Hello Everyone,

Some have no vision. They are negative, pessimistic folks who tell you why it can't be done or shouldn't be done.

They often think of themselves as 'realistic', but God wants to take us far beyond reality and the natural to the supernatural!

When the steamboat was invented it was set for a first trial in the Hudson river, and they say a man on the banks stood there saying, "They'll never get it going." Over and over again he repeated this, until it started moving, at which time he promptly changed his tune to, "They'll never get it stopped!"

Helen Keller, "Worse than being blind would be to see, yet have no vision."

Some have lost their vision. They once had it, but they let it go. Maybe they were hurt, discouraged, or grew too comfortable.

Only one thing is worse than having less, and that is settling for less as the norm. Apathy is a killer. And they say ignorance is bliss. What's the difference between ignorance and apathy? I don't know and I don't care!

Don't settle. Don't settle for less. Don't settle for less than God's best!

And don't give up. If something in your life isn't what it used to be, don't give in and forget about the fact of what it ought to be, which is probably even better than how it used to be!

Some have no vision, and some have lost their vision...
Some have limited vision.

One of my favorite speakers is Zig Ziglar and he tells of a motivational speaker who drew great crowds and charged $30,000 a speech. He was invited to a convention of businessmen. He used a 6' blackboard and a piece of chalk for an illustration. He made a dot in the middle. "What do you see?" he asked a man on the front row. "A dot." He proceeded to ask the entire front row what they saw, and they all answered the same. It drew on quite monotonously and in impatience each next one asked would just say, "The same." "A dot." "I see what everyone sees." At the end of the back row after the final answer the speaker said, "Herein lies your problem. Each of you sees the same little dot, and not one of you sees the 6' blackboard waiting for so much more to be written upon it."
That was $30,000! But if they got the message it was worth it. We must see the big picture!

Oh How He Loves Us!

Pastor Phil

Hello Everyone,

Victor Frankl was a holocaust survivor who used to travel and speak about how he survived the concentration camps. He would say, "You are the reason I am alive." They were baffled, because

they had never seen him before. "I have seen you a thousand times," he would say. He then went on to explain how he would dream of the day when he would stand before crowds and tell them how he survived. Day after day he would watch comrades lose their hope and the next day they would die. Truly, where there is no vision the people perish!

Warning! Don't be discouraged if not everyone sees or understands your dream. Some will not be able to see beyond here and now. Some are in such a survival mode they can't even listen to what you are saying.

In a Peanuts cartoon--Charlie Brown says, "Lucy, look at my hands. Think of the potential in these hands. Someday these hands may heal the sick, someday these hands may build mighty bridges, someday these hands may change the destiny of mankind!" Lucy responded, "Charlie, your hands, they have jelly on them."

You know what God has put in your heart and don't let anyone steal that from you. So we see the definition of vision: A Perfect Picture.

Vision is the vehicle that will take you places. It is the key that opens the door of opportunity.
Thomas Edison, "Show me a man who is perfectly satisfied and I'll show you a failure."

Let me show you some people who had no vision.
"Everything that can be invented has been invented." Charles H. Duell, Commissioner of the US Patent Office, 1899
"Sensible, responsible women do not want to vote." President Grover Cleveland, 1905. Can you imagine saying that today?
ill.--one man said something like that to his wife, and she said, "How would you like it if you didn't see me for a few days." He said, "I'd like that just fine!" He later reported, "The first day I didn't see her, 2nd day, 3rd day, then on the 4th day I could see her just a little when the swelling in my left eye went down."

"There is no likelihood that man will ever tap the power of the atom." Nobel Prize Winning Physicist Robert Milligan, 1923


Lord Kelvin, 1855, "Flying machines heavier than air are an impossibility."

In contrast, when Walt Disney was alive he had the vision of Disney World. But he died before it became reality. At the grand opening his surviving wife was an honored guest on the platform. The M.C. said to her, I just wish Walt could have seen it. She replied two words: “He did”.
He was the first man ever to see Disney World, before anyone lifted the first finger.

Vision is the driving force that will take us where we need to be. Not where my life is, but where God wants my life. [Family / Marriage / Church / my ministry / business]

Vision is the key that starts it, and the spark that ignites it, and the gears that get things rolling! Vision is the vehicle which will drive you to your dreams! What is vision? Perfect Picture. Why is it so important? Provides Passion!



Oh How HE Loves Us!

Pastor Phil

Hello Everyone,
First let’s look at The Definition of Vision.
From the Hebrew, chazon, which has 3 meanings:

• Open Revelation. People perish if there is no open revelation. Aren't you glad you have the full, open revelation of God in your hands?

• Dream. Not like a dream you have in your sleep, but as in, an aspiration. Your 'dream home' is what you would have if money were no object. A young man talks about his dream girl...she's the one he would pick if, well, you know, if he didn't look like he did!

If people don't find something to live for that's bigger than them, some aspirations, they are going to perish!
• Mental picture. The ability to see in your mind's eye the way things ought to be. Not where am I at now, but where do I want and need to be.

Merge the 3 together and you need God to give you revelations, and reveal to you what aspirations and dreams you should have, and give you the eyes / vision to see it, and show you how to make it reality.

It is the perfect picture.

What does perish mean?
This is the Hebrew para, which also has 3 meanings: to become naked, zero or barren, to go backwards.

So, putting . Prov. 29:18 all together now we see that if you have no mental picture, you will go backwards, and amount to nothing!

We must have goals, visions, and dreams!

It all starts between the ears. We need the mind of Christ. That will give us the perfect picture.
Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Right behavior is preceded by right thinking. You've got a brain, use it! And the opposite is just as true. Wrong behavior doesn't just happen; it is always preceded by wrong thinking.

It all starts in the mind with a mental picture of where we need to be...not our own brain's desires, but with the mind of Christ, the vision of God!

What the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve!

Proverbs 23:7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: (KJV)
Let's be like Nehemiah. Let's get a clear mental picture of what God wants for you, your family, your church, your life!

Oh How He Loves Us!

Pastor Phil

Hello Everyone,

VISION! It is the #1 distinguishing mark of a leader. It is what causes leaders to rise to the top. It is what separates leaders from followers.

Leaders understand the value of vision.

Nehemiah 2:17 Then I said to them, "You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace." NIV
v. 17 Nehemiah said, you guys see broken down walls and charred gates, but I see new ones surrounding a sparkling city filled with much happier people.

How did he see that? With his mind's eye!

The Bible says we walk by faith, not by sight. This means that we have a vision, not of the way things are, but of the way they ought to be.
Romans 4:17

…the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.
Look around you and see how things are. Now close your eyes and see what it's supposed to look like.

Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish:

Can You See It?

Oh How HE Loves Us!

Pastor Phil

Hello Everyone,

There is a dynamic to this kind of faith that always changes the heart it is the “Work of Faith”.

Acts 15:9 He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.



Galatians 5:6: For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith

expressing itself through love.



Faith is a power. It never leaves the life unchanged. It can’t, because what you bank your hope on always governs your life.



If you bank your hope on money, if your bank your hope on prestige, if you bank your hope on the American dream, if you bank your hope on power or success, it governs the choices you make and the attitudes you develop.



And so does banking your hope on the promises of God day by day. Belief in the promises of God is the root of all righteousness and love.



In Galatians 2:20, Paul said, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.



Paul lived his life everyday by faith. Jesus had loved him enough to die for him, and now Paul knew he could trust him, believe him, to take care of him and meet all his needs (Philippians 1:19).



When you bank your hope on the promises of God and on the presence of Jesus, you live differently.

You bear the fruit of righteousness (Philippians 1:11).



What you bank on for happiness controls your life.



Becoming a Believer is the beginning of the battle, not the end.

Paul said to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:12, Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called ...



In order to persevere to eternal life, we must fight the good fight of faith (1 Corinthians 15:2; Colossians 1:23; Hebrews 3:14).



That’s the battle we are looking at in Battling Unbelief. Believe it or NOT!



1 John 5:4: “This is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith.”

Oh How He Loves Us!

Pastor Phil

Hello Everyone,

Let me say some things about this belief that glorifies God.

Belief that honors God means banking our HOPE on the promises of

God.

In other words, belief is future-oriented. It trusts God for something in the future, whether in eight MINUTES or in eight thousand YEARS.

Right after bragging on Abraham for believing the promises of God in Romans 4:19-21, Paul says, ²²This is why "it was credited to him as righteousness."

So how did Abraham get justified in God’s sight? Why did God look at this imperfect man and count him as righteous in his sight?

Because he believed the promises of God. It was a type of future-oriented faith that justified.

Now read on in the application to us. Verses 23-24: “The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him alone, ²⁴but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead”.

Notice it does not say, “It will be credit to us who merely believe the past historical fact that God raised Jesus from the dead”—as important as that is!

It says that we will be credit righteous if we believe in God! Like Abraham believed in God!

And our God is the kind of God who raised Jesus from the dead so that you can trust Him!

So that you will know that His Son EVER lives to make intercession for you!

So that you will know that HE reigns in victory over all your enemies. So that you will know, as verse 17 says in Romans 4, that he gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

He can do ANYTHING! Nothing is impossible for God.

Therefore, He is absolutely trustworthy.

Oh How HE Loves Us!

Pastor Phil

Hello Everyone,

Listen to Martin Luther,

"Faith . . . honors him whom it trusts with the most reverent and highest regard since it considers him

truthful and trustworthy. There is no other honor equal to the estimate of truthfulness and righteousness with which we honor him whom we trust. . . . On the other hand, there is no way in which we can show greater contempt for a man than to regard him as false and wicked and to be suspicious of him, as we do when we do not trust him."

Trusting God’s promises is one of the most fundamental ways that you can consciously glorify God.

When you believe a promise of God, you honor God’s ability to do what He promised and His willingness and His wisdom to know how to do it.

When You Trust, You Glorify

The way to battle against anxiety is to believe the promise of 2 Corinthians 12:9, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

When we believe that promise, God’s ability to help us, His wisdom to help me, and His willingness to help us are glorified.

When you trust somebody, you honor them at the deepest level.

Therefore, if the goal of the church is to glorify God in all that we do, we must make it our aim in all that we do to battle unbelief.

It was when Abraham believed the promise of God that God was glorified.

Oh How HE Loves Us!

Pastor Phil

Hello Everyone,

The church exists for the GLORY of God.

He created us for His glory (Isaiah 43:7).

He predestined us to be his children for his glory (Ephesians 1:6).

He appointed us to live for his glory (Eph. 1:12).

1 Corinthians 10:31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

Whether it is the church worshiping, the church building up the body, the church evangelizing, or fellowship in the church the final goal is the same at every point—that God be glorified.

The church should have a vision of a GREAT, HOLY, FREE, and GRACIOUSLY sovereign God—a vision of God to be savored in worship, a vision of God to be strengthened in discipleship, a vision of God to be spread in evangelism and a vision of God to be shared in fellowship.

Romans 11:36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.

Now to Romans 4. If the goal of all we do is to glorify God—to magnify His worth, clarify His beauty, exalt His excellence, portray his perfections—if that is our goal, then Romans 4:19-21 gives us the answer as how we are to go about it.

Abraham got the promise of God that he would have a son when he was a hundred years old and Sarah was also old AND barren. His response, Paul says, glorified God.

¹⁹Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah's womb was also dead. ²⁰Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, ²¹being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.

Oh How HE Loves Us!

Pastor Phil

Hello Everyone,

In Romans 4:20 Paul says about Abrahama:

Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God,

I hope this week to make clear why the church exists and what it means at the most practical level to live by faith in the promises of God.

The very first thing that we need to realize is that all sin comes from unbelief in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

All the sinful states of our hearts come from unbelief in God’s super-abounding willingness and ability in Christ Jesus to work for us in every situation of life so that everything turns out for our good.

Anxiety, misplaced shame, indifference, regret, covetousness, envy, lust, bitterness, impatience, despondency, pride—these are all sprouts from the root of unbelief in the gospel and in the promises of God that stem from it.

Let me show an example from a text that we briefly mentioned before:

When Paul said in 1 Timothy 6:10, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” what did he mean?

I think he meant that all the evils in the world come from a certain kind of heart, namely, the kind of heart that loves money.

Now what does it mean to love money? It doesn’t mean to admire the green paper or silver coins. To know what it means to love money, you have to ask: What is money?

Money is simply a symbol that stands for human resources.

Money stands for what you can get from man, not from God.

Money is the currency of human resources.

So the heart that loves money is a heart that pins its hopes, and pursues its pleasures, and puts its trust, in what human resources can offer.

So the love of money is in effect the same as faith in money—belief (trust, confidence, assurance) that money will meet your needs and make you happy.

So, the love of money, or belief in money, is the flip side of unbelief in the promises of God. Just like Jesus said in Matthew 6:24—you cannot serve God and money.

You can’t trust or believe in God AND money. Belief in one is unbelief in the other. A heart that loves money—banks on money for happiness, believes in money—is at the same time not banking on the promises of God for happiness.

So when Paul says that the love of money is the root of all evils, he implies that unbelief in the gospel and the promises of God is the root of every sinful attitude in our heart.

Ouch!

Oh How HE Loves Us!

Pastor Phil

Hello Everyone,

Too many people are willing to embrace Jesus so they can get to heaven, but they don’t want to hear what the Bible teaches about their sinful lifestyle that requires changes!

Obedience is a requirement or there can be no rest for the wicked! It is this "LABORING" to obey God’s Word that brings us into spiritual health and restfulness!

This is a daily task. If we truly have faith in God’s Word we will follow it!
Just as there is no shortcuts to good physical health, there is none to good spiritual health!

There was only Joshua and Caleb that had entered into God’s rest, the only two to believe God’s Word and obey it, the rest of that generation died in the wilderness having failed to ever enter God’s rest although they had God’s presence in their camp and His miracles on their journey!

The only difference was obedience! Many times this is still the only difference of why one Christian does well and another is always struggling and has no rest!

This is God’s requirement for His rest...

Hebrews 4:12-13 ¹²For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. ¹³Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Notice how this paragraph ends...with the Word of God again in the focus!
It is that Word of God that ultimately impacts the quality of our spiritual life in the here and now as well as the then and there!

The Word of God is foundational to our spiritual health, it must have
priority in our life, this is done by obedience to its teachings!

There is nothing else on Earth that can do what the Word of God can do!
It is alive and active....it can pierce through anything!
All attempts to disregard God’s Word will end up in failure...and we cannot hide our sins which is nothing more than disobedience to His
Word!
The Word of God has the power to change everything....and only it can
bring rest!

What a waste that an entire generation wandered through a desert simply because they failed to enter into God’s rest by faith and obedience to His
Word!
Yet we could have an entire generation do the same thing today!...or an
individual!
We must be people of the Word, not people of the World!

If we are to really know God’s rest in our souls, we must have faith in
God and His Word....and obey it!

How rested are you????

Though Israel was called "God’s people" and though they had seen miracles and God’s great POWER, they failed to enter God’s rest! Failure to enter was because of their failure to believe God’s Word, which led to disobedience...the result: NO REST! The same can happen today too...obedience is the evidence of faith, which leads to rest! How restful is your life?

Oh How HE Loves Us!

Pastor Phil

Hello Everyone,
There are too many reckless people who call themselves "Believers" today in the Church....we can make the same mistake as Israel did, that's why the warning in Heb. 4:1 is real!

¹Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.

The language here is strange and ironic in Heb. 4:11 "Let us LABOR therefore to enter that rest." (KJV)
NIV says we must "make every effort" or "labor" (KJV) to enter into this rest!

The idea here means simply that we do have choices: to obey the Word
of God by faith, or disobey it through unbelief!

Obedience to God’s Word can bring us into God’s rest; disobedience will
leave us outside without rest!

It is not enough to just get saved but then not live by the Word of God!

I read this recently and it is very true: It is not difficult in our world to get a person interested in the message of the Gospel; it is terrifically difficult to sustain the interest. Millions of people in our culture make decisions for Christ, but there is a dreadful attrition rate. Many claim to have been born again, but the evidence for mature Christian discipleship is slim. In our kind of culture anything, even news about God, can be sold if it is packaged freshly; but when it loses its novelty, it goes on the garbage heap. There is a great market for religious experience in our world; there is little enthusiasm for the patient acquisition of virtue, little inclination to sign up for a long apprenticeship in what earlier generations of Christians called holiness. -- A Long Obedience In the Same Direction

The Christian life does not consist in just the altar call experience...it is
also the lifestyle of obedience to the Word of God by faith that matters!

Oh How HE Loves Us!

Pastor Phil

Hello Everyone,

The letters from God can be of no use if they are not received by faith...and obeyed! Disobedience is a form of unbelief!

This was Israel’s constant problem in the desert, they heard God’s Word

through His servant Moses, but they did not have enough faith in it to
obey it, the result was they never entered into God’s rest!

Israel loved the miracles and the displays of God’s POWER, but they did not obey God’s Word and so they missed the most important REST God had
to offer them!

If they failed to enter God’s rest even with God’s presence in their midst and the miracles, so can we!

They were RECKLESS with God and their own lives....they failed to see that disobedience WOULD lead to bad consequences later on!

Too many people who call themselves Believers today live this way! They are reckless with God’s Word! They can raise hands in worship, or praise God for miracles, but they do not live in obedience to God’s Word, in some cases they openly sin against God’s Word!...and then they wonder why their lives are anything but “rested" in God!

You cannot say you have faith in God without also having faith in His Word, and you cannot say that you have faith in the Word of God if you are not willing to obey it!

When we bypass God’s Word it doesn’t matter how we feel about God,
we are living reckless lives! (Hebrews 4:6).

⁶It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience.

To ignore God’s Word is to put your spiritual life in jeopardy, it won’t
matter how many verses of the Bible you know by heart, how many
powerful experiences you had at the altar, or how intense you can sing...you will not find God’s rest without obedience to His Word!
This is what Israel’s example teaches us here!
They ran toward miracles, but away from God’s Word and the result was that they self-destructed!

Several years ago, newspapers told how a new Navy jet fighter shot itself down. Flying at supersonic speed, it ran into cannon shells it had fired only a few seconds before. The jet was traveling too fast!

You are also traveling too fast, if you don’t have time to worship God in regular church services, if you don’t have time to read Gods Word, if you don’t have time to pray.
If you’re neglecting any of these, you’re probably traveling too fast to hear God’s voice. If you can’t tell whether you are in the center of His will. Better slow down before, like the jet, you shoot yourself down.

Oh How HE Loves Us!

Pastor Phil

Hello Everyone,
The Bible teaches us that we can fail to enter into God’s rest if we fail to obey His word, that the lack of obedience is a lack of faith...which leads to a lack of rest!

Hebrews 4:1 Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.
God has always promised a "rest" to those who want it!
Even in the Old Testament there was a rest in God that was possible, sad to say, Israel failed to find this "rest" of God’s! How tragic that they missed the most important "rest" God had to offer.

But this "rest" remains for anyone today who might want it! It is not a physical rest that God is speaking of here, it is a spiritual rest!

This promise has been available for a long time, and will continue to
be available until Jesus comes back again. For those who want "rest", it is available, and the Word will describe in Hebrews 4:1-13 how we find it.

God’s rest comes from faith in God’s Word...which leads to obedience!
Look at the end of chapter 3:19 in Hebrews... "So we see that they (Israel) were not able to enter, because of their unbelief." (which led to their disobedience - there is a direct connection between REAL faith and obedience!)

The rewards are great; the cost for failure to obey is also great!
Those who call themselves "Believers" but fail to live according to God’s Word will not enter God’s rest!

The reason for Israel’s sufferings were the result of their own disobedience and lack of faith in God’s Word even though God was there in their camp by fire by night and the cloud by day!

God’s rest is available, but only through faith and through obedience to His Word!

Oh How HE Loves Us!

Pastor Phil

Hello Everyone,

This week we will see in Hebrews chapter four that "There is a Rest for the People of God!"

We live in a very stressed world today! The word "rest" is almost missing from our vocabulary! I hear all the time people talking about trying to get some "rest".

The frantic lifestyle we live today has crept into the spiritual realm also; we can have spiritual activity and not enter into God’s rest!

It is possible to acknowledge God and fail to enter into His rest, it happened to Israel in the wilderness, and it can happen to us today too.

The only way to enter God’s rest is through faith in His Word and obedience to that Word...failure to obey God’s word will leave us unrested!

Listen to the words of J.I. Packer a Christian Theologian;
"Certainty about the great issues of the Christian faith and conduct is lacking all along the line. The outside observer sees us staggering on from gimmick to gimmick and stunt to stunt like so many drunks in a fog, not knowing at all where we are or which way we should be going. Preaching is hazy; heads are muddled; hearts fret; doubts drain strength; uncertainty paralyzes action.... Unlike the first Christians who in three centuries won the Roman world, and those later Christians who pioneered the Reformation, and the Puritan awakening and the Evangelical revival, and the great missionary movement of the last century, we lack certainty. Why is this? We blame the external pressures of modern secularism, but this is like Eve blaming the serpent. The real truth is that we have grieved the Spirit... we stand under divine judgment. For two generations our churches have suffered from a famine of hearing the words of the Lord."

That’s the truth.

We are living in a time when we blame everything around us for our restlessness, but it may be time that we examine the real reason
for our lack of rest...ignoring God’s Word!

Oh How HE Loves Us!

Pastor Phil

Hello Everyone,

The last price that Samson paid for low living that we are looking at this week is he deluded his power.
Now he's sitting in Delilah's hair salon, and she tries to learn the secret of his strength. He toys with her, telling her lies [tie me with fresh thongs/ new ropes / weave my hair] Notice he's getting closer to

the truth.

The devil just tries to get us to take small steps his direction.

Finally, he caves in and tells her the truth. He breaks the final part of his Nazarite vow. Now it's too late, the point of no return. And here is the saddest verse...

Judges 16:20 Then she called, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" He awoke from his sleep and thought, "I'll go out as before and shake myself free." But he did not know that the LORD had left him.

He lost his power, and didn't even know it. Some reading this don't even know how cold they've grown, and how far away from God they have slowly become.

The great lesson of the book of Judges is that God would rather forgive than judge. Along the way Samson made mistakes, but could have made them right and been restored, but he went all the way with sin.

And sin binds, sin blinds, and then sin grinds, slowly, grinds away at you.

Judges 16:21 Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding in the prison.

I beg of you be careful you are paying a high price for a low standard of living. Ask Jesus to forgive you and restore you to a higher way of living for Him.

Oh HOW HE Loves Us!

Pastor Phil

Hello Everyone,

Samson paid a high price for low living when he defiled his purity.

It keeps getting worse. Sin takes you farther that you want to go, will keep you longer than you planned to stay, and will cost you far more than you planned to pay.

Judges 16:1-4 ¹ One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her. ² The people of Gaza were told, "Samson is here!" So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They made no move during the night, saying, "At dawn we'll kill him."

³ But Samson lay there only until the middle of the night. Then he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He lifted them to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.

⁴ Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah.

Oh how the plot thickens.

Proverbs 5:3-5 For the lips of an adulteress drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil; ⁴ but in the end she is bitter as gall, sharp as a double-edged sword. ⁵ Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to the grave.

The devil never shows us the end of the story.

Sin has a blinding, desensitizing effect.
Proverbs 6:32-33
³² But a man who commits adultery lacks judgment; whoever does so destroys himself.

³³ Blows and disgrace are his lot, and his shame will never be wiped away;

The consequences go on and on. Forgiveness is still possible, but the consequences continue.

Oh How God Loves Us! Turn to Him.

Pastor Phil

Hello Everyone,

Another price that Samson paid for his lifestyle was he deserted his promise.
He had taken the vow of a Nazarene vow.
Judges 14:5 Samson went down to Timnah together with his father and mother. As they approached the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him.

'Down' is a geographical term, but it has more meaning than that to me. When you run from God...you're going down!

'Vineyards' = he went to a place he wasn't supposed to be. You say, that's just a little thing...yes! It's the little foxes that spoil the vines.

It is when we are just flirting with sin that the slippery slope takes over.

Judges 14:6-9 ⁶ The Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done. ⁷ Then he went down and talked with the woman, and he liked her.

⁸ Some time later, when he went back to marry her, he turned aside to look at the lion's carcass. In it was a swarm of bees and some honey, ⁹ which he scooped out with his hands and ate as he went along. When he rejoined his parents, he gave them some, and they too ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion's carcass

'Carcass' = more disobedience. He keeps violating his vows. He is losing his focus. He is sinning in high gear! And it's a downward spiral.

The deeper you go into sin, the blinder you get! Samson was blind long before his eyes were gouged out!

The next price that Samson paid for his low standard of living was he distorted his purpose.
Judges 14:10-14 ¹⁰ Now his father went down to see the woman. And Samson made a feast there, as was customary for bridegrooms. ¹¹ When he appeared, he was given thirty companions.

¹² "Let me tell you a riddle," Samson said to them. "If you can give me the answer within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes. ¹³ If you can't tell me the answer, you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes." "Tell us your riddle," they said. "Let's hear it."

¹⁴ He replied, "Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet." For three days they could not give the answer.

This is the wedding, and all the guests are Philistines. He's with the wrong crowd.
Proverbs 13:20 He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.

The riddle he gave was based on his experience with the lion. There's no way they could figure it out without knowing what happened.

So they go to his wife to get her to entice him to give up the answer. They threaten her in Judges 14:15-16. That's when she turned on the tears.

¹⁵ On the fourth^] day, they said to Samson's wife, "Coax your husband into explaining the riddle for us, or we will burn you and your father's household to death. Did you invite us here to rob us?"

¹⁶ Then Samson's wife threw herself on him, sobbing, "You hate me! You don't really love me. You've given my people a riddle, but you haven't told me the answer." "I haven't even explained it to my father or mother," he replied, "so why should I explain it to you?"

And in v. 17 she got her answer.
She cried the whole seven days of the feast. So on the seventh day he finally told her, because she continued to press him. She in turn explained the riddle to her people.

Samson could stand before an army, but not before a crying woman.

v. 18 Before sunset on the seventh day the men of the town said to him, "What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?"
Samson said to them, "If you had not plowed with my heifer,
you would not have solved my riddle. "Note to self: calling your wife a heifer is a big mistake.

More importantly, notice that Samson is playing games with the enemy. He is not fighting God's battles, but his own. He has distorted his purpose.

God gives us good gifts and abilities...so we must not prostitute ourselves and use them for the wrong purposes, but only for God.

Oh How HE Loves Us!

Pastor Phil

Hello Everyone,

Samson was not only strong in body, but in mind and spirit. He was sharp witted. He loved riddles and had a great sense of humor. No wonder his name was sunshine...he was full of potential.

And yet this is not a happy story, it is a tragedy. He went from hero to zero, from victor to victim. Disobedience, defeat, disgrace, and destruction were his labels.

He was bold before men, but weak before women. He had the Spirit of God on him, but lived for the appetites of the flesh. He was called on to declare war on the enemies of God, but many times we find him parting with the enemies of God.

He fought the Lord's battles by day, and broke the Lord's commandments by night.

Sunshine was his name, which speaks of light, yet he ended his life in darkness having had his eyes poked out. At times he soared to incredible heights, but also sunk to incredible depths.

If you had told Samson at the beginning of his life what he would do in the end, he would not have thought himself capable of going that far.

This reminds us that there are 3 people in your seat right now.
The person you are now, the one you could be for God, and the one you could be for the devil.

Samson paid a high price for his low living.

First of all Samson dishonored his parents.
Judges 14:1-3 ¹ Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine woman. ² When he returned, he said to his father and mother, "I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife."

³ His father and mother replied, "Isn't there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?"
But Samson said to his father, "Get her for me. She's the right one for me."

The first step in his downward journey was he did not honor his parents. He had godly parents who pleaded with him to do right.

Exodus 20:12 "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
Samson thumbed his nose at his parents, and died young!

God has given this command for a purpose and it is for our benefit.

Oh How HE Love Us!

Pastor Phil

Hello Everyone,

This week we are looking at the story of one of the most amazing people in history. And we will see how

he paid a High Cost for Low Living. Samson.

When you have time read Judges 13-16.

You know some people are born to privilege, with many advantages, and can't seem to succeed, and then others are the opposite, born to nothing, and rise above it all to great success.

Samson was one of those born to nothing as far as the world was concern.
He was born at a special time in Israel's history. 7 times this nation had rebelled into apostasy. This time it is the Philistines which God used to punish and oppress Israel for 40 years. They were their worst enemy.

Samson means "sunshine". And in the darkest days of his nation's history, sunshine came into the world.

He was a Nazarite, which means different, separated, or set aside. He was to have no wine or fruit of the vine. He couldn't come near or touch a dead body, whether animal or human. And he couldn't cut his hair.

Samson had been given great strength from the Lord.

On one occasion he slew 1,000 Philistines with just the jawbone of a donkey. On another, he carried the gates of the city up a hill on his shoulders. Then there was the time he was confronted by a wild lion, and destroyed it with his bare hands.

What did he look like? Muscles? No. Probably just average. How do we know? Because Delilah asked him the secret of his strength. It wasn't obvious...It was a supernatural strength.

Judges 14:5-6, 15:14-15 In each case the 'Spirit of the Lord came upon him'.
⁵ Samson went down to Timnah together with his father and mother. As they approached the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him. ⁶ The Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done.

¹⁴ As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands. ¹⁵ Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.

Many think that Samson’s hair was the source of his strength. But his fall was not just a hair cut but many steps downward. We will see some of them this week.

Oh How HE Loves Us!

Pastor Phil

Hello Everyone,

Why do people who profess to know God still turn back to weak and miserable principals for their guidance and help rather than turn to God?

They don’t want to put in the effort it takes to find out how to live for God.

“I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.” Galatians 4:11

It takes effort to live for God. Living for God demands we make certain sacrifices.
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.” (Matt 13:44)
“Anyone who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:38)
Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”
(Galatians 6:7)

The Galatians were not putting in the full effort to live for God…

Galatians 4:10-11“You are observing special days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.”

They were making the effort only on special occasions

They were not putting in the daily practice…

It was Paul’s fear that men who had once lived in the presence of God would LIMIT Him to special occasions.

We can’t live for God if we only spend time with Him on Sunday mornings.

Pick up your cross DAILY and follow me

If someone was to observe my life would they discover a life that was living for God?

Is that a strong characteristic of my life or is that a weak characteristic of my life?

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9

How many of us will be able to say like Paul

“I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Tim. 4:7)

Oh How HE Loves Us!

Pastor Phil

Hello Everyone,

Another reason people who profess to know God still turn back to weak and miserable principals for their guidance and help rather than turn to God is:

They don’t realize how much power the world still has over them.
“Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God-or rather are known by God-how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?” Galatians 4:v8-9

Before a person comes to know God all their guidance comes from ungodly sources.

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts.” (Ephesians 2:1-3)

Even now that we know God -Our nature is to still do things the way we used to do them before we came to know God.

In the case of the Galatians – Jesus was their savior but He was not yet their Lord.

Jesus was not able to lead them and guide them into all truth because the world still had power over them.

Are we going to live by the principals of the world or live by the principals of the WORD of God?

Oh How HE Loves Us!

Pastor Phil

Hello Everyone,

The question that we ended with yesterday was: Why do people who profess to know God still turn back to weak and miserable principals for their guidance and help rather than turn to God?

First of all they don’t realize how much God knows about them.

Galatians 4:9a“But now that you know God-or rather are known by God.”

We mistakenly think God knows as much about us as we know about Him. (Which is not very much.) “God only sees me every Sunday between 10:30-12” yea right.

God knows everything about everyone!
He knows our every thought even before we think.
He knows every one of our strengths and every one of our weaknesses

If God knows everything about us why then would we go instead to someone in the world who knows nothing about us for guidance and help?

I know you know nothing about me but could you give me guidance and help…
The only one who can give us the very best guidance and help is God- because he knows us the best.

One translation of Psalm 139 (1-6) says:
God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand. I’m an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking. You know when I leave and when I get back; I’m never out of your sight. You know everything I’m going to say before I start the first sentence. I look behind me and you’re there, then up ahead and you’re there, too - your reassuring presence, coming and going. This is too much, too wonderful-I can’t take it all in!

For the Child of God –realizing how much God knows about them is meant to be something wonderful.

It’s wonderful to be able to go to someone who knows everything about you for guidance and help.
Why would we then go instead to someone in the world who knows nothing about us?

Oh How HE Loves Us!

Pastor Phil