13 and the Bible reads and the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of
the Lord and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty
years there was a certain man of Zora the family of the day-nights whose
name was Manoah and his wife was barren and bare not the angel of the
Lord appeared unto the woman and said unto her behold now thou art barren
and barest not thou shalt conceive and barest son now therefore beware I
pray thee and drink not wine nor strong drink and eat not any unclean
thing for lo thou shalt conceive and barest son and no razor shall come on
his head for the children shall be in Nazarite unto God from the womb and he
shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines then the
woman came and told her husband saying a man of God came unto me and his
countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God very terrible but I
asked him not whence he was neither told me he his name but he said unto me
behold thou shalt conceive and barest son and now drink no wine or strong
drink neither eat any unclean thing for the child shall be a Nazarite to God
from the womb to the day of his death then Manoah entreated the Lord
and said oh my lord let the man of God which thou did send come again
unto us and teach us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born
God harken to the voice of Manoah and the angel of God came again
unto the woman as she sat in the field but Manoah her husband was not
with her the woman made haste and ran and showed her husband and said unto
him behold the man hath appeared unto me that came unto me the other day and
Manoah rose and went after his wife and came to the man and said unto
him art thou the man that spake us unto the woman and he said I am
Manoah said now let thy words come to pass how we shall order the child
and how shall we do unto him and the angel of the Lord said unto Manoah
of all that I said unto the woman let her beware she may not eat of
anything that cometh of the vine neither let her drink wine or strong
drink nor any unclean thing all that I commanded her let her observe and Manoah
said unto the angel of the Lord I pray thee let us detain thee until we
shall have made ready a kid for thee and the angel of the Lord said unto
Manoah though thou detain me I will not eat of thy bread and if thou
will offer a burnt offering that must offer it unto the Lord for Manoah
knew not that the angel was an angel of the Lord that he was an angel of
the Lord and Manoah said unto the angel of the Lord what is thy name that when
thy sayings come to pass we may do the honor the angel Lord said unto
him why askest thou thus after my name seeing it as a secret so Manoah
took a kid and a meat offering and offered it upon a rock unto the Lord
and the angel did wondrously and Manoah said and his wife looked on for
it came to pass when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar that
the angel Lord ascended in a flame of the altar and Manoah and his wife
looked on it and fell on their faces to the ground but the angel the Lord did
not did no more appear to Manoah and to his wife that Manoah knew that he
was not that he was an angel of the Lord and Manoah said unto his wife we
shall surely die because we have seen God but his wife said unto him if
the Lord were pleased to kill us he would have not received a burnt
offering and a meat offering at our hands now that we have showed us all
these things nor would at this time have told us such things as these the
woman bearish son and called his name Samson and the child grew the Lord
blessed him and the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the camp
of Dan between Zorah and Eshtael let's pray dear Lord God thank you for
this church you've given us Lord thank you for the King James Bible Lord
and we thank you for pastor we pray that you bless him right now fill him with
the Holy Spirit and give him boldness to preach your word Lord and I just
bless this whole aspect of the service Lord and we pray this all in Jesus
name amen amen okay we're in Judges chapter 13 and look down your
Bibles of verse number three it says the angel of the Lord appeared unto
the woman and said unto her behold that behold now thou are barren and
bearest not but thou shalt conceive and bury son now therefore beware I
pray thee and drink not wine nor strong drink and eat not anything any
unclean thing for lo thou shalt conceive and bear son and no razor
shall come on his head but the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the
womb and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the
Philistines what I want to preach on this evening is the subject of the
Nazarite vow the Nazarite vow and if you could please turn to go to
numbers chapter 6 if you would number chapter 6 of course judges chapter 13
is a great example of someone who is under the Nazarite vow it's an
extreme example of that in fact because of the fact that we're referring to
Samson and Samson was not an adult when he took the Nazarite vow it wasn't
something that he did under his own volition it's actually something that God
imposed upon him from the womb even to the point where the guidelines that
were supposed to be observed when someone took the Nazarite vow was
given to his mother because obviously he was still in the womb at the time
and it says that he shall be a Nazarite from the womb essentially all the
days of his life so therefore his mother had to abide by those strict guidelines
that you have regarding the Nazarite vow now we'll come back to judges 13
in just a bit because we're gonna be talking about Samson throughout the
sermon but let's discuss what is a Nazarite vow let me give you a
definition here of what it is a Nazarite vow is essentially an oath
with very austere guidelines and the Bible talks a lot about oaths it talks a
lot about vows but the Nazarite vow on the other hand has a lot of strict rules
very austere principles that someone has to abide by if they're going to
take this vow unto the Lord this what's known as a Nazarite vow and
there's quite a bit of people that have taken the Nazarite vow in the
Bible we think of for example Paul right and the reason we know that Paul
took upon himself the Nazarite vow is because in Acts chapter 18 18 it says
this and Paul after this Terry there yet a good while and then then took his
leave of the brethren and sailed thence into Syria and within Priscilla and
Aquila having shorn his head and Chantria for he had a vow essentially
showing us that sometime prior to that he did take upon himself the Nazarite
vow because at the conclusion of fulfilling that vow one was supposed to
shave their head that's basically what shorn means to shave their head once
the vow had been complete so we see Paul taking the Nazarite vow we see of
course Samson having that Nazarite vow from his birth you also have Samuel
right having that Nazarite vow and I'm gonna explain to you what is so
unique about this particular vowel in comparison to other vowels in the
Bible now let me give you some guidelines regarding just other vowels
it says in Ecclesiastes chapter 5 you don't have to turn it let me read you
these passages Ecclesiastes 5 verse 4 says when thou vows the vow unto God
defer not to pay it for he hath no pleasure in fools pay that thou hast
vowed it's saying so essentially a vow in the Bible is often closely
associated with some sort of transaction you're promising to pay a
certain amount of money you're promising to owe someone a certain
amount of money and the Bible tells us that if you make that vow if you
promise to give that money if you promise to give that oath you better not
defer to pay it in other words you better keep your word okay and the
Bible tells us that God has no pleasure in fools implying that the
person who makes the vow makes an oath to pay something or to give a
certain amount of money to a person an organization but does not keep it he's a
fool in God's eyes it goes on to say better is it that thou shouldest not
vow then now shouldest vow and not pay suffer not thy mouth to cause thy
flesh to sin neither say thou before the angel that it was an error where
fore should God be angry at thy voice and destroy the work of thine
hands so what this is showing us here is that God takes vows and owes
very seriously okay you think of for example the vows that we make when we
get married right the covenant vows that we make before the Lord when we
get married you know you never want to take that lightly and think to
yourself well you know I know that's what I said when we got married but
now I've had a change of heart no you can't just violate your vows like
that especially if you've made a covenant before the Lord don't be a
fool defer not to pay it keep your vows until death do you part that's
what the Bible teaches us and so obviously we know that God takes this
very serious and when I think of this particular passage if I can go off on
this in just a little bit you know I think of old IFB churches that
enforce or kind of propose vows you know at youth conferences or even for
missions and building givings where they literally have someone like sign
over their life like this is the amount I'm gonna give every single
month or it's just like come to the altar and make this particular decision
and by the way not just youth conferences just services in general
someone preaches the sermon is like come to the altar and one of the
reasons that altar calls are very much unbiblical is because you're
essentially causing people to make vows that they're probably not gonna keep
okay someone comes to the altar just like I will never drink alcohol ever
again I vow unto you Lord and then they have a relapse and it's just
like you're a fool you know you basically made a vow and an oath to God
to never do this again and yet you relapse or you know I vow that I'm
gonna go to the mission field I give an oath that I'm gonna go into
full-time Christian ministry and then they never do it okay and so you know
the altar call has very much dwindled the importance and severity of what an
oath is according to the Bible people don't take them serious anymore
even within churches obviously people out in the world don't take oaths and
vows serious but even more so within churches because it's been diluted by
churches that cause people to make vows and oaths at the altar and they're
not necessarily expected to keep it okay and so what God is teaching us is
that if you make a vow or an oath you better keep it defer not to pay it
don't be a fool and you can't say before the angel oh it was in error
well sorry you got to keep whatever you said let your yay be yay and nay
be nay and in fact let me read to you from Matthew 5 33 it says again you
have heard that have been said of them by old of old time thou shalt not
forswear thyself but thou shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths but I say
unto you swear not at all neither by heaven for it is God's throne nor by the
earth for it is his footstool neither by Jerusalem for it is the city of the
great King neither shalt thou swear by thy head because thou canst not make
one hair white or black but let your communication be yay yay nay nay for
whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil the Bible says in other words
don't be presumptuous when you make these types of oaths if you make an
oath if you make a vow you better make sure that you've counted the cost
and then you can complete whatever it is that you claim you're gonna do okay
and so that is essentially what God's teaching is on vows and oaths and
obviously there's a lot of principles in the Old Testament under the
Levitical law that for example if a daughter who lives under her father's
household makes a certain vow you know the dad can essentially veto power over
that and say you know what she's not gonna do that I'm gonna make that null
and void because she's still under her father's authority understand now we
see people in the Bible taking a Nazarite vow we know what a vow is
according to the Bible now let me answer this particular question before
I get into my main points and that is was Jesus a Nazarite okay
a lot of this is this is very a very popular take on Jesus they'll
claim that he's a Nazarite and it's for two reasons okay by the way how
many you've ever heard that like oh Jesus was a Nazarite okay reason
number one is because he's a Nazarene but here's the thing though Nazareth
is a is a geographical location Nazarite is a vow okay it's not a group
of people and ethnicity a group of people belonging to a specific
geographical location in Israel that's something else and someone of know
someone who's a Nazarene is of Nazareth okay and so the I know they
sound the same okay so if you've been mistaken in that area I completely
understand but now you know Nazarite and Nazarene are two completely
different things but secondly people will say that Jesus Christ was a
Nazarite because they have this inordinate obsession over Jesus having
long hair you know they've invested in so many portraits and they've had so
many dreams about Jesus or whatever but you know in the mind of the average
Christian they probably think Jesus had long hair why because that is the
image that is constantly being put forth not only by the Roman Catholic
Church Orthodox but even Christians who have adopted that image from the
Catholics and Orthodox Orthodox churches that you know where Jesus is
this Anglo-Saxon you know person this six-foot Anglo-Saxon with long
luxurious hair wearing a dress and he has like a goatee or something you
know and you know if you if you were a Catholic a former Catholic you
know what I'm talking about your mom or your grandma probably had a picture
like this and it's always just this you know this protruding heart for
them for whatever reason has a crown of thorns around the heart you know and
it's all it's like bleeding and then he's all he's all soft he's just like
really feminine and for some reason he does he does one of these okay and then
he has like blue eyes it's like kind of first century Israelite is that
that's no Israel I've ever seen you know and and not only that but it's
like that's no Israelite that the Bible describes either okay it's like a
European dude it's like Caesar Borgia is what it is but you know people take
this they're very offended when they hear things like that because they want
Jesus to have long hair I mean that's like how they view him as having long
hair so they'll often say yeah he's a Nazarite because the Nazarite vow would
require for you to grow out your hair and so therefore Jesus was a
Nazarite that's what they'll say but obviously there's a couple problems
with this number one is that the Bible says that it is a shame for a man
to have long hair okay and it's obviously sinful to have long hair according to
the Bible because God likes distinctions between genders and he has
given long hair to the woman as a covering and he does not want men to
have long hair because of the fact that they're men they should have a
masculine appearance to make a distinction of whether they're male or
female and so Jesus Christ did not have long hair because he's not gonna
violate the Bible number one but also number two if you think about it you
know when you when you when we read these qualifications or these
stipulations on those who have taken a Nazarite vow they couldn't drink wine
well Jesus drank wine and in fact he turned the water into wine and I'm
referring to a non-alcoholic beverage but let's just say for a second that
you know let's say you know let's say Jesus drank alcohol which we don't
believe that let's say he turned the water into alcohol which we don't
believe that the Nazarite vow forbids the drinking of alcohol and
non-alcoholic beverages okay and we know that Jesus didn't drink alcohol but
we do know that he did drink juice because we see we see that being
recorded and so he drank wine he didn't have long hair and another
simulation on the Nazarite vow is that they were not allowed to come near a
dead body or to touch a dead body well Jesus Christ was around a lot of
dead people he brought a lot of dead people back to life and he touched the
beer where you had the son of the woman who was dead and he brought her
back to life you know there's tons of people who died around him who he
brought back to life that would be an immediate violation of the Nazarite vow
right then and there okay and so no Jesus Christ was not a Nazarite he
was a Nazarene he did not take a Nazarite vow now his cousin on the
other hand did right because you have John the Baptist you know he was a
Nazarite from the womb and he remained a Nazarite up until the point where
they decapitated him and he died he was essentially a Nazarite all the way
through his life and so that can be said of John the Baptist but it cannot
be said of Jesus Christ okay so I just want to make that very clear now
let's look at what are the stipulations what does the Bible say
about the Nazarite vow and some of the principles that we can learn from
look at verse number one of Numbers chapter 6 it says the Lord speaking to
Moses saying speak unto the children of Israel and saying to them when either
man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite to separate
themselves unto the Lord and we'll stop there so the first thing I want
you to notice is the fact that according to number chapter 6 in verse
2 man or woman can participate in this particular vow and what I believe this
vow is specifically for is actually to be consecrated unto the Lord or another
way of saying is to be closer to God okay so this is a vow that people
would have would essentially take impose upon themselves in order to draw
them closer to God and when you look at the examples that are given to
people have taken the Nazarite vow it's typically people who are being
called to a great work okay because Samson was a Nazarite and he was
called to be a judge he did a lot of great exploits right you have Samuel who
took the Nazarite who had the Nazarite vow on him and he was a judge he did
a great many exploits you have John the Baptist who was a Nazarite and he
did he was the forerunner of Jesus Christ and yes you could even apply it
to the Apostle Paul who took the Nazarite vow and he did some of the
greatest works amongst the Apostles in the New Testament so it's often if you
look at it you know it's a it's a vow that someone takes in order to draw
them closer to God so that God's hand can be on them so they can be
consecrated to a specific work okay now a great way to kind of compare this
would be to the spiritual practice of fasting okay now fasting in the Bible
is what I would call a an accessory spiritual discipline okay and what is
that well you know if you work out for example if you go to the gym you
you have like your main lifts but then there are accessory lifts right you know
there's the machines that you do okay the the cables and all these other
things those are accessories that help you with your main lifts at least
some of them do not all of them you know you do accessory dumbbell chest
press incline decline does anybody know what I'm talking about here you guys
are giving me the floor right there there okay you know you do these
accessory workouts to kind of assist you with your main lifts they're not
necessarily required but they do assist you and help you to advance as a
lifter well the same thing is with fasting it's not commanded for you to
do it in the Bible fasting is not something that God imposes upon you to
do okay however it's like an accessory discipline spiritual discipline that
could only help your spiritual life and I'm referring to not necessarily
fasting for health reasons a lot of people in our church a lot of people
around who now you know fasting has become like a popular thing in our
culture now people are seeing the benefits of fasting and it's definitely
beneficial for your health and and to fix your body things of that nature
but when we talk when we talk about fasting from a spiritual
perspective going without food and replacing it with reading the Bible or
prayer and doing that before before the Lord you're essentially doing it to
get closer to God you know instead of eating you would pray instead of
eating you would read the Bible it's essentially your sacrifice that you're
making in order to get closer to God and in the Bible when people would fast
they wouldn't fast for these incredible amount of days you know it
would often be a meal a day you do have examples of extreme fasting but
they're not very common in the Bible okay the most common the most
extreme one that we know about is from Jesus who fasted 40 days and 40
nights and we're just talking about this outside there's a pastor out in San
Diego San Diego area I remember years ago you know he fasted for 40 days and 40
nights and you know and it's just like well there goes your reward
because he told us all that he fasted for 40 days and 40 nights from the
pulpit and it's just like oh wow you know well there goes all that work
because that's the way fasting works is you're not supposed to tell anybody
if you want the reward what you're looking for and so you know that's an
extreme case but I don't believe God wants us to fast for that long I don't
think he's imposing that upon us it's something that you can impose upon
yourself if you're trying to get closer to God if you're if you need a
particular prayer answered and often I'll tell people this if they're if
they're going through a difficult time or they need an answer to prayer
maybe there's a like a huge need in their life and they come to me and
they're just like you know I don't know what to do often tell them pray
and fast now a lot of people I don't think take my advice because it's hard
for people to fast sometimes but I tell them I said you should pray and fast
about it you know and and you know fast the meal fast two meals fast the
meal every week you know and take that time to actually pray into the
Lord because it is an accessory discipline that does work and you
know you in a sense you can't get God's attention because you're going
without in order to get something answered so it's very similar to the
practice of fasting in the Bible and typically accompanies a person who is
endeavoring to accomplish something big for God now look at verse number three
let's get into the specifics here of the Nazariah ballad says he got this
is God giving these stipulations here he says he shall separate himself
from wine and strong drink and shall drink no vinegar of wine or vinegar
of strong drink neither shall he drink any liquors of grapes nor eat moist
grapes or dried all the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is
made of the vine tree from the kernels even to the husks so point
number one of what the Nazariah vow was about is to get closer to God
point number two was that the Nazarites were to abstain from sinful
and permissible pleasures so they're not only it's it's very obvious that
they're not supposed to be involved in anything sinful like drinking
alcohol because that drinking alcohol is sinful but they're even to go a step
beyond that and not even enjoy the permissible pleasures of this world
because it says you know they can't have strong drink strong drink is just
another way of saying alcohol but then he says like you can't even have
moist grapes or dry can't have no raisins you know this is like an
extreme separation is what it's referring to you now let me just park
it here for just a little bit because you have Christians today so-called who
like to twist the Bible in order to justify the consumption of alcohol right
and a couple years ago I went back and forth with a guy back when when when
before I was banned on YouTube before I was banned on YouTube we went
back and forth with this one guy on YouTube who had a large following and he
got a hold of one of my videos where I talked about how drinking alcohol is
sinful and he didn't like that you know so he started making all kinds of
videos about me saying that you know you can drink alcohol and this is what
the Bible says and just twisting all these scriptures and just kind of being
really funny about it mocking me and here's one of the dumbest things he
said in his video I mean this is the most stupid this is one of the
dumbest most stupidest things I've ever heard anybody say they're like
this guy doesn't know that juice didn't exist back then so he's saying in
Bible times juice did not exist and I'm thinking myself this guy has to be
joking but he made like that was like his main point he was saying juice did
not exist they didn't have juice back then they all that's why they only
you know by the time they would squeeze out the juice and take it to
the particular location of a wedding it would already ferment under those
conditions and so everyone was always just drinking alcohol all the
time so you just like the first century AD everyone's just walking
around drunk it's like you're squeezing grapes into a cup and it's
like oh no alcohol it's just like it's just like automatically become takes on
these alcoholic properties that ferments right away just real dumb stuff so
obviously I responded and give him gave him all these examples in the
Bible because he wants to believe that Jesus turned the water into alcoholic
substance right he thinks it became like an alcoholic beverage and I kind
of like I don't remember how I worded it but I said well didn't you say
that basically by the time the grapes were squeezed placed into a vessel and
taken to the location the amount of time it would take to get from point
eight to point B it would ferment and that's why they had alcohol well
Jesus didn't do that he just turned the water into wine there like so
there is no time to transport he got the six water pots and he did it
right then and there so no fermentation took place but obviously
that's not good enough for him because he's a wino he's a freaking
alcoholic which is why he wants to argue and then he's just like oh this
guy he doesn't know what he's talking about no juice existed in the Bible
and so I pulled up the example of the cupbearer Pharaoh's cupbearer and
how he had the vision of squeezing grapes into the cup of Pharaoh so he
can drink from and he's like oh this guy is so stupid he doesn't know that
was a vision that he had oh that's right a vision of something that doesn't
exist and then it's just like well if you read a little further you see that
the vision came to fruition and he was restored to holding Pharaoh's cup again
squeezing the grapes right into the cup because you know Pharaoh is a boss
he's rich he doesn't need to go to the store to go buy juice he's had
some dudes squeeze the juice right into his cup right then and there and I
showed him other verses song Solomon that uses the juice of the pomegranates
and he's like oh he doesn't know what that really means it's like you're
just being obstinate at this point right but you know here's here's one
scripture that I also pulled out they clearly shows the juice that exists and
that is here in the Nazariah bow because it says in verse 3 he shall
separate himself from wine and strong drink oh so he separated himself from
alcohol and alcohol well that doesn't really make sense he separated himself
from booze and booze obviously there's a distinction between wine and strong
drink right and he says and shall drink no vinegar of wine or vinegar of
strong drink neither shall he drink any liquors of grapes that which comes
from a grape so it's clearly showing us that juice did exist in these days
right he says it right there wine making a distinction between that and
strong drink referring to fermented wine and of course the liquor of
grapes is referring to just the liquid that comes from grapes it's
pretty plain and simple but you know what I've learned that when someone is a
raging alcoholic and wants to use the Bible to justify his sinful habits
you can show you could have Jesus just straight show them and he still
won't believe it because alcohol has a strong hold on that person and you
know they're just gonna die in that state you know and no one's gonna be
able to convince them otherwise and it's just like well you know Jesus drink
wine but that's a stupid argument too because of the fact that often the
argument that people propose to justify the drinking of alcohol is
they'll say well it's not a sin to drink it's just a sin to get drunk but
then you have Jesus turning water into alcoholic beverage after they had
well drunk so after they're just smashed and hammered it's just like
Jesus just brings out more alcohol I mean it's a really stupid way to think
people just need to like you know go to AA or something and you know sober
up and and here's another thing that really kind of ticks me off but at the
end of the day doesn't really affect me because I'm not an alcoholic
but you know they'll say like like oh you're trying to say they drink
juice at the wedding who uses juices to drink at a wedding I don't know I
think we've had like I don't know how many weddings at our church and not a
single one of them had alcohol how many weddings have we had a brother
Hernandez 20 who you're fast on that one that's good 22 22 people have got
married and never once have we ever had alcohol and yeah we still partied
what'd you have sparkling cider hey when we want to get wild we get
sparkling cider we're just walking around with the bottle and you're like
oh man that's that doesn't sound any fun yeah cuz you need drugs and
alcohol in order to escape reality I like to live in reality while I have
sparkling cider and now wake up with a stinkin hangover the next day vomiting
my guts out because I poison my body sparkling cider shall do that's
perfectly fine and you know what you know the great thing about
sparkling cider is I can give it to my children and they could also
enjoy it as well you know if alcohol is so permissible in the Bible you know
why not give it to children I'll tell you why cuz it's poison if alcohol is
oh no God gave us wine to make the heart glad or really they give it to a
pregnant woman see what that does isn't that interesting idiots but the
point that God is making through this Nazarite vow is that he's saying
obviously you should separate yourself from alcohol just like any person
should but even beyond that the standard is raised a little higher for
you because you're consecrating yourself unto the Lord therefore you can't even
drink juice can't have grapes can't have raisins can't have husks and it
says you can't even have kernels referring to the skins of the fruits
now I'm gonna give the spiritual application in just a bit but hold
your place here in number six and go to judges again judges chapter 13 actually
don't go to judges 13 go to Deuteronomy 14 Deuteronomy 14 now the
thing is with Samson he violated all these things here and this is not a
sermon on Samson but he is a byword and a proverb of someone who did not
take his consecration serious he was consecrated from the womb but throughout
his quote-unquote ministry as a judge he was violating this left and right he
was not only abstaining he wasn't abstaining from sinful things
because we see him committing fornication he's eating honey outside
of the carcass of a lion I mean that's a double whammy right there right
he's not only eating things that he's not supposed to eat the that which is
permissible because honey nothing wrong with honey but he's eating it
violating the vow and he's eating it out of a carcass of a dead lion I mean
that's disgusting right and then he takes it so that his parents can eat
it so he's not only violating those vows himself but he's causing other
people to stumble too to just violate just regular Levitical laws of
cleanliness even though they're not Nazarites even though they're not
participating in that vow he's still causing them to violate and transgress
the Old Testament laws by doing that I mean this guy just fell off you know
the wagon really hard when it came to God's will he's going near the
carcasses of animals he's eating the honey he's committing fornication and
of course that ended up being his downfall severely because then you
know God punished them with Delilah essentially you know and Delilah
we'll get into that story later but you know a great example of someone who
actually took the Nazarite vow serious was John the Baptist you know John the
Baptist actually stayed in Nazarite all the days of his life and you know
even till his death and so what it's being referred to here is they not
only are to abstain from things that are obviously sinful but even from
things that are permissible now let's talk about this the subject of
alcohol because I think this is important to mention here because
sometimes when you talk preach against alcohol people pull up all kinds of
verses trying to justify their habits and this is one of them
Deuteronomy 14 and verse 26 says and thou shalt bestow that money for
whatsoever thy soul lusteth after for oxen or for sheep or for wine or
for strong drink or for whatsoever thy soul desireth and thou shalt eat
there before the Lord thy God and thou shalt rejoice thou and thy household so
they'll often pull up this portion of Scripture as a justification for
alcohol consumption because it says that they can use their money for
whatever their soul desires lusteth after is referring to a desire right
and it says there it includes wine and strong drinks they'll say see
there you go God said if you desire you know Jack Daniels or something you
know you got the money forward if that's what you want it's okay it's the
moderation or whatever so what is that referring to well turn to Leviticus
chapter 10 if you would Leviticus chapter 10 Leviticus chapter number 10
well here's a problem with that interpretation okay here's a couple
problems number one is the fact that whatever the people brought for an
offering unto the Lord was supposed to also be shared with the priest okay so
if an animal will sacrifice the priesthood was supposed to participate
in the eating of that animal sacrifice so whatever they gave like
that that was the inheritance of the Levites that was the inheritance of the
priests so if you're saying that people can bring a strong drink as an
offering and drink it you're basically saying that the priests were allowed
to drink it as well because that's that's what was prescribed in the Old
Testament whatever you brought the Levites the priests could also
participate in that as well but look at Leviticus chapter 10 verse 8 the Lord
spake unto Aaron saying do not drink wine nor strong drink thou nor
thy sons with thee when you go into the tabernacle of the
congregation lest he die it shall be a statute forever throughout your
generations and that ye may put a difference between holy and unholy and
between unclean and clean and that ye may teach the children of Israel all the
statutes which the Lord had spoken unto them by the hand of Moses so God
clearly prescribes and tells the Levites you're not allowed to drink
strong drink especially when going into the house of God why because if they
did they would die okay the Deuteronomy 14 passage is about things that
we're gonna go into the house of God so how can you say that the strong
drink oh you can buy liquor you can buy alcohol if that's what your soul
left after what you're basically saying is the Levites also participated
in that now go to numbers chapter 28 so Leviticus 10 shows us that the
priests were not to drink strong drink especially when performing the
duties of a priest going into the tabernacle look at numbers 28 say okay
I get that so what did they what did they do with the strong drink that you
know if it wasn't to be I mean if they weren't supposed to drink it then why
would God say that they can have it look at numbers 28 verse 7 and the
drink offering thereof shall be the fourth part of in him for the one
lamb in the holy place thou shalt cause the strong wine listen to this to be
poured unto the Lord for a drink offering so when a strong drink was
taken as an offering it wasn't for them to consume it was then for them to
pour out no I think they drank it it says here that they poured it out unto
the Lord and it doesn't say they poured it into their mouth either it's just
like a little bit for you a little bit for me a little bit free no it's
just all out see the Bible doesn't contradict itself you contradict
yourselves the Bible does not if the Bible forbids the consumption of
alcohol it's not gonna make permission for alcohol in another instance God is
against alcohol across the board Old Testament New Testament but these winos
what do wrong in 1426 my soul desires alcohol there you go
well I'm making glad the heart yeah wine does make glad the heart because
when you're drinking sparkling cider all the sugar gets you all happy be
here on New Year's Eve you'll see we're just popping sparkling cider
bottles you know left and right especially if you got you know you
got the regular sparkling cider then you have a cranberry sparkling cider you
have all the different types you know it's just like it's delicious
you're like open another bottle you know but it's not like there's churches
out there they have bars in their church you know how are you supposed to
be vigilant and sober how are you supposed to fulfill that command when
you're getting drunk off your rear end it's nonsense well be not drunk with
wine brother we're in his excess oh yeah but but drink just a little bit no
the alternative is to be filled with the spirit now obviously we know that
God has given us all things richly to enjoy but you know what alcohol
isn't one of them and there's nothing enjoyable about alcohol anyways
it's poison to the body you know it disrupts your system it's poison it can
kill you and even people who have said that doctors who say that just a
little wine is good for the body that's already been debunked poison is never
good for the body it destroys the body and whatever you know benefits you get
from wine which I don't think there's any benefits I don't believe there's
any benefits from it you can get from just drinking grape juice oh but
that's not fun for you now is it you know instead of trying to escape
reality instead of trying to escape your family your your marriage your
children and your job by drinking alcohol why don't you just embrace
reality and enjoy reality you know and here's the blessing about being a
Christian we can literally have a blast with just the basics of life I
mean just before the service we're just eating salmon and pork butt and
you know and what else do we have ribeye I mean we're having a party back
there you know just eating talking about false prophets and doctrine and we're
just like wide-eyed we're just having a good time that doesn't sound
like a good time yeah cuz you're used to getting all drugged up smoking
weed drinking alcohol and doing mushrooms to have a good time that
sucks that doesn't sound like a good time passing out doesn't sound fun I
like to go to sleep under my own volition I like to choose one to go to
sleep now and I like to remember how I fell asleep it's like how did I get
here and you know what I want to sleep in such a way that if something
were to physically happen to my body I would wake up and know what's going
on people who are under the influence of alcohol can be raped they can be
molested all types of evil can come upon them this is what the Bible
teaches by the way they have like no control and so you know sobriety is a
blessing it's what God wants for us and you know what you can't understand
the Bible if you're drunk you know I don't care what reformers think I
don't care what the Calvinist says oh you know a glass of beer while I'm
reading the Bible yeah as you pervert the Bible that's what you're
doing it's a complete oxymoron that you're literally reading the Bible as
you're drinking alcohol you're reading the Bible that tells you to not drink
you're making a mockery of the Bible is what you're doing so what is the
principle when it comes to God telling those who take the Nazarite vow hey
don't drink alcohol but also go a step beyond that and abstain yourself
from even the permissible pleasures of this life well the the principle
there for us as New Testament Christians is that you know if you really want to
do something big for God sometimes we have to discipline ourselves even beyond
right you know the Bible says that all things are lawful unto me but all
things are not expedient all things are lawful unto me but I would not be
brought under the power under the power of any the Bible says so there's
certain things where it's just like obviously I'm not supposed to sin but
I'm gonna keep myself in such a way that I can be consecrated unto the
Lord I'm gonna you know nothing wrong with playing football but I'm not
gonna play football on Sunday so I can consecrate myself into the Lord
and be in church right I'm not against doing barbecues obviously but I'm not
gonna miss church to do a barbecue and in fact we could do barbecues here
that's the best thing barbecue I've seen in a long time and it was here
amen amongst the brethren but you know a lot of you were like yeah but
you know my cousins weren't around you know they want the party vibe and
you know the the beer on the side and the music and the environment
that's what people look for but at the end of the day I think what this is
teaching us here is that we need to choose to suffer the afflictions with
the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season
understand is to be not only separated from sin as best as we can
but even sometimes forgo certain pleasures of this life in order to be
able to do something for God okay because make no mistake about it
serving God isn't inconvenient sometimes you know those of you who are here are
inconveniencing yourselves to be here on a Sunday night you know most people
come on Sunday mornings and they're just like well I did my duty I came on
but you know what you're here on Sunday night showing that you are
taking church serious there's no commandment in the Bible that says you
should be here on Sunday night but you're going the extra mile by coming
on a Sunday night and then kudos to those of you come on Thursday night
and even later service at 7 p.m. after work you're tired you might be a little
hungry you stink you haven't taken a shower you reek you have no deodorant
I'm just joking you know you're just like I'm just trying to make it to
church and you come to like learn the Bible that's not commanded of you to be
in church on Thursday but you know what that it says something you're
consecrating yourself into the Lord where you're going even beyond that
which is required you see what I'm saying so obviously if we want to
separate ourselves to do something great for God to be a vessel unto
honor and to be meet for the Masters use to be prepared unto every good
work it requires some separation not just from sinful things but even that which
we would consider to be good and permissible okay you know it's good to
read the Bible for about 15 minutes it's very good but it's probably even
better to read the Bible for 30 minutes to an hour it's good to be in
church on Sunday morning but it's even better to come to church Sunday night
Thursday night it's good to go soul winning but it's even better to go
soul winning even more than whatever it is that you go you can be right with
God doing the bare minimum but there's a certain level of devotion and
commitment and rewards that comes with just going a little bit beyond what
is required understand and so this particular vowel that is only done for
a season by the way the Nazarite vowel it wasn't supposed to last a long time
we have special cases where it lasted a life long a long time a
lifespan in general is only for a season it's for that season that they
were to abstain from obviously sin but even above that the pleasures that are
permissible in this life because they wanted something that much the more
understand the Bible tells us in 1st Corinthians 9 24 know ye not that they
which run in a race run all but one receive at the prize so run that ye
may obtain and every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all
things now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown but we have
incorruptible I therefore so run that is uncertainly so fight I not as
when the beat at the air but I keep under my body and bring it into
subjection let's by any means when I preach to others I myself should be a
castaway and so obviously the Bible promotes the importance of subjecting
yourself to discipline the character in order to accomplish more for God you
know I don't really know a successful soul winner who did not put a whole lot
of work into learning solar I don't know anybody who's able to just win a
lot of people to Christ or has won a lot of people to Christ who didn't put
in the labor to go above and beyond that which is like the minimum
requirement the people who I know who win a lot of people to Christ are
constantly studying the Bible they're constantly memorizing their verses
they're teaching other people to do so they're looking for new
opportunities to go out and preach the gospel they are going they're
obviously gonna abstain from the sinfulness of not going soul winning by
going but they're even gonna go above and beyond that to make themselves
better at soul winning so they can win more people to Christ look for more
opportunities to go out there and preach the gospel and get people saved
the point that I'm making here is that in order for sometimes for God to use
this in a great way it requires for us to kind of go the second mile in a
lot of areas okay see here the Bible says in Luke 21 verse 24 take heed to
yourselves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with
surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this life so that that day
come upon you unawares go back to Numbers chapter 6 if you would number
chapter 6 so we see that they were supposed to separate themselves from sin
not drink strong drink but not even drink that which God would provide and
be permissible with be fine with which is new wine juice of the
pomegranates even the skins of the fruits there were not to eat okay it's
complete consecration there verse 5 says all the days of the valve is
separation there shall no razor come upon his head until the days be
fulfilled into which he separated himself unto the Lord he shall be holy
and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow now let me explain a
couple things here this is the only exception where God would be fine with
someone growing a man growing out their hair because in general it is
sinful this is the exception to the rule though okay go to 1st Corinthians
chapter 11 let's look at a couple verses here regarding hair growth okay
you know the Bible doesn't give us a specific measurement for men it
doesn't say you know it should be about this many inches or not this
many inches really what it says is that nature teaches you and what I
believe that's referring to is the fact that we should be able to look at
you even from behind and know what you are right and you know I don't think
that's a silly statement to make because in the day and age in which we
live I've seen people from the back thinking that they're a woman because
of their hair and they turn around they got a beard and I'm like I still
don't know what the heck this thing is they got like a man bun or whatever and
that's an abomination unto the Lord men with long hair is an abomination
unto the Lord and women with fades is an abomination to the Lord to 1st
Corinthians 11 verse 4 says every man praying or prophesying having his head
covered dishonor at his head this isn't referring to hats by the way you know
there's a there's a there is a tradition in churches that when you
enter into the house of God you remove your hat and that tradition
stems from a misunderstanding of this vet of this verse because they're
saying well if you're praying or prophesying you have you know cuz
sometimes people pray and they'll take off their half okay but they think
that this is referring to something that you're placing on your head but the
covering is not referring to a hat a sombrero or like the these Colts do
these doilies that these women wear you know I'm talking about this is
referring to the hair but you know we don't don't be surprised that they
don't know that because they're just twisting scriptures they don't even read
the Bible okay and it's saying that if a man prays or prophesies having his
head covered and we'll see in just a bit that the head covers referring to
the hair so if a man prays or prophesies with long hair he's
dishonoring his head not his head he's referring to his head referring to God
referring to Jesus Christ so if you ever find a dude preaching behind a
pulpit with long hair he's an open dishonor to the Lord Jesus Christ the
Bible teaches verse 5 but every woman that pray at their prophesied with their
head uncovered dishonor with her head now who's the head of the woman the
man amen right that's what the Bible teaches and it's saying here that if a
woman has her head uncovered meaning that she cuts her hair short like a
butch she's looking like a dyke or whatever moha I don't know it looks
like she got she got a nicer fade than me or something you know whatever
it is you know I mean she got a mid fade going on with the taper in the
back that's dishonoring to the Lord that's open disrespect to God by by
the way open disrespect to her husband obviously to the Lord Jesus
Christ but more so to her husband because it's showing that she's not
under the authority of her husband even if her wimpy husband says that
she is verse 6 says or excuse me verse 5 but every woman that prayed or
prayed to prophesied with their head uncovered dishonor with her head
referring to her husband and of course as unto the Lord for that is even all one
as if she were shaven so it's just like even if she's not bald even if
she's not going skin if she has hair like a man God says you might as
well just shave the whole thing off because that's how God views it so
ladies keep that hair long luxurious amen you know and if you cut it short or
whatever obviously there's no indicator here how short but don't be looking like
a dude though don't make me wonder if you are you or your husband who is that
you know mister or miss you know it should be quite obvious who we're
looking at now obviously people can go overboard on length of hair too you
know you got these cholas out there they're like they have their hair
they grow to like their ankles hey you know you know whatever floats your
boat though you know if that's what you want whatever I'm just saying that you
don't have to go extreme both cases it just needs to be viewed as hey
that's a woman and that's a man okay and in my opinion if you're gonna err
on one side or the other it's better to err on the length being long I have
a really long hair for a woman okay because then at that point no one's gonna
question what you are they're just gonna wonder what gang are you from not
just kidding verse 6 is for if the woman be not covered let her also be
shorn in other words you might as well just shave everything off but if
it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven let her be covered so
in other words if you know that it's a shame to have short hair as a man and
if you notice that God views it as you being shaven completely bald then
grow your hair out and cover your head verse 7 says for a man indeed ought not
to cover his head for as much as he is the image and glory of God but the
woman is the glory of the man for the man is not a woman but the woman of
the man like ah that's cultural stuff yeah it's Christian culture what
doesn't matter if in 2024 people view things differently nowadays who
cares what the Bible says look at verse 13 judge in yourselves is it
comely that a woman praying to God uncovered doth not even first of all
it's not even coming for a woman to prophesy in church right but here it
says it's not coming for a woman to pray uncovered doth not even nature
itself teach you that if a man have long hair it is a shame unto him but
if a woman have long hair it is a glory to her for her hair is given
her for covering but if any man seemed to be contentious we have no such custom
neither the churches of God so it's like if you find churches that are just
against us who cares you we don't have your custom we have the custom of the
Bible that teaches this is what the Word of God says regarding hair length
okay now what is the point of going to that passage of Scripture in as it
relates to the Nazarite vow well if the Bible's teaching us here that it
is a shame for a man to have long hair and if it's if it's saying that a
Nazarite or someone who takes a Nazarite vow is to grow out their hair and if
you find a man with very long hair and if we know that God views you as not
completing your vow as foolish basically what that's showing us is
that when a man has really long hair as a Nazarite it's an indication to
those around you this man has not performed his vow yet and therefore it's
shameful so aside from the fact that culturally they knew it was shameful to
have long hair I mean they're not sporting it wasn't like Samson was
just like you know he's not like like showing off his long hair okay he's not
like you know he doesn't have it in a man bun he's not he doesn't take he
probably doesn't put Pantene Pro-V in it he's not trying to permit he's not
trying to make it look all nice he knows it's a shame he's very embarrassed
you know what shame does it humbles you you know a humbled you know what
humility does it makes got to use you so if you're humbled by the fact
you have long hair because it is a shame then obviously that's gonna cause
you to be lowly and allow God to use you more now obviously today dudes
don't even care about having long hair because they don't care about those
things and therefore that's why they're not humble they're prideful and
arrogant they think it's they think this is dumb but who cares what the
world thinks and these days and we should think this today having long
hair was such a shame that men would be embarrassed to be walking around
like that so it's a sight it was a sign of humility it wasn't a sign of
boasting it's like oh man he's a Nazarite it's just like oh he hasn't
fulfilled his vow yet and it's a shameful thing not to fulfill your vow
because God wants you to pay your vows now again these are very unique cases
with Samson because he's supposed to be a lifelong Nazarite so he's supposed
to remain that way all the days of his life so his hair was probably very
long and it says there were locks so I don't know maybe it was like
dreadlocks and that's definitely not you know comely what it's not did would
anybody disagree with you dreadlocks are not coming care it's disgusting
it's like dirty it's unclean and we're talking about from the standard
of the Bible it's very uncumbly it's unclean to have long hair for a man
and so this obviously would create a sense of humility and shame that is
necessary in order for the Nazarite to be used of God because they're
humbled by the fact that they have to walk around like that today people
aren't ashamed to walk around like that but you know people who had shame
in the Bible that was important to them they were ashamed to have to be
seen in public like that you understand so that's why God would allow this and
that's why most people were not lifelong Nazarites you know they're just
like I'm gonna do this for a month or something you know I'm gonna do it for
a week or I'm gonna do it for a month I'm just gonna let the locks of my
hair grow because that's what's prescribed by the Nazarite bow on number
six and once the bow was accomplished they would cut off the hair okay now
go with me if you would go to judges chapter 16 judges 16 now again Samson
is a perfect example of this and I believe he's proof that the Nazarite
vow was something that someone would do in order to be used of God greatly
because you know essentially God's hand was on Samson mightily he was
essentially what we would consider to be the strongest man in the Bible not
because he was physically strong but because the Spirit of God came upon
him look at verse 16 of Judges 16 it says and it came to pass when she
pressed him daily with her words referring to Delilah and Samson and
urged him so that his soul was vexed unto death that he told her all his
heart and said unto her there hath not come a razor upon mine head for I
have been a Nazarite unto God for my mother's womb if I be shaven then my
strength will go from me and I will become weak and be like other man now
let me just say this is that Samson's an idiot he's blinded by women he has
a woman problem he's just like I mean love is blind but really lust is blind
too because it's not like he loves this woman he just kind of has a thing
for women and it's robbing him of just common sense and discernment
because this isn't the first time she's asking him she's tried this a
couple times prior to this and they try to kill him and he's still not
getting it like this woman's trying to kill me like fool me once shame on you
fool me twice shame on me fool me thrice you're just an idiot like the
girl doesn't like you she wants you dead she's trying to get you caught up
this is not a good woman for you she's like she's deceived you and she's
like a narcissist too cuz she's like you don't love me she's like no you
actually don't love him you've lied to me no you've actually lied to him they're
like projecting right but Samson's just blind which do you remember at the end
of the story they pluck out his eyes that's only a physical manifestation of
the fact he was already blind because you're kind of like looking through this
glass of the Word of God you're like don't do it what are you doing you're
just trying to like warn him and he's just like they're laying on her lap and
then he finally tells her oh yeah this is where my strength lies looking for
his 18 when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart she sent and
called for the Lords of the Philistines saying come up come up this once for
he had showed me all his heart then the Lords of the Philistines came up
unto her and brought money in their hand and she made him sleep upon her
knees and she called for a man and she caused him to shave off the seven
locks of his head and she began to afflict him and his strength went from
him so aside from the fact that he is shaven then it then his woman just
starts beating him she's like slapping him trying to wake him up oh what a
great woman right and she said the Philistines be upon thee Samson and
he woke out of his sleep and said I will go out as other times before and
shake myself and he wished not that the Lord was departed from him scariest one
of the scariest passages in the Bible you know he's so arrogant and
prideful he's like easy not even knowing that his hair is gone and it
could be that maybe he knew that his hair was gone he just didn't know like
he was just so arrogant about it he just thought like I don't need it and
then of course he gets his eyes plucked out he's grinding like a beast and
then he ends up redeeming himself later on of course but the point that's
being made here is that you know Samson is a byword and a proverb of
what not to do for a Nazarite vow in the Bible you know he violated his
vows by going near a carcass of an animal and yet he ate the honey out of
the the line which by the way now that I think about it that was not
forbidden according to the Nazarite vow because we have John the Baptist
doing it but he did eat it out of the carcass of a lion which is still
unclean according to the Levitical law okay and he's fornicating he is
not fulfilling his vows and then of course God just ends up humbling him
by allowing him to come across this woman who essentially shames him and you
know basically ends up being this byword and proverb of a person who was
supposed to be one of the greatest judges in the book of Judges it's an
incredible story and it's supposed to be a picture of Jesus Christ and he just
mars the whole thing by his own lust and by not fulfilling that vow now look
at verse six of number six and we're almost done here the point that I'm
making regarding the hair is the fact that you know shame causes us to
be humble which in turn causes us to be exalted by God and you think of the
fact that Jesus Christ was shamed on the cross right he despised the shame
meaning that he had that shame and yet his name was exalted above every name
right and so he was honored by it by that shame and the Bible constantly
tells us you know it tells women in the New Testament to have shame
facedness okay meaning humility it tells us to humble ourselves under the
hand of God that he may exalt you in due time and the principle lies there
that if God in order for God to use you even if it's to win someone to
Christ disciple someone lead your family if you want God to use you in a
great way you got to be humble you cannot be prideful you cannot be
arrogant you cannot try to rob God of his glory and rob God of the credit
you have to humble yourself under the hand of God in order to be used in a
mighty way look at verse six all the days he shall that he separated
himself unto the Lord he shall come at no dead body he shall not make
himself unclean for his father for his mother for his brother for his
sister when they die because the consecration of his God is upon his
head now this is a hard same but again it's just an excessive guideline that God
placed on there for this particular purpose because he's saying you can't
touch a carcass or a dead body and even if it's your family you can't
participate in the funeral this is how important this is like it's it's
like beyond what is the requirement right for a regular person not only are
you not to touch a corpse but you know what if during your time of
consecration your family member dies you cannot be near that person and you
know obviously when we think about this in the New Testament a great way
to apply this is that at the end of the day you know Jesus Christ requires
our a hundred percent loyalty right and you know that's really easy to do when
it comes to our friends our co-workers just reprobates or anybody else like we
can choose Jesus over them anytime easy it's family sometimes that's the hardest
ones to choose Jesus over now hopefully you're in a situation where you don't
have to your family just joins you amen you know you some of you got your
family in here you know I got my mom coming to church I think that's great
but you know what there's some dead carcasses out there of my family that
I don't go near because I'm consecrated unto the Lord because
they believe different than me they don't like my beliefs and although they
expect me to be loyal to them as family I'm not gonna be loyal to them
because at the end of the day spiritually I'm like a spiritual
Nazarite and I'm not gonna come near people like that who either take
my the name of my Lord in vain they participate in things that are
sinful they want my children to be around sinful things I'm not having
that even if they're family you know I'm not gonna be around I'm not gonna
take my family to be around an environment where sinfulness is the
atmosphere drinking is the atmosphere worldliness and that which is contrary to
the Bible is the atmosphere why because of the fact that me and my family are
consecrated unto the Lord that's for me in my house we will serve the
Lord and yeah you know what obviously we need to stay close to
certain people because they need the Lord but that at the end of it is
certain people of this world that you're around that can actually cause you to
become diluted and watered down as a Christian and compromise your convictions
and sometimes you just need to be like you know I'm consecrated unto God I'm
not gonna be a respecter of people you know my cousin who I grew up with
he's like my brother or something we're like we got a secret handshake
or whatever but if he hates the Lord bye Felicia that's my that's my
disposition you know and so my family doesn't like that but I don't really
care here's my family amen you know over the years I've had family
separated from me and not want anything to do with me ashamed of me
you know I don't know why you know whatever they see on the news or
whatever you know you know they hear about how I preach or the things
that I've said and they don't want anything to do with me they criticize
me behind closed doors to other people to my mom or to my dad or
whatever and they don't agree with my stances well guess what you know your
loss not my loss you know and and here's the thing is that at the end of
the day the family of God to me is far more important you know I'm
consecrated unto the Lord I'm trying to serve God I'm trying to raise these
kids to love the Lord Jesus Christ and serve him all the days of their
life I want my wife and I to serve Christ all the days of our life you
know at our house the Bible is the most important thing gee our life
revolves around church and the service of God that's what we are about that's
what I'm about and it's just like yeah but you don't come around anymore
yeah cuz everything you guys do is on Sundays I got things I gotta do on
Sunday I'm preaching I got church yeah but you know you you don't even come
around to you know do this on a Saturday well yeah cuz you guys have
alcohol there I don't even want to look upon that stuff look not upon the
wine when it is red well you don't have to drink it not only do I not
want to drink I'm gonna go beyond that and not even look at it I don't
even want to look at you drinking it and even if you drink it behind
closed doors and come out I want to smell it on your breath because it
disgusts me make it makes me makes me want to vomit it's nasty I don't
want to be around that I want my kids to be around that either well then
fine then we're not gonna you know okay bye bye there's the door don't let the
door hit you where the Lord split you
consecrated unto the Lord and obviously the goal would be that our
families would follow us to grow to serve God as well right that you know
your spouse your children your mom your dad people would just want to serve
God with you but let me just say this if you have family and I'm not
talking about you're living under the roof because you can't really do
anything about that okay I'm talking about if you have a choice you know who
are causing you to stumble and compromise your convictions and causing
you to sin and you know that it's not the right Christian environment you
need to kind of like separate from people like that if you have the
capabilities of doing so and you're like well I'm living under my
parents roof and I don't know what to do there then get married if you're a
dude you know pray and get married and and and get your own family and then
you don't have to worry about that he's like what if I'm a lady well if
you're lady then pray that some guy comes and sweeps you off your feet
amen some godly dude the point that I'm making here is that in order to be
used of God sometimes it requires just a little extra beyond what most
people are willing to do it requires a little a second and third mile in
order to obtain that special blessing okay and you know what it may cost you
some relationships for sure you know but you know that I made it it's better
to obtain Christ though and at the end of the day sometimes we need to realize
that what Christ has to offer even if we're by ourselves is far greater than
if you were able to keep your friends and family you know when when
I first got saved it was just like I didn't want to lose my friend I had a
bunch of friends I had tons of friends and and it's just like I had a
choice it's like I had to have make a choice because you know they wanted me
to tolerate all the stuff that they're doing and keep talking about you know
things that were godless and even mocking and things of God and it's just
like uh-uh it's not the way it works you know we we are not the same
you and me we are not the same you know and if you value my friendship if
you value me as a family member then come to church with me and if not then
let's go our separate ways cuz I got a bigger calling you know my calling is
to serve the Lord Jesus Christ to get a bunch of people saved to lead people
in the ways of righteousness and just to serve Christ oh that sounds boring
not to me it doesn't and you've never read the Bible so that's why you
think that you think I'd be wasting my time doing this if it was if there
wasn't something at the end of this road worthy of it folks I've heard the
Bible I've seen what the Bible says on how greatly I'll be blessed of God it's
worthy of the lifelong investment to serve Christ and you know it's worth
sacrificing some relationships for too so the last part is I'm not gonna I'm
not gonna belabor this point is that obviously at the end of the vow you
know they were to make a sacrifice and complete their vow that's what they
would have to do and let me just reiterate here is that this isn't a vow
that is simply imposed upon us today okay I don't believe that people
should be taking Nazarite vows today we have one example of a person doing
that in the New Testament meaning after the death of Christ and that's the
Apostle Paul but his example is not necessarily our guideline okay that's
just something that he did and he doesn't talk about it in any of his
letters neither are they spoken of in any of the other epistles or letters in
the New Testament so I don't believe it's something that should be imposed
but there are definitely some spiritual principles that we can
extrapolate from the Nazarite vow as Christians that we can live by as well
and I think the biggest one is this sometimes if you want to be used of
God you might have to go a little further than what you're accustomed to
you might have to put a little more weight on that bar if you're trying to
get stronger you might have to run a little further if you want your
endurance to increase you might just have to go the second mile if you
really want to be used of God amen let's pray father we thank you so much
for your word thank you for the example that we see in the Bible Lord
thank you for the examples and the principles that we can learn from the
Nazarite vow and obviously we know we can do something great for you even
if we do the bare minimum but sometimes there is something greater waiting for
those who are willing to consecrate themselves and go without certain
pleasures of this life in order for them to in order for us to obtain
Christ the knowledge of Christ the rewards of Christ I pray help us to
build an appetite for that Lord and to think upon those things and to allow
to affect our direction and the decisions that we make we love you we
pray we thank you we praise pray these things in Jesus name amen
turn your song books the song number