Judges chapter 13 tonight judges chapter 13. We're gonna read a lot of scripture tonight. We like the Bible here, don't we? Amen. Okay, so we're gonna read a little bit but we're gonna stay in chapter pretty much in chapter 13 chapter 14 and So you will want to have your place there as we read through this story. This is the story of Samson the wonderful story of Samson I'm reading in my in my my son's book we have a bedtime story book and Probably everybody, every Christian family may have had a bedtime Christian storybook, and it has the highlight stories of the Bible. And generally, you have the story of Samson, as well as many other of the heroes of the faith, and they turn them into children's stories with biblical principles. And it's wonderful. And so we're gonna learn about Samson tonight and look at his life. And when we think of Samson, we think of strength, we think of maybe victory, you know, destroyed a lot of Philistines and a lot of good things. But when I read the story of Samson, that's not really the vibe that I get. I don't get just a hero, let's say like a superhero with super strength that came and saved the Israelites from the overrule of the Philistines. That would be nice and that would be great. But that's not how the story reads. We're going to look at it tonight. This is actually, in my opinion, a sad story. This is a story of wasted potential, a guy who had everything, wonderful family, wonderful abilities, a God who loved him. He was one of God's people. But he blew it. He lived his life totally for himself. Selfishness. I like to listen to Jack Hiles. Anybody like to listen to Jack Hiles? I still go, I do listen to, go online and listen to many of the sermons that he preached. He made a statement that kind of stuck with me, that the biggest sin in the Christian life is selfishness. He says, if I could preach about really anything outside, The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, he says, I would preach on selfishness. Because he says selfishness is the number one sin in the Christian life. People living their lives for self. Think about it. Why do they commit sins? Selfishness. Think about why adultery? Selfishness. Think about why you don't share the gospel with the lost? Selfishness. Samson was an extremely selfish person. and he wasted his potential. This story could go a completely different direction. We could be here rejoicing about the accomplishments of Samson, but that's not what happens when we read through this story. Our heart yearns that, man, why didn't he just do what was right? Why didn't he just not get distracted by everything that happened in the world? And why didn't he just do right? He wasted his potential. I see many Christians in this story as well that fall right into this same category about Samson. Working with the teenagers for four and a half, five years, I saw a lot of Samsons. Kids who came through, they had everything. They were the popular ones. They were the ones with all the ability, the charisma. They had the knowledge of the word of God. Oh, they had a great family that raised them up, but they blew it. and they wasted their potential, and continue to waste their potential. I don't want that to be me. Samson, the people of Israel, they prayed that they would have a deliverer, a judge, which the book of Judges is about deliverers, people delivering Israel when they messed up. And God had to punish them, and then he would send along a deliverer who would restore them back to being sufficient, to being on their own. And people had prayed that God would raise up a deliverer, and Samson was the answer to that prayer. And although, yes, he killed a lot of Philistines, he didn't do nearly as much as he could have, and I think we can all agree on that. I don't want that to be me. I don't want the story of Chris Barrows to be, what could he have done? What could he have done? It's interesting that tonight we have all these, we just put up all these montage photos, right? There's a story that is told. I think Pastor Bill said, I actually told him a few years ago, I said, man, I said, you should preach a sermon about the montages. and about how people's lives are put up here and in different instances, and we can go through and we can see, oh, a successful person, a successful person, oh, that person, that was a failure. That was somebody who blew it. And we just leave them up regardless because it's the story of our lives. It's the story of Gospel Baptist Church. It's the history, and there's lessons to be learned. We don't just take something out because it didn't go real well. Because there's lessons to be learned. He says, oh, yeah, I preach that. Great. Nothing original, right? Sounded real good. I'm like, wow, this is just the greatest idea. He's going to love it. Yeah, I did that about 15, 20 years ago. OK. Well, but as we go through and we look at these photos, it inspires us, number one, to live right. Because people are going to remember us one way or another. But we also, when we look through, we see people who were successful, we would say, in their Christian life, and we see people who had a bumpy road, and we see people who were failures. We see people who we say, that was wasted potential. May that not be us tonight. And so let's look at the steps that led to Samson's demise so so that we don't have to repeat and make the same exact mistakes that he did and end up with wasted potential. So number one, he despised his heritage, his upbringing. He despised it. We're gonna start in verse three of Judges chapter 13. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman and said unto her, behold now, thou art barren and barest not, but thou shalt conceive and bear a son. Samson he grew up in a godly home verse 8 jump down I told you we're gonna read a lot then Manoah entreated the Lord and said oh my Lord let the man of God which thou didst send come again unto us and teach us what she what we shall do unto the child that should be born and Manoah said now let thy words come to pass in verse 12 and Manoah said now let thy words come to pass how shall we order the child and how shall we do unto him as soon as Samson was born, the parents did the right thing. What did they do? He prayed to God and said, please send that person who just came and gave us that news so we know how to raise this child. Wouldn't America be a lot better off if people handled their parenting duties like Manoa did? Wouldn't there probably be a lot less temper tantrums going on when we go through the grocery store? I think there would be. Do you think that maybe there would even be, we would even maybe see less rebellion going on than what we see? Absolutely. These parents, they did the right thing. They wanted to do it God's way. They were humble. That's a good characteristic of a parent. I'm learning all these things by the way. I'm like learning like right now, like this afternoon, right Heather? This afternoon. That I don't know it all. This afternoon. I'll tell you later. And there's a third one on the way. I mean, come on. You're humble. You have to be humble that you don't understand everything. And I do think it's interesting that parents, they don't like going to God for advice now, opening up the word of God and going for advice. They like going to all these other resources and philosophical ideas about how to raise children. I think God knows how to raise kids. I think he does. Samson grew up in a godly home with parents I believe, who loved God and wanted the best for Him. And so they pushed Him, and they shoved Him in the right direction, the best way that they knew how. We see that because He asked. The angel of the Lord came and gave specific instructions on how they were to raise Samson. The Nazarite vow. Verse 4 and 5, if we jump back to that, verse 4 and 5, Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink. and eat not any unclean thing. For lo, thou shalt conceive and bear a son, and no razor shall come upon his head. For the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb, and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines." Imagine growing up with that. You gotta live up to that. That'd be big. You're gonna be the guy who delivers us out of the hands of the Philistines. Amazing. He had the Nazarite vow. The Nazarite vow was generally, was generally a voluntary vow that was taken by people. They were not forced. The Israelites were not forced into taking it, but occasionally some would. And the Nazarite vow, it was a commitment to God. It was, let's say, an extra step in their spiritual life towards God. Here's the rules. They could not drink wine or they could not eat grapes, no fruit of the vine. They could not touch any dead thing or eat any dead thing, and they could not cut their hair. Abstaining from grapes, it symbolized that they were finding joy, I believe, in their relationship with God. They didn't need wine or alcohol or liquor to find joy. They found that in the Lord. Not touching any dead thing, I believe, symbolizes that they were holy before God. And not cutting their hair symbolized that they were different. I mean, back in those days, and especially especially when we read in the Law of Moses that men were to really look like men, women to look like women, and there was a huge distinction. By the way, much, much more than we have in our society today. And when you would see a man with long hair, he would be, it was a shame, yes, and he would be different. He would look different. But that he was separated unto God. And that summarized Samson's life. that he was supposed to be different than the average person. He had something special that he was supposed to accomplish. God had something special for his life, but did he accomplish it? No, no, he didn't. The story continues, verse 24 and 25, and it says, and the woman bear a son and call his name Samson. And the child grew, and the Lord blessed him, and the spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtola. If you look up the meaning of Samson's name, you might find things like sun child. It means bright sun or light bearer. And as we develop into this story of Samson, we're going to find that, in my opinion as well, is that Samson was somewhat of a jokester. He was the class clown. I'm sure he would be the person that when he came into the room, everybody's attention diverted to him. I don't believe it was because he had a lot of muscles. I don't believe maybe it's because he had long hair we don't believe he had big strong muscles because remember the Philistines they didn't they didn't even know where his strength came from if he had huge big muscles I think it would be easy to say oh yeah that guy lifts some weights that's where it comes from but they they didn't know that so I don't believe I think he was just an average looking guy besides his haircut but when he came into a room I think he was a jokester I think he was a fun guy we're gonna see some of the things that he did and he treated his life Like a joke. We'll look at that in a little bit. We see that Samson, he did not use his personality and his strength to glorify God, but he really used it to glorify himself and to promote himself. He was totally wrapped up in selfishness. And God has given many Christians wonderful opportunity. Maybe you have grown up with parents who loved you and pushed you in the right direction towards God. Maybe you've been underneath a pastor who has literally poured his life into you and has shared with you the deep treasures of the word of God that he finds in his study time. And you've maybe had friends or teachers at your church who have poured into your life. Don't waste it. Don't squander it. Don't despise it. I believe Samson despised his heritage because, as we can see, he wanted to do nothing else but be like the world. That's what he wanted. I believe that's what he thought about all the time. He didn't want to be a Christian. I'm sure there's people even under the sound of my voice that are here, yes, because they're a Christian, but they keep looking over the fence from time to time. They're not satisfied. They look at what the world has to offer, and they think, man, that looks pretty good. We look at the pleasures that the world gets to enjoy and our eyes begin to shift over to them like I believe Lot's eyes looked over towards Sodom. And we squander the opportunity that God has given us. Secondly, we see he defied his authority. Jump over to chapter 14 with me if you would, starting in verse number one. He defied his authority. He didn't just despise his heritage. in his upbringing, but he defied his authority. And it says in verse number one, And Samson went down to Timnath and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines. And he came up and told his father and his mother and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines. Now therefore, get her for me to wife. Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren or among all my people? that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me, for she pleaseth me well. Samson went down to the land of Timnath, and it's important, I think, to note that I don't think he was just going down physically to Timnath, but he was heading down there spiritually. Spiritually, he was on the downward spiral. He didn't go down there to rid the land of the Philistines like he probably should have. Remember, he had the ability. What was keeping him from doing it? Himself. He wasn't going there to fulfill the plans of the Lord. He was going there of his own lusts and his own desires. He was heading down there, I believe, because he loved the culture of the Philistines, which I believe symbolized like the world today. Love the world. I wouldn't be surprised if Samson, if he began dressing like the Philistines, looking like the Philistines, acting like the Philistines, talking like the Philistines. From what we can see, he wanted nothing to do with the religion of his parents, but he wanted everything to do with what the Philistines had going on. And being like one of them, Samson, he goes down there and he falls in love with this pagan woman, a woman who worships false gods and idols. And he comes back home to his mom and dad, and he demands to them that they go get her for him. Imagine the slap in the face that their parents felt at that moment. Samson knew the laws that God had established, for the Israelites and that they were not supposed to marry people who were not Israelites and not heathen people as well. Deuteronomy 7, I'll read the verses here. You don't have to turn there, but you can if you will. Deuteronomy 7, sometimes it's referred to as the second law. Right before the children of Israel, remember God gave them the law when they first came out of Egypt and then they were gonna go into the promised land, but they messed it up because they didn't have faith. Remember 10, 12 men went to spy on Cain and 10 were bad, two were good, a little song. Well, after that, 40 years wandering in the wilderness, right at the end of that, God had Moses write down Deuteronomy, which is sometimes referred to as the second law, a reminder to them, an instruction to them, as they would enter into the promised land and rid the land of all the heathen. And God writes some things here, and God knew what he was doing, because we're going to see where Samson erred majorly. Verse number one of Deuteronomy 7, when the Lord thy God shall bring thee up into the land which thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations from before thee, the Hittites, the Gerizites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou. And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them up before thee and shall smite them and utterly destroy them, thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them, neither shalt thou make marriages with them. Thy daughter shall not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods. So the anger of the Lord will be kindred against you and destroy thee suddenly. There was explicit instructions by God for this not to happen. This was not Samson playing around the edges of sin. This was him deliberately defying the authority that was in his life. Not only his parents' authority, but God's authority. We have the same command, by the way, in Scripture, about not being unequally yoked together with unbelievers. 2 Corinthians says, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness. No Christian young person should marry an unsaved person. If I had you raise hands and show me, and I was to ask you a question, how many of you have seen a marriage completely ruined because one person was a Christian and the other person wasn't? One person maybe started out as a Christian, married an unsaved person, and it does not work. It does not work at all. People, they say, well, it really won't be that bad. I can change him. I love when people come to me about marriage problems and they say, before they get married, I think I'll be able to change him. That doesn't work. It doesn't work. You take what you get. And you plan that on the first day that that girl or that guy is the way she is, that's how she's going to be 50 years from now. Because I know I still have the same habits that I have, right? Yeah, she sees that. Why is it a bad idea, young people, not to marry an unsaved person? Hey, you're going to want to go to church on Sunday. They're just going to want to go out and play, turn it into a fun day, stay home, sleep in. You're going to want to give to your local church. What's your heathen spouse going to say? No, we can't afford it. You're going to want to go out on door to door on Saturday. They're going to say, you're going to be one of those people. That's how it goes. That's how it goes. You wanna raise your children up into things of God, and they say, you're not gonna spank my kids. This is the real stuff that pastors and preachers all across the country face because people disregard the word of God and the authority that's over them, and they're left with the consequences of their sin. Sad. Samson. would have never fallen into love with that woman if he would never been hanging out with them. He started fraternizing with the enemy. He was supposed to be delivering Israel from the enemy, but instead he wanted to be friends with them. He would have never known that girl had he not been hanging around them. I don't think that we can pray, Lord, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, when we just want to play on the outskirts of sin. when we just wanna hang around the thing. We wanna smell it and be right there, and right there just so we can touch it, and we say, God, I don't wanna fall into temptation, deliver me, but I'm gonna get as close as I can to it as possible. In verses two and three, he says, go get her for me. Get her for me. He was obviously past the age where, he was obviously past the age where He was 100% under his parents' authority. But I'm sure for many years, Samson lived like he was expected to live. I'm sure Samson did all the right things like he was supposed to. If he was alive today, he would have went to church three times a week, like many of our young people do. He maybe would have sat up and paid attention during family devotions at night. He probably would have showed up on the bus route and helped out his mom or dad as they were serving the Lord. He looked like he had everything together, but deep in his heart, he wanted nothing to do with that. And as soon as he could come of age and make his own decisions, we see that he made a split decision and did what he wanted to do. And young people, young people in this room, young people listening as this goes across the airwaves. We've got young people and I've told them this, I've told our young people this. I said some of you are just waiting for the time that you get to make your own choices. To where you are not under mommy and daddy's authority anymore. To where you're a big boy or big girl and you can choose what you want to do. But be warned. Read the story of Samson. See how it ruined his life. I guarantee you playing around the edges of sin will ruin your life too. 100%. His parents, they begged. They begged. They said, please, will you marry an Israelite woman? I mean, isn't there any girls? Isn't there any girls among our brethren or our kindred or maybe our tribe that would be good enough for you to marry? No. Go get her for me. His mind was made up. He didn't care about his parents. Verse says, get her for me, for she pleaseth me well. He didn't care about the authority in his life. He didn't care about the people who invested in his life. He only cared about himself. Do you know how much it hurts a pastor when a pastor pours the word of God into people? Week after week, month after month, year after year, and then to see them totally disregard the Word of God, do what they wanna do because it pleases them. You say, well, how do I know? I see what it does to Pastor Bill. When people do not follow the plain teaching of the Word of God, I'm not talking about a bunch of gray area, I'm talking about the parts that say, thus saith the Lord, I command you. And people would rather choose to please themselves than to please the Lord with their life. Samson ripped the heart out of his parents. Many Christians rip the hearts out of their spouses and out of their pastors and out of the spiritual authorities that have been put in their lives. And let's not forget about God, as if He has no feelings. If anything, that should be enough to keep us on the right track. He defied his parents. Sad. And the third thing we see is that he defiled his body. He defiled his body. Judges 14, verse number five and six says, Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother to Timnath. And came to the vineyards of Timnath, and behold, a young lion roared against him. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid. And he had nothing in his hand, but he told not his father or his mother what he had done." After that conversation, he goes back down to Timnath. Wise choice. While he was going down there, he happened to be walking through a vineyard. How dumb is that? Say, what? It's just a vineyard. What did a Nazarite have any business doing in a vineyard? He was not supposed to eat grapes. He was not supposed to drink wine or drink grape juice. He was supposed to totally stay away from it. He shouldn't even touch it, nevertheless get it close enough that he could. Again, that's Samson playing around the edges of sin. An incredible story though, the lion jumps out and what does he do? He just rips the thing like a kid, not like a kid, but like a, like a little baby sheep or a little baby goat, just almost as if it was defenseless, like it had no strength. That is an incredible story, but he didn't even want to tell his mom or dad, probably because he didn't want to hear it again. He didn't want to hear another lecture from his mom and dad. He had an awesome story, but he couldn't even share it with them, because he probably didn't want to hear his mom and dad getting onto his case one more time. What are you doing, son? Number one, going back down to Timnath. Number two, walking through a vineyard. He didn't want to hear it again. Some of us, we have things go on in our lives that are pretty amazing, pretty impressive, but we may not even want to share them with one another because it'll start unraveling a story about a situation we had no business being in whatsoever. And so we keep things hidden to ourselves. Chapter 14 verse 8 and 9 says, And after a time he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion. And behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of the lion. And he took thereof in his hands, and went on eating, and came to his father and his mother, and he gave them, and they did eat. But he told not them what he had taken the honey out of the carcass of the lion. So he comes making his trip back and some bees had gotten into the line and had made honey, had a honeycomb. And so he reached in there. What did he do? He's breaking his Nazarite vow. He's touching something dead and also eating something out of it. And then he takes that same thing and he doesn't even tell his mom and dad. He allows them to partake in that, which they probably had no business taking part of either, but he gives it to them. Sad case of affairs. He deliberately defiled himself for something that was so simple. Something that was just a little sweet. Gave him just a little pleasure, it wasn't even anything big. I don't want to go out for something small. I don't want to go out for something big either, but I definitely don't want to go out for something small. For something seemingly insignificant. But that's what Samson was doing. How cheap are you? Samson was pretty cheap. What's your price tag? What's your for sale sign say? How cheap are you? What does the devil have to dangle in front of you to get you to bite? When I was a little kid, we used to go fishing. And we would put little, you know, of course, you go and get worms, and you put them on the hook, and you throw them out there. And we would stand up on this ledge, and we would drop our lines down in there. And these little tiny perch or these little tiny brim, they would come up, and they would, of course, bite it. And then, of course, one of us has the bright idea. We're little six, seven, eight-year-old kids. We just say, OK, I'm just going to take the hook. We can see them all down there. I'm just going to throw the hook in there. It's a little gold, just kind of gold-plated hook. We would throw it down in there. Those stupid fish would bite the hook with no bait. They would bite the hook. with no bait whatsoever. Just a little shine that was on them caused them to bite. Many Christians are just like that. They don't even have to really have anything dangling in front of them. They've given themselves over to the things of the world, over, in the lust of the flesh, over, in the pride of life, over and over. The devil hardly even has to tempt us anymore. He just has to dangle something out in front of us and he knows we're going to bite it. Samson was cheap. His for sale sign was dirt cheap. How cheap is yours? Samson, he did not care about his sin. And a few verses later, he actually jokes about it, which leads us to the fourth thing. He disregards God's warning. He makes a joke about it. We know he made a riddle about it at his wedding party for this Philistine girl he's going to marry. In verse 19, we see that, of course, his friends, really put the squeeze on his wife and said, you better tell us or we're going to kill you and kill your dad and everything. And so she finds out and tells him. And so the bet was that Samson, if he lost, he'd have to pay 30 garments. 30 garments. You say, well, that's nothing. I got that in my closet. Some of you women, you probably have 300 garments. 30 garments back then was a lot. I think if you had from what Research I've done, if you had about two changes of clothes back then, I mean, you were considered well off. And so 30, that's a lot. So he loses the bet. And so he is owed 30 changes of clothes. Verse 19 in chapter 14 says, and the spirit of the Lord came upon him and he went down to Ashkelon and slew 30 men and took their spoil and gave change of garments unto them which expounded the riddle. And his anger was kindled and he went up to his father's house But Samson's wife was given to his companion, whom he had used as a friend. Samson had a debt to pay, so what did he do? He went down and just cold-blooded killed 30 people and took their clothes. You say, well, they were Philistines. Yeah, but he wasn't doing it for the Lord. It wasn't a time, I would say, of rejoicing, whoo, God's people are doing right. No, he was down there of his own lusts and desires, and because he had messed up, he went and just killed 30 people for their clothes. Then he comes back and finds that his wife has been given to his friend. And so, We see he goes there, and of course, the dad says, oh, I thought you were mad at her, and you didn't want her anymore, so I gave her to somebody else. That was the best thing that could have happened to Samson, that he got away from that girl. But he was too blind to see it. I believe it was God's warning. God was giving him a break. He was giving him an out to the situation, but Samson couldn't even see it. He goes and of course he gets foxes, 300 foxes, I think, ties their tails, sets them loose, burns them down, and of course the Philistines find out about it and end up killing his wife that he was supposed to have and his father-in-law kills him. Through all that, Samson couldn't get the picture that maybe God was saving him from something. When circumstances happen in our life and they don't go exactly how they're supposed to be, we think they're supposed to be planned, and it gets a little rocky, I think it's wise to consider God in the matter. Why did this not happen? Maybe there's a job that you've been applying for and applying for and you think, wow, if I just get it, this is gonna make me, but maybe God is saving you from that job for a reason. Maybe there's an investment that went south, but God is saving you because you know what that money would do to you and how it would corrupt you. Maybe there's a relationship that you've been trying to work out and it's not panning out the way you want it to, but maybe God is saving you from something. I believe that God is sovereign. I believe that He cares about the affairs of men and that He is involved in the things that happen in our life. I don't think that what happens is just happenstance. I believe that it is God-ordained. I don't believe, some people think that God is just like a watchmaker. He made this world and lets it go and it just unravels. No, I believe God is involved in the intricate details of our life. And so when things don't go just as planned, I think we should look up, consider God. He could be saving us from something. But did Samson get it? No. Chapter 16, we won't read it there, but it says that he went down to Gaza and he saw a harlot and went in unto her. Poor decision after poor decision. The Philistines heard that Samson was there, so they surrounded the city. Samson snuck out during the night and went up to the gate. It was completely locked up. And we know the story. He picked up the gate, put it on his shoulders. By the way, he could have just picked up the gate, lifted it up, sent it five feet over. But what did he do? He marched it all the way up the hill. I told you he was a jokester. What he was doing was saying, I got you. You couldn't catch me. I got away with it. Again, Samson is just full of himself, and every decision that he seems to make is not to honor and glorify God, but to slip out of trouble and get away from it. After that situation, do you say, wow, my eyes are open. I better start living the right way. No, no, he doesn't do that. We see fifthly that he deliberately played with sin. Chapter 16, starting in verse number four, says, and it came to pass afterward that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. You know the story. We won't continue reading. He goes in to Delilah and she was in on it. She was wanting to get him captured. And of course, it goes back and forth. And each time Samson was attacked, you would think he would be smart enough to realize what was going on, but he didn't. He was enthralled with his sin and the relationship with this woman and how much she pleased him, that he couldn't see the forest through the trees. And the last time, in verse number 20, that the Philistines came in, of course, Samson told Delilah the secret of his strength. And she said, the Philistines, in verse number 20 of chapter 16, the Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep and said, I will go out at the other times before and shake myself. And he wist not that the Lord was departed from him. He got up like he did the last few times, but he didn't even know that God wasn't with him anymore. We've got Christians, I believe, that don't even know that God's presence is not with them anymore. He's, in a sense, taken His hand off of their life. They don't even know it. They're continuing on. They're continuing their ministry and in their service, but they don't even know that God's hand is off of them because of the sin in their life. They've come so cold to the things of God, they couldn't even tell when God wasn't in it anymore. That's where Samson was at. Finally, Finn caught up with Samson. Finn's like a credit card. I love this quote. Study Bible, the one that you like. Not Ryrie. What study Bible is that? No, big one. Strand, the Strand Study Bible. I was reading through that, and there's a fabulous quote. He said, sin is like a credit card. He says, you go out and you spend it, and you swipe, and you swipe, and you swipe, and woo, yeah, I got all this stuff. Great, this is awesome. And you spend it, and you spend it, and you spend it, and you spend it, like there's no tomorrow. But eventually, the credit card gets declined, the bill comes in the mail, playtime is over, and payday is here. That's with Samson. He was living life like he was never going to answer for what he did, but he kept racking up charges over and over and over again, and payday was here. Payday was here. You think that the sin of pornography, or bitterness, or selfishness, or immorality, or adultery, or selfishness, or covetousness is never going to catch up? It will catch up. And it'll be a miserable day when it does. In conclusion, what happened to Samson as we finish up here? What happened to him? Well, first they came at him with a poker that they heated up in the fire and they stuck it in his eyes. Then they took him and they tied him up like a mule and had him grind grain and they would bring him and make fun of him and joke for sport at him. You can't always come back from sin. Did you hear me? There's not always coming home. I get tired of people always saying, you can always come back and everything's going to be fine. No, it's not. That's not the Bible. Was there coming home for Samson? Was there getting his eyes back? There was permanent consequences that he was facing because of his sin. And we get these young people and adults who just float around, oh, oh, like it's no problem. Well, when the consequences of sin finally fall down, sometimes there's gonna be no coming home. Do I believe God offers forgiveness? Absolutely. But are you gonna have the scars to prove from it? Are you gonna have missed opportunities to prove from it? Are you gonna have a defiled testimony because of the choices that you've made and that I've made? Absolutely, 100%. Of course, there is forgiveness, and we see that Samson, Samson in verse 28 of chapter 16 says, And Samson called out to the Lord and said, O Lord God, remember me, I pray Thee, and strengthen me, I pray Thee, only this once, O God, that I might once be avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes. Even at the end of that thing, was he trying to please God? No. Do I think that Samson had faith? Yes. Hebrews says that Samson was one of the people listed there. He had faith. I believe that even maybe in his sinfulness that he had something good there that God liked, but he had faith. But even at the end, it was all about him avenging for my eyes. Terrible, terrible. And of course he killed more Philistines in his death than he did in his lifetime. What can we learn from this? Don't follow in the steps of Samson. Don't despise your Christianity. Be thankful for the people that God has placed in your life and that he's placed in my life. Don't disregard God's warning when something doesn't go as planned. Look up, consider God and why these things are happening. And don't play around the edges of sin, because it'll always bite you. I look at Samson's life and I think, what could have been? What could have been? I don't want people looking at Chris Barrows and saying, what could have been? What could have been? And if you were to be honest, you wouldn't want that either. So tonight, let's heed this warning about Samson. We can be successful and not waste the potential that God has given us. Let's pray. And we'll have a few moments of invitation. Lord, we thank you for the opportunity today as we looked into your word, and we see the story of Samson, and we look at all the ability and the privilege that you've given him, but that he didn't really want anything to do with it, and he was just so wrapped up in himself that he missed your purpose for his life. We don't want that to be us. We don't want that to be our family. May we heed this warning that we've seen here tonight, that we would not waste our potential, in Jesus' name. If you would like to know more about the Lord Jesus Christ, you may contact us at the church website, gospelbaptistchurch.com, or you can go to Facebook and type in Gospel Baptist Church, Bonita Springs, Florida. Also, you could call the church office at 239-947-1285. Thank you, and God bless.