We're going to wrap up
the life of Samson today in judges 16.
But before we do, I need to feel like I need to,
in my pastoral role and authority in this church.
Acknowledge what's what's happening on Tuesday.
It's a big deal.
And while I trust completely the sovereignty of God,
his sovereignty does not equal abdication of responsibility.
And so God has in his mercy and grace,
given the citizens of this nation, a great opportunity to vote.
And we should take that opportunity.
However, we have to remember that,
our faith as Christ followers
must inform and direct that vote.
Now, personally, people have asked, well, what about you?
What are your thoughts on the election and the candidates and whatnot?
Neither candidate is personally appealing to me.
You. But honestly, it doesn't matter
because I'm not looking for a life role model.
I got one in Jesus.
And so as a Christ follower,
I'm not voting for personality.
I'm voting about policy,
and I'm voting about policy.
That, most closely aligns with my theology.
And that's the role of a Christ follower.
And so the policy that aligns most closely with my theology is one,
the protection of life that begins in the womb.
It's very important.
And that policy aligns with theology.
Another
policy aligns with my theology is the sanctity of life,
not just
in the womb, but once that life
is on this planet in physical form
and throughout its life.
And part of that means
that, the sanctity of life and the sanctity of what
it is to be male and female means those things don't get crossed.
And boys don't belong in girls sports.
No girls locker rooms.
So that's my theology,
and that's how it informs my vote.
But also not just the sanctity of life,
but the sanctity of marriage.
And the policy that aligns most closely with that is that marriage is
it is a holy institution between a man and a woman.
And my theology
informs that vote and all my theology also informs
the policy of the support of Israel.
And lastly, if I were to tell you
about my voting habits, it aligns
with my theology that also includes secure borders.
And so I charge you
in the name of Jesus if you claim Christ to vote,
but to make sure that your vote aligns with your theology
because your policy must bend to your theology.
Your theology was never bend to anything.
And so as you understand biblical theology,
make sure that you take advantage of the opportunity given to us by God
as free citizens to cast a vote
and make sure that that vote aligns with biblical theology.
Is that clear?
It's clear.
Judges 16.
We spent four chapters looking at the life
of Samson in the Book of Judges.
And Samson is probably the most well known
judge of all the judges in the book of judges.
He is the one that if little kids
hear Bible stories in Sunday school, if parents talk to their kids
about Old Testament stuff.
Samson is one of the heroes.
He's the typically the big guy that pushes over pillars and that God uses.
That's a very simplified understanding of who Samson is.
Samson is a very complex man.
Great dichotomy.
He's an enigma. He is called set apart
by God, but rarely ever does he live according to his call.
He is a man of great
failure and a man of great strength.
And he absolutely walks away from his calling,
away from his God, and that God continues to empower him and to use him.
It's a wonderful study.
In in a man who was called by
God yet fails time and time again.
A lot of people look at Samson, and they would describe him as a man
who didn't live up to his potential.
I don't like talking about potential, because inherent
in when we talk about our potential, it means there's something within us
that is capable of something in us
that has, that has some power and weight to it.
When you talk about the Christ follower, you are not talking about your potential.
I talk about God's potential because the Bible says
with man it's impossible, but with God it's possible.
And so I don't talk about potential because as a Christ follower,
I almost only talk about God's pictures on God's potential. Is.
Unlimited potential.
So what I rather is talk about are call
because regardless of the potential you think you have, God
has a call on your life and we can embrace
that call or squander that call.
God's potentials unlimited and unmatched.
It doesn't matter about the vessel.
It matters about the God in the vessel.
And that potential unlimited.
But that vessel has a call on it,
and we can embrace that call or deny that call.
And there will be results on
either way with either decision.
So Samson is a man who had an a great call of God
on his life, who denied that call most of his life.
And so as we wrap this up,
the most famous judge of all the judges,
nearly 20% of the book is dedicated to Samson.
There's other judges in the book of judges. They get one verse.
This man gets four chapters.
And so, as we wrap up his life,
let's look together at judges 16.
One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute.
Now, Gaza is one of the five cities that the Philistines have,
have, have taken up residency and leadership of within, within,
the Promised Land.
And I don't know if you've
heard about Gaza lately in the news, but that's it's an ad.
He saw a prostitute
and he went in to spend the night with her.
I mean, he went and he paid for her services.
The people of Gaza were told Samson is here.
So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate.
They made no move during the night, saying that Dawn will kill him.
They wanted to get rid of Samson because he was the judge
that God was using to to subdue the Philistines, the enemies of God,
so that his God's people could live freely in the Promised Land.
And so
what we see right off the bat, Samson, and this has been the trajectory
of his life. It's just this downward spiral, though.
He's called by God
and he accepts that call, this downward spiral of destruction and degradation.
And he's in this place where he shouldn't be.
Gaza.
And he sees a prostitute
and he pays for her services.
Listen, this is a one of the things we've got to realize,
and we see it so clearly in Samson's life.
You and I are not strong enough to flirt with the enemy in enemy territory.
We're not strong enough.
As you look at Samson's life in Scripture.
I want you to start drawing the, the the analogies between
these women and his life.
And and and in this case, the problem.
We'll see it in Delilah later
representing sin and Samson representing
some of is called by God who indulges in sin.
And what we see in him is a man called by God,
who thinks he's strong enough to flirt with the enemy in enemy territory.
Do you see that?
And so many people of those of us who claim Christ,
we're still infatuated with the enemy
and the things of the enemy.
And we flirt with temptation,
and we flirt with things that we know are contrary to God's word,
because we think we're strong enough to handle it.
Or we play in the enemy's playground thinking there's no consequence.
And here's the problem.
God is so merciful and so gracious and so patient with us.
We feel like we get away with it time and time and time again.
And we we wrongly assume that because we get away with it,
that there is no consequence, that God doesn't care.
I'll be very careful.
Second Timothy two
says, flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness and faith,
love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
There are some things that God says.
Don't flirt with this.
Don't toy with it.
Don't play with this.
Don't see how close to the fire you get.
Don't see how close to the edge you can get.
Don't mess with some things.
Because you're not strong enough to flirt with the enemy
and enemy lands.
Samson
has flirted with the enemy for so long
he thinks he's strong enough
to have a handle on it.
Just ring a bell for anybody.
But Samson lay there only until the middle of the night.
Then he got up, took hold of the doors of the city gate
together with the two poles, and tore them loose, barred all.
He lifted them to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the
hill that faces Hebron.
So Samson, in his
his anger, in his vengeance, he knows they're out to kill him.
He takes over the city gates,
rips them out of their foundations, and takes them up on it.
Here's what he's doing.
A city without gates is unprotected.
A city without gates is going to be conquered.
Okay.
And so what he's doing is saying, I'm going to rip out your city gates
and leave you unprotected.
Leave you vulnerable so you can be destroyed.
Now, just understand these city gates that he turns out
through archeological study, they have found similar gates.
And these things, as far as I have understood and read, they
they wade anywhere from 2 to 4 tons
solid, very heavy wooden doors
encased in iron on iron posts, driven into the ground
2 to 4 tons,
and he turns them out, puts them on his shoulder and walks
them up a hill to sit there to tell the city were unprotected,
and they're going to be destroyed.
One thing we know from Scripture that Samson
was this man of incredible strength, right?
Though like when the Spirit of God will come upon him,
he was endowed with supernatural strength.
This is certainly one of those times.
Was it two times? Was a four times.
I don't care if it's 400 pounds.
It's still a pretty awesome feat,
right? Right.
But I want you to understand what's happening here.
He tears off the walls of the city, leaving the city unprotected,
leaving it vulnerable to the enemy.
And he's making a statement.
He's making a statement not knowing what will be written in Proverbs
20 2528 that says a man without self-control.
All is like a city without gates.
All. What has Samson lacked his whole life?
Self self-control.
And in his self
righteous anger, he rips off these city gates, removes them, thinking, ha ha,
I showed you you are now without protection.
You are now doomed to destruction.
Not realizing his whole life has been that very statement.
Samson, you are a man without self-control,
and you're just like a city without its gates,
doomed to destruction.
But part of the fruit of the spirit we know from Ephesians
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self-control.
Sometime later, he fell in love with the woman
in the Valley of Sorrow, whose name was Delilah.
Yeah, I did this in the first service.
It worked pretty well for a moment.
Have you ever been to one of those dinner theaters, those drama ones
where the bad guy would come out and it would be a good movie and the.
Good morning. Hey, have ever been one of those?
So. So let's do that.
Okay. Let's just be done right now.
Sometime later, he fell in love with a woman
in the valley of sorts, whose name was Delilah.
Yeah.
Hey, it not nearly as good as the first service.
The rulers of the Philistines
went to her and said, see if you can lure him into
into showing you the secret of his great strength
and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him.
Each one of us will give you 1100 shekels of silver.
Don't do it anymore.
It was just a one time thing.
Here's what I want you to understand.
When?
When they ask her, see if you can lure him into showing you
the secret of his great strength.
I shared this first. In the first week.
We talked about Samson.
We've always thought of Samson.
Had this big Herculean, like Jason Momoa, like yoked guy, right?
This huge man who has this great strength.
I don't think he was like that.
I think he was a real skinny,
engineer type with glasses and a pocket protector that drove a Prius.
I just don't think that guy just saying
I don't think he was this big, hulking man.
I think it was a little skinny.
Like a marathon runner looking type of guy.
Why? Because they're asking what is the secret to his strength?
If he were this huge man, they were like, of course he's strong.
We get a look at him.
I mean, it's huge. Of course you can do this.
I think he was this
because this is the way God works.
God always uses the unexpected to do the unexplained.
Always.
You don't look the part great.
You don't have the background.
Great. You're not where you should be. Great.
You're a perfect candidate for God to do some incredible stuff through.
So, so see if you can look at this show.
And they said, we'll give you each, 1100 shekels of silver.
This equates to, in our world, about $300,000.
So our
money I'm here with inflation and the shrinkage of your food
packages and stuff and gas prices, you know, it just all I mean, we get it.
It's a lot of money.
And so she agrees.
So the last set of Samson, some of the secret of your great strength
and how you can be tied up and subdued now again, please,
I told you at the beginning of this series
that judges is an R-rated book.
Okay?
And I'm going to do my best not to get too R-rated,
but if you're little, cover your ears.
Sam. Here's what's going on here.
Samson is not thinking that he's in any danger.
Samson is thinking he's in for a fun night with his.
With his girl.
That's literally what's going on.
He's so oblivious to the danger of the enemy.
He thinks the enemy is going to be fun.
He's so oblivious to the wiles of the enemy.
You know, and and this is
this is our relationship with sin.
She's out to get him killed.
He's thinking she's fun.
And this is exactly what we do.
We think flirting with sin
is fun.
And all the while, sin has one
desire to steal, kill, and destroy.
And it will tie us up.
And it won't be fun.
To understand.
And so if you read verses
seven through 14, Samson goes through this whole, these three,
three tricks of Delilah, and he tells her three things that don't work
about the secret of his strength just because he can, so he can mess with her.
And he says through these few verses, first time heals.
Hey, you don't just tie me up with seven fresh bow strings like from a bow.
He says I'll be your weakness.
Any man you can do with me whatever you want.
And so she does.
And then she cries out on ships in the Philippines.
You're here.
And he breaks the bow strings and she's like, oh, Samson, you don't love me.
How come you didn't tell me the truth?
Please tell me.
The sugar is like, okay, I hear it.
So here's the truth. Tie me up with seven and use ropes.
I'll be your weakness. Any man you can do me whatever you want.
So she ties him up with seven on your ropes
and she's like, oh, Samson, that feels good. You.
And he breaks the ropes.
It's like, oh, so you love me.
How could you lie to me?
And so the third time
he says, well, we've so, you know, he's got this long hair
because I want you to remember
what was the, the the Nazarite, this vow that he had taken the fall
God, what were the three things around this Nazarite veil?
Do you remember? There were three things.
So? So one of them was once you made this vow.
Agree to this vow, you shaved your head.
And then you didn't let a razor touch it until your vow was complete.
Okay.
The second thing was that you don't.
You don't mess with fermented drinks.
So no wine, no beer.
Like, no, no grapes, no raisins.
You just stay away.
The third thing was you don't go near a dead body.
Whether it's a funeral for a loved one or a dead car.
You just don't go near a dead body.
And so what we've seen in Samson's life, he is transgression.
All of these vows his whole life.
And so now it comes to the to, to,
to the overriding symbol of his vow and his consecration.
God, his hair
is in seven great braids.
And he says, just, just take my hair,
weave it into a weaver's loom and I'll be trapped.
And so she does.
And he wakes up and he, you know, breaks himself free.
And she's she's at her wit's end.
So how come you keep lying to me?
Judges 1615 then she said to him,
how can you say I love you when you won't confide in me?
This is the third time you've made a fool of me,
and haven't told me the strength of the secret of your great strength.
I mean, what a conniving, manipulative, wretched woman she.
She doesn't want Samson to tell her the secret of her strength
so they can share, you know, what's really going on in their lives
and have complete transparency.
She wants to know the secret.
So she can't sub.
So she can anchor so she can destroy him.
He's going to sink in this thing and this is going to be fun.
We're gonna have a good time.
She's thinking, yeah, I'm going to lure you with that so that I can destroy you.
And I'm telling your friends,
this is the nature of sin and temptation.
This is how it works.
And we don't realize how deadly it is.
We don't believe the word of Scripture that says to flee from this stuff
because it will tie you up, bind
you up, and destroy you.
With such nagging, she prodded him day after day
until he was sick to death of it.
He, Samson,
does a horrible job at picking good women.
This is what his first wife did that ended up dying.
And so he told her everything.
Listen, leaders don't give in to pressure.
Let me just tell you that.
He just gives him the nagging, gives him the pressure.
You know, I'd rather just give in and be done with it.
Leaders don't do that.
So he told her everything.
No razor has ever been used on my head, he said, because I have been a Nazarite
dedicated to God from my mother's womb.
If my head was shaved, my strength would leave me
and I would become as weak as any other man.
And so he tells her everything.
And then verse 18, she sets him up one more time, and in verse 18
she goes to the field, she leaders, and she says, okay, guys, I got it.
I know the secret.
Come on back in line. Wait
and make sure you bring your money.
And so
verses 19 and 20,
after putting him to sleep on her lap, she called for someone to shave off
the seven braids of his hair and so began to subdue
him, and his strength left him.
Then she called Samson.
The Philistines are upon you.
He awoke from his sleep and thought, I'll go out
as before and shake myself free.
But he did not know that the Lord had left him.
I want you understand
how profound this is.
He had flirted with sin so much
he didn't think there were any consequences to it.
He mistook the presence and the mercy and the grace of God
for God, winking at his sin and not caring.
And so once again he thought, oh, just go out and do a lot of dumb before
it's going to be all right. No big deal.
Not knowing that the Lord had left him.
First
Corinthians 1613 says this be watchful.
Don't go to sleep.
Stand firm in the faith, act
like men and be strong.
Quit flirting around with you're certainly flirting around with.
Don't act like it doesn't matter.
It's not important.
Wake up. Open your eyes. Act like a man.
Be strong.
The devil is such a clever barber.
Who knows how to lull us to sleep?
And cut off that connection
between us and God.
He knows how to allow us to sleep
and convince us that compromise
is not deadly.
He's a much craftier barber than Delilah.
See, here's what I know.
Constant compromise leads us to be numb to God's presence.
Did you notice what the Bible said?
He didn't realize the Lord had left him.
He had compromised so much
he couldn't realize that God had withdrawn his hand
was even more frightful than that.
Is this Samson's life of compromise now meant not only could
he not feel God's presence now, he couldn't even recognize his absence.
His compromise
led him to the point where not only God, where are you now?
He didn't realize even that God was gone.
Samson is a cautionary tale
of a life who has the call of God on him,
who played around with compromise so much he lost his ability
to recognize God's presence and to realize his absence.
It's the passage in Ephesians one that I pray over myself
and my family every single morning, and it is this
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious father,
may give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation
so that we may know him better.
I pray that the eyes of our heart may be enlightened, in order
that you may know the hope to which is called you
the riches of his glory, inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably
great power for us who believe that power is the same as the mighty strength
he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead, and seated him at his right
hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority,
power and dominion, and every name that is invoked
not only in the present age, but also in the one to come.
I want, I want my family to know
and to feel and experience the presence of Almighty God,
to be endowed with the spirit of wisdom
and revelation, to know him better.
Compromise will ruin that and destroy that every time.
And a life of compromise will become a life
that doesn't even recognize our own.
The presence of God.
But the absence of God and God.
I pray that doesn't happen to me and my family.
Jesus himself said in Matthew 28, I am with
you always to the very end of the age.
My prayer is that we're a people.
Who refuse to live lives of compromise,
so we will be aware of his presence.
Verse 21.
Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes,
and took him down to Gaza, binding him with bronze shackles.
They set him to grinding grain in the prison.
Samson and the
other than the heart issue that he has, because he's got a heart issue,
what is led Samson into sin?
Time and time and time again.
Remember when we first met Samson in his adult life?
It says he saw a woman in Timna and said,
I like the way she looks, daddy, go get her for me.
And then he's in Gaza and he sees a prostitute
and he goes in and pays for her services.
And then he sees Delilah.
What has led him away from God?
His eyes and what's been gouged out.
Don't miss this.
God may destroy in you
that which you use to disobey him.
God may destroy in you
that which you use to ignore him.
Not because he's mean.
Not because he's angry.
Because he wants you.
To understand.
I'll ask you again.
Because maybe you didn't hear me.
Do you understand? Yes.
What?
What a tragic life.
Right.
I mean, look at this call God has on him.
What a sacrifice of a call
has got done incredible things for us.
I'm sure he has.
Has God done all that God desired to do through his life?
I kind of doubt it.
Did God use him even in his sin?
Yeah, but God used him not because of his own use and despite his sin.
And I just wonder how much more
had Samson honored his vow
and honored the God who created him and made him and called him?
How much more of he could have stepped
into this incredible call from an Almighty God?
I wonder how much Samson left on the table
not of his potential,
because it's God's potential work in terms of its unlimited future.
But I wonder how much of the call of God he left on the table
unrealized.
I mean, at this point, you look at it, the tragedy.
But there's a verse in chapter 16 that I absolutely.
And years ago I underlined this and highlighted,
and this has been one of the verses I've held on to.
And every morning I'm like, oh Lord, yes.
But the hair on his head
began to grow again after it had been shaved.
I don't laugh because I'm bald.
There's a there's a spiritual thing going on here.
I don't want you to miss it.
This beautiful.
The sign of Samson's call and vow.
And the source
of the strength that God gave him was his.
What? His hair.
That was the sign.
I'm consecrated to God.
That was removed and
God's hand was taken away.
And he's sitting in this jail blind,
crushing grain for the end, doing the enemy's work.
And one day, I don't know how long took.
One day he reaches that.
Oh. Stubble.
I got his whiskers
right.
And instantly he knew
God. He was so good to me.
Because even though I have degraded
everything you've given me, every call you put on my life.
And even though I'm in the dungeon of and your hand is still on me.
Because your mercy and your grace is making the stubble come back.
You understand?
Like immediately.
You know, God, I know that you see me.
I know that you hear me.
I know that you still chose me because there's stubble that's coming back.
I'm not lost
and I'm still valuable to you.
You still call me.
And with everything I've sacrificed,
you still have a future.
Listen, my friends, sometimes you just have to be aware
enough of the stubble that's coming back.
God's not done.
You may be bald, blind and in a jail cell.
Grinding grain.
Watch for the stump.
Because the stubble on your head is an indication of God's
mercy and grace. God.
And when the Bible says his hair begins to grow,
that is the Bible statement that he reasserts and reaffirms his vow to God.
God, if you'll still have me.
I'm yours.
That's a beautiful verse of Hope.
It's a beautiful verse of mercy.
It's a beautiful verse of grace.
And in verse 23 and 24,
all these Philistines are together,
and they're having this huge for thousands of people,
and they bring Samson out to be their little puppet, make fun of him.
And this is what they say.
Our God has delivered our enemy into our hands.
They put it in terms of their God
against Samson's God.
They think they beat God.
Listen,
don't you ever believe that you beat him.
Don't you ever believe that you be God?
Galatians six seven and eight says,
God will not be mocked.
You may have gotten away.
We may have gone.
I may have gotten away for a lot of stuff for a long time.
But in the absence of repentance
and the absence of God's mercy and grace,
that bill will come to
because God will not be mocked.
And in verses
25 through 27, while all these Philippians
were in high spirits, they shouted, Bring out Samson to entertain us.
So they called Samson out of the prison, and he performed for them.
When they stood him among the pillars.
Samson said to the servant who held us had put me where I can feel
the pillars that support the temple, so I'm a lean against them.
Now the temple was crowded with men and women.
All the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof
were about 3000 men and women watching him perform.
And so he says, just,
just put me in the Hebrew for the servant that was watching was a little boy
that they thought Samson was no threat.
They put a little boy to watch him.
No, no.
They knew the secret to Samson.
Samson's vow and strength was what
is there?
I would think you would have a barber
on standby in the prison every day.
You know, I'm saying, like, hey, just do whatever you do.
Just make sure his hair done wrong.
But here's what happened.
They just get so cocky and so arrogant,
thinking that they can outwit and outmaneuver God.
Let us never think that.
And so he puts them between these pillars.
Then, Samson, pray to the Lord.
Sovereign Lord, remember me.
Please, God, strengthen me just once more
and let me, with one blow, get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.
Now listen.
There are two times in Samson's
life recorded life that we have where he ever talked to God.
One of them, when he was in great need and thirsty, he said, God help.
I'm thirsty.
This is the
only time or from the death of his soul.
He acknowledges the sovereignty of God and submission to him.
One time, and it was at the end of his life
when he had lost everything.
He finally cried out, sovereign Lord!
You rule.
And I'm submitted to you.
He finally acknowledges
the sovereignty and the might of God.
What is it going to take in yours?
In my life,
for us to finally acknowledge the sovereignty of God,
his holiness, his might,
his supreme authority,
and humble ourselves and submit to him?
What's it going to take?
Are we going to force God
to blind us and put us
in a dungeon?
I pray not.
That's what it took for Samson.
What will your story be?
But I want you to tell it.
And I love this about his prayer.
Because the prayer that's always answered.
This.
Father, just remember me.
Just remember me.
It's the prayer. The song.
It's the prayer that was offered by the thief on the cross.
And in Luke 23
he said, Lord, when you come into your kingdom, remember me.
It's the prayer that's always answer.
We say, father, don't turn a blind eye to me.
I am lost right now, but I want to be found.
I am forgotten right now, but
I want to be remembered
by you.
And so, God, in the depths of my despair and all my brokenness.
God, would you please.
Would you just
remember me?
I wonder if you prayed that prayer.
No promises to perform.
No vows of great commitment.
None of the God.
If you do this all, do this.
Just a simple heart's cry.
From the depths of brokenness and blindness. God.
Remember me so I can be yours.
The Psalms have reached toward the two central pillars
on which the temple stood, bracing himself against them, his right hand on one
and his left hand on the other.
Samson said, let me die with the Philistines.
Then he pushed with all his might,
and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it.
Thus he killed many more when he died
than while he lived.
That's the end.
You just wonder what that call of God
originally entailed.
You see the degradation of compromise.
Did God use them to subdue the enemies?
Absolutely.
But how tragic.
So we have to realize
that Samson was a great conqueror who never allowed God to conquer him.
And friends.
We have to allow God to conquer us.
Part of
that means becoming remorseful, which leads to repentance.
God, I'm sorry.
I'm very sorry.
I flirted with the enemy.
I've played around with compromise.
I've given in far too many times. I'm gone.
I've gone to bed with the devil more times than I can recount.
And God, there was remorse in my heart.
For the sacrifice of your call.
And I repent.
I come to you.
I ask you forgiveness.
I accept what Jesus did on cross
and allow yourself to be conquered by him.
As I was
talking with some friends about the book of Judges and and
and someone said, you know, it just seems so depressing.
Well, it is.
You look at the downward slide of the judges and he started great.
And it just got worse or worse.
It's going to get a lot worse before we're done with this book.
And some of that, they said I was just talking to someone yesterday
and they said even with Gideon, I was like, getting was awesome.
But he was a really broken person at times.
Absolutely. He was so depressing.
I said, well, here's what we have to understand
about the book of judges especially, but about all the Old Testament.
Listen, the Old Testament biographies are not necessarily for imitation,
but rather for our instruction.
So some of these, like Samson,
he he's not given to us in Scripture for us to imitate.
Please do not imitate Samson.
But they're there for our instruction.
Let us learn together.
And I love the fact
that through all of this,
that we know that while the promises of Scripture
is that God is always faithful, he's always faithful because.
Because remember second Timothy 213, if we are faith, let's hear what
remains faithful.
So even in our failure, God is still faithful
that in remorse and repentance.
He's faithful.
But, but, but while the promise of Scripture
is that he is always faithful, it also give us a false sense
of confidence that compromise isn't gravely costly.
Will God be faithful despite our sin?
Absolutely.
However, let's not be so ignorant nor arrogant
to have a false confidence
that our compromise isn't greatly costly.
It's is clear for.
And allow God's patience
to lead you to repentance.
I've said all the time, and I want you to remember this,
that God's desire is that we are his,
and he pursues us in three ways.
One of the ways God pursues us is through blessing,
and he pours out his blessing on us with the desire
that we realize that every good and perfect gift
comes down from the father of lights, who doesn't change light shifting shadows.
Every good thing we have in life does not come from our own ability,
but by God's mercy and grace as gifts to us.
And he intends those gifts to us
and the goodness to us, to drive us to thankfulness and gratitude to him.
Thank you Lord, you've been so good.
But most of us don't
turn to God out of his blessing.
He desires not to break us.
But if we don't turn to him out of his blessing,
he desires us to turn to him because we realize how much he's blocked
in our lives.
Because the truth is, we haven't.
We haven't reaped all we've sowed.
Some of us is so some really bad seed
and we've reaped some of it, but we haven't reaped all of it yet.
And so if we don't come to God in gratitude and submission,
out of gratefulness for the blessing, he says, well,
maybe you'll realize what I've blocked from you, and my mercy and grace
is so heavy on you, I've not allowed you to reap all you've sown.
And you'll come to me.
Cause you realize how much I've blocked from happening.
But unfortunately, like Samson, most of us don't.
And his only other option through blessing, through rocking,
is through breaking.
He says fine,
if you're not going to submit to me because I've been so good to you
and you're not going to realize my mercy, my grace over your life,
I'm more of a block than I will allow you to be broken.
Not as punishment, not because I'm angry,
but because I want your heart.
And some of you, God says, will not come to me
unless I allow you to be broken.
To understand.
I've heard it said that in biblical times,
when a shepherd would have a sheep that was a constant wanderer,
and he would go find the sheep, they would injure the leg of that
sheep and sometimes break it.
So he couldn't wander off so much.
And I wonder if Jesus, as our good Shepherd.
Not that he desires to, but has to.
So we'll quit walking away
allows breaking.
It doesn't have to be that way.
So I would encourage you in this moment
to allow God's patience to lead you to repentance.
Why don't you pray with me?
Father, you are a good God.
Good.
And you are so patient, so full of mercy,
so full of grace.
You don't treat us as our sins deserve.
You don't count our iniquity and transgressions against us.
You've levied all of that on Jesus.
Thank you
Jesus.
Thank you for bearing the penalty of my sin.
But father, I acknowledge
that there are plenty of times when I still flirt with the enemy.
And I'm sorry.
I confess that to you and I repent.
God, I don't want to.
I don't want to flirt with the enemy in enemy territory.
I know it will destroy me.
And God, I know that
there are people here who would say the same thing.
And so would you hear our hearts and would you respond
according to the full measure of your mercy and your grace?
Hear us now,
friends.
I invite you in the quietness of this moment between you and God.
To repent.
Say, father, I'm sorry.
I flirt with the enemy.
I stay in his territory.
There's so much of my life
that I've compromised.
It's led to bondage.
It's led to incarceration. I,
I thought I was strong enough, and I'm not.
And, father, I ask you.
To be patient with me.
Still, it's.
And I repent of my sin.
I accept the forgiveness that you've offered me
through Jesus and what he did on the cross.
And today,
Jesus, I ask you to be the leader of my life.
God, I submit to you
and your word.
Have mercy on me.
Father, I thank you
that you're not willing to cast any of us aside,
that you still allow the stubble to grow.
Yes, that there's mercy and grace,
there's renewal and there's life.
There's more on the other side going forward
than there was on the backside going back.
I thank you for that. Thank you.
Thank you, father, for those of us in this place
who have chosen you, who have come to you in repentance,
would you move in such a way
that your spirit would be on us and upon us?
Would you give us a call
that is far beyond us, and a commitment
to be committed to your Kingdom and your call in this world?
We are yours.
Because you've given us yourself.
Beloved Jesus, in your name I pray.
Amen.
Listen, if you made some decision to follow Jesus, we want to know about it.
You can do it electronically on our app.
There's a cardigan,
so I'll put it in the box on the back wall to stop by the start here booth,
I've written a little book just called foundations that helps you
understand some of the foundational stuff of Christianity and our faith.
It's free for you at the start here, but if you want to pick one of those up.
But please let us know how we can help you walk and take some next steps.
And growing in your faith and your commitment to Christ and His kingdom.
Thank you for the opportunity
to go through judges 16 with you this morning,
three judges 17 in preparation for next week.
And I just want to let you know,
the story in the book of judges is going to get a lot worse.
It's going to get a lot worse.
Eventually, we're going to get to the story
of a Levite
who's with a lady who's killed,
and they cut her body up into 12 pieces,
and then male parts of her body to 12 tribes.
And it is a complete degradation of humanity.
But through all of this, as bad as it gets,
we see a God
who continues to be merciful.
Though his justice is real,
full of mercy and full of grace,
who orchestrates even horrendous
somehow for good.
It's just incredible. It's incredible.
And so stay with us through a bit.
Read judges 17 for this next week. You understand?
You got it, I love you.
It's good for us to be together. Jeff. Let's sing one more.