If you would take your Bibles tonight, turn to Judges chapter number 16, Judges 16, and we're going to look at a very familiar character. If I were to mention the judges of Israel, And I need your help tonight, all right, to list them. There's been a little bit of controversy in the study and preparation for all of this this evening as far as how many judges there were. Somewhere between 14 to 16 judges total that helped rule and helped to guide the children of Israel. And so I want to know how many you know. So how many of you tonight can tell me, right off the top of your head, of course, we're gonna talk about Samson tonight, obviously one of the most well-known judges, but who can name another judge of Israel? I figure, you know, if the kids at Awana are doing their sort of question and answer time, we should chime in as well, correct? And all God's people said, oh no. But anyway, we're gonna anyway, so I'm gonna ask a question and you can answer back to help to engage with us tonight. So what's another judge of Israel besides Samson? Gideon. All right, you got that. That's the easy one. That's top two right there. Who else? Huh? Samuel? OK. The last one, good one. Anybody else? Ehud. Cheater. Ehud. I'm just kidding. Huh? Samgar. Samgar, good. Anybody else? Deborah and Barak together. Good, I'm impressed. Wow, I thought I stumped you, but I didn't. Anybody else got one? Othiel, the first one, right after Joshua died. So we're talking about those judges who helped lead Israel for about a 300-year span of time. We have names like Othiel and Ehud, Shemgar, Deborah and Barrett, Gideon, Tola, Abimelech, who was kind of self-appointed, Jeor, Jephthah, Ibsen, Elan, Abdon, Samson, Samuel. Some of you believe even Eli might be considered a judge as well during that point and period of time. We find these judges who help rule and help lead the children of Israel, but probably the two that we probably know of the best and we know of the most, and let's just step back here just for a moment tonight and say this, we know them the best because of sort of what happened in their story. They weren't, in a sense, more important to God than others. They weren't ones that maybe God showed special favor to, or their rule or their deliverance of Israel was no less, in a sense, more miraculous, because all of them needed the help of God. But we talk about the two that sort of rise to the top, it would be Samson, as we'll talk here tonight, you know, when you sort of take the gates of a city and carry them on your shoulders, you sort of, you know, you're kind of the MVP of the group. And also Gideon, who helped defeat the enemy with just 300 men at your side. In Judges 16, we're just going to pick up at verse 18, just to get started tonight, to lay the groundwork of the overall thought for this evening. Judges 16, verse 18, the Bible says that when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up this once, for he has shown me all his heart.' Then the Lord of the Philistines came up unto her and brought money in their hand. And she made him sleep upon her knees, and she called for a man. And she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head. And she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him. And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep and said, I will go out. as at other times before, and shake myself." And here's the phrase that's so amazing, and he wists not that the Lord was departed from him. Tonight, the title of the message, as you can see, is simply this, Losing God. How do you lose God? Samson was one. To some extent, he lost God. God was no longer with him. And we know how this particular chapter unfolds. As we'll see here tonight, obviously Samson had an Achilles heel. He had one sort of draw of his flesh that was toward women. But also we can sort of pull that to any area of life, in the area of temptation or the weakness of our flesh. And the story in chapter 16 deals with the area of Delilah. Let me also say this on a side note, we can read, follow me now, we can read chapter 16, and we can kind of look how the story unfolds, how every time he told Delilah what would cause his strength to go away, it happened. And then it went away, then it happened again, and he got out of it, it happened again, and we can sit back and look at the story of Samson and think, you know what, buddy, you're not really getting it. You're kind of dumb. You're not really catching on, but may I also say this, sin makes you do dumb things. When you're away from God, it makes you do things you should not do. And so we see in the life of Samson, and by the way, we also can see the same thing in our life, that we do the same thing, and then the same result comes around, and we find ourselves in the same sin, and the same result comes around, and this happened in the life of Samson. And we see, as a result of it, he lost the influence of God in his life. May I say as we begin tonight is this, no matter who you are, and what you have, and where you are, or how long you've been a Christian, or how many times you go to church, or how many times you may serve in a particular ministry, it is possible for you and for me to lose the right relationship with God, and as a result, lose your effectiveness and the blessing of God upon your life. I was listening to a podcast recently and the preacher who was sharing the podcast was talking about the area of sin in our life. And so oftentimes we think about sin and the results of sin in our life. Whenever I have sinned, the Bible says the fact that God will chasten me. As a child, as a father chastens his child. But he posed a question, and the question was this. What if the greatest result of my sin is not just some area of punishment that God will give me and that will happen? But what if the result of my sin is the fact that God will not bless me? Both sides are true. Both sides are true that if I involve myself in sin, whether it's internal or it's external, if I involve myself in sin, God will chase me as a faithful father, but also I will not have the blessing of God that God desires to have in my life and use me in the way that God desires to use me. As we look all the way through the history of Israel, especially in this 300-year time frame of the story of the book of Judges, this was a period of time that there was no defined leadership in Israel. As one author put it, it is a great contrast of the book of Joshua and the book of Judges. The book of Joshua is a book that records God's people conquering the land. The book of Judges is a book of showing the land conquering God's people. Joshua, they went as a military might to conquer what God said He would do for them as they obeyed God, and they marched forward. God gave them victory. But yet, they got to a place, as we'll see here tonight, and if we're not careful, all of us can get there, to a place of complacency and a place of indifference. If we get to that place, the land can begin to conquer us. So oftentimes, we say the world's getting into the church. instead of the church going into the world. All the way through the book of Judges you find this cycle and you know, and we see this cycle, that the children of Israel have a time of rest and blessing and a time of safety, but yet they would drift off to sin and idolatry, and as a result God would bring judgment upon them. And they would cry out to God, and God would bring a judge, a deliverer, and they would have a moment of deliverance and a moment of peace. But the cycle happened over and over and over again. And we see just in that instance, we have two very powerful sides of God. We have a God who is righteous, who will bring judgment. We also have a God who is a God of mercy and who will also bring forgiveness. The same God who judged them for their sin was the same God who brought deliverance to them. It happened over and over. The cycle happened for over 300 years with at least 14 different judges over and over. And what you see in this story is this, in this book, you see, by the way, on a side note, you see me and you. You see stubbornness. You see the flesh doing what it wants to do. You see the obstinance of man drifting back to sin and the flesh, but you also see the mercy of God. You also see God's forgiveness. You did not see a God who sat there and said, listen, you're the one who got yourself in your own sin and your own judgment and you got what you deserve, and they did. you also see a God of compassion that brings them out time and time and time again. We see in the book of Judges the nature of man and the nature of God, and I don't have time to really spend a lot of time on this, but we also do see in this book the fact that Israel did not turn to God just to worship Him. They turned to God just to get out of trouble. There's a difference, isn't there? There's a difference between turning to God because He's worthy just to worship Him, but also a difference about just turning to God just to get out of trouble, just to get deliverance, just to get what you want, right? Maybe you have children, right? Whenever your kids come to you and they call your name with that certain tone in their voice, Happened to me, I walked in the house today. Had one child who was just fixated about this one thing. She had some money set aside and she wanted this one thing she wanted to buy and she'd been asking for a couple days about it. I'm like, we'll think about it, we'll talk about it, we'll talk about it, we'll talk about it. And I walked in the door this afternoon. Dad, I knew it wasn't a fact that they just love to see me. I knew it wasn't a fact that it was just me, just wanna get in my lap and hug on me and just sort of caress my face because they love, no, she wanted something. She wanted permission to spend her money. She wanted to buy that certain toy or that item. Israel was the same way in the sense that they weren't crying out to God just to worship Him because that He's worthy of it. They wouldn't turn to God because they wanted to get out of trouble. By the way, that's not a problem, that's fine. But the end result was what? To draw them to Him. Israel did the same thing, and the Jewish people did the same thing in the New Testament. In John chapter number 6, after the beating of the 5,000, Christ leaves that area and travels across the land somewhere else, and a crowd follows after Him. And He turns to them in John chapter 6, and He says to them in John 6, 26, He said, Verily I say unto you, you seek Me, Not because you saw the miracles, because you eat the loaves and were filled, which is good. Right? So a lot of people in that time frame, lack of a better term, Christ was no more than a circus trick. He can do cool stuff, and they wanted to see the cool stuff. Even Pilate, when he called, we saw Christ coming at his trial, he said, oh, I want to see some miracle done of him. He goes on to say in verse 27, labor not. He said, listen, you ate this, now I wanna teach you why it is you got the loaves, why it is I multiply the bread, why it is I gave it to you. In verse 27, labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth an everlasting life, which the Son of Man given to you. For him hath God the Father sealed. See, the same spirit we find in the Old Testament about coming to God just to get out of something, the New Testament they came to Christ just to get something, but not to come to Him because of who He is. We see this nature of man in the book of Judges. We also see the nature of God as well. He was merciful, He was patient, He was righteous, He was compassionate. I just want to give you this one little statement, and we've got to move on, is this, and this is true for all of us, but the chaos of life reveals the consistency of God. The chaos of life reveals the fact that God is consistent. He is the only thing you can hold on to. The only thing you can hold on to. And the title of our message is a little bit misleading, isn't it? Because you really can't lose God. because God's always there. You really can't lose God because the Bible tells us very clearly in Joshua chapter one, verses five and six, God is speaking to Israel. He said, there shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life. Why? As I was with Moses, so I'll be with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Verse six, be strong and have a good courage. He says in John chapter 13, Now therefore, now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them, how far? Until the end. Hebrews tells us that he will never leave us, nor forsake us. So we get this idea about losing God, the idea of Samson, that he wits not, he knew not that God was gone. I wonder how many churches meet every Sunday and they wist not the Lord had departed from them. How many Christians go their day-by-day routine and they wist not that the Lord had departed from them? Nobody sets out to lose God. I just got to touch on this and we've got to move on for sake of time, but no one sets out to lose God. It's a gradual shift in our hearts that moves our hearts away from God and his glory to our flesh and our glory. And this happens when our focus is in the right place. I just want to touch on this and move on, but our view of God is revealed in our motives, our actions, and our resolve. What influences our motives, interactions, and our resolve more than anything else is that it's making sure that our focus and our purpose is solely fixed upon the Lord. David puts it this way in Psalm 63, verse 1, oh God, thou art my God, early will I seek thee, my soul thirsteth. for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land." Long before, listen very carefully, this is extremely important, long before we get to a place where we lose God, we first get to a place of indifference. We get to a place where it's not that big of a deal. We get to a place of complacency. We get to a place that if we're not careful, it's expendable. As we look here tonight for a few moments, how is it that Samson lost God? And by the way, this is sort of the end, this is coming toward the end of the story, chapter 60, and toward the very end is Samson's climactic end, right? His crescendo. It is his biggest moment and also his last moment in the end of chapter 16. But as you look before chapter 16, you'll notice that God had blessed Samson over and over and over again. But at some point in time, he lost him. He lost God. How did he get there? I want you to notice a few things tonight. Number one, he had a misplaced perspective. Turn back, if you will, to chapter 14. He had a misplaced perspective. Turn back to chapter 14. In verse 1, the Bible says, "...and Samson went down to Timnath, and..." What's the next word? "...saw a woman of Timnath, of the daughters of Lystes, and came up and told his father and mother, and said unto them, I have..." What's the next word? seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of Philistines, now therefore get her for me to wife." that his father and mother said unto them, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all thy 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. Jump down, if you will, to verse number 6. The Bible says the Spirit of the Lord came mildly upon him, and he rent him, a lion, as he would have rent a kid. And he had nothing against him, but he told it not his father or his mother what he had done. And when he went down, he talked with the woman, and she pleased him well. And after a time, he returned and took her, and he turned aside to see the carcass of a lion. And behold, there was a swarm of bees, of honey, in the carcass of a lion." My point is this tonight. It's the fact that what caused Samson to lose God or lose that relationship and eventually lose that blessing that God had promised to give to Samson was this. He had the wrong perspective. His focus was not upon God. His focus was not upon that Nazarite vow and that commitment. His focus was not upon pleasing God. His focus was on pleasing himself. See, long before, listen very carefully, long before you lose the blessing of God, you lose your passion to follow after God. Long before you lose God's hand of blessing, you lose your perspective of following Him and have your eyes focused and your will focused upon Him. This is what happened in the life of Samson. You'll see on the screen is this, a very simple statement, but we see this, that before Samson lost a battle from without, he lost a battle from within. Long before he got to a place where he was bound, hairless, sightless, and being treated like nothing more than an animal grinding corn for the Philistines. Long before he got there, he lost the battle from within. He lost it in here. And you and I are the same way. Long before we lose it on the outside, we lose it on the inside. He had a misplaced perspective. And we also are in danger of losing God in our own life when we allow the temptations of this life to have more control in our flesh, to have more control on us than God does. It doesn't matter previous successes, the length of our salvation, the status of life, where we serve in the church, whatever status we have, all of us are subject to the drawing of the flesh. And may I also say this, if we become indifferent with the reality that I can be drawn by the flesh to sin, I'm setting myself up to be drawn by the flesh to sin. If I get to a place of thinking, well, that could never happen to me, guess what? It's going to happen to you, right? I want you to turn, if you would, to Philippians, chapter number three. Turn to Philippians, chapter three, if you would. Written by what we probably would say the greatest Christian in the New Testament age, apart from Christ, is Paul. According to history, Philippians was written not long before Paul's execution. Some believe Paul had been saved about 30 years, 25 to 30 years at the time of his writing in the book of Philippians. So Paul has been saved for a long period of time. This is long after the Damascus Road. It's long after, during the period of time of the travelings of the book of Acts. This is through all the things that Paul has gone through. So we could say, listen very carefully now, we can say Paul's pretty mature in the Christian life, right? Paul's pretty grown up. Paul's pretty, we might say, advanced in the Christian life. But notice what the advanced, mature, elder, seasoned, experienced apostle writes in Philippians chapter 3, verse 1. Finally, my brethren. Rejoice in the Lord, that to write the same things to you, to me indeed, is not grievous, but for you it is safe. Beware of the dogs, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision, for we are the circumcision which worship in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have what? No confidence in the flesh. Paul said, listen, I realize what the flesh can do and I have no confidence at all in the flesh. My point is this, long before we get to a place of losing God and losing God's blessing, whether it be a church in general or a family or individual or a country, long before we get there, we begin in a place where our hearts have shifted. away from where they should be. And we have the wrong perspective of life. This brings out now number two, because he had a misplaced perspective, number two, he had misguided priorities. Look back, if you will, back in Judges chapter 13, and just for sake of time, I just want you to jump down to verse number five. This was when the angel appeared to Samson's mother to let her know Samson was going to be born. By the way, side note, what other judge of Israel had the ability that Samson had? None. No other judge of Israel had the strength that Samson had. No other individual during this time frame had the ability that Samson had. Nobody else had the strength, the opportunity, the talent, the potential that Samson had. And Samson was part of God's plan to deliver Israel. Look, if you will, in Judges chapter 13, look at verse number five. The Bible says, For lo, thou shalt conceive the angel to the mother, and bear a son, and no razor shall come on 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. Samson was given great ability, or we can maybe say great talents, and great ability of God. to do something that only God could do. Now we know the strength of Samson was not in his hair. The strength of Samson was in his God. We know that. But God had given him abilities. God had given him talents. God had given him opportunities, and it was completely squandered. Completely squandered. You ever look at somebody and you think, you know what, you look at their life and you see their abilities maybe in the area of maybe music or singing or natural leadership and you look at them and they're not using it appropriately and you think, boy, what a waste of talent. What a waste of ability, right? I mean, they have that ability and it's not being used in the right way. May I say all this? God has made all of us very unique with different abilities, with different talents, with different skills. By the way, and God gave those to you, not for you. God gave those to you for him. We can put it this way, it's on the screen, that our talents reach their intended and divine purpose when they are surrendered to God's plan and they are done for God's glory. God had given Samson a very great and unique opportunity, right? But was it really, did it really meet its true, final, and fulfilled purpose of God? Not fully. It did in moments, but not fully. Because he did not follow after God and use it for God's glory and for God's purpose. Again, Paul himself acknowledged the fact that he had talents. And by the way, there's nothing wrong with recognize the fact that you have talents. There's some people, I look at them, I'm just completely jealous. of all the things they can do, right? I mean, they're just, they can sing, they can play. I, my wife and I knew somebody who literally, literally could pick up almost any instrument within a week, they had a good handle on it. They knew how to play it. They taught themselves the banjo in one night. One night, right? I want to take the banjo and beat them with it. I mean, this one night. They had such talent, and they used it for God. They used it to minister for Him. That's a wonderful thing. They had such talent, such ability, and God has made us all different in that way. There's nothing wrong with acknowledging the fact that God has given us all abilities and talents. The problem is we don't use those talents for God, for His purpose, for His glory, for why He's made us, for His purpose in life. Paul even himself acknowledged the fact that the things, the way that God has made him later on in Philippians chapter 3, all his background, his lineage, his abilities, all those, he counted them as dung so he could win Christ. Why? He knew, he knew this, that those talents and abilities not yielded to God, could produce and guide him back to self-glorification and for self-purpose. He knew, listen very carefully, he knew that having God and no talent is far better than having all talents and no God. He knew having God and no talents was far better than having all the talents That's why he said in 1 Corinthians 13, in the idea of charity, if I can have faith to move mountains and have not charity, I am nothing. So therefore, Samson, when he lost God, he had misguided priorities. He did not yield them to the Lord. We mentioned a while ago when we were listing off all the judges of Israel, right? No one mentioned Tola, poor guy. Anyway, no one mentioned that guy, all right? But we mentioned Samson, and the very first one mentioned right after him was Gideon, right? Gideon. Isn't it amazing in the same book you find two men, one who had all talent, great talents, didn't use for God, not that successful kind of ish, but had abilities, didn't use it for God. Then you find one God, didn't have much, gave it to God, great victory. Isn't it amazing the same book you find the two extremes? The fact that Samson had talent and to some extent was a failure, then you had Gideon who had really nothing, 300 men, but yet had a great victory. Because talent and opportunity means nothing if it's not given to God. And the flip side of that is this, is one of the greatest disappointments is when God-given talent is used for a man-centered praise. I believe it could be almost one of the most blasphemous, blasphemous things you could do, is take the things that God has given to you and not use them for him. Use them for yourself. This is how Samson lost God, he had misguided priorities. We see part of this, we see number three quickly, is because he had misunderstood, he misunderstood God's patience. He misunderstood God's patience. May I say this? Don't misunderstand, real quickly, don't misunderstand God's mercy for God's permission. Alright? What do you mean by that? You find all the way through Samson's story, okay? We don't have time to go through it all, but you know, right? The little background, Samson's story. God used him to do amazing, amazing things. You follow me? Chapter 14, verse 6. Killed a lion with his own hands. That by itself makes Simpson like the man. Just that. If that's all to happen, he wins. Judge of the millennium. You're it. Get the t-shirt, get the medal, you're it. You can kill a lion with your own hands and rip him as one would rip a kid or a goat. I'm not sure how that compares. I'm not sure how you can say that. Anyway, he ripped him as if one would rip a kid, like it was a normal thing back then, like you would rip a kid. I have no idea. But they ripped a lion as you would rip a goat, right? If that's all that happened, he wins. But that's not all that happened, right? He goes on. In chapter 14, he kills 30 men just for their clothes. And in chapter 15, he catches 300 fox, ties them together to burn the crops of those that took his wife. We find later on in chapter 15, 3,000 Philistines come to capture Samson. And he kills 1,000 of them with a jawbone of a donkey. In chapter 16, he carries away the gates of a city away upon a hill. We find here in chapter 16 he breaks the bands of Delilah over and over and over again. And what you also see in all those things is this, is the fact that Samson disobeyed God, but God still showed mercy. He goes and takes honey out of a lion's carcass. which Nazarites weren't supposed to touch, dead things. God showed mercy. He takes a jawbone of a donkey, guess what? Dead thing. And God helps him use it to defeat a thousand Philistines. Is that the fact that God gave permission? The fact that Samson's disobeying and that's okay? God's still gonna bless? No. That's showing the fact that God is showing mercy. upon Samson. May I also say this, we talk about a country that is losing God. Losing God. And if we're not careful, we sit there and think, well it goes on and we still get blessed. It goes on and we still get blessed. No, God's showing mercy. And eventually there's going to come a time where judgment's coming. There's going to come a time the mercy. God's mercy is eternal, that's true, but the amount that he gives is not eternal. He'll stop it. He stopped it in Samson's life, and by the way, the fact that Samson was still living, grinding like an animal, that was still mercy, because God still used him later on. My point is this, don't misunderstand God's patience, don't misunderstand God's patience for permission. Because if we're not careful, those external blessings, the things that happen on the outside, if we're not careful, and this is such an important thing, external blessings draw our heart away from internal dependence. We get comfortable in our environments. You might say, well, preacher, we would never get that way. We would never. I mean, if I had the ability like Samson had, I mean, if that were me, I would like be like all the way totally devoted to God all the time because I would recognize the blessings come from him. Forgive me as we as Americans sit in our comfortable homes and live better than 90% of the world. We all have full bellies with food in our refrigerators. We all have savings accounts and retirement funds and money here, money there. and we got comfortable, we get comfortable. You say, well that couldn't be us. Moses knew this would happen earlier. How do you know that? Turn if you would real quick to Deuteronomy chapter eight. Look at Deuteronomy chapter eight, we gotta hurry for sake of time. But I don't want you to miss this, it's so important. Deuteronomy chapter eight. Deuteronomy chapter eight. Verse 11, Moses said, Beware, that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments and his judgments and his statutes which I command thee this day. Lest when thou hast eaten and are full, it hath built goodly houses, and dwelt therein. And when thy herds, thy flocks multiply, and thy silver, and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied, then thy heart be lifted up, and thou forget Lord thy God which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage who led thee through the great and terrible wilderness wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions and drought where there was no water who brought thee forth water out of a rock of flint who fed thee in the wilderness with manna which thy fathers knew not that he might humble thee that he might prove thee to do thee good at the latter end and thou shalt say in my heart my power the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth, but thou shalt remember the Lord thy God. For it is he that hath given thee wealth, that hath established his covenant, which he swore to thy fathers, as it is this day." He said be careful, why? Because external blessings, things on the outside, have a tendency to draw our hearts away from the internal dependence that we have to have upon God. This is part of the reason why Samson lost God, because he misunderstood God's mercy for God's blessing, thinking we're all good. That brings us to number four, last point. Here's the good thing, it's not over. We see now Samson in the model position. Look, if you will, back in chapter number 16. We know how the story unfolds, don't we? Because of his own fleshly desires because of his own sin. We see judgment that comes that he is due and that is worthy of his actions. Look at verse number 21. The latter part of verse 20 says, and he wished not that the Lord was departed from him, verse 21, but the Philistines took him, put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza. and bound him with a fetters of brass, and he did grind in the prison house." I want you to understand how beautiful and how wonderful and how unbelievable the first word of verse 22 is. What is it? How be it? How be it? The hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven. What Samson did not realize was this was the best place that Samson could be. This was the best place he could be. Why? Because he was a place of brokenness. And by the way, brokenness does not mean barrenness. But he was broken so God could use him in a way that God could never use him before. And God showed mercy again. Samson found out that his strength did become his weakness so that in his weakness he could find strength. And he found out that his greatest strength was not found in his hair. It was found in his God. A God who did not only give him strength, a God who showed him mercy and compassion and still used him one last time. You might say, well, Samson lost. No, Samson won at the very end because he was in the best place he could be. Have you lost God? Well, you know where he is. But if we're not careful, any one of us, let me put this, we'll close this, we'll be done in just a few moments. This is probably the most important thing I want you to understand. Any one of you, any one of you can be this. Any one of you can be here. You think, you look at a person and think, If anybody's ever going to make it, it'll be that person. No. No. In the past month, I've heard of two, two other men I know of who are no longer in the ministry because of unfaithfulness. And that adds to a long list I know of. And one of those, Nationally known. As some would say, that would never happen to that guy. He became a Simpson. Now, he's not out of life. He's out of certain things. Not out of life. Understand something. All of us, all of us, can be here. Don't lose God. Let's all bow our heads. Father, give me, thank you, Lord, for your goodness to us.