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

So we are going to come back to Judges 16, but the title for the sermon tonight is Dealing with Betrayal. Dealing with Betrayal. And we saw this story of Samson and Delilah, and of course Delilah betrayed Samson. We will come back to that. Keep your finger there in Judges 16 and come with me to Psalm 41. Come with me to Psalm 41 please. And Dealing with Betrayal. Now three weeks ago when I was here last, my sermon was on, what was it called, Expect the Unexpected. Expect the Unexpected. And one of the parts that I had originally planned to preach in that sermon was about betrayal. Because obviously betrayal is something you don't expect. But you're to expect that these things do happen in life. And if you're going to live long enough, you're going to experience this. You probably already have experienced this. When I look at this church, most of you are not little kids. You've lived a decent life. And I'm pretty confident that you can say, yes pastor, there has been a time in my life when I've been betrayed. And let me just give you this quote. This quote is not from the Bible, but it's a quote that is very true. It says that the saddest thing about betrayal is that it never comes from your enemies. It comes from those you trust the most. It comes from those you trust the most. Because if he was your enemy, of course your enemy is not betraying you because you expect your enemy to try to hurt you, try to do something harmful against you. But you don't expect the people that you trust. You don't expect your family, your friends, and your church members to turn against you. And that's why it hurts so much. It's because betrayal isn't just something bad that's happened to you, but it's the person that you trusted, the people that you never expected it to happen. That's what betrayal is. And of course betrayal is, you know, if you've gone through it, I'm sure you have, it's a very hurtful thing. It feels like there's a dagger that's just been pierced your heart emotionally and you don't really understand why that happened to you. Now you're there in Psalm 41, verse number 9. It says, yea, mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted, which did eats of my bread have lifted up his heel against me. Now this is a psalm of David, but of course I'm sure you know who's speaking these words. Does anyone know? Yes, the Lord Jesus Christ speaking about Judas Iscariot, my own familiar friend in whom I trusted. He trusted Judas Iscariot. He was one of the 12 disciples, one of the apostles. Judas Iscariot also was a treasurer. He carried the bag of money, all right, so Jesus Christ did trust him to some extent. He calls him his friend and his friend did lift up his heel against him. Of course Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus Christ. Now when you think of Jesus Christ, I think of him as a man who walked this earth and was the friendliest of all. Like if you wanted to learn of him, if you wanted to come alongside and be saved and to know the truth, he gave you all the time in the world. Of course when it came to those that rejected him, those that were his enemies, of course he had very harmful things and harsh things to say, but Jesus Christ never did anything. He never railed against those that railed against him. You know, he never did evil against those that did evil against him and yet he himself was betrayed. And so we have an example of a perfect man walking this earth without sin who's never offended anybody and he gets betrayed if that's the standard of Christ. You know, at that standard you're not perfect. That tells me you're going to be betrayed. I'm going to be betrayed and this is part of life. This is part of life. Coming into another passage, Job 19. Job 19, of course we know the famous story of Job, don't we? Job who was a very wealthy man, a man of integrity, a man who was very faithful, the most faithful on the land. God himself speaks very highly of Job, so highly that he even speaks to the devil about Job. Hey, have you seen my faithful servant Job? I mean Job is an outstanding man and of course, you know the story of Job? He loses it all. He loses his children. They pass away. He loses his wealth. He does great destruction. Even his marriage is on the rocks. His wife says, curse God and die and not only that but then he has physical ailments that come upon his body. You know, Job is a man that is even brought to the brink of death and then we have the famous story of his three friends. Friends, not really. They come alongside him and they say some awful things against Job. But I want you to notice what Job says in Job 19 verse 13. So after he is suffering all these losses, these great losses in his life, he says in verse number 13, he have put my brethren far from me and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me. He says, look, now that I've suffered this great loss, even my own family are far from me. My own family want nothing to do with me. Verse number 14, he says, my kinsfolk have failed and my familiar friends have forgotten me. My familiar friends. The word familiar is like the word family. His closest friends have forgotten about me. So not just his family but his closest friends want nothing to do with Job. Then he says in verse number 15, they that dwell in my house and my maids. That's his servants. Those that were, you know, because he was a wealthy man, he had many servants, he had many employees under his command. He says, they that dwell in, so he was paying these people. They were working for him. He's their employer. He says, they that dwell in my house and my maids, count me for a stranger. I am an alien in their sight. So like, I don't know who you are, Job. I don't want anything to do with you, Job. Verse number 16 says, I called my servants and he gave me no answer. I entreated him with my mouth. Of course, when everything was going well for Job, with all these servants, he could just, hey, look, I need a cup of water and they'd bring a cup of water. Hey, I need someone to tend the sheep and they would go and tend the sheep. Hey, I need someone to clean the house and they would clean the house. But now he calls out to his servants and they're like, well, I don't know that voice. I don't know who you are. There's no respect anymore given to Job. He says in verse number 17, my breath is strange to my wife, though I entreated for the children's sake of mine own body. When he says my breath is strange to my wife, that's speaking about intimacy, that they're so close together that she can feel his breath upon her. Well, instead of being intimate, instead of, you know, being affectionate toward Job, she herself was disgusted by Job. She didn't want anything to do with Job. She didn't want his breath to be upon her. And so he's even been rejected by his own wife. Verse number 18, yea, young children despise me. I arose and they spake against me. So as Job goes out throughout his community, little children are mocking Job. Oh, that's the man that's lost everything. Why do you think the little children are mocking Job? Why do you think they despise Job? Because their parents despise Job, right? They've heard from their parents, hey, Job has lost everything. God hates him. What a wicked man that he is. And they're mocking him. They're making fun of him. Look, everyone's turned against Job. Verse number 19, it says, all my inward friends abhorred me and they whom I loved are turned against me. So this is betrayal. Those that you trust, those that you love, they turn against you unexpectedly. You would think when a man has lost so much, you would think this is the time when his friends and his family and his community and his employees would come alongside Job and say, Job, keep pushing forward. Job, we're behind you. Job, you're going to get through this. But instead he finds himself, everybody betrays him. Everybody turns their back against him. And so, you know, Job had a lot of suffering in his life. And, you know, I'm here to tell you, brethren, that if you've not been betrayed yet, you will be betrayed. You will be betrayed. And it's a hurtful thing, because those that betray you are those that you trust the most. Those are the people that you love the most. Now, there is a way you say, well, what is the point of this certain pastor? Is it so we learn to never be betrayed? I can't teach you how to never be betrayed. I can't teach you that. Okay, let me tell you how you do it. This is how you never get betrayed. You form no friendships. Okay, you just distance yourself from your family right now before they get themselves from you. All right, you keep everyone distant. You live like a recluse. You live all by yourself. And you view everybody as an enemy. Everybody's an enemy. Everyone at church is an enemy. Everyone at work is an enemy. All my families are enemies. My whole community, all of Sydney is my enemy. All of Australia is my enemy. The whole world is my enemy. And so if they do something bad to us, well, they didn't betray him anyway, because they're my enemy anyway. Yeah, that's one way to never be betrayed. Okay, but look, you turn out to be a weirdo. Like honestly, like no one's gonna like you. I mean, it's worse. It's gonna end up worse for you. Do you think that's how God wants us to live? No. God obviously wants us to form friendships and be influential and have family and be close to people and to love people and to serve people. Of course, God wants us to live that kind of life. But when you do live that kind of life, you will be betrayed. And so what I'm trying to say to you, brethren, yes, expect the unexpected. Expect to be betrayed at some point in your life. Now, come back with me to Judges 16. Come back with me to Judges 16, where we had the reading from, verse number 4. Judges 16, verse number 4. We have Samson, the story of Samson. He was always falling in love with the ladies, wasn't he? If you know about Samson. This time, he falls in love with Delilah, the story. You know, even the unbelieving world, a very familiar story between Samson and Delilah. And verse number 4, it says, And it came to pass afterward that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. And the lords of the Philistines came up upon her and said unto her, Entice him and see wherein his great strength lieth, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him, and we will give thee every one of us eleven hundred pieces of silver. That's a lot of silver. Eleven hundred pieces of silver. Now, when Jesus Christ saw earlier, when he was betrayed, he was betrayed for how much? Thirty, even less, like much less. Thirty pieces of silver. Why do people betray you? Why do people betray you? Why do those that you love or you care about the most, that you trust the most, betray you? It's because they see an opportunity for themselves. They see there's some advantage that I can get by betraying my friend, by betraying this person. You know, whether it's money, many times it is money. Or it could be something else. It could be recognition. It could be taking over a position. It could be, I don't know, whatever it is that people covet after, they want, they want a shortcut toward, they may betray the people that they care about or they have cared about them in order to take advantage of a situation for themselves. And this is very tempting for Delilah. Eleven hundred pieces of silver. And then verse number six, it says, And Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee. So she says to Samson, look, can you please tell me where your strength comes from? Like, if you love me, you'll tell me why you have this miraculous power. Where does it come from? I know, brother Tim, your sermon recently was on the Nazarite vat. Did you cover Samson? Briefly, okay. All right, so look, Samson had the Nazarite vow. His strength came from that vow. Not every Nazarite had this power, but this was something that God had decided to give to Samson because Samson was to be a judge over Israel. He would make sure that Israel was safe against her enemies, the Philistines at this point in time. And of course, ultimately, Samson did succeed in his mission. But he was given this special power, this Nazarite vow, and part of that vow was to keep his head long. His power did not come from his hair. You need to understand that. His power came by the Spirit of God. We'll soon see this later in this chapter, but you know the story. He ends up cutting his hair, and because he cut his hair, the vow is broken, and so the Spirit of the Lord departs from Samson in the story. But verse number six, it says here, And Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, I already read that anyway, wherein thy great strength flyeth, and wherewith thou mightst be bound to afflict thee. And Samson said unto her, If they bind me with seven green widths, that were never dried, then shall I be weak and be as another man. So I'm not sure what kind of roots or branches these green widths are, but they're kind of the ones that are recently cut off the tree or the plant. He says, If you tie me up by these, I will be weak, I won't be strong. Of course, it's a lie. I don't know why. I don't know why. Look, when I read this story, I don't really understand this interaction. I don't really understand what Delilah is thinking necessarily. Of course, I know she's doing it for the money, but I don't really understand where Samson is coming from to lie to her, and then he eventually tells her the truth. But there is a lesson here, and I'll talk to you about that lesson shortly. But he says, Look, if you do this, I'll lose my strength, and you'll be able to tie me up, etc. It says there in verse number nine, Now there were men lying in wait, abiding with her in the chamber, and she said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson, and he break the widths, as a fret of toe is broken when it toucheth the fire. So his strength was not known. Now at this point, if you're Samson, you're like, hold on. Are you sure, like, wouldn't you be like, you were like, come on, Samson. Don't you know Delilah's trying to hurt you? Don't you know Delilah's betrayed, she's already betrayed your trust. And you told her, even though you were lying to her, you told her, this is the source of my strength, and she's tried to capture you. She's tried to weaken you. She's tried to turn the Philistines against you. Can't you see the red flag, Samson? Now here's the thing about being betrayed, you don't see the red flags. Here's the thing, that's the thing, okay? Like, it might seem obvious to us as we're reading this story. And if you've been betrayed, you didn't expect it to happen. But I guarantee you, if you tell me the story of your betrayal, what led up to it, I'll be able to tell you, hold on, there were red flags here, there were red flags there, there were red flags there, but you let it go on. And if I tell you my story of betrayal, you'll be saying to your pastor, there were red flags here, there were red flags there, there were red flags there. But still, like, that's just, you know, as human beings, people that we trust, people that we care about, look, when something happens, you still want to give them the benefit of the doubt. You kind of still want to go, I guess they still had the right intentions, or that wasn't their meaning, that wasn't what they're trying to achieve, and you're just always trying to have a positive spin on things until things get so bad that you're like, man, this person actually hates me, this person has betrayed me. But let's keep going to verse number 10. And Delilah said unto Samson, behold, thou has mocked me and told me lies. This is called gaslighting. She's making Samson to be the bad guy here. She's the bad guy, or the bad girl, right? But she's making it Samson, like, look what you've done! People are laughing at me, they're mocking me. Like, you know, you told me these lies, and you made me look like a fool, Samson. Okay, but this is there, this is called gaslighting. She's turning the tables, making Samson feel like the guilty party, like he's done something wrong. She says, now tell me, I pray thee, wherewith thou mightest be bound. And he said unto her, if they bind me fast with new ropes that never were occupied, then shall I be weak and be as another man. So another lie. You get some new ropes, ropes that have been recently made, but they've not been used, use that and I'll be weak like anybody else. Verse number 12, Delilah therefore took new ropes and bound him therewith, and said unto him, the Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And there were lies in wait abiding in the chamber. So they're there, he sees the Philistines, all right? And he break them off from off his arms like a thread. And Delilah said unto Samson, hear the two that has mocked me and told me lies, again, gaslighting, tell me wherewith thou mightest be bound. And he said unto her, if thou weavest the seven locks of my head with the web. At this point, Samson, two red flags, come on, right? Like you think that. And that's the thing about when you read the Bible, you read these stories, I just, I sort of go, Samson, come on, can't you see? But I've been betrayed. And people say to me, pastor, didn't you see it? And I hear stories of other people that have been betrayed. I'm like, can't you see it? Couldn't you see it? And Samson's like, can't you see it? But he can't, he loves Delilah. Like, she's special to him. Like, he trusts her. You know, it may like, it may not seem like you should be trusting her, but he has. So what's the answer? He says here in verse number, what am I up to, brethren? Verse number 14. And she fastened it. So she says, look, if you tie up my hair, if you get my long hair, you tie her up, tie it all up, then I'll lose my strength. Verse number 14. And she fastened it with the pin and said unto him, the Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awake out of his sleep and went away with the pin of the beam and with the web. And she said unto him, how canst thou say I love thee when thine heart is not with me? Thou has mocked me these three times and has not told me wherein thy great strength live. She's betrayed him three times. But she's telling him, look, you're the one causing issues, Samson. You know, you don't love me, Samson. You're saying that you love me, but you don't love me. Why don't you tell me the truth? And it came to pass, verse number 16, it came to pass when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him so that his soul was vexed unto death. I mean, this is, you know, just constantly, Samson, what's the source of your strength? Samson, what's the cause of your strength? Samson, tell me about your strength. Tell me, Samson, Samson, why are you so strong? How can we make you weak day after day after day? He says, all right, I'll tell you, woman, I'll tell you what the answer is, finally. Verse number 17, that he told her all his heart and said unto her, there have not come a razor upon mine head, for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb. If I be shaven, then my strength will go from me and I shall become weak and be like any other man. Now, Brethren, when you go through a process of betrayal, you need to understand something, it doesn't just happen. It's not like, oh, they just decided to betray me. There's a plan that's been going on for some time, okay? It doesn't just happen suddenly. There's been plans for some time, okay? And when they see a point of weakness, that's when they attack, okay? And at this point, he's told her exactly what's going to make her weak. He reveals her whole heart to him. He reveals his whole heart to her, she would say, and now she knows what the answer is. Verse number 18, and when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the Lord of the Philistines saying, come up this once for he have showed me all his heart. Then the Lord of the Philistines came up unto her and brought money in their hands. So there's her advantage, that's what she takes from it. 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. I don't know how Samson doesn't feel this, but anyway. And she began to afflict him and his strength went from him and she said, the Philistines be upon thee Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep and said, I will go out as at other times and shake myself. And he wished not that the Lord was departed from him. So the Lord had departed Samson because the vow was broken, but Samson in his pride thought, I will still overcome. I will still be able to overcome this time, even if they've cut my hair. Samson had gotten to a point of weakness. He thought his strength, he thought his power was coming from him. All right. He had forgotten that he had come from the Lord. And so the Lord departs from him. He loses his strength. And then it says in verse number 21, but the Philistines took him and put out his eyes. I believe that means they plucked out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with feathers of brass. And he did grind in the prison house. He might say that story again. How naive is Samson? How ignorant Samson. You seem so foolish. You know, and you say, you know, how did his instincts not warn him? Look again and again. They're doing something Samson. You know, they're gaslighting you. You know, they're trying to attack you. They're trying to afflict you. Samson in his pride could not see the betrayal coming. Okay. He just, for whatever reason, he was so blinded to it, all right, for he did not need the Lord, for that he could still overcome when his Nazarite vow was broken and he was betrayed. And look, the pattern was obvious. The pattern was obvious. And that's why I told you, if you tell me your story of betrayal, we'll find that the pattern that led to the betrayal was obvious. In hindsight, how many times were his stories, man, in hindsight, I would have done it differently. In hindsight, I would have put a stop to it before it became what it became. But you just don't know. You know, you're blinded. And at the end of the day, Brevin, you will be betrayed because it is such a deceptive offense or such a deceptive sin against you. You don't expect those that you love and care about and trust. You don't expect them to be the ones that will betray you. You expect your enemies. Your eyes are on your enemies. You know, you're being careful about your enemies. And you forget to sometimes look at those that might take advantage of you, those that you love, those that you trust. If you just paid attention, Samson, if you just paid attention, and when you were betrayed, you know, if you just paid attention, you would have seen the red flags. You would have known that this was happening. Now, come with me to Psalm 118, please. Come with me to Psalm 118. So I'm not here to preach a sermon how to avoid betrayal. You can't. You can't, Brevin. It's just you think you can trust people. You think, you know, your friends and family won't turn against you. Your church members won't turn against you. You think, but they will, okay? Now, I know a lot of you guys listen to Pastor Anderson. One of my favorite quotes that come from Pastor Anderson is this quote that says, trust no one, suspect no one. Trust no one, suspect no one. I like the idea. This is what I would call a rule of thumb, okay? It is broadly accurate, but not exact. What I mean by that is, look, you want to be careful about who you trust, okay? Because people can turn against you, but at the same time, you don't want to suspect absolutely everybody. Otherwise, you will become that person that I had mentioned. I never want to be betrayed. I just suspect everybody. Everybody's my enemy, and I'm never going to form any friendships, any close relationships. Again, you're going to turn out to be some weirdo, and you'll be ineffective for the cause of Christ, okay? But it's a good rule of thumb, and what this really truly means is, you know, you need to obviously assess every case scenario by scenario, but you don't want to trust everybody because somebody can take advantage of you. And the reason we have, I'm going to turn to Psalm 118. Psalm 118, look at verse number eight. It says, it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man, all right? It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. Brethren, this pastor behind this pulpit, this is a man. You know, it's better for you to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man, this man, okay? Or that man, or that brother, or that sister, or that family member. You need to understand, okay, who can I trust? Truly, the only one you can trust is the Lord God. You know, the reason I'm confident in my salvation is because I trust God will keep his word. I know God is trustworthy. I know he's faithful toward me. I know his righteousness covers me from all sins. You know, I don't go to heaven by my righteousness, by the righteousness of God. I trust him. I trust his word. I trust his sacrifice, okay? That's salvation. You know, thank God we're not trusting man in order to be saved, but truly, this applies to all parts of our life. Man can betray you. Your family can betray you, but put your trust in God, okay? Now, let me give you some tips. Okay, I know I can fully trust God. Great, you know, of course. You can speak to God about anything, and God will not betray your trust, okay? But what about when it comes to man? Is it true that I should never trust anybody? Well, that's not real life at the end of the day. I know it's a good concept. It's, like I said, it's a good rule of thumb, but look, we live a life of trust. For example, I trusted that brother Tim would be song leading before service. You should trust nobody. Well, I trusted him to come behind the pulpit and song. I've got to have some element of trust that brother Tim's going to do that, all right? To get on the plane to come here today, I had to trust my pilot, didn't I? I had to trust Jetstar that they were going to have their scheduled flight. It was going to arrive at least somewhere on time, and I'm going to get here to be able to preach to you guys. We have to operate on trust. For those of you that are going to work tomorrow, I'm sure you trust that your employer is going to open the doors to you, and you'll have a job to get to tomorrow. Of course, there's obviously an element of trust that we have to give to our general man, but my advice to you is that you need to ask yourself the question individually each person, what are you willing or what are you able to lose? What are you willing or what are you able to lose? Let me give you an example of this. Brother Les, all right? So, brother Les, you guys know, doesn't live too far from the airport. He lets me drive his thank God car. I don't know what it is. It's some Lexus thing. It's a nice, it's a pretty car. I'm not into cars. Brother Les is into cars. I don't care, but it's a pretty car, and I can see that's a nice car, brother Les, right? He says, look, instead of you catching the train, I'll give you my car. You can drive to Fairview. You can drive back, and I'm like, Les, I don't know. It's a nice car. You know what he says? He just said to me, you know what, pastor? If you scratch it, if you dents it, if you smash it, I don't care, all right? He goes, I want you to use it. Whatever happens, I don't care. You know what? Les trusts me with his car because he's willing to lose the car. That's why, okay? It means nothing to him. I mean, I've got a similar situation up on the Sunshine Coast. I've got two vehicles. I've got my family van, 14 seater, and I've got my little crawler, okay? And sometimes when people come and visit or they have car problems and they need a spare car, I often say, hey, drive my little crawler around, okay? You know why? Because I'm willing to lose it. Like, if someone ends up driving it and crashes it and it's a complete write-off, it's not the end of the world for me because I still have my van, okay? My van, I can take my family around, I can take the whole family wherever we need to be. But it's harder for me to say, well, I'm willing to lose my van because if I lose my van, I lose the ability to take my family and vans are quite expensive compared to little crawlers and things like that, okay? So I'm not very willing to lose my van and so I'm not really willing to trust anybody with that van, but when it comes to the crawler, I don't care. Anyone can take it and drive it around. Look, at the end of the day, if there's an emergency situation, someone needs to drive the van or let them, okay? But I'm just trying to say to you, I'm trying to help you understand your idea. I can trust someone with something because I'm willing to lose that. What is it that I'm willing to lose and what am I not willing to lose? And you need to, because you will be betrayed, I guarantee you, you will be betrayed. You need to understand what is it that I'm not willing to lose and with that, don't trust man, okay? With those things that you're not willing to lose, trust not man, but trust the Lord with those things. Let me tell you what are four things in my life that I'm not willing to lose and I hope this gives you some thoughts for yourselves, okay? Number one, the first thing that I'm not willing to lose is my fellowship or my testimony with God, okay? That for me is my number one issue that I do not want to lose. I don't want to lose my testimony, that I love my Lord, that I serve. Look, I'm a sinner, I know that, I'm not always faithful, but when it comes to it, I do not want to lose that testimony because a lot depends on it, okay? Not just my own walk with the Lord, but my family's walk with the Lord. Not just that, but my church's walk with the Lord. If they have a pastor who's an example of someone who is faithful and has a good testimony before the Lord, I don't want to lose that, okay? Number two, the other thing that I don't want to lose is my marriage, okay? My marriage is something I do not want to lose. My relationship with my wife is the most important thing besides my Lord God. It's my relationship with my wife and I want to make sure that we have plenty of time together, you know, if we have any disagreements, we don't say eye to eye, that we try to reconcile, that we show love, that we show affection, I do not want to lose my marriage, okay? Next thing, my children. My children is the next thing on the list. I do not want to lose my children. This is something that is so important to me, right? I want to make sure that we raise our children to know the laws and the commandments of God. Again, do I expect my kids to be perfect and never make mistakes? Of course not, but I want them to know what God's word says. I don't want them to think the world has the answers. I want them to know and to trust that they can follow God's word and by following God's word, they will be blessed, okay? One reason we homeschool our kids is because I don't want to lose my kids to the world. I don't want them to lose their minds to society standards because that's going to drift them far from the Lord. So these are things that I'm not willing to lose in my life. And the fourth thing that I'm not willing to lose is my ministry. My ministry as the pastor of Blessed Hope Baptist Church, my ministry as the pastor of New Life Baptist Church, to me it's very important. Church is so vitally important and when I had feedback where my church members were saying, pastor, we'd like to have you here every week or as much as possible for me, it's like, well, my ministry is important, but my ministry is not more important than my family. My ministry is not more important than my walk and my fellowship with God. I can only serve in the ministry if I have a clear conscience in these areas of life. My walk with the Lord, my marriage, my children. But these are things that I do not want to be destroyed, okay? You know, I've used the illustration of playing chess. You know, when you play chess, to me that's what life is. Life is like this chess board and I'm trying to succeed. There is opponents that are trying to stop me from achieving what I'm trying to achieve. There are opponents that are trying to take down my king, right? If they take down my king piece, I lose. Well, my king piece is my fellowship with the Lord. It's also my marriage. It's my children. It's my ministry. I don't want to lose this king piece, okay? And so I will defend my king piece as strong as I can, knowing full well there are forces on the other side that want me to fail in these areas. And so with these areas, I'm not going to trust man. I'm not going to put confidence in man. My confidence is only in the Lord in these areas of life. So let me tell you some other things that you need to be mindful about. Telling secrets. I'm sure we all have things and issues in our lives in the past that you don't want people to know, all right? And sometimes people can't hold secrets. Look, I've had people say to me, pastor, I've been betrayed. I had a secret and I told my friend and I told my friend, don't tell anybody. It's a secret. And then they went and told somebody else, I'm betrayed. You know what? I don't feel sorry for you. I don't feel sorry that you were betrayed at all. Say why, pastor? Because you wanted your friend to shut their mouths, but you couldn't shut your own mouth. Like that was your secret. If anybody was supposed to shut their mouth, it was you. And then you're angry at your friend for not shutting their mouth. Hey, by the way, be careful of the secrets you tell me. You know, I don't need to know every skeleton in your closet. I don't need to know every sin. I don't want to know. I want to think of you guys highly. I want to think you guys, man, they're walking the law, they're doing the best life they can. And look, you say, pastor, I've got a problem. You can still generalize it. You can still look. I don't need to know every little detail because I want to think highly of you, okay? And here's the thing. I have many conversations, many conversations with many different people. I have let out secrets by accident. So you're better off not telling me secrets because it happens, all right? Because you couldn't hold the secret either. So why get mad at me? Why get mad at your friend who couldn't hold the secret? Look, if you have a secret, I can't hold my secret in, who do you tell? God. In fact, God already knows it. It's not a secret to God. But if you need to tell somebody, if you need to get it off your chest, you can't trust man. You can't even trust yourself. That's why you voiced it. But you can trust God with it. I understand there are things in your life that you're just like, man, I'm so embarrassed by it. I don't want people to know. I don't want to be betrayed. Okay, well, don't be betrayed. Take it to God. God won't betray you, okay? God will understand. God will appreciate that you open your heart toward Him and ask God to help you overcome whatever that secret issue is in your life. But what are you willing to lose? Some people, you know, obviously you're not willing to lose your secrets that you might have in life because whatever damage that might cause to yourself. Come with me to Matthew chapter 26, please. Come with me to Matthew 26 and verse number one. Matthew 26 and verse number one. Matthew 26 and verse number one. Matthew 26 and verse number one. But again, I want you to, this is so important. I want you, just a reminder, I want you to figure out in your life, what am I not willing to lose? Okay? With those things, once you've listed those things, don't put your confidence in man. That's the key thing. Leave it with God. God will take care of it. Say, Lord, I'm not willing to lose these areas of my life. Leave it with Him, okay? And He won't betray your trust. Matthew 26 verse number one, please. Matthew 26 verse number one. And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, He said unto His disciples, know ye that after two days is the feast of the Passover and the Son of Man is betrayed to be crucified. What is Christ saying? I'm going to be betrayed. In the future, in the near future, I am going to be betrayed. So you say, well, Jesus, since you know, you're going to avoid it, aren't you? Since you know you're going to be betrayed, you're going to make sure that you step around it and that they fail, your enemies fail, your friends fail in their attempt to hurt you. But I want you to notice, He said these words before the betrayal was put together, because in verse number three it says, then assembled together the chief priests and the scribes and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest who was called Caiaphas and consulted that they might take Jesus by subtlety and kill him. So even before the betrayal or the plans for the betrayal is made, put together, Christ already knows He's going to be betrayed. So Jesus, you know the red flags, you know it's going to happen, escape the betrayal. What did I tell you? You will be betrayed. So what happens when you get betrayed? Jesus already knows. Jesus has come to set us an example. Now, was it vitally important that He gets betrayed and crucified? Yes. That's why He came to the earth. Okay. So even though the betrayal is an awful thing to happen to Christ, Christ is able to turn the betrayal into an advantage. The advantage is that yes, I will be betrayed, fulfilling the scriptures. I will be crucified, opening the doors of salvation to all man who would believe. Okay. So here's, this is the thing that I want you to take away from here. When you are betrayed and you will be and maybe you are right now, you need to figure out how do I turn this into my advantage? How do I pick myself up? Because when you're betrayed, forever it hurts and it puts you in the dumps and it brings you great sorrow. It gives you great sadness and you will think to yourself, there is no point for me to continue. There's no point of me trying. There's no point of me picking myself up and pushing forward. But I want you to see the example of Christ. He was betrayed but He turned the betrayal into an advantage. It opens salvation to all who come to Christ and believe upon Him. Come back with me to Judges 16 please. Judges 16. Judges 16 verse number 28. We'll start with Samson. We started with the story of Samson. The Lord has left Samson. The Spirit of the Lord has left him. His strength has left him. He's been betrayed. His eyes have been plucked out. Okay, I mean, oh man, could you imagine? Like the woman you loved. She turned against you. She told you your secrets. You've lost your eyes. The Lord's not there for you anymore. So He sees, spiritually speaking, in His strength. And He's put to work, okay, with to the Philistines. Then we get to verse number 28. Judges 16 verse number 28. Does Samson turn this into an advantage? Of course. And Samson called unto the Lord and said, O Lord God, remember me. I pray Thee and strengthen me. I pray Thee. Only this once, O God, that I may at once avenge, sorry, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes. And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand and of the other with his left. And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might, and the house fell upon the Lord's and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life. Samson had the greatest victory over the Philistines in one moment of his death than all the life that he lived. All the victories that he's won. All the great stories of Samson. They don't compare to how much victory he had against his enemies at his death. Look, he was betrayed. He lost his eyes. Like, if you're Samson, I give up. I've lost. But what's he doing? He's gone to the Lord. Lord, just one more chance. Help me accomplish what you've made me to do. And of course, his job was to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Philistines. Verse number 31, And then his brethren and all the house of his father came down and took him and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the barren place of Manoah, his father, and he judged Israel 20 years. Look, Samson might look like a failure, but he actually accomplished exactly what God sent him on the earth to do. The whole reason he was given that Nazarite vow at birth was to defeat the Philistines and he accomplished it even after betrayal. Hey, Samson was able to turn the betrayal into an advantage. Samson was able to turn the betrayal into the victory, into the plan and purpose that God had for his life. So I'm giving you these two stories. Of course, Jesus Christ turned his betrayal into an advantage, but even poor Samson, even someone you've got Samson, the red flags, you should know. Samson, you're naive. Can't you see this woman that you love does not love you in return? Can you not see that she's taking advantage of you? Can you not see that she's doing it for money? Can you not see that you're going to be betrayed? Can you not see that you're going to be taken as a prisoner, that you're going to have your eyes taken out of your head? I mean, that's pretty bad. And yet God, and look, you've been betrayed. I can see your eyes. Praise God for you. You've not lost as much as Samson, but maybe you've been betrayed and you're cast down like, I can't do this, Lord. I can't lift myself up. You know, I failed, Lord. That's a feeling. You've been betrayed. I failed. I don't think I can do it anymore, Lord. You need to learn how to turn it into an advantage. Say, how do I do that? Well, just like Samson, you go to the Lord. Let me just read it one more time. Verse number 28. Samson called unto the Lord and said, Lord God, remember me. I pray thee and strengthen me. I pray thee only this once, O God, that I might be avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes. So you turn to God and say, Lord, can you strengthen me? I can't strengthen myself. I can't pick myself out of this pain and sorrow, this betrayal, this hurt that I have. Lord, you have to remember me. Lord, you have to strengthen me. And it says that I may be avenged. Hey, Lord, can you avenge me? Can you bring vengeance for those that backstabbed me, those that betrayed me, those that hurt me? Lord, can you please avenge me? And look, the Lord's going to do that for you because the Lord has a plan for you. It might not be taking down the Philistines. You know, God's plan for you, of course, is to live a life that glorifies God, a life of preaching the gospel, seeing souls saved. Look, there's never a point in our life that we should just give up and the hurt and the sorrow that comes. And it will come. It will come. I've been betrayed before, Pastor. You're going to be betrayed again. If you're going to live long enough on this earth, you will be betrayed again. And when that happens, I want you to remember this sermon. I couldn't avoid it anyway. My pastor said it's going to happen, guaranteed. Yes, it's guaranteed. But you pick yourself up. You say, how do I take advantage of the situation? I'll tell you one advantage you get when you get betrayed. Well, you now recognize the people that you thought were your friends are not your friends. You now recognize they were my enemies. Now you've gained experience. Maybe when you start seeing somebody else going down this trap themselves, you can warn them a little bit, hey, brother, I've gone through this as well. I've seen this as well. Hey, maybe when you see someone betrayed and hurt, you can come alongside them and encourage them. Okay? You don't want to be like Job's friends that kicks him while he's down. You don't want to be like Job's family that want nothing to do with him. Hey, when you see a brother or sister and Lord that's been betrayed, you know, we should say, I'm going to come alongside them. I'm going to encourage them. I'm going to lift them up. Maybe I'm the vehicle. Maybe I'm the strength that God is going to use to help my brother or sister pick themselves up and do something great for the Lord. Brethren, for me, when you get betrayed, that's an opportunity for you to say, you know what? What advantage can I take of the situation? What can I learn? What is God trying to develop in my life? Come with me to the last passage. Psalm 41, please. Psalm 41 and verse number nine. Psalm 41 and verse number nine, please. Psalm 41, verse number nine. Yea, mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted. Yea, that's what we read last time. Which did eat of my bread have lifted up his hill against me. That's the Lord's words against Judas Iscariot. But you know how we saw Samson pray to the Lord. I want you to see how the Son of God prays to his Father in these words, verse number 10. But thou, O Lord, be merciful unto me and raise me up that I may requite them. Raise me up. Strengthen me. Pick me up, Lord. Have you ever had to pray like that? Have you ever had to just pour out your heart where you're just so downcast, so saddened. You're in the dumps and you know you can't even lift yourself up. Say, God, you raise me up. Lord, you strengthen me. Lord, it's got to be you. And there's something special about that prayer. When you're able to just empty yourself of all your personal strength, like Samson, just weak as the flesh, the kind of nature that you are, and say, Lord, I need your mercy. Lord, I need your strength. And the Lord will come through. The Lord answers these prayers. I mean, read the book of Psalms over and over and over. Someone like King David, a great man, a great warrior, constantly in the dumps, constantly asking the Lord, can you strengthen me? Can you avenge me against my enemies, those that have betrayed me? God will come through these kinds of prayers. I've seen it in my life. I've seen it in examples of other people that have prayed these wonderful prayers. Verse number 11, by this I know that thou favor'st me, because mine enemy doth not triumph over me. But if you've done no wrong and your friend has betrayed you, God favors you. Okay? You're his favorite child at that point in time. He's going to look after you. He's going to make sure you come through. He goes, because mine enemy doth triumph over me, those that betrayed me, oh, yes, I got my 30 pieces of silver. I got what reward that I wanted. Look, but Jesus is saying, look, I don't want them to triumph over me. And when it comes to Judas Iscariot, his triumph was short-lived, ends up regretting his decision, commits suicide, loses his life, you know? Verse number 12, and as for me, thou uphold'st me in mine integrity, and settest me before thy face forever. Verse number 12 is really important. And as for me, thou uphold'st me in mine integrity. But when someone betrays you, you need to uphold your integrity. Don't lose it. Don't lose your testimony for the Lord. Okay? Don't render evil for evil. Okay? Do good to your enemies. You maintain your integrity. Okay? And with your integrity in place, with your clear conscience in place, you haven't done nothing wrong to those that have betrayed you, the Lord's going to do an amazing work for you. He will uphold you. He will lift you. He will make you succeed. He will cause you to accomplish the work that he wants in your life. Verse number 13, blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and amen. So, brethren, when you're betrayed, what do you do? You bless the Lord. You say, Lord, I'm in the dumps, but, Lord, you're majestic. Lord, you're a loving God. Lord, I failed, but you never fail me. Lord, I'm weak, but you're always strong. Lord, I can't pick myself up, but you can do it, Lord. You've got the strength. I'll bless your name. I'll praise you. I'll still sing you praises. I'll still give you thanks for everything that I have wonderful in my life. Look, from everlasting to everlasting, for all eternity. You know, think about the great God that we worship. We ought to be serving him even when things fail us, even when you get betrayed. Amen and amen. And so, brethren, the title was Dealing with Betrayal. Not that you can avoid it. You can't avoid it, okay? It's truly you can't avoid it, but I want you to learn how to deal with betrayal. This is the perfect man series. I want you to be well-rounded, okay? I want you to be mature in the Lord. Maturity will be seen when things fail you. Maturity will be seen when your backstabs, when you're betrayed. And look, it's a great testimony when you're able to show, hey, I'm in the dumps. The Lord has lifted me up. I was in the dumps. The Lord has caused me to do a great work for him. Okay, let's pray.