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00:00 And Lord, we ask that you uh through the life of uh Samson, help us understand
00:07 your word um minister to our hearts right now. For there's so many aspects of Samson's life that is actually
00:14 mirrored in our society and our own lives. Help us pay attention that the
00:20 spirit will just touch us and help us grow. For Jesus sake we ask. Amen.
00:26 for Samson. Uh I have the privilege of ending the uh three sermons on Samson. I
00:33 think as a young chap growing up, Samson was my Bible
00:38 hero. If you go to Sunday school, most of the kids will say their hero is
00:44 Samson. And in Marvel comics, my hero will be Superman. Right?
00:51 And you've always wondered, if I had all the money, if I had all the strength, life would be different, wouldn't it?
00:57 And here you actually have a story of a man who actually had it all. Fantastic
01:03 pedigree, you know, chosen by God before he was born. His mother was barren and
01:09 spirit ministered to her and she had a baby. That's him. He had a bright future. God has set him apart as with a
01:15 Nazarite vow. And then you see how his supernatural strength was used um and
01:22 see how he conducts his life. All right. So uh we're going to start off with chapter 16
01:29 um looking at well this is the background of the judges is basically a
01:35 story of the total failure of Israel. Uh we look at each judge
01:41 um battling evil. Then you go down to Gideon, Japa, Samson. As as you go each
01:47 one down the line, you find that it gets worse and worse. The judges get worse
01:53 and worse in terms of their character. And lastly, 17:21, uh, you know, it
01:58 really becomes bad. So this is the context. Uh, there are three lessons I want us to take home today. Very simple.
02:04 All my sermons have three lessons. Even though they're more, but we'll squeeze into the three. Uh, one, success is
02:10 seductive. It leaves God out. Uh, two, idolatry is addictive. It never
02:16 lets you go. And three, redemption is always available. God is faithful even when we are faithless. Right? Let's
02:24 start off. Success is seductive. It leaves God out. He looked at chapter 16
02:29 verse 1 to3. And I'll read. Samson went to Gaza. This is right in the middle
02:34 where the Philistine were. And there he saw a prostitute. And he went into her.
02:40 And the Gazites were told, "Samson has come." And they surrounded the palace and set an ambush for him all night at
02:45 the gate of the city. And they kept quiet all night, saying, "Let us wait until the light of the morning. Then we
02:51 will kill him." And then Samson lay until midnight. And at midnight, he rose and took this door of the gate of the
02:56 city. And two posts and pulled them up bar and all and put them on his shoulder and carried them to the top of the hill
03:02 that is in front of Hebrron. Now, at first glance, you thought this is really nothing very much, but actually it's
03:08 very significant. Here you actually have Samson again. If you look back in the last two chapters, the first thing that
03:15 he does after the spirit comes on him is that he goes down to where the Philistines are and he saw this woman
03:21 who is not an Israelite and he wanted to take her as a wife. Now he goes right in the middle of enemy territory and he saw
03:27 a prostitute and went there to have sex with her. So this is a guy who led by
03:32 his impulses and you'll find that he's got all this success. He he's not thinking very much about his mission in
03:38 God. In fact, if you look at Samson in the chapter before, the chapter before
03:44 has one of his greatest victories. He has taken one donkey bone and with one
03:49 donkey bone, he has killed 1,000 Philistines and you know arranged them
03:54 all in a hill or the mound and he calls the the hill the song. Uh give it a name. And here you actually have a song.
04:02 So all the judges, some of the judges have songs after the victories. And this is Samson's song. I want to read to you
04:08 the song. With the jawbone of donkey, heap upon heaps, with a jawbone of a
04:13 donkey, I have struck down a thousand men. Now you compare that to Deborah's
04:19 song. Deborah's song is that that the leaders took the lead in Israel that the
04:24 people offered themselves willingly. Bless the Lord. Here, O kings, give ear, O princes, to the Lord. I will sing. I
04:31 will make melody to the Lord, the God of Israel. Lord, when you went out from Seir, when you marched from the region
04:36 of Edom, the earth trembled, the heavens dropped, yes, the clouds drop water, the mountains quake before the Lord, even
04:43 before the Lord, the God of Israel. Can you notice a difference between the two songs?
04:49 Very big difference. From one judge, couple of chapters later on, you have Samson basically attributing his success
04:58 to himself. success is it's a little bit seductive. As soon as he has finished
05:03 speaking, he threw away the jawbone and at that place he called this place Raman
05:08 Lei which basically called jawbone hill. Actually there's no hill there. The hill was made out of the pile of bodies. So
05:15 this is extoalling his own virtues and then he gets very thirsty and he call upon the lord you have granted this
05:22 great salvation by the hand of your servant and now I'll shall I die of thirst into the hands of the
05:27 uncircumcised. He's actually thirsty. He's He's like, "There's no water here." And the way he asked God for help. It's
05:35 a little bit scary, isn't it? Are you going to let me die? I mean, as if God owes him salvation, as it were, a little
05:41 bit arrogant. And then God very mercifully split the hollow of the place
05:46 that is at Ley and the water came out of it. He drank, his spirit returned. He revived. The name of the place was
05:52 called Eni Hakore as it is Lei to this day. had he judged Israel in the days of
05:58 Philistines 20 years. And the name an hakore means what? The spring of the
06:06 caller. So who gets the benefit? The one who calls, not the one who provides the water. And this actually tells you the
06:12 psyche of Samson. He begins to think he begins to think that success is due to
06:20 him. That is his personal ability to call upon the power like God was his
06:25 genie and and he turns up whenever he needs him as it were. Uh this is how people used to name name places. So
06:32 Abraham called the name of the place God will provide. Jehovah Gyra as is written to this day. Uh this is Jacob. He called
06:39 the place where God appeared to him battle. Battle means what? House of God.
06:45 Genesis 32 Jacob called the name of the place pineal. always wrestled with God.
06:50 I've seen God face to face. Pedal means the face of God. So every time you have a spiritual experience,
06:58 the patriarchs always name the place after God. And here you have Samson
07:03 naming it after himself. Samson and the gate. This is a very funny story. You
07:09 know why you want to carry people's autogate all the way for for do you know the distance from Gaza to Hebrron is 40
07:17 miles. You carry somebody's autogate. You don't have autogate. You put yourself in your house. So maybe they
07:22 have he has no autogate. He has carry that. And but the the funny thing is that the Philistines are all ready. They
07:29 knew he was in a prostitute's house. They were lying in weight to catch him, right? And this is a actually a
07:35 schematic diagram of ancient gates. Okay? They're not exactly an autogate. They have guardouses 1 2 3 4 5 here. And
07:44 in order to get to the gate, you must go through the guardouses. So, how does this fellow spend the night with the
07:50 woman, everybody's waiting for him, and he manages to take the two gate, run away, and nobody looks at him? I mean,
07:57 when you're lifting the gate off the hinges, wouldn't there be some sound? I know there's no alarm, right? But at least there'll be some sound. So, this
08:04 is very, very unusual. I suspect maybe the Lord has put them to sleep or in in
08:11 some way. Something actually going on there. But here you actually have he's driven by sensual pleasure. He believes
08:18 that he's invulnerable. His success has gone to his head so that he thinks that whatever happens he will
08:24 be invulnerable. He comes reckless. He spends more and more of his time in enemy territory. And and here there's no
08:32 mention when he does all these feats now there's no mention of the spirit. If you look before in the past in chapter 14
08:37 and 15 as the spirit of the lord rushed on him he he went to Ashclan and struck down 30 men. He went to Lehey. The
08:44 Philippines came out shouting to meet him. The spirit of the Lord rushed upon him. And you can find at this stage in
08:49 chapter 16, the entire chapter 16, you don't see the narrator putting the
08:55 spirit anymore. He's like going on his own petrol, you know, on his own
09:01 battery, you know. All right. So, it it's like, you know, how many of you drive hybrid cars? I just got a hybrid
09:07 car. You know, hybrid car, you got petrol and then you got battery, right?
09:13 So, if you if you press an accelerator very fast, the petrol kicks in. Wow. You
09:18 feel the burst. After a while, you know, it goes off and you're only on your own battery. All right? And he's really on
09:24 his own battery, but he thinks the petrol is still on. Uh, this is what success will do to you. Overconfidence.
09:32 Daniel Caherman Kahameman actually uh who is a winner of the Nobel Pri prize in economics actually says that the
09:38 overconfidence is the most significant of cognitive bias. We're all biased to certain extent but overconfidence causes
09:45 huge biasness. Uh in fact the CEOs are particularly prone to overconfidence. They attribute their own brilliance and
09:52 neglect the good role the role of circumstance or good fortune. And in this particular case he neglects the
09:59 role of the spirit. And there are three phases of overconfidence which you can see in this life. Uh psychologically
10:06 there's overestimation which means you always think you are better than what you are. Number two overplacement. You
10:14 always think you're better than other people. And number three over precision which means whatever you believe is the
10:20 truth. Everybody else is living a lie. And that is the problem of biasness
10:25 which he actually has in his life. Uh and you can see that in so many people. Look at David. David's life was
10:31 tumultuous. At the height of his power, instead of going off to war in spring where most kings does, he stays at home.
10:38 And when he stays at home, he spots a beautiful woman bathing. And that was
10:44 the beginning of his downfall. And here he actually has Samson. He defeats every
10:51 single Philistine attack, but he underestimates a woman. They say behind every
10:57 successful man is a woman, right? behind every success unfailure is also a woman.
11:03 So woman everywhere you can't escape them. Overconfident CEOs, Enron collapse, layman brothers,
11:12 every single disaster you actually trace back, it's always due to overconfidence. Whether it's Titanic, this the the the
11:18 ship that God couldn't even sink or the Challenger or Chernobyl or Deep Water
11:23 Horizon in the Atlantic Ocean. Each of them if you trace back is due to overconfidence.
11:29 uh including the last general election where he thinks he could not be beaten.
11:35 At least his uh underling says they got drunk on their cool eight and they lost because you're overconfident on your own
11:42 uh um uh progress. In fact, there was this website called okaycid and they did
11:47 a uh anonymous poll and asked people the question are
11:53 you a genius? Did you know if I asked all of you how many you think how many of you think you are geniuses? Put your
11:59 hands up. Lying.
12:04 If it's anonymous, did you know the 40% of people who answered the poll thought they were geniuses? 40% of the men, sorry, not the
12:11 women, 40% of men actually will answer that they think they are geniuses. We
12:16 always overestimate ourselves, don't we? All right. And so therefore success is seductive because once you get success
12:23 then you look into all these sort of books uh to basically build on your success your confidence and we tend to
12:29 leave God out. That's the danger of success. Uh if you look at churches
12:35 successful and unsuccessful churches there are two churches in in in in Asia Minor. What is ladosia? A big mega
12:42 church. And Jesus rebukes them. For you say, I am rich. I have prospered. I need
12:48 nothing. That's the whole problem. When you're rich, you prospered. You need nothing. Which means seductive success.
12:55 You leave God out. And God says to them, not realizing that you are wretched, you're pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
13:01 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you become rich and while garments and white garments
13:07 that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen and sell to anoint your eyes so that you
13:12 may see you may really see riches and success blinds us and on your hands a
13:18 little itty bitty church struggling to survive the Philadelphia church and it says I know your works behold I have
13:26 before you an open door which no one is able to shut I know that you have but little power yet you have kept my word
13:33 and not denied my name. A little church not much success but they have little
13:39 power but they've remained faithful. Success is seductive. Look at one Corinthians chapter 10. Paul talks to
13:46 the Corinthian church a very successful church as it were with a lot of gifts and uh the reason of their downfall is
13:53 spiritual success. I do not want you to be unaware of the he talks to them about their forefathers the favored race saved
14:02 from the land of Egypt through a number of miracles. Our fathers were under the
14:07 cloud all led by the cloud. All passed through the sea. This refers to the parting the Red Sea. All were baptized
14:14 into Moses in the cloud to the sea and all ate the same spiritual food. All drank the same spiritual drink. Mana was
14:20 given. Water was given. They drank from the spiritual rock that followed them. the rock was Jesus was Christ.
14:25 Nevertheless, most of them God was not pleased. They were overthrown in the wilderness. Spiritual success is a
14:33 problem when you begin to depend upon them. There was a true story of a man. I
14:38 don't think you ever heard of his name. He actually as a young man read the New York Times at 18 months of age. How many
14:45 of your children at 18 months of age would read the New York Times?
14:50 He read Greek and learned Latin at three years of age. By six, he spoke seven
14:56 languages. Passed entrance exam MIT by eight years of age, Harvard by 9, but
15:03 had to wait until 11 in order to enter Harvard University. And he graduated at
15:09 16. And when he graduated, he was already a tutor. His IQ was 250 to 300,
15:16 and Einstein IQ was only 200. Have you ever heard of his name?
15:23 William Silas. He died at 44 years as an obscure clerk in a New York office. You
15:31 thought a man like that with so much talent, with so much potential, they done something, isn't it? Right. But the
15:38 trouble is someone said success does not depend on what God gives you, but what
15:43 you do with it. Failure comes when you depend on it. Failure comes when you
15:50 depend on your past successes as what he did. And and we do here see this same
15:56 idea of success being touted by many churches. Five keys to go your barriers and live an extraordinary life. This is
16:02 a chapel in Nigeria and they call it the winners chapel. My goodness, you name your church the winner's chapel. Only
16:08 winners can come, losers stay out. This is a bishop David Ado and he reads this
16:15 part of his sermon. That means every child of God is a candidate for wealth and redemption and as an inheritance of
16:21 financial fortune in Christ. It establishes the redemption is our gateway to financial fortune. However,
16:27 God empowers us for wealth through the revelation and application of the covenant. This because the revelation
16:32 the word is the gateway to a world of unlimited breakthroughs. And what he's doing here is subtly uh using the
16:39 covenant for his own purposes or our own purposes of financial wealth as if
16:45 blessings can be bought. If you go back to Acts chapter 8 uh when there was this guy Simon who was interacting with the
16:51 apostles, Simon saw the spirit was given through the laying of the hands of the apostles. He offered them money.
16:58 Give me this power so that anyone whom I may lay your hands on will also receive the Holy Spirit. And Peter said to him,
17:04 "May your silver perish with you because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money. You have neither part nor lot in this matter for your heart is
17:11 not right before God." See, we we we come to a kind of state of Christianity.
17:17 We're not interested in the heart. We're interested in the blessing. And somehow blessing can be bought. God can be
17:23 bribed as it were. This is John Piper and as he writes in this book called Don't Waste Your Life, a very nice
17:30 passage. She says the health and wealth prosperity gospel swallows up the beauty of Christ in the beauty of his gifts and
17:37 turn those gifts into idols. The world is not impressed when the Christians get rich and say thanks to God. They're
17:44 impressed when God is so satisfying that we give a riches away for Christ's sake and count it as gain. No point going
17:52 around telling all the how God has blessed you and your funful house in Kenny Hills and where you went for your
17:58 holiday here and there. The world is not impressed. In fact, the world is jealous. The world is impressed when
18:04 Christians find God so satisfying that we give it away for Christ's sake as it
18:10 were. And I think if we depend on success, we we go into a state of what we call functional atheism. This
18:16 unconscious unexamined conviction that if anything decent is going to happen in your life, we are the ones who make it
18:22 happen. This is a picture of Ken Lelay. He died in 2001. There was a one of the
18:27 biggest bankruptcies in American history. Enron, he was the chairman. Did
18:32 you know that he was actually sort of a Baptist preacher, he was a devout
18:37 Christian as it were, but it was functional atheism because church was in one corner of his life. Corporate life
18:45 was another. He totally separated it. He acted as if there was no God. Success
18:50 got into his in brain. In fact, he started cheating and uh he actually deprived thousands and thousands of
18:57 people of their life savings when the whole company went under. Second point is idolatry is addictive. It never lets
19:06 you go. Judges 16:4 to5. After this he loved a woman in the valley of Sorak whose name
19:13 was Delilah. And the lords of the Philippine Philistines came to her and said to her, "Seduce him and see where
19:19 his great strength lies and by what means we may overpower him that we may bind him to humble him and we will each
19:25 give you 1,100 pieces of silver." Here you actually have a woman, okay, in the
19:31 valley of Sorak. Her name is Delilah, okay? And the Philistines are at their wits end. They cannot capture him any
19:40 other way. Every time they tried, they have failed. So now they, you know, they try to bribe this woman. You know, 1,100
19:48 pieces of silver from each one is a huge. In fact, the the amount is so
19:53 ridiculous, you don't give a woman that much money. At Tuya didn't get much, you know,
19:59 right? The whole problem was she was she was swindled. You know, this woman 1,100 is actually a huge amount. It belongs to
20:06 kings, you know. So, I think there's a little bit of may have been a bit exaggeration here, but here they go
20:12 through a particular woman and and uh now
20:18 what do you think Samson looks like? Do you think he looks like Mr. Bean or Mr. Arnold?
20:23 Anybody thinks he looks like Mr. Arnold? Put your hands up. Okay, put hand put don't be scared. Come on, put your hands
20:30 up. Who votes for Arnold? All right. Who votes for Bean?
20:36 Only where? Where? Oh, Margaret. And who else? Who votes for Bean?
20:43 Only Margaret. One smart woman here. Look, if he look like this,
20:49 do you think you'll pay a million dollars to find out what the secret of his strength is? Where is the secret of his strength?
20:56 Here, ma. Can you see that? Ah, that can twinkle alo. Ding, ding, ding. Right.
21:03 You look at the If you look at him, look at Alama, he can beat 10,000
21:10 people. There must be some secret, right? That's right. So, it's more
21:15 likely that he looks like Mr. Bean than he looks like Arnold because Arnold's strength lies in his biceps. Mr. Beans
21:22 lies somewhere else. Maybe it is in underwear or somewhere but
21:28 so they can't work out how a speedy guy like this can actually carry the gate
21:34 the autogate for 40 miles right how can you I mean that's why they want to find out what is his secret is it spinach
21:41 like pop eye and you take the spinach away then he mati you know right there must be some sort of secret because he
21:47 looks so ordinary outside and then there's three failed attempts where he tricks the woman you know he she you
21:53 know say darling please tell me what how how do we uh capture you and all that you know uh seven fresh bro strings the
21:60 tendon is not died dried new ropes and every time uh you know they come and try
22:06 to capture him he just tears it apart you know uh he he's um he's strong and
22:13 then she says to him finally how can you say I love you when your heart is not with me you have mocked me these three
22:20 times you have not told me where your great strength lies and here she applies eyes. The oldest trick, the most
22:26 powerful trick in a woman's armamentarium. Don't you think
22:33 women uh your neck no use on this is the way which you get what you want, isn't
22:38 it? We all know that. I mean uh my favorite film star uh got married
22:44 recently uh uh I can't remember Priyanka Chopra I think and this is what she says
22:50 about her marriage to Nick Jonas. What's happening? I have not known myself like this. She told Vogue, "This
22:56 guy turned me into such a girl. I could blush. I could be a tomato red right now." See, something gone into her and
23:04 she's a brave uh FBI agent in Quantico. And look at Nick Jonas. His brother
23:09 writes of him. I I I think she kind of knocked him off his feet. He was like this little puppy dog.
23:18 What's this called? you know uh scientists also scientists in u um in
23:23 China science and tech technology university actually identified when you're in love the preffrontal cortex of
23:30 your brain this part actually lights up compared to people who are not in love okay uh and that's the part that is uh
23:37 controls reward motivation emotion and social function so so something actually happens to you hormones kick in the part
23:44 of your brain kicks in when you're actually in love donor telly Maserati of The University of Pisa describes the
23:51 three E of being in love. Euphoria, which means you're walking on cloud nine. You're bulletproof. Exactly like
23:59 Samson. He's bulletproof. Endangered. That means you take risks. It doesn't
24:05 matter what the girl is like, what kind of family she's like. She could be a drug addict. It doesn't matter. You love
24:11 her. And finally, exhausted. I don't know whether e exhausted describes the parents or describes you.
24:18 But nevertheless, uh, and he's also, I believe, addicted to love. You know why?
24:25 Because he's in denial. Imagine you tell the girl your secret and next moment 15
24:32 tugs turn up in your room with Parang, right? And then you have to fight them
24:38 off and you're wondering, you ask her, "Hey, how come 15 tugs in my room?" Huh? No, they want nothing. Those are my
24:44 brothers. So, you minimize the problem. Then another time happens another 15
24:50 tugs or 20 tugs come and then you rationalize it. Maybe those are her cousins.
24:57 Right. That cousin the cousin don't like me. Different race ma. Okay. And the last one is selfdeception.
25:04 She really loves me. Right. Right. And she deceives. This is all signs of addiction. In fact psychologists have
25:12 have have marked out certain signs which you can see in this passage of addiction. uh seeking the partner
25:17 compulsively. Every time his spare time he goes to Gaza, he goes to see belly of
25:24 Sorak to go and see Delila. Everything is Delilah. Uh he probably sing songs about Delilah. Find it hard to be happy
25:31 without Delilah. Feel empty when apart from Delila. Panic at the thought of
25:36 losing Delilah because see Delila, you mock me, huh? Huh? Huh? You mock me, I'm
25:42 going to leave you. Right? Panic, right? uh drive off partner's approval. That's
25:48 why he in the end told her the secret. All right. Her love is his drug. More
25:55 concerned about receiving love they've given it. So some of the young people please look at these points.
26:02 They apply love addiction is actually not uncommon.
26:07 Uh and then you look uh at here all the three verses that tell
26:13 the author tells you uh it describes to you her leverage. Every time it doesn't
26:20 work out she says behold you have mocked me. You have told me lies until now you have mocked me. Verse 15 you have mocked
26:26 me three times. What she's doing is conflating two issues. Loving her has
26:31 got nothing to do about telling his greatest weakness. Isn't it? the two issues are unrelated
26:38 but she's conflating them and he doesn't see that he doesn't see that. So he's
26:43 actually become very very stupid because of his addiction. Uh and then she
26:49 pressured him with her words day after day and urged him and his soul was vexed
26:54 to death. This is basically very distressed. He was very very distressed and finally he told her the secret about
27:02 the Nazarite vow. if his head is shaved, my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man.
27:08 And Delilah saw that he had told her his heart. She sent and called the words, the lords of the Philistines, saying,
27:15 "Come again." Uh, for he has told me his heart. And the lords of the Philistines came to her and brought the money in
27:20 their hands, and she made him sleep on her knees. And she called a man and had me shave off the seven locks of his
27:26 head, and he began to torment him, and his strength left him. The last bit of
27:33 addiction is that the partners of love addiction are usually emotionally unavailable. They're manipulative and
27:40 they're abusive. The moment his strength left him, what did she do? She tormented
27:46 him. Which means she never loved him. She used him. Which is a sad part. She
27:53 would he became partyy in her hands. Love addiction is defined as a compulsive chronic craving and pursuit
28:01 of romantic love in an effort to get our sense of security and worth from another
28:06 person. Strangely enough, the strongest person in the world
28:12 has insecurities. The strongest person in the world has such a deep need for security and worth
28:20 that he has to seek it from Delilah and Delilah alone. Be careful. You look strong outside but
28:27 inside there's a particular need that must be met by that particular woman. And here you actually have the whole
28:33 story of Samson is a tug of war. On one hand there is his calling. On the other
28:39 hand has his desire. His calling is to be the judge of Israel. A vow to be a
28:44 Nazarite where he is to be dedicated to God. He should not be in contact any
28:50 dead animals. And the first thing happen the lion dies right as honey and he comes to the dead body. He takes the
28:56 honey out because he's too hungry. He takes the jawbone which is also dead body's uh dead animals uh uh anatomical
29:04 part and uses that to kill a thousand people. He tells Delilah the way to to to basically overpower me is to use
29:11 seven tendons or bow strings which is basically dead bodies. He he actually
29:16 trifles with his Nazarite vow. Every time he has a he's tugged between serving God and serving himself, he
29:23 always goes to this particular area. In fact, uh there was a company in Texas
29:31 uh that actually every morning they they before the employees come to work, you
29:37 know what they do? They're instructed to look in the mirror and tell themselves I
29:43 am beautiful. Then they come and find it increases productivity.
29:48 There's a company in Japan, a supermarket in Japan. You know what they say in the morning? They'll look at each
29:54 other. You know Japanese all have the have what not worship like exercise together, right? They look each other
29:59 and says you are beautiful. In Malaysia, I don't know where I don't
30:05 know what we say. But we we we find some way to fill that inner emptiness, isn't
30:12 it? Our desires are all focused on that. And and basically we our our desires are
30:17 for love and care, honor, respect, power, happiness, satisfaction, security. There's nothing wrong with
30:22 those desires. I don't think there's anything wrong for Samson to be in love, right? Is anything wrong? Everybody
30:27 needs love, right? Nothing wrong with him being love. In fact, uh if you if
30:32 you look at Genesis chapter 2, it describes a beautiful situation in the
30:38 garden of Eden where God planted a garden. Put the man where he formed out
30:43 of the garden. He made every tree that was pleasant to I mean God is interested in satisfaction and happiness, good for
30:49 food. The tree of life was the middle of garden. Tree of knowledge, good evil. A river flowed out of Eden to water the
30:55 garden. It was divided in four rivers. The name of the first was Pishon. the one that float around the land of heavila. There's gold. Gold that and the
31:03 gold of the land was good. Delium all God is showering man with all the things
31:08 that will fulfill your desires. Nothing wrong with desires. Nothing wrong with falling in love. Nothing wrong with
31:13 wanting happiness. But the trouble is the fall. When the fall comes and the
31:19 man is chased out of the Garden of Eden, instead of love and care, he feels unloved, uncared. Is that honor and
31:25 respect? There's shame, unworthiness instead of power. He feels inadequate and incapable. Incompetent instead of
31:32 happiness, you get discontentment and unhappiness and sadness instead of security. We have insecurity and
31:37 anxiety. That is a situation of fall. And ever since you get out of the Garden of Eden,
31:44 we try to fulfill those desires by building our own world. Our own world
31:52 without God. But this is the tower of Babel. The tower of babel is emblematic of men creating their own world of life
32:00 partner, jobs, family, leisure so that those desires can ultimately be
32:08 fulfilled. And if you look at the relationship between Delilah and Samson,
32:13 it is a transactional relationship. You know why? He's looking to her for love,
32:20 sexual satisfaction, self-esteem because she makes him feel good, right? You go
32:26 to her. See, usually the mistresses treat the man better than the wife, right? Oh, uncle, you're so strong.
32:33 You're so rich, so wonderful. The wife say, "Hey, take the garbage out.
32:40 Yesterday you didn't take garbage out. How are you? Keep on telling you you won't change." You come back. You see
32:46 the wives miss it you know. So so so here but we have a transactional relationship. She builds up the
32:53 self-esteem but she's not genuine. When your wife tell you to take out your garbage man she is genuine.
32:60 So you better take it out happiness. So what happened is he's
33:05 actually using her and she's not the only woman in his life. She's the third woman isn't it? The first was his wife.
33:13 Then the second was a prostitute. You don't tell me that. I think they're more than three if you tell me. Look, definitely more than three, right? He's
33:20 using her and if she ever be stupid now, at least she's not the life quite smart. She's not He'll never think for a minute
33:26 that he actually cares for her. He's using her and in fact she uses him. She
33:32 wants money, prestige, defeating this p powerful Israelite judge and she wants
33:37 power. So this is a transexual relationship which we see very much in life itself, isn't it?
33:43 men and women use each other uh and and once they're addicted there's an idol.
33:48 This is David uh Foster Wallace who LA Times described as one of the most influential innovative writers of the
33:54 last 20 years and he's a non-Christian who's been addicted to everything under the sun, women, uh drugs, money and he
34:02 actually admitted if you worship money and things if they are where you tap
34:07 your real meaning in life then you will never have enough. You will never feel you have enough. That's the truth.
34:13 Worship your body and beauty and sexual and you will always feel ugly. When time
34:18 and age start to show, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. Because whatever you
34:23 worship, there will never never be enough. And so therefore, your desires
34:29 cannot be fulfilled by yourself. And so therefore, we live in a world that tantalizes in it. Have you seen the
34:36 McDonald's chicken? How many have tasted the McDonald's chicken? Right? Even you don't feel like taking chicken, you hear the ad,
34:45 right? I mean the ad is has almost a magnetic effect on me. You know, you go
34:52 every Monday I see movie, I hear and even though I am not hungry, I just
34:57 had lunch, right? I just had lunch. You I also feel like going
35:04 we live in a world where where it's actually tantalizing it. It's trying to entice us with all our desires. iPhone
35:11 is in trouble. So therefore, new iPhone looks even better than the last iPhone. We sell Mercedes-Benz must have woman's
35:17 woman doesn't come along with it. Right? Okay. But it's to, you know, fulfill our
35:22 desires for love and care, honor, and respect. Why? You know, because this is how the devil tries to move us along in
35:30 that direction. We're creating needs. This is what marketers write. What marketers now do is to hypnotize the
35:35 customer and turn it into a real need. satisfy it eventually create another need by introducing another product or
35:41 rejuvenating the current product. Why do you need to buy an iPhone every year now
35:46 iPhone 10? Right? Every year the the same iPhone works, isn't it? It tells you the time, tells you the calendar and
35:53 next year's another phone and another phone and another phone. Again, you are not meeting needs, you're creating needs
35:59 because we are a society tapped into the fulfillment of our desires. And that's
36:05 what Samson was into. Most powerful advertisement is free gift.
36:13 Ah free gift. I remember in Australia uh some of my student friends spend the
36:19 whole Sunday reading the newspaper and clipping out cutting out all you know what free gift coupon
36:26 because it's free I must go and get it right. And so you go to the supermarket and and you go and in fact you you feed
36:33 you know one of the biggest problems in this country is obesity. Why? Because everywhere you turn you feel that and we
36:41 eat because we have a desire. Uh this is the basil metabolic index of above 25
36:47 which is obesity in Malaysia. And Malaysia has the fattest people in Southeast Asia. See that Malaysia,
36:53 Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippine, Vietnam. We are the fattest. Why? Because our our
36:59 society is driven by desire. How much do we spend our GDP on on people who are
37:05 fat? Above every other country in Southeast Asia. Lastly, let me end.
37:11 So, so remember addiction is a I mean addiction
37:17 is going to be a problem. We are a society. We need to recognize that we're driven by desire. We're seduced by
37:24 success. And lastly, redemption is available. God is faithful even when we are faithless. And here you have him
37:33 bound. And when she began to torment him, his strength left him. And the Philistines are upon you, Samson. And he
37:39 woke from his sleep. And he said, "I will go out as other times and shake myself free." And he did not know that
37:44 the Lord had left him. It's such a sad situation that when he woke up and he
37:50 found himself bound, he started to break free. Just like I have done so tens and
37:56 thousands of times, I will do so again because now he's operating under his own
38:01 strength. And he didn't even realize that the Lord had left him.
38:08 And that is the saddest and most frightening part of this passage. When God has left him, he didn't even know.
38:17 Many of us worship in church for a long time far from God and you go through all
38:23 the motions and you may have left God already. You don't even realize because
38:30 black backsliding and spiritual apostasy is something so hidden you cannot see
38:35 it. It only knows that this is intervention. In fact, God allowed this to come upon Samson because God is
38:43 faithful. And here you have Samson have his eyes gouged out. The reason why he has his eyes gouged out and his strength
38:51 taken away is simply because the loss of sight because he lived his life by
38:57 sight. The loss of strength because he's lived his life by his gifts not for their purpose. See every time he goes he
39:04 gets in trouble. You know why? He opened his eyes. He went to Timna. He saw the daughter Philistine. He went to Gaza. He
39:12 saw a prostitute. He saw Delilah and he fell in love and so therefore sin
39:19 has its consequences. So if you live your life by sight the consequence is that he lost his sight. He lo lived his
39:27 life by his strength and the consequence of this is strength given to him for
39:33 the use to rule Israel. Instead he lost it and so therefore he is in jail. He's
39:41 reduced to a big clown. He's trashing uh grain. He's in deep strife. And then
39:50 Samson must have repented because he called to the Lord. Okay, only two times
39:55 he calls to the Lord. If you look in this whole passage, four chap three chapters, right? Once when he's going to die of thirst, he calls to the Lord in
40:03 the middle of desert. And the second time is when he is in the bowels of a
40:08 dungeon. He's reduced to being ridiculed as a clown, living his life blind, and
40:15 he actually calls out to God. Samson called to the Lord and said, "Oh Lord, please remember me and strengthen me
40:20 just this time, just this time. Oh God, there may be at once be avenged for the
40:25 Philistines for my two eyes." And he calls out to God. Um, and if you look,
40:31 if you look at Samson, I think here, here we have a picture of a wasted life.
40:36 See, he's specially chosen. Only three other women, Sarah, Rebecca, and Hannah,
40:42 infertile wombs. God brought a special baby out. And here he is uh specially
40:48 chosen, specially consecrated with the Nazarite vow, specially empowered, but
40:54 he never took his calling seriously. Never took his calling seriously. His whole life is about fulfilling his
41:01 desires. Never about the calling. And I and and the truth of the matter is Samson's life
41:09 is actually a mirror of the society in which he lived. The society in this in
41:14 which he lived Israel when they were in trouble with the Philistines never even bother to call back the Lord to repent.
41:20 You know, never even call for help with God. Every other time you look at other judges, Israel will call out to God.
41:27 This time Israel is so deep into secularism that they don't even realize
41:32 they're in trouble. They never call out. And actually Samson is a mirror image of his own society. A wasted life.
41:41 Specially chosen, specially consecrated, specially empowered. But you never take your calling seriously. And that's the
41:47 same with us, isn't it? We're chosen before, predestined, elected before the
41:53 foundation of the world, put upon this world in Patalai and Malaysia for a
41:59 particular purpose. But many of us are living wasted lives because we never take our calling seriously. We serve him
42:07 when it's convenient. We'll go when there's bakan, but we are not willing to
42:13 sacrifice. You know why? Because all we're doing every single time is fulfilling our desires. What we see, we
42:19 take, we like. And that's an indictment. We live in a society that's not very much different
42:26 from Samson. And we need to wake up to that. But society is in us. We cannot
42:32 keep on living just fulfilling our desires. And you see, but God works around our
42:40 flaws. You you see how God is using Samson to defeat the Philistines. But he
42:47 he does it in a way that's very different. He never fought a battle. He never led an army against the
42:53 Philistines. You know that he never led a single battle. God has to work around.
42:58 You know whose agenda? Samson's agenda. When Samson is free, then God has a chance to work. Look, when Philistines
43:05 pressure his wife to betray him, Samson kills 30 men for their clothes. The wife given to the best man, he burns the
43:11 grain fields and orchards. The Philistines kill his wife, he attacks the Philistines. The Judites hand him
43:17 over. Samson kills 10,000 men with the jawbone of the donkey. The Philistines surround him in Gaza. He carries the
43:23 gate away. Delilah betrays him and he kills in the end 3,000 people in temple.
43:29 See, God still fulfills his purpose by attacking the Philistines, but it has to
43:34 be around Samson's flaws. It's wonderful how God can even
43:39 use flawed heroes. And look at the power of God in Deborah and Barak. God used
43:48 10,000 men, a fraction of the people of Israel. Gideon 300 Samson 1.
43:58 In any situation, you know who the hero here is? It's God. The hero is not
44:05 Samson. The hero is God. And here you actually have Hebrews chapter 11. What
44:12 shall I say? This God still use flawed heroes. time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barack, Samson, Japa, David,
44:21 Samuel, the prophets who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, and
44:26 shut the mouths of life. I mean, we come to Samson, that's a very low bar, you know. Compare him to Abraham and all the
44:32 rest. But still, God by his grace uses flawed heroes. You know, while how did
44:40 Samson regain his strength? Anybody know? Was
44:46 it about the hair? I don't think it's about the hair
44:52 because his hair grew back, right? But this is why Samuel call to the Lord,
44:58 remember me, strengthen me. You think your hair grow back, huh? And you didn't call on God. You think he'd be strong
45:05 again? No. The the narrator is telling us it's all about the relationship. It's
45:11 not about the hair. It's not about your gift. It's about your relationship to
45:16 God. How you use that particular gift. You can see God in action in King David
45:22 and Apostle Peter. King David, King Saul, Peter and Judas. They're nice
45:29 contrast in it. King David fell. In fact, his sin is worse than
45:35 Saul. The spirit left Saul. He never came back because Saul never repented. David
45:42 murdered people, had adultery, but you know what it's they came back, they
45:47 repented. You see, messing up is a given. Peter
45:53 betrayed Jesus how many times? Judas how many times? Wow. Judas hang himself.
45:59 Judas never came back. It's not about messing up. Messing up. All of us messing up is a given. We all mess up.
46:07 But the issue is coming back. Redemption. We are flawed people. And yet, despite our flaws, God is gracious.
46:16 Look at what what David says. Have mercy on me according to your steadfast love.
46:22 According to abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. The turning point isn't David. It is
46:28 God. Because God has steadfast love. John and he said to Peter the third
46:33 time, "Simon, John, do you love me?" Peter was grieved because he said that to him the third time, "Do you love me?" And he said to him, "Lord, I know just
46:39 everything. you know everything uh that I love you Jesus said to him feed my sheep each one comes back God is the
46:47 hero messing up is basically a given so we live in a world which is confused let
46:53 me end with Bob Dylan's song if you remember this song how many times what's what I can't remember blowing in the
46:59 wind right should sing this song how many times must a man look up before he
47:04 sees the sky how many years must a man one man have before he can hear people cry die. Yes. How many deaths will it
47:11 take until he knows that too many people have died? The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind. The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind. Sad,
47:18 isn't it? You look up there and you see people die. You look up at the sky and you wonder why.
47:24 And if you don't believe in Jesus Christ, you're going to be looking for the answer in the wind.
47:31 That's sad, isn't it? Absolutely sad. Some people said, some theologians say
47:37 Samson is a prefigure of Christ. You know why? Because in the end, Samson pulled down
47:45 the two pillars and he served Israel by destroying 3,000 people. But if Samson
47:52 is a type of Christ, I would be very upset because Samson is nowhere near
47:58 Christ. He lived a life of privilege where he was chosen. But every every one
48:04 turn Samson was about himself. It's never about God. Even when he pulled down the two pillars, you know why he
48:11 pulled down the pillars? Was it for Israel? Was it for the honor of Yahweh? No, it was avenged by two eyes. He
48:18 killed 3,000 people to avenge his two eyes. Totally self-centered. When Jesus
48:24 Christ at the cross died for all of us, he lived a life
48:31 completely different. He I mean Samson is a foil of Jesus Christ is completely opposite empowered by the spirit and yet
48:40 he neglected his calling wasted his life. Jesus called by the spirit lived
48:47 for God's people, died for God's people, and it was love for his people that
48:54 drove him to the cross. That's a big difference in our lives. And for many of
49:00 us today, the challenge is Jesus, it doesn't matter where you've been. You
49:06 maybe some of us have lived a life like Samson, indulging our desires, living for our own desires. But like King
49:13 David, like Peter, we can come back and God is merciful. God will come back into
49:21 our lives. Let's pray. Father Lord, we just
49:28 we just wonder at your mercy and we see the lowest of the lows and
49:37 and we see Samson endowed with superhuman strength. And yet a life that is so blessed, so
49:46 full of potential is so wasted. We we think of the life that could have been if you had used his strength, his
49:52 superhuman strength to glorify you. And yet it could have been that much more.
49:59 Father Lord, we each of us come before you right now. We have been so blessed. You know why?
50:05 Because you sent your son to die for us on the cross. He gave his life. He suffered and died for each of us. We are
50:13 all like a Nazarite vow. We have been specially called and consecrated. We pray as we live in the society today
50:19 that we will not be living in a manner to fulfill our own desires but to live
50:25 and glorify your name. We ask this for Jesus sake. Amen.
