Transcription
Are you ready for the word? Come on. Would you stand with me to honor the reading of God's word?
I know sometimes, sometimes church feels like you're doing spiritual calisthenics. Get up. Get down. Uh, after this, you don't have to get up no more. Unless you just want to. Unless you just want to. We are that type of church that sometimes when the preacher is saying something that is really resonating with us, we stand up and we look at him like [clears throat] we are frustrated and mad. But we're not. We're just saying, "That's so good." That's how I know I'm really preaching good is when you just stand up in the middle. [laughter] Then you look at somebody that it applies to and just passively aggressively let them know. [laughter] So that's why I know I'm preaching good. So you can do that later, but right now we're just going to stand, uh, to reference the reading of God's word. Cuz we have been in a series called "Love Is." I wish it came from some biblical text, but let's be honest, there's a Netflix show called "Love Is Blind." There's an old-school song by Eve, the first lady, not of the Bible, of the Rough Riders, and she had this song that said, "Love is blind and it will take over your mind. What you think is love is truly not. You need to elevate and find." And that's what we've really been doing in this series. We have been elevating our perspective of love and relationships from the low level of what the culture defines love and what the culture says a relationship is to get God's perspective on it. I've been telling you, I'm not no relationship expert, but God is. And so, we're going to keep going deeper in this series. How many love Pastor Manny's word last week? Wasn't that so, so good? And God's going to add another layer to it today. Love is Blind, part three.
I want to look at the book of Judges. Judges chapter 16. I want to look at verses 4 through. It's a whole lot of good stuff. But let's go to 17. Start at verse number four. We'll land in verse number 17. I know that's a whole lot of scripture, but come on. You need to catch up on your Bible reading this week. Judges chapter 16. When you're ready to read it, say, "Yeah." Yeah. If you need some time to find it, say, "Hold up." Come on. Scroll quicker. Scroll quicker.
Judges chapter 16, starting in verse number four. A familiar passage of scripture, a familiar character. If you've been to any Sunday school class, even if you skip Sunday school, you have heard about this couple. Uh, but I'm believing God's going to give us something fresh on it today. Judges chapter 16, starting at verse four, it says, "Sometime later, Samson fell in love with a woman named Delilah, who lived in the valley of Sorek. The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, 'Entice Samson to tell you what makes him so strong and how he can be overpowered and tied up securely. Then each of us will give you 1,100 pieces of silver.'" So Delilah said to Samson, "Please tell me what makes you so strong and what it would take to tie you up securely." And Samson replied, "If I were tied up with seven new bowstrings that have not yet been dried, I would become as weak as anyone else." So the Philistine rulers brought Delilah seven new bowstrings, and she tied Samson up with them. And she had hidden some men in one of the inner rooms of her house, and she cried out, "Samson, the Philistines have come to capture you!" But Samson snapped the bowstrings as a piece of string snaps when it is burned by a fire. So the secret of his strength was not discovered.
Afterward, Delilah said to him, "You have been making fun of me and telling me lies. Now please tell me how you can be tied up securely." Ain't that crazy when some people don't even hide they're crazy? They just just let you know what I'm about. Samson replied, "Well, if I were tied up with brand new ropes that had never been used, I would become as weak as anyone else." So Delilah took new ropes and tied him up with them. And the men were hiding in the inner room as before. And then Delilah cried out, "Samson, the Philistines have come to capture you!" But again, Samson snapped the ropes from his arms as if they were thread. Then Delilah said, "You have been making fun of me and telling me lies. Now tell me how you can be tied up securely."
And Samson replied, "See, I love to hear some of y'all." Oh, I can't believe I can't believe he. I already feel you judging him. But this is why the series is "Love Is Blind" because love has the ability to make you oblivious to the obvious. So before you start sucking your teeth and rolling your eyes at Samson, some of y'all in some situations right now, it's like everybody sees the red flags except for you. Or you see them and you think it's a parade. But anyway, she said, "Uh, you've been making fun of me and telling me lies. Now tell me how you can be tied up securely." Samson replied, "Okay. If you were to weave the seven braids of my hair..." This is the first biblical record of weave. If you were to weave the seven braids, don't look at anybody. If you were to weave the seven braids of my hair into the fabric on your loom and tighten it with the loom shuttle, I would become as weak as anyone else." So while he slept, Delilah wove the seven braids of his hair into the fabric. Then she tightened it with the loom shuttle again. She cried out, "Samson, the Philistines have come to capture you!" But Samson woke up and pulled back the loom shuttle and he yanked his hair away from the loom and the fabric.
Then Delilah pouted, "How can you tell me I love you when you don't share your secrets with me?" [snorts] This is the first biblical record of gaslighting. You're trying to kill me and you have the nerve and audacity to question the validity of my love. You made fun of me three times now and you still haven't told me what makes you so strong. She tormented him with her nagging, nagging day after day until he was sick to death of it. And finally, Samson shared his secret with her. "My hair has never been cut," he confessed. "For I was dedicated to God as a Nazirite from birth. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me. And I would become as weak as anyone else." As weak as anyone else. That is not where Samson's story ends. That's where we'll stop reading. Later, you will find this champion with his eyes gouged out, his hair shaved, ridiculed, and mocked. But all throughout him playing with it, he said, "If you do this, I'll become as weak as any other man."
I want to preach today for four and a half hours using this as a title. Weak [snorts] in the knees. Weak in the knees. Hopefully by the end, we'll make it make sense. Weak in the knees. Would you bow your heads with me? Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for your presence that is here. God, open up our eyes to see. Open up our minds to hear. Thank you, God, for the spirit of revelation and knowledge. Lord, we don't want to walk in darkness. Your word is a lamp unto our feet. It is a light unto our path. Light up this place today through the power of your transformative word in Jesus name. Everybody said, everybody said, "You may be seated in the presence of the Lord." Weak in the knees.
The year was 1995. The school was Plameumber Elementary. The grade was fifth. My teacher was Miss Stevenson Brown. The subject was reading comprehension. But her seat was right next to mine. Her name was Ivonne. Ivonne. Y'all, I had a crush on Ivonne. Ivonne. Ivonne. This is long before I met the lovely Taylor Moo. But I had a crazy crush on Ivonne. Her name was not just Ivonne. Her name was Ivonne Mercado. Ivonne Mercado. Y'all, I fell in love. I fell in love on the first day of school. I fell in love on the first day of school when they did the roll call. When they did the roll call. Cuz remember this reading comprehension class. You know how they do? They call the name, you say "here." Or if you bougie, you say "present." And they called her name, Ivonne. And I'll never forget when Stevenson Brown said, "Uh, Ivonne Mercado." And she said, "No, it's Ivonne Mercado." I looked at her and my heart started beating triple times with thoughts of loving her on my mind. I didn't know that ours rolled like that. I didn't know that. I didn't know that. I fell in love with Ivonne Mercado. And I kept it in my heart for a while. I didn't let her know. It was secret love. It was in my heart for a while until I, I got the confidence. I got the confidence finally several months later, the day before Valentine's Day. The day before Valentine's Day, I did whatever fifth grader does when you're in love. Come on. This is a time before Tinder. So, she's sitting right next to me and I pulled out a sheet of paper. I got a beautiful Sharp number two pencil and I wrote the most powerful words you can write as a fifth grader. "Dear Ivonne, will you go with me?" So, you got to be old school to know about that. I don't know where we're going, but I'm just asking. "Will you go with me?" I ain't got a driver's license, but I just want to know. "Will you go with me? Circle. Yes or no?" Or... Let me tell you something right now. Every person you heard say "maybe," watch out for them people. They've been through some stuff. Everybody that said "maybe" has been through some heartache. Everybody that said "maybe" has been through some storms and some challenges. You know that you better not just put two options on that paper. You better put a "maybe" on there. Always leave yourself with a "maybe." Don't you ever reduce it to a yes or a no. You better put a "maybe" on that thing because how many you know how many ugly can endure for one grade, but how many you know joy and good-looking will come to the next grade or even the next day? Always give yourself a "maybe." Oh, y'all made me laugh at that "maybe" because I learned the hard way. The reason I wrote "maybe" in fifth grade is because of Britney in fourth grade. Britney. Yes. This is Ivonne's best friend, Britney. And Britney was a not a nice person. See, I gave Britney a yes or no option. And Britney not only circled the no, she underlined it three times. Just inhumane. So I learned my lesson from Britney that you don't just give a yes or no, you give a maybe. And so I handed her the note. My heart was beating fast. I was weak in the knees. And all of a sudden, she smiled. I said, "Oh." She circled. She folded. She handed it back to me. I opened up the note. She circled "maybe," but it was "yes" in my mind. Never forget going home. Valentine's Day was the next day. Came to school the next day and gave Ivonne Mercado three single stem stolen roses. Stolen. It's confession time. My parents in the house. Mama, remember that year, uh, [laughter] Dad got you just nine roses? He actually got you 12. And I had to take three of them for Ivonne. Gave it to her. I said, "Ivon, I'm so glad that you decided to be my girlfriend." And Ivonne reminded me. I did not circle yes. She said, "I said, 'Maybe.'" She said, "Actually, Richard asked me to go with him, and I'm at Richard now. And if I see Richard in the streets today, it's still going to be a problem." And y'all, I still remember this. From fifth grade, my heart was crushed and broken.
Fast forward from 1995 to circa 2010 when me and the lovely Taylor Moo, then Taylor Mitchell, have been dating for a while. And she's hitting me with a, "We've been dating long enough. You should know whether we should get married or not. Why are you so scared of commitment?" In the moment, I said, "I don't know." But I should have said, "Ask Britney. Maybe it's because I'm still scarred from her circling no and underlining it three times. Ask. Maybe I'm still marred from her. Maybe, maybe that's why." And obviously, I'm, I'm being funny, but don't let the comedy mitigate the reality that nobody comes into a relationship neutral. Nobody comes into a relationship unmarred, unscarred by what happened in our past. All of us come into every single relationship with residue. See, I call this a relationship series. I really should call it a residue series because the issues that many of us are having in our relationships right now are a result of the residue from the relationships in our past. The, the residue of the boo before, the residue of the divorce, the residue of the family culture that you were brought up in, the residue of the father that was there, the residue of the father that wasn't there, the residue of the mother that never gave the verbal affirmation that your 8-year-old heart always wanted. All of us are dealing with the residue. And far be it from us to be naive to think that you don't come into relationship with the residue of the past. All of us are dealing with the residue, with the baggage of what we went through before. All of us have baggage.
I'll never forget when I was single. I was in the airport one day and I was in that age of my stage of my life where I was like, "Well, I'm trying to find somebody that's perfect. Lord, can't it just be somebody that looks like a model and prays like Mother Teresa? Do this. Does anybody like that?" You know those people like that that are oblivious to their own baggage but looking for everybody else to be perfect. I never forget being in the airport and God said, "Look around." He said, "Robert, everybody in this airport has baggage. Not you got some too." Everybody has baggage. It is a part of traveling. It is a part of the journey. Everybody has baggage. If you see somebody in the airport without baggage, call somebody. They might be a terrorist. Everybody has baggage. The, the airport does not stop you from coming in with baggage cuz we all got it. What they do check for is how much and how much it weighs. We all got baggage. That's not [laughter] the question. The question is how much do you... Oh, no, sir. You got to check that. I'm so sorry. That's, that's... And how much does it weigh? This is the challenge of relationships is that all of us come into relationships with the residue of our past. And the challenge of the residue is if you're not careful, the residue will become you. The residue will become you. The pain of what happened before, if you're not careful, it will integrate and assimilate into who you are. And this is why God wants you to be whole. Because if you could get whole first and realize that you are not the residue of your past, but you're actually, actually the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, then God could actually do something [music] powerful in your life and in your relationships. This is the challenge of life is, God help me get whole so that the residue does not become me. Ah, this is why, can I take my time? This is why betrayal is so painful. Betrayal is so painful because, first of all, for you to betray me, I have to trust you. Yeah. I laugh at all the people say, "I would never do that to anybody." Really? Are you trustworthy? Any trustworthy people in the house? Consider yourself trustworthy. Can I see your hand? Trustworthy. Okay. Some of you not raising your hands. I know who to stay away from. Trustworthy. Okay. You're trustworthy. Okay. You realize that what makes you eligible to betray somebody is trustworthiness. You have to. You have never had a hater betray you. Some of y'all need a minute. The fact that you betrayed meant that you were a candidate to give my trust to, to give my heart to. This is why betrayal is so painful because you start asking yourself, "Why? I should have known. I should have saw it in the signs. I should have..." That's the pain of betrayal. So once I get over the fact that I can't believe you did it, the pain of betrayal is not just what's happening now. It's also what happens next. That's the test of betrayal is that once my heart has been wounded, the question I have to ask myself for the next person that comes, whether it's a romance or whether it's just a friendship, is, "Can I trust again? Can I put myself out there again? Can I open myself up again?" Woo.
And the Bible says that Samson fell in love again with Delilah. Probably not a person in here that's not familiar with the story of Samson, but the problem with Samson and hearing in Sunday school is we reduce Samson to this one moment of his life with Delilah. And that's actually what we do with people in life. I found that people will actually reduce you to one episode in your life without getting the context of who you are. So if you think you know Samson, you're already rolling your eyes and you're saying, "Been there, done that. I've been in church a long time." Maybe you don't know his full story because the text we just read is in Judges chapter 16. But don't understand this. In the book of Judges, we get four chapters on the book of Samson. He's in 13. He's in 14. He's in 15. And so how dare you judge his chapter 16 when you don't know nothing about his chapter 13, his chapter 14, his chapter 15? Isn't that how people do in life? They will judge you on one post. They will judge you on one thing they heard from somebody else. And they don't even have the full context of who you are. Can I just testify? Just because you follow me doesn't mean you know me. Just because you saw what somebody said about me doesn't mean you know the totality of who I am. Stop judging people and making a character from an episode that you saw when there's a whole series of their life. You don't know that. And we love to do that with people. We don't keep people in context. I need you to wake up your neighbor and just say, "Keep me in context." Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Keep me in context. You need to know who I really am. Don't just judge me off of what somebody else told you. Keep me in proper [music] context. Don't take me out of context. And guess what? Even if you do have context, you still don't know me because I'm complicated. I am a complicated person. How you going to talk about you know me? I'm still trying to figure myself out. How you so sure about me? And I'm still trying to find me out. Woo. That's why I want to talk to some of you single people that are crying every single day and night trying to find the one. You better get to know you. You better start talking to you. You better start figuring out all your little idiosyncrasies now. If you don't want to be with you, why do you think somebody else is going to want to be with you? Who that was for? It wasn't in my notes, but somebody need to hear it. Keep people in context. But even when you keep them in context, please understand that humanity is complicated. We are complicated beings. And when I look at the life of Samson, y'all, Samson is complicated. The story of Samson reads like a ratchet reality show. The story of Samson is confusing. It's like a Jerry Springer show. There's highs and lows and ups and downs and ambiguity and contra. I don't know what to do with Samson. He is strong physically, but he is weak morally. Samson is a walking contradiction. He is brilliant, but he is stupid. He is so powerful, but he is also so vulnerable. Samson confuses me. The dude's name means "son." He shines bright, but, but at night, he, he's got this fascination with Philistine women and he is, he is attracted to that which is forbidden. Isn't it crazy how you can shine bright in some areas, but at night there's a new you? Y'all don't want to say anything. I know it's a relationship series. You don't want to talk about that part of you. You just want to talk about the part of you that just worships in Gillies. Let's not talk about the part of you that's actually been in Gillies before and it was not a church servant. That Samson is a walking contradiction. He is complicated. And when I looked at Samson, I said, "Samson is us. Samson is us. We are complicated, complex individuals." Samson is so complicated. For years, we've been castigating Delilah. Delilah was consistent. She's the only one I see in the text that actually is consistent. She let you know day one, this is what I'm about. The Philistines about to pay me for this. It's the first OnlyFans person. She was about her bag. She said, "Let's be clear. You're in love with me. I'm not in love with you. They promised me 1,100 shekels of silver each." I did the math. That's present day at least, at a minimum, $3.2 million. I will start cutting hair for $3.2 million. What? Delilah is consistent. Delilah lets you know who she is. "How do I kill you?" "A rope." "Okay, bet. Let me get that rope real quick." Samson is the one that confuses me because one day he's up, the next day he's down. One day God is using him, but God is using him, but it's actually him trying to get his own revenge, and it's his own gift that he's actually perverting for his own personal need. Samson. Samson confuses me. And maybe Samson is a cautionary tale for every single one of us. Maybe we've been distracted by Delilah that we haven't taken the time to learn the lesson that Samson is trying to teach us. Samson is proof that you can start off with so much promise over your life, but still fall short of your potential. Samson is proof that your strength and your success can be your biggest blind spot. Samson is a cautionary tale that it's the small compromises in your life that slowly corrupt and corrode and contaminate the call of God that is on your life. Samson shows us that a great start doesn't guarantee a great ending, right? That you can have a great start, but that doesn't necessarily mean you're going to have a great ending. Because hear me, Samson had a great start. Oh, he had a powerful start. Read it when you get to the crib, crib. Judges chapter 13, it shows us Samson's start. He started off so good. He started off, his parents were unable to conceive. His mother was unable to have a child. And one day out of the blue, perhaps after years of wondering if they would ever have a child, perhaps after years of failed pregnancy tests, after failed pregnancy test, all of a sudden, one day, just randomly, suddenly an angel [clears throat] of the Lord shows up and says, "Guess what? You are about to have a son." And not just a regular son. He's going to be a son that's going to be used to begin the leading of the children of Israel from the captivity of the Philistines. Can you imagine? They would have been just happy to have any type of child. But can you imagine the joy that filled their heart when they realized that their son was going to be one of the 12 judges written in the Bible that God was going to use to stir the nation of Israel out of their complacency and from the tyranny of the Philistines? Can you imagine how excited they were? Say, "What? We about to have a boy and he's going to be powerful and he's going to be used by God." This is incredible. It's interesting to me, if you understand your Bible, this is actually a shadow of the nation of Israel that was birthed out of barrenness. Abraham and Sarah were unable to have children as well. Isn't it interesting how God always births greatness out of barrenness? Yeah. All throughout your Bible, there were people who were barren. And when it looked like all hope was gone, God birthed greatness out of barrenness. It's a picture of the nation of Israel who was birthed through the womb, the dead womb of Sarah. And all Abraham and Sarah had, and all Samson's parents had, was a promise from God. How many you know if you got a promise from God, it does not matter what your credit score is. It doesn't matter what people think about you. It don't matter if you don't have a blue check yet. If you got a promise and a word from God, never look at the circumstances of your life to confirm God's promise. Hold on to the promise that God gave you. Because if God has given you a promise, oh, it will come to pass. It's a picture of the nation of Israel who had a promise that was birthed out of barrenness.
But the promise did not come without prohibition. Just because I've given you a promise, it does not mean you get to just start tiptoeing in the tulips excited about the promise. The promise of God actually requires responsibility. It requires restriction. Teach the Bible, Pastor Robert. So for the children of Israel, the restriction is outlined in the book of Leviticus. This is what you can touch. This is what you can't touch. This is what is clean. This is what's unclean. Well, I think that's clean. Doesn't matter. This is what I said is clean. This is what I don't understand why we can't. It doesn't matter. I'm Jehovah. This is what I say you can do. The promise comes with the prohibition. So after they get the promise, look at what the prohibition is. Yeah. Yeah, you going to have a son. Oh yeah, he going to be great. But guess what? He will be a Nazirite. And he will be a Nazirite from his birth. And to be a Nazirite means he must abstain from three things. Don't forget it. There'll be a pop quiz later. Number one, he cannot drink alcohol. As a matter of fact, if you study it in the original language, he can't even touch anything from the vine. Not even Welch's grape juice. Nothing from the vine. No alcohol. Number two, he can't touch anything dead. No dead things. You going to miss some funerals cuz you can't even be around dead things. Third prohibition is you can't cut your hair. This is the Nazirite vow. No haircut, no Hennessy. I'm looking at who's laughing. [laughter] I'm like, I couldn't have been a player. I couldn't have been this. No haircut, no anything, no dead things. This is the prohibition on his life. This is the vow that he has. Huh? Here's where I empathize with Samson. Oh, I got to hurry. If you read Numbers chapter 6, anytime somebody wanted to be a Nazirite, it was voluntary. They had to pick it. And it was not for a lifetime. It was for a season. And here is Samson who hadn't even been in the womb yet. And a restriction. It's already placed on his life. Ladies and gentlemen, how many you know a vow is hard to keep just when you decide? Okay, y'all going to go there. A vow is hard to keep [laughter] when you made the decision. What's the divorce rate? A vow is hard to keep [laughter] even when you made the choice and the decision. This is the challenge today is because people, and I'm the one that gets to do it, they stand there and say, "I do." Do you do you? We think that because we said "I do" that you can. But to say "I do" does not mean you're capable. It means you're accountable. [cheering] [applause] And many of us buy into the lie that because I said "I do," I can. No, you can't. No, you especially if you've not made any decisions and orchestrated your life in such a way to be faithful to the vow that you said. Saying "I do" does not make you capable. It makes you accountable. And many of us have said "I do." And now that we're accountable, but we realize we're not capable. Now you're miserable because you didn't realize what it took to carry out the vow. I promise. Do you? It's not just what you say "I do" to. It's what you say "I don't" to. It's what you abstain from. Let's just, let's just bring it real practical. I want to know, do you have anything you abstain from? Do you have any "nos" in your life? I don't go there. Do you have any pre-decisions that you have already made before you get in the circumstance? Nobody can slide into my DMs. And nobody can slide into Pastor Taylor's DMs because those are our DMs. Yes. I see her social media accounts. She sees my social media accounts. I wish one of y'all would either way. I wish it would because it will not be in secret. She stood up like, "Yes." I'm just want... Do you have any pre-decisions? Or you just out here trying it out, huh? Okay, the haircut's coming. [cheering] [laughter] I, I don't have any female best friends. [cheering] What? A friend? What are we talking about? I'm trying to see how practical I want to be. I should save this for second service. [cheering] Ladies, no dude is your friend. Is that... I don't care. He's your friend either because he wants to be with you or he wants to be with your friend or you are fulfilling some type of maid mother figure in his life and he can't get anybody else to do it, but he's playing you and using your emotions for you to do it for him. Those are really the only categories. Somebody going to be mad. I see people players like, "Don't why you tell them?" Don't let them know this is the relationship series. I got to do you. Oh, God. Do you have any pre-decisions that you've already made? Are you just going to take your chances? I made the vow. This is the problem with Samson. I felt Samson this week. I'm telling you, I went to middle school with Samson. I went to middle school and I watched middle school Samson get bullied wondering, "Why do I have to keep my hair long and nobody else has to?" I went to college with Samson and I felt Samson go, "How come everybody else gets to go to the frat party with the liquor?" And and I didn't even pick this. Usually you get to pick the Nazirite. I'm so sick of my parents my whole life. They've been telling me, "I'm, I'm set apart." I don't want to hear "I'm set apart." I want to do what they're doing. I'm here set apart by myself. I'm here set apart lonely. I'm here set apart horny. I'm here set a... Oh, see. Yeah. I love how y'all act like in church as I'm here pure and lonely on a Friday night. Get this vow. Sick of the restraint. To do what I want to do. I want to do what I think is right. And Samson is actually a picture of the greater context of the book of Judges. If you want to be depressed, read the book of Judges. [laughter] Because the book of Judges is 340 years of a sin cycle. It comes right after the vow. Remember Joshua, he got them into the promised land. They finally got the promise. He, it ends with a vow. He says, "Choose you this day which you who you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Children of Israel are like us too, Joshua. "Love the Lord." And the whole book of Judges is a sick cycle of disobedience. And from disobedience to the Lord disciplining them through other nations. And then from the discipline, them finally crying out for God to bring a deliverer. The deliverer comes, there's peace, but then they go right back into the cycle of sin. This happens the entire book. And as I'm reading the book, I'm looking at two people who are crazy. I'm looking at Samson going, "Yo, you crazy, bro." But I'm also looking at God going, "God, you're crazy." You ever talk to somebody and be like, "Why you keep going back to them? They don't want you." Sometimes I want to look at God and go, "Why you keep going back to them? It's obvious [laughter] they don't want you." But God, just like your friend. But I don't think that there's still a chance. I got to go back. This is the love that your savior has for you. I, I got to go back. I'm trying to figure out whose love is blind. But it seems like his love is blind because he keeps pursuing and he keeps chasing after people who keep breaking their promises and who keep coming to altars and talking about, "I promise God, I ain't never going to do it again. I ain't never going to do it again." And four months later, I'm right back in the same seat. [cheering] [applause] What's God? Don't you see they don't want you? I can't help it though. My love, my love. You don't see what I see. You don't see what I see in them. And there's a phrase you'll see all throughout the book of Judges. And it's actually the downfall of Samson's life. It says, "There was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in their own eyes." Samson's eyes were his problem. Biceps, triceps, horrible eyes.
If I had time, which I don't, I would take you to an episode that preceded Delilah. Keep Samson in context. Samson had a first wife before Delilah. He met her in Timna. And the first word you hear of Samson's life, in fact, let's just read it real quick. Judges 14. This is the first thing Samson says before Delilah. First thing Samson says, "One day Samson was in Timna and one of the Philistine women caught his eye. When he returned home, he told his father and mother, 'A young Philistine woman in Timna caught my eye. I want to marry her. Get her for me.'" His parents protested. Let's read it. They said, "Hey, isn't there even one woman in our tribe among all the Israelites you can marry?" They asked, "Why must you go to the pagan Philistines to find a wife?" Samson told his father, "Get her for me. She looks good to me." When it says, "Can't you get somebody among our own people that has nothing to do with race?" There is no biblical scripture or record that stops you from connecting with somebody based off of their race. This was actually a prohibition that was instituted in Deuteronomy chapter 7 when God tells his people, "When you go in that land, do not intermarry with them because they have pagan gods and they're going to steal your heart away from me." That's really all God cares about is do they serve the God that you serve? Do they worship who you worship? That one choice made Samson pay the greatest invoice. He will go from her in Timna. He will lose her. He [snorts] will go from her to a prostitute in Gaza. He will go from a prostitute to Delilah. But it started in Timna because Samson, his entire life was led by one thing. [music] You know what led Samson? Who? It's one thing. Here it is. Impulse. Impulse. Impulse. I'm wondering, are you being led by your impulse because you feel it? Because it looks good to you? You cannot be led by the spirit and controlled by your desires at the same time. It is impossible. [applause] And many of us, to the detriment of our relationships, whether you are married, whether you are single, whether you are looking to get in a relationship again, our greatest danger is our impulse. Cuz I feel it. I want it. Samson had a song. I see it. I like it. I want it. I got it. My hair. Gee, thanks. Can't cut it. This is his song. [applause] So he plays [music] with Delilah. We read it. It seems so obvious, but when you are blinded by what you think is right, when you have strength but no vision, you're oblivious to the obvious. So, of course, he never thought his hair would get cut. Of course, he never thought he would be bound. He never thought that one day, in one moment, his strength would leave him. He didn't know the Lord left him. So, one of [music] the scariest verses of scripture in Judges, he said, "I'll shake myself and I'll do what I did before." And the Bible says the Lord left him and he did not know it, and the Philistines [music] came, gouged out his eyes. When I preached [music] this text before, I thought the most painful part of Samson's life was to have your eyes physically taken out. And I'm sure it was. But now that I'm preaching it again, I realize that there was grace even in the pain. Because the problem with Samson had always been his eyes. And of course, he wanted to keep them. But some of you don't even know the pain of your bad decisions. It wasn't God's will. But sometimes it's the pain of the mistake that actually, some weird way, has God's grace woven in the pain of it. Now he doesn't have the thing in his eyes to stop him. Now the thing that's caused him so much pain is finally gone. No, he doesn't want to be in shackles. No, he doesn't want to be in chains. No, it would have been better if he would have just obeyed the covenant and the call that was on his life. But [music] at least I ain't got my eyes. And for the first time, because he doesn't have his eyes, Samson finally opened up his mouth and cried out to God. He never cried out to God until he lost his eyes. But God says, "Now that I got your attention, now that you're not distracted by what you think is right, now your hair can grow back. Cuz you can open up your mouth and cry out [music] to me." Oh, I wish I had somebody in this place today that has ever gotten to a painful place where you have to realize that His ways [music] are better than my ways. His thoughts are higher than my thoughts. I don't know what looks right in my own eyes. Stand to your feet. Look at what it says. Look at what it says in Judges chapter 16. I'm done. Judges chapter 16, verse 28. I'm done. It says, "Then Samson prayed to the Lord." When then Samson prayed to the Lord, "Sovereign Lord, remember me again. Oh, please strengthen me just once more with one blow. Let me pay back the Philistines for the loss of my two eyes." When then Samson [music] never prayed. Every time he got ready to do something, the Spirit of the Lord just came on him. This is the first time at his weakest [music] moment, which was actually his strongest moment, he prayed. [music] You know what Samson's problem was? He was weak in the knees. He didn't realize that your strength is not in your biceps or your triceps. [applause and cheering] [music] Your strength is not in the gift. It's not in the anointing. Your strength is in your ability to know how much you need Him. If God was gracious enough to hear Samson's cry even after he messed up, can you imagine if he would have actually prayed during his lifetime? What could have happened? Samson was weak in the knees. He didn't realize that your strength is found in your ability to know how much you need Him. Samson is a cautionary tale that God will use you. But just because He uses you, do not be tricked to think that He endorses your lifestyle. You will wake up realizing that He left. But if you'll ever get [music] on your knees where your strength is, your hair can grow again. There is a grace.