing the lyrics on a string. But it gets in their heart and you do something very. I'm sorry, I get a little rowdy here. Some of you like why is he screaming? I don't know. I really don't. I have tried to refine myself. It does not work. All I know. I can take you to seven years old on the front row of a little church with no more than 50 people in it. And something very awesome happened. And I can take you to twelve years old, sitting sister, even race class, and something very awesome happened, and I can take you to mile marker 82 on the Cumberland Parkway and I can show you a place where something very awesome happened.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

But I can take it to the mile markers of my life, and I thank God for parents that not only had a meaningful connection, but that there was. There was an insistence on Eric. You got to have this experience for yourself.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And over and over again, the graciousness of God would do something very awesome. And even into my adult life, there's moments. With the reassurance of the very awesome move of God puts him back in his proper place, not as at an eye, but as a lean.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Meaningful. Connection. Meaningful. Connection. Just tell somebody very awesome. Very, very, very, very often. You know, they say college students. It's becoming common to see college students who were once active in their youth groups or youth ministries walk away from their faith either temporarily or permanently, once they're on their own.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And many people over the years have sought to understand why, because even now, it's increasing. And so it said that one possible explanation. Is that leaving the influence of their parents, Faith explains the mentality. A journalist for The Atlantic Monthly said this.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

People who attend college leave home. That is to say they leave their church, the community incentives to attend it, and the watchful eye of their parents who get angry or make them feel guilty when they don't go to services or stray in their faith, suddenly they're surrounded by dorm mates of different faiths or no faith at all

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And for many of these students, it turns out that their religious behavior was more driven by their desire for community or social or parental pressure than by a deep. Personal belief. What's being said is that many young people in their late teens and early twenties are leaving the faith because they never had a meaningful connection personally.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

The great danger of that. Is that you would live your life? And arrive at the end. And whether it be through time or tragedy. Have to wrestle for all of eternity with two words. What if? What if? Can I give you another basketball analogy?

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

It's good because I'm going to. Yeah, come on up. I need you. Dawson's back. Dozens backstage helping. But. And yesterday was tough for the Gilbert family. My son plays basketball and. He's had a really good year. Probably the best he's ever had.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

He's had multiple high 20 point games, multiple 30 point games and. It's been fun to watch and. Just cheer him on. Yesterday we were. In the finals of the freshman district tournament. And, when we went out to play this team, it's a team we've played many times before.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

In fact, typically, Dawson will have really good games against them. But this time the whole season is on the line. And so their coach has schemed and their coaches prepared, and so when Dawson walks on the floor, there's.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

The best defender on the other team. Who comes and just stands right in his personal space. And the kid doesn't look at anything else that's going on in the floor. He just stands eyeball to eyeball with Dawson. And wherever Dawson went on the floor, the kid did too.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Those of you that don't know, it's called face guarding. And as this went on, Dawson started to get frustrated. He started to get upset. He was getting frustrated with this defensive scheme, it's not the first time he's seen a face guard.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

But on this particular day, it messed with his head. He starts to get frustrated with his teammates. He starts to get frustrated with everything else that's going on. And he quit. He quit playing defense. He quit playing offense and he completely removed himself from the game mentally, physically and emotionally.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

He finished the day with the lowest point total he's had all year long. Now, if he were to come out here, he would explain to you. In his own words, he's learned I don't care about the points. But if you're going to live in my house. You do not quit. I'll preach you three points in a poem and forget to take up the offering if you quit. You do not quit. And so we got. We had a rough afternoon yesterday. And. He later. As we would talk through it, we were talking about what if you would have done this and what if you would have done that? And what if you would have tried? And what if and what is and what is? And then I realized we just spent an hour talking about what if instead of the reality that there is no greater compliment the enemy will ever give you than to face guard you?

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And it is the opportunity that if you will just put yourself in the right place mentally, you get the chance to step away with a very awesome story of how things went despite that deal, despite the other team, the enemy's attempts on you.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And so I just came to tell you, some of you felt like you've been face guarded. You feel like everywhere you went, there's been a devil right up in your face and it's frustrated you and it's aggravated you and it's bothered you.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And there's been a part of you that's almost like, I don't feel like my mom and dad had to try this hard, and I don't feel like my friend has to try this hard. And I don't feel like whoever else is in my small group has to try this hard.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And so I just really frustrated with all this, and I just don't even know if I want to do this anymore. And the enemy is trying to persuade you to quit because he wants you to get to the end of your spiritual life and have to say, what if instead of testifying over and over and over again if it was very awesome, it was very awesome. It was very awesome. It was very awesome. It was very awesome. The only way the enemy can win is if you quit, he can't guard you. Sorry, I was back on Sunday afternoon for just a moment.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Look at somebody and tell them, Don't quit. God wants to do something very awesome in your family. God wants to do something very awesome in your life. You got to stop playing around with the What If? Here's how you win.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

There's a lot more that I can share with you, I could talk to you about some things, Paul said. Your talks some things that you wrote to Timothy and I plan to talk to you about all that, but I'm going to leave you with this.  Because I give you Paul's words in one summary, he said this. He said you can be in a Great House and you can look inside that Great House and there will be two types of vessels. They'll be vessels of honor and there'll be vessels of dishonor.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And he said what separates the difference between the vessels of honor and the vessels of this honor is that one gets clean and the other one doesn't. And he says what ultimately happens is the one that doesn't get clean becomes a vessel of dishonor because they're constantly chasing the things that the flesh instead of pursuing the things of God. And I want you to know God's has something more for you than for you to stand before heaven. Someday is a vessel of this honor. He wants you to be a vessel of honor that is filled up with the work of his Holy Spirit and poured out according to his will in the Earth in such a way that Hale will never be able to quench what he desires. God desires to do through your life. So I've been thinking about it. How do you truly become a vessel of honor? How do you truly wind up with that very awesome experience with God?

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

You get there the same way that Samson's mom and dad, he got there. You worship, and there's only one way to really worship. Something's got to die. Another part of you, another part of your ambition, another part of your mentality, another part of your ideology, another part of your philosophy.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Something's got to die. And there's no greater way to communicate to heaven that he can, that God can have his ultimate wheel in way in your life than to. Because we all want to lift our hands in victory.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

You win the boxing match, they put your hand up and you're the winner. You win the UFC fight. They put your hand up in the air. You're the winner. But it's intriguing to me that the exact same physical position that is used for victory is also the position of surrender. And if you're ever really going to have victory over this world, you're going to have to first and foremost, surrender to God. Samson never learned how to move from Adenike to Elohim. He never learned how to move from his mom and dad's experience to his own personal experience because he was never willing to lift his hands in surrender. He was too busy chasing the lost of the flesh to ever acknowledge a passion for God. And this is your moment to throw your hands in the air and say, God, first and foremost, surrender to you. Fully believe in God that their relationship with you is where the true victory in life.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And over the things of this world come from. So God, our heads are bowed. Our eyes are closed. And I believe, Lord, that there are some people in this room right here right now that need a relationship with the cross.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

That God, there needs to be a moment of true surrender, a moment guard of leaning in to what you have to offer to them. And just saying, once for all God, I surrender, I surrender my will. I surrender my ambition.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I surrender the things of my flesh. God, I surrender. I don't want to live my life, God. Get to the end of my days, whether it be through time or tragedy. And say, what if, what if, what if I want my hands lifted in the victory of that was awesome. That was amazing. That was incredible. That only God could have done that. So, Lord, if there be anybody under the sound of my voice that's disconnected from you, anybody that's far from you. God, may they have the courage right where they are seated today to put a hand up in the air and just say, I need a fresh start in God to put a hand up in the air and maybe even say, God, I need to rededicate my life today, God, maybe somebody today just simply needs to say, hi, I need to know Jesus for the very first time. Maybe my family knew him. Maybe my family went to church, but today I need a meaningful connection with God on my own. I need to acknowledge what he did on the cross, I need to acknowledge what he did through his blood.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I need to acknowledge what his grace will do in me and through me. I receive our hearts and our lives through these acts of surrender. We want to live for you. We want to worship you. We want to be a vessel of honor. Vessel of Honor Jesus. Thank you, Lord. I think there's those of you that you would have walked into this room today testifying, I'm saved and I know it. And that's awesome. But you're also in this place today where you're saying, I just really need God to do something very awesome.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And it's not even to imply that there would be anything above or beyond salvation if that's the greatest thing we would ever experience in God. And I'm speaking in regards to a place where that you just really need to hear the voice of the Lord, you desperately need a meaningful connection with God. Regarding some purpose, some destiny, some things he's been saying to you, some things he's been saying to your house, some things that he's been revealing to you about your future. Father. Just lift our hands and do something very awesome.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Very awesome. Very awesome. Very awesome. Very awesome.