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12 Aug 2012

The Christian’s Danger Zone
  • Topic: Bible, Bound, Christ, Christian, CHRISTIAN LIVING, Comfort zone, Delilah, God, Hand, Hear, Life, Lord, Ordinary, People, Philistines, Samson, SPIRITUAL GROWTH, SPIRITUAL LIFE, Strength, Strong, Tells, Walk

Overview

Sermon Transcript

Alright, today I want to speak on a very famous man, probably one of the most famous men in history. You mentioned his name. Everybody has heard of that name, believer, unbeliever, probably most people will even have a picture of him in their minds. And probably most people, if you ask him a question, “What is he famous for?”, will give you straightforward. The answer is he was the strongest man that ever lived. The Bible tells us this man was awesome. One of the first things he did, early part of his life was a lion, a young, vigorous, strong lion attacked him. And the Bible tells us, he tore the lion up, like a lamb chop, like just no big deal.

Now another story of him. And all these are true stories. This is not Hollywood. This is not some dramatization. These are real things that happened. He was trapped in a city. And the city officials locked the gate, you know, the big, massive gates that keep enemies out. Heavy lumber, strong beams at the side, the Bible tells us this man decided that at midnight, he want to leave the city. What do you do? He simply shook the gate out of its foundations, lifted the gate with the posts full of big things. And you know, you think like, you know, those Olympic guys, they just have one big bar and a few plates at the end, and they wildly stagger and hold it as if they're so strong, and then they dump the thing on the floor, because they can hold it for like three seconds. The Bible tells us this man lifted this gate, the beams, probably a couple of tons. And he just walked, walked, had a little stroll, went up to a mountain and then said, “Oh, okay, I think I just put this down.” Now this guy was awesomely strong.

Another time, the Bible tells us 1000 guys surrounded him, possibly with spears, with swords, with clubs, the whole lot. And he had to fight these 1000 men. And all he could find around him was the jawbone of a donkey. It's not a massive, wonderful war instrument. Probably just made his fist a little bit bigger. He took the jawbone, and the Bible tells us he killed 1000 of these guys. Wow. It is not like Bruce Lee with technique nunchaku, Rambo with a you know one of those machine guns, nothing of this sort. He wiped out these 1000 guys. At the end of it, the Bible tells us he said to God, I'm thirsty. It's not like I got slash here, I got cut here, got bashed up there. He said, I'm thirsty. The greatest damage that he had at that time was, he was thirsty. 1000 people.

And finally, one of the last things he did was he push two big pillars down that held up this massive stadium of 3000 people. Imagine going to HDB flat and then the whole flat comes down. We know the name of this man is Samson. Everybody knows Samson. People use the name, the picture: strength. The bag I use for 20 years in the mission field was a Samsonite. It lasted 20 years, carried every conceivable hymnal and everything. Once I had 50 hymnals in that bag, and it held up. Samson, you say, “What's that got to do with you and me?” So, alright, he's the strongest man in the world. Super strong guy. How was he so strong? Was he like, wow, replicant muscles, you know two meters tall? The Bible never describes his physical being, nothing about his muscles, his frame, his confidence. It only describes one physical thing about him, what was that? His hair, he had hair up to here. In fact, he was an ordinary looking fella I guess, ordinary looking guy. And if he walked by here, say, what a girly looking guy, he is kind of a feminine, long hair. The only thing we know about him is that long hair. He probably was so ordinary and how in the world did he become the strongest person? The secret is there. “And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, came mightily upon him.” (Judges 14:6) He was strong because not of himself but of the Spirit of God. Another verse tells us again, “the spirit of Lord came mightily upon him” (Judges 15:14). So, we know his strength was not from anything that he inherently had. He was Mr. Ordinary, until the Spirit of God came upon him, mightily.

You know, Samson is a picture of you and me, ordinary guys. When you become a Christian, your face doesn't shine brighter. You don't get more beautiful, stronger outwardly. You're ordinary, exactly. like everybody else. But, like Samson, we are not ordinary. In fact, like Samson, we're not even like Samson. Samson compared to us, is nothing. He waited for the Spirit of God to come mightily upon him before he became special. The rest of the time, he was very ordinary. Read Judges 13 to 16, four chapters on his life, four chapters, very few events that we see where he was super strong. The rest of the time is very ordinary, 20 years, you could count the number of times that the Spirit of God came mightily upon him, as far as we know, of course, maybe some parts and some events are not recorded in the Bible. But as far as we know, you could count them on the fingers of your two hands. In other words, in 20 years, he was mighty only a couple of times, when the Spirit of God came upon him. You and me, are far, far potentially stronger than Samson. The Bible tells us, we don't wait for the spirit to mightily come upon us. The day you receive Jesus as your savior, the day you trusted Christ on the cross, the day you looked at the cross, and you saw the Christ, your Savior hanging there for your sins, and you trusted him as your Savior. You know what happened? The Spirit of God did not come mightily upon you, the Spirit of God came mightily into you (1 Corinthians 3:16) and never leaves you.

Compared to Samson, if we had to compare Samson with other people, Samson was like that. The rest were somewhere crawling on the floor in terms of strength, the Olympic champions or whatever. But compared to Samson, you and me, are way beyond Samson. Because not of you but because of the wonderful promise of God, that when you receive Christ, you not only got a ticket to heaven, but most of us also think of Christ as a ticket to heaven, how sad. Christ is only good when you die. For many people, Christ is only useful to you on your deathbed. No, when you receive Christ, you receive Christ as your partner for now. Potentially, every one of us is way, way stronger than Samson. But really speaking, practically speaking, the average Christian is a weakling, he's a loser. So often, people ask me, “Doc, I need someone in my office. Can you get someone for me? Yeah, I need someone for this role, this position.” “So yeah, this person in this church, she's in between jobs, she can do the job.” You know what the Christian employer says to me, “Oh, please, Pastor, she’s a Christian?” I say yes. He says, “No, no thank you very much.” Like what? You don't want a Christian? It’s not once, it’s not twice, many times is like, give me anybody except a Christian. How sad. What a shame. But that's the truth. On one hand, we see first Corinthians 3:16 says, The Spirit of God dwells in us. The same spirit that came upon Samson once a few times in his life, is in us, the same Spirit of God. And yet we are so weak. How can it be? This seems to be a dichotomy. It seems to be like it doesn't make sense. We have the Spirit of God, and we can’t overcome our temptations, we can’t overcome our anger, we can’t overcome our ignorance, we can’t overcome our everything we overcome. How's that so? Let's look at another verse and this may help us.

Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now”, if you have pens, if you use those electronic things, underline “now”, “the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Alright, let's look at this verse a little bit and I hope you will leave this place as Samsons, better than Samson. I am crucified with Christ. Before I was saved, any challenge I had, anything I had to do, I relied on I, well, I can do this. I've done it before. I have the experience. I have the friends. I have the resources. I, I, I don't know how many times you heard me say I am that but now after I became a Christian, I is taken, brought to that cross, nailed there. Put it this way, it is on the shelf. No big deal.

No need that much. I am crucified with Christ. I'm still alive. How do I function now? What do I do? Nevertheless, I live. I got things to do you know, I can't be sitting on the shelf there. I can't be hanging out. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. Now when I face a challenge it's not about me. Me is very very small in the equation. It's about Christ. Yet not I but Christ.

Alright, so I hope you see now as you have received Jesus as your Savior, as you face life's challenges, it's not about you. Right now, I say listen. If you're tired, you slept late last night, you watch something, Olympics or whatever. And wow, you are going to fall asleep. This guy is boring. And what do you do? Put toothpicks in your eyes. Or you say, Lord, sorry. I watched too much last night. Your strength, your strength, yet not I but Christ. It is about Christ. Right? How do you get Christ involved? The life which I now live in the flesh. How do you live this life now? Now in this room, how do you live this life? How can you get the most out of this message? How can you leave this place without saying, I zoned out? Or I didn't understand this guy. How are you going to do it, now? I'm not talking about I received Christ 10 years ago, I received Christ 15… I'm not talking about then; I'm talking about now. The life which you now live in the flesh? How are you living it? By your will power, I'm going to stay awake, keep up. Or are you going to say, “Lord, your strength”? It's not about God somewhere up there, Lord, can you hear me now? I need strength. All the strength you need is in you. All the wisdom you need to understand this guy is in you. Now, all you need to do is to say, “Lord, your wisdom. I don't quite get this. I don't quite get Galatians 2:20. I read it 20 times, this guy is explaining it again and again. But your wisdom please.” What are you doing? The life you're living now in the flesh. What are you doing? You're living by faith, in Christ. And then as you're listening to me, this guy next to you is irritating, he is playing computer games. This guy is your son I'm talking about, right? And you say, I'm going to kill this guy. And then, “Lord, your patience. Lord, your skill to help me to deal with this, at the right time.” The life which I now live, now, in the flesh, how are you living it? By yourself? Then you are a weakling. You will be overcome. But if you live it by the faith in the Son of God, not the Son of God somewhere up there, hopefully he hears me, hopefully drops some wisdom on me. But the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me, not only on the cross, but into my heart.

How are you living your life now? By yourself? Ignoring Christ, who lives in you? You know if I want to insult you. If I have this evil bone in me that wants to insult somebody, what is the best way to insult them? Stare at him? The best way to insult him, is ignore him. He's there. Five people around him. You talk to all the five except him. You say hello. Hi, John. Hi, Mary. Hi, Tom, as if he's air. He’s there but he's not worth your attention. He's not worth anything to you. He is less than air. You know, that is the best way if you want to hurt somebody. Jesus lives in you. Why does he live in you? He's short of a place to stay? He stays in you because he wants to partner you. He's like saying, “Hey, I'm here. I can give you wisdom. I can give you strength. That's why I'm here. And you ignore me.” Not one day. Imagine if I ignored you for one full day. Imagine your wife is there and says, “Can I cook for you? Can I help you with this?” A day, a week, you ignore your wife, a month? 20 years? How long have you ignored Christ in your life? The Christ who lives there and wants you to put your hand in his hand, he wants to walk with you. He didn't just come to get you a passport to heaven. Christianity is about relationship with God. Not a religion. This wonderful God who made me, wants a relationship with me, so much so he died on that cross, so much so he lives in me. And you know what my response to him is? Ignore him.

Hebrews 11, verse 6, says, “Without faith, it's impossible to please God.” You can please God if you have no knowledge. You can please God if you're dumb. You can please God if you have no talent. You can please God with almost nothing of it. And yet without faith, you can't please God. How's your life? Now? Where is your hand? Still in God’s hand? Now, are you saying, “Lord, I'm irritated with this message. This guy is pushing me. Help me. Your obedience, Lord.” God, I am now looking and saying, “I think this guy next to me needs this message.” That's our favorite tactic in the sermon. I preached on wives, all the husbands will tell their wives, did you hear that message? Now preached on your husbands, all the wives ask their husbands, did you hear that message? Every message is for somebody else. And then you sit here and say, this message. I want to deflect it. Then you put your hand in the Lord and you say, “Lord, it’s about me. Help me to accept this. Help me to realize I ignored you. I treated you worse than any person around me that I know of.” You know God wants the hand of yours in his hand. Sometimes you drop it. Come back again. The life which you now live in the flesh, how are you going to live it? By faith. Faith is about simply trusting him to help you. In whatever challenge you face.

Now. You can't do it if it's not a habit. When a crisis comes, straight away you meet the crisis with your strength. You know, we have good habits. I think, I hope most of us have this habit of brushing teeth in the morning, right? If you don't have that habit, a phone call comes and says you're late for church, you run right out because you have a challenge to meet. But if you have a habit, you can't leave home till you brush teeth. Even if it's a quick brush. We develop habits. Parents tell us it is important to develop good habits. Never leave home without brushing your teeth and washing your face. Never face life without your hand in the Lord. A kid hangs on to the Lord, to his daddy, he is safe. He drops his hand, runs around, gets lost, quickly comes back, and puts his hand again. That's what we should be in the zone. Always in the zone where our hand is in his hand. I hope today you have your hand gripping the Lord’s hand. And every time you see it drop, and you sort of wander, lost and helpless, quickly, grab back. The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in Christ. Your Holiness Lord, temptation comes, your holiness. You see somebody and you have no love for that person. You can't generate love, you can't. You can't say, love the guy come on. You can say Lord, your love. Just like the way you saw the cross, and you say, Lord, Your forgiveness. Simple as that, once and for all you went to that cross, you ask Christ to forgive you, once and for all, only once for all because it's everlasting, everlasting, don't need to be repeated. But I'm sorry when we're talking about now. Now, is moment by moment, the life which I now live is your hand in the Lord. Alright, so I hope today, you will make a habit of getting in the zone, walking with the Lord. And you'll be mightier than Samson. Anytime, any challenge, anything the Lord wants you to do. You put your hand in his hand, you will do it.

Right, so I hope today, you will understand this verse. The life which I now live in the flesh is all about faith, faith, faith, faith, faith in Christ. Without this faith, faith, faith, faith, you can't please God. Some people look at life like, “Oh, I don't smoke, I don't drink. I have never beat my wife. You know, I have not committed a lot of bad things.” The commonest sins. In fact, the only sin that will get you to hell is lack of faith. The biggest sinner in the world has murdered many people had come to the Lord and trust the Lord, wipes all his sins away. It's faith. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world. Alright. So today, I hope you will be in the zone. Every time. Poor Samson was in the zone a couple of times in 20 years when he could max out. You and I can be in the zone all the time. All the time and beat Samson’s. Alright, go to the mirror today, look at yourself and say I can do more than Samson if I walk in faith.

The Christian’s Danger Zone

Okay, so now let's move on to the other zone, which is the dangerous zone. Right, Samson fell into another zone and that was the danger zone. If you have your Bibles, if not just read from here. Story about Samson and Delilah. Everybody knows this story, okay. It's been in movies, every kid knows this.

“And it came to pass afterward that he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. And the lords of the Philistines came up unto her and said unto her, entice him, 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 1100 pieces of silver.

And Delilah said to Samson, tell me I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lies, and wherewith thou might be bound to afflict thee. Samson said unto her, if they bind me with seven green withs, the word means tendons, animal tendons, right, used to make strings, that were never dried, then shall I be weak and as any other man. Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven green withs which had not been dried, and she bound him with them. And there were men lying in wait, abiding with her in the chamber and she said unto him, the Philistines be upon you, Samson. And he just broke the withs as a threat of tow is broken when it touches the fire. So, his strength was not known.

And Delilah said unto Samson, Behold, thou has mocked me, and told me lies. Now tell me, I pray thee, wherewith thou mightest be bound. And he said unto her, if they bind me fast with new ropes that were never occupied, then shall I be weak and be as another man. Delilah took therefore took new robes, bound him therewith, and said unto him, the Philistines be upon you, Samson. And there were liers in wait abiding in the chamber, he breaks them off his arms like a thread.

And Delilah said unto Samson, Hitherto thou has mocked me and told me lies, tell me wherewith thou might be bound. And he said unto her, if thou weavest the seven locks of my head with the web. And she fastened it with the pin, and said unto him, the Philistines be upon you, Samson. And he awaked out of his sleep and went away with the pin of the beam and with the web.

And she said unto him, how can you say I love you, when thy heart is not with me? And thou has mocked me these three times, and has not told me wherein thy great strength lies. And it came to pass when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death. That he told her all his heart, and said unto her, there has not come a razor upon my head, for I have been a Nazarite unto God, from my mother's womb. If I be shaven, then my strength will go from me. And I shall become weak and be like any other man.

When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines saying, come up this once for he has shown me all his heart. Then the lords of Philistines came up to her and brought money in their hand.

And she made him sleep upon her knees. And she called for a man. And she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head. And she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him. And she said, the Philistines be upon you, Samson. He awoke out of his sleep and said, I will go out as at other times before and shake myself. And he knew not that the Lord was departed from him. And the Philistines took him, put out his eyes, brought him down to Gaza, bound him with fetters of brass, and he did grind in the prison house.

And it came to pass, when their hearts were merry, that they said, call for Samson, that he may make us sport and they called for Samson out of the prison house, and he made them sport and they set him between the pillars. And Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand, suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house standeth that I may lean upon them. Now the house is full of men and women and all the lords of the Philistines were there, and there were upon the roof about 3000 men and women that beheld while Samson made sport.

And Samson called unto the Lord and said, O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes. And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand and the other with his left. And Samson said, let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might, and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were there in so the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life. Then his brethren and all the house of his father came down, took him, brought him up, buried him between Zora and Eshtaol in the buryingplace of Manoah his father. And he judged Israel 20 years.” (Judges 16:4-31)

Alright, you know the story. Just quick refresher. He fell in love with Delilah. Now when a guy falls in love, his head falls off. Right? Always remember that. People tell me pastor, come and talk to my daughter; she has fallen in love with this guy. I say no use to talk, no head to talk to. You want to talk to a guy? Do it before the head falls off. Right? That's why it's fall in love, right? This guy Samson fell in love with Delilah, the enemy. Samson was raised by God to defend the Jews, the Israelites from the Philistines. Delilah was a Philistine. And so, when the lords saw how much he was in love with Delilah, when the Philistine rulers saw that, they said Delilah, let's make a deal. I'll give you this huge amount of money and you find out where the secret of his strength is. So, she, wow this was a good deal, huge amount of money. And so, she tried to get the secret out.

First time he says, you just tie me with these 10 animal tendons, and I sure gone already. So, she's all excited. She ties him, and he's probably asleep. He's probably sleeping something like that, and somebody comes in ties his hand, he probably felt it. But what's the big deal? It’s a joke, I know even if they tie me and even if she's wicked, I'm just going to break free. He did it once. Second time, he said tie with new ropes. Same thing tie with new ropes, he breaks free, so she's getting agitated. He said okay okay next time I tell you something more, tie my hair. His hair is probably up to here, right? If you don't cut your hair forever, it’s about there probably. So, weave my hair into a weaver’s loom, and then I'm gone, once you weave my hair to the weaver’s loom. And she said the Philistines be upon you, he gets up the whole loom collapses with him, he walks out and he's still strong. He was confident God was with him. Finally, she nags him to death. And he tells the secret. Now he's vulnerable. He's totally vulnerable. Number one. He's in enemy territory. And this girl, I think is determined to get this secret out of me, right? I mean, she's been nagging me day and night. She must be the CIA spy of the Philistines. I mean, she's like, determined to get it out of me. So here he was aware that he was in real danger.

Now I want you to turn and see verse 19. And she made him sleep upon her knees. And then she called for the guy and shave his head off. Not snippet at the ends, shaved his head off. Would you wake up if someone shaves your hair? This guy had a lot of hair, seven locks. He could have you know, most girls have two braids. He had seven. Have you had a mosquito go into your hair by mistake? Sometimes mosquitoes get lost in your hair, and then it's like, funny things just try to escape from your trap. And you wake up. Here you are. Aware it is life and death. You are in enemy territory. You have given the secret. The Bible didn’t say he was drunk. The Bible didn't say he was totally exhausted. He fought 1000 guys that afternoon. He was fast asleep because of what? Because of the comfort zone. He was so comfortable on her knees that he didn't want to wake up. I'm not saying he didn't know he should wake up. I said that he just wanted to hang in there a little longer.

Have you ever had this when your alarm rings? And you're on this lovely pillow? Under this lovely blanket? And the alarm rings and what do you do? I know a guy who missed a major exam because he didn't get up not because his alarm didn't work. Not because he was deaf. Not because he didn't know there was an exam that day. He was in his comfort zone. He didn't want to get up, he probably said another five minutes, went over and never got up. I know a lot of you mothers understand this completely. Your kids don't get up. You can't understand it. How come we buy bigger and bigger alarm clock, wakes everybody up except that guy? How's that so? Because that person is in his comfort zone. And let me tell you the comfort zone can be a danger zone. Now, obviously Delilah lap won't be my comfort zone. If you forced me to go to Delilah’s lap, what am I doing on Delilah’s lap? I can’t sleep the whole night, I get insomnia. But don't worry. Satan can design a customized one for every one of you. Frankly, he has already designed it. All of us have our comfort zones. Don’t get me wrong, we need comfort zones. I need a pillow alright to sleep. But when a comfort zone becomes a Danger Zone, when a comfort zone becomes so beautifully addictive, the word is addictive. You don't want to leave it even though you know there is a price if you don't leave it.

And many of us have our comfort zones. Computer games. Your mother can talk to you, can scream at you, can nag at you, but you didn't hear. You will quarrel, you will fail your exams, everything, but it doesn't matter. I am going to play this game. Twittering. You are on Twitter, and you twitter all day, and nothing matters. You Twitter, you Facebook, you do whatever. And you are just there. The world is cut off. Your family relationships are gone. Your studies are gone. Your prayer time is gone. Everything's gone. But you are addicted. You know something? I'm not afraid of you guys falling into an addiction that is visible. Like one of you if tomorrow comes and smokes around here. Let’s say Pastor Jason tomorrow decides he's going to walk around smoking right? Cigarette or marijuana whatever. First, his conscience is going to go “why are you doing this? You're a pastor.” And then he's got 1000 guys going, “Pastor What's up?” That's enough alarm bells to wake him up out of that. But there's comfort zones where there are no alarm bells. Your parents tell you what you twitter all day? What's wrong with twittering? What's wrong with computer games? It is a harmless game what, you can't go to jail. I have not heard anybody go to jail for playing computer games and 1000 guys from church go, what are you doing? No. And yet, you are addicted. You won't leave it for anything. TV. Average American watches TV five hours a day. Father goes home, plops in his chair, Singaporean will be OSIM chair. Sits there. No communications with wife next to no communication with his kids, his family life is collapsing around him. Everything is collapsing. Never reads the Bible, never prays, never helps anybody just sit for hours until bedtime and then go sleep. For women is serials, Korean serials, whatever serials. You don't like Korean, then come another one Mexican, you know Mexican, Italian. There will be a comfort zone for you folks. Now, don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with a comfort zone if it's not addictive. If at any time you can say alright, enough, stop. We need to do something more important. That's fine. We need comfort. We need rest. But we don't need addiction. Don't let your comfort zone be your addictions. Then it becomes a danger zone.

Let me tell you, it can be the church, can be anything. Can be a nice clean toilet bowl, “Pastor, I feel led to go to missions.” “Wow. Praise God. Where do you want to go?” “How are the toilets there?” It is not how is the mission field, “How's the toilet?” Your comfort zone is die die I must have this beautiful, clean white toilet. I can sit there and read my newspaper. Got hot water or not? I like hot water. I bathe in hot water. But I don't want to be addicted to hot water. I like clean toilets. I don't like dirty toilets. I'd be weird if I like dirty toilets. But I'm not addicted to a toilet. God helped me, I don't want to be addicted to a toilet. Maybe it's better addicted to marijuana. You know, many will never leave to do anything for God, because of the grip. Spiritual things can be a comfort zone. All of you, you like your gang, every week of fellowship, the four or five of you. And every Sunday you go into fellowship, fellowship, and then another guy comes in a brand-new guy, you should just stop for a minute and welcome him say hello to him. But the fellowship is so shiok, so nice. “Who’s that guy?” This is fellowship, man, this is better half. This is prime time. This is spiritual, you know, this is two seven. It's addiction. Bible studies. Some people are Bible studying themselves to death, never evangelize, never do anything. They're going to study Bible studies. One cycle after another, from intermediate, advanced, post grad. Their comfort zone is theology. Better than having to go out and reach a real human being with the gospel. That's a comfort zone, I know a lot of pastors are in their comfort zone, telling me that they are serving God in that zone. I said, you’re not serving God. You're stuck in that comfort zone.

My friends, I don't know what your comfort zone is. But let me tell you, you probably have one specially designed by Satan for you. I hope you will enjoy your comfort zones. I hope you will realize though it's enjoyable, there is a danger. Don't get trapped in it. Let's look at verse 24. Very sad. When Samson had his eyes gouged out, he was a pathetic scene. He was blind, staggering away, the grinding wheat, like an animal, like a draft animal, like plowing the ground. He was a joke. The man who used to serve God, defend God's people, now is like a bullock, like a bull or buffalo. And then he's brought before the Philistines. And see this in verse 24. “When the people saw him, they praise their god, for they said, our god delivered into our hands our enemy, the destroyer of our country, which slew many of us.” (Judges 16:24) You know when we fail to do what God wants us to do, when we get stuck in a comfort zone, we lose our power, we lose our usefulness, we lose our wisdom. We shame our God. Christian? Look at his life, he calls himself a Christian. How many people have said that about us? Call himself a Christian. Better work for a non-Christian boss. Shame your God. Last time I worked for a Buddhist, better than working for this boss now. Shame your God, not you. Be careful.

God wants us to glorify Him. He gives us the strength to glorify Him. He gives us His Holy Spirit to glorify Him. And we are either out of zone or we are addicted to our Danger Zone. May God help us. I want a church of Samsons. God wants to see a church of Samsons and by God's grace we can. We can live that victorious Christian life. It's not about me. It's not about you. It's all about Him. All we need is to put our hand in His hand. God, let’s go, in your strength, in your wisdom, in your patience, in your love, in your forgiveness, in your whatever. Let's go, Lord. Keep making sure your hands are there, don't drop it. And be careful you don't get stuck in addiction because there are many addictive things out there especially designed for you. May God help us, GLCC, church of Samsons. Morning, Samsonite church. Why not? Why Samsonite bag? A Samsonite church, all possible. Will you? I want. I want that for my life. My one life. I want to make it count. God bless you.