of Judges tonight, the book of Judges. As you get to the book of Judges, it's a book that has a recurring theme. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes, is what the Bible tells us. And that's what the people of Israel were doing. Joshua is gone now. He's been buried in Timnath here. He's after leading the children of Israel. And now the children of Israel begin to turn their attention away from God. The very first generation kind of did okay. They continued to conquer the land. But the Bible tells us in chapter 2 that after them there arose another generation, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works that He had done for Israel. And so they now turned completely to idol worship. And every time they would turn to idol worship, God would raise up an oppressor or an afflictor to oppress or afflict the children of Israel. After they were under affliction for a while, God would get their attention, they'd get right with the Lord, they'd ask for forgiveness, and then God would raise up a judge, and that judge would deliver the children of Israel from the oppressor. And almost no sooner than they were delivered, but every man would begin to do that which was right in his own eyes. They would immediately turn back, revert back to their own idol-worshipping ways, and God would raise up another oppressor or an afflictor, and then God would raise up a judge when they got right to deliver them from the oppressor and the afflictor. And just like me and you, the children of Israel never really learned from their mistakes, and so this pattern goes through the entire book. By the time you get to the 14th chapter, we're gonna be in chapter 16 here in a moment, the children of Israel are now under the oppression of their most hated enemies, the Philistines. These ones that have been raised up to be the thorn in the side for the nation of Israel. And they continue, by the way, the Hebrew word, the modern day Hebrew word for Philistine is palashtite. In other words, it's the same exact people that are under the thorn in the flesh to the nation of Israel here all these thousands of years later. The Philistines are oppressing the children of Israel and there's a family there in the nation of Israel, a man by the name of Manoah. And he and his wife, whose name we do not know, he and his wife could not have children. She was barren and bare not, the Bible says. and they'd been praying that God would deliver them a child. One day, Mrs. Minoa was out in the field, and she's working, and all of a sudden, the angel of the Lord appears unto Mrs. Minoa. He says, Mrs. Minoa, you're gonna have a baby. You're gonna have a baby boy. He's going to be a special, special baby boy. He's going to be separated under the Lord from the time of his birth. He's not going to touch a dead animal. He's not going to drink of the fruit of the vine. And he's never going to cut his hair. He's going to be a Nazirite from the date of his birth. And the Bible tells us that by him, the Lord would begin to bring about the end of the oppression of the Philistines. This is going to be the judge that's going to end the oppression of the Philistines. Mrs. Minoa runs and tells her husband, sweetheart, guess what just happened? I just talked to an angel. He was terrible and he told me that I'm going to have a baby and it's going to be a special baby and all of those things. She recounted it just as the angel had said it to her. But old Minoa was a typical, excuse me for using this phrase, he was a typical male chauvinist. He was under the impression that his wife must have left out some of the details. There has to be more information than this. And if he had a chance to talk to this angel, he'd get the rest of the information. By the way, I don't know how it is in your family, but if you want a definitive answer and you want all of the details, you better talk to Mrs. Harper, not Brother Harper, because I'm the one that's going to be driving five hours in the middle of the night because I made a mistake on my schedule. The next day, Mrs. Manoah is there. There's the angel. By the way, they prayed all night long that the angel would come back. And Mrs. Manoah is sitting there, no Manoah is around, and here's the angel. She says, hang on. And she runs as fast as she can. She goes and gets Manoah and says, the angel's here again. Manoah walks up to the angel, being the typical man, and he's gonna get the rest of the information. He says, I understand what you told my wife yesterday, but by the way, what's your name? And the angel said, I'm not telling you, it's a secret. And put Mr. Manoah in his place, and they began to rejoice that they were going to have a son. And they had a little boy, and by now you've probably already figured out his name. This boy's name is Samson. It's his job to bring about the beginning of the end of the oppression of the Philistines. He is going to be raised in the Nazaretic way. He's not going to have his hair cut. He's not going to drink of the fruit of the vine. And he's not going to touch a dead animal. And Samson begins to grow up. But Samson falls in love. Samson meets a young girl from Timnath. Let me tell you about Timnath. Timnath was either the second or the third largest city of the Philistines. In other words, he's fallen in love with a girl that he should never even have met in the first place. He's fallen in love with the girl from the people that he's supposed to end their oppression. He's fallen in love with the enemy's daughter. His mom and dad say, Listen, sweetheart, isn't there one single girl in all the nation of Israel that you could fall in love with? And he said, No, mama, you don't understand. I love her with all my heart. By the way, there are some parts of Samson, I'm just gonna let you know this, gonna warn you about it in advance, some parts of Samson that are a little bit funny and it's absolutely okay if you chuckle when it comes up, all right? So Samson decides he's going to defy his parents and he's going to go and he's going to propose to his little Philistine girlfriend from Timnath. He stops by Jared's on the way there, and he takes that little velvet box, he goes up to her house, he gets down on one knee, he says, will you marry me? And she says yes. And then Samson does what may be the smartest thing he did in the 20 years that he judged Israel until his death. Samson left. There's going to be a wedding to plan. Most of you men in this auditorium, you understand this. When it was time to get married, you really didn't even need to be there. They just needed somebody to say, I do. They rented you a tux and you stood there. You had no part in anything. I remember when we were getting married, I said, well, why don't you have this fellow named Donny Austin sing? And my wife would always say, whenever I would make a suggestion about the wedding, she would do this just exactly like this. She would go, oh, Do you know what I knew, oh, meant? It's not happening. It's not my wedding. I get a wife, she gets a wedding. Every woman, every girl from the time she's very little starts picturing herself in that beautiful dress when everybody's staring at her walking down the aisle. She is the prima donna at that moment. Everybody's eyes are on her. They don't care. The best man and the groom come in from a side door and just stand there by the preacher. It's not like he's even important. If they could invent a mannequin that could stand there and look good in a tux and say, I do, they wouldn't need the groom at all for the whole wedding. Samson left, he wasn't gonna have anything to do with this wedding planning and his wife began to make the plans. She ordered the isle cloth and the unity candle and she got all the little fuchsia puffy sleeve bridesmaids dresses ordered. I don't even think they do those anymore but in my day, every bridesmaid had the ugliest dress you've ever seen in your life. It made the bride look better though and the bride picked out the dresses so it's perfect plan. Finally, Samson's on his way back. It's time for the wedding feast. By the way, on his way up there, I forgot to mention this, on his way up to propose, you remember the story well, I'm sure, a lion jumped out to attack Samson. And Samson grabbed that lion by the jaws and ripped him in half from his head to his tail, right down the middle, and left his carcass laying there. Now as he's on his way back to go and take part in the wedding ceremony and to finally get married, as he's on his way back, he looks on the side of the road and there is that lion laying there and now honey is in the mouth of the lion. So Samson stoops down and eats of the honey. When he gets there to the wedding ceremony, he's standing around all the Philistine men and then he decides it's an important thing for him to impress the Philistine men. Let me tell you something, Christian. We have gone way too far with this desire to impress the world. Our goal seems to be to make sure that everybody in the world likes us. If we have to walk away from the Bible, walk away from what it says, walk away from what it preaches to make people like us, we're willing to do that. Our goal ought not to be to make everybody else happy. Our goal is to make the Lord pleased with us. So Samson, trying to impress the Philistine men that are standing around, he offers them a riddle. He says this, here's the deal. If you solve my riddle in the next three days of this wedding ceremony feast, then I'm going to give each of you a brand new set of clothes. But if you can't solve my riddle in three days, then each of you has to give me a brand new set of clothes. Samson has fallen in love with a girl from the world. He's now trying to impress the men from the world. And look how quickly it turns to him gambling with the men from the world. You'll notice that sin always has the same downward trajectory. By the way, I'm going to maybe meddle just a little bit. It was no more right for Samson to gamble with the Philistine men than it is for the average Christian to stop by the store and get the lottery ticket. They try for two days to figure out the riddle. The riddle is this, out of the eater came forth meat and out of the strong came forth sweetness. That is a pretty good riddle if you don't know that there's a lion there with honey in his mouth. For two days, the Philistines try to find the secret to the riddle. And so they finally go up to Samson's fiancee and they say, listen, you need to tell us the secret to the riddle. And she says, no. I'm not going to tell you that. The first thing you'll do is tell my fiance that you know the secret to the riddle. I'm not gonna give you the secret to the riddle. And then they said, well, you got two choices. You can give us the secret to the riddle or we'll burn your daddy's house to the ground. And she said, okay, here's the secret to the riddle. I'll get it for you. And she goes to Samson and she says, Samson, what's the secret to the riddle? And he says, I'm not gonna tell you. You'll tell everybody. By the way, Samson's whole life is filled with male chauvinists, all right? Not everything that you tell your wife is going to get out to everybody else. But Samson, in this case, was in fact right. I'm not going to tell you, you'll tell everybody. She asked again, I'm not going to tell you, you'll tell everybody. And then finally, she does that evil thing. She uses a weapon that women have been using for millennia, if you will. She does something that no man, we know Samson's already ripped a lion in half. We know some of the things that Samson's going to do in his life. We would ask every single child that's out there in kids club with Mrs. Harper, what's the first thing you think of when you think of Samson? They're going to talk about muscles or strength or something like that. Samson is a man's man, we understand that. But this weapon is one that he cannot defeat. His fiancée looks at him and she begins to cry. Listen, men, let me help your married life right now. Once she starts crying, just apologize and move on. You've lost. It's over. You can have a stack of encyclopedias this high. You can have NASA scientists willing to testify under oath that what you're saying is 100% right. When she looks at you and starts tearing up, you go ahead and apologize, admit you were wrong, and move on with life. You're never going to figure out how to overcome a crying wife. It's not going to work. She doesn't just cry, though. This woman is diabolical. She doesn't just cry. She says, Samson, you just don't love me anymore. Men, admit it. I know you're sitting with your wife. I know how afraid you are right now. I know what I'm saying. Inside your heart, you're standing up waving hankies and doing laps around the auditorium saying, thank the Lord, somebody is finally preaching it the way it's true, Brother Harper. But since you're sitting beside your wife, you're sitting there all stoically looking at me trying to hold it in. And by the way, from this perspective, it looks pretty funny the way you guys are trying to hold it in. You just don't love me. You can't beat that. You can't win against that. There's no argument that comes back for that. You say, well, I do love you. Well, then tell me the secret to the riddle. You lost. You don't understand, sweetheart. I can't give you the secret. That's because you don't love me. You're never going to win. Just give up. It's that simple. So you know what Samson does? He just gives up. He said, all right, here's the secret. What could be stronger than a lion and what could be sweeter than honey? Soon as he says it, she runs to the Philistines and she says, listen guys, what could be stronger than a lion and what could be sweeter than honey? And they come to Samson. They said, Samson, we figured out your simple little riddle there. What could be stronger than a lion and what could be sweeter than honey? And then Samson looks at them and says something that to the best of my knowledge has never been immortalized in a Hallmark card. He said, you wouldn't have figured it out if you hadn't plowed with my heifer. More marital help here, because I'm just here to serve, all right? There is absolutely no context under which you could call your wife, girlfriend, or fiance a big fat cow that she is going to take that as a compliment. Samson said, if you hadn't plowed with my heifer, you'd have never figured out the secret to my riddle. Samson becomes furious now though. Samson now has to pay his gambling debt, doesn't he? He goes and he murders 30 Philistines and takes their clothes off of them to pay off his gambling debt. Notice how Samson fell in love with a woman of the world, then tried to impress the people of the world, then gambled with the people of the world, and now he's committing murder to pay his gambling debts. This is a man that has been set apart by Almighty God since nine months before his birth, and he's murdering 30 people with his bare hands. The Philistines don't like what Samson has done after he pays his debt, and so Samson leaves. He storms out. He walks away from his own marriage. That's an amazing thing. They looked around and said, well, Samson's not here, He was just the groom. It's not like we really need him. Everything else is already here. Why don't we get the man that stood as his friend? That's who's going to marry his fiancée, by the way. His best man is going to marry his fiancée. And I'm here to tell you something. That's pretty cold right there. Well, we don't have a groom, but well, okay, you marry her. And it was just that quick. Samson's home for a few days and decides he wants to go back and see his fiancee. He's decided that it's okay to go back and marry her. He's swallowing his pride. He goes back up, he knocks on his father-in-law's door, his hopefully father-in-law's door. His father-in-law opens the door and says, Samson, so surprised to see you here. What are you doing here? He said, well, I came to marry your daughter. He said, oh wow, she's already married. She married your best friend. Then he says, by the way, it's a completely different time. Then he says something that no dad would ever say today. He says, but you know what? Her younger sister is much prettier than she is. You can marry her. No dad would ever say that except in the Philistines they said that. Samson didn't like that offer. So he went out and he caught 300 foxes. You think of the speed and physical dexterity it would take to capture with your bare hands 300 foxes. He ties their tails together. He puts firebrands between their tails and sends them running all over through the land of Timnath. And before it's all said and done, Timnath is nothing but shard earth. All the stocks of corn are gone. All the olive trees have burned to the ground. Everything is gone. There's nothing but ashes everywhere you look in the land of Timnath. The Philistines get together, and a thousand of them, or more than that, at least a thousand of them, come after Samson. Samson doesn't have anything, and you know the story. He reaches down and picks up the jawbone of an ass, the jawbone of a donkey, and with just that in his hand, he kills 1,000 Philistines through the power of the Lord. After he gets finished, can you imagine this? Instead of giving praise and honor to the Lord, he said to the Lord something along this line. Are you gonna let me die of thirst now that I won this great victory for you? And it's interesting that he said that, and we'll talk more about it later. And then, all of a sudden, water comes out of the mouth of that jawbone. Next time we see Samson, he is carrying the gates of the city out of the city to hide the fact that he's been with a woman of ill repute. The next time we meet Samson in chapter 16, he's got him another girlfriend, another Philistine girl, by the way. She is the only woman, for those of you who like this kind of trivia, Jezebel is the only, I'm sorry, Delilah is the only name, only female name associated with the entire life of Samson. We don't know his mom's name, the girl from Timnath's name, we don't know anybody else, but we know Delilah's name. And Samson and Delilah have the worst kind of relationship. It is a relationship built entirely on mistrust. And so the Philistines come to Delilah and they say, Delilah, would you please find out for us the secret to Samson's strength? And she says, well, I'll do my best. And she goes to Samson and she says, Samson, what's the secret to your strength? And he says, well, if you bind me with seven green widths, then I'll lose my strength. Samson falls asleep. She ties him up with seven green widths. She wakes him up and says, Samson, Samson, the Philistines are here. He breaks the green widths and is ready to go out into battle. She said, Samson, you lied to me. What's the real secret to your strength? And Samson says, well, you have to bind me fast with new ropes and I'll lose my strength. And so he falls asleep. She binds him fast with new ropes. He wakes up. She says, Samson, Samson, the Philistines are here. Wakes up, breaks the ropes and goes out ready to fight. She said, Samson, you lied to me again. What's the secret to your strength? And he said, well, listen, if you'll weave the seven locks of my hair into a web, I'll lose my strength. Samson falls to sleep and she weaves the seven locks of his hair into a web. Doesn't it strike you that Samson may have been the soundest sleeper in the history of mankind? She wakes him up and says, the Philistines are here. Samson gets up and goes out to battle just like he was before. Finally, she comes to Samson and she does something else. Now, yes, crying to get your way as a wife or as a girlfriend, that's one thing. But Delilah is going to use another tool. She's going to use a tool that no woman in this auditorium or any place else would ever admit that they used to get their way. As a matter of fact, you won't even call it what your husband would call it. Listen, when we're in our trailer, you have to understand this about a trailer. If you leave one thing out of place in a trailer, it gets in the way. If everything is put away, there's plenty of room in a trailer. Although after about six or seven weeks in that thing, it feels like a sardine can, but I have this tendency of kicking my shoes off wherever I am. And I don't care if it's in the middle of the floor, that's what I do. My wife will say to me in her dear sweet voice, honey, Would you pick your shoes up, please? And I would say, as a dutiful husband, well, yes, sweetheart, I'll get my shoes here in a little while. Then she would say, by the way, let me say this, when a man tells you he's going to do something, just trust him, he's going to do it. He doesn't need you to remind him every three or four months, okay? And she'll say, an hour later, you know, I almost tripped over your shoes. Would you mind picking them up? I'll get them here in just a little while. Sweetheart, it's very difficult for me to mop the floor and sweep and all those things with your shoes in the floor. Would you please move your shoes? Yes, I'll get to my shoes eventually. Eventually to me, it sounds like I'm hearing this. Please move your shoes. Can you move your shoes? Can you get your shoes out of the floor? I would appreciate if you got your shoes out of the floor. If you loved me, you'd get your shoes out of the floor. I don't know why you don't respect me enough to get your shoes out of the floor. Can you please pick up your shoes? Now, every man in this room, and I know some of you are sitting next to your wife, pretend like you're talking about someone other than your wife. What do we men call that? Nagging. Thank you. A few of you are at least brave enough to answer. Nagging. Ladies in this room, What would you call that? Reminding. Exactly right. That's exactly what it is. A woman will never admit that she has ever nagged about anything. She's just reminding. And of a truth, I probably need reminded every now and then. Delilah is a champion. She would win a gold medal at nagging if there was such a thing. There are a couple of verses in the Bible that deal with that. One in the book of Proverbs, it's better to dwell in the corner of a rooftop than in a wide house with a contentious woman. We understand that. But the best verse in the entire Bible on nagging is found right here in Judges chapter 16. Look across the page from what we're going to read in just a minute. Look at verse 16. And it came to pass when she pressed him daily, with her words, and urged him so that his soul was vexed unto death, that Samson said, yea, verily, I will pick my shoes. No, that's not right. It wasn't about the shoes. That's what you call nagging right there. Samson has been urged so much with her words that he feels like he's going to die if he doesn't do something. And so he finally says, all right, here's the secret to my strength. If you cut my hair, I'll be disobedient to God. I'll have rescinded the Nazarite vow that had been sworn to keep since before I was born. So if you cut my hair, I'll lose my strength. Samson falls to sleep again. This time Delilah sends for one of the men of the Philistines and they shave him. And he wakes up, she says, Samson, the Philistines are here. And he doesn't even realize that the Lord is gone. The spirit has departed from Samson. Samson's life goes downhill quickly after this. They put him in fetters. They take him back to a town called Gaza. When they get there, they heat up red hot pokers and they stick them into his eye sockets and they put out the eyes of Samson. then they place him in a public place. We don't know where it is, but we know that the Philistines could see and they could walk by and see Samson and they had him grinding in the prison house. Grinding was something that was left for donkeys or oxen, just animals they could tie up that would just grind and grind and grind at the wheel. Samson is being used like the worst kind of pack mule. And as the Philistines would walk by, they would see Samson and they would rejoice. Now, we find Samson is then brought out in front of a crowd. The Philistines decide to have a great celebration now that Samson has been captured. Now that their great enemy is gone and they bring Samson out. The Philistines are there and their hearts are merry and they've been drinking and they've been celebrating and they've been worshipping their god, Dagon. They've been singing the praises of Dagon. They've been worshiping him. Our God hath delivered into our hands our enemy and the destroyer of our country which killed many of us. Our God has defeated Samson's God. Samson is no longer a threat. His God is no longer a threat. The children of Israel are no longer a threat. Our God has won. They're singing, thank you Dagon for saving our souls. They're singing, Dagon is still good. They're worshipping their God. They bring Samson out of the prison house to make them sport. They laugh and mock at the blind man stumbling around in his darkness. And you know how the story goes. Samson asks the lad who is leading him around. He asked him if he could stand between the two middle pillars and he could feel those two middle pillars upon which the house stood and upon which it was born up. And they're standing between those middle pillars with the drunken, rejoicing, day-gone praising Philistines having the best time of their life. Samson does something that he's only done one other time in his entire life recorded in scripture. Remember I told you after he killed the thousand Philistines, he said to the Lord, are you going to let me die of thirst? Do you know that's the only time until the day of his death that we find a recorded prayer from Samson? Now that Samson is standing there between the pillars, now that he's blind, now that he's weak, now that he has no power at all, now as he stands there and listens to the people praise Dagon and worship Dagon and give him all the honor and glory they feel he deserves, Samson is going to pray. This is the last prayer of Samson. Now, if we walked in tonight and you've seen some of these game shows or things like that on television where you vote at your seat, if you were allowed to vote at your seat, and we understand that we're not allowed to vote about this, but if you were allowed to vote at your seat, I dare say that most of us, if we were given the opportunity to vote as to whether God should answer Samson's prayer or not, most of us would have said no. Most of us would have pushed no. but Samson wasn't praying to us. Look at Judges chapter 16, we're gonna be in reading in verse 21, Judges 16, 21. But the Philistines took him and put out his eyes, brought him down to Gaza and bound him with fetters of brass and he did grind in the prison house. That one verse tells you just how far Samson has fallen. how be it the hair of his head began to grow after he was shaven. Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice and a dagon their God, and to rejoice, for they said, Our God hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand. And when the people saw him, they praised their God. For they said, Our God hath delivered into our hands our enemy and the destroyer of our country, which slew many of us. And it came to pass, when their hearts were merry, that they said, Call for Samson, that he may make us sport. And they called for Samson out of the prison house, and he made them sport, and they set him between the pillars. Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand, suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house standeth that I may lean upon them. Now the house was full of men and women and all the lords of the Philistines were there and there were upon the roof about 3000 men and women that beheld while Samson made sport. Samson called unto the Lord and said, oh Lord God, remember me, I pray thee. And strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes." 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 the other with his left. And Samson said, let me die with the Philistines. I want you to look with me tonight at this last prayer of Samson. If you and I could vote, I don't think we would have voted that Samson's prayer gets answered. If you and I had a choice as we sat there and listened to the Philistines praise Dagon, this is the man that's supposed to bring about the beginning of the end of the oppression of the Philistines. This is God's choice servant. This is a person that is supposed to bring glory to Jehovah God. And at this point in his life, he's brought more glory to Dagon than he ever brought to Jehovah. What a failure. Let's have a word of prayer. The Lord and Heavenly Father, we thank you for this evening, Lord. We thank you for our time in your house. Lord, I ask that you bless the message. Help us, Father. In Jesus' name, amen. I want you to notice the first thing Samson says. Standing there between the pillars, you can't forget the setting here. You can't forget what is going on. Drunken Philistines praising Dagon for defeating Samson. Praising Dagon for delivering him into their hands. And here is Samson, the servant of the Lord, blinded, broken, beaten, and battered, and bald, standing between those two middle pillars. And now, when Samson has made an absolute mess of his life, when Samson has received the just reward for the way he started his life with his eyes looking at the wrong people, his heart gambling with the wrong people, murdering people, getting vengeance, All those things have built up to this moment where Samson is a nobody in the nation of Israel. They're not worried about him. They're not concerned about him. The Philistines are only happy to have him so they can rejoice. And now, at this moment in time, when Samson, who has been given so much from the Lord, has ruined it all. Now, he prays. We pray oftentimes as a last resort, don't we? Prayer should be our first response, but it's mostly our last resort. And this is how he begins this prayer. Oh, Lord God, remember me. What a statement. Remember me, number one, remember me. What a way for Samson to start. It's important to realize that it's not God that's done the forgetting, it's Samson that's done the forgetting. It is Samson that has walked away from the Lord. We're the ones commanded to do the remembering. Ecclesiastes chapter 12 and verse one. Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I had no pleasure in them. It's our job to remember him. And yet here is Samson saying, Lord, I'm in a mess. Remember me? Now, I don't know about you, but if I'm sitting there listening to the Philistines' praise day gone, as I'm watching the abject failure of Samson's life, you hand me that little vote machine, I'm saying, no. Why would the Lord remember you, Samson? Why would he be interested in you? I would have given him the dad answers, you know what I mean? What are the dad answers? This, well, son, you made your bed, now you gotta lie in it. Darling, you made this mess. Now you've got to clean it up. Wouldn't that have been our answer as human beings? Wouldn't we have said to Samson, you're not in this mess because God forgot you. You're in this mess because you forgot God. And now you want God to step in and help you clean it up. I would have pushed no as fast as I could. And there are probably a few of you, maybe even a great multitude of you that would have voted with me if we just voted our hearts. But see, Samson wasn't praying to someone like me. He wasn't praying to someone like you. He was praying to the great and merciful and forgiving and second chance and fifth chance and 490th chance Jehovah God. Almighty God looked down from heaven and said, Samson, of course I'll remember you. I never stopped loving you, Samson. It never stopped breaking my heart as you went in the wrong direction, as you did all the things you weren't supposed to do. Samson, of course, I'll remember you. I'm so glad when I pray, I don't pray to someone like me. Amen. Oh, Lord, God, remember me, I pray thee. Then listen to this. Listen to the audacity of what Samson says next and strengthen me. Samson has certainly been gifted by God with inhuman strength, has he not? Samson has had bountiful blessings of strength on his life. But let me point something out about Samson's strength. Do you realize that not one time up until this moment has Samson ever used his strength purely for the glory of God? He's never one time used his strength without a selfish motivation. The first time we find him using it is when he rips the lion in half for self-preservation. The second time we find him using God's strength is when he kills the 30 Philistines to pay off his gambling debt. The next time we find him using it is when he catches the 300 foxes to get vengeance on his father-in-law. The next time we find him using it, it's because the Philistines are attacking him and he needs help to defend himself against the Philistines. The next time we find him using it, he's carrying the gates of the city out to hide his immorality. In other words, every time Samson has used the strength that God has given him, he has used it for his own selfish motivations. And now here is this man that has strength poured out on him time and time and time again, even though he's using it for the wrong reason. Here he is standing there, blinded and bald, and he looks up to heaven and says, hey, Lord, how about some strength? Would you have been willing to say yes? My answer would have been sarcastic. My answer would have been, why, Samson? Got some gambling debts to pay? Why do you need the strength of the Lord, Samson? Simple truth is, Samson is asking God, can I have your strength? See, Samson should have asked for his strength earlier, shouldn't he? The Bible tells us He'll not allow us to be tempted above that which we are able. The Bible tells us in 1 John 4, in verse 4, greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. In 1 John 5, in verse 4, that which is born of God overcometh the world. And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Got all kinds of promises that the one we serve is greater than the enemy that we fight. It's right there. Samson should have asked for strength the first time his eyes turned to the women of Timnath. But he didn't. He's only asking for strength now that he's made a complete mess out of everything. He's asking for what God has given him in abundance, for God to give him again. Aren't we guilty of that, Christian? We waste our lives. And then when we finally get right with the Lord, we ask him to give us more time. How many parents have I seen at altars over the years praying that God will give them back the children that they've lost? Isn't that what we do? Isn't it a wonderful blessing to know that even though I would have voted no, I would have said, Samson, you can't have the strength of the Lord anymore. You've had enough of it and you've used it for all the wrong reasons. Even though I would have said no, he wasn't praying to me. He was praying to God. whose strength is always available. If he instructs us to forgive 70 times seven, how many times does that mean he's going to forgive? Oh no, Brother Harper, you don't understand. The Lord's given me all kinds of chances and I've ruined all my chances. You haven't ruined anything worse than Samson has. This man that was once so feared, this man that left a thousand carcasses in his wake, now stands there with no strength in his body, no sight in his eyes, no hair on his head, no army to lead, he has nothing. He says, Lord, strengthen me, I pray thee. And almighty God looked down from heaven and said, yes. Notice number one. Avenge me. I would have said no, but maybe, maybe I could have voted for yes, but there's no way I would have ever voted to give Samson strength again. Then he says this. Now we're going to get a little deep theologically here for just a second. Then he says, and strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes. Number one, remember me. Number two, strengthen me. Number three, avenge me. Samson says, Lord, did you see what they did? Those Philistines took my eyes out, Lord. I need your strength so I can get back at them for taking my eyes out. So let me ask you a relatively deep theological question. Who really took Samson's eyes? Was Almighty God asleep when the Philistines snuck in and took the eyes out of Samson's head? Was He distracted, looking in a different direction, taking care of something else, and didn't notice that the Philistines had Samson and were getting ready to put hot pokers in his eyes? Is it possible, let me ask you, is it possible that the Philistines could have taken the eyes out of Samson's head if God hadn't allowed it? The truth is Samson is asking God to avenge him for what God allowed the Philistines to do. Look at the life of Samson. Look, just to take a quick glance at the life of Samson, do you know what Samson never gave to God? Never gave him his eyes. He was always looking at the wrong people, always looking in the wrong direction. And now, here he stands blind. I don't think it's a coincidence that the first time we have Samson really praying, really calling out on God is when God had allowed his eyes to be taken out of his head. I don't think that's just a coincidence. I think Samson sees God better now that he's blind than he ever saw him before. Samson's eyesight is clearer now. Samson says, avenge me. Oh, I'd have voted no. Wouldn't you? At least Samson's right in his prayer. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. I devoted no. Samson had to have his eyes taken out. It's the only way for the Lord to get his attention. The Lord has raised up oppressors to oppress Israel. He has raised up enemies to oppress them over the years. And then the Lord delivered from the oppressors and then God judged the oppressor. It's an amazing thing that God does. He is allowing, he has allowed the Philistines to take Samson's eyes, but watch me carefully. That doesn't mean he's gonna let them get by with it. He says, Lord, avenge me. Ida said, no. Avenge you, Samson? It's what had to happen. It's what had to take place to get your attention. As we're sitting there listening to them sing praises to Dagon. As the throne of heaven echoes with the Philistines in their drunken stupor, glorifying a false god who has overcome the choice servant of Almighty God, I would have voted no, and I wouldn't have had a second thought about it. But not God. Yes, Samson, I remember you. And yes, Samson, my strength is always available. And yes, Samson, even though I allowed the Philistines to take your eyes, I'm not going to allow them to get by with it. I'm going to avenge you of your two eyes. Number one, remember me. Number two, strengthen me. Number three, avenge me. Number four, watch this. Watch what Samson says next. And Samson, verse 29, 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, Lord, get me out of here. Lord, strike the Philistines down with your mighty power and let me go home. and be with my family. Lord, whatever you do, however this battle turns out, take good care of me so I can go back home." That's not what he said. As a matter of fact, completely unlike the only other time Samson has talked to the Lord in recorded scripture, this time Samson doesn't ask for anything of Samson. He said, Lord, let me die. This is a moment of total surrender for Samson, isn't it? By the way, you wanna see something? Samson didn't pray much, but he got it right when he prayed. Notice what he said, let me die, watch it, with the Philistines. Who's gonna kill Philistines? There's no army of Israelites ready to attack. Now, you know how the story ends. We read the whole text here just a moment ago. But Samson is still standing there between those middle pillars with no strength in his body, no sight in his eyes. Samson is standing there. Who's going to kill the Philistines? Well, obviously God is. Do you know why Samson believes God's going to kill the Philistine? Because Samson asked him to. We could learn a couple of lessons about praying in faith from good old Samson, can't we? We ask God for something and no sooner than we get up off our knees, we go and try to work it out on our own. Samson just says, all right, avenge me, remember me, strengthen me. And when you get ready to kill the Philistines, Lord, take me. Let me die. I'm done. I'm all in. Lord, you can have all of Samson. And I have to be honest with you, I just still said no. Wouldn't you? I mean, surely out of all the people God could choose to lead the children of Israel, to lead a great victory over the Philistines, it's not going to be a blind, bald guy. He's going to go and find somebody else that he can use, some younger fellow that he's already got his eye on. Surely the Lord doesn't want this messed up merchandise, if you will, this defective merchandise. Why would the Lord want something this broken down and terrible? I remember one year for Christmas, My dad was in the pre-Reagan military, so Christmas wasn't much, but I'd gotten three presents that year. I opened the first two, and when I opened these new presents, they were broken. Right out of the box, they were broken. Brand new presents. My third present was a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle. Yes, you can feel sorry for me. That's the worst gift a parent's ever bought a child in history. A 500-piece jigsaw puzzle. Because everything else was broken, the only thing I could, quote, play with as a second grader was my 500-piece puzzle. I sat down to put my 500-piece puzzle together, only to find out that there were only 268 pieces in the box. Even my 500 piece puzzle was defective. You know, we did the day after Christmas. We took it all back. Why? Because nobody wants defective merchandise. Here's the thing, though. God's still willing to take him, isn't he? God's still willing to use this man that's made such a mess out of his life. He doesn't have anything to offer anybody. I mean, he's not going to ever lead an army. He's not going to ever guide a kingdom. He's not going to ever accomplish anything. He doesn't have anything really to offer the Lord. And yet God's still willing to use him. See, the world, and even some preachers, have given us the idea that unless you're the most talented person in the auditorium, unless you have the greatest intellect, unless you have the most money, unless you have any of those things, you really don't have much to give Almighty God. Let me tell you something. You have something that you can give God that the most talented, most intellectual, and most wealthy person could never give Him, no matter how hard they tried. Do you know what it is? It's you. No one else can surrender you, but you. God doesn't want you to give Him somebody else's talents. He doesn't want you to give Him somebody else's abilities. He just wants you to give Him you. And for the first time in Samson's life, Samson says, listen, I don't have a whole lot to offer. I don't have much to give you, Lord. I don't have sight. I don't have anything like that. I haven't brought glory to you. I brought glory to Dagon. I haven't brought joy to the people of Israel. I brought joy to the Philistines. Lord, I failed at everything you've given me. I've used your strength for all the wrong reasons. But now that I made an absolute mess of my life, now that there's nothing left to offer here, you can have me now. I just said no. I just said, Samson, why do I want you? But God said, Samson, that's all I ever wanted. From when I had that first conversation with your mama, that's all I ever wanted. When I told your dad that you're going to be a young man that's going to bring him out the beginning of the end of the oppression of the Philistines. This is what I wanted. All I ever wanted was you. Listen, Christian, that's all he wants from you. That's all he wants from me. We don't have anything of any real worth to give Him, do we? We're nothing but sinners saved by grace. We've made messes more often than we've done the right thing. We've made the wrong choices too many times. We've got skeletons in our closet. We've got things that we look back on and we say, well, I sure messed that up right there. And yet, unbelievably, beyond any kind of comprehension, He's still willing to take us. He'll still say, I'll take you, Samson. Say, Brother Harper, I don't have much. I'm older now. I don't have much time to live. Got more than Samson. I don't have very many talents. Got more than Samson. I don't have very many abilities. Got more than Samson. And God is still willing to use him. He said, Lord, take me. Number one, Lord, remember me. Number two, Lord, strengthen me. Number three, Lord, avenge me. Number four, Lord, take me. Samson pushes on those pillars, the power of almighty God flowing through his hands. And that building falls, and you might have one of those Bibles that has that little note at the top, Samson kills 3,000 Philistines. That's not even close. There were 3,000 on the roof. And it says that all the people that were in the building died as well. Thousands have died. Samson's family comes to get him. They take him and bury him in the burying place of Manoah's father. And that's the end of Samson. We can close the book on Samson, can't we? Except for one thing. See, the Bible doesn't just add words just to make it more interesting reading. It doesn't add words just to make it more exhilarating. It's all in there for a reason. Notice what it says, please. Look at verse 30 with me again. And Samson said, let me die with the Philistines. Take me. He bode 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. Wait, wait, wait. If I marched them both out tonight, if I brought young, virile, lion-ripping Samson out, and I stood him on this side, or if I brought old, blind, battered, bald, beaten, and used up and useless Samson out and stood him on this side, shackled with no strength in his body, and I gave every single one of us one more vote, one more chance to say something, would anybody vote for this guy over here? Would anyone say, well, if I'm gonna build a team, I want that old Samson on my side. No, no, we'd have every one of us pick this young, virile, muscular Samson who judged Israel for 20 years. But once again, but not God. You know what this means? The dead which He slew in His death were more than they which He slew in His life just a moment ago. Less than five minutes ago, for the first time in his entire existence, Samson completely surrendered. Samson let go of Samson. Samson isn't worried about Samson anymore. He's only worried that God's going to get the victory, that the enemies of God are going to die. That's the only thing Samson cares about. And this old Samson just five minutes ago said, let me die with the Philistines. And then the Bible says, the dead that he sewed his death were more than they which he sewed his life. You know what that means? That means that God was able to use this five minute surrendered Samson more than he was able to use the 20 year half-hearted Samson all rolled into one. That means that God did more through this weakened individual, this completely surrendered blind man than he was able to do with lion-ripping, fence-carrying, fox-chasing Samson. In other words, God did more in five minutes with a surrendered vessel than he did in 20 years with young Samson. Brother Harper, you don't understand how much of a mess I've made. God does, and He's still willing to use you. Brother Harper, you don't know. I don't have that much time left. God knows. And he's still willing to use you. You know the difference? Oh, we've highlighted lots of differences between this Samson and this Samson. But really, the only difference is this one was surrendered. Now, here's what we do. Here is the tragedy of being us. We look at it and say, boy, what could God have done? If Samson surrendered 20 years earlier? It's an interesting question. We could talk about it all night long, but it doesn't matter. What we do know is what God can do. with bald-headed, blind Samson in five minutes. And you know what? The Lord made sure we understand this. The Lord made sure He put it in the Word. He could have just said, and Samson bowed himself with all his might, and the house fell upon the lords of the Philistines. And then it could have said, and his family came and took him and buried him between the burying place of Manoah his father. He could have said that, right? It doesn't add anything to the story, does it? Doesn't give us one more detail about the building falling. but it does tell us that God can use anybody in a miraculous way if they just surrender. We have a whole lot of half-hearted surrendered Christians. They're everywhere. They're all here. They're here in Calvary. They're in every church. The Lord gets whatever we have left over, just like the Lord got from Samson. Samson only called on the Lord when he needed him. Samson only used the power of the Lord when he needed him. The whole lot of half-hearted Christians, we have a whole lot of young Samson's relying on talent, ability, relying on all of those things and the occasional blessings from God. What we need is some old Samson's that are willing to say, It's all yours, everything I have. Every minute of my life is yours. Brother Harper, Samson only gave the Lord five minutes. Look what God did with those five minutes. Isn't it time for some of God's people to say, all right, I'm letting go. I'm letting him have it. I just wanna see, by the way, wouldn't you wanna see it? Wouldn't you wanna see what God could do with you if you completely surrendered? And if he's able to do this with Samson, they were laughing at him, mocking at him. And God turns him into a champion. All the picture stories in the Bible storybooks, they're all talking about this Samson over here. It's that five minute Samson that changed the world. It's that five minute Samson, watch this, that fulfilled everything that God had called him to do. He has now brought about the beginning of the end of the oppression of the Philistines. It's that five-minute Samson that was surrendered, that changed everything. This guy over here just impresses us a little bit. This guy over here, he topples buildings and wins the victory. The difference? Not strength. They both had God's strength. Not in eyesight. He didn't have any. Not in long flowing hair. He didn't have any. The only difference between the two is surrender. Christian, it's time to stop being partly surrendered. It's time to stop giving the Lord just one thing at a time. It's time to say, Lord, Let me die with the Philistines. I'm in this all the way. I'm going to step out and step up and I'm going to give God everything I've got. And then I'm going to watch him do more with it than I could have ever done with the same thing. How about it, Christian? How about it? It's decision time. How much are you going to give the Lord? Some of you actually decided on Sunday night how far you were willing to go this week, what you were willing to surrender, what the Lord's been dealing with you about as our pastor has been preaching. And some of you actually said, well, you know, I've been praying about this for a while. I won't take care of it on Monday night or Tuesday night. I understand that happens. Tonight's the night we forget everything else. Tonight's the night when we say, all right, Lord, I'm yours. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, quoted this verse to the high school the other day, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And we're not conformed to this world, but being transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. It's all His anyway. Why not give it to him? Let's bow our heads and close our eyes, no one looking around.