Rick Warren - How the Story of Samson Teaches Us to Stay Strong When Life Breaks Us

Every year, I choose a Bible verse that I want

to pray over our people for the year, and the

verse that I've chosen for you is Ephesians three sixteen,

and it says this in the New Living Translation.

I pray that.

From God's glorious unlimited resources, God will give you mighty

inner strength through His Holy Spirit. Here's the question, do

you really want to be stronger than last year? Do

you want to be stronger physically, spiritually, mentally, socially, relationally,

in every Do you.

Really want to be stronger? Because it doesn't happen by accident.

You can go on being weak, you can go on

being average, or you can be stronger. You see, you

don't grow stronger by accident. You grow stronger by intention. Now,

this weekend, I want us to look at the life

of Samson, who was known as the strongest man in

the Bible, but he had glaring, glaring weaknesses. And in

his life we see both the sources of strength and

the sources of weakness. In the life of Samson, there

are four chapters in the Bible about this guy named Samson.

And we're going to look today at three attitudes that

weaken your spirit and three habits that strengthen your spirit,

to make you strong in spirit. You know, the Bible

tells us that John the Baptist was called strong in spirit.

He was strong in spirit, and that's what I want

you to be. Now, what about the three attitudes that

weaken my spirit? Well, we have these found in the

life of Samson. You know, physically, Samson was a rambo,

but spiritually he was a pee wee herman. He was

a weakling. He was a whimp. He had everything going

for him. He had talent, he had good looks, he

had ability. God blessed him in every kind of way,

and he started off grade. He had a lot of

early successes. But one day he lost it all and

he was a broken man.

He became a failure.

And one day he woke up and all his strength

was gone. I don't want that to happen to you.

I don't want someday for you to wake up and

go all my spiritual strength is gone. I'm just not

the man. I'm not the woman that I used to be.

What happened, well, what happened with Samson is that he

chose a lifestyle that sapped his spiritual strength. This is

a very practical message. And he fell into three traps,

and I want you to avoid these three traps. Number one,

the first trap that will weaken your spirit is self indulgence.

Self indulgence weakens my spirit. We find an example of

this in chapter fourteen of the Book of Judges, Verses

one to twenty. Sampson lived a very self indulgent life.

He was very undisciplined. He lived only for his feelings.

And his big weakness, of course, was women. You know,

some people have wine, women and song. For Samson, it

was women, women and women.

In fact, in.

Three chapters he falls for three different women, and he

keeps running into relationships, running out of relationships, running front relationships.

The Bible tells us in chapter fourteen, the first three verses,

he sees Delilah, and it says she looked good. He said,

she pleases me. He says, get her.

Now.

She wasn't Jewish, she wasn't even the right woman that

God had chosen for him. But he says, she looks

good for me. She lights my fire. Now, let's just

be honest here. Sex is God's idea. There's nothing wrong

with sex. But the point is anything good, even good things,

become harmful if they are out of control. Food, money, sex, sleep,

Anything out of control will weep weaken you. So the

first trap that will weaken your spirit is when you

make it this based on pleasure rather than principle, when

you make a decision based on convenience rather than conviction.

Samson sees a woman. He doesn't check her out. He

doesn't find out is this a woman going to strengthen

my spirit or is she going to tear me down?

Is she going to build me up spiritually or is

she going to pull me down spiritually? He just says she.

Looks good, she's a looker.

She pleases me, and so he ignores his plans and

he says, I've got to have her.

Now.

Let me just stop right here. Does this sound vaguely

familiar in our culture? Does our culture? Do we live

in a culture that values if it feels good, do it?

Yes?

Do we live in a culture that says, whatever you

feel like doing, you ought to do that. I owe

it to myself that, you know, I should just give

into whatever feels good. The Sampson excuse that we still

here here today is this one?

I owe it to myself? Now?

My question is this what do you know in your

life is wrong, but you just keep saying, I owe

it to myself just this once it's okay, you're actually

opening the door to this self indulgence and say I'm

just going to indulge myself in this. You know, if

you went on a cruise and the captain came in

law a loudspeaker and said, hi, folks, we're on this

two week cruise. We've we've developed a small leak, but

I just want to tell you it's a small leak. Well,

that wouldn't be any comfort to you, because whether it's

a small leak or a big leak, leak as a

leak as a leak, and a small equal sinkership just

like a large leak will it just takes a little

bit more time. The point is this, Any area that

you're undisciplined in is going to weaken your spirit. Any

area that you're undisciplined in will eventually catch up with you.

To be strong in spirit, I must discipline my desires.

To be strong in spirit, I must discipline my desires.

Desires are good, but they must be disciplined. The Bible

says it like this. First Peter four wanted two strengthen

yourselves with Christ's way of thinking, live your lives controlled

by God's will, not by human desire. What is he

saying there? Just because I want something doesn't mean I

should have it. Just because it can afford it doesn't

mean I should buy it. Just because it's pleasurable doesn't

mean it's good. And just because everybody's doing it doesn't

mean that I have to do it. I need to

avoid the trap of self indulgence. And we live in

a very self indulgent culture. The second trap that Samson

fell into, and it will cause it to lose his strength,

was resentment. Resentment will weaken you spiritually. It weakens your spirit.

We find this in the next chapter, Judges, Chapter fifteen.

Samson lived his entire life in a continual state of

disappointment and anger and resentment and bitterness. He was a very, very,

very angry man. He felt misunderstood, he felt disappointed. He

reacts violently to everything. His primary motivation in life was

to get even. He had a victim mentality. Do you

have that the attitude that everybody's against you and you're

a victim and the world's law that's going to cause

you to not grow in spirit.

It'll weaken your spirit.

One time, Samson actually killed thirty men just to get

even on a bet. He was a very resentful, very angry,

very bitter person. And in Judges chapter fifteen, you always

find his excuses this They hurt me first. Now let

me ask you who has hurt you that you're holding

on to that hurt. You need to let it go

because that will sink your ship, That will sap your strength,

that will shrivel your spirit. And if you're going to

be spiritually strong, you not only have to avoid self

indulgence by disciplining your desires, to avoid resentment. Now, every

one of us are hurt in life. We all get

hurt by what people say, of what people do, by

what people think. You can't live in a broken world

and not be hurt. But Sampson's second mistake is he

reacts instead of acts. Resentment is always self defeating. It

always hurts you more than it hurts the other person.

Job chapter five, Verse two says, to worry yourself to

death with resentment would.

Be a foolish, senseless thing to do.

The Bible says, anytime I get resentful, anytime I hold

a grudge, I'm a fool. It's just real clear. I'm

a fool. I am foolish. Job eighteen four says, you're

only hurting yourself with your anger. When you hold onto anger,

it's like taking fire in your heart. You're the one

who's gonna get burned. Resentment always hurts you more than

it hurts somebody else. And Sampson lost his spiritual and

physical strength not just because of self indulgent but because

he never managed his anger. He never learned to let

it go, He never.

Learned to forgive.

To be strong in spirit, I must control my reactions.

I not only have to discipline my desires. I have

to learn to control my reactions. The Bible says, the

person who learns to control his reaction is stronger than

a walled city, and the person who doesn't know how

to control the reactions is as defenseless as a city

without walls. Look at this verse Proverbs twenty nine to eleven.

A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a

wise man keeps himself under control. That was Samson's second mistake.

And I don't want you to make this one. Self

indulgence resentment to somebody who's hurt you in the past.

And the third one, this is a big one because

it catches a soft guard carelessness. Carelessness will sap your

spiritual strength. It will shrivel your spirit, it will weaken

your spirit. And we see this in the next chapter

in Judges chapter sixteen, verses one to twenty. Anytime you

get careless with your time, anytime you get careless with

your health, anytime you get careless with your money, anytime

you get careless with your words, you're headed.

In the wrong direction.

Anytime you get careless with your commitments. You make a

commitment and then you don't keep it. Samson had amazing strength,

and this strength was actually a gift from God. God

had given it to him, and it was a result

of a commitment that he had made. Samson made what

was called in the Bible a Nazarite vow, and a

Nazarite vow was a vow to live holy before God.

And as a symbol of that vow, there were a

number of things that you were not to do if

you took the Nazarite vow. You were to be dedicated

to God one hundred percent. You were to have no alcohol,

you were to never drink any alcohol in your life.

You were to eat a special diet. And the fourth

thing that was most notable is you were to never

cut your hair. That was the part of a nazarie val.

You never cut your hair as a symbol of your

commitment to God. And why didn't people make this nazaright

valel Well, it was simply a way of saying that

God's servant is to live differently. We're to be above reproach,

We're to be different than the culture. Samson, however, was

careless with his vow. He made a vow, but he

didn't keep it. He continually compromised his commitment out of convenience,

and he toyed with temptation. And his attitude was not

how close to God can I get? His attitude was

how close to the fire can I get and not

get burned? A lot of people live their lives that way.

They go, I'm a Christian, and I know this is wrong,

but I wonder how much can I do and not

get burned. Now, in chapter sixteen we have the story

of Delilah, and Delilah is hired by Samson's enemies. Samson

is an enemy because he represents the strength of God

and the people who hated God wanted to destroy Samson,

so they hire this woman, Delilah, to find his secret strength.

And Samson knows exactly what's going on. He's aware of

the game, and he knows that she's trying to find

his secret of strength, and he actually toys with her.

He teases her, and the first time when she comes says, oh, honey,

please tell me what's the secret of your strength? He says, well,

if you will tie seven bow strings around me, then

I can't. I won't be able to break from him.

So he goes to bed with this girl. He wakes

up the next morning and he's tied up with seven

bow strings. Duh, and there are men standing in the

room waiting to kill him. He immediately breaks the bow

strings and kills the guys. The next night, she does

it again. She says, oh, honey, please tell me what's

your secret of strength? And he says, well, you know, really,

the secret of strength is if you'll just tie seven

new ropes around me, then I won't be able to break.

He knows what's going on. He goes asleep. The next morning,

he wakes up, duh, He's tied up in seven ropes.

And their men standing in the room waiting to kill him.

He is toying with temptation. He's playing with the fire.

He's flirting with sin. He breaks the ropes and kills

all the guys. The next night, Delilah says, honey, you're

really embarrassing me. You're making me look bad. It's pretty blatant.

She's actually caring more about the money she's going to

be paid than she cares about Samson. But he doesn't care.

He's toying with her. He's teasing her. And this time

he says, if you will braid my hair, I'll lose

my strength.

Now.

Notice he's actually getting close to the real secret. The

secret of it was in his hair, not that his

hair made him strong. It was his commitment to God

that made him strong, and the hair was the symbol

of his commitment to God. He says, if you braid

my hair, he's flirting with temptations. How close can I get?

And let me just stop here? What are you flirting with?

What do you know in your life is flat out wrong?

Pornography and you're flirting with it. Cheating on your income

tax and you're flirting with it, flirting with a man

or woman at work, and you know it's wrong, and

you say, I can handle it. I can handle this,

I can get away with it. And you're getting closer

and closer. You have already been set up for the fail.

Satan has already seduced you. He's already lied to you,

and you've bought that lie. Every morning there are men

standing in his room. He knows what's going on here,

he knows exactly what he's doing. And in Judge's chapter sixteen,

verse fifteen sixteen, he's careless once too often, and he

finally tells her.

He says, if you.

Cut my hair, then I'll lose my strength. He finally

gives in, and his lifestyle had become so weakened from

compromise after compromise after compromise. He had said, it'll be

different for me. I can handle it. When you say

those words, you're being set up by Satan. Nobody ever

plans to fail spiritually. Nobody ever plans to have their

marriage fail, their life fail, their business fail, their health fail,

their finances fail. Nobody ever plans a bankruptcy. But it's

one little decision after another. People don't fall off a

cliff overnight. It begins with small slippages. I start to

let things slide, and then they wake up one day

and they go what happened? What happened, And all of

a sudden, they've lost their credibility, or they've lost their reputation,

or they've lost their ministry, or they've lost their finances.

The fact is a chain is only as strong as

its weakest link. What's the weak link in your life?

You see, you are only as strong as what you're

committed to, and if you're chipping away at that commitment,

you're getting weaker and weaker every day. The Bible is

very blunt. Look at this verse Proverbs eighteen twenty. You

will have to live with the consequences of everything you say.

Now.

Not only will you have to live with the consequences

of everything you say, you will have to live with

the consequences of everything you do.

You will have to live with.

The consequences of everything you think. And when you say

I can get away with this it's just a small thing,

you are setting yourself up for failure. So let me,

before we go to the solution, ask you, what's the

weak link in your life? What is the area that

you're most likely is it self indulgence in some area?

Is it carelessness in some area? Is it resentment against

someone that you just won't.

Let it go?

You're being set up, You're allowing that slippage, and you

can say I can handle it. Here's the second question

I want to ask you, when are you going to

do something about it? This is the day to do

something about that slippage in your life. And the solution

is to be strong spiritually. I must develop good habits.

I must develop good habits. You with a sum total

of your habits, Your character is your habits. What you

do habitually is what you is your character. If you

are habitually friendly, if you're habitually kind, if you're habitually honest,

if you are habitually courageous, then that's your character. If

it's not a habit, it's not your character. So I

want to close now very quickly, with three habits that.

Will change your life.

I've been following these habits almost all my life, and

they are the secret of my own spiritual strength. And

every man or woman of God that has been used

in history has developed these habits. And if you will

develop these habits, you will start building a strong spirit.

By the way the Bible says this in Ephesians chapter six,

verse ten, build up your strength. Notice that's something you do,

build up your strength. How in union with the Lord

and by means of his mighty power, you have a

part in building your strength, and God has a part.

God says you build up your strength by being in

union with Christ, and then he puts his power in you.

How does that happen? Three ways? Number one first habit

for spiritual strength. Get time with God every day. Get

time with God every single day of your life.

If you're not.

Doing that, you're not growing spiritually. If you're not doing that,

you're getting weaker every day. We call this a daily

quiet time. And each of these three habits, I want

to give you the reason, the routine, and the result. First,

the reason why should I have a daily quiet time?

Psalm twenty five, verse four. Show me the path where

I should go? Oh Lord, point out the right road

for me to walk. You need a daily quiet time

for guidance. If you're not having a daily quiet time,

you're not getting guidance from God. You're out there on

your own. You're going your own way, your own path,

at your own pace. In your own direction because you're

not getting daily guidance from God. That's the reason to

get guidance from God. What's the routine, Well, it is

to get a loan by yourself. The Bible says to

Luke five point sixteen, Jesus often withdrew to a lonely

place and prayed.

That means it was habitual. It was his habit.

In some of the verses of the Bible, it says,

and Jesus withdrew to a lonely place as was his custom.

It was his habit.

You get a place where you could be alone with

God and be quiet, where you can pray and read

the Bible. And what's the results. Jesus says this in

John fifteen seven. If you re made in Me and

my words remain in you, that's quiet time. Then you

will ask for anything you wish and you shall have it.

Did you know that one of the keys for answered

prayer is to spend time alone with God. That's the

number one habit you need to develop. And I pray

that right now as you're listening to this, you go, Okay,

I'm going to do it, even if it's just five minutes.

Then you go to ten. Then you go to fifteen

and you get time to listen to God through his

word and talk to him in prayer. That's the number

one habit for spiritual strength. You know it, but you're

not doing it. So let's make a change. Let's be

stronger in spirit this year. Get time with God every day.

Here's habit number two. Get together with believers every week.

These aren't rocket science, folks, we know what they are,

but we just don't get together with believers every single week.

Now we call this a weekly small group. Here's the

reason Hebrews ten twenty five. Let us not give up

the habit of meeting together. Instead, let us encourage each other.

Notice the habit of meeting the other. It's like this fire.

These coals are all hot. If I were to take

one of the coals out of the fire and set

it off here by itself, it would grow cold and

it would lose its heat. But if I take that

cold and put it in that coal back in the fire,

it gets hot again. This is what fellowship does. You

by yourself, you're gonna grow cold, You're gonna grow weak,

you're gonna grow wimpy. You're not gonna have the spiritual

strength you need. You must be in a small group

where iron sharpens iron and the fire helps each other

stay warm. What is the routine, Well, we find the

routine for small groups in Acts chapter five forty two.

It says they met day after day in the temple

courts and from house to house. We've covered this verse

many times. Temple courts is large group worship and house

to house is small group fellowship. You need both of

these to be spiritually strong. You're right now in the

temple courts. You're in a large group celebration of worship,

and that's a good thing. But you also need the

small group fellowship. And what's the result of getting together

with believers every week? The Bible says in Aclesiastes four, nine,

and ten two are better off than one because together

they're more effective. If one falls down, the other can

help him up. There are going to be times when

you need somebody else to be there for you. Do

you have that safety net in place? The crisis, the

rogue winds, the terrible storm, those are going to come

in your life, and you need some people in your

life there who you've already made the contact with.

When that happens, in.

Your life would show up right now if you had

a disaster? Question number two, who would you show up

for if they had a disaster? Does anybody know they

can count on you? You need a daily time with God,

and you need a weekly team for God. You need

to get together with believers every week, and you need

to get together with God every day. There's one other thing,

and this one touches a real sore spot because it

involves your money. The third habit of every great saint,

of every spiritually deep person, every spiritually strong person is

not just get time with God every day, and not

just get together with believers every week. Number three, give

a tithe to God every weekend. Give a tithe to

God every weekend. Now, Tithing, says, is the habit of

returning the first ten percent of my income back to God.

I give the first part of my money on the

first day of the week to say, Jesus, you are

first in my life.

It's a symbol to say that He's really first.

First part of my tithe goes on the first day

of the week as an act of worship.

The reason, the routine, and the result.

The Bible says, you need to tithe because wherever your

treasure is, your heart will be there also. And if

I can't give God the first part of my money,

then I'm not really putting him first in my life.

I'm just pretending that He is. Wherever your treasure is,

your heart will be. The Bible says in Deuteronomy fourteen

twenty three, the purpose of tithing is to teach you

to always put God first in your life.

Question?

Is God first in your life? Does your money show it?

Does your wallet show it? Does your giving show it?

How do I do it? How do I develop this

habit of a weekend tithe to God? Well, the Bible

tells us one Grinthians sixteen. On the first day of

every week, that's Sunday. Now I realize some of you

worship on Saturday. Saturday's your Sabbath. On the first day

of every week, set aside some of what you have

earned and give it as an offering. The amount depends

on how much the Lord has helped you to earn

its proportional giving. I give the first ten percent back

to God based on if I made a lot, I

give a lot.

If I made a little, I give a little. What's

the result.

Here's the promise of God in tithing Malachi three to ten.

Bring your whole tithe into my storehouse, the whole time,

not five percent, not two percent, the whole time, ten

percent to my storehouse.

Test me in this, says the Lord.

And see if I won't open the floodgates of heaven

and pour out so much blessing that you won't have

enough room for it. God says, I dare you. You've

heard me say this. I call it the Pepsi challenge

versus the Bible. God says, try it, you like it,

I dare you. Let's play a game. You give to

me and I'll.

Give you, and we'll see who wins.

I've been playing this game for many years and I've

lost it my entire life.

Bring the whole tide to the storehouse. Now here's the question.

Which of the three weaknesses are your most likely to

fall into the three traps? And which of the three

habits do you need to start? Are you being tempted

by self indulgence and there's an air of your life

you know you're giving in in self indulgence in that

area and it's weakening your life. Is there an area

of resentment that's weakening your life.

Is there an area of.

Carelessness and you've just gotten a little too careless about

it in your life. I don't know what it is,

but you do, and the Holy Spirit does, and God's

telling it. You need to work on this. You need

to strengthen it right now. How do you strengthen it

by developing these three habits. So here's my challenge to

everybody who's listening and watching. Let's all commit to do

all three of these habits all year long and see

how much stronger we are spiritually at the end of

the year.

Are you ready to do this?

Are you ready to get daily time with God, to

give a weekend tithe to God, and to give a

weekly team for God. These three habits will change your life.

I sat at the beginning. Spiritual strength is not accidental.

It's the result of choices we make and habits we develop.

I have developed these habits and they've brought spiritual strength

to me, and I challenge you to do them too. Now,

let me read this verse again Ephesians six', ten and

we'll close build up your strength in union with The

lord and by means Of his mighty. Power you can't

do these habits on your. Own you don't have the

power to do them on your. Own you Need god's.

Power and where do you get? It by being in

union With. Christ if you've never opened your life To,

christ if you've never developed a friendship With, christ that's

your starting. Point you need to, Say jesus, CHRISTY i

want to get to know. YOU i don't want to

go another year without a relationship with. You why don't

we close with a word of? Prayer will you bow

your heads with?

Me Dear.

GOD i don't want to be a spiritual. WEAKLING i

don't want to be a spiritual. WHIMP i want to

be stronger at the end of this, year not. WEAKER

i want to be closer To, you not farther. Away

just Say, GOD i don't want to live a mediocre.

LIFE i want to be spiritually. STRONG i want to

be a strong woman Of. GOD i want to be

a strong man Of. God AND i want to start

down that. Path and then say, This Dear, god help

me to discipline my desires and not give in to self.

Indulgence say help me to discipline my desires and not

give in to self. Indulgence say help me to control

my reactions and to not give into to, resentment, bitterness

to forgive and to let it. Go, FATHER i let

that person go, today and then, say help me to

not give into carelessness but develop good. Habits And, father

TODAY i make a vow to. YOU i make a

commitment to you, that as BEST i know, HOW i

want to have a daily time with you every. Day

AND i want to get together with other believers every

week in a small. Group AND i want to give

a tithe to you every. Weekend so that these three

representing my time and my money and my relationships are

under the lordship Of Jesus. Christ if you've never Invited

christ in your, life Say Jesus, christ make yourself real to,

Me come into my life and save. ME i pray

this humbly In jesus's.

Name. Amen