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Series Code: BOLS
Program Code: BOLS000044S
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00:05 Sermon #S024 - An Inside Job - Part 1)
00:20 Pastor Snell: Today, we were going to go ahead and just jump into the word today. 00:22 I'm going to invite you to stand to your feet as we go to the Book of Judges chapter 16. 00:29 A very familiar text for our consideration today, Judges chapter 16. We're going to begin together at verse number 4, 00:37 Judges chapter 16 and we're going to begin together at verse number 4. When you get there, let me hear you say, "Pastor, I'm there." 00:47 Judges chapter 16 and verse number 4. So today, we are under some scheduling constraints, and so today, just just pray for me. 00:59 I want to talk to you after about 30-ish. 01:02 [ Congregation: Applauding] Now, that don't start till after my scripture and prayer. Amen. 01:11 [ Congregation: Laughing] 01:13 Pastor Snell: Don't start the clock now, but we want to make sure that you can do all the things that are appointed for you to do. 01:18 Judges, 16 and verse 4, when you get there, let me hear you say, "Amen." 01:21 [ Congregation: Amen] 01:23 Pastor Snell: Very familiar text not just for our youth, but really for anybody that needs to know Jesus. 01:29 There's something that God wants you to hear today. 01:32 The Bible says, "Afterward, it happened that he - 01:35 talking about Samson - loved the woman in the valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah, 01:41 and the lord of the Philistines came up to her and said, "Entice, him and find out where his great strength lies, 01:51 and by what means we may overpower him that we may bind him to afflict him, 01:57 and every one of us will give you 1,100 pieces of silver." 02:02 So Delilah said to Samson, "Please tell me where your great strength lies, and with what you may be bound to afflict you?" 02:12 Samson said unto her, "If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings, not yet dry, then I shall become weak and be like any other man. 02:23 So, the lord of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings, not yet dry, and she bound him with them. 02:32 Now, men were lying in wait, staying with her in the room, and she said unto him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson," 02:40 but he broke the bow strings as a strand of yarn breaks when it touches the fire." So, the secret of his strength was what? 02:48 [ Congregation: Not known] 02:50 Not known. Then Delilah said to Samson, "Look, you have mocked me and told me lies. 02:54 Now, please tell me, what you may be bound with?" 02:59 So, he said to her, "If you bind me securely with new ropes that have never been used, 03:05 then I shall become weak and be like any other man." Therefore, Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him, 03:16 "The Philistines are upon you, Samson, and the men were lying in wait staying in the room," 03:22 but he broke them off his arms like a thread." Can I just say this? They're just certain things you can't joke about. 03:28 He says bow strings and they just happened to show up. 03:35 Ropes, and they just happen to appear like the check engine light ought to be going off in Samson's head right now. 03:44 [ Congregation: Applauding] 03:47 Then the Bible says in verse 13, "Delilah said to Samson, "Until now you've mocked me and told me lies. 03:54 Tell me, he-he-he.... 03:58 [ Congregation: Laughing] 04:02 . what you may be bound with? He said unto her, now he's getting closer. He doesn't give it all the way, 04:08 but he's talking about the hair now. If you weed how many locks? 04:13 [ Congregation: Seven] 04:15 Pastor Snell: Seven lots of my hair into the web of the loom." So she wove it tightly with the batten of the loom 04:21 and she said unto him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson," but he awoke from his sleep and pulled out the batten, 04:27 and the web from the loom. Then she said unto him, "How can you say, 'I love you" when your heart is not with me? 04:43 You have mocked me three times, boo, and have not told me where your great strength lies." 04:54 And it came to pass when she pestered him daily with her words impressed him so that his soul was vexed to death, 05:05 that he told her all his heart and said to her, "No razor has ever come upon my head, 05:13 for I've been a Nazirite to God from my mother's womb. If I am shaven, then my strength will leave me, 05:19 and I shall become weak and be like any other man." 05:24 When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, 05:31 say, "Come up, once more for he has told me all this heart." So, the lords of the Philistines came up to her 05:39 and brought the money in their hand, then she loathed him to sleep on her knees and called for a man 05:47 and had him shave off the seven locks of his head, then she began to torment him and his strength left him. 06:00 And she said, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson." 06:04 So, he awoke from his sleep and said, "I will go out as before at other times and shake myself free." 06:15 But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him. Then the Philistines took him, put out his eyes and brought him to Gaza. 06:28 They bound him with bronze fetters and he became a grinder in the prison. 06:35 Today, saints, I just want to talk to you from literally a few moments under the subject, "An Inside Job". 06:42 [ Congregation: Applauding] 06:44 Pastor Snell: An Inside Job. Let's pray. Father, in this little while, would you please say much? 06:53 You made a promise and a Covenant that your word would never return to evil, but it will accomplish what you please 07:01 and prosper in the thing that you sent it to do. So father, 07:05 I pray that you would give me permission to join my human weakness to your Divine strength. 07:10 Lord, will you issue a word of instruction? Lord, would you present a word of warning? Lord, would you just create a spiritual 07:18 compass for your young people to be able to follow? So Lord, 07:22 would you hide me in the shadows of the cross that Jesus alone might be seen, that Christ alone would be heard, 07:29 and in the end of our time together made Jesus alone be praised? We ask this in the name of Him who is altogether lovely. 07:36 It is in the name of Jesus that we pray. Let God's people say together, amen, 07:42 [ Congregation: Amen] 07:44 Pastor Snell: You may be seated. Again, we're talking today under the subject, 'An Inside Job'. 08:05 Friends, in the literary series entitled, The Odyssey, the story is told of the Trojan War. 08:15 For 10 years, the Greeks sought to take down the city of Troy to no avail. 08:22 You see, the city was so well-protected and fortified that the Greeks were not able to advance their cause forward. 08:32 Finding their efforts futile, they shifted their focus from penetration to infiltration. 08:40 They could never take the city from the outside. They had to figure out a way to get their forces on the inside. 08:48 The legend has it that they constructed a wooden horse and they placed their soldiers on the inside. 08:57 They presented the wooden horse as a truce offering to those in Troy in honor of the goddess of Athena. 09:07 Sensing no threat, they receive the Trojan monument, not realizing that the enemy was on the inside. 09:16 The Greek soldiers that night, once nightfall, came they exited the horse, opening up the city gates, 09:24 and allowing their enemies to come on the inside, and the city of Troy was ultimately destroyed because it was an inside job. 09:37 Understand that the story of the Trojan horse has great spiritual implications because understand that as a child of God, 09:46 you're like the city of Troy. You are fortified by an impenetrable wall of grace that keeps you and your mistakes, 09:56 and God even keeps you in your misdeeds. The only way the enemy knows he can get at you is not by overtaking your wall. 10:07 He's got to get on the inside and disarm your defense system. 10:12 Understand that what the enemy does is he sends some Trojan horses in your direction. 10:20 You see, a trojan horse is anything that poses as a gift, but it gives the enemy access to your soul. 10:29 So, sometimes we download some Trojan horses from iTunes. There are times where we'd befriend some Trojan horses. 10:39 Sometimes, in the fall, we start cuffing with some Trojan horses. Sometimes we begin to play ball with some Trojan horses, 10:49 and sometimes we give the enemy the combination because God cannot be hacked. 10:56 The only way he can get you is if you give Him access to your soul. 11:01 See, the word to somebody today is you've got to limit the enemy's access to your inner man or your inner woman, 11:11 and see the same saying for the church today, is that some of us have our phones better protected than our spirits and our souls. 11:20 [ Congregation: Applauding] 11:22 In other words, we keep our phones always covered. We make sure our devices are password protected. 11:28 In other words, we always have a cover on the phone to protect it from water intrusion, drops or spills, 11:36 but we allow our souls to walk around naked, and we allow anything to have access to it. 11:43 It's crazy because we have a password on our devices to make sure it can never be hacked, 11:49 but we've allowed everybody to have access to our soul and our spirit. 11:55 The reason friends, we protect our phones is by nature, we protect what we value. 12:02 You all are not hearing this today. Is there anybody that knows there ought to be a covering over your soul? 12:09 There ought to be a password over your spirit because you've got value in Jesus Christ. 12:15 Is there any young person that knows that you've been created in the image of God? 12:20 Is there anybody that knows you've been carefully, and wonderfully made? 12:25 If you know you've got value, there ought to be a covering from those that have access. 12:31 In other words, sister, when you know you've got value, what happened is, you don't have a password over your phone. 12:41 You have a password over your spirit. Are you all hearing me today? In other words, 12:46 you don't just give a stranger the password to your phone, 12:50 but you let a stranger have access under your blouse. Are you all hearing what I'm saying today? 12:55 [ Congregation: Applauding] 12:57 Pastor Snell: In other words, you have your phone coverage so that if somebody's drinking, 13:00 it can't get poured on your phone, but you let folk poor Hennessy all inside of the Temple of the Holy Ghost. 13:08 What I'm saying to somebody today is you've got to get a covering over your spirit. You've got to have a password to your soul. 13:16 All right, let me say it, this way anybody ever sees it when you get ready to log in, or create a bank account or a flight account, 13:24 what they will do if your password is too weak? 13:28 [ Congregation: Applauding] 13:30 Pastor Snell: They would give a suggested password because they're saying your stuff can be easily hacked. 13:36 They want you to add more characters, and add more in the numbers to make sure you can't be easily passed, penetrated. 13:45 I guess what I'm saying to somebody today is I want to suggest you get a stronger password. You need to add some characters. 13:53 Somebody needs to have a six-letter password, that will be J-E-S-U-S plus sign. Are you all hearing the world today? 14:04 [ Congregation: Applauding] 14:06 Pastor Snell: When you got Jesus as your password, then you can't be easily hacked. Are you all hearing the word today? 14:12 So, go with me if you don't mind, back to Judges chapter 14 and verse number one. We won't take long today. 14:21 Judges 14 and verse number 1, the Bible says, "Now, Samson went down to Timnath, 14:27 and he saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the, what? Philistines. 14:33 So, they went up and told his father and mother saying, "I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines. 14:41 Now, therefore, get her for me as a wife." Then his father and mother said to him, 14:48 "Is there no woman amongst the daughters of your brethren 14:51 or amongst all my people that you must get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?" 14:58 Samson said to his father, "Get her for me for she pleases me well." 15:06 Now friends as we look briefly at the story of Samson, there are just three brief principles that I want to espouse. 15:14 You see, the first thing the story of Samson teaches us is that, different doesn't mean better. 15:23 [ Congregation: Applauding] 15:25 Pastor Snell: In other words friends, sometimes when we look at the story of Samson, we tend to focus a lot on that final decision, 15:35 but the truth is that Sampson has developed some patterns that make this final decision inevitable. Are you with me today? 15:44 In other words, 15:46 I need you to get that Samson is just like any church kid who operates under the assumption that different is automatically better. 15:55 In other words, there is a contempt that we developed for surroundings that are familiar, for customs that are familiar, 16:05 and people that are familiar. Whenever we are exposed to something different, 16:11 there is a novelty and a freshness that creates a temptation and a pull in that direction. 16:20 Like some of you, Samson is grown up in a home where his parents made a covenant to raise him where there is no unclean food, 16:30 to raise him in a culture where there was no alcohol. They raised Sampson in the sacred space of Jehovah, 16:38 and perhaps Samson is that kid that has grown up around the same group of friends. 16:45 He's grown up around the same group of girls, and they are not bad girls, 16:51 but they are just so familiar that they are more like sisters. 16:55 They don't see them as potential mates, and see, Sampson is at this place that because he has been sheltered 17:04 and preserved by his parents, he feels like there is a part of life that he is missing out on. 17:11 There is a sense that something has been deprived. He feels as if his parents have been keeping something from him. 17:20 But the problem with Samson is that it is not until he almost loses his life that he realizes that he's not been kept from pleasure. 17:31 The only thing they've kept him from his pain. 17:35 [ Congregation: Applauding] 17:36 Pastor Snell: So, let me just pause to say to our young folks today, 17:39 that there are some of us that have grown up in a Christian or Adventist subculture. 17:44 For some of us, at home was Christ. When you went to church, it was Christ. 17:49 When you went to school, it was Christ. There is this feeling that somehow you've missed out on something, 17:56 that something has been deprived from you. There are some that have developed this contempt for spiritual things, 18:05 and you can't wait to get out from underneath parental covering. 18:10 You kind of made it up in your mind that you can't wait to get out 18:14 and turn up because you feel like you have been missing out on something. 18:19 I need somebody to know today that like Samson, the only thing you've missed is the hells and the messiness 18:28 and the sorrows of this life. Are you are hearing me today? 18:31 [ Congregation: Applauding] 18:33 I need you to hear me because you won't say, amen, on this until about 20 years from now. 18:38 I need you to know that you will never be more free than you are right now. 18:45 [ Congregation: Applauding] 18:47 See, I need you to know that if you embrace Samson's fascination with the other side, 18:53 what looks like freedom today is going to be bondage 10 years from now. But again, 19:02 Samson's issue is that he is just fascinated by life outside of religious culture. 19:11 Understand, that at this point, the Philistines are a fully developed and grown nation with a king. 19:17 Whereas the Israelites, they are somewhat in the minority as they have come through their wilderness sojourn, 19:23 and they are trying to get settled in the land of promise. 19:27 See, there's something about Samson that has grown up in this little rural isolated setting that just kind of feels like life is 19:35 always better on the other campus. 19:41 [ Congregation: Applauding] 19:43 So that, when he goes to the Philistine campus, it just seems like when they step, 19:49 they're a little bit more together than the way they step at Oakwood, I mean in Israel. 19:54 [ Congregation: Applauding] 19:57 When he goes to the Philistine campus, it seems like their registration process is smoother than the registration process in Israel. 20:07 When they go to the Philistine camp, it seems that the food is better in their cafe than it is our cafe. 20:15 When they go to the Philistine campus it seems like the girls have a different wiggle 20:21 and drop in their hips than the girls' back in his campus. 20:25 So, it just feels like the Philistines have more coming to our games than we have coming to our games. 20:33 Though Samson is a champion, and the steward of his own gift, there was a problem with Samson 20:42 because he feels that his works have to be validated by an outside entity. 20:48 He feels like he's got to get approval from those that are not like him. 20:53 He feels like it's not legit unless it's blessed from somebody on the outside. 20:59 In other words, Samson is so dumb that he would rather be accepted by the Kappas 21:05 and the Lambdas than to be loved by the Alpha and the Omega. 21:09 [ Congregation: Applauding] 21:12 Are you all hearing your boy, today? Friends of mine, did you notice the strange irony in the story today, 21:26 that your boy, Sampson, is completely enamored with trying to imitate 21:33 and assimilate into Philistine life while the Philistines have spent his whole life trying to figure out the secret of his strength. 21:45 He's so busy trying to be like them, but they have made him the case study because they want to find out what produced him. 21:56 What made him so special? How do we get what he has? They're so busy trying to figure him out, 22:06 but he spent his whole young life trying to be like everybody else. 22:13 It's crazy because they have literally dissected him seven different ways from Sunday to try to figure out who 22:22 and what it is that gave him his strength. Are you all hearing what I'm saying today, friends? 22:27 See, the reason this is important is because there are times friends of mind, 22:33 where we are so busy trying to get validation from the outside. 22:36 There are times where we feel like it's not legit until somebody blesses it from A&M or UAH, or the Ivy League. 22:43 We feel like it's not legit until somebody from outside the culture says that we are okay. 22:49 We spend our whole lives looking at their model and trying to imitate their rubric. 22:54 Ain't that crazy that we spend more time admiring what the devil has done for them than praising God for what He has done for us? 23:04 [ Congregation: Applauding] 23:06 Are you hearing what I'm saying? See, friends of mine, 23:09 I need you to know that there are times where people are looking at this little historically, black college. 23:14 This little Christian institution, and they're still trying to figure out, how can we find out the secret of Oakwood strength?. 23:23 Are you all hearing me today? All right, so, you all are acting brand-new. 23:26 Do you realize that there are folk that right now are in music departments, 23:30 trying to figure out the secret of the aeolian strength. 23:34 [ Congregation: Applauding] 23:36 Oh God, we're all that? In other words, they're trying to figure out in Ivy League, 23:40 and state schools how this little black school with about 1,500 folks can produce the best choir not just in Alabama, 23:49 not just in North America, but how do we produce the best choir in the whole wide world? Are you all hearing me today? 23:57 [ Congregation: Applauding] 23:59 Pastor Snell: In other words, you realize that HBCUs are looking at us because there are 107 HBCUs in the nation, 24:06 but we are in the top 10 in graduation rate and retention. Are you all hearing the word today? 24:13 That, there are 61 universities in Alabama, 24:17 but we have a top 15 medical program that we produces doctors 24:22 and surgeons at a rate that eclipses those that have three times our enrollment. 24:28 That our young brothers that don't play ball on the Sabbath were able to win the national championship, 24:35 and bring the trophy back home. 24:37 [ Congregation: Applauding] 24:40 Pastor Snell: In fact, Joey, I was at a concert with Donnie McClurkin 2 weeks, about a month ago and in the background, 24:45 he literally said to me, Roman , he said, "I don't know why you all keep inviting me?" 24:50 He says, "The best musicians and songwriters come right out of the Seventh-day Adventist Church." 24:58 In other words, he says, "When are you all going to come out of the background, and when are you all going to go on the front stage?" 25:07 [ Congregation: Applauding] 25:09 See, I just want to give a quick plug to the whole HBCU culture. I want to say to our young people, 25:15 if you decide to go to a PWI or a Predominantly White school, there is no shade, no harm intended, 25:22 but because God sends us other places, but if you decide to go, I don't want you to go 25:31 because of the narrative that white automatically means better. That white automatically means smarter, 25:39 more intellectual, more challenging, more rigorous, that somehow it can draw out of you what we cannot draw out of you here. 25:49 If God sends you there, that's fine, but how many of us know the white man's ice ain't colder? 25:55 [ Congregation: Applauding] 25:57 Pastor Snell: We're all that, today? In other words, if you go, that's fine. God needs His children everywhere. 26:03 There is no shame, but I want you to get away from this self-loathing idea that says, "If we produced, that is wrong, 26:11 inferior, and lacking, it's because we got to know, somebody that knows somebody. That devil is a lie. Go to a state school. 26:21 Go to an Ivy League school, and there's just as much favoritism and nepotism, 26:27 and it folk that get degrees because of who they parents are, 26:31 The only ones that give held to the high standard of the poor white kids 26:37 or the minorities that they didn't want them to be there in the first place, 26:41 they had to let you in to feel a quota of diversity that says, "If you don't keep getting money, 26:48 you've got to get a little certain amount of them, get inside the school. 26:52 But I'm just at a place where I don't go where I'm tolerated. I go, where I'm celebrated. 26:58 [ Congregation: Applauding] 27:00 Pastor Snell: Oh God. No, no, no. If you go get 10,000 a month dollars, you ain't going to tolerate it. 27:07 You're going to celebrate what made me? You going to celebrate where I came from. You got to celebrate my heritage, 27:15 and you've got to celebrate my dignity. Don't go where you're tolerated. You got to go where you can be celebrated. 27:24 Are you all hearing me today? 27:27 Thank you so much for joining us for the Breath of Life Television Ministry Broadcast. 27:32 We hope and pray that you've been blessed through today's message. 27:35 Join us next week for part two of "An Inside Job." You don't want to miss it. 28:14 (Breath of Life Theme Music) 28:38 [END] |
Revised 2022-11-21