Heroes of Faith: Samson (Judges 13-16) Sermon Only

well we're in the midst of a of a pandemic in the church no it's not it's not kovat it's not h1n1 or the flu or pneumonia or anything else it's a pandemic that I like to call cbss and it's very very contagious as a matter of fact some of you might have had CBS s maybe you have it now I'll confess that I had it for a long time CBS s what's it called children's Bible story syndrome yes I made that up children's Bible story sent up this is what happens when you hear Bible stories at home before you go to bed maybe when you were a kid or you come into Sunday school and your teacher tells you a great Bible story maybe it was about Daniel and the what Lions Den David and Goliath Noah and the Ark and and those are great stories but sometimes when you're little those stories are sort of simplified so that a child can understand a very specific and simple truth but then what happens is as you grow up and as your faith develops you really never move behind or you never move beyond that very simple understanding of the story you stick with that very simple truth and what you find out is if you really look at the story of Noah and the Ark it's it's it's it's about a lot more than just the animals came on the ark two by two it's about the holiness of God and God saving a people for himself while destroying evil if you were to look at the story of David and Goliath as we will in a few weeks it's about much more than David picking out how many smooth stones five smooth stones and up in the air and the sling went round and round you know the song it's about something much bigger it's about God's deliverance of his people using a imperfect individual and so today what I want to do is fight against cbss when we look at the story of samson because samson is an incredibly complex hero in the bible as a matter of fact I would say Samson is more of an antihero an anti heroes are very popular in our culture for example Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean he is antihero you you wouldn't really do what he does but you root for him who else is an antihero how about Walter White from Breaking Bad and I know some of you have seen that show even though you might not admit it in church but he was an antihero you you wouldn't do the things that he did but you ended up rooting for him or maybe the Joker in the latest movie not a great character but he end up staking he ends up taking center stage Samson is like that there's much to be learned from Samson but not necessarily by copying his actions maybe actually by doing some of the opposite and what's interesting is if you have cbss you see Samson as the hero you want to be strong you might want to eat your spinach well that's Popeye that's Popeye or let your hair grow thank you I'll take care of the jokes today appreciate that remember I was saying about preaching just to the camera yeah camera does not heckle you anyway so here's what we're gonna do we're gonna track through the life of of Samson and as we go through this story we're gonna stop and take stock in our own lives and maybe even ask some important questions so every good hero needs an origin story you know the origin story for example Superman his planet was being destroyed and so his parents had to send him far away or Batman you know he went to the Opera and his parents were murdered outside of the Opera House and the alleys tragic tragic kind of a thing every hero needs a good origin story and Samson's origin story starts in judges chapter 13 would you look at this with me and I'm gonna read it and we'll put it up on the screen as well this is verse 2 there was a certain man of Zorah of the tribe of the Danites whose name was Manoah and his wife was barren and had no children and the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her behold you are barren and have not borne children but you shall conceive and bear a son therefore be careful and drink no wine or strong drink and eat nothing unclean for behold you shall conceive and bear a son no razor shall come upon his head for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines a Nazarite is an individual who takes a voluntary vow to consecrate themselves to God and in most cases it was a man or a woman who decided to do this on their own and they would they would take this vow they would say they wouldn't cut their hair they wouldn't drink any wine or even grapes of any kind and they wouldn't defile himself by touching anything that was dead no kind of a carcass now there are three characters in the Bible who didn't take a voluntary vow they were actually given this Wow Samuel was one John the Baptist in the New Testament and Sampson was the other so Sampson we understand was very special and God had a specific plan for his child or for this child which was to save the Israelites if you're taking notes this morning here's the first thing that you can write down God uses ordinary people to accomplish his divine purpose Samson's parents were absolutely normal ordinary people and this is a theme throughout the Bible everywhere if you've ever thought you know God can't use me I'm nobody special I don't have the pedigree I don't have the talent I haven't been a Christian long enough I don't know enough Bible verses I can't sing I can't speak if you've ever thought that can I tell you this you're perfect God wants to use you God can use you because God uses ordinary people to accomplish his divine purpose what God needs is simply a willing heart and humility now for Samson humility was a problem following God's will was a problem we're gonna go to judges chapter 14 as we pick up our story Samson is now grown presumably a teenager look at what it says here in verse 1 Samson went down to Timna and at Timna he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines the who the Philistines wait Samson is an Israelite then he came up and told his father and mother I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timna now get her for me as my wife but his father and mother said to him is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives were among all our people that you must go and take a wife from the uncircumcised philistine Samson said to his father get her for me or she is right in my eyes I get the feeling that Samson is a little bit of a brat like a kid in the aisle of the grocery store where you check out and all the candy is there I want that are you sure you don't want some of these healthy bananas that we bought here or maybe a nice Apple I want the Twix he wanted this woman this Philistine woman now let me show you something real quick and we'll get back to it but look at verse 4 real quick his father his father and mother did not know that it was from the Lord that he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines would you just circle that they did not know it was from the Lord for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines God was doing something here and it says at that time the Philistines ruled over Israel we'll come back to that but I just want you to notice there's something at play here again the the the message here just isn't on the surface there's sort of a message behind the message a story within the story so Samson was not good at following God's will he had a humility problem he was a bit of a brat he wanted something for himself here's your second point that you can jot down if you're taking notes Samson was strong on the outside but he was weak on the inside it was entitlement first of all maybe bordering on lust get her for me now back in those days it would be the parents who would go and find a wife but it usually wasn't the child or the kids desire it was usually the parents that put that together so he's taking that onto himself that's entitlement that's what I want and then what happens next it's interesting if you were to go through this and we won't read the whole story by the way I would incur today or this week some time to read all of these chapters about Sampson 13 14 15 and 16 the whole story is there we're just gonna do a broad overview but here's what happens when Sampson was on his way to go to Timna a young lion comes upon him this lion is gonna attack him and Sampson the Bible says grabs this lion and the Bible says ripped it apart like a young goat with his bare hands he just killed this lion fascinating and he goes on his way on his way back he comes upon the lion the corpse of the lion and inside of the corpse of the lion is honey bees had come and reside there and made honey now I don't know how long it takes to make honey I think it takes a little while so you get the idea that that corpse had been there for some period of time and what does Sampson do well I'm a little bit hungry I just reached down and scooped into this dead corpse of this lion grabbed myself a handful of honey and continued walking now that's a problem isn't it because he's the Nazarite part of the vow is you will not touch anything that's dead so he has disregard for his blessing he has disregard for the vow that was given to him and then when he gets back to his parents he lies about it now what's interesting is his parents don't say hey did you happen to touch anything dead when you're on the way back no but he didn't tell them this is the lie of omission that's a lie too when you don't tell the truth that's a lie when you don't say anything and avert people from the truth that's also a lie so he was weak on the inside he was entitled he had disregard for his position he was deceptive and here's the thing as a Nazarite he looked wholly on the outside he had long hair and he kept his actions from people but on the inside his actions betrayed him which is a great time for us to ask ourselves are we strong on the outside but weak on the inside or a better way to the question is are we putting on a Christian facade on the outside but weak on the inside if we're gonna be honest with ourselves that's one of the hardest things is to look the part to go to church to carry your Bible around to where the Christian t-shirts to have the Christian bumper sticker to say the Christian phrases but deep inside your heart something's going on your thoughts are betraying your actions the way to avoid that is to find people that you trust and begin to allow your inside the things you think the challenges you're having to be worked out with somebody that you trust to get them on the outside to confess them there's a lot of times as Christians we're pretty entitled too aren't we am I the only one God what's the deal with this virus when are you gonna make this end this is really difficult for me I want this over now god I've been looking for that husband I've been looking for that wife I want it now or this God I know that we're supposed to wait till we're married to be intimate together but I want it now it's entitlement and we have to be careful about entitlement what about a disregard for our consecration when we become believers we're set apart for God's holy purpose are we disregarding that are we deceiving the people around us and are we deceiving ourselves so what happens next well he gets the woman and they're gonna be married and Sampson decides to throw a huge feast the Bible says as the young men used to do now that's sort of this in between the lines this is going to be a party this is going to be like a kegger and that's a problem because he's not supposed to drink and he throws this huge party and then his pride gets him in trouble because he's gonna show off with the riddle and he has this riddle for all of these guests that are standing around he says listen I got an idea I'm gonna give you a riddle I'm gonna give you seven days to solve the riddle and if you solve the riddle I will buy each of you some new clothes now I know that sounds kind of strange but he says I'm gonna get you each a new outfit if you can solve this riddle presumably they were dressed up in their best but if you can't solve the riddle you've got to get me thirty pieces of clothing this also kind of speaks to his pride and how he looks isn't doesn't it and so he has this this riddle if you look in your Bible it's in verse 14 of chapter 14 he says out of the eater came something to eat out of the strong came something sweet it seems like an impossible riddle but what happens is the people at the wedding they can't figure it out so after about three days they go back to his bride and they convince her to figure out what it means and so she pouts to Samson Samson don't you love me and he tells her what it is and she goes back and tells them the riddle and they come to Samson and they guess the riddle right it's about a lion and it's about honey and then he says this really curious phrase of you know is coming he goes if you had not plowed with my heifer you would not have found my riddle guys do not do this do not do that but in a way he was putting her down well not in a way he was put he was putting her down right and then Samson does the curious thing he goes out into the street in anger and kills 30 people and steals their clothing to give to these guys he's got a problem with rage now in the mean time the girl's father sees Sampson being violent and basically she's like well you can't have her anymore and gives her to the best man of the wedding Samson comes out he finds out Samson comes back he finds out his wife has been given away to somebody else he gets really mad the Bible says he takes 300 foxes now it would take a while to catch 300 foxes but he catches 300 foxes and he takes two of each and he ties their tails together presumably with a cord and then he lights the cord on fire and he sets the Foxes free in the wheat fields and in the olive groves of the Philistines and as the Foxes go crazy because their tails are on fire it burns down the crops of the Philistines we are at war here the Philistines they respond by burning his wife and father-in-law this is violent this is like Game of Thrones level Braveheart violent didn't hear about this in Sunday school did you now meanwhile they come for Samson they bind him up they capture him and the Bible says the Spirit of the Lord fills him and he breaks the ropes that bind him and then he does this thing he picks up a jawbone of a donkey now the Bible specific it's a fresh job all so this is a donkey that has just died again he's not supposed to touch a corpse he picks up this donkey jawbone which if you see a picture of this it looks like a weapon and the Bible says he takes that jaw bone and he kills a thousand Philistines with it a thousand he was a warrior there's so many questions to ask here I mean there's so much this by the way this would be great discussion for you in your small groups or maybe today at lunch or maybe not at lunch maybe later why was Sampson so bad-tempered why was he so angry why so much violence and probably the biggest question is why did God empower him to this kind of violence that doesn't sound like the God that we serve that doesn't sound like the God of love what's going on here do you see why cbss is a problem you see why children's Bible story syndrome is a problem there's a lot going on there is layers this is complicated and by the way life is complicated true stories of men and women of God are complicated that's one of the reasons I love this heroes of faith series I mean these are imperfect men and women that got used this is a perfect example history is rarely black and white in the Bible stories are the same there's layers of meaning and purpose it's not always easy you can't just categorize well these are the good guys in these are the bad guys sometimes the good guys are the bad guys sometimes here's the third thing you should know about Samson if you haven't figured it out already he is driven by his emotions and not by the Holy Spirit he's driven by what he wants and his emotions they get the best of him he allowed his temper to rule him with these knee-jerk reactions let me ask you guys what drives you is it predominantly your emotions or is it predominantly the Holy Spirit do you tend to fly off the handle when something goes wrong do you tend to go right to the negative when something bad happens I do or do you take a breath do you pause do you pray do you ask God what's going on here is this the best thing for me to do is this the best thing for me to say is that the best place for me to go what drives you well if you're wondering if you're driven by your own emotions or if you're driven by the spirit there's a little test that you can take you should jot this down ask the first question is it best for you or is it best for others typically your emotions go this is what's best for me and this is what I want but the spirit usually leads you to do what's best for others the spirit leads you to put other people first the second question you can ask is similar does it focus everything on you or does it focus everything on Jesus the Spirit will lead you to do things that focus on Jesus Christ and not just yourself now here's where Samson's story takes a tragic turn this is the part that most people are familiar with he meets a woman whose name is what Delilah Delilah is a Philistine woman and what happens is the leaders in the Philistine community realized that Samson has fallen for this Philistine woman and she is unscrupulous and they bribe her to figure out what is it what's the secret of Samson's strength and she goes to him and she says Samson what is it that makes you so strong how can we get rid of your strength what would it what would it take to make you weak and he toys with her he tells her all kinds of things well if you take some bowstrings and tie me up then I'll become weak and so while he's asleep she ties him up with some bowstrings and she says Samson the Philistines are upon us and he jumps out and POW it's right out of that the next time she pouts some more oh you lied to me you don't love me he says okay if you if you tie me with certain kinds of cords new new cords and so she does and then she says Samson the Philistines are upon us and he jumps up and just like be incredible and he does it one more time and she really lays it on thick this time I assuming and he says well I've never had anybody cut my hair the secret to my strength is my hair now you would have think you would think that Samson was smart enough to know after three times that she was going to do this but the Bible says that he laid down on her lap to sleep and it's not in the scriptures I think he probably got drunk and he fell asleep and she called in somebody and they shaved his head she said Samson the Philistines are upon us and he jumped up thinking that he would conquer them like he did before and the Bible says the Spirit of the Lord had left him he was weak was a normal man and they grabbed him they gouged out his eyes and they put him to work in a grain mill which is something they would do for animals it was a kind of a stone mill that you would sort of push around in a circle and you'd put the grain in it would grind the grain and they would normally have an ox or a donkey and that was what he did presumably for a while and there came a time where the Philistines were going to gather for a celebration to their God Dagon and three thousand people gathered in their temple and they got drunk and they said call Samson out here we want to see this hero this Israelite hero we want to we want to laugh at him have him come and entertain us and so they lead him out he's comes out with a young boy that leads him and there he is humiliated at the end of his life so much promise so much strength he had the spirit with him and he gave all of that up and in one last moment he says to this young boy says help me find the pillar here that I could put my hand on and help me find the other pillar and he puts his hands on these two pillars that are holding up this temple and he says one last prayer this is in judges chapter 16 look in your Bible with me verse 28 then Samson called to the Lord and said O Lord God please remember me and please strengthen me only this once oh god that i may be avenged on the philistines for my two eyes and samson grasped the middle pillars on which the house rested and he leaned his weight against them his right hand on one side his left hand on the other samson said let me die with the Philistines then he bowed with all his strength and the house fell upon the Lord's and upon all the people who were in it so the dead whom he killed that his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life it's incredible in the end the enemies of Israel were defeated in the end this man this complicated man who failed over and over and over again accomplished the mission that God had set out for him from the beginning here's your fourth point jot this down even in failure God accomplishes his divine purpose even in failure God accomplishes his divine purpose that's how good god is now this isn't an invitation for us to fail God it's reassurance that if we do God can still get his work done it's interesting because if we go back to judges 14 verse 4 remember I had you Circle that right it says his father and mother did not know that it was from the Lord from the beginning this whole thing was set to go that way Samson was supposed to marry an Israelite but for whatever reason he was drawn to the Philistines God had a purpose in that knowing that he would need Samson to interact with these Philistines people the Philistine people because God was hoping to destroy them they were enemies of the Israelites they were occupying the Israelites territory and they worshipped false gods I think that God's plan would have been for Samson to live a much holier life to be a better example not to be an antihero but to be a true hero so that kids would say well I want to be like Samson but even through Samson's entitlement his deception his revenge his rage God still used him and that should take a ton of pressure off you and I because we're gonna mess up even with the best motives even with the best intentions we're gonna fall we're gonna fail we're gonna struggle we are human but God works in us so last question for you what is God hoping to accomplish in you what's God hoping to accomplish in you what's the purpose that he's given to you from the beginning from the very beginning what's the purpose that God is hoping to accomplish in you well you say well I don't really know am I supposed to conquer somebody am I in some kind of a battle maybe a spiritual battle am I supposed to be heroic well those are really big questions questions of Destiny and they might be hard to determine right now as a matter of fact I'm not even sure that Samson realized what his real purpose was until the very end because that final prayer that Samson prayed was one of humility where he suddenly realized I think this is what God has wanted me to do all along and one day maybe you'll discover that big purpose for your life but right now there's a very simple purpose for your life Jesus Christ gave us the mandate do you remember when they asked him hey what's the most important law they said love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind and all your soul and love your neighbor as yourself and then he said all of the law and the prophets hang on those Commandments what does that mean everything from Genesis to the book of Malachi which includes the book of Judges hinges on that you want to accomplish God's purpose start small love Jesus with all your heart mind and soul and secondly love your neighbor as yourself so you can do that today you can do that right in this room as you leave you can do that as you're driving home you can do that when you get home young people love your neighbor as yourself means love your parents as yourself serve them obey them parents love your neighbor as yourself means love your wife as yourself love your husband as yourself put their needs first what is it that builds up others what is it that points to Jesus Christ that's the big picture my dream for this church is that we would be the kind of church that we don't have to conquer the world or the community I don't believe that's our purpose I think our purpose is to be faithful right here in this town and over the last eight or nine weeks I have seen that happen I have seen that happen it was a great example we had a memorial service for Tom Thompson how many of you remember Tom Thompson a bunch of people if you're watching online you might remember Tom Thompson wonderful man he was in bad health towards the end of his life he passed away in February and we had a memorial service out here and I heard two things I heard a lot of great things about Tom and he was a wonderful guy and he loved to talk and he loved to chat and he loved to tell jokes but what I heard was people who had reached out to him he didn't have a family who brought him into their family who'd invited in him him into their home who had gone out and visited him I didn't even know those things were happening that's an example of our purpose being in the community praying for people in the community that's an example of our purpose inviting your friends to this place so they can be encouraged so they can hear the gospel that's an example of our purpose baptizing 1314 people on the Sunday right before we had to close down Church that's an example of our purpose so LifePoint thank you for being faithful and thank you for keeping up the good work thank you for following the spirit let's keep going and every single thing that we do let's pray

Channel: LifePoint Christian Church

Views: 2,183

Rating: 4.7647057 out of 5

Keywords: church, christianity, Jesus, God, prayer, faith, christian church, scripture, bible, bible teaching, preaching, bible preaching, discipleship

Id: rTOSX8H5zVI

Length: 33min 44sec (2024 seconds)

Published: Tue May 19 2020