Take your Bibles and go to the book of Judges, chapter number 13. We're gonna read just the first two verses of this chapter and hopefully get your mind headed. in this direction as far as for our thought here this morning. Judges chapter number 13. This is obviously most of you are familiar with this passage and familiar with this book as far as the book of Judges, but this chapter in particular is talking about right before the Judge Samson, the Bible character Samson that you know before he was born. And so again we'll look at this chapter here together this morning. If you found your place there, Judges chapter 13, just follow along. Verse number one, the Bible says this, and the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines 40 years. Now, verse number two, church family's gonna pick up with the story, really the story of Samson's parents, all right? Verse number two, the Bible says this, and there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. And his wife, the church family, the Bible does not give us his wife's name, but the Bible says, and his wife was barren. and bear not. I want to give you a quick thought this morning that I think will be a help to you this morning. Simply, when you cannot. And church family, there's times in our lives that we get to a point in time in our life, a place in our life, when we wish we could make something happen, but we cannot. And we'll take this story and hopefully give you some truths that'll be helpful from this. Thank you for that, ladies. You can't help but stop and think about our country. Our country is where it's at because of lost people. Our country needs Christ. There are people all around you and I that have never put their faith and trust in Christ. And I hope, I hope a song like that this morning would cause you to stop and think about what you're doing to get the gospel out. Because if you're saved and you're the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, it is your responsibility, it is my responsibility to get the gospel out. There's people all around us that are dying and obviously there's so many things in our country that we could look at and say, I wish this was different. And boy, this is, this is, I can't believe that this would ever happen in my lifetime. but it's happening because people are lost. They need the Lord. I hope that's a reminder to you this morning. Hey, listen, let me say this. Maybe you're here this morning, and maybe there's two things I try to always do when I preach, and maybe sometimes I don't always do it, but I strive to. Number one is this. If I get the opportunity to preach, I wanna make sure that I give an opportunity for someone who doesn't know the Lord as their savior to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. So if you're here this morning and you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ, you don't know for sure where you'll spend eternity, maybe this is your first time at church, maybe you've been here many services, but if you don't know the Lord as your savior, I beg of you this morning, let someone show you from a Bible. It's the greatest thing you'll ever know. And it's the one thing that you shouldn't put off. is knowing Christ as your Savior. The Bible, I'll just be very, very short and brief about it. The message this morning is not really, you wouldn't call it necessarily a salvation-themed message, but the Bible's very clear. There's two places a person goes when they die. Your body will be placed probably in a grave, probably maybe a funeral, but your soul or your spirit goes somewhere forever. It either goes to a wonderful place called heaven, that's eternal life with God forever, or it goes to a terrible place of punishment forever and ever where you'll be separated from God. And hey, listen, God doesn't want you to go there. God wants you to be with Him in heaven. He made it very, very clear in that book called the Bible that we're gonna look at today how you can know for certain. If you're here and you don't know for certain, first off, I would wanna give you the opportunity to let someone take a Bible and show you how you can know. The second thing when I preach, I, and this is maybe just a pet peeve of mine, I always want to make sure not, you that have heard me preach before. I hope my application is not too bizarre on Bible passages. I hope that you can follow the truth that's being applied. But I am always in my mind trying to be very careful that I give you the interpretation of the passage first. It bothers me when, and I'm not saying it's wrong, but it bothers me sometimes when people preach and they don't give you the interpretation, they just give you an application. They read a verse and they jump into an application Whatever God tells them to do is fine. But for me, I think if you're going to keep the application following the truth, you need to know what the interpretation of the passage is. Now, the good thing about this morning's passage is that this morning's passage is a story. And I could read the story and I think without me saying anything about the story, you're going to know what's taking place, the interpretation or what took place in this story. all these many years ago, and then we'll look at an application here this morning. But let's pray, and you pray in your heart, and I'll pray out loud. Now listen, don't just turn everything off right here when you bow your head. You ask God in your heart that he would speak to you this morning. I know there's a truth here that'll be a help to you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you this morning. Lord, first off, we're grateful. We're grateful for the country you've given us. Lord, as was saying, Lord, help us, Lord, to look at America, Lord, as a mission field, because it is. And Heavenly Father, Lord, if there's one here that does not know you as their Savior, Lord, I pray that you would work in their heart. Lord, help them to see their need for you. Lord, for each and every Christian, Lord, as we look at this Bible passage, Lord, I pray that the truth, Lord, this morning, Lord, would permeate our hearts. Lord, that the truth would be something that we would take with us, Lord, even from this place. And Lord, be better Christians because of it. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for your word. Thank you, Lord, for what you're gonna do this morning in Jesus' name. All right, Judges chapter number 13. Before I jump right into here, let me just say about the book of Judges, and most of you would know these just very common bits of information about it. The common phrase through the book of Judges is, every man did that which was right in his own eyes. And by the way, you're gonna see the result of that through and through the book of Judges. When you do what's right in your own eyes, and you don't do what's right according to God's words or God's will for your life, you end up in a lot of trouble. And that's what happened for the children of Israel. So the second thing about the book of Judges is there is what they would call, people have called it different things, but you would call the cycle of apostasy. So in other words, the children of Israel do what's right in their own eyes. They would sin against God. First part of that, they would sin against God and then God would punish them. He would usually would be a enemy that would come in and would basically, in this chapter here that we're talking about this time, it was the Philistines that were ruling over the children of Israel. They were basically in bondage to the Philistines, alright? So then when that would happen, then the next part of that cycle is they would cry to God. And then when they cried to God, would you deliver us? Then God would send a judge or a deliverer that God would raise up to deliver them from the enemy. Now, in this chapter here, we're looking at the judge that God is about to raise up is Samson. All right. And God's going to use Samson against the Philistines in the next few chapters of this book. But this story this morning really begins before Samson is born. And there are there are things in the Bible that I am so glad that God Allowed us to see what took place before Samson was born and obviously there's a lot you can correlate with his life That happened obviously after his more what how God used him in correlation to what happened in this chapter right before it But let's look at the chapter again Let's look in the these a couple of verses the Bible says in verse number two. So we read this one already there was a certain man of Zorah of the family of the Danites and whose name was Manoah, and his wife was Baran and Baranath. Now, church family, the chapter is, I think, 20, is it 25 verses long? 25 verses long. Let's read the majority of the chapter here this morning so you can get the story in your mind. And please, I beg of you to grab your mind this morning and try to stay with me. I don't wanna lose you in reading a bunch of verses this morning. But the Bible says that Manoah's wife was Baran, all right? In verse number three, the Bible says, and the angel of the Lord, appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold now thou art barren, and bearest not, but thou shalt conceive and bear a son. Now therefore, beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine, nor strong drink, and eat not unclean thing." And he tells her why in verse number 5, "'For lo, thou shalt conceive and bear a son, and no razor shall come upon his head. For the child shall be a Nazarite unto the Lord from the womb, and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.'" Now I'm not going to take time to go back to it, but if you went back to Numbers chapter number 6 it talks about the Nazarite vow. And there were really three major things about the Nazarite vow. Number one, they didn't cut their hair. Number two, it was they didn't touch anything or eat anything that came from the vine. So no grapes, no grape juice, no alcohol, none of that. And the third thing was they didn't touch a dead animal. They didn't touch an unclean thing. Now, God lays that out in numbers, and you can go back and read that on your own, that chapter, chapter number six, where it talks about when a person would take a Nazirite vow, these were the things they were gonna do. Now, this is a little bit different in this passage because, God said Samson was supposed to be, the baby that was going to be born, was supposed to be a Nazirite from the womb. So it wasn't that he chose to take a Nazirite vow, it was God said he's going to be a Nazirite. In other words, the meaning of the Nazirite vow was to be separated to God. Samson was going to be separated to God to be used as a judge from the womb, alright? Now, let's read on in our story. Again, there's a lot more that could be said, but for time's sake this morning, let's continue on. The Bible says this in verse number 6, Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came unto me, and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God, very terrible, But I asked him not whence he was neither told me his name now. There's not a lot There's some some parts the story doesn't have a lot of detail, but apparently she was by herself We don't know her name's Manoah's wife. The angel comes to her and the angel says hey listen, you're gonna have a child He's gonna be a Nazarite and tells her some different things about that and she doesn't know where he came from She doesn't know his name. So the first thing when when he's gone, she goes directly to her husband and she's like hey, I Guess what? This guy showed up. This is what he told me. And we'll read on down through here. The Bible says in verse number 7, Now keep in mind, Manoah did not see the man. He's just taking what his wife related to him. Look at Manoah's response, verse number eight. So Manoah, his first thing is, okay, I have a lot of questions about this. This man showed up and told you this, but what are we supposed to do This is obviously a special situation. And so Manoah goes to God and says, God, would you send the guy back again to teach us what we're supposed to do for the child? Verse number nine there, in verse number nine, Bible says, and God hearkened to the voice of Manoah and the angel of God came again unto the woman as she sat in the field. It's interesting, but the man came back to Manoah's wife. Again, Manoah was not there. But Manoah her husband was not with her. Verse 10, And the woman made haste, and ran, and showed her husband, and said unto him, Behold, the man hath appeared unto me, that came unto me the other day. And Manoah arose, and went after his wife, and came to the man, and said unto him, Art thou the man that spakest unto the woman? And he said, I am. And Manoah said, now let thy words come to pass. How shall we order the child? And how shall we do unto him? Now, church family, this is completely, every time I read this, I think about this. This has nothing to do with the message today. But it's amazing to me that Manoah says, he asks two questions. He says, how shall we order the child? and how shall we do unto him? I don't know what's going through Manoah's mind, but Manoah says, hey, listen, there's probably some things in training this child that I'm supposed to do, and I'm not trying to read in what's not in the scripture, but in his mind, how shall we order him? How shall we do unto him? God, how am I supposed, is there something special in discipline, or is there something special in the instructions, or some special training that I'm supposed to give? Now, to me, it is a powerful, convicting thought to me as a parent, God's answer. It's not, oh here, this is a special training. Oh here, this is a special thing you're supposed to tell your son. Oh here, this is a special way you're supposed to upbring him. You know what he says? Look back at your Bible this morning. The thought is interesting to me. The Bible says this in, where were we at here, verse number, verse number 15, and Manoah said to the angel, sorry, verse number, verse number 12, Manoah said, let like the worst come to pass. How shall we order the child? How shall we do it? In verse 13, and the angel of the Lord said unto Manoah, look what he says, of all that I said unto the woman, let her beware. You know what God's answer to him? God's answer was, hey, listen, it's not how you're gonna order the child, it's how you're gonna live as a parent. Yeah, I think a lot of times when it comes to our children, I find myself thinking this too, man, what is it that I need to do for my kids? How do I need to train them? When as a parent, it really ought to go back to what should I be as a parent to help my child become what God wants them to become? Now, church fam, it's not the illustration, or not the message this morning, but every time I read that passage, that thought jumps out to me that as a parent, you ought to be what you want your child to become for God. Look on the next verse. Verse number 14, the Bible says, Verse 15, Let us detain thee until we shall have made ready a kid for thee." So again, he's gonna basically fix a meal for this man that has come to them. And the angel of the Lord said unto Manoah, though thou detain me, I will not eat of thy bread. "'And if thou wilt offer a burnt offering, "'thou must offer it unto the Lord, "'for Manoah knew not that he was an angel of the Lord.'" So again, Manoah and his wife thought that this was a man that God had sent, a human that God had sent to tell them this. They didn't understand that this was literally an angel sent from God to them to give them this message. The Bible goes on, let's finish out this chapter here, Church Family. The Bible says this, verse number 17, "'And Manoah said unto the angel of the Lord, "'What is thy name? that when the sayings come to pass, we may do the honor. And the angel of the Lord said unto him, why askest thou after my name, seeing it a secret? Verse number 19, so Manoah took a kid with a meat offering and offered it upon a rock unto the Lord, and the angel did wondrously. And Manoah and his wife looked on, and it came to pass when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on it, and fell on their faces to the ground. But the angel of the Lord did no more appear to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was an angel of the Lord. And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God. But his wife said unto him, If the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands, neither would he have showed us all these things, nor would as at this time have told us such things as these." Verse 24, "'And the woman bare a son and called his name Samson. And the child grew, and the Lord blessed him. And the Spirit of the Lord began to move on him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtol.'" A church family, a very simple story this morning. I wanted to draw some application. I want to go back to the beginning of the chapter, sometimes we almost skip over the very start of this story. The very start of this story was Manoah's wife who was barren, who couldn't have a child. Now I don't know if you've ever thought about, and just in preparing the message this morning, I've gone, I went through the Old Testament and was looking at the different people who were, who that God had either shut up their womb or not allowed them to have a child. And it's a really interesting study because almost in every instance, you'll find out that God did that for a particular purpose. And the baby that was to be born was to do something for God. I mean, you can go all the way back to the story of Abraham and Sarah. And she didn't have a child. And obviously she's up in years. And how that God used that really, you remember when she was first told that she was going to have a child that she laughed. And it was kind of made fun of it. But God had to use that in her life to cause her to believe, and obviously, the child that is born, Isaac, and all that God did with Isaac. You think about, there's several of them. I think about Rachel, and how she couldn't have a child, and how then, obviously, God allowed her to have Joseph and Benjamin, and look at all that God did with Joseph. I think about, just there's several of them in the Old Testament. I think about Hannah. Hannah's the one that we probably would think of first, and how God wouldn't let her have a child, and how that she's in bitterness of soul, and she's at the temple, and she's praying, And of course, Hannah's husband, Elkanah, looks at her and Elkanah says, Am not I better to thee than ten sons? And it's interesting to me, the Bible never records what her answer was to that. But she's distressed about this and God gives her a Samuel. But she had to come to the point in her life where she said, Hey God, You know what, if you'll give me a child, I'll give him back to you for the rest of his life. In each of these, and I could go through others in the Old Testament, but in each of these situations, they came to a point in time in their life when there wasn't anything that they could do to change the situation. A church family, as we think about our lives this morning, as you think about your life, If you haven't been in this situation, you're going to be in it someday where you get to a point in life where there's nothing else you can do to make it happen. What do you do? Maybe it's a funny story. Brother Daniels might remember this. Brother Daniels is up in the sound room. I remember, I would have been probably maybe 16 or so years old, somewhere around that. We were moving, the church used to be located in Lawrence on the corner of Sixth and Folks Road. The building that's behind us, the educational building, we had constructed that entire building. We met in it as an auditorium. We put it all up. We had just finished, it took us three years, when the Lord, allowed us to get this property out here. And the people that bought our property in Lawrence didn't want the building. And so we pastors said, hey, we're going to take it with us to the new property. We need buildings. So the building that we had just constructed, and some of you that are sitting in here, you were here in those days. We took it down. Every board, every denailed everything, took it all down. I remember when we got pretty much the whole structure down, and there was just the red iron. left, and most of it, even all the trusses on the top, everything had been done, and we were taking the sidewall off. Brother Caleb Bottrell was assistant pastor here at the time on staff, and I remember, I think it was Josh and I, but there was, we had the big, you know the big, the pillars on the side, there was nothing on top, but the big red iron pillars, and there was cross members in between those pillars. And they had taken all the cross members off. There was two pillars left. And there was one big cross member across the top of those two pillars. And it was bolted on. And we were disassembling this. And he had one of those really large telehandler forklifts that would go 30 feet in the air with the forks. And we did not do things as safely as we should back then. And I was a teenager helping take this building down. And I remember, I think it was Brother Josh and myself. But he said, hey, listen, I'm going to take you guys. I'm going to put you on the forks. I'm going to take one of you up and set you on top of that pillar. I'll take the other one up, set them on top of that pillar, and give you the wrenches. You guys unbolt that cross member, and then I'll take the forklift and take that cross member down. And then I'll come back up with the forklift and get you. Ah, no big deal. I'm used to heights. I'm not nearly as heavy as I am right now. And so it didn't bother me at all to be way off the ground. He took us up there, we get up on top of ours, got the cross member there, and you take the bolt out of the cross member, and then he took the forklift over. I still to this day, I'm 40 years old, I distinctly remember the feeling when he took the cross member away. The post that I was setting on, Remember, no safety harnesses or none of that, okay? The post that I was setting, the top of that beam, as I remember it, was probably about 18 inches long and maybe five or six inches wide. And I'm just setting on that beam, straddling it. And I remember seeing the cross member go away with the forklift and just looking down. And church family, there was nothing except for hard concrete and construction debris at the bottom of this post. And I'm waiting for the forklift to come back. And it's just one of those moments it just hits you, there is nothing that I can do. You know the term that people say, you know, a turtle sitting on top of a fence post? That was real life example of that. I mean, I was a skinny turtle at the time, but I was sitting there on top of this pillar that was probably out of whatever it is. It's the same building that sits behind us, 20 feet in the air, and there wasn't anything. that I could do. Now, church family, there's gonna be times in your life when life circumstances are going to put you in that situation. Now, your I cannot moment might be financial. There might be a time in your life when you just at the end of the road find, I don't know what to do. I don't have the money for this need. Hey, your I cannot moment might be health. You might go to the doctor and the doctor gives you the diagnosis and there is nothing that you can do about it. Church family, some of you in here, your I cannot moment is gonna be a relationship with a spouse, relationship with a child. Maybe your I cannot moment is going to be something that happens at work. That the situation is out of your control. And although you would do anything in your power to change it, you cannot. Now, can you put yourself in the shoes or in the life story this morning of this lady that we don't even know what her name is. But Manoah's wife, God doesn't tell us very much about her except for one thing. She was barren and she bare not. Now I take it very distinctly from that verse that they wanted to have children, that they had tried to have children, that they expected to have children, but they couldn't. And she came to a point in time in her life where she simply had to say, I cannot. What am I going to do? Now, Church Family, I want to take a story this morning, and I want to look through these verses, and I want you and I to apply this to us. There are other women in the Bible that we could look at the same situation where they were at that point in time. There's other Bible stories where it wasn't a matter of having a child, it was other situations that happened in Bible stories where people also came to this point in time in life where there wasn't anything they could do. But I want you to think this morning about your life. maybe some of you in this morning are sitting in the service this morning, and maybe it's a life circumstance that's so personal you couldn't even tell anybody, but you can't do anything about it. I'm going to tell you, when you get to that point in time in life, you have the opportunity If you keep a right relationship and attitude towards your Heavenly Father to see God do things in your life that you wouldn't see any other time. In this passage, I want to look at this story where this woman got to that point where there wasn't anything she could do. Now listen, church family, the Scripture is not descriptive to know really honestly what her attitude was. I don't know if she cried herself to sleep every night. I don't know if they had been to see doctors or taken other avenues to try to fix whatever was wrong. But all that they had done and all that they could do didn't work. All right, so now verse number two, let's look at it again. The Bible says this, that she was barren. Jump down, actually let's start in verse number three. The Bible says this, and the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman and said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren, and bearest not, but look what he says, but thou shalt conceive and bear a son. The church family, I don't know. To me, it seems like in the story that wherever she's at, now the second time that the angel comes to her, she's in the field. I don't know where she was in this particular instance, if she was in the house, in the field, or where she was. But it seems like that this angel of God just suddenly shows up and just says, hey, I know you can't do anything about your situation, but you're gonna have a child. You're gonna have a son. It seems very sudden. Can I tell you, God's timing is always right. Can I tell you the first thing? When you're in a situation, when you're in a place when you cannot, Number one is wait on God's will. Church family, that's probably the hardest thing that a Christian has to do, is to wait on God's will. Hey, I can't tell you why it wasn't God's will for her to have a child up until chapter 13. I don't know why God didn't allow her to have children before this, but God in His will allowed her to be barren until you get to verse number three and God sends his angel and says, okay, now is the time. Church family, what do you do when you cannot? What do you do when all of your resources are run out? What do you do when it seems like you've waited and you've waited and it seems like it just is not happening and you can't make it happen? wait on God's will. Several times through the next few verses are verse number five and verse number seven, again, He promises you're going to have a child. This was God's timing. I cannot help but think about when Jesus taught His disciples how to pray, and even in the model prayer, one of the things that He told them to pray to the Father, thy will be done. Do you know that you and I should be asking God every day of our life, God, would you help me to be in your perfect will for my life? God, if your will for my life today is to be in this situation where I feel helpless, then God, help me to stay in your will. Help me not to be upset. Help me to have the right attitude. And God, if there's something I need to do or somewhere I need to go or somewhere that I need to stay, help me to be in your will. I can't help church family but not think of the story of Joseph. You can imagine being Joseph when he has the dream, back when he's at home with his father and his brothers and all of his brother's sheaves are bowing down to his sheaf. And I don't know what went through his mind. I don't know if he really understood the dream or what was being prophetically spoken. But for the next several years of his life, that did not come through. He goes from there to the pit. He goes from the pit to being sold as a slave. He goes from being sold as a slave to Potiphar's house. He goes from there to being lied about and being put in prison. And then finally, when it was time, God said, okay, now you're second in command of the entire country of Egypt. Church family, I don't know what God's timing is in your life, but when you get to that place in life where you've done all you can and you cannot wait on God's will, you ought to ask God every day, God help me to be in your perfect will today. Help me to accept your will, help me to take the steps, help me to make the decisions that I'm supposed to make to be in your will. I'm gonna give you the second thing this morning, not only when you cannot wait on God, you should wait on God's will, but also when you cannot, look at verse number eight, the Bible's, it's interesting to me, verse number eight, and Manoah entreated the Lord and said, now church family, Understand, yes, this is Manoah speaking, this is not his wife speaking, but when he speaks to the angel, he speaks on behalf of both of them. Follow me along in verse number eight. He says this, and read the next two words, teach us. hey, do you know what you ought to do when you get to that point where you cannot? Number one, wait on God's will. Number two, ask God to teach you. You look through Bible story after Bible story after Bible story of people who got to that point in time in their life where they couldn't, they had nowhere to turn. And in every situation, you're gonna see that God wanted to teach them a lesson. Now I'm going to tell you, it's no different with your life. It's no different with mine. God allows us to be in that situation so that He can teach us. Ask God to teach you. Again, illustrations come to mind. I think of Saul when he was king and obviously when he became king, He didn't feel like that he could be. He hid. They were going to make him king and he's hiding among the stuff. And then what happens just a few chapters later, seemingly in Scripture, it's just seeming a little while later, and I know it was years of time, but just a little while later, He doesn't obey God. He takes matters into his own hand. Doesn't kill all the Amalekites as far as, saves King Agab and saves some of the livestock. And you know what the Bible says about him? It says, when thou wast little in thine own sight. Oh, for King Saul, there was a time when he didn't think that he could. And that's when God picked him up and said, I want you to be king and rule over my people. There was a time in King Saul's life when he said, I know better than God. And that's when God said, you'll no longer be king, and I'm gonna give it to David. Hey, church family, can I tell you, when you get to that point in time in life, when none of us want to be there, but when God puts you in that situation in life where there's nothing else you can do, yes, wait on God's will, ask him to be, but ask God to teach you. Look for what God is trying to do in your life. We have such a tendency just to look at the negative, and just to look at the fact that I can't, or this won't happen, or I can't make this take place in my life, or I can't fix this. Instead of simply looking at it and saying, God, there's a lesson in this for me. There's a truth. There's a way that you want to help my life. Here's Manoah. Understand, in this part of the story, yes, they had been promised a child, but they had no child. They didn't have a baby to hold. They didn't have the promise, or they had the promise, but they didn't have the fulfillment of the promise for a child. And Manoah says, God, I just want you to tell us what we're supposed to do. Would you teach us? What do you do, secondly, this morning? What do you do when you cannot, is ask God to teach you this morning. Let's look at the last thing this morning, just again, simple thought this morning. Look down in verse number, towards the end of the chapter, If you look in verse number 22, Manoah again after the angel ascends up in the flame to heaven in verse number 22 and Manoah says to his wife, we'll surely die because we have seen God. Verse number 23 is interesting to me what his wife says. His wife said unto him, If the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not receive a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands, neither would he have showed us all these things, nor would, as at this time, have told us such things as these." Now I don't know, again, I'm not going to add to it, but if I could kind of paraphrase the story right here. Manoah says, oh, we're done. I did not realize that we were actually talking to God. I thought we were talking to a prophet or somebody, and now this man of God that we thought was a man of God, he ascended up into the flame, and we've talked to God face to face. We're gonna die, we're done. And his wife, who we don't know really very much about this woman, but his wife looks at him and says, wait a second, wait a second. If God wanted to kill us, He wouldn't have told us all that He just told us. He wouldn't have promised us a son. He wouldn't have promised all this stuff. We would not have been able to see this take place. We would have not have heard these things with our ears if God wanted to kill us. In other words, Manoah's wife simply did this. This is number three. She simply took God at His word. What do you do when you can't fix the situation? And you don't know how you're going to get out of this. You simply do what Manoah's wife did when she just simply said, we're just going to believe God. God said we're going to have a child. God said this is gonna take place. God said he's gonna fix this situation in our lives. She simply took God at his word. Church family, sometimes that is a lot harder to live than it is to say. I think so often of the story in the New Testament where Simon, Jesus tells him to launch out into the deep and cast your nets out to catch fish. And you remember the story how he says, hey, Jesus, We fished all night. We didn't catch anything. We've toiled and toiled and toiled. We're done. We're not going to catch any fish today. But he makes that statement in that passage that always sticks out to me. He says, nevertheless, at thy word, we will. Jesus, I don't think this is going to work. I don't think we're going to catch any fish. We've already tried this. But at thy word, because you said this, We're gonna do this, and we're gonna take you at your word. Church family, I know there's things that happen in life that, from a human standpoint, you can't explain. There's times that you're gonna be in life where you feel like that you've done everything you can, and you don't feel like, humanly speaking, that there's a way out. Can I tell you what you oughta do in those situations? Number one, wait on God's will. God, maybe it's not your time yet. Maybe your time for this is tomorrow or next month or next year or whenever. Oftentimes we're in the situation where it's an emergency, God, you have to take care of it today or everything is done. And sometimes God just wants you to get past that and just say, okay, God, whenever your time is. If it's not today, maybe tomorrow, maybe next year, maybe whenever. Wait on God's will. What do you do when you get to that point where you cannot? Ask God to teach you. Here's Manoah just simply saying, God, would you just simply teach us what we're supposed to do? There's a lesson in this for us. And then number three, simply take God at His word. Church family, you remember the story of Paul? Remember Paul and the ship when there's a shipwreck? He gets up and stands up before all those people on that ship. And he said, hey, an angel of God stood by me this night. He said, we're going to lose the ship, but there's not going to be a loss of any man's life. Apostle Paul made that statement. I believe God. Do you know that believing God is a choice? You have to decide that you're going to take God at his word. You have to decide that you're going to stop looking at the circumstances of I cannot and look at the God who can. and the God who allowed you to be in the situation that you're at, and the God who has all of the necessary things to be able to fix your situation. Hey, can I tell you, what should you do when you cannot? Take God at His word. Now, church family, I know the thought this morning is simple. I would call it bottom shelf. You can read this passage, I think, just like I can read. and I know there's different truths and we don't always catch all the truths as we go, but I think the truth is really clear this morning. This may not be your I cannot time. Maybe everything in life is seemingly going well. We get in this mindset of life of I'm in control. I am making this thing happen. I was talking in the Grow in Grace class this morning, we were talking about, I mentioned this morning, even our next breath comes from God. There's nothing that Barney Smith can do to keep life moving or to keep life sustained or to make anything happen in my life. But when you're not going through trials and hardships and you're not going through those rough times, your mind sometimes gets set in motion in this idea that I'm gonna do this, and I'm gonna make this happen, and this is gonna take place, and your schedule is laid out, and your finances are laid out, and your job is laid out, and your family is laid out, and you just feel like everything is going like it's supposed to. And then, if you live long enough, there will come a time in life, and it might not be today, but you're gonna come to a time in life where you cannot Sometimes you cannot, and you don't even feel like you can tell anybody, but you can't do anything about it. And you know what your Heavenly Father wants you simply to do? Your Heavenly Father just wants you to stop and say, I cannot, but I'm gonna wait on your will. Maybe it's not today, maybe it's not tomorrow, but you have a will for my life, and God, whenever that will is, wherever and however, I'm gonna wait on you. Maybe you're gonna get to that point in time in life and you cannot, and you're just gonna have to stop and say, wait a second, there's another purpose in this happening. Lord, would you teach me? Would you help me to learn from this? Maybe you're gonna get to that point in time in life and you're just gonna have to make the big boy decision to say, I don't understand it, but God, I'm gonna take you at your word. Hey, I don't know where you're at, maybe this message is for some time in the future, but ask God to help you. When you cannot, church family, He can. And He knows what's best for our lives. Let's stand to our feet, heads bowed, eyes closed.