Don't Play With Lions

Anyway, if you have your Bible, would you take it out?

If you need a Bible, flag down one of the ushers.

Let's hold our Bibles up nice and high and all make this declaration of our faith together.

Ready, go.

This is my Bible.

It is my primary source of spiritual nourishment.

I will read it every day and become all that God wants me to be.

My mind will be renewed, my life will be transformed.

I will become fully surrendered to Christ.

Therefore, I will hide his word in my heart so I can be all that God has destined me to be.

If you would kindly remain standing in honor of the word of God, we are going to the book of Judges as we continue in our series Lions and Giants and Bears, but God.

Judges chapter 14, verse number 5.

Judges 14 · chapter mention

So Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother and came to the vineyards of Timnah.

Now you don't know it right now, but Samson should not have been anywhere near those vineyards.

Samson is already playing.

The first thing that we see with a man that has been set apart to be used by God is he is walking right up to the line and seeing how close he could get to it.

Went down to the vineyards of Timnah.

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

Because when you venture off into places that you shouldn't be, guess what happens?

Lions attack.

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

And some people would think, well, God's anointing came on him, so how much bad could he be doing?

Don't ever take the grace of God as a license to disobey.

Just because God makes a way when you're playing on the fringes doesn't mean God approves of what you're doing.

He had nothing in his hand.

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

You're gonna see why this is all important, because he thought he could keep secrets, but the Bible says, be sure your sin will find you out.

See, sometimes we think because things that we're doing wrong are not manifesting themselves, that we are right, that God's cool with it.

But I just want you to know something that it's not so much that God is looking to embarrass you, but sin always shows up in our lives.

It always shows up in our disposition, in our countenance, in our ability to obey God, and our ability to have faith.

It affects every area of our life more than we ever think it would.

He went down, he talked with the woman, and she pleased Samson well.

And after some time, when he returned to GitHub, he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion.

And to his surprise, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of the lion.

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

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

From this text, I want to minister to you on the subject don't play with lions.

It's all fun and games till the lions bite.

It's all fun and games till animals attack.

It's all fun and games till the things that look like they can't hurt you begin to snap back in your life.

It's all fun and games.

Don't play with the lions.

That's a Father's Day message, by the way.

Sounds manly, right?

Don't play with them lions.

And who else better to learn from than Samson, the he man with the she weakness?

Because everybody, every man in this room can relate.

And today we're gonna learn from him why it's important not to play with the lions.

Let's pray.

Father, in the mighty name of Jesus, would you speak to our hearts?

Would you minister by grace and the power of the Holy Spirit to every person we pray in Jesus' name?

And everybody said, You may be seated.

To understand Samson, you have to understand what or who he was.

Samson was a Nazarene.

He uh was set apart from his birth and even before his birth to be Israel's deliverer.

God appeared to his mother and father, Manoah and his wife.

Manoah's wife was barren, and he and he said to them, You're gonna have a special child.

And this child is gonna be set apart for a special purpose onto me.

He's gonna be set apart to be Israel's deliverer.

He's gonna be set apart to deliver Israel from the Philistines.

And think about the honor of that, of an entire nation.

God reached down and reached to this family, to this particular mother and father, and he said, This one's mine, this one is special, this one is chosen.

See, a lot of people think that conception begins in the womb.

It does not.

It begins way before the womb, in the mind and heart of Almighty God, when it shows up in the womb, when the baby shows up in the womb, it means that God has a plan for that life, that God has preordained that life, that that life may be a surprise to people, but it is no surprise to Almighty God.

When we enter the world, it is evidence that this world needs something that we are, that we possess.

We are designed by God for a purpose.

And as an outward sign of this special calling, there's three things, the Nazarene vow, that Samson cannot do.

Three don't touches over Samson's life.

Number one, don't touch the fruit of the vine.

Samson is down by the vineyard.

He's he's he's like this.

God said, Stay away from the vine.

He said, he didn't even say don't eat, don't drink no wine.

He said, Don't touch no grapes.

God said, God said, I don't even want you messing with grapes because you make wine out of grapes.

I want you to stay as far away from that thing as you possibly can.

But what is Samson doing?

He said he's exploring by the vineyard.

Then God says, Don't touch anything dead, which I kind of kind of scratched my head on this because why would you need to be told that?

Oh, a dead thing.

Let me play around with the dead thing right here.

Let me play around, but you know what?

It's a little bit more real than it sounds.

Because there's a lot of people that are playing around with stuff that causes death in your life.

There's a lot of people touching some dead things in your life.

And then he says, number three, don't touch it.

And we all know this one: the razor.

Don't cut your hair.

That's the visible crown of a life surrendered to God.

Don't touch it.

And you can see in Samson's life, there is this gradual progression to not just break one, not just break two, but break all three of these things that God has put on his life.

And he keeps playing, and he gets closer and closer and closer and closer.

He's living on the edge.

And what amazes me as a pastor is how many believers live here.

Well, Pastor, um, how much can I drink without it being a sin?

Well, well, well, Pastor, is it okay if we live together as long as we don't sleep together?

First of all, what you take me for?

Pastor, we're living together, but we in separate rooms.

Yeah, right?

I mean, seriously?

Who do you think you're talking to?

I've been some places in my life.

I'm not a choir boy in my life.

What do you mean?

You're living in a separate room.

Pastor, Pastor, can I date somebody who's not saved as long as I try to lead them to Jesus?

Pastor, can I smoke weed just a little bit?

Because I don't find no scriptures in the Bible where it says I can't smoke weed.

Getting as close to the line as possible.

Pastor, do I really have to tithe?

I mean, you know, I mean, uh, can I just be just generous?

And you know how people like that always define generosity.

It's a$1 bill, it's a$5 bill, but they just want to live generous.

Okay, okay.

They're as close to the why is this preoccupation in the body of Christ?

We're getting as close to the line as we possibly can.

Where is our consecration to Almighty God that says, I want to be separate from the world, I don't want to be like the world, I don't want to get not even this close.

I don't want to even get this close.

I don't want to even get this close.

The only thing that I want to get close to is the presence of God.

The only thing that I want to get close to is the anointing of God.

The only thing that I want to get close to is the holiness of Almighty God.

And Samson's life is a life where he got as close as he possibly could.

It's a tragedy of a man who took something holy and treated it casually, who got as close to the line as he could, who played with lions until he eventually crossed the line and he risked wasting the very purpose that God had designed him for.

And my prayer is that God would give us the strength to not trade a moment for a miracle or the temporary desire for an eternal destiny or a momentary pleasure for a God-given purpose.

Listen to me, it's a bad trade.

I don't know who told you it's a good trade.

I don't know what lie you're believing, but it's a bad trade because I'm here to declare to you that the life and the purpose that God has for you is better than anything that the world can give you.

It's a bad trade.

But we think Samson's fall started in the lap of Delilah, it started in the carcass of a lion.

Just like Daniel's public victory in the lion's den started in the private time of him refusing to eat the king's meat and a consistent life over time of doing the right thing.

Daniel's life, his public victory, was a harvest of years of private consecration.

Samuel, Samson is the photo-negative of Daniel.

Samson's public collapse in chapter 16 was the harvest of his private compromise that started all the way back in chapter 14 at the carcass of a lion he was never supposed to touch.

And here's why this matters.

Because playing with lions always leads to sleeping with the enemy.

See, I want to I want to redefine sin for you.

Is it okay if I talk about sin?

Is it okay if I talk about sin?

Is it okay if I talk about sin?

Because I know most of you would rather go to a church where you never hear the word sin.

Because it allows us to stay comfortable in our Christianity.

But I want to redefine it for you.

Here's what sin is it's consorting with the enemy of our soul against the savior of our soul.

It's a partnership with the enemy.

And the reason why I'm putting it that way is because when temptation comes your way, I want you to rethink this.

I don't want you to think about it just from the moment of what's so bad.

It's just a little thing, it's just in the moment.

I want you to think about it as you are locking arms with the enemy over your soul because he comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

He's trying to ruin your relationship with God.

And the path that he wants to take you to is getting you pulled into temptation.

And so I want to teach you today.

I want to look at the life of Samson and I want to give you some principles for how to not get bit by lions.

Because if you play with lions long enough, they'll bite.

Anybody remember Siegfried and Roy?

How many don't know who Siegfried and Roy is?

Oh, you young people, you have no idea.

Siegfried and Roy, they were famous.

They did this famous show on Las Vegas.

It was the best show on Las Vegas for years, where they actually did tricks with white lions and tigers.

And they raised these cubs for 44 years until they became full-grown cats and they kept them in their house, walking around like you would have a dog walking around in your house.

And so they really thought that they had this bond with the lions.

And one day, after 30 years of this show running on Vegas, one day Roy reached out because the lion went off the mark and he went like this to cause the lion to come back into his mark.

And the lion attacked him, grabbed him by the juggler, ripped him off the stage.

He became partially paralyzed and nearly lost his life.

And that's what happens when you take a predator and turn it into a pet.

And there's a lot of people that are turning predators into pets because you're playing with stuff that God says you ought not to be touching in your life.

And you think it's not gonna bite you until one day it finally does.

And so I want to give you five principles today that will help you not get bit by lions and stay away from playing with lions.

But I also want you to realize that there always is a but God after every situation in your life.

With God, there's always a way back, with God, there's always restoration, with God, there is always another opportunity.

Principle number one, the confidence principle.

Have confidence in God and not in yourself.

Judges chapter 14, verse number five says, A young lion came roaring against him, and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he tore the lion apart.

Judges 14 · chapter mention

And the first thing that I want you to see is even though the victory was real, the victory belonged to Jesus.

I said, even though the victory was real, the victory belonged to Jesus.

The text is careful to tell us why Samson won.

He won because the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him.

This wasn't Samson flexing, this was God showing up.

And right there is the difference between the two words that I want to put before you confidence, confidence in God, and overconfidence, confidence in yourself.

Confidence says the strength is his, the victory is his.

I can do all things, but through Christ who strengthens me.

Overconfidence is I got this.

Look what I did.

I'm strong enough to handle it.

I can get right on the line, but not sin.

See, we need to have confidence, not overconfidence.

And most of us picture Samson the wrong way.

When you think of Samson, what do you think of?

You think of he looked like you, Pastor Frank, you know, jacked up and all that.

You think of the guy that should be on the cover of health and fitness, right?

You think of that guy that's like the BC Fabio, the guy that's got muscles, the Arnold Schwartz and Hagar.

That's how you think of Samson.

But can I tell you, I don't think Samson looked like that.

I say, I think Samson looked like Pee-Wee Herman.

Because they kept being confused.

How does this guy do it?

What is the secret of his strength?

How does he do that?

And if he was like looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger, you know, he's kind of like Samson.

I picture him like the Anatoly of his day.

Y'all know who Anatoly is?

Y'all don't know who Anatoly is?

Anatoly is the guy who's all over the internet right now, right?

And he walks into the gym and there's these guys that, you know, you know the guys that can't put their arms down.

Those guys?

And those guys, they got all this weight, right?

And they're doing these deadlifts and stuff like that.

And Anatoly comes in like in a janitor's costume.

And it's real loose, so you can't see that he's really jacked and really ripped and everything.

And he's kind of like a slender guy, but he's ripped up inside.

And he walks over to them and he and he and does this weird accent, and he's like, Can I try?

And he goes, How you do this?

And he goes, Oh, you do like this?

Am I holding it right?

Like a real Pee-wee Herman guy, right?

And these guys, they're maxing out on one deadlift with this weight.

And then a Tolkien comes and he's like, boom, boom, boom, boom.

And you see it, and all of a sudden you get like the the the the ghost face on the screen, right?

And it's like, and he and their mouth drops.

Or he'll walk over and he'll pick the thing up like this with one hand and he'll put it over his head, like this.

And that's what I think of Samson.

I think Samson looked like Pee-Wee Herman.

And the reason why I think he looked like Pee-We Herman is because when he did what he did, everybody knew this was something supernatural on his life.

What am I telling you?

I'm telling you that the excellency, the power is of God.

See, there's two things that can happen.

Have you ever done anything that has amazed you?

Anyone ever done anything that's amazed them?

And I don't mean amazed you in a way where you're like, check me out.

See, can I tell you, when you know God does something for you that amazes you, it doesn't make you flex, it makes you fall.

It doesn't make you go, look at how great I am.

It makes you get on your knees and say, God, you are so good to me.

See, we need to understand something that the excellency is his, that the strength is his, that the power is his, that the gift is his, that the talent is his, that the money is his, everything is his.

We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency may not be of us, but be of him.

We need to have confidence, not overconfidence, because the Bible warns us against this.

The Bible tells us this.

It says, Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

Samson was strong, but he was vulnerable and he didn't realize it.

He thought, because he was on a spiritual high, that he could live like this.

And so he goes down to Timnah and he picks a wife out of the Philistine ladies when it was forbidden for him to do that, but he does that.

He goes over to the vineyards, and then if you read the rest of the story, it says, right before his wedding, guess what he does?

He throws a feast.

And you say, What's so bad about that?

You know what it means in the Hebrew?

It means a drinking party.

He says, Ah, you know what we're gonna do on the night before my wedding?

We're gonna throw a drinking party.

And now, see the reason why some of y'all are not like it's because you think that's normal.

You think the night before your wedding is the time for you to lose your ever-loving mind.

For you to get as much sin in as you could possibly get in because you're gonna have to live a certain way for the rest of your life.

And so you're doing all sorts of crazy stuff.

And by the way, I just wanted you to know if you're gonna marry somebody that's gonna do crazy stuff like that on the eve of a day where they should be looking forward to spending the rest of their life with you, don't marry them.

I'm just gonna tell you if I was gonna marry a woman, if I knew my wife had a wild bachelorette party, had some guy that she was sticking dollar bills into his thong on right before I say, wedding off.

Off, why?

Because if you can't live right the night before, if you can't be committed to me the night before, well, I didn't do nothing, I just looked.

Listen, the Bible says you commit lust in your heart.

Samson is going with the culture because he's hanging out where he shouldn't be hanging out.

He's living on the edge, he's throwing drinking parties when one of his Nazarene vows is don't even touch wine.

See, the Bible says, therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

Not let the one falling watch out, let the one who thinks they're strong watch out.

Because the enemy especially likes to bring you down when you're strong.

You know why?

Because you let your guard down.

And then the next verse says, There's no temptation taking you but such as common to man.

But God is faithful and will not allow you to be tempted above that which you are able, but will with the temptation also provide a way of escape.

And you know what the Bible teaches us?

The Bible teaches us don't toy with temptation, don't play with lions.

It teaches us to flee temptation.

Run, Forest, run fast as you can.

Not hang out, not stay there.

Remember Joseph?

Joseph was tempted, and what did he do?

He fled the scene and he preserved his destiny.

Samson played with the lion and destroyed his destiny.

You got a choice.

How are you gonna respond to these types of things in your life?

See, Samson's life teaches us that we cannot have confidence in ourselves.

Well, I got the anointing of God.

Well, God is with me.

So therefore, I could be around all sorts of craziness, I could be influenced by all sorts of craziness.

I'm too strong to fall.

Great will be the fall.

Great will be the fall.

Number two, the better principle.

God's ways are better than our ways and the world's.

God's ways are better than our ways and the world's.

Judges chapter 14, verse number eight says, After some time, when he returned to get her, he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion.

Judges 14 · chapter mention

So he looked at the woman, he said to his parents, This woman pleases me, get her from me.

That was cultural talk, for I want to marry her, make the arrangements for me to marry her.

His parents said, Well, can't you pick a woman from amongst your own people?

These are our enemies, they're not people who we're supposed to be consorting with.

He said, Nah, she pleases me, go get her from me.

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

Look at these three little words.

He turned aside.

Nobody made him, there was no crisis, there was no enemy forcing him.

He went out of his way to go back to the thing that had already killed him.

But here's what we skip past because by the time Samson turns aside to the carcass, he's already off the path.

He's already put his eyes on something he shouldn't.

He's already gone to places he shouldn't.

And so the turning aside to the dead carcass is not the first step off the path, it's just another step off the path.

Because every time you take a step off the path, the next step Is easier to take.

Can we be real for a moment?

You're tempted.

And you hear the Holy Spirit say, uh you hear him loud.

He's like, he's like, get away from that thing.

Run from that thing.

You hear the Holy Spirit, run, Forest, run! You know, my name is not Forest.

Run, Forest, run.

But you do it anyway.

Can we just be real?

I can talk to you from experience.

Like I've never gone down this road before.

And then the next time you hear the Holy Spirit, but his voice is not as loud.

He's like, run, run, run.

And you do it anyway.

And then you hear the Holy Spirit the next time.

And the next time you don't hear the Holy Spirit.

And the reason why you don't is because your conscience has been seared.

It's not because God is not talking to you anymore.

It's because you have made sin a habit in your life that you shut yourself off from the voice of Almighty God.

This is Samson.

The turn toward the carcass is not the first step, it is another step.

Now, some of you who are Bible scholars are going, but Pastor Judges chapter 14, verse number 4.

Judges 14 · chapter mention

By the way, I know.

But some of you who are Bible scholars are saying, but Pastor Judges chapter 4 said, His parents did not know that this wedding, this woman, this decision of his was of the Lord because he saw the occasion against the Philistines.

Judges 4 · chapter mention

Yes, listen to me.

It does say that.

But God in his grace was able to weave even Samson's disobedience into a larger plan to deliver Israel.

But hear me carefully.

God using your mess does not mean God endorsed your mess.

God can bring good out of your wrong turn without ever calling your wrong term right.

So don't you dare use God worked it out as a license to keep playing with the lion.

Because that's all it is.

Some people judge the outcome and they say that was the will of God.

No, that was the grace of God.

And but for the grace of God, there go I.

And there's grace and there's grace and there's grace and there's grace.

But you never know when all of a sudden the grace that God has got to give you is for the lion to bite you.

See, y'all missed that.

Sometimes the bite is the grace.

Let me say it over here.

Sometimes the bite is the grace.

Because the grace that He's been giving you all along and talking to you and talking to you, it's not working.

And so all of a sudden God says, I love you too much to allow you to continue to stray that way.

And so the lion's bite becomes the grace.

Why do we wander in the first place?

Because we believe something.

The grass is greener on the other side.

Samson is looking at the Philistines, looking at their way of life.

Man, their girls are sexy.

Our girls are plain.

Our girls, they wear their hair up in the bun.

They got their head covered.

They wear these long dresses.

You can't see no curves whatsoever.

But them Philistine girls, I mean, they look good.

They got their hair down here, they got their earrings on, they got their makeup on.

They're wearing stuff, man.

You can you don't even have to guess what they got.

You can see everything.

By the way, don't come to church looking like a Philistine girl.

Don't leave your house looking like a Philistine girl.

Bible talks about modesty.

Modesty.

Whenever we got to show more of what people should see, you know what it says?

It said we got some type of insecurity going on.

Because I want y'all to know you're beautiful, whether somebody sees it, doesn't see it, doesn't know it, or not.

You gotta understand who you are in Christ.

And so Phil, he's looking.

Hey, look at the Philistines over here.

Look at that.

They don't know how to have a wedding.

I mean, come on.

They got all free bar at the free open bar at the wedding.

Let's all get rocked off of our, you know, out of our mind.

Because that's cool, because that's fun.

The grass is greener.

Look at all these stick-in-the-mud Christians.

They don't know how to have fun, they don't know how to have party, they don't know how to dress, they don't know how what the good life is.

The grass is greener on the other side.

David almost fell prey to this.

Psalm 73, verse number two.

David said, But as for me, my feet almost stumbled.

David said, I was I was walking with the Lord, but suddenly I saw something, and it was like, I almost the feet stumbling was not a trip, it was a move in the wrong direction.

See, some of you never fall, so you don't think you stumble.

But when you get off the narrow path, your feet are stumbling.

David said, My feet almost stumbled, for I was envious of the boastful when I saw, watch, watch, watch, the prosperity of the wicked.

When I saw how all the people who don't serve God, when I saw how they're having a good time, when I saw all the vacations that they're going on, when I saw all the cars that they're driving, when I saw all the houses that they're living in, when I saw all the all the blessings that they have, all of a sudden I become envious of the prosperity of the wicked.

And when I thought how to understand this, it was painful to me.

God, I don't understand.

God, I'm serving you.

God, I'm doing everything you say.

Look at them, they're blessed.

Look at me, I'm barely making it.

God, I can't pay my bills, and and and God, I can't do this, and God, I can't do that, and God, I could never dream about doing there or doing this.

But then David said this, until I went to the sanctuary of God.

Then I understood their end.

Can I tell you what you need?

You need to get in the house of God and around the presence of God and the anointing of God so you can understand that the grass is not greener over there, so that you understand that the word of God is still true.

I have a plan for your life to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a hope in a future.

That no good thing will the Father withhold for you, that God blesses the path of the righteous.

And what we need is we need more successful Christians.

What I mean?

I mean people who do it God's way and are kicking buttons taking names.

People who are doing it God's way and they got cash.

People who are doing it God's way and they are blessed, not to show off, but to show us that you know what?

God's way is better.

We don't have to do it the world's way to get the blessings of God.

My father owns all the cattle on a thousand hills, they belong to him.

He wants his kids.

The blessing of the Lord makes one rich and adds no sorrow to it.

Do it God's way.

The grass is not greener on the other side.

God wants to bless your life.

Remember the prodigal?

Prodigal is hanging out in Daddy's house.

He's envious of all the heathens.

Look at them, man.

They partying hard.

They enjoying themselves.

Daddy, give me my inheritance means I wish you were dead.

Some of you are living as if God is dead.

Some of you are living without any relationship with the Lord, as if he's dead.

Spending every blessing that God has given you in your life to just satisfy your flesh instead of to serve the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

And he goes off and he wastes his inheritance on riotous living.

And he hooks up with a citizen of the far country.

You know who the citizen of the far country is in the story?

That's the enemy of your soul.

He's sleeping with the enemy because anytime you side with sin, you wind up sleeping with the enemy.

And the enemy don't tell you about the pig pen, the enemy only tells you about the pleasures until he laughs at you because you're in the pig pen.

And then while he's in the pig pen, thank you, Jesus.

While he's in the pig pen, God throws a thought his way.

Some people, all they talk about is, oh, the enemy putting this thought in my mind, the enemy putting that thought in my mind.

Hang out with God a little bit.

Wait till you see the thoughts that God puts in your mind.

Wait till you see him that while you see the thoughts that God dread that God drops in your spirit.

Whether you wait till you see the dreams and the visions that God gives you, wait till you see when your mind is alive to God.

Wait till you see when you have the mind of Christ in your life.

But even in the midst of his waywardness, God gives them a thought.

And the thought is, how many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger?

What was he saying?

He's saying, It's better in the house of God.

I thought it was better out there, but it's better over there because even the lowest of low in the house of God are more blessed than the highest of high in the world.

David said, I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God than to dwell in the tents of the wicked.

God's way is better.

God wants to bless your socks off his way, his timing, without compromise, without cutting corners, without doing it your own way, without living for things, but living for God.

Because when you live for God, goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life.

How do I not turn aside?

You keep your eyes on Jesus.

The Bible says, let us lay aside every wind, every weight and the sin that does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience, the race that is set before us, looking on to Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith.

When my eyes are fixed on Jesus, the weight and the sin falls behind.

It's when I allow my eyes to wander off the grass is greener, this guy, this one, this one.

Don't worry about anyone or anything else.

Worry about you and Jesus.

It doesn't matter how anybody else is doing, it doesn't matter what anybody else is doing.

What matters is how are you doing compared to what God has asked you to do.

Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.

When you keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, you don't have to white knuckle your sin away.

Guess what happens?

You start walking in a grace that allows you to walk in a level of consecration and holiness that is easier than if you're trying to do it your own way.

And so you keep your eyes fixed on Jesus and you wind up doing things that are amazing.

He'll blow your mind.

Remember when Peter, ordinary man, got his eyes on Jesus, he walked on water.

Remember what happened when he didn't got his eyes off Jesus?

Sank.

Why?

Because when your eyes are fixed on Jesus, he will cause you to do extraordinary things.

You will look and say, the gift is his, the strength is his, the victory is his, the power is his.

Keep your eyes on Jesus.

Number three, and I gotta go quick.

Number three is the sweetness principle.

Temptation is never as good as it appears.

Temptation is never as good as it appears.

Judges chapter 14, verse 8 and 9 says, There was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of a lion, and he took some out of it in his hands and he went along eating.

Judges 14:8

Here is the tactic of the enemy.

When Samson turns aside to a dead carcass, he doesn't find a stench or something that repulses him in a dead thing.

He finds something sweet in a dead thing.

Because very rarely does temptation announce itself and say, This is stinky, this is this is gonna hurt you, this is gonna destroy your marriage.

What it says is no, this is sweet.

I mean, you don't have none of this with your spouse, but you can get some of this outside of your marriage.

You don't you don't have none of this on your job, so you can get some of this if you just do this over here and that over there.

And all of a sudden, temptation begins to beckon us.

It promises us something sweet, but it's never as sweet as it appears to be.

And James talks to us about the progression or the anatomy of temptation.

He says in James 1, chapter 14 and 15, but each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own evil desires and enticed.

And then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin.

And sin when it is full grown brings forth death.

And what the enemy does is he runs everything through your eyes.

The Bible says there are three things that are not of the Father: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

And so what the enemy first does is he tantalizes.

He puts stuff in front of you.

The grass is greener, the grass is greener, it looks really shiny, looks really sweet, doesn't tell you it's the bait.

Underneath every bait, guess what it is?

There's a hook.

He tantalizes you, and then after he shows it to you like this, he gets you to fantasize.

You start thinking on it.

You start thinking, oh, that's cool, that's good.

Samson, you know what I believe?

He defeated that lion.

He's like, wow, that was amazing.

I gotta go check this out.

Being drawn back by what was going on in his mind.

Where your mind goes, where you allow your mind go, your life will follow.

He begins to think on it, think on it, think on it, think it.

And then the plagiarism comes in where God, where he takes something God given, and he twists it.

And Samson begins to use his supernatural strength as a riddle at his bachelor party, at his drinking party.

As everybody is drinking, what are they gonna do?

They start making bets with one another.

Yeah, well, I'll bet you.

I'll bet that you can't solve my riddle, all drunken and sloppy.

Grown but drunk.

Grown but drunk.

I'll bet you that you can't solve my riddle.

And he turns the lion's situation into a riddle.

Out of the eater comes something to eat, and out of the strong comes something sweet.

And he takes the holy things of God, and he begins to use them for party entertainment.

Plagiarism happens in your life.

And then the next thing he does is he customizes, and because we all like custom things, don't we?

Have you ever tried on a custom suit?

They're not like a custom suit.

It fits you just right.

Tailored just perfectly.

Custom shoes.

There's a reason why some shoes cost 500, 8,000, 1,500, and some 20.

It's because the other ones they feel better, they last longer.

Because we love custom things.

Nowadays, you can even get coffee custom.

Right?

Matter of fact, you you gotta know lingo to get your coffee custom, right?

You go to Starbucks, can I get a medium coffee?

Did you want a grande?

No, I want a medium.

Yeah, we call that a grande.

I call it a medium.

Now make that a large.

You mean a vente?

No, I mean a large.

You got you gotta know all the lingo.

Because we love, it's it's this tailor man.

And for Samson, here was his custom.

Philistine women.

First one was a woman at Timnah.

Second one was a harlot at Gaza.

Third one was Delilah.

Each one customized for Samson.

That's why we call him the he-man with the she weakness.

And the whole time Satan is just luring him in.

He's just baiting him until the last step.

Vandalization comes.

James said that when desire is conceived, it brings forth sin.

And sin when it is full grown brings forth death.

And we know there he is with Delilah.

By the way, Delilah wasn't the first one to get to his secret.

His first wife, when he gave the riddle, there was a wager.

Samson was going to win.

The 30 people who got drunk with Samson went to the wife, said, Find out what the answer to the riddle is.

The wife kept begging him over and over and over again.

Samson finally told her the riddle.

She went and gave it to the 30 drunken people at the bachelor party, and they solved the riddle.

And Samson went off and killed 30 Philistines, took their clothes and gave it to them to pay for the debt, and then left his wife.

And when he left his wife, then Samson then later came back, set their fields on fire.

You know what they did?

They burned down his wife's house with her in it.

Because what we think is sweet always winds up being sour.

And now Samson goes all the way, and now he's in the lap of Delion, of Delilah, but he started in the carcass of a lion.

And now the vandalism that we all know, he awoke from his sleep and he said, I'll go out of this before.

But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him.

And then the Philistines took him and put his eyes out and brought him down to Gaza.

And he was blind, he was bound, and he was in prison.

Sin always starts as honey, ends with death.

Compromise.

Listen, Samson's name means light.

And here is the person who's supposed to be light to Israel, whose eyes are gone, and now he's living in darkness.

Can I tell you what happens when you compromise too much?

You lose your light.

You lose the ability to influence people the way God wants you to for the cause of Christ.

You lose the anointing in your life, you lose the power of God on your life, you lose the peace of God on your life, you lose the joy of God on your life.

All because we're playing with lions.

Principle number four, the compromise principle.

What you consistently sow, you'll eventually reap.

A lot of times get around people, this came out of nowhere.

And I understand sometimes it does.

But you know what more likely is true?

This is the harvest of years of sowing for this.

I'll give you an example, okay?

We treat our bodies like garbage all of our lives.

And then we get major health diseases when we're older.

This came out of nowhere.

No, it really didn't.

It really didn't.

I understand it was, but you know, and I understand sometimes it's not like that.

But for the most part, we underestimate the law of sowing and reaping in our life.

We think that harvests are just surprises, but oftentimes harvests are the result of what we've sown consistently over time in our life.

And both good harvests come from what we sow and bad harvests come from what we sow.

And it works both ways because the law is neutral.

And you know the law of compounding, don't you?

Most of the time we know it through investment.

How many people under 30 in here?

Can I see your hand if you're under 30?

Raise it nice and high.

Can I just encourage you?

Now is the best time for you to invest in your life.

If you invest the same as me, I start at 50, you start at 20.

We invest the same.

By the time we're both 65, you have five times more than me.

Because of the law of compounding, what happens is as you continue to sow something, good and good and good and good and good and good and good, and good and good and good eventually produce is a harvest and a big harvest.

And the Bible supports this because it says, cast your bread upon the waters and you will find it after many days.

And we leave out the many days part because we think harvests are always instantaneous, but harvests are the result of what we sow consistently in our life.

And the Bible says you can't change this because it's a natural law, it's a universal law, it's a sovereign law.

As long as the earth is, there will always be seed time and harvest.

And then God takes it one step further and he says, Be not mocked, be not deceived.

God is not mocked, for whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap.

And so when we look into the life of this man called Samson and we compare it to the man called Joseph, Joseph, for years, when everything didn't look like it was working, sowed godly seed.

Joseph sowed godly seed and he wound up in a pit.

Joseph sow godly seed and he wound up in a present.

You know what?

You know what Joseph never did?

He never said, This God stuff doesn't work.

You know what he kept doing?

He kept sowing in the down times.

He kept sowing in the down times.

He can let there's a word for someone.

He kept sowing in the down times.

He kept sowing it.

You know the best time to invest is when the stock market goes down times.

Because when it springs back, the harvest is immense.

And it's the same is true spiritually.

When you sow godly things in difficult seasons in your life, prepare yourself for a harvest that is gonna blow your mind.

Joseph keeps sowing and he gets a godly harvest.

Samson keeps sowing and he gets the harvest that he sowed for, chosen by God to bring freedom to Israel, now living like a captive, because that is exactly what sin does over time.

It binds, it blinds, and it imprisons you.

The little things done wrong lead to the big things gone wrong.

Don't play with lions.

Sin will always take you further than you ever wanted to go, keep you longer than you wanted to stay, cost you more than you're willing to pay.

Now, if I end the sermon there, it's like what a downer.

It's necessary though.

You need to feel a little uncomfortable right now.

Because we if we feel uncomfortable, we think, oh, I don't want to go there anymore.

They're making me feel uncomfortable.

It's not about your feelings, it's about your faith.

You you need to feel a little conviction in the house of God.

But I want to end with this because the Bible never leaves it there.

Principle number five the butt God principle.

With God, the story can end differently.

If I stopped at blind, bound, and in prison, this would be disappointing because there would be no Hope, but there's always hope with God.

The story doesn't have to end there.

The story doesn't have to end with you broken, busted, and bound.

God loves you too much for that.

So Judges chapter 16, verse number 22.

Judges 16 · chapter mention

However, blind, bound and imprisoned.

However, lions and giants and bears, however, but God, however, the hair of his head began to grow after it had been shaven.

Eight words of pure grace dropped in the middle of a tragedy.

However, the hair on his head began to grow back, even in prison, even in the consequences, even in a lifetime of playing with lions, it started to go back back, grow back.

Some of y'all to thank God that you're still standing right now.

Some of you ought to thank God for the grace that He's given you.

Some of you ought to thank God for everything that He's brought you to.

Because if God allowed the lions to have their way, you'd be done, you'd be finished, you'll be God, but God, even in the midst of our way witness, even in the midst of us dumbing our noses in his face, God causes our hair to grow back.

Watch how powerful this grace is.

It's Father's Day.

It's Father's Day.

And you know, as we age, dads, we need some helpful Father's Day gifts.

Like manscaping tools.

Help your dad out.

Buy him something where he can reach his back.

Don't let him go to the pool looking like Esau.

Don't don't don't don't let that happen.

Buy him a nose hair trimmer.

Buy him something he can get that the ear the hair out of his ears.

And don't forget to tell him when he's headed off to the barber, make sure they trim them eyebrows now.

Make sure they trim them eyebrows now.

I remember when I was when I was 18, maybe it was it was long, 14.

I'm sitting in the in the hairstylist chair.

And the dude next to me, he's got like eyebrows that are like this.

And I didn't know that eyebrows could get like that, right?

And and and the barber next to my barber says, Hey, would you like me to trim your eyebrows?

And he's like, No, I like them like that.

What you mean you like them like this?

Help it, Dad, help that out, help it to get fixed up and stuff like that, and tell him, Don't forget about your armpit hair either.

You get older, you come out the shower, that thing could be down to here on you.

Dad needs some help in those areas.

Now, now I'm saying all this not to be funny.

I'm saying all this because I want to make a point.

Because if God can grow hair in places it ain't supposed to grow in, God can grow back everything that the enemy has shaved off in your life.

God can grow it back because God is a restorer.

And what God is waiting for is He's waiting for you to call out to Him.

Say it, sense and called out, Lord, do you remember me?

God answered.

Jonah called out from the belly of a fish.

God, do you remember me?

God answered.

The prodigal called out.

God answered.

Listen to me, chapter.

You are made for more.

You are made for sin.

You are made to live carnally.

You are made for unholiness.

You are made for more.

Come on, let's sing this with everything that we got.