And what we want to see this morning is Sham God's principle of deliverance. Say that. Sham God's principle of deliverance. A principle, an ensconced or hid in this principle consists of three major points. Say that with me.
Three major points consistent with this principle. And you know when we think about the principles of God, the principles of God make a difference in our lives. It's the principles of God that make a difference in our lives and in the lives of others. Other people, they end up changing also because they see if God can do it for me, God can do it for me.
They need to see the change. And salvation is not getting saved to see what you can get away with. Salvation is to get saved because you want to be changed.
It's not what I can get away with, but what I get away from. I don't want to do that no more. I don't want to snort the cocaine. I don't want to smoke the drugs.
I don't want to be caught up into this kind of wicked world. This is a sin sick secular society. It is what it is. Just watch the news and it will make you sick. Because it's a sin sick secular society.
And Shamgar is giving us this principle with three major points. and the three major points. We start, number one, is he used what he had.
This is what it says. Look at verse 31. And after him, after who? After the second judge.
You had two judges. Hallelujah. One was Othinio and the other was Ehud. Othinio and Ehud.
And now judge number three is Shamgar. And after him was Shem, God the Son. Son of Anath, which slew, listen to this, which slew of the Philistines 600 men, he tells us, with an ox gore. He could have just left it there and said he slew 600 men. But he tells us what he used.
He used what he had. You know, it's very difficult to use what you don't have. and so many people they don't use what they have Because they're trying to use what they don't have. And Shamgar used an ox gourd. What is an ox gourd?
An ox gourd is about as long and as thick as a baseball bat. On one end of the ox gourd is a point. A sharp point.
On the other end, there's the handle. And it's what the farmers use to stimulate the ox when the ox refused to move and produce. then the farmer would stick the ox in his tail side, and the ox would start moving.
You know, when a child is rebellious and stubborn, use what you got, and you'll see him begin to move. And so the farmers would use the ox gourd to stimulate the ox so that the ox could produce and help them produce the grain and so forth and so on. What is it that we have?
What we have as Christians, we have what we have. We have the Bible. We have the book.
And this is a hymn book, not an H-Y-M-N book, and yet and still it has hymns in it, but it's an H-I-M book. It's a book about him. because your identity is with his divinity. It's a book about you. This is a hymn book.
If any man be in Christ, they become a new creature. All things are passed away, and all things become new. the Kimball.
And when we talk about what Shamgar had, we talk about what we have. Just think about it like this. God uses, again, common ordinary people to do through them extraordinary things. It was Moses that God had called to be the deliverer and the head of the nation of the children of Israel. And when God called Moses, he told Moses, go and tell the virus.
Pharaoh, let my people go. And Moses said this, Who am I? Who am I that I should go to the Pharaoh as the king?
and tell them to let the people go and God says but I'm going with you I'm going with you and then Moses asked well the people are going to ask me who are you and God said tell them I am that I am in other words I am is Jehovah it's a compound name praise the Lord It's a compound name. This past Wednesday, boy, I tell you, minister, you put that word out, Donnie. Praise the Lord.
And Donnie broke that thing down, and so I'm not going to mess with it, all right? But he's I am that I am. In other words, God is saying, I am, you fill in the blank.
Whatever it is that you need, God will supply your need because he's all of that. He's all of that. No one in this world is all of that, but God is all of that. And God says, I am that I am.
Go and tell the Pharaoh to let my people go. And Moses said, what am I going to use? God said, what's that in your hand? Moses is asking God, what am I going to use?
God said, what is that in your hand? And Moses said, this is nothing but a rod. This is a rod what a shepherd uses.
And God says, throw it down. Moses threw it down and the rod became... a snake and God told Moses pick it up at the tail and this is what you would use what you have and I'll do the rest when they came out of Egypt or was coming out of Egypt and they were running and they came to the the Red Sea. There was not time enough to make a boat or none of that kind of stuff. And Moses said to God, he says, what are we going to do now?
And he was crying and weeping unto God. And God says, what are you crying for? What is that in your hand? And it was a rod.
God says, lift up the rod and stretch it out. And that's all Moses had to do. He lifted up the rod, stretched it out.
And then what happened. God did the rest. God opened up the Red Sea and caused the children of Israel to come across on that Red Sea and then when they tried that is the Egyptians tried to pursue them God released the cohesiveness of that water and it swallowed them up God is the one that fight our battles it is God the one that protects us it is God the one that show himself to us and God said to Moses he says stand still just stand still what am I going to do Stand still and you want to see the salvation of the Lord by God.
God will do wonders among you. God will show signs and miracles among you. All God asks you to do is use what you have.
Just use what you have. We have the Bible. Glory to God.
Use what you have. Remember, do you remember Samson? What did he have?
He had a new jawbone of an ass. And Samson, listen to me, Samson was able to slew a thousand men, not a hundred, not ten, but a thousand men with the new jawbone of an ass. He used what he had.
Use what you have. What did David have? David fought the giant Goliath the same way he fought the lion and the bear that tried to steal the sheep. What did David use?
He used what he had. What did he have? All he had was a stone and a slingshot.
That's all he had. And what he did, he put that stone in the slingshot and he, listen, he could have been blind and shot it somewhere else, but God navigated that stone, hallelujah, and caused that stone to hit that giant right between the eyes. And Goliath went down and David cut off his head, all because he used what he had. In the New Testament, there was 5,000 men listening to Jesus, not including the women and the children.
They were listening, of course, as well. If I asked the women to stand up here, to stand in this service, praise the Lord, it would be very likely more women than men. But we got a lot of men.
I can't, I, maybe I'm wrong with that. We got a lot of men in here. The Marines are looking for a few good men.
No, that's not God. God's looking for men and God will make them men. And the Bible says that the disciples came to Jesus and said, what are we going to feed them?
We don't have nothing to feed them. Send them home. And Jesus says, no, look and see what you have.
And when they went through the camp, there was a little boy, a boy, a lad, they called him, that he had five loaves and two small fish. And what did Jesus do? They said, what can we do with five loaves and two small fish? With all these people, Jesus took it.
He blessed it. He broke it. He gave it.
And all of them were fed, and when they got through, there were 12 baskets filled and loaded. The little boy had more than what he gave, all because God used common, ordinary people so that God can do extraordinary and uncommon things. Just use what you have.
And the Bible says that Peter and John in the book of Acts, I'll stop right here and go ahead to the next point. But it says that in the book of Acts, that there was a man that was crippled from his mother's womb. And he was out there asking for alms. And they came to the beautiful gate and came into the temple.
And the Bible says that he was asking alms for the poor, alms for the poor. Peter fastened his eyes on that man. And Peter said, silver and gold have I not. but such as I have I'm a give unto thee rise up and be healed Papa Jackson he took him by the right hand lifted him up that man not only did he stand up but the man began to leap and jump and the man began to walk and he was a testimony to show that if you use what you have God will do the rest use what you have use what you have oh hallelujah I get excited about that And as Christians, you know, what do we have? We have a whole lot.
We have a whole lot, but we start with the book. We start with devotion unto our sovereign God. It's devotion unto our sovereign God. When I say devotion, I'm talking about we read the book.
You don't just listen to the preacher on Sunday, but when you go home, you ought to look at Judges chapter 3 verse 31 and stay with it. Because that is what God wants you to use. The devil may try you with something else, but if all you know is Sham God, chapter 3 verse 31, just quote Sham God.
Just quote what is written. because when Jesus was led into the... wilderness to be tempted by the devil. The devil came out to tempt him after 40 days and 40 nights and now Jesus was hungry.
And the devil says, if you be the son of God, turn these stones into bread. And Jesus says, it is written. See, if you don't listen, if you don't have a devotion to read what is written, Jesus says it is written.
Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then what did the devil do? He took him up into the holy city.
Now, of all places, he didn't take him up into the hell environment. He took him up to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the city. If you would, the pinnacle. He was on the pinnacle of the temple. They were in the holy city, the city of Jerusalem.
And the devil says, it is written. See, the devil knows how to play games with you. Or you want to quote to me, it is written. Satan said, it is written that if you jump off of this, the angels would catch you before you dash your foot against the ground.
That's the 91st Psalm. That's what we quote all the time, that the angels would catch us. But what did Jesus do? He didn't go for the temptation of the devil.
He says unto the devil, it is written. So you got to have a devotion. Satan came to him with it is written.
And Jesus came back and said, it is written. Thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God. Don't tempt God.
Don't tempt God. And then last, what did Satan do? He took him up to the highest mountain, the highest mountain. And he showed him all the kingdoms of the world. He showed him this.
You can be in that. You can be a movie star. You can be this, that. He showed them all the kingdoms.
And Satan said to Jesus, if you will bow down, that's what he said, mother, and worship me, I'll give you all these kingdoms. Do you think he would have gave it to him anyway? He's a liar. But he said, I'll give you all these kingdoms. But Jesus said, get thee hence.
In other words, get behind me, Satan. He says, thou shall worship God and serve him only. And that was it.
The devil couldn't take it no more. We have to have a devotion to our sovereign savior. And then we have to have a dependence.
on the Spirit of God, a dependence on the Spirit of God. Hallelujah. Zechariah 4, 6. Oh my, I tell you, I feel like I want to slow down, but I can't.
I'm on a fast track now, sister. Glory to God. And here it is in Zechariah 4, 6. God says unto Zerubbabel, he says that, listen to this, It's not by might nor by power or not by power.
nor by might, but by my spirit, saith the Lord. See, we have to have a devotion to the sovereign God. We have to have a dependence on the spirit of God. It's not by might nor by power.
It's by the spirit of the living God. Hallelujah. God wanted us to be led by his spirit. And not only that, but he also tells us in Psalms 37.4, delight thyself in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thy heart.
Am I preaching too fast for you? Hallelujah. He said, delight thyself in the Lord. So it's not only a devotion to the sovereign God, not only a dependence on the spirit of God, but as the delight in the son of God. In other words, get excited.
Jesus saved us. Get excited. Jesus has already won for us.
No matter what you're going through, Jesus is Alpha and Omega. He's the first and the last. He's the beginning and the end.
He's going to see you through whatever you're going through. Hallelujah. David was going through the valley.
And how did David make it? David said, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Why? For thou art with me. Thou art with me.
God is with me. I don't have a reason to be afraid. God is with me. God is there.
God is the conqueror. God is the one that's for me. And if God be for me, who can be against me and succeed?
You're going to win no matter what you're going through. No matter how things look for you, you're going to win. God has already ordained for you to win this thing. You're going to win this thing. You're going to win this thing.
No matter what you're going through now, it's a test so that you can have a testimony. Hallelujah. God wants you to have a testimony. And the testimony is, look at what the Lord has done.
Look at what the Lord has done. I was going through this. I was on my sickbed.
But look at what the Lord has done. Somebody give God a praise. Hallelujah.
Hallelujah.