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