Legacy Week 4 | 9.5.21

[Music] so good morning welcome to church so good to see you let's put our hands together let's worship the king come on well we give you all the praise this morning and every season we declare that it is [Music] [Applause] [Music] my soul won't ignore what you've done for [Music] me but i fix my eyes [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] praise the lord when peace surrounds me like a river my sorrow has gone away [Applause] oh [Music] [Music] praise the lord [Music] [Music] [Music] it is [Music] praise the lord praise the [Applause] on skip some lord this morning thank you lord [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] forever [Applause] [Music] all the worries of this world [Music] [Applause] i will lay them at your feet surrender every anxious thought for perfect peace your perfect loved peace [Applause] [Music] all my hopes and dreams and all my fears [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] for jesus have taken hold of me all my life is [Music] to tell you that i need [Music] jesus lord [Music] jesus [Music] [Applause] all my cares on you king of keys [Music] [Music] is [Music] oh yes [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] believing that you are always [Music] forever [Music] [Applause] [Music] i will bow down to tell you that i need you jesus and i will look back and see that you've been faithful i look ahead [Music] you are jesus [Music] can we just praise him one more time if he's been faithful if he's able to thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the breath of heaven the spirit that gives life [Music] open up our eyes [Music] holy breath of god breathe on us [Music] [Applause] come and move today [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] breathe holy breath of god [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] breathe on us [Applause] [Music] breathe on earth [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] away [Music] again [Applause] holy bread [Music] breathe on us come and breathe [Applause] breathe on us holy breath of [Music] breathe god it breathe on us breathe us back to life breathe us breathe on us fresh holy breath of god [Music] breathe on us breathe on us come breathe us back to life [Music] [Music] eternity in your hand you spoke the earth [Music] you stood before my failure carried the cross for my shame [Music] every voice what can i say and what can i to do this [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] me so what can i say [Music] [Applause] and what can i do [Music] for this [Music] so what can i say [Applause] what can i do [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] in [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] do you surrender [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] we're gonna make your praises we're gonna make your craziest [Applause] is [Music] shout out to god [Music] let's give guys some praise and lift his name up [Music] [Applause] lord you defeated the enemy at the cross once and for all and we have the privilege of coming together as believers and celebrating your victory and we lift your name up today jesus we don't lift our own name up we lift your name up your name is above every other name and we rejoice in your victory today in jesus name amen church i want to invite you to get your communion elements at this time if you're watching with us online grab whatever you can whatever you have nearby [Music] it's not as much about what you have as it is about the faith that you have in the power of the cross studying my word this week i was reminded of first corinthians 11. it's really interesting book of the bible the apostle paul is talking to the church of corinth and it's really a very correcting letter that he sends to the church there's a lot of things that the church in corinth needed to grow in and so in first corinthians he's talking to the church about something that they need to grow in and one of them happens to be communion and it's it's really fascinating he begins to talk to them about the significance of communion and how many of them were taking communion with the wrong attitude and with the wrong heart and really they took it he uses the phrase in an unworthy manner and he talked about how because some of them didn't have a right heart or a right attitude that there were many among them who were wic who were weak who were sick and some had even fallen asleep he had said in the you might be thinking what's the what's the principle what is he trying to communicate the reality is this it's not about going through the motions communion is sacred communion is holy communion is everlasting the lord's table it's something that we will do forever celebrating what jesus has done for us and i share this with you in all sincerity if it's if it's going through the motions for you you're better off not participating the bible talks about having it with a right heart and with a right attitude and taking communion in a worthy manner and the reality is this we're not worthy on our own we can only become worthy because of jesus christ what makes it a worthy manner is that we do it by faith by faith as christians we come together we get the bread we get the cup it's not it's not about what we have i remember i talked to someone at fort walton he's a fireman he was on duty he was watching online he said i had cheetos and water it's all i had but i had communion with you guys and i said i said 100 you did you had it by faith and this bread is a picture of jesus's body and jesus did this with the disciples he told him whenever you get together and you eat of this bread remember my body the body that was broken for you and for me the body that he chose to give up so that we could be healthy and whole and we quote the prophet all the time that by his stripes we are healed by his stripes we are made whole and i believe that god doesn't want us to be weak that god doesn't desire for us to be sick that god desires as jesus said for us to have life and life more abundantly and so as we raise our bread towards heaven we do it by faith and i speak healing over your people lord those who are tired jesus said come to me you who are weary you who are burdened and i will give you rest as we partake of this bread may we have rest in our body and in our mind because of jesus let's partake together the second layer is the cup it's a picture of the blood of jesus christ that was poured out for you and for me the blood of jesus christ that takes away our sins the blood of jesus christ that makes us worthy before the lord not because of our actions you didn't earn it i didn't earn it we couldn't achieve it we could only receive what jesus has done for us and so as we lift our cup we do it by faith [Music] knowing that heaven is our future and jesus is with us forever not because of us but because of you jesus and may this cup be a reminder of your blood that you poured out for us so that we could be free forevermore in jesus name let's drink together church lord i thank you that the enemy's been defeated once and for all and that we can rest in your victory we can shout we can praise we can get excited we can lift your name up because you were victorious and praise be to god first corinthians 15 who always gives us the victory in jesus christ you share your victory with your church and we rejoice in that in jesus name amen and amen can we give god some praise today amen amen hey church i'm excited to be with you this morning why don't you make sure that everyone feels welcome in the house of god today before you begin to take your seats if you're watching us online welcome to church this morning excited to be with you this labor day weekend you want to get ahead go ahead and open up your bibles to judges 14. i'll be bringing the word in a moment as everyone begins to take their seat it's at this time in our service we're going to continue to worship the lord with our tithes and offerings as well as our connect card and so i want to ask you to begin to fill that out at this time you can give your ties and offerings as well as felt your connect card in service there are paper copies on the floor seating if you want to grab that put in the boxes at the end of service or you can do everything digitally online i appreciate you giving faithfully of your tithes and offerings as the lord asks of you and we thank you as a church for filling out your connect card and staying connected with us so that we can pray with you for you and if there's any next steps that you need to take in your journey with christ or in your journey with our church we want to help you along the way because we're the church and we're here to reach people and build lives it's what jesus has called us to do i'm going to prayer of our tithes and offerings real quick and then i'm going to continue our sermon series lord i thank you thank you for everything that we have that it comes from you and even as we rest this labor day weekend may we remember that we rest because you taught us how to rest lord it's you who made everything it's you who gives everything and it's you who designed us to live at rest and to live at peace and lord it's our joy to bring back to you what's rightfully yours we give you our increase we give you the first 10 it's what you asked for it's what you're worthy of actually you're worthy of so much more but we thank you lord for all that we have that it comes from you in jesus name bless your people amen and amen hey church do me a favor put your eyes on the screen and i'll continue our sermon series in one moment hey church join us for services on september 11th and 12th for special guest lisa turquist lisa is a mother of five and also the president of proverbs 31 ministries she's the new york times best-selling author of uninvited the best yes made to crave and unglued it's going to be an amazing weekend as she brings the message to all of our campuses so make sure you invite a friend [Music] a legacy is not built overnight it takes hard work day in and day out [Music] it takes discipline diligence direction and even discernment our work here is to lead the way for the next generation to set them up for success to leave a legacy let's put our hands together welcome our online audience as well as our crestview and four walton beach campuses excited to be with you this weekend as we close out our sermon series legacy set me up for success if you want to go ahead and open up your bibles to judges chapter 14 that's where we'll be diving into today i want to give two quick announcements before we dive into the word number one was talking to churches that we're in relationship with in louisiana specifically steve robinson and church of the king who are close friends of ours in the mandeville new orleans baton rouge area and they just wanted us to share with you how thankful they are church for all of you who not only prayed but also stepped up and gave of support we were able to provide meals bottled water resources to help that area get back on their feet after the hurricane came through and i just want to thank you church for the heart that you have not just to talk about jesus but to be the hands and feet of jesus in our world and it's such an incredible privilege that we have to step up and be a blessing to people who are in need as the scripture says it's better to give than to receive amen second i want to give you an update on pastor steve for those of you who have been praying with us he tested negative for covet praise god he's doing better and so we're so thankful for your prayers uh just as a as a son as family i'm so thankful and appreciative for that just to let you know those of you who are continuing to pray for him he's got a little bit of those lingering symptoms those of you who have had coven may know what i'm talking about where you get this tiredness and you're just not at 100 strength and so since i'm talking about discretion this week and how discretion will preserve you he wanted to take another week to get fully rested so that when he comes back he's 100 which i think is wise and using discretion and so it kind of dovetails right into the message today as we've talked about diligence and the hand of the diligent will bear rule we've talked about discipline and how whom the lord loves he disciplines he loves us so he will discipline us and last week i talked to you about direction how god has a destiny for each and every one of us god has a legacy for you and for me today we're going to talk about discretion proverbs 2 verse 11. bring it up on the screen please discretion will preserve you the bible doesn't say it might the bible doesn't say maybe the bible says that it will preserve you we need to use discretion in the way that we live understanding will keep you if discretion will preserve you understanding will keep you i share this with you this principle with you because we're going to look at the life of a man by the name of samson today and his story is found in judges chapters 13 through 16 it's four chapters if you want to read and study during the week obviously i can't cover all of it so i'm going to high high point some of the moments in his life but sampson was a miracle child with a miracle calling samson was one of the judges of israel one of the rulers of israel for those of you that want to study in your word the book of judges is full of men and women that god would raise up during a period of time to help deliver israel when they were in tough times to deliver them from their enemies and they would rule and they would lead and they're referred to as judges in the bible now samson was one of those judges he's found he's found in the middle of the book of judges and he's really known for his incredible strength that god gave to him he was almost like the original hulk if you will before marvel came up with a character there was samson god had given him incredible strength to defeat the enemies of israel the thing about samson that you have to understand though is he was in a special covenant with god before he was born god came to his parents and he said to them he will be set apart from me he's going to be a nazirite and i want him to have a nazirite vow and to live the life of a nazarite for those of you that like to study in the scripture during the week of what that is i believe it's found in numbers chapter six it was a vow you would make for a period of time and really this vow included three things the first is that you wouldn't touch anything that was dead or unclean the second is that you wouldn't eat or drink anything that came from the vine the third is that you wouldn't cut your hair that you wouldn't take a razor to your head you would let your hair grow out it was a special vow that people would take for a period of time to consecrate themselves to the lord god said to samson's parents before he was born this is his life he is consecrated and set apart for his life i want him to walk in this i want him to operate in this and his parents ask god god would you help us to raise him wisely would you help us to raise him in your ways now his parents they did what they could to raise him up in god's ways they taught him the ways of the lord they encouraged him to live in the ways of the lord but as every parent knows there comes a point where every child has to step out on their own and make their own choices and samson unfortunately didn't always make the wise choices he didn't often use discretion and because he didn't use discretion he would make choices that would hurt himself and i want to share this proverb with you it's such a powerful proverb for you and for me it's proverbs 14 verse 1 if you can bring it on the screen the wise woman the wise man builds their house we build our house on the firm foundation that is jesus christ but the foolish person tears their house down with their own hands sometimes church i want to be honest with you we give the devil way too much credit we make the mistake of thinking that he has authority he doesn't the bible tells us that all authority has been given unto jesus he overcame death hell in the grave all authority is given unto him so the devil has no authority we make the mistake of thinking that the devil has so much power he doesn't he has limited power even in times of your life even in times of your life where you come against attack god restrains him when god puts up a hedge of protection the enemy can't touch you one of my favorite things is in the book of job some people have issues that god has a conversation with the devil i don't i love it god keeps the devil in check he says you can not touch job and if god says you can't you can't he doesn't have the power that we sometimes think he has the reality is this there's only one person that can keep you from what god has for you it's you it's me and the choices that we make in our life samson didn't use discretion and because of that samson found pain in his future where god would have had him prosper now the bible tells us in the story of samson that the spirit of the lord would come on samson that that god would be with him that god really god would give him his strength his strength wasn't in himself his strength was in the lord and that the spirit of the lord would come on him and he would do these mighty feats he would do these mighty things and i want you to know that the same spirit that came on samson that was with samson is the same spirit that's with you and me the same spirit the same power the scripture says that raised christ from the dead lives in you and lives in me it says in isaiah 11 verse 2 speaking of jesus but i want you to understand this this same spirit that lived in jesus lives in you and me the spirit of the lord will rest on him the spirit of wisdom and of understanding the spirit of counsel and of might the spirit of knowledge and fear of the lord we need the holy spirit in our life giving us rest giving us wisdom giving us understanding giving us counsel giving us might giving us knowledge we need the holy spirit of god in our life as we're saying during worship we need god to breathe on us we need god to breathe things in our life it's not about what we can conjure up on our own but what god can do for us and the holy spirit speaks to you he speaks to me the question is are we listening and are we available and are we aware i gave you some fill in the blanks i want to share them with you and then i'm going to cover them the holy spirit reveals by what i sense by what i know about what i see science if you if you read online there are different studies and what they try to do is they try to take these principles that are found in the word and i'll show you these in the scriptures and they try to uh come up with explanations for them but they try to remove god from it so they'll call it intuition they'll talk about a gut feeling that you might have the reality is this there's going to be times in your life where the holy spirit will check you you'll be going into a conversation maybe into a relationship maybe into a business deal and god will check you young people you might be about to go out with some friends and you'll feel this check inside of you and you'll feel that you you'll feel this check where it's like i don't know if i should go that's god warning us and then there's times where god will give us a peace and he will give us a rest we'll sense that god is communicating something to us it's not going to be clear loud audible voice from the heavens like we all wish i wish i do i really wish it was that easy but god keeps me attentive with whispers it's what we sense there's what we know when i say what i know or what we know it's what the holy spirit reveals to us john 14 26 if you can bring it up on the screen jesus said this but the advocate the holy spirit whom the father will send in my name he will teach you all things and he will remind you of everything i've said he'll guide you into all truth he'll bring things to your remembrance there's going to be times where you're going to know what to do not because you know what to do but because god is reminding you what you already know your whole life i love this i heard this quote i can't remember who said it was a powerful quote by preacher he said so many christians want to learn new things when in reality they just need to be reminded of what god's already taught them and it's like we know we know but do we walk in what we know and the holy spirit's there to remind us of what god has already shown us what god has already revealed to us he will remind us we might be going into a situation about to make a decision and the holy spirit will remind us hey i remember this person who lived like that who chose to do that and this is what happened to them are you sure you want to do it or maybe do you want to go a different route that's god giving us wisdom and then there's what we see wisdom is seeing the end from the beginning being able to see into the future things that might take place things that will take place it won't show up on the stream but paul said this in ephesians 1 verse 18 he was praying for the people at ephesus he said i pray that god would open up the eyes of your understanding that they would be enlightened and he begins to list all these things that he desired for the church to know for the desire for the church to understand god doesn't just want us to see with natural eyes he wants to open up our spiritual eyes to be able to discern things that are going on in the world around us when we can discern what's taking place around us we can then use discretion so that we can be preserved point number one unclean tendencies i'm going to show you three things in the life of samson that took place that in principle applied to us today it's really interesting remember he wasn't supposed to touch anything that was dead he wasn't supposed to eat or drink anything from the vine and he wasn't supposed to cut his hair i'm going to tie each of those three things into a point where we might struggle in an area of our life number one is unclean hebrews 12 verse 1 says something so cool it says therefore since we are surrounded by such a cloud of witnesses the earth is watching heaven is watching everyone is watching us let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us each and every one of us have different sins that we're more susceptible to than others and it looks different for her than him than her than me it's different for each and every one of us we need to be aware of areas of our life where we're more susceptible or or as the hymn would say prone to wander we're all prone to wander the question is where are we prone to wander off to because so many of us will wander off in an area that we shouldn't go and we know we shouldn't go and we're susceptible to it a lot of times it's generational strongholds it's things you know we also i i don't want to become my father i don't want to become my granddad but then we find ourselves we become our parents and a lot of times it's the good things and the bad things you look down a lot of things that there's a lot of sins that can be handed down that have to be overcome i remember my mom told this to me and victor when we were young i church i did not fully understand or appreciate the value of what she was sharing with me when she did she said to me stephen i need you to understand victor i need you to understand that on my side of the family there have been generational strongholds of alcoholism and drug abuse now praise be to god my mom broke that and my mom walks free whole and is pure before the lord and i'm so thankful for the legacy that my mom has set and set me and victor up for success but she also made us aware that there are things that we could be more susceptible to as young men so that we didn't unknowingly walk into a trap or an area that would harm us we all have different areas that we're more susceptible to than others we need to be aware and we need to make sure that we stay far far away from those things samson he had he had a desire he had a desire to marry a philistine woman now his parents they began to talk to him and they said son son why don't you marry one of the israelite women and i want to be super clear this has nothing to do with race ethnicity or the color of their skin this had to do with the philistines served idols and the israelites served the lord and his parents wanted him to marry a believer in god not to be unequally yoked with an unbeliever i want to be very clear because there are some people who will twist scripture and will say things that are not true are we on the same page okay they said why don't you marry a woman who loves the lord there's so many women in israel who serve god why do you want this philistine woman why do you want this woman who's going to bring trouble and bad influence into your life but man he was determined he wanted to be with her he didn't listen to wise counsel he didn't use discretion and as he goes on the road to go meet this woman the bible tells us that a lion jumps out and attacks him now god was with him and the spirit of the lord was with him and and he tears apart this lion with his bare hands it it's kind of an interesting metaphor so it's a true story but it's amazing the pictures and the metaphors that god gives to us because the bible says the enemy roams around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour it's as if samson looked at the devil and said not today satan he tears that lion apart with his hands now god saved him god preserved him should have been a warning for him he probably wasn't going down the right path but the bible tells us in judges 14 verse 8 some time later he went back to marry her why'd you go back samson if there's something that god has saved you from don't go back it says that sometimes later he went back but he didn't just go back it says that on his way back he turned aside to look at the lion's carcass he went out of his way it says he turned aside he went out of his way to maybe to go admire what he had overcome maybe there's a little bit of pride in him be like be like someone who overcame alcoholism saying you know what i'm going to go to a bar at 11 o'clock at night just to prove that i don't have to drink that's dumb there's no way to sugarcoat that he says he says i i'm gonna go check this out now remember he's not supposed to touch anything that's dead he sees in the carcass of the lion a beehive and he sees honey and it looks sweet and it's a beautiful picture sin looks sweet the problem is sin stings and the bible talks about how the pleasures of sin might be for a season but in the end it leads to pain in the end it leads to death in areas of our life and we think in the moment that we're sinning oh it's all good because it feels so good but the reality is we don't understand the full consequences of our actions he takes this honey he touches it bible goes out of his way that he scooped out the honey with his hands and he ate and not only did he ate he rejoined his parents and he gave it to them and they ate it but he didn't tell them that it was unclean not only was he sinning he was bringing others into his own actions we need to be aware in our life that we need to stay away from things that are unclean at the same time we don't need to bring others into areas where we're susceptible as well if there's an area of your life that you know that you're susceptible to that you know that's a struggle for you because what's what's a struggle for you might not be a struggle for me and vice versa the bible tells us isaiah 52 11 i love how the prophet says it run run run away depart depart go out from there get away touch no unclean thing don't look at it samson don't inspect it samson don't go near you don't have to go near the deep end and dip your toes into it run run run away come out from it and be pure come away from what you know is unclean you who carry the articles of the lord's house or you who have a holy calling on your life and as believers we all have a holy calling on our life now you might be hearing this point you might be saying well stephen i want to shoot straight with you i've i've made a lot of mistakes in my life i've had a lot of tendencies that weren't clean i done messed up here's the beauty of jesus first john 1 9 if we confess our sins he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and will purify us from all unrighteousness jesus will make you clean and then jesus by the power of the holy spirit will help you to stay clean as you walk in your relationship with god point number two unnecessary liberties unnecessary liberties now this one is probably the most interesting of the three because we know that a razor comes to his head we know that he touches an unclean animal or a dead animal what is not clear is how he violates and drinks or eats of the vine but there are some clues in the scripture that would lead us to believe that it may have taken place in judges 14 verse 10. it says now his father went down to see the woman and their samson held a feast as was customary for young men now the israelite wedding feast that they would have there would have been um drink from the vine there would have been food from the vine just as jesus turned water to wine the first miracle many people's favorite it um that was a joke four of you got it all right go that's fine now we don't know for sure that he drank or ate from the vine but it's most likely that it took place here also when he talks to delilah who i'll tell you about later and she says what's the secret to your strength he says no razor has ever touched my head he doesn't mention not touching anything unclean he doesn't mention not eating or drinking from the vine implying that he's acknowledging that he's done those things it says that he had a feast and at this feast he begins to do things that are just they're just not wise he makes a bet with 30 guys that are there and tells them hey i'm going to tell you this riddle and if if you can't guess the answer you have to give each of you has to give me a garment of clothing but if you guess it right i'll give each of you a garment of clothing and he makes this bed and then they say to his wife who he's going to marry if you don't tell us we're going to kill you and your family and burn your house down so samson she begs samson for the answer he tells her she tells them and samson loses the bet samson gets really mad he goes and kills i think like 30 people takes their clothes and gives it to pay the bet now i'm not saying whether he was eating or drinking from the vine but i'll tell you this he definitely didn't have self-control of his emotions and he definitely didn't operate in a healthy way and i want to share this key thought with you a lack of self-control will lead to a life out of control there was another time he wanted to take revenge against his enemies i don't even know how a person could think of this he captures like 300 foxes i think the scripture says ties their tails together lights them on fire and sends them through the enemy's crops so that they can burn up all their resources how you could even think of an idea like that i don't know he had some out of control emotions sometimes in our life there's going to be liberties that we might take that can get out of control and i use the word liberties because they're not always sinful sometimes they're lawful but they're not beneficial let me show it to you in the bible 1st corinthians 10 verse 23 paul wrote this to the church at corinth i have the right to do anything you say but not everything is beneficial paul would tell them i have the right to do anything you say but not everything is constructive no one should seek their own good but the good of others it's not just what can i do it's what has god called me to do i want to share this with you this is aggressive but this is the truth i don't care what the world says what the government says what people around you say what god says is all that matters i don't care if the world says it's your body you can do whatever you want no god says that we were bought with a price and that we're temples of the holy spirit and we're to honor god with our bodies and so it doesn't matter what liberty the world might take i love the picture he uses we are slaves of jesus christ and we a lot of christians don't like to hear this but i just want to tell you the truth we gave up our rights to follow christ and we wanted to i gave up the right to do whatever i want to be able to follow jesus christ and to serve him by the way that i live to present romans 12 to present our bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto him there are things that people in the world do that i don't do why because i want to represent jesus well and there's going to be times where the holy spirit is going to speak to you about things in your life that you might not have self-control in they might be perfectly fine things and i'll give you an example in my own life where god spoke to me they might be they're not sinful but maybe just maybe they're not beneficial maybe just maybe you don't have self-control in that area of your life and so to preserve you god's to ask you to remove it from your life i remember years ago for long beach you've heard this crusty i don't think you have or destined uh during our 21-day fast i really felt god speak to me and impress something upon my heart i used to be confession church i used to be a hardcore video gamer i just got to tell it like it is can i get any witnesses brothers and sisters in the room thank you i got a few of y'all god be praised most of them are watching online because they love to be at screens that just came to me that was good i'm gonna use that joke next service here's the reality i had a problem i played way too much i didn't have self-control my wife before we had her two kids she was the assistant manager over at polo across the street and she would have to work three overnight shifts a month and she would work two uh close shifts to like 11 o'clock at night or midnight and she'd be like are you okay are you going to be all right on your own if i'm not here and i was like baby i'm not alone i've got a six pack of red bull grimaldi's pizza in my xbox i'm not alone don't worry about me i had a problem i played way too much video games it was not sinful it was lawful but it wasn't constructive and it wasn't beneficial for me because i didn't have self-control some people they do and i'm happy for you but i don't and so i remember god during the fast it was like day 17 or 18. and i remember god impressed upon my heart stephen you throw this away like like throw it away remember i went and got one of my lawn trash bags from the garage that i used when i mowed my lawn and i took it upstairs and i got my xbox i got my controllers i got my headset i got everything and i threw it in the trash and i went and took it to the road and my wife was like she's like why are you throwing it away and i remember telling her baby if i keep it here i'll go back i can't i know me i might be good for three months i might be good for six months but i'll go back god told me to throw it away and i remember she she looked at me and she's like and it ties really in with our communion it's it's it's the faith behind it shoots me she's like well why don't you go trade it in at gamestop and at least get some money back i was like no no i don't mean to get religious on you baby but this is my offering it's my offering and i'm not giving it i'm giving it to the lord i'm not giving it to you i'm not giving it to anyone else i'm giving it to the lord i'm leaving this by the road i'm throwing it away i am leaving it behind just like elisha killed the oxen and burned the cart he said i'm never going back now i don't put my conviction on other people if you play video games that's awesome that's cool i don't have a problem with i just don't have self-control so i can't play video games but i've learned years coming forward the time that i've saved and how i've been able to reapply that time to family to my walk with god in other areas that god has called me to grow in and i look back and in the moment it was painful but now i have no regrets and i just share that with you for this reason if there's something god is calling you to set to decide he's calling you to set it aside by faith because there's something else that he has for you in the future that he desires for you and if you don't set this aside you won't walk in this that he has for you indiscretion ties in beautifully with last week's message on direction because so many people don't end up in the direction god has for them not because of god but because they didn't have discretion to make choices that would preserve them point number three unwise relationships unwise relationships so after all this stuff goes down with samson and his philistine wife they gave her to a another companion that was at the wedding and he was frustrated about that so he's single again and he runs into this girl called delilah now there's trouble and then there's trouble trouble delilah would fall into the trouble trouble category she lived a promiscuous lifestyle and she was one of the philistine women and the philistines tried to use her to take advantage of samson it says in judges 16 verse 5 that the rulers of the philistines went to her and they said this i want you to catch this those of you the highlight in your word see if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength sometimes the enemy will bring relationships in our life that are designed to lure us from what god has from us and then they make the statement they said once we learn the secret we'll then learn how to overpower him so that we can tie him up and subdue him the enemy will send unhealthy relationships across your path to try to overpower you tie you up and subdue you and keep you from what god has for you first corinthians again chapter 15 verse 33 do not be misled bad company corrupts good character snap out of it come to our senses stop sinning we know the relationships in our life that aren't healthy we know the relationships in our life that are not constructive now eat now hear me i won't be so clear we all have people in our life that we witness to we all have unbelievers in our life that we want to lead to jesus christ but the proximity that people get to us the closeness that people have in relationship with us we need to be very wise we need to be very discreet and to use discretion around that because if there are people that don't serve the lord if there are people who are bad company and we let them get close if we let them influence if we let them counsel it will corrupt the bible says do not be misled don't believe a lie young people hear me i want to set you up for success your friends they will help set and define the course of your future who you surround yourself with is critical we want to surround ourselves with men and women that love the lord and love us and build us up not tear us down so this girl delilah she begins to lure samson and she says samson tell me the power of your strength i need if if this is real you have to let me know if this is really love samson you've got to tell me the power of your strength or it's not love i don't know if it went down quite like that but this is how it's steven's version of the story and he told her if you tie me up with ropes it'll it'll i'll be powerless she does it he gets up he breaks the rose now that should have been a huge red flag but samson's a different kind of stupid i just gotta tell it like it is like like sometimes when we go down a path that's not right like we can you look back at your own life i look back at my life and we've all done some dumb stuff like that should have been a huge red flag but she goes sampson i knew you didn't love me i knew you were lying to me and she wore him down all of us can be worn down that's why we need to be wise about who we allow to speak into our life he tells her eventually well no razors ever touched my head i'm a nazarite she realizes he told the truth and as he fell asleep in her lap she cut his hair off he wakes up probably the most scary scripture in the whole bible judges 16 20. then she called samson the philistines are upon you he awoke from his sleep and he thought i'll go out as before i'll go out i'm strong i'm sampson i'm the original hulk i'll shake free but he didn't realize that the lord had left him he didn't realize that the spirit of the lord had departed from him just as david would say in psalms lord take not your holy spirit from me he didn't realize that he had gone too far the philistines capture him they grab him the bible says that they gouge out his eyes they keep him as a prisoner and they bring him to their parties to celebrate him as a human trophy they parade him out as a defeated enemy now while this story is tragic there's also something beautiful about this story and it shows us the redemptive love of our lord you see god always leaves a remnant for redemption remember there were three things he couldn't touch anything unclean he couldn't eat or drink from the vine he couldn't cut his hair now you can't go back and untouch something you can't go back and un-drink or eat something but your hair can grow back and god always leaves a remnant for redemption in our life samson his hair began to grow back and one day they brought him into a party at a giant structure thousands upon thousands of philistines were there celebrating their falsehood god their idols and he says in judges 16 28 sovereign lord remember me one more time give me strength one more time and it says the spirit of the lord came on him and he pushed out the structural beams in the entire structure collapsed and in this last act he killed more of the enemies of israel than he did in his entire life combined god always leaves a remnant for redemption for you and for me as well luke 23 i want to share this story with you it's been on my heart all week jesus is on the cross and it says that there's two robbers two thieves on his left and on his right and that he's on this cross one of the robbers begins to mock him one of the robbers begins to make fun of him he says well aren't you jesus can't you get yourself off the cross can't you get us off the cross are she supposed to be jesus [Music] the other robber tells him to stop he says stop it man we deserve to be here he acknowledges their lack of discretion is what got them there he said we deserve to be here we are thieves we know what we did we deserve to be here this man he did nothing wrong remember if we confess our sins he's faithful just to forgive our sins he's confessing a sin right there in front of jesus i was wrong i may not have used discretion and that got me here but this one thief he used discretion in the greatest moment of his life and it got him from where he was to eternity with jesus christ he looks at jesus and he makes this statement so powerful because it's by faith when you enter into your kingdom will you remember me he's saying i believe you are who you say you are i've sinned that i deserve to be here but you didn't and you don't deserve to be here and i believe you are who you say you are and will you remember me and jesus looks at him and he says you'll be with me in paradise and i want you to hear this today church those of you that are watching online at our campuses or in the room i don't care where you've been i don't care what you've done i don't care what sins been in your life what's been done to you i don't care how far gone you think you are your sin is not greater than the redemptive mercy of the cross of jesus christ in all it takes all it takes [Music] is a statement of faith and jesus will welcome you into relationship with him and then he will begin to change you from the inside out if you don't have a relationship with jesus christ i want to help you we want to help you in that journey today and so what we're going to do is we're going to pray together at all of our campuses online all throughout we're going to all pray together out loud so that you don't feel singled out because every one of us has had this moment but i want to share this with you there is no safer place than the church of jesus christ you can come and you can let people know that you gave your life to jesus we will celebrate with you and for you you don't have to hide it you should be proud of it in our prayer teams they're going to be at the altar at the end of service and we want to pray with you we have 400 something small groups we would love to connect with you we want to help you in your relationship with jesus let's pray please pray with me lord jesus i need you i need you as my savior i need you as my lord you died for my sin and you rose again because you were sinless i give my life to you i give my heart to you my eternity is with you in jesus name amen and amen let's celebrate those at every one of our campuses who gave their life to jesus hey hear me if you're watching online please fill out a connect card and let us know you gave your life to christ we want to pray with you we want to pray for you our prayer teams will be at the altar if you want to stand at this time i want to bless you before we dismiss lord jesus bless your church go before them preserve them speak to them by your holy spirit so that we can walk in your word all the days of our life i bless them i blessed my blessing in jesus name amen and amen looking forward to having lisa turkish with us next week bless church [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Destiny Worship Center

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Id: YecC2wpmsn0

Length: 68min 40sec (4120 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 05 2021