Remember Me, Strengthen Me, Avenge Me

Summary

Summary prepared by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon's captions — published in summary form; watch the full sermon at the source.

Samson's last prayer

On a Tuesday night in Souls Harbor's summer revival, Williams leads the worship himself before reading his text: Samson, blinded, shaved, and chained to grind at the mill, brought out of prison to make sport for some 3,000 Philistines in the temple of Dagon, asking the lad who led him to set his hands on the pillars — and praying the prayer that gives the sermon its frame: "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." He refuses a fancy title — "I want to help us pray tonight." The key to living for God, he says, is simple arithmetic: win more than you lose; you are not defeated if you win way more than you lose, and midweek service exists for people who just have to make it to Sunday.

Scriptures: Judges 16:25-28

"Only this once": one more time

The sermon's engine is Samson's "only this once." Living for God is stringing one more time after one more time — after the foxes, after the gates of the city, after mayhem on a Monday, dragging yourself through the mud to one more prayer, one more altar call, one more sermon. The adversary's greatest weapon against a fallen believer is mockery: the laugh that convinces you restoration to where you were is impossible. But a God who shows up one more time ensures that this time is not the last time the adversary gets the best of you — and Samson, who had been back and forth with his enemy his whole life, is the proof that the fight is not over while you can still pray.

Scriptures: (none cited in this section)

Remember me: the face and favor of God

Williams works the first petition word by word. "Remember me" cannot only mean "think of me again" — God has never forgotten a prayer, a petition, or a promise; you have never left his mind. Nor is it only the plea of a dismembered man to be put back together, though God can re-member fractured people, marriages, minds, and homes. In the original language, he says, "remember" means to let your face look at me and not turn away — let your favor shine upon me. Face to face with God, the enemy's work shrinks: the moment favor returns, the strength Samson felt when the anointing came on him and he killed men with a donkey's jawbone begins to return too. Prevailers therefore cannot pray pity prayers with their faces in the carpet; they lift their eyes to the hills and pray with anticipation.

Scriptures: (none cited in this section)

Strengthened and avenged in one blow

The last petitions run together: "In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul" — and the God who strengthens is the God "that avengeth me, and subdueth the people under me," who lifts his servant above those who rise against him and delivers him from the violent man. What the devil does to you for months and years, God can handle with one blow — one altar call, one service, one cry. But the close adds Samson's own condition: even private prayer needs a hand to lead you to the pillars. Williams sends the congregation to find one person to pray with — prevailing prayer, prayed together, is what brings the Philistines down — and the segment ends inside that paired prayer, the strength, he says, coming back like Samson's hair.

Scriptures: Psalm 138:3; Psalm 18:47-48