Power through Prayer

God sent the people into the promised Land and they disobeyed his voice and didn’t see things with his eyes but their own – that’s the story of Judges

Ehud – pic // RIGHT in their eyes but EVIL in God’s eyes

Deborah – pic // RIGHT in their eyes but EVIL in God’s eyes

Gideon – pic // RIGHT in their eyes but EVIL in God’s eyes

Jephthah – pic // RIGHT in their eyes but EVIL in God’s eyes

The ppl did what was right in their own eyes instead of God’s eyes and the cycle continues – then we get to SAMSON

v.1 – it continues – And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.

Zorah – 14 miles west of Jerusalem, like the distance between Kingstown and North Union.

His wife was barren – The Biblical motif of the woman who can’t have kids, then she has a son and he is a POWERHOUSE - Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Hannah, Elizabeth

Sarah with Isaac

Rebekah with Jacob

Rachel with Joseph

Hannah with Samuel

Elizabeth with John the Baptist

And here – A nameless woman with Samson.

An angel appears to her – an angel is a MESSENGER from God – that’s what the word literally means - PICTURE

The angel says 3 things

1. You haven’t had a kid BUT YOU WILL

2. The child will be a NAZIRITE

a. No hair cutting

b. No alcohol

c. No touching dead stuff

3. HE WILL BEGIN TO SAVE ISRAEL

She reports to her husband

What does she leave out ?

She leaves out the hardest thing to believe.

PWR Promised must be PWR believed – v. 1-7

The angel promised her something, but it was hard to believe.

Her whole life the Philistines had been in charge, they would come into town, take money, take crops, abuse the Israelite people.

She couldn’t see how it could be different.

GOD PROMISED SOMETHING POWERFUL. SHE KNEW THE MESSENGER OF GOD WAS AWESOME – BUT SHE ONLY BELIEVED THAT THE EASY STUFF WOULD HAPPEN.

God has promised some stuff to you this week – will you believe it?

1. – God gives strength to the weary

2. – Don’t fear for I am with you

3. – Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, MY UNFAILING LOVE FOR YOU WILL NOT BE SHAKEN.

4. – No weapon formed against you will prosper

5. – If any of you lack wisdom, you should ask God and he will give it to you

6. – Resist the devil and he will flee from you

7. – If you confess your sins God will forgive you and purify you

8. – Whoever believes in Jesus WILL NEVER DIE.

9. – If Jesus sets you FREE – YOU ARE FREE

10. – If you believe in your prayers they will be real

11. – God will meet all of your needs

12. – Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart

13. – God is good to those who call to him

14. – Everything in your life is being worked our for good if you love God

15. – If your name is in the book of life it WILL NEVER BE TAKEN OUT

I could go on and on and on and on // DO YOU ONLY BELIEVE THE THINGS THAT GOD PROMISED THAT ARE EASY?

Now take it even a step further into this week – DO YOU BELIEVE GOD WANTS TO DO SOMETHING AWESOME IN YOUR LIFE THIS WEEK?

God wants to send the Holy Spirit into your life

God wants to comfort you

God wants to send you on a mission to restore the world

Will you believe? Or will you only believe the easy stuff – that God wants u to make a friend or have fun?

v. 8 – Then Manoah prayed.

Manoah gets some bad press for not believing his wife – pretty lame

And he gets some bad press for letting Samson run amok like a crazy teen

But he does something good here – he prays and God answers him, but not in the way he wants.

He prays and asks the angel to come back and teach them what to do with Samson.

But the angel appears to Samson’s mom again, she runs super quick back to her husband and says – CMON CMON CMON

They rush back to the field

Manoah sees the guy and hes like – are you the guy and the angel is like im the guy

And manoah is like - So what is our childs mission? Whats his goal? Like hes totally dad-core about his thinking process

Look in verse 13 – the angel knew what she left out when she talked to her husband because the angel says

“Of ALL that I said”

Then Manoah says – you must be hungry? Such a dad right.

My father in law is like this. Hes such a nice guy. If I take one sip of my water he is like – can I refill that for you?

The angel is like – no im good, but if u want to make a goat, offer it to the Lord

Manoah asks him his name – he says whats ur name so we may honor u when this comes true

He’s like why r u asking my name? Because you think it is wonderful ?

v. 19 – to the ONE WHO WORKS WONDERS

He lit this goat on fire and the angel went into the fire and up in the flame and returned to God

People have tried to illustrate this moment in a lot of different ways – PICTURES

Manoah prayed and God answered and he said the LORD works wonders not knowing God would work a wonder right their in front of him.

PWR Prayed for will be PWR revealed– v. 8-25

God answers prayers

VIOLET STORY

We are going to pray for God to work wonders – do u believe that God will reveal his PWR to us this weak ?

Manoah is like we are going to die – we saw God

And his wife is like – no, if he wanted to kill us he would have already done so.