Samson - Part IV

September 22nd 2024

Series: Holy Spirit in the Old Testament

Sermon Title: Samson – Part IV

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 16

Topic: Holy Spirit, Deliverance, Samson

Sermon Blurb: In today’s message, we will see the end of Samon’s life. We will see how even though we can make terrible life choices, it is never too late for God to work through us.

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

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

Dedication, Baptism, or Ministry Highlight (1st Sunday, even months):

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!

Today, we wrap up the story of Samson, which we have been talking about for a few weeks now.

Last week, we had one of our ministry partners preaching who is helping us plant churches all over the world, and I am so thankful for them!

ADD MORE….

If you have your Bibles with you, let's turn to

Judges 16

New Person Bible Connection:

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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 catch everyone up in case you have forgotten some of what we have learned.

Or if you have missed one or more of the previous weeks.

We are looking at a guy named Samson, who the Holy Spirit has empowered in some really unique ways.

Literally, before he was born, God told his parents what he would do in life.

And Samson is like some of us who run from God's call on our life.

This was a guy who was given so much by God.

God gave him a clear call to deliver God’s people from the Philistines.

God empowered with supernatural strength to deliver God’s people from the Philistines.

Even though he was given this power and divine calling….

Like so many of us….

He messed up again and again and again.

PAUSE

Two weeks ago, we saw Samson literally walk 52,000 steps toward his own ruin.

Like so many of us…

He took one small step in the WRONG direction…

Which led to the next wrong step…

Which led to the next small wrong step.

Which led to his being captured because of his sin.

Which led to him becoming a prisoner.

Which led to God’s enemies humiliating him by taking out his eyes…

Which led to further humiliation with them shackling him and making him work like an Ox…

Every day…. He is walking in a circle like oxen…as everybody's mocking him, throwing stuff at him, calling him names, making fun of him, and so on…

Samson has hit rock bottom.

PAUSE

So, let me pose a question…

What do you do when you realize you've blown it?

Repeat

I want to encourage you all to think about that…

What do you do…when you realize…you have blown it….

PAUSE

What do you do when you retire and realize you've wasted years that God gave you?

What do you do when caught doing what you always thought you could keep hidden?

What do you do when you've hurt people that you love?

What do you do when you realize your career is imploding?

What do you do when you realize you will never be able to get the degree to do the job you always wanted to do?

PAUSE

The reality is that there are a lot of us who will one day face some significant regret.

And all of it stems from our choice not to follow the Holy Spirit's leading in our lives.

We should not follow God’s ways as we have learned in the Bible.

And as we stray from God’s way toward sin…

It will cause pain in our lives, sometimes right away…and sometimes years later….

So let me simply encourage you all…

Follow the Holy Spirit.

Learn your Bible well.

That is why we are in this series diving deep into the Holy Spirit and His work in our lives…

PAUSE

Samson's story teaches us something that we have to embrace, internalize, and live with.

It's the principle that just because you failed at something does not mean that you are a failure.

Write this down:

Just because you have failed at something does not mean you are a failure.

A failure is simply an opportunity to learn.

We're going to see in Samson's life a guy who failed repeatedly…

And when most of us would think, he has failed to spectacularly and too publicly….

God was not done with him!

You will see God will still accomplish His purpose through a man who repeatedly messed up.

I'm here to tell somebody some good news.

Just because you're down, you are not out.

If you fail at something, you are not a failure.

Let’s start reading where we left off in Judges 16, verse 23.

23 Now the rulers of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate,

saying, “Our god has delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hands.”

Now, let's pause there for a moment and unpack what we just read.

The people God created Samson to overthrow are celebrating that they have taken DOWN God’s guy!

They gathered to worship their god, who they can clearly see is stronger than our God because they had God’s man captive.

Let me describe what this would have looked like to help us understand what is coming.

Here is a picture of what it could have looked like…

There would have been a big open area.

There are layers of seating as you see around the sides of this temple.

Scholars would say there would have been thousands gathered…maybe as many as 5,000.

And they worship Dagon, who they believe was the god of the harvest.

And they're making sacrifices and praising their god.

PAUSE

Let’s keep reading….Verse 24…

24 When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying,

“Our god has delivered our enemy into our hands, the one who laid waste our land and multiplied our slain.”

Do you remember a couple of weeks ago when we studied the 150 pairs of foxes incident?

When Samson tied a torch between the tails of 150 pairs of foxes, and they ran like crazy, and they laid waste to the Philistine land…

That is what they're talking about…

and multiplied our slain.”

Do you remember the jawbone incident?

Where he took the jawbone of a donkey and killed a thousand Philistines.

That is what they are talking about.

They are excited they have taken Samson DOWN!

Verse 25:

25 While they were in high spirits, they shouted, “Bring out Samson to entertain us.”

So they called Samson out of the prison, and he performed for them.

Samson is at rock bottom.

So what will Samson do now that he realizes he has blown it?

Remember...a few weeks ago, we saw him lead Israel well for 20 years!

After 20 years of great leadership…

He made some bad choices…

And now he is all alone and at rock bottom…

What will he do???

PAUSE

Most people at rock bottom feel bad…

They are remorseful…

And this, unfortunately that is where lots of people stop.

Remorse, "I feel bad about what I did; I shouldn't have done it; I'm a bad person."

Other times, it turns outward into kind of the "I'm the victim and it's someone else's fault."

Those people always say, "This wouldn't have happened if you hadn't..."

They would say all of this is Delilah's fault!

PAUSE

There's a better response though and that is…Repentance.

Repentance means you own it.

You own your part in it.

You say, "I own this, it is my fault, I blew it."

But it's not just, "Hey, I didn't do what God entrusted me to do, I'm turning away from that which I did wrong and I'm turning toward that which is right."

It's repentance.

Remember, most of us don't ruin their lives all at once.

We do it one step at a time.

And if you're going in the wrong direction, what should you do?

You should turn around!

Turn around and head back in the RIGHT direction.

That's what repentance is.

Remorse focuses on the bad and looks back to all of the things we did wrong.

Repentance means we turn from our sinful ways and turn back to God's ways.

We get back to listening to the Holy Spirit’s leading.

It's not just, "I feel bad about this."

It IS turning completely to God to let him redeem me to his divine purposes.

PAUSE

You see, all of us are going to do some things we can't undo.

For example, ADD a BAD example from your past….

I wish I could go back and undo some of the things I did in high school

Like the time my friends and I came up with a great plan on the last day of school to up the ante…

See our school use to have shaving cream fights the last day of school and we said…

You know Nair looks like shaving cream.

But Nair removes people’s hair…

And it would be hilarious to put that in girls hair and some teachers we did not like…

And that landed me in in-school suspension after graduation!!

I WISH I could go back…but I cannot…

And you can ask me dad….we had a ROUGH talk after that…

And I had a choice…I could just feel bad…

OR I could repent and change…

And thank you Jesus…Young Adam chose to change who I was in college!!!

PAUSE

And here's the deal: there are some things you cannot undo!

Some things you cannot unsend.

Words you cannot take back.

BUT you can repent!

PAUSE

And I believe that Samson comes to some point in his life where he remembers who he was created to be.

He wasn't created to entertain God’s enemies.

He was created and set apart by God to destroy God’s enemies.

And it's my prayer that somewhere along in this series of messages…

That you will remember that you were created to honor and glorify God with your life…

That you'll remember who you were created to be.

Don't let your spiritual enemy lure you into remorse…

Stop looking back and saying, "Oh, I wish I could have… I wish I would have…

Instead, repent!

Turn away from my sin, and I'm toward God!

You cannot change your past, but you can change your future.

Just because you're down, you are not out.

Don't internalize the failure…

You are not what you did.

You are who God says you are.

And watch as Samson realizes this in verse 25:

When they stood him among the pillars...

Keep the picture in your mind.

He is in this temple.

These giant pillars support the weight of the place.

He is leaning on these columns that weigh thousands of pounds.

He is blind.

His life has imploded.

Samson, in verse 26 said to the servant who held his hand:

26 Samson said to the servant who held his hand, “Put me where I can feel the pillars that support the temple,

so that I may lean against them.”

And look at what comes next…

27 Now the temple was crowded with men and women; all the rulers of the Philistines were there,

and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson perform.

28 Then Samson prayed to the Lord, “Sovereign Lord, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more,

and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.”

He says, "Please strengthen me just once more."

He acknowledges where his source of strength comes from.

He acknowledges God has always been the source.

He acknowledges he has blown it.

I head this as him saying, “'I've blown time and time again…

I've blown it too many times to count…

But God….I don't need multiple opportunities.

God, all I need from you is one more chance.

One-time God.

One last time to do what you created me to do.

God…just find it in your mercy to give me your strength just this once more.

PAUSE

Church…

Samson has hit rock bottom.

He is broken.

And is he still a man and wants revenge…

Yes…

Look at how that last verse ends…

PAUSE

But here is what I want us all to see…

We all internalize…

And hopefully for all of us to NEVER forget…

Even in our failures, God can accomplish His purposes.

Repeat

And this is AMAZING news for so many of us!

Even in our failures…

Even when we blow it over and over.

Even when it seems like ALL hope is lost…

God can still accomplish His purposes.

Does anyone remember what was God's purpose for Samson's life?

That he would help start to deliver God's people from the hands of the Philistines.

Verse 29:

29 Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood.

Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other,

30 Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!”

Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it.

Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived.

PAUSE

Samson was gifted by God to be probably the strongest person to ever live…

He pushed these massive pillars with all of his might.

And everything came crumbling down.

He destroyed more of God's enemies in his death than in all of the years that he lived.

And if you look at what it says….

It says the RULERS were all there!

In one moment of clarity, he did what he was created to do…

PAUSE

What should this show all of us???

It should show you that even in your failures…

God can still use you….

Even though you've messed up, it's not over yet.

You are NOT what you did!

You are who GOD said who you are!

If you're not dead, you're not done!

There's more in you.

Quit living in remorse of the past!

Quit your whining!

If you are a Christian, you have the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead living inside of you.

You may be down, but you are not out.

Lies can be forgiven.

Addictions can be overcome.

Sin can be a thing of the past…

Write this down and please never forget it.

God is not finished with me yet.

Life Application: It's time to push some pillars down in your life. What pillars do you need to push down? Be specific.

What I want you to do is write it down very specifically:

What pillars do you need to push down?

What pillars are you going to go after FINALLY?

And how are you going to do it?

Some of you..

It might be the pillar of pride that is messing up your life.

It might be the pillar of anger, you know your anger is costing you dearly.

Maybe the pillar of money is the center of your life. And you realize God needs to be the center, not money.

Or your career.

Maybe it is a relationship you know you should not be in.

Maybe it is video games that consume your life.

Turn away from your sin…

Turn toward God…

And watch as the Holy Spirit guides you!!!

Prayer:

Make sure to do salvation call!

Offering:

Thank you all for being here today!

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Week #4 –

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Have a great week!!!