Chapter 14-15 |The Book of Judges: From Destruction to Deliverance

For our study to look at the book of Judges.

We're in the middle

of the record of Samson life.

It's interesting to look at judges

because these leaders that boundaries actually as people.

Those are called judges, and they're not in the judicial process,

but more of the person.

And over the entire book of judges, Sampson

takes up about 20% of the old record.

So there's a lot given to us about his life.

And as a result, there's a lot of things we can learn from his life

about God, about God's kingdom,

about what it is to follow him, to,

and the consequences of life,

live contrary to his word.

But just to recap, Samson's

what we saw in chapter 30.

That's the Samson, kind of model.

There

through the Lord.

But we're very, very weak.

Had a weak father and indulgent mother.

And what happened is he became an entitled son.

And as an entitled young man,

he became a very immature

old man.

Someone had said once that,

parents, be careful to discipline your child with love.

Because if you don't, the world will discipline them without love.

And Samson's mom and dad were parents

that did not discipline their son.

I don't think he ever heard. No.

At least it was never enforced.

It was never demanded of him.

A style of life, a way of living.

He was entitled.

He his parents made him believe that

he was the special one.

And that he was never.

There were never clear boundaries that were enforced in his life.

And parents, let me just tell you,

that is a surefire way to ruin your children's future.

And it's a surefire way to raise immature

grown adults

who are very insecure.

And so this is what we see in Sampson's life, though called of God.

He was called from birth to accept this Nazarite vow.

He was set apart as a Nazarite and the Nazarite vow went like this.

It was a voluntary vow, though God called Samson

to be a Nazarite from birth till death.

But part of that Nazarite vow,

as a voluntary vow at the beginning of that value,

would shave your head as a sign that I have taken the Nazarite vow,

and then not let a razor touch your head until the vowel was complete.

Usually anywhere

up to 100 days or so.

So that was part of the vow.

The other parts of the vow is that you could not have any fermented

drink, not even grapes or raisins.

You shouldn't even be around vineyards, like, just stay away.

The third thing was you couldn't be around any dead bodies, human or animal.

So someone near you die close to you. Died.

You weren't allowed to go to the funeral.

So? So there were certain parameters around this Nazarite vow.

That was just so that everybody knew.

I am set apart.

Specific and specially for God,

for his work alone.

This was Samson's vow.

God called him to it.

His parents told him of it, and he accepted it.

In chapter 14

and 15, tell the story now of Samson's adult life.

It's this tragic story

of the results of personal retaliation.

It's the tragic story of when people seek

vengeance over wrong done to them.

It's the it's the story of the results.

When lives are lived without seeking God.

It's the story of the results of a life

surrounded by people who do not seek the Lord.

It's the story that though

God can't overrule alive, it's much better

to let God rule over your life.

And what we see in Samson is God

regularly overruling him,

his sin and his choices,

and how much better it would have been if we just let God rule over.

So we see in Samson.

I see in Psalms a lot of other human,

and hopefully you'll see in Samson some of what you see in yourself.

And so just to pick up chapter 14,

verses ten and 11,

now as father went down to see the woman.

Let me just get your speeder down to see the one.

What woman?

Well, Samson has gone outside of the people of God

to see a beautiful woman

foreigner that he should not have a relationship with.

But he thought she was really, really good looking and wanted to marry her.

He told his dad, go get her for me.

His dad, being a weak man,

said,

why don't we better if you just found someone of our own people?

And he said, no, she's what I want.

Go get her.

And so this week, man

raising an entitled son

goes down to see the woman.

And there Samson held a feast, as was customary for young men.

When the people saw him, they chose 30 men to be his companions.

Now, what is happening here is setting up this wedding ceremony.

And as a part of the wedding ceremony, they were through a seven day feast.

So this wasn't like a little one night bachelor party thing.

This was a seven day feast.

And the word for feast in the Hebrew, it literally means a drinking feast.

So these people were getting.

Just tossed.

They're just getting hammered.

It was seven days of debauchery.

And so do you see seven.

What was one of his vows?

No fermented drink.

And now he's not only partaking, he's throwing the party.

A drinking party.

I pointed out last week that five times in one chapter, we see the words.

He went down, he went down, he went down.

He turned aside, he went down.

This is a trajectory of Samson's life.

It's a downward spiral

where he continues to walk away from his vow.

He continues to walk away from God's call on his life.

He continues to walk away from obedience.

He follows his own carnal nature, his own desires,

rather than what God has asked and required of him.

So much so now he's throwing a feast, a drunken feast.

And the Bible says, as as

they give him 30 people to be his attendants.

Basically, this is his wedding party.

He doesn't know anybody. These are all foreigners.

And so they give him 30 men to kind of be his guys.

Something to note.

Of these 30 men, none of these guys are God's people.

So you have a man of God who should be living according to the ways of God,

who's following his own ways, not the ways of God, surrounded by people

who don't know the ways we're going to follow is a God.

It is a recipe for destruction.

We have to be very careful.

Anyone who claims Christ

has to be very careful about the people they surround themselves with.

Charles Jones, a man named Charles Jones.

He had the nickname Tremendous Charles tremendous. Jones said this.

The difference between who you are now

and who you'll be five years from now, comes some two things.

One, the books you read

and two, the people you most closely associate with.

You know why these titles are so important.

We keep pushing

because as soon around the books you read, the book you read,

and the people

most closely associated with Samson was not living according to the word,

and he was not associate with people of the word.

And his life was a continual downward spiral of destruction and bad choices.

The same goes for you and me, and will go for you mean if we're not careful.

So 30 men

to be his companions?

As was customary of this time,

you know, when you have a wedding, the the the bride

and her attendants and the groom and his, they always give each other gifts, right?

For being in the wedding right now.

That's just it's part of the culture. It was back then, too.

So Sampson realizes he needs to provide 30 gifts for these 30 guys.

He's been given,

as was customary.

Now, Sampson knows his own history.

These guys don't.

Sampson knows.

When he was on the journey down, a lion came out.

We read it last week

and he tore the lion apart with his bare hands and killed a lion.

Left the lion there later.

We know from the from the account that he goes back and

looks at this line that had been a rotting carcass for a while,

and somehow these bees had made a nest

in this carcass and had produced honey.

Sampson notes that he reached into the lion's carcass

and pulled out honey and ate the honey.

It's a weird story.

Sampson knows all this about him.

None of these 30 do.

And so rather than say, I realize I need to give you gifts, Samson

says, I'm going to tell you a riddle.

And if you solve the riddle, I'll give you 30 sets of clothes,

not just like blue jeans and, you know, shirt you get from Sam's Club or Amazon.

You start a like, tailored like beautiful.

Like I will set you up.

And so the riddle he tells

them in verse of 1234, if you were to read I'm not,

I didn't put on the screen, but I want to read it to you.

The riddle, he says, is this you solve this riddle in the seven day feast.

I'll give you three sets of designer clothes,

he said, here's the riddle out of the eater.

Something to eat out of the strong, something sweet.

Pretty clever.

Right out of the eater.

Something. Eat the lion. Somebody.

And out of the strong something sweet, strong lion honey.

So he knows not never going to get this.

I'll never have to fulfill my obligation.

He's a deceiver.

He's a trickster.

And he's immature.

And so, as the account goes, these guys are sitting there

thinking, how are we going to solve this riddle?

On the fourth day of the

feast, they said to his wife, kosher a husband, into explaining the riddle

for us, or we will burn you and your father's household to death.

Seriously,

because you're not going to get a present.

Did you invite us here to steal our property?

Then Samson's wife threw herself on him, sobbing.

You hate me. You don't really love me.

You've given my people a riddle, but you haven't told me the answer.

Look at his response.

I haven't even explained to my father and mother.

So why would I explain it to you?

Let me just tell you, this is not a good start to a marriage.

This.

What we talk about is,

as we go through this, she cried the whole seven days of the feast.

That sounds like a marriage.

On the seventh day, he finally told her because she continued to nag him.

It sounds like a marriage now.

She in turn explained the realtor people.

She goes to him

and says, honey, why don't you tell me the solution to this?

His response I haven't even told my mom and dad.

Why would I tell you?

What level is she on compared to his family?

She's below sea.

Samson has violated the principle of marriage given to us in Genesis 224.

For this reason, a man will leave this father

and mother and cleave unto his wife, and they'll become one flesh.

They're not one flesh.

He doesn't honor her.

He doesn't respect her.

He puts his like he puts his family above her.

It's a dangerous position to be in.

In marriage.

You understand?

If you're married, nobody comes

before your spouse.

But not only that,

she doesn't get what she wants.

So what does she do?

She just cry.

Say it.

Ladies,

when you don't get what you want, what do you do?

You nag.

I mean, not you. She.

I mean, you would never.

She nag nag nag.

And she got what she wanted.

But she lost the relationship.

Be careful.

You might get what you want.

At the cost of the relationship.

We have to be very careful.

Proverbs 2119 says it's better to live in the desert

alone than with a nagging wife.

Proverbs 2715 says, A nagging wife is like the drip,

drip, drip of a faucet on a rainy day.

And so he tells her,

and she in turn tells her people.

Verse 18, I didn't put up there, but let me just read it to you.

Verse 18.

Before sunset on the seventh day, the men of the town said to him,

what is sweeter than, than honey?

And what's stronger than a lion? So like, we got it.

Samson said,

if you had not plowed with my heifer,

you would not have solved my riddle.

Now listen, guys.

I trust you.

You probably have some endearing pet names for your wife.

I pray to the Lord Almighty

that heifer is not one of them.

Can you ladies.

Can you imagine?

You come through the door.

How was work?

It's fine. Heifer, give me some the like.

I just like.

What a horrible marriage.

It's just beginning.

You love my heifer.

I just.

Then the spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon Samson.

He went down to Escalon, which was of five cities

that the Philistines had charge of, struck down 30 of their army,

and stripped him of everything, and gave their clothes to those

who had explained the riddle.

Burning with anger,

he returned to his father's home, and Samson's wife

was given to his best man.

But at 10 a.m.

its feast.

I want you to know what one thing,

That Samson burned with anger.

And because he was an immature man

who was never told no, who did not know how

to handle his own emotions,

he burned with anger and didn't know how to handle it.

All we we have to to to understand,

like emotionally, the emotions aren't that.

Not like like evil emotion.

Like we may feel certain things get that.

And at the heart of every emotion is is the heart of God.

At some level.

And the book of Ephesians says, be angry,

but in your anger don't sit.

He was angry,

but in his anger he sinned.

And we have to be very careful.

James,

says, my dear brothers and sisters,

take note of this.

Everyone should be quick to listen and slow to speak, and slow to what?

Become angry,

because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.

Human anger, given full bent is going to destroy people.

It'll destroy you

and it will destroy others.

Samson doesn't know how to handle his anger,

and so he just responds very violent, very, very, very badly.

And so then we get into verse 15 or chapter 15 and the story just grows.

And and I want you to notice this downward spiral of Samson's life

because he refuses to honor the Word of God.

He refuses to talk to God.

And it's this continual retaliation back and forth, back

and forth, back and forth between between Samson and the Philistines.

Look at what the Bible says in chapter 15.

Later on, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat

and went to visit his wife.

So they've been separated.

He thinks he's still married to her.

She's been given to his best man, and he takes her a gift of a goat.

Now, unless you're a high school student in FFA at last,

that really doesn't like it's a goat.

Back in the day, though, he was.

They're probably going to have a shish kebab, a little barbecue with his skill,

and they're going to have a little party and trying to get back together.

He said to her father,

I'm going to my wife's room.

But her father would not let him go in.

And this is common in that culture.

And still in the culture in the Middle East, in some cultures

today, where a husband and wife, a man don't get married, he goes away to work,

she stays at dad's home and he comes back and visits her.

It's still very common. So that's what's happening.

But her father wouldn't let her him go into her room.

He said, I

was so sure you hated her that I gave her to your companion.

Watch. This.

Isn't her younger sister more attractive?

Anyway, that's.

Just take her.

What a horrible family.

This.

What a horrible family.

You know, so my wife,

I gave her to somebody else, and honestly,

she wasn't that good looking.

My other daughters.

Lot hotter than her. Go ahead.

Okay.

None of these people.

None of these people

are walking with the Lord.

And do you see this down?

It's just getting more and more and more degrading.

That's what happens to lives separate from the word of God.

It's degrading.

Samson said to them,

this time I have a right to get even with the Philistines.

You know what that means.

Last time he knew he was in the wrong

when he went and killed 30 men to get their clothes.

This don't have it right.

He knew he was wrong before,

but let me just, Have any of you ever responded, having suffered some injustice?

Think this time I have a right.

Whenever we take it upon ourselves

to assert our rights in retaliation,

destruction will always be the result.

This time I have a right to get even.

Right?

I will really harm them.

So you went out and got 300 foxes and tied them?

Tell to tell in pairs.

He fastened a torch to every pair of tails,

lit the torches, and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines.

He burned up the shocks, and standing great together with the vineyards

and olive groves.

So the Bible says he got 300 foxes tie their tails for the torture of the church,

and set the foxes loose, and they burned up all the produce.

Now a lot of people have a problem.

How do you catch 300 foxes?

That's the literal word for fox in Hebrews.

Jackal

foxes don't

travel in, in, in, in like herds.

Jackals do.

And so that makes a little bit more sense.

But still

you see really 300 of them all at once.

The Bible doesn't say, cut them all at once.

He said, cut 300.

And so it could be over a period of time.

He gradually catches these ties them together,

and they just start burning up stuff all over the place.

However you read it, I don't care.

I don't have a problem. If it took place over time,

I don't have a problem if he did all at once. Why?

Because I believe Genesis one one, and because I believe Genesis one one.

I believe everything else in the Bible. What?

Because Genesis one one says, in the beginning God created out of nothing.

And if God can create out everything out of nothing,

he can do everything else written in Scripture. I'm problem with it.

The only

reason why people have a problem with other stuff in scripture,

because they don't believe Genesis one one,

if you will.

In Genesis one one you believe that God can raise the dead.

If you believe Genesis one one you believe God, Jesus can turn water in one.

If you believe Genesis one one you believe Jesus can heal up.

Or if you believe just is one one you believe Jesus can heal a layman.

If you believe Genesis one one you believe, you can cast 300 foxes.

If you believe Genesis one one.

You believe in the resurrection.

So either way, you read it.

I don't have a problem with it.

I don't doubt either way.

And look at verse six

when the Philistines asked who did this.

They were told Samson,

the termite son in law, because his wife was giving to his companion.

So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death.

Do you see what happens

when, because of injustice, we retaliate.

And because of injustice we retaliate.

Because of injustice, we retaliate.

Samson said to them,

since you've acted like this,

I swear that I won't stop until I get my revenge.

He attacked them

viciously and slaughtered many of them.

Then he went down there again,

the trajectory of his life, and stayed in a cave,

and the rocket beat them.

Personal vengeance destroys

everyone involved.

And personal vengeance and retaliation.

Is a violation

of the principles and commands of Scripture.

Deuteronomy 32

God says it is mine to avenge.

I will repay not you.

In due time there will slip there.

Day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them.

It's my job.

Is not your job.

In Romans do not repay anyone evil for evil.

Be careful to do what's right in the eyes of everyone.

If it is possible. As far as it depends on you.

Live at peace with everyone.

Do not take revenge, my dear friends,

but leave room for God's wrath.

For it is written, it is mine to avenge.

I will repay, says more.

We have to be very careful.

In our response

to injustice and our response

to when we've been done wrong,

that we don't say I will because they did.

I will do.

It destroys everybody involved.

And the principle and rules of Scripture are, say God,

I will let you settle the score.

I'm not going to.

Is that hard?

You know why it's hard?

Because discipleship requires

a radical realignment of life.

That's why it's hard.

Because we don't want to realign our lives.

We want retaliation.

And God says, stay your hand.

Stay your tongue.

Don't post, don't text, don't respond.

Trust me.

If I've created everything out of nothing,

I can take care of this.

If you believe Genesis one one, you got to believe

I can take care of this to.

I think this is why

most people want Jesus for salvation and heaven,

but they don't want to be committed as a disciple

because to walk so closely with

Jesus, we get the dust of his footprints on our clothes,

to sit under the shadow of his being

and to be an apprentice of the Messiah

means a radical realignment of our life.

Where we don't have the right

to retaliate.

Generously, in Romans 12

that I just read, it says, as far as it depends on you, live at peace.

Let me just help you understand what it doesn't mean.

As far as it depends on you. Be friends with everybody,

because sometimes living at peace means I need to separate myself from.

There are some people

that it's difficult for me to continue to be around,

because it causes so much discord in my own heart,

and the best way I can keep peace within myself.

So I don't retaliate and I don't spout off.

And I don't want is just to remove myself from people,

from communities, from groups, from opportunities.

And in that way, I protect my heart,

I protect my obedience, and I am able to be at peace.

Does it make sense?

Verses nine 1011

The Philistines went up and Captain Judah spreading out near Lehigh.

The people of Judah asked, why have you come to fight us there?

These Philistines,

it feels you can say, we've come to take Samson prisoner,

to do to him what he did to us.

Do you see this retaliation?

Then 3000 men from Judah went down.

That's the trajectory in this story to the cave in the rock and beat them,

and said to Samson, do you realize the Philistines are rulers over us?

Why are you picking fights with him?

You're going to causes problems, he answered.

Look at what he said I merely did to them what they did to me.

Have anybody ever said that?

Look, I'm

not all I did is what you did to me.

Oh, the only way I responded to you is how you responded to me.

And the only way I asked is how you acted to me.

As if we're completely innocent in that right?

Right. Look, I didn't overstep my bounds.

I'm doing it wrong.

I see exactly what you did.

If you don't like it, do something different to me.

Right.

It's just immature and arrogant.

Too. We are.

What we have to understand

is that retaliation is a never ending story.

There's never a final chapter in the story of retaliation

ever.

See, it's

the worldly view that says I just did to them what they did to me.

It's all I did. I didn't do any more.

Like, I'm not at fault.

I just did what they did.

It's such a worldly worldview

because the biblical worldview, the godly worldview is what's required a force.

In Matthew seven, Jesus says on the sermon on the Mount.

So in everything do to others what you would have them do to you.

For this sums up

the law of the prophets seats up until Jesus said that the rule of religion

and the lamb was don't do to someone what you don't want them to do to you.

The problem with that is that you you were responsible for nothing and nobody.

You could live as a hermit up in the mountains or in the desert,

doing nothing for anybody and feel like you were right with God

and God says it's more than that.

Be like, do it.

Act in mercy and grace towards another how you want them to respond to you.

We have responsibility in this.

And this is where I'm talking about

a radical realignment of life,

where we no longer say, I'm just doing what you did.

We no longer say,

say, I will respond in mercy and grace

the way I want to be responded to

by God himself.

Can you imagine if God looked and said, look,

I'm just going to do you what you did to me? That's all.

But imagine

then, why would we be so arrogant to think

we could do the same to another who was created in his image?

Now I want you to notice the escalation of retaliation.

I don't know if you caught this.

It's a real subtle way.

I think the Holy Spirit is saying, pay attention

to what happens with retaliation.

It's the escalation of retaliation.

I was just reading over this last night in bed, and I was praying,

Lord, if there's anything else that I'm missing in this, just speak to me

because I don't want to miss what it is that you want to communicate.

And it hit me as I just read this, I wrote a note on my phone

and I

remember this is when I saw the escalation in retaliation.

It started with 30 steps of close.

It escalated to 300 boxes,

and now we see 3000 soldiers.

The law of escalation

of retaliation is tenfold.

30 303,000.

When we live according to the law of retaliation,

there will be a tenfold

exacerbation of destruction.

You understand?

Do you understand this?

And I just wonder how many of us

can look back on our lives

and see this law in play.

A ten fold destruction.

Because all I did is what they did was.

Verses 12, 13 and 14.

Again, I didn't put it off.

I just want to encapsulate it.

So Samson says, look, you want him to feel seen.

That's fine.

Whatever.

Just don't try to kill me yourself because it'll go real bad for you if you do.

Like Samson knew what he was capable.

He says you want to hand me over?

That's fine. Just tie up my hands and be over. So sure.

That's fine. We're just going to tie you with ropes.

I'm going to try to kill yourselves.

The handle of the Philistines sounds like. Whatever.

That's fine.

I'll take care of them. Don't care.

As you approach Lehigh, the Philistines came towards

him, shouting, The Spirit of the Lord powerfully upon him.

Let me just stop him.

God is still visiting this guy.

The spirit of the Lord is still falling on.

And any of us, we'd be like, okay, we're like, oh,

hasn't God had enough of him?

I mean, has a God

said, you know what Samson?

That meant?

I guess, you know, being a Jew?

He said, oh, I don't know what God was saying.

John got it.

Thanks, John. He's laughing there.

But but God continues

to say, look, I know how broken you are.

I know what a failure you are.

I chose you in your failure.

I chose you knowing all this was going to happen.

I find that audacious,

but I find it comforting

because honestly, I'm Samson.

I know God's call in my life.

I know the principles and standards of his word.

I'm very much aware,

and there are times when I choose to go

my own way.

To play in the world of dead carcasses.

And yet God continues to say, Carl,

I know what a failure you are.

And I chose you

so that I look really good

because you don't.

Now, my goal is to realize that and to repent

and to keep a very short

account with my Savior.

Spirit, Lord, came upon him.

The ropes on his arms came, became like charred flax,

and the bindings dropped from his hand, finding a fresh

jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.

Then Samson said, with a donkey's jawbone.

I've made donkeys of them with a donkey jawbone.

I've killed a thousand men.

The Bible makes it clear that it's a fresh jawbone is the fresh jawbone.

It is a fresh

kill.

No, it had to be a fresh jawbone, because if it were an old jawbone,

it would be brittle and break.

So it had to be fresh.

But in order for it to be fresh

and for him to get it, he had to again violate his vow.

Do you understand

the continual downward spiral

of violation of God's Word and God's standard

only results in destruction and death.

And he says, with the

donkey of an ass, I've made an ass of them.

Notice this because he was very thirsty.

Well, sure.

You just kill the thousand people.

You're going to work up a thirst.

He cried out to the Lord.

You've given your servant this great victory.

Must I now die of thirst and fall on the hands of the uncircumcised?

Then God opened up the hollow place, and Lehigh and water came out of it.

When Samson drank, his strength returned, and he revived.

So the spring was called in Hickory, and it is still there.

And Lehigh.

How did verse 18 start?

He was thirsty, and he did what?

He cried out to the Lord.

Do you ever recall up to this point in Samson's life, him

ever praying?

This is the first.

There's only two times in Samson's recorded life that he ever prayed.

This is the first time.

He was not obviously

living in communion with God.

He was not living in a right relationship with him.

He never prayed.

He never sought the Lord's face.

Can you imagine?

Can you imagine

the pain that could have been avoided in his own personal life?

Has he just stopped before reacting and said, Lord,

what is your willingness?

Lord, stay my hand, Lord, stay my tongue.

God put a sentry at my lips, but a century at my eyes,

but a century at my hands, but a century in my life.

Keep me from violating your word.

Can you imagine?

But think about the destruction

he's seen in his life.

A horrible relationship with his parents.

A marriage he should have never gotten into.

Her being taken away and murdered.

All this death and destruction that came upon him.

The lives that were taken at his own hand, living in a cave,

now losing everything.

Can you imagine

what could have been accomplished through his life?

How do you just said, Lord,

I want you to rule over me

rather than always having to overrule.

It amazing he was not a very spiritual man,

but he was still a chosen man.

And he's still listed in Hebrews 1132

and the Hall of Fame of Faith.

The mercy and grace of God.

We cannot fathom it.

The lessons of chapter 14 of 15.

Personal retaliation is a

never ending story that never has the final chapter.

Don't start writing that book in your life.

Leave room for God.

For God's wrath. For God's will.

For God to settle scores.

It's not your job.

It's not my job.

Any retaliation must be left to God

and say, God, I trust you and you alone to settle the score.

Because here's why. Here's why so important?

Because that's how God has treated us.

You need to know Psalm 103, verse ten.

He does not treat us as our sins deserve

or repay us according to our iniquities.

God never says to us, hey,

I'm just treating you like you treated me.

Can you imagine if you did?

What he did do is treat his son like we treated him.

Is for our iniquity

that he bled, died.

And so if God doesn't

treat us as our sins deserve,

if God doesn't repay according to our iniquities,

why would we dare think we have the right or the authority

to treat someone else according to the way their sins

deserve?

On the other lesson of chapter 1415 is this

Though God continually

would overrule Simpson, Samson's sin and choices,

how much better if Samson let God

rule over his life?

Friends, God is so loving.

He's so great.

He's so merciful that he can and does

overrule our stupidity.

He does overrule oftentimes our sin.

He does overrule our choices.

There's pain in that.

When he does, how much better

to let God rule over

your life?

You understand?

That this morning in my office,

I was praying and I thought, Lord, I am Samson.

I am,

and you've been gracious

and merciful to call me.

And there have been many times

when you've had to overrule.

Sid. But I invite you to rule over.

And there might be 1

or 2 of you this morning who would admit,

like me, that you also are Samson.

And you can see

how God is overruled at times.

I want to invite you to invite him

to rule over.

It so much better.

I want you to pray with us.

Father, you are a good God.

You are a good God.

Jesus, I thank you for being obedient unto death,

even to death on a cross.

Father, I thank you that you don't treat me as my sin deserves,

and you don't hold my iniquity against me.

Thank you that you laid all of that on your son.

Father, I thank you for the times,

and that you've done it with mercy and grace when you've had to overrule

my life.

God, I don't want to be.

I guess I want to be less

like Samson every day.

And so.

I ask you to rule over my life.

And, father,

I think there are people here that people who are listening.

Who, in honesty,

would say the exact same thing.

And so I pray that you I know you do.

I don't have to pray that you will. I know you do.

Just just hear us.

Here are your friends.

I want to invite you in this moment between you and the God who loves you.

In a moment of clarity and come and clean before him.

The Bible calls it repentance to be sorrowful.

For how much?

In the image of Samson

you become.

And in the sorrow of that day,

father, I, I admit

much of me it looks like Samson.

And I confess that to you.

Tell him.

Say thank you.

That there are times that you overrule my life.

But I invite you in this moment

to rule over now.

I want to be less like Samson.

And more like Christ.

I give you permission

to rule over.

Father, I thank you for this time.

I thank you for your word.

I thank you for the chance

we've had to look at it together, to study it, to let it penetrate us.

I pray you continue

to treat us not as our senses are, not according to our iniquities,

but God in mercy and grace, with mercy and grace, and in our repentance.

Give us all that your grace will allow us.

It's so good

that we be trophies of your grace.

We love you, Jesus.

Thank you that you love us always.

Your name I pray

and listen for most of the way through.

Samson. Next week we are going to Shutterfly

and there's one final account.

It is both tragic and heroic at the same time.

God continues to move through him

and it is culminates in this next chapter

and I'm excited to go through it with you.

So, so read it, read it.

It's a beautiful story.

Many of you have heard it before,

but see in it maybe yourself.

It's seeing at the mercy and grace of God and His redemptive nature

when we come back to him.

Hey love you!

It's been good to study God's Word together.

I'm invite you to stand up and sing one more song.