(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

all right we are in judges chapter number 13 and we are entering into a new phase of a new character in the book of Judges which is probably the most popular character within this book by the name of Samson now chapter 13 doesn't deal a whole lot with Samson as far as him being an adult and the exploits that he did and the spirit of the Lord coming upon him but it lays a foundation for how this came about how is it that he was raised up what kind of parents he had and it's a very interesting story there's a lot of principles that we can learn from this but let me just give you an overview of what we've seen so far in the book of Judges now the vast majority of the book of Judges deals primarily with detailing the lives of the actual judges themselves and if you remember in the very beginning I gave you a concise outline of these judges and what chapters they're found in from chapters 3 all the way to chapter 16 you have nothing but judges being spoken about and really the most popular ones you had Othniel you have Echad, Deborah, Gideon then you have Gideon's descendant who wanted to usurp authority become a judge become a ruler by the name of Abimelech after him you have Tola and Jair but then you have Jephthah who's not necessarily part of the twelve tribes of Israel but rather is part of the offshoot of the tribe of Manasseh who's half tribe with Ephraim so we see that in the previous chapter and then last week it was kind of like a break of all the the biographical details that it gives of these judges and we just get into this random story of the Gileadites really just massacring these Ephraimites for not being able to pronounce shibboleth correctly all right so reference that from last week but now and then there's three other judges that come up after that Elam, Abdon and Ibsen but not a whole lot of details is given about them and then we enter into chapter number 13 which is the beginning of the story of Samson now look at verse number one it says here and the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord big surprise I mean this is something that we commonly see throughout the book of Judges right and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines 40 years so what we see in chapter 13 is not much has really changed throughout these time periods you still have Israel acting foolish serving other idols in the absence of their authority and you know what God doesn't change so therefore the consequences do not change either you know he dealt with Israel in a certain way you know in the beginning of the judges in the middle of the judges and at the end of judges as well because God does not change in his judgment right we see there that they begin to do evil in the sight of the Lord and that is commonly associated with idolatry they're serving Baal they're serving these false gods the gods of the surrounding people that they're with and then the Lord delivers them into the hand of the Philistines for that reason for 40 years now notice this look at verse number two it says in there was a certain man of Zorab of the family of the Danites whose name was Manoah and his wife was barren and bare not now I hope he caught this because verse number one has nothing to do with verse number two he just like talks about the state of the condition the spiritual condition of Israel and just segues into this individual story of a man who has a wife who cannot bear children and he's part of the tribe of the day of the Danites and it's just like if you think about it like where did that come from you know but let me just say this is that I want to make a point regarding what we just saw here in verses one and two is that you know obviously the Bible is inspired by God right and the Bible tells us that all scripture is given by inspiration of God it's profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction instruction in righteousness it's perfect it's without error but you know also the Bible is a great storybook you know obviously there's great stories in the Bible but just the way this the story is told is great obviously it's because it's written by the greatest storyteller of all of all time which is God right and the reason I say that is because a good story has a good plot right a good story has interesting characters and guess what a good story has an element of surprise so you said what does that have to do with this well they God basically leaves us with a cliffhanger in verse number one look Israel's doing evil inside of the Lord and look if we've read through judges we know what's coming up next right then God's gonna raise up a delivery but does he get right into that no he just talks about this man named Manoah whose wife can't bear and you're just like what's coming obviously this has something to do with the deliverance of Israel but we just don't know what and in fact if you're first reading off the Bible you really don't know what's going on but obviously if you've read it you know what's gonna take place here you know what this is leading up to but think about the people who are in Israel during this time they have no idea what's going on they're just being oppressed by the Philistines they are you know health captive they're being chastised of the Lord but what's going on God is working in the background he's working behind the scenes in a time of trial and a time of chastisement in a time of you know this persecution and all these bad things going on for 40 years you know there's probably people thinking what's gonna happen but you know what God is already working he's doing something behind the scenes that maybe Israel does not know of as of yet and in fact Manoah doesn't even know it Manoah is just like I'm trying to deal with my own problems my wife can't even have kids let alone look for the deliverer of Israel right so verse 1 segues into the story of Manoah and I just thought about that I'm thinking myself you know God has not changed and it's the same thing today and the principle that we can learn here is this you know if you're going through a tough time if you're going through a trial you know what the fact is God is working behind the scenes and you don't need and sometimes we pray we never get an answer from God right but do we need an answer no because the fact of the matter is the Bible tells us that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose so what do we need to concern ourselves with loving God sometimes there is no solution right we don't have a solution we can't come up with the formula but you're not the solution in the formula to your trial is that you just love God because in order for God to basically put all the pieces of the puzzle together in order for everything to work together for good in order for all the ingredients to be put together to make yourself a nice cheesecake you know you got to have all the elements but you know you have to have the chef who actually knows what he's doing if you give me all the ingredients to make cheesecake I will not make cheesecake it'll just turn out something really bad because I'm not a good cook but you put that ingredients into the hands of a good cook they can make a masterpiece out of it right we just need to make sure that we love God and we just need to make sure that we love God with all our heart soul mind and strength that we're right with God and we can be completely dependent on the fact that God will work it out together for good you know even though we have verse 1 you're like what's verse 2 all about you know why is this happening in our lives well just don't this God is working in the background God is doing something behind the scenes that you may not even understand as of yet but no one didn't understand it he's just concerned about the fact that his wife can't have children and what I'm saying is this is that every single person in this room will go through a trial or you're probably in the trial right now you're going through a difficult time you're going through a time of discouragement you know you're experiencing a verse number one and you're also experiencing a verse number two you just don't know what they have to do with one another you're like what is verse one God what is verse two have to do with verse one I need money I need to pay the rent I need this my health is you know this or whatever and you just don't know what's going on well they're linked they're linked you know and at the end of the day we as Christians we need to have this panoramic view of everything as well that's difficult to do but it can be done if we just think about it from the bigger picture okay and recognize that you know trials don't catch God off guard you know trials and difficulties and things that blindside us do not blindside the Lord and you say well I'm not going through a trial well you better listen you better listen hey young person you better pay attention because you're gonna need this because you will go through a trial it will happen guaranteed it's gonna happen to you and you know what and if you're not prepared for it you're gonna be like the person who you know believes they receive the Word of God with gladness but in it's a time in a time of temptation they fall away we don't want to fall away during the time of temptation and trial you know what we want to do in a time of temptation recognize God is still on the throne he's still working things behind the scenes I just need to make sure I focus on loving him making sure that I'm taking care of my responsibilities because he's doing something behind the scenes and this entire chapter this entire chapter is about the man who God is going to raise up to take care of verse number one right I mean these next couple chapters up until chapter 16 is about Samson now given Samson is not a good example okay he screwed up he messed up he did wrong but you know what God had a purpose for him he just didn't fulfill that purpose later on okay but I want to show you that now go go to second Corinthians chapter number one second Corinthians chapter number one and the reason I'm spending time on this is because you know we got to talk about doctrine we got to talk about practical Christian living we also got to talk about how to maintain emotional fortitude in the midst of difficulties because the fact is is that this generation that's rising up are a bunch of weenies a bunch of snowflake weenies who when they stub their toe they can't do anything they think they think God's chest eyes in them because their toenail got torn off or something you know by the way if you got your toenail turn off you know today yeah I'm talking to you okay but and we you know the closer we get to the end times we are in the end times but the closer we get to the end times to the end of the world you know the worst people are gonna get the more trials there's gonna be and you can't be a weak Christian we need to be fortified we need to be strong emotionally we need to make sure that we have mental fortitude to withstand the pressures and the stresses yay even the trials of our day the sufferings and the persecutions of our day when they come to us because it's gonna come look at the promise that we see in second Corinthians chapter one and verse number four all right let's start verse number three says blessed be God even the father of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of mercies and the God of all comfort who comforted us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God that's a lot of comfort he's a comfort comfort comfort I mean the Holy Spirit is called the comforter think he's trying to tell us something right oh hold on a second for as the sufferings of Christ abound in us so consolation also abounded by Christ so you know this tells me in order for us to get this proper comfort we need to have the proper suffering so if you want the comfort of God God only dishes out the type of comfort that comes with the type of persecution that requires that comfort you know and wherewith look what it says at verse 6 it says and whether we be afflicted is for your consolation and salvation which is effectual in the enduring of the same suffering which we also suffer or whether we be comforted it is for your consolation and salvation so another thing that we see there is that God allows us to go through trials so we can be comforted but not just so we can live in comfort what is it for so we can be an example to someone else who will go through that same suffering six months from now so you know do you understand now why it's so vital that you go through this trial with flying colors do you pass that you'd make the right decisions do you have the right attitude do you have the right perspective you know why cuz it's not just you who's on the line it's the person who's gonna be watching you six months from now you know God is not all about just giving us comfort so we can be happy I just heard some so stupid today about this guy who used to go to this church that I know and he's like a rapper now a Christian rapper he's a Christian rapper and he said he read something in the Bible in the book of Psalms and the conclusion he came to was this well I know that God just wants me to be happy now I know God just wants me to be happy you better study the prophets because the Bible says that they are of like passions and you know what that's referring to sufferings when it talks about passion it's not referring to your zeal it's actually referring to their sufferings like when Jesus said that he showed himself into the disciples after his passions is referring after his suffering you know and I'm not saying God doesn't want us to be happy but you know what the Bible says he that keep it the law happy is he you want some happiness in your life keep the law but God is not here as this genie that we just rub the lamp of which we call the Bible and he just makes us happy he's just here to wait on his hand and foot no we're made for the glory of God we're made we're here to make him happy amen and you know what makes this hell makes him happy is that when we suffer and we're still able to sing in the midst of suffering you know when we are suffering we're going through trials and afflictions and you know what we still depend on God no matter what that makes them happy this these are the things that we need to keep in mind go back to Judges chapter 13 that all things work together for good that God is working behind the scenes and this is what we see here with it with the children of Israel let me give you another example is go to Exodus chapter 2 hold your place there go to Exodus chapter 2 Exodus chapter number 2 Exodus chapter 2 look at verse 23 of Exodus 2 it says and it came to pass in the process of time that the king of Egypt died and the children of Israel signed by reason of the bondage and they cried and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage and God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant with Abraham with Isaac and with Jacob and God looked upon the children of Israel and God had respect unto them end of chapter 2 that's all it says right and then it jumps into chapter 3 now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law the priest of Midian and he led the flock of the back to the backside of the desert and came to the mountain of God even to Horeb what do we see here we see an element of suspense he leaves us wondering man what's gonna happen to Israel but then he focuses on one man in chapter 3 right just as we see in Judges chapter number 13 so how do we apply this to even ourselves well often we have a tendency to look at the entire problem right the entire problem whereas sometimes we just need to focus on the one person now what do I mean by that well the one person could be yourself as far as how are you walking with the Lord have you been reading the Bible are you keeping sin out of your life are you making sure that you stay right with God you know sometimes we focus on oh man you know America we need to pray for America no you why don't you just stay right with God why don't you just win souls why don't you just read the Bible why don't you just live a life that's holy unto the Lord and let God send America to hell in a handbasket why don't you just make sure you stay right with God but another way we can apply this is that the one man could be hey how about that one soul we need to see safe on a weekly basis on a daily basis whatever may be take the focus off of the big problem and refocus yourself on now which is most important okay now go back to judges chapter 13 so we see that there Israel does evil in the sight of the Lord verse 2 says and there was a man a certain man of Zorro of the family of the Danites whose name was Manoah and his wife was barren and bare not and the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman and said unto her behold now thou art barren and barest not but thou shalt conceive and bear a son now one thing you're gonna notice with Samson is the similarities in the parallels that we see with Jesus Christ because remember all these judges in the book of Judges they have some symbolic meaning to Jesus Christ some of them are more weaker than others some of them you don't see much it's like well I don't see any parallel with this judge well just know this the judge was at what deliver just as Jesus Christ is right but here we see in verse 3 right off the bat he shares this strong similarity that he's basically like a miracle child because of the fact that his mom could not bear a child but yet the angel of the Lord came to his wife and said you're gonna conceive a child something that was impossible in times past right now this is also said in Luke chapter 1 verse 26 go to Luke chapter 1 hold your place there Luke chapter number 1 go to Luke chapter 1 verse 26 it says here in Luke chapter 21 verse 26 it says thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me to take away my reproach among men and in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God into the city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David and the Virgin's name was Mary and the angel came in unto her and said hail thou that are highly favored the Lord is with thee blessed are thou among women and when she saw him she was troubled and sane and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be and the angel said unto her fear not Mary for thou has found favor with God and behold thou shall conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus so that's kind of a stretch you know it was a miracle because that lady was barren well you know it was just as a miracle for Mary because Mary was a virgin who was bearing a child it's a miracle right and we see that similarity there obviously we see that with John the Baptist as well but more so as we related to Jesus Christ go back to Judges chapter 13 now here in verse 4 it says now therefore beware I pray thee and I pray thee and drink not wine nor strong drink nor eat and not any unclean thing for lo thou shalt conceive and bear a son and no razor shall come on his head for 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 now this is this is interesting because what we see here is God basically telling Manoah's wife hey you're gonna be a Nazarite but your child the reason you're gonna be a Nazarite is because your child's gonna be a Nazarite now the Nazarite vow or the concept of the Nazarite vow is found in Numbers chapter number six and what this was was just a seasonal vow that a person could make in the Old Testament they would make unto God and they were to abstain from certain things they couldn't drink juice they couldn't eat raisins they couldn't come near any dead animals they were supposed to be consecrated or separated from those things unto the Lord and one unique thing that they had to do is let their the hair of their head grow okay until the vow was accomplished now people ironically will say yeah Jesus Christ have long hair because he was a Nazarite no he was a Nazarene it was like you just there's a different I know they both start with an N they have a Z somewhere in there okay but a Nazarite and a Nazarene are two different things and no I did not just try to rhyme that but it worked out all right a Nazarite anybody could do it in fact man or woman could be a part of this vow okay and there's the spiritual application there is that this you're separated for a specific purpose okay to fulfill a specific purpose that's why you're not drinking juice you're not eating raises you're not even touching an unclean animal dead animal or even a dead person so if a person a family member dies for example you would not be able to go near that dead body if you're you know if you had the Nazarite vow because that's how strict it was okay and then you had to allow that the hair on your head to grow okay and the time you can basically cut it off is when your vow was accomplished now the Bible tells us what does the Bible tell us about long hair on the man it says that it's a shame exactly right the Bible says that for a man to have long hair doth not nature even teach it that if a man have long hair it is a shame unto him okay so you know let me just park it here for a little bit no man should have long hair and you say well what's the rule well if you look like a stinking lady and chop it off if we start confusing you with the lady chop it off if you start looking like some queer chop it off oh yeah I just you know I just have this you know this thing with barbers or whatever then take a buzzer to it and just handle it you know but it's very clear oh well Jesus had long hair no he didn't but you're thinking of Caesar Borgia Caesar Borgia of the Renaissance that wicked person in history who the the Catholic Jesus looks like that's not Jesus and the reason he had long hair is because he was a shameful person filled with STDs he was a fornicator he was a wicked person and that's what people like to talk about oh you know they put the picture of Jesus this white dude with blue eyes even though Jesus was part of Israel he's a Jew right he's he's in the Middle Eastern desert he probably has a tan because he's walking around for days on end he does not have this Pantene Pro V hair just hanging that is a false Jesus that's not the right that's not the real Jesus Caesar Borgia but but here's the thing there is an exception to that rule though that's right here okay and people balk at that they have a hard time with that I remember people used to tell me no you know Samson didn't have long hair it was just logs they're like you little dreadlocks no it was long you know why it was long because he was supposed to be a Nazarite from the time of his birth to the time of his death that's a lifetime of growing hair well how do you explain that if it's a shame because it's the exception to the rule that's why because it's a Nazarite vow that's why you know we're allowed to eat raisins we're allowed to drink juice we're allowed to do all the exceptions to that would be if you're doing a Nazarite vow hey we're allowed to be around a dead animal if we're gonna eat it the exception would be if you are doing the Nazarite vow so guess what the exception to grow your hair the seven locks like Samson did would be the fact that he was a Nazarite taking that vow okay so this is what that's referring to here is that he is his mom is to abstain from drinking wine or strong drink they're not to eat anything any unclean thing she says that he says thou shalt conceive bearer son no razor shall come on his head for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb and look what it says in verse seven it says but he said unto me behold thou shall conceive and bear a 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 you said why is that unique because Nazarite vows were only supposed to be temporal okay and this is a very strong picture of Jesus Christ why is that I'll explain it to you so in during the Nazarite vow what took place at the end of that Nazarite vow when they accomplished that vow does anybody know when the vow was concluded it was specifically given the instruction was that they had to make a sacrifice of an animal to signify that it was the conclusion of of that vow okay now isn't that interesting that his vow was supposed to be from his birth all the way to what his death so what does that tell us well that shows us that it's like a picture of Jesus Christ because of the fact that Jesus Christ was the Lamb of God who should take away the sins of the world he sacrificed himself just as Samson was supposed to do maybe in a different manner but he still did it even when he was backslidden what did he do he sacrificed himself and actually committed suicide killing himself and all the Philistines at the end of his life which means that he fulfilled that Nazarite vow to a certain extent because he sacrificed himself and he fulfilled the picture of Jesus Christ as well by giving himself a sacrifice for his people okay he delivered his people through that sacrifice because he killed all the Philistines which were the oppressors of Israel during that time and because he killed them in doing so he liberated all of his people from that oppression okay does that make sense to everyone so we see there that they're supposed to be a Nazarite and be consecrated so this consecration is pretty deep is it not because they're consecrating Samson from the womb up until death you know that tells me first of all it tells me that if he's gonna grow up get married and everything that means they need to make sure that they train him in the way he should go for when he is old he will not depart from it train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it so in order for them to make sure that this vow that God had told them to carry out was to be carried out they need to make sure they trained that boy right in the ways of the Lord because once he's out of the house he's out of the house right but not only that we see here that they consecrate him from the womb now here's the practical application of this of this teaching here okay of this story is that Samson is supposed to be a Nazarite but who's the Nazarite first his mom so in order for Samson to be a Nazarite mom needs to make sure that she's the example of it even before he's born bam what does that mean how do we apply that well if you're gonna consecrate your children unto the Lord in other words you want your children to serve the Lord to make sure that they're thriving they love the Lord their God with all their hearts will mind and strength they're doing that which is right on the side of the Lord that means that you got to do too not do as I say more like do as I do because we see here that his mother was to abstain from wine and for all the things that the the the valve the Nazarite was imposed upon but also for us for her children for her son Samson and look this is important today is it not because we as parents can expect our children to live for the Lord if we're not we can't expect them to read the Bible if we're not we can't expect them to take church you know serious if we're not we cannot expect our children to exceed that which we're gonna do if we're not willing to do it ourselves you know and the mom here seems like she did a pretty good job right and so the principle that we see here is that we as parents need to be an example you know not just command our children to do things that we're not willing to do no we need it exemplify that type of life to them okay and make sure that we are godly examples not perfect because no parent is perfect and look teenagers don't expect your parents to be perfect either don't expect your parents to never make a mistake to never fail to never do wrong their sin is just like everyone else and you know what you're to use them as an example you're to treat them as your parents and recognize that God gave you those parents for a reason use them as an example don't don't mock them don't disobey them don't rebel against them no if they're trying to be a Nazarite they're trying to be consecrated unto the Lord you do likewise you know there's a generation that's being raised up today of just rebellious teenagers rebellious young people who just hate their parents this passive-aggressive rebellion towards their parents now obviously the parents it's the parents fall for not spanking the kids first and foremost they need a shellacking is what they need and look most problems can just go back right to that I look at a kid I'm like that person hasn't been spanked ever rolling their eyes giving an attitude the only time I rolled my eyes with my mom smacked me across the face and just like hit me so hard my eyes rolled back never roll your eyes at me but you know I hear today that's common isn't it it's common in our culture today for the young people to just completely disrespect their parents roll their eyes have this passive rebellion towards their parents as if their parents owe them something shame on you and look it may not be said of the teenagers at our church to ever have that type of attitude towards their parents you ought to respect them love them and obey them you know I'm 33 years old and I still obey my mom can you believe that now obviously outside of the bounds of if it's something that I have to they're asking me to do where it kind of just contradicts my family contradicts the Bible I'm not gonna do it but for the most part I'm gonna do it if my dad asked me to do something I'm gonna do it and you know what I'm gonna show some respect when I do it and that's something that's lacking today in the teenagers of this culture is a lack of respect but you know what it's a lack of a whooping that's the result of a lack of a whooping because they don't fear their parents had to chase that rabbit but it's a good rabbit and it's needed okay you know we need to make sure that we train up a child in the way should go and look that includes chastisement as well you know no timeouts none of this timeout go to the corner I'm not gonna let you use the iPad I'm not gonna let you play xbox that's my kind of chastisement that's garbage that doesn't work you learn that from you know Freud or what's that guy's name stick freedom in Freud or whatever fraud you know you're learning the way of the heathen is what you're doing and look man we need to make sure that we try to salvage our generation how do we salvage the generation we need to be the dads that we need to be and chastise our children love our children not neglect our children but we have to have all those elements binded into that one part in order for us to be right type of leaders don't tell me you know all the Bible look if you say you know all the Bible but you're not chastising your children you're lying to me because the Bible you're claiming to know tells you to chastise your children you know and look there is a right and a wrong way of chastising your children we understand that you know I was joking about the smacking across the face that is the way the previous generation used to do it the unchristian unreligious you know way was you know the chancla you know or they just grab anything that's in sight they just they see you running they're like damn catch you from right across the room that's a wrong way of chastising okay pulling the hair smack in the mouth or whatever there is a proper way to chastise where you don't damage the brain okay you know there is a proper way and look God God chastises us and look don't we understand when God chastises one of his children's oh yeah that guy that guy's getting chastised of the Lord but then we don't chastise our children that's not that's weird so we're not following the example of even the father okay we need to make sure that we fulfill this and this is a great example of Manoah's wife who was willing to abstain from certain things in order for her son to be consecrated to a great work okay and I don't we don't even know if they knew that he was gonna be a judge right there's no judge nothing of being the judge is mentioned here only that he's supposed to be a Nazarite so for all she knows is like well maybe he's just supposed to be consecrated unto the Lord and you know what you don't know what your kids are gonna be when they grew up either you don't know if they're gonna be the next missionary the next pastor the next preacher or you know what just the next great soul winner but who cares as long as you train them in the ways of the Lord to love God and when they are in that position when they're 21 25 35 whatever may be they know what they're doing with their lives you know they're gonna do serving God and look don't get this mixed up there when we talk about serving God you have to be a pastor or you have to be a missionary oh you have to work full time for the church you know or else you're not right you got to go to Bible College to get your four-year degree so you can learn how to print and type on the keyboard and that's not what we mean by serving God you know what I mean by serving God we mean soul winning being a faithful member of a church reading your Bible discipling people you don't need a pastoral theology major toilet paper certificate to do those things you just need to be consecrated amen so parents we would do rights look and the reason I'm saying this is because I know parents they just hammer you got to be a pastor you got to be a pastor you're gonna be a pastor you're gonna be a missionary missionary pastor pastor pastor and the kids get so overwhelmed that's like the last thing they want to do I'm not doing that with my kids they're not gonna be right with God why why is that the only capacity that they can serve God in you know they've elevated this position of a pastor so loftily that you know they expect every single one of their kids to be serving a ministry as a pastor as a missionary as a pastor's wife no it doesn't matter as long as they're just serving God in church as long as they know the Bible as long as they know how to preach the gospel and let me just say this some Bible callers they have some of the most rotten people who are going through their pastoral theology major class some of the most run wicked worldly some of the most lukewarm some of the most weenie Christians I've ever met are in pastoral theology majoring in classes or missionary classes it's true because their mama sent Papa Sam I'm Papa called mama sent we need to change this culture and the independent fundamental Baptist where we train our children hey to serve God means that you are a godly man of God not as a pastor not as a missionary and if that's what you want to do amen but you know what you're not gonna get any pressure for me to do that what you're gonna get pressure for me to do is to make sure you love God and you know what not this just vague definition of loving God either it's to love God is to keep his commandments to love God is to hate sin ye that love the Lord hate evil teach them how to hate evil teach them how to love God teach them how to love the Bible although they're not gonna be a pastor this is for every Christian don't have this standard it's just like well if they're gonna be godly Christians you know that's that's that's for like a pastor no that's for every Christian this whole cream of the crop false paradigm where they say well the cream of the crop or in the Bible College the ones who wants to be pastors and missionaries no the cream of the crops right here cream of the crops right here baby they're the people who just work regular jobs they make time out of the schedule the ghost soul winning they read their Bibles they love their wives they love their husbands they love their children they love the Lord they hate homos and they just love the things of the Lord that's the cream of the crop right there not this fake superficial you know status that we make I'll be a pastor garbage you know and look I'm thankful to be a pastor but you know what what two years ago when I felt like I was never gonna be a pastor ever again did you think I was just gonna get out of church no I was still gonna serve my children or serve my children serve my God by teaching my children in the ways of the Lord loving my wife as Christ loved the church teaching my kids my family but the King James Bible I just figured I was just gonna be a regular soul winner I literally thought I will never preach another sermon ever again but hey I can still serve God and this is the attitude that we all need to have no matter where we're at look if you want to be a missionary if you want to be a missionary I got good news for you you don't even have to be a full-time missionary in our church you can take a trip with us we'll go for four days to some tropical area we'll go win that one guy in the jungle they always talk about you could be a missionary for four days but we're going to Belize in November and if all goes well we're going back in 2020 as a church and if you've dreamed about being a missionary well great come try it out for like four or five days and you can work you can serve you can win people to Christ with a clear conscience you don't even need to come down to the altar to surrender to be a missionary you just got to sign up and say I'll be there and then when you come back you can go work a regular job go do it and say hey I was a missionary for four days and you know what you will get more done in four days than most modern missionaries get done in four yay forty years you actually have more bragging rights than some lame missionaries and I know about to have the type of missionary and here am I you know the little video you didn't have to have that and you'll still get more done okay be consecrated for the sake of your children you know Elizabeth did this with John the Baptist and man did he not do a great work the Bible says that he was filled with the spear from the womb pretty amazing right you said why does it say that why does it say that he's filled with the spear from the womb if he wasn't even saved yet and you guys ever thought about that he's not even saved how can he be filled with the spear from the womb well the reason he was filled with the spear from the womb is because you got to understand is that the spirit he wasn't indwelled by the spear he was just filled with the spear and anybody in the Old Testament would always have the Holy Spirit of God could always have the Holy Spirit of God come upon him for whatever reason by the way whether saved or unsaved because you have Balaam in the Old Testament having the Spirit of God come upon him and he prophesied of something that God wanted him to say and he was a false prophet it's just something that God wanted him to say so that was the same thing with John the Baptist where the where he was filled with the spirit he wasn't indwelled he was just filled with the spirit this is still during the Old Testament time and he was greatly used of God how about Jeremiah who God knew him before he was even born he consecrated he sanctified him to be a prophet unto the nations and what does this teach us that God has a purpose for us in Christ of course okay all right let's move on because I just spent most of my time on that but the principles there is this hey parents let's be what we need to be for the kids amen let's exemplify what we would want our children to be not a pastor not a missionary look it's not gonna break my heart if Bruce goes up and says I never want to be a pastor dad I'm not gonna be like you're gonna embarrass me don't say that you guys seen the videos where he's preaching and he's singing and stuff like that it's cute it's great but you know if he never does it I'll be fine with that as long as he loves the Lord long as he serves God because that's what's most important you know that takes a lot of pressure off the kids too a lot of pks preachers kids they have a lot of pressure from everyone to make sure that their pastors I have a PK friend of mine who literally one of the administrators took him into his office and said are you gonna be swinging a hammer for the rest of your life are you gonna be a pastor and look this guy that I'm talking about he can swing a hammer he could build a house if he wants to this guy's very talented with his hands you know very talented very successful he don't need to be a preacher he can just succeed as being a Christian working with his hands he could be more right with God swinging a hammer than swinging a Bible I'm serious from the pulpit all right verse six then the woman came and told her husband saying a man of God came unto me in his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God very terrible but I asked him not whence he was neither told he me his name so what this tells me in verse number six is that she does not know that this is a vision that she's seen I believe when she says the man of God she's actually referring to like a person that she saw now there's a little bit of a debate whether this is actually Jesus Christ or if it's just like another angel okay and the reason why is because of the wording that we see in the chapter how it seems as though the angel will not receive an offering just you know serve it unto the Lord offer it unto the Lord etc and I understand where people are coming from because you can definitely look at this and say well maybe it's the angel Gabriel because Gabriel was also commissioned to tell Mary of Jesus's birth right and we see the same thing here but I do personally believe that this is Jesus Christ and I think there's a lot of evidence for that let's keep reading says verse seven but he said unto me behold thou shall conceive embarrass 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 woman from the womb to the day of his death then Manoah and treated the Lord and said oh my Lord let the man of God which thou did send come again unto us and teaches what we shall do into the child that shall be born and God hearken to the voice of Noah and the angel of God came again into the woman as she sat at the field but Manoah her husband was not with her and 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 arose and went after his wife and came to the man and said unto him art thou the man that speaketh unto the woman and he said I am and Manoah said now let thy word come to pass I like what he says here how shall we order the child and how shall we do unto him that's a good prayer right there Lord how shall we order the child you know don't have this attitude by the way the one the attitude I just I just like completely went off on just a bit ago there's a there's an opposite to that where it's extreme as well where it's like well I want my children to just make a lot of money I want to be rich and this is typical with children who have parents who are immigrants to the United States you know because they left their their you know their farm and all the hard hardships and labor and all the things that they have to go through and then they want their kids to have what they never had and so they want them to make a whole lot of money and be rich but then they just end up raising these poor little brats right that's not what we want either we should not want to be like we would want our children to just live modest lives humble lives right and not allow them to be covetous you know have that temptation that's a temptation for a lot of parents who were immigrants who came to this country they want their kids to just be rich okay but they actually end up destroying their lives what was she what should we desire how do we order the child how shall we order the child verse 13 an angel the Lord said it to Manoah of all that I said unto the woman let her beware he goes into all the commandments that he gave her look at verse 15 and Manoah said unto the angel the Lord I pray thee let us detain thee until we shall have made ready a kid for thee so what I see here is not necessarily them offering something to him they're actually offering him food it's not like an offering but they're just offering him to eat something verse 16 says in the angel the Lord sent it to though thou detain me I will not eat of thy bread and if thou will offer a burnt offering thou must offer it unto the Lord for Manoah knew not that he was an angel of the Lord so it's basically kind of insinuating hey I'm the Lord okay this is like when Jesus said there's none good but God right and he's like talking about himself okay Manoah said unto the angel of the Lord what is thy name and what when thy Saints come to pass we may do the honor and the angel of the Lord sent unto him why ask his ask his style thus after my name seeing it is secret so I think that's another implication to show that it's Jesus Christ why because his name Jesus was not known during this time he's known as the Lord you know the God he's known throughout different names in the Old Testament but Jesus was not yet revealed up until the New Testament what we see in Luke chapter 1 his name shall be Jesus okay so during this time it's a secret okay now you know I do believe that there are times in the Bible when the angel the Lord is not referring to Christ and I think we just kind of look at the context you know I looked it up different sources online and people are like no every single time it's always the angel of the Lord and then they use that as an attack on the King James you know say well you know in Matthew chapter 27 verse 2 it says the angel of the Lord remove the stone from where Jesus was laying and that's that's not correct because in the Greek there's no definite article there so it should have been an angel of the Lord not the angel of the Lord but it's foolish because if you study Matthew chapter 2 or you study different portions of Matthew where it talks about the angel of the Lord there's parts where it has the definite article the and parts where it doesn't and guess what both of them are talking about not the angel of the Lord which is Jesus Christ so you know you just got to look at the context and see what it's talking about this is obvious Jesus Christ so Manoah verse 19 took a kid with the meat offering and offered it upon a rock unto the Lord and the angel did wondrously and Manoah and his wife looked on for it came to pass when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar and Manoah and his wife looked on it and fell on their faces to the ground and the angel of the Lord did no more appear to Manoah and to his wife that Manoah knew that he was an angel of the Lord so at this point he knows this is God this was the angel of the Lord and look what it says here and Manoah said unto his wife we shall surely die because we have seen God but his wife said unto him if thou if the Lord were pleased to kill us he would have not received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands neither would he have showed us all these things nor would at this time have told us such things as these so this is another proof that it's Jesus Christ because no man had seen God the Father and lived and these people were able to see the angel of the Lord and he understood we saw God but obviously it was Jesus Christ because they lived okay verse 24 and the woman bare his son and called his name Samson and the child grew and the Lord blessed him and the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the camp so we see there that now we see the beginning of Samson he has a bright future ahead of him but unfortunately know how it ends and this goes to show us that with the Spirit anything is possible we can do great exploits with with the Spirit of God upon our lives but here's the thing it's our choice if we're gonna walk in the Spirit or fulfill the lust of the flesh by the way the story of Samson destroys the sovereignty of God Calvinism false doctrine because he's in the flesh but then he has the Spirit of God come upon him right and if he were just you know if God is just moving him to do all these things he wouldn't be doing all the crazy things he was doing you know fighting against the Philistines and just going on this murderous rampage fornicating with harlots with prostitutes yet the Spirit of God kept coming upon him so on and so forth so we'll get into that in chapters 14 15 and 16 in the coming week but the main principle that we learn here is make sure that we're parents who exemplify parenthood to our children so when they grow up and they leave our house they get married you leave our house hey we know that they're gonna make the right decisions because we trained them right we consecrated them from the womb even unto death amen let's bow our heads in our word of prayer father we thank you so much for your word I pray God that you'd help us give us wisdom as parents to raise children and the nurturing the admonition of the Lord and help us to put the necessary pressure on them to serve you but not unnecessary pressure that it has to be through being a pastor or missionary or any of these positions Lord or even a deacon they can just serve God and be right with God as long as they're taking care of their biblical responsibilities yay there are church members who are not pastors they're not missionaries but but I believe that many of them will have more rewards than a lot of pastors many of them will exceed in rewards than many missionaries especially and because it's not about a position it's about the work we do and I pray God that you give us wisdom to teach them thus and in Jesus name we pray amen you