Heroes - Week 4: Samson - The Danger of "I Can Handle It"

Well, hey family, it's another beautiful month, and then we got another amazing series that is just right for you.

Have you ever looked at people in the Bible and wondered, wow, how did God use them?

They did some great things, they had great faith in God.

Truth of the matter is, we call them heroes of the faith, not because they're supernatural or they've done everything right.

We call them heroes of the faith because they continue to trust God despite difficult circumstances.

And I believe you got a hero on the inside of you as well.

So this series this month, I guarantee you, it's gonna help you see that if God can use people that He used in the Bible that had all of their flaws, all of their complications, and God can do some great things through you as well.

So I'm excited for what God's gonna say today.

But I also want to tell you that we got some exciting things happening around here at Impact because this is open enrollment for Impact Christian Academy, our school.

So if you have a pre-K student all the way through 12th grade, we believe Impact Christian Academy is the right environment to help nurture your child, to grow them into the purpose that God has for their lives.

So if you want more information, go to icajacks.com and we'd love to have you on a tour or to take the exam to have your child be a part of this community.

Now let's take a listen to today's message.

But today I want to wrap up this series that we've been in for the last several weeks.

We've been in a series entitled Heroes.

And uh if you're just now joining us, we've literally been looking at the lives of some of the characters of the Bible, and we're referring to them as heroes.

Now, I'm not saying that they're heroes because they've been amazing in every way or they've done everything just right.

You know, typically when we use the word heroes, we're thinking of Superman, we're thinking of Batman, we're thinking of Spider-Man, and in the eyes of Hollywood, they create those heroes to be kind of flawless.

But the heroes we're looking at in the Bible, they're far from flawless.

In fact, we call them heroes because God has allowed us to take a peek at their lives and not just the good parts of their lives.

God is allowing us to look at the lives of these men and these women, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

And he's allowing us to put their lives on open display for us to take a look at them through the pages of the scripture.

Watch this, so we can be instructed and we can learn from their lives and help us to win even more.

Give me a good amen, somebody.

In fact, the Bible says this in Romans chapter 15, verse 4.

Romans 15:4

It says, For everything that was written in the past.

What is he talking about?

He's talking about the Old Testament.

All the stories of the Old Testament, all the stories of Daniel and David and Jeremiah and Elijah, all those stories the Bible says, they were written to teach us.

So every time we look at the lives of one of these men and women from Old Testament, even the ones from the New Testament, there's something we should be able to learn from their lives, so that through the endurance taught in the scriptures and the encouragement that they provide, we might have hope.

What does it mean?

He says that based on what we learn from their lives, it ought to stir up in us an expectation.

We ought in fact we ought to say this if God could use them, he definitely can use me.

Because when you look at the I mean, the people, the cast of characters that God used, that we are calling heroes, are far from perfect, but they are people who had a heart to serve God and people that God picked out to use to do some amazing things that have transformed the earth.

And I got good news for you, God is not done using mighty men and women yet.

Give me an amen, somebody.

So today, I to wrap this up, I want to talk about a Bible character by the name of Samson.

And when we look at the life of Samson, you know, some of us know a little bit about Samson's life, but his story really begins over in the book of Judges, chapter 13.

Judges 13 · chapter mention

And it's at a time when the Israelites have been unfaithful to God again, and because of their unfaithfulness, God has allowed them to fall under the rule of their enemies.

Their enemies, one of the sets of enemies, were the Philistines.

And they were constantly going back into bondage, back into servitude to the Philistines.

And this time they've gone back into servitude to the Philistines for 40 years.

And after this time, God raises up a man whose assignment would be to deliver his people from bondage.

Can I just say something?

Every time God identifies a problem in the earth, his solution is to raise up somebody.

You may think I'm just here, I don't really have a purpose.

Every time God has a problem in the earth, his solution is to raise up somebody.

When you look back at the children of Israel, they were in bondage to the Egyptians.

God raised up a little baby who was who was reared in Pharaoh's house so he could come back and deliver God's people.

His name was Moses.

When God needed somebody to create a people who would be committed to him long enough so he could raise up a Messiah, he found a man by the name of Abraham who was willing to be obedient enough to carry out God's purpose.

When God needed to bring forth a Messiah, he needed somebody who would keep themselves pure.

He found a young girl named Mary who was willing to say, No, I'm not sleeping with you.

No, I'm not being with you.

So she could be in the right place at the right time for God to use her in a mighty way.

And guess what?

God's not done.

I say, God's not done.

30 years ago, he saw there were some great churches in Jacksonville, but he needed another one.

And because he needed another one, he backed all the way up to 1970.

Ooh, that's a long way.

You know, I you know, you're when you're sitting doing those, uh, you got you're filling out a form or something, and they tell you to put your birthday in, and the one with that little dial on it.

I hit that thing now, I feel like I'm on the prices right.

I'm looking surgery for 1970.

I just spin it, then go do something else.

But he needed somebody in 1996 who'd be ready to come and plant a church in Jacksonville, so he gave birth, he allowed a little baby boy to be birthed in Detroit, Michigan, because he had a problem in Jacksonville he needed to solve.

He's not done.

There's other problems that he needs to solve, and he gave birth to you, he gave birth to you, he gave birth to you because there's something he put you on this earth to do.

Give the Lord a shout of praise, somebody.

Well, he had a problem, and the Lord sent an angel to this young couple.

They had been trying to have a baby, but could not have a baby.

And he tells the woman that her son, she's gonna have a son, but he gave some instructions that your son is gonna be a Nazarite from the womb.

Now let me tell you what a Nazirite was.

A Nazarite was an Israelite who was dedicated to being fully devoted to God himself.

You know, almost like a priest, but they were individuals who were not born from the tribe of Levi.

The tribe of Levi were the official priests, the specially ordained priests of God.

But the Nazarites were the ones that signed up and said, We weren't born into this, we're signing up, we're choosing to become fully committed to God.

Well, there were three vows of the Nazirite that they had to commit to.

Number one, they had to commit to not get drunk.

Now, I can tell you that eliminated some of y'all already.

Some of y'all are a little bit off the Nazirite list.

In fact, the Nazirite couldn't even allow alcohol to touch their lips.

Second vow of the Nazirite is that they were not allowed to touch anything that was dead.

That means they couldn't come into contact with a dead animal, no contact with a dead human body, because the dead animal, the dead human was considered unclean, and the Nazirite had to keep themselves pure from anything unclean.

The third vow of the Nazirite, where they were to never cut their hair.

For them, long hair was an external sign to other people that the Nazarite was fully committed to God.

So it's kind of like you walk up to somebody, you see them with this long hair that has not been cut, and you identify that must be a Nazirite.

And a couple things go through your mind.

They must have made a vow they're not going to touch alcohol, they're not touching any dead thing.

They are fully committed to God.

It's kind of like in our in our day-to-day, when you see somebody with a wedding ring on their left, their left hand, that ring finger, it's a sign that they're fully committed to somebody.

When we get baptized, like many of you are going to get baptized next Sunday, I need a good amen, somebody.

For those of you that have said yes to Jesus, but you've never been baptized, it's not something we just take lightly.

It's an external sign that tells the world I'm fully committed to Christ.

And I believe, honestly, it's a it's more than just a sign to the world.

I believe it's a sign in the spirit realm that says to the enemy that I'm off the market, you can move on and go bother somebody else.

So for those of you that have gotten saved, but you keep saying, well, baptism is not that big a deal.

Like, you know, I know I'm saved.

The water doesn't save you, but I do believe, spiritually speaking, because it is an obedience to a commandment of Jesus Christ, I do believe it sends a beacon signal in the spirit realm.

So the devils know, the devils know you are off the market, off limits, and the power of the Most High God is covering your life.

Well, that's kind of what the long hair was supposed to be for the Nazirite.

It was an external sign that this person is fully committed to God.

Let's pick up in Judges chapter 14, verse 1.

Judges 14:1

It says, Now Samson went down to Timnah, and he saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines.

Now remember, the Philistines are their enemies.

The Philistines are the ones that they've fallen into captivity to.

But he sees a daughter of the Philistines, so he went up and told his father and his mother and said, I have seen a woman, and I saw her in Timna, one of the daughters of the Philistines.

Now therefore, get her for me to be my wife.

Then his father and his mother said to him, Is there no woman among the daughters of your brethren, or among all of my people, that you need to go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?

First thing we notice about Samson, who is supposedly fully committed to God, is that he travels four miles into Philistine enemy territory to go and get a forbidden woman.

We could say he went and found a nasty girl.

All these beautiful Israelite women who are sanctified and committed to God, he goes all the way down to Philistine territory and he goes to get a nasty girl.

He gets a Philistine woman.

And I want you to pay attention to this because it's gonna be a recurring theme in his life that this is his issue.

Can I tell you all of us have an issue?

Now, your issue doesn't have to have you, but the Bible says every one of us has to cast aside the weight and the sin that so easily besets us.

And what we got to do is get honest enough with ourselves to say, this is the one thing that if I don't keep a check on this right here, this is the thing that can get out of control and wreck everything else God is trying to do in my life.

So for Samson, his issue was he loved Philistine women.

He loved women that weren't in covenant with God.

He loved women I tend to say that were willing to do things that he wasn't supposed to be doing as a Nazirite who was committed to God.

So he goes down and he says, Get me this woman.

He ignores his conscience, he ignores his parents, and he even ignores the instructions that he knows he's been given from God.

Listen to this.

There's something about forbidden that is tempting and even attractive until the fruit of forbidden leads to a harvest of death.

Well, isn't there something about that thing that's taboo, the thing I know I shouldn't be doing, the thing that's kind of secret, nobody else knows about it?

It's inviting, man.

It's tempting.

But the thing is, the enemy always gives us the resort view.

He'll show you how much fun you're gonna have.

He'll show you just how great it's gonna be, he'll show you how you can get away with it, nobody else knows it.

He doesn't show you the death and destruction that's on the other side of that thing.

See, it's always enjoyable or tempting until the death kicks in.

Samson said this.

I see her, I like her, I want her.

Here's the lesson we learned from that.

Everything we see, like, or want isn't necessarily something we ought to have.

Elbow your neighbor say, I would have thought you would have said amen right there.

Come on, elbow the one on the other side.

I said, I really would have thought you would have said amen right there.

1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 12 says this just because something is technically legal, in other words, just because you won't go to hell for it, just because God's not gonna hate you if you do this thing, doesn't mean that it is spiritually appropriate.

1 Corinthians 6:12

He says, if I went around doing whatever I thought I could get by with, I'd be a slave to my whims.

There's a whole lot of stuff that may not fall into the category of sin or may not cause God to turn his back on us, but just because it's allowable doesn't mean it's a good idea.

Come on, say amen, somebody.

Notice this though.

When you look at the story, Samson's parents objected to what he was doing, but they didn't hold their ground.

They knew their son was making a decision that was a bad decision, but they didn't hold their ground.

Let me just say this to parents, especially to parents of adult children.

Supporting our children in wrongdoing is not an act of love.

We gotta love our kids, and I love my kids unconditionally, but I I will love you unconditionally, but I'm not supporting you in anything that is dishonoring God.

Amen.

Judges chapter 14, let's pick up at verse 5.

Judges 14 · chapter mention

So Samson went down to Timnah.

He went with his father and his mother, and he came to the vineyards of Timnah, Timnah.

Now to his surprise, a young lion came roaring against him.

And the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he tore the lion apart like one would have torn apart a young goat, though he had nothing in his hand.

In other words, he ripped this lion apart with his bare hands.

But watch, he didn't do it because he was just strong.

He did it because the spirit of God came upon him.

So we got to understand it, because that's gonna come back and bite him later on.

What he was able to accomplish wasn't because he was so mighty, wasn't because he'd been hitting the weights in the gym, wasn't because he had a good workout program and creatine.

He was able to do what he was able to do because the spirit of God came upon him.

But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done.

He didn't tell them he had just killed this lion.

Verse 7 says, He went down and talked with a woman, and she pleased Samson.

Well, we ain't gonna even ask what that means in the Bible.

Let's go to verse 8.

Come on, somebody.

After some time, he returned to get her, and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion.

So some time goes by, he comes back past, and this lion he's ripped apart.

The carcass is still sitting over here on the side of the road.

And behold, a swarm of bees and honey were in the carcass of the lion.

He took some of it in his hands and went along eating it.

When he came to his father and his mother, he gave some to them, and they also ate.

Watch this.

But he did not tell them that he had taken that honey out of the carcass of a dead lion.

Say, what's the lesson we need to learn here?

Why don't you pay attention to this?

Beware when your kids come up and say, Here, try some of this.

You don't know where they got that from.

But other lesson we learned, watch this.

It's just nasty that Samson is eating out of the dead carcass of a lion.

This is not a fairy tale, this is not a fantasy, this is a real story.

He tears a lion apart days later, weeks later, whatever it is, he comes back past, he sees this dead carcass over here, he sees some bees in there, and he's so enticed by the honey that he's willing to stick his hand into the body of a dead carcass to get some honey out of it.

Somebody say that's nasty.

Come on, somebody say that's nasty.

How many know men do some nasty stuff every now and then?

Act like y'all know what I'm talking about.

Let's just be honest.

Men fart.

Don't get me wrong, women fart too, they just call it past gas.

Men and women are different, man.

And I'm grateful for the differences between men and women.

And today our society is trying to blur those lines, but thank God for the differences between men and women.

We go out to dinner, man.

You know, two ladies will sit there at the table and one of them say, I got to go pee.

And the other one go, I'm going with you.

I wish I would be out to dinner with Pastor Blue and he invited me to go pee.

Everybody be saying, Whatever happened to that Pastor Blue and I used to be at the church.

Men and women are just different.

Even when we get into the restroom as men, you know, ladies, you got to go into the stall, you close the door.

We men, we have these urinal things, these little things that are built into the wall.

And it's just an unspoken rule.

Number one, if there's an empty urinal next to you, you don't take the one right next to the guy you came in there with.

If there's somebody there and there's a you go two over.

That's just man code.

Okay.

But even if you have to be right next to a man, it's just understood that whatever's on the wall, you just stare at it.

Give me an amen, brothers.

Give me a deeper amen there, brother.

And if you happen to turn your head, you got like a 45 degree, and you can only go here.

You can only go there.

You don't go here, or you pa, you get nut.

Right?

Men and women, we just different in some ways.

Uh, it's amazing me when I'm on social media and I'll see a woman post a picture and you look at all the comments.

The woman being under like, girl, you are so beautiful.

You better work it, girl.

You doing that thing, girl.

I wish I would post a picture of myself.

And Pastor Rodney came on there talking about, ooh, you so handsome, boy.

Whatever happened to that tall lumberjack pastor we used to have at the church.

Samson eating from the carcass of this lion, number one, is nasty.

Because I tell you this, it's more than just nasty.

Watch this.

It violates his commitment to God.

I hope you caught that, right?

One of the vows that he made as a Nazirite is I won't touch a dead thing.

It's not like he tripped and stumbled and fell and accidentally hit this dead thing.

He's walking by, and the sweet taste of honey is enough to make him violate the commitment he made to God that I won't touch a dead thing.

And the thing that really gets me is that he does this and he doesn't even bet an eye.

He does it and he don't even have a moment of consciousness.

Like, what did I just do?

He does it and then takes it and gives some to his mother and father.

You know what that says to me?

That says to me that that wasn't the first time he did this.

That says to me that he's probably done it so much, watch this, that he's become numb to it.

Can I just tell you this?

It is dangerous territory to do the thing that dishonors our commitment to God so many times that we no longer have conviction.

See, because the moment we start stepping outside the boundaries of the will of God, our own spirit, it's not even the Holy Spirit, it's our own spirit.

If you're born again, your own reborn, recreated human spirit says, that's not what we should do.

It's kind of like a little buzzer on the inside that says, Don't do that.

And the first time you hear it loud and clear, you walk away with a oh man, what did I allow myself to do?

But if we keep doing that thing that we know we shouldn't be doing, it's our own conscience, but it gets softer and softer and softer and softer.

And before you know it, we can take off and do the thing that we used to know was dishonoring to God and walk away with no conviction.

I'm preaching way better than you're saying, Amen.

Judges chapter 14, verse 10.

Judges 14:10

Watch this.

So his father went down to the woman.

And Samson gave a feast there for young men used to do so.

Now that's a little bit blind when you read in the New King James Version.

Let me read that same verse to you, verse 10 from the New Living Translation Translation.

It says, As his father was making final arrangements for the marriage, Samson threw a party at Timnah, as was the custom for elite young men.

So get this.

He throws a party in Timnah, which was the custom of elite young men.

The King James Version says he threw a feast.

If you look the word up, feast, it's a Hebrew word mishta.

And it is defined as a cause for celebration.

Watch this, that focuses primarily on wine.

Now, if you need to see if you need to see an example, it's go and read the book of Esther.

You'll see over in the book of Esther this exact same thing, this feast happening.

And it's not just we threw a feast and we we we grilled a hog or we cooked a lamb and we roasted this and we just sat around and ate.

The primary purpose of this kind of a feast was we're breaking out the the Jack Daniels, we're breaking out the cabsav.

We're breaking out all the wine.

We are enjoying ourselves having a drunken party.

Samson throws his drunken party, watch this, to impress his new Philistine, his new Philistine, his new ungodly friends.

And violates another one of his Nazarite vows in the process.

So now he's violated a vow that says I won't touch a dead thing.

He's violated a vow that says I won't allow alcohol to touch my lips.

He makes the mistake though that so many of us make.

Watch this.

He erroneously thinks this.

I can handle it.

I can handle it.

I'm not gonna let this get away from me.

He erroneously does what we think.

I can handle this.

Watch this.

One hit won't kill me.

It's only one drink.

Watch this, watch this.

We're just flirting.

I'm not gonna let this go anywhere.

Come on, somebody.

Don't just look at me like that.

I'm not gonna let this go anywhere.

It's just a little flirting.

Listen to this.

All of us can handle it until we find out we can't handle it.

And the sad part is.

This oftentimes, by the time we realize we can't handle it, grave damage has already been done.

Can I just tell you right now, wherever you are, if you as you're sitting here, this message, I know what's happening right now.

As you listen to this, this message is something stirring on the inside.

Let me tell you what that is.

That's the Holy Spirit loving you so much that He's trying to tell you, don't be Samson.

He's trying to say, listen to that little voice on the inside, listen to that little prompting on the inside that says, Go ahead and don't just back away from the unclean thing.

What he's saying is, if your right arm is offending you, cut it off.

Eliminate whatever the thing is that the enemy's trying to use to tempt you to break away from what you know God is saying to do.

Give me an amen, somebody.

So Samson's in this space, man.

He's struggling, he's hanging out with the Philistines, he's he's kind of doing whatever he wants to do, and he finds himself struggling because he he has a struggle with my machismo.

He he makes a senseless wager.

You know, men like to come compete and and see who's got the you know the the the the most vibrato.

He makes this dumb wager and then he ends up having some anger issues that surface, and he goes out and he kills 30 innocent men.

And in the process, the the result of killing these 30 innocent men is that it eventually costs him his wife, who ends up being given to another man.

You think at some point he'd stop and say, I must be on the wrong track.

Something's not working right here.

Things are trending in the wrong direction.

But instead, he allows his anger to get the best of him.

He turns around to retaliate on the Philistines, goes out and destroys their crops.

And because they're ungodly, they're willing to go tit for tat.

He destroys their crops and they come back and retaliate by killing his wife and his father-in-law.

What am I saying?

Things are just going from bad to worse for this man.

It's going from bad to worse because he is not doing what God said to do.

Let me give you a lesson right here.

Let's not be Samson.

Let's not be mad at the world when we really have no one to blame but ourselves.

Samson's mad at everybody except the person he should be addressing, which is himself.

And how do I address it?

I don't I don't get down on myself, I don't sit and have a woe was me pity party.

If I know I'm heading in the wrong direction, watch this, I just repent, I turn around, and I go back in the direction I know God is telling me to go.

You would think that all of this would have gotten Samson's attention.

The only problem is Samson is struggling with the same thing.

Watch this, that oftentimes affects us in the church.

What is that?

He's struggling mightily, but he's still looking apart.

Oh, he's on the struggle bus, man.

He's drinking alcohol that he shouldn't be drinking.

He's touching a dead carcass that he shouldn't be touching.

He's allowing his anger to get the best of him.

He's allowing his competitive nature to get the best of him.

He's retaliating and getting revenge and using the strength God gave him for good to work for evil.

Everything is just trending in the wrong direction.

But the thing is, when you look at him coming down the street, you still see long hair.

You look at him and say, that guy must be devoted to God.

Kind of like we do in church sometimes.

The struggle is this.

He's walked away from his commitment.

But the only one who really knows that is God because on the outside he still looks like he's doing all the right stuff.

Give me an amen, somebody.

I'm like, what I'm trying to do is help us understand that God gave us Samson's story so we can learn from his story.

He gave us Samson's story so that if we are looking apart on the outside, but not doing what we should on the inside.

This is our moment right here to push the pause button.

This is our moment to throw our hands up and say, Thank you, Lord, for loving me so much.

You give me grace to get this thing together before it destroys everything you're trying to do in my life.

Amen.

I said, Amen.

He's broken his vow to God by not drinking, of not drinking.

He's broken his vow to God regarding not touching the unclean thing, but it's not obvious everybody else because when he comes around, he still got his long hair.

I wish to God, listen this.

I wish to God that we would find safety in a community of friends who love us enough to help us keep our vow to the Lord.

Come on, man.

Anybody that is calling you friend or you call them friend and they're willing to help you do the thing that takes you away from God, that's not a friend.

That's an accomplished to death, accomplished to death.

Anyone that I'm calling friend needs to be somebody that has permission to check me, correct me, and if need be, knock the mess out of me to help put some sense back on the inside of me.

Amen.

Judges chapter 15, verse 14.

Judges 15:14

When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting against him.

Then the Spirit of the Lord, here it is again, the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that is burned with fire.

In other words, he just broke them off.

And his bonds broke loose from his hands.

He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and watch this, he killed a thousand men with the jawbone of this donkey.

But here's the problem.

Then Samson said, with the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey, watch this, with the jawbone of a donkey, watch this.

With the jawbone of a donkey, I have slain a thousand men.

I'm sure I just read that the Spirit of God came on him.

I'm sure I just read over and over that every time he did something great, it was because the Spirit of God came on him and allowed him to kill a thousand Philistines with a jawbone of a donkey, but he didn't give God praise for it.

He starts bragging about what he's done.

How many times do we give ourselves credit for that law degree?

Without recognizing if it had not been the Lord on your side who kept you sane, who gave you the money, gave you the resources?

Come on, somebody.

How many times do we sit around and maybe pop our chest a little more than we should and we boast about our work, we boast about our school accomplishments, knowing that if God had not stood with us, we would have never made it.

I mean, how how many times do we get up and we take for granted the fact that God has been with us?

Come on, He's protected us overnight.

Come on, He's kept us healthy, He's healed our bodies, He's washed over our kids while they were out in the streets doing different things.

We need to give God thanks and praise for just how good He's already been.

Samson finds himself in a posture where he didn't thank God, he's taking credit himself.

Right after he has his breakfast, he becomes gravely thirsty and then he cries out to God.

It's amazing what happens when we let our need or our weakness drive us to God.

The thing I love about God is even when we've been off track, when we finally cry out to God, he always responds and satisfies our thirst like only he can do.

Beautiful verse right here in Judges 15, verse 20.

Judges 15:20

Watch this.

It says, Samson judged Israel for 20 years during the period when the Philistines dominated the land.

That's a powerful verse.

Samson judged Israel for 20 years.

The implication is that he did a good job being a judge over Israel for 20 years.

But can I tell you that when somebody said, if we were playing word association and we said Samson, most people wouldn't say good judge.

He's not remembered for being a judge who had a 20-year run doing the right thing.

He's remembered because he let his past come back and take over his future.

When I say the word Samson, the first thing most people think is Delilah.

But the man the man judged for 20 good years.

20 good years can be ruined in one bad decision.

After 20 years of good leadership, watch this.

His issues from the past came barreling back.

He gets up one day and he travels 25 miles to Gaza to go visit a prostitute.

Did you hear what I said?

I said 25.

He he walked to St.

Augustine.

You know how bad you gotta have it.

You gotta be on the struggle buster.

He got up and walked he went twenty five miles to go be with a prostitute.

He went twenty, that's fifty-six thousand two hundred and fifty steps.

Now let me say this way.

That's 56,200 chances to rethink this decision I'm making.

But he didn't.

Walked 25 miles to go and be with a Philistine prostitute, even though he had spent the last 20 years from what we can tell doing what was right.

What am I saying?

Just because I've had a handle on it up until now doesn't mean I can let my guard down.

Man, that's good.

Most people don't destroy our lives in one big motion.

If we're gonna destroy it, we destroy it one wrong step at a time.

And I'm saying today, hear me out, I'm saying today, you're not gonna destroy your life.

I'm saying today, this is that wake-up call, man.

Or maybe for some of you, this is that reminder that thank you, Lord, that you've already shown me how to stay off that path.

And this is my motivation to never let that pass come back and bite me again.

Samson eventually falls for another Philistine woman.

You know her?

Her name is Delilah.

And the Philistine leaders offer to give her some money if she can figure out the source of his strength.

So she starts playing these head games with him.

He asked him, Can you tell me what's the source of your strength, Sammy?

And she's baiting him in.

He said, Well, if I'm tied up with seven new bowstrings, then that'll do.

He falls asleep and he wakes up and she done tied him with seven new bowstrings.

How many know that's a hint and a half?

If I wake up and the very thing I just told you, you could take me out, you're you're standing over me doing it.

And she kind of plays around.

She said, The Philistines are here to see if he's gonna be weak, and he breaks the bowstrings.

She says, Oh, you lied to me.

You didn't even tell me the truth.

He said, Okay, I'll tell you.

He said, If you tie me up with brand new ropes, you gotta have brand new ropes.

It can never be used for anything else.

He falls asleep, she ties him up with brand new ropes.

He wakes up and now he's tied up again.

That's a hint and two halves.

She said, The Philistines are coming.

He breaks the brand new ropes.

I said, Oh, Sammy, you lied to me again.

Then he said, Well, if you take the seven braids of my hair and you tie them tight into the weaver's loom, that that'll do it.

That's the thing that'll take my strength.

He wakes up and she untied his hair, took his dreadlocks, and tied him to the bedpost.

She said, The Philistines are here.

He jumps up, his strength is still so strong, he rips the post off.

And then she goes into this.

Well, if you love me, how can you say you love me?

Three different chances God was giving him to see she is a fool.

She's trying to destroy your life.

And finally he breaks down and says, My strength is in my hair.

No razor can come on my head.

He falls asleep on her lap.

She calls for Barbara to come in.

I don't know what kind of sleep he's in, because they done cut his whole head and he don't know it.

Then she yells, The Philistines are here.

He jumped up.

Watch this, he jumped up and he shook himself like he always did.

But the Bible says he didn't realize that the Spirit of God had departed.

Can I just say, he's preaching like he always preached?

He's doing his administrative stuff like he always did, but he didn't realize that it was the anointing that was getting the results, not just him.

Philistines come in, the Bible says they gouze out his eyes, ties him to a post.

He's a laughing stock now.

All because he wouldn't take heed to the plethora of chances God was giving him to turn this thing around.

Judges chapter 16.

Judges 16 · chapter mention

Let's look at how it wraps up.

I love this right here.

So let me give you the picture.

His eyes have been gouged out.

He's tied to two beams, pillars that are keeping this building up.

You look at it, you say it's a sad story.

He's bald headed now because they cut all his hair off.

You look at him, you would think God has forsaken him.

You know, messed up so bad, God is done dealing with him.

But the Bible says this as he's tied up, watch this.

The hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaven.

You know what that says?

Even in our worst day, his mercy endures forever.

Even when you think your cause is lost, your hair can grow again.

Your ministry can be restored again.

God can send you a wife this time that you can do it the right way.

Just because it's been horrible up until now doesn't mean that God can't still turn around and make it good.

If you're ready now to go ahead and give it all over to him.

The Bible says that in his death, he pushed those pillars down.

And the Bible describes it, it says he killed more Philistines in his death than he had killed in his lifetime.

So we know he killed at least a thousand.

Because he killed more Philistines as he died than he did when he was alive.

His mercy endures forever.

I thank God for the mercy of God.

But watch this, I decided a long time ago, I don't want to just live on the mercy of God.

I want to be committed to just to just do the right thing.

I want to be committed to just remove anything from my life that is not of God, anybody from my life that's pulling me away from God, any temptation that's trying to get the best of me, anything I think I can handle.

Let me just not even try to handle it.

Let me go ahead and get away from the line and get all the way over here with God.

I'm still gonna need his mercy, but I don't want to need his mercy on purpose.

I don't want to need his mercy for the stuff that I didn't even pay attention.

I wasn't even paying attention.

I didn't even realize.

I don't want to live in active rebellion and just think that his mercy will keep covering the gap.

Thank God for his love.

Thank God for his grace.

Thank God that his mercy endures forever.

Lift up your hands in this place.

Thank you, Lord.

Come on, thank you, Lord.

Oh, Father, we are so grateful.

So grateful for how good you are to us.

So grateful that your mercy endures forever.

So grateful that you give us chance after chance, opportunity after opportunity to hear your voice and make that turn.

And even right here in this moment, Father God, I'm asking you to speak to all of our hearts, Lord God.

Show us what we can't see.

Show us what we become numb to.

Show us what we've disregarded for so long we don't even see it as wrong any longer.

Awaken our hearts, Father God.

Make us sensitive again, Lord God.

Help us to be fiercely focused to make sure we give no room to the enemy to destroy what you're trying to do.

We thank you, Lord God.

We are among the heroes, Father God.

We are qualified to be in that book of heroes.

You've used us before, and we know you're gonna use us again.

So thank you, Father, for the work you're doing.

We love you, we honor you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Come on, put your hands together in this place.

Come on, put your hands together in this place.

Now I'm gonna ask you, don't leave out just yet.

Hang on, hang on.

The most important thing that's happened all day long is it ready to happen right now.

So, unless you have to rush out, it's an emergency.

I'm gonna ask you to be seated for just a few more moments.

Because I want to look and ask you this question.

If you were to walk out of here right day, right here today and get into the parking lot and breathe your last breath, do you know where you go?

I know most people think they go to heaven.

Most people want to go to heaven.

Hollywood makes us think that everybody dies and they go to heaven.

You see everybody on these memes with wings and they got the little white outfits on.

Everybody doesn't die and go to heaven.

In fact, lots of people die and go to hell, not because they've done so many things wrong.

They die and go to hell because nobody loved them enough to tell them the only way to the Father is through Jesus Christ.

And the good news is this, he doesn't ask us to be perfect.

He doesn't ask us to even promise that we'll fix all the stuff we know we need to fix.

What he asks us to do is one thing that is surrender our entire life to him for the rest of our days.

That's literally it.

Believe in your heart that God is raising from the dead and invite him into your life to be Lord, to be master, to be the one who's in charge, to dictate what steps we take.

And if you'll do that, he'll take you just like you are, right where you are, no matter how messed up you think you are.

And he'll change you on the inside, and then he'll take you by the hand, put you into a good Bible-teaching church, and teach you how to fix anything else he wants you to fix on the outside.

So, right here today, if you're in this place, you do not know Jesus Christ, your Lord, if you cannot say with complete confidence, if you breathe your last breath today, you go straight to heaven to be with the Lord.

I want you to do something for me.

In a moment, I'm gonna have everybody bow their heads.

When we do, there's a little card in the seat pocket that just says say yes to Jesus.

When we bow our heads, if you're ready to surrender to him, reach out and grab that card, hang on to it.

And in a moment, I'm gonna count to three.

When I get to three, I want you to lift that card up as high as you can.

I'm not gonna embarrass you.

There's not a church, we're gonna ask you to stand up and come here to the front.

But the moment I get to three, I wanna ask you to quickly lift that card up.

And I want you to do it quickly because the devil's gonna try everything he can to talk you out of this moment.

But this is your moment.

So go ahead and bow your heads all over the room.

If you're ready to surrender to him, reach out, grab that card, and get ready, because I'm gonna count to three in a moment.

Get ready to have your life change, get ready to step into a new arena of what God can do.

Get ready to let go of the wheel, get in the passenger seat, let God take you where He wants you to go.

I'm getting ready to count to three.

Get ready to lift that card.

Here we go.

One, two, three.

Lift it up.

Come on, lift that card up high.

Lift it up, lift it up.

Come all over the room.

Lift it up.

Did you just make a decision for Jesus?

Welcome to the family.

We're so excited.

Trust me, we're clapping for you.

And we believe that you've made an important decision today.

We'd like to help you on your journey.

So if you'll follow the directions that are on screen, there is a free book you can download.

It's gonna take you five to ten minutes of your day for the next seven days.

But our pastors have put together some amazing resources that we believe will help you in the journey ahead.

If you don't want it, nobody's going to email you, text you, bother you, anything like that.

We just want to make sure you are successful in your walk with Jesus.

Now, let me tell you, one of the things you should consider is baptism.

And if you're in the Jacksonville area, we do baptism after our first weekend service every month, and you can just scan the QR code that's on the screen, sign up for that.

I'd love to be a part of that journey with you, or any of our ministers would.

If you don't live in town, we do believe you should find a Bible-teaching church and at least go get baptized, even if you're still gonna watch our service.

But download that book, it's free.

We're excited for your journey ahead, and we can't wait to be a part of that.

Now, this is a part of the service where we also demonstrate our generosity.

If you're just checking this out today, you don't feel any pressure to give.

But for those of you, this is your church, you know that we are generous is one of our core values.

And so you can give online or you can give through our app, which I really like.

You have the Apple Pay option right on our app.

Just go to your Google store or your Apple store, download the We Are Impact app.

It's also a great way to study notes that um come from the sermons that you watch on here.

And there's a lot of events on there as well.

But you can give through that app.

It's super easy, and we're just grateful that you partner with us week after week.

Well, we're so excited you joined us today.

Hope you have an amazing weekend, and we'll see you next time.