Recover All: God I Need Your Power

I. Scripture: Judges 16:4-6, 19, 28-30

Judges 16:4–6 KJV 1900

4 And it came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. 5 And the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and said unto her, Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lieth, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him: and we will give thee every one of us eleven hundred pieces of silver. 6 And Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee.

Judges 16:19 KJV 1900

19 And she made him sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him.

Judges 16:28–30 KJV 1900

28 And Samson called unto the Lord, and said, 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. 29 And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left. 30 And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.

II. Title: “Recovering All: God I Need Your Power"

III. Introduction

Often times while on this journey we call life there comes a time when we are faced with situations that have caused us to lose focus and allow the enemy to unlawfully take what was ours!

Yes we have allowed the enemy to come in and steal the very thing that God had purposed for our lives.

He came and he took your dreams, he took your vision, he took your children because you were not ready for the uncovering of what needed to be exposed!

We have been trained to cover up anything that’s not like God and therefore we never obtain the fullness of God because the enemy has us thinking that the problems don’t need to be dealt with!

But even then we must realize that God has pre-destined a purpose for our lives.

And in order to be fully used and equipped by God we have to recover from every force that is directly opposed to God’s will for our lives.

When we study the life of Samson we know that he was one appointed even before he was born to deliver his people out of the hands of the Philistines.

Samson hated the Philistines and the Philistines hated him.

Even before Samson was born the angel of the Lord appeared to his mother and told her that she would bare a son that would deliver the Israelites out of the hand of the Philistines who had ruled over them 40 years.

You see it was Samson’s sole purpose to fight for and defend the Israelites.

That’s what he was anointed for. He was the strength of the generation.

But isn’t it interesting that even with all the strength in the world satan can send to you your weakest link.

That’s right every one has a Delilah in their life…(asks…What’s your Delilah?)

Your Delilah could be smoking, your Delilah could be back biting, your Delilah could be fornication or homosexuality…The fact remains that everybody has a Delilah.

You will never fully recover from a thing until you recognize what got you there in the first place! Back to the TEXT

In the text we see that Samson falls in love with a Philistine young lady that means him no good… (Tell Your Neighbor…”Don’t hook up with the enemy!”)

So the Philistine rulers receive word that Delilah has an inside track to their biggest opponent, Samson.

So they send her on a mission to gather military intelligence of where this man gets his strength so that they may overtake and kill him.

So she approaches Samson and asks him for the secret to his success.

Listen, whether you know it or not there are people that have come into your life and have been sent to your camp for no other reason but to gather intelligence on what you are doing for the Kingdom of God.

There are people and events that happen in life that are designed to distract you from doing what God has called you to do.

So in order to stay on course and do what God has purposed for your life you must first…”Recognize Your Delilah”.

IV. Recognize Your Delilah

2 Corinthians 2:11 KJV 1900

11 Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

We must recognize when satan sends his imps to distract us from what God has called us to do.

Samson became so full of himself and thought that he had a level of strength that could not be conquered.

So he began to toil with Delilah about his secret knowing that she was going to report to an enemy that he could defeat.

Just like us today we put ourselves in situations that we think we can overcome.

We go to that girl’s house at 10 o’clock at night knowing that we are struggling to stay saved, single, and satisfied.

We have got to recognize what satan is trying to do!

The next thing we must do is “Guard our Anointing”!

V. Guard Your Anointing

Judges 16:17–19 KJV 1900

17 That he told her all his heart, and said unto her, There hath not come a rasor upon mine head; for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother’s womb: if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man. 18 And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up this once, for he hath shewed me all his heart. Then the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and brought money in their hand. 19 And she made him sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him.

In the text we see that Delilah has finally worn Samson down and he finally gives in and tells Delilah about his strength being in his hair.

So Delilah tells the Philistines and they prepare to kill Samson.

Delilah has Samson to go to sleep on her lap and the enemy cuts his hair off… (Look at your neighbor and say…stop sleeping with the enemy)

Samson knew his strength came from his hair, but yet he allowed satan to trick him into giving up the secret of his anointing.

a. Let’s talk about the church walking around here bald headed because the church has allowed the enemy to cut its hair (glory and Power) off.

b. We have allowed the enemy to cut the power source of our anointing!

1. Preachers sleeping with their spiritual daughters and sons committing spiritual incest.

2. Preachers with no integrity stepping in pulpits every week in and week out and manipulating the people of God

3. We allow secular artists to grace our pulpits knowing fully well that they are not living the life of a believer…Why do I need a Kelly Price , a Ledisi, a Keysha Cole, or a Mary J Blige to come and minister a gospel song to me that they can’t relate to when we have gifted anointed vessels like a Marshetta Parker or a Dorinda Clark-Cole who are living the life they sing about? GOD CAN’T BE PLEASED

4. We have replaced prayer meetings with Prosperity conferences and we have commercialized God’s anointing.

Why is it that the enemy knows our weaknesses and we don’t know them…or is the issue the fact that we know what our issues are, but we have chosen for one reason or another, not to deal with those issues?

But you must have a spirit of humility and be willing to work on those areas in order to recover all.

What humility does is keep us on our knees and in the Word of God

And in order for you to recover from your “Delilah” you must be strengthened by the word.

The word of God in Romans 10:17 says that “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Now that we have learned to guard our anointing, now you must “P.U.S.H. and P.R.A.Y into Your Destiny”

VI. P.U.S.H. and Pray into Your Destiny

Judges 16:28–30 KJV 1900

28 And Samson called unto the Lord, and said, 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. 29 And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left. 30 And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.

In order for you to fulfill what God has ordained for you to do you must have a prayer life. P.R.A.Y (Power Released After Yielding)

I don’t care if you are the best singer, preacher, musician, usher, or pulpit worker…if you don’t have a relationship with God you will never live in the perfect will that God has set for your life.

Even in his distress Samson knew the power of Prayer.

No he didn’t dot every “I” or cross every “t” but Samson knew that if he could just get God to give him one more chance that he could accomplish what he was sent to do in the first place.

How many of you know that sometimes in life we go through things and we don’t do everything like we should but yet and still we ask God to remember me.

Remember me Lord…I know I haven’t been the best child, but give me one more chance,

Yes Lord I know I didn’t give that offering that Pastor was asking about last week but remember me Lord.

God if you just remember me one last time, I’ll do your will.

I’ll Push into my destiny…I’ll push the things out of my life that are not like you God…

God I’ll pray until something happens, I’ll push these pillars of sin out of my life God…if you will just remember me one last time.

So God begins to move on Sampson’s behalf and Samson regains his strength and pushes against the pillars of the temple and walls begin to come tumbling down.

Samson and the rulers of the Philistines were killed.

The bible declares that it was a greater amount of Philistines killed in that one instance then Samson killed his whole life.

Joel 2:25 KJV 1900

25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, The cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, My great army which I sent among you.

VII. Conclusion

So you may be going through a situation in your life that looks like there’s no way out. It may look like satan has you down for the count, but jump up to your feet, take a standing 8 count, and keep on trucking to the destiny that God has for your life. If God be for us, then that’s more than the whole world against us. You shall rise again, no matter what the enemy says, no matter what stumbling blocks come my way, no matter the distractions that try to sway me off course, no matter how “Delilah” Comes, I’ve got to rise up and recover it all.