The Power of God — Greg Locke

Acts 1, a very familiar portion of Scripture, I suppose I'll begin my reading in verse 4. Acts 1, and verse 4, please. The Bible says,. And being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.

But John was baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. Notice verse 6. When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?

And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you. And ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and all Judea, and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

And tonight I preach a subject that I know very little about, but I want to know a lot more about. Simply I preach on the power of God. Thank you very much. You may be seated. Let's bow our heads and hearts, please.

And let's ask the Lord to bless our time together tonight as we study the power of God. Now, Lord, again, I come to you asking Lord humbly that you would help me tonight as I preach the word of God. I confess to you and I confess to this congregation that I am a nobody.

Lord, you told your disciples in John 15, 5, for without me, he can do nothing. And Lord Jesus, tonight I claim that because I know that is not just a command. It's not just a statement. But Lord, that's a promise.

I'm nothing without you. And so I pray tonight that you would intervene on my behalf, and Lord, that you would bless, that you would help my mind and my heart, and Lord, that you would kindle that which I'm going to be preaching on deep within my heart that I may convey it to this congregation before me tonight.

Lord, I pray that you would burn this message deep within us. I pray the devil would not be able to snatch the good seed of the word of God from our heart. But tonight he would spring forth into abundant life.

And father, you would help us as we study the subject at hand. Now, father, I throw myself upon your mercy and ask that you would help me. Lord, I ask now also that you would help this congregation as they listen to the word of God.

May we not be distracted, though we ourselves become a distraction to those around us. Bless the children as they have their time, but bless now as we have the preaching of the word of God. For it's in Jesus name that we ask it and pray.

Amen. The Book of the Acts is one of my favorite books in all the New Testament because all 28 chapters basically have one theme. That one theme is the early establishment and the propagation of the local New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Because you see, ladies and gentlemen, as you peruse your way through the 27 books of your New Testament, especially when you get the chapters like Matthew 16, Matthew 18, and then beginning in Acts chapter number two, you will find out that the emphasis in the New Testament is not upon some invisible, non-knowing, great big huge church, but it is upon local assemblies, actual, physical, factual local churches.

And just before the power of the Spirit of Almighty God fell down in Acts chapter number two, and Peter stood forth and preached repentance and 3 ,000 people got saved by the grace of God, there was a promise that came to them in an upper room, in an upper chamber, before Peter ever opened his mouth and preached on repentance.

Notice, please, in your Bible that Jesus is discoursing with his disciples. We look here at verse number one. The Bible says, This former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, all that Jesus began both to do and to teach.

And so now what we're going to be dealing with, we're going from the Gospels into a transitional period in the New Testament days when the local church will be established and the people will go around the world, turning the world upside down, establishing local fundamental Bible, believing Bible preaching churches.

And so Jesus said before that can ever take place, there is something that you're going to have to have that you do not have right now. Let's see what it is. Look in your Bible, please. In verse number two, Until the day in which he was taken up after he that through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen, to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of him 40 days.

And speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, we know that Acts chapter number one is not only the promise of the spirit, but it is the return of the Savior as far as his glorious ascension into heaven.

Verse 11, we find out that those angels came and said, you men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven? And so we have that great doctrinal part here in this portion of Scripture. But notice, please, this promise that Jesus begins to give his disciples.

And we find it beginning in verse four and being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.

For John, speaking of John the Baptist, truly baptized with water, that ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days in. When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?

They said, we know that you're the promised Messiah. We know that you are the one that is going to come and sit upon the throne of David. And by the way, that will be future tense. He has not done that, but thank God for a thousand years he will.

And I'm going to be with him and have him myself a glory fit, that's for sure. But the disciples said, are you going to now set up your kingdom in Jerusalem? Are you going to restore Jerusalem or Israel to their land?

Are you going to give us our freedom back? Are you going to get us out from under the bondage of the Roman Empire? You see, that is why your Bible says in John 1 .11 that he came unto his own and his own received him not.

But as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe upon his name. You know why they wouldn't believe in him? It's not that they didn't want to, because you study your Bible, you will find out at first they did want to believe in him until they found out that he did not come to deliver them from the Roman Empire, but rather to deliver them from their sins.

And they were not interested in being delivered from their sins. They wanted to be delivered from bondage. They wanted to be delivered from the captivity of the Roman province and from Nero and Caesar and the rest of that wicked crowd.

And so now that his friends look at Jesus and say, you're going to give us a promise. Is that promise that you're going to restore Israel to the kingdom? Are you going to set up your kingdom right now and deliver us from the Roman Empire?

And they were asking a legitimate question. There wasn't anything wrong with the question that they asked Jesus. They didn't want to be under bondage anymore. But please notice what Jesus told them. In Acts 1, in verse 7, and he said to them, it is not for you to know the time or the season which the Father hath put in his own power.

He said, listen, you are not going to change God's mind no matter what you say. He said, you can beg, you can preach, you can pray, you can plead, you can swear like a baby on that altar and beg God to give this nation back to where it needs to be to restore the kingdom.

He said, you can beg all of that. He said, but it's not for you to know the time. He said, there's some things that are bigger than you and some things that are bigger than I, and we don't always understand the power of God.

Isaiah chapter number 55, His thoughts are not as our thoughts. The Bible says, as the rain comes down from heaven, so is God's thought towards us. I do not understand all that God does. I don't understand the power of God.

And that is what Jesus is explaining to these people. And by the way, if you go on a quest to understand God, you will find out that the pervading theme of the Bible is we're not supposed to understand God.

That's what makes Him God, because He's bigger than you and He's bigger than me. And so Jesus said, it is not for you to know the things that deal in future times, if you will. It's not for you to know everything, to understand everything that God has put in His power.

But, verse number eight, but ye shall receive power. Context, He's dealing with the very same power that was in the verse before. But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.

Now, you believe anything you want to tonight, ladies and gentlemen, but the power of God is the most overlooked subject in all the Word of God. You see, we're living in a day when people think it would be a fine thing to have buildings and thank God for buildings.

We're living in a day when people think it would be a fine thing when we have good music and we have good preaching. We have good teaching of the Word of God. We have good standards. And I don't discount that any bit.

I thank God for every single bit of it. We're living in a day when it seems like if we can get converts to walk an hour, man, we're doing real well. If we can put people in the baptismal waters and the waters of the baptism aren't stagnant, we're doing pretty well.

We can send young people off to Bible college. It seems like we're doing pretty well. And you know what? We've got plenty of programs. We got plenty of prayer meetings. We got plenty of preachers. We got plenty of things in our pocketbook.

The problem is we just don't have the power of God in the day and age in which we live. But did not Jesus say, Ye shall receive power. Now, excuse me. I am not going to let the charismatics steer me away from the power of God.

I am not going to let somebody who has an ignorant mindset when it comes to the Word of God run up and down the aisles, give me up a tent post, speak in tongues, bark like a dog, and run around like a fish out of water.

I am not going to let them steer me away from something that God promised me I could have. And ladies and gentlemen, Jesus looks at his disciples and says, Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.

So basically, the main prerequisite to the power of God is salvation. For the Apostle Paul said in Romans chapter number one, in verse number 16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it, the gospel, is the power of God unto salvation.

And so I believe with all of my heart there is something not spooky, not mystical. I'm not talking about Hollywood scare tactics. I'm talking about Holy Word truth, OK? Not something way out in the future, but I believe there is something that is bigger than me and there is something that is bigger than you that is attainable to the people of God.

And I believe it is God's power. I believe it is the fullness of the Spirit of Almighty God. Does not your Bible say in Ephesians chapter five and verse number 18 and 19, do not drunk with wine where in his extent, but be filled, literally means be ye being filled with the Spirit of God, speaking to yourselves in songs and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord.

Now, understand me, the power of God is not something that causes me to act in a foolish manner. The power of God is not something that causes me to act foolishly or to do things to direct attention to me.

Let me tell you what I believe. What I believe, take it for what it's worth, but I believe the power of God is nothing more than the influence of the Holy Spirit of God in my life that gives me strength day by day to live for Christ and have a Christian testimony.

That's the power of God. If you think I wake up every morning and say, well, I tell you what, I'm the most spiritual Christian in the face of God's earth. There's something wrong with you, pal. I don't wake up like that and neither do you.

There is something that is bigger than us that gives us the strength to live for him for day to day. There is something that is greater than us. There is something that is more magnificent than us. There is something inside of me, ladies and gentlemen, that is glorious, that can blossom like a rose, if you will.

There is something inside of me that gives me a Christian testimony. What is it that gives me that strength day by day, mile by mile, hour by hour? What is it that gives us that strength to continue to go on?

I'll tell you what it is, but you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you. I want to preach just for the next few moments tonight on just a few ways, maybe four, maybe five. If God gives me an extra one, we'll have five.

Amen. But five ways tonight you can know. Did you hear me? Not that you can hope, but five ways you can know when you leave this building that you can have the power of God. Now, please look me right here in these two eyeballs, OK?

I'm not throwing myself in the mater basket tonight and saying I have it. If anything, I have a very great big lack of it and I want a whole lot more of it. And so I'm preaching to myself tonight just as much as I'm preaching to any person in the under the sound of my voice in this building.

But let me give you just a few ways that I believe, according to the word of God, we can know we have the power of God. And by the way, the lack of these things is no doubt the lack of the power of God.

Very elementary, low to the ground, kindergarten Christianity outline, follow me. Number one, the power of God comes first and foremost through prayer. The power of God has always come to those who avail themselves to God in prayer.

There was an elderly lady in Texas. A pastor went and visited her in a little convalescent home, a little nursing home. And they began to talk back and forth and he would sing her a couple of little choruses and boys should just giggle with glee.

And I mean, she is just so excited and he would read her some verses. And just before he got ready to leave, he would play with her and he talks with her about how much God loves her and this, that and the other.

And as they were talking back and forth, he got ready to leave. And she said, you know what, Richard? She said, you know, I found the secret to the Christian life is the power of God. And he said, is that right?

He said, well, what is it that gives you the power of God? She said, I believe it's prayer. She said, I believe the more a person prays, the more a person will have the power of God. She says, I have understood one thing in life.

He said, what's that? She said, the only time you'll ever see power before prayer is in the dictionary. And I will say something, ladies and gentlemen, that's exactly right. The only time you will ever see power coming before prayer is in the dictionary, because if you're not a person that prays, I promise you, you're not a person who accidentally comes across the power of God.

You think about the disciples just for a moment. I was reading about their life, you know, going through the Gospels and studying them. And I'll tell you, I was convicted at something that they asked the Lord Jesus.

I preached on it a hundred times. I quoted it. I read through it. You've heard it. We taught the kids. You know, the disciples looked at Jesus. He basically said, what do you want from me? And they said, Lord, teach us to pray.

And that really grabbed a hold of me. You know, sometimes you'll read John 3, 16 a thousand times, you'll read it a thousand more and God will jump out of a Bible and just grab you and just drift you right down to the book and say, look at that.

We'll show you something you've never seen before. And when I read that, Lord, teach us to pray. I thought to myself, now that is a terrific thing. You say, big deal. Oh, it is a big deal. I'll tell you why.

They didn't say, Lord, teach us to preach. But doesn't that seem like that'd be a pretty honorable thing to say? Here's the greatest preacher that ever walked the face of God's great earth. God in the flesh, man from coast of Bible backwards and forwards like nobody's business.

Here's a man that could walk into an auditorium and immediately every head was turned right towards him. And that's why he could get up in Luke chapter 18 and he could preach out of Isaiah chapter number 61 and then look at those people and say, this day is this prophecy fulfilled in your ears.

And I mean, it was like kids in a candy store. I mean, they were eaten out of the palm to be tamed. Never a man speaks like this man. I mean, you think John the Baptist was a preacher. I'll say what? Jesus Christ was the greatest preacher that ever walked this earth hands down.

But they didn't say, Lord, teach us to preach. Now, it seems like to me, since they were enrolled in the seminary of the Lord Jesus, if you will, that they would have said, Lord, teach us some of your tactics and some of your homiletics and some of your outlines.

But they didn't do that. They didn't even say, Lord, teach us to teach. But yet the Bible does say that Jesus taught him as one having authority and not as the scribes and the Pharisees. Why did he have such authority?

Because he preached the word of God. He didn't fiddle around with a newspaper, the Sports Illustrated, the Time magazine. He preached the word and that's what gave him that authority. But they didn't say, Lord, teach us to preach.

They didn't say, Lord, teach us to teach. They didn't say, Lord, teach us to build big Sunday schools. They didn't say, teach us to baptize people. And you know what? They didn't even say, Lord, teach us to perform miracles.

Now, you think about that. They're around somebody who performed every miracle imaginable. I was thinking about this just the other day around Christmas time. I preached a sermon on what if God really became a man?

And by the way, he did and his name was Jesus. But nevertheless, if you think about all the miracles that Jesus performed, did you know there is not one miracle that Jesus did not perform upon this earth?

Not one. You cannot think of a miracle that you would have wanted him to do that he didn't already do. He raised people from the dead. That's pretty noble of him to say. He walked on the water. He calmed the storm.

You say, well, he never did a miracle of financial proportion. Is that right? Peter needed to pay his taxes. He said, go to the fish's mouth. Don't go to the catfish. You'll find some gold in there. That's a pretty big miracle.

If you ask me, I ain't got too much gold in the catfish's mouth. That's for sure. And if I knew it was down there, I'd be fishing every single day. That's for sure. He said five thousand on one occasion, four thousand two chapters later.

I mean, you think about it. He healed blind eyes, the paralytic legs. He cast out devils from people's bodies. He did miracle after miracle after miracle after miracle after miracle and the disciples for every single one.

You remember that man that laid in a bed for 38 years? He said no man would put me in the water. No man cares for me. And he said, I need somebody to get me down there in the water. And he just said, don't you worry about that water.

I'm the water of life. And he just walked by and said, pick up your cart, boy. And he picked up the cart. And the Bible says he went straight to my darling all the way down the road. Friend, he picked up his bed and he carried it with him.

And I'll tell you, every single miracle that Jesus performed, the disciples saw him perform. Hey, you remember those four guys that had that friend who was a paralytic? He laid in a bed and he couldn't even walk.

He couldn't get up and do anything for himself. And one day they took him to the church house. They took him to somebody's house as they would meet in houses customarily in the New Testament. And I mean, the doors were packed to capacity.

I mean, people were all over the place. I mean, there wasn't a place to sit. And those fellows said, I wonder what we're going to do. And one of them got a bright idea. He said, well, let's hoist him up on the roof.

Now, you can't do that nowadays. You'll get sued. But back then you could. He said, let's hoist him up on the roof and let's lower him down. And we'll put him right on the platform where the man's preaching.

And so they climbed up there. They got a shovel, a pickaxe, whatever it was. They started taking the shingles off that roof. And before you know it, they opened up a bigger hole, a hole big enough for a cot.

And they lowered that man right down in there. And Jesus didn't rebuke him. Jesus didn't slap the man. Jesus said, son, take off thy belt and walk. And the Bible says he picked it up and walked right out of the room.

And you know what those religious people said? We never saw it on this life before. I said, we've never done things like this before. We've never taken the elephant right there. We never preached like that.

We've never seen it on this life before. And every miracle that Jesus performed was a miracle that was seen by his disciples. And so doesn't it stand to reason? It does to me that, hey, if I was around him, I'd say, hey, you know what?

I sure would like to have that power. I'd like to be able to raise the dead. You talk about an influx of crowds at a meeting, buddy. I mean, Benny Hinn tells somebody he could hear somebody with a spit rag.

And I mean, he's got 50 ,000 people to preach to. And I mean, here is somebody who could give you that power available at his fingertips was the very power to say, OK, if you want to raise the dead, you can raise the dead.

And he did give them some apostolic power. And by the way, when the apostles died, apostolic power died with them. And there's no such thing as an apostle today. That's why we don't handle snakes. That's why we don't speak in tongues.

That's why we don't walk on water. That's why we don't do foolish things. Because at one time, the power of God came through manifestations. But nowadays, the power of God comes through simple obedience to the word of God.

And so when they looked at Jesus, they didn't say any of those things. They said, Lord, teach us to pray. Why is that? I'll tell you why. Because if you study the Gospels, you will find out that all of Jesus's ministry, everybody, all of his miracles were attributed to his prayer life.

And you see, friend, they did not have to ask and say, Lord, teach us to pray. Show us how to teach Sunday school. Show us how to build the cross. Show us how to win people of Christ. Show us how to baptize the masses.

Give us this miracle working power. They didn't have to ask for any of that because they knew where the source of all of that came from. It came from his prayer time with his father. Excuse me for being a little bit over elementary.

But if Jesus had the phrase, how dare we think we shouldn't? John chapter 17, Jesus prayed and prayed and prayed. We know that in the garden of Gethsemane, he prayed so vigorously it was as if sweat drops of blood, the capillaries beneath his skin would burn.

And physicians call it hematidrosis. It's only happened about four or five times in medical history. And every single time it happened to a person, their body was under so much stress, anxiety and pain.

And that's exactly what happened to the Lord Jesus as he was praying for your soul and my soul near into that time of death. You study the ministry of the Lord Jesus. Every single miracle he performed was attributed to his prayer life.

And when the disciples saw that, they realized if we want this great power, we must learn the submissive principle of being obedient to our father, being obedient to the word of God. And we must learn to pray.

Daniel chapter six and verse number 10. Now, when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his bedchamber with his windows being opened towards Jerusalem and he kneeled upon his knees three times a day and gave thanks before his God as he did of four times.

Psalm chapter five, verses one, two and three. The Bible tells us that David prayed at morning, noon and at midnight, lifting his eyes and his hands toward heaven. He was waiting for God to drop it right out of the sky.

Jeremiah chapter 33 and verse number three. Call unto me, God said. Not a shallow promise, but a great promise in the word of God. Call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.

You say, OK, preacher, how come we don't see great and mighty things? James chapter four. You have not. Because the Bible says in the book of Matthew, chapter number seven, act and it shall be given. Seek and you shall find.

And it shall be open unto you. Somebody says, OK, preacher. I've asked. I've sought and I've not. But ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to remind you that it's written in the continuous ten. It means ask, ask, ask, knock, knock, knock and seek, seek, seek.

And you keep on seeking and you keep on knocking just like that widow that came to that judge and she begged him and begged him and begged him. And finally he said, OK, I'll give you what you want. Now, I want to tell you something about prayer.

Prayer is not just a time so that I go to God and say, I want this, I want this, I want this and I want this. God is not your theological bellhop that meets you outside your hotel room with a limousine.

He's not going to jump to your every beckoning call. And prayer is not just a time for me to ask for things. It is a time for me to worship God. Ladies and gentlemen, people that prayed in the Bible were people who had the power of God.

But not only does the power of God come through prayer, I say secondly and quickly, number two, the power of God comes through purity. The Bible says in Leviticus chapter 11 in verse number 44, And be ye holy, for I am holy, saith the Lord God of hosts.

God liked that verse so much, he repeated it again. In 1 Peter chapter 1, verse number 16, And be ye holy, for I am holy, saith the Lord God of hosts. And if you study your Bible from Genesis 1 -1 to Revelation 22 -21, it won't take you very long to figure out that God, more than love, more than grace, more than mercy, more than patience, more than long suffering, more than anything else, God is holy because that is the very thing that makes God who God is.

If he were not loved, he would still be holy. If he were not merciful, he would still be holy. If he had no grace that we heard sung about tonight, he would still be holy because holiness is what God is.

And you know what? God commands holiness out of his people. Now, God has always had his blessings upon separated Christianity. Now, the liberals don't believe that. The modernists don't believe that. The New Evangelicals don't believe that.

And guess what? They don't have God's blessings. You see, ladies and gentlemen, those who want to live right, those who want to live holy, those who want to live separated lives are those who avail themselves to the power of God.

If they can prove that, the liberals can. There's a man in the Bible by the name of Samuel. He was born in Judges chapter number 13. His life was lived in chapter 14, chapter 15, and chapter number 16.

Did you know in Judges chapter number 14, the Bible says five times the Spirit of God came mightily upon him. In chapter number 15, the Bible says four times the Spirit of God came mightily upon him. And in chapter 16, the Bible says two times the Spirit of God came mightily upon him.

Why do we have that gradual slowing down, that backsliding process of the man Samson? I'll tell you why. Here's a man who, by the way, did not have the power of God because he was a hippie. He had the power of God.

His long hair was a symbolization of his Nazarite vow of separation to God. The hair was merely a picture of his vow and his separation. You see, God's always blessed separated Christianity in the Old Testament, and he certainly blessed it in the day and age in which we live.

But did you know when Samson lived right, when the Spirit of God came upon him, he could do some of the most supernatural, amazing feats that you could ever imagine. Here's a man that picked up the gates.

The gates of the city there that the Philistines had encamped and come around the Israelites. He picked them up and carried them to the top of a mountain and set them down. I mean, I'd have trouble carrying purity milk crates up the top of a mountain.

Here's a man that grabbed the gates, put them on his shoulders and went up there and set them down. Here's a man that was sitting on a rock one day and a thousand Philistine soldiers came to him. He said, God, I'm going to have to whoop these fellas.

And the Bible says the spirit of God came by the corner. He picked up the jawbone of a donkey, the jawbone of a donkey and flew a thousand men. I'll be honest with you. I do not think I don't think I should kill a thousand men with a machine gun.

I think a gang of men could do anything to one man. They wanted to. I mean, they could get you down. They can kick you, spit you, beat you. They do anything they want to. And here's a guy that picked up a little jawbone of a donkey and killed a thousand people.

Well, that's not somebody I want to mess with. That's for sure. And when he was done, he was thirsty and said, Lord, I'd like to have something to drink. God reached down. The Bible says put a hollow place inside of that jawbone of that donkey.

There was another time that he found out that the Philistines had double crossed him. So you know what he did? He went out into the wilderness and he caught 300 foxes. Can you imagine that? I don't believe if I went out hunting for six months, I could catch three foxes.

And here's a man that went out in one night and caught 300 of them. You say you're foolish to believe that. You're foolish not to because it's right there in the Word of God. He caught 300 actual physical, actual foxes.

Hey, and if that don't be all, he tied their tails together. Man alive. I tell you what, that confuses me every time I read. He took 300 foxes. Now be still, boys. You stay right there, boys. You stay right there.

And he took 300 of them and tied all of their tails together and then lit some torches. Bible calls them firebrands. And struck those torches between the tied tails of those foxes and sent them into the field of the Philistine.

That's the first time in your Bible you read about tail lights, by the way. But nonetheless, here is a man that has the power of God. Now, there's no doubt about it. I mean, we could pass out the little sheet tonight and we could say, check, yes, check, no.

Did Seth have a power of God? And it would take a pretty naive person to write on there. No, we know he did. Because over and over and over and over again, the Bible says the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him.

The Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him. When did the Spirit of the Lord come mightily upon him? I'll tell you when. When he began to flirt around with the world and he lost his peer. When Delilah said, OK, if you really love me, you'll tell me all of your parts.

And there's something about the way that he said it. There's something about those eyes that he kind of magnetized and then drew him in real tight. And so he told her the truth. That night, the Bible says, I mean, after all these other foolish things, it seems to me like Samson would have figured it out.

I mean, every single time she did something, she wrapped him in vines, she wrapped him in robes, she braided his hair, she did all kind of silly things until the foolish things be upon you. He jumped up.

He had the same power that he always had, had the same strength that he always had. And it just seems to me like Samson would have caught on. But there's just something about this woman that made him completely, totally ignorant and oblivious to the problems and troubles around him.

It's like when your wife comes to you and says, Honey, will you please give me the credit card so I can go to JCPenney? No, you shouldn't do it. But there's just something about the way that she acts that makes you have to do it.

You know what I'm talking about, fellas? OK. And so here's this lady, and she said, Please tell me where your strength lies. He said, OK, never been a razor touched my head before. You shaved the seven locks of my head and my strength to go from me.

And she knew in her heart he was right. Now, the problem was he should have never been with that soliciting woman to begin with, according to the word of God. He was living a life of immorality. He had involved himself in something he knew was against the vow of separation.

That he made to God. But he allowed pleasure to get in front of power. Didn't bother him anymore. And you find him at the end of chapter 16 as a blind man. His eyes have been gouged out with a Philistine hot poker.