Speaker 1: 0:00

All right, good morning. Let's begin our worship with a word of prayer. Father, thank you for your family that has gathered in here this morning, thank you for the believers, thank you for anybody that is just curious about you and needs to know more about you and wants to know more about you, and we just hope that we are an influence on those people's lives in here and in our daily lives. Father, we just love you and we thank you for everything that you do for us. We thank you for our blessings. Let us use those blessings to help those around us. We thank you for the opportunity to gather in here and we just want to ask you to send your Holy Spirit to be with us, to be a part of us and to live through us so that people can see that there's a difference in our lives. Thank you for your son and what he did for us, and it's in his name we pray. Amen.

Speaker 2: 0:55

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia. I will praise Him, I will praise Him, I will praise Him, I will praise Him. He's my Savior, my Redeemer, how he loves me, how I love him. He is risen, he is coming. Lord, come quickly, alleluia. Everyone needs compassion, a love that's never failing. Let mercy fall on me. Everyone needs forgiveness, the kindness of the Savior, the hope of the Savior, the hope of nations.

Speaker 2: 3:11

Savior he can move the mountains. My God is mighty to save. He is mighty to save forever. Author of salvation. He rose and conquered the grave. Jesus conquered the grave, so take me as you find me.

Speaker 2: 3:42

All my fears and failures fill my life again. I give my life to follow everything I believe in. Now I surrender. Now I surrender. Savior, he can move the mountains. My God is mighty to save. He is mighty to save forever. Author of salvation, he rose and conquered the grave. Jesus conquered the grave. Shine your light and let the whole world see we're singing for the glory of the risen King. Jesus. Shine your light and let the whole world see we're singing for the glory of the risen King. Savior, he can move the mountains. My God is mighty to save. He is mighty to save Forever. Author of salvation, he rose and conquered the grave. Jesus conquered the grave. Jesus conquered the grave.

Speaker 2: 5:30

Precious cornerstone, sure foundation. You are faithful To the end. We are waiting on you, jesus. We believe you're all to us. Precious cornerstone, sure foundation. You are faithful to the end. We are waiting on you, jesus. We believe you're all to us. Let the glory of your name be the passion of the church. Let the righteousness of God be a holy flame that burns. Let the saving love of Christ be the measure of our lives. We believe you're all to us. Only, son of God, sent from heaven, hope and mercy at the cross, you are everything. You're the promise. Jesus, you are all to us. Let the glory of your name be the passion of the church. Let the righteousness of God be a holy flame that burns. Let the saving love of Christ be the measure of our lives. We believe you're all to us. Let the glory of your name be the passion of the church. Let the righteousness of God be a holy flame that burns. Let the saving love of Christ be the measure of our lives.

Speaker 2: 8:18

We believe. You're all to us, you're all to us, you're all to us, you're all to us. Yes, you are, you are, you're all to us, you're all to us, you're all to us, you are. When this passing world is over, we will see you Face to face and forever we will worship Jesus. You are all to us, jesus, you are all to us Amen.

Speaker 4: 10:04

All right. The scripture reading today comes from Judges, chapter 16, and it's verses 22 and 28. It says but before long, his hair began to grow back, and then Samson prayed to the Lord, sovereign Lord, remember me again. O God, please strengthen me one more time. All right, let's pray, god. We thank you for this day. God, we thank you for this time together. God, we're thankful for your love and we're thankful for this family, and we're just thankful that we get to be together, that we can praise you and worship you and hopefully learn more about you and your faithful love towards us. Thank you for Jesus and his example and thank you for the things that we learned from Samson. Be with us this morning as we finish our series on Samson. Open up our eyes and our hearts and our ears to the things that you want us to know. So, in Jesus' name, we pray amen. All right, we're continuing our series on Samson. Actually, we're going to conclude our series on Samson this week and we've learned last week and we've been learning, that Samson didn't always make the best decisions and, especially in his love life, he did not always find the most well-fit significant other for his situation. Oftentimes he just saw something beautiful and said, yep, I'll marry that. And so that's where we're at, and it continues on in our story this morning.

Speaker 4: 11:22

And Judges, chapter 16, is where we're going to be, and I'm going to read verses 1 and 2 to you. It's not up here on the screen. Verse 3 is. We'll get to it in just a second, but it says one day, Samson went to the Philistine town of Gaza and spent the night with the prostitute. Word soon spread that Samson was there. So the men of Gaza gathered around together and waited all night at the town gate. They kept quiet during the night, saying to themselves when the light of the morning comes, we will kill him. But Samson stayed in his bed only until midnight, and then he arose and he got up and he took hold of the doors of the town gate, including the two posts, and lifted them up, bar and all. He put them on his shoulders and carried them all the way to the top of the hill across from Hebron. All he put them on his shoulders and carried them all the way to the top of the hill across from Hebron.

Speaker 4: 12:07

And so here we go again, samson and his love life, and one of the things that we learn pretty quickly from the story of Samson is that it's totally possible to make Jesus a priority in one part of your life, but not every part of your life. Okay, samson has been keeping the vow of the Nazarite of not cutting his hair. We know he's already broken the law for touching something that's dead and being close to the vineyard and all of those things. But one thing that Samson has held on to is his hair. He hasn't cut his hair. That's been the commandment that he's held on to the most.

Speaker 4: 12:42

But it's obvious as we read, that he didn't always prioritize God in every aspect of his life. And this morning, as we keep reading, it's going to be very easy to look at Samson and say, samson, what a guy you were, how could you make those mistakes and how could you do all of those different things. But if we stop and take a minute to just look at the situation not in the same context, but we do the same things a lot of times we say, jesus, you can have this part of my life, but I'm going to hang on to this part of my life. It's the same thing Samson was doing. He said God, you can have this part of my life and I won't cut my hair and I'll be dedicated to you in this aspect. But as far as my love life goes, I'm going to do what Samson wants to do and that's how it's going to be. And so one of the key ideas that we need to learn right away is that we need to make Jesus king over our whole life. That's not on your outline, but we need to remember that Jesus needs to be king of our whole life, not just parts of it.

Speaker 4: 13:39

So then he gets up in the middle of the night. The Philistines are plotting, they know where he's at, and so they decide in the morning we're going to attack him. Well, samson has an understanding that that might happen. So he wakes up at midnight and he doesn't just leave quietly. I want you to notice what he does. He picks up the city gate, puts it on his shoulder and takes it up to the highest point on top of the hill and just kind of plants it, just to kind of show them like I got away with it. I knew what you were trying to do and I got away with it. Here's what we learned God's purpose is bigger than Samson, and God's purpose is bigger than you and I. The only way that this story of Samson makes sense is that God's plan was bigger than Samson and you have to remember at the beginning of this, god's plan is to save who? The Israelites. Samson was sent as a judge to help begin to save the Israelites. So God's big plan in all of this is to rescue the Israelites from the Philistines. And even though Samson kind of gets in the way sometimes, even though Samson has his own way of doing things, god continues to use Samson to serve his plan.

Speaker 4: 14:55

Samson wouldn't be a very good matchmaker. You wouldn't want to go to Samson and say, hey, samson, find me a wife. He doesn't have a very good track record. We read about his old wife last week and how she sold out, basically when things got hard, and this morning we're going to read again in verse 4 that sometime later Samson fell in love with a woman named Delilah who lived in the valley of Sorek. So Delilah said to Samson please tell me what makes you strong and what would take to tie you up securely. That's a little bit later on, samson falls in love with a lady named Delilah. He sees her from the distance and he says hey, there, delilah, delilah, what's it like in the Valley of Sorek. No, he falls in love with this girl named Delilah. But the issue is is that Delilah is a Philistine, and so Samson hasn't really learned his lesson. The first time he falls in love with a Philistine girl, it didn't end very well. But again he sees this girl in the distance and he says, oh, that's my wife. And so he decides to marry and to fall in love, or he decides to fall in love with this girl named Delilah. We learned this.

Speaker 4: 16:20

Samson's strength was not obvious, and we'll get to that in just a second, but his weakness was. Samson's weakness was women. Quite frankly, it was not always following God's will for his life. We never get a description of what Samson looks like. We don't get it. You read Judges 13 through 16, you never read Samson described.

Speaker 4: 16:51

Now we know he's strong from the stories that we read, but we also read that God came upon him, the Spirit of the Lord worked within him, and so I brought this idea up last week. I'm not sold on the idea that Samson was this huge guy, because if Samson was this big guy, you wouldn't have to ask the question where do you get your strength right If he was jacked like Swole Roll over there, all these college kids that spend all their day in the gym. If Samson was big like that, delilah's not asking where you get your strength, because she knows he's, she can see his muscles right and so I'm not sure he always looks like the guy that he is. But his weakness is in fact some of the choices that he makes. And so we read if we go back here, we read in verse 6, delilah said to Samson please tell me what makes you strong and what would it take to tie you up securely? Notice what she's asking him what is it that makes you strong and what? What would I have to do to tie you up? What should samson be doing? Run red flag right there. Okay, I wrote in my notes here run, samson, run. He should have known already. He should have said this sounds way too familiar to my last relationship, but Samson, being the wise, smart, learning from previous mistakes, doesn't run.

Speaker 4: 18:36

We read later on that she is greeted by some Philistine men. Delilah is greeted by some Philistine men and they come to her and they say if you find out what it is that makes Samson so strong and you can figure out a way that we could tie him down to defeat him. We'll each pay you 1100 shekels of silver, which I don't know how big the group is that goes and meets her. But that'skels of silver which I don't know how big the group is that goes and meets her, but that's a lot of silver, even if it's just two people. That's 2,200 shekels of silver. That's a good bit of money. So she is bribed and she kind of sells out on Samson, but Samson only has eyes for her. He's not even really paying attention or looking at what God's doing. So he tells her the truth Because, again, the relationship it was built on trust and honesty and dedication to one another.

Speaker 4: 19:29

I'm joking. So when she asks, what is it that I need to tie you down, he says if you were to tie me up with seven bow strings, if you tie me up with seven bow strings that have not been dried, I would become as weak as anything else. Now, is that the truth? No, so he knows something isn't lining up here, but he stays in the situation. So she ties him up with the seven new bow strings and she tells the Philistine men and they gather around the room at night when he's going to sleep, and in the middle of the night she screams out Samson, the Philistines are among you and they jump out and they're going to capture him. But guess what Samson does? He breaks the ropes really easy, destroys the ropes, and she's embarrassed because he's lied to her and she's upset. And so again, just like the previous woman, she gives him the puppy dog eyes and she says I can't believe you would lie to me. Meanwhile she's lying to him. I'm going to follow along. I can't believe you would lie to me. I can't believe you would lie to me. Meanwhile she's lying to him. I'm going to follow along. I can't believe you would lie to me. I can't believe you would embarrass me. Please tell me the truth again. And so he tells her. He says okay, this time is the truth. If you tie me up with new ropes, then I'll be as weak as anybody else in the room. So she takes up those new ropes, she gets new ropes from the Philistines and she ties them up.

Speaker 4: 21:05

Samson frequently found himself tied up and in bondage because he refused to escape his situation. He refused to run from the scenario that he was in, he just stayed in it. He knows that she's trying to defeat him, but he is so wrapped up in her and he's so lost that he's lost all of his logical thinking. So she's tried once now to capture him so he could be defeated. And now she's trying again, but instead of running, he stays there in his situation. And again, this is one of those stories where you could look at Samson and say, samson, why would you stay in that situation? And again, this is one of those stories where you could look at Samson and say, samson, why would you stay in that situation?

Speaker 4: 21:42

But we stay in situations. We find ourselves feeling trapped or stuck because we refuse to escape our situation. We allow sin to entangle us and hold us back and we continue to allow Satan to make us feel like we have to stay in that moment, knowing that we don't want to be there anymore. He tells us that there's no other way, there's no other relationship, there's no better way, there's no other option. But the truth is is that you can run from the situation and run to the father, who's waiting with open arms. We read about that in parables. The father is who's waiting with open arms. We read about that in parables. The Father is waiting for you with open arms. So many of us are trapped in a situation this morning where we're stuck in our sin because we've refused to run away from it. We just stay in it, and that's where Samson is at.

Speaker 4: 22:32

The story continues. She tries a third time to ask Him what it is that would make Him weak, and he tells her another lie. And so, after three attempts, we finally get verse 15, where it says Delilah pouted. How can you tell me I love you when you don't share your secrets with me? You've made fun of me three times now and you still haven't told me what makes you strong. She tormented him with her nagging day after day until he was sick to death of it. That's the New Living Translation there, if you're wondering. Nagging day after day until he was sick of it. Delilah is manipulative. I'll try to say that, right, that wasn't too bad, right, I kind of fumbled it out. Manipulative, she's persistent and she's alluring. All three of those are ways that Satan works in our lives. Satan and sin can be manipulative, it can be persistent and it can be alluring that it ultimately pulls us from God.

Speaker 4: 23:43

Satan, from the very beginning, has been using the same three tactics. From the very beginning he's been manipulating us into thinking that we need more. Think about the story of Adam and Eve. Satan is telling Eve you could have more. You could just have more if you just eat of the fruit, that God is holding something back from you and you could just have a little bit more if you would just eat it. Satan's not going to give up, he's persistent. If you remember the story of Adam and Eve, he eventually says did God really say that? Did God really say you can't eat the fruit? He's not going to give up. And then Satan's going to make everything sound and look good. If sin didn't look fun or feel good, we'd have no struggle, would we? But that's the truth. Sin is fun, sin feels good for a moment.

Speaker 4: 24:37

And so for thousands of years, satan has been using the same tactic. Do you know why he uses the same tactic? It's effective, it works. He doesn't have to change. And so you and I know what he's going to do. We've experienced it. Some of us are experiencing it right now.

Speaker 4: 24:54

And so he's using Delilah to get to Samson, to try to get God's plan to fall apart. So finally, samson shared his secret with her. My hair has never been cut. He finally tells the truth, finally tells the truth. And so he goes to sleep that night and she cuts his hair. And when she cuts his hair he loses his strength and his relationship with the Father. And so just another reminder here that Satan wants us to choose anything over God. It doesn't matter what it is. He's going to use absolutely anything and wants us to choose absolutely anything over God. Delilah did it. She got him to choose her over God. She cares nothing about him, she only wanted the truth so that she could gain something. I'm not calling Delilah Satan here, but she used a lot of the same tactics that Satan uses. Satan doesn't care about you either. He just wants you as far away from God as you possibly can get, and he wants you to feel like you're far away from God. Then she cried out to Samson the Philistines have come to capture you. This is after she's cut his hair. The Philistines have come to capture you. This is after she's cut his hair. The Philistines have come to capture you.

Speaker 4: 26:22

And when he woke up, he thought I will do as before and shake myself free. But he didn't realize the Lord had left him. The Philistines captured him, gouged out his eyes, they took him to Gaza where he was bound with bronze chains and he was forced to grind the grain in prison. You see, samson had been compromising with God all this time. He'd say, god, I'll keep my hair, but I'm going to live with whoever I want to live with God. I'll keep the promises and I'll try to do your will, but I'm going to do whatever it is that I want to live with God. I'll keep the promises and I'll try to do your will, but I'm going to do whatever it is that I want to do.

Speaker 4: 27:01

In the moment, samson had been compromising with God and in the end he didn't realize it would be different when he broke the promise. The one thing that Samson hadn't done yet was break the promise of cutting his hair, and he finally does that. Samson is so caught up in compromising with God that he doesn't even notice that he's blown it. You read through that. It's really sad. I'll just do what I've done before. I'll shake it off, but at this time it didn't work.

Speaker 4: 27:41

Samson's hair, or Samson's strength, wasn't in his hair. I know it reads that way, but Samson's strength was in his relationship with God, and so he kept that promise for all of those times and all of those years. But at this point he finally chose the girl over God, and so he lost that relationship. I don't believe that God left him completely. I don't believe that, but I do believe that his supernatural strength left him. It left him. He left him in this weak moment, and here's why they trap him. He left him in this weak moment and here's why they trap him. They gouge out his eyes and make him work in the prison grinding the grain. For the longest time, samson's eyes were what brought him so much trouble. Think about that. For the longest time it was his eyes that would get him into trouble. He would lust after these women and then it would pull him down into all of these different situations. Now he's not distracted with that and I'm sure in this moment he starts to realize and probably starts to get it what happened.

Speaker 4: 28:47

But we read in verse 22,. It says but before long his hair began to grow back, and then Samson prayed to the Lord, sovereign Lord, remember me again, o God, please strengthen me just one more time. What a moment for Samson this had to be. I imagine Samson is sweating and weeping and crying as he's pushing that grind around and around, recognizing and realizing that it was his decisions. That's led him to this very moment. And if you read through that whole passage, you find out that the Philistines are outside chanting. Our God, lowercase g, are bigger and better than Samson's God. And so Samson's pushing that grind, probably weeping because he's disappointed God, and he can hear the chants going over and over again. Our gods are bigger than Samson's God and as he's doing that, he's sweating. And as he's doing that, he's weeping and crying.

Speaker 4: 29:47

And I imagine there's a moment where he kind of takes his hand up by his head and goes to wipe the sweat away and guess what? He starts to feel His hair's growing back. I don't think it's just a signal that his hair's growing back, because that's what hair does, but I think that's God showing I'm still with you, samson, I'm still in this moment with you. Yes, there's been this separation, but I'm still working in this situation. So he wipes his head and he starts to feel his hair and for the very first time in all of the book of Judges, we see Samson turn to God. He's never once mentioned God before this. Think about that, all these stories we've read. He's never prayed to God. It's never been a conversation between him and God. It's just been God showing up to him. And finally, for the first time, samson finds himself in a weak moment where he eventually has hit rock bottom and he has to turn to God and he prays and he says Lord, remember me one more time. So Samson is broken, he's humiliated, he's no longer looking to himself, but he turns to God.

Speaker 4: 30:56

The Philistines are so confident that they have overcome God that they don't have a real strong security guard by Samson. You know who they have? Standing by Samson. The Bible tells us it's a young lad, it's just a kid. They got a standing by Samson. The Bible tells us it's a young lad, it's just a kid. They got a kid watching Samson. And so Samson looks at the kid and he says, hey, because they're bringing Samson out basically to make fun of him. They bring Samson out in front of all of the crowd and they're making fun of Samson. Look at this guy, he was all strong and all those things. And Samson looks at the young boy and he says can you tie me to the pillars? And so I'm getting a little weak, can you just tie me to the pillars so that I can stand there? And the young kid does it and Samson prays one more time that God would just show up one more time. And the Bible tells us that he pulls the pillars and he takes out more Philistines in that one moment than he did his whole life. And that's the life of Samson. That's all we get after that.

Speaker 4: 32:00

That's the end of the story, until you get to Hebrews, chapter 11, and what is known as the hall of faith passage. And as you read through the book of Hebrews, in chapter 11, you read about the faith of people like Abel, you read about the faith of people like Noah and Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and Jacob, and he spends time talking about Joseph and he spends time talking about the faith of Moses, he spends time talking about the faith of Rahab, and then we get this verse in verse 32. How much more do I need to say? It would take too long to recount the stories of the faith of Gideon Barak. And he's in the hall of faith. What? How does that make any sense? Samson? We've read about everything that he's been through. How did he he's in the hall of faith?

Speaker 4: 32:51

Well, I think it's because in the very last moments of Samson's life, he finally decided that he was bankrupt, that it wasn't about him, but it was all about God. And he knew that he could do nothing himself. And he finally, for the very first time, turns to God and says it's on you. Whatever your will is, I'll do it. We read in Matthew, chapter 5, jesus is giving the Sermon on the Mount and he tells us the Beatitudes. And he says things like this Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they will inherit the kingdom of heaven. It's those who finally decide I need God. It's the poor in spirit, it's those who decide and realize that they have a great need for God, that will inherit the kingdom of heaven. And so one of the things that we learn from the story of Samson I've said it over and over again is that God stays faithful, but we also have to get to a point where we surrender and say God, you have this.

Speaker 4: 33:47

I believe that Samson finally did reach that point. He reached that moment of feeling bankrupt and saying I got nothing left. God, I'm all yours and I need you. Let's pray, father. We thank you so much for this day. God, we come before you now with hearts that acknowledge our own weaknesses. And, god, we confess that we too are often tempted and we are distracted and prone to fall into sin. Yet, god, we are so grateful that you are a God of grace who restores, who redeems and who strengthens us in our weakness. Father, I pray that we can rely on your strength, that we'll be able to discern your voice and know that you are in control, and that we can trust in your plan. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Speaker 4: 34:39

You may have noticed, over the last few weeks we've been singing the same song each week and as we were kind of discussing and figuring out what we wanted to do in this series, we discovered this song, the Battle Belongs, and we thought it was fitting for our series of Samson and finding true strength in our faith in Jesus and resting in the idea of his faithfulness. As we sing this song, you hear words like this when all I see is the battle, you see my victory. When all I see is the mountain, you see the mountain moved. And as I walk through the shadow, your love surrounds me. There's nothing to fear now, for I am safe with you. So when I fight, I'll fight on my knees, with my hands lifted high. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. Every fear I lay at your feet and I'll sing through the night. O God, the battle belongs.

Speaker 2: 35:37

When all I see is the battle you see my victory when all I see is the mountain you see a mountain move and as I walk through the shadow your love surrounds me

Speaker 2: 36:03

there's nothing to fear now, for I am safe with you. So when I fight, I'll fight on my knees, with my hands lifted high. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. Every fear I lay at your feet, I'll sing through the night. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. And if you are for me, who can be against me? For Jesus there's nothing impossible for you. Nothing impossible for you when all I see are the ashes. You see the beauty when all I see is a cross.

Speaker 2: 37:06

God, you see the empty tomb. So when I fight, I'll fight on my knees with my hands lifted high. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. Every fear I lay at your feet. I'll sing through the night. Oh God, the battle belongs to you, an almighty fortress you go before us Nothing can stand against the power of our God. You shine in the shadows. You win every battle.

Speaker 3: 37:55

Nothing can stand against the power of our God, an almighty fortress.

Speaker 2: 38:04

You go before us. Nothing can stand against the power of our God. You shine in the shadows. You win every battle. Nothing can stand against the power of our God, our God. So when I fight, I'll fight on my knees, with my hands lifted high. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. Every fear I lay at your feet, I'll sing through the night. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. Oh. God, the battle belongs to you. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene.

Speaker 4: 39:22

And wonder how he could love me a sinner condemned unclean.

Speaker 2: 39:28

Oh how marvelous, oh how wonderful. And my song shall ever be. Oh how marvelous, oh how wonderful is my Savior's love for me. He took my sins and my sorrows, he made them His very own. He bore the burden to Calvary and suffered and died alone. Oh how marvelous. Oh, how wonderful.

Speaker 2: 40:11

And my song shall ever be. Oh, how marvelous, oh how wonderful is my Savior's love for me. When, with the ransomed in glory His face, I at last shall see, t'will be my joy through the ages to sing of his love for me. Oh, how marvelous, oh, how wonderful, and my song shall ever be. Oh, how marvelous, oh, how wonderful is my Savior's love for me.

Speaker 1: 41:07

And the whole church said Amen. God bless you everybody. Have a great week. Five o'clock this evening. Come to sing and learn some of these songs with us.