Dr. Howard John-Wesley - What Is The Source Of Your Strength? (POWERFUL MESSAGE) | 2018

and if you're able to navigate your way to the 16th chapter there is a word from the lord that all be familiar to any of us who spent some time in church 16th chapter of the book of judges i'd like to begin reading in verse 15. and tonight dr moses i'm reading out the new king james version of god's holy word the word lord reads then she meaning said to him meaning samson how can you say i love you when your heart is not with me you've mocked me these three times and have not told me where your great strength lies and it came to pass when she pestered him daily with her words and pressed him so that his soul was vexed to death that he told her all his heart and said her delilah no razor has ever come upon my head for i have been a nazarite to god from my mother's womb if i am shaven then my strength will leave me and i shall become weak and be like any other man when delilah saw that he had told her all his heart she sent and called for the lords of the philistines saying come up once more for he has told me all his heart so lords of the philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hand then she lulled him to sleep on her knees and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head she began to torment him and his strength left him 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 he did not know that the lord had departed from him do me a favor before you sit down help me play preacher with someone on your pew just look at somebody and tell them neighbor old neighbor what is the source of your strength you may be seated in the presence of the lord what is the source of your strength about two years ago while playing my 14 year old son in basketball and trying to establish my alpha male dominance i decided to remind him that i'm still better than him and i attempted to drive to the hole it was my intention to lift to elevate and possibly even dunk to remind the young man that i'm still dead and while i was trying to remind him that i'm still dead my body reminded me i'm over i 40. driving on him i jumped off my right leg and my left leg said no landed only to find out that i had torn my patellar tendon four hours of surgery eight weeks of now walking no mobility no weight on my leg after four hours of surgery and eight weeks of not walking i began what you know is physical therapy i went to my physical therapist in the beginning of our first session she said with me pastor it's going to take about nine months to get you walking right i said the devil is a liar i'm a former athlete i'm in great physical condition nine months is for the average brother i'm gonna be back on my feet sooner than that sure enough after three months i was walking again had full flexion in my knee and i was convinced that i did not need to go to therapy for another six months because i could walk and bend my knee the therapist looked at me as i was getting ready to leave prematurely and this is what she said she said leaving therapy now will be the biggest mistake you've ever made i said why i can walk i can bend my knee i'm fine she said now that you can walk and bend your knee we've got to rebuild the strength in your left leg she said after not walking for eight weeks your left quadricep has gone into atrophy your muscle has shrunk and you are not as strong on your left side as you are on your right i said i don't worry about that i can make it i'll walk right she said listen you will never walk right until you deal with what's weak on the other side [Applause] that in reality your walk is not determined by how strong you are in one aspect in the area of your life your walk is determined by how weak you are in an area you refuse to deal with somebody you ain't said hey man yet because you still think i'm testifying about my leg i've just transitioned to start talking about your life because the reality is it doesn't matter how strong you are on one side it is not your strength that determines who you will become but it is rather your willingness to face deal and conquer the weaknesses that limit and hinder you in your life whether i come by to tell you sister i wanted to remind you that god can give you unprecedented strength god can open doors of opportunity in your life god can grant you great favor god can give you the power to do the daggone thing like nobody's ever done the daggone thing before but if you won't face up to the weaknesses that are inherent in your life you will never become all that god has destined and granted you to be as a matter of fact everybody in here knows at least one somebody who was a bad man a jammer everybody knows somebody that could sing like it never been saying everybody knows somebody that could do it like it had never been done everybody knows somebody that was gifted and talented and abled but they never rose to the strength of their gift because they had some internal weaknesses that they never got a hold of and if you don't get a hold of your weakness your weakness will get a hold of you your weakness will limit you your weakness will keep you from being what god has destined you to be if you don't know somebody that fits that description allow me to reintroduce you to one you met in sunday school his name is samson you met sampson years ago as a child in case you don't remember let me give you the cliff notes of his biography sampson is the son of a brother from the tribe of dan named manoa and manoa's wife whose name we are not given they both struggle with infertility they are a barren couple till one day an angel comes to manoa's wife and says to her the lord has heard your prayers and the lord is going to grant you a male child but there are some restrictions on what you can do and what the child can do because this child is going to be a nazarite another church say nazarite when you go home and you do your biblical reading and study numbers chapter 6 you're going to find that a nazirite was a man who was consecrated by god with a special assignment for a work god had birthed him on earth to perform and because of that assignment nazarites had three restrictions on their lives please take note there will be a pop quiz at the end of the sermon three restrictions on an azerite life number one no alcohol number two you could never touch a dead body and number three no haircut want to make sure you get this so you don't fail your quiz number one no alcohol no hen no goose no no rock no no chardonnay no pinot noir no more back no cabernet sauvignon no crown have i called george yet would you touch your neighbor and tell them that's why you ain't a nazarite that's why you no no alcohol for a nazarite nazarite could never touch a dead body and a nazirite could never have a haircut and because of the anointing in the assignment god has given samson a gift no one has ever had for you see the assignment on samson's life is to lead the armies of israel in victory over their nemesis the philistines samson's destiny is to be a great general a warrior who brings victory to israel against the philistines who continued to defy the armies of the living god and in order to fulfill that assignment god has given samson unprecedented human strength samson is the strongest man in the bible with his bare hand he kills a lion by his notes himself he defeats the armies of ashkelon armed with nothing other than a jawbone of a donkey he kills a thousand philistines in one soup ain't nobody as strong as samson but for all the strength for all the anointing for all the precedented unprecedented favor god has given samson samson never becomes what god ordained him to be samson never leads an army seven samson never wins victory for israel as a matter of fact samson's life is so pathetic that when he dies nobody shows up to the funeral all because samson has some weaknesses that are unveiled to us through the presence of a bad mamma gemma named delilah delilah delilah delilah and jezebel those are just two names you don't give your daughter [Applause] if if you ever meet a sister named delilah her mama failed sunday school you delilah is synonymous with seductress you know the story the philistines are tired of playing around with samson samson comes in and out of their territory jocking them and drinking and having fun and making making just of them and they get tired of them and so they they realize though that that no one man can beat samson as a matter of fact a thousand men can't beat samson but jerry they found out what a thousand men can't do [Applause] it only takes one sister to get done they ought to be a feminine amen right about there that that sounds about right reverend that sounds about right [Applause] so delilah is hired with one assignment find out what samson's strength is she goes to samson and he tells all right if you tie me up with seven bow strings if you if you tie me down with brand new rope if you braid my hair then finally he says all right here it is my strength is in my hair if you cut my hair i'll be weak like any other man goes to sleep one night wakes up his hair is cut the philistines are outside waiting on samson then he gets up and he gets ready to go to battle and the twofold tragedy of his life god had left him but even worse he didn't know it lord i would argue that there are few more damnable tragedies in life than for god to not be with you and you not even discern that you're not walking with god any longer what a tragedy samson goes out is defeated and ultimately is killed now i came by to ask the question how could a man with such great strength lose a battle like that how could a man who killed a thousand people be taken down so easily what was it about samson that made him weak and i would argue that there are at least three weaknesses in samson's life that not only affected him but will hinder me and you if we don't get a hold of him right here and right now can i drop three on you real quick i know you came to hear pastor cosby he's clearing his throat [Applause] the three weaknesses samson deals with number one i would suggest to you that what's weakened samson that will weaken us is that samson was fixated on his feelings and not focused on the facts let me tell you what will mess you up in life when you allow your heart to override what your head knows to be true go on preach pastor yeah let's just close the door don't let nobody leave you you need to hear this [Applause] watch what happens dr moss three times delilah asked samson the source of his strength three times he lies to her and wakes up to find the philistines outside he says to her if you bind me with seven bow strings he goes to sleep when he wakes up he's bound with seven bow strings and the philistines are outside she asked again he said all right i was just playing if you tie me down with new rope he goes to sleep he wakes up tied with new rope and the philistines are outside he's all right baby i'm just playing if you braid my hair he goes to sleep he wakes up his hair is braided and the philistines outside now i ain't i ain't the most proficient player in the house [Music] but the one thing you ought to know by now is that that woman ain't up to no good you know good and dad going well you can't trust delilah she's trying to take you out you know it because that's why you lie to her now if he knows she ain't no good why does he then tell her about the real source of his strength and getting his hair cut if you know you can't trust her why'd you tell her the truth lindsay cause she put him in his feelings watch what she says she said if you love me [Applause] um sister's closure here for a minute brothers if your woman ever starts a sentence with if you love me that's gonna cost you something [Applause] if you love me she makes him get out of his head of truth and dig into his heart of feelings only for what he feels to override what he knows and i come by to tell you that having feelings doesn't make you weak it makes you human feelings are real feelings are powerful feelings are intense but feelings can also be misleading feelings can also be deceptive feelings can also lead you outside of wise decision making processes brothers and sisters there comes a moment when you've got to listen to your head more than you listen to your heart matter of fact feelings are so deceptive that god watches never reveals his will to you through your emotions god will speak to the moving of the holy spirit god will speak through prophetic utterance god will speak through signs wonders and miracles god will speak through his word god can even speak through a bad soprano solo but what god never does is speak through your emotions there's nowhere in the bible where god speaks to how you feel as a matter of fact the bible says in proverbs trust in the lord with all your heart but whatever you do don't lean on your own understanding because your feelings will mislead you misguide you deceive you detour you and ultimately destruct you and there's no greater deceptive feeling than being in love uh just for the grown folk in the house there's not a grown person in here who can't look back over your life and identify a moment when you did something stupid because you thought you were in love with somebody being in love will have you sitting outside of negro's house at three in the morning and waiting to see who's gonna come outside the door wish i had some old school saints you know the main ingredient was right everybody plays the fool gonna help me preach sometime maybe factual may be cruel but but everybody plays the fool love will have you outside of what you know to be truth and in those moments you need a god and a girlfriend and a brother that helps you open your eyes and let you see the truth of what you're dealing with and i came by to preach at trinity tonight that when god shows you the truth of what you're dealing with baby girl brother man believe god and take god at his word if there ain't no good they ain't no good if she's low down she just slow down if he's a liar he's just a daggone liar if this ain't god's will it ain't god's will you will drown in a sea of feelings if you ain't got no fact to hold on to don't swim in your feelings and ignore the fact samus is brought down because he allows the feelings in his heart to override the truth in his head captain second reason samson has is brought down this this is y'all bear with me he he is seduced by his success into a space of self-sufficiency he's seduced by his past success into a space of self-sufficiency can i can i teach your bible tonight [Music] by the time we meet samson in first samuel 16 some old testament scholars argue he's at least 20 years old 20 years old and has never had a haircut somebody said that's a lot of hair and it's his [Music] [Applause] that's a lot of hair that's a lot of hair he's got so much hair y'all that she can braid it into seven dreadlocks that go all the way down his back somebody said that's a lot of hair he goes to sleep on her lap and we've always been taught that she cut his hair that's not the bible that's not what the bible says read your bible he goes to sleep on her lap she calls another man into the room to shave his head and he don't even wake up [Applause] he is sleep on her lap another man comes in shaves his head he'll even wake up i'm trying to figure out what did she put on him [Music] that he slept through another man coming in the bedroom not clipping his hair shaving his head and he don't wake up sisters close your ears brothers be careful where you lay your head at night because it'll leave you weak in the morning [Applause] he has 20 years of dreadlocked hair cut off his head he's ball-headed when he wakes up there's no way he doesn't know his hair's cut you cannot get 20 years of hair cut off and not know it you cannot go from dreadlocks to a fade and not know it [Applause] as a matter of fact every sister in here knows when your beautician is cut too much and you ain't even got to look in the mirror you can feel it when she cut too much [Applause] he knows his hair is cut so here's the question if he knows his hair is cut why go out to fight if you've declared that your strength is in your hair and you know your hair has been cut why would you go out to fight listen what he says i will go out and shake myself free as i have before he looks back at his past victories and thinks that even though my hair has been cut and even though i've laid down in the wrong bed that i can get up in the morning and fight the same battle today that i fought yesterday because i've been seduced by my success in my past success is a dangerous thing [Music] success can leave you in a place that samson was in believing that you don't need god can i argue my case samson is so seduced by his success when he gets up to fight he doesn't even ask god to be with him no prayer no lord walk with me today no lord help me get through this thing no god i need you right here and right now beloved i came by to ask you a question at trinity tonight what are you so good at that you don't even ask god to help you with anymore what have you done so many times that you don't even invoke the power of the holy spirit to help you get through it once more again i know some of y'all think you did it by yourself but there's a handful of folk tonight who can declare god i need you not now i need you right now i need you right now to get through this thing i need you right now to help me raise my kids i need you right now to keep me sane on my job is there anybody here that can holla i need god right [Applause] hey the the old saints understood it they say father i stretch go help me preach my hand to thee no other help i know if thou withdraw thyself from me whether shall i go i need thee every hour somebody holler i need god listening at what success has done to samson he gets up with a haircut and this is what he says i will go out and shake myself free as i have so many times before i will go out and shake myself free as i have so many times before you almost caught it i will go out and shake myself free as i have done so that's a whole lot of first person [Applause] and let me tell your life will always be weak when your resume reads exclusively in the first person look what i have done and how i pulled myself out and how i got out of that mess that might apply to a few of y'all who are misled but there's some other folk who can declare right now i did not get myself out of anything the only reason i'm alive on this night the only reason i'm in church tonight the only reason i can stand tonight is not cause of what i did but i got a god who pulled me out of some stuff a god who walked me through some stuff a god who held me in the midst of some stuff is there anybody here who knows it was the lord [Applause] and but beloved it is a shame to be in a gathering of folk who believe they ought to get the credit for who they are there's no such thing as a self-made man ain't no such thing as an independent woman that didn't have no help somewhere in your resume god showed up um uh let me see if i explain it um i uh i recently began a phd program start a phd and we went to school the first week we had orientation to kind of tell us the rigors of the program the expectations what the curriculum is going to be like one of the sessions of the orientation uh dr shelley was led by our academic dean that dean came in he said listen our job and this program is to help you graduate we don't want any of you to fail out we want you to complete the program and the required time is six years we want you to earn your phd she said we're going to help you do whatever we got to to help you get to the finish line she said but the one thing we cannot correct is if you commit the highest crime of the academy she says she said if you fail the class will help you rewrite the paper if you don't do well on the test you can take it again but the one thing you cannot do is commit the highest crime of the academy been a while since i've been in school i raised my hand i said i need you to define for me what the highest crime of the academy is she says real simple the highest crime of the academy is plagiarism so if you commit plagiarism you can't finish the program i raised my hand again i said excuse me miss dean um can you define plagiarism [Music] because i need to know what the highest crime of the academy is this is what she says to me she said i'm gonna make it real simple for you howard john plagiarism is when you got it from somewhere else and had the nerve to claim it as your own that when you know it came from somewhere else but when you write it down you act like you got it by yourself that when you get it from someone else and you brag about it like it's your own you have committed the highest crime and you must be expelled from the program i came by to talk to some plagiarizing saints tonight who are sitting in the sanctuary committing the highest crime of the kingdom sitting acting like you made it by yourself acting like that car was because of your good credit acting like that ring was because of your good shape asking like that income was because of your good work ethic acting like your children was because your parental ability no there's somebody in here who knows that i didn't get here by myself i didn't make a way for myself i didn't see myself through this thing it was the lord who brought me through [Applause] can i push it she said this is what you do when you get it from somewhere else and you write it in your paper at the end of the paper you've got to put a little footnote to let somebody else know where you got it from i wish i had some footnoting christians who can put a footnote by every blessing and let the person who reads your life know that the lord made a way the lord answered my prayer the lord gave me the card the lord washed over my children is there anybody here that can give god a footnote i will bless the lord i will magnify him i will exalt him for he has done marvelous things hey [Applause] oh all right oh yeah okay i'm done i'm done cosby get your bible uh [Applause] well let me get out of here he was fixated on feelings not focused on facts he was seduced by success into a space of self-sufficiency and watch this last one y'all and i'm done he cited a strange source of his strength now i want to stay with me we got the shout out the way i'm about to mess with everything you learned in sunday school she says samson what's the source of your strength he says my hair [Applause] [Music] [Applause] my my hair your hair see see listen let me tell you tradition has taught us that his strength was in his hair and we got that through a few reasons number one by a process of rational elimination because you remember there are three restrictions on the nazareth didn't i tell you it's gonna be a pop quiz there are three restrictions on nazarite life number one number two and number three three restrictions on natural life no alcohol no dead body no haircut when you read over samson's story beginning in chapter 13 you will find that samson has already violated two of those um he goes to a wedding and he's there for seven days and we know culturally that weddings and wine go together you remember that first miracle and can't act like act like the water the wine thing uh and the waste times it behaves is almost indicative of the fact that he's been drinking he drinks alcohol but doesn't lose his strength dr wright he kills a lion with his bare hand then he goes back the next day to grab honey and to get it he's got to touch the carcass of the dead lion he's violated too he touches a dead body and doesn't lose strength so by process of elimination we argue that if he could drink and not lose strength if he could touch a dead body and not lose strength then by process of elimination the strength must be in the hair because that's where the third restriction was wrong can i tell you why samson could violate two of the three commandments and not lose his strength can i tell you why he could drink and still be strong can i tell you why he touches a dead thing and can still be strong it's real simple it's not because his strength was in his hair the reason samson could violate the two commandments of the three and still be strong the reason he could drink and not lose his strength the reason he could touch a dead thing and not lose his strength watch this it's because god is merciful did y'all turn my mic off i said god is merciful you can fail god and he'll still be faithful to you you can let god down and god will still show up there's somebody here you ain't got to testify but you ought to shout because you know there have been some moments when you were not what god called you to be you violated everything god put on your heart god told you to go left and you went right but didn't god stand by your side didn't god answer your prayer anyway didn't god make a way anyhow didn't god open the door in spite of you somebody ought to give him a merciful shout he is a merciful god [Applause] [Music] y'all y'all there's nowhere in the bible where god told samson your strength is in your hair no angel said it it's not written in scripture nowhere in the bible does it say his strength was in his hair as a matter of fact the three times we see samson exhibit and use his strength when he uses it the very verse right before it always says the same thing right before he kills a lion with his bare hand the verse before says and the spirit of the lord descended on samson when he killed the armies of ashkelon by himself the verse right before says and the spirit of the lord descended on samson right before he killed the philistines with a jawbone of a donkey the verse right before says and the spirit of the lord descended on samson the reason samson was strong because right before he needed god god always showed up the verse before i'm looking for somebody who can say amen right there that you know you serve a god who when you needed him most he showed up the verse before the night before surgery the day before the court case the week before you got laid off the month before the divorce is there anybody here who knows my god showed up right on time gave me strength right when i needed it held me together the night before i fell apart god shows up in the nick of time goodbye trinity may the lord bless your mighty good she looks at samson and he says my hair now now i know someone i know someone you're saying well reverend if his strength was not in his hair why is it that when he got his hair cut he lost his strength that's what you're asking um if it ain't in hair why come when the hair got cut he lost the strength because seems to suggest that the strength was in the hair because when there's no hair there's no strength let me tell you why i believe samson lost his strength when his hair got cut you wanna know why because that's where he thought his strength lie [Applause] in his mind it was right here and so when this is gone he has no strength beloved the problem with identifying your strength with your hair is that when you lay down in delilah's lap you put it where she had access be careful of identifying your strength in a place folk have access to be careful finding your strength in something someone knows how to cut off i came by to preach what is the source of your strength if you think your strength is in your money they'll lay you off and it'll get cut if you think the strength is in your beauty old age is coming and what lives upstairs baby is about to move downstairs and it ain't going back to where it's supposed to be if your strength is in that relationship that negro will break your heart but imagine if you will how the conversation would have gone if delilah had said what is the source of your strength and sampson would have said baby i got some bad news for you my strength is not in my hair you can cut my hair and i'll still be strong you can break my heart and i still make it every day you can leave me by myself and i'll still get up in the morning you can tell me i ain't no good and i still keep climbing the mountain because my source of my strength is not in my hair it's not in my money it's not in my beauty it's not in my friends but my strength my strength it comes from the lord and cain nobody cut that tie can't nobody cut that strength what can separate me from the love of god that is in christ jesus for i am persuaded that nothing nothing nothing can cut my strength somebody holler god is my strength god is my refuge god is god is my light and my salvation goodbye trinity may the lord bless you mighty good i'll see you next time but on my way to heaven i came by to shout what the old saints shouted god is the source of my sight he moves all pain misery and strife he promised to keep me never to leave me and he's never ever fallen short of his word i got to fast and pray stay in the narrow way live my life clean each and every day i want to go with him when he comes back i've come too far and i cannot go back [Music] god is god is god is god is would you slap five with your neighbor and tell them god is my strength god is my source god is my light god is my salvation god is god is god is andy all right any my strength any my source yeah yeah yeah [Applause] [Music] goddess got it [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh

Channel: Inspiration Station

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Keywords: howard john wesley, Marcus d cosby, wheeler ave baptist church, Alfred street baptist church, Terry k anderson, frank ray, tellis chapman, jamal bryant, holy convocation, delivert, td jakes, Serita jakes, cogic shout, cogic praise break, Giselle bryant, dewey smith, William Murphy settle here, deliverance, cogic, apostolic shout, bishop noel jones, city of refuge la, potters house dallas, maranda curtis, Michael todd, Steven furtick, Tasha cobbs, holy convocation shout

Id: Y4-EBTDiI4w

Length: 46min 39sec (2799 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 15 2021