Armored With a Breastplate

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Open your Bibles to Ephesians and then turn over.

This is going to sound strange to some of you, to the book of Judges.

You can hold a ribbon there, and we're going to be looking at two passages today.

And uh I was excited last week to get started in the armor.

We talked about that belt of truth, and this week we're going to be looking at armored with a breastplate.

In Ephesians 6 14 is our main verse of text, and it says, Stand therefore, having girded your waist with the truth, which we talked about, that belt, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness.

We'll come back to that in a little bit.

But Ben Franklin told a story about on his birthday, some of his good friends, he called them coppers.

Some of you may call them pennies, put a lot of coppers in his pocket for this special holiday.

He said he went directly to a toy store.

He went in, and what caught his eyes, what charmed him, was the sound of a whistle.

He looked at that whistle and he went and voluntarily offered all the money that he had had in his pocket, all of them coppers for that whistle.

He came home and all over the house with his whistle.

All over until his brothers, his sisters, his cousins all got fed up with that toy he was so charmed with.

And they said to him, You know what you did today for that whistle?

The bargain that you struck, you gave four times the amount that that whistle was worth.

When he had heard that news, it struck him at his heart.

The idea of thinking of all the other things he could have had at that toy store, and he said this, they began to laugh at him and mock him about it.

And that whistle brought him more tears than any pleasure that it ever gave him.

I want you to hang on to that story because we're going to revisit it before we're finished about his whistle.

Pray with me.

Father, we love you.

We thank you for the opportunity we have to dig into your word, to your truth.

And God, we pray that, Lord, we would be open to the truth this morning.

And I pray that you would rebuke any work of the enemy, God, any distraction, and allow us for just a few moments to hear from you.

And God, I pray that you would draw our hearts to change that's needed.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

So I'm thinking about this story.

I wanted to make it practical this week.

And so I want you to see a key character in the Bible, who I believe before we leave, you'll see the uh application of the breastplate of righteousness in the life of Samson.

In Judges chapter 13, I want you to turn there.

Judges 13 · chapter mention

The first point we see this morning is the potential of Samson's life.

Now, I want you to see how Samson came on the scene.

Fur in Judges 13, 3 through 7, it says, This, and the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, Indeed, now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and bear a son.

Now therefore, please be careful not to drink wine or similar drink, and not to eat anything unclean, for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son, and no razor shall come upon his head.

And the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of Philistines.

So the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came to me, and his countenance was like the countenance of the angel of God.

Very awesome.

But I did not ask him where he was from, and he did not tell me his name.

And he said to me, Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son, don't drink any wine or anything similar, not anything to be eaten that's unclean.

The child will be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of death.

Letter A, this morning I want you to see this.

It's a remarkable birth.

The angel of the Lord occurs.

If you like, there's some people here you dislike numbers, and if you're mathematical or you like interesting trivia or facts, angel of the Lord occurs 59 times in the Bible, appearing to 30 people.

And that word is called in the Old Testament often a Christophany.

That is the appearance of the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ.

And he appears to this Manoah and his wife.

Now that's important.

59 times, 30 people, these are two of 30.

Okay?

We'll take that into detail.

Another detail: eight babies, as best as I could study this week and find, eight babies in all the Bible were given a birth announcement by either an angel or the word of the Lord.

Those babies were Isaac, Ishmael, Josiah, Solomon, Cyrus, John the Baptist, Jesus, and Samson.

There's 3,237 characters mentioned in the Bible.

Samson was one of eight that were mentioned at birth.

That an angel of the Lord came and gave an announcement of birth.

One of eight of three thousand two hundred-seven.

Are your math brains hurting?

That's pretty special to be one of those eight people.

I thought about it this way.

If I took 64 penny rolls, y'all, anybody roll change?

Okay.

64 penny rolls, and I threw them out here, and you found one of the eight of those 3,200 pennies, that would be pretty lucky.

Right?

If you found one of those eight special babies that were announced.

Well, if you found one of those eight and it was a wheat back penny, anybody know what that is?

Alright, you show an age.

Rest of you, I never heard of that.

Anyway, if on that penny it was the only one marked 1909, the year that that penny started, that would be not just lucky, one of eight, but really lucky.

Samson is one of eight of 3,237.

This is a big deal.

This birth announcement was a big deal.

How many of you have been down to the Lamasis on your birthday?

Talking about birth announcement, right?

They come out with a gigantic sombrero that hits four people that sit around you.

You get chocolate and fried something on a plate, and they begin to sing to you, right?

That's a birth announcement.

That's, you know, kind of remarkable, not nearly.

Okay.

When I went to Tennessee Temple, you could buy a balloon at Chapel.

We had Chapel three times or two times a week, and you could buy a balloon, and you would have this was a large auditorium, 5,000 seat auditorium, and you had to walk all the way up front in front of everybody when they called your name.

And if uh a lot of people, that was kind of embarrassing.

Well, one time, not a balloon.

Heather bought me a fern.

Can you imagine walking in front of a bunch of your peers and walking back to your seat with a fern?

I'm like, what is this?

And so those are sort of announcements.

Well, the angel of the Lord shows up, don't miss this, to announce Samson.

Samson's mean, his name means sunshine.

But don't miss this part.

Manoah's wife had been barren.

She had been not able to have children.

This is a pretty mighty story from barren to an angel of the Lord sharing to you that you're about to have one of eight of 3,237.

It made me think of some friends of mine that told a story.

Um the Neeleys, well, they were not able for a long time to get pregnant.

And then they signed up for the adoption of Thomas.

If you've been to this church anytime, you know Thomas.

Thomas will light up your day.

He'll come, he gives me the best hugs.

I see, hey Thomas.

If y'all don't know Thomas, he's right there.

And uh six months before that adoption was completed, guess what news they found out?

They found out that Renee was pregnant.

And she had Cole.

And then she had JC.

And now they've adopted again, Nathan.

So I think maybe we should hear some news sometime soon.

She said no, no, not at all.

Remarkable, you would say.

Manoah's wife had been barren, and now this great announcement, so remarkable before he was ever born.

Well, there's another thing about him.

He would be remarkable in brawn.

We know this about Samson.

There's a few people that may compare.

I was trying to think biblically.

David killed Goliath.

That was a big deal.

The hand of the Lord came on him, and he was a mighty warrior.

David had a militia.

It was called David's mighty men or mighty men of valor.

There were 30 of them men.

Within the militia, there was a special three, an inner circle.

There's a man that's been named.

I preached this sermon on occasion, a guy named Beniah.

Beniah killed a lion in a hole, in a pit, on a snowy day.

He killed two giants and two of Moab's greatest warriors.

That was pretty remarkable.

Okay, look up Beniah when you want to have some fun.

Joshua led many conquests and had a lot of wars, uh, known for fighting.

But Samson, let me tell you about Samson.

Samson killed a lion with his bare hands.

Samson killed 30 men at once.

That's pretty good, you know, odds for the other team.

Samson caught 300 foxes and tied their tails together.

Alright?

Samson killed 1,000 men in one fight.

It's like a scene off of the greatest action movie you ever seen with a with the jawbone of a donkey.

All I picture is the man just spinning around in circles, bang, just killing them.

Samson's physical brawn to me has to rank at the top in the Bible.

So remarkable.

I just want you to get a picture of who this man is.

Well, then I want to tell you about this remarkable breastplate.

The Bible says the bl the breath the breastplate of righteousness is a piece of armor that covered the full torso of the soldier.

No Roman soldier would go out to battle, would dare enter the battlefield without the breastplate.

Okay, it was designed to protect the vital organs and deflect the piercing attacks of the enemy over the vital organs.

You could take a piercing attack at a lot of places and live to see another day.

You can attack an attack at the feet and the legs, you could take an attack in the arms, but if you take an attack where your vital organs are located, that's the end of the road.

So spiritually, the breastplate of righteousness functions to direct us our paths towards right.

Now hear this, and in so doing, there's another side to that coin.

Our paths going in the right direction deflects the attack of the lures of Satan in the wrong direction.

So this breastplate is remarkable.

I want you to see Judges, you can flip over Judges 15 for just a second.

I want you to see a couple of these verses.

They they fall in different places, this phrase.

But Judges 15, 18 through 20, I want you to see.

It says he became very thirsty, talking about Samson.

So he cried out to the Lord and said, You have given this great deliverance by the hand of your servant, and now shall I die of thirst.

So God split the hand.

I'm sorry, so God split the hollow place that is Lehi, and water came out, and he drank.

And his spirit returned, and he revived.

Therefore he called his name Enhechor, which is Lehi to this day.

And he judged, here this is important to note, he judged Israel twenty years.

Samson was judge over Israel for 20 years.

Samson had proved, I'm saying all this because Samson, for a lot of people, when he comes to mind, he gets this bad rap, we think about the end of the story.

We think about Delilah, we think about what happened there.

But Samson had proved that he was a man of God by the power of the spirit that rested on him in his faithful years, being Judge of Israel.

Four times throughout scripture in Judges, it mentions the Spirit of the Lord fell on Samson.

And you can look back at some of these mighty works, and it doesn't say, and Samson hawked up.

It says the spirit of the Lord fell and he did this act.

So, yes, I believe Samson was remarkable in strength, but the most remarkable thing was the God that he served.

Samson lived a long time in the breastplate of righteousness.

He was right with God for a long time.

For 20 years he judged this Israel.

Now, what is righteousness, Pastor?

Well, in the simplest sense, righteousness is being right with God and being right with others.

Well, how do I get to that point?

2 Corinthians 5.17 is the starting block.

For any man here to be right, to be righteous, to have that breastplate.

First, if any man is in Christ, 2 Corinthians 5.17, he is a new creation.

Old things are passed away.

Behold, all things are become new.

First, you have to be on the right path.

We are imputed the righteousness of Jesus Christ because of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.

When we repent of our sins and we lay down our will and we're changed, that salvation change, that first imputed righteousness will happen.

Okay?

And so we have to first do that.

No man is capable of being right with God until he first realizes he's lost.

Okay?

And then we receive what Jesus did on the cross.

And I want to tell you something.

Righteousness is not about a to-do list for Christians of what to do, it's about a relationship that causes my steps to go a certain direction, right?

Okay.

Let me explain.

Because I married Heather and I have a relationship with her, I do certain things that are right by Heather and right by our marriage.

It's not because I have to check a to-do list every day and go, did that right for Heather?

I did that right today.

I did that right.

Didn't do that.

Go me.

It's because I have a relationship that certain things don't happen and certain things do happen.

Because I want a good relationship and a good fellowship with my wife.

I live a certain way for love.

Does that make sense?

Because people get tied up saying that, well, if I become a Christian, then I'm gonna have to check all these boxes.

And I want to tell you, there's boxes.

There are things that we should do, but they are done not because we have to do them, but because we love.

In fact, Paul spends much of Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 4, 24 through 6.9, before we get to the armor, all of that is how a Christian should live and walk and act.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

He starts checking all, sharing the boxes that should be done.

This is how you walk in unity.

This is how you walk worthy of your calling.

This is how you live this way.

But don't forget the motive.

The motive, living faithful to your relationship with Jesus Christ means I will act motivated by love.

I want to be close to him.

I want to know what that's like.

I want to know what that feels like.

I want to live in that.

So when I don't do these things, that gets a separation.

Make this practical pastor.

Alright.

So how do how do we get this way?

Here's some things that I've thought about.

How many of you have ever been arrested in church?

Oh, so you were doing the right thing and the wrong thing didn't happen.

I got you, okay.

Have you ever been reading God's word and looked at pornography?

Anybody?

Me neither.

Okay.

Teenager, I used to say this to teenagers all the time.

It is real hard to turn up the worship music and be making out.

Right?

It is hard to be doing the right thing and simultaneously be involved in the wrong thing.

I can see you right now say, amazing Grace.

Unless her name's Grace.

I don't.

I'm sorry.

Lord, forgive me.

That righteousness and practicality, if I'm doing right, it deflects wrong.

Now hear me.

Big caution.

There is a difference in the breastplate of righteousness and self-righteousness.

Okay, the self-righteous believe that their behavior earns favor with the Lord.

A self-righteous person comes to believe that they are better than others because they possess standards for living that appear higher than those who live around them.

They believe that if they can avoid enough evil or if they can do enough good, God will be pleased with them.

And I want to tell you that type of living, checking those boxes for that purpose, that self-righteousness, they'll live saptive joy and they'll constantly lack peace because you can never do or be enough.

And they become judgmental of others because others can never do or be enough either.

And so they lack all this peace that should be there.

They're focused on the wrong thing.

Jesus and the Pharisees, man, he had a time with the Pharisees.

He said, you guys strain at a gnat, like straining water, looking for a gnat, and swallow a camel.

You strain that, he says, you're looking at all these, you make a big deal of all these little things and miss huge things like love and grace.

Focus here.

Being righteous is not about the to-do list, it's about a relationship.

Well, look at Judges 14.

I want you to see the second thing.

The pitfalls of Samson's life.

It says Samson judged for 20 years.

So for 20 years, he was walking that line, living in relationships, seeing the power of God.

But Samson had some pitfalls.

Look at chapter 14, verse 8 through 10.

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

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

He took some in its hand and went along eating.

When he came to his father and mother, he gave some to them, and they also ate, but he did not tell them that he had taken the honey out of the carcass of a lion.

So his father went down to the women, and Samson gave a feast there, for young men used to do so.

I want you to see verse 20 also.

One point there before I go to verse 20.

Samson had taken a Nazarite vow, and that Nazarite vow was that he would never drink of any wine, he would never get near or touch anything dead, and that no razor would ever touch his head.

He didn't have to take that vow, it was a vow that was taken, and at this point, it was broken.

Verse 20.

Talking about Samson's appetites.

And Samson's wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man.

So there's some things that go on here.

Samson had married a Philistine woman.

We don't have time to go through all the scripture.

He had seen a Philistine woman, desired a Philistine woman.

If you look through the text of Deuteronomy and so on, there's passages that say, don't enter marry at that point.

And so Samson had taken this vow, and now he had eaten from this honey of a dead lion.

He broke his vow.

Three words in Scripture used for the word wrong or sin.

Sin is to miss the mark.

Transgression is to step over a boundary, and then iniquity is used as bent or crooked.

There's a natural tendency towards fleshly appetites.

If we don't, for us, vigorously continue looking into our relationship with Jesus and wanting to please him, it'll be easier for us not to plate up.

We'll leave this heart for things that we can see.

You see, the enemy will find a weakness in our that iniquity, that word lean.

He'll find a weakness in our lean, what we're bent toward.

Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, he says, lean not unto your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge him, and he'll keep your path straight.

You see, we become crooked when we bend when we go into our lean, when we take our eyes off that relationship.

In other words, We need to begin the day seeking God's plan for right living.

Begin the day, not fall into our lean.

If you're not spiritually committed, then your appetite, whatever your lean is, can cause a pitfall.

We all have appetites for all kinds of things.

We all have leans for all kinds of things.

It's just the flesh part of us.

And so if we're not committed to the spirit part, we fall.

I know people who've been sober for 25 years, carrying their coin, that sobriety coin, and their lean got the best of them.

Many years working, going to meetings, and then that lean.

I want to share with you Romans 7.

Turn to Romans.

This is a conflicting scripture.

Romans 7, 15.

You hear all this, but at the end of it, hold on to it.

For what I am doing, verse 15, I do not understand.

For what I will to do, or what I want to do, I do not practice.

But what I hate, that I do.

If then I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that is good.

But now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

For I know that in me that is in my flesh, nothing good dwells.

For to will is present with me.

But how to perform what is good I do not find.

For the good that I will to do, I do not do, but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.

Are you confused?

He says, Do you feel the weight of that?

I do what I don't want to do.

And I don't do what I want to do.

Why do I do that?

This is Paul.

You ever feel like that?

You ever did the thing and you went, why did I do that?

If you're married today, I know.

Men, I know.

You said it and you said, Why did I see that?

I knew.

I knew when the thought came, don't let it get to speech.

Why did I do that?

Why did I suffer myself the next 30 minutes of things?

Galatians 5, 17 says, the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, so that you do not do the thing that you wish.

So how do I fight these appetites?

Well, the outworking of Christianity, the growth, when you see growth happening in your spiritual life, is a love for Jesus in such a way that I get better at doing the things that I want to do.

And when I get better at doing the things that I want to do, I begin to develop something called self-control.

And so when I have self-control, I don't snap.

I don't, I'm able to bite that tongue.

I don't watch that thing that once had my appetite.

I don't grab for that drink.

I don't do the things.

Why?

Because it doesn't please God.

Not because I don't like it.

I'm sorry, but my flesh continues to like things it shouldn't like.

But I love God, and let me tell you, my flesh, listen, happily married people, you don't do a lot of things.

You've learned over time.

There are things that you do because you want that relationship to be in the right.

It's called self-control.

So Paul said it this way I have to discipline my body and bring it into subjection.

Have you ever disciplined your child to bring them back to reality?

That's called bringing them into subjection.

Right?

If you give a child its wishes to do what they will in the world, there's a spiritual world for that.

It's called anarchy.

You have to bring them into subjection.

Sometimes you need to discipline you.

You need to have a holy time out.

You need to send yourself to your room and take a book with you.

And bring yourself into subjection.

You need to come to an altar and say, God, the thing this week that I wish I hadn't done, I did.

And I'm laying it down.

And let me tell you what he'll say.

My grace is sufficient for you.

And your weakness I'm made strong.

I forgive you, child.

Just like you do with your child who you have to bring into subjection.

He loves you in that kind of way.

So Paul said, I have to bring my body into subjection.

Well, let it be is this.

Go to Judges 16.

Not only appetites, powerful attractions.

Verses 1 through 4.

Now Samson went to Gaza and saw a harlot there, and went into her.

When the Gazites were told Samson had come here, they surrounded the place, and they lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city.

They were quiet all night, saying, In the morning when it's daylight, we will kill him.

And Samson lay low till midnight, then he arose at midnight, took hold of the doors of the gate of the city, pulled the posts right up out of the ground, bar and all, put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebrew.

Afterward, hear this, it happened that he loved a woman in the valley of Surah, whose name was Delilah.

And the lords of the Philistines came to her with a plan.

They said, entice him.

Another word is seduce him.

You see, Samson had powerful attractions.

He had an eye for the enemy's women.

He had married a Philistine woman.

Now his best man of the wedding, we just read at the end of the last, slept with her.

Now he slept with a harlot, and then he's taken with his Delilah.

I want to tell you, church, sin is attractive.

Why is this breastplate so important?

Because the arrows of the enemy are a big lore.

They're a big attraction.

They're a big fire.

Sin is attractive like a Delilah.

If you loosen your armor and allow an opening, you'll get a Delilah.

If you get everything you ever wanted, you might get Delilah.

And you can get Delilah and lose everything that you ever worked for.

I want to tell you, just as a marital side note, infidelity is still the highest cause of divorce.

And I was taught this this week.

We had a session, they talked all on technology.

And with the advent of technology and the expansion of pornography, infidelity in marriage is on attack.

42.1 million pornographic sites.

Four of the top 20 internet sites, four of the top 20 are pornographic.

I want to tell you, sin is attractive.

Matthew, hear me.

Why are you staying there, Pastor?

Because Matthew 5.28 says, to look on a woman with lust in your heart is to commit adultery.

To look.

Everyone here, I want you to hear me.

Okay?

I've said this a few times before, but men, right here, please look at me.

You need to be careful, men, how you look at women.

You're married, she's yours.

Be careful how you look.

She is the one.

Song of Solomon said, Let her be the satisfaction of thy soul.

Let her be ravaged in your love.

Be careful, everyone, men and women, how you look at others.

Number two, be careful how you look to others.

What is the motive behind why you put on what you put on?

Samson saw Delilah and he said, Yeah, I like that.

And the Philistine leaders picked up on his attraction, his appetite, and said, Delilah?

Man, I don't know nothing about Delilah's background.

All we get is this.

Could have been a sweet, younger.

They said, entice him.

Use what you got and pull him in for our purposes.

Delilah batted her eyes and said, Samson, you big hunk, please tell me that secret to your power.

It's crazy.

If you read this, this is the craziest story.

And so he tells her the wrong thing.

He says, If I'm tied with seven bowstrings.

And she listens and then she ties him up, calls in for the men, he breaks them, has a good laugh.

I'm like, Samson, you just saw what she was trying to do.

He gives her another one.

He says, Well, that didn't know if you bind me with new ropes.

So she binds him in the sleep with new ropes, calls for the men, they come in.

Like, dude, this woman is trying to sabotage you.

He breaks free, ha ha ha, has a good laugh.

He says, Well, actually, three times.

And she's like, Samson, you don't love me.

You won't tell me the secret.

I'm like, Well, duh.

He says, if you weave this into your hair or into his hair, and he calls it, she calls in for an attack.

They come in, right?

And he breaks it again.

And look at, I need you to see.

Judges chapter 16.

Judges 16 · chapter mention

This is how it goes on.

Verse 14 or 15 and 16.

15 and 16.

Then she said to him, How can you say I love you when your heart is not with me?

You have mocked me these three times, and I have told me where your great strength lies.

And it came to pass when she listened to this word.

Y'all forgot the New King James.

I didn't even know this word was in the Bible.

When she pestered him daily with her words, and pressed him so that his soul was vexed to death.

This woman worded him to death.

You hear that?

Samson, brawny, strong, was about to die because of this lady's words.

Oh, you don't even love me.

I can't believe you.

You said that you lied to me over and over.

Says she puzzled.

The word pastor is funny.

The Greek word is suck.

S-U-K.

I mean to press and distress, she worded him till he broke.

So she came in one day.

Finally, she walked in.

Samson said, Hey there, Delilah.

If you heard the song, you'd get it.

And he broke.

Verse 19 and 20.

Look at what it says.

Then she lulled him to sleep on her knees, and he called and called for a man and had him come and shave off the seven locks of his head.

Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him.

And she said, The Philistines are upon you, Samson.

So he awoke from his sleep and said, I will go out as before at other times and shake myself free.

But listen, this is sad words.

He did not know that the Lord had departed from him.

He didn't know.

That's some sad words in Scripture.

Samson had done these things, and the Spirit of the Lord had fallen on him, the strength, the people that he had wiped out, all of these things.

And he thought he could get away with giving up the secret and breaking the vow and somehow still be Samson.

Says he didn't know that the Lord departed.

Sometimes, look, it ain't like the enemy just comes and strikes and you fall in this great big fall.

Sometimes the enemy just lulls you.

If I ask some people here, some folks in their life, they've been lulled out of reading the word.

They've been lulled away from serving.

They've been lulled out of church.

It wasn't like it came on a crash and they said, that's it.

They were lulled out of that spiritual armor.

Sad.

Samson, he didn't realize that he was going to lose the power of God.

I'm gonna tell you, that's what happens to people.

I know people that were godly, just active people that haven't been involved in any kind of ministry life in years.

They just were lulled, like rocked right to sleep.

Like the lady said to her preacher one week, I'm so embarrassed, Pastor.

I hope that you didn't take it personally when Fred walked out during your sermon.

He said, I did find it distracting.

She said, Pastor, it wasn't out of any disrespect to you at all, but Fred has been walking in his sleep ever since he was a child.

Ephesians 5, 14 through 16 says this, Paul speaking.

It says, awake, you sleeper.

It says, awake and rise up.

It says, Redeem your time because the days are evil.

And then it tells us to walk circumspectly.

That means guarding, walking, circum is circling and circling, watching, waiting, being alert because the enemy is coming.

He wants to lull you or crush you, however, he can get through that armor.

We walk circumspectly awake to avoid mistakes.

But Samson fell asleep.

Well, let's find out the product of Samson's life.

Judges 16 again, verse 20 and 21.

Third thing, product of Samson's life.

He had been betrayed by his friends, conned by an enemy, betrayed by Delilah.

Look at what it says.

Verse 20 and 21.

After she said, The Philistines are upon you, awoke from his sleep.

He thought he would go out.

The Lord had departed.

21.

Listen to this.

Then the Philistines took him and put out his eyes.

They bound him with a bronze fetter, and he became a grinder in the prison.

Letter A are the losses in his life.

Because of that opening and the armor, we see losses.

He lost, first of all, his physical vision.

He became blind.

The first things that happen when you begin to take off that breastplate of right doing, motivated by love, is that you're blinded from spiritual things, and all you can see to do is to seek after those things that the enemy shares with you, the Delilahs of life.

He lost his spiritual vision.

He lost vision of the Lord.

He lost vision of his purpose.

He lost vision of his power.

He lost vision of the Lord's word and his house.

Samson, who was called sunshine, would never get to see the sunshine.

Again, he lost physical vision.

He lost his physical vitality.

He was blind, but he was also binded.

Lost his vitality, his purpose.

When people walk away from the Lord, they're encircling the purposes of this world, looking for something to fill them, all the while being constantly emptied.

Your breastplate is the control center of your connection to God.

Living right with Him continues peace in your life.

It enables you to worship, to experience the presence of God.

Keeping our heart in tune.

You ever felt dried up like you couldn't even worship?

You're just singing the words, but in here, it's like, I don't even have it.

I don't even have it anymore.

Just felt dry spiritually.

Proverbs 423 says, keep your heart with all diligence.

This is the home of the affections, the seat of your will, the compass of your morality.

And if you open it up by low living, Romans says, you'll be exchanging the creator for the created thing.

And when we exchange the creator for the created thing, the things of life, he says, I'll give you up to your vile affections.

I will allow you to sin if you exchange my relationship, my love relationship, and fall in love with created things.

You'll have to go through that season.

You pay the high price of losing spiritual strength.

Samson gave up his heart and he became a pitiful spectacle.

He was grinding away, he was to hold a beam that pushed a wheel, that ground away a wheat and grain and produced flour.

He was blindly walking a purposeless, circular existence that was a joke to everybody who was in sight.

Nothing is more sad, church, than a believer who has cast down their breastplate.

Someone who's out of fellowship with the Lord who gave purpose to their life.

They become defeated, discouraged, demoralized.

Samson lost nearly.

He lost nearly everything for a moment.

A moment.

Listen, the Bible says sin is a pleasure for a season.

And people, so many people live for this season, this euphoria, this, I gotta get another high, I gotta get another feeling, I need another moment, and I'll do whatever it takes to get to a moment, and and I'm willing to throw everything aside.

I can't, sometimes I hear people in the been married 30 years and had a moment and gave I'm like, 30 years?

You have any idea what it takes to make 30 years work?

And you gave that up for what?

30 minutes?

A moment?

He's just grinding away at circles, living for nothing.

This is the plight I fear outside of the Christian that falls, but every lost man.

Hear me, church.

This is the purpose of every lost man.

They're grinding away at a wheel that the world says, this is success.

This is how you live.

And they're missing this relationship.

I don't know why that people reject this relationship.

I don't know why a person will live for these things that will in the end not go with you in a U-Haul to the casket.

But we grind away at nothing, just circling life.

Year after year, another year under the sun, to what end?

And I have to ask you, church, to what end are you living?

Well, let's find out the lessons.

Letter B in Samson's life.

Verse 22.

However, I'm thankful for that word, the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaven.

Now look at verse 25 to 30.

So it happened when all their hearts were merry that they said, Call for Samson that he may perform for us.

They're mocking.

So they called for Samson from prison, and he performed for them, and they and he stationed him between the pillars.

Then Samson said to a lad who held him by the hand, Let me fill the pillars which support the temple so that I can lean on them.

Now the temple was full of men and women, and all the lords of the Philistines were there, about three thousand men and women, watching while Samson performed.

Then Samson called, this is key, I would highlight this verse.

Samson called to the Lord, saying, Oh, Lord God, remember me, I pray.

Strengthen me, I pray.

Just this once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes.

And Samson took hold of the two pillars which supported the temple, and he braced himself against them, one on his right and the other on his left.

Then Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines.

And he pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the Lord's and all the people who were in it, so that the dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life.

Earlier before that, we see that the people all in the temple are praising Dagon, their God, and saying, What a mighty victory Dagon has given us to overcome our enemy, Samson.

But I got good news.

His hair had begun to regrow.

God can still use us, no matter what, church.

God can regrow you and he can regrow me.

I want to tell you the thing about regrowth, it takes time.

For your hair to regrow, about one eighth of an inch per week.

Six inches can grow approximately a year.

I want you to know this morning you can be forgiven of sin instantly.

Like this.

But humanly, restoration and regrowth takes some time.

It is God's plan.

Hear me.

It is God's plan to restore anything that has fallen.

That is his plan, his redemptive plan in Scripture.

He has come because something perfect has become something broken all the way back to the garden.

Because they opened their hearts.

That breastplate was open to sin.

And people have many failures, but I want to tell you, church, wherever you are, 1 John 1 9 is all the same.

He says, if we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Hear that unrighteousness.

He'll fix that unrighteousness problem and he'll plate you back up.

Samson said, I want to be used, God, one more time.

And hear me.

He was brought into this picture.

The angel of the Lord came before his parents and said, Your son is going to help the Israelites defeat the Philistines.

He said, God, I want to live my purpose again.

God, can I just come back to my purpose?

God, use me once more.

People will conflict about this and go, I'm not sure Samson.

I'm not sure if he ever got right with God based on this scripture.

Well, I want to take you to Hebrews for a moment.

Say, how does something in Hebrews, Pastor?

Go to Hebrews chapter 11.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

Hebrews 11, 32.

This is affectionately called by many the hall of faith in the Bible.

List all these people of faith.

Well, verse 32, it says, and what more shall I say?

For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson.

Well, look at verse 35.

Well, that just mentions his name, Pastor.

He says 35.

Verse 39.

And all these that he had mentioned, having obtained a good testimony through faith.

That's in the book.

Samson had a good testimony through his faith in the Lord.

I thought about Benjamin Franklin's story.

He said he grew to learn a lesson as a seven-year-old that came from that whistle.

See, later in life, I would see an ambitious man sacrificing his time, his attendance, his freedom to gain in the world of business.

He said, I thought to myself, he's paid too much for his whistle.

He said, I came across a miser who gave up every kind of comfort and actually all the pleasure of doing good to others, all the joy of family and friendship time for the sake of accumulating wealth.

And I thought to myself, he's paid too much for his whistle.

He said, I've come across men given to constant pleasure, sacrificing the improvement of their minds and even sacrificing having more money to mere sensations, moments, and he'd say, Mistaken men, you're providing for yourself pain instead of pleasure.

You've paid too much for your whistle.

He said, I come across a young woman, sweet-tempered girl, who'd married an ill-natured, angry man, a husband making her life a misery.

And I thought to myself, she's paid too much for her whistle.

Samson was one of eight of 3,237, and he let down his God-given gift.

He took off his plate, he unguarded his heart.

He was the strongest man the world had ever known.

He was chosen, he was special, and he gave up strength and purpose and calling to save the Israelites.

For a moment.

For a moment.

Samson paid too much for his whistle.

The old quote says this sin will take you further than you want to go.

It'll keep you longer than you want to stay.

And it costs you more than you want to pay.

Will you bow with me?

Samson paid too much.

I want to challenge us church this morning.

We're challenged in revelation.

And here's the heart of it.

Would you fall back in love?

Would you fall back in love?

He says, I have this against you.

You've left your first love.

I'm not talking to you today about a to-do list of things to do.

I'm talking to you about a relationship.

If you love him with all your heart, might, your soul, and your strength, this list will just be a part of living.

Are there some people here today that would be honest?

Have you paid too much for your whistle?

I want to ask you, church, in a moment, we'll have an altar card.

Will you let your heart be vulnerable to him again?

Will you open back up?

No more putting it out for the enemy, but open your heart up to a God that just wants to love you.

You say, Pastor, I'm picking up the plate today.

I want to walk in him because I want to show him my heart is his.

This is his plate.

This is his heart.

This is his life.

I want to live for him with all that I am.

I want to be a soldier worthy of the God who loved and gave his all for me.

I'm going to play it up today.

I'm going to ask you to stand to your feet.

With heads bowed, eyes still close.

Today can be a restoration day.

God will use you again.

Say, Pastor, I want that.

I want to live in him.

I want him to know he is my first love, he's my true love.

I'm not going to be robbed one more day of it.

I'm going to pray and then, church, this altar's going to be open.

I want to ask you.

Listen, this is the difference between preaching and teaching.

Teaching teaches a lesson and says, You're good, let's go home.

Preaching has a call for response.

If you don't respond at all, then I haven't preached.

Will you respond today?

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