If You are a Christian...

This morning we're continuing our sermon series in the book of

Judges. I want to make a few comments

before I dig into the sermon itself.

Many people's lives end far different than what God intended

or planned for them. God never intends for anyone's

life to fail or miss the mark that He has for that individual.

God intends for people to fulfill their purpose for which

He creates them. But we know so many people fail.

Some of the greatest causes of failure in life come not through

circumstances that people face and the challenges they meet,

but more so through the response they give to the circumstances

they meet. There are many people who go

through life and in the end they ask what went wrong?

Why is my life not what it could have been?

And they they, they end their life it with if only, if only.

Our sermon title of this morning is If you are a Christian, Pause

and we'll answer that later this morning.

If you're a Christian, are you living to your potential?

Is your path a life on the path to success or to failure?

I don't mean money and reputation, those things to

where you won't have regrets when you die.

If you're a Christian, are you living up to your potential?

Again, as I said, we're continuing our sermon series in

the book of Judges and this morning we're look at one man

named Samson. Before his birth, he was already

chosen by God to be a man who would deliver God's people from

the oppression of the Philistines.

They had so many times failed and faltered and turned away

from God. And we're living like the

cultures around them. And again, this happened again

in Judges 13, verse one. And I'll just, we'll just work

our way through three chapters of the book of Judges this

morning. Verse one again, the children of

Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered

them into the hand of the Philistines.

For 40 years. I did a bit of work trying to

search and this is the longest oppression yet.

There were different seasons of oppression from the different

nations around them. And this time it's the

Philistines who are oppressing them for 40 years.

And each time before they repented, they looked inward.

OK, we've sinned. We've we've denied God, we've

gone after idols and they cried to the Lord.

Please save us. The repentant went back to

worshipping God, but not this time.

We don't find it in this portion of the book of Judges that the

people had a repentant heart and that the turn back to God after

all that went on. We don't find it.

See, there are people who would rather live a debased effortless

life than a challenging, good, hard life.

There are people who would rather base live a debased

effortless life than a challenging, hard but good life.

It's sad when people or people groups live below what God

intends for them when they live below of what could be in worse

yet they're OK with it and they don't even want to change.

And we find that in the book of Judges this morning.

Let me ask us this morning, are we living to our potential or

just OK? We're good enough.

God's not OK with good enough. Of course we will miss the mark

and fail, but there's grace. But what's our striving headed

toward? There's stories in the New

Testament where Jesus tells us in his teachings that God

expects us to be faithful with what he's blessed us with and we

will be held to account how we managed our lives, what we did

with the talents and skill sets God gave us.

In our story this morning in the night of Samson, we find out he

was a man who was dedicated to God for certain types of

service, but he did it very poorly and he caused himself and

others much unnecessary pain and suffering.

The story begins with God sending an Angel to a couple in

Israel from the tribe of Dan. And this couple was childless

and the man's name was Manoah and his wife's name is not

mentioned. The Angel of the Lord came to

this woman and said you'll have a son.

But these are the conditions for this son.

He's not to ever drink wine or eat fruit of the vine.

In other words, grapes don't eat anything unclean.

And under Jewish law, there was a list of animals he was not

allowed to eat of that types of meat.

And the Angel told her that here her son would be a Nazarite.

A Nazarite was a person specially dedicated to God.

He couldn't cut his hair, not drink wine or eat grapes, be in

contact with unclean stuff and so on.

In this case, this would be a boy and he was going to begin to

deliver his people from their oppression from the Philistines.

That's in a nutshell the story of chapter 13.

We find out, however, that this boy Samson did not turn out to

be the ideal deliverer that he could have or should have been.

He had serious flaws. I mentioned in some of our

earlier sermons in the series and judges that God uses flawed

people, and he does. God uses flawed people, but he's

not pleased with the flaws. They're never his will and we

should never OK, It's OK. No, not that, but Samson was a

very flawed man. So beginning in chapter 14 verse

one, we read, let's turn there 14 verse one.

Now Samson, he's grown now went down to Timna, Philistine

territory and saw a woman in Timna of the daughters of the

Philistines. So he went up and told his

father and mother saying I have seen a woman in Timna of the

daughters of the Philistines. Now there, forget her for me as

a wife. He's an opinionated, self

focused man here. Verse 3 Then his father and

mother said to him, is there no woman among the daughters of

your brethren or among all my people that you must go and get

away from the uncircumcised Philistines?

There was godliness in Israel. They were not totally oblivious

and blind can keep going. Verse 3 And Samson said to his

father, get her for me, for she pleases me.

Well, he's selfish, verse 4. But his father and mother did

not know that it was of the Lord that he was seeking an occasion

to move against the Philistines. For at that time the Philistines

had dominion over Israel. So let's pause there.

Samson was born, had grown up, and engaged in Philistine

culture. It's just safe to assume that he

was what we would say, a product of his time and his culture.

For many decades now, the people of Israel had lived in violation

of God's commands. Many decades now, they were

under Philistine rule. And we can only imagine how

these two cultures, the dominant Philistine culture, was

infiltrating, saturating the Israelite culture.

They intermingled. And no doubt intermarriage was

not off the table either. So here's Samson, well-rounded

we could say, in Philistine culture.

He goes to Temna, sees a Philistine woman and wants her,

and his parents put the brakes on protest.

This is against the law, and of course it was against the law.

The law of God forbid a person to marry outside Israelite

community. Strict exceptions in case a

Jewish man wanted to marry a heathen or Pagan woman.

There were some exceptions, but Samson wasn't meeting any of one

of those. Samson saw the woman, wanted

her, and then his father gets involved.

Of course, the parents had to get involved in marriage in

those days, but it says in verse four it was of the Lord.

Now, how do we make sense out of this?

God was seeking to break the oppression of the Philistines

over Israel. But but why this way?

We must be careful how we understand a passage such as

this. I've said this before going

through the book of Judges, that it is a descriptive book, not

prescriptive. It doesn't tell us what's going

on as good or that it is the best thing that could happen.

It tells us what happened, but doesn't tell us to follow that.

We cannot conclude that all the things that people did were

things God wants us to do in our time.

As I said before, we can assume Samson was a product of his

time, even though he wasn't Nazarite.

In this case, God was using Samson where he was the

personality, he had the character traits he had to get

him to do some of the things God wanted to do.

And this is scary. I want to explain something.

When God's people become immersed and saturated with the

culture of of their time, it's a dangerous thing.

That does not, however, stop God from being God.

He still moves forward to work His will by using their people,

those people in their contexts, for His purposes.

That's a very dangerous thing for us because we might suffer

from that as Samson would. God can use a person either in a

humble, surrendered commitment to him, or he can use that same

person in a rebellious, arrogant, prideful context.

However the person chooses to be and in that way God will use

that person. And Samson, a poor character,

immature, selfish man. He was not the mature, self

disciplined deliverer that God had intended him to be.

He was far from it. We must realize when we follow

sinful, selfish desires, that does not limit God.

And God may well decide to use us in those selfish, sinful

environments to bring about His will.

And that is going to be very messy.

In Samson's case, God was using him as he was to begin the

process, to break the oppression.

And in the process, Samson hopefully will learn a lesson or

two as well. So God used Samson's selfish

desires, his selfish character, to bring about his own will.

It says in verse 5 S, Samson went down to Timna with his

father and mother and came to the vineyards of Timna

Vineyards. What was, what did you just say

about vines and grapes and wine? Why is he there?

What's he doing there? He had no business going into

the vineyards. Doesn't tell us he ate grapes or

drank wine. Doesn't tell us that he did

that. But he shouldn't be near it.

He shouldn't be doing this. This is a red flag.

Let's continue reading verse 5. Now to his surprise, meaning

Samson's surprise, a young lion came roaring against him, and

the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he tore

the lion apart as one would have torn apart a young goat, though

he had nothing in his hand. But he did not tell his father

or his mother what he had done. So his mother and father are not

with him when this happens. Near the vineyards of Timna.

Shouldn't have been there to begin with, perhaps, but God

still gave him the abilities that he had intended for him.

One was to be a strong man. And this lion comes and attacks

him. He grabs the lion with his bare

hands, rips him apart, and God protects him.

Let's continue on verse 7. Then he went down and talked to

the woman, and she pleased Samson well.

Both verse 3 and verse 7 we read that she pleased him well.

From a human standpoint, this was all about Samson's desires,

his personal desires. God was going to guide them, but

it was Samson and he was at fault.

He was not thinking, but I'm going to do God's will with

this. That was not even crossing his

mind. He was going to do his will with

this, but God was going to steer this.

I sometimes compare these events to like to a game of chess.

All the selfish moves a person can make, God's going to in the

end, call it checkmate. Let's continue reading the

arrangements no doubt had been made.

It was time now for the wedding. Verse 8.

After some time when he returned to get her, he turned aside to

see the carcass of the lion and behold a swarm of bees and

honey. We're in the carcass of the

lion. He took some of it in his hands

and went along eating. When he came to his father and

mother, he gave some to them. They also ate, but he did not

tell them that he had taken the honey out of the carcass of a

lion. They would have never eaten had

he told him that. He did not care.

He was a Nazarite. He, of all people, should have

never dipped his hand into the carcass of a lion and grabbed

some honey. Again, totally violating his

Nazarite dedication, completely against the law.

He had no qualms about anything. It seems he did as he pleased,

regardless of him being a Nazarite.

His mother and father eat of the honey too.

Had they known, they would have said no.

Let's keep reading verse 10. So his father went down to the

woman, and Samson gave a feast there for young men used to do

so. And it happened when they saw

him that they brought some 30 companions with him.

Now this is a recipe for trouble.

Here's a Philistine woman with her family, a Jewish man with

his family, and he's now the dedicated deliverer who's going

to help free the people of Israel from Palestine

oppression. And they're having a wedding and

they bring 30 companions. We're not told why 30.

Different commentators have different ideas, what it could

have meant. But was it for safety?

Nobody knew about Samson yet. What kind of man he was, Nobody

knew yet, but they would find out soon.

Verse 12 Then Samson said to them, meaning these, these guys,

let me pose a Riddle to you. If you can correctly solve and

explain it to me within the seven days of the feast, then I

will give you 30 linen garments and 30 changes of clothing.

That's sixty articles. But if you cannot explain it to

me, then you shall give me 30 linen garments and 30 changes of

clothing. Now just to note, they didn't

have mass production of clothing like we do today.

Clothing was made laboriously, painstakingly by hand, cost a

lot of money. So they say, pose your Riddle

that we may hear it. Verse 14 he said to them, Out of

the eater came something to eat, out of the strong came something

sweet. Now for three days they could

not explain the Riddle. But why would Samsung do

something like that? There was a certain level, there

was maybe traditional custom, some say that it was they would

do riddles like that. But Samsung gave them a Riddle

they could not possibly answer. And he knew that for the

information they had, there was no way that they could possibly

get the Riddle and explain it. Samsung knew, but the Riddle

itself was not the biggest problem, even if they lost, it

was what it was tied to. If they couldn't answer the

Riddle, they would owe Samson 30 linen garments and 30 changes of

clothing. And again, that was worth a lot

of money. And again, they couldn't

possibly know. But they didn't know that they

couldn't know. They just wanted to make sure

that they would not have to buy clothing for Samson.

Well, the week goes on and they're clueless and they're

getting desperate. Let's just keep in mind here,

this is the wedding week and it's between two cultures,

Philistine culture and Israeli culture.

It's not a good idea. The week goes by and they can't

get the answer and they don't want to pay.

Let's read verse 15. But it came to pass on the 7th

day that they said to Samson's wife.

Now they're cowards. They said entice your husband

that he may explain the Riddle to us or else we will burn you

and your father's house with fire.

Have you invited us in order to take what's ours?

Is that not so? There it is.

These Philistine men are embarrassed.

They're angry, humiliated, and they don't know the answer.

So they go to his new wife, which is their fellow cultural

member, and they get her to do The Dirty work, work on Samson

and Tyson. The last day she gets the sad

part. She has to go to Samson now and

start working with her new husband.

It seems to me it would have been wiser if she had told

Samson, hey, my family's after me.

They're going to kill me and my dad.

If you don't tell us the Riddle, wonder what Samson would have

done. It may have turned out

different, but what she does is let's listen.

Verse 16. Then Samson's wife wept on him

and said, you only hate me. You do not love me.

You've posed a Riddle to the sons of my people, you, but you

have not explained it to me. This is the wedding week, the

close of it. What kind of marriage will this

turn out to be? Well, it won't be a marriage.

Do we see how Samson is step by step, just inflicting struggles

on himself with these things? He's living so far below what

could have been if he only early on had focused solely on God's

purposes for his life. What if if Samson as a young boy

had decided I'm only going to do the things in the book of the

law, I'm only going to do things that please Jehovah God, He

would have had a very different life.

He responds to his new wife and says, look, I've not explained

it to my father or my mother, so should I explain it to you?

He stays resolute. He wasn't giving out the secret,

but toward the end of verse 7 says now she had wept on him the

seven days while their feast lasted, and it happened on the

7th day that he told her because she pressed him so much.

Then she explained the Riddle to the sons of her people.

You know, Samson had a lot of muscle, big biceps, strong back,

big big strong legs. No character, no stamina.

He was weakest where it mattered most.

So she goes and tells her family her Ken what Samson said.

He explained the Riddle. Here it is.

So the men of the city on the 7th day say to him before the

sun goes down, what's sweeter than honey?

What's stronger than a lion? All arrogant, Proud was not the

first time. Now Samson had showed his

weakness. He wasn't strong when he

violated his Nazarite calling. He had shown weakness when he

chose the wrong life partner. Now he shows weakness and able

to control himself. He divulged information which he

shouldn't have shared. Next we see another sign of

weakness. He loses his temper, it said,

and it says to, he said to them, verse 18, if you had not plowed

with my heifer, you wouldn't have solved my Riddle.

He called his wife a heifer. He's mad, but God true to his

promise, he does not intervene and he does not stop him.

He's he channels this to cause the break to happen.

Verse 19 This is strange, but it's the story.

Then the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him mightily and

he went down to Ashkelon. That's far away from where he

was and killed 30 of their men took their apparel, gave the

changes of clothing to those who had explained the Riddle.

So his anger was roused and went back to his father's house and

Samson's wife was given to his companion who had been his best

man. He kept his word.

He was going to give them the clothing.

He kept his word, but at what cost?

Escalon was far away, so news wouldn't travel quickly that

what he had done. Things were getting really

messy. The events in these chapters are

pretty much a picture what society today has become.

Right is not right, wrong is not only depends.

However, if in this case then it's OK, in that case it's OK.

And so on. Samson lived up and messed up

times. Now he's mad at his wife.

It says he goes home. Well, let's continue reading now

in chapter 15, he's cooled off by now.

He wants to visit his wife. Verse 1, chapter 15, after a

while in the time of wheat harvest, that's important here,

wheat is ripe, They're harvesting it.

It happened that Samson visited his wife with a young goat.

She has a change of mind. And he said, let me go into my

wife, into her room, that her father would, but her father

would not permit him to go. In verse 2, her father said, I

really thought that you thoroughly hated her.

Therefore, I gave her to your young, to your companion.

One of the guys is not her younger sister.

Better than she. Please take her instead.

It's just like Samson can't win, but it's his own fleshly desires

that get him into this mess. Everywhere he turns seems he's

get dealt a bad card. We don't know the full details.

It may have been that Samson's father-in-law did not want his

daughter to be have anything to do with Samson.

After what she'd been through, the death threats and all,

Samson was bad news. The marriage had failed before

it even began. She was free of Samson and

Samson now wanted her back and again he had a temper.

Now his father-in-law has given his wife away to one of his

companions and he says take your sister.

Then verse 3 Now things get ugly.

Samson said to him, this time I shall be blameless regarding the

Philistines if I harm them. Then Samson went and caught 300

foxes, took torches, turn the Fox's tail to tail, put a torch

between each pair of tails. When he had set the torches on

fire, he let the fox go into the standing grain of the

Philistines and burned up the shocks and the standing grain,

as well as the vineyards and olive Groves.

It's time of harvest, remember? Commentators say these would not

have been foxes like we know foxes.

They would have probably been jackals because they Rove in in

packs and it would have been more easily to to to capture

them and tie them together. Samson's plan worked.

He caused a lot of damage. People's crops, their incomes

for the year were destroyed. Samson was not just mad at his

father-in-law and his wife. What happened there?

He's mad at the whole Philistine peoples.

He's wreaking havoc now and it's working.

And God was using this to break the bond of oppression.

The whole thing is just a mess. Does that remind us a bit of

some problems in our world today, in our communities?

People get themselves so tangled up in such messy situations.

There's no clean way out. That's what's happening.

Well, let's continue with the story.

God chooses to work through these sinful mazes of tangled

events that we can't make sense of.

The Philistines have now lost their crops.

They rise up in earnest. They want to get to the bottom

of this. Verse 6.

Then the Philistines said, who has done this?

And they answered Samson, the son-in-law of the tin knight,

because he's taking his wife and giving her to his companion.

So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with

fire. The death sentence that she got

from the companions before. Now the Philistines carry out on

her the threat at the wedding celebration.

Remember, if they didn't get the answer to the Riddle, they'd

kill her, burn her with fire. Now she gets burnt with fire.

The very death she tried to avoid was now on.

What's happened, happened now, poor woman, poor dad.

Samson was angry. Well, now his wife is dead,

father-in-law is dead. Samson is angry again.

Verse 7. Samson said to them, Since you

would do such a thing as this, I will surely take revenge on you,

and after that I will cease. So he attacked them hip and

thigh with a great slaughter. Then he went down and dwelt in

the cleft of the rock of Edom. And true to his word, he took

revenge. He killed many of them.

He went and lived by himself after that.

Do we believe that Samson literally had any intention

here? I'm going to read, read rescue

Israel from the oppression of the Philistines.

I think he was so immersed and saturated with self that he was

this is this doesn't even cross his mind.

At least from the reading of the story.

We can't find it. But this is not the end.

What had happened till now was more of a warm up.

Now things get going. Let's just say here James the

possum in the book of James writes the right the anger of a

man does not work the righteousness of God.

And is it ever true again? How much better if Samson

initially had when he was young, just decided he would follow the

path of the 10 commandments, followed Jehovah God, live out

his life as a Nazarite and work for justice in a godly way.

Instead, he does work for justice, but in a very bad and

sinful way. In chapter 15, now we find the

Philistines gather and then make it ready for war.

They gather their army and come out against Judah.

They were already the top dog. They were already in power.

They were already oppressing the Hebrews, the Jews.

But now, now we're going to find out what's going on.

Now we're going to get to the bottom of this.

Now it was war. Well, the men of Judah are

afraid the Philistines are coming for war.

They asked, what's the matter? Why are you coming out for war?

We don't want war, they say. We want Samson to deliver him to

us. Well, then the men of Judah,

they go to where Samson is hiding in the in the in the rock

where Samson lives and they rebuke him and says, don't you

know that the Philistines are ruling over us?

What are you doing? They don't see what's happening.

Let's read Judges 15 verse 11. Then 3000 men of Judah went down

Judges 15:11

to the cleft of the rock of Etom and said to Samson, do you not

know that the Philistines rule over us?

What is this you've done to us? And he said to them, as they've

did, as they did to me, so I've done to them.

You see the self there all about himself, only focusing on

himself, his personal situation. He's not considering the nation

of Israel or the fact he was dedicated to relieve them of

oppression or that he's a Nazarite.

I said this was messier. It just got messier.

Did men of Judah don't want Samson messing with the

Philistines. We're under their rule.

Remember? They come now to deliver Samson

to the Philistines, to get rid of the issues between them.

They want to placate them. Samson asked for a favor.

He says, please promise me you won't kill me, just bind me, and

then that's OK. They bind him with new ropes,

bring him to the Philistines, and when the Philistines see

him, they shout for joy. They have their captive.

But then again, as in times past, God's Spirit comes

mightily upon Samson. He breaks the ropes that bound

him and he finds a job, one of a donkey, a dead donkey, dead

animals again and killed 1000 men with it.

Samson is a Nazarite. You probably not of handling

dead animal bones either. Doesn't specifically say that,

but he seemingly doesn't care about his calling.

The Philistines learned Samson was not a man to be messed with

in that sense. Samson's calling was being

worked out. God was doing that, but not with

the blessing even of his own people.

Then they come to chapter 16 and here he comes to his fall.

We find in the early part of chapter 16, he goes to Gaza.

That was a Philistine city back then.

This was a city deep in Philistine territory.

He wanted to see a harlot. What's a Nazarite Jew doing with

a Philistine harlot? Do the math.

This is the second woman he gets involved with.

Well, they know he's there. They they locked the gates.

Wait till want to wait till morning to get him.

But Samson suspects something, knows something is up.

He lays low till midnight, then goes and pulls out the city

gates by the post, and everything carries him off to a

hill, hilltop, somewhere else, and he's free.

Then in chapter 16, verse 4, let's continue reading there.

Afterward it happened that he loved a woman named Delilah,

whose name was Delilah, again, a Philistine woman.

This is woman #3 in his life, not much success, has he?

The first was his wife, the second a prostitute.

Now his third wife, this is wife, is Delilah.

Think of it all the woman he's drawn to himself, all are Pagan

women, not good for a man of his calling.

But the Philistine Lords, they come up in verse 5, it says, and

the Lords of the Philistines came up to her, Delilah, and

said to her, entice him and find out where his great strength

lies and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind

him to afflict him. And every one of us will give

you 1100 pieces of silver. That's wealth, that's immense

wealth. And they didn't say so we can

kill him, that we may afflict him.

They're going to have their fun with him again.

Samson connects with Philistine woman.

It didn't work before, why would it work now?

Such is the nature of self focused living.

And here come these Philistines offering immense wealth to his

woman, to his wife, if she's going to get him.

And you know what she tries. How do you how do you have this

great strength? Three different times she tries.

Three different times she tells her lies.

He walks away every time. But on the fourth try, she's

desperate and he's tired. And guess what?

His weak character again comes to the surface in a moment of

weakness, which he seemed to have many of.

He tells her all If you cut my hair, I'm a Nazarite.

If you cut my hair, I'll be weak like any other man.

My strength will leave me. Well, she gets him to sleep.

Get somebody to cut off his hair while he's sleeping.

He wakes up thinking arrogantly, I'll walk away as I did before,

not knowing This compromise was one too many.

God had removed his strength from him, and his compromise

ended his strength. It tells us further.

The Philistines took him, gouged out both his eyes, bound him up,

put him in prison and made him grind grain in prison.

They had plans with him. They had achieved their

objective. Finally they gotten what they

wanted. It goes on to tell us they

wanted to celebrate and they wanted to humiliate him.

They gathered in a great temple, a great building and this

building rested on 2 pillars and Samson was brought out to

entertain them. And then this lad is leading his

blind Samson and Samson tells him and says please put me where

the pillars are. I want to feel the pillars.

The boy does that. Then we have one final prayer by

Samson, verse 28. Then Samson called to the Lord

saying, Oh Lord God, Remember Me, I pray, strengthen me, I

pray just this once. Oh God, that was one I made with

one blow. Take vengeance on the

Philistines for my two eyes. What a prayer.

This is selfish. He's not thinking of God, he's

thinking of himself. He knows God, he believes in

God, has a faith in God, it says Samson.

Then verse 29, Samson took hold of the two middle pillars which

were supported the temple, and he braced himself against them,

and one on his right, the other on his left.

Then Samson said this is his final sentence, let me die with

the Philistines. Then he pushed with all his

might, and the temple fell on the Lords and all the people who

were in it. So the dead that he killed on

his death were more than he killed in his life.

And his brothers and all his father's household came down and

took him and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and

Ashtal in the temp, in the tomb of his father Manoah.

He had judged Israel 20 years. What a tragic end.

This is one of the most saddest stories in Scripture.

One of the most tragic endings of a man in the Bible who's in

the Hebrew Hall of Fame. What a tragic ending.

What does this teach us? Samson was a man of faith.

Hebrews 11 verse 32. But we can say with certainty

Hebrews 11:32

God never intended when he was born to have this selfish streak

in him, this arrogance and this weakness and these habits of

compromise. His failures, however, did not

stop God from using him for His purpose.

God did use him, but not in the ways he could have had Samson

been focused more on God. Samson selfishly wanted for

himself what he wanted, a very flawed judge.

Yes, to some extent he broke the yoke of oppression that the

Philistines had inflicted over the people of Israel, but he did

not finish it. His life ended at his own hands

and the sad as it was, he prayed for vengeance.

Even his last words were vengeance on his enemies.

Let me just remind us, this is a descriptive passage, not

prescriptive. Go and do likewise.

It's not what it says. And the New Testament were under

the New Covenant. Now Samson lived his life is not

how God's calling us to live our lives.

And he did not call Samson to live his life that way either.

Samson chose how to live in the culture in which he was.

He was a weak man in many ways, physically very strong, but

weakened character. Is that not a sign of our times?

How many men in the world today have immense financial power,

immense political leverage, immense reputational power, but

no moral strength? It's a description of our times.

We know from the story that Samson didn't hold to what he

was dedicated to. OK, let's not worry about Samson

now. Let's worry about ourselves.

Do we hold to what we commit to, what we dedicate ourselves to

when we say we'll follow Jesus? Or do we make Samson think of

ourselves? Mostly he died with the

Philistines. What was was not what could have

been. I know there are people in the

world today, and even theologians and commentators.

Different faith traditions. Oh, God ordained it.

No, God never ordains evil. It's never God's will, so to

speak. He will walk along with it.

He will go along with it because we're free, moral human agents.

We get to decide what we want to do.

It's a frightening reality. And we will all answer to God

how we responded to the call that he gives us.

And if we decide to disobey, he may stop us, may not.

We don't know. And it's hard for us when he

allows us to sin. He still works in us, still

calls us to to except his grace. He wants to work in us.

If we choose to go the rebellious way, it does not stop

him from still using us. But look at Samson.

I titled our sermon this morning.

If you're a Christian, do you live up to your potential?

Let me ask, if you're a Christian, what's the trajectory

of your life? And if you're a Christian, are

you OK with where you're headed? Then lastly, if you're a

Christian and your life would be written out and given to the

world to read, would you be OK with the way the story would

read, what it would tell? We read in Paul's letters to the

Corinthians that we what we do in this life will be evaluated

on judgment Day, and depending on how we've used our talents

and lived out our lives, there will be rewards or losses.

Samson's life fell far short in his life.

He had an awful lot with Paul called wood, hay, stubble and

straw, but God still use in spite of his weakness.

But Samson lost out. He lived selfishly, self

focused, lack of moral self-discipline with anger and

vengeance in his life. Maybe you wonder this morning,

why are stories like this even in the Bible?

Again, it's not a prescriptive book.

It's a book that's written to tell us what happened, that we

can learn from it. You and I can learn from this.

We have choices. God will honor our choices each

and every day. We make choices for us today,

there is a better way. Jesus calls us to give our lives

in repentance and surrender to Him, and He sends us his Spirit

to transform our lives into a new creation.

And we can walk in faith with our Lord Jesus.

We do not have to live a life that ends below what God intends

for us. So may we live to surrender our

lives to Christ and be transformed into His image.

Let us pray. Thank you, Lord, for your grace

to us. Thank you for the story of

Samson, even though there's so much in that story that clearly

was not your will. It's a reminder what sin does

when we allow into our lives. We pray, Lord, that we'll be

faithful to you. We will not allow sin control in

our lives or we pray that we'll be humble, surrender our lives

to you, commit to welcome with you, follow me with you and

serving you. Thank you Lord Jesus, Amen.