Shamgar didn't have the right resources or training, yet he accomplished big things with God. Are you going to be a sluggard — who fails at doing the right thing, while making excuses — or are you going to be a Shamgar? Pastor Dave explains more in his sermon.



Audio Transcript

Here's what we know about Shamgar — he killed 600 guys with a pointy stick. That's it. 

Now here's the thing, you say "Well why did he use a pointy stick?" Here's what we can further assume about knowing about this guy Shamgar — he was not a soldier because if he was a soldier do you know what he would have used? A sword. Right? He would have picked up a sword to go to battle.

God called him to do this thing and he's like "Well okay." And he goes off knowing with what he has.

He's a farmer. He's somebody who has an oxgoad. You know an oxgoad is used for? When you're plowing a field you use the oxgoad literally to goad the ox. You poke him so that he stays in a straight line while he's plowing the field. It is not a weapon. It is a farming utensil. It's like going out there with a rake and be like, "Bring it Philistines!" 

He steps up and I don't know if he killed 600 in one battle.. that would have been dope for sure. What I kind of hope actually happened is that maybe... I want the playback of this one in heaven... I hope that he did it while they were doing their two-person patrols and he just waited in the bushes. Right? With his oxgoad in hand he's like, "I don't know what I'm doing but God told me to do something. Here we go."

As they came around... *JAB* Right? And they're dropping and I hope that one of them got away and he ran back to the Philistine army, and he said "There's this guy out there with a pointy stick keep stabbing us in the neck. I don't know what's going on." 

Shamgar was a guy who God called him to do a thing and he did not have the right equipment and he did not have the proper training and he was not the right kind of person and what he said is, "Cool. Let's go!"

Every day you wake up, your head pops off of the pillow. Every day you wake up and you have an option — you have a choice that you get to make and on the choice it's very simple — am I going to be a sluggard today or am I going to be a Shamgar?

Is the day going to happen to me or am I going to happen to the day?

God has called you to be more than conquerors. God has called you to do great and mighty works. How many times do we let those things get away from us because we instead say, "Meh. I'm
comfortable here."

Guys, we are missing the truth and the power of the gospel when we choose to be a sluggard, when we choose to make excuses, and we choose comfort over progress, and when we refuse to learn and become prepared for what God has called us to.

We are missing the entire point of the gospel. You're called to change the world.


View the full sermon here.


David Atherton