In your name we pray.
Bless this word.
Amen.
Turn with me to the book of Judges,
if you would, the 13th chapter.
Judges chapter 13.
I want to speak about women of deliverance.
Judges chapter 13, verse 1.
Again, the Israelites did evil in the sight,
in the eyes of the Lord, and the
Lord delivered them into the hands of the
Philistines for 40 years.
And a certain man from Zorah named Manoah,
from the clan of the Danites, had a
wife who was sterile and remained childless.
And the angel of the Lord appeared to
her.
Here was a woman in need.
Here was a woman in crisis.
Here was a woman who felt like she
wasn't being productive.
Here was a woman who felt like her
dreams, her desires, her aspirations weren't coming true.
Like many of the women characters that they
talk about in scriptures, she was longing for
something.
She was crying out to God for something,
but it wasn't being produced.
And you know what that feels like.
The Bible, and I'm not talking about just
a physical birth either.
There are dreams for ministries.
There are dreams to be used by God.
There are dreams to be a blessing to
others around you.
And sometimes you feel frustrated, and you feel
as if things aren't going well for you.
But how many of you Bible scholars, how
many of you experts in the law out
there can tell me Manoah's wife's name?
Is there anybody that studied this in depth?
Anybody know Manoah?
Nobody knows Manoah's wife's name.
Do you know why nobody knows her name?
She's not mentioned in the Bible.
I mean, she's mentioned, but they don't take
time to even give her name.
Figures it's probably written by a man.
And not even taking the time.
The whole story in Judges 13 is about
her and the baby she's about to have.
But they don't even take the time to
mention her name.
Oh, women, how many of you feel like
that sometimes?
You do more than half the work and
get less than a tenth of the credit.
And not that you're looking for credit, but
wouldn't it be nice every once in a
while for somebody to say, job well done.
Wouldn't it be nice for somebody to say,
it's because of you that God is doing
the things he's doing in our church, in
our city, and in our nation.
It's because God is using you as women
to touch many lives that this place we
are in is a different place.
There are many women in this place right
now that have gone for years just being
unthanked, unnoticed, unrecognized, unappreciated.
You have done so much.
And it's not, again, please understand, I know
your heart.
You're not looking for, I wish they'd give
me credit.
I'm going to quit if they don't give
me credit.
It's not an idea of wanting credit.
It's an idea of knowing that God sees.
And he hears and he knows the cry
of your heart, the desire to be used
mightily as a deliverer, to be effective in
a way that really ministers to many people
around you.
Manoah's wife, we know about Manoah, but we
don't even get her name.
And there are people, as I said, in
this place that you appear nameless, but you're
not hopeless.
You're not without hope in this world.
You're not without a voice.
You're not without a cry.
You're not without a calling on your life.
And God speaks to Manoah's wife.
Did you read that with me in here?
It didn't say she was childless.
And there's probably a longing in her heart.
And the Bible says that the angel of
the Lord appeared to her.
Wow, this is exciting.
These amazing things happen.
Once the Lord appears to her, God says
to her, you are going to have a
child.
And just before you have this child, I
want you to enter into something that we
don't have time to go into, but you
probably have understood this, Numbers chapter 6 talks
a lot about this.
The Nazarite vow.
The Nazarite vow was a separation vow, a
consecration, a devotion vow that says, I am
giving my all to God and no one
else.
And taking this vow, you would not cut
your hair, you would not drink wine, and
you would not go around or touch anything
that has death on it.
And so this Nazarite vow was set apart
for the most holy, the most consecrated, the
most devout of all people.
And God comes to this woman and says,
you're about to have a son.
You're about to have a boy who's going
to grow up to be a mighty deliverer
in Israel.
For years now, you guys have been under
the bondage of the Philistines.
For 40 years, and you are about to
be a free people.
And the means that God is going to
bring forth this deliverance is this childless, barren
woman.
This nameless woman who doesn't feel like she
has much to offer maybe.
She may not feel like she is making
an impact on the world.
She may feel like the things she does
is unrecognized and unthanked.
But God comes and speaks to her and
says, before you have a Nazarite, you give
yourself to this Nazarite spirit.
And the angel of the Lord says to
her, don't drink any wine.
Don't eat anything unclean, because before you raise
up a Nazarite, you need to be somewhat
of a Nazarite yourself.
Moms, do you hear what I'm talking about?
Before you tell your children how to live
before the Lord, you better be living it
yourself.
It's not enough just to tell your kids,
don't do this and do this.
Live this way.
Pray this way.
My father, when he started Teen Challenge, used
to be so frustrated over moms that would
come into the Teen Challenge Center and said,
I've been praying for my son.
I can't get him to...
He's smoking pot.
He's smoking weed.
He won't stop.
And my father found out that this woman
is socially drinking.
And the kids are saying, what difference is
my marijuana joint compared to your alcohol in
a cup?
And there's this sense of parents trying to
tell their kids what to do but not
living it out themselves.
And God says to Manoah's wife, before you're
going to have Samson, before a deliverance is
gonna come, there has to be a consecration
in your own heart, a separation in your
own heart.
You can't ask of your children what you
aren't willing to offer to the Lord yourself.
And sometimes there has to come in our
life where the soap operas be put aside
and the novels be put aside and the
things that are in excess just put away
so that we could consecrate ourselves to the
Lord so that our children see something unique,
dynamically different in us.
They begin to covet.
They say, I want what she's having.
I want to live that kind of lifestyle.
I want to give myself to that kind
of lifestyle.
Manoah's wife gets this vision of her truly
consecrating herself to the Lord.
And I want to call forth women in
this building today to be Nazarites, to set
yourself apart, to be devout to the Lord.
Don't worry about what the men in your
life are doing.
Don't worry whether your husband is a good
pastor, a bad pastor, a lazy pastor, whatever.
You get up, get on fire for God
and maybe even some of the men in
your life might soon follow.
I have a testimony of my own life.
When I was pastoring and I got kind
of slothful and just playing around a little
bit and I noticed my wife started getting
up at four in the morning praying every
day.
And that'll put some conviction in a pastor's
life.
When the wife knows everything there is to
know about God and prayer and you're running
around trying to make things happen.
She convicted me.
Manoah's wife comes to Manoah.
This is a beautiful story.
She comes to him and says, Manoah, an
angel of the Lord appeared to me.
And this angel told me that I was
going to have a child.
His name would be Samson.
He's going to be a Nazarite totally devoted
to the Lord and he's going to bring
deliverance to Israel.
Okay, now put yourself in Manoah's shoes.
And look at verse 8.
Then Manoah prayed to the Lord.
O Lord, I beg you, let the man
of God you sent come to us again.
The one you sent, bring him back again,
Lord.
In other words, here's what I think Manoah
is saying.
It doesn't say it exactly like this in
the text, but I think this is what
I'm suspicious.
If I put myself in Manoah's shoes, hear
what I'm thinking.
Now wait a minute.
This is big news.
We're talking about the deliverance of Israel from
the Philistines.
We're talking about national overthrow of a different
party and bringing into power godly leadership and
godly people.
And this is a great deal.
This is significant.
And this is something.
I think what Manoah is thinking to himself
was, Lord, this woman, she said something.
You know how these women are, God.
And she's got these big visions of grandeur
and she thinks you're going to use her
mightily.
And she's talking about deliverance and being a
Nazarite and not drinking anymore and setting herself
apart in prayer and having nothing unclean in
her life.
And she says this angel visited and she's
going to have a child even though she's
barren.
And I think he almost is suspicious maybe
that, and I hate to say it this
way, but I wonder if he's thinking, God's
out of order here.
Because if God's going to do something mighty,
if God's going to be powerful, if he's
going to do something in a nation, he's
going to come to the man of God.
So come to, and here's Manoah, come to
the man of God and speak this word,
if this word is true or not.
He doesn't trust the woman.
He doesn't really think that he has anything
to hear from her.
He doesn't think that he can learn from
her.
Now, I don't know what your theology is,
and I'm not here to discuss your theology
or your doctrine today about what you think
about women in ministry or women that preach
from the pulpit or women that have this
kind of gifting or that kind of gifting.
I don't know what your theology is.
It doesn't matter to me what your theology
is.
The truth is that God speaks to women.
It makes it crystal clear here that the
angel of the Lord came.
There were two people in this family.
There was Manoah and Manoah's wife.
And for some strange reason, God decided, I
think Manoah's wife is the right one to
tell this story to.
But Manoah seems to get offended by this,
and he's saying, No, God, you've got to
speak to the man of God.
I'm the man of God.
Things are in line and in authority here.
I'm the head of my household, and I
will not be super...
What's the word?
I don't even know the right word.
I will not be overthrown.
I don't care.
She's not going to get the word.
I've got to get the word.
And so he gets all excited about this
angel coming back and visiting.
So the angel of the Lord does what
he says.
He comes back.
Look at this.
I love this.
In verse 9, God heard Manoah.
Wow.
Finally, God's going to get in line with
this man's dreams, this man's aspirations, this man's
desire.
God heard Manoah, and the angel of God
came again to the woman.
Women, you missed a great opportunity to say,
Praise the Lord.
Hallelujah.
Glory to God.
Here's Manoah.
God, come to the man.
Clarify this truth.
God says, Okay, I'm coming again.
And he speaks to the woman again.
The Bible says she's out in a field.
I don't know what he's doing.
Maybe he's sitting there in his chair, kind
of reading Scripture and waiting for God to
speak to him.
And she's out in the field working.
And she hears the voice of the Lord
again.
God comes to her again.
And the Bible says, I love this, she
comes running out of the field to where
Manoah is, maybe in the tent, and says,
Hey, remember that you wanted to speak to
that guy that was talking to me?
He's here again.
Do you want to hear him?
And the exact words, it says in verse
10, it says, He's here, the man who
appeared to me the other day.
She's telling him, if you want to hear,
look at this verse 11, And Manoah got
up and followed his wife.
Ouch!
That's unbiblical.
Now wait a minute, it's in the Bible.
I don't know what to do with this.
I'm the head of my household.
Where's my wife?
She's standing over there.
You're going to follow me.
Do what I tell you to do.
But sometimes God speaks to the woman.
Sometimes women are a lot more sensitive to
hear God.
Sometimes women have this ability to say, God,
whatever you want to do, so be it.
Some women have a greater ability to be
like Mary, Be it done unto me according
to your will.
Where the man seems to have a stronger
agenda.
I want it done this way, God.
And we're going to wrestle until you get
it right, God, and do it my way.
Sometimes women are more sensitive and will hear
God say things like he says to Manoah's
wife.
So Manoah gets up and he follows his
wife.
And the angel begins to speak and says
what God's going to do.
He's going to bring forth a deliverer.
He's going to bring forth Samson and your
wife.
And he begins to speak about, he says
to, the angel says to Manoah, Do what
I told your wife to do.
Follow the instructions I've given to her.
In other words, she's on track.
She's got it right.
Listen to her.
For once in your life, you knucklehead, listen
to her.
And he begins to listen to her.
And the story goes on even in maybe
some stranger ways.
In verse 18, excuse me, let's go to
verse 22.
The angel of the Lord comes and appears
and he realizes what's happened now.
Now, Manoah's wife seems to be accustomed to
the presence of the Lord.
Manoah finally gets the presence of the Lord.
The angel of the Lord comes to both
of them.
And then when he comes to both of
them, he leaves.
He goes up in this amazing pillar of
fire.
And in verse 22, Manoah says to his
wife, We are doomed to die, he said
to his wife.
We have seen God.
You know what this is saying.
Manoah's scared to death.
What are we going to do?
I'm so worried.
I don't know what's going to happen in
the church.
I don't know what's going to happen with
our finances.
I don't know what's going to happen.
I'm scared.
The man...
This story is really reversed.
It really should be.
If this was written correctly, it would be
the woman was afraid.
And all those guys that shouted earlier, I'm
the man of God.
You guys would be protecting your wife who's
afraid.
But in this story, we're going to die.
We saw God.
Nameless wife, come here.
We have seen God.
Verse 23, But his wife answered, If the
Lord had meant to kill us, He would
have not accepted the burnt offering and the
grain offering from our hands.
He goes, Oh yeah.
That's a good point.
How many of you pastors, leaders have been
worried and stressed and striving and you turn
to your wife or somebody that God's put
in your ministry and the woman says to
you, It's going to be alright.
They have more faith.
They have more confidence.
They have more boldness.
And there are certain times...
Man, I just want to tell you, if
you're married here today, you need your wife.
You need your wife.
She's smart.
She's clever.
She's skilled.
She's wise.
She's loving.
Some of you husbands are saying, You don't
know my wife.
You're talking about somebody else.
No, I'm talking about your wife.
I'm talking about...
There's some single women in this place and
you have so much to offer the men
in the ministry and in the church and
in the community around you because you hear
from God.
God speaks to you and when people are
frightened or troubled or concerned about where to
go or what to do, you have this
keen wisdom and insight.
It's going to be okay.
And there's this ability to...
My wife has this ability to look at
a situation and I sort of have...
I have it all compartmentalized.
This is this and that and that.
She just says, No, it's this.
Oh, that makes total sense.
It's this wonderful ability and that's exactly what
Manoah's wife has.
God's not going to kill us.
The woman gave birth and named him Samson
and he grew and the Lord blessed him
and the Spirit of the Lord began to
stir him.
Her child was stirred.
She brought forth deliverance.
Women, I want to tell you here today,
God speaks to you.
I want to tell you unequivocally, God has
a calling on your life and I want
to tell you with the full force of
the Holy Spirit and the authority of the
Word of God, you are not a second
class citizen.
You are not in a kingdom that prefers
one gender to another.
You are not in a kingdom that where
you have to be somehow do all the
work and not be seen as somebody who
does something for the kingdom of God.
You are valued in God's eyes.
He loves you.
He appreciates you.
He longs to bring you into His company
under His voice to speak to you in
ways that are creative and unusual and you
see things that a man could never see
and God will sometimes take you out to
a field and begin to speak to you
and don't be afraid to speak to the
men in your life.
Now please don't be one of those and
I don't want to get in trouble with
the women here either.
I'm only in trouble with the men but
please don't be one of those know-it
-all women, okay?
God speaks to me and I'm always right
and I don't need a man to tell
me what to do.
We don't need any Christian women in libers
either, okay?
So that's just my two cents on that
side of the story but it's true.
Don't take the word that we're hearing here
and all of a sudden build a theology
that says hey, I'll just be in charge
of everything.
I'm glad somebody finally preached that so now
I can be released to do whatever I
want and not be under any kind of
covering anymore.
That's not what the word of the Lord
is saying.
There's a proper order and there's a proper
timing but men, realize more than you've ever
realized before if you brought your wife here
today, God is speaking to her.
Listen to her.
She has amazing things to say and she'll
say them in wonderful ways.
Now I preached this sermon about two months
ago at Times Square Church and about a
month after preaching it, there was an opportunity.
I travel full time with my father.
I'm no longer pastoring in Denver, Colorado.
I moved with my family to New Jersey
and I travel full time.
We're going to Spain and Portugal and a
couple other countries next month and we're on
the road quite a bit but when I'm
home, I have sometimes a two or three
or four week time period between conferences where
I'm at home without necessarily, you know, and
I was used to pastoring so I had
this pastoral role.
I had the pastoral love.
I miss the church so I began to
wonder if maybe while I'm home I could
be highly involved in either as an associate
pastor or a co-pastor or maybe even
a senior pastor of a church that would
excuse me to go on these conferences and
as I was praying about that and believing
for that and thinking maybe that was the
right way to go, I got a phone
call the very next day and it was
a pastor saying, we're starting a church, a
branch church in your area and we want
you to help give oversight to this.
You can travel still.
You can go to conferences but we'll, and
I'm just thinking, this is God.
This is so exciting.
Wow, I was just praying about this yesterday.
God, you are so precious and I really
kind of was inclined towards it and then
I got home and I said, honey, you're
not going to believe this.
Kelly, God has just done a miracle.
Not only do I get to do these
conferences but now I get to be a
pastor again as well.
Both of my, the most exciting dreams of
my life coming true and she goes, hmm,
that's not the response I was looking for.
I was looking for cartwheels and a big
kiss and a hug and say, thank God
our prayers are answered but I got a,
hmm.
And as soon as she said that, I
didn't, you know what it's like.
I didn't have to say anything.
I knew what she was thinking but I
said, well, let's at least pray about this
and I began to pray and I was,
I didn't get a piece about it.
I knew I wanted to in my flesh.
I really wanted to do this but I
didn't get a piece about doing it so
I knew it wasn't right and I knew
I wasn't going to have to but I
was still, I was kind of angry at
my wife for saying, hmm, instead of being
supportive so I kept sort of saying, I
really think this is God.
You know, and she would just go, I'm
supportive.
You know, I've been with you for, I've
been married to you for 25 years and
you know, I love you and I'll go
wherever.
I've been all over the world with you
and I'll go.
You just, you speak and I'll listen.
I'll, you know, she's just being so sweet
about it and I said, but why do
you go like, hmm?
And she goes, well, I just don't know
that you have a piece about it and
I go, oh no, I've got a real,
and I was lying to her, I've got
a real piece in my heart.
I, I feel this is God but I'm
concerned that you're not walking in authority here
and, and, so we were out in the
backyard one day and she said, and I
said, I just don't feel like you're, you're
feeling a piece about this and she says,
no, the, the Lord spoke to me and
I said, where and when?
And she said, I was out in a
field.
And I knew exactly what she was talking
about.
I, I wanted to say, I'm going to
make you stop coming to church.
You can't hear me preach anymore because you
use my sermons against me.
She said, I'm out in a field, I'm
out in a field and, and God spoke
to me and I knew, yeah.
And, and I told her that and then
I finally broke down and told her the
truth.
Yeah, I feel exactly the same way.
I just don't have a piece about it.
I'd love to do it.
It's a wonderful presentation to us and I'm
thankful that, that other people would even consider
us for this but we just were in
agreement.
We knew it.
But God spoke to my wife and, and
we came into an agreement together.
And there's some women here that you're going
to be out in a field one day.
God's going to speak to you and it's
going to be, it's going to be creative
and it's going to, when he speaks to
you, it's not just sort of a couple
of good insights about who he is.
That's a wonderful thing.
But when he speaks to you, he speaks
to you things that are creative, that are
powerful, that are dynamic.
He speaks a voice to you, a word
to you that says, women, you are called
to bring forth from the innermost being of
who you are, you are called to bring
forth deliverance.
Hallelujah.
You women are called to be a deliverer.
You are called.
There are things that God has spoken to
you or will speak to you and it
may not be a physical birth but it'll
be a spiritual birth, a creative birth, a
ministry birth, a blessing, a birth of, a
blessing of many, many people through your heart,
through your mind, through your soul.
God is going to speak to you and
he's going to speak a word, woman, you
are a deliverer.
You're a woman of God and I have
my hand upon you and I have called
you and my authority is in your life
and you are called to go forth and
be a great blessing to many people.
But women, let me tell you, you've got
to believe that.
Without faith, it's impossible to walk in this
kind of pleasure of God to see great
things happen in your life.
So you have to put aside.
Because the tragedy is that so many women
are so hurting in so many ways and
many women suffer with problems of low self
-esteem and they begin to think, no, not
me.
God could never speak to me.
God could never use me.
God could never bring through my heart and
soul and mind a great deliverance to the
church or a great deliverance to the nation.
And you need to rebuke that spirit now
in the name of Jesus.
And say, God has called me and I
have a special gift and I'm unique in
Jesus Christ and I'm not a second class
citizen and I'm not someone to be put
on the side of the road and left
alone.
There is authority in my life.
I've been out in a field and I
have heard from God.
And you do it with humility and you
do it with meekness and you do it
with love and it's clothed with the humility
of Christ.
And it's not a boisterous and a proud
thing but it's a clarity.
God has said deliverance is coming and he's
going to use me, part of the picture,
to bring it forth.
Amen.
Stand with me if you would and I'm
going to pray for you women.
I want Kelly and Greg and the worship
team to come back and we're going to
sing God is here.
And we're going to make this altar here
at the front of this auditorium today, the
field.
And you're going to come to this field
and say, God, and I want to pray
particularly for women whether you're married or single,
whatever your status is, I want to pray
for those of you who feel like, I
don't have that kind of confidence.
There's so much hurt in my life.
I really lack the faith.
I lack the ability.
I lack the...