Looking Good, Lacking God Judges 14:4-11

I will trust in you, Lord. So I confess, I spent

some hours this week trying to write what I called

the 10th anniversary sermon. And then about midweek,

I came to the conclusion that I was clearly off

track. I was doing something wrong. kind of corrected

me and said, that's not your focus. And then

as it got to yesterday afternoon, I thought,

but it's a 10th anniversary sermon. There's got

to be something. And then I realized we had talked

about on Tuesday night about how in our church,

the pastor doesn't really write the sermon, but

God writes the sermon. And then he is writing

the sermon in all of our lives. And so I started

thinking about what God had done. And so the

best parts of the sermon may have already passed.

We have experienced them together today, but

maybe not because the Lord did give me some pretty

cool things that I think that we are going to

see today. So you know that we've been working

through the book of Judges. I talked to you briefly

about how the book of Judges is in form kind

of a big sandwich. So there's a part that leads

up to the first big piece. which we begin today.

And then there's a sort of a little part in the

middle, and then there's the next big piece,

and then there's a sort of an ending, if you

will, that tails off. And that means it's a chiastic

structure, so it goes, if you graft it, it starts

and it kind of goes like this, and then it hangs

there for a second, and then it makes a little

dip, and it hangs back up here for a second,

and then it makes a slow gradual down to the

end of the book, if you kind of graft it. And

the book is largely about strength. And so I

would ask you, what is your perception of strength?

I think we probably would all have a different

opinion of what that is or how it feels to us.

So I want you to think about what you consider

strength to be. Then I want you to ask yourself,

where does strength come from? What do you think?

Where does strength come from? And where does

it go? Because you realize that strength does

not last by its very intonation, right? Even

if there's a strong man, even in strength of

character, If you think strength is just in character,

then maybe in the last seconds of a man's life

he has character, but in transition into presence

of the Lord we realize that our character by

comparison would be minimal. So the story of

Samson is largely one of strength. In fact, so

many people who don't know Jesus at all or don't

know anything about the Bible at all would call

Samson the strongest man to ever live. So we're

going to read a part of Samson's story today.

and keep it in context of the Bible, of the book

of Judges, and then also in the fact that we

are celebrating our 10th anniversary and look

at it from that perspective. So grab your Bibles,

if you would, and go with me. A little who to

holler amen as we go to Judges chapter 14. Thank

Judges 14 · chapter mention

you very much. Somebody said Yahtzee. I like

that. It's been a while since I heard that. All

right, that's cool. So we're beginning reading

in verse 4 of chapter 14. We actually read verse

4 to end last week, so it's a transition from

last week to this week. Chapter 14, the book

of Judges, verse 4, talking about Samson. It

says, that it was of the Lord, for he was seeking,

that he is capitalized, that's God, God the Lord,

the creator of all creation, was seeking an occasion

against the Philistines. Remember that the people

had become comfortable being ruled by the Philistines.

They really weren't resisting anymore. They had

found a kind of a peace, if you will, at being

their subjects rather than being God's people.

Now, at that time, the Philistines were ruling

over Israel. That ends verse 4, brings us into

verse 5 for today. Then Samson went down to Timnah

with his father and mother and came as far as

the vineyards of Timnah. And behold, a young

lion came roaring toward him. And the Spirit

of the Lord came upon him mightily. So Samson

feels the Spirit of the Lord stir in him, comes

upon him. You could say boosting his strength,

if you would. So that he tore him, that is to

say that Samson tore the lion as one. tears a

kid, which is a baby goat, though he had nothing

in his hand. So he didn't have a sword or a spear

or even a heavy stick. He tore that lion as one

might tear a baby goat. But he did not tell his

father or mother what he had done. So he went

down and talked to the woman and she looked good.

To Samson. When he returned later to take her,

he turned aside to look at the carcass of the

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

in the body of the lion. So he scraped the honey

into his hands and went on eating as he went.

And when he came to his father and mother, he

gave some to them and they ate it. But he did

not tell them that he had scraped the honey out

of the body of the lion. Verse 10. Then his father

went down to the woman and Samson made a feast

there. For the young men. customarily did this.

So it was pretty common in the culture, and you

could even say most of the religions of their

day, because remember they had a lot of synergistic

religion going on, to have a feast and to bring

in a whole bunch of young men and to celebrate

the end of bachelordom, if you will, and to transition,

kind of like a bachelor party, maybe where that

tradition comes from. And it came about when

they saw him that they brought 30 companions

to be with him. And so this is not 30 of Samson's

friends, but 30 sort of recruited individuals,

right? 30 Philistines recruited to take part

in his party. Have you ever had a bachelor party?

You're far from home. You don't have anybody.

You might have some locals. It might be somebody,

well, one of your friends works there and he

gets about five or 10 others to come to your

bachelor party or something like that. So you

could kind of see that happening. In any case,

so he's got 30. You could call them hired, if

you will. They're hired for the fruits of the

party. Companions to be with them. Verse 12 says,

then Samson said to them, let me now propound

the riddle to you. If you will indeed tell it

to me. Within the seven days of the feast, there

would be a seven day long feast after which the

marriage would be consummated. And he says to

these 30 men who are essentially hired companions,

he says, if you figure out this drill by the

time the seven days are over, he says, then I

will give you 30 linen wraps and 30 changes of

clothes. But if you are unable to tell me, then

you shall give me 30 linen wraps and 30 changes

of clothes. So this is a lot, right? It's a lot

of wealth that could potentially change hands.

There's a lot of stakes here, but they're in.

And they'd probably been drinking, so whatever.

And it says, and they said to him, propound your

riddle that we may hear it. So he said to them,

out of the eater came something to eat and out

of the strong came something sweet. But they

could not tell the riddle in the first three

days of his having told it. So basically three

days goes by after he tells the riddle, which

was out of the eater came something to eat and

out of the strong came something sweet. Now we

know he's talking about the lion and because

we heard the story of killing the lion as one

might kill a baby kid or baby goat. We kind of

get it, right? He's talking about the lion. But

they wouldn't have any reason. Why would they

even think lion? This is a pretty tough riddle

for them, right? So probably through research

or figuring it out, maybe if somebody saw him

eating the honey, they might think, well, honey,

where did the honey come from? Trace it back.

They might figure it out, but they don't have

much time left. They're three days in. They don't

have an answer. So they're going to use research,

but they're going to do it in a certain way.

Verse 15 says, then it came about on the fourth

day that they said to Samson's wife. Now, she's

technically not his wife, but remember being

betrothed was the same as being married back

then. They haven't consummated the marriage,

but they're in the middle of the wedding feast

at the end of which the marriage will be consummated.

So that's effectively his wife. It said, entice

your husband that he may tell us the riddle,

lest we burn you and your father's house with

fire. Okay, now this is rough. If she doesn't

tell them the answer to the riddle, they're going

to burn her and her father's house. That's pretty

bad. So she doesn't necessarily have a lot of...

options there there's 30 of them or probably

more because they probably got all their friends

involved whatever like that but never is there

a thought of going to samson right who is strong

probably the strongest man to ever live instead

she decides to side with them he says Have you

invited us to impoverish us? Remember, it was

her family that invited the 30 men to spend the

time with Samson. Is this not so? In other words,

they're saying, you betrayed us. Now you get

Samson's answer to the riddle so we don't lose

all this wealth. Samson's wife wept before him.

So she goes to Samson. She's bawling on him,

bawling at his feet, whatever. And she said,

you only hate me and you do not love me. You

have propounded a riddle to the sons of my people

and have not told it to me. And he said to her,

behold, I've not told it to my father or mother.

So should I tell it to you? Verse 17. However,

she wept before him seven days while the feast

lasted. So the remainder of the time, probably

even before they came and asked her, she was

seeking out the riddle. And certainly by the

end of the seventh day. She desires to have the

riddle to hand it over to the men so they won't

have to give up the wealth. And it came about

on the seventh day that he told her because she

pressed him so hard. She then told the riddle

to the sons of her people. So she got what she

wanted, which was out from underneath their wrath,

right? They got what they wanted. Now they don't

have to pay, which means now Samson has to pay.

18. So the men of the city said to him on the

seventh day before the sun went down, what is

sweeter than honey and what is stronger than

a lion? And he said to them. If you had not plowed

with my heifer, you would not have found out

my riddle. Now, there's been a little debate

throughout time as to whether that was meant

to be an insult to his wife, calling her a heifer.

I submit to you, it was not probably meant to

be an insult. There's lots of places in the Bible

where people are referred to with animal names

and stuff like that, and it's very rarely an

insult, especially not when it's talking about

somebody who's near and dear to you, which she

was to him. He just simply meant that he knew

where they had gotten the answer, and that she

was meant to be his wife. She was meant to be

his heifer, right? If he's the bull, she's the

heifer. And that's the way it should have been.

But now they have been messing around with her

and got the riddle answer from her. Verse 19,

the spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily.

There it is again. Uh -oh, somebody's in trouble.

And he went down to Ashkelon and he killed 30

of them, that is to say Philistines, and took

their spoil and gave the changes of clothes to

those who told the riddle. And his anger burned.

And he went up to his father's house, but then

when he leaves, Samson's wife was given to his

companion, or that word there that's translated

companion could be first, like, best man, the

guy who stood up with him at his wedding. Anyway,

Samson's wife was given to his companion, who

had been his friend. So there's a few things

I want you to see in the text here. If you're

a person who likes to kind of skip ahead a little

bit, the points are on the screen. The first

one is, Samson looked strong. And so if you have

an idea of what strength is, it's clear that

God poured strength into Samson, no doubt about

it. We heard his origin story and how God said

that he would be strong and that he would begin

God's wrath against the Philistines and that

no razor would be on his head and that she was

supposed to refrain from drinking while she was

pregnant like that. And a lot of people think

that that means that Samson has a Nazirite vow.

But nowhere in the story of Samson does it say

anything about a Nazirite vow. It makes a reference

to him possibly being a Nazirite. But there are

two ways that people become a Nazirite. One way

is because they make a vow. They decide, I decide

I'm going to do this for God. I'm going to be

like this for God. And the other way is they're

called before their birth. And in Samson's case,

he was called before his birth. His mother was

told before he was ever born that he would be

essentially a Nazirite. He was born into it.

He came into it truthfully. Strength. Without

God leads to pride, self -reliance, and worse.

We've been seeing that in the life of the Israelites

all throughout the book of Judges. Every time

they have that success and the judge sort of

disappears from the main limelight, if you will,

they then drift back into things that are arising

out of pride and self -reliance and sinful desires.

What happens is a person begins a lack of wanting

the one thing that is needed more than breath.

And we talked about that. Last week, it was the

presence of the Lord. It would be nice to look

strong. I've had a lot of times in my life where

I wished I looked strong. Bullies came down on

me or on one of my friends or somebody accosted

me on the street were times where I thought it

would really be nice to look strong. But listen,

God looks not at the appearance of men. So you

can look strong. I've known a lot of men who

were strong, but were weak in character, weak

in their mind or in their spirit. God is looking

for an inner situation, if you will. Victory

is in God's way, which is Jesus alone. And so

those who have strength, like we thought about

what is strength? Well, it could be this. It

could be that. It could be that. Those who have

strength, that's not going to get them to heaven

unless that strength is clearly connected to

a Savior who will carry them through in the meantime.

So then I ask you again, what does strength look

like? Does strength look to you like a man on

a cross? Does it look to you like a man suffering

so much that others might be saved? Suffering

even death on a cross, a sinner's death, where

everyone would think he was cursed so that others

might be saved? For the joy that's set before

him, does strength look like that? Sure it does.

Can you or I model that strength without God?

No, it's absolutely not going to happen. It's

wonderful to know going into a problem that you

have a greater chance of victory than someone

else might have or than you might have had in

the past, right? It's kind of... I can't think

of the number of times that I've been in a situation

and people start to get a little flipped out.

This is not working. This is not good. This is

and it goes crazy. And in that situation, God

bestows upon me some confidence or some courage

or some perseverance. And I go, I don't know

how, but this is going to be OK. I can't imagine

that what's going to happen, but it's going to

be OK. God has blessed my wife to be in a career

that normally you have to have a master's degree

to work in that career. And she doesn't have

a day of college. And a couple of months ago

on one of their properties, they had a horrible

situation. What happened was the power went out.

When the power went out. The pipes froze. And

when the pipes froze, water went everywhere.

And bottom line is the property was a high -rise

property. And when the pipes froze and water

was going everywhere, they had to evacuate everybody.

So in the midst of that, they had several people

there who had master's degrees. The fire chief

was there. The mayor was there. The police were

there, right? And so at 1 o 'clock in the morning,

was it that late? No. It was a Tuesday night.

So it was about 9, 3, 10 o 'clock at night. Sherry's

getting ready. And she's jumping in the car and

she's driving up to Michigan where this property

is. And she walks in the room. No master's degree.

Right. No, no emergency training. No first aid

training. No CPR training. Doesn't know how to

fight a fire or raise a ladder or drive a fire

truck. And she walks in the room with the mayor

and the police chief and the fire chief. And

a couple of city councilmen there and like 400

people there, including her manager and people

who own the property owners. And they're all

like scrambling around trying to solve the problem

and figure out how to what do we do next? How

do we handle this? How do we get 300 people to

hotels and all this kind of thing? It took her

two hours and eventually. And I'm not saying

this to be prideful of my wife because she would

give all glory to God, but eventually she managed

to get all those people in check. She got the

mayor under control. She got the fire chief under

control. She got the police chief under control.

She got the policemen and the firemen and the

managers and all the property and all the regionals,

all the people that had come. She got everybody

under control. She got 300 people in a hotel.

She came home at 1 .30 in the morning and collapsed

on her pillow, right? But the point is when she

walked in the room, she knew there was a chance

that she was the one. that God was going to use

to resolve that issue, to get everybody under

control. Now, maybe you've been that person,

and maybe you've been one of the other people,

right? But wouldn't it be a wonderful feeling

to just go into any given situation and think

that defeat is not very likely because you know

what side you're on, you know what you're capable

of, you've overcome more difficult things than

this in the past? That's a form of strength.

It's confidence and courage to try. And we hatch

plans, and we carry out the plan, and then the

plan falls apart after the first step. We make

a new plan, and we hatch that one, and you start

doing it, and two, three steps in, it falls apart.

You make a new plan, but you have confidence

and strength to try. Boy, it would be great to

be like that all day long, every day. Everything

that comes my way, I can say, look, I've got

this. I've handled worse than this before. I'm

not going to be anxious. I'm not going to be

worried. I'm not going to be stressed. I'm just

going to deal with it because I am the man. The

problem is, I'm not the man. Jesus is the man.

And if I should ever develop a confidence or

a courage like that, if I should have Samson

-like strength and live my life not thinking

Jesus was the man, then I would go to hell. And

since that's an outcome I seek to avoid, I recognize

that Jesus Christ is the man. Jesus tells a parable.

We won't go there and read it, but I'm going

to very briefly summarize it for you about a

man who did very well. He was very successful,

very prosperous. It's not the parable of Lazarus

and the rich man, which isn't really even a parable,

right? That's a story of actual events that took

place. This is a parable about a man, a farmer,

who did very, very well. He did well for himself

and started to become prosperous. He had a lot

of stuff, and he said, well, you know, I'm doing

so well here that I don't have anywhere to store

all my stuff. He said, so here's what I'm going

to do. I'm going to tear down my barns and build

new barns. And I'll store all my stuff in my

new barns. And then I'll take my ease. I'll have

everything I need to be sure to retire. I'll

have it all lined up. I won't have to work all

like I've all done all my life and all that.

I'll take my ease. And he said. An angel come

upon him and said, you don't understand. The

Lord said to him, you don't understand. Your

life will be demanded from you this very night.

So we can do that. We can hatch our plans. We

can find our strength, our confidence. We can

step up. We can overcome. But if we step up,

overcome, hatch our plans, or find our confidence

outside the Lord, the Lord is going to bring

us up short at one point. Just think that those

people will cry out to him, Lord, Lord, enter

into his presence. And they've done miracles,

cast out demons, done healings. And they say

to Jesus, here we are. If he says, get away from

me, I never knew you, they're going to be like,

but we were confident. We had strength. We had

courage. We could solve problems. We healed people.

People were throwing money at us because we healed

that guy who couldn't walk, and they're throwing

money at us because we cast that demon out of

that woman. We just had it all going on, and

now you're saying you never knew us? That confidence,

that ability to plan, to always have it all together,

that won't serve. It does feel good to be victorious

and to win. To win at a game, to win at a challenge,

to finally get the part to fit, to fix what broke.

Those things feel good. And even at that moment,

it's like an arrival. You're like, yeah, I did

it. I just worked on that for four hours and

might have taken somebody else 30 minutes, but

I overcame. Yeah. And that's a pretty good feeling.

It's intoxicating. And so we find a problem and

we beat our heads against it. Until we finally

overcome it and then we feel pretty good. It's

even so much so that thrill seekers create those

kind of situations for themselves. They go bungee

jumping and jump out of airplanes and they deep

sea dive with only a snorkel. And the list goes

on. They jump their skateboard over 40 foot tall

ramps and do flips. And I saw a guy do a BMX.

He went off a bike. He went off a 40 foot tall

ramp. And in the middle of the air, somebody

threw a bike at him and he jumped from one bike

to the other and came down on the second bike.

And I'm going like. If that dude falls, he's

never going to walk again, probably. But they're

creating these situations, the difficulties,

pushing limits. And then they live to do it again

and think, well, see, it's okay. So they live

to do it again. And they go after yet another

thrill. But meanwhile, all the while, there are

15 % of the people who suffer fatality. And they're

just, oh, it's too bad for them, right? But this

exhilaration at problem solving, this feeling

of confidence, this feeling of strength, of courage,

whatever, it's all mimicking the rejoicing that

we are called to in the Lord. It is in the smallest

way looking like God's purpose was being fulfilled

when in actuality it wasn't that at all. Listen,

I'm going to tell you a couple things. You are

awesome. You're awesome. You've got a mind and

a spirit and a body. This is what's crazy. They're

not even all always going in the same direction

at the same time, right? Am I right? We are awesome.

We are awesome creations of God. This church,

meaning the people, not the building. This building

is pretty cool, but this people is awesome. And

we overcome. You overcome. We overcome difficulties.

It's true. We have seen and done things. We're

like, man, I wish that had never happened, but

wow. Did God really show up? That's awesome.

You are awesome. And if you're waiting around

for a victory, a success, or some strength, or

courage, or some moment where you don't feel

anxious, where you usually feel anxious or something

like that, to tell you that you're awesome, you

are wasting your time. The fact is already there.

The handwriting is already on the wall. You are

an incredible creation of God. You can stop trying

to prove it. You are an incredible creation of

God. You can stop trying to overcome, to prove

to yourself that you are something special. You

are already something special. The problem is

not whether or not you are an awesome creation

of God. The problem is whether or not you have

a false concept of what strength is, of what

confidence is, of what courage is. I've talked

with little kids. I cannot tell you. All the

time, they'll say to me, I'm not courageous.

I say, what do you mean? I'm afraid of all kinds

of things. Okay, do you see the contradiction?

Courage is not a lack of fear. Courage is doing

what you're still supposed to do when you have

fear. In fact, if you have no fear, you cannot

be courageous. It's not possible. Just as if

you have no trials, you could not be shown to

be strong. But we say, oh, I have trials. I must

not be special. I must not be strong. I must

not be able. And we begin to believe the lies

of the world. Samson looked strong. He ripped

a lion open with his bear. hands. A lion is one

of the strongest people on the face. I imagine

he probably like grabbed his jaws and pulled

until his jaw dislocated and then ripped it right

down the middle. Guts spewing everywhere. First

of all, I don't want to do that. Even if I could

do that, I don't want to do that. It's messy.

It's not good. I don't want to do that. And I

don't want to face a lion. That's the truth.

But I've faced demons and I don't want to do

that either. But I didn't do that alone. And

if I had needed to do it alone, I couldn't have.

Because I'm weak. By your own admission of what

you think strength is, most of us, the listing

that we made, we're weak. But in our weakness,

his strength is perfected. So here's how to be

strong based on that then. Stop looking like

it and let the Lord be strong through you. Walk

with him. We're commanded in scripture to rejoice.

Over and over again, we should be rejoicing.

If nothing else, if you have nothing else, tomorrow

morning when you wake up, you can think to yourself,

look, I am one heck of a machine. I've got a

programming code. That scientists, after thousands

of years or only now, just beginning to understand

a little bit. And it's pretty incredible what

they can do. But the truth is, my cells are written

in such a way to replicate themselves with more

information contained inside the one millionth

spot of the head of a pin. One millionth fraction

of the head of a pin. More information contained

inside there than all the encyclopedias ever

written. I am incredible. Start there. And then

appear weak. Let God appear strong. Samson looked

strong. But strength without God leads to pride,

self -reliance, or self -pity, and worse. You

think you can look at yourself and tell yourself

you're worthless? Who are you? God? You think

you can look at yourself and say, I can't do

this. I'm not strong enough. Who are you? God?

So you're so strong in your weakness. You are

so strong in your weakness that you can say that

God is wrong about you. I know where that road

ends, and I don't want to be there. God's not

wrong about you. You are an incredible creation

of God. You are stronger than you could ever

know. And the fact that you look weak is to your

advantage. Because that is the channel that allows

God to do what God desires to do. And our response

is to simply rejoice. Isaiah writes it this way

in 61 .10. I will rejoice greatly in the Lord.

My soul will exalt in my God. For he has clothed

me with garments of salvation. He has wrapped

me with a robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom

decks himself with a garland and a bride adorns

herself with jewels. You didn't do that. So rejoice.

Psalm 32, 11 says, Be glad in the Lord and rejoice,

you righteous ones, and shout for joy, all you

who are upright in heart. It doesn't say all

you who are actively overcoming your problems,

all you who are stronger than your neighbor,

all of you who passed the IQ test with a really

high number. Are you filled in better dots than

others did? It says all you who are upright in

heart. Psalm 73, 26 says, My flesh and my heart

may fail, but God is the strength of my heart

and my portion forever. Some people think the

greatest victory in life is to love. If you have

someone to love and you're loved by someone,

you win. You win the game of life. Well, in a

sense, that may be true because it's kind of

what we're created for, but not in the way that

the world represents it. Notice in our second

point, then, that Samson looked in love. He picked

out a pretty good looking woman and him and his

parents had the ability to get. her for him,

and they did. He looked in love. He was in the

middle of a seven -day love feast, preparing

to consummate his marriage with this hot chick

from Timnok, who probably later would have a

million -dollar social media account, if it was

today. She's pretty something. He looked in love.

But love without wisdom, without a biblical understanding

of what love is, leads to compromise at best.

Let's look at a few of the places where Samson

went wrong in picking his supposed love. First

of all, he judged with his eyes. Let me tell

you right now. The person that you look at and

you go in my eyes, I see you and what I see I

want. I like. Yeah, that's pretty good stuff.

That person has just as much chance to be the

wrong person for you as the person that you look

at with your eyes and say, I don't really like

what I see. He judged with his eyes. He saw a

good looking woman and he went after it. She

was outside what the Bible commanded. The Bible

commanded them not to take people outside the

people of God as wives. And yet. He said, she's

pretty good looking. Who cares what that says?

Or maybe he wasn't even ever taught what it said.

Notice that he pursued what he wanted. I can

tell you for sure in scripture, the one thing

you can't add is whatever you want. And I would

include the whatever and the want, keep them

together, right? It's not whatever you want.

There's one thing that you want. It's the presence

of God. It's what God wants for you. It's the

great future. It's eternity in heaven. That is

salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. That's

what you want. So a piece of cake will look good.

A paycheck will look good. A raise will look

good. A schedule adjustment will look good. A

victory in some problem that you're having will

look good. Overcoming some difficulty that you're

facing will look good. But you may or may not

be allowed to have that. It depends on whether

or not it leads you to the one thing that you

really are supposed to be wanting, which is more

of the presence of the Lord and eternity with

him. God wants what's good for you. And anytime

what you want isn't what's good for you, then

he does not want that for you. Yet it may look

like exactly what you want. Your eyes may settle

on it. You may say, yeah, that's me. Boy, that's

going on when you're watching TV, when you're

on social media, when you're thinking about springing

for a little bit more expensive electronic thing,

right? It's going on in areas of education and

certification and promotion, etc. And they say

to you, boy, you can have the promotion, make

some extra money if you'll just work and do this

and this and this. And the carrot is dangled

and people, that's what I want. And they go after

it. And none of that is necessarily in God's

plan at all. Samson pursued what he wanted. Also,

he moved quickly. Marriages that last for eternity,

well, last for this entire lifetime, we don't

take wives and husbands in heaven the same way

we do on earth, but marriages that last until

Jesus comes again or until we die are not built

in the blink of an eye. You might have love at

first sight, but you better make sure it's the

kind of love that God's talking about, right?

So you move too quickly into marriage, and then

pretty soon you're mopping up the messes that

you forgot to mop up. And by the way, everybody

knows if you open the refrigerator and the grape

juice falls over and it's pouring out on the

floor, if you say, well, I got to go pause my

show first. I'm going to come back and clean

that up. By the time you get back to clean it

up. It's quite the mess. It's not a few feet

or a few drops. It's the whole kitchen floor,

right? And it's like that. If you don't take

care of your business and make sure that you're

doing the right thing when you move forward in

the Lord, not just in the area of marriage, but

anything, then it's going to be a real mess by

the time you get to cleaning it up. And you might

spend your whole life. He moved too quickly.

He just needed some, not time, time to figure

out that this was not the person that God was

pointing him to. He drew from outside the allowable

body of candidates. There were laws, right? The

laws of God's people said that, He could not

take a Philistine wife, and yet he did it because

she looked good, he wanted her, he pursued her,

and he moved too quickly. And he never concluded

that that was not the right candidate. He wasn't

supposed to. This list goes on. Today, a candidate

for marriage should be... fully informed and

prepared to pay the ultimate cost to be devoted

to their marriage, which is literally everything

short of loyalty to God. The only thing that

you withhold that you'll never give up for your

spouse is your loyalty to the God of the universe.

Everything else is on the chopping block. And

if you're not ready to make that kind of a commitment,

then you're not ready to be married. And if you're

married already, you're not ready to make that

kind of commitment, then you need to repent and

turn to the Lord so God can actually do something.

But if you're finding your strength in your own

choice, you say, I'm going to make my spouse

into somebody that I really can, you know. enjoy

being with, and we're going to have our victories

in us or something. So I'll get him to be the

way I want him to be, or I'll get her to be the

way I want her to be. That is not God, and it's

not a godly marriage. You say, but I can make

them follow God better. I can show them God better

than they can find God by themselves. And that

just isn't true, because you ain't Jesus. And

no man comes unto the Father except he who comes

by Jesus. And so I would say to you, if you have

a question about whether that's at stake, whether

or not you might lose your loyalty to God by

choosing this person, then you don't choose this

person. Candidates for marriage should be considering

the union in light of Scripture, God's leadership,

prompting of the Holy Spirit, spiritual disciplines.

In other words, you ask the Bible, you go to

the Bible and ask what does it say about that.

You pray, you spend time with God, you fast,

you think about those things and whether or not

the other person is living for God. Listen to

how key this is. 2 Corinthians 6 .14 says this.

It says, Do not be bound together with unbelievers

for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness

or what fellowship has light with darkness see

how important it is how important it is that

we are bound together with a person who equally

loves the lord because where in scripture it

says that you cannot judge whether another person

is a believer or not right judge not lest you

be judged that's what it's actually talking about

not talking about judging the behavior of others

because sin is sin no matter what you can judge

sin right it's talking about judging another

person i don't think that person's saved but

where scripture says you cannot judge another

person's salvation Here in scripture, it says,

if you're thinking about marrying them, you better

first judge their salvation. See how important

it is? More wisely, probably, we should trust

the Lord to make an unbeliever off limits. 1

Corinthians 13, the love chapter, talks about

all kinds of things that love is and love isn't.

And there's a lot of things that it doesn't,

it's not unseemly, right? It's patient, it's

kind. You can go there and read the chapter for

yourself and look at all the things that love

is. There are volumes that can be spoken about

love, but this one thing must be said today.

You can't. fake love you can't look in love if

you can't do it you don't know god and you need

to get right with god and if you can do it you're

called to it and not wastefully and not intermittently

and never for show but in actuality you're called

to love and so if we love as god has called us

to love then we could be walking in the lord

if we do not we can't be that's just the bottom

line for he is love but if we look like we love

and we're not actually loving, then we're again

brought ourselves to that worst possible place.

Because the one goal to be God's love on earth,

to be in love with God, know he is in love with

us and to be his love on earth, to be like that,

that one goal now is in jeopardy because we think

we are loving, but actually we are not. And you'll

never fix it. You'll never get around to understanding

it because you keep faking it. Samson looked

like he was in love. But love without the wisdom

of the Lord leads to compromise at best. Last,

he looked like a winner. Probably his greatest

trait in this part of the story. The riddle,

the lion taking his wife. But victory without

God leads to a trap. I'm going to read you now

from the book of Revelation. So in the book of

Revelation, there's a part, it's kind of toward

the beginning, where Jesus is speaking and says

he is with the lampstand. So he's the governor

of what is a church and what is not a church,

essentially, if you will. And he could put a

lampstand out just the same as he can start a

church, he can end a church. And I'm going to

read from chapter 2 first, and I'll read verse

1, 3, 10, 23, and 25, 26. And then I'm going

to read from chapter 3, and I'll read verse 5,

8, 10 to 12, 15 to 17, 19, and 21. Now, you don't

have to remember all those. You don't have to

note them down. If you want them, I can give

them to you. But I want you to see a theme that

is running through everything that he's telling

the church to be. Listen to this. He says, To

the angel of the church in Ephesus write, The

one who holds the seven stars in his right hand,

the one who walks among the seven gold lampstands,

by the way, who is that? It's Jesus Christ, says

this. Now verse three, and you have perseverance

and have endured for my name's sake and have

not grown weary. Then 10, do not fear what you

are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about

to cast some of you into prison so that you will

be tested and you will have tribulation for 10

days. Be faithful unto death and I will give

you the crown of life. He says in verse 23, and

I will kill her children with pestilence and

all the churches will know that I am he who searches

the minds and hearts and I will give to each

one of you according to your deeds. 25. Nevertheless,

what you have, hold fast until I come. He who

overcomes and he who keeps my deeds until the

end, to him I will give authority over the nations.

Now into chapter 3, verse 5. He who overcomes

will thus be clothed in white garments, and I

will not erase his name from the book of life,

and I will confess his name before my father

and before his angels. Verse 8. I know your deeds.

Behold, I have put before you an open door, which

no one can shut, because you have a little power

and have kept my word. and have not denied my

name. Verse 10, because you have kept the word

of my presence, I also will keep you from the

hour of testing, the hour which is about to come

upon the whole world to test those who dwell

on the earth. I am coming quickly. Hold fast

what you have so that no one will take your crown.

He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in

the temple of my God and he will not go out from

it anymore. And I will write on him the name

of my God and the name of the city of my God,

the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven

from my God and my new name. Verse 15, I know

your deeds. You are neither hot nor cold. I wish

that you were hot or cold. So because you are

lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit

you out of my mouth. Because you say I am rich

and have become wealthy and have need of nothing.

And you do not know that you are wretched and

miserable and poor and blind and naked. Those

whom I love, this is verse 19, those whom I love,

I reprove and discipline. Be zealous and repent.

21. He who overcomes, I will grant him to sit

down with me on my throne. And I also overcame

and sat down with my father on his throne. The

theme is this. You need some trouble. Now, the

truth is you probably shouldn't go and orchestrate

that trouble for yourself and then overcome it

because that's really not the way the math of

it. That's not how it's supposed to work, right?

You faithfully follow the Lord and do the things

that the Lord has given you to do. Then you need

some trouble. You need some difficulty. And then

facing that difficulty, victory is equally available.

It is found in simply remaining faithful to Christ

and doing what we are called to beyond the trouble

that we have encountered. Have we encountered

trouble? Have you encountered trouble? Well,

let me tell you what the Bible says strength

is. The Bible says strength is when you as a

faithful believer encounter trouble and in the

midst of the trouble and after the trouble. However

it ends, you are still found persevering. And

he said to the churches over and over again,

you will get a crown. You will get a robe. I

will not erase your name from the book of life.

You will stay the course and be found faithful

despite the troubles and trials. And I will take

care of it. Just because you know the name of

Jesus doesn't mean you can save yourself. Just

because you know the power of God doesn't mean

you get to decide. how your life goes. God is

the God of heaven. God is the creator of everything.

And Jesus Christ, who is God the Son, came in

the flesh to live and to die for the joy that

was set before him. A sinner's death, mind you.

He came to die for the joy that was set before

him so that you and I might live in presence

with him and have some trouble. And then having

that trouble, persevering until the day in which

he returns. Understand that the day of that trouble

then is upon us. It's every day. You go like,

I got up yesterday, went to bed, and like nothing

bad happened in between. That just isn't so.

That's not how it works. We are assailed every

day by the plans and the schemes of the enemy.

You had to wrestle with your own pride, arrogance,

self -reliance, self -pity, anxiousness, fear.

All day yesterday, it was with you. And the truth

is, if you've come to peace with it, then you've

come to peace with it just the same as the Philistines

had taken over the Israelites and the Israelites

had come to peace with them. Jesus said, I did

not come to bring peace, but a sword. It's a

fight. The days that you think that everything

went well, those days, they were a fight just

the same. If you buy your way to a day of peace,

if you argue your way to a day of peace, if you

manipulate your way to a day of peace, if you

isolate, your way to a day of peace. And you

will become just exactly what the Israelites

had become in Samson's day. And therefore you

became just exactly what Samson had become. And

what had Samson become? Well, Samson looked strong.

He looked strong. And some of us look strong.

Our church looks strong. But strength without

God leads to pride, self -reliance, and worse.

Samson looked in love. And some of us look in

love. We're passionate or in love with the things

that we get to do, the things that we are doing

with each other. In many cases, we look in love.

But if you look in love without the wisdom, without

biblical wisdom, it only leads to compromise

at best. And Samson looked like a winner. And

some of us look like winners. And the church

looks like a winner. But if you look like a winner,

you find victory without God. It leads to a trap.

And the trap is the Samson trap. Because while

the day of evil is upon us for sure, the day

of rejoicing is also upon us. And you see the

math of that? While the evil is coming, what

will you be found doing? Well, if it's the day

of evil and the day of rejoicing, those are the

day. And you're not supposed to be doing evil.

That only leaves rejoicing. And then you hear

Paul and Silas in the middle of the night in

a stock soar. beaten, unfed, praising God. You

hear the church praying and praising God while

Peter was arrested. Shall I go on? What will

you be found doing in the midst of your trials?

Blessed is a man, the brother of Jesus, James

writes, and then we're in the conclusion. Blessed

is a man who perseveres under trial, for once

he has been approved, that means tested and found

worthy, tested and found faithful, tested and

persevering, he will receive the crown of life

which the Lord has promised to those who love

him. Notice the equation. Blessed is a man who,

A, perseveres under trial, B, is approved, found

worthy, continuing, persevering in his faith,

because ultimately the blessing will come, which

is a crown of life, which the Lord has promised

to those who love him. That brings us to our

conclusion. So when I was younger, so one of

the blessings of my life has been, and I think

it's maybe kind of a gift with preaching, is

I have memories that go all the way back. I have

memories from when I was about a year and a half

old. And like I talked to Ariana, it's like,

I don't remember anything from any year and a

half old. I talked to Sherry, she doesn't remember

anything from any year and a half old. But I

remember things as if I was there from a year

and a half old. I might forget things from today

or this week, but I remember things from when

I was a year and a half old. When I was in kindergarten,

I was in the Lark School District, which is the

other side of Northwood. And that school has

been torn down. That's Brentwood Park, the backyard

of Lark School District with Brentwood Park.

That's where we practiced softball. That big

field over there used to have an elementary school

in it. And that was my elementary school. And

Aaron. and Caitlin bought a house on Sheffield

in the 2100 block, and I came home from Riverside

Hospital. Hold on. No, I was St. Charles. My

brother was Riverside. I came home from St. Charles

Hospital to a house on the corner of Sheffield

and Brentwood. So that's where I came home, and

I lived there until I was six years old. While

I was living there, I had a friend. His name

was John, and John was born sick. John was born

having a hard time breathing. His immune system

was messed up, and he was sick. And then our

kindergarten year, he missed. He still passed,

got to go to first grade. But he missed so many

days of school. I want to say like maybe 50 or

60 days of school. In fact, my friend John, the

year that I was to transfer over to the online

side because we bought the new house, which is

the house that I now live in because we bought

it for my parents. John was supposed to be in

the Christmas musical there. And I had already

transferred. I was already out. But they let

me come back for the Christmas program board

game night. And I brought a board game in with

me to the board game night. And they said to

me that John was sick again. But I knew John's

part. And they asked me to sing in the play that

night. And I said, I didn't want to. And my mom

said, well, you can do it. You can do it. And

she said, well, you're going to do it. And when

she said, you're going to do it, I threw the

board game down on the floor. And I think it

was Clue. And all the pieces went everywhere.

And I did not do it. But anyway, so my friend

John missed everything because he was sick all

the time. So midway through that summer, John's

mom got an idea. She was going to fix John. She

was going to help him. She was going to help

him be healthy. And she put him on supplements,

vitamins, and so on. And she got him out of bed

every morning at 7 a .m. Him and his older brother,

about four years older than him. And they would

work out every morning. And it started just being,

you know, 10 reps, 10 this, 10 that, whatever.

They would work out every morning, seven days

a week. And he was on supplements. And he never

ate sugar anymore. He wasn't allowed to eat sugar.

Sugar is bad for your immune system, by the way,

especially if you have too much of it. It doesn't

take much. Um, and so he never ate sugar anymore

and almost no carbs. And so pretty soon my friend

John, who at the time was probably about 15,

20 pounds overweight as a kindergartner, um,

became buff. That's what happened. So I moved

away, didn't see him. And then I saw him again

later and he had become little Hulk Hogan. Like

he, he got pec muscles and he had an actual set

of abs. Like I've never actually seen on a human

being and in real, like in person. Right. And,

uh, at that time anyway, and maybe not even now.

And he could go like this and his shirt would

get really tight right here. I mean, he was strong.

And when we first moved, he came to my house

and. We went to a little fair together, and then

he was going to spend the night at my house,

but he was sick. He was always sick. And so I

said, well, it's okay. He'd have to bring his

breathing machine. He had a CPAP machine. He'd

have to bring his breathing machine for his asthma,

for steroids. And he had a rescue inhaler. He

had three or four medications he had to take

and all this. And I asked him if he could spend

the night, but he was sick. So his mom said he

couldn't spend the night. And he did not push

back at all. He's like, no, my mom said no. I

said, come on, beggar. She'll let you stay if

you push really hard. You know, you're sick.

She'll give you what you want. And so I'm not

going to do that. That's my mom. And then over

that same summer, that was the last time I saw

him over that same summer, he got buff. And then

I didn't see him until much later and he was

all buff. And from the time that he got buff

to the time that I saw him, he'd never been sick.

He never got a flu, never got a cold, never had

an asthma attack, got off all of his breathing

apparatuses, got off all of his medicines he

was taking every day. He was not taking any medicine,

just the supplements and working out seven days

a week and eating right and being healthy. And

I thought John was strong. And I was like, wow,

John's strong. I mean, you'd say that too, wouldn't

you? Going into junior high, he was bench pressing

200 pounds. Going into junior high, they were

begging him to play football, right? But he wouldn't

play football. He never did play football. You

know why? Because it's not good for your body.

He said, I worked so hard to have this body.

I'm not going to play football. Risk messing

it up.