God loves you.

1August 1, 2010

If you are already His childHis child, born of His Spirit,

He loves you and wants to bless youbless you.

If you do not yet know Himknow Him as Savior and Lord,

He loves you and wants to save your soulsave your soul.

He wants to save you from the dominationdomination of sin and its destructionsin and its destruction;

He wants to save you from hellhell.

Judges 16 1 Then went Samson to Gaza, and sawsaw there an harlot, and went in unto her.

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The devil knows your weaknessyour weakness too;

He knows minemine.

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He knows what baitbait to use for each person.

He's an evil and cunning adversary.

Never underestimate him.

2 And it was told the Gazites, saying, Samson is come hither. And they compassed him in, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, In the morning, when it is day, we shall kill him.

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Proverbs 19 (NIV) 21 Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's Purpose that prevails.

Proverbs 19 (TLB) 21 Man proposes, but God disposes.

Matthew 10 27 What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. 28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear HIMHIM which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

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We must speakspeak what the Lord gives us, without fearwithout fear of what man may want to dowant to do to us.

God is well able to protectprotect those who love and fear Him, or to take ustake us to be with Him in HeavenHeaven.

3 And Samson lay till midnight, and arose at midnight, and took the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and went away with them, bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of an hill that is before Hebron.

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Why would God empower Samson in this situationsituation?

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He is hanging out with the Philistines, the enemies of God.

He has hired a prostitute for illicit sex.

He loves the world and the women of the world.

We might thinkthink that God would be willingwilling to let him dielet him die in the midst of his sin.

But GodBut God had a Plan and a had a Plan and a Purpose for Samson.Purpose for Samson.

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He was chosen by God to harass Philistines, as the Philistines had harassed Israel.

God knew Samson before he was born.

God knew that he would have strengths, and knew that Samson would have weaknesses.

But Samson was born for a purpose, and he will fulfill that purpose.

Samson was a tool in the Hand of God.

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We touched on this last week, but I want to pursue it this morning.

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Samson was often Samson was often usedused of of God, but seldom God, but seldom blessedblessed..

He would have accomplishedaccomplished so much more, if he had lived his life as a righteousrighteous man of God.

If he had led Israelled Israel to war against the Philistines, they would have been defeateddefeated.

Instead, Samson lived his life his own wayhis own way.

He accomplished somesome things, but was nevernever blessedblessed in all that he did.

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Hebrews 12 1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let uslet us lay asidelay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run run with patiencewith patience the race that is set before us,

4 And it came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.

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Samson could always be trapped by the wiles of a beautiful woman.

2 Timothy 2:26

Delilah means "devotee" so she was probably a temple priestesstemple priestess, and they were prostitutesprostitutes.

5 And the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and said unto her, Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lieth, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him: and we will give thee every one of us eleven hundred pieces of silver.

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6 And Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee.

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Delilah is a tooltool in the hand of the devildevil.

She is a seducerseducer.

Proverbs 2 10 When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; 11 Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee: … 16 To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words;

vs 7-14 Three LiesThree Lies

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1 Bind me with 7 green withs (leather bowstrings never dried)

"I will be as any other man."

2 Bind me with new ropes, never used.

"I will be as any other man."

3 Weave my hair into the fabric on your loom.

"I will be as any other man."

Each time Delilah tried what Samson said, and each time he easily escaped.

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Samson is playing with fireplaying with fire, and the last lie was getting

close to the truthclose to the truth.

The devildevil, his servantsservants, his pleasurespleasures, and allall that he has to offerhas to offer are all seducersseducers.

When we flirtflirt with the world, we place ourselves in danger danger of being seducedseduced,

And caughtcaught in the devil's snaredevil's snare.

GodGod has admonished us in Scripture to love and embraceto love and embrace

WisdomWisdom, , UnderstandingUnderstanding, and , and DiscretionDiscretion..

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1 Timothy 6 11-12 But thou, O man of God, flee these things (things of the world); and follow afterfollow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

People who are constantly backslidingconstantly backsliding into sin are those who missmiss the Truth in this Scripture.

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They fleeflee from or give upgive up or lay downlay down their sins,

But they fail to embracefail to embrace righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.They don't fight the good fight of

faith.They try to just remain in neutral,neutral, and they roll backroll back into

the sin that they laid down.

To live for God, we have to livelive for God.