 The title of our sermon tonight is weak like any other man weak like any other man our text judges chapter 16 verses 1 through 22 and tonight now as we return to the history of Israel during the period of the judges We find ourselves once more embroiled in the circumstances that surround the life of Samson as foretold by the angel of the Lord Consecrated as a Nazarite before he was born even from the womb Samson would be the miraculous child of a barren woman Destined to deliver God's people from the grip of their Philistine oppressors and what began as an account as a story of Great hope what should have been a cause for great joy has turned out with our main character Being somewhat of a walking contradiction being a bit of a paradox He is on the one hand the agent of providential divine fulfillment right Samson called by God to deliver his people and On the other hand Samson appears to be the embodiment of fallen human disappointment and human depravity He is a man of extraordinary strength and at the same time a man of very ordinary Weakness and we see both of those qualities exhibited in Samson at one moment He's the walking expression of divine power and the next moment He seems to be a sinful expression of human depravity. He's a walking contradiction a bit of a human paradox here often Strength being displayed and yet we see him as weak like any other man Well this evening in chapter 16 We bear witness together of the downfall of Samson the judge the seeds of this downfall have been sown all along the way all along the account that we've been given here and We see that in the character and in the actions of Samson Samson has a problem with lust And it will play a significant part in Samson's undoing he takes a wife From among the Philistines for no other reason that Samson likes the way she looks right she appealed to him She looked good in his eyes tonight in chapter 16 Samson is found in the bed of a harlot Then he is found in the arms of the devious and deviant Delilah We'll see that as we work through our text to this problem with lust We could add other physical passions that Samson appears to be driven by we've seen that as we worked through these chapters Samson is angry and he seems to be driven by anger Samson driven by his passions motivated by emotion He has a blood lust for vengeance as we've seen and beyond that Samson has shown Little to no observable commitment to the Lord or to the Lord's cause Samson seems to be out for himself. He's abandoned His consecration his separation to the Lord as a Nazarite. He's all but abandoned that commitment He is self-serving following what he believes to be his own course He doesn't attribute his victories to the Lord as other judges have apart from crying out to the Lord in thirst He doesn't cry out to the Lord at all He doesn't seek the Lord's direction. He doesn't ask for the Lord's help. It doesn't appear to be grateful for the Lord's gracious provision instead Samson Gives every evidence that he is prideful Driven by his passions Samson sent tends to be self-reliant self-confident self-willed self-absorbed and The seeds of his downfall have been sown in this self-will Samson apart from the Lord is weak like any other man, and I think that's one of the morals of the story, right? Samson Apart from the Lord apart from the work of the Spirit of God in him is weak Just like any other man and he displays many of the weak and fallen attributes of any other fallen man Doesn't matter how strong you think you are these Character flaws these sinful tendencies are the seeds of disaster For any man for any woman doesn't matter how strong you may think you are It's through these that men fall all the time They've been the downfall these character flaws have been the downfall of many a professing Christian many many a professing Christian these Flaws have been the downfall of many a deacon They've been the downfall of many a pastor The downfall of many a husband many a wife many a son many a daughter Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall Tonight we witness the downfall of Samson the downfall of Samson in Chapter 16 begins with a fatal compromise in verse 1 look at verse 1 with me Samson went to Gaza and saw a harlot there and Samson goes into her as In chapter 14 Samson shows himself to be dominated by his lusts Gaza is in the far south of the country It's along the border of the Mediterranean Sea in the south of Israel So it's a good ways away, but you don't have to go too far today to wind up in the bed of a harlot Do you it's just a clicker to a way right a clicker to a way and you're in adultery a clicker to a way And you're in the bed of a harlot Proverbs chapter 6 verse 26 For by means of a harlot a man is reduced to a crust of bread. I Believe there that what Solomon intended is that it a Man who's given over to harlots will find himself in poverty But I also think a crust of bread is a really good way of describing his constitution a man who is continuously given over to his lusts Continuously in the wicked bonds of sexual immorality will find him weakened as a crust of bread His constitution dried up. Do you see he's not strong. He's weak. He's weak By means of a harlot a man is reduced to a crust of bread and an adulterous will prey upon his precious life Can a man take fire to his bosom and his clothes not be burned Can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be seared you're with the Proverbs saying right verse 32 whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding he who does so destroys his own soul Wounds and dishonor he will get and his reproach will not be wiped away Well, Samson Doesn't go far from her house Samson winds up in her bed. How many times have we seen men? We would have presumed to have been strong you'd have thought would have been strong How many times have we seen men torn down? Reduced to a crust of bread over sexual immorality. How many times? How many times we have to be reminded of that lesson before we will repent of our sexual immorality and turn Brothers Proverbs chapter 5 verse 8 remove your way far from her Fear that place near her like the plague and avoid it Do not go near the doors of her house. Let's you give your honor to others and your years to the cruel one Why do you remove your way far from her? What's the reason for that? So get that sin that sin has tentacles That sin has a far-reaching power. It has an influence so one's talking to a brother a while back I'm just reminded of this that he had repented of former drug use years ago had been involved in drugs and Repented of that turn the Lord gave him deliverance from that praise God right repented of his drug use and came to Christ and He was in the house one day of stranger in there had been invited in and they had a bag of weed in the kitchen sink and He said that the memory of all that came sort of flooding in upon him and he felt the physical effects of the Remembrance of that sin that he'd once been involved in it had a it had a power that sin has tentacles Do you see you may think that you're strong? But you get too close to that and it has a power over you it can lead you into temptation Lead you into lust lead you into sin sin when it's fully conceived brings forth death Remove your way far from her. You've got to cut off every one of those tentacles. Don't entertain any semblance of Habitation with that wicked sin. Do you see? Matthew Henry Those that would keep would be kept from harm must keep out of harm's way Such tinder there is in the corrupt nature that it is madness upon any pretense whatsoever to come near the sparks You've got to cut off the hand of that offends pluck out the eye that offends Make your way far from her You put yourself think with me you put yourself near to temptation and Yet you pray Lord deliver me from temptation Right lead us not into temptation Lord and then you put yourself near to temptation lead us not into temptation Lord and then you allow for Tempting influences in your life Cut them off go to every put every effort into it make every diligent effort to cut off temptation Whatever a man reaps that will be so Putting yourself near to temptation or allowing temptation To be near you while praying Lord Lead me not into temptation is mocking God. Do you see it's mocking God? Trust the Lord Otherwise you are weak like any other man. Trust the Lord fight depend upon the Holy Spirit and trust the Lord Well in verse 2 when the gaseys were told Samson has come here They surround the place and they lay and wait for him all night at the gate of the city You know the spiritual illustration of this or counterpart the analogy might be Satan prowling around like a lion seeking whom he may devour Waiting for you to slip into the room with that harlot Gaseys were told Samson has come here. They surround the place They lay and wait for him all night at the gate of the city They were quiet all night saying in the morning when it is daylight we will kill him the gates of the city We're very often at the end of a tunnel like opening in the city wall City walls were often thick and there was a bit of a tunnel made because of guard housing on either side of the entrance Way to the city gates at one end guard houses on either side. It made like a tunnel a tunnel like passage It's likely that they would have slept in the guards quarters there on either side of the entrance way to the city until morning Either way it was Samson was able to get to the gates and pick the gates up Look at verse 3 Samson lay low till midnight and he arose at midnight. They would have been sound asleep Maybe even a drunken slumber He took hold of the doors of the gates of the city the two gate posts He pulled them up bar and all put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron the gate houses to a city like this Often were known to be Two to three stories high these gates would have been absolutely massive Made of iron a mixture of iron thick wood. They were made to be defensive structures weren't easily to break into So they would have been very thick very strong and very very heavy remember one time we were at the British Museum and I believe it was the the gates of the city of Nineveh They actually had these gates in the British Museum from that time period, which is absolutely amazing But these gates were massive massive huge wooden iron structures So to think that Samson literally walked over those gates and heaved them up upon his shoulders And then Hebron if you think about the location of Hebron Hebron was 40 miles to the east northeast in the heart of Judah So this was a long way that Samson walked with these gates before he before he dropped them off And essentially Samson was making a point to his own people I'm not gonna be bested by the Philistines right drops these huge gates off at the hill that faces Hebron But notice in the text No mention of the Spirit of God rushing upon him Now obviously Samson did this in the power of the Spirit There's not a man strong enough To do this on his own apart from the power of the Spirit of God We've seen the Spirit of God rush upon Samson before he killed a thousand Philistines with a jawbone of a donkey Right, we've seen the Spirit rush upon Samson here Obviously in the power of the Spirit Samson lifts the gates But no mention in the text of the Spirit of God coming upon him This is a looming foreboding ominous Thought that trouble is soon on the way Spirit of God not mentioned as before Samson has a problem the effects of that problem are gonna become clear here very soon well apart from genuine repentance One tragic compromise leads to another which leads to another which leads to another which leads to full out apostasy and downfall And we see one more compromise leading to another with Samson beginning in verse 4 Afterward after having gone into the harlot and Gaza afterward it happened that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorak Whose name was Delilah. He should have stayed in Hebron But he didn't stay in Hebron Hebron in the heart of Judah He goes back out west toward Philistine country and he finds another harlot Delilah Delilah here is the first woman mentioned by name in the Samson accounts You notice that that's interesting It's likely the name is a Hebrew pun when you break it apart in the Hebrew. It means of the night So Delilah was of the night. It's Samson's plunge into sin with this woman of the night that will plunge Samson himself into darkness Literally plunge Samson into darkness when the Philistines scoop out his eyes But spiritually it plunges Samson into darkness when the Lord departs from him In verse 20 so trouble's coming Well the plot for Samson's downfall then is now cast verse 5 the lords of the Philistines the governors Came up to Delilah and said to her entice him Find out where his great strength lies and by what means we may overpower him So that we may bind him to afflict him and every one of us will give you 1,100 pieces of silver Now the plan of the Philistines here made clear through the use of four verbs in verse 5 Look at those verbs in verse 5 that we may discover That we may overpower That we may bind and then we may torture. This is the plan of the Philistines There were five Predominant cities of the Philistines meaning that there would have been five Philistine lords or governors So Delilah's take for her trouble would have been 5,500 pieces of silver and that is an Absurd amount of money. It's a large sum more than the 400 shekels of silver that Abraham paid for the land in Hebron to bury his wife in Genesis chapter 24 It's more than the 50 shekels of silver that David paid for around as oxen and second Samuel chapter 24 It's more than the 30 shekels that was the price of a slave in Exodus chapter 21 It's more than the 30 shekels that Judas was paid for betraying the Lord Jesus Christ It's more than three times The weight of gold that Gideon got for besting the Midianite kings in Judges chapter 8 And we saw in Judges chapter 8 how Gideon lived like a king off that money that he'd made in Judges chapter 8 So Delilah said to Samson verse 6 motivated by the money, right? Please tell me where your great strength lies and with what you may be bound to afflict you It seems to us like Wow, there's a motive to that question Doesn't it tell me with what you may be bound so that you may be afflicted. Well, honey, why would you ask? Why would that come to mind? So Samson said to her I think at this point right Samson is Samson's prideful We've already seen that he is confident very self-confident self-reliant and so Samson Even from the beginning of the count really seems to be playing games here, right? Even from posing the riddle with those men of the Philistines and then You know, he's building up self-confidence self-reliance here. And so I think he's willing to play along Samson said to her If they bind me with seven fresh bow strings not yet dried then I shall become weak and be like any other man Well, these would have been seven fresh sinews. What does that mean? They would have been tendons from a newly or freshly slaughtered animal. I think with me They're not yet dried not unlike the fresh jawbone of the donkey That Samson picked up to kill the Philistines in the last chapter What does that tell us once again once in a Samson is specifying specifying that these are to be fresh Hamstrings, you know fresh tendons Samson is once again ignoring his original vow Ignoring his consecration as a Nazarite They were forbidden to have come in contact with any part of a dead anything and yet here Samson is specifically mentioning fresh bow strings It's beginning to sound like Samson may actually be showing contempt for his consecration, doesn't it? Like he may be actually despising his separation to the Lord. We'll find out as we go verse 8 So the Lord's of the Philistines they brought up to her seven fresh bow strings not yet dried and She bound him with them Now men were lying in wait staying with her in the room and she said to him Philistines are upon you Samson But he broke the bow strings as a strand of yarn breaks when it touches fire So the secret of his strength was not known first attempt ends in failure All right, let's see what happens with the second attempt verse 10 Delilah said to Samson look You've mocked me Samson. You told me lies now. Please tell me What you may be bound with You know again Samson Playing along with the game because she was obviously seen with the first attempt to be devious and manipulative and Wanting to bind Samson delivering Samson over into the hands of the Philistines and yet Samson continues to play along He said to her this may be in Samson's mind just a way to kill more Philistines Verse 11 he said to her if they buy me securely with new ropes that have never been used Then I shall be weak and be like any other man Therefore Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him The Philistines are upon you Samson Men were lying in wait staying in the room, but he broke them off his arms like a thread So the second attempt ends in failure You'd think that Samson Maybe even Delilah would tire of this game Delilah's got 5500 shekels of silver on the line. She's not going to tire that easily Samson continues to play along verse 13 Delilah said to Samson again until you until now you've mocked me you've told me lies Tell me what you may be bound with And he said to her if you weave the seven locks of my head into the web of the loom And so she wove it tightly with the baton of the loom and said to him the Philistines are upon you Samson But he awoke from his sleep pulled out the baton and the web from the loom The third attempt ends in failure. Now you have to begin to think well All right now the Philistines are stupid also They're just playing into Samson's hands as well Samson is playing a dangerous game And Samson is getting obviously and very ominously close To the mystery that surrounds his great strength. He has started Mentioning his hair now right with the loom So what does Delilah do then she begins to get a little more desperate? And so Delilah Resorts to the same age-old strategy employed by Samson's tim nightwife That we saw earlier She said to him verse 15 How can you say I love you Samson? When your heart is not with me You've mocked me these three times and have not told me where your great strength lies And it came to pass when she pestered him daily with her words and pressed him so that his soul was Vexed to death. Now notice the Hebrew verbs again in verse 16 Delilah oppressed him Delilah Excuse me Delilah persistently annoyed him. It's what the word means And Delilah vexed him to the point of death Delilah is relentless. Is she not? and so Samson Exasperated he's just come to the end of his Patience with all of this finally pours out his heart to her Verse 17 he told her all his heart and said to her No razor has ever come upon my head For I've been a Nazarite to God from my mother's womb If I am shaven then my strength will leave me and I shall become weak and be like any other man Shocking isn't it shocking Samson think with me Samson has been fully aware of his vow all along Think with me about the accounts in chapter 14 and then in chapter 15 and now in chapter 16 and each time Samson just neglects his Nazarite vow And it first blushed through the text we might think to ourselves Well, maybe he's not aware of that or maybe he doesn't understand what he's supposed to be doing Maybe he doesn't know the law no It all of a sudden becomes very obvious that Samson is fully aware of his vow his consecration to God as a Nazarite All along he knows that he's not to shave his head. He knows the rules the regulations surrounding the Nazarite covenant that he's made He's certainly and fully aware of the high calling with which he's been called by God Samson is aware of these things So his neglect then really Doesn't look like neglect anymore does it Looks more and more like contempt looks more and more like obvious avoidance he You could say Despises that birthright He treats it as a common thing. He seems to be going out of his way now to violate his consecration To despise that he has been separated to God Maybe he's now grown because he you know, he doesn't feel as though he can do his own thing He's so self-willed self-reliant He wants to live life for himself and this consecration to God is a hindrance to him. It's burdensome to him. And so he intentionally purposefully despises it by of by faulting himself in it by Transgressing the covenant that he's made Looks like he's despising his birthright Maybe samson thought that he could trust Delilah here verse 17 I really believe that it was likely pride that causes samson samson to finally give in samson's exasperated But samson all along has really thought that he wouldn't face any consequences for his actions He says in verse 20, I'll go out as before at other times and shake myself free Right his hair has been cut But samson in his pride thinks that he's going to go out just as he all just as he always has Right no consequence is going to fall upon me and there's this subtle and insidiously deceptive thought That always creeps into the mind of a brazen or high-handed sinner And it's exemplified here in the the account of samson The brazen or high-handed sinner begins to think to himself I will go on as I have before I will go out as at other times And shake myself free And they continue to sin And I'll go out as other times before and they continue to sin. God is forgiving No consequence is going to come upon me and they continue in their sin I'm a christian I prayed the prayer or I walked an aisle or I did this thing or that thing or I was sincere I mean it listen. I believe in jesus No harm will come upon me I'm not going to face the consequences of my sin I'll go out as before as at other times and shake myself free No terrible consequences will befall me. I'm a christian listen That is a lie that you tell yourself The bible gives very strong warnings to those who persist in unrepentant sin Turn from your sin or be sure your sin will find you out There are many many many who will say to him in that day lord lord who will not enter the kingdom of heaven But those who what? Who do The will of my father in heaven look lord. Look what we've done in your name, right? We've preached in your name. We've cast out demons in your name. We've done many works In your names many wonders in your name and yet. What does the lord say? Depart from me. I never knew you you who practice Lawlessness you make a practice of lawlessness What you're doing is validating that you are not a christian Turn from your sin Faith in the lord jesus christ and the lord by his spirit By his spirit will give you strength such that you're not fighting your sin like any other man But you're going out in the strength of the spirit to fight your sin and you will have victory in him But don't just continue to turn In a brazen high-handed self-willed self-reliant self-absorbed way to your sin and expect that you'll go out As you always have everything will be fine, right? There are those scoffers that come peter mentions them in second peter chapter three scoffers that come in the last days mocking And saying where's the promise of his coming things have continued this way from the beginning And they willfully forget that god judged the earth with a flood And there is a flood of judgment coming for those who do not turn from their sin to trust christ alone We cannot play with sin. That is the one of the morals of this account from samson Cannot play with sin The spirit of god is the source The spirit of god is the cause of the christian's strength against sin quench the spirit through brazen heavy-handed unrepentant sin And your strength goes do you see your strength goes you'll be found weak like any other man Well in verse 18 When delilah saw that he had told her all his heart She sent and called for the lords of the philistine saying come up once more for he's told me all his heart So the lords of the philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hand Then she lulled samson to sleep on her knees and he called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head Then she began to torment him And his strength left him Well in asserting The spiritual reality reflected in this physical account The lord jesus christ says in john 15 that apart from him we can do nothing Apart from the work of the spirit samson can do nothing God is our refuge god is our strength. It is he who gives strength and power to his people The soma says my heart my flesh fail, but god is a strength of my heart and my portion forever It's his strength that has made perfect in my weakness Therefore most gladly paul says i will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of christ may rest upon me Well, this is a lesson That samson is going to learn in the school of hard knocks verse 20 She said the philistines are upon you samson So he awoke from his sleep and said i will go out as before at other times and shake myself free But this is a tragic statement But he did not know that the lord had departed from him Full of fatal self confidence Full of fatal self reliance samson says i'll go out as before at other times But a tragic deception. He did not know that the lord had departed from him Well in verse 21 the philistines took him And they put out his eyes They brought him down to gaza. They bound him with bronze fetters and he became a grinder in the prison And what begins in gaza in a harlot's bed ends in gaza in a prison cell however Leaving us with hope The hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaven Now what's so interesting About samson Is that here in this account samson is not only samson samson is also isreal think with me consider samson Is to be consecrated or separated to god unlike other men All right, he's separated to god to be unlike other men. He's a nazarite separated to god and yet he despises his separation despises his consecration And he insists on acting like any other man his conduct proves that To the point where he is so distant from god that he is weak like any other man Now think about the comparison with me isreal Israel is to be separated to god from other nations And yet isreal acts just like other nations despising her consecration despising her separation to god And she is weak Here she's powerless against the philistines. She's spiritually blinded by her sin Think with me samson is blinded And taken away to gaza Zedekiah isreal's last king is blinded bound in bronze fetters and taken off the Babylon Samson becomes a picture of isreal samson lusts after foreign women Marrying pagans betting harlots Israel does the same thing in her harlotry in her idolatry and god accuses her of such right says so She plays the harlot with foreign gods and forsakes her husband Samson suffers for his waywardness. Does israel suffer for her waywardness? Yes Israel is sent into exile first into asyria the northern kingdom and then jude the southern kingdom into Babylon Only when he needs something water for example something to drink does samson cry out to the lord for help Israel only when she is misery in misery does she cry out for deliverance And it's entirely self-serving when she does that It's amazing the parallels right this story is in his in israel's history To point israel to their own failures their own weaknesses this account It's a historical account by the god who authors history, but it's a picture of the nation of israel their parallels also between samson and jesus christ As a judge samson points us beyond his weak and flawed Character this weak and flawed savior to the lord's anointed the messiah the lord jesus christ Angel the angel announces his birth the angel of the lord remember and judges 14 It's a miraculous conception His consecration is to god from the womb His own people at one point reject him want to want to turn him over to pagans He suffered mocking and scorn and derision. He was numbered among the transgressors Great victory comes through his death as we'll see next week These are all hints at one who is perfect Who is the embodiment of divine power? We'll see the lion of juda pictured in that next week God is the author of history. It's amazing how the lord does that But samson also brothers and sisters samson is a picture of many a professing christian Many a professing christian who believe themselves that they are strong When they are tragically weak and they don't know it Don't understand it won't acknowledge it. They don't realize the danger that they're in Don't realize the dangers that they face friends with this world Like samson marrying a philistine woman Friends with this world who believe that they are rich have become wealthy Have need of nothing And yet as john says do not know the lord says do not know that you are wretched miserable poor blind and naked Many run off after their own schemes giving no consideration to the one who made them The one who called them with a holy calling In doing that they despise their consecration their profession of faith despise that they have been separated to god They'd rather run in the course of this world They have abandoned their vow as samson did it's become burdensome to them, right? That's why john says that Holiness obedience to the lord is not burdensome obedience to his commands isn't burdensome to the christian But to the professing christian that wearies of their consecration of the lord it is burdensome And someone comes along and says, you know, that's not honoring the lord what you're doing or how you're living And they get defensive and hostile because they Despise that consecration would rather not have it so They don't attribute victories to the lord frankly victories are fleeting and Often none to be spoken of they cry out to the lord only in their need When they become miserable enough in their circumstances to In desperation call out to him. They don't seek the lord's direction. They don't ask for the lord's help They don't appear to be grateful For the lord's gracious provision of a savior in the lord jesus christ Whose love for us should compel our gratitude and our obedience and our faithfulness and our love and our devotion and our worship They are often prideful Driven by their passions self-reliant self-confidence self-willed self-absorbed Notice the comparison the seeds of their downfall have been sown And apart from the lord they are weak like any other man They believe themselves in christ to be strong Where's the evidence of that right? If you find yourself in that condition turn to the lord in faith Turn to the lord in faith He is our strength. He is our refuge. He is our hope. He is our joy for some of those Who are genuine sons It's the grace of god to discipline them as sons. That's hebris chapter 12 And hardship comes they learn those lessons in the school of hard knocks I've had to learn many lessons in the school of hard knocks We've been walking with the lord for a little while. You've learned lessons in the school of hard knocks You know exactly what i'm talking about And it's in that school of hard knocks that we often realize ourselves to be weak like any other man Lord knows I am weak and I need him It's oftentimes that we forget that reality and we start walking around in our perceived strength And we forget that we are in great need in desperate need of the lord's help in desperate need of his strength And the lord reminds us graciously For our good reminds us through adversity through difficulty through trial through suffering that we are weak like any other man And we need him It's in that weakness paul says that god shows himself to be strong And he is our strength and lord I'd rather boast in my infirmities then the power of christ may rest upon me Boast in your infirmities and rest in the lord We must trust in christ who is our strength the one who has become for us Wisdom from god and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Amen All glory be to him and have a load. Let's pray Father in heaven, we praise you our strength our refuge our help in time of need our savior our deliverer Our great living almighty god We thank you lord for the salvation that we have and the lord jesus christ and the Power that you've given us by your spirit to live for you and to Steer clear of sin. I pray lord in the strength of the spirit. We would do that That we would rely upon you Our faith in the lord jesus christ and that we would turn from sin in the strength of the spirit supplies According to your word and live for you fervently devotedly earnestly in love In praise and gratitude And thankfulness and I pray lord That you would encourage us encourage your people With strength from your spirit Genuine strength true strength spiritual strength To turn from our sin and to live lives devoted to you hearts soul mind and strength lord. We want to love you And want to praise you and worship you as we should and want to live lives that are pleasing to you worthy of the calling With which we've been called Help us to do that lord. We are weak like any other man in our own strength That where we are weak you are strong and we praise you and thank you for it. Thank you for these promises We love you lord. In jesus name amen