Silly Games People Play

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:01

Thank you, Lord. Thank you for this great day. Thank you for this great day of prayer that our church has participated in this morning with earnestness and zeal. And Lord, we're just asking it to forgive us of our sins. Whether the individual, church, the country, whatever. We ask for your visitation upon our land. You are our only hope. It's not in politics. It's not in economic policy. It's not in military strategy. It's in you. That's it. And when we realize that, Lord, many people will go to bed at ease at night thinking, I can participate in that. The spiritual. May not be able to participate in every other thing, but we can pray. We can seek God. We can come together. We can keep our churches open for our children and for our grandchildren. We can do the right thing by the word of the Lord. And so this morning, Lord, I need your help. I need your strength. I need your power in my life to speak this word to the church that I believe you have given to me as a pastor. So, Lord, in the name of Jesus, I just cast myself upon you, asking for your grace, and God for your mercy. Lord, what did you say to me on Thursday? I will have mercy on whom I will. Have mercy on me, God. Have mercy on the church. Have mercy on our country. In Jesus' name. Amen. I have a title, it's called Silly Games or Cost You and Others. Some years ago there was a book written called Games People Play. And I'm going to take my time this morning to bring this word to you. The author of that book was beginning a movement called Transactional Analysis or Relationships. And basically the book is How can I trick you? How can I manipulate you? How can I play with your head? How can I do psychological warfare against you, making you think that I'm in control of your life? And the book was written in the 1970s, I believe. And a lot of people moved on that. And we have people today that read books and they try to extract, extract information from you. They think they're so brilliant and smart. I read this book on I can tell when you're lying and blah blah blah. You know what? We all play silly games with ourselves. We all play silly games. And you know what those silly games are? We lie to ourselves. We play silly games in marriage. Oh, there's so many different functions and administrations in marriage on how to control the other person, how to make the person what you want them to be. It's amazing. It's mass manipulation. Until we come down to the word of the Lord and find out what God's saying, silly games will continue. They continue in church, they continue in politics, they continue in our families, just silly little games. In Judges chapter 13, the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines 40 years. You know why? Because they were sin in the camp. They were under judgment. And there was a certain man of Zorah of the family of the Danites, and the Danites were interesting people. Those were the ones that were the rear reward for the Jews coming over. When the Philistines were attacking, they were attacking the elderly and the old people. The Danites were the ones that protected them, protected their property, their possessions. So here we have the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah, and his wife was barren. She had no baby no babies. And the angel of the Lord appeared. The angel of the Lord, this is Jesus incarnate. This is Christ in the Old Testament. Appeared unto him and said, Behold, now thou art barren, bearest not, but thou shalt conceive and bear a son. Now therefore, beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine, nor strong drink, eat not any unclean thing. For lo, thou that shall conceive and bear a son, and no razor shall come on his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite unto God from the womb. And he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. So here we have the announcement of the birth of Samson. And Samson was a Nazirite, his mother had to be a Nazirite, and she was given, listen to the words now, instructions. Instructions. This is what I want you to do, woman, concerning this child. Judges 13 and 6. And then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came unto me, and his countenance was like the countenance of the angel of God, very terrible. But I asked him not whence he was, neither told me his name. But he said unto me, Behold, thou shalt conceive and bear a son, and now drink no wine, nor strong drink, nor eat anything unclean, for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death. A man of God came to me. Think about that. A man of God came to me. Who was the man of God? It was Jesus. Jesus came to her. What do we do when Jesus comes to us and wants to speak truth to our heart? What do we do? What do we do when the Lord sends a man of God, praise the Lord, to speak to us truth to our heart? What do we do with him? Very good question, Pastor. And we have to answer those questions. Verse number eight. The Bible says, Then Manoah entreated the Lord and said, Oh my Lord, let the man of God which thou didst send come again unto us and teach us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born. What's saying here? Manoah entreated the Lord for another visitation from the Lord to do what? To teach him and his wife on how to train Samson. Hmm. Are we asking and are we anticipating a visitation from the Lord? Or is it business as usual? Just go back to our homes and just do our thing and go to work and blah, blah, blah, and that's all a good thing. But are we really looking for a visitation from God? Do we really want the Holy Spirit to blanket our lives and our family and our church? Think about that for a minute. Are we inquiring of the Lord, as Manoah and his wife did, for our children to teach them in the ways that they should go? How hard are we inquiring for the Lord? Are we just letting them grow up and sort of fade from the church world? Verse number nine. And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah. You see, when you entreat God and you ask God for a visitation, he's not going to hold back, he's going to come. And the angel of God came again unto the woman as she sat in the field, but Manoah, her husband, was not with her. And the woman made haste and ran. Listen to the words here. The woman made haste and ran and showed her husband and said unto him, Behold, the man hath appeared unto me that came unto me the other day. She had passion. On a scale of one to ten, how much passion do we have? Come on. On a scale of one to ten, how much zeal and desire and excitement do we have? On a scale of one to ten, how far how fast do we run after the Lord? We have to ask ourselves these questions. I too. The woman ran with excitement. She ran with enthusiasm. She ran with zeal. Oh, that the church would run after the Lord like this woman. Minus the excuses. I can't. I will not. I'm tired. I had a hard week. I'm going through a hard time. Okay, wonderful. What shall we then do when you get a bad diagnosis, God forbid? Should we say we're tired? Should we say we don't have time to come to prayer? Should we say, I'm sorry, ma'am, sir? I'm not trying to be smart here this morning. I'm trying to be an honest pastor. I'm trying to be straightforward. The Bible says in verse 11, and Manoah rose and went after his wife. What's going on? And came to the man and said unto him, Art thou the man that spake it unto my, unto the woman? And he said, I am. Verse 12. And Manoah said, Now let thy words come to pass. Now let thy words come to pass, which says, I have an open heart to what you have to say to me. Do we have an open heart? Do I have an open heart? Does the church have an open heart? Does America have an open heart this morning? Listen. We can do a great program on the steps of the Washington Capitol today. And we can all go home on Monday morning and go back to work and do the same old thing for the next 250 years. What's it gonna prove? What's the program gonna prove? We're gonna have this speaker and that's and that's wonderful. That's wonderful. But what's it gonna prove if we don't ask the Lord to speak to us? And Manoah said, Let thy words come to pass. How shall we order the child, and how shall we do unto him? Give us instructions. Give us instructions, and the instructions according to the book, and we don't want to go by the book, and then we wonder why we lose our families and our homes and our marriages and our churches and possibly our country, because we don't want to go by the book. Don't want to hear it, preacher. Don't want to hear that, don't want to hear those passages, don't want to hear those scriptures. Well, that's okay. You don't have to. You don't have to. What's it say here? And the angel of the Lord said unto Manoah, of all that I said unto the woman, let her beware. In other words, listen up. She may not eat of anything that cometh of the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat anything unclean. All that I commanded her, let her observe. You know what the Lord was saying to the husband? Make sure she hears the instructions that I gave her. This isn't just a little ten-minute sermonette that God is giving this woman. It reminded me of scriptures in the book of Samuel, chapter 3, verse 9. Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go lie down and it shall be. If he called thee, thou shalt say, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and laid down in his place. And the Lord came and stood and called at other time, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak, speak, for thy servant heareth, for thy servant heareth. And the Lord said unto Samuel, Behold, I will do a new thing in Israel, and which both the ears of everyone that heareth it shall tingle. Ladies and gentlemen, God wants to do a new thing in America. God wants to do a new thing in your home. God wants to do a new thing in your marriage. God wants to do a new thing in your life. God wants to do a new thing, but mind God, we gotta come to God. Hallelujah. And we gotta hear what thus saith the Lord. This isn't a little devotional. This isn't a 10-minute quintet we're gonna copy and paste and put on Facebook. This is life. This is life in our homes, in our family, life in our marriages, life in our country. What does thus say at the Lord? And God was playing and said, You make sure she listens. That's what he was saying. You're the man. So what happened here in Revelation 2.29 it says, He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. That just hits me. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit, Holy Spirit, saith unto the churches. I don't even let the Holy Spirit in most churches. Dead, dried-up religion. People go to a program. Just sit there like a bump on a log. Never move a conviction, never move to the altar, never move to say, God, I have sinned before you. Not moved. Sad. It's not the way it's supposed to be. In verse 15, and Manoah said unto the angel of the Lord, I pray thee, let us detain thee. He was saying, Can you stay? Oh, that the church would say that. That the church wouldn't be ready to run out the door. That the church wouldn't be ready to go get their dinner. That we would seek God and tarry before the Lord and say, God, come hella high water, we're gonna fight the devil, we're gonna resist the devil, we're gonna come against the murderer, we're gonna come against the thief God, whatever it takes, whatever the cost.

SPEAKER_04 14:30

Whatever the cost.

SPEAKER_03 14:33

He said, Let us detain thee until we shall made ready a kid that's a calf for thee. In other words, stay for lunch. God says, Okay, you want me to stay? Okay, hold on here. You see, what this means is we must minister unto the Lord. If you look in the Old Testament, especially in the book of Ezekiel, the Bible says they ministered unto the Lord. A lot of people have never heard that concept in the church. Ministering unto the Lord, how do we minister unto the Lord? We minister unto the Lord with worship and praise. Not just sitting there. What we bring to the Lord must honor his holy name. What do we bring? The praise, the sacrifice of praise and offering we have for the Lord must be pleasing in his sight. What do we bring to the Lord's table? What do we bring? What do we give the Lord? A sheep that's blemished, a lamb that's got a crippled leg. I have heart and worship. If I feel like singing, if I feel like letting the God touch me today. Because I got things to do this week. I gotta do this, and this is a this is what I gotta be doing, and then I can't be dealing with conviction and we skirt, we play silly little games, we tell ourselves lies that placate us and please us. There almost has aesthetic value, in a sense, to our soul and to our spirit. And the angel of the Lord said unto Manoah, Though thou detain me, though you want me to stay, I will not eat of the bread, and if thou wilt offer a burnt offering, thou must offer it unto the Lord. Hmm. Instructions. For Manoah knew not what he was, an angel of the Lord. And Manoah said unto the angel of the Lord, What is thy name? What is thy name? That when thy sayings come to pass, see, he knew he was a man of God. He knew, he knew there was something different about this angel. It was the Lord. When your words come to pass that we may honor you, and the angel of the Lord said unto him, Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret? Oh man, that really touched. You want to know my name? You have that much interest? I'm glad for you, sir. And I'm gonna stay a while and I'm gonna entertain you. I'm not gonna eat. But here's what I want you to do, and here's the word instruction again. What did he tell him? I want you to do what? I want you to honor me with a burnt offering. That's how I'll know you're serious. That's how I'll know you're just not a carnal man. That's how I'll know you're really serious about this visitation. Because Samson's gonna be born, and he's gonna be a judge of Israel for 20 years. You see, he says, What's your name? He said, It's a secret. Is God playing a silly game with him? No, God's enticing him. You see, because it says in Judges 13 and 18 in the New King James Version, and the angel of the Lord said unto him, Why do you ask my name? Listen to what it says. See it is wonderful. Oh man, I tell you, when you study the word of God, it just opens doors. What did Isaiah the prophet say in Isaiah 9 and 6? For unto us a child is born, unto us is given a son, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called wonderful. Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. What's your name? My name is wonderful, it's the character that was given to Jesus Christ. Because he's wonderful. Manoa's getting a little Bible lesson here on what thus saith the Lord. You see, when you know you know. What are you talking about? You heard that. When you know you know. You see, what does it say in Proverbs 30 and 4? Who but God goes up to heaven and comes back down? Who holds the winds in his fists? Who wraps up the oceans in his cloak? Who has created the whole wide world? What is his name and his son's name? Tell me if you know. When you know you know. Not what your grandma said, not what your denomination said when you were great, growing up in church in a dead pagan church doing rituals. But when you know you know, and when you know, you really know. And you walk in that knowing. Praise the Lord. A collective note says this if Samson had but carried with him the secret that God was wonderful, but what marked him was the giving up of secrets, and we'll get into that in a moment. What a dreadful thing for a man to be called a Nazirite, whiter than snow, to give up his secret to a wretched Philistine woman, which eventually he does. What could be more humiliating? What could be more degrading? But it's just a picture of what might happen to any Christian. If we give up divine secrets, we shall lose our power. If we give up our divine secrets, if we forsake them, if we say, Hey, I don't have to go by this book, and Pastor, I don't even have to listen to what you're saying, and you don't. You know, you don't have to respect what I say, but I'm gonna tell you one thing. You'll hear from this book eventually, eventually, as our pastor just says, eventually you will meet God. Why not now? Eventually you will meet God, why not now? And religion is not gonna cut the mustard. Listen, Judges 13 and 19. So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering, it was a meat and grain sacrifice, and offered it upon the rock to the Lord, and did a wondrous thing while Manoah and his wife looked on. And he did a wondrous thing. Look what it says in 2 Chronicles 29 and 11. This is our duty unto the Lord, to bring the Lord a sacrifice of praise and worship, to come before the Lord and say, Lord, I am an offering for you. Here I am, Lord. Take me, make me, mold me into what you wanted me to be. In 2 Chronicles 29 and 11, it says, My sons, do not neglect your duties any longer. The Lord has chosen you to stand in his presence, to minister to him, and to Lead the people in worship and present offerings to him. We must minister unto the Lord with worship and praise. What we bring to the Lord must honor his holy name. The sacrifice of praise and offering we have for the Lord must be pleasing in the sight of the Lord. What do people bring to the Lord? Leftovers. A lot of times. I might sing a line on the stone today. Who knows? I mean, I'm getting so excited. I might just sing two lines today. The God that woke us up. The God that put breath in my lungs, the God that keeps my heart beating, the God that flows all these gallons of blood through my veins every day 24-7. Ah, I'll just give God a couple of verses today. I got a lot of scrolling to do today. I told my wife the other day, how many years have we lost scrolling? How many years are we scrolling? What are we doing? Listening to other people's opinions? What am I doing? Scrolling. Phones. You talk about items. We take it with us. Everywhere we go. It's amazing. We're guilty. God forgive us. What is so important? Who's calling us? I know it's not the president. And if he did, he probably wouldn't like what I have to say to him this morning. That's for sure. Keep it biblical. Keep it spiritual. Praise the Lord. So what happened? What happened when the Bible says, and he did a wondrous thing? Look at verse 20. It happened as the flame went up toward heaven from the altar. And the angel of the Lord, that's Jesus, ascended in the flame of the altar. And when Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell on their faces to the ground. Oh wow. That a holy God was walking here and we would fall prostate on our faces before God and say, God, I'm a man of unclean lips, I'm undone, like Isaiah said. Listen to what I'm saying to you this morning as a pastor. That we would fall before God on our faces. That the holiness of the Lord, the shekana glory of the Lord would invade this place. And God would demand that we fall at his feet, bow to him, and praise him and worship him. And when the angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoah and his wife, then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the Lord. And Manoah said to his wife, We shall surely die.

unknown 24:51

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 24:53

Because we have seen God. Oh, he knew who he saw then. We shall surely die, woman. Hold on, don't panic. But his wife said, Oh. The intuition and the spiritual depth of a woman here. But his wife said to him, If the Lord desired to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, nor would he have shown us all these things, nor would he have told us such things as these at this time. Calm down, husband. Think about what I just told you. If God was gonna kill us, okay, then why did he tell us to do this? And why does he proceed to give us further instruction? So the woman bore a son, called his name Samuel, and the child grew, and the Lord blessed him. If you look at verse 22, Manoah said to his wife, We shall surely die. That was his position of fear. Great fear. He was scared. And I'm not saying that we shouldn't be respectful and fearful of the Lord. But God did not want him to feel that way. The woman, her position was verse 23, great faith. There's a difference. And that's the silly game that Satan plays with us. He tries to get us to change our position. And one of his greatest seductive spirits is fear.

unknown 26:28

Very true.

SPEAKER_03 26:29

I mean, he he he likes to scare people. He likes to stand behind doors and go, ah. He likes to stick to your mind with his silly games.

SPEAKER_02 26:40

You're not gonna make it today.

unknown 26:44

Because I'm gonna catch you.

SPEAKER_02 26:46

He's like the creepy crawl.

SPEAKER_03 26:49

It's like the creepy crawl. Those old horror movies years ago. You know when the ooze went under the door or a fellow with that floor once?

SPEAKER_02 26:57

That green slime? You know what? The blob. The blob. The blob's coming for you. He's the blob.

SPEAKER_03 27:04

He's the bad man. He's the man with the with the with the hammer, wanting to squash your brains. When Jesus is saying, take it easy. Assume a position of fear, of not fear, but of faith. Assume a position of the promises of God. Assume your position as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Assume it. Attention. Have divine presence. Walk into a room like you own the room. Divine presence. Judges 14 and 1. Stay with me. Samson went down to Timnath. It's older now. It's a man. It's got desires. It's got a lot of hormones in there. Male testosterone. And when you put male testosterone next to a woman, you got ignition.

SPEAKER_02 28:05

Come on now. The rocket's about to blast off. Holy phone. It's being fired up.

SPEAKER_03 28:14

And what are we going to do with it? Good question. And he saw a woman of the daughters of who? The Philistines. And he came up and told his father and his mother and said, He's going to tell them now. I'm telling mom and dad. I have seen a woman in Tinmath of the daughters of the Philistines. Now, therefore, get her for me to wife. Oh, look at the gentleman here. Who are you talking to? You're talking to your parents. Who are you talking to, Samson? You're talking to the mother that bore you. You're talking to your parents that had a visitation from the Lord concerning you explicitly with specific instructions on what to do for you. And you and you're telling what? You sure a woman? Where? Who's the woman? She's a Philistine. It's an unequal yoke. She's not part of our being. She's not part of our culture. She's not spiritual. She doesn't know the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And what are you doing? I want her. Then his father and mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren or among all my people that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her from me, for she pleaseth me well. Oh, I'm sure she did. I'm sure she did. Get her from me. Oh boy, look at him. Pride. I know better than you, Mama Dad. Don't tell me what to do. I can Google. I can Google. Look out, look at me. Proverbs chapter 1, verse 8. My son, hear the instruction. That's the word. And forsake that the law of thy mother. What's instruction? To chasten, to discipline, to instruct, and to admonish. You can't talk to him that way. Because you're gonna disturb his psyche. You're gonna upset his psyche. Really? Okay. Proverbs 413. Take firm hold of instruction. Do not let it go. Keep her, for she is your life. Proverbs 413 in the easy version. Hold tight to good advice. Don't relax your grip. Guard it well. Your life is at stake. You know, sometimes I give people some advice from the word of God. They know. Okay. Time to back on.

unknown 31:14

Mr.

SPEAKER_03 31:14

Spear. Time to remove yourself because hey, listen, when you know, you know, that's saying to me, you don't have any room for any more admonition. Proverbs 833, listen to my instruction and be wise. Don't ignore it. Proverbs 9:9, instruct the wise that they might that they might even be wiser. Teach the righteous and they will learn even more. Proverbs 10.17, and I'm reading all these for a reason, because if I had to put another title to this sermon, it would be keep the instructions handy. Proverbs 10.17. People who accept discipline are on their pathway to life, but those who ignore correction will go astray. It's the word. Proverbs 12, 1. To learn you must love discipline. It's stupid to hate correction. Proverbs 13, 1. A wise child accepts a parent's discipline, a mocker refuses to listen to correction. Proverbs 13, 18. If you ignore criticism, you will end in poverty and disgrace. If you accept correction, you'll be honored. Proverbs 15, 5. Only a fool despises a parent's discipline. Whoever learns from correction is wise. Proverbs 15 and 22. If you reject discipline, you only harm yourself, but if you listen to correction, you grow in understanding. Oh, I'm smart. I I I I I watched YouTube yesterday. I saw a great video on YouTube yesterday. Yeah, really? And now it's time that you read the word of God. Well, it's it's a substitute. No, it's not. And how much did you pray? Well, it's a substitute. And how long were you on the YouTube videos? About six hours. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. It's a reality. Six hours on YouTube? Listening to who you don't even know who? And what are they telling you? The aliens are coming.

SPEAKER_02 33:24

The fine sources are coming. That's all crowd around in the basement now and find shelter. Because the aliens are here. I don't care.

SPEAKER_03 33:35

As long as I know Jesus is here, as long as I know the Holy Spirit is here. As long as I know God the Father is here. As long as I can read the word that I'm in the palm of the Father's hand, praise God, and no man can pluck me out of the Father's hand, praise God, by the power and blood of Jesus Christ. That's what matters to me. Everybody wants to know about this and about that. Why? And what does it do for you? Gives you a little bit of information. 2 Timothy 3.16. I found this to be a very interesting verse. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. This is the inspired word of God. And when people tell me, well, how do you know it's the word of God? Listen, if you don't want to know, don't know. You want to stay stuck and go to hell, go to hell. I can't help you. But this is the word of God. This is the legal book that He left us to go by. You can have all of your silly little games, you can have all of your delusional lies and put it out of your face and out of your heart. That's on you. It's on you. I want the book. And sometimes the book is hard to digest. Come on now. Sometimes the book is hard to digest when it concerns discipline and correction and repentance. It's hard to digest, my friends. It's very hard. It wasn't meant to be easy. But he's a good parent. And like you're a good parent, you might want to make sure your kid stays on the right narrow road. Do you just let him go do drink poison? Or do you say, hey, kid over here?

SPEAKER_04 35:09

What are you doing? Whoa. Whoa, that's that whoa.

SPEAKER_03 35:14

You're going in the wrong direction. You're mouthy? You're brazen? You're rebellious. You're stubborn. You're not listening to your mother. And you're not listening to your dad. You need to shape up. Because this is the real world. And we're preparing you to go out to that real world where there are some people out there that are just not very nice. They're evil. They're mischievous. And they'll shake you down in the game because your game is not that tight, son. Not that tight. What does the word instruction mean in this verse? It means the training and education, look it up for yourself, of children. How do you train a horse? You just put a saddle on him and say, go run the corral. How do you train a bucking bronco? That's what kids are. It means to train and educate. It means the cultivation of the mind and morals. Where are we getting our morals from? Where's the cultivation coming from? Are we vetting it? I said, are we vetting it? We want to vett people that are coming across the border, but we're not vetting people that are close to our hearts that are on this phone. We don't even think about it. We just think the best. We think the best. What does it mean? It means to give commands, admonitions, and reproof. It means to correct mistakes and curb passions. It means instruction with aims at increasing virtue. Okay. So let's go back to Samson. In Judges 14 and 5, as Samson and his parents were going down to Timna, a young lion suddenly attacked Samson near the vineyards of Timmah. And at that moment, the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him and he ripped the lion's jaws apart with his bare hands. He did it as easily as if it were a young goat, but he didn't tell his father or his mother about it. When Samson arrived at Timnah, he talked with the woman and was very pleased with her. Later, when he returned to Timnah for the wedding, he turned off the path to look at the carcass of the lion, and he found that a swarm of bees had made some honey in the carcass. He scooped some of the honey into his hands and ate it along the way. He also gave some to his father and his mother, and they ate it. But he didn't tell them that he had taken the honey from the carcass of the lion, and his father was making final arrangements for the marriage. Samson threw a party at Timnah, as was the custom for elite young men. Now I looked at this and I'm saying, was God trying to prevent Samson from marrying this woman by sending the lion? Was that a godly, divine distraction and interruption in Samson's life and saying, hey, hey boy, hey son, you're going in the wrong direction. It was a great interruption. Come on, he's killing a lion. And he wasn't supposed to touch a dead body. He's an asrah. There's a great purification ritual that had to take place if you touched the dead body by accident. But he touched the dead body. What happened to his parents? Just like a lot of parents. Compromise. Give in. Oh well.

SPEAKER_04 38:50

Well B will be. Let's hope for the best.

SPEAKER_02 38:53

Let's pray. Let's pray. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:59

Let's pray. And then what?

SPEAKER_03 39:05

Wedding guests. When the bride's parents came in in Judges 14, 11, when the bride's parents saw him, they selected 30 young men from the town to be his companions. These people were rich. You don't invite 30 guests in those days if you don't have means to do it. This is a well-to-do family that Samson was born into. They compromised. They had no control over Samson, obviously, because he's going to do what he's going to do. So they're going to try to make it the best they can. Let's have a nice party. Let's have a nice guest list. Make sure we have hors d'oeuvres, make sure we have, you know, extra whatever. Samson said to them, Let me tell you a riddle. See, now he's going to play a silly little game. What are you doing? You're a grown man. You want to play games with your guests now? Come on, let's have some fun. Let's do a riddle. And he says to them, Let me tell you a riddle. If you solve my riddle during these seven days of the celebration, I will give you 30 fine linen robes and 30 sets of festive clothing. But if you can't solve it, then you must give me 30 fine linen robes and 30 sets of festive clothing. All right, they agreed. Let's hear your riddle. So he said, out of the one who eats came something to eat. Out of the strong came something sweet. Three days later, they were still trying to figure it out. Samson's playing with him like a cat with a mouse.

SPEAKER_02 40:42

Because he thinks. He thinks. I got this.

SPEAKER_03 40:47

I'm gonna trick down. Games people play. I'm into transactional analysis. What my wedding guests. I'm gonna play some tricks on him. So what happened? Verse 15, Judges 14. On the fourth day, they said to Samson's wife, you see, they can't figure it out. Entice your husband to explain the riddle for us, or we will burn down your father's house with you in it. Did you invite us to this party just to make us poor? If he wins, we gotta give the prize.

SPEAKER_02 41:29

And we're not ready to give up all of these garments. So, little lady, you see, when you marry the wrong person, the little lady gets involved, or the man gets involved, and you got trouble.

SPEAKER_03 41:44

But we don't want to go by the book. Because we want to soothe our passions, our zeal, our enthusiasm. While we see people going down the wrong road, and you say, saw that coming. Listen what happened. So Samson's wife came to him in tears.

SPEAKER_00 42:05

Oh, yeah, I didn't talk to you.

SPEAKER_03 42:13

What happened, dog? We've only been married a few days here. So Samson's wife came to tears and said, You don't love me, you hate me. Well, what is that coming from? Well, what are you talking about? I just married you a few days ago. You've given my people a riddle, but you haven't told me the answer. I haven't even given the answer to my father or mother, he replied. Why should I tell you? It's a secret.

SPEAKER_02 42:42

People got secrets. People hold on to secrets. Family secrets. Secrets from the past. Hold on to the secrets. Don't tell nobody like God doesn't know our secrets.

SPEAKER_03 42:57

Everything that is hidden shall be revealed. So she cried whenever she was with him and kept it up for the rest of the celebration. Can you imagine a nagging wife for seven days? Lord have mercy. Woman. I thought I made you happy. Where did all the bliss go here on the honeymoon night? At last on the seventh day, he told her the answer because she was tormenting him with her nagging. Torment. And then she explained the riddle to the young men. So before sunset of the seventh day, the men of the town came to Samson with the answer. What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion? And Samson replied, If you hadn't plowed with my heifer, if you hadn't slept with my wife. You crush your adulterers.

SPEAKER_02 43:46

Wedding guests, that's what it means. If you didn't go with you, her dad.

SPEAKER_04 44:00

Should be mad.

SPEAKER_03 44:05

If you hadn't plowed with my heifer, you wouldn't have solved my real. Despicable human behavior. And then the spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him. He went down to the town of Ashkelon and killed 30 men. You see, when you play silly little games, people could die. People become expendable. When that anger of Samson rose to a boiling point, his wife betrayed him. His wedding guests and friends betrayed him. He didn't listen to his parents. He killed 30 men, took their belongings, and gave their clothing to the men who solved the riddle. But Samson was furious about what happened and he went back home to live with his father and mother. He left her. So his wife was given in marriage to the man who had been Samson's best man at the wedding. Think about that. You're married for a few days, your wife betrays you, your wife turns your back on you, tells your wedding guests the riddle. You go back to mom and dad. You see, people do go back to mom and dad.

SPEAKER_04 45:21

When they're in pain, and they should. Mom and dad will never close the door. Because they shouldn't. How does he feel? Slept with my wife.

SPEAKER_03 45:39

My anger caused me to kill 30 men, steal from them and their families. You see, Sam Samson compromised his secret to his wife, causing him to kill 30 men and losing his wife to another man. She wore him down for seven days until he gave in. The world is trying to wear us down as Christians. Every day. Daniel said that the spirit of this world would we're the saints of God. And as Christians are worn down and the excuses mount. They mount. You can see. We give into the ways of sin and compromise and comfort. What a price to pay for a silly earth. I'm gonna close here in a moment.

SPEAKER_04 46:35

Samson goes back to his parents and he's thinking. It's with another man now.

SPEAKER_03 46:46

He's thinking. Judges 15 and 1. Later on during the wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat as a present to his wife and he said, I'm going into my wife's room to sleep with her.

SPEAKER_04 46:59

But her father would not let him in. Going back home.

SPEAKER_03 47:10

I want my wife back. I truly thought you must hate her, her father explained. So I gave her in marriage to your best man. But look, her younger sister is even more beautiful than she is.

SPEAKER_02 47:25

Marry her instead. Doesn't the world give us choices?

unknown 47:31

Come on.

SPEAKER_02 47:32

Stop being so zealous about following Jesus. I'll give you this. That's what these athletes are doing. They're selling their soul to the devil. And they think there's not going to be a panth. There's gonna be a sacrifice somewhere down the road for the panth. Singers, actresses, baseball professional athletes, selling their soul to the devil and saying, just make me famous. Just make me rich.

SPEAKER_03 48:09

But they don't understand when they sign the contract in their own blood. They don't understand. It's gonna require you something down the road.

SPEAKER_02 48:19

When all the fame and fortune begins to fade away, we want something in return. And it's called payback. It's called sacrifice.

SPEAKER_01 48:31

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 48:37

It's not for free. Hold on here a minute.

SPEAKER_04 48:45

I don't want what the world wants to give me.

SPEAKER_03 48:48

Not interested. Been there, done that. Samson said, This time, I cannot be blamed for everything that I'm going to do to the Philistines. He owned it the first time. I killed 30 men and I shouldn't have done it. But he said, This time? No, no. Then he went out and caught 300 foxes. He tied their tails together in pairs and he fastened a torch to each pair of tails. Then he lit the torches and let the foxes run through the grains of fields of the Philistines. He burned all their grain to the ground, including the sheaves and the uncut grain. He also destroyed their vineyards and olive groves. Who did this? The Philistines demanded Samson was the reply. Because his father-in-law from Timnah gave Samson's wife to be married to his best man. So the Philistines went and got the woman and her father and burned them to death.

SPEAKER_04 49:51

How does this start?

SPEAKER_03 49:54

Stupid, silly little ring. Choosing the wrong person.

SPEAKER_01 50:05

Oh she looked like him. Come on. Handsome strong Samsung.

unknown 50:14

Look at her.

SPEAKER_04 50:15

Built bulky. Like a rock. Could have started in the Rocky movies.

SPEAKER_02 50:28

I'm sure this woman was beautiful. She pleased him. Can't imagine.

SPEAKER_01 50:35

She's dead. Oh man. Killed her father. On the close.

SPEAKER_03 50:45

Because you did this, Samson vowed. He said, make no mistake about this. I won't rest until I take revenge on you. So he attacked the Philistines with great fury and killed many of them. Then he went to live in a cave in the rock of Edom. And the Philistines retaliated by setting up camp in Judah and spreading out near the town of Lehi. And then the men of Judah, brethren, religious people, church people, turned on them. Didn't Jesus say that would happen? Then the men of Judah, my brothers, my brothers. Huh. Asked the Philistines, why are you attacking us? And the Philistines replied, We've come to capture Samson, we've come to pay him back for what he did to us. Verse 11. So 3,000 men of Judah went down to get Samson. Oh, look at this betrayal. Let's go get him to save our skin. Because if we don't deliver him to the Philistines, they're gonna kill us.

SPEAKER_02 51:58

3,000 people.

SPEAKER_03 52:02

This is a psychodrama. To go get one man. Oh, but that one man had power. They went down and they said to Samson, don't you realize that the Philistines rule over us? Oh, yeah, just let the government rule over us. They know what they're doing. Let the enemy rule over us, let them control us. They're in complete control. They know exactly what we need. Oh, sure. Take another shot.

SPEAKER_04 52:30

Probably get kicked off YouTube for that.

SPEAKER_03 52:33

Who cares?

unknown 52:34

Amen.

SPEAKER_03 52:35

Who really, really cares? YouTube. What are you doing to us? I only did to them what they did to me. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. That's the way it was. But the men of Judah told him, We have come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines. All right, Samson said, but promise that you won't kill me yourselves. Oh, Samson's gotten some wisdom here. Verse chapter 15, verse 13. We will only tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines, they replied, We won't kill you. So they tied him up with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock. And Samson arrived at Lehi, and the Philistines came shouting in triumph, Hey, we got our man, we got our man. Let's torture him. But the spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon Samson and he snapped the ropes. Can you imagine? I mean, you heard of Charles At Charles Atlas years ago, didn't you? You heard of the Hulk, right? God invented that before the Hulk and Charles Atlas. He snapped the ropes as if they were strands of flax. Like, what are you bringing me? Little shoelaces here, people? And they fell from his wrist. And then he found the jawbone of a recently killed donkey. Oh, just oh, I love the word of God. He picked it up and killed a thousand Philistines with it. And then Samson said, With the jawbone of a donkey, listen to this. I piled them in heaps. Mine, you talk about being slain in the spirit. But the jawbone of a donkey, I've killed a thousand men. When he finished his boasting, he threw away the jawbone, and the place was named Jawbone Hill. Samson was now very thirsty, and he cried out to the Lord, You have accomplished this great victory by the strength of your servant. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of these pagans? So God caused water to gush out of a hollow in the ground at Lehi, and Samson was revived as he drank, and then he named the place the spring of the one who cried out, and it is still in Lehi to this day. Samson judged Israel for 20 years during the period when the Philistines dominated the land. I will give you the sequel to this next week, which is a very interesting sequel. You tell me that God's word isn't interesting.

SPEAKER_02 55:07

Man, it's like eating spaghetti and meatballs and gold bread and a piece of cheesecake and cherries on top. Mercy, mercy, mercy, son. How better does it get? God prepares a table for us and he says, Come and eat. And we don't even come to the table to eat.

SPEAKER_03 55:28

We stay at a distance. Oh, I don't know if I want that. Am I gonna like that food today? You know what?

SPEAKER_02 55:36

We got what we got today. I said we got what we got today. Because I believe that's what the Lord said.

unknown 55:44

Hallelujah.

SPEAKER_03 55:45

Silly little games that people play. Let us pray. Father, thank you.

unknown 55:50

Thank you, Senior.

SPEAKER_03 55:51

Thank you. You're such an eternal God, but such a down-to-earth God that you even come sometimes to visit us.

SPEAKER_02 56:01

Man, that is amazing. That is utterly, utterly amazing. That you would walk with us.

SPEAKER_03 56:09

Father, touch anyone that might hear, listen, watch. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 56:14

I pray for their healing, and I pray that they stop playing silly little games of psychological maneuvering on the battlefield. In Jesus' name, amen. We'll just stay in with us.