THE PRICE OF A HAIRCUT IN THE DEVIL’S BARBERSHOP
Judges 16:15,17,19
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: MISSING HIS LOVED ONE (ONLY IN TEXAS)
1. Husband: “My wife is missing. She went shopping yesterday and hasn’t come home.
2. Sergeant: What’s her height? H: “Gee, I’m not sure. A little over 5 feet tall.”
3. Sergeant: “Weight?” H: “Don’t know. Not slim, but not real fat.”
4. Sergeant: “Color of eyes?” H: “Sort of brown, I think. I never really noticed.”
5. Sergeant: “Color of hair?” Husband: It changes a couple of times a year. Maybe dark brown, I can’t remember.”
6. Sergeant: “What was she wearing?” Husband: “Could have been pants, or shorts. I don’t know exactly.”
7. Sergeant: “What kind of truck did she go in?” H: “She went in my truck.” Sergeant: “What kind of truck was it?”
8. Husband: “A 2016 Ford F150, King Ranch 4x4 with eco-boost 5.0 L V8 engine special ordered with manual transmission and climate controlled air conditioning. It has a custom matching white cover for the bed, which has matching aftermarket bed liner. Custom leather 6-way seats and “Bubba” floor mats. Trail ring package with gold hitch and special wiring hookups, DVD with full GPS navigation, satellite radio receiver, 23 channel CB radio, six cup holders, a USB port, and four power outlets. I added special alloy wheels and off-road Michelins. It has custom running boards and indirect wheel well lighting.” At this point, the husband started choking up.
9. Sergeant: “Don’t worry buddy, we’ll find your truck!”
B. THE DEVIL HAS MANY OCCUPATIONS
A lot of people don’t know the devil has a number of different trades. Here’s 7 of them:
1. He’s an Excavator – he digs the ground out from under people and makes them fall into pits.
2. He’s a Salesman/ Marketer – he’s always trying to sell you his evil products.
3. He’s a Metallurgist – testing the metal you’re made of.
4. He’s a Prosecuting Attorney – always accusing people before the Father.
5. He’s a Mob Boss – He’s always trying to get people to break the Law, to trespass.
6. He’s a Cinematographer – He shows you movies you shouldn’t see in the theater of your mind.
7. But the devil has one more unusual job: he’s a Barber and he has his own barber shop. He is in the business of cutting hair, but he’s not interested in cutting just anybody’s hair. He wants to cut the hair of spiritual Nazarites.
C. TEXT
15 Then [Delilah] said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you won’t confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven’t told me the secret of your great strength.” 17 So he told her everything. “No razor has ever been used on my head,” he said, “because I have been a Nazirite dedicated to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man.” 19 After putting him to sleep on her lap, she called for someone to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him. And his strength left him. Judges 16:15,17,19.
D. THESIS & TITLE
1. Delilah acted as the cosmetologist assistant in this story.
2. We’re looking at the life of a mighty man of God, who delivered God’s people for a generation. We’ll see his fall and his restoration.
3. The title of this message is “The Price of a Haircut in the Devil’s Barber Shop.”
I. A MAN WHO LOST TOUCH WITH GOD
A. HE NEVER INTENDED TO LOSE TOUCH
1. Samson had a miraculous beginning. Samson’s parents were old and childless. They’d given up on having any children.
2. An angel appeared to his parents, telling them they would have a son who would be consecrated to God all his life and would deliver Israel from the Philistines.
3. When he was born, his little body was dedicated to be God’s possession all his life as a Nazarite. From an early age Samson was filled with the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit began to manifest great strength in him.
4. Early in his life he had a passion for God – a sense of mission. He allowed the Holy Spirit to move in his life so powerfully that he alone put whole armies into retreat.
5. But over time he got cold and hardened his heart. He got distracted from God and began to toy with sin. Then Samson got even more reckless, sleeping with prostitutes.
5. Yet he still thought God would never abandon him. That’s why, when his hair had been cut off, he “shook” himself. But he was deceived.
6. Satan used many tactics to “cut off” Samson’s relationship with God.
B. HOW SATAN CUTS OFF OUR RELATIONSHIP
1. LIMITS OUR PRAYER TO SUPERFICIAL EXPOSURE.
2. STEALS THE WORD AWAY FROM OUR HEARTS.
3. SUFFOCATES THE SPIRITUAL LIFE.
4. WE GET ADDICTED TO SOME SIN.
5. WE FAIL IN SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES.
6. WE LAND IN A HURTFUL TRIAL.
C. HUMOR: Being Bald
1. A bald man and his wife went out to a special dinner. They left their children at home with a babysitter. However, the babysitter got interested in a TV program and neglected to carefully watch the children.
2. Unfortunately, the young son got a hold of his father's electric shaver and shaved off a wide strip of hair right down the middle of his head.
3. When the parents arrived home, the father was furious. He reminded the son that he had been told NEVER to touch dad's shaver. He was trying to decide on a punishment when his son said, "Wait until you see sister’s hair!" Hers was cut off too!
4. Dad was really furious now and grabbed hold of his son. But the son said, "But Dad! We were just wanting to look like you!" (Randy Walker)
5. So it was really a compliment! We should want to look like our heavenly Father too!
II. MEANING OF THE HAIRCUT
A. SYMBOLOGY OF THE NAZARITE VOW
1. What’s a Nazarite (Num. 6:1–21)? "Nazarite" means "consecrated" or "separated." Such a person abstained from worldly pleasures (alcoholic & grapes) and couldn’t have anything to do with dead people. They are holy to the Lord (8).
2. The sign of their vow was that they couldn’t cut their hair. Satan wants to get all Nazarites to go back on their consecration to God. When we get saved we become spiritual Nazarites, holy to God and separated from the world.
3. God puts the seal of ownership on us – the Holy Spirit.
B. WHAT IS CONSECRATION?
1. To consecrate something is to surrender it -- to set it apart -- to God. We belong to God. Paul said to “offer your bodies as a living sacrifices” Rom. 12:1.
2. We’re not supposed to do what we want; Our life is no longer our own. That’s why the Lord Jesus said, “Not MY will, but Thine be done.”
3. Samson’s body belonged to God. The same is true of every true Christian: “You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies” 1 Cor. 6:19-20.
4. LORDSHIP Illus.
a. Imagine you've got a yacht, and Jesus is also on board. He knows everything about the boat, and He knows every aspect of the ocean you're in.
b. Are you going to let Him be the captain or are you going to make Him the cabin boy? How do you know whether He's the captain or the cabin boy? The cabin boy only gets used when something needs fixing. (George Miller)
c. Someone once wrote and asked Emily Post, the etiquette expert, "What is the correct procedure when one is invited to the White House but has a previous engagement?" Replied Post, "An invitation to dine at the White House is a command and it automatically cancels any other engagement." Today In The Word, November, 1989, p 7. TRUE OF GOD CALLING YOU!
C. THE COMING OF “DELILAH”
1. According to the Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, Delilah’s name means (#1807, derived from #1809) “to slacken, be made feeble.” Samson had spiritually slackened and she helped make him ‘spiritually feeble.’
2. Like Proverbs says, she “hunted for his precious life” (6:26). She (like Satan) didn’t just want to corrupt him, she wanted to utterly destroy him. John 10:10, “The thief…”
3. She began attempting to get him to expose his secret vows to God. Once he told her that his hair represented God’s ownership of his life, she put him to sleep and cut off his hair! 4. She severed the last link he had to God. He had already severed other links by choosing to sin. Then, the Bible says, God abandoned him and his enemies overwhelmed him.
D. THE COST OF THE DEVIL’S HAIRCUT
1. Many haircuts aren’t cheap; some are exorbitantly expensive. The most expensive hair cut cost £8,000 ($16,420) and was made by Stuart Phillips at the Stuart Phillips Salon in Covent Garden, London, UK, on 29 October 2007.
2. Can you imagine a haircut that expensive? But at Satan’s Barber shop many people pay far more than $16,000!
3. Samson paid a high price for his haircut: a. Lost relationship with God; b. They blinded him (lost vision); c. Slavery to his enemies.
4. Sin always TAKES you farther than you wanted to go, KEEPS you longer than you wanted to stay, and COSTS you more than you wanted to pay!
5. He ended up chained to a grist mill and grinding his enemies’ food and was made the butt of all their mockery! What a terrible end for a man of God!
E. COSTS OF SIN TODAY
1. Do we think we can make Marijuana legal and the problem of drug use will go away? No, it’ll get worse.
2. Legalize gambling? Already between 15-20 million adults & adolescents have gambling problems.
3. Promote Free sex? Now 40% of children are raised in single-parent homes; 80% in poverty.
4. The devil will always tell you:
a. the pleasures of drinking, but not the results… Alcoholism, drunken driving accidents, violence, etc.;
b. the pleasures of illicit sex, but not the results… pregnancy, STDs, ruined lives;
c. the pleasures of drugs, but not…addiction, crime.
5. The enemy is after you too! He wants to cut off your relationship to God through sin and destroy your life.
6. Don’t “slack off” and become spiritually “feeble,” but stay humble, sincere, read your Bibles, pray daily, and obey God – and you’ll turn the world upside down!
F. ILLUSTRATION
1. Jenny was with a group of teenagers at a party. "Let's go to a night club" someone suggested. Jenny said, "No, my parents wouldn't like that."
2. One of the other girls said, "Afraid your father will hurt you?" "No," she replied. "I'm not afraid my father will hurt me. I'm afraid I might hurt him." (Love for Christ file)
3. That's the point, isn't it? We don’t want to let God down. A Song says, “Does He still feel the nails every time I fail? …I can’t bear the thought of hurting Him.”
III. SAMSON’S END
A. HIS HAIR BEGAN TO GROW -- MEANING
1. It’s natural for your hair to grow, right? It’s just as natural for the Christian to grow up into Christ.
2. If the nature of Christ planted in you is nurtured, then you’ll become a new creation. The genetic code implanted by the Spirit dictates what you will become like. If you’re born again, you’ll become like Jesus!
3. Samson’s hair – representing the supernatural presence of God – began stirring again. Below the surface, invisible to the naked eye, divine life was operating. Many times in life, God is moving, but we don’t realize it.
4. Samson felt like God wouldn’t use him any more; that God had written him off. But it wasn’t so. Samson may have given up on God, but God hadn’t given up on Samson! Have You?
5. Circumstances don’t hinder God! Though Samson was bound to a grist mill, his hair began to grow again; Though he was blinded and made a laughingstock, his hair began growing again.
6. Despite his weakness and helplessness, nothing could stop his hair from growing again. And nothing can stop the supernatural from growing in YOUR life too, child of God!
7. If there’s hope for Samson, there’s hope for you! If God could forgive Samson, He will forgive you! If he got a second chance, so will you!
B. SAMSON’S END
1. The Philistines had a huge party to worship their god Dagon for helping them defeat Samson. 3,000 of their leaders were there.
2. They brought Samson out of the prison to make him do tricks to amuse them. They said, “Our god defeated his god!”
3. Samson came to himself, just like the prodigal son. He thought about the time that he ripped a lion in two with his bare hands. He thought the time he slew 1000 men with a jawbone of a donkey, and how he carried off the gates of Gaza.
4. And while he was reminiscing, there came a breeze that blew between the pillars. And Samson felt something swinging around his ears and neck. I can hear Samson saying, “I CAN FEEL...MY HAIR! IT’S GROWN AGAIN.” SAY YEAH!
5. Samson prayed, “O Lord God…strengthen me…one last time!” And the HOLY GHOST showed up. Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the temple stood, and he bowed himself with all his might and brought the house down!
6. The Bible says he did more in his death than he’d done in his life!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: TOO CLOSE
1. In Oklahoma during storm season, many families have made the trip down the ladder into the storm cellar to avoid advancing tornadoes.
2. But today “storm chasing” has become a hobby for many people and a profitable business for others.
3. The goal is to get as close as possible to a tornado without being harmed. Many storm chasers are skilled forecasters with accurate information, but I won’t sign up for a tornado tour anytime soon.
4. In moral and spiritual areas of my life, I can foolishly pursue dangerous things God tells me to avoid because of His love for me. (Our Daily Bread 4/2/16)
5. Are you getting close to some areas you should avoid? God is speaking to you this morning. Will you listen? Will you be like Samson and ignore the voice of God?
6. Or will you listen & repent? Bow your heads. (Call for salvation).
B. THE CALL: To The Rest --
“CAN YOU FEEL YOUR HAIR GROWING AGAIN?”
1. Do you feel a new pulsing of divine life in you?
2. Do you sense a renewed vision of your usefulness to God?
3. Do you feel a new holy purpose, so that God’s destiny for you life can be accomplished?
4. Do you feel a new desire to rise up and defeat the enemy who has kept you down so long?
5. Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired? Tired of letting the devil push you around? (I let the enemy trick me and deceive me, but now I’m wiser & won’t let him do it to me any longer!)
[I got only the title from Roy Brooks.]
