Wednesday 6:30 PM

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] wait well hello church family good evening it is so good we're going to be worshiping together tonight we're going to be hearing a message from pastor skip i hope you've got your bibles nearby we're going to be in the book of judges well so many of you are already aware that here in new mexico our governor has tightened thinged things up a bit and so for the month of november we're going to be doing church exclusively online which means that we are together even though we're apart we haven't forgotten about your kids we're going to have kids services on the weekends as well you'll be able to join us at live.calvarynm.church on youtube or facebook we also want to let you know that we are restarting something we started earlier this year called the kindness campaign where we're having our staff make phone calls to see how people are doing we're also taking collections so if you want to drop off toiletries or food non-perishable foods for families who are sick and in need in albuquerque we want to distribute that to those families you can drop those off throughout the week at our west side or our osuna campus during regular business hours and next week is thanksgiving and we are excited to celebrate obviously thanksgiving has to look a little bit different this year but next wednesday night we're going to do something special we're going to hear a special message on thanksgiving and we are also going to show what we are grateful for here's the deal we would love to know what you are grateful for usually we have kids and families march around with banners of things that they're thankful for here in the sanctuary well this year we want you to make a banner to do a craft to take a picture and to tag us next wednesday at calvaryabq on social media so that we can repost those and celebrate thanksgiving together and then we can all tune in at 6 30 next wednesday mountain standard time but let's right now worship god together all right my soul remember this he took my sin and he buried it no longer who live now jesus lives in me for i was dead in sin but i woke up to see the light [Applause] [Music] i know i won't post but in the cross that saved my soul all else is lost the grip of fear has no hold on me so where oh death where is your sting no longer now jesus lives in me foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] this for your glory oh all of this for your glory that's why we sing [Music] tonight [Music] [Applause] [Music] now jesus lives in me for i was dead in sin but i woke up to see the light [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] yes [Music] [Music] worthy of every song we could ever sing [Music] worthy of all the praise we could ever bring he's worthy of every birth we could ever breathe we live for you we sing jesus jesus the name above every other name [Music] jesus the only one could ever save he's worthy of every breath we could ever breathe we live for you only for you [Music] show me who you are it's worthy of every song we could ever sing is worthy of all the praise we could ever bring worthy of every breath we could ever breathe we live for you [Music] jesus the only one who could ever say he's worthy of every breath we could ever breathe [Music] there is none beside you open [Music] who you are [Music] there is [Music] who you are [Music] me [Music] there is no one like you [Music] [Music] oh [Music] and i will [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] in show me who you are [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] there's no place there's no place i would rather be no place i would rather be no place i would have to be than hearing your love hearing your love no place i would rather be no place i would rather be no place i would rather be than hearing your love you're in your love so set a fire down in my soul that i can't contain [Music] i can't contain that i can't control i want more of you god i want more of you god so there's no place there's no place i would rather be there's no place i would rather be there's no place i would rather be than hearing your love hearing there's no place i would have to be there's no place i would no place to be [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] but [Music] i god [Music] no place i would [Music] there's no place i would rather be [Music] is [Music] [Music] i can't control i want more of you god i want more of you god to set a fire down in my soul i can't contain i can't control i want more of you god i want more of you god [Music] jesus let the king of my heart be the mountain where i run the fountain i drink from always my song let the king of my heart be the shadow where i hide the ransom for my life always my song you are good you're good you are good you're good [Music] oh you are good you're good oh you are good you're good let the king of my heart be the wind inside my sails the anchor in the waves always song let the king of my heart be the fire inside my veins the echo of my days always my song let the king of my heart beat the fire inside my vase and the earth is [Music] [Music] yes you are [Music] you're [Music] you're [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] you're good god you are good you're good [Music] you're never gonna you're never gonna let me down [Music] good thank you father we don't want to do this without you jesus [Music] we lay it all down god it's all yours [Music] jesus lord to love you lord to please you i am weak [Music] to serve you i am weak [Music] and without you i am helpless without you i am failing without you i am nothing but me without you i am worthless without you i am buried without you i am nothing but me [Music] i am [Music] i need you god i need you oh we need you jesus lord to love you lord to please you i am weak lord to serve you i am weak and without you i am helpless without you i am failing without you i am nothing but me [Music] and without you i am worthless without you i am buried without you i am nothing but me so i run to you with all i am i need you i need you so i come to you [Music] god i need you [Music] we are nothing without jesus [Music] [Applause] i am [Music] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] jesus oh jesus [Music] [Music] jesus oh jesus [Music] yes so i run to you with [Music] so i come to you with open hands i need you yes i need you we love you jesus we give it all to you we don't want to do it without you in jesus name amen thank you so much for worshiping with us we invite you now to listen to the message [Music] samson of the sun he should have shown brightly you know the sun is a tremendous sense of energy in the last several years we have tapped into what's called solar energy you can take a solar cell pointed at the sun there's an abundance of sunshine in the southwest it can charge up that solar cell it can store energy and it can be used samson was like a solar cell on a cloudy day he could have had so much more spiritual energy to conquer the flesh to become a leader of israel at a longer in a better longer capacity than he did but he used up all of that energy from the sun in the wrong direction so he's like a solar cell on a cloudy day he could have been so much more now god used him and he goes down in history as one of the most famous people ever but you know how poorly he ends he starts well he ends very poorly well welcome to our midweek service in the book of judges it's a very different kind of a service tonight usually we gather here on wednesday nights and we have a time of going through the word together we're still doing that we know that you're joining us online principally either on youtube or on facebook or at our church website or you're listening by radio or you're on your mobile device but we want to welcome you to church we're glad that you joined us i am here at our uh wonderful campus on a sooner road in albuquerque but um i'm really the only one in the sanctuary except for just a few people who are on our worship team by the way they did a great job tonight thank you guys for that beautiful time of worship we have some people also gathered outside in the amphitheater who are watching in the screen and um we i want to welcome everyone no matter what means you are joining us we have been asked by our local state government not to meet but to go online for the next couple weeks now we've been through this before where we were told to flatten the curb which we did and then we continued to be in lockdown which we were and then eventually we got back together which we did and now we're asked to not get back together so we're complying with that they said it would be to the end of the month november 30th and then we could have a way to get back together so we are planning that we don't know if they're going to move the goal post again we wouldn't be surprised if they did we feel like the approach has been haphazard inconsistent and not always data driven or depends on which set of stats you want to look at so we are planning after the 30th in some capacity to be gathered back together again no matter what comes or what we hear but we feel we can do it and we've proven that we can do it safely and we're going to march on that according to what we believe the scripture says so we'll give you more details in the next couple weeks as time goes on but we are in the book of judges and we're studying a guy by the name of samson now get this about one-fifth of the entire book of judges centers around this very unique and flawed individual named samson chapter 13 of judges 14 15 and 16 talk about this very unusual judge who was consecrated by his parents from a a baby in fact it was really a miraculous sort of an announcement about his birth his parents dedicated him to the lord but then things got weird in his life because of his priorities he was dedicated to god as i mentioned from an early age but sampson had a weakness in fact i call him a he-man with a she-weakness he was a very strong individual he was like the superman of the old testament a superman in muscles but a super wimp in morals he was very compromised when it came to the flesh now one of the things that shows us is that you might have all the natural advantages in life and spiritual privilege in life samson had both of those and still it is not a guarantee of spiritual success god could set you up for success and yet you could be a failure by your own choices that's what we see when we look at samuel a little bit of a recap because we began uh last time we looked at part of his life in chapter 13. in chapter 13 we discovered that he was to be a nazarite from his childhood his whole life a lifelong nazirite refresh your memory uh the book of numbers chapter 6 talks about the vow of a nazarite that a man or a woman could take a vow a vow of consecration to the lord and it was something voluntary didn't have to do it but if you just said lord i want my life to be spent solely for your purpose and your glory i want to hear your voice i give myself to you that would be a very special vow called the vow of nazarite a vow of separation whereby a few things were mandated number one you couldn't touch wine or the fruit of the vine you couldn't be in vineyards you couldn't eat grapes you could eat raisins you couldn't drink wine wine was a symbol of joy so the idea is i'm not going to derive my joy from natural means i'm going to derive my joy from supernatural means my joy is coming from the lord not from a bottle of wine second he could not cut his hair during the time of the vow and when the vow was done he would shave his hair it would be burned with a sacrifice that was a sign of voluntary humiliation and then third he couldn't be around a corpse couldn't touch a dead body and because of defilement so even if his parents died he couldn't touch it or be a part of the funeral set up which would be very very difficult choice to make now according to the jewish mishnah a nazirite vow could last about a hundred days typically however it was about a month period of time very rarely do we have individuals who are lifelong nazarites samson is one of them i think john the baptist is another some people try to say jesus is a third but push that aside we definitely know samson was dedicated from his youth so that's that's where we left it off in chapter 13 in chapter 14 it begins our story here now samson went down to timna this is down in the southwestern part of judah of the nation of israel and he saw a woman now just keep that in mind because this is sort of his typical mo he sees a woman and it's like you know it's like i'm all about what she's about you know he is he is a man who is driven by lust this is lust at first sight he sees a woman he likes the woman he wants the woman he gets the woman there's no restraint with this guy so he sees a woman of the daughters of the philistines so they're not she's not an israelite she is a pagan girl so she does not share the same world view or value system so he went up and told his father and mother saying now listen here's the son coming to dad instead of saying dad i submit myself to your will because that's what we do in israel rather than that he went up and told his father and mother saying i've seen a woman in timna of the daughters of the philistines now therefore get her for me as a wife go get that woman i want her now typically parents did set up the marriage for their children it was an arranged situation parents would meet with other parents boys and girls would tie the knot or make the pledge based upon their parents decision and typically you would pay a bride price the the the male or the male family would pay a dowry of sorts a dowry i've told you before is like alimony in advance in case the husband dumps the wife the father of the bride would have this nest egg paid to him so that he could then give it to her if something happened in that relationship so he says get her for me as a wife now get this these are the first recorded words in the bible that samson ever speaks and it's a command to his parents in a very kind of disrespectful gruff way to satisfy his own fleshly desires first time he speaks this is what he said i like what i see and i want what i want unfortunately a lot of guys a lot of men like samson are driven by the same set of values it's only what they look at and they're attracted by i've seen guys look at girls and go i think i'm in love well how do you don't even know you've never even met her you have a look at her so it's not really love but he is seeing something but the bible says beauty is passing yet a woman who fears the lord shall be praised so we are told yes we make choices to some degree on the outward physical appearance it's what attracts people but if you don't go deeper than that the relationship is obviously very shallow and is doomed for failure it's not going to last so he is driven by that he wants what he wants now listen to his mom and dad this is a very sensible set of parents here then his father and mother said to him is there no woman among the daughters of your brethren or among all my people that you must go and get a wife from the uncircumcised philistines and samson said to his father get her for me for she pleases me well samson's parents knew at least in part the old testament law they would have naturally understood at least in part deuteronomy chapter 7 where god said when you get a husband or a wife for your children make sure that they are children of the lord that they are from the people of god that they are not uh pagan peoples that you will not take them because they're going to draw your children's heart away from the lord so keep in mind manoa and his wife the parents of samson had that miraculous vision of the angel of the lord who said your son is going to be special and they were all excited and they trusted in the lord and they had great dreams of this boy being used of god now he grows up and i just got to say their dreams are dashed when he says there's a pagan girl i want her go get her for me don't give me any lip this boy is not doing well as he's starting out but watch this but verse 4 his father and mother did not know that it was of the lord now that's strange to read it's a weird thing to read that he the lord was seeking an occasion to move against the philistines for at that time the philistines had dominion over israel it's a difficult tax to unravel but i can only explain it this way god did not approve of this marriage this was god's disapproval he had already said that in deuteronomy 7. it's plain it's clear god did not want that to happen but there's a lot of things god does not want to happen that he permits to happen for example the bible says god is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance but i have a question for you do all people repent and go to heaven no god wants them to go to heaven that's his will but they make choices against god's approval but god permits people to make certain choices so yes the lord wanted to move against the philistines the lord wanted to raise up sampson as a judge but samson driven by his lust forces god to overrule samson now here's the principle if you will not let god rule over you god will overrule you now the best thing to do is to let god rule over you do his bidding be his man be his woman be used of god he'll use you in a very powerful way if you let him but if you harden your heart sin against god god can still do what he wants in your life but you're gonna suffer ultimately as god over rules you to get something accomplished that he wants done the bible says even the wrath of man will praise the lord so this is god's sovereignty this is god's providence but this man samson is not following god's heartbeat and it's going to cost him influence it's going to cost him his life he's going to have a very short life and a short ministry and basically end up taking vengeance for personal use though the lord will overrule it and affect his will so samson verse 5 went down to timnah with his father and mother and came to the vineyards of timnah uh-oh what's a nazarite doing in vineyards if you're a nazarite you take a vow no wine no grapes no raisins nothing to do with vineyards or the fruit of the vine he doesn't care he's been separated to god but there's no real consecration of his own life and his own will so he didn't care he has no boundaries he has no restraints now to his surprise a young lion came roaring against him well i guess that would be a surprise wouldn't it you're out walking around picking a few grapes and a lion comes out and attacks you and verse 6 the spirit of the lord came mightily upon him and he tore the lion apart as one would have torn apart a young goat in those days and in that part of the world goats were killed by people in a number of ways one of the ways they could easily do it is simply grab behind legs and pull in opposite directions and literally tear it apart it was a very easy thing to do it's um the muscles give way the fatty tissue gives way the viscera gives way and so it's not an uncommon thing to grab a goat if you want to kill it need it just to pull it by its hind legs and and um its life will be drained out very shortly so in that manner samson was able to defeat the lion probably by pulling one uh hind leg in one hand one in the other and pulling it apart and so he did it like he would kill a young goat though he had nothing in his hand but he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done so they're probably out together he's wandering in the vineyard maybe they're down the road a little bit a lion comes attacks him he kills it and then he meets up with mom and dad i'm telling you this if i kill a lion in a vineyard first thing i'm gonna do is tell my mom and dad can you believe it a lion came after me and i killed it every kid would do that but he's very tight-lipped about it he doesn't say anything at all doesn't brag doesn't want to talk about it he just does it i'm sure he was a little bit shocked at the strength he had he may have looked down at his hands afterward and went wow can you believe i did that how did i do that maybe he's coming to terms with the fact that he has this incredible strength it says the spirit of the lord came upon him mightily he tore the lion apart as one would have torn apart a young goat though he had nothing in his hand he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done now the way the hebrew reads in the text could be rendered like this a lion came to leap upon samson but the holy spirit leaped upon samson or came upon samson is the english translation here the lion wanted to leap upon samson but the spirit of god was leaping upon samson and enabled him to have this strength now i like that rendering i like that wording and i bring it up to your attention because i think there's a principle here no matter what comes at you in life if first the holy spirit comes upon you you can stand up to anything you can stand up to anyone or anything as long as the holy spirit comes on you restrains you works in on and through you you've got his power the power of the spirit of god then verse 7 he went down and talked with the woman and she pleased samson well so this guy is a walking conundrum spirit of god comes on him lust at first sight love the chick want the chick but the spirit of god makes me strong it's just a weird combination could have been much better but this is what you got after some time when he returned to get her he turned aside to see the carcass of the young lion and behold a swarm of bees and honey were in the carcass of the lion now this is a guy thing it's like hey look at that lion i killed look at that carcass huh there's like bees in it that's cool i'm gonna go check it out guys do that i don't know why but they just do that but keep in mind he's a nazarite they're not to touch a carcass you get to file by touching an animal or a human that is dead he goes right up to the carcass sticks his hand in it grabs a honey licks it off his fingers he's gonna give some to his mom and dad for them to have a lick i suppose he took some with his hands verse nine went along eating and he came to his father and mother and gave some to them and they also ate but he did not tell them that he had taken the honey out of the carcass of the lion so his father went down to the woman and sampson gave a feast there for the young men used to do so this is sort of like the wedding feast this is the bachelor party you might say except she's going to be there as well um the hebrew word for feast means a drinking feast again what is samson what is he consecrated as a nazarite and nazarites were to stay away from drink but again he's violating every part of the nazarite vow repeatedly in his life so far and it was so when they saw him that they brought him 30 companions to be with them these are philistine companions interesting he doesn't have any of his christian friends you might say or godly friends or israelite friends he's all alone he's isolated he doesn't have a support system yes his dad's gonna be there but he's a kind of a wimpy dad do whatever my son wants he has no infrastructure to support him in his value system he just has pagans around him at this feast and it was so verse 11 when they saw him that they brought 30 companions to be with him and then samson said to them let me pose a riddle to you if you can correctly solve and explain it to me within seven days of the feast that's how long these marriage feasts last seven days the seventh day is when the relationship would be consummated between husband and wife then i will give you 30 linen garments and 30 changes of clothing but if you cannot explain it to me then you shall give me 30 linen garments and 30 changes of clothing and they said to him deal pose your riddle that we may hear it so he said to them out of the eater came something to eat out of the strong came something sweet now for three days they could not explain the riddle now we know what it means because we've read the story it's about the honey and the carcass of the lion the strong the beast the sweet it came to pass on the seventh day last day of the feast that they said to sam sampson's wife entice your husband that he may explain the riddle to us or else we will burn you and your father's house with fire nice friends right have you invited us in order to take what is ours is that not so then samson's wife wept on him and said you only hate me you do not love me you opposed a riddle to the sons of my people but you have not explained it to me and he said to her look i have not explained it to my father or my mother so why should i explain it to you now she wept on him the seven days while their feasts lasted it happened on the seventh day that he told her because she pressed him so much then she explained the riddle to the sons of her people so this marriage is can we say not off to a good start things are not working out very well the bible says that a man is to leave his father and mother cleave unto his wife the two shall become one flesh he's about to be one flesh with this pagan girl there's no trust at all there's nothing in common spiritually between them but it says that she pressed him every single day so he finally gives in there's a um verse of scripture in proverbs 27 that says the continual dripping on a rainy day and a contentious woman are alike trying to restrain hers like grasping the wind so we finally just said enough you're pestering me every day you're whining every day i'll tell you what it means so the men of the city verse 18 said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down what is sweeter than honey and what is stronger than a lion and he said to them if you had not plowed with my heifer you would not have solved my riddle now first of all that's not a nice thing to say about your wife to call her a cow basically a heifer if you haven't plowed with my heifer in in that's a obviously an agricultural term you have taken my animal that pulls the plow and you have taken liberty with that uh animal that pulls the plow and you have have gotten sort of ahead of the game with that so using that analogy if you wouldn't have plowed with my heifer or messed with my wife or intruded in this you would not have solved my riddle then the spirit of the lord came upon him mightily and he went down to ashkelon ashkelon is 23 miles to the southwest along the seacoast it was an ancient port it was one of the cities that the philistines occupied i told you before that there were five philistine cities ashdod ashkelon gath gaza and ekron those are the five cities principally in that area that the philistines had as a stronghold and controlled that whole region so he goes down to ashkelon several miles away because what he's about to do he does not want to get back to the wedding feast where he's at he can go do damage and they will not be able to hear about it for some time so he goes all the way down to ashkelon killed 30 of their men and took their apparel and gave the changes of clothing to those who explained the riddle that was the deal i'll give you 30 changes of clothing but then i'm going to go kill guys to get it and give it to you to make good on the deal so his anger was aroused and he went back up to his father's house and sampson's wife was given to his companion who had been his best man so samson does not even stay around for the full seven days does not consummate the marriage with his wife he's angry he leaves he goes down and kills philistines that's something god wanted to do because they were oppressing israel but the manner of which he did it was not a godly manner so he leaves dad dad of the bride thinks he didn't want this woman as his wife so i'm going to just give her to the best man samson didn't know about that till now and after a while in the time of the wheat harvest it happened that samson visit so he gives her a young goat and he said to the father let me go in to my wife into her room but her father would not permit him to go in there's something probably you should know about this there was an arrangement a certain kind of a marriage at that time in antiquity and by the way it still exists in certain tribes of um palestinian arabs it's called the sadhika marriage and that is a marriage arrangement believe it or not where the bride stays at home with her parents especially under the protection of her father and the groom periodically comes to visit his wife in the home of her parents it's a strange setup but it is not unusual it goes way way back in antiquity we see an example of that here in this pagan culture which he is assimilated to verse two her father said i really thought that you thoroughly hated her and therefore i gave her to your companion so things go from bad to worse uh his wife deceived him he told the riddle uh to her she snitched philistines found out about it he goes kills a bunch of their friends and now finds out that his wife isn't his wife that the best man has his wife and so listen to how wonderful this father is her father said i really thought that you thoroughly hated her therefore i gave her to your companion is not her younger sister better than she is please take her instead how would you like to be raised by that guy here's dad doesn't even care about his daughters and says you know actually my younger daughter's prettier than she is you can have her i would not want to be either one of those two young ladies in that home and samson said to them this time i shall be blameless regarding the philistines if i harven them in other words all the breaks are off no holds barred whatever i do i am justified in doing because of this the way you've treated me then samson went and caught 300 foxes literally jackals took torches turned the fox tail to tail put the torch between each pair of the tails and when he set the torches on fire he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the philistines and burned up both the shocks and the standing grain as well as the vineyards and the olive grove so three principal agricultural crops of which the philistines were known for it was their staple it was their economy was ruined by doing this samson yes the spirit of god is coming upon him yes god is overruling him but all of this is driven by a selfish sense of revenge he's not doing this because god tells him to do it he's not doing this for the glory of god this is all out of personal vengeance you know there are people who are driven by anger and they justify their anger because the way people treat them and sometimes christians do that and they'll even say well i have a godly reason to be angry and sometimes we do but the bible says we're to be angry and sin not there's a way to vent and express anger without letting it turn to sinful wrath like what we see here and by the way the book of james tells us that the wrath of man or the anger of man does not work the righteousness of god yes god is overruling him but it's much better if god rules over you including your emotional temperament then the philistines said who has done this and they answered samson the son-in-law of the tim knight because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion so the philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire remember they threatened to do that of the feast now they followed true with it because their vineyards their olive groves were touched and samson said to them since you would do a thing like this i will surely take revenge on you and after that i will cease so he attacked them hip and thigh with a great slaughter and then he went down and dwelt in the cleft of the rock of atom now the philistines went up encamped in judah and deployed themselves against lehi and the men of judah said why have you come up against us so they answered we have come up to arrest samson to do to him as he has done to us then get this three thousand men of judah these are israelites now these are god's people three thousand men of judah went down to the cleft of the rock of eitam and said to samson do you not know what that the philistines rule over us what is this that you have done and he said to them as they did to me so i have done to them and they said to him we have come down to arrest you that we may deliver you into the hand of the philistines and samson said to them swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves so they spoke to him and they said no but we will tie you securely and deliver you into their hand but we will surely not kill you and they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock interesting this is the first time that we read that the people of judah or the people of israel god's people got an army together for any kind of military purpose during this time of the judgeship of samson they're not doing it at all until now and they're not raising up an army to attack the enemy they're raising up an army to attack one of their own which reminds me sometimes of the church not our church but the church of jesus christ often attacks its own rather than fighting the real enemy the devil and his minions and the worldly value system we want to attack our own we want to be snarky with our own we want to hurt people who are brothers and sisters in christ and it shows a level of compromise and worldliness now understand something the children of israel were under the dominion of the philistines and what's interesting to me is they seem to prefer that they prefer a peaceful coexistence with their enemy ruling over them and they're allowing themselves a level of slavery rather than freedom and i think that can happen in any country and i think that circumstances right now in our world are kind of pushing in some cases the church to that we prefer slavery yeah tell us what to do we'll let you rule over us we'll tell you what you can do with our church rather than saying you know what no we're going to serve the lord here we're going to do what he wants us to do but the children of judah were peacefully coexisting with the philistines taking away their freedom and pushing them into bondage into slavery so in chapter 15 verse 14 when he came to lehi now by the way he tells them look don't kill me yourself promise me that um just deliver me to the hands of the philistine now why is he saying that he's not saying that because he's afraid because he knows look if you come against me i have super strength i like tear lines apart and stuff so if you kind of come against me i'm going to wipe you out i don't want to wipe god's people out so we're okay we're going to bind you with two ropes yeah like that's going to really help if you know anything about samson's life so what so really it was for their benefit not for his benefit so they go through with it they came to lehigh the philistines came shouting against him and the spirit of the lord came mightily upon him and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax like butter just boom melted away like flax that is burned with fire and his bonds broke loose from his hands he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey the bible says god has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise the weak things of this world to put to shame the things that are mighty a jaw bone of a donkey very very crude instrument that became a weapon of mass destruction under the power of the spirit of god in this man now however he is a nazarite i keep saying that he's not to touch fresh jaw bones of donkeys last time i checked that's like check no jawbone of a donkey check no carcass jack no wine check he's doing all the things wrong interesting that the author stipulates that it is a fresh job owner donkey because that would be able to be used a dried one would be brittle and would break apart so they want you to know it was fresh um reached out his hand and with it he took and killed a thousand men with it and samson said with the jawbone of a donkey heaps upon heaps with the jawbone of a donkey i have slain a thousand men and so it was when he had finished speaking that he threw the jawbone from his hand that's a good plan get rid of it after you're done and he called the name of that place ramath lehi which means hill of the jawbone or better yet more literally jawbone heights so you might look for a home in jawbone heights it's a nice neighborhood i hear you may want to check out the homes are going really cheap there right now so rahmath lehigh jawbone heights he called it that and he became very thirsty so he cried out to the lord interesting first time we hear him praying is now and the only other time you're going to hear him praying is right before he dies in that temple of the philistines when he takes the pillars and brings the house down and so he cries out because he's hungry or excuse me he's thirsty he needs water he's been working up a sweat he became very thirsty so he cried out to the lord and said you have given me this great deliverance by the hand of your servant and now i shall die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised so god split the hollow place that is in lehi and water came out and he drank and his spirit revived or returned he revived therefore he called its name en hakor which is in lehi to this day and hakora means the spring of the caller or it means the gushing forth of the one who cries out that's the idea of it is named after what happened there and he sampson judged israel 20 years in the days of the philistines we have just enough time to get through chapter 16 which ends the epic of samson so that we can make a clean start next time in chapter 17. so samson went to gaza gaza is further down on the seacoast there's still a place today in israel or in the palestinian territory called gaza city and he saw a harlot there and he went into her number two so he saw a wife said i want her got her and then he sees this lady here this girl a harlot a prostitute and he went into her that is he had sexual relations with her when the gazites were told samson has come here they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city they were quiet all night saying in the morning when it's daylight we're going to kill him and samson lay low until midnight and then he arose at midnight took hold of the doors of the gate of the city wooden doors large ones and the two gate posts pulled them up bar and all put them on his shoulders carried them to the top of the hill that faces hebron now hebron is about 37 miles away and people get in their minds that he's got these huge gates and he's running 37 miles perhaps spirit of god can make a person allow a person to do anything but uh it is most often seen as the hill just outside of gaza that faces hebron it is identified today as a little area called el montar and it is a hill that is right outside the area of gaza it faces toward the east that's probably what happened but why did he do it what's the deal of putting gates on your shoulders and running up a hill he wanted to show the gazites that they were vulnerable he can take their protection away this is no big deal for him they think we're going to kill him he goes you know what i'm going to take your protection away remove the gate of the city so you're more vulnerable than you think you are now afterwards it happened now here it is again this is typical afterward it happened that he loved a woman in the valley of sorek whose name was delilah here it is again third time a chick is mentioned with this guy it says he loved her i think it would be better translated he lusted for her there's no indication that he had never ever even met her or had a conversation with her he just saw someone now delilah is a semitic term that means devotee somebody devoted to something and because her name means devotee it is thought that she was a temple prostitute for the temple of dagon for the pagan worship of the philistines so said he loved her in the valley of sorek her name was delilah and the lords of the philistines came to her and said to her entice him and find out where his great strength lies and by what means we may overpower him that we may find him to afflict him and every one of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver something to make a note of third time samson is drawn in by a beautiful girl satan knows exactly how to bait the hook in your life he knows what you're vulnerable to what you're impressionable with and so what he does is he uses things to entice you in the book of james it says each man is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed the word enticed in greek means to bait a hook so you you take a worm or you take bait and you put it on the hook and what are you doing you are concealing the sharpest point of the hook so the little fishy goes wow you are so kind you've provided a wonderful meal for me today thank you for this worm but the hook is concealed so bathsheba was that for david david saw a beautiful girl named bathsheba she was the bait but underneath was the hook once he bit of that he would bring misery to his family he would ruin relationships with his children a couple of them would die there would be a plague on the land there would be destruction in his own household that's what satan does he hides the hook and he makes the bait really attractive and he knows exactly in your life where you are weak and exactly what bait to use does that with him so they come up the philistines come up with a plan so verse 6 delilah said to samson please tell me where your great strength lies i i'm gonna kind of be a little have a little affect with her because i'm sure she's just pouring it on being really sweet and really sensual with her and says please tell me your great strength lies and with what you may be bound to afflict you she's coming right out and saying we want to tie you up and hurt you and sampson said to her if they bind me with seven fresh bow strings not yet dried then i shall become weak like any other man a bowstring was a piece of gut or viscera from an animal that was pulled dried and that's what they used to put on their bows here's what samson is doing he's toying with it he's playing with it he's allowing the temptation each time to get closer and closer and closer instead of just saying get out of here woman you're not going to do that i see what's happening he doesn't close the door he keeps it open so you give your life to christ you are a partier your friends call you up and they go hey we got a keg man we're having a party tonight kovid's over now let's say that happens come on over to our house and you go no i'm kind of tired you know i've had a long day and i just want to stay at home you know what's going to happen you kept the door open they're going to call you back sometime in the future and put that hook out there again and you be maybe in a time of weakness and you may succumb to it i'm saying close the door tell them this no you know what i've given my life to jesus christ i love him and i've decided to fully live for him and i don't even want to do that anymore i guarantee you if you put it like that they're not going to call you back you closed the door he is keeping the door wide open he's basically saying i'm going to sail so close to the lake of fire i'm going to let the sails of my boat get singed so he's going to sail very very close so verse 8 the lords of the philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings not yet dried and she bound him with them now there were men lying in weight staying with her in the room and she said to them the philistines are upon you samson but he broke the bow strings as a strand of yarn breaks when it touches the fire so the secret of his strength was not yet known now this keeps going and they keep going through this cat and mouse game i'm going to take you down to verse 15 she says it again tomorrow great strength lies you've mocked me all these times etc you're not telling me the truth verse 16 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 to her 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 like any other man again let me remind you the secret of his strength did not lie in his long hair the secret of his strength lay in his covenant that he made with god whereby the spirit of god came upon him and empowered him when he cut his hair he was cutting off he was getting rid of the public testimony of the covenant he made with god and because of that he's going to lose power and lose effectiveness and lose strength but it's not the hair it's in the covenant but he spills his heart he spills his guts and this shows you something it shows you the power of the flesh to destroy good judgment there are some people that have good clear thinking and good judgment but sin makes people stupid it clouds the judgment and i've seen typically smart erudite clear thinking people get so muddled when it comes to being tempted that the flesh destroys their ability to make wise judgments and so oh let me just play with the fire it looks so nice and feels so warm and pretty soon it's out of control and it has burned your house down i've told you this example before and i've even used um we have an acoustic piano back of our platform if you open the lid of an acoustic piano and you push the right pedal down at the bottom uh the sustain pedal which means the little felt is off the strings then when you strike a note it just keeps playing it sustains so if you do that if you push the pedal down open the lid and you sing a note into the piano the piano will sing it back to you whatever note you're singing at least one or more of the strings will catch that note and start vibrating and you'll hear it sung back to you that's how temptation works satan comes and calls out you sings out to you and you start vibrating it feels good i hear that i like that so what do you do the only thing to do with the piano is close the lid and walk away when it comes to temptation close the door and walk away but satan keeps knocking at my front door let jesus answer it don't you get it leave it alone close the lid close the door samson just keeps playing and playing and playing until now when delilah saw verse 18 that he had told all his heart she sent and called the lords of the philistines saying come up once more for he told me all of his heart so the lords of the philistines came up to her brought the money in their hand she lulled him to sleep on her knees and called for a man that had him shave off the locks of his head she began to torment him and his strength left him now they want to torment him she begins the torment she herself this girlfriend starts tormenting mocking him then the philistines then she said verse 20 the philistines are upon you samson so he awoke from his sleep and he said i will go out as before as at other times and shake myself free but he did not know that the lord had departed from him he was under the delusion that he could just do what he wanted to one day i'll shake this but i can kind of do whatever i've always done i know how to do this god wasn't with them at that time the philistines took him verse 21 put out his eyes brought him down to gaza bound him with bronze fetters and he became a grinder in the prison that's the job of a slave now that's what sin does first sin blinds you you don't see the whole picture you lose your ability to make good solid clear choices it blinds you second sin binds you it makes you captive i can quit i can quit any time i want to you're blind and you're bound by the affliction third sin grind you and that's samson state binding blinding grinding people even talk about life life's such a grind life can grind you down to powder because you let sin in and you compromise and you're blind to it then you're bound by it and then life becomes drudgery becomes a grind however verse 22 the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaven now the lords of the philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to dagon their god and to rejoice and they said our god has delivered into our hands samson our enemy remember what samuel will say to king david after he sins with bathsheba he said you know what god will forgive you but you have enabled the enemies of the lord to blaspheme because of your sin that's what's happening here they're saying our false gods who don't exist gave us the victory over god's man they mocked him the people saw him and they praised their god for they said our god delivered into our hands our enemy the destroyer of our land and the one who multiplied our dead so it happened when their hearts were merry they said call for samson that he may perform for us so they called samson from the prison he performed for them they stationed him between the pillars and sampson said to the lad who held him up by the hand let me feel the pillars which support the temple so i can lean on them now the temple was full of men and women all the lords of the philistines were there in fact there were about 3 000 men and women on the roof who watched while samson performed dagon was a god that was depicted by half-man half-fish motif but he was also the god of the grain fields which samson had destroyed as you recall this was an annual feast to dagon archaeology has found remains of the temples of the philistines and the architecture fits the story as a kind of a long narrow hall two pillars on the inside stone bases wood on top that supported the entire upper level the roof it wouldn't be up to code today guaranteed you have a lot of people on top it's a recipe for failure which happened a daggone the statue would be between or right in the middle of the room samson who's blind asked to be taken to those two pillars and then samson called to the lord saying here's this final prayer oh lord god remember me i pray strengthen me i pray just this once oh god that i may with one blow take vengeance on the philistines for my two eyes lord just one more time answer my prayer just fill me with strength one more time that i can kill these guys and take out vengeance on them samson took hold of the two middle pillars which supported the temple he braced himself against them one on his right the other on his left and sampson said let me die with the philistines and he pushed with all of his might and the temple fell on the lords and all the people who were in it so the dead that he killed at his death were more than he killed in his life and his brothers and all of his father's household came down took him brought him up and buried him between zarah and ashta ol areas that still exist today we can show you if you come on a tour to israel exactly where this is in the philistine country in the tomb of his father manoa he had judged israel 20 years moral of the story sin is a tyrant sin is the great destroyer it enslaves people jesus talked about satan said he has come for nothing else other than to kill to steal and to destroy satan the enemy of our souls wants to kill steal and destroy everything that god wants to build in your life with samson we learn that the loss of separation brings the loss of power and influence he was to be separated nazarite the idea of being separated from the world and separated unto god but when you lose being separated when you lose your holiness to the lord you also lose your power and it eventuates in your ruin back in 1963 the united states sent a submarine under the arctic circle below the ice it's called the the thresher submarine they said it can withstand depth and pressure it was designed for that but it got a little bit too deep and the whole of the submarine was unable to withstand the pressure at that depth and the submarine the thresher submarine imploded and the crew was lost that was 1963. so the pressure on the outside could not be sustained by the pressure that they had built in from the inside people died lives were lost lives were ruined the secret would have been to have the equal amount of pressure on the inside as the pressure on the outside did you know that there are little fish that can even go deeper than that thresher submarine their skin is so thin and so you would think easy to destroy and yet it can go deeper because it's designed by god to have pressure on the inside that gives them power to sustain the pressure coming from the outside only when the holy spirit of god fills your life sustains your life empowers your life gives you the adequate pressure from within can you withstand the pressure of this world samson did not submit to the spirit of god yes the spirit of god came upon him but he could have been so much more father as we close tonight we think of our own lives and we think of what you want to do in us and through us you have us alive for such a time as this in this world to be your instruments for your glory you said we are to submit ourselves to you surrender our bodies as living sacrifice holy and acceptable which is our reasonable service you promised lord that we could be powerful instruments in your hands foolish things yes weak things yes empowered by god nonetheless we pray father that your spirit would so control us enable us that the pressures on the outside would not cause us to implode in our own lives that we would be strong by your spirit for your glory and i pray for anybody who's a part of this cast this telecast broadcast radio cast netcast whatever it is who doesn't personally know you or needs to recommit their lives to you that they would turn to you and become an instrument of the living god in this world it could be that you've strayed away from god followed your own path you've been taken down by the lust of your own flesh some form of addiction some relationship that has been unhealthy and ungodly you've lost power you've lost presence you've lost influence i want you to know you can stop doing what you're doing and not wait till it's too late and have kind of one flash of glory like samson but your whole life can be used for his glory but you need to stop and turn to him and if you want to do that if you've never done that or if you need to come back to him you just say this to him lord here i am take me i turn my life over to you or i come back to you fill me with your spirit use me empower me i believe jesus died for me i believe he rose from the dead and i turned from my sin i turned from my own personal glory i turned from following my way and i turned to follow your way fill me with your spirit power me by your spirit let me know the presence of the spirit of god within me to withstand the pressure that is outside me in jesus name i pray amen listen if you made some kind of a commitment to god first time second time whatever it is if you did that text the word saved s-a-v-e-d to this phone number 505-509-5433 somebody will make contact with you or if you're on our website calvarynm.church just click on the little button that says no god no god and you'll be again contacted somebody's waiting for you to make contact with you and to pray with you god bless you no longer i who live now jesus lives in me for i was dead in sin but i woke up to see the light [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] oh well we love you have a wonderful rest of your night and thank you so much again for joining us for service tonight listen this is going to be archived on facebook and on youtube so throughout the week feel free to share this with a friend that you think might be encouraged by this message listen if you prayed that prayer with pastor skip or maybe you didn't and you but you are ready to make a decision to follow jesus we want to connect with you we want to send something to you get something in your hands and encourage you so if you prayed that prayer just text the word saved s-a-v-e-d to 505-509-5433 or if you're on one of our platforms that has the chat feature you can actually just let one of our team members know say i prayed that prayer and we'll get in touch with you well we are looking forward to this weekend as we continue in the 2020 series and we would ask that you would invite somebody to join you to tune in online this weekend god bless you guys we'll see you then you you

Channel: Calvary Church with Skip Heitzig

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Length: 113min 31sec (6811 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 18 2020