February 9, 2025 • 41 mins
Have you ever considered how ancient stories reveal the presence of divine plans in our lives today? Join us as we unravel the powerful narratives found in Psalm 34:18 and the intricate tale of Samson and Delilah from the book of Judges. Through laughter, personal anecdotes, and heartfelt examinations, we explore themes of faith, resilience, and divine intervention. Together, we reflect on God's unwavering goodness and the comfort found in knowing He is near to the brokenhearted, guiding us through life's struggles and triumphs with a mantra that echoes throughout: "God is good, all the time; and all the time, God is good."
Our discussion takes an exciting turn as we delve into the whimsical events surrounding Samson's marriage and his infamous riddle challenge. Experience the humor embedded in his story as we compare his adventures with relatable personal stories, such as a lighthearted tale about Easton and trash popcorn. We unpack the layers of desire, secrecy, and unexpected divine purposes intertwined in Samson's actions, elevating the narrative to an engaging exploration of how these ancient experiences resonate with our own lives today.
As we venture further into Samson's journey, we confront the dramatic consequences of betrayal and the cycle of revenge that ensued. By examining Samson's tumultuous life and the supremacy of God's will, we invite you to reflect on your own life, encouraging an appreciation for the blessings and challenges that shape us. We conclude with a celebration of God's acts of goodness and our responsibility to foster a compassionate and generous community. Through prayer and gratitude, we aim to inspire a life lived with passion for God's will, acknowledging His sovereignty and the freedom found in serving others.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I believe, I believe, I believe.
I believe that when God putthis word on my heart, he knew
what was coming.
I did not know what was coming,but he did and I'm excited
about that.
We're going to start in Psalm34.
Psalm 34, chapter 18, or verse18, I'm sorry, chapter 18.
(00:23):
I got tech team all scared backthere.
They're like you've alreadymessed it up enough today.
Can you keep it on the straightand narrow?
Psalm 34, verse 18.
It says the Lord is close tothe brokenhearted.
He rescues those whose spiritsare crushed.
Amen.
The Lord is close to the broken.
Do you have nursery today?
(00:45):
I'm really disappointed.
Real quick, before you leave.
Before you leave, just stay forjust a second.
God is good, and all the time.
God is good.
That's in my sermon about ahundred times today and I felt
like you needed to be here forit.
So I wanted to make sure yougot it at least.
Once my wife, her uncle, passedaway on her dad's side, so it's
(01:07):
not family that she's superclose with.
She went to the funeral andthey did that a bunch and it's
one of those things that, likeit, doesn't happen in today's
church very often.
So we got excited about it andI was like we're planting this.
This is happening Anyhow.
Back to the scripture.
It says the Lord is close tothe brokenhearted, he rescues
those whose spirits are crushed.
Amen, write that down in yournotes.
(01:27):
Also, you are going to want toremember, for those of you who
don't know, that God is good allthe time and that all the time
God is good.
You're going to want toremember that.
You're going to need to hold onto it for today.
Okay, all right, let's flip toPsalm 57, 17.
Yes, yes, no, indifferent, I'llget there in my bible.
(01:47):
Then, 57 17 well then, what didI write down?
Well, whoever wrote this stupidand so I'm blaming somebody
else for that that's sis's fault.
(02:09):
Tech team, they just can't getit together.
I want to talk about Samson andDelilah this morning, and I want
to talk about them specifically, because I want you to
understand how God truly works.
So that's in Judges 16.
We're not going to read thewhole story.
I'm going to paraphrase quite abit of it, but then we're going
to go back to 14.
So just get to the book ofJudges and keep your finger
(02:30):
there.
That's where you're going towant to be.
Get to the book of Judges, allright, are you ready?
Yes, samson was an Israelite andhe was dedicated to God from
birth and his strength was tiedto his very long, uncut hair.
Amen, we know that.
Right, uzziah.
(02:50):
He cut his hair, so hisstrength's all gone.
His strength is all gone.
No, the Philistines, the enemiesof the Israelites, bribed
Delilah to seduce Samson anddiscover the source of his
strength.
Amen, we remember that.
He lies to her a couple oftimes, tries to convince her
(03:12):
that it's not accurate, and thenhe finally tells her the truth.
Amen.
Once Delilah knew his secret,she allowed the Philistines to
capture him, blind him and puthim to work grinding grain.
Amen.
But God is good, and all thetime God is good.
(03:37):
You guys are catching on, man.
I'm liking this today,hallelujah.
But I think we have to back upand judge us to understand
Samson's struggles.
Right, because is it true thateach and every one of us have a
backstory?
Right?
We're not standing where we aretoday because all good things
have happened in our lives.
We've all seen some struggles,we've all been through some
(03:59):
stuff, amen.
How many of us been throughsome stuff?
Amen, okay, hallelujah.
Now, again, I like to remindeverybody, for those of you who
are visiting today.
Those of you who maybe don'tknow, we are a charismatic
church, right?
So I like it when you shoutback at me, right?
Thank you, thank you Like this.
We should be excited about whoJesus is, right.
(04:19):
We should be excited about theword of God.
If we're just sitting there,what are we doing?
Are we really taking it in Likeclick and subscribe?
I mean, come on, guys, likewe're supposed to be invested in
the word of God, amen.
And every day that you listen,read or hear the word, you
should have revelation,knowledge, right?
Okay, so I'm hoping forrevelation today, all right.
(04:40):
So if you've still got yourfinger in Judges, I want to go
back to Judges 14.
Is that an actual part of like?
I got that one right, it'sJudges 14.
All right, that tech team, theyjust can't keep it together
back there and we're going tostart in 14, and we're going to
read for a little while and I'mnot reading to lull you to sleep
(05:00):
, I want you to hear the wordsthat I'm reading, okay.
It says one day, when Samson wasin Timnah, one of the
Philistine women caught his eye.
Oh, how cute, right?
How cute.
Look, emmett's even got hisBible out.
That's what I'm talking about.
When he returned home he toldhis father and his mother a
young Philistine woman in Timnahcaught my eye.
(05:21):
I want to marry her, get herfor me, get her for me.
That's just that easy.
His father and mother objectedIsn't there even one woman in
our tribe or among all of theIsraelites that you could marry?
They asked, why must you go tothe pagan Philistines to find a
(05:45):
wife?
But Samson told his father gether for me.
She looks good to me.
Amen, right, hallelujah, comeon, guys, you get it right.
Like I want what I want.
I want it now.
Willy Wonka and the ChocolateFactory right.
Like we're starting to get thatvibe, like Like I want it and I
want it now.
(06:06):
His father and mother didn'trealize the Lord was at work in
this, creating an opportunity towork against the Philistines
who ruled over Israel.
At the time, as Samson and hisparents were going down to
Timnah, a young lion suddenlyattacked Samson near the
vineyards of Timnah.
I love that they use the wordTimnah in this passage of
Scripture probably a milliontimes, like somebody should
(06:28):
start counting, because it's alot.
At that moment the Spirit ofthe Lord came powerfully upon
him and he ripped the lion's jawapart with his bare hands.
He did it as easily as if itwere a young goat.
Let's all just process that fora second.
How many of us have rippedapart the jaw of a young goat?
How many of us have done it toa lion?
(06:51):
I didn't figure many of usright.
Kind of a strange thought.
But he didn't tell his fatherand mother about it.
When Samson arrived at Timnahthere it is again he talked with
the woman and was very pleasedwith her.
Later, when he returned toTimnah there it is again for his
wedding, he turned off the pathto look at the carcass of the
(07:13):
lion and he found that a swarmof bees had made some honey in
the carcass.
This is a strange story.
Like, can we be honest?
Like, where are we going withthis?
How many of us have actuallyread the book of Judges
thoroughly?
Not many of us, right.
(07:33):
Yeah, it's a pretty boringchapter.
Joe has.
I can assure you of that.
He sent me a text yesterday.
I don't even remember how manytimes he's through his Bible
already.
He scooped some of the honeyinto his hands and he ate it
along the way.
He also gave some to his fatherand mother and they ate it, but
he didn't tell them that he hadtaken the honey from the
carcass of a lion.
That's probably information youwant to know, right?
I'm going to pause for just asecond to tell a story.
Easton loves food, right?
(07:56):
He loves snacks.
He loves all of the stuff.
Was it Easton that was thetrash popcorn giver?
Yeah, so we had thrown awaysome popcorn in the trash can
and Easton's walking around justeating popcorn.
He's giving it to the otherkids.
It wasn't until he told themthat it came from the trash that
they decided they didn't likethat popcorn anymore.
Everybody's eating fistfuls ofpopcorn.
(08:18):
Where did you get this?
Out of the trash, right, easton?
Did you take the popcorn out ofthe trash and give it to your
brother?
Look at him.
He's like don't you tell thatstory?
Yeah, they liked it, didn'tthey?
They were eating it until youtold them it came out of the
trash.
It's important information tounderstand, but all right, are
we done with that?
Okay?
(08:39):
After his father was makingfinal arrangements for the
marriage, samson threw a partyat Timnah.
There it is again.
As was custom for elite youngmen.
When the bride's parents sawhim, they selected 30 young men
from the town to be hiscompanions.
Samson said to them let me tellyou a riddle.
If you solve my riddle duringthese seven days of the
(08:59):
celebration, I will give you 30fine linen robes and 30 sets of
festive clothing.
But if you can't solve it, youmust give you 30 fine linen
robes and 30 sets of festiveclothing.
But if you can't solve it, youmust 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 whoeats came something to eat.
(09:20):
Out of the strong camesomething sweet.
Three days later they werestill trying to figure it out.
On the fourth day they said toSamson's wife entice your
husband to explain the riddlefor us, or we will burn down
your father's house with you init.
(09:42):
Did you invite us to this partyjust to make us poor?
That's intense.
Get your husband to tell you,or we're going to burn your
house down and you're going todie in the fire.
What do you think she's goingto do?
She's going to try to figure itout, right, okay?
(10:02):
So Samson's wife came to him intears and said you don't love me
, you hate me.
Exactly.
That's a great strategy.
Right, if you don't tell me,you don't love me.
That's messed up.
He says it sounds like Ashley.
We won't tell her she ain'there today.
We won't tell her it isn'tforever on the live stream.
(10:25):
It's fine, she's going tolisten to it, because we're
going to prompt her to listen toit.
You have given my people ariddle, but you haven't even
told me the answer.
I haven't even given the answerto my father and mother.
He replied why should I tellyou?
So she cried whenever she waswith him and kept it up for the
(10:46):
rest of the celebration.
Can you imagine how tiring thatwould be?
Every time you're with someone,they're crying because you won't
give them what they want.
It's like taking your kids toWalmart and going down the toy
aisle.
They haven't even played withthat thing.
They don't even know what thatis, but they want it right.
This is one of the things thatmy kids will do.
(11:06):
They go and they sit on thefloor and they play with the toy
and they're like dad, I'vealways wanted one of these.
Well, what is it?
I don't know.
Then, you haven't always wantedone of these?
Amen, look, noah's like.
I've been there, I've done that.
He's like I know that trick.
So she cried whenever she waswith him and kept it up for the
(11:27):
rest of the celebration and atlast, on the seventh day, he
told her the answer, because shewas tormenting him with her
nagging.
Then she explained the riddleto the young men.
So before sunset on the seventhday, the men of the town came
to Samson with their answer whatis sweeter than honey?
What is stronger than a lion?
(11:49):
It's my favorite line, myfavorite line.
If you hadn't plowed with myheifer, you wouldn't have solved
my riddle.
Men, as a word of advice, don'tuse that line.
It's not going to end well foryou or anybody around you.
(12:12):
Okay, then the Spirit of theLord came powerfully upon him
and he went down to the town ofAshkelon I'm having a hard time
reading that, that's a reallysmall scripture up there, killed
30 men and took theirbelongings and gave them their
clothes to the men who clothes,to the men who solved the riddle
.
But Samson was furious aboutwhat had happened and he went
(12:34):
back home to live with hismother and father.
How many of us have been in aposition in a relationship where
we've ever been so mad?
We're just going to go leave.
I'm mad, so I'm not going toput up with it.
So he goes to live with hismother and his father.
So his wife was given inmarriage to the man who had been
(12:57):
Samson's best man at thewedding.
That doesn't feel good.
Later, what would you say?
This is a good book.
It really is.
(13:18):
Later on, during the wheatharvest, samson took a young
goat as a present to his wife.
He said I'm going to my wife'sroom to sleep with her, but his
father, but her father wouldn'tlet him in.
To sleep with her, but hisfather, but her father wouldn't
let him in.
I truly thought you must hateher.
Her father explained.
So I gave her in marriage toyour best man.
But look, her younger sister iseven more beautiful than she is
.
Marry her instead.
Something doesn't work out here.
(13:42):
Samson said this time I cannotbe blamed for everything that I
am going to do to you,philistines.
Then he went out and caught 300foxes.
He tied their tails together inpairs and he fastened a torch
to each pair of tails.
Then he lit the torches and letthe foxes run through the grain
(14:02):
fields of the Philistines.
He burned all of their grain tothe ground.
This is rough Dude's not happyright.
Who did this?
The Philistines demanded Samson, was the reply, because his
father-in-law from Timnah gaveSamson's wife to be married to
(14:25):
his best man.
So the Philistines went and gotthe woman and her father and
burned them to death.
Wow, so back up for just asecond.
The threat was if you don'tfind out the answer to the
riddle, I'm going to burn yourdad's house down with you in it.
(14:46):
That sounds rough, amen.
But even though she did it, shestill ended up meeting a fiery
death.
But God is good, and all thetime God is good.
Now it's hard for us tounderstand what's happening, but
(15:08):
here's what we know the will ofGod is much stronger than the
will of us as the will of theflesh.
Amen, and that God will alwaysmake things work together for
his good.
If you choose to be part of theplan, that's wonderful.
If you choose to be obstinate,that's fine too.
He's going to work around you.
He's going to find a way toaccomplish his will, with or
(15:31):
without you.
It is a choice on whether ornot we operate inside of the
will of God.
Amen, okay, because you didthis, samson vowed.
Samson's mad again.
When Samson gets mad, itdoesn't end well for anybody.
Amen Samson's mad because theykilled his wife, his cheating
(15:52):
wife.
He's mad about it and he saysbecause you did this, I won't
rest until I take my revenge onyou.
So he attacked the Philistineswith a great fury and killed
many of them.
Then he went to live in a cavein the rock of Edom.
The Philistines retaliated,setting up camp in Judah and
(16:15):
spreading out near the town ofLehi.
We're going to stop for a second.
I'm going to go to my notes,because I've missed a lot.
I'm sure of that.
Let's face it His life's a mess, amen.
How many of you are living in amess today?
How many of you are feelingthat mess?
(16:37):
If you're not putting your handup I get it it's probably
because you're embarrassed toadmit that you're a little bit
messy today.
Right, listen, I'm messy everyday.
Sometimes I wake up and I thinksomething that I shouldn't
think, before my feet even hitthe floor and the very first
thing I have to say to God isplease forgive me, lord.
I know it's early in the day, Ihaven't had a cup of coffee yet
(17:00):
.
It's no excuse, but can youjust forgive me early and often,
amen, amen.
Okay, some of this was, in facthis own fault.
He was blessed with greatstrength from birth, but
sometimes that blessing can makeus a little cocky.
(17:21):
See, samson is blessed frombirth and he says I want that
woman, amen.
And it spirals out of control.
How many of us have told God Iwant that and we demand it of
him?
We expect God to give usexactly what we tell him we want
(17:42):
.
And then what happens?
Your life feels like it'sfalling apart.
And when it falls apart, who doyou blame?
Am I talking to myself today?
Are you guys afraid ofadmitting that we screw up on
occasion and that God will giveus what we want in order to make
a point in our lives?
Amen, hallelujah.
(18:02):
I've been there, I've lived it,I've seen it.
You know, when I was in highschool I used to I think I've
told this story before, andevery time I tell it I always
say I'm never going to say thisperson's name because if they
ever hear it they would just die.
But there was this girl in highschool.
I was just.
I just thought she was the mostbeautiful thing in the whole
wide world and it wasn't my wife, believe it or not and I just
thought you know, Lord, if youcould just allow me to marry her
, I would just be so happy, sohappy.
(18:25):
And now I see her out and I'mlike that girl is a mess, right.
Can you imagine if God wouldhave given me what I asked for
in that moment?
Like, listen, I'm a mess.
Now I can't imagine what Iwould be like if God would have
given me what I asked him forback then, right, because I
thought that I knew what Iwanted.
(18:47):
I thought that I had anunderstanding of what life would
be like.
Listen, I did.
I still don't know what life isgoing to be like.
I still haven't figured it out.
It is different every single day.
When we wake up, we're facedwith new challenges and new
people and we have all of thesethings that we have to
experience.
But let me tell you, I know fora fact that when God pours out
a blessing in my life, that Ihave to be humble, because when
(19:10):
he pours out a blessing, listen.
A couple of weeks ago Ipreached a message and I got
about a hundred people tellingme that was a great message.
Good job, pastor Michael.
It's not me, that is all.
God.
I don't want your praise, Idon't want your accolades.
And the reason that I don'twant it is because when you give
it to me, whoop.
Anybody else like that onoccasion.
(19:31):
Right, it happens because we'reflesh.
I know that when God blesses me, I have to remain humble,
because if I get cocky, badthings are going to happen.
Sometimes, whenever we have ablessing, it makes us think that
we're better than other people,right?
Sometimes we turn into a littlebit of a showboat.
(19:53):
Amen.
How many of us ever been likethat?
Right?
Look what God has done for meoh, he didn't do that for you.
But guess what he did for me?
Oh, he's still doing it for me,right?
Listen, we were at thebasketball game yesterday.
Easton makes a basket and heruns down the court like Curry
I'm like dude, you made onebasket the whole game, you ain't
(20:16):
Curry.
I'm like dude, you made onebasket the whole game, you ain't
Curry, you ain't him, right.
But here's the thing Sometimes,when something good happens in
our life, we get a little bitcocky about it, right, because
being humble is not what theworld would expect of us.
We've got to be able to beflashy, we've got to be able to
show it off.
God has been good to me and so Ineed to show you how good God
has been.
(20:36):
Listen, I can show you how goodGod has been.
By the way I live my life,right.
You know that God has been goodto me because I will give
abundantly.
I will give freely of my time,of my energy, of my prayers, of
my thoughts, my emotions,whatever you need.
I will give it to you freely,because God has been good to me.
Amen.
(20:57):
We strut around like we've gotmore than everybody else.
We believe that that gift fromGod is only resting on us today
and that nobody else hasanything that God has done for
them.
Amen.
And then it turns into a battleof wits.
Well, god gave me X and oh yeah.
(21:18):
Well, god did that for you.
Guess what he did for me.
Anybody have a friend thatone-ups them on everything,
right?
The worst part is thatsometimes they one-up you on the
bad things, like listen, I hadto go have a colonoscopy.
Oh yeah, I got two in the sameday, right?
Am I preaching the truth?
We know people like that, right?
We know people who always wantto do better than we will do.
(21:42):
Let me tell you, god is good,and all the time.
God is so good, so good that Idon't have to compete with you
for the blessings of God.
I don't have to compete withyou for who God is or who he
wants you to be.
He is omnipresent.
(22:02):
Do you know what that means?
He is everywhere all the time.
That's hard to believe, right?
When God is with me at my housewhile I'm playing a game on my
phone in the bathroom.
He is with you in your bathroomwhile you're playing a game on
your phone too, right?
God is with you wherever you go, so long as you choose to take
(22:22):
him.
That means that I don't havesomething better than you have.
I have the same God yesterday,today and forever, and that God
will continue to pour outblessings on me so long as I
choose to live inside of thewill of God.
(22:43):
Listen, I'm going to tell yousomething.
Sometimes I see the tithechecks that my wife writes and I
don't like it.
That's my money, I worked hardfor it, right.
And then I look back and I'mlike, yeah, but if I didn't, how
am I honoring what God hascalled me to do?
Amen, listen, you give all youwant.
I give above and beyond, but Itithe my 10% because I know that
(23:07):
if I want God to continue to begood in my life, I have to be
willing to give him everything.
That means praise and worshipin all things, good, bad or
indifferent.
You know, when I meet somebodyI don't like, I have to be
willing to give him everything.
That means praise and worshipIn all things, good, bad or
indifferent.
You know, when I meet somebodyI don't like, I have to be able
to give it to God, right?
How many of you ever been pulledover and then blamed the cop
that you were going too fast,right?
Yeah, courtney, that's herthing, man.
(23:28):
She gets pulled over threetimes a week.
I don't, but we?
The speed limit wasn't marked,right?
Well, that tree was blockingthe stop sign.
Well, I didn't know the cop wassitting there, right?
We blame the world or we blameother people for living outside
(23:54):
of the will of God.
Listen, there are rules insideof the will of God.
We don't like them.
Why don't we like them?
Because it requires us to beheld accountable for our actions
.
Amen, and listen.
Hell is very real and some ofus are going to end up there
because we choose to liveoutside of the will of God.
I'm not talking just aboutpraise and worship.
I'm not just talking aboutmoney, I'm talking.
(24:16):
Talking just about praise andworship.
I'm not just talking aboutmoney.
I'm talking about the way thatyou serve your community.
How many of you go out and pickup stray cats off the side of
the road?
You don't pick them up on theside of the road.
They come to your house becausethey've all talked to each
other and they know that yourhouse is the only place they're
(24:36):
going to get fed, right?
But here's the thing.
But here's the thing.
The world needs people likeMargie to take care of those
cats, right?
The world needs people to takecare of the children who don't
have anyone to take care of them, amen.
The world needs people to takecare of the hungry and the
(24:57):
homeless.
The world needs all of thosepeople.
But see, we can't say well, godhas blessed me because I'm doing
these things, you're doingthose things because God blesses
you, right?
When God pours out blessings onme, I can't help but give it
away.
I've got so much I don't knowwhat to do with it at this point
.
I just keep giving it away.
God, you have been so good tome.
I want to be good to otherpeople.
(25:18):
Amen.
I want to do good for otherpeople.
It is my passion.
It is my passion to see acommunity that we live in so
riddled with drugs and hate andheartache.
Listen, I know those of you wholive in New York so you don't
like your mayor.
Pray for him.
Please Pray for him every day.
Do you know why?
Because those, listen.
I saw this lady.
She said that she was.
(25:38):
She was praying one day and Godsaid to her who was praying
over your husband?
And she sat there quietly for asecond and she responded to God
and she said I don't know.
And he said exactly Without you, he may not be covered in
prayer.
Without you, your governmentofficials may not be covered in
prayer.
Without you, your governmentofficials may not be covered in
prayer.
(25:59):
Did you guys see that PresidentTrump started a I don't know
what's it called office ofprayer or religion or something
like that, and the purposebehind it was that there would
be regular prayer in the WhiteHouse, so on and so forth.
And my favorite part of all ofthat and listen, I don't care
how you feel about politics myfavorite part of all of that was
(26:20):
when I saw the lady who heappointed, whether you like her
or don't like her.
She speaks in tongues and I'mlike, I'm all for it, let's go,
baby, right, because that meansthat she is filled with the Holy
Spirit and if she is filledwith the Holy Spirit, she can
make a difference in our country.
But can I tell you, each andevery one of you who are filled
(26:40):
with the Holy Spirit can changewhat's happening in your
community.
Amen, okay, we're gettingsomewhere.
Now.
We're getting somewhere.
We might go to 1130.
I don't know.
Okay, where was I at?
Does anybody know?
Yeah, but, like in my notes,does anybody have my notes that
they could bring me up to speed?
Yeah, that's aboutthree-fourths of the page, all
(27:02):
the way down.
Yeah, samson's mad.
Yeah, yep, it seems like that'sa theme, though, right, kind of
starting to think like okay,all right, the last line which
is moot now is the good Lordgiveth and the good Lord taketh
away.
Okay, all right.
The last line which is moot nowis the good Lord giveth and the
good Lord taketh away.
Okay, so Samson is making a betwith the Philistines.
After the nagging and theboohooing of his wife, he loses
(27:24):
the bet, he goes out and hekills 30 men in order to make
good on that deal, right, that'sextreme.
I ain't killed one person, letalone 30 people.
Right, I ain't trying to makegood on any bet that's going to
require me to take the life ofsomebody else.
This is a different time, butstill All right.
(27:45):
He became so enraged at hisbride that he left and went and
lived with his mother and hisfather, leaving her behind.
When he came back, she had beengiven to his best man for
marriage.
Again enraged, he ties thefoxes together, sets torches on
their tails, burns everythingdown.
They were so angry that theykilled the woman and her father.
Guess what?
(28:05):
He's enraged again, he vowsrevenge upon them and ultimately
we find out that Samson marriesDelilah, the love of his life.
Sweet Delilah.
I was going to sing hey,marries Delilah, the love of his
life.
Sweet Delilah.
I was going to say hey, there,delilah, for you.
No, I'm just kidding, we're notdoing that.
Okay, just stop it.
(28:27):
Samson finds himself in a placeof comfort, but Delilah has also
been tainted by the people inPhilistine.
She desperately wants to knowthe secret to his strength and,
because of past experiences, hechooses to lie.
(28:48):
Samson lies to her about whatis the source behind his
strength.
If I'm tied up with brand newropes, then I will be rendered
hopeless, not true?
He gets up and he knocks theirheads together, but she nags and
(29:19):
she boo-hoos and she whines andshe cries, and eventually he
tells her the truth.
And when he did, she lulls himinto a false sense of security,
asleep in her lap, and all ofthe sudden she's cutting his
hair.
And the Philistines show up andthey arrest him.
(29:41):
And when they arrest him,what's the first thing that they
do to him?
Gouge his eyes out.
So now the dude's bald and heain't got no eyeballs and he's
going to jail.
He's going to go thrash wheat.
That's a hard job.
None of us have ever done itright.
I didn't think so.
It can't be easy work.
It's going to be hot and sweatyand probably pretty stinky,
(30:06):
dusty Not a job that any of uswould desire to do.
But we're going to jump toJudges 1628.
Judges 16.28.
Judges 16.28.
Now what's happening is thePhilistines have had a party and
(30:27):
they're all wicked drunk andthey have decided that they want
Samson to entertain them.
And so, as they're walking out,samson asks for one thing Place
my hands on the two pillars sothat I can rest upon them.
And it says then Samson prayedto the Lord, sovereign Lord,
(30:49):
remember me again.
Oh God, please strengthen mejust one more time With one blow
.
Let me pay back the Philistinesfor the loss of my two eyes.
Then Samson put his hands onthe two center pillars that held
up the temple and he pushedagainst them with both hands.
(31:13):
He prayed let me die with thePhilistines, and the temple
crashed onto the Philistinerulers and all of the people.
So he killed more people whenhe died than he had during his
entire life his entire life.
(31:34):
But God is good, and all thetime God is good.
You see, scripture ensures usthat God is with those who are
weak, those who are broken.
He is near the suffering.
And what more can we really askfor?
What more can we really ask for?
What more can we really ask for?
See, if you choose not to askfor prayer or if you choose not
(32:00):
to receive healing, I have toask is it because you're broken?
Is it because you're tired,you're weary, you're weak?
Well, let me tell you Abrahamwas old.
Elijah was suicidal.
Joseph was abused.
(32:23):
Job went bankrupt.
Moses had a speech problem.
Gideon was afraid.
Rahab was a prostitute.
Jeremiah was known as theweeping prophet.
David was a murderer, jonah ranfrom God, naomi was a widow,
peter denied Christ three timesand Lazarus was dead.
He was dead and God still usedhim.
God did not just say oh,lazarus, you're dead, you will
remain dead.
God said Lazarus, come out.
(32:47):
And what did Lazarus do?
He came out because God is good.
Are you excited that God isgood and all the time God is
good?
Now let me tell you something.
Let me tell you something Godwill use the broken to do the
greatest things, because God isgood all the time.
(33:10):
Now, many of you have been ledto believe that God is not using
you because you're too old oryou've done something that isn't
pleasing.
But in reality, if we're beinghonest with each other, it's
because we only want God to useus in our gifts.
We only want God to use us whenwe're on the mountaintop.
We only want God to use us inthe things that we know we are
(33:32):
good at.
Amen.
I don't operate well in theprophetic.
I don't.
It's not my gifting.
We're standing in the prayerroom this morning and Pastor
Holly says Michael, pastor,michael, whatever you've, she's
never called me Michael, it'salways Pastor Michael.
Let me correct that.
She says to me what do you gotto say?
(33:54):
I can see it all over you.
And I said we're going to dosomething different.
We're going to go straight intoministry time this morning and
she spoke back to me.
That was exactly what I hadseen all week.
See, that's the prophetic, andI just have to allow myself to
operate in it.
When God says to Amen, it isnot my strength, but that
doesn't mean that God won't useme, and I just have to allow
(34:16):
myself to operate in it.
When God says to Amen, it isnot my strength, but that
doesn't mean that God won't useme.
It is not my strength, but itdoes not mean that God won't use
me.
You're sitting in your seatthinking I'm too old or I
haven't done enough serving.
I haven't done this for God.
God's never told me to blank,god's never asked me to whatever
.
But let me tell you something.
That's not why you're not doingit.
You're not doing it because youare so focused on yourself, you
(34:38):
are so focused on your giftthat you want God to operate
inside of that gift versusgrowing you, stretching you,
making you stronger in thespirit, amen.
I'm gonna tell you something.
I've learned the hard way thatthere is never comfortable when
you're living inside of theSpirit, when you're inside of
the will of God, there is nosuch thing as comfortable.
There isn't, because when youget comfortable, he pulls you
(35:01):
outside of that.
He doesn't want you comfortable.
Because if you're comfortable,you're not growing.
If you're not growing, you'renot creating disciples.
Amen.
I don't want to grow a churchfull of sleeping people.
I want to grow a church full ofpeople who are on fire for what
God is doing in their life, notjust your life, but the life of
the person you're sitting nextto.
You should be able to look atthe person sitting next to you
(35:21):
and say God is good all the timeand all the time.
God is good and you shouldreally mean it.
You should say whatever he hasdone for you today, I pray that
he will double it tomorrow.
You should say whatever he hasdone for you today, I pray that
he will double it tomorrow.
I pray that he will quadrupleit the day after that and that
by the time he is done with you,you have gotten all of the
things that your heart couldever desire, rather than looking
(35:44):
at that person and saying, well, why did you get a new car and
I didn't.
Why did God give you this and Ididn't get it?
Listen, the life of a Christianis not compared to the next life
of a Christian.
My walk is different than yourwalk, your walk is different
than the person sitting next toyou, but I promise you that God
is good all the time and all thetime.
God is good, whether you likeit or not.
He is going to continue tobless those who live inside of
(36:08):
his will.
But here's where we really getdangerous.
We don't want God to expose ourweakness to the world.
We don't want him to expose ourfrustrations.
We don't want him to expose oursins, because if he does that,
then we're accountable for it.
Right, if I have a weakness inthe prophetic, I have no problem
(36:31):
telling you that.
Why?
Because my hope is that you'repraying, that my heart will be
open to whatever prophetic wordGod would give to me.
When I stepped into this pulpitearlier and I was telling you
guys about all of the thingsthat were living around in my
head, that wasn't me.
Those things don't come from.
I'm not smart enough to thinkthose things.
I know I'm not.
(36:55):
God doesn't just put the wordinside of me.
He doesn't just say hey, pastorMichael, read this passage.
He says I'm going to give thisto you and I'm going to allow it
to grow inside of your mindAmen.
But if we're not willing topick up the word, the seed will
never be planted.
Because, see, you come here andyou listen to me and you hear
me for 45 minutes or an hour orwhatever I may ramble on for,
(37:15):
and then you walk out of hereand you do nothing with it.
Let me tell you that God wantsto do something big in your life
.
Maybe not for you, maybe forsomebody around you, but he
needs to use you as a vessel.
He needs to use you as.
Are you willing?
Here I am Lord, use me.
Here I am Lord, use me.
(37:39):
How many of you pray in thattoday?
Here I am Lord, use me.
Now, here's the thing.
I need you to understandsomething, dan when you pray
that here I am Lord, use me.
He is going to use you in yourbrokenness.
He is going to use you in yourweakness.
Have you ever been put in aposition where you're like I
can't do that, but somehow youmanage?
It's because God is good andall the time raising them right.
(38:08):
You know I need you guys tounderstand that when we come in
here on Sunday mornings, I don'tcome here to beat you up.
I don't come here to tell youall the things that you are
doing are wrong.
My hope is that when I'mpreaching and when I'm
delivering an anointed word,that you are hearing, that God
is speaking to you Maybe not mywords, but the scripture somehow
is resonating inside of yourheart and you're going.
(38:30):
I want to take a hold of whatGod is doing today.
Amen, I don't want to just hearit, I want to live it, I want
to take it, I want to run withit.
I really want to be invested inwho Jesus Christ is in my life.
Amen, because I'll tell you,god is bigger than anything that
I could ever come against.
God is bigger than anythingthat I could ever come against.
(38:59):
God delivered Samson in a waythat is just bizarre for us to
think about.
Such a story, isn't it?
Such a story, such a propheticstory?
But let me tell you that Goddoesn't do anything by accident.
When he allowed Samson to becaptured, he knew that he was
setting him free.
I am free in the mighty name ofJesus.
There is nothing in this worldthat can capture me, that can
(39:23):
make me its slave, because I ama follower of Jesus Christ, the
one and only who can set me free.
Amen.
Let's pray together.
Father, I just thank you and Ipraise you for a word that
rested in this house today.
Lord, I pray that you just giveus a desire to get further into
(39:45):
your word and to justunderstand just how good you
really are.
Lord, I thank you for theblessings that you've poured out
upon your house today, for thehealing power, father, those who
had a touch of their body todaythat they're leaving this place
whole and complete, and, father, that they will understand just
how good you really really are.
(40:06):
Father, this isn't about us.
It's not just about what youcan do.
It's truly about who you are.
Father, I thank you and I praiseyou for all of your goodness.
Father, I pray that youcontinue to move the lives of
your people In this building andbeyond.
(40:28):
Father, god, that blessingswill just continue to be poured
out.
I pray for every pastor ofevery church in our community.
Father, as we're moving into aseason of Lent, that we would
just understand that there is agreat gifting inside of our
community.
Father, I pray that you justlift them up, give them a
discerning of spirits.
Father, just allow them to bejust fired up for who you really
(40:50):
are.
Father, I thank you and Ipraise you.
I give you all the honor andglory in the mighty name of
Jesus.
And the church says
I believe, I believe, I believe.
I believe that when God putthis word on my heart, he knew
what was coming.
I did not know what was coming,but he did and I'm excited
about that.
We're going to start in Psalm34.
Psalm 34, chapter 18, or verse18, I'm sorry, chapter 18.
(00:23):
I got tech team all scared backthere.
They're like you've alreadymessed it up enough today.
Can you keep it on the straightand narrow?
Psalm 34, verse 18.
It says the Lord is close tothe brokenhearted.
He rescues those whose spiritsare crushed.
Amen.
The Lord is close to the broken.
Do you have nursery today?
(00:45):
I'm really disappointed.
Real quick, before you leave.
Before you leave, just stay forjust a second.
God is good, and all the time.
God is good.
That's in my sermon about ahundred times today and I felt
like you needed to be here forit.
So I wanted to make sure yougot it at least.
Once my wife, her uncle, passedaway on her dad's side, so it's
(01:07):
not family that she's superclose with.
She went to the funeral andthey did that a bunch and it's
one of those things that, likeit, doesn't happen in today's
church very often.
So we got excited about it andI was like we're planting this.
This is happening Anyhow.
Back to the scripture.
It says the Lord is close tothe brokenhearted, he rescues
those whose spirits are crushed.
Amen, write that down in yournotes.
(01:27):
Also, you are going to want toremember, for those of you who
don't know, that God is good allthe time and that all the time
God is good.
You're going to want toremember that.
You're going to need to hold onto it for today.
Okay, all right, let's flip toPsalm 57, 17.
Yes, yes, no, indifferent, I'llget there in my bible.
(01:47):
Then, 57 17 well then, what didI write down?
Well, whoever wrote this stupidand so I'm blaming somebody
else for that that's sis's fault.
(02:09):
Tech team, they just can't getit together.
I want to talk about Samson andDelilah this morning, and I want
to talk about them specifically, because I want you to
understand how God truly works.
So that's in Judges 16.
We're not going to read thewhole story.
I'm going to paraphrase quite abit of it, but then we're going
to go back to 14.
So just get to the book ofJudges and keep your finger
(02:30):
there.
That's where you're going towant to be.
Get to the book of Judges, allright, are you ready?
Yes, samson was an Israelite andhe was dedicated to God from
birth and his strength was tiedto his very long, uncut hair.
Amen, we know that.
Right, uzziah.
(02:50):
He cut his hair, so hisstrength's all gone.
His strength is all gone.
No, the Philistines, the enemiesof the Israelites, bribed
Delilah to seduce Samson anddiscover the source of his
strength.
Amen, we remember that.
He lies to her a couple oftimes, tries to convince her
(03:12):
that it's not accurate, and thenhe finally tells her the truth.
Amen.
Once Delilah knew his secret,she allowed the Philistines to
capture him, blind him and puthim to work grinding grain.
Amen.
But God is good, and all thetime God is good.
(03:37):
You guys are catching on, man.
I'm liking this today,hallelujah.
But I think we have to back upand judge us to understand
Samson's struggles.
Right, because is it true thateach and every one of us have a
backstory?
Right?
We're not standing where we aretoday because all good things
have happened in our lives.
We've all seen some struggles,we've all been through some
(03:59):
stuff, amen.
How many of us been throughsome stuff?
Amen, okay, hallelujah.
Now, again, I like to remindeverybody, for those of you who
are visiting today.
Those of you who maybe don'tknow, we are a charismatic
church, right?
So I like it when you shoutback at me, right?
Thank you, thank you Like this.
We should be excited about whoJesus is, right.
(04:19):
We should be excited about theword of God.
If we're just sitting there,what are we doing?
Are we really taking it in Likeclick and subscribe?
I mean, come on, guys, likewe're supposed to be invested in
the word of God, amen.
And every day that you listen,read or hear the word, you
should have revelation,knowledge, right?
Okay, so I'm hoping forrevelation today, all right.
(04:40):
So if you've still got yourfinger in Judges, I want to go
back to Judges 14.
Is that an actual part of like?
I got that one right, it'sJudges 14.
All right, that tech team, theyjust can't keep it together
back there and we're going tostart in 14, and we're going to
read for a little while and I'mnot reading to lull you to sleep
(05:00):
, I want you to hear the wordsthat I'm reading, okay.
It says one day, when Samson wasin Timnah, one of the
Philistine women caught his eye.
Oh, how cute, right?
How cute.
Look, emmett's even got hisBible out.
That's what I'm talking about.
When he returned home he toldhis father and his mother a
young Philistine woman in Timnahcaught my eye.
(05:21):
I want to marry her, get herfor me, get her for me.
That's just that easy.
His father and mother objectedIsn't there even one woman in
our tribe or among all of theIsraelites that you could marry?
They asked, why must you go tothe pagan Philistines to find a
(05:45):
wife?
But Samson told his father gether for me.
She looks good to me.
Amen, right, hallelujah, comeon, guys, you get it right.
Like I want what I want.
I want it now.
Willy Wonka and the ChocolateFactory right.
Like we're starting to get thatvibe, like Like I want it and I
want it now.
(06:06):
His father and mother didn'trealize the Lord was at work in
this, creating an opportunity towork against the Philistines
who ruled over Israel.
At the time, as Samson and hisparents were going down to
Timnah, a young lion suddenlyattacked Samson near the
vineyards of Timnah.
I love that they use the wordTimnah in this passage of
Scripture probably a milliontimes, like somebody should
(06:28):
start counting, because it's alot.
At that moment the Spirit ofthe Lord came powerfully upon
him and he ripped the lion's jawapart with his bare hands.
He did it as easily as if itwere a young goat.
Let's all just process that fora second.
How many of us have rippedapart the jaw of a young goat?
How many of us have done it toa lion?
(06:51):
I didn't figure many of usright.
Kind of a strange thought.
But he didn't tell his fatherand mother about it.
When Samson arrived at Timnahthere it is again he talked with
the woman and was very pleasedwith her.
Later, when he returned toTimnah there it is again for his
wedding, he turned off the pathto look at the carcass of the
(07:13):
lion and he found that a swarmof bees had made some honey in
the carcass.
This is a strange story.
Like, can we be honest?
Like, where are we going withthis?
How many of us have actuallyread the book of Judges
thoroughly?
Not many of us, right.
(07:33):
Yeah, it's a pretty boringchapter.
Joe has.
I can assure you of that.
He sent me a text yesterday.
I don't even remember how manytimes he's through his Bible
already.
He scooped some of the honeyinto his hands and he ate it
along the way.
He also gave some to his fatherand mother and they ate it, but
he didn't tell them that he hadtaken the honey from the
carcass of a lion.
That's probably information youwant to know, right?
I'm going to pause for just asecond to tell a story.
Easton loves food, right?
(07:56):
He loves snacks.
He loves all of the stuff.
Was it Easton that was thetrash popcorn giver?
Yeah, so we had thrown awaysome popcorn in the trash can
and Easton's walking around justeating popcorn.
He's giving it to the otherkids.
It wasn't until he told themthat it came from the trash that
they decided they didn't likethat popcorn anymore.
Everybody's eating fistfuls ofpopcorn.
(08:18):
Where did you get this?
Out of the trash, right, easton?
Did you take the popcorn out ofthe trash and give it to your
brother?
Look at him.
He's like don't you tell thatstory?
Yeah, they liked it, didn'tthey?
They were eating it until youtold them it came out of the
trash.
It's important information tounderstand, but all right, are
we done with that?
Okay?
(08:39):
After his father was makingfinal arrangements for the
marriage, samson threw a partyat Timnah.
There it is again.
As was custom for elite youngmen.
When the bride's parents sawhim, they selected 30 young men
from the town to be hiscompanions.
Samson said to them let me tellyou a riddle.
If you solve my riddle duringthese seven days of the
(08:59):
celebration, I will give you 30fine linen robes and 30 sets of
festive clothing.
But if you can't solve it, youmust give you 30 fine linen
robes and 30 sets of festiveclothing.
But if you can't solve it, youmust 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 whoeats came something to eat.
(09:20):
Out of the strong camesomething sweet.
Three days later they werestill trying to figure it out.
On the fourth day they said toSamson's wife entice your
husband to explain the riddlefor us, or we will burn down
your father's house with you init.
(09:42):
Did you invite us to this partyjust to make us poor?
That's intense.
Get your husband to tell you,or we're going to burn your
house down and you're going todie in the fire.
What do you think she's goingto do?
She's going to try to figure itout, right, okay?
(10:02):
So Samson's wife came to him intears and said you don't love me
, you hate me.
Exactly.
That's a great strategy.
Right, if you don't tell me,you don't love me.
That's messed up.
He says it sounds like Ashley.
We won't tell her she ain'there today.
We won't tell her it isn'tforever on the live stream.
(10:25):
It's fine, she's going tolisten to it, because we're
going to prompt her to listen toit.
You have given my people ariddle, but you haven't even
told me the answer.
I haven't even given the answerto my father and mother.
He replied why should I tellyou?
So she cried whenever she waswith him and kept it up for the
(10:46):
rest of the celebration.
Can you imagine how tiring thatwould be?
Every time you're with someone,they're crying because you won't
give them what they want.
It's like taking your kids toWalmart and going down the toy
aisle.
They haven't even played withthat thing.
They don't even know what thatis, but they want it right.
This is one of the things thatmy kids will do.
(11:06):
They go and they sit on thefloor and they play with the toy
and they're like dad, I'vealways wanted one of these.
Well, what is it?
I don't know.
Then, you haven't always wantedone of these?
Amen, look, noah's like.
I've been there, I've done that.
He's like I know that trick.
So she cried whenever she waswith him and kept it up for the
(11:27):
rest of the celebration and atlast, on the seventh day, he
told her the answer, because shewas tormenting him with her
nagging.
Then she explained the riddleto the young men.
So before sunset on the seventhday, the men of the town came
to Samson with their answer whatis sweeter than honey?
What is stronger than a lion?
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It's my favorite line, myfavorite line.
If you hadn't plowed with myheifer, you wouldn't have solved
my riddle.
Men, as a word of advice, don'tuse that line.
It's not going to end well foryou or anybody around you.
(12:12):
Okay, then the Spirit of theLord came powerfully upon him
and he went down to the town ofAshkelon I'm having a hard time
reading that, that's a reallysmall scripture up there, killed
30 men and took theirbelongings and gave them their
clothes to the men who clothes,to the men who solved the riddle
.
But Samson was furious aboutwhat had happened and he went
(12:34):
back home to live with hismother and father.
How many of us have been in aposition in a relationship where
we've ever been so mad?
We're just going to go leave.
I'm mad, so I'm not going toput up with it.
So he goes to live with hismother and his father.
So his wife was given inmarriage to the man who had been
(12:57):
Samson's best man at thewedding.
That doesn't feel good.
Later, what would you say?
This is a good book.
It really is.
(13:18):
Later on, during the wheatharvest, samson took a young
goat as a present to his wife.
He said I'm going to my wife'sroom to sleep with her, but his
father, but her father wouldn'tlet him in.
To sleep with her, but hisfather, but her father wouldn't
let him in.
I truly thought you must hateher.
Her father explained.
So I gave her in marriage toyour best man.
But look, her younger sister iseven more beautiful than she is
.
Marry her instead.
Something doesn't work out here.
(13:42):
Samson said this time I cannotbe blamed for everything that I
am going to do to you,philistines.
Then he went out and caught 300foxes.
He tied their tails together inpairs and he fastened a torch
to each pair of tails.
Then he lit the torches and letthe foxes run through the grain
(14:02):
fields of the Philistines.
He burned all of their grain tothe ground.
This is rough Dude's not happyright.
Who did this?
The Philistines demanded Samson, was the reply, because his
father-in-law from Timnah gaveSamson's wife to be married to
(14:25):
his best man.
So the Philistines went and gotthe woman and her father and
burned them to death.
Wow, so back up for just asecond.
The threat was if you don'tfind out the answer to the
riddle, I'm going to burn yourdad's house down with you in it.
(14:46):
That sounds rough, amen.
But even though she did it, shestill ended up meeting a fiery
death.
But God is good, and all thetime God is good.
Now it's hard for us tounderstand what's happening, but
(15:08):
here's what we know the will ofGod is much stronger than the
will of us as the will of theflesh.
Amen, and that God will alwaysmake things work together for
his good.
If you choose to be part of theplan, that's wonderful.
If you choose to be obstinate,that's fine too.
He's going to work around you.
He's going to find a way toaccomplish his will, with or
(15:31):
without you.
It is a choice on whether ornot we operate inside of the
will of God.
Amen, okay, because you didthis, samson vowed.
Samson's mad again.
When Samson gets mad, itdoesn't end well for anybody.
Amen Samson's mad because theykilled his wife, his cheating
(15:52):
wife.
He's mad about it and he saysbecause you did this, I won't
rest until I take my revenge onyou.
So he attacked the Philistineswith a great fury and killed
many of them.
Then he went to live in a cavein the rock of Edom.
The Philistines retaliated,setting up camp in Judah and
(16:15):
spreading out near the town ofLehi.
We're going to stop for a second.
I'm going to go to my notes,because I've missed a lot.
I'm sure of that.
Let's face it His life's a mess, amen.
How many of you are living in amess today?
How many of you are feelingthat mess?
(16:37):
If you're not putting your handup I get it it's probably
because you're embarrassed toadmit that you're a little bit
messy today.
Right, listen, I'm messy everyday.
Sometimes I wake up and I thinksomething that I shouldn't
think, before my feet even hitthe floor and the very first
thing I have to say to God isplease forgive me, lord.
I know it's early in the day, Ihaven't had a cup of coffee yet
(17:00):
.
It's no excuse, but can youjust forgive me early and often,
amen, amen.
Okay, some of this was, in facthis own fault.
He was blessed with greatstrength from birth, but
sometimes that blessing can makeus a little cocky.
(17:21):
See, samson is blessed frombirth and he says I want that
woman, amen.
And it spirals out of control.
How many of us have told God Iwant that and we demand it of
him?
We expect God to give usexactly what we tell him we want
(17:42):
.
And then what happens?
Your life feels like it'sfalling apart.
And when it falls apart, who doyou blame?
Am I talking to myself today?
Are you guys afraid ofadmitting that we screw up on
occasion and that God will giveus what we want in order to make
a point in our lives?
Amen, hallelujah.
(18:02):
I've been there, I've lived it,I've seen it.
You know, when I was in highschool I used to I think I've
told this story before, andevery time I tell it I always
say I'm never going to say thisperson's name because if they
ever hear it they would just die.
But there was this girl in highschool.
I was just.
I just thought she was the mostbeautiful thing in the whole
wide world and it wasn't my wife, believe it or not and I just
thought you know, Lord, if youcould just allow me to marry her
, I would just be so happy, sohappy.
(18:25):
And now I see her out and I'mlike that girl is a mess, right.
Can you imagine if God wouldhave given me what I asked for
in that moment?
Like, listen, I'm a mess.
Now I can't imagine what Iwould be like if God would have
given me what I asked him forback then, right, because I
thought that I knew what Iwanted.
(18:47):
I thought that I had anunderstanding of what life would
be like.
Listen, I did.
I still don't know what life isgoing to be like.
I still haven't figured it out.
It is different every single day.
When we wake up, we're facedwith new challenges and new
people and we have all of thesethings that we have to
experience.
But let me tell you, I know fora fact that when God pours out
a blessing in my life, that Ihave to be humble, because when
(19:10):
he pours out a blessing, listen.
A couple of weeks ago Ipreached a message and I got
about a hundred people tellingme that was a great message.
Good job, pastor Michael.
It's not me, that is all.
God.
I don't want your praise, Idon't want your accolades.
And the reason that I don'twant it is because when you give
it to me, whoop.
Anybody else like that onoccasion.
(19:31):
Right, it happens because we'reflesh.
I know that when God blesses me, I have to remain humble,
because if I get cocky, badthings are going to happen.
Sometimes, whenever we have ablessing, it makes us think that
we're better than other people,right?
Sometimes we turn into a littlebit of a showboat.
(19:53):
Amen.
How many of us ever been likethat?
Right?
Look what God has done for meoh, he didn't do that for you.
But guess what he did for me?
Oh, he's still doing it for me,right?
Listen, we were at thebasketball game yesterday.
Easton makes a basket and heruns down the court like Curry
I'm like dude, you made onebasket the whole game, you ain't
(20:16):
Curry.
I'm like dude, you made onebasket the whole game, you ain't
Curry, you ain't him, right.
But here's the thing Sometimes,when something good happens in
our life, we get a little bitcocky about it, right, because
being humble is not what theworld would expect of us.
We've got to be able to beflashy, we've got to be able to
show it off.
God has been good to me and so Ineed to show you how good God
has been.
(20:36):
Listen, I can show you how goodGod has been.
By the way I live my life,right.
You know that God has been goodto me because I will give
abundantly.
I will give freely of my time,of my energy, of my prayers, of
my thoughts, my emotions,whatever you need.
I will give it to you freely,because God has been good to me.
Amen.
(20:57):
We strut around like we've gotmore than everybody else.
We believe that that gift fromGod is only resting on us today
and that nobody else hasanything that God has done for
them.
Amen.
And then it turns into a battleof wits.
Well, god gave me X and oh yeah.
(21:18):
Well, god did that for you.
Guess what he did for me.
Anybody have a friend thatone-ups them on everything,
right?
The worst part is thatsometimes they one-up you on the
bad things, like listen, I hadto go have a colonoscopy.
Oh yeah, I got two in the sameday, right?
Am I preaching the truth?
We know people like that, right?
We know people who always wantto do better than we will do.
(21:42):
Let me tell you, god is good,and all the time.
God is so good, so good that Idon't have to compete with you
for the blessings of God.
I don't have to compete withyou for who God is or who he
wants you to be.
He is omnipresent.
(22:02):
Do you know what that means?
He is everywhere all the time.
That's hard to believe, right?
When God is with me at my housewhile I'm playing a game on my
phone in the bathroom.
He is with you in your bathroomwhile you're playing a game on
your phone too, right?
God is with you wherever you go, so long as you choose to take
(22:22):
him.
That means that I don't havesomething better than you have.
I have the same God yesterday,today and forever, and that God
will continue to pour outblessings on me so long as I
choose to live inside of thewill of God.
(22:43):
Listen, I'm going to tell yousomething.
Sometimes I see the tithechecks that my wife writes and I
don't like it.
That's my money, I worked hardfor it, right.
And then I look back and I'mlike, yeah, but if I didn't, how
am I honoring what God hascalled me to do?
Amen, listen, you give all youwant.
I give above and beyond, but Itithe my 10% because I know that
(23:07):
if I want God to continue to begood in my life, I have to be
willing to give him everything.
That means praise and worshipin all things, good, bad or
indifferent.
You know, when I meet somebodyI don't like, I have to be
willing to give him everything.
That means praise and worshipIn all things, good, bad or
indifferent.
You know, when I meet somebodyI don't like, I have to be able
to give it to God, right?
How many of you ever been pulledover and then blamed the cop
that you were going too fast,right?
Yeah, courtney, that's herthing, man.
(23:28):
She gets pulled over threetimes a week.
I don't, but we?
The speed limit wasn't marked,right?
Well, that tree was blockingthe stop sign.
Well, I didn't know the cop wassitting there, right?
We blame the world or we blameother people for living outside
(23:54):
of the will of God.
Listen, there are rules insideof the will of God.
We don't like them.
Why don't we like them?
Because it requires us to beheld accountable for our actions
.
Amen, and listen.
Hell is very real and some ofus are going to end up there
because we choose to liveoutside of the will of God.
I'm not talking just aboutpraise and worship.
I'm not just talking aboutmoney, I'm talking.
(24:16):
Talking just about praise andworship.
I'm not just talking aboutmoney.
I'm talking about the way thatyou serve your community.
How many of you go out and pickup stray cats off the side of
the road?
You don't pick them up on theside of the road.
They come to your house becausethey've all talked to each
other and they know that yourhouse is the only place they're
(24:36):
going to get fed, right?
But here's the thing.
But here's the thing.
The world needs people likeMargie to take care of those
cats, right?
The world needs people to takecare of the children who don't
have anyone to take care of them, amen.
The world needs people to takecare of the hungry and the
(24:57):
homeless.
The world needs all of thosepeople.
But see, we can't say well, godhas blessed me because I'm doing
these things, you're doingthose things because God blesses
you, right?
When God pours out blessings onme, I can't help but give it
away.
I've got so much I don't knowwhat to do with it at this point
.
I just keep giving it away.
God, you have been so good tome.
I want to be good to otherpeople.
(25:18):
Amen.
I want to do good for otherpeople.
It is my passion.
It is my passion to see acommunity that we live in so
riddled with drugs and hate andheartache.
Listen, I know those of you wholive in New York so you don't
like your mayor.
Pray for him.
Please Pray for him every day.
Do you know why?
Because those, listen.
I saw this lady.
She said that she was.
(25:38):
She was praying one day and Godsaid to her who was praying
over your husband?
And she sat there quietly for asecond and she responded to God
and she said I don't know.
And he said exactly Without you, he may not be covered in
prayer.
Without you, your governmentofficials may not be covered in
prayer.
Without you, your governmentofficials may not be covered in
prayer.
(25:59):
Did you guys see that PresidentTrump started a I don't know
what's it called office ofprayer or religion or something
like that, and the purposebehind it was that there would
be regular prayer in the WhiteHouse, so on and so forth.
And my favorite part of all ofthat and listen, I don't care
how you feel about politics myfavorite part of all of that was
(26:20):
when I saw the lady who heappointed, whether you like her
or don't like her.
She speaks in tongues and I'mlike, I'm all for it, let's go,
baby, right, because that meansthat she is filled with the Holy
Spirit and if she is filledwith the Holy Spirit, she can
make a difference in our country.
But can I tell you, each andevery one of you who are filled
(26:40):
with the Holy Spirit can changewhat's happening in your
community.
Amen, okay, we're gettingsomewhere.
Now.
We're getting somewhere.
We might go to 1130.
I don't know.
Okay, where was I at?
Does anybody know?
Yeah, but, like in my notes,does anybody have my notes that
they could bring me up to speed?
Yeah, that's aboutthree-fourths of the page, all
(27:02):
the way down.
Yeah, samson's mad.
Yeah, yep, it seems like that'sa theme, though, right, kind of
starting to think like okay,all right, the last line which
is moot now is the good Lordgiveth and the good Lord taketh
away.
Okay, all right.
The last line which is moot nowis the good Lord giveth and the
good Lord taketh away.
Okay, so Samson is making a betwith the Philistines.
After the nagging and theboohooing of his wife, he loses
(27:24):
the bet, he goes out and hekills 30 men in order to make
good on that deal, right, that'sextreme.
I ain't killed one person, letalone 30 people.
Right, I ain't trying to makegood on any bet that's going to
require me to take the life ofsomebody else.
This is a different time, butstill All right.
(27:45):
He became so enraged at hisbride that he left and went and
lived with his mother and hisfather, leaving her behind.
When he came back, she had beengiven to his best man for
marriage.
Again enraged, he ties thefoxes together, sets torches on
their tails, burns everythingdown.
They were so angry that theykilled the woman and her father.
Guess what?
(28:05):
He's enraged again, he vowsrevenge upon them and ultimately
we find out that Samson marriesDelilah, the love of his life.
Sweet Delilah.
I was going to sing hey,marries Delilah, the love of his
life.
Sweet Delilah.
I was going to say hey, there,delilah, for you.
No, I'm just kidding, we're notdoing that.
Okay, just stop it.
(28:27):
Samson finds himself in a placeof comfort, but Delilah has also
been tainted by the people inPhilistine.
She desperately wants to knowthe secret to his strength and,
because of past experiences, hechooses to lie.
(28:48):
Samson lies to her about whatis the source behind his
strength.
If I'm tied up with brand newropes, then I will be rendered
hopeless, not true?
He gets up and he knocks theirheads together, but she nags and
(29:19):
she boo-hoos and she whines andshe cries, and eventually he
tells her the truth.
And when he did, she lulls himinto a false sense of security,
asleep in her lap, and all ofthe sudden she's cutting his
hair.
And the Philistines show up andthey arrest him.
(29:41):
And when they arrest him,what's the first thing that they
do to him?
Gouge his eyes out.
So now the dude's bald and heain't got no eyeballs and he's
going to jail.
He's going to go thrash wheat.
That's a hard job.
None of us have ever done itright.
I didn't think so.
It can't be easy work.
It's going to be hot and sweatyand probably pretty stinky,
(30:06):
dusty Not a job that any of uswould desire to do.
But we're going to jump toJudges 1628.
Judges 16.28.
Judges 16.28.
Now what's happening is thePhilistines have had a party and
(30:27):
they're all wicked drunk andthey have decided that they want
Samson to entertain them.
And so, as they're walking out,samson asks for one thing Place
my hands on the two pillars sothat I can rest upon them.
And it says then Samson prayedto the Lord, sovereign Lord,
(30:49):
remember me again.
Oh God, please strengthen mejust one more time With one blow
.
Let me pay back the Philistinesfor the loss of my two eyes.
Then Samson put his hands onthe two center pillars that held
up the temple and he pushedagainst them with both hands.
(31:13):
He prayed let me die with thePhilistines, and the temple
crashed onto the Philistinerulers and all of the people.
So he killed more people whenhe died than he had during his
entire life his entire life.
(31:34):
But God is good, and all thetime God is good.
You see, scripture ensures usthat God is with those who are
weak, those who are broken.
He is near the suffering.
And what more can we really askfor?
What more can we really ask for?
What more can we really ask for?
See, if you choose not to askfor prayer or if you choose not
(32:00):
to receive healing, I have toask is it because you're broken?
Is it because you're tired,you're weary, you're weak?
Well, let me tell you Abrahamwas old.
Elijah was suicidal.
Joseph was abused.
(32:23):
Job went bankrupt.
Moses had a speech problem.
Gideon was afraid.
Rahab was a prostitute.
Jeremiah was known as theweeping prophet.
David was a murderer, jonah ranfrom God, naomi was a widow,
peter denied Christ three timesand Lazarus was dead.
He was dead and God still usedhim.
God did not just say oh,lazarus, you're dead, you will
remain dead.
God said Lazarus, come out.
(32:47):
And what did Lazarus do?
He came out because God is good.
Are you excited that God isgood and all the time God is
good?
Now let me tell you something.
Let me tell you something Godwill use the broken to do the
greatest things, because God isgood all the time.
(33:10):
Now, many of you have been ledto believe that God is not using
you because you're too old oryou've done something that isn't
pleasing.
But in reality, if we're beinghonest with each other, it's
because we only want God to useus in our gifts.
We only want God to use us whenwe're on the mountaintop.
We only want God to use us inthe things that we know we are
(33:32):
good at.
Amen.
I don't operate well in theprophetic.
I don't.
It's not my gifting.
We're standing in the prayerroom this morning and Pastor
Holly says Michael, pastor,michael, whatever you've, she's
never called me Michael, it'salways Pastor Michael.
Let me correct that.
She says to me what do you gotto say?
(33:54):
I can see it all over you.
And I said we're going to dosomething different.
We're going to go straight intoministry time this morning and
she spoke back to me.
That was exactly what I hadseen all week.
See, that's the prophetic, andI just have to allow myself to
operate in it.
When God says to Amen, it isnot my strength, but that
doesn't mean that God won't useme, and I just have to allow
(34:16):
myself to operate in it.
When God says to Amen, it isnot my strength, but that
doesn't mean that God won't useme.
It is not my strength, but itdoes not mean that God won't use
me.
You're sitting in your seatthinking I'm too old or I
haven't done enough serving.
I haven't done this for God.
God's never told me to blank,god's never asked me to whatever
.
But let me tell you something.
That's not why you're not doingit.
You're not doing it because youare so focused on yourself, you
(34:38):
are so focused on your giftthat you want God to operate
inside of that gift versusgrowing you, stretching you,
making you stronger in thespirit, amen.
I'm gonna tell you something.
I've learned the hard way thatthere is never comfortable when
you're living inside of theSpirit, when you're inside of
the will of God, there is nosuch thing as comfortable.
There isn't, because when youget comfortable, he pulls you
(35:01):
outside of that.
He doesn't want you comfortable.
Because if you're comfortable,you're not growing.
If you're not growing, you'renot creating disciples.
Amen.
I don't want to grow a churchfull of sleeping people.
I want to grow a church full ofpeople who are on fire for what
God is doing in their life, notjust your life, but the life of
the person you're sitting nextto.
You should be able to look atthe person sitting next to you
(35:21):
and say God is good all the timeand all the time.
God is good and you shouldreally mean it.
You should say whatever he hasdone for you today, I pray that
he will double it tomorrow.
You should say whatever he hasdone for you today, I pray that
he will double it tomorrow.
I pray that he will quadrupleit the day after that and that
by the time he is done with you,you have gotten all of the
things that your heart couldever desire, rather than looking
(35:44):
at that person and saying, well, why did you get a new car and
I didn't.
Why did God give you this and Ididn't get it?
Listen, the life of a Christianis not compared to the next life
of a Christian.
My walk is different than yourwalk, your walk is different
than the person sitting next toyou, but I promise you that God
is good all the time and all thetime.
God is good, whether you likeit or not.
He is going to continue tobless those who live inside of
(36:08):
his will.
But here's where we really getdangerous.
We don't want God to expose ourweakness to the world.
We don't want him to expose ourfrustrations.
We don't want him to expose oursins, because if he does that,
then we're accountable for it.
Right, if I have a weakness inthe prophetic, I have no problem
(36:31):
telling you that.
Why?
Because my hope is that you'repraying, that my heart will be
open to whatever prophetic wordGod would give to me.
When I stepped into this pulpitearlier and I was telling you
guys about all of the thingsthat were living around in my
head, that wasn't me.
Those things don't come from.
I'm not smart enough to thinkthose things.
I know I'm not.
(36:55):
God doesn't just put the wordinside of me.
He doesn't just say hey, pastorMichael, read this passage.
He says I'm going to give thisto you and I'm going to allow it
to grow inside of your mindAmen.
But if we're not willing topick up the word, the seed will
never be planted.
Because, see, you come here andyou listen to me and you hear
me for 45 minutes or an hour orwhatever I may ramble on for,
(37:15):
and then you walk out of hereand you do nothing with it.
Let me tell you that God wantsto do something big in your life
.
Maybe not for you, maybe forsomebody around you, but he
needs to use you as a vessel.
He needs to use you as.
Are you willing?
Here I am Lord, use me.
Here I am Lord, use me.
(37:39):
How many of you pray in thattoday?
Here I am Lord, use me.
Now, here's the thing.
I need you to understandsomething, dan when you pray
that here I am Lord, use me.
He is going to use you in yourbrokenness.
He is going to use you in yourweakness.
Have you ever been put in aposition where you're like I
can't do that, but somehow youmanage?
It's because God is good andall the time raising them right.
(38:08):
You know I need you guys tounderstand that when we come in
here on Sunday mornings, I don'tcome here to beat you up.
I don't come here to tell youall the things that you are
doing are wrong.
My hope is that when I'mpreaching and when I'm
delivering an anointed word,that you are hearing, that God
is speaking to you Maybe not mywords, but the scripture somehow
is resonating inside of yourheart and you're going.
(38:30):
I want to take a hold of whatGod is doing today.
Amen, I don't want to just hearit, I want to live it, I want
to take it, I want to run withit.
I really want to be invested inwho Jesus Christ is in my life.
Amen, because I'll tell you,god is bigger than anything that
I could ever come against.
God is bigger than anythingthat I could ever come against.
(38:59):
God delivered Samson in a waythat is just bizarre for us to
think about.
Such a story, isn't it?
Such a story, such a propheticstory?
But let me tell you that Goddoesn't do anything by accident.
When he allowed Samson to becaptured, he knew that he was
setting him free.
I am free in the mighty name ofJesus.
There is nothing in this worldthat can capture me, that can
(39:23):
make me its slave, because I ama follower of Jesus Christ, the
one and only who can set me free.
Amen.
Let's pray together.
Father, I just thank you and Ipraise you for a word that
rested in this house today.
Lord, I pray that you just giveus a desire to get further into
(39:45):
your word and to justunderstand just how good you
really are.
Lord, I thank you for theblessings that you've poured out
upon your house today, for thehealing power, father, those who
had a touch of their body todaythat they're leaving this place
whole and complete, and, father, that they will understand just
how good you really really are.
(40:06):
Father, this isn't about us.
It's not just about what youcan do.
It's truly about who you are.
Father, I thank you and I praiseyou for all of your goodness.
Father, I pray that youcontinue to move the lives of
your people In this building andbeyond.
(40:28):
Father, god, that blessingswill just continue to be poured
out.
I pray for every pastor ofevery church in our community.
Father, as we're moving into aseason of Lent, that we would
just understand that there is agreat gifting inside of our
community.
Father, I pray that you justlift them up, give them a
discerning of spirits.
Father, just allow them to bejust fired up for who you really
(40:50):
are.
Father, I thank you and Ipraise you.
I give you all the honor andglory in the mighty name of
Jesus.
And the church says
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