Beware of Spiritual Amnesia, Part 7

Samson, a man whose strength became his weakness. Here's Dr. Michael Yousef beginning this episode of Leading the Way Audio. Up next, a reminder that grace and mercy and God's redemption is always available. This is Leading the Way with pastor, author, and international Bible teacher, Dr. Michael Yousef.

Are you new to Leading the Way? Well, you can learn more about Dr. Yousef and ways to join him in passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth when you visit ltw.org. Right now, though, a challenge to beware of spiritual amnesia. From Judges 14, we saw in the last message that Samson tempted God when he went to Timna, four miles away. That's where Timna was from where Samson lived.

And this whole experience of going to Timna and all the misery that was caused in Timna ought to have been a warning for him to stop tempting God. But in chapter 16, here in the book of Judges, we see him this time going to Gaza. Do you know how far Gaza was? 40 miles.

You got it? When you don't stop at four miles, you go 40 miles. When you don't stop at Timna, you'll end up in Gaza. And you know what I'm talking about.

You see, Gaza was a lot like Las Vegas of our day, except what happened in Gaza did not stay in Gaza, especially if you were Yahweh's man. And before you sit there and say, man, I'm not going to do this. This is not me. He might be talking to somebody else. And I just want you to listen to me because so many Christians, so many committed Christians fall in Samson's temptation subconsciously.

We do. Just listen to what I'm going to tell you. When you are blessed by God, when your business is blessed by God, when your family is blessed by God, when God blesses you materially, when God blesses you professionally, you are at a very dangerous point. You say, you mean there is danger with blessing?

Absolutely. Every time you are blessed by God is a time of danger. I'm going to tell you why. Because you begin to think to yourself, because God has blessed me in all these external things, therefore what I do privately, what I do morally, what I do inwardly, what I do secretly, what I do in my heart is not important to God. After all, look at this. God has blessed me.

Look at the externals. They're all going well. God must be pleased with me. I must be favored by God.

I can do no wrong. That is a temptation that every believer is susceptible to. Look at others. They are suffering, but I'm not.

Look at others. They are in trouble, but I'm not. Look at these business people. Some of their business is really, really in deep, deep trouble these days, but I'm doing well.

Look at these people. Their life is in a mess, but my life isn't, and therefore God must be pleased with me. God must be favoring me. God obviously does not care about my indiscretions.

Oh yes, he does. That is why it's dangerous kind of thinking that so many believers fall into. That's exactly what got Samson into trouble, because he kept using God's strength for his own. He kept using God's blessing to get himself out of trouble. He kept using God's blessing to serve his own purposes.

They said, oh, God must be really happy with me. So what I do with my private life, obviously, is not important to God. Look at verse 1. 16 verse 1, the book of Judges.

I want you to read it very slowly and very carefully. Now Samson went to Gaza, and he saw. Can you say he saw?

Don't miss this. Don't miss the role that his eyes played in leading him into sin. In chapter 14, he went to Timna, and he saw a woman, and he came home, told his parents, get her for me.

I want to marry her. Now he goes 40 miles away, and he sees a Philistine prostitute, and he gets her for himself. He didn't even consult anybody. Those are the very eyes that got him into trouble. With the very eyes that were gouged out by his enemies. What was Samson looking for in Delilah? Was he looking for mutual love? Was he looking for caring relationship? Was he looking for self-sacrificial commitment?

No. He was looking for instant gratification. And my beloved friend, if you have spiritual eyes, and you look around our society today, probably there is no time when people have been more desperate in finding personal value, in finding personal esteem, in finding personal worth, in finding unconditional love like we see today. And you know what?

That's great. We are created in God's own image, and these things are fine. We were created by God to love and be loved.

And that is why just about all the ministries that goes on in this place, in this church of the apostles, all week long are designed to bring believers into a community where they love and be loved. And that's why what our society did in meeting those needs is the most horrendous, horrendous disaster. Because people seeking value, they seeking worth, they seeking esteem, they seeking unconditional love where?

In power, in sex, and in money. Our culture has abandoned God. Our culture has abandoned the joy that can only come from knowing God. Our culture has pursued a mirage of happiness instead of the pure joy of the Lord. Our culture has abandoned the very source of pure water, searching instead for that salty water that can cause us endless thirst.

And as our civilization is dying of thirst, the living water is crying out and say, come to me, come to me, come and drink and be satisfied. For only in Jesus you can find your worth. It's only in Jesus can you find your esteem. It's only in Jesus can you find unconditional love.

Come and drink. It was dangerous for Samson even to enter through the gates of the city into Gaza, let alone spend the night. Oh, but Samson used God's strength for selfish purposes. He took God's grace and God's blessings for granted. I want you to hear me right on this one. Because when we keep on using God's blessings on ourselves and not his glory, when we keep using the vast majority of all his resources and blessings on ourselves and not his work, the day of reckoning is coming.

It may be already here. I told you in the last message that Samson to me is a very depressing character. And I really mean that.

I mean he really is. To me personally, because of the paradox, here's a man, a brave man who could tear a lion with his hands but he could not control himself. A strong man who can break the fetters they bound him with but he ends up in prison blind because he could not control his appetite. In the Old Testament the gates of a city were a symbol of its protection. The gates of a city is a symbol of its economic prosperity because all of the business has been transacted at the gate of a city. And he who possesses the gates of a city is a metaphor for he who can defeat the enemy. And that is why Jesus in Matthew 16, 18, he said of the believers, of his children, of the elect, of the church of Jesus Christ, those who belong to him, he spoke about how the gates of hell will not defeat the church. He was giving us a word picture of the victory of his church over Satan and all the evil forces. And when he rose from the grave by his resurrection he stormed the gates of hell and he gave us the victory.

And the victory is yours now for claiming. Amen. And that is why Satan knows he cannot destroy the believer but he delights, he takes joy in seeing a believer defeated. You see Satan loves it when believers tempt themselves into sin. Satan, like the Philistine, he waits until we are deep in sin and then he moves for the kill.

And because the believers are protected by the blood of Jesus Christ, Jesus said no one can snatch him out of my hand. Because we are protected by the Holy Spirit we can overcome again and again and again when we repent. God gives us the strength to shake ourselves up from our failures and our sin. God longs for us to learn from our failures, to be renewed by his strength. God generously restores us again and again. He overlooks and he overrules our failures and sin because he wanted us to learn from our sin. He wants us to grow through our failure.

If we persist, if we persist, then he allows us to drink the bitter water of the consequences, of our persistence. And now in the beginning they said the Philistines want to kill Samson but they really didn't. You see that in action, they didn't want to kill him. You know what they wanted to do?

They wanted to do exactly what Satan wants to do in you and in me today. And that is they wanted to neutralize him. They did, they really wanted to neutralize his power. They wanted to neutralize his strength. They wanted to neutralize his effectiveness for God.

They wanted to neutralize him on his impact for God. And because the believer is guarded by the hand of God for all eternity, what Satan works for day and night, 24-7, is trying to neutralize your effectiveness for Jesus. He's trying to neutralize your impact for Christ. He's trying to neutralize your testimony for Christ. He wants to neutralize your power that you have with Christ. And when Delilah kept on nagging him about the secret of his strength, Samson should have put his sneakers on like Joseph and ruined. He might have lost his coat but he would have been better off. That's exactly what Joseph did.

Now here's the problem. The strength was not really in the hair. Did you know that? The hair was just a symbol. The strength was not in the hair. Not cutting the hair was not a magic thing.

No. It was an outward representation of inward obedience. It was an outward sign of an inward covenant with God. It was an outward expression of his inward dedication and being a Nazarite for God. And that is why when we break our vows to God, we are weakened spiritually. And we can weaken spiritually every time we break our vows. When Delilah got Samson's hair cut, God removed his strength. Because the secret of his strength was God, the Holy Spirit. And when Delilah got his hair cut, God removed his strength. And every time I go through the Bible and I get to Judges 16-20, and I tell you as God my witness, my knees shake.

And I literally want to go on my face before God. Here she is. After she lulled him to sleep, I had the Philistine shave his head. Here's what she said, verse 20. She said, the Philistine are upon you Samson. And so he walked from his sleep and said, I will go out as before as other times and shake myself free.

And here it is. Look at the rest of the verse. But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him. Another scripture is clear that he never leaves us nor forsake us, but his strength can depart from us when we persist in sin.

When we persist in disobedience. When we persist in breaking our own vows and breaking the words of the scripture. No wonder the New Testament warns us again and again and again, do not quench the Holy Spirit. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. If there is a silver lining at this whole sordid affair, if you can call it that, it was that Samson's hair in prison while he's grinding just like a bull or a donkey.

During that time, here he is blinded, grinding away, but his hair grew back again. And I've heard non-discernant Christians would read something like this and say, why did God do that? Why did God permit this? Why did God not stop this from happening? Why did he allow this to happen? If I tell my grandson, don't touch the fire, don't touch the stove, don't touch the stove.

And then he does and he gets burned. Is that my fault? Did I do that?

No. God didn't do that. Samson did this all by himself. Where was God? Yes, God was there grieving over Samson's sin.

Here's the problem. There are many people who want to tempt God again and again and again and then they don't want to pay the consequences and they want God to protect them from these consequences. When his word is so clear, Beloved listen to me, sin has consequences.

Say it with me. Sin has consequences and the only remedy for the consequences of sin, the only cure for the consequences of sin and it's revealed from Genesis to Revelation, it is through the blood of Jesus Christ. The only cure for the consequences of sin is repentance and confession and turning to the Lord.

It is placing the sin under the blood of Jesus. But if we persist without repentance, God allows me to experience the consequences of my rebellion. Sadly, Samson had learned this lesson the hard way. In fact, after his tragic suffering as a result of his pride and his sin and tempting God again and again, we see him here as a new man.

I mean, if there's a silver lining, here it is. Look at verse 22. In fact, there's one word, the first word in verse 22, However, we see however here means that a new and significant turning point in Samson's life has taken place. Although he was down, but he was not out. Although he failed, but he was not forsaken. Although he's been humbled and yet he was not crushed.

However, his hair began to grow again. Thank God for his grace. Thank God for his grace. Thank God for his grace. And the Philistines foolishly thought with Samson's defeat, Yahweh is defeated and Dagon gets the glory.

Wrong. Dagon was an idol that they worshipped in Gaza because their coastal city and it's a body of a fish, shape of a fish with a head of a man and a hand of a man. Weird stuff. They were giving him the glory.

But you know what? I honestly tried to put myself in Samson's place at that moment when he's seeing 3,000 Philistines screaming and shouting and all the leaders in the temple giving glory to Dagon. And I tried to put myself in his place and I can only imagine how Samson was feeling, how low he must have felt at this point.

I can imagine how he must have felt the pain that went through him. A man who's supposed to bring glory to Jehovah, but because of his sin, he gave his enemies the chance to glorify their false god. See, when the Philistines were sufficiently drunk, they began to drag the name of the Lord into the mud. But beloved, listen, God cannot be mocked. God cannot be mocked. They sent for God's man to come and entertain them. But the final scene of the drama, just like the final scene of life, it was when Samson took hold of this wall bearing pillars of Dagon's temple.

He grabbed them in his hand and he pulls the whole structure down, destroying all of the Philistines. Without a doubt, the Bible said he led for 20 years. This was his finest moment in all of his 20 years. This is his finest moment. This is his greatest moment. This is the moment of his greatest strength, spiritual strength in this whole saga.

You say, why? Because when you listen and read his prayer, it is the clearest evidence of him depending on Yahweh alone. It is the clearest evidence of him coming to the end of his resources. It is the clearest evidence of stopping to confuse God's strength for his own and claiming it for himself. It is the clearest evidence of fully trusting in God himself, not in the blessings that God has given him. And so he calls upon the Lord who is so faithful to his promises even when we are not. And dying, Samson brought more glory to Yahweh than living. Samson is not only a warning for all of us, he's a warning for the next generation who are facing different and greater temptations probably than our generation. It is a warning that flirting with sin and popularity, it is a warning that flirting with that which is contrary to the word of God, that flirting with a watered down gospel, that flirting with compromise in life would only bring tragedy even if it takes 20 years. There may be someone here today who feels that you feel you're so stripped of your strength.

Don't waste it. God wants you to examine yourself. God wants you to come to grips of what have brought you to the dungeons of Gaza. God wants you to do self-examination and the reason why God wants you to do that is because he wants to rise you up again, is because he wants you to rely on his strength again, because he wants you to trust him again, because he wants to forgive you and restore you again.

One of the most chilling statements in the Bible, he did not know that the Lord had departed from him. You're listening to Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. Perhaps you would like to have a conversation with a Leading the Way pastor or a counselor about your spiritual journey. Well, just start by visiting ltw.org slash jesus. In these remaining moments, allow me to share a little about the on-the-ground teams that we mentioned, specifically those ministering in difficult Muslim areas. Muslim background believers are people who grew up in Islamic regions and they were educated in Islamic ideology until they experienced a dramatic, life-changing personal encounter with Jesus. Through churches and also strategic underground relationships, Leading the Way partners with some of the most committed Muslim background believers who then become part of Leading the Way follow-up teams. And as they talk candidly from personal experience with those seeking to know more about Christ when they listen or watch Leading the Way, they bring faith-altering words to those whose heart has been touched by the Gospel. As part of the Open Door campaign, Leading the Way is poised to expand the Gospel reach to Muslims in the Middle East and beyond. And the door is still open for an introduction to Jesus. But the time is short. Stand with Dr. Yusuf today.

Be a part of changing the lives of Muslims in this life and for eternity through media and through passionate ministry teams. Walk with Dr. Yusuf through the Open Door when you call us at 866-626-4356 or ltw.org. Tell us how you connect when you get in touch. ltw.org or 866-626-4356. Or we love hearing from you through the mail. Drop us a postcard or write us a letter. Leading the Way, Post Office Box 20100, Atlanta, Georgia, 30325. This program is furnished by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Yusuf. Connect with us via television, YouTube, Facebook, X, and all of our social networks.