"Break Off The Cords"- The Apostolic Connection

the Philistines have spread themselves out throughout Lehi in verse 10 says and just read along with me in the of Judas said why are you come up against us and they answered to bind Samson are we come up to do to him as he hath done to us then 3,000 men of Judah went to the Top of the Rock Edom and said to Samson knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us what is this that thou Hast done unto us and he said unto them as they did unto me so have I done unto them and they said unto him we are come down to bind thee that me we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines and Samson said unto them swear unto me that you will not fall upon me yourselves and they spake unto him saying no but we will bind thee fast and deliver thee into their hand but surely we will not kill thee and they bowed him with two new cords and brought him up from the Rock and when he had come unto Lehi the Philistines shouted against him and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire and his bands loose from off his hands and he found a new Jawbone of an ass and put forth his hand and took it and slew a thousand men therewith now allow me to set the stage uh for this beautiful Bible story that uh that is uh very challenging I believe and we can get a whole lot out of it even in our day and and and in the 21st century but allow me to set the stage for chapters 14 and 15 of the Book of Judges you see Samson in chapter 14 has already looked over the fence and he has found a beauty in the camp of the Philistines and as The Story Goes his parents have begged Samson and said Samson please Samson come on are there not any beautiful women here among the children of God are there not any here in our camp that you could date that you could court that you could have a relationship with and of course we know that sammon Samson was a he man with a she weakness uh he had a lot of Lady problems he he he all throughout the story of his life he could never quite get it right when it came to the ladies and um as he is going to court this young lady in the Philistine Camp as he's as he's headed over to the Philistine to the enemy's Camp uh he comes across and a lion comes across his path and the lion attacks him the Bible says that with his bare hands he tore the lion apart and it was this lion that he came back on his way back to meet his parents he he saw the same lion and bees had had built had built inside of him had built honeycomb and and there was honey that was in the Lion's chest or in his carcass and the Bible says that at this time Samson thought it would be a great idea to come up with a riddle about this Lion and the bees and the Honey inside the carcass of the lion and it is this riddle that he tells all of his girlfriend which is now his fiance's Philistine boyfriends right you know the story and as these men of the Philistines begin to ask this woman and say listen uh a bet has gone forth and Samson has said that he will give us all our own reignment he'll give clothing for all 30 of us and of course you know that if if we don't win and if we don't win this bet and figure out this riddle that we're going to actually going to have to give him 30 sets of rainment we were going to fill his closet with clothes for his wedding and of course they are are uh uh uh uh messing with his fiance you know the story and they're they're they're going to her and they're telling her come on you got to figure this out and she's going to Samson and and they're going back and forth and finally Samson in a weak time and and and and it seems like he had a lot of weak times uh laying in the lap of of of ladies and and and there he is at a weak time he gives away the riddle and and of course we know the story on the wedding day the men come up to him tell him the riddle he gets very upset what does he do he goes to town down and he kills 30 Philistines just for the clothes takes their clothes off them brings it back to the 30 Philistines that he had lost this bet to of course when this happens the father-in-law for whatever reason gives away Samson's wife to Samson's best friend does that make sense I mean this guy's a killing machine and we're just going to give away you know he just marries her and and of course he says well I I thought that you hated us so bad and and I'm not sure how that all worked back then but apparently if if a girl got all excited about a wedding I guess you had to give her to somebody is that what it looks like to you so so he so she's given father-in-law gives gives gives his wife to to another man and not just another man but his friend and of course that makes Samson uh uh really upset and so Samson goes out and he catches 300 foxes he ties their Tails together two at a time with a fire stick in between lights the Fire Sticks on fire and sends those foxes throughout the fields throughout the Vineyards and and and and listen I I believe that the word of God is infallible word of God Amen I believe every word in this is true I don't believe there's any confusion I believe it all makes sense it all happen it's all the infallible word of God um but if I didn't believe it was infallible word of God this would be the story right here that would really mess me up because see uh I can go you know turning water to wine I can go with that I can um you know uh uh Raising Dead people I can go with that I there's I have no problem my faith goes far you know feeding 5,000 that stretches my faith a little bit but catching 300 foxes that's a hard one to swallow but but I believe it's true and I believe that that that Samson must have found a bunch of dens of foxes and must have just been catching them under his arms and grabbing them out of there tying them together and setting them loose you know 300 foxes can you only imagine what that looked like I I know what cats look like when you tie their tails together foxes as they go out through the fields and as they burn the fields and as all the Philistines have worked day after day in raising crops and growing Vineyards which takes years to grow Vineyards and they see it all go up in smoke as these foxes whose taals and and as the Philistines as they are going around asking who in the world did this and I I kind of find it hard to believe that they didn't know who did it but they were going around asking who did it and of course it was told it was it was Samson and and and his father-in-law had given his wife away and so uh they thought well the best thing to do would be to go kill that father-in-law and kill that woman that he had just married which again makes a lot of sense which made Samson mad again you see how we're going back and forth here made Samson mad again we come into chap chapter 15 and uh uh uh Samson decides you know what I'm gonna do I'll tell you what he's going to do he say I'm gonna go the Bible says this right he says I'm gonna go and I'm going to kick everyone's tail that's what the word says let's read it verse eight says' and he smot them hip and thigh yall translate that like you want I say he went in right I'm being nice he went in and just everybody if you were walking and you're a Philistine you're gone he he came in and slaughtered the Bible says that he had a great Slaughter and then we come into chapter or verse 9 and chapter 15 and and we're just going to kind of read down through here brother Dale and we're just going to ask we read we're just going to kind of kind of try to understand the story you see then the Philistines went up and pitched in Judah and spread themselves in Lehi and what I want you to notice right here before we go on is that they did not go directly up to capture Samson and the men of Judah said why are you come up against us and they answered to bind Samson and we are come up to do to him as he ha done to us you see here's a deal this is how I read this right here if you're not doing anything to inflict pain on the enemy you don't have to worry about the enemy inflicting pain on you and as a matter of fact the Philistines they had spread themselves across Lehigh but did not kill one person of the tribe of Judah because you they didn't need to because there wasn't anybody there that was attracting their attention there was just one man and there after that one man who is defeating the enemy and and and here is is what I kind of capture when I started reading about the people of Judah and we all know that the people of Judah they represent the praisers right represent the worshippers and and you know if if anybody in this church is about singing I'm about singing I love singing I love choirs I I I love directing them I love singing in them I love I love soloists and musicians and I can I can enjoy music like anybody else can and maybe even more sometimes but let me tell you something the devil has got some people convinced that that's all it takes the devil's got some people convinced that as long as they just come to church and just sing a song and lift up a hand and it feels good I want you to know with the Josh lce and worship this morning it feels good man it feels good when the praise and worship team kicks it off and everybody's singing and everybody's worshiping and we sing great songs then sings my soul my savior God to me how great thou art you know that we we feel so good it feels so good and I I believe the people of Judah got just so used to getting in the mode of praise and worshiping that there was only one that stepped out and said I'm going to do something Beyond just praise and worship I'm going to go far rather than just being a good singer or just singing in the choir I'm going to do something like I'm going to be faithful to the house of God I'm going to share my faith with my co-workers I'm talking about people who mess up the enemy's Camp I'm talking about people who want to teach Bible studies that actually want to share their faith with other people and aren't just content was show up on Sunday morning and Sunday night and Wednesday night but they actually want to bring somebody to church with them they want to raise their children in Christian schools and AP stolic schools that are raising their children to think right talking about people I'm talking about World Changers Samson was a world changer there was everybody else that when the Philistines came in they just spread themselves out and fear was in the camp because they weren't doing nothing they were wondering what's going on why is the enemy coming after us why is he coming in our camp and they're want to know who is the guy that's bringing the turmoil into our ranks well I'll tell you who it is it's the guy that's doing something it's a guy that's going into the enemy's camp and who's killing the enemy and he's defeating the enemy and I pray God help me not just be a singer help me not just be somebody who's up here praising and worshiping although I know I should but help me be more than just that I want to be more than just a man of Judah but verse 11 says then 3,000 men of Judah do you get this we're not talking about they didn't send up three elders they sent up 3,000 men to the to Top of the Rock Edom and said to Samson knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us let me interpret this what they're saying they're saying Judge Samson are you just plain ignorant we are just the little singers and musicians and they are the Giants you can you picture how help me picture this in your minds three what does 3,000 men look like coming up a mountains side that must have been unbelievable these guys are coming up and and they know that they're they know that they got to bring numbers because they understand who Samson is he's one of them and and they know how strong he is and and as they come up can't you just just hear them saying don't you know Samson don't you understand Samson and we're talking to the guy here that's about to pick up a bone from the yard and kill a thousand people with it 3,000 men of Judah would rather give up their killing machine as opposed to turning around and fighting the enemy verse 11 continues as the 3,000 men go up and they say knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us what is it that thou Hast done unto us why are you doing all that praying and fasting and Bible studying and getting the devil all riled up all of a sudden we're baptizing a bunch of people and and the Holy Ghost is fallen in all our services and and now the enemy has showing up to church and he's messing with our families and with our kids and oh everything was fine when all we did was just sing and and worship God and and paty cake for Jesus but now as the Revival fire is Fallen the enemy has shown up among us and what have you done to us Samson come on have you felt the stern of the Holy Ghost that's been going around in this place ever since we got the Holy Ghost stirred up ever since the enemy has been has been running and we've been chasing them as we've been praying and fasting and reading our Bibles like we never done it before and don't you know it's at that time when the devil gets all riled up he's going to come looking for you come looking for your kids come looking for my kids I don't believe it's it's it's it's any any big secret any big question that we've had more instances lately of young people who are starting to look at themselves and say I'm going to do my own thing well it happens because the devil has been stirred up marriages are on the Rocks why because the devil has been stirred up and we got to fight against this thing we can't come in here like a bunch of children of Judah and just think it's all going to go away if we head our hide our heads in the sand but we got to get up and be like Samson and say if you're going to mess with me I'm going to mess with you if you're going to mess with my wife and my father law I'm going to have to go and tie some Fox's tails together and set your fields on fire oh I wish a fighting Spirit would rise up I'm talking about a fighting spirit spirit this is devil if you mess with me I'm not going to go hide I'm coming out hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah Samson had them all riled up and he said unto them as they did unto me so have I done unto you and the cycle has started but here's the deal what the devil likes to do is he likes to get us in a cycle I kick you you kick me I kick you you kick me and here's the deal this is why this is why it is because the devil knows I'm I'm not just going to go up and attack Samson right face to face because if he does he's going to lose every time so what he does is he comes up and he'll just kind of kick you he'll come from behind and just kind of kick you and kind of mess with you try to wear you down and try to get you frustrated so that he can defeat you but let me tell you something greater is is he that is within us than he that is in this world and we got to keep that in mind we got to say devil you coming at me you're not just coming at me you're not just coming at a singer you're not just coming at a musician but you're coming at the god that's inside of me oh hallelujah hallelujah and they said unto him verse 12 we are come down to bind thee that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines and Samson said unto the them swear unto me that you will not fall upon me yourselves you see I've got a real issue right here and this is what I've come to preach about today I I kind of brought it all to this right here most of the chords that we are bound with we allow our self to be bound with it's called self-inflicted bondage me say it again there's no reason why Samson right here couldn't have said listen guys whoa whoa whoa I'm going I'll go down myself I'll walk down this mountain myself I hey before I let you all bind me up and put cords around my arms and my wrist before I allow it to happen I'm just going to go down I'll meet with them fair and square I ain't scared but he allowed and this bothers me it bothers me that he allowed himself to be bound let me tell you what bondage is it's anything that hinders what God called you to do it's anything it's anything that hinders what God called you to do you see last month we were in the series of biblical stewardship let me say this after all what pastor preached if you don't get it by now chances are you're not going to get it all right chances are you just you is not going to get it and maybe I can maybe I can speak plain and this is what I'm saying stop wasting God's time with prayers for financial blessings if you're aren't going to tithe some of you are saying I'm sick and tired of hearing about all this tithing stuff well start doing it I'll say what Pastor said last year sometime it made a lot of sense he said anybody that starts tithing From This Moment it's not going to increase anybody's salary on this pastoral staff I promise you I'll tell you what it'll do though it'll get that building built a whole lot quicker the sign says that that it's being built by the faithful tithe and offerings of this great family and it is but let me tell you something you can't start praying to God and God I need this and God I need this paid and God I need this and I need listen it's God's Financial principle that you ought to give and it will be given unto you you got to give it's got to come out of your hand if it's going to come back in your hand and and too many people are living the self-inflicted financial bondage and and the enemy he he's kind of he didn't mess up your finances you allowed it to happen and I hey I'm okay with feeling friction preaching about this I'm okay with that because this is my passion because I've been way too blessed by I feel if this doesn't get preached from this Pulpit Pastor feels if this doesn't get preached from this Pulpit we are doing you a disj Justice if you live your whole life begging God for stuff when you're only self-bound is the only reason why you can't make what you want to make and you can't go where you want to go and you can't do what you want to do God help us we got to break off the cords that's what I'm preaching about this morning it's time to break off the cords