We have a saying in Britain, don't we? To pay through the nose for something is to pay too high a price for something that you've bought. You've really liked it, you've gone out, you've given it no thought, and you've paid this ridiculous price. When you've gone home and thought about it, you thought, I've really paid through the nose for that. I paid far too much. And too often, don't we, we pay too much for something that looks good and promises much. You know, fish are hooked because they are attracted to something that looks like food, aren't they? On the fisherman's hook. And they think, that's going to make a good meal for me, only for them to become the meal for someone else instead. What they saw, they went after. And in Judges, we're given the tragic end. of a man who paid too much for what he desired. Samson paid too much for what he desired. Samson lost his power, his position and his testimony because he valued the sin in his life more than he valued the God of his life. who he was born and brought forth to serve. Where did Samson go wrong since he had such a wonderful beginning in his life? And how can we as Christians avoid the same kind of failure in our lives also that followed Samson? It might be that there's some of us here this evening living below the spiritual means that God has ordained that we should walk in them. If so, we will see the problems that that causes by not living our lives according to God. And also in this passage, we will see the solution that God gives us in the life of Samuel himself. So first I want to have a look at the potential that Samson did have in his life. Firstly, Samson had such an extraordinary birth, didn't he? It was announced by a visit from the Lord himself. in chapter 13 that we saw and in verse 3 it reminds us 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 and then verse 24 tells us that she bare a son and she called his name Samuel. A visit from the Lord It sounds like something we read in the New Testament as well, doesn't it? An angel coming to visit Mary to tell her she is about to give birth to someone. And this is Samuel's beginning also. But let us also remember that as Christians, we too have a miraculous new birth, don't we? Can you remember what Jesus said in John chapter 3? Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. And in Peter we are reminded that we have been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, through the Word of God, which lives and abides forever. You and I, if we are Christians this evening, have had a miraculous new birth. And John we are reminded, behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us. that we should be called the children of God. I mean, just stop and think of it. We are now the children of God. We can call him our father because until we are saved, we are children of the devil. We are not children of God. We too, if we are Christians this evening, have had an extraordinary birth. But I think it would be fair to say that Samson is best well known for his strength in the Bible, isn't he? The power that he had, if you remember, He killed a lion with his bare hands. And then to get back at the Philistines, if you remember, he caught 300 foxes, tied them tail to tail, put some firebrand in between them and sent them off through the fields, burning them all down into the olive groves and stuff like that. 300 foxes he caught all by himself. And then if you remember, he'd gone to visit a prostitute in Gaza in chapter 16, and the Philistines were ready now to capture him and to put him to death. And yet he comes out late at one night, takes the whole gate off the wall of the city. And of course, if you've been to some of these old cities, this is not some small door like we got here. These are great big solid doors. But not only the doors, but he carried the frame with it as well, lifted the whole lot on his shoulders and out he went and he climbed a hill with it as well he was a very powerful man and when his enemies came to him the first thing he done was to kill 30 philistines all by himself and then shortly after that he went in to fight against many others and it said he killed many people but it doesn't tell us how many but there's another time again which is quite famous is when he killed a thousand men with a jawbone of an ass that was Samson and his strength But he was also proved to be a man of God during his life. Because there are three places in particular in these four chapters where the power of the Spirit of God rested upon him. And you can see that when he needed that extra strength to do the task that God had called him to do, the Spirit of God came and rescued him. And he also enjoyed miracles from the hand of God. Because after he'd killed those 1,000 men, He went wandering off and he became very thirsty and called upon the Lord thinking, well I'm going to die out here now, I've just killed a thousand men on your behalf and I'm now going to die of thirst out here. And as you go and read the story you see that God made some water gush up out of the land. He enjoyed miracles from the hand of God as well. And that instance of Samson's relief there with that water should encourage us to trust in God and to seek him too. For when he pleases, he too can open for you and I rivers of blessing any time that he chooses and he wills. You know, just like Samson, we too as Christians live extraordinary lives. We are redeemed from sin, aren't we, for the grace of God. We are indwelt by the Spirit of God. We are privileged to hold and read the Word of God as we are doing this evening. We are privileged to serve God in our lives and we are privileged to go out there and witness for God in our lives by deed and by word also. And we are also privileged to have fellowship with God through prayer. Because when we too are thirsty and in a barren land, isn't it wonderful to come to the God in prayer, knowing that we have someone who listens, someone who cares, someone who will pour blessings upon us as we wait upon him. All prove that we are different from the everyday people out there, and that God has given potential even within ourselves to achieve great things for him, just like Samson did. We are reminded in Corinthians, but thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. That which he sends us to do, he will give us the victory. And we are reminded that when we serve God and witness for God, that to some people we shall be an aroma to life, and to other people we shall be an aroma to death. Some people will listen and love what we have to say about the Saviour and the words will draw them to the Saviour and save them. But others will not want to know, they'll mock you, tell you to clear off and get out of the way and it'll be that rejection that will judge them on the last day. Our works and our deeds will be an aroma to life or an aroma to death to whoever God puts in our path. That was the potential of Samson's life. and that's the potential of the Christian life as well. But Samson also had some problems in his life as well, didn't he? His greatest strength, Samson had, and the potential might have been, here was a man fixed with many spiritual problems in his life. Sadly, His spiritual weaknesses overrode his physical powers to make him the weakest strongman in the history of the world. He faced many enemies, did Samson. But you know Samson's greatest enemy was Samson. It was himself. His fleshly appetites proved to be his undoing. Instead of surrendering his body, soul and spirit to the will of the Lord, he allowed his flesh to control his life and he paid a high price for it by not living in accordance with what God had called him to do. Now, you and I can moan, can't we, about the devil and the temptations. and things, or about this enemy or that enemy that comes into our life and make us stumble and fall as well. But you know, just like Samson, the greatest enemy that you and I face is ourselves as well. One man said, we have met the enemy and he is us. It's me. But every problem we face with temptation and sin in our lives doesn't just come from external sources, it originates from within as well. We are reminded in James, aren't we? But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. and sin when it is finished bring a fourth death. Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, gives in to those temptations that are round about It may be hard to swallow, but it's true, isn't it? I know it's true in my life. It isn't just the devil out to get me and to make me stumble and fall. Quite often it's me out to get myself, giving in to the weaknesses of my flesh as well. And our flesh is never going to get any better, is it, until we go to be with the Lord. We're going to have this inner struggle as we live our Christian walk. And remember, we are reminded in Ephesians that ye put off concerning the former conversation, the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and through holiness." See what it's saying there? You put off the old man and you put on the new man. In many pulpits today we are hearing people say, just let go and let God, don't worry about that. But the Bible says, I am to put off the old man, because I know what the old man is like, because that was me anyway. However, we are not to give in to it. We are to battle with those natures day by day, and we are to fight every moment of each day. As we are reminded in Corinthians, knowing not that they which run a race run all, but one receiveth the prize, so run. that you may endure it. And then it goes on to say, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that at any time I may preach to others and I myself should be a castaway. We are taught in scripture to fight against these things that so easily makes us stumble. And one of the things that made Samson stumble was powerful attractions out there. in the world. His was a life to be dedicated totally to the Lord, as we read in chapter 13, yet he lived for himself, taking his vows for granted. He ended up, he was deceitful, he was lustful, he was proud, he was arrogant, and it would seem that Samson had an inclination towards evil within him all the time. Read those four chapters and just see what sort of life Samson lived according to what he was called to. I wonder could that actually describe any of us this evening as well? In Psalm 32 we read these words I acknowledge my sin to you, Lord, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. In that verse, it uses three words to describe the sins in our lives. And the first word is the word sins itself. which refers to our shortcomings in the sight of God. It means to miss the mark to the way that God has called us to live. And then there's the second word that says transgression. That word means to step over the boundary. It refers to intentionally breaking the laws and the commandments of God because we've decided to go over the boundaries that our Lord has called us to walk by. And the third word that we read is called iniquity. And that word means bent or crooked. It refers to the bent within the human nature towards evil. Remember Paul says it in Romans 7, doesn't he? That which I should do, I don't. And that which I shouldn't do, I do. Who will save me from this body of sin? The great Apostle Paul had it himself. He was wrestling with these sins within his own soul. And like water always seeks the lowest level, men and women who act according to their flesh will also seek the lowest level of living also. Remember King David with Bathsheba and Uriah. The king knew when he went on the roof that Bathsheba was there having a bath. He didn't just stumble across it. He knew that it was at that time of the day, that particular day when she went there and had the bath. David knew and look what it cost him. It cost him his son by deliberately lusting after that woman. By the end of his career Samson seems to be living a lifestyle solely of sin. He's reached a place where he treats his testimony as trivial and his reputation like rubbish. Remember he then gone after and decided that he wanted Delilah. And if you remember the Philistines wanted to find out where Samson's strength was because he was their greatest enemy and they wanted him dead and out of the way. and so they convinced Delilah and were offered to pay her a good deal, some of money as well, to find out where his strength was so they can get hold of Samson and put him to death. Three times he told her and of course three times he lied to her where his real strength lay. This is in chapter 16. It says then she just kept nagging at him. She was going to now be like a dripping tap. She wasn't going to give up until she found out where his strength come from. And so she wore him down and he told them where his strength was. And of course we know the rest. His head was then shaved. He got captured and his eyes were pulled out. And that's when we read on from verse 21. I would eventually lead to the end of his life. Because he had addiction to this woman, it brought him nothing now but destruction. Because he should have been looking for a woman within his own people, not elsewhere, but that wasn't Samson's life. But you know, your testimony and mine is the most important thing we have on this side of eternity. And we are to guard it with our lives. for all things. Our testimony is so important because if you ever allow your testimony to become tarnished you will never be able to restore it to where it was in the eyes of those who saw you fell. And if you've known people over the years who has fallen greatly who served the Lord who you've looked up to and you've seen them fall and how heavy that fall was You know, God will forgive the repentant sinner. We know that and we thank him for it. But you know, you'll remember that sin until your dying day. It will haunt you until then. Samson's problem in life was purely the flesh, the eyes and what he wanted. So what was the outcome or the product of Samson's life? Because of his sinfulness and his failure to control his fleshly desires and impulses, Samson paid a terrible price. In verse 16, verse 21, we see first that he lost his vision. He was blinded. His eyes were pulled out. Samson lost his physical sight. But you know, when a Christian lives his or her life under the control of the flesh, we too lose our eyesight, but it's our spiritual eyesight. You know, we may keep our physical vision, but if we lose our spiritual vision, we will lose a vision of the Lord. We will lose a vision of His Word. We will lose a vision of coming into His house. We will lose a vision for lost souls. We will lose a vision for holy living. And if you know people who stumbled and fall and no longer attend in the church, and you go and speak to them, you can see that the vision is gone. All of that is gone. And all you'll hear about is complaints of the church they went to. They are blaming everybody but themselves for that fall. Because what they've forgotten is what our Lord said. It's those who honour me, I shall honour Seth. the Lord. He lost his vision, but he also lost his vitality, his strength, didn't he? When he disclosed the secret of where his strength was, he lost it. For the Christian too, in our day, the danger of losing our spiritual power is great. Imagine being bound down by sin so that you can no longer worship God, cannot experience God, cannot enjoy God, cannot enjoy his word or his people. Because you know that if you're living within sin at a particular time, the joyness of anything to do within the church is gone. You cannot enjoy it. You feel uncomfortable being around Christians until you go and put that right with the Lord. We can lose our vitality as well. when we fall. Imagine not being able to have peace with God until we come to Him, because if you're not living the life that God has called you to, you will not have that peace. Imagine not being able to get hold of the Lord for your needs or the needs of others. Everything is totally gone, because you're living a life of sin, not in accordance with God's Holy Word. You know, low living carries with it a high price. of draining away your spiritual strength and leaving us weak before the Lord. You know, and thirdly, firstly, he lost his vision, he lost his vitality, and he lost his victory as well, didn't he? Samson, as we read in 16 verse 21, is made to do the work of grinding corn. Now, that was women's work in those days. and it was given to him to humiliate him and it's also an indication of really how weak Samson had now become. He's a laughing stock to the whole Philistine people about him. Can you see this great man of God grinding corn for the Philistines? He's lost his power and he's lost his victory. He's now just a pitiful spectacle in amongst these, his enemies. And nothing is more sad than seeing a believer who is out of fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Their lack of joy, their lack of peace, they're not happy anymore. They're defeated, discouraged, demoralized. Sin will literally, won't it, grind you into the ground. And sadly, I know people now, even off the top of my head, who have become like that because of their stubbornness. But you know, for all the pain this man experienced, there are some great lessons we can take away from the life of Samson, isn't there? A lesson of ridicule. Samson is ridiculed by the enemies of God. And you know, if we are children of God and live in the life as he has called us to, we will be ridiculed as well. And we will suffer persecution as well if we stand up and speak the truths in our law. In 1 Peter we are reminded, Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trials which is to try you as though some strange thing happened unto you, but rejoice inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ's suffering, that when his glory shall be revealed you may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye, for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. And on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in the other man's matters. If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on his behalf." In other words, If we're going to be mocked and persecuted, we should be mocked and persecuted for living the life that God has called us to, and not to be deserving of it because of the way that we're living that we shouldn't be living to. And Jesus himself said in Matthew, Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. for they persecuted the prophets who were before you also." We also learn from Samson, doesn't we, there's a lesson about repentance. Before he died, Samson made things right with the Lord. However, he did it when it was too late to salvage much whatsoever to the glory of God. But you know, you and I don't have to be like that or make the same mistake. If we recognise the presence of sin in our lives now, the time to deal with it is now as well. Proverbs tells us, he who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will find mercy. And we're reminded in 1 John also, aren't we? If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all righteousness. You know, before we are forced to pay the ultimate price for our sins, repentance can take place at any time. That's all God wants us to do, is to come back and repent of those things that we've done wrong. And that's what I like about it when we approach the Lord's Supper It tells us, doesn't it, to examine ourselves before we partake of it. How are we living our lives? How are we with our neighbours and friends? How are we treating people that we don't like? Because we're to love our enemies, aren't we? How are we with our brothers and sisters in Christ? Are we treating them like our brothers and sisters in Christ? For he goes on to say, for he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. And for this cause, because they were taken it when they shouldn't have done, many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." In other words, they've died because they've taken that Lord's Supper without examining themselves first. You know, all we need to do is to come to know the Lord and to come before him in repentance and sin. We know a man in Australia, we'd been praying, oh, a long time for him. His wife was saved, but he wasn't. And he always sat as the Lord's Supper was taken, because our pastor there used to say, after the last hymn, we shall be coming to the Lord's table. If you want to leave, you can leave during this hymn, but we would love you to stay and observe what we do at the Lord's table, even though you will not be able to participate yourself. And this woman's husband knew that, and every time we had communion, he was there and he'd pass by. But you know, one glorious morning, as it came to him, he took it. There and then, he could come to God in repentance and save. in repentance and faith, and he was saved instantly. And if we are sinning and not walking with the Lord as we ought, all we need to do is to come to him and ask for forgiveness, because he will restore us again immediately. Samson received his power back from the Lord. And whatever we may lose to sin in a spiritual sense, the Lord can and will restore us if we repent. But we need to know that we will never gain back everything we lose in the sight of men, depending on what that fall was. But we can thank God, can't we, that he cleanses us and can use us for his glory once more. Remember Simon Peter? Denied him three times, didn't he? Outwardly, verbally, and yet when the Lord met him on the beach and three times asked him, Simon, do you love me? three times he repented, and the Lord says, feed my sheep, tend my sheep, and when you go and read the book of Acts, see how great the Lord had used him there. So what was it that made Samson end up like this? He had it all. How could it happen to him? Firstly, there's probably two answers to the question, might be probably more. Firstly, he never appreciated his spiritual heritage. He never appreciated his spiritual heritage. In the beginning he had godly parents, a godly family and a godly calling. He had it all. He knew the will of God and he knew the word of God. He knew exactly what God wanted him to do because his parents were told what to tell him. He had an angel show up personally to announce what he was supposed to do and to live. He had good looks. He had a personality. He had leadership. Samson inspired people. He was born for greatness. Samson actually had it all. His problem was he never appreciated it. There he was brought up in that wonderful family. but he never appreciated it. And because he never appreciated all that God had given him, he fooled around with things that he shouldn't have fooled around with. And in the process, he filtered away his life. You know, it doesn't matter what's on our spiritual resume. If we don't appreciate what God has given us, we are doomed to repeat Samson's fatal mistake. It doesn't matter what our spiritual resume is if we don't appreciate what God has given us. He didn't appreciate his heritage. He also couldn't control his emotions. We tend to think that Samson's problem was all in the sexual area. But you know his most basic problem was that he never learned how to control his emotions. First he's filled with lust, then he's filled with anger, then he's back to lust again, then anger again, he's riding an emotional roller coaster, it seems to be all his life. He's up and down, he's up and down, he's up and down all the time. In fact, I can remember in Australia when I was... When I just come into the Christian faith, I was a bit like Samson. But out there, it wasn't called a roller coaster, right? They said, Russell's like a yo-yo. He's up and down all of the time. He's either hot for the Lord or he's not. And I was, because I was struggling with things. Samson never learned to control his emotions. So they, in the end, controlled him. Proverbs 16.32 could have been written for Samson. He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit is better than he who takes a city. In his day Samson had taken more than one city anyway, but he never learned to control his temper. He never learned how to rule his spirit within himself. He never knew the first thing about self-control. In the end, his emotions just totally ran away with him. You know, I would love to say that when a person gets saved, their life gets changed forever. It does in one sense, but in another sense, we have this inner battle all of the time, don't we? And we can thank God that there's a day coming when we will be out of these sin-sick bodies, and we shall not only be with Christ, but we shall be like him, and we shall be sinless. But until then, we've got a battle within, haven't we? I would also like to believe that people who have been blessed by God in every area of their life, resisting temptation, committed to the work and the Saviour, who you've seen has burnt both ends of the candle at once to serve the Lord, that everything they've done would be blessed. But it's not always the case, is it? They too stumble and fall somewhere along the line. Not all of them, obviously, but some do. Samson started out well, but he had a sad end. But the choice, you know, was Samson's. And because of a series of wrong choices, the end of his life was not as pleasant as the beginning of it. He was betrayed first, the person closest to him, humanly speaking, which was Delilah, and the other wife that he had at the beginning. You know, when we are drawn away from God as well, our relationships suffer and grow more distant. Samson's relationship with God had deteriorated so much that he didn't even realise when God's Spirit had departed from him. Ichabod was written above his head, the glory has departed, and he didn't even know it. Do you take God's blessings, God's strength and His presence for granted? Or do you seek to glorify Him all times? You know, Samson was blinded even before the Philistines pulled out his eyes. He was spiritually blind. He couldn't see that behind Delilah's beauty, it held a character of greed and betrayal. He was blinded by his own sin. Christians too. can be blinded by their sin, which you can read in 2 Peter, where we can live in such a way that we have become blind to the things of God. You may wonder why your life is like a roller coaster all of the time or some of the time. I get right with God and I know what I must do, but the next day I find myself again, don't I? doing that which I shouldn't. Back to Romans 7 again with Paul. But he said, O wretched man that I am, who will save me from this body of sin? Thanks be to the Lord Jesus Christ. He knew where to go to help him sort out those problems with his sin. You know, the problem quite often too is we've stepped away from the light and from the mirror of God's Word. Satan is a master of deceiving and blinding us to our true condition, isn't he? Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. That's why we must be people of God's Word. It reveals who we truly are. We are going through a study with some ladies in our church at the moment. And I'm beginning to be like a dripping tap to them when encouraging them to read the Bible because they're finding it a struggle. And I'm trying to encourage them to read through it once every year. Because in it, as we read the Bible, God can speak to us through it. In it, it mirrors us. In it, we can see where the Lord can challenge us in our lives. And although it's good to do our 5 or 10 minutes every morning with some notes to it, It must be good for us to read through the Bible once a year and have a good overview of what God tells us through it and how he speaks to us through it. And every time we meet, I encourage them to do that. And we are thankful at the moment that those who found it hard to read it are now beginning to read it. And we thank God all for that. So what about you? Where are you this evening? Where are you with the Lord Jesus Christ? Maybe you need to do what Samson did and say in verse 28 in chapter 16. Remember what he said? Lord, remember me. He'd fallen that far away, but he knew where to come when he needed it. Lord, remember me, he said. Perhaps you might not be a Christian tonight. You do not know Christ as your Lord and Saviour. You can say, Lord, remember me. Help my unbelief. that I might truly believe what I've been hearing faithfully from this pulpit for some time. Maybe you need to keep alive the seeds of Christ which were sown in your life years ago. Maybe you've become lethargic and not as serving the Lord as you once did. Perhaps you need your life to be rejuvenated again to serve him and to have that thirst for him like we did on that first day. time that we were serving. I always say when I see a new believer, you know, we were like that once, why aren't we like that now? We should be more like that as we've walked and got to know him more the more, but sadly for some reason we seem to go the other way. Most of us aren't we are more like Samson than we'd like to admit. And we've been wondering when can I really come back and really truly start serving the Lord in this church, in this place where he where he has placed me. Will God take me back? Of course he will. And we can all serve the Lord together wherever he has placed us. God will say to us this evening, well, just come back. No strings attached. No special deals. Just come back and start serving me once again with the people of God. Whatever you've been doing. wherever you are, wherever you've been living, hiding, sleeping, it doesn't matter. Jesus will always say, just come back. He did it with Samson. He brought him back. You know, God has already made that first move. I remember driving into, I think it was Norwich, a number, well it's got to be 30 years ago now, but I'll never forget it. There was a church on the way in, and a big sign on the wall. And on it, it had these words, if God seems far away, guess who's moved? It wasn't God. We know it's us, don't we? God has already made the first move. The next move is up to us. And I want to encourage you this evening to be the Christian that God wants you to be here in this place at Billinghay and serve him here with vitality and joy in whatever sphere he's called you to. You know, spiritually, Samson lost sight of his calling from God, and he gave up his greatest gift, which was his amazing strength to please the woman who'd captured his affections. In the end, it cost him his physical sight, his freedom, his dignity, and eventually it cost him his life. No doubt, as he sat in that prison cell, no eyes drained of strength, Samson must have felt like an absolute complete failure. Do you feel like a complete failure? I must admit there are times in my life when I have, when I've let the Lord down. Do you think it's too late to turn to God? I've even felt like that before. Oh, I'm just stupid. You know, at the end of his life, blind and humble, Samson finally realized he's at a dependence upon God. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was blind, but now I see. That's why we sang that hymn before we come into it. Amazing grace. You know, it doesn't matter how far away we've fallen from God, no matter how much we've failed him, it's never too late to humble ourselves and to turn back to God and to serve him with more fervour than before. Ultimately, through his own sacrificial death, Samson turned his mistakes into victory. Let Samson's example persuade you it's never too late to serve him and to come back and to glorify his name in your home and in this church and wherever it is that God has placed you. Just like the prodigal son found a loving father who was a forgiving father, who wanted him back home, we too will find a Heavenly Father who loves us and is ready to forgive us and restore us to the place where we ought to be in serving Him. Thank God for His grace, thank God for His forgiveness, thank God for His love, for His love for us, because He is a great and forgiving God, and He's a God that forgives and forgives and forgives and forgives to those who come to Him in true repentance. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, help those of us who need to make that definite turning this evening in our lives and to do it right now. Thank you, our blessed God, for never giving up on us. Help us to see that you are there all along, all of the time. We thank you for your amazing love for your amazing grace, and we thank you for everything, in and through the precious name of your Son, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.