TRANSCRIPTION | Sunday, January 30, 2022 | Meaningful Connections Series | Samson’s Second Prayer

 

Pastor Eric:

So I've had the, uh, privilege the last few weeks of preaching within the vein of a meaningful life. And I shared last week, and I'll reiterate this week that we are now transitioning into a new series, entitled meaningful connections. And I suppose today's message would fit within either of those veins. Um, but last week we talked about Samson and how that, even though the Bible revealed Samson to be one of the strongest men to have ever lived, uh, he is only recorded as having prayed on two occasions. In fact, the Bible tells us more about his conversations with Delilah than it does about his conversations with God. And I think that that is a, a real reason as to why his story ended, the way that it did. The Bible shows us, uh, Samson's life from birth all the way to death and things didn't go so well.

Pastor Eric:

Even though he was extremely gifted and God's power touched his life. Many times there was some real issues in regards to purity and integrity, and ultimately they would cost him more than he desired to pay. And so last week we talked about the first prayer this week. We're gonna talk about the second prayer that is recorded in his life. It's in judges, chapter 16, it's verse number 28. It says, and Samson called to the Lord saying, oh Lord God. Remember me. I pray strengthen me. I pray justice once. Oh God, that I may with one blow, take vengeance for my two eyes. Heaven father helped me to preach, help me to teach, help me to share your word in a way God, that is memorable. And also God, in a way that provokes each of us Lord through the help of your holy spirit to take our next step in you, you, whatever that might be, God lets your kingdom come, lets you will be done and push back darkness with the light of your word in Jesus name.

Pastor Eric:

And this church said, amen. Amen. I heard the story of a pastor who received a phone call from a young lady. And she asked him to go and visit with her father who was battling an illness. And so the pastor up on arrival, he didn't really know, uh, the father's background. He didn't know if he was saved or professed Christ or claimed to be a follower of Jesus. But as he began with the man, it became pretty obvious. This guy loves Jesus. This guy's a Christian. And as they continued their conversation, the pastor couldn't help. But notice that there was this chair that was uniquely positioned in the home, it seemed a bit odd to him. It stuck out to him. And so as the conversation continued, he eventually just asked the man, could you explain to me what that chair right there represents? And the man explained, he said, now I'm, I'll tell you, but you have to promise me that you won't tell my daughter because if you tell my daughter, she's gonna think I'm crazy.

Pastor Eric:

And the pastor said, well, you definitely have my curiosity peaked now please share. And so the man said years ago after I first, uh, professed Jesus, I struggled to pray. I, I, I, I struggled to be able to feel like that I was communicating effectively in my prayer life. He said, so I saw counsel and asked for advice and someone recommended to me that I just take an empty chair and that when I would go to pray that I would just envision that God's presence was in the room with me. If nowhere else than in that chair, he said, and as I began to pray in a way to where that I treated God, like one of my very best friends, I went from hardly being able to pray at all to talking to God and God talking to me for hours. The pastor was intrigued and blessed by the story he left.

Pastor Eric:

And the man continued to battle with his sickness. Some time passed and the, the man actually passed away. The, the pastor called the daughter to check in, see how she was doing, how she was dealing with the grief and to ask about the passing of the man <affirmative>. And, and so the daughter shared that the sickness had taken its toll and that it had taken his life. But there was one odd thing about his passing. She said, pastor, we don't know really how to make sense of it. She said, we found him in the middle of the room, bowed with his head laying over in an empty chair. And the FA the hu the pastor at that time was unable to share the story with the daughter of there's no doubt that he was leaning on his savior. He was laying his head in the lap of his Lord. When you read the story of Samson, you discover a man who repetitively laid his head in the lap of the wrong chair. So intriguing about Samson that repetitively in his life, he is spiritually up. And then he is spiritually down one minute. It seems like God is using him in a profound way. And the next moment it seems like he is so far from God.

Pastor Eric:

I think it's because he lived a prayerless life. And the fact that he lived a prayer list, life directly impacted the meaning of his life. That's right, because when, when anyone that studies scripture, whether you're a new student of the word, or you're a scholarly student of the word, when you go to the life of Samson, you quickly learn that there's more to learn about what not to do than there is to learn about what to do Samson. But first the subject to prayer, you know, I was reading this week, just some different like people who were known for prayer, people who lived significant lives, people who lived meaningful lives and traced it back to prayer. And here's what some of those folks had to say, Cynthia Lewis. She said this, if your day is himmed in with prayer, it is less likely to come unravel.

Pastor Eric:

Can I get an amen from somebody? Amen. Uh, another, uh, em, bounds. He wrote a great book on prayer. He said, this God shapes the world by prayer. The more praying there is in the world, the better the world will be. And the mightier, the forces of God against evil Elizabeth Elliot. She said this prayer lays hold of God's plan and becomes the link between his wheel and the accomplishment of his wheel on earth. Charles Stanley, the great pastor in Atlanta for years on the radio, I think now approaching his mid eighties, maybe his he's known for prayer. He made this statement an unschooled man who knows how to prayerfully meditate upon the Lord has learned far more than the man with the highest education who does not know how to pray, pray. So it's absolutely bewildering to me that Samson this who was touched by God with so much power.

Pastor Eric:

This man who is so supernaturally gifted, didn't pray. And now he teaches us through his life. That if you choose to live a prayerless life, your gift has the chance to take where your character is not prepared to keep you so over and over again, in Samson's life, his gift took him somewhere that his character was not prepared to keep him. And the result of that is that the meaningfulness of his life would be negatively impacted over and over again because he chose to and not be a person of prayer because he didn't pray. He continued to wind up in the wrong place with the wrong people at the wrong time. That's right. The storyline of Samsung's life goes something like this. His mom was barren and she really wanted a kid. And she pleaded with God. She begged God, give me a child. And God did upon learning that she would have a child, an angel actually appeared to not only her, but also to her husband.

Pastor Eric:

And let her husband know that the family was going to be blessed with the child. They were so blew blessed by this, that they decided if God's gonna give us a child, we're gonna make sure God knows that we're grateful for this child. And so we're gonna go into a covenant with God about this boy before he's even born. And so the family enters into a covenant with God about how this child will be raised and how child will be developed and how this child will be led as long as he's in that home. The problem that develops in Sam's life though, is that even though his parents were very close to God, he never developed his own individual personal relationship with God. And one of the things that his life does show us is the power and the of praying parents. But it also shows us that ultimately every single individual must come to their own personal relationship with God.

Pastor Eric:

That's right. And sometimes if we've been blessed with praying grandparents or praying parents or praying guardians, that, that we, we, we learn sometimes the hard way that we gotta have our own personal relationship with God. If we're going to avoid the ultimate pitfalls that the enemy has planned for us, you know, when you look at Samson's life, wrong place, wrong time, wrong people over and over again. It is never more evident than when he starts hanging out with a woman named Delilah. He meets her not long. Evidently after the story that we talked about last week, he has this first prayer and he's really thirsty and he's really exhausted. And the Bible says, God gives him a revival type experience. Well, right after that, he went and hung out with a har for a while. And after that didn't end so well, he finds this lady named Delilah and he starts visiting her repetitively and the Philistines who were the enemy of Samson.

Pastor Eric:

And God's people, they, they hated Samson and they realized we have to get rid of Samson. So when they found out he was hanging out with Delilah, they went to visit her. And so some soldiers showed up with Delilah and they offered to bribe her. They offer her 1100 pieces of silver. If she will investigate how it is that Samson has the strength and then betray him. So Samson is back to visit Delilah again. And she starts quizzing him. The scripture implies, there's been a moment of intimacy, and now they're in the pillow talk and she starts quizzing him. How is it that you're so strong? How is it that you're so mighty? How is it that God's power keeps showing up in your life? Unlike anybody else's life and Samson thinks it's funny. And so he tells her, well, if you were to tie me with a specific kind of rope, I would never be able to get free from that. And I would be defeated when Samson wakes up, guess what? He is tied with those ropes. And as the enemy comes in to try to grab him and apprehend him, the Bible says he shakes himself and he instantly snapped the ropes. And he was victorious now, right about it. Here is where I have to ask some questions.

Pastor Eric:

Has she not just proven that there are some issues like, has she not just made it clear that something is off with this whole relationship and yet Samson keeps going back and here's what Samson's life also shows us lust will make you stupid. Some of you look back at some of the stupidest decisions you ever made in your life, and they are directly connected to lust. Recently, I've had friends at the national level that have made decisions that I'm like, are you stupid? And then I realize, oh, I know what that is. That's lust. Lust has a way of making you ignore the consequences and overlook all of the things that are gonna go wrong as a result of that decision. Really? When you think about out it, the, that when you think about lust, it's not just something that happens illicitly in a bedroom, but lust is also what makes addiction work. It's the lust of the flesh. It's desiring a feeling that you do not presently have and is attained outside of God's wheel for your life. And that's why when people start to wrestle with addiction and maybe it's even something you personally have wrestled with, you look back and you're like, man, that was stupid. And man, that wasn't smart. And man, what was I thinking? It was a desire that the enemy was catering to in your life. And, and when you look at Samson, you are like, how could he be so stupid lust?

Pastor Eric:

It's the same answer for our own lives, but not just that he's dealing with lust or wrestling with lust. It's, it's also this thing that Samson never really seems to have had a manifestation or an impartation of discernment in his life. You know, the, the Bible tells us in a new Testament that when the holy spirit shows up in your life, that he can gift you with many things. And it teaches us that we are to pray for the best gifts. I was just a young guy getting started in a ministry. And my dad, he, he strongly encouraged me. He said, Eric, when you're praying for God to put his gifts in your life, you need to put the discerning of spirits at the top of the list. And you need to pray that God would allow you to be able to discern when the enemy is up to something by, and to be able to Z discern when God is up to something good.

Pastor Eric:

And you need to pray for supernatural insight into God's plan and the devil's plot, because here's one of the things you'll learn in life names and faces change, but personalities you the same. And over and over again in your life, you're gonna meet the same people in a different package. And when you begin to operate in the discerning of spirits, you got Delilah at hello, cuz you've met Delilah before. And so when you're interviewing that employee, you're not is going based off of what the answers to the questions are. You have a discernment that only God could put in your life. And you're like, oh, I know you you're, BUA, we're calling you Roberta this time, but you were BUA last time. Who am I trying to help this morning? It's when you step into that relationship. And it's not that you've developed the have to fault finding because it may be that God reveals to you that that is a kingdom connection. That that is a divine appointment, but it could also be that God reveals to you that you've struggled with people who operate in that spirit before. And so now you need to be extremely cautious. You need to be extremely careful, but because SSON does not operate in discernment because he is not operating in the discerning of this spirits, he's not trying the spirits. So he doesn't know who he's laboring among or whose lap he's laid his head in. And the impending result is he keeps going back until he eventually breaks covenant with God.

Pastor Eric:

You know, a part of his covenant that his family had agreed to on his behalf is that he would never cut his hair. It, it was a part of what was known as the naite vow or the Nazari covenant. Uh, many people believe that Jesus, because he was from Nazareth may have also been a part of the Nazarite vow. And so part of what happens with Samson is he tells her that it's the covenant, that's the secret to his power. It's its this thing that keeps him connected to God in a way that aligns with God's will for his life. And, and so when he wakes up one morning, the seven locks of his hair are gone. They, they have been shaved off. And so what happens is the enemy runs in and they grab a hold of him. And scripture literally says he shook himself as at times before and knew not that the spirit of God had departed from him.

Pastor Eric:

It may be the saddest verse in the entirety of the old Testament. He shook himself as at times before and knew not that the spirit of God had departed from him. You can read the Bible front to back over and over again. And the thing you'll learn is that God rarely does anything quick. Especially if it involves distancing his power or his authority from someone's life, God tends to move gradually. That's why the new Testament, the words of Jesus says that people's love waxes cold. It's a gradual effect. And Samson was so accustomed to that. When he got into trouble, when he got into a problem, he would just shake him self woo Jesus <laugh> and then he would feel power and everything would be okay. Again, he just ran to the altar again, you know, and everything will be okay again. Cause he's got this thing going for him, mama and daddy pray.

Pastor Eric:

And when he needs something, mama and daddy's prayers are having an effect in his life. But he's finally arrived at a place where there is a distance between him and God that is happening. And he's not aware of it because he's so used to God's bailout plan. And this time when he shakes himself, he's actually apprehended and he's headed for really bad news because he didn't know that God had been departing from him. And the result is, is that he winds up in prison. And the way that his prison sentence operates is that when the king of the enemy wanted to be entertained, he would call for Samson and they would bring SSON out. And we don't know if he was the court J we don't know if he was the puppet master. All the Bible says is that he performed for them. He performed for them.

Pastor Eric:

It tells us that God views performance as a prison sentence, God has something more for you than living life behind the mask of theatrical hypocrisy. And so some of us, we live a lifestyle of performance. We go to work and we perform, but the sad reality is as many of us, we also go home and we perform because we've been one thing all day, but now we're something else at home. There's others of us that he, even when we're in religious settings or spiritual settings, that we just step into this attitude of performance, where we appear to be something other than what we are. The thing that really concerns me about Samson is the Bible specifically says his hair had become begun to grow back. That means that the covenant was beginning to be restored in his life, but he's still dealing with this prison and it's, and I can't help, but wonder if, even if it was in a mocking tone, did they require him to perform some elements of strength, even if it was just for mockery?

Pastor Eric:

You know, if we're not careful in the modern church world, and maybe this is one of the issues with modern Christianity is it can so easily become little more than a concert venue with a motivational spin motivational speech that happens to have a God slant. And ultimately we begin to settle for performing for one another. Never realizing that the spirit of God has depart from the scenario and we're all living in religious. So what we have to do is we have to make sure that we're not falling prey to, to that lifestyle of performance. But here's my thing. Like, let's say the strength is beginning to come back. Let's say the hair is growing back. Let's say there's some element of, of the covenant that is being restored. How is it that they are able to keep Samson apprehended? Like how is it that he is not able to get loose? How, how is it that he just stays in the? Why, why is it that he can't get free again?

Pastor Eric:

And the Bible tells us that when the Philistines captured him, after they cut off his hair, the first thing they did was they plucked his eyes out because they knew if his strength came back on the way from Delilah's house to the prison, it would never matter if he couldn't see what he was swinging at. And it doesn't matter how strong you are. If you can't see the target you're aiming for. And that is why the Bible tells us through the prophet prophetic UNC of Solomon in Proverbs 29 18, that where there is no vision, the people parish. And I would venture to say that if there are any of us that have been choosing to live a life without discernment and living a life without vision, then in some way, shape, form fashion, we do not have meaning for our life. And we have become nothing more than performers and God's plan for you and me is that we would operate in discernment.

Pastor Eric:

And that, that would be downloaded to us through a prayerful life. And not only do we get to operate in discernment, but we get to maintain a vision, cuz we're not in the wrong place with the wrong people at the wrong time. We're with the right people at the right place at the right time with the right plan. And we're avoiding and we're side and a lot of the enemies mess. Then we get to keep a vision for our future. So when the strength is in our life, we can see what we're swinging at that's. So it leads us to the second prayer. It leads us to this moment where that, that Samson is once again, just performing he's once again, just going through the motions of being a little more than an entertainer. He here is the ridicule. He hears the mockery, but he's become accustomed to it. But on this particular moment, he, he hears a voice that's that's different. He, he hears a voice of a young lad. And when he hears the voice of the young lad, this is a part of his mockery. They took the strongest man on the planet and they're leading him around with, by a child. And there's nothing he can do about it because he can't see anything blind spiritually and physically blind, no vision for his life.

Pastor Eric:

And he says to the boy, amen, this performance is wearing me out. Like I'm really tired. Could you just gimme something to lean on? Like maybe the pillars of this place. And the Bible says that the boy took Samson's hands and put them on the pillars and Samson real. He was in a strategic spot. And maybe if he would cry out to God, he could end all of this performance. And in another moment of desperation, the man started praying and he prays Lord. Remember, or me? That means it's been a while, but thank God. There's a history. God remember me.

Pastor Eric:

I don't know, man. Sometimes it just strikes a chord. Remember me, God, I used to know your power. I used to know your authority. I used to know the feeling of your spirit. I used to know what it was to be anointed by you remember me? What a prayer and actually mean it. God, I know it been a while. God, I know there's distance between you and me, but God remember me and God could. I feel your strength, your power one more time. Can you, you imagine being so desperate to experience God that you would say, if I could just have it one more time, just once, just one more like true power, God, true anointing, true authority. One more time. God strengthened me and God while you're doing it. I only got one mission.

Pastor Eric:

Aven, mine, eyes. He did not say God vindicate me for the humiliation. He did not say God vindicate me for the time that I've been incarcerated. He did not say God vindicate me for all the wrong that they've done to me. And all the things they've said to me. He said, God, Ave mine eyes, God make the enemy pay for every day that I have spent without vision, God make the enemy pay for every day. Every moment that I have had, I have not been a able to see what you prepared for my future and my destiny and my purpose. God avenge my eyes. And scripture says that he took down more of the enemy in his death than he did in all the rest of his life, combined all because he fi finally prayed the right prayer.

Pastor Eric:

God give me vision. I don't know how many days you've been without vision. I don't know how many moments you have settled for being a performer rather than a warrior. But I can tell you this. God responds to the humble, heartfelt faith, filled prayer of somebody who will say, remember me, strengthen me and God avenge mine eyes. And I can promise you on the other side of that prayer, you get to do more in your latter days than you ever did in your former days. As the enemy gets pushed back and beat up and the kingdom of heaven is advanced.

Pastor Eric:

And so I'm gonna invite them to just play some music softly. And I invite you to think through this with me, I think that this gives us a picture of Samson's life. There's um, this story of a family that was visiting Niagara falls and, and they're watching as these, these big beautiful birds would land on the broken ice and they would float on the ice and they would see the fish and they would start diving for the fish. And, and what would happen is as they would ride that ice, they would get right to the edge and ride. As the water plunged over Niagara falls, those birds would lift off and be spared family watched. He said, this particular bird he's floating. And he keeps trying to get the fish and he keeps trying to get the fish and he keeps trying to get the fish. And, and all of a sudden the ice is right at the edge of the falls. And he realizes that just at the last moment. And he starts trying to lift his wings and he tries to fly away. But instead the water takes him and his life was destroyed. And what had happened is he had been on the ice for so long fishing around that. He didn't realize that his feet had become frozen to the ice and it cost him his life.

Pastor Eric:

That is Samson in the lap of Delilah fishing around trying to find fulfillment and not realizing Samson. This time you've stayed a little too long. It's time to invite God, to bring ultimate meaning to our life, by depositing discernment in our heart, by keeping our vision free from the enemies intent and allowing us to continue to operate in a power and an authority that has an effect, not just for our good, but on behalf of God's will, I