God Works Through Me Series

“God Works Through Me”

Judges 16: 28-30

July 23, 2006

Intro: A guy named Gene wrote a story @ an embarrassing moment for his sister, Becky. She had prepared a pasta dish for a party she was giving. But she was running a little behind when she noticed that she’d forgotten to refrigerate the spaghetti sauce. It had sat on the counter all day.

-She was worried that the sauce might have spoiled, but it was too late for her to cook up another batch. So she called the local Poison Control Center and asked them if she could still use the sauce or if it was bad. They told her to just boil the sauce again and everything would be all right.

-Well, that night, while all of her guests were over eating dinner, the phone rang. A guest volunteered to answer the phone while Becky was serving more of her pasta. The lady who answered the phone had a strange look on her face when she said to Becky, “It’s the Poison Control Center. They want to know how the spaghetti sauce turned out.”

-My guess is no one likes to eat at Becky’s house any more. We’ve all experienced embarrassing moments in our lives at one time or another. One of my favorite embarrassing moments at VillageChurch is when Peb was standing on a chair on the back row counting everyone in here while I was preaching. I saw the chair slip and Peb trying to grab on to something to break his fall, but of course nothing was there and he went crashing to the ground and everyone turned around to look at him.

-I could name a few more, but the fact of the matter there are times when embarrassing moments happen that we just can’t help. But there are other times when we find ourselves in embarrassing situations b/c we’ve done something stupid; b/c we’ve put ourselves in a situation where there’s a great chance for embarrassment and shame.

-But regardless of how embarrassing a situation you’ve been involved in, whether it be your fault or there was nothing you could do @ it, God can still work thru you! Today we’re continuing our series “On Star…On Board.” And we’re going to discover that God doesn’t just know us, He doesn’t just speak to us and give us freedom. But He also works thru us. As a matter of fact, He can work thru anyone.

Sermon Idea: Today in our passage of Scripture we’re going to see the story of a man who found himself in an embarrassing situation. And he was in this situation b/c he’d played around w/doing things he knew God didn’t want him to do.

-He saw some things that were tempting to him and instead of avoiding those temptations, he gave in to them. And the result is he found himself embarrassed and ashamed wondering if God could ever work thru him again.

JUDGES 16: 28-30

Bckgrd: Throughout the book of Judges you’ll read @ Israel finding herself in trouble time and time again. Israel would be overrun by a neighboring nation or people and find herself in bondage. And then they would cry out to God for help. And God, in His mercy, would send along a person to lead the Israelites back to freedom.

-Samson was one of these guys chosen by God to bring freedom to His people. And God worked thru Samson in a unique way. An angel told Samson’s parents that they were going to have an especially strong son who would bring freedom to Israel. But the angel told them to make sure they didn’t cut Samson’s hair b/c if his hair was cut it would lead to a loss of his power.

-Well, they didn’t cut his hair and Samson became known as a great warrior that God worked thru. Unfortunately, Samson had a penchant for getting involved w/women and it came to the point where God removed His hand of blessing from his life. And Samson wondered, “Can God ever work thru me again?”

-Maybe that’s a question you’ve had @ yourself. Maybe you look at your past and you think, “I don’t know if God can work thru me. I’ve done some pretty rotten stuff.” And I’m sure some of you have done some pretty rotten stuff. I have as well. But amazingly God desires to work thru you and He can.

-Today we’re going to see 2 steps we must be willing to take for God to work thru you. The 1st step you must take for God to work thru you is to:

DIV. 1: CONNECT TO HIM (v. 28)

Exp: I think we live in a time where people are beginning to understand more and more the power of connection. The internet has absolutely revolutionized our lives. From our computers in our houses we can connect w/people and find information all across the world. You can meet people over the internet and advertise the church over the internet like VillageChurch does.