Is it Too Late for YOU?

You had it once. The marriage. The ministry. The job. The respect of your kids. The respect of your spouse. Then you gave it away just a little at a time. One promise at a time. One compromise at a time. One secret at a time. One night you told yourself it didn't matter. And one morning you woke up and it was gone. And you hadn't even noticed it leaving. Now you're just getting through the days. You're paying for every one of those choices. And your family is too. And the voice in your head says, Oh, you had your chance. You had your chance. It's too late for you. Some of you who are the man or the woman who lost their family to a bottle, to a substance, to a temp or another man or another woman. Some of you walked away from God twenty years ago. And you'd come back if you thought he'd still have you. Today we meet the strongest man in the Bible at the lowest point of his life. Samson is blind. He's chained. He's grinding grain in an enemy prison. And right there, Judges 16, verse 22 says, the hair of his head began to grow again. It doesn't mean Samson gets his old life back. It means God wasn't finished with him. So, is it too late for you? This is True Word, Faith for Life with Dr. Sean. I'm Sean. Welcome to day 152 of Through the Bible in a year, walking the story of God. We take the Bible one passage at a time and we let it meet your life. Your life right where you're living it. Today we open Judges 15 and 16. By the way, every Sunday there's a free blog and a separate study guide at TrueWord FaithforLi.com. Up at the top, you'll see blog. And both the study guide and that be under that, usually posted one right after the other. They're free. There's no paywall, there's none of that. So also, um I'd love for you if you're not a subscriber to go to true word, no no no, go to true word faith for life with Dr. Sean, S-H-A-W-N on YouTube. You go there on YouTube. It's the one with about 4,000 subscribers. And you click on subscribe, click on the little bell for all notifications, and then click on the thumbs up while you're there. It matters more than you can ever know. It drives everything. And I appreciate it if you do it. I appreciate you all listening. You all getting up early in the morning, Miss Nicole, 4 a.m. Miss Colleen, you must be tired. Um, she'd been she'd been battling sickness. And uh good morning, Miss Susan, Miss Sharon, so nice to see you. Tubi Continued 25, so great to see you, and all the others that are tapping in now. It's kind of scrolling kind of fast on my end, and I really appreciate it. I yesterday we had um about a thousand people listening live. If you believe that, it's crazy. So here's today's question. Have you ever believed it was too late for God to use you again? Type yes or no in the chat. Now look, I'm gonna show you that. Hey, yes, yes, and yes. I have believed that. And the person that convinced me otherwise without even trying, Miss Nancy, spoke a word into my life, and it was uh, it was it was pretty amazing. It was stunning. I've told it many times. Had she not done that, I wouldn't be here today. So, yes, I absolutely believed it was too late for God to use me again. So type yes if it's yes, type no if it's no. It's okay if it's no. In Judges 14, Samson's wedding to a Philistine woman fell apart. And his bride was given to the best man. Chapter 15 picks up a short while later. At Wheat Harvest, remember the three parts of Samson's Nazareth vow from number six. Remember, we said it yesterday. Nothing from the grapevine. If you haven't seen the episode from yesterday, I encourage you. I encourage you to uh to tap into that. It's it's pretty cool. Nothing from the grapevine, no contact with a dead body, no razor on his head. He's already walked through a vineyard to a drinking feast. He scooped honey out of a dead lion. Of the three, only the uncut hair is still standing. The Philistines rule and the tribe of Judah has made its peace with that. Ehud, Barak, and Gideon each gathered an army. Samson never does. He fights alone. And he falls alone. Gaza was the southernmost Philistine city. Its gate at massive wooden doors and a stone gatehouse. That was the city's security, its courtroom and its pride. The Philistines' chief god, Little G, was Dagon. Most scholars now connect it with the Hebrew word Dagon or grain. Keep that in mind, because in prison the Philistines will make Samson grind grain. For the people of the green God. In Samson's day, grinding meant kneeling over a flat stone and rubbing grain into flour by hand, hour after hour. Exodus 11 calls it the work of the slave girl behind the handmill. For Israel's champion, it was humiliation by design. In chapter 15, Samson catches three hundred foxes, ties torches between their tails, and burns the Philistine harvest. The Philistines answer by burning his bride and her father. Verse 11:3,000 men of Judah come down, not to fight the Philistines, but to arrest Samson. Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? Israel would rather tie up its own deliverer than make trouble with the oppressor. They bind him, they hand him over at a place called Lehi, which means jawbone, Lehi. That means jawbone. That'll mean something a little bit. The Spirit of the Lord rushes on him. The ropes fall off like burned flax, and with a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he strikes down a thousand men. Once again, the Nazarite's hand is on part of a dead animal. Verse 18, he was very thirsty, and he called upon the Lord and said, You have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant, and shall I now die of thirst? It's the first time Scripture records Samson praying. God splits open the hollow place and Leah. Water pours out, and the spring is named An Hakor. An Hakor, the spring of the one who called. Verse 20. Good morning, Miss Linda. Thank you all for your honesty and your vulnerability. Thank you so much. Verse 20. He judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years. Earlier judges end with the land at rest. Samson's twenty years are called the days of the Philistines. Philistines. Chapter 16. Samson goes to Gaza and spends the night with a prostitute. At midnight. He pulls up, rolls up to the city gate, posts and all. And he carries it to the. I mean, he he literally pulls them up. The big giant gate. He pulls them up. Right out of the ground. And he carries it, the whole gate, to the front of Ferbon, nearly 40 miles away and uphill. None of that strength is making him more faithful at all. Strength without faithfulness won't hold you up when the pressure comes. You might want to write that down. Strength without faithfulness will well, it won't hold you up when the pressure comes. Verse 4. He loved a woman in the valley of Surak, whose name was Delilah. The Philistine lords each offer her eleven hundred pieces of silver to learn the secret of his strength. Three times, he asks. Three times. Three times, she asks. Three times he lies, and three times he breaks free. Verse 15, how can you say I love you when your heart is not with me? Verse 16. When she pressed him hard with her words day after day and urged him, his soul was vexed to death. Here's a little bit of translation tension. The ESV or English Standard Bible says his soul was. The NASB, or New American Standard Bible, says he was annoyed to death. The Hebrew here is batexkar, bateksar nafsholamat. Literally, his soul grew short to death. The same expression appears in Judges 10, verses, well, I'll just do verse 16, where the ESV says, the Lord became impatient over the misery of Israel. Literally, his soul grew short over their suffering. In English, you'd never see the connection. When God's soul grew short, he moved toward his people in mercy. When Samson's soul grew short, he gave away. How many of us have been here? He gave away the one thing God told him to keep. Verse 17, he told her all his heart, if my head is shaved, then my strength will leave me. She lulls him to sleep, has his seven locks shaved, and then wakes him. Verse 20. He awoke from his sleep and said, I will go out as at other times and shake myself free. But he did not know that the Lord had left him. But he did not know that the Lord had left him. The Lord left. And Samson didn't even notice. Verse 21. The Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. The same eyes that chose a Philistine bride in chapter 14. They bound him with bronze shackles, and he ground at the mill in the prison. Verse 22, but the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved. The hair was never the source of his strength. The Lord was. But the growing hair tells us God wasn't finished with Samson. After all that, he wasn't finished with Samson. The Philistines throw a festival for Dagon. Verse 24, they praise their small g God and say, Our God has given our enemy into our hand. Now the question, the question isn't only about Samson, it's whether Dagon or the Lord is God, which is which. A Philistine temple from this era, excavated at Telkhasil near Tel Aviv in Israel, had two central pillars holding up its roof. A boy leads the blind man to the pillars, and Samson prays his second prayer. O Lord God, please remember me, and please strengthen me only this once. O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes. Well, his motive isn't pure, and the text doesn't hide it. He pushes and the house comes down. Verse 30 The dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life. God remembered him. Here's the question in front of us today. You think you've waited too long and lost too much for God to ever want you back? Well, Judges 16 says otherwise. Samson didn't lose his strength in one night. He lost it in a hundred small surrenders. The woman he kept going back to, even when he could see what he was doing, even when he could see what she was doing. He knew. That's how most of us lose everything. Not in one moment, but in a pattern. And the worst part is not knowing. You can keep going to church. Keep the title. You can keep your reputation. And you can never, maybe never ever notice that God is going quiet in your life. But here's the verse Shame doesn't want you to hear. Here's the verse Shame doesn't want you to hear. The hair began to grow again. The Philistines thought Samson was finished. The voice in your head thinks the same thing about you. Maybe you're in your own sort of prison right now. It is not too late to call on the Lord. That doesn't mean every consequence disappears. Samson stayed blind, but God heard his prayer. Your worst chapter doesn't have to be your last chapter. Here's your step today, before dark. Pray Samson's prayer out loud. This is easy. Just write it down. It's easy. It's only a few words. Oh Lord God, please remember me. Then with that same pen you write that down, I want you to take that pen and write down the first small surrender that led you to where you are. Not the big fall, not the first step. Okay, it could be food. Could be substances, could be the P word. Could be any number of things. You gotta be honest about that first small surrender that you knew you shouldn't, but you wanted to, so you did. And then that led you right to where you are. Not the big fall. The first step. Knowing where it started shows you where to turn around. And I want you to make one call today to someone you hurt on the way down. Maybe it was your son or daughter. Maybe it was a former spouse. Maybe it was a friend that so desperately let you down. Say this much. I'm coming back to God and I wanted you to hear it from me. If someone has asked you not to contact them, respect that. Tell a pastor or a trusted believer instead. Don't, if they've said, hey, look, I don't, if it's a no-contact thing, I don't want you to have any contact with me at all. You honor that. Always. But you tell someone, you say, Well, uh, I thought confession was a Catholic thing. No, confession is a follower-of-the-way thing. There's so many people that have so many misunderstandings about faith, and they throw rocks at stuff they don't know anything about. I know this part is difficult. Embarrassing. Humiliating, maybe, in some respects, but you tell a pastor or a trusted believer if they're a good person, number one, they'll keep it in confidence. Number two, they won't judge you for it. They'll pray over you and pray with you. I can't tell you what a difference that makes in your life. Samson's last prayer has an echo at the cross. A dying criminal turns to the man beside him. Luke 23, verse 42. Yeshua, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Yeshua answers in verse 43. Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Remember me. That's the prayer of people with nothing left to offer. And God answers it. But listen to the difference. Samson asked for strength to be avenged for his two eyes. Yeshua, with his with nails in his hands, prayed in Luke 23, verse 34. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Samson died, taking his enemies with him. Yeshua died to make his enemies his friends. That's you and me. Colossians 2, verse 15, he disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them. In him. Yeshua defeated death by dying, and then he rose. Samson stayed in the rubble. Yeshua walked out of that tomb. Hebrews 11, verse 32 lists Samson among the people of faith, not because he lived clean, because it was because at the end he called on the Lord. And the God who remembered Samson still remembers Israel. Romans 11, verse 29, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. It's not too late to call on the one who remembers. I have for you today a challenge and a choice. You can keep living in that prison, and you can believe that the voice that says it's whispering to you, you're finished. You're finished. He's never going to listen to you. He's never going to hear from you. That prayer. You failed him every time. Every time you made the promise, oh this is it, I'm done. I'm not going to do that again, Lord. I'm not going to be this way again, Lord. And then you were. See? Why would he ever talk to you? Or you can call on the Lord today. The question isn't whether God can still use you. The question is whether you'll stop believing you're finished and call on him. Samson's spring was named the spring of the one who called. Because God answered him there. God still answers the one who calls. And I implore you to call on him today. Prayer is not asking for an easy journey. It's asking for a strong back. Pray with me. Lord God, please remember us. We confess the small surrenders that became our prison, the lines we crossed one at a time. For everyone who thinks it's too late, show them you're not finished with them. For the man who lost his family, for the woman who left you years ago, for the leader who fell in public. Call them by name today. Thank you for remembering Samson and for keeping covenant with Israel, even in the days of the Philistines. Thank you for Yeshua, who heard a dying man say, Remember me, and answered with paradise. I pray that in Yeshua's matchless name. Amen. Maybe if you feel like you're in a prison today, you're blind to the way out, and you're sure it's way too late. The dying man on the cross proves otherwise. He didn't have time to clean up. He didn't have time to learn all the churchy language. He didn't have time to memorize parts of the Bible. He didn't have time to make right all the wrongs that put him on the cross in the first place. He had time for remember me. Remember me. He acknowledged. He acknowledged Yeshua, who was being murdered, tortured, and murdered right next to him as the Messiah. And he called out to him. And Yeshua. Jesus the Christ, our Messiah, our Redeemer, in his torturous pain. Today you will be with me in paradise. Yeshua remembers people who have nothing left. Call on him now. I don't know. Why would you wait? Why would you wait? I don't understand it. I do understand it. I shouldn't say I don't understand it. I do understand it. But I wish you wouldn't. I wish you wouldn't wait. What a difference it would make in your life if you just. If you just place your faith in him. Let go of whatever it is that's. I don't know. Whatever it is that's got you. I don't know, all spun up, all refusing. Whatever it is that's got you reluctant. You say, man, I don't know. Thomas Priest-I'm guessing I6E in the live chat says there's no religion, only truth. Praise to your Lord Jesus Christ. You don't have to worry about memorizing a religion or memorizing anything super complex. I'm happy to help you. Maybe you're not placing your faith in Christ because you say, I don't, I don't know that I can learn all this stuff. I don't know, like, what do I have to do? The first thing you have to do, and you'll do it one way or another, you'll do it here and now. And it'll it'll secure, not only just secure your eternity, it'll it'll make it's not going to be flowers and roses. It this is this is you know, candy and roses. This is not an easy life. Not because of having to learn stuff. That's that's to me the easy part. It's the fun part. The hard part is remembering that he remembers you. It's not an easy journey. It's not. But I'll tell you what, I do this every day. I would do this every day. If it wasn't a permanent thing, I'd do it every day. If I didn't have to just do it once and mean it. If I had to do it, I'd do it every day. Why? Because there's nothing like this life. There's nothing like the relationship with God. There's nothing like having the Holy Spirit, the Rakha Kodesh, in you. There's nothing like that. It's it's amazing. It is, it's amazing. I gotta tell you, in all my suffering and all my pain, I have Jesus. So I I want you to pray this with me. If you believe that Yeshua Hamashiach, Jesus Christ, is the Messiah, if you believe that. And I'm just trying to, well, just in case, if it's true. No, no, no, that doesn't work that way. If you believe and it's faith, it's stepping out in faith. I'll help you every step of the way if you want. I'll cook you hook you up with a a church near where you live. You don't have to worry. All you need to do is place your faith in Christ. I hate to tell you, but it's heaven or it's hell. When you close your eyes the last, if you've not placed your faith in Christ and acknowledged him as the Messiah and asked for forgiveness for your sins, your hurts, your habits, and your hangups, you're most assuredly gonna spend eternity in hell. Pray this with me. Talk to God. You don't have to close your eyes, you don't do any of that. Talk to God. This is as simple as it gets. Are you ready? Take a deep breath. This is a big moment for you. Pray this with me. Yeshua, I need you. I believe you died for me and rose from the grave. I surrender my life to you today. Please forgive me. Fill me. Lead me. I'm yours. In your name. Amen. Well, you prayed that today. Your story isn't over. Type remember me in the chat or the or the comments below if you're listening later. Just remember me. It doesn't have to be a big thing. Type that in. I'll rejoice with you. Then tell one believer, everybody knows one believer, what you did today. Tell them out loud. Find a church family that opens the scriptures and loves Israel. Listen, um, I'm gonna just tell you that if you can't think of anybody, I am happy to do it. All you have to do is go to true wordfaithforlife.com. True Word, praise the Lord. Thank you, Gavin. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father, for this one who has come to you. Thank you for his courage. Thank you for his vulnerability. Thank you for his honesty. I thank you that he is now in your kingdom, that he has the Holy Spirit indwelling within him. I thank you for that. Protect him, for surely the enemy will come after him with everything he's got. Give him the bravery to reach out and get help. I pray this in your matchless name and thank you for the cross. Thank you for the empty grave. Thank you, Father. Amen. Thank you, Gavin. Awesome. I'm assuming maybe you're in New Zealand. Listen, folks, this is the real deal. This is not playtime. Samson had more strength than any man in Israel, probably at any time. Ever. And he gave it away one small surrender at a time. He ended up blind and chained and grinding grain for his enemies. But in that prison, his hair began to grow. And when he cried out, Remember me, God still heard him. He still hears that prayer today. Someone you love thinks it's too late for them. Send them this episode today. Send them the link. If you're not a subscriber, tap subscribe and the little bell so the next episode finds you. Listen, every single episode we've ever done is under the live tab. I don't take them away. They say that's suicide for your uh whatever. I want people to find them easily. Judges 17, tomorrow, shows a man who turned stolen silver into a religion. Now, I'm gonna pray this prayer over you. I'm nobody special, but it's the prayer God prayed over his people. It's the prayer Yeshua prayed over his best friends and followers, right as he was being taken up. In fact, mid-sentence. I'm gonna pray it first in his heavenly name, Lashon Hukadesh, which is Hebrew, the language of God. That's what Lashon Hukadesh means. The language of God. Now, I'm nobody special, but this is a big deal. It doesn't mean something, it means everything. Receive this prayer. Don't panic. I'm gonna pray it over you in Lashon Hukadesh, Hebrew, and then I'm gonna translate it. It's very short. Welcome from New Zealand and welcome to the kingdom of God, Gavin. If you'd like to reach out to me, it's totally free. No one's ever gonna ask you for a dime. Go to TrueWordfaithforLife.com. Go to contact. And if if you want, I will absolutely help you every step of the way. Anything you need. Okay? That's a promise I keep a countless number of times a day. Don't worry, all the guys are busy. You're gonna bother him. No, you're not gonna bother me. I live for this. Okay? I live for this. All right. So you're gonna receive this blessing as a new member of the kingdom of God. Take a deep breath. Here we go. Yevera ka dunai virishi mira ka dunai panavalekha vikunaka, ye sa donaipanavaleka viesem lecha shalom. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Until tomorrow at 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. Monday through Friday, and then Sundays at 6:30 Eastern Time p.m. 6.30 p.m. on Sunday. We summarize this whole thing. Until then, I'm so excited to have had you join me today. I hope you'll consider joining our little family here. It's been wonderful to have you. Until tomorrow. Shalom Bishem Yeshua Beshalom Elachem.