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All right, amen. So you're in Judges chapter number 13. And what we're doing now is we're doing an overview of the life of Samson. So obviously the story of Samson spans three chapters in the book of Judges. And so it's impossible to go over everything. But what we're gonna focus on today really is the impulse and the desires that brought Samson down. And so we're gonna call this the disease of impulse or the impulse disease for that matter. Now, Samson's life here, and we're gonna get into this here in a second, but when you're studying through the judges, one of the things that you're gonna notice is that God picks a judge and he preserves just enough written material about that judge to be a picture of the nation of Israel and their current state. So you're gonna see that with Samson. So for example, we just read chapter 13. We can clearly see that Samson's parents had trouble bearing children, right? And so what do you see? A miraculous event. God sends an angel and explains to his parents, hey, you know, you're gonna give birth to a boy, you're gonna call him Samson, and then provides requirements for raising him. And that's very similar to how the nation of Israel was born, right? Remember Abraham and Sarah sent an angel to Abraham, said, hey, your wife in her older age is going to bear a son. And of course that was confusing to them at that time, but nonetheless it happened. And then what was the result? Basically the spawning of the physical nation of Israel. So we see that that's number two, right? They're both visited by angels. And then of course the obvious, okay? Through the life of Samson, you constantly see him going astray. Just constantly, you know, violating the word of God. That's exactly what you're seeing in the cycle of judges. Also, you're gonna see when you study Samson that he takes the law of God for granted. Okay, he takes the word of God for granted, but he keeps coming back. Same thing here with the nation of Israel. Now, just for a real quick overview of the main point for this morning, if you would go to Judges chapter number 14, we're just gonna kinda sandwich a couple of verses together here, and it will paint a perfect picture of the main point that I wanna give you from the life of Samson. Now, again, there's a lot of stuff in this story about Samson, okay? There's a lot of things that we have to go back and dig into, like some of the conversations between his first wife and his second wife, right? There's a lot of value in that stuff. We don't have time to get into great details of those things today, but we will definitely come back to it. So let's start this off here. You're in chapter 14. Now look over at verse number 19. So the Bible starts off and says this. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, okay, that is Samson, and he went down to Ashkelon and slew 30 men of them and took their spoil and gave change of garments unto them which expounded the riddle. And his anger was kindled, and he went up to his father's house. So that is a picture of the physical strength that Samson has. We're gonna look at some more of that as well. Now, just real quickly, go to chapter number 16, and we'll see something here. All the way down to verse 21 near the end of his life, the Bible says in Judges 16, 21, but the Philistines took him and put out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with fetters of brass, and he did grind in the prison house. So obviously this here is a picture of what happens when a person remains in the physical strength. That's all they're concerned about, that's all they're worried about because they rely too much on that saving them, on that getting them out of trouble. We can see the demise here. But then Samson has a moment of clarity at the very, very end of his life. Look down at verse 28, and the Bible says this, and Samson called unto the Lord and said, O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes. Okay, and so what is that a picture of? That is a picture of internal strength manifesting itself, which is the lesson that he finally learns at the end of his life. So we're gonna say this as a main point for this morning that physical strength helps in strife, but internal strength wins at life. So when he realizes that at the end of his life, what happens? God uses him in a mighty way, gives him his physical strength back, and then he has one of the greatest defeats of all time and takes out the government of the Philistines and many, many people, more than he slew at any other time in his life. Okay, so the lesson there, and the thing that we need to realize and focus on is that internal strength is far more valuable. Now that's not to undercut physical strength, and we're gonna talk about that, okay? So you can leave your place there, but keep something in this neighborhood because we're gonna come back to it, but go to Proverbs chapter number 25. Proverbs chapter number 25. So physical strength helps in life, but internal strength wins in life, okay? So Proverbs chapter number 25, just to kind of prove that to you, look down at verse number 28. So the Bible says here, he that hath no rule over his own spirit, okay? Where's your own spirit? It's internal, okay? Internal, okay, that's what we're talking about. Internal strength is like a city that is broken down and without walls, okay? Meaning that a person is unhinged, that person has no discipline, that person has no character, that person has no ability to win at life, okay? Their physical strength is not going to save them. Now first on the back of the bulletin, or on the inside of the bulletin rather, is Ecclesiastes 7.19, which says wisdom strengtheneth the wise more than 10 mighty men which are in the city, okay? Again, nothing wrong with physical strength. You need that. Again, I said, we'll talk about that. Now go to Judges 15. But the point that I'm trying to make here, okay, is if we just only focus on one type of strength, like just physical, obviously that is not going to be enough to be a winner at life for the believer, for the Christian, okay? Now let me just, while you're turning back to Judges 15, just mention a few things about physical strength. So I don't get a bunch of emails later on. Physical strength is very important, okay? There's no doubt about that. Even the Bible says that bodily exercise profiteth little, okay? Now that doesn't mean that, you know, well, since it only profits a little, I'll just never do it. It is actually very healthy for you. And it has been proven that the more skeletal muscle mass that you have, the easier it is to fight disease, the easier it is to win at sickness and things of that nature, okay? And you know, I mean, this has just been proven all the time. Who usually wins the battle against these, you know, pneumonia later in life? Well, it's the person that has the most muscle. I have the blessing of being able to talk to many, many, many people during the week in this community. And it's, you know, seems to be a theme lately where God is sending me to people that are in their 90s. And I even met somebody that was a hundred years old very recently, okay? And every time I run into somebody like that, even somebody in their 80s, I always ask them, I'm like, hey, what's the secret? Because they love to tell you, you know, well, I'm 85 years old and that's why I called you. And it's like, great, hey, what's the secret, okay? Because you know, I think about my own dad and my own dad got dementia and Alzheimer's at like, I can't remember the exact age. I want to say it was like 70 or 71. So when I see somebody 15, 20, 30 years older than him, I'm like, what are you doing? What is the secret? It's important, right? We want to take care of ourselves physically so that we can be a benefit to each other and for the kingdom of God. Hey, we don't, obviously you don't want to neglect that, but there's one thing that they always say, and it's just common and these people don't know each other and they say, you can never stop moving. You have to exercise. You have to preserve your muscle mass. And they'll always go off into what we would say is a conspiracy. And they'll say, well, you know, the government's trying to keep us down and they know this, right? And they're like, basically you want to ignore everything that they say, right? The food pyramid, just ignore it, right? Cause they're bringing you back to their time when they were 13 years old, when they were 15 years old, when they were 20 before that stuff came out and people were healthier and they still remember that. They're like, make sure you have plenty of salt, more than you think you need. Eat your red meat and they're like, don't be getting drunk, don't be getting stupid and stay away from toxic people. These are the things that they constantly bring up and constantly talk about. I went to help this guy who was 95 years old, you know, and they're like, all right, be careful. You know, it was 95, cool, no problem. I get there and this dude pulls out a refrigerator from the wall out of a cubby hole. I'm like, dude, are you okay? He's just like, yeah. You know, and I'm almost like, wow, like, all right. He's just like, you know, I just don't want to be down on my knees and I have no idea what I'm looking at. So that's why you're here. I'm like, wow, cool. I was like, so do you lift weights? He's like, yeah, I lift weights and I walk and that's it. You know, and he's like, and they don't have to be heavy. They're not heavy anymore, but I'm telling you, you know, these guys will tell you the more muscle mass that you have, the more skeletal muscle you have, the better off you're going to be. Now, however, okay, if we just stay in that camp and just focus on that, but yet we can't rule our own spirit. We have no wisdom. Obviously it's going to lead to physical destruction, just like it did with Samson in the end, okay? So now with that being said, let's move on here to Judges chapter 15. And we're just going to kind of give a basic overview of the situation in Israel when Samson comes on the scene. And by the way, you know, before I do get off on this, you know, it is also a good thing. People that are disciplined in their exercise because it does kind of carry over into discipline and reading the Bible and praying and things of that nature, okay? And I definitely don't want to neglect that, but let's move on here, okay? Judges, you're in Judges chapter 15. Actually, you know what? Back up to chapter 13 one more time, okay? Back up to chapter 13 one more time, but we're going to just go right back to 15. So again, you guys know the cycle. Israel follows the Lord. They get complacent, get oppressed, cry out to God. He sends a judge and then all is well, the rejoicing. And so you know the cycle very, very well by now. Samson is the last judge in the book of Judges. Everything after this is other stories and definitely some seriously valuable information. Some sermons will be coming in a couple of weeks that will obviously only be on rumble if you're familiar with Judges 19, but that's okay. This is the word of God, all right? So what is different about this time versus all of the others? Well, when you study all the other judges, right? God tells you, hey, you know, the Midianites are oppressing or the Ammonites are oppressing or these other rights are oppressing the people and they cry out to God. Look at how this time it starts off here, okay? Verse number one, chapter 13, Judges 13, it says this. 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 40 years, okay? Next thing, and there was a certain man of Zorad of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah and his wife was Baran and Baranot. And then it just starts off with the same word again, verse three. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman and said unto her, behold, now thou art barren and bare us not, but thou shalt conceive and bear a son. Okay, so what's going on here, okay? Well, we just read the chapter, okay? Nowhere in this chapter is it mentioned that the children of Israel are crying out because of the oppression. Obviously it's not desirable. Obviously it's not what they want, but there's something different here. And God actually uses this Judge Samson in a different way than the other ones before they're completely delivered. And let me just expose that to you. Go to chapter 15 real quick. Judges chapter 15. I think this paints a very clear picture of the heart of the children of Israel. So there's this situation here, and we'll get more into it, where basically at this point in time, Samson's first wife has been given over to his companion. Samson gets upset, kills a bunch of Philistines. Those Philistines are like, hey, why did he do this? What's going on? Find out, okay, well, Samson's father-in-law gave his wife to somebody else, and so he's upset. So what the Philistines do is they go and they burn his wife and her father to the ground and the killer, and so Samson's seriously upset. He kills more people, okay, because of this terrible atrocity. And he goes back to his land here, and he's in hiding. So now look at this here in verse number 10. It says, and the men of Judah said, why are you come up against us? And they answered, to bind Samson, are we come up to do to him as he hath done to us? Now, a couple of things to understand here, okay? So Samson's done this. He's in Israel, and the Philistines are like, we need to get this guy, okay? And so they come up against Judah, okay? And look at how the men of Judah, notice it doesn't say Jews, cause there were no Jews yet, these are just Hebrews, okay? Look at what it says, it says, and the men of Judah said, why are you come up against us, okay? So they're not like necessarily physically present all the time in the nation, although they are not allowing them to have weapons, that's what all oppressors do, that's what all enemies do, okay? They take away your weapons, we know that, okay? So they're just like, hey, why are you disturbing? We don't want this disturbance, what's going on here? Look at verse 11. Then 3000 men of Judah went to the top of the rock Etum, and said to Samson, knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us? And so they're being a little sarcastic here, but they're like, hey, don't you understand that these people are ruling over us? Why are you causing this trouble? And look at the rest of the verse. What is this that thou has done unto us? He said unto them, as they did unto me, so I have done unto them. And so really what you have here is a nation full of people that are experiencing what's called learned helplessness, okay? Learned helplessness is a sense of powerlessness, that's typically a result of multiple failures, or perhaps a series of traumatic events, okay? And so think about this, you've got 3000 men here, okay? And instead of them saying, you know what, maybe we should just get right with God, put away these stupid idols and just call upon the name of the Lord. We've got Samson here, we've heard about what he's just done, and let's just fight these people and see what happens, okay? They're not doing that, they're like, hey, don't you know they rule over us? And you're causing things to be stirred up? Go away so that this stops here. And if you're not familiar with the story, we're gonna look at it again later or next week. But basically Samson's like, hey, I just don't want you guys to kill me. And they're like, we're not gonna kill you, but we're gonna deliver you up to them. So what do they do? They bind them up, give them to the Philistines just to get rid of the problem so they can go back to being complacent and living their lives, okay? They are literally experiencing learned helplessness. They are absolutely powerless in this time. And it's not because they're not physically strong, it's because they're not internally strong. They don't realize that the solution to get out of this is just to call upon the name of the Lord. He's already obviously raised up a judge, they have failed to understand their history, and thus is a big problem. Now, before we go back to chapter 14, I want you to go to Psalms chapter number 55 real quick. Psalm chapter number 55. And so I'd say the lesson in this here is that, you know, when there's a Samson that maybe comes into your life and stirs up some righteous beef, stirs up some righteous trouble, okay? If that makes you uncomfortable, if that's kinda like, oh man, I wish you'd just kinda go away, you know? Like somebody comes into your life and they're like, hey, you know, we need to pray about this. And then it's like, oh man, you get that feeling in the flesh like, oh, you know, I don't know if I can because I've been doing X, Y, and Z. You know, you need to stop and evaluate your life. And you need to start and think like, hey, are my priorities right? Because why do I feel like this? That's what the men of Judah should have done, okay? They should have looked at them own selves and said, you know, why are we so uncomfortable with what this guy has done? You know, he's killed what? All kinds of people by this time, by himself, without any help. So it's like, you know, logic would state like, well, we serve the living God. Hey, we are the people of God. Maybe if we just turn back to him, now that we've got this guy, we could actually just win in battle. And Samson's life could have took a different direction. He could have possibly judged longer than he did, but that didn't happen. Why? Because they couldn't see their own powerlessness was a result of their own internal weakness, their own failures, okay? Psalm chapter 55, look at verse number 22. Cast thy burden upon the Lord and he shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. Okay, so we have to understand that, okay? Now, obviously there are times where, you know, you're going to feel uncomfortable in life, like maybe outsolening. And that's not because necessarily you're, you know, just doing something wrong. It's just natural. You know, every once in a while, somebody is going to fly off the handle and the next few doors you knock, you're going to kind of have that apprehension. Okay, that's okay. That's normal. But when somebody comes into your life and they're like, hey man, you know, I'm going to exhort you. I'm going to edify you. I'm going to help you get to the next level. You know, use that uncomfortableness as an opportunity to do some self-reflection and evaluate. Do I actually hate what God hates? You know, if those 3000 men would have said, you know what, right now we don't hate what God hates. We're actually comfortable right here serving the Philistines. Yeah, we don't have our guns. Yeah, we don't have our weapons, but life's not too bad. It's better than the Midianites. It's better than the Ammonites. It's better than all the other rights, okay? That's a terrible way to live. That's a beta male type way to live. And we don't want to be like that because then God can't use us. Who's God using in the story? He's using Samson, okay? And so let's get back into that now. Go back to chapter number 14 and let's get a little bit deeper here into the story. So chapter 13 starts off with just the statement at verse 25 and it says, and the spirit of the Lord began to move in Samson at times, okay? So you start to see God beginning to work in the life of Samson. Now in chapter 14, let's look at something here. Look at verse number one. It says this, and Samson went down to Timnath and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines, okay? So she's come out of Israel. He is now in the land of the uncircumcised, the land of the Gentiles. Verse number two, and he came up and told his father and his mother and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines. Now therefore get her for me to wife, okay? Obviously it's not wise what Samson desires here, okay? Obviously that's not good, but I want to show you a couple of things here because people use this passage to try to prove there's contradictions in the Bible. In fact, somebody out soul winning a couple of years ago had brought this up to one of our soul winners and it really confounded this person, okay? It really, he didn't know how to deal with it. I'm gonna give you some quick things to deal with it here. Let's look at verse three. Then his father and his mother said unto him, is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren or among all my people that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, get her for me for she pleaseth me well. Obviously this is wrong. Obviously he should desire or focus on just finding a wife that is saved, somebody of his own nation. We get that and of course you have the people out there, oh, this is racist. It's not racist, okay? This is not about skin color. This is about people that are saved, which would quote unquote be the circumcised, not physically but spiritually versus the uncircumcised or the Philistines who worship a God called Dagon, okay? A false God, that's what it is. But nonetheless, there's a purpose behind this here. And this is what a lot of people gloss over because they don't know how to explain this. Look at verse number four. But his father and mother knew not that it was of the Lord that he sought an occasion against the Philistines for at that time, the Philistines had dominion over Israel. Now, if you have a pen or if you wanna just re-listen to this later, there are some passages here that I think you should have down and understand to explain this, okay? So a couple of years ago, somebody had brought this up and said, see, the Bible says, and it was a Muslim guy. Yeah, that's what it was. It was a Muslim guy at a door who had this and he pulled it right out of his pocket and said, you know, explain this one to me, oh, Christian, okay? The Bible is a very large book and we can't always have everything fresh in our minds, okay? So that's the first thing I would tell you to understand. The next thing I would tell you to understand is to write down 1 Kings chapter 12, specifically in verse 15. And this is the story of Rehoboam. So Rehoboam was Solomon's son, okay? This is the time period in Israel's history where God says, I'm gonna divide the nation, okay? So basically, Rehoboam has a decision to make, okay? He's proposed with something and he goes to the elders, the people who worked with his father and said, how should I respond to Jeroboam, the son of Nebat? He's basically saying he was oppressed and you know, his guys are here with him and what should I do? Should I take care of him or not, okay? And the wise men say, you need to treat him with respect, treat him well, do him well, and he'll serve you all the days of his life and you'll win the hearts of these people, okay? Well, then what Rehoboam does is he goes to the young men that he grew up with, says, hey, what do you guys think I should do? They're like, eh, you need to flex on this guy. You need to tell him that you're gonna be stronger in might than your father was and you're gonna oppress him and it's not quite what he says, we don't have time to get into it, but basically that's the gist of what he says, okay? And so what happens? The nation divides in half. Jeroboam's like, okay, well, I'm gonna take my people and we're out and he winds up becoming the king of a new nation now called the Northern Kingdom of Israel. You say, why are you bringing us up? Well, because the Bible in that story, 1 Kings chapter 12, verse 15, specifically says that the Lord was in that decision that Rehoboam had made, okay? And you might be like, well, what's the big deal here? Well, you need to understand that because the Muslim, the atheist, these people are gonna come at you and say, well, God caused this to happen. God caused Rehoboam to sin. God caused Samson to sin by making him lust after this uncircumcised woman and that's not what it says and that's not true, okay? God, what the Bible's trying to tell you here is that God will work with us where we're at, okay? So obviously Rehoboam's heart was proud and you can get into that if you do a detailed study in the story and so God uses that to make sure that he hearkens unto the counsel of the young men so that his prophecy would be fulfilled. It's the same thing here, okay? Samson probably, obviously the Bible says that he saw this woman and he desired her, okay? Now, here's a couple of things to think about, okay? She is not necessarily the prettiest woman that's out there because when he comes back to get his wife in chapter number 15, verse two specifically, his father's like, hey, or his father-in-law's like, hey, I didn't think you were coming back so I just gave her to your companion but take her younger sister, she's fairer than she. So you've got Samson's father-in-law saying, hey, her younger sister is prettier than she is, you should just take her, okay? So what I'm trying to say here is that verse four is not a misnomer, it belongs in the Bible, it's basically telling you that God has a purpose and he basically is using, okay, the desires that are naturally in Samson to basically unfold his plan, that's what he's doing here. Look at the verse again, but his father and mother knew not that it was of the Lord. So it was of the Lord that he had such a strong desire. So he probably just saw this woman was like, wow, she's pretty well, I wouldn't mind being with her and then God's like, okay, well, I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna really intensify that since that's the direction you wanna go and I will work in that to rescue my people, okay? Because here's what you have to understand, these people are experiencing learned helplessness, they have a sense of powerlessness, they don't know how to free themselves, they don't think it's even possible. So because they're in this complacent state, which is far different than the other oppressions that they have, it's probably the worst one in my opinion, what God has to do is he has to use Samson to start several small skirmishes to stir up the people, okay? On your own time, go read all of chapter 13, all of chapter 14, all of chapter 15 and all of chapter 16 and that's the pattern you're gonna see, God uses Samson to start fights over here, over here, over there until the whole nation is now riled up and they are ripe for the final blow to actually take them down once and for all to free the Israelites, okay? And of course they regroup later on. Now, again, I mentioned some verses here that you wanna have on hand to refute that claim that God made Samson lust and that's a sin and so therefore the Bible isn't true. Okay, you got your first Kings chapter 12, you wanna know your history, you wanna understand that. So right now, first Kings chapter number 12. The next one is gonna be Deuteronomy chapter seven verses one through three, okay? And what you're gonna find in that passage is a specific list of nations in which God said you will not marry these people and they all end in ites, okay? The Girgashites, the Ammonites, all these ites, okay? Now the next one is going to be Ezra and this is how I remember it. And Ezra chapter nine verses one and two, okay? Ezra chapter nine verses one and two and the reason why I can remember this so easy is because the next one is chapter 10 verses 12. So Ezra nine verses one and two, Ezra chapter 10 verse 12, okay? And just look, have those written down just in case this happens to you, okay? And you bring that person that has the objection to these passages and say nowhere in the Bible does it specifically mention the Philistines. In fact, if you go all the way back to Abraham's day, he actually had somewhat of a cordial relationship with the Philistines. Now I'm not saying it's wise for him to want to date or marry a Philistine, okay? But it was not completely off the table and that's just what the Bible says, okay? So again, we don't have time to do a deep dive into that. That's just for you to have on hand in case somebody comes at you with that, okay? But nonetheless, this is what we are dealing with here. Samson loves this uncircumcised Philistine's daughter and says, hey, I don't care, just get her for me, okay? Which by the way is also a pretty good lesson for us to listen to our parents, okay? I don't care what your view is of your parents at this stage in your life. They have lived a long time. They have gotten to know how people are. So whether they made mistakes in marriage or not, they know people and you're probably, obviously you're a lot younger than they are. So when they tell you they think somebody is bad, you really need to take that into consideration, okay? Now there are caveats to that. There are exceptions to that. Like for example, with me, okay? When I met my wife, obviously she'd be going to church her whole life and that bothered my parents. But the one thing that bothered my mom, specifically more than anything, is that my wife is white and has blonde hair. My mom is Mexican and she wanted me to marry a Mexican person. What you say, that's kind of strange. You know what's strange about it is my dad's white. So I'd always be like, mom, dad's white. Everybody who looks at me says I'm white. I'm born in America. Like what's the problem here? She's like, well, blondes are different. They're a different breed of people, okay? They just, you know, and one stabbed my brother and I was like, okay, this is a beef of your own sort that you're trying to pass down on me. So obviously I didn't listen. And here we are today leading a church, okay? But by and large, okay, they do have some valuable information. Samson's parents know better. Your parents probably know better, okay? So use discretion in that and just chew on that for what it is. Now let's move on here. So verse five mentions the fact that a lion now has roared at Samson, okay? So this lion is upset here. Look at verse six. Look what he does here. Says, and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him and he rent him as he would have rent a kid. You know, he's not going down to the local store or the local zoo and renting an animal for the day, okay? That word rent there means to tear, okay? So he tore this lion as he would have torn a kid of the goats, okay? And he had nothing in his hand, but he told not his father or his mother what he had done. So really this is kind of the second unwise thing that Samson has done, okay? The way he talked to his parents, definitely not good, definitely not wise, though the desire for him to do that was of the Lord. The Lord is going to use that to stir up the Philistines. You say, why are you bringing this up? Because here's a point that I wanna consider for a few minutes, okay? Just because God uses you, because if you notice at the beginning of verse six there, it says the spirit of the Lord came mightily on him. So the question might pop into your mind, why is the spirit of God coming into a guy who's disobedient and just kind of arrogant, you know? Like, well, what's going on here? Well, you need to understand that just because God uses you in a powerful way doesn't mean that you are right with God. And it doesn't mean that someone else is right with God. So just because somebody has 10 million subscribers on YouTube and they've got 8,000 people in their service or whatever it is, they've got all these likes, they've got all this clout, that doesn't mean that they're right with God, okay? That doesn't mean that at all. And this is really one of the things that so many people miss in life, okay? This is a lesson that a lot of people cannot just handle, they do not understand, and it is so true, and Samson's life echoes that extremely loud, okay? Just because the spirit of God moves on somebody, just because somebody does something great in the kingdom of God does not mean that everything that they do in life is right. It does not mean that they are wise. It does not mean that at all. What it means is that God's will is being done through that person. That we know at a minimum. And now go to chapter number 14 and let's look at some more examples of this. All right, look down at verse number 14. So it says, and when he came to pass, or I'm sorry, when he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, okay? Again, this comes after earlier in his life that he basically gambles away his money. As he goes, after he tears that lion apart, okay, he does a couple of things. Well, first of all, he doesn't tell his parents about it. Second of all, he comes back and there's now a beehive in there producing honey, and he's like, oh, this is great. He takes it to the honey, starts eating it, and then goes and gives it to his parents, okay? Completely unclean, completely goes against the Nazarite vows that he was supposed to be raised with in following, okay? So he's done all of these things, and then he gets an idea. Okay, I'm gonna go up to the Philistines and I'm gonna put forth a riddle to them and I'm gonna bet them on all these changes of clothes and see if they can figure it out, and guess what? They entice his wife and say, we're gonna burn you in your house if you don't tell us the answer to the riddle. So she goes and extracts it from Samson, gives it to the Philistines, they figure it out, and they're like, ha, now you owe us, okay? So what does he do to pay his debt? And he goes down and he slaughters a bunch of people. He slaughters 30 people, takes the spoil, and then pays his debt, okay? And what do we see right here? Verse 14, and when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him, and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands, okay? The reason why we're skipping around is because I want you to focus on that, okay? He just got done gambling, okay? And then paid his debt, and he did all those unsavory things. All of this impulse, okay? He's living his life on impulse, and what do we see? God filling him with his spirit, and he's still doing mighty things, okay? This is also a sermon on discretion, okay? You have got to be careful about looking at somebody and saying, oh, because they could speak so well, or because they have so many followers, because they have so much presence on social media. That's the dude, that's the guy, man. You have got to be careful. If what they say is true, then follow it, but like Jesus told the disciples, right? Okay, he said, hey, do after what they say, do after what the Pharisees say, but do not follow their ways, because they say this, but yet don't do what they teach. Okay, so they say something good, good, follow it. Prove that it's true from the word of God, and follow that, but don't just be like, oh man, this person's got everything. So whatever shampoo he buys, whatever shampoo she buys, that's what I'm gonna buy. Whatever car that preacher drives, I'm gonna drive that car. How he said this in this verse, that's exactly how I'm gonna say it. You don't wanna be like that, because you're gonna wind up falling into a trap of man worship, which will bind you spiritually, and you will not come out of it okay. Verse number 15. So obviously it's after the men of Judah bound him and said, hey, you go back to uncle Phil over here, okay, you go back to the Philistines and leave us alone. Okay, Samson of course, still mad about his wife being given to his companion, and then unfortunately murdered by the Philistines. Look at this. And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith. Okay, again, think about all the stuff that Samson has done that is against the word of God. The spirit of God comes on him, and he kills 1,000 men with a jawbone of an ass. Who are you counseling? No, that's what the Bible says, okay. I had a title I was gonna use, and I was like, well, probably offend some more people, so I just decided not to do it today, but I'm gonna do it in the future. I'm not gonna give it up now. But anyways, okay, think about this feat that he just accomplished here. Killing 1,000 people. Look, Samson's physical strength was so incredible that no amount of wrestling, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Muay Thai, okay, would have stopped him, okay. He would have torn your head off. He would have torn your limbs off. That is how strong he is, okay. And again, of course, it's because this came from God. Now look at verse number 17. And it came to pass when he had made an end of speaking. Okay, because in verse 16, he's basically saying this, wow, with a jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with a jaw of an ass, have I slain 1,000 men. So after he gets done saying that to himself, after accomplishing this, look at this here. And it came to pass when he made an end of speaking that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand and called that place Ramathahili, okay. And so basically, have you ever heard the term mic drop? Like where somebody says something real profound and then just drop the mic because nothing more needs to be said. That's literally what he does here with his jawbone, okay. He gets done killing 1,000 people by himself. Hey, not with a bow and arrow, not with a knife, not with a sword, not with a dagger, but with what he found, what he could improvise with, which was a hard object from an unclean animal, beats these people to death with it, apparently. And then he says, oh yeah, I just basically killed 1,000 people and he just drops it and walks away, okay. If that's not boss, I don't know what is, okay. But I'm bringing that up because again, I'm gonna say just because God uses you or someone else in a very mighty way does not necessarily mean that you're right with God. It doesn't mean necessarily that that person is right with God, okay. Basically the moral of the story is keep track of your own stuff and audit yourself to make sure you're not going straight. Now go to chapter number 16, okay. Chapter number 16. So on that same note, okay, again, Samson just got this problem with impulse, okay. He just sees, does. Sees, does, no thought given to it. You know, no like, hey, how's this gonna affect what God has said I'm supposed to do? None of that, okay. He just acts. That's just what he does. That is how he lives his life. But the spirit of God is still on him, okay. So the beginning of chapter 16, what do we see? Hey, if you're not familiar with the story, basically he goes down to the Philistines again and he finds a harlot, finds a hooker and he's like, great. That'll satisfy my needs for the day. And he goes and he does that, okay. And then what happens? He winds up getting married to someone named Delilah. And now Delilah gets approached by the five Lords of the Philistines and they're like, hey, this guy has killed a lot of our people. In fact, he even carried one of our city gates up to a top of a hill, which is impossible. We know it's not God. So find out where his physical strength is, okay. So this is now a repeat of his first marriage. Okay, he doesn't, he hasn't learned his lesson yet that these Philistine women are no good. We get this here in verse number 16, okay. And it came to pass when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him so that his soul was vexed unto death. Yeah, I'm sure every married guy has been in this situation here. Yeah, every guy has, you know, I'm sure some of you are like, oh, even my mom just vexed me. Clean your room until you're about to die. Okay, fine, I'll do it. Verse 17, 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 from my mother's womb. If I be shaven, then my strength will go for me and I shall become weak and be like any other man. So he does good at the beginning of the test. He gets married, the five wards of the Philistines, they approach Delilah, say, hey, find out his strength. So she starts to ask him. So one night she's like, hey, you know, what's the source of your strength? And he's like, well, if they bind me with ropes, then I'll be like anybody else. And so she does it and then says, Samson, the Philistines are upon thee and then he wakes up and just breaks them, okay. And so this happens a couple of different times. And then finally, she's just like, you just lied to me, you don't trust me, you don't love me, okay. And so again, keep in mind up to this point, Samson has done good at protecting his own strength, okay, the source of his strength. He's done a great job until this point, but finally he caves, finally he compromises and he spills the beans. Look at verse 18, and when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the Lords of the Philistines saying, come up this once, for he hath showed me all his heart. Then the Lords of the Philistines came up onto her and brought money in their hand. And so basically the fee was, they said, look, we'll give you 1100 pieces of silver, all of us, if you do this, okay. 5,500, I mean, it was a pretty good paycheck, I'm sure, back in these days here. But what does this teach us here? Okay, I wanna show you this. You go to Proverbs 31, you go to Proverbs chapter 31, I'm sure everybody's familiar with this. Everybody loves to use Proverbs chapter 31 as the great audit book to find a wife, which if you do that, you're gonna be single for a long time because these are things that women need to grow into. They're not automatically just born with, okay. Now, Proverbs 31 here, look at verse number one. The words of King Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him, okay. Think about this, King Lemuel, say, who is that? We'll get into that another day, I don't got time for that, okay. King Lemuel, okay, a king, a ruler of a nation is being taught a very important principle by a woman. And that woman happens to be her mother, okay. What better source to teach him than his mother in this because she knows how women are, okay. And we just saw a man destroyed by a woman, by his wife, okay, now look at verse two, what my son and what the son of my womb and what the son of my vows. Now look at the very next thing that she tells him, okay, give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings. This is a very smart woman, you know what she is telling her son? Hey, do not give your responsibilities, your strengths, the gifts that God has given men, unto women, why? Because it will destroy your life, it will ruin your marriage and it could possibly ruin you as a person, as a man, if not kill you. Because ultimately you're gonna see this leads to Samson dying, okay. Now go back to Proverbs chapter 16, but then she obviously says, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings. And then she gets into the subject of alcohol and discipline, okay, and why is that? Well, because physical strength helps them strive, but internal strength wins at life, that's what she's telling him, that's what she's trying to get her son who is a king to understand, that is what we all wish Samson would have grasped along the way, okay. Look at this here, verse number 21, but the Philistines took him and put out his eye. So we're just gonna skip for sake of time down to verse 21. But the Philistines took him, okay, so obviously Delilah is like, hey, come get him, I want payday, it's payday. Okay, but the Philistines took him and put out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza, now look at this, and bound him with fetters of brass and he did grind in the prison house. Now, I wanna say three things here that I noticed in this verse, okay. This is what will happen to you guys, listen to me, when you give your strength onto a woman, this is what will happen. Look at the beginning of the verse there, but the Philistines took him and put out his eyes, okay. So what do we see here? That this type of sin blinds you, this blinds a man. Now look further in the verse, and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with fetters of brass. So giving your strength unto a woman not only blinds you, okay, but it also binds you, okay, that's what it does, it binds you, you will not be able to function in the strength that God has given you as a man. Now look at this last one here, and he did grind in the prison house, and it will leave you grinding unnecessarily, difficultly in life, okay. And so we could say that the sin blinds, it binds and it definitely grinds, now that might be cheesy, but it is what it is, and I bet you'll remember it for the rest of your life, okay, so just don't do it. Last place I wanna have you turn, is one more time to Proverbs chapter number 25. We already went there, but we're gonna finish it off here, okay. And so really just a couple of things while we close here, again, this is just an overview of Samson's life, I wanna get you familiar with this before we really dig in to the heart of the issues that he went through in these three chapters, okay. One thing that Samson teaches us is that we are our own worst enemies, okay. That's one thing we have got to understand as God's people, the flesh, okay, we warth against the flesh, we are our own worst enemies, okay. And what else have we seen here? Well, we've seen that the main thing that Samson struggles with is that internal strength, ride too much on his gifts from God, said, well, this will bail me out this time, this will bail me out, but what was the one thing, the one thing that got him is he gave that strength unto a woman and it wound up costing him his eyesight, it cost him his movement, it cost him his strength, it cost him his freedom, cost him his life, okay. Now, I may have mentioned this in the past, I don't remember, but if you want some interesting reading later on or wanna watch a couple of interesting videos later on, there was a study done by Stanford and it was called the marshmallow experiment. Has anybody ever heard of this before, the marshmallow experiment? Yeah, it's basically where they take some little kids, like five years old, and you sit them in a room and they say, okay, on this plate, here's a marshmallow, you can either eat it now or if you wait, okay, you wait till I come back, I'll give you another one and maybe a couple more, something like that, said. They said, okay, so you can eat it now or you can wait and get another one, okay. And so the mom would go out or the instructor would go out for an unspecified amount of time and they would just watch the kids on a camera and some of the kids would be able to just like, you know, sniffing it, playing with it, you know, just throwing it up in the air, nibbling on it just a little bit and putting it back and just squishing it down. And some kids were just like, you know, just gobbling it down quick. They're like, I don't care, it's here right now. And so what they did is they tracked the kids that had the discipline to resist it for like the next 25 years and guess what they found? Okay, that they were just obviously far more successful in life, far more advanced in life. And so the point is, you know, we don't need those types of experiments to get that lesson. All that does is just prove that the Word of God is true that if we could just come to the understanding that internal strength ought not to be neglected, we would be obviously much better off. So one more time, Proverbs 25, verse 28, he that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down. And that's what happened with Samson. That's how he lived his life as a wrecking ball, as a bull in a China shop, so to speak, and without walls. Why? Because physical strength helps in life, but internal strength wins at life. And so we definitely don't want to neglect the latter. You really don't want to neglect either one, but if you had to make a choice, I would definitely say neglect the physical and make sure you do not skip on neglecting the internal. Now, before we close, I just want to kind of give you a couple of things here real quickly. So I said at the beginning of the sermon that Samson's life, it kind of echoes the nation's status. How they were, they're born miraculously and they followed God for a while. And then as soon as the spirit of God begins to move on Samson, he's off, impulse, oh, just doing all this crazy stuff, violating the word of God. And then God keeps filling him with his spirit. God keeps using him until the final blow. And we said, that's exactly how the nation of Israel operates. Follow God for a little while, to get complacent, to get into oppression. And then God has to save them. Now eventually you read far enough into your Bible, you realize that God says, I'm done with you. I found a better nation. I found a better nation that's going to bring forth the fruits thereof. And of course we know that that's us, but Samson's life also pictures the life of Christ. You say, well, how so? Well, obviously both births are miraculous. We know Samson was given incredible physical strength by God. Well, we know that Jesus is God. He lived his life with incredible strength of casting out demons, healing the sick, opening the eyes of the blind, the ears of the deaf, and just teaching things that just men were just like, wow, no one has ever taught us like that, okay? And so that incredible strength that Jesus has is very similar to the life of Samson. And just how Samson was betrayed by a close friend, by his wife. So was Christ betrayed by Judah, given over to the Gentiles and their deaths are also very similar, okay? Because in the end, and we'll take a look at this in greater detail in a couple of weeks, but Samson, how did he die? Okay, well, he called out to God and he prayed to God and said, Lord, just this one time, would you please give me my strength back that I might avenge myself? And so he dies pushing on these pillars with his arms spread out wide, just like the Lord did. But obviously there's a difference because Samson, okay, Samson's in this position solely because of his own sin, because of his own impulse, whereas Christ became man for us to do what we could not do, being people, and died for the sins of other people. So obviously a vast difference there. But again, just some interesting, quick parallels there for you before we close. So with that being said, let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for this church and for all that you do for us. So just pray you bless the fellowship after the service and bring us back safely tonight. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. All right, we're gonna have one more song and then we will be dismissed.