Samson – Part II

September 1st 2024

Series: Holy Spirit in the Old Testament

Sermon Title: Samson – Part II

Topic: Journey to help us learn who the Holy Spirit was, is, and will always be and how the Holy Spirit is active in our lives today.

Key Passages: Judges 14

Topic: Holy Spirit, Deliverance, Samson

Sermon Blurb: In today’s message, how important it is that we do not allow anger and pride to drive us.

***1st week ODD months add communion & target message at 15 pages.

***1st week EVEN months add space for dedication, baptism, or ministry highlight & target message at 15 pages.

***Green in sermons means illustration, something we are looking for a response from, and/or a picture that goes on the screens.

***Yellow means what is yellow will be on the screens and in the handout.

Sermon:

Hello Family Church!

Family Moment –

Start with something personal from your family life recently to help people get to know you.

Celebrate salvation / re-dedications / baptisms last week.

Those of you newer to Family Church, we are SUPER happy you are with us today!

In this part of the Holy Spirit series, in this part we are examining a few men who the Holy Spirit filled and in how some of them went on to live good lives…

And how we saw last week….some went on to live lives not so good.

Today, we will continue talking about this guy, who I think many of us can relate to…

A guy named Samson…

A guy who made a lot of terrible choices…

His life goes through a lot of ups and downs.

PAUSE

Grab your Bible and open it up to

Judges 14

And by the way…..

New Person Bible Connection:

If you do not have a Bible, that is ok!

After service, we will give you an AMAZING leather-bound study Bible!

Just go to ADD YOUR CAMPUS PLACE and get one for FREE!!!

As you get there, let me briefly catch up with any new people today…

But let me also encourage you to go to our website or app and listen to last week’s message if you missed it.

Last week learned that Samson was a gift from God to his parents.

God gave his parents specific ways to raise their sons.

BECAUSE…

God was going to use their son in mighty ways…

And last week, we saw Samson start to grow up…and he was having a LOT of the typical issues most young people have…

He struggled with lust.

He struggled with feeling entitled…

He struggled with listening to his parents.

We left off with him demanding that his parents get him a wife that his parents did not think would be good for him…

PAUSE

Let’s keep reading….Judges 14:5…

5 Samson went down to Timnah together with his father and mother.

As they approached the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him.

6 The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat.

But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done. 7 Then he went down and talked with the woman, and he liked her.

Samson is a man’s man!

A lion comes rushing at this dude, and he does NOT do what most of us would do!

We would RUN!!!

The Holy Spirit comes upon him, and he TEARS the lion apart with his bare hands!!!

WOW!!!

And like most kids….

We don’t tell our parents the stupid things we do!!!

So, there is the SECOND time the Holy Spirit is mentioned in his story.

Let’s keep reading…

8 Some time later, when he went back to marry her, he turned aside to look at the lion’s carcass, and in it he saw a swarm of bees and some honey.

9 He scooped out the honey with his hands and ate as he went along. When he rejoined his parents, he gave them some, and they too ate it.

But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion’s carcass.

Now stop there…

For those that were here last week…

Was a Nazarite allowed to touch a dead body?

NOPE!

Do you see more of what we talked about last week?

He was ENTITLED to this honey!

He killed the lion!

He was hungry!

It was good!

So, he TOOK it….

Even though he KNEW he should NOT…

PAUSE

Have you ever been there in life?

When you have an opportunity in front of you…

And you KNOW you should not…

But it is tempting…

It looks soooooo good….

And so you do what you should not….

That is where Samson is… yet again…

But DO NOT MISS….

God is still working through him…

Crazy right!!!!

If you wonder why….or how….keep listening!!!

PAUSE

After this, they get married…

And then it gets a bit crazy…

His wife's people try to get her to deceive her husband, and it works.

And Samson gets ANGRY!!!!

The problem we keep seeing for Samson…

And for SO many of us….

We often act and do ungodly things rather than be led by the Spirit.

And we want to do what's right, but our emotions take over.

PAUSE

Let me summarize verses 10-18…

He's kind of at his bachelor party.

The wedding's about to go down, and because she's a Philistine woman, there are Philistines around.

He's hanging out with 30 Philistines who were God's people's enemies.

And because they are men…

They have to play games…

So, he gives them a riddle, and they cannot figure it out…

So, they convince his wife to figure out the answer and give it to them.

And she does!

And Samson is furious that they figured out his riddle and he lost it!

He's embarrassed!

He gets angry!

He said to them the stupidest thing he could have said, he said…. It he says:

18"If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle."

You can laugh if you want to because that is funny!

But men…

NEVER CALL YOUR WIFE A HEIFER!!!!

That is, yet again…another BAD life choice…

Samson caves into a weakness that so many of us battle with.

Rather than responding by the Spirit of God….

He reacts with emotion.

He was emotion-driven.

And watch as he falls victim to two emotions that often take strong people down.

The first one, if you're taking notes, is this:

We must learn to control our emotions and not let anger lead us.

Repeat

Samson burned with anger. Drop down to Verse 19….

19 Then the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him. He went down to Ashkelon,

struck down thirty of their men, stripped them of everything and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle.

He went and took the lives of 30 innocent men just for their clothing.

Then watch him, what church?

Say those next three words aloud with me.

Scripture says he was:

Burning with anger, he returned to his father’s home.

20 And Samson’s wife was given to one of his companions who had attended him at the feast.

Stop there….

Talk about dysfunction!

His brand-new wife is given away to another man…

Now, you may say, "Wait, wait, wait, what just happened?"

Let me tell you what happened.

Samson lost the bet.

He left before the wedding started and went on a killing spree.

Who knows how long it took to kill 30 men, get their clothing, and make it back?

And the bride's father was sitting there, probably thinking, “This is embarrassing. We've got this party, all of our guests.”

It wouldn't have been uncommon at that time to say, “Well, she's of marrying age, he's not here, I'm giving her to another man.”

And that's exactly what happened.

PAUSE

But let me remind you all….

God was sovereign the whole time.

God knew Samson would fall in love with this girl.

God knew the love would not last.

It is amazing to me how we keep seeing…..That God can use such imperfect people…

A few weeks ago, we saw a guy who came from very UNGODLY parents…who ran away from home…who became a BAD adult….

Become a Godly leader….

How….

Because of the Holy Spirit’s working in his life!

Now we see a guy who had GODLY parents…who he did not listen to his parents…

God is still working through their rebellious child!!!

PAUSE

What should that tell all of us listening to this message? It should tell you this….write this down…

I am NEVER too far gone for the Holy Spirit to change me!

Repeat

I know there are people here who think God will never do anything big in your life…

I know there are people here who think that after what they have done, God will never do anything in their lives.

That is simply NOT true!!!! If you will give your life to Jesus!

If you will allow the Holy Spirit to change you!

I promise you that you will end up doing things you would NEVER imagine!!!!

BUT…

Hopefully, it's not as crazy as what Samson does next….

PAUSE

In Judges 15, Samson went into full vengeance mode…

We do not have time to read it all today, so let me summarize, and you can read it later….

At the start of Judges 15, he tied torches to 300 foxes and sent them into the Philistine area to burn everything down!

I can only imagine the chaos of 150 pairs of foxes with fire tied between them running around like crazy!!!!

Samson, for all practical purposes, burned their fields and crops.

Well, guess what the Philistines are now?

They are furious!

So, you know what they did?

They went and burned the woman who should have been Samson's and killed them.

And we'll see how Samson's emotion-driven anger cost him, as it often does so many of us….

This takes us back to last week and learning SELF-CONTROL!!!!

PAUSE

Here's the challenge, gentlemen, for many of us, anger is our negative default emotion.

For example, if someone embarrasses me, I often just don't feel embarrassed. What do I get?

I'm angry about it and I'll show them, they shouldn't do that to me!

Think about Samson…

What did Samson have to be angry about?

What did he have to be angry about?

He was the one who went and pursued the wrong woman.

He was the one who decided to marry her.

He is the one who ignored his parent's advice.

He is the one who taunted the Philistines with the riddle.

He is the only one who knows the secret.

He's the one who gave the secret away.

He's the one who left his wife at the altar to go kill the men.

He's the one who burned the villages and crops.

In other words, he's mad at the world, but the reality is most of his mess is his own fault!!!!

And that's where so many of us end up living.

We're angry at the world when in reality, we should be angry at ourselves.

Sound familiar?

Maybe you're mad because you didn't finish college.

Maybe you’re mad you accepted a job you feel is beneath you.

You're mad your spouse doesn’t meet your needs, but you know you never try and meet theirs!

You're mad at God because life is not going how you think it should….but you have never stopped asking God if you're going the way He wants you to!

The truth is that you are where you are because of your unwise decisions, and you're blaming God for them.

If that's you… own, it.

Because that's been me at so many different seasons of my life…

I have been driven by the emotion of anger rather than being led by the Spirit.

Be honest, be honest….

For so many of us it's our anger, it's our outbursts that get us into trouble.

We should be led by the Spirit; instead, we're driven by the emotion of anger.

He was emotion driven.

As we talked about earlier, he fell victim to two emotions that often take strong people down.

The first you wrote down was anger….

The second one…write this down….

We cannot allow ourselves to be filled with pride.

Repeat

Samson was filled with pride.

He was filled with pride.

He goes out, and because of the strength that GOD had given him…what does he do?

Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.

Now, can we pause for just a moment and say, "That is impressive!"

I'm serious!!!

I mean, you're talking about UFC on steroids!

But here, we see under the power of God; all credit has to go to God; Samson takes down a thousand men.

There's nothing impossible with God, and if God wants that done, in His power, it was done.

But watch who tries to take credit for this in verse 16.

After this God event, Samson says:

16 “With a donkey’s jawbone I have made donkeys of them. With a donkey’s jawbone I have killed a thousand men.”

Do you hear it church???

I made donkeys of them.

I killed them.

It was ALL me.

MY power.

My ability…

PRIDE….

What could this sound like in your life?

When you tell your boss how awesome you are.

When you tell people how successful you are.

When you care more about you than others.

When it is always, “LOOK at ME!!!!”

Pride is often born out of insecurities.

Scripture says that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Scripture says that pride comes before a fall.

But hear me….the sooner you learn this the better…

We are never the main characters of the story!

God is always the main character in the story!

When we understand that God is the main character in the story, we won't be tempted to be driven by our emotions; we want to be led by the Spirit.

PAUSE

Here's the final thought…write this down:

Let your need drive you to God.

Repeat

This is what happened to Samson.

He killed a thousand men.

He was like, “Oh no! Now I'm public enemy number one!”

And here is what he does: he lets his need now drive him to God. Verse 18:

18 Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the Lord,

Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the Lord...

Now, no longer is he full of pride, but he's humble. He says,

“You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”

Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi….

A miracle!

God, who is the main character, provides yet again…

And Samson drank, and what does the Bible say about church? ...his strength returned, and he revived.

When you return to God, your strength will return…

But it is not your strength; it's His strength!!!

When you let your needs drive you to God, He can meet your deepest needs!

And when Samson returned, God gave him water, and his strength returned, and he was revived.

And the good news is today!!!!

Even if you have been driven by your pride, anger, emotion…

If you will seek God….

If you will be led by the Spirit of God.

He will meet you….

Let me share your life application with you today….

For those of you who are new, or newer, to Family Church.

We end our messages with a Life Application.

It is simply something to help you go home and process this message with someone else.

Something to help you continue to ponder how you can apply today's message to your life.

So here is what I want you all to spend some time processing and talking with someone about.

Life Application: Our lives don’t always go as we planned. How could you look at the hardship of life to see how God might be working?

As a result of today’s message, I will _________________________.

Communion Flow #2 – March, September

Communion, or the Lord’s Supper, is when followers of Jesus takes a moment to remember what Jesus did for us.

At Family Church, we believe the Table of the Lord is open to ALL followers of Jesus.

So, we practice “open communion”, which means you do NOT have to be a member of this church or attend a special class… in order to take communion.

PAUSE

Also, if you have kids with you who have made Jesus their Lord and Savior, they too are welcome to participate if you as a parent think they are ready.

In Romans, we read about God’s goodness to us. The Apostle Paul writes this in Romans 3:

Romans 3: 23-25 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.

Paul continues his thoughts in chapter 6...

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God loves us so much, that He left His perfect heaven to provide the ONLY way for you and me to be forgiven of our sins and made right with God.

Jesus left Heaven to come to earth, and to give His life for us.

Jesus became the bridge for our sins and the substitution for our punishment.

Jesus took on our sins and He offers His righteousness to anyone who would believe.

And Jesus did this so that we can be forgiven our sins and enter His perfect heaven.

In His love and mercy, God has already established a means for you to be forgiven of your sins.

Jesus has already done the deed…

Jesus made the ONLY way for anyone to be saved from their sins.

When someone places their faith in Jesus, God performs a Divine Exchange...

In exchange for our sin, God clothes the believer in Jesus’ righteousness.

And what activates this, is faith.

Faith in Jesus.

Faith in Jesus’ perfect, sinless life,

Faith in Jesus’ willingness to die on their behalf.

And faith to invite God to forgive them of their sins and exchange Jesus’ righteousness.

PAUSE

And that is why we take communion…. to remember Jesus and what He did for us!

We believe and confess that our Savior Jesus Christ has ordained and instituted the sacrament of the Holy Supper to nourish and sustain those who are already grafted into his family, into his church...

That God gave the act of Communion as a means of grace for nourishing and strengthening disciples of Christ.

Jesus instituted Communion on the evening He was betrayed.

In Mathew 26:26-28 we read,

Mathew 26:26-28, “While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, ‘Take and eat; this is my body.’

Then He took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.’”

PAUSE

Now we are going to listen to a song and as you listen I want to encourage you to take a moment and reflect on what it means that Jesus was willing to sacrifice His body for you and shed his blood for the forgiveness of your sins….

Take a moment and thank Jesus for his sacrifice for you.

Take a moment to ask Jesus to forgive you of any hidden sin in your life.

If you have not given your life to Jesus…take a moment now and ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins and tell him you now submit your life to him…

And then after this song, I will explain how we will take communion…. together….

AFTER THE SONG ENDS…..

In the seat in front of you there is a cup the looks like this……

EXPLAIN HOW TO OPEN based on style….

Just so you all know, the bread is gluten-free…

Let’s first take and eat the bread of life and give Jesus thanks for sacrificing his body for us.

Scripture tells us then Jesus took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.’”

Drinking this cup symbolizes Jesus shedding his blood for our sins….

AND us asking Jesus to give you an increased portion of his Spirit to keep us away from sinning in the future!

Take and drink the cup in remembrance of Jesus shedding his blood for your sins.

Prayer:

Make sure to do salvation call!

Offering:

Thank you all for being here today!

If you would like to continue your worship through giving, there are offering boxes by the doors as you exit or behind me on the screens you can see other ways to give here at Family Church.

You can also place any connection cards you filled out in there.

***Each week we want to highlight a different way to give.

Week #1 –

If you did not know you can set up Family Church in your online bank bill pay.

This is a great way to make sure you give consistently, and it costs you and Family Church nothing!

Have a great week!!!