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00:01 I think I should say good morning. On June 6th, 1999,
00:09 27year-old Daniel Dukes went to SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida.
00:16 At the closing time, as all the other guests were leaving, he
00:22 climbed over a fence and hid himself. He stayed put until the park was empty.
00:30 And sometime during the night, he had made his way into the pool, the large swimming pool, where there was a
00:36 five-tonon killer well named Tikum. That's where he was being kept.
00:42 Daniel stripped down to his swimming trunks, folded his clothes neatly, and jumped into the pool.
00:50 Nobody uh knows for sure what happened next.
00:55 Some experts believe that the whale may have been startled by the man's sudden appearance.
01:01 Uh, and in his fear, the whale may have suddenly uh, dived towards the bottom,
01:06 creating a vortex that pulled Daniel under the water and rendered him
01:12 helpless and finally without any strength. Others believe it's more likely that the
01:18 whale thought the man was just a toy and dragged him around the pool for fun,
01:25 keeping him underwater until he drowned. Either way, Daniel Duke's lifeless body
01:32 was found the next morning draped over the whale's back.
01:39 That story is illustrative because uh sometimes we too climb over the fences
01:45 that God has erected in our lives not to necessarily wreak havoc and destruction
01:52 but just to have a little thrill, a little fun. The problem is that we underestimate the
01:59 dangers when we go over the fence outside the parameters that God has
02:05 established for us. We tend to stay just a little while longer uh than we
02:11 intended. But then we find that sin grabs us in its teeth and refuses to let
02:17 us go. We wind up going uh so much further than
02:22 we ever thought possible. Sin is like that. It thrills us uh until
02:29 it eventually kills us. It uh fascinates and then in the end it assassinates.
02:37 Samson was just like that. He was a fun-loving guy who was just out looking
02:43 for a good time. Uh we'll go over a couple of points
02:49 here, some lessons from the life of Samson.
02:57 Uh Samson was primarily a failure in his judgeship as he used the blessings and
03:02 resources of God for his own personal gain and fame and not for Israel's
03:09 deliverance. Samson used his own unique gifts for self-indulgence
03:15 and not for the glory of God. Uh Samson's sin habits ultimately led him
03:21 from apathy to apostasy uh such that he did not know that the spirit of the lord
03:27 had left him. Uh and this led him ultimately to a great public
03:32 humiliation. Samson was a reluctant hero. Yet despite his failure, he was still used to
03:39 accomplish heroic acts on behalf of God. God still used him in spite of those
03:46 failures and he is named in Hebrews faithful hall of fame in Hebrews chapter
03:53 11. This is uh a little map of uh Samson
04:01 during his own lifetime. And you can see he's just a little bit west of Jerusalem
04:06 uh in between these couple of small towns. And uh you can see here at the uh
04:13 the bottom left Gaza. I probably won't find the uh the uh let's see.
04:24 Okay, Gaz is in the lower left here. You might see it right by Samson part one. Uh this
04:31 is where the Philistines lived in that whole region. Uh as you know Samson was
04:36 given uh Samson's mother was given uh the decree that Samson should be a
04:42 Nazerite uh not just from a temporary period of time but his entire life and
04:48 in that he was to take uh no wine to eat no unclean thing and never to cut his
04:53 hair. Uh it's interesting that God uh first appeared to Samson's mother rather
04:59 than his father. I think the lesson there may be that sometimes uh women are more attentive to the word of the Lord,
05:06 to the spirit and the leading of the Lord than we are as men. Uh instructive for the ladies here, Samson is the the
05:13 perfect picture of a typical man. Uh we revel in our strength, particularly when
05:19 we're young. Sometimes when we get older, that changes to some of the other uh things that we've accomplished or
05:25 possessed in life. But uh Samson's a great picture of what it is to be a man.
05:31 Uh I want to show you just a couple of things here in this uh this is where Samson was
05:38 raised more or less. And I was raised in the mountains of northwest Arkansas. So I can I can relate to this. And to
05:45 understand where somebody is raised kind of gives you a sense of who they are as a person. Just down this valley is a
05:52 place called Timna. And Timna was where the uh start of some of the Philistine
05:57 uh area was within Israel on that map. And there was a lady down here that caught uh Samson's eye. And eventually
06:05 he took off towards uh this town called Sorak and uh uh found this lady that he
06:12 wanted for his wife, somebody that he should have never been allied with in the first place. Uh and so we see that
06:20 Samson starts to make compromises in his life. Uh it's interesting this whole
06:25 time uh about uh the life of Israel particularly in judges and the nation uh
06:33 being delivered by these various judges that the Lord gives to Israel that uh
06:38 Israel is actually in a different place in this cycle of uh uh apathy and
06:44 apostasy. Uh we see here that the consequences of the lack of a genuine repentance leads
06:51 to spiritual apathy and finally to apostasy or a departing from the way,
06:56 the truth and the life that is in God in Christ. Uh God is not to be trifled with
07:03 nor are his claims on our life and miracles do not sustain or uh
07:11 guarantee spiritual growth. And the third point I'd like to deal with is that God is faithful even when we are
07:18 not. The verse starts out in uh chapter uh verse one rather. And the children of
07:23 Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord. And the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines 40
07:31 years. So 40 years they were dealing with uh the Philistines as their
07:36 overlords. We've seen this several times now in the book of Judges where uh
07:42 Israel is leaving in peace and they are serving God and God is blessing and then
07:47 Israel does evil uh in the sight of God. God punishes Israel. Israel cries out to
07:54 God. God raises up a judge and a deliverer and ultimately delivers them. But there's something unique about this
08:01 particular uh passage of scripture in that we have the typical cycle. But
08:08 this is a little different. Uh this time in uh chapter 13, Israel doesn't cry out
08:15 to the Lord for deliverer. They become so accustomed uh living under the
08:22 oppression of the Philistines that they're now quite comfortable with it or they're appeasing or they're
08:27 compromising for the sake of security. We find that's very true sometimes in
08:33 our own lives. we go along to get along. And uh yet in spite of that, in spite of
08:38 their lack of repentance uh in this cycle of their 350 years,
08:44 they've constantly gone through this first cycle on the left. They've gotten to a place now where they're
08:49 indifferent. They're apathetic to God and they do not seek the Lord. God sends
08:55 a deliverer to them to save them for his own name's sake, for his righteousness,
09:01 because of his covenant with Israel.
09:06 So, uh, we find that they're in a period of apathy. And a very good general, uh,
09:12 definition of apathy is I just don't care. Apostasy on the other hand is a
09:17 little bit different in that uh apostasy is actually a pulling away from the
09:23 truth or what we know to be the truth. And so man's greatest problem is his
09:30 innate rebellion against God's authority. And the second is his pride
09:35 to humble himself in the sight of God so that he can uh be delivered or brought
09:40 back to God. So, there's this definition for apostasy here. I'm going to just move where I can read it a little
09:47 closer, but there's some elements in here. It's the making of a shipwreck of faith. It's the heart's departure from
09:54 the living God. It's returning to and becoming overcome by the world after a
10:00 previous escape from its pollutions through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. There are various
10:07 steps which precede apostasy. First, there is a looking back like Lot's wife
10:13 who though she had uh uh outwardly left Sodom yet her heart was still there.
10:19 Second, there is uh no there is a drawing back rather the requirements of
10:24 Christ are too uh exacting uh and uh no longer appeal to our heart. So we we
10:31 actually pull back. The third is a turning back. the path of
10:36 godliness is too narrow to suit the lusts of the flesh. And fourth, there is a falling back which is fatal that they
10:44 might go and fall backwards and be broken according to Isaiah 28:13. This
10:49 is a a quote from uh the great uh uh apologist and and Bible scholar Arthur
10:56 Pink. And so we find in the nation of Israel at this time that uh uh Samson comes on
11:03 the scene that uh Israel is actually uh gone so far from God that uh they they
11:09 have no desire to return. Have you ever been there? I mean do you see yourself
11:15 somewhere in this cycle? Perhaps you're in a place where God is blessing you and you're enjoying the the benefits of God.
11:22 Perhaps you're a little further along where you've taken God for granted. When you look at the life of Samson, he was a
11:29 man most blessed. I mean, like some of the other uh women in the Bible, his mother was barren. And yet, God chose to
11:36 bless Samson to anoint him uh even from the womb to set him apart for his own
11:42 service. And sometimes God does that in our lives, particularly when we first become
11:47 a Christian. God sets us aside for a purpose to advance the kingdom, for his own purposes.
11:54 And yet we we fall into this uh situation where we're so familiar with God that we just take him for granted.
12:01 The words that he gives us to guide our life uh is like a fence that's around
12:07 our life to protect us. But we look at the fence as we walk through life and the fence becomes very familiar to us.
12:14 As we grow, we become more comfortable with the fence and we think that the fence is really not that important. We
12:20 can cross the fence and there's no real danger. there's no real safety. But I submit to you that outside the fence
12:28 where God has said we should not go, there is great danger. And because of our own lusts, because of our own pride,
12:35 because of our apathy or maybe even our apostasy, uh we find that we have this
12:43 desire to uh uh experience or uh uh
12:49 journey beyond the fence. And it's a very dangerous place. There are some natural steps that lead from uh apathy
12:57 to apostasy. I want to see if you recognize uh any of them. First of all, there's a wrong attitude. That attitude
13:03 involves what we think about uh the nature of God and Jesus and uh the
13:10 nature of man, ourselves. You know, the scripture teaches that we ought not think more highly of ourselves than we
13:15 should. Sometimes I think uh our great difficulty in life is we have too low a
13:20 view of God and too high a view of ourselves and we become the focus of our
13:25 lives. I think Samson uh dealt with this. Another issue is that we have the wrong view of authority
13:32 particularly what God says and uh his claims that he makes on our life
13:38 after this uh uh attitude of uh uh this wrong attitude or this apathy and and we
13:45 don't care. we find that false teachers uh come in and they're eventually condoned and accepted uh inside the
13:52 congregation, people that are not teaching the truth. And I don't mean maybe a specific congregation, but in
13:58 the church at large and certainly you can see where that has happened through the years. And in just a moment, I'll
14:03 give you a couple of examples of where that has happened. Then we have a turning away from the truth
14:10 where excuse me, the truth is no longer accepted and a turning to false
14:15 doctrines. And finally, there is a a turning back towards the teachings of the world, the
14:22 very elemental things of the world. And uh this is where Samson found himself.
14:28 Here's a great verse I really love. It says, "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,
14:36 and the pride of the life, is not of the father, but is of the world, and the world passes away, and the lust thereof,
14:43 but he that does the will of God abides forever." I think many of us find that
14:48 uh one of these three areas, the lust of the uh flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life are kind of a a
14:55 besetting sin, something that captures us, something that captures our attention and draws us away from God.
15:02 I'll just show you graphically some of the steps to apostasy. And that is this matter of the wrong
15:09 attitudes uh false teachers turning away from the truth and a turn to false
15:16 doctrine. The important thing here is that uh there is no substitute for faithfulness.
15:23 I don't know why it is so difficult for us just to obey God. Uh we fight the
15:29 flesh. We fight our sin nature. We fight our humanity. But I'll remind you that
15:35 God has said obedience is better than sacrifice. And sometimes we get out there in life, we get so far away from
15:42 God in our journey uh that we find that we want to make this great overture
15:48 toward God. You know, we want to sacrifice something. We want to try to buy uh God's forgiveness again by our
15:55 obedience. It's kind of like Monoah, the father of Samson in the scripture here
16:00 where he meets God. Uh there's actually an occasion there called Theophanes
16:06 where there's an Old Testament appearance of Jesus Christ, the pre-incarnate Christ, the angel of the
16:12 Lord is the uh phrase that is used here in this chapter. And twice God appears
16:18 to first uh Monoah's wife and then second to Monoah himself. And uh he
16:25 gives them this uh decree about what is going to happen in the life of their son Samson. Excuse
16:33 me. Uh, next thing I want to share is the examples of uh, in church history of
16:40 apathy to apostasy. And I think many of these will be well known to you. But uh,
16:46 first I might cite the example of the Catholic Church and their departure from the faith. Uh, in in the sense that we
16:54 are Protestants for a reason. uh the church, the Catholic Church probably did
16:59 many good things originally but over the years up through about the sixth or seventh century there were a lot of
17:05 teachings that were brought into the church uh that are extra biblical. Some of these I would cite to you is the
17:12 nature of the church itself, their view of scripture, the Lord's supper, uh the role of Mary, purgatory
17:21 and works. And in many of these cases, they've left the fundamental teaching of
17:27 the scripture. They've added extracurricular or extra biblical, let me say, uh references and
17:34 rules. Uh, I visited a Catholic priest one time when I was about 18 or 19 years
17:41 old. Can I get that water? I'm coming off of a cold,
17:48 having a little bit of problem. But, uh, the priest told me one time, I said,
17:53 "Look, when the pope speaks for God as the vicor of Christ,
18:00 he's infallible. But what if he says something in this uh period of time that is against what the
18:08 Bible says? They're in disagreement. Who wins? That uh you know the uh the
18:14 area of primacy of the interpretation of scripture. Is it plainly what the Bible says or is it the pope's interpretation?
18:22 And he told me uh it's actually the pope's interpretation of the scripture.
18:27 The scripture tells us that no scripture is of private interpretation. right that uh it doesn't stand alone and
18:34 no what any one man says about the scripture is not necessarily the truth of the scripture so there is an issue
18:42 there in the protestant reformation you had the uh the five solas of scripture
18:48 and the five solas of scripture are scripture alone grace alone faith alone Christ alone and
18:57 the glory of God alone I'll show you a graphic in of that in just a moment. But
19:02 this is how we understand uh the traditional faith that we find faith in Christ. Uh by what the scripture says uh
19:11 it comes through grace alone not works. It comes through faith alone, Christ
19:16 alone and the glory of God for the glory of God alone. Another fairly well-known
19:22 example of a departure from the faith towards apostasy is the uh the
19:28 denominations that have come up through the years. Uh I might cite one example as Mormonism. Uh they have three books
19:35 that guide their uh religious practice and belief. Uh and they are the Book of
19:42 Mormon, the Doctrines and Covenants of the uh Book of Mormon, which actually
19:48 explain the Book of Mormon and the Pearl of Great Price. And then they use as the
19:54 Bible the King James version only. But they use these others to interpret the Bible. So they're extra biblical
20:01 teachings that go beyond what the Bible says. And uh they don't believe for instance in the trinity. They believe in
20:08 separate gods, three separate gods, not one god but three separate gods. And
20:13 that uh that the god is manifest in these three uh ways. And uh it's all a
20:19 part of their history. The other one is Jehovah's Witnesses where Jesus Christ uh is not eternal always existing as God
20:27 but he was created by God and born as a human but not as a deity not as God in
20:33 the flesh and Jesus was resurrected spiritually but not uh physically. So
20:39 these are teachings, these are departures from the historic faith of some very prominent, if you want to call
20:46 them denominations who loosely go under the name Christian, but when you look at what they actually teach, they're not
20:52 Christians. I would say to you, these people have gone outside the fence.
20:58 They're in a very dangerous area. And I would encourage you not to follow them
21:03 uh as a pastor and somebody who has your uh spiritual interest at heart.
21:09 By the way, if you want to pull this message off of the uh website, the
21:14 church website, there are references uh to all of these books uh all of these statements that I had made about the
21:21 different denominations. Here are the five solas where we uh as a
21:26 part of the reformation understand where salvation comes from. And I mentioned
21:32 these earlier. I know some of you like to take pictures or uh have this for discussion maybe
21:39 later at life group or something of that sort. Let's just look at a couple of verses about apostasy uh in the last
21:46 days. Now the spirit speaks expressly that in latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to deceitful
21:54 spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having
22:00 their conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God has created
22:08 to be received with thanksgiving of them who believe and know the truth. 1
22:13 Timothy 4 uh 1-3. And then in 2 Timothy 4 3 and 4, for the time will come when
22:21 they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they draw to
22:26 themselves teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and they shall be turned to
22:34 other myths. There are many, many people that fit this uh particular
22:39 uh group of people. The famous evangelist uh Vance Havner actually said the spirit
22:47 teaches or the scriptures teach that the age will end in anarchy, apostasy and
22:53 apathy. Anarchy in the world, apostasy in the professing church, and even
22:59 apathy in the true church. Because lawless lawlessness shall abound, the
23:05 love of many will wax cold. Men will turn from truth to fables. This is the
23:11 apostasy. This is the walking away from historical biblical Christianity.
23:17 And this is not uh uh or is this not a near-perfect picture of where we are in
23:22 the world today? There are so many uh false Christs, you know, people with the message that would take us away from the
23:30 truth. This is kind of what the nation of Israel was doing at the time. They were turning to false gods. They were
23:37 actually worshiping the gods of some of the lands that they were told to conquer. And Samson, who is being raised
23:44 up by God, sanctified, set apart as a Nazerite,
23:50 uh, for the purpose of delivering the nation of Israel, has his eye on a woman
23:56 of the Philistines in a village called Timna down the valley. I could just see
24:02 him in that earlier picture of the valley walking toward Timna thinking I'm going to get to see this girl. You know
24:09 that Samson was a a guy that was uh motivated by his lusts and by his flesh.
24:17 Uh second point is that miracles do not sustain spiritual growth. In Samson's
24:24 life, the miracle of his strength was one thing that came from God as a
24:29 special anointing or gift by God for Samson to use in the nation of Israel uh
24:35 for their deliverance. the uh the two appearances of Christ uh
24:43 during these miracles of Samson's family where uh Christ appeared to his uh mother and his father uh were to secure
24:51 the faithfulness of Samson and to commit to his vows and the fulfillment of those vows to deliver the nation of Israel.
24:59 Monoah uh sought to manipulate God in his supplication to the angel of the Lord.
25:06 Uh and Samson will repeal or repeat the same behavior in his adulthood. You know
25:12 when uh the angel of the Lord which is the Old Testament appearance of Christ uh came to Monoah. He asked if he would
25:19 come back a second time and Monoah asked the angel of Lord what is your name?
25:25 And uh he God wanted to know why why do you want to know my name? He said I'm wonderful. He actually used the phrase I
25:32 am which has great significance to those of us who uh understand the Old Testament scriptures. And it was thought
25:39 that by having this special knowledge of the name of God that he could manipulate
25:46 God or certainly manipulate those other uh people around him because of his
25:51 special knowledge. Sometimes we have uh professing teachers uh in the circle of
25:57 Christianity who claim a special knowledge. And I would uh submit to you there's great danger uh when that
26:04 happens. There are some uh ways uh what what excuse me what are some of the ways
26:10 that we try to manipulate God? Uh Monoah asked the angel of the Lord to please
26:15 stay and let me make a sacrifice for you here in chapter 13.
26:20 Uh he's trying to barter with God. He's trying to make a deal with God and have God stay a little longer. Uh
26:28 when I think about ways that we sometimes try to manipulate God, I think of the uh the prosperity gospel uh that
26:36 deals with personal health and wealth. And uh it's a a way of testing God with
26:42 pledges of personal faithfulness based on uh his deliverance or provision. Have
26:48 you ever gotten to a point in your life where life was difficult and you started to make a deal with God? You said, "God,
26:54 if you will deliver me from this uh health issue or this financial issue or
27:00 an issue with my children, then I will do uh something else. I will follow
27:06 you." This is a way of testing God or trying to make a deal with God. And it's all too human. I think uh later when we
27:14 find that Samson has been uh taken by Delilah and he's lost the uh the presence of the Lord in his life and his
27:20 power and his strength, he probably had a lot of time to think about what it would be like to get that power back.
27:28 And uh I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't make some deals with God about
27:33 having the power of God returned to his life. This seems all too common a human
27:38 uh situation. Samson did not uh hold to his vows of
27:44 separation. Uh in chapter 14:10 there's a uh reference to him having a party, a
27:51 feast uh which implies that there was probably wine at that feast and as a
27:56 Nazerite he was not supposed to do that. This was a party where he was going to take Timna as his wife.
28:03 And so we see that Samson has constantly made these compromises and these concessions. Now, I understand that if
28:10 you're living under the the uh the uh governorship, if you will, of an
28:17 oppressive people like the Philistines at that time, that you might in the sake
28:22 of peace and safety make compromises. uh that may be all too true in in some
28:29 countries around the world where you're not uh let's say you're a minority religion or a minority race or something
28:36 like that and you feel the oppressive weight of government. It's very easy to make these concessions and to be at
28:42 peace and not rock the boat as it were. We find also that Samson uses uh many of
28:49 the blessings uh of God, the provisions of God, the miracles of God in his own
28:55 life for his own conquests, for his own fame and lusts. And Samson became quite
29:01 the figure uh in his day because of his strength and some of the uh the great
29:07 feats that he performed. I'm not going to try to go into chapter 14 and 15 and 16. Uh I'm going to try to limit my
29:14 comments today just to uh chapter 13. The spiritual apathy which Samson
29:21 displayed uh uh actually delayed the purpose of God in defeating the Philistines and
29:28 delivering them from the Philistines. And uh actually the deliverance of God
29:34 didn't come until King David. In point of fact, the Philistines are still in that area today. uh we know them as the
29:41 Palestinians uh that are in the area of Gaza. And because they never dealt with uh the
29:48 Philistines as God had instructed them to at that time, they have been a constant uh there's been a constant
29:55 state of conflict between the Palestinians and the Israeli people. They did not obey God. They wandered
30:02 outside the fence and they've lived with those consequences to this day. Now, can any of you think of another story about
30:09 another Philistine that created a problem for them some years later?
30:17 David and Goliath. Goliath was from Gath, one of the five Philistine cities. And because Samson
30:25 took all the blessings of God and consumed them on his own lusts, the
30:30 strength that God gave him, and he did not deal with the Philistines and see the deliverance of Israel, David had to
30:37 fight Goliath. And that continues until this day. There is a spiritual lesson in that. And that
30:44 lesson is that when God tells us to deal with something, we should obey instead
30:50 of trying to make uh uh compromises and rationalizations and justifications in
30:55 our own mind about why we should not do something. And you know, sometimes the Philistines, if I can use that word
31:02 symbolically in this sense, sometimes they're very daunting. Sometimes they uh cause great fear and trepidation in our
31:09 lives. We don't want to challenge uh what seems to be to us a problem or a threat. And yet God will give us the
31:17 power just as he gave Samson, just as he gave uh David to deliver the symbolic
31:23 Philistine into our hand if we have faith, if we exercise obedience to the
31:30 word of God.
31:36 Some other comments about the uh the miracles. Uh sometimes we have a cynical
31:42 and unbelieving attitude which results in a personal verification at every
31:48 turn. Do you know uh uh let's say faiths or denominations
31:55 which uh uh put a great emphasis on miracles and the performance of
31:60 miracles. I think we can all relate to that at some level or another. Why do people
32:06 need to see miracles? It's actually a sign of unbelief when we
32:11 can't accept the word of God and we we say to God in effect, "Show me,
32:18 you know, God, do this for me. Sorry. Show me what it is that you would uh uh
32:26 do to confirm your word or to confirm your presence.
32:32 And so it's actually a need of un uh an indication of unbelief. And the issue
32:37 with miracles is uh because we're human, we always need another one. And that
32:44 that creates a bit of a problem. It creates a dependency on the miracle itself. And the emphasis sometimes is on
32:51 the miracle rather than the miracle worker or the miracle giver.
32:60 Next thing is uh I'm going to give you some illustrations here of these miracles. Uh first Monoah's request to
33:08 see the angel of the lord return. You know he came the first time uh to his wife and then uh he asked this angel of
33:15 the lord to return to him again uh to speak to them again. And it amazes me
33:20 that God actually came back a second time. But you know what? The in the second appearance where he came to the
33:27 wife first and then she ran and got Monoah and brought him uh to meet the angel of the Lord. The angel of the Lord
33:34 did not have anything new to say. The word that he gave to his wife was the same word that he gave here. I I would
33:41 submit to you that God's word really hasn't changed that much through the years.
33:46 And what he told us in both the Old and the New Testament is something that we can rely on. We don't need a new
33:52 miracle. Do you know the scripture tells us, I believe it is in Colossians, that we're blessed with all heavenly
33:58 blessings in Christ Jesus. Christ is all we need.
34:04 What we really need in our lives is for Christ to have more of us. And sometimes
34:10 we get that focus wrong. We don't need uh the miracles. We've already gotten the miracle of God in the flesh, of
34:17 salvation because of the finished work of Christ on the cross. And we need to trust that miracle and live in the power
34:23 of his word according to his degrees decrees rather.
34:32 Uh false repentance does not restore the blessings and deliverance of God. However, God is always faithful to his
34:39 word. You know, sometimes as Christians, if we've been Christians for a long time, we kind of half-heartedly repent
34:47 when God confronts us with our sin. Sometimes we sin and we have sin habits.
34:53 Sin that captures us and a sin that we can't make a a a firm full break from
34:60 and it keeps coming back and we have to deal with it in one form or another and we repent. But I want you to know that
35:07 God knows your heart and God can't be trifled with. He knows what true repentance is. He knows what a broken
35:14 and a contrite heart is. And and God will not despise that. But I'd also tell you that God's purposes can't be delayed
35:22 due to our unbelief or they can be rather they can be delayed but ultimately they will not be thwarted. Uh
35:28 God has a purpose for your life, a plan for your life. He has a mission that he wants you to accomplish just like he
35:35 wanted Samson to accomplish. But you have a role in that. You're not passive. You're active. You have a decision to
35:42 make whether you're going to cooperate with God to see the purpose and plan of God, the mission for your life uh become
35:49 a reality. And if you don't uh if you don't fulfill that purpose and mission, it doesn't
35:55 mean that God's plan has changed, the Bible tells us that the gifts and the callings of God are without repentance.
36:01 He doesn't change his mind. when he made a claim on your life, uh, he intends to fulfill that claim, but he doesn't force
36:09 you to do it. And so, we all have a role to respond correctly to God.
36:18 Spiritual blessings can be squandered and we see this clearly in the life of Christ. Now, my question to you is, how
36:24 do we sometimes squander the spiritual blessings that God has given us? You
36:30 know, we've all got great gifts. In this case, you have the two the theophanes of
36:35 Christ prior to Samson's birth and both to the the mother and the father.
36:42 And we see the consecration and the sanctification of san of Samson through
36:47 his Nazerite vows. There clearly was an anointing of God on Samson's life and
36:53 God chose him uh before he was born for a purpose. I want to tell you that God
36:59 chose each one of you. If you're in the family of God, if you belong to Jesus Christ, he chose you. You know the song
37:06 we sang a little earlier, I am chosen, not forsaken. I am who you say I am.
37:13 That's a pretty powerful song in light of this uh this verse today. Uh what is
37:19 it? I am. What's the next part? Why? Can you help me after? Uh oh, he's coming
37:26 in. What is the verse after that?
37:33 And then you are for me, not against me. I am who
37:38 you say I am. Isn't that powerful? God is for us. God wants to bless our lives.
37:45 He wants to use us to further his kingdom. He doesn't want to hurt us.
37:51 And yet, we think that by serving God, we're going to miss out on something. You know, that we're not going to be
37:57 fulfilled. that life is not going to be exciting or thrilling. I can tell you each time I have followed God, my life
38:04 has been exciting and thrilling and satisfying. And each time I go out beyond the fence,
38:12 kind of do my own thing, make my own decisions, there's great uh difficulty often
38:18 encountered, sometimes great frustration and great pain.
38:23 and and I just ask you to consider that and and avoid that by being obedient to
38:28 Christ. Uh Samson had incredible strength and he displayed these feats of
38:35 strength. But the interesting thing was Samson was probably one of the most promising of all the judges and the
38:42 least effective. I mean he used his strength and his gifts, his special anointing on himself.
38:51 Nothing really changed in the life of Israel. Not until he pulled the uh the towers
38:57 down at Gaza uh in his death. He was a a uh a desperate warrior at the end.
39:06 And he was kind of defeated throughout a good part of his life even though he had these temporary great victories.
39:15 God is faithful even when we're not is the third lesson that we can learn from this. And we learn that because of the
39:21 uh condition of the uh the people uh who had no desire for repentance. They were
39:26 basically uh spiritually apathetic. And yet God shows up and he continues to
39:32 do his work in uh the life of Samson in our life. Uh the uh the most final or
39:40 excuse me, one of the uh one of the miracles that was performed is actually the uh the barren uh woman Samson's
39:47 mother giving birth. These are just some other examples where God did the same thing. And God created uh or appeared
39:55 not once but twice to Samson's parents with this promise that he would be a special uh person and a deliverer. And
40:03 uh Samson uh was to fulfill this uh purpose and potential by delivering the
40:09 nation of Israel. But because of his uh spiritual apathy which you know we all
40:15 face as well, it can zap us of our desires, our spiritual desires and rob us of our intimacy with God and our
40:22 confidence in God and what God can do in our lives. But yet God will not despise
40:28 a uh a contrite heart and a broken heart. And so sometimes when we live uh
40:34 our lives, we're in the comfort of uh compromise and apathy. we really just
40:40 don't care that much about the things of God. They're not holy and consecrated. They're not high and lifted up. And as a
40:47 consequence, we just follow our own uh desires and flesh. And while Samson is
40:52 imperfect and unfaithful, he's viewed in these uh uh passages of uh scripture as
40:59 a uh a conflicted deliverer, somebody who ultimately doesn't satisfy uh the
41:04 purpose for which he was born. Jesus is everything that Samson is not.
41:11 Jesus is the complete deliverer who uh completed and fulfilled the will of God.
41:18 And in conclusion, no other deliverer in the book of Judges masses Samson's
41:24 potential. And I would ask you, what is your potential?
41:29 What is your potential for the kingdom? What claims of God has he made on your life? And to what end?
41:37 What about delivering people that God has entrusted into your life, your family, your friends?
41:44 You know, the scripture teaches that we're all kind of like a watchman on the wall in defense of the city. And uh
41:51 there are people that won't ever know Christ if you don't share Christ and live Christ in front of them. I would
41:59 submit to you that's part of everyone's purpose that's here once you become a Christian is to share your faith with
42:06 others so that they too can be delivered whether it's loved ones, friends or co-workers.
42:13 In spite of all of these advantages that Samson had and was given by God, the
42:18 special attention that he was given by God, uh he accomplishes less on the
42:24 behalf of the people than all the preceding judges. So what has God enabled you to accomplish for the
42:31 kingdom and are you accomplishing it? Do you even feel a burden to do what God
42:36 has called you to do? If not, you might be in that same uh condition that Israel
42:42 was in uh in that you're living in a state of apathy. But nevertheless, God
42:47 can still deliver you. Uh you just have to have this heart of repentance.
42:54 The potential for Christians today is probably as great as it has ever been in
42:60 the history of man. Uh we have so many resources that God has gifted us with.
43:06 uh health, finances, technology, spiritual blessings. Uh what are we
43:11 doing with those resources that God gives us? Tragically, most of our resources are
43:17 just used on ourselves. God blesses us with uh financial strength or a certain
43:24 knowledge and instead of actually ministering in the power of the spirit, we just consume those on our own
43:30 desires. Uh maybe as teachers we relish in the uh the fact that we know so much.
43:37 Uh pride puffs up and the scripture warns us not to be uh many teachers
43:44 and yet there is a opportunity to see people saved and delivered from the uh the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom
43:50 of light. And so what are you doing with the resources that you have been given?
43:56 And are you faithful to your potential in Christ? And if not, why not?
44:02 And last, will we both uh you and I measure up to
44:09 the potential that God has given us? Have you surrendered all things uh at
44:14 your disposal in your life to the cause of Christ? Have you placed it on the altar of
44:20 sacrifice?
44:34 Is it on? Okay, let's face it, friends.
44:40 I don't think it's on, is it? It is on. Okay, I can't hear myself up here.
44:46 Let Let's face it. Uh, with God's help, we're capable of truly great things, but
44:52 we're never more than one bad choice away from our downfall and humiliation. Think about that.
44:58 One bad decision can result in the destruction of a lifetime of purpose.
45:06 By this time tomorrow, any one of us could be broken, humiliated, and devastated by sin.
45:13 But it doesn't have to happen. And by understanding who we are and the subtle tendencies that we face to compromise
45:19 our morality and our faith uh we can be broken
45:28 by committing ourselves holy to God who called us to serve him. We can fulfill our calling and be faithful even unto
45:35 death. God has commanded and demands of us that we should surrender our all to
45:41 him and live holy lives fit for his use and for his purpose for his kingdom and
45:47 not our own. And I think that is the lesson that we draw from the the early part of the life of Samson. We'll have
45:54 the worship team come up and lead us in a invitational song.
