Introduction:
Ephesians 6:12 - For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Three Must-Dos in Spiritual Warfare (Judges 15):
- Know your Enemy . (Judges 17:1-17)
- Give glory to God for Victory . (Judges 15:18a)
- Recognize Your Non-spiritual needs. (Judges 15:18b-20).
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:56-01:09
Father in heaven, we come before You today and we thank You that no matter what's happening in our lives, in our homes, in our families, in our nation, in our communities, Father, You have given us access to Yourself through Jesus Christ.
01:10-01:18
Because of the blood of Jesus, because of the access that He's given, Father, we can boldly come before the throne of grace to find mercy and help in time of need.
01:19-01:19
Father, we thank You.
01:20-01:25
We can come together as a congregation and worship You now as we will in Heaven.
01:26-01:33
Father, as we try to navigate through this life on earth, we need Your guidance.
01:34-01:37
That's why You've given us Your Spirit and that's why You've given us Your Word.
01:38-01:52
So Father, we pray that You would supernaturally just now, by Your Spirit, Father, You'd take hold of our hearts and let us not be distracted from anything, Let our attention be solely on Your Word.
01:52-01:57
May we leave here different people than when we came in, Father.
01:57-02:02
By Your power, for Your glory, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
02:03-02:06
Open up your Bibles with me, please, to Judges 15.
02:07-02:19
While you are turning there, I need to give you a quick review of last week because this week's story is a continuation of last week's story.
02:20-02:23
He had a miraculous birth and a divine calling.
02:23-02:26
He was to be a lifelong Nazirite.
02:27-02:32
We saw that meant no alcohol, no touching the dead, and don't get your hair cut.
02:32-02:37
And last week in Judges 14, we saw the first account of Samson's life.
02:38-03:43
Remember, he saw a Philistine woman, and he went to his parents and he said, she's hot I want her and that's well this is a paraphrase Matt this is a paraphrase I can read the whole chapter again we're just paraphrase so he's okay so he gets married against his parents wishes and they they have this wedding feast and Samson made this wager for clothes with this riddle while the Philistines threatened Samson's wife and her dad and she got the answer out of Samson and she told the Philistines so Samson lost a bet. He went to a nearby town and he killed 30 men and took their clothes to pay off the gambling debt and then he furiously went back to his dad's home. Meanwhile, dun dun dun, his wife was given to the best man and that's how chapter 14 ended. Now Samson had some flaws. I think we can all agree on that. But he had one huge virtue, and that was passion.
03:44-03:55
Nobody ever accused Samson of being indifferent about things, especially in a compromised culture. But do you know who Samson was kind of like? Actually, do we have the picture?
03:56-04:07
Now you have to follow me on this. These are our dogs. On the right, the brown one with with the black face, that's Lou, or Foxy Louise as we call him at our house.
04:08-04:12
He's like me, he's carrying a few extra pounds, but the family still loves him, he's a lot like me.
04:13-04:20
Okay, but beside Lou, that's Wanda, and she has a birthday coming up October 15th, if you want to write that down.
04:21-04:26
(audience laughs) I can't begin to tell you what that little girl means to me.
04:27-04:31
She is my princess, and she is so full of life.
04:31-04:33
I like Lou too, don't get me wrong.
04:33-04:37
But Wanda, oh, she just takes my heart away.
04:38-04:42
What I love about Wanda, Wanda kind of reminds me of Samson.
04:42-04:44
Because Wanda never does anything kind of like, eh.
04:45-04:51
It's always as hard and fast and intense and maximum energy.
04:51-04:52
Does anybody else have a dog like that?
04:52-04:53
Anybody else?
04:53-04:54
Raise your hand if you've got a dog like that.
04:54-04:55
I know you guys do.
04:55-04:57
Okay, well that's Wanda.
04:57-05:00
Like for example, here's where she kind of reminds me of Samson.
05:00-05:04
Maybe you people with intense dogs, maybe you've seen this, but there'll be like an ant in the house.
05:05-05:08
And if you have, your dog goes after the ant, have you ever seen this?
05:08-05:11
Like there'll be a little ant walking through the hardwood floor.
05:11-05:17
And Wanda's just, she's jumping and pawing and biting and dancing all around and spinning.
05:17-05:28
And she's locked in mortal combat with this ant that she could just easily bend over and just lick it and eat it if she so wanted or stomp on it.
05:29-05:32
But she makes it this big, long production.
05:32-05:35
And you're like, how does that remind you of Samson?
05:35-05:36
Here's how.
05:36-05:40
A lot of power, but very small goals.
05:40-05:43
You see what I'm-- That was Samson.
05:43-05:47
He had all the power that God gave him.
05:47-05:55
And he was supposed to liberate Israel as a nation, begin to liberate Israel as a nation.
05:55-05:58
He had all this power, but his goals were so tiny.
05:58-06:07
Because all he did, he had all this power to deliver Israel nationally, but Samson just got caught up in the little things.
06:08-06:11
And much of his life is about personal vendettas.
06:12-06:18
Samson was involved in a spiritual war, and last week, it looked like he kind of forgot that.
06:18-06:21
But we're going to see a big change in chapter 15.
06:21-06:26
And church, I want to remind you that you and I are in a spiritual war.
06:26-06:28
And I think we need reminded of that.
06:28-06:41
Because sometimes I think when we turn on the TV or get the news online or however you keeping up to date with current things, I think sometimes we forget the fact, this is a spiritual war.
06:42-07:17
Ephesians 6.12 says, "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." So you see, all of this stuff you see, all the racism, real and perceived, all the abortion debates and issues, all the violence, burning cities down, all of the sexual anarchy, all of these things are leaves on the tree, but they're not the root.
07:18-07:23
And I need to remind you today, church, that when you see these things, these are not political issues.
07:24-07:26
These are spiritual issues.
07:26-07:37
And our sermon series is called, "Do What's Right." And now more than ever, the Lord is calling His people to stand up in a pagan culture and do what's right.
07:38-07:39
To fight effectively.
07:40-07:43
And here is where you're going to take some notes from Samson.
07:44-07:46
Alright, so chapter 14.
07:46-07:50
Samson's like, "Hey, don't do what he did." But this week is different.
07:51-07:56
We're going to say, "Look, he's done a lot of things right." That's what we want to note here, okay?
07:56-08:02
So, your hotline, these are three must-dos in spiritual warfare.
08:02-08:05
Three must-dos in spiritual, you're in a spiritual war.
08:06-08:07
Like, what are you gonna do?
08:07-08:11
Like, well, Bible study, prayer, fasting, yeah, yeah.
08:11-08:18
Yes, all true, all essential, but from Samson's life, we see, here's some other things you gotta get down in spiritual warfare.
08:18-08:19
Number one, know your enemy.
08:20-08:21
Know your enemy.
08:21-08:23
Look at the first eight verses.
08:23-09:03
after some days at the time of wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife with a young goat and he said, "I will go into my wife in the chamber." But her father would not allow him to go in and her father said, "I really thought that you utterly hated her so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her instead." Samson said to them, "This time I I shall be innocent in regard to the Philistines when I do them harm." So Samson went and caught 300 foxes, some translations say jackals, it doesn't matter.
09:04-09:06
What matters is what he did with these animals.
09:06-09:26
It says, "And took torches and he turned them tail to tail and put a torch between each pair of tails and when he had set fire to the torches, he let the foxes or the jackals go into the standing grain of the Philistines and set fire to the stacked grain and the standing grain as well as the olive orchards.
09:26-09:41
Then the Philistines said, 'Who has done this?' And they said, 'Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion.' And the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire.
09:42-09:57
and said to them, "If this is what you do, I swear I will be avenged on you, and after that I will quit." And he struck them hip and thigh with a great blow, and he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Edom, their enemy.
09:58-09:59
Okay, quick recap here.
10:00-11:26
So yeah, Samson went home mad after the whole gambling thing from last chapter, went back to dad's house to cool down and he comes back with flowers for his, no not flowers, for his wife. He came back with a box of chocolates, no not a box of chocolates. What did he come back with? A young goat. A young goat, you know, the kind that you tear apart. That's a call back. If you heard last week's message that's funnier than you think it is. He went back with a young goat, like a peace offering. Alright, so guys, try that, let me know how okay you first not me let me know how that works so Samson went back for his wife and his father-in-law was like ah yeah your wife um she's married to the best man now like and he says now in the father-in-law's defense he's he says I thought you hated her now did he have reason to think that yeah why well she betrayed him and and then he called her a heifer remember and then he got mad and went back to mom and dad's house so her dad was like he must he must not like her anymore yeah he's like take her sister she's prettier you know what I think was going on here I I think I think he was scared like what is it going to take to keep you from ripping me to pieces?
11:27-11:31
So take her." Well, Samson obviously felt wronged.
11:31-11:34
And I had to ask myself, was Samson really wronged here?
11:35-11:38
I read a lot of commentators and scholars.
11:38-11:39
And they're like, Samson was wrong.
11:39-11:40
Samson was wrong.
11:40-11:41
But I'm like, was he really?
11:41-11:42
I don't know.
11:42-11:43
You can talk about that in your small group.
11:43-11:47
But one thing we know for sure is Samson was not one to turn the other cheek.
11:48-11:51
And the interesting thing was, we see that Samson wasn't really mad at the family.
11:52-12:05
At this point, Samson's like, "I'm mad at all the Philistines." So he took the 300 foxes, or the jackals, and he paired them up, and he tied a torch between them, and he set their crops on fire, and now he has their attention.
12:06-12:14
Apparently, there was no response to the Ascalon incident in chapter 14, when he went down and killed 30 men and took their clothes.
12:14-12:18
It seemed that didn't get their attention, but this obviously would, right?
12:18-12:19
Burning up the crops.
12:19-12:21
They found the reason for Samson's...
12:22-12:23
Like, why did he do that?
12:23-12:24
Well, they found out.
12:24-12:29
Oh yeah, it's because of what happened with his former wife and her dad.
12:30-12:32
So what does your Bible say the Philistines did to them?
12:33-12:34
It's ironic, isn't it?
12:34-12:45
Because back in chapter 14, you remember Samson's wife betrayed him with the whole riddle thing in order to keep herself and her dad from getting torched by the Philistines.
12:45-12:51
And now, because she betrayed Samson, She and her dad ended up getting torched by the Philistines.
12:52-12:53
That's what you call irony, folks.
12:54-12:56
So Samson mowed down a group of the Philistines.
12:56-13:05
Your Bible says, in verse eight, it says, "He struck them hip and thigh." Like, what does that mean?
13:05-13:14
I don't think it means he went around like smacking their hip and their thigh, like he was like this mom paddling her kids.
13:14-13:15
I don't think that's what that means at all.
13:15-13:18
It was actually a figure of speech.
13:18-13:21
That's kind of a weird figure of speech. Yeah, we got him too, right?
13:22-13:31
Like we might say, "Samson cleaned their clocks." That doesn't mean he took a rag to their timepieces, right? You know what I mean by that.
13:31-13:39
And this was a figure of speech. It meant he cruelly and mercilessly went down and slaughtered them.
13:39-13:46
So probably anticipating retaliation, he went and hid himself in a cleft and eat him, sadly alone.
13:46-13:52
And this story really is all just fallout from Samson's previous compromises.
13:52-13:59
Church, like Samson, we can choose to sin, but we can't always choose the consequences of our sin.
13:59-14:00
Look at verse 9.
14:01-14:06
It says, "Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah and made a raid on Lehi.
14:07-14:27
And the men of Judah said, 'Why have you come up against us?' They said, "We have come up to bind Samson to do to him as he did to us." Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock at Edom, apparently they knew where Samson was, and said to Samson, "Look at this. This is Judah, right? Israel, okay?
14:28-14:30
So they go to look for Samson, and look at what they say to him.
14:30-14:33
'Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us?
14:33-14:41
What then is this that you have done to us?' And he said to them, 'As they did to me, so have I done to them.' Does that sound familiar?
14:42-14:45
Actually, the previous verse, that's exactly what the Philistines said about Samson.
14:46-14:47
And this is a whole other sermon.
14:48-14:51
But when you're playing the retaliation/revenge game, it never ends.
14:52-14:57
Remember earlier, Samson's like, "Yeah, after I whoop them this time, I'm going to quit." Incorrect.
14:58-15:04
Because when you're driven by vengeance and always wanting to get even, that game never ends.
15:04-15:10
That's why the Philistines are like, "We're doing to him what he did to us." Samson's like, "What they did to me, I'm doing to them." It never ends.
15:11-15:11
All right?
15:11-15:21
And they said to him, verse 12, "We have come down to bind you, that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines." This is Judah speaking to Samson.
15:21-15:30
And Samson said to them, "Swear to me that you will not attack me yourselves." They said to him, "No, we will only bind you and give you into their hands.
15:30-15:36
We will surely not kill you." So they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.
15:37-15:40
Okay, so the Philistines are now determined, we gotta kill Samson.
15:40-15:49
And when they went to Judah to try to find Samson, the mind boggling thing here that you can't miss is the Philistines were met with no resistance.
15:50-16:00
And not only that, Judah sided with the Philistines to hand Samson over under his terms, yes, but they handed him over to the Philistines.
16:00-16:01
We're gonna talk more about that in a second.
16:02-16:04
I want you to see how this played out.
16:05-16:07
You haven't read the story, you can probably guess.
16:07-16:11
It says, "When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him.
16:12-16:20
Then the spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that had caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands.
16:20-16:26
And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put out his hand and took it.
16:26-16:29
And with it, he struck a thousand men.
16:29-16:41
And Samson said, 'With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey, "Have I struck down a thousand men?" As soon as he had finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone out of his hand.
16:41-16:50
And that place was called Ramach Lehi, which means roughly Jawbone Hill, what they called that place.
16:50-16:53
But you see, Samson was like his own Trojan horse.
16:53-16:58
And Judah brings him down bound and the Philistines were celebrating.
16:59-17:03
That's why it says they were shouting and then he broke the ropes.
17:03-17:09
says he took a fresh jawbone. We have a picture here. I just, I looked up a donkey jawbone.
17:09-17:13
He took a fresh one. I don't think this one's fresh. I don't see the sell-by date on it.
17:13-17:27
But it says that Samson took a fresh jawbone, and you can see how that thing could be a nasty weapon in the hands of a powerful dude, right? He grabbed that thing by the, you know, by the front there. You got a serious weapon on your hand.
17:28-17:36
Well, why was it fresh? Why is that important? Well, It means it wasn't old and decaying and brittle.
17:37-17:39
It just simply means it was strong.
17:40-17:41
Like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, hang on, hang on, hang on Jeff.
17:42-17:46
Does this mean that Samson violated the vow about touching the dead?
17:46-17:48
Does it mean he violated that vow again?
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I don't know.
17:50-17:53
The text doesn't seem to address that at all.
17:53-17:54
But I will say this.
17:55-18:00
It's interesting to me how much Samson loved to use animals in his battle with the Philistines.
18:00-18:01
Do you notice that?
18:02-18:17
Like first it was the lion with the riddle and the bees, and then it was the foxes or the jackals setting fire to the crops, then it was the donkey, and all I can say is, don't ever take Samson to the Pittsburgh Zoo.
18:17-18:19
Think of the damage he could do.
18:20-18:23
But here, he killed a thousand people.
18:23-18:26
Now, I don't know about you, but I read narratives like this in the Bible.
18:27-18:31
I'm constantly trying to visualize what did that look like?
18:31-18:37
and thanks to modern technology, I googled picture of a thousand people.
18:37-18:38
Can we put that picture up?
18:39-18:45
And I didn't count them, but according to Google images, this is a picture of a thousand people.
18:46-18:49
These weren't the thousand people that Samson killed.
18:50-18:51
I think it was a different thousand.
18:51-19:01
But it gives you a perspective of this was how many Philistines that Samson mowed down with the jawbone of a donkey.
19:02-19:07
You know, last week, as we looked at his debut, we saw that Samson had a lot of faults, right?
19:07-19:08
But he was no coward.
19:08-19:15
And it seems at this point, even though he previously disregarded his father's warning, now Samson saw the enemy for who they were.
19:16-19:23
And I know this was a huge on-ramp for this point, but we had to understand what was going on in the passage because here's the point of this part of the passage.
19:23-19:26
There's a huge difference between Samson and Judah here.
19:26-19:30
Samson knew who the enemy really was, and Judah did not.
19:31-19:34
Did you see how messed up Judah was in this passage?
19:34-19:42
They were so complacent that they were willing to hand over one of their own, a fellow Jew.
19:43-19:48
They were willing to hand him over to the enemy, and they sent 3,000 people to get him.
19:48-19:49
I mean, could you imagine that?
19:49-19:51
I mean, put it in perspective.
19:51-19:57
Imagine if a group of enemies would come here and they're like, "We want your worship leader.
19:57-20:04
Hand him over." And so we all go to Darren and we're like, "Yeah, we're gonna need you to, let's put some ropes around your hand.
20:04-20:09
We're gonna need to hand, we don't wanna make them mad." Like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whose side are we on?
20:10-20:11
What should we say?
20:12-20:13
We're like, "Yeah, you know what?
20:13-20:20
You want him, you're gonna have to go through all of us, okay, because he's one of ours, right?" That wasn't Judah here.
20:21-20:23
Judah was like, "Oh, oh, you want Samson?
20:23-20:31
"Okay, hang on, we'll get 'em, we'll get 'em." And you think, you know, Judah never had a better opportunity to be free from the Philistines.
20:31-20:34
They had 3,000 men and they had Samson.
20:34-20:36
They should have been like, "Oh, you wanna fight?
20:37-20:39
Bring it." But they didn't.
20:39-20:47
And church, it happens so often in the church that we become like Judah and we forget who the enemy really is, true or false.
20:47-20:50
You know, persecution can come from outside the church.
20:50-20:52
Do you know that has never been a problem for the church?
20:53-20:56
Yeah, persecution comes every time what happens.
20:56-21:03
The church gets stronger, the church gets bigger, and the church gets more determined in faith.
21:03-21:09
Persecution has never caused problems, but fighting from within the church has always caused problems.
21:09-21:18
We can handle the people that are like, "I hate you, Lord, and I hate what you're doing, and we're going to shut you down." We can handle those people.
21:19-21:32
But we have such a hard time with the person that shows up up and they're like, "I didn't really like the worship songs and why isn't there a singles ministry and there's too many kids in service?" All kids should be in service all the time.
21:33-21:37
Just all this stupid little nitpicky things that aren't going to matter in eternity.
21:38-21:43
I had a friend tell me one time that his church was having this huge violent near church split.
21:44-21:46
He's like, "Oh, everybody's at each other's throats.
21:46-21:47
All the leaders are angry.
21:48-21:51
Our church is going to split." I'm like, "What's the problem?" You know what the problem was?
21:51-21:59
He said, "We have a bulletin board in the lobby, and they can't agree on how to divide it up." He goes, "What do you think we should do?" You know what I told him?
22:00-22:11
I said, "I think you should rip that thing off the wall and burn it." He's like, "Well, that wasn't the answer I was looking for." I'm like, "Are you serious? Like, that's your issue?" There are lost people going to hell.
22:11-22:15
There are people that need to know the love and compassion of Jesus Christ.
22:15-22:17
You're fighting about a stupid bulletin board?
22:18-22:19
We forget who the enemy is.
22:19-22:21
Oh, and Halloween's coming up, by the way.
22:21-22:23
I love Halloween.
22:23-22:25
Maybe pick up on the sarcasm there.
22:26-22:32
Now, I don't mind, I'm not talking about the trick-or-treating or candy or costumes or anything like that.
22:32-22:38
I'm just saying from a church perspective, I just hate Halloween every year because you always have these two camps of people.
22:39-22:44
You have the camp that's like, we need an alternative so that our kids aren't out trick-or-treating.
22:44-22:52
And then you have the other side that says, why would you have an alternative and copy something worldly and teach the kids that that's okay.
22:53-22:55
And then I'm like, I'm supposed to make a choice that makes you all happy?
22:56-22:58
But churches get divided over things like that.
22:59-23:00
And when you see...
23:00-23:09
Here's a problem, when you see church as a place to get, not as a place to give, you're going to become a self-seeking, entitled consumer.
23:10-23:14
And the people that aren't on board with your preferences become your enemy.
23:14-23:33
And like Judah, now all of a sudden you're all messed up up because you don't know who the enemy really is. Judah was more concerned about offending the ungodly Philistines than the life of a fellow Jew. And like cowards, they just handed him over. And look, hey, credit where it's due. Samson was pretty gracious here, wasn't he? He was pretty gracious.
23:34-23:40
Because part of me would think that Samson's response would have been, Judah, like, you're going to do what? You're going to hand me over to them?
23:40-23:44
I'm going to whoop you, then I'm going to whoop them. And then I'm going to come back and whoop you again.
23:45-23:46
But that's not what He did.
23:47-23:49
He did everything to protect Judah.
23:49-23:55
And church, we're not going to overcome unless we understand who the real enemy is.
23:56-23:56
Who is the enemy?
23:57-23:59
It's not the unsaved, okay?
23:59-24:02
Your unsaved neighbors, unsaved friends, they're not the enemy.
24:02-24:04
They are victims of the enemy.
24:04-24:09
But more importantly, I want to remind you today that it's not the saved people that are your enemy.
24:09-24:11
We so often forget that in the church.
24:11-24:13
are your brothers and sisters for eternity.
24:14-24:16
Okay? So look around the room.
24:17-24:23
These people, if you're in Christ, you're going to be with these people for all of eternity.
24:23-24:26
So I would suggest now you start getting along with them.
24:26-24:30
Our enemies, it's worldliness, it's the flesh, it's the devil.
24:30-24:33
Those are the enemies, not each other.
24:34-24:34
Know your enemy.
24:35-24:36
Three must-dos in spiritual warfare.
24:37-24:40
Number two, give glory to God for victory.
24:40-24:41
Glory to God for victory.
24:42-24:43
Look at the first part of verse 18.
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Okay, so Samson just mowed down a thousand Philistines, donkey jawbone.
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It says, "And he was very thirsty.
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He called upon the Lord and said, 'You have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant.'" Stop there.
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Interestingly, this is the only recorded prayer in Samson's life prior to the death prayer that we'll get to in a couple of weeks.
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But this is significant because we see that Samson knew that victory was from God.
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And it seems here that Samson is finally taking his calling seriously, because he called himself a servant.
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We see real humility.
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We see Samson giving glory to God for victory.
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But again, note Samson says, "I'm just, I'm a servant.
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I'm a servant." And just quickly here, I want to remind you that we have to nail this down.
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That understanding our position affects our conduct.
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We touched on this briefly before, but you have to understand your position, and that's what affects your conduct.
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So many times in the church I hear Christians say, I've even heard church leaders and other churches where I've served say things like, "Well, I'm just a sinner. I'm just a sinner." No you are not! If you are in Christ, He doesn't call you that!
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He calls you a saint, He calls you a child, He calls you a friend, He calls you an ambassador of Christ, He calls you a servant.
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But if you are in Christ, God does not look at you as a sinner.
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And the problem with that is when you identify yourself as a sinner, you make excuses for your sin, like, "Well, I'm just going to mess up again because I'm a sinner." You see, your messed up identity is affecting your conduct.
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Instead, you need to say, "No, this is who God says I am. So this is how I act." It's like Alex Gianetti's car. I was talking to him about this.
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I got his permission to share this, but you know Alex Gianetti's car has his name on it for his work And he told me that when his boys drive the car now I'm paraphrasing again You can get the whole story from Alex or Stacy but paraphrasing he said when the boys drive his car with his name all over it He says I told him don't be dumb my name's on the car, and I imagine that that encourages Christian and Samuel driving dad's car. I imagine that encourages them to avoid rude gestures, performing any stunts, or drag racing. Though I would like to see Alex's car in a drag race.
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Here's the point, you know, if you're a Christian, you bear the name of our Father, and your body really is a vehicle representing the name of Jesus Christ.
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And when you recognize that, it changes the way you drive this car. So every blessing, every victory, every trial, everything, understand your position and give glory to God.
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And finally, number three, recognize your non-spiritual needs.
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Samson, it was indicated in verse 18, he's very thirsty, let's pick up there.
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He says, "You've granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant, and shall I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?" split up in a hollow place that is at Lehi and water came out from it and when he drank his spirit returned and he revived. Therefore the name of it was called... anybody know how to pronounce that? Shout it out. I imagine it has like a real Jewish sound to it. So like En Hachor. It is at Lehi to this day. It says and he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines 20 years. So you got to recognize your non-spiritual needs and this is something you might not expect in a church like this, but this is in the text and we need to address it for a minute, all right?
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Recognize your non-spiritual needs because they have a great effect on your spirit.
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Samson felt like he was dying of thirst, so what does the Bible say?
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It says he drank, his spirit returned, and he revived.
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You're like, well, I read a lot of crazy things this week.
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They're like, what's the point of Samson being thirsty?
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There were people that were like, what does it mean?
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And one guy was like, "You know, it's like Jesus on the cross was thirsty.
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It's like thirst in victory.
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And Samson was thirsty.
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It was like thirst in victory.
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That's what it means." Then somebody else was like, "No, no, no, no, no.
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God was allowing Samson to be thirsty because it reminded Samson that he's a human being and he needed the Lord." And da-da-da-da-da.
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And you're like, "Well, Pastor Jeff, what do you think this all means?" You ready?
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Write this down.
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I think it means Samson was thirsty.
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Have you ever been thirsty, ladies and gentlemen?
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Raise your hand if you've ever been thirsty.
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Okay, yeah, like all of us.
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So we get it.
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Like, well, what's the point?
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Here's the point.
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We are body, mind, and spirit.
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And there is a direct connection between all three.
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For example, if you're depressed, it affects your body, true or false.
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If you sin, that can affect your body and your mind.
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And as in the case with Samson here, when you have physical problems, that affects your mind and your spirit.
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That's where Samson was.
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When he's laying there, thirsty, Samson didn't need Bible study.
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Like, "Oh Lord, I'm thirsty." And the Lord sent Charles Spurgeon to minister to Samson.
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And was like, "Oh Samson, if only you had more faith, you wouldn't be thirsty." Is that what he needed?
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No, he needed a drink!
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So what did God provide him?
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He gave him water.
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So listen to me closely.
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If you have a terrible diet, if you're not sleeping well, if you have some health issues, if you have some sickness or illness, all of these things can affect your spiritual condition.
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So sometimes the best thing that you can do for your spirit is get a good night's sleep.
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Sometimes married people, sometimes the best thing you can do for your spirit is have some quality marital time.
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for the nursery and it's good for the spirit. Sometimes the best thing you can do for your spirit is maybe eat healthier. Sometimes maybe the best thing you can do for your spirit is get outside and get some sun. That's why everyone who comes to me for counseling, like I'm depressed or I'm struggling with sin or whatever, that's one of the first questions I ask them is when is the last time you've been to a doctor to get a checkup? Because maybe this depression that you're feeling, maybe it's not spiritual as much as you've get some physical things that need to get figured out.
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Maybe that's the problem.
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And here's the good news about this.
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God cares about that stuff.
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God wasn't like, I'm the almighty, majestic lord of the universe.
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Like, I take care of the Holy Spirit business.
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Get your own drink.
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God said, I care that all your needs are provided for.
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And he did for Samson, right?
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God wants to provide for all of your needs, too.
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So do not neglect your needs by failing to recognize them as important.
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Right?
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Sometimes in the church we just get a little too holy for our britches, and we're just like, "Well, just a little more Bible study and prayer and I'll be fine." Yes, Bible study, prayer, fasting, all good.
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Take care of those non-spiritual needs too, alright?
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If you're a follower of Christ, you're going to spiritual war this week.
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Yes, you want to put on the armor of God.
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But yes, also you need to know your enemy.
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You need to give glory to God and you need to recognize your non-spiritual needs.
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As the worship team comes up, we're going to pour out our praise to God.
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As the worship team makes their way forward, I've got to tell you, church, I love this chapter in the Bible. Do you know why? Because it gives me hope.
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Because if last week was the only time you ever visited the church or heard a sermon on Samson or whatever, you could have walked away from that and been like, "That dude was a complete failure." But you know he wasn't.
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Samson wasn't a complete failure.
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Because do you know in Hebrews 11, the Hebrew writer gives us the hall of fame of faith.
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Like, here are the greatest people in the Old Testament that exhibited faith in the Lord.
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And did you know, Hebrews 11.32, Samson is mentioned in the same sentence as King David.
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And here's why I love this chapter, because as badly as Samson performed in chapter 14, and it was bad, As badly as Samson performed in chapter 14, he really seemed to turn it around in chapter 15.
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And you know, that was my big takeaway this week, was, you know, he's a lot like you and me.
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And I just want to close by saying, you know, maybe you're sitting here right now and you're sort of in a Judges 14 chapter in your life.
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Nothing seems to be going well. You've made a lot of stupid choices.
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Things have cost you greatly. You've just been in a bad place. Maybe that's you.
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My question is what's stopping today from being your judges chapter 15?
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So yeah, I have been in a bad place for a while like Samson was but today, you know what today?
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I'm saying yes, Lord I've sinned today. I'm saying yeah, I've been wrong about a lot of things but today Lord. I'm crying out to you today Lord I'm asking you to revive me and to change me and to set me on a path of saying no to sin and Saying yes to following you Moment by moment. I'd like you to bow your heads with me, please. I just like to pray just bow with me, please Then I know there are some people here right now that are like, yeah, I'm gonna I'm in a tough season, man I am in a really tough season and I yeah, I've made a lot of bad choices and I'm paying for it and and yeah, some other people have made some bad choices that are affecting me and I'm paying for that and Yeah, today can be the first verse of chapter 15 for you.
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Things get turned around.
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That's what the Lord specializes in, you know.
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Father in heaven, Father in heaven, we come before you today and I thank you for Samson's story because it's so similar to mine in a lot of ways.
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There are seasons in my life that I look back and think, "I just, I couldn't make a right decision to save my life." And then there are seasons where I seem strong in the Lord And there are seasons when I say, "Look what I did," as Samson did.
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And there are seasons when I say, "Lord, look what you did.
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I'm your servant." And Father, I thank you that you're the God who never gives up on us.
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And I pray for my brothers and sisters here, those who are watching online, those who will be listening to this later.
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I pray, Father, that we would embrace the cross of Jesus Christ and what that means.
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Jesus took our sin upon Himself so that we could be forgiven and cleansed and transformed.
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We don't live as sinners anymore, but as saints. And yes, we still make mistakes, and yes, God, we still do things we shouldn't do sometimes. I pray, Father, today is a turnaround.
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But Father, we are awakened again to the reality of a spiritual war. Because of that, we know our enemy. We keep our eyes on You and we make sure these non-spiritual needs are taken care of too. Father, I thank You in advance for the work that You're doing and some new things that You might be starting right here today. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Judges 15
What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
Why did Judah hand over Samson instead of defending him? What does this say about their spiritual condition?
Why does it seem most strife comes from within the church, between God’s people, not from those outside the church? Can you give an example from a different church without including names?
How do unmet physical needs affect your spirit (see Judges 15:18-20)? Do you have any non-spiritual needs that you have been neglecting? How are you going to go after having them met?
Samson is in the Faith Hall of Fame in Hebrews 11:32. From Judges 15, what do you think Samson has done to deserve this honor?
Breakout
Pray for one another - to be equipped for spiritual warfare.