If You Give a Judge a Jawbone...

Lead Vocalist (Kelly)

Welcome & Announcements (Mike Lindell)

Good morning family!

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3 announcements:

1) VBS Tonight

2) Men’s Gather breakfast

3) Luke and Emily’s cards

Now please take a moment of silence to prepare your heart for worship.

Call to Worship (Psalm 62:5-8)

Prayer of Praise (Lorin Watkins)

All My Boast is in Jesus

Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus

Prayer of Confession (Ronnie Evans), Vengeance

Assurance of Pardon (Colossians 2:13-14)

Jesus, Strong and Kind

A Christian's Daily Prayer

Scripture Reading (Judges 15)

You can find it on page 253 in the black Bibles

Pastoral Prayer (Mike Lindell)

Prayer for PBC—Vacation Bible School

Prayer for kingdom partner—Pillar Network

Prayer for US—City officials

Prayer for the world—Slovenia

Pray for the sermon

SERMON

START TIMER!!!

TWO THINGS BEFORE I SAY WHAT I PLANNED TO SAY:

VBS ATTIRE

Trump’s assassination attempt—the Word of God is always relevant

As we try to process what happened last night and what will happen in the weeks and months ahead, let’s remember what God’s Word teaches us today.

Revenge promises freedom, but it never keeps it’s promises.

That’s the Big Idea I hope to communicate from God’s Word this morning in Judges 15.

It’s a truth that is clearly visible in the life of a man you’ve heard me talk about before, a man named Louis Zamperini.

Zamperini was an Olympic athlete and World War II bombardier whose incredible story was chronicled in Laura Hillenbrand’s best-selling book, Unbroken.

But often when Louis’ story is told, people omit what happened when Louis returned home.

You simply can’t understand how amazing it was for Louis to finally be free without knowing what happened during his 2 1/2 years as a prisoner of war at Ōfuna Camp near Yokohama, Japan.

Zamperini had endured unimaginable torments inflicted by a sadistic Japanese prison guard named Mutsuhiro Watanabe, otherwise known as “The Bird.”

The Bird beat POW's every day, fracturing their windpipes, rupturing their eardrums, shattering their teeth, tearing one man's ear half off, leaving men unconscious.

He ordered one man to report to him to be punched in the face every night for three weeks. He practiced judo on an appendectomy patient.

As he unleashed his madness, Watanabe would howl, drool and sometimes cry.

Sometimes midway between beatings he’d stop and apologize to the prisoner, only to then beat the man into unconsciousness.

Other times, he’d wake prisoners in the middle of the night and bring them to his room to feed them sweets, discuss literature, or sing. This kept the men constantly on edge and wore down their nerves as they never knew what would set him off and send him into another violent rage.

He starved the POWs, burned the letters they received from home, forced them to perform meaningless tasks of hard labor, and did everything in his power to break them.

On one occasion, the Bird forced Louis to hold a large wooden beam over his head, and promised to shoot him if he dropped it. Louis held it above his head for 37 minutes, before Watanabe starting beating him senseless.

But even when Louis finally returned home, he was still a captive.

The trauma he endured from his captivity led him into a downward spiral of anger and alcoholism.

He had nightmares about the Bird every single night for years.

He became obsessed with one thing: returning to Japan and killing the Bird.

Zamperini’s heavy drinking and unbroken rage was destroying everything that mattered to him.

One night he dreamed he was choking the Bird, but when he awoke he was choking his pregnant wife, Cynthia.

Out of fear for her family’s safety, Cynthia began filing divorce papers, something that was much rarer in those days.

Hillebrand writes: “In prison camp, [Louis had] been beaten into dehumanized obedience to a world order in which the Bird was absolute sovereign, and it was under this world order that he still lived. The Bird had taken his dignity and left him feeling humiliated, ashamed, and powerless, and Louie believed that only the Bird could restore him, by suffering and dying in the grip of his hands. A once singularly hopeful man now believed that his only hope lay in murder.” [1]

Last week we saw from Samson’s life the dangers of playing with sin.

We learned that nothing is more destructive to the people of God than playing with sin.

Just like playing with lions can lead to great pain, so too can playing with sin.

Judges 15 begins with Samson experiencing the devastating pain that often comes from playing with sin.

And just like Louis Zamperini—and many of us when we’re hurt—our initial response is to hurt back.

There are some—perhaps even many—in this room who have been deeply hurt recently. Perhaps even now your anger and pain is boiling over in your heart, tempting you to take revenge on those who’ve harmed you.

If you can relate, you need to hear the Word of the Lord from Judges 15 this morning.

With God’s help, I want us to learn from Samson’s mistakes. I want to show you Four Keys to Escaping the Prison of Revenge:

1) Remember your own sin

2) Resist the urge to fight back

3) Reject the temptation to apathy.

4) Rest in God’s glorious grace.

Let’s begin with key number one,

1) REMEMBER your own sin.

Before we look at our text, we need to remember what’s just happened to Samson.

In chapter 14, he saw a good-looking woman that he simply had to have as a wife.

His parents protested because she wasn’t a follower of God, but Samson insisted.

During the wedding party, he lost a bet because his bride-to-be shared his secret.

Since he didn’t have the money to pay up, he traveled 20 miles to the Philistine town of Ashkelon, murdered 30 Philistine men, stole their clothes to pay his debt, then stormed off in a rage leaving his bride at the altar.

But a few days later, Samson has calmed down and he’s ready for love...

Judges 15:1a—After some days, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife with a young goat.

Perhaps this is the ancient equivalent of a bouquet of roses, or a box of chocolates.

Samson is hoping to make up with his wife and finally consummate the marriage.

Judges 15:1b–2—And he said, “I will go in to my wife in the chamber.” But her father would not allow him to go in. And her father said, “I really thought that you utterly hated her, so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her instead.”

When Samson stormed off during the wedding, the father of the bride faced a dilemma. After spending all this time and money on the wedding, he couldn’t let the feast end with his daughter unmarried!

So, according to Judges 14:20, he married her off to Samson’s best man.

As a consolation prize, Samson’s almost father-in-law offers his other daughter to Samson.

But Samson is furious.

Judges 15:3—And Samson said to them, “This time I shall be innocent in regard to the Philistines, when I do them harm.”

Do you notice Samson’s big mistake here?

He truly believes he is innocent!

Samson’s parents warned him not to marry this girl.

God put a lion in Samson’s path, perhaps as a way to escape this temptation.

Most importantly, God Himself had clearly forbidden His people from marrying the people of the land.

Deuteronomy 7:3–4—“You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for they would turn away your sons from following Me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and He would destroy you quickly.”

Notice again, like we said last week, the problem with these marriages was not marrying a different race but marrying a different religion.

All of Samson’s behavior that follows in this chapter flows from what he says here in verse 3.

Because Samson believes he is innocent, he is able to justify everything he does to the Philistine people.

What about you?

Think about an area in your life where you have been deeply hurt by someone.

Maybe it’s your husband, or your wife. Maybe your son or daughter. Maybe it’s a grandchild, an employer, a co-worker, or a friend.

As you think about that situation, are you like Samson? Do you insist on your innocence? Or are you willing to admit your guilt in the matter?

When dealing with conflict, Jesus Himself tells us to look in the mirror first.

Matthew 7:3–5—“Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”

Bible teacher Ken Sande puts it like this: "If I’m only 2 percent responsible for a conflict, I’m 100 percent responsible for that 2 percent.” [2]

If you only think about what has been done to you and you never stop to remember the sin you have committed, you will have a hard time escaping the prison of revenge.

Before we move on, we do need to recognize that sometimes there are RARE but REAL cases when the conflict is truly one-sided.

Theologians sometimes say the victim has “situational innocence.”

This is why David can sometimes call himself innocent in the Psalms. Not because he’s innocent of all sin, but in that situation David didn’t do anything to contribute to the conflict.

Louis Zamperini didn’t do anything to deserve being tortured by the Bird.

Although no wife is perfect, there is no good reason for a husband to ever hit his wife.

No child has to share in the guilt for child abuse of any kind.

No president or former president deserves a cold-blooded assassination attempt.

All these are examples of situational innocence.

It’s possible that, you too, are situationally innocent of the wrongs that have been done to you.

If that’s the case, you don’t need to own your part of the conflict, because you haven’t done anything to deserve the horrible mistreatment.

But it will help you to remember that even though you are innocent in this situation, you are not innocent in all situations. And if God has forgiven you of your many sins, you can and should forgive those who have sinned against you.

This is such an important lesson to learn because...

Revenge promises freedom, but it never keeps it’s promises.

The first key to escaping the prison of revenge is to remember your own sin.

The second key is to...

2) RESIST the urge to fight back.

It was fascinating to hear so many people—from all political perspectives—condemn the violence against former president Trump last night.

So many countless lives have been devastated by revenge, it is almost universally condemned.

Gandhi supposedly said, "An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind."

Confucius said, "Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves."

Nelson Mandela said, "Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies."

Even though none of these men were Christians, they all understood a truth about revenge, that it doesn’t really solve anything.

The most unhappy people in the world are those who are consumed with bitterness.

Few people illustrate this better than Samson. Every time the Philistines sin against him, he fights back. And it’s a never ending, vicious cycle of violence.

First, Samson fights back with fire and foxes.

He traps 300 foxes, ties torches to their tails, and sets them loose in the Philistine fields.

The fire destroys all the Philistine grainfields and olive orchards.

So the Philistines decide to fight back. “You want to burn our fields, Samson? Okay! We’ll burn your woman and her father!”

When Samson learns that the woman he planned to marry is burned alive, he fights back again.

Judges 15:7–8—And Samson said to them, “If this is what you do, I swear I will be avenged on you, and after that I will quit.” And he struck them hip and thigh with a great blow, and he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Etam.

Notice that Samson says he’s going to quit fighting back after this, but he doesn’t.

Because revenge is like saltwater. The more you drink, the thirstier you are!

Samson is a tragic example of the folly of fighting back when you’re sinned against.

Now at this point you might be wondering if we’re being too hard on Samson here.

After all, this is the book of Judges!

We’ve been celebrating God’s victories over His enemies all over this book.

“If the Philistines are God’s enemies, isn’t Samson supposed to fight them?”

Yes and no.

There’s no question that God is getting glory through Samson’s actions here.

Remember Judges 14:4, which said that even Samson’s sin “was from the Lord, for He was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines."

We can paraphrase the words of Joseph from Genesis 50:20, “What Samson meant for evil, God meant for good.”

But don’t forget that the book of Judges doesn’t recommend everything it reports.

Even when we’re talking about the enemies of God, there is a difference between DIVINE JUSTICE and PERSONAL VENGEANCE.

Almost every act of violence Samson commits against the Philistines is rooted in personal revenge.

Samson doesn’t fight the Philistines to rescue God’s people or to defend God’s glory. He fights them because he wants payback.

What about you?

Are you tempted to fight back when someone hurts you?

You’re probably not committing arson and murder like Samson, but you may be doing something similar in your heart.

When someone hurts you, do you give them the silent treatment? Or do you lash out with hateful speech? Do you blast them on social media? Or gossip behind their backs in conversations with your friends? Do you do little things to make them hurt the way they hurt you?

Are you withholding your affection from a family member you are commanded to love? Oh, you would never actively harm them! But you will passively withdraw and give them the cold shoulder.

All these are little ways we fight back, just like Samson. Samson’s sin is just a bit more obvious because it’s so flagrant.

Jesus Himself taught us about the folly of fighting back in...

Matthew 5:38–41—“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.”

Notice, Jesus’ alternative to fighting back is to love, even your enemies.

How are you doing, Christian?

If you’re not a Christian, you need to understand that this is the kind of life Jesus requires of His followers. None of us do this perfectly, but this is what we’re called to. And when we fall short, we must confess our sin and repent.

Revenge promises freedom, but it never keeps it’s promises.

The second key to escaping the prison of revenge is to resist the urge to fight back.

The third key is to...

3) REJECT the temptation to apathy.

Sometimes when people learn about the prison of revenge, they swing the pendulum to the opposite extreme.

“If I’m supposed to forgive people who offend me, I guess we shouldn’t prosecute anybody.”

“Let’s get rid of the death penalty.” “Or the prison system entirely.”

“Definitely don’t go to war against anyone. Just live and let live!”

This is full-blown apathy. It’s cheap, doormat justice. And it’s NOT what the Bible teaches either.

But it IS what life looked like for most of Israel during the days of Samson.

Judges 15:9–10a—Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah and made a raid on Lehi. And the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?”

After Samson goes and hides in the cleft of the rock at Etam, a large Philistine army attacks the tribe of Judah.

Now the people of Israel have grown so comfortable with their enemies that they’re surprised.

“Why are you guys attacking us!? We pay our taxes. What’s the big idea?”

Judges 15:10b—They said, “We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he did to us.”

Once again, revenge doesn’t work. Samson retaliated, now the Philistines are retaliating again!

It’s a vicious cycle of violence that seems like it will never end!

But the people of God in Judah want peace and quiet. So they try to put a stop to this...

Judges 15:11-13—Then 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?” And he said to them, “As they did to me, so have I done to them.” And they said to him, “We have come down to bind you, that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines.” And Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not attack me yourselves.” They said to him, “No; we will only bind you and give you into their hands. We will surely not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.”

These verses are absolutely staggering!

Rather than joining Samson to fight the Philistines, God’s people join the Philistines to fight Samson.

Israel is rejecting the rescuer God has sent. They’re tying him up and delivering him over to their enemies to be killed!

The people of God have become so comfortable with injustice and oppression that they don’t even care. All they want is peace and quiet.

What about you?

Perhaps you have a hard time identifying with Samson. You’re a lover, not a fighter.

When someone hurts you, it rolls off you like water on a duck’s back.

But along the way, you’ve become so apathetic you have zero stomach for controversy.

You don’t want to confront sin, or have hard conversations of any kind because that might disrupt your comfortable life.

You’ve become like the men of Judah!

Here’s the problem: apathy doesn’t work either!

Michael Wilcock—“There is in truth no such thing as harmonious co-existence between church and world, for where there is no conflict it is because the world has taken over.” [3]

Not a Christian: you cannot live on the fence. You’re either a friend of God or you’re His enemy.

Christian: if you try to fight revenge with apathy, you’re just exchanging one sin with another. And Satan doesn’t really care which poison you drink, as long as you drink it.

If you want to escape the prison of revenge you must reject the temptation to apathy.

The final, and most important, key is to...

4) REST in God’s sovereign grace.

We last saw Samson tied up by his own people and handed over to an enemy army. It seems like this will be the end for Samson!

But God made a promise. He told His people that He would begin to rescue His people through Samson.

And God ALWAYS keeps His promises.

Judges 15:14–15—When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. Then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands. And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put out his hand and took it, and with it he struck 1,000 men.

This may be the only time in Samson’s life when he’s not fighting for revenge. He’s fighting for survival.

With the Spirit’s power, he slaughters an entire army with nothing but a donkey’s dentures.

What a wonderful reminder of how the Holy Spirit gives power to God’s people.

We are not called to fight Philistine soldiers, but we are called to fight against spiritual forces of wickedness.

And sometimes the fight seems so hard, so impossible. But with the Spirit’s help, we have everything we need to be victorious!

You would think that after this great, supernatural victory Samson would finally turn to the Lord.

Well he does, but not in a way that we should imitate.

Judges 15:18—And 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 and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”

Like Israel complaining for water in the wilderness, Samson here is doing the same thing.

“Aren’t you going to take care of me, Lord!”

Samson’s problem is that he’s unwilling to rest in God’s sovereign grace.

When bad things happen to him, he cannot trust that God is in control. He must take control himself.

When people commit evil against him, he cannot trust God’s justice. He must enforce justice himself.

And here, when he’s thirsty and unable to provide for himself he finally cries out to God. But this is not the voice of a man trusting in God. It’s the voice of an angry, entitled, childish man who does not understand the God of grace.

What about you?

The main reason we cannot forgive those who sin against us is because we don’t trust God.

Either we don’t trust He is strong enough to turn that harmful thing into something good—we doubt His sovereignty;

Or we don’t trust He is kind enough to turn that harmful thing into something good—we doubt His grace.

In the summer of 1949, Louis Zamperini’s life was falling apart.

His bitterness and anger was tearing him apart.

His dreams were assaulting him every night.

His own wife was in danger, as he often couldn’t tell dreams from reality.

His marriage was on the verge of collapse.

Louis didn’t believe that God was strong or kind.

How could a God like that allow him to suffer for 2 1/2 years in a POW camp?

How could a God like that allow him to suffer even when he returned home?

But one night Louis was invited to a Billy Graham crusade in Los Angeles.

Zamperini later said, “Of all my near-death experiences my life never passed before my eyes, but when Billy Graham quoted Scripture my life did pass before my eyes. . . . and I saw an ugly life.”

Zamperini saw that, like Samson, he was lustful, disobedient, angry, violent, and vengeful.

And then he heard about a God who is SO holy that sin flees from His presence. Louis knew that he couldn’t stand in the presence of a holy God.

But then Louis heard about a God who is so gracious He sent His own Son

Like Samson, Jesus was a rescuer sent by God.

But, like Samson, He was rejected by His own people.

Like Samson, He was bound and delivered over to His enemies.

And, like Samson, at the very moment when all seemed lost, Jesus defeated His enemies.

But Jesus didn’t defeat His enemies by swinging a jawbone. He died for His enemies by being nailed to a cross.

And three days later He rose from the dead, so that whoever trusts in Him can have eternal life.

Dear friend: have you turned from your sins and put your faith in Jesus? You can now.

Christian: if you have trusted in Jesus, you MUST forgive those who harm you. It’s not an option for serious Christians, it’s a command for all Christians!

Colossians 3:13—Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

Notice how we’re supposed to forgive. As God has forgiven us!

And how does God forgive us? Completely. Immediately. Consistently. Repeatedly. Sacrificially.

Three years after giving his life to Jesus, Louis Zamperini returned to Japan where he met some of the guards who had tortured him as a POW.

When he saw them, he ran to them and hugged them.

Some of the guards were shocked by this. They didn’t understand how anyone could respond like this.

Zamperini said this, “The greatest story of forgiveness the world’s ever known was the Cross. When Christ was crucified He said, ‘Forgive them Father, they know not what they do.’ And I said, ‘It is only through the Cross that I can come back here and say this, but I do forgive you.”

Only the cross can deliver us from the prison of revenge.

Would you look to the cross today?

Prayer of Thanksgiving

Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)

Benediction (Romans 15:13)