I will trust in you, Lord. So I confess, I spent
some hours this week trying to write what I called
the 10th anniversary sermon. And then about midweek,
I came to the conclusion that I was clearly off
track. I was doing something wrong. kind of corrected
me and said, that's not your focus. And then
as it got to yesterday afternoon, I thought,
but it's a 10th anniversary sermon. There's got
to be something. And then I realized we had talked
about on Tuesday night about how in our church,
the pastor doesn't really write the sermon, but
God writes the sermon. And then he is writing
the sermon in all of our lives. And so I started
thinking about what God had done. And so the
best parts of the sermon may have already passed.
We have experienced them together today, but
maybe not because the Lord did give me some pretty
cool things that I think that we are going to
see today. So you know that we've been working
through the book of Judges. I talked to you briefly
about how the book of Judges is in form kind
of a big sandwich. So there's a part that leads
up to the first big piece. which we begin today.
And then there's a sort of a little part in the
middle, and then there's the next big piece,
and then there's a sort of an ending, if you
will, that tails off. And that means it's a chiastic
structure, so it goes, if you graft it, it starts
and it kind of goes like this, and then it hangs
there for a second, and then it makes a little
dip, and it hangs back up here for a second,
and then it makes a slow gradual down to the
end of the book, if you kind of graft it. And
the book is largely about strength. And so I
would ask you, what is your perception of strength?
I think we probably would all have a different
opinion of what that is or how it feels to us.
So I want you to think about what you consider
strength to be. Then I want you to ask yourself,
where does strength come from? What do you think?
Where does strength come from? And where does
it go? Because you realize that strength does
not last by its very intonation, right? Even
if there's a strong man, even in strength of
character, If you think strength is just in character,
then maybe in the last seconds of a man's life
he has character, but in transition into presence
of the Lord we realize that our character by
comparison would be minimal. So the story of
Samson is largely one of strength. In fact, so
many people who don't know Jesus at all or don't
know anything about the Bible at all would call
Samson the strongest man to ever live. So we're
going to read a part of Samson's story today.
and keep it in context of the Bible, of the book
of Judges, and then also in the fact that we
are celebrating our 10th anniversary and look
at it from that perspective. So grab your Bibles,
if you would, and go with me. A little who to
holler amen as we go to Judges chapter 14. Thank
you very much. Somebody said Yahtzee. I like
that. It's been a while since I heard that. All
right, that's cool. So we're beginning reading
in verse 4 of chapter 14. We actually read verse
4 to end last week, so it's a transition from
last week to this week. Chapter 14, the book
of Judges, verse 4, talking about Samson. It
says, that it was of the Lord, for he was seeking,
that he is capitalized, that's God, God the Lord,
the creator of all creation, was seeking an occasion
against the Philistines. Remember that the people
had become comfortable being ruled by the Philistines.
They really weren't resisting anymore. They had
found a kind of a peace, if you will, at being
their subjects rather than being God's people.
Now, at that time, the Philistines were ruling
over Israel. That ends verse 4, brings us into
verse 5 for today. Then Samson went down to Timnah
with his father and mother and came as far as
the vineyards of Timnah. And behold, a young
lion came roaring toward him. And the Spirit
of the Lord came upon him mightily. So Samson
feels the Spirit of the Lord stir in him, comes
upon him. You could say boosting his strength,
if you would. So that he tore him, that is to
say that Samson tore the lion as one. tears a
kid, which is a baby goat, though he had nothing
in his hand. So he didn't have a sword or a spear
or even a heavy stick. He tore that lion as one
might tear a baby goat. But he did not tell his
father or mother what he had done. So he went
down and talked to the woman and she looked good.
To Samson. When he returned later to take her,
he turned aside to look at the carcass of the
lion. And behold, a swarm of bees and honey were
in the body of the lion. So he scraped the honey
into his hands and went on eating as he went.
And when he came to his father and mother, he
gave some to them and they ate it. But he did
not tell them that he had scraped the honey out
of the body of the lion. Verse 10. Then his father
went down to the woman and Samson made a feast
there. For the young men. customarily did this.
So it was pretty common in the culture, and you
could even say most of the religions of their
day, because remember they had a lot of synergistic
religion going on, to have a feast and to bring
in a whole bunch of young men and to celebrate
the end of bachelordom, if you will, and to transition,
kind of like a bachelor party, maybe where that
tradition comes from. And it came about when
they saw him that they brought 30 companions
to be with him. And so this is not 30 of Samson's
friends, but 30 sort of recruited individuals,
right? 30 Philistines recruited to take part
in his party. Have you ever had a bachelor party?
You're far from home. You don't have anybody.
You might have some locals. It might be somebody,
well, one of your friends works there and he
gets about five or 10 others to come to your
bachelor party or something like that. So you
could kind of see that happening. In any case,
so he's got 30. You could call them hired, if
you will. They're hired for the fruits of the
party. Companions to be with them. Verse 12 says,
then Samson said to them, let me now propound
the riddle to you. If you will indeed tell it
to me. Within the seven days of the feast, there
would be a seven day long feast after which the
marriage would be consummated. And he says to
these 30 men who are essentially hired companions,
he says, if you figure out this drill by the
time the seven days are over, he says, then I
will give you 30 linen wraps and 30 changes of
clothes. But if you are unable to tell me, then
you shall give me 30 linen wraps and 30 changes
of clothes. So this is a lot, right? It's a lot
of wealth that could potentially change hands.
There's a lot of stakes here, but they're in.
And they'd probably been drinking, so whatever.
And it says, and they said to him, propound your
riddle that we may hear it. So he said to them,
out of the eater came something to eat and out
of the strong came something sweet. But they
could not tell the riddle in the first three
days of his having told it. So basically three
days goes by after he tells the riddle, which
was out of the eater came something to eat and
out of the strong came something sweet. Now we
know he's talking about the lion and because
we heard the story of killing the lion as one
might kill a baby kid or baby goat. We kind of
get it, right? He's talking about the lion. But
they wouldn't have any reason. Why would they
even think lion? This is a pretty tough riddle
for them, right? So probably through research
or figuring it out, maybe if somebody saw him
eating the honey, they might think, well, honey,
where did the honey come from? Trace it back.
They might figure it out, but they don't have
much time left. They're three days in. They don't
have an answer. So they're going to use research,
but they're going to do it in a certain way.
Verse 15 says, then it came about on the fourth
day that they said to Samson's wife. Now, she's
technically not his wife, but remember being
betrothed was the same as being married back
then. They haven't consummated the marriage,
but they're in the middle of the wedding feast
at the end of which the marriage will be consummated.
So that's effectively his wife. It said, entice
your husband that he may tell us the riddle,
lest we burn you and your father's house with
fire. Okay, now this is rough. If she doesn't
tell them the answer to the riddle, they're going
to burn her and her father's house. That's pretty
bad. So she doesn't necessarily have a lot of...
options there there's 30 of them or probably
more because they probably got all their friends
involved whatever like that but never is there
a thought of going to samson right who is strong
probably the strongest man to ever live instead
she decides to side with them he says Have you
invited us to impoverish us? Remember, it was
her family that invited the 30 men to spend the
time with Samson. Is this not so? In other words,
they're saying, you betrayed us. Now you get
Samson's answer to the riddle so we don't lose
all this wealth. Samson's wife wept before him.
So she goes to Samson. She's bawling on him,
bawling at his feet, whatever. And she said,
you only hate me and you do not love me. You
have propounded a riddle to the sons of my people
and have not told it to me. And he said to her,
behold, I've not told it to my father or mother.
So should I tell it to you? Verse 17. However,
she wept before him seven days while the feast
lasted. So the remainder of the time, probably
even before they came and asked her, she was
seeking out the riddle. And certainly by the
end of the seventh day. She desires to have the
riddle to hand it over to the men so they won't
have to give up the wealth. And it came about
on the seventh day that he told her because she
pressed him so hard. She then told the riddle
to the sons of her people. So she got what she
wanted, which was out from underneath their wrath,
right? They got what they wanted. Now they don't
have to pay, which means now Samson has to pay.
18. So the men of the city said to him on the
seventh day before the sun went down, what is
sweeter than honey and what is stronger than
a lion? And he said to them. If you had not plowed
with my heifer, you would not have found out
my riddle. Now, there's been a little debate
throughout time as to whether that was meant
to be an insult to his wife, calling her a heifer.
I submit to you, it was not probably meant to
be an insult. There's lots of places in the Bible
where people are referred to with animal names
and stuff like that, and it's very rarely an
insult, especially not when it's talking about
somebody who's near and dear to you, which she
was to him. He just simply meant that he knew
where they had gotten the answer, and that she
was meant to be his wife. She was meant to be
his heifer, right? If he's the bull, she's the
heifer. And that's the way it should have been.
But now they have been messing around with her
and got the riddle answer from her. Verse 19,
the spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily.
There it is again. Uh -oh, somebody's in trouble.
And he went down to Ashkelon and he killed 30
of them, that is to say Philistines, and took
their spoil and gave the changes of clothes to
those who told the riddle. And his anger burned.
And he went up to his father's house, but then
when he leaves, Samson's wife was given to his
companion, or that word there that's translated
companion could be first, like, best man, the
guy who stood up with him at his wedding. Anyway,
Samson's wife was given to his companion, who
had been his friend. So there's a few things
I want you to see in the text here. If you're
a person who likes to kind of skip ahead a little
bit, the points are on the screen. The first
one is, Samson looked strong. And so if you have
an idea of what strength is, it's clear that
God poured strength into Samson, no doubt about
it. We heard his origin story and how God said
that he would be strong and that he would begin
God's wrath against the Philistines and that
no razor would be on his head and that she was
supposed to refrain from drinking while she was
pregnant like that. And a lot of people think
that that means that Samson has a Nazirite vow.
But nowhere in the story of Samson does it say
anything about a Nazirite vow. It makes a reference
to him possibly being a Nazirite. But there are
two ways that people become a Nazirite. One way
is because they make a vow. They decide, I decide
I'm going to do this for God. I'm going to be
like this for God. And the other way is they're
called before their birth. And in Samson's case,
he was called before his birth. His mother was
told before he was ever born that he would be
essentially a Nazirite. He was born into it.
He came into it truthfully. Strength. Without
God leads to pride, self -reliance, and worse.
We've been seeing that in the life of the Israelites
all throughout the book of Judges. Every time
they have that success and the judge sort of
disappears from the main limelight, if you will,
they then drift back into things that are arising
out of pride and self -reliance and sinful desires.
What happens is a person begins a lack of wanting
the one thing that is needed more than breath.
And we talked about that. Last week, it was the
presence of the Lord. It would be nice to look
strong. I've had a lot of times in my life where
I wished I looked strong. Bullies came down on
me or on one of my friends or somebody accosted
me on the street were times where I thought it
would really be nice to look strong. But listen,
God looks not at the appearance of men. So you
can look strong. I've known a lot of men who
were strong, but were weak in character, weak
in their mind or in their spirit. God is looking
for an inner situation, if you will. Victory
is in God's way, which is Jesus alone. And so
those who have strength, like we thought about
what is strength? Well, it could be this. It
could be that. It could be that. Those who have
strength, that's not going to get them to heaven
unless that strength is clearly connected to
a Savior who will carry them through in the meantime.
So then I ask you again, what does strength look
like? Does strength look to you like a man on
a cross? Does it look to you like a man suffering
so much that others might be saved? Suffering
even death on a cross, a sinner's death, where
everyone would think he was cursed so that others
might be saved? For the joy that's set before
him, does strength look like that? Sure it does.
Can you or I model that strength without God?
No, it's absolutely not going to happen. It's
wonderful to know going into a problem that you
have a greater chance of victory than someone
else might have or than you might have had in
the past, right? It's kind of... I can't think
of the number of times that I've been in a situation
and people start to get a little flipped out.
This is not working. This is not good. This is
and it goes crazy. And in that situation, God
bestows upon me some confidence or some courage
or some perseverance. And I go, I don't know
how, but this is going to be OK. I can't imagine
that what's going to happen, but it's going to
be OK. God has blessed my wife to be in a career
that normally you have to have a master's degree
to work in that career. And she doesn't have
a day of college. And a couple of months ago
on one of their properties, they had a horrible
situation. What happened was the power went out.
When the power went out. The pipes froze. And
when the pipes froze, water went everywhere.
And bottom line is the property was a high -rise
property. And when the pipes froze and water
was going everywhere, they had to evacuate everybody.
So in the midst of that, they had several people
there who had master's degrees. The fire chief
was there. The mayor was there. The police were
there, right? And so at 1 o 'clock in the morning,
was it that late? No. It was a Tuesday night.
So it was about 9, 3, 10 o 'clock at night. Sherry's
getting ready. And she's jumping in the car and
she's driving up to Michigan where this property
is. And she walks in the room. No master's degree.
Right. No, no emergency training. No first aid
training. No CPR training. Doesn't know how to
fight a fire or raise a ladder or drive a fire
truck. And she walks in the room with the mayor
and the police chief and the fire chief. And
a couple of city councilmen there and like 400
people there, including her manager and people
who own the property owners. And they're all
like scrambling around trying to solve the problem
and figure out how to what do we do next? How
do we handle this? How do we get 300 people to
hotels and all this kind of thing? It took her
two hours and eventually. And I'm not saying
this to be prideful of my wife because she would
give all glory to God, but eventually she managed
to get all those people in check. She got the
mayor under control. She got the fire chief under
control. She got the police chief under control.
She got the policemen and the firemen and the
managers and all the property and all the regionals,
all the people that had come. She got everybody
under control. She got 300 people in a hotel.
She came home at 1 .30 in the morning and collapsed
on her pillow, right? But the point is when she
walked in the room, she knew there was a chance
that she was the one. that God was going to use
to resolve that issue, to get everybody under
control. Now, maybe you've been that person,
and maybe you've been one of the other people,
right? But wouldn't it be a wonderful feeling
to just go into any given situation and think
that defeat is not very likely because you know
what side you're on, you know what you're capable
of, you've overcome more difficult things than
this in the past? That's a form of strength.
It's confidence and courage to try. And we hatch
plans, and we carry out the plan, and then the
plan falls apart after the first step. We make
a new plan, and we hatch that one, and you start
doing it, and two, three steps in, it falls apart.
You make a new plan, but you have confidence
and strength to try. Boy, it would be great to
be like that all day long, every day. Everything
that comes my way, I can say, look, I've got
this. I've handled worse than this before. I'm
not going to be anxious. I'm not going to be
worried. I'm not going to be stressed. I'm just
going to deal with it because I am the man. The
problem is, I'm not the man. Jesus is the man.
And if I should ever develop a confidence or
a courage like that, if I should have Samson
-like strength and live my life not thinking
Jesus was the man, then I would go to hell. And
since that's an outcome I seek to avoid, I recognize
that Jesus Christ is the man. Jesus tells a parable.
We won't go there and read it, but I'm going
to very briefly summarize it for you about a
man who did very well. He was very successful,
very prosperous. It's not the parable of Lazarus
and the rich man, which isn't really even a parable,
right? That's a story of actual events that took
place. This is a parable about a man, a farmer,
who did very, very well. He did well for himself
and started to become prosperous. He had a lot
of stuff, and he said, well, you know, I'm doing
so well here that I don't have anywhere to store
all my stuff. He said, so here's what I'm going
to do. I'm going to tear down my barns and build
new barns. And I'll store all my stuff in my
new barns. And then I'll take my ease. I'll have
everything I need to be sure to retire. I'll
have it all lined up. I won't have to work all
like I've all done all my life and all that.
I'll take my ease. And he said. An angel come
upon him and said, you don't understand. The
Lord said to him, you don't understand. Your
life will be demanded from you this very night.
So we can do that. We can hatch our plans. We
can find our strength, our confidence. We can
step up. We can overcome. But if we step up,
overcome, hatch our plans, or find our confidence
outside the Lord, the Lord is going to bring
us up short at one point. Just think that those
people will cry out to him, Lord, Lord, enter
into his presence. And they've done miracles,
cast out demons, done healings. And they say
to Jesus, here we are. If he says, get away from
me, I never knew you, they're going to be like,
but we were confident. We had strength. We had
courage. We could solve problems. We healed people.
People were throwing money at us because we healed
that guy who couldn't walk, and they're throwing
money at us because we cast that demon out of
that woman. We just had it all going on, and
now you're saying you never knew us? That confidence,
that ability to plan, to always have it all together,
that won't serve. It does feel good to be victorious
and to win. To win at a game, to win at a challenge,
to finally get the part to fit, to fix what broke.
Those things feel good. And even at that moment,
it's like an arrival. You're like, yeah, I did
it. I just worked on that for four hours and
might have taken somebody else 30 minutes, but
I overcame. Yeah. And that's a pretty good feeling.
It's intoxicating. And so we find a problem and
we beat our heads against it. Until we finally
overcome it and then we feel pretty good. It's
even so much so that thrill seekers create those
kind of situations for themselves. They go bungee
jumping and jump out of airplanes and they deep
sea dive with only a snorkel. And the list goes
on. They jump their skateboard over 40 foot tall
ramps and do flips. And I saw a guy do a BMX.
He went off a bike. He went off a 40 foot tall
ramp. And in the middle of the air, somebody
threw a bike at him and he jumped from one bike
to the other and came down on the second bike.
And I'm going like. If that dude falls, he's
never going to walk again, probably. But they're
creating these situations, the difficulties,
pushing limits. And then they live to do it again
and think, well, see, it's okay. So they live
to do it again. And they go after yet another
thrill. But meanwhile, all the while, there are
15 % of the people who suffer fatality. And they're
just, oh, it's too bad for them, right? But this
exhilaration at problem solving, this feeling
of confidence, this feeling of strength, of courage,
whatever, it's all mimicking the rejoicing that
we are called to in the Lord. It is in the smallest
way looking like God's purpose was being fulfilled
when in actuality it wasn't that at all. Listen,
I'm going to tell you a couple things. You are
awesome. You're awesome. You've got a mind and
a spirit and a body. This is what's crazy. They're
not even all always going in the same direction
at the same time, right? Am I right? We are awesome.
We are awesome creations of God. This church,
meaning the people, not the building. This building
is pretty cool, but this people is awesome. And
we overcome. You overcome. We overcome difficulties.
It's true. We have seen and done things. We're
like, man, I wish that had never happened, but
wow. Did God really show up? That's awesome.
You are awesome. And if you're waiting around
for a victory, a success, or some strength, or
courage, or some moment where you don't feel
anxious, where you usually feel anxious or something
like that, to tell you that you're awesome, you
are wasting your time. The fact is already there.
The handwriting is already on the wall. You are
an incredible creation of God. You can stop trying
to prove it. You are an incredible creation of
God. You can stop trying to overcome, to prove
to yourself that you are something special. You
are already something special. The problem is
not whether or not you are an awesome creation
of God. The problem is whether or not you have
a false concept of what strength is, of what
confidence is, of what courage is. I've talked
with little kids. I cannot tell you. All the
time, they'll say to me, I'm not courageous.
I say, what do you mean? I'm afraid of all kinds
of things. Okay, do you see the contradiction?
Courage is not a lack of fear. Courage is doing
what you're still supposed to do when you have
fear. In fact, if you have no fear, you cannot
be courageous. It's not possible. Just as if
you have no trials, you could not be shown to
be strong. But we say, oh, I have trials. I must
not be special. I must not be strong. I must
not be able. And we begin to believe the lies
of the world. Samson looked strong. He ripped
a lion open with his bear. hands. A lion is one
of the strongest people on the face. I imagine
he probably like grabbed his jaws and pulled
until his jaw dislocated and then ripped it right
down the middle. Guts spewing everywhere. First
of all, I don't want to do that. Even if I could
do that, I don't want to do that. It's messy.
It's not good. I don't want to do that. And I
don't want to face a lion. That's the truth.
But I've faced demons and I don't want to do
that either. But I didn't do that alone. And
if I had needed to do it alone, I couldn't have.
Because I'm weak. By your own admission of what
you think strength is, most of us, the listing
that we made, we're weak. But in our weakness,
his strength is perfected. So here's how to be
strong based on that then. Stop looking like
it and let the Lord be strong through you. Walk
with him. We're commanded in scripture to rejoice.
Over and over again, we should be rejoicing.
If nothing else, if you have nothing else, tomorrow
morning when you wake up, you can think to yourself,
look, I am one heck of a machine. I've got a
programming code. That scientists, after thousands
of years or only now, just beginning to understand
a little bit. And it's pretty incredible what
they can do. But the truth is, my cells are written
in such a way to replicate themselves with more
information contained inside the one millionth
spot of the head of a pin. One millionth fraction
of the head of a pin. More information contained
inside there than all the encyclopedias ever
written. I am incredible. Start there. And then
appear weak. Let God appear strong. Samson looked
strong. But strength without God leads to pride,
self -reliance, or self -pity, and worse. You
think you can look at yourself and tell yourself
you're worthless? Who are you? God? You think
you can look at yourself and say, I can't do
this. I'm not strong enough. Who are you? God?
So you're so strong in your weakness. You are
so strong in your weakness that you can say that
God is wrong about you. I know where that road
ends, and I don't want to be there. God's not
wrong about you. You are an incredible creation
of God. You are stronger than you could ever
know. And the fact that you look weak is to your
advantage. Because that is the channel that allows
God to do what God desires to do. And our response
is to simply rejoice. Isaiah writes it this way
in 61 .10. I will rejoice greatly in the Lord.
My soul will exalt in my God. For he has clothed
me with garments of salvation. He has wrapped
me with a robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom
decks himself with a garland and a bride adorns
herself with jewels. You didn't do that. So rejoice.
Psalm 32, 11 says, Be glad in the Lord and rejoice,
you righteous ones, and shout for joy, all you
who are upright in heart. It doesn't say all
you who are actively overcoming your problems,
all you who are stronger than your neighbor,
all of you who passed the IQ test with a really
high number. Are you filled in better dots than
others did? It says all you who are upright in
heart. Psalm 73, 26 says, My flesh and my heart
may fail, but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever. Some people think the
greatest victory in life is to love. If you have
someone to love and you're loved by someone,
you win. You win the game of life. Well, in a
sense, that may be true because it's kind of
what we're created for, but not in the way that
the world represents it. Notice in our second
point, then, that Samson looked in love. He picked
out a pretty good looking woman and him and his
parents had the ability to get. her for him,
and they did. He looked in love. He was in the
middle of a seven -day love feast, preparing
to consummate his marriage with this hot chick
from Timnok, who probably later would have a
million -dollar social media account, if it was
today. She's pretty something. He looked in love.
But love without wisdom, without a biblical understanding
of what love is, leads to compromise at best.
Let's look at a few of the places where Samson
went wrong in picking his supposed love. First
of all, he judged with his eyes. Let me tell
you right now. The person that you look at and
you go in my eyes, I see you and what I see I
want. I like. Yeah, that's pretty good stuff.
That person has just as much chance to be the
wrong person for you as the person that you look
at with your eyes and say, I don't really like
what I see. He judged with his eyes. He saw a
good looking woman and he went after it. She
was outside what the Bible commanded. The Bible
commanded them not to take people outside the
people of God as wives. And yet. He said, she's
pretty good looking. Who cares what that says?
Or maybe he wasn't even ever taught what it said.
Notice that he pursued what he wanted. I can
tell you for sure in scripture, the one thing
you can't add is whatever you want. And I would
include the whatever and the want, keep them
together, right? It's not whatever you want.
There's one thing that you want. It's the presence
of God. It's what God wants for you. It's the
great future. It's eternity in heaven. That is
salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what you want. So a piece of cake will look good.
A paycheck will look good. A raise will look
good. A schedule adjustment will look good. A
victory in some problem that you're having will
look good. Overcoming some difficulty that you're
facing will look good. But you may or may not
be allowed to have that. It depends on whether
or not it leads you to the one thing that you
really are supposed to be wanting, which is more
of the presence of the Lord and eternity with
him. God wants what's good for you. And anytime
what you want isn't what's good for you, then
he does not want that for you. Yet it may look
like exactly what you want. Your eyes may settle
on it. You may say, yeah, that's me. Boy, that's
going on when you're watching TV, when you're
on social media, when you're thinking about springing
for a little bit more expensive electronic thing,
right? It's going on in areas of education and
certification and promotion, etc. And they say
to you, boy, you can have the promotion, make
some extra money if you'll just work and do this
and this and this. And the carrot is dangled
and people, that's what I want. And they go after
it. And none of that is necessarily in God's
plan at all. Samson pursued what he wanted. Also,
he moved quickly. Marriages that last for eternity,
well, last for this entire lifetime, we don't
take wives and husbands in heaven the same way
we do on earth, but marriages that last until
Jesus comes again or until we die are not built
in the blink of an eye. You might have love at
first sight, but you better make sure it's the
kind of love that God's talking about, right?
So you move too quickly into marriage, and then
pretty soon you're mopping up the messes that
you forgot to mop up. And by the way, everybody
knows if you open the refrigerator and the grape
juice falls over and it's pouring out on the
floor, if you say, well, I got to go pause my
show first. I'm going to come back and clean
that up. By the time you get back to clean it
up. It's quite the mess. It's not a few feet
or a few drops. It's the whole kitchen floor,
right? And it's like that. If you don't take
care of your business and make sure that you're
doing the right thing when you move forward in
the Lord, not just in the area of marriage, but
anything, then it's going to be a real mess by
the time you get to cleaning it up. And you might
spend your whole life. He moved too quickly.
He just needed some, not time, time to figure
out that this was not the person that God was
pointing him to. He drew from outside the allowable
body of candidates. There were laws, right? The
laws of God's people said that, He could not
take a Philistine wife, and yet he did it because
she looked good, he wanted her, he pursued her,
and he moved too quickly. And he never concluded
that that was not the right candidate. He wasn't
supposed to. This list goes on. Today, a candidate
for marriage should be... fully informed and
prepared to pay the ultimate cost to be devoted
to their marriage, which is literally everything
short of loyalty to God. The only thing that
you withhold that you'll never give up for your
spouse is your loyalty to the God of the universe.
Everything else is on the chopping block. And
if you're not ready to make that kind of a commitment,
then you're not ready to be married. And if you're
married already, you're not ready to make that
kind of commitment, then you need to repent and
turn to the Lord so God can actually do something.
But if you're finding your strength in your own
choice, you say, I'm going to make my spouse
into somebody that I really can, you know. enjoy
being with, and we're going to have our victories
in us or something. So I'll get him to be the
way I want him to be, or I'll get her to be the
way I want her to be. That is not God, and it's
not a godly marriage. You say, but I can make
them follow God better. I can show them God better
than they can find God by themselves. And that
just isn't true, because you ain't Jesus. And
no man comes unto the Father except he who comes
by Jesus. And so I would say to you, if you have
a question about whether that's at stake, whether
or not you might lose your loyalty to God by
choosing this person, then you don't choose this
person. Candidates for marriage should be considering
the union in light of Scripture, God's leadership,
prompting of the Holy Spirit, spiritual disciplines.
In other words, you ask the Bible, you go to
the Bible and ask what does it say about that.
You pray, you spend time with God, you fast,
you think about those things and whether or not
the other person is living for God. Listen to
how key this is. 2 Corinthians 6 .14 says this.
It says, Do not be bound together with unbelievers
for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness
or what fellowship has light with darkness see
how important it is how important it is that
we are bound together with a person who equally
loves the lord because where in scripture it
says that you cannot judge whether another person
is a believer or not right judge not lest you
be judged that's what it's actually talking about
not talking about judging the behavior of others
because sin is sin no matter what you can judge
sin right it's talking about judging another
person i don't think that person's saved but
where scripture says you cannot judge another
person's salvation Here in scripture, it says,
if you're thinking about marrying them, you better
first judge their salvation. See how important
it is? More wisely, probably, we should trust
the Lord to make an unbeliever off limits. 1
Corinthians 13, the love chapter, talks about
all kinds of things that love is and love isn't.
And there's a lot of things that it doesn't,
it's not unseemly, right? It's patient, it's
kind. You can go there and read the chapter for
yourself and look at all the things that love
is. There are volumes that can be spoken about
love, but this one thing must be said today.
You can't. fake love you can't look in love if
you can't do it you don't know god and you need
to get right with god and if you can do it you're
called to it and not wastefully and not intermittently
and never for show but in actuality you're called
to love and so if we love as god has called us
to love then we could be walking in the lord
if we do not we can't be that's just the bottom
line for he is love but if we look like we love
and we're not actually loving, then we're again
brought ourselves to that worst possible place.
Because the one goal to be God's love on earth,
to be in love with God, know he is in love with
us and to be his love on earth, to be like that,
that one goal now is in jeopardy because we think
we are loving, but actually we are not. And you'll
never fix it. You'll never get around to understanding
it because you keep faking it. Samson looked
like he was in love. But love without the wisdom
of the Lord leads to compromise at best. Last,
he looked like a winner. Probably his greatest
trait in this part of the story. The riddle,
the lion taking his wife. But victory without
God leads to a trap. I'm going to read you now
from the book of Revelation. So in the book of
Revelation, there's a part, it's kind of toward
the beginning, where Jesus is speaking and says
he is with the lampstand. So he's the governor
of what is a church and what is not a church,
essentially, if you will. And he could put a
lampstand out just the same as he can start a
church, he can end a church. And I'm going to
read from chapter 2 first, and I'll read verse
1, 3, 10, 23, and 25, 26. And then I'm going
to read from chapter 3, and I'll read verse 5,
8, 10 to 12, 15 to 17, 19, and 21. Now, you don't
have to remember all those. You don't have to
note them down. If you want them, I can give
them to you. But I want you to see a theme that
is running through everything that he's telling
the church to be. Listen to this. He says, To
the angel of the church in Ephesus write, The
one who holds the seven stars in his right hand,
the one who walks among the seven gold lampstands,
by the way, who is that? It's Jesus Christ, says
this. Now verse three, and you have perseverance
and have endured for my name's sake and have
not grown weary. Then 10, do not fear what you
are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about
to cast some of you into prison so that you will
be tested and you will have tribulation for 10
days. Be faithful unto death and I will give
you the crown of life. He says in verse 23, and
I will kill her children with pestilence and
all the churches will know that I am he who searches
the minds and hearts and I will give to each
one of you according to your deeds. 25. Nevertheless,
what you have, hold fast until I come. He who
overcomes and he who keeps my deeds until the
end, to him I will give authority over the nations.
Now into chapter 3, verse 5. He who overcomes
will thus be clothed in white garments, and I
will not erase his name from the book of life,
and I will confess his name before my father
and before his angels. Verse 8. I know your deeds.
Behold, I have put before you an open door, which
no one can shut, because you have a little power
and have kept my word. and have not denied my
name. Verse 10, because you have kept the word
of my presence, I also will keep you from the
hour of testing, the hour which is about to come
upon the whole world to test those who dwell
on the earth. I am coming quickly. Hold fast
what you have so that no one will take your crown.
He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in
the temple of my God and he will not go out from
it anymore. And I will write on him the name
of my God and the name of the city of my God,
the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven
from my God and my new name. Verse 15, I know
your deeds. You are neither hot nor cold. I wish
that you were hot or cold. So because you are
lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit
you out of my mouth. Because you say I am rich
and have become wealthy and have need of nothing.
And you do not know that you are wretched and
miserable and poor and blind and naked. Those
whom I love, this is verse 19, those whom I love,
I reprove and discipline. Be zealous and repent.
21. He who overcomes, I will grant him to sit
down with me on my throne. And I also overcame
and sat down with my father on his throne. The
theme is this. You need some trouble. Now, the
truth is you probably shouldn't go and orchestrate
that trouble for yourself and then overcome it
because that's really not the way the math of
it. That's not how it's supposed to work, right?
You faithfully follow the Lord and do the things
that the Lord has given you to do. Then you need
some trouble. You need some difficulty. And then
facing that difficulty, victory is equally available.
It is found in simply remaining faithful to Christ
and doing what we are called to beyond the trouble
that we have encountered. Have we encountered
trouble? Have you encountered trouble? Well,
let me tell you what the Bible says strength
is. The Bible says strength is when you as a
faithful believer encounter trouble and in the
midst of the trouble and after the trouble. However
it ends, you are still found persevering. And
he said to the churches over and over again,
you will get a crown. You will get a robe. I
will not erase your name from the book of life.
You will stay the course and be found faithful
despite the troubles and trials. And I will take
care of it. Just because you know the name of
Jesus doesn't mean you can save yourself. Just
because you know the power of God doesn't mean
you get to decide. how your life goes. God is
the God of heaven. God is the creator of everything.
And Jesus Christ, who is God the Son, came in
the flesh to live and to die for the joy that
was set before him. A sinner's death, mind you.
He came to die for the joy that was set before
him so that you and I might live in presence
with him and have some trouble. And then having
that trouble, persevering until the day in which
he returns. Understand that the day of that trouble
then is upon us. It's every day. You go like,
I got up yesterday, went to bed, and like nothing
bad happened in between. That just isn't so.
That's not how it works. We are assailed every
day by the plans and the schemes of the enemy.
You had to wrestle with your own pride, arrogance,
self -reliance, self -pity, anxiousness, fear.
All day yesterday, it was with you. And the truth
is, if you've come to peace with it, then you've
come to peace with it just the same as the Philistines
had taken over the Israelites and the Israelites
had come to peace with them. Jesus said, I did
not come to bring peace, but a sword. It's a
fight. The days that you think that everything
went well, those days, they were a fight just
the same. If you buy your way to a day of peace,
if you argue your way to a day of peace, if you
manipulate your way to a day of peace, if you
isolate, your way to a day of peace. And you
will become just exactly what the Israelites
had become in Samson's day. And therefore you
became just exactly what Samson had become. And
what had Samson become? Well, Samson looked strong.
He looked strong. And some of us look strong.
Our church looks strong. But strength without
God leads to pride, self -reliance, and worse.
Samson looked in love. And some of us look in
love. We're passionate or in love with the things
that we get to do, the things that we are doing
with each other. In many cases, we look in love.
But if you look in love without the wisdom, without
biblical wisdom, it only leads to compromise
at best. And Samson looked like a winner. And
some of us look like winners. And the church
looks like a winner. But if you look like a winner,
you find victory without God. It leads to a trap.
And the trap is the Samson trap. Because while
the day of evil is upon us for sure, the day
of rejoicing is also upon us. And you see the
math of that? While the evil is coming, what
will you be found doing? Well, if it's the day
of evil and the day of rejoicing, those are the
day. And you're not supposed to be doing evil.
That only leaves rejoicing. And then you hear
Paul and Silas in the middle of the night in
a stock soar. beaten, unfed, praising God. You
hear the church praying and praising God while
Peter was arrested. Shall I go on? What will
you be found doing in the midst of your trials?
Blessed is a man, the brother of Jesus, James
writes, and then we're in the conclusion. Blessed
is a man who perseveres under trial, for once
he has been approved, that means tested and found
worthy, tested and found faithful, tested and
persevering, he will receive the crown of life
which the Lord has promised to those who love
him. Notice the equation. Blessed is a man who,
A, perseveres under trial, B, is approved, found
worthy, continuing, persevering in his faith,
because ultimately the blessing will come, which
is a crown of life, which the Lord has promised
to those who love him. That brings us to our
conclusion. So when I was younger, so one of
the blessings of my life has been, and I think
it's maybe kind of a gift with preaching, is
I have memories that go all the way back. I have
memories from when I was about a year and a half
old. And like I talked to Ariana, it's like,
I don't remember anything from any year and a
half old. I talked to Sherry, she doesn't remember
anything from any year and a half old. But I
remember things as if I was there from a year
and a half old. I might forget things from today
or this week, but I remember things from when
I was a year and a half old. When I was in kindergarten,
I was in the Lark School District, which is the
other side of Northwood. And that school has
been torn down. That's Brentwood Park, the backyard
of Lark School District with Brentwood Park.
That's where we practiced softball. That big
field over there used to have an elementary school
in it. And that was my elementary school. And
Aaron. and Caitlin bought a house on Sheffield
in the 2100 block, and I came home from Riverside
Hospital. Hold on. No, I was St. Charles. My
brother was Riverside. I came home from St. Charles
Hospital to a house on the corner of Sheffield
and Brentwood. So that's where I came home, and
I lived there until I was six years old. While
I was living there, I had a friend. His name
was John, and John was born sick. John was born
having a hard time breathing. His immune system
was messed up, and he was sick. And then our
kindergarten year, he missed. He still passed,
got to go to first grade. But he missed so many
days of school. I want to say like maybe 50 or
60 days of school. In fact, my friend John, the
year that I was to transfer over to the online
side because we bought the new house, which is
the house that I now live in because we bought
it for my parents. John was supposed to be in
the Christmas musical there. And I had already
transferred. I was already out. But they let
me come back for the Christmas program board
game night. And I brought a board game in with
me to the board game night. And they said to
me that John was sick again. But I knew John's
part. And they asked me to sing in the play that
night. And I said, I didn't want to. And my mom
said, well, you can do it. You can do it. And
she said, well, you're going to do it. And when
she said, you're going to do it, I threw the
board game down on the floor. And I think it
was Clue. And all the pieces went everywhere.
And I did not do it. But anyway, so my friend
John missed everything because he was sick all
the time. So midway through that summer, John's
mom got an idea. She was going to fix John. She
was going to help him. She was going to help
him be healthy. And she put him on supplements,
vitamins, and so on. And she got him out of bed
every morning at 7 a .m. Him and his older brother,
about four years older than him. And they would
work out every morning. And it started just being,
you know, 10 reps, 10 this, 10 that, whatever.
They would work out every morning, seven days
a week. And he was on supplements. And he never
ate sugar anymore. He wasn't allowed to eat sugar.
Sugar is bad for your immune system, by the way,
especially if you have too much of it. It doesn't
take much. Um, and so he never ate sugar anymore
and almost no carbs. And so pretty soon my friend
John, who at the time was probably about 15,
20 pounds overweight as a kindergartner, um,
became buff. That's what happened. So I moved
away, didn't see him. And then I saw him again
later and he had become little Hulk Hogan. Like
he, he got pec muscles and he had an actual set
of abs. Like I've never actually seen on a human
being and in real, like in person. Right. And,
uh, at that time anyway, and maybe not even now.
And he could go like this and his shirt would
get really tight right here. I mean, he was strong.
And when we first moved, he came to my house
and. We went to a little fair together, and then
he was going to spend the night at my house,
but he was sick. He was always sick. And so I
said, well, it's okay. He'd have to bring his
breathing machine. He had a CPAP machine. He'd
have to bring his breathing machine for his asthma,
for steroids. And he had a rescue inhaler. He
had three or four medications he had to take
and all this. And I asked him if he could spend
the night, but he was sick. So his mom said he
couldn't spend the night. And he did not push
back at all. He's like, no, my mom said no. I
said, come on, beggar. She'll let you stay if
you push really hard. You know, you're sick.
She'll give you what you want. And so I'm not
going to do that. That's my mom. And then over
that same summer, that was the last time I saw
him over that same summer, he got buff. And then
I didn't see him until much later and he was
all buff. And from the time that he got buff
to the time that I saw him, he'd never been sick.
He never got a flu, never got a cold, never had
an asthma attack, got off all of his breathing
apparatuses, got off all of his medicines he
was taking every day. He was not taking any medicine,
just the supplements and working out seven days
a week and eating right and being healthy. And
I thought John was strong. And I was like, wow,
John's strong. I mean, you'd say that too, wouldn't
you? Going into junior high, he was bench pressing
200 pounds. Going into junior high, they were
begging him to play football, right? But he wouldn't
play football. He never did play football. You
know why? Because it's not good for your body.
He said, I worked so hard to have this body.
I'm not going to play football. Risk messing
it up.