"Mastered by Desire"

INTRO: Regrets // “Whopperito”

Reintroduce theme - Samson - the incomplete life. How do we live with fewer regrets? What derailed Samson?

In spite of how strong Samson was, physically, when it came to his desires, he was weak.

Samson had everything you could want - strength, potential, anointing, the calling - yet he lived an incomplete life. Why?

Rather than mastering his desire, Samson’s desire mastered him.

Judges 14:1–20 ESV

Samson went down to Timnah, and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines. Then he came up and told his father and mother, “I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. Now get her for me as my wife.” But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.” His father and mother did not know that it was from the Lord, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. At that time the Philistines ruled over Israel. Then Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah, and they came to the vineyards of Timnah. And behold, a young lion came toward him roaring. Then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done. Then he went down and talked with the woman, and she was right in Samson’s eyes. After some days he returned to take her. And he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey. He scraped it out into his hands and went on, eating as he went. And he came to his father and mother and gave some to them, and they ate. But he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey from the carcass of the lion. His father went down to the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, for so the young men used to do. As soon as the people saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him. And Samson said to them, “Let me now put a riddle to you. If you can tell me what it is, within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes, but if you cannot tell me what it is, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes.” And they said to him, “Put your riddle, that we may hear it.” And he said to them, “Out of the eater came something to eat. Out of the strong came something sweet.” And in three days they could not solve the riddle. On the fourth day they said to Samson’s wife, “Entice your husband to tell us what the riddle is, lest we burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you invited us here to impoverish us?” And Samson’s wife wept over him and said, “You only hate me; you do not love me. You have put a riddle to my people, and you have not told me what it is.” And he said to her, “Behold, I have not told my father nor my mother, and shall I tell you?” She wept before him the seven days that their feast lasted, and on the seventh day he told her, because she pressed him hard. Then she told the riddle to her people. And the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down, “What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?” And he said to them, “If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have found out my riddle.” And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon and struck down thirty men of the town and took their spoil and gave the garments to those who had told the riddle. In hot anger he went back to his father’s house. And Samson’s wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man.

Samson was controlled by his:

Lust of the Flesh

LUST OF THE EYES

PRIDE OF LIFE

What is “lust”?

“epithumia” - “epi” = upon // “thumos” = heat // “heat upon heat”//hot after

Animals in heat // Uncontrolled Desire

Lust = Uncontrolled Desire

Anything wrong with desire? NO!

Augustine

Sin comes when we take a perfectly natural desire or longing or ambition and try desperately to fulfill it without God. Not only is it sin, it is a perverse distortion of the image of the Creator in us. All these good things, and all our security, are rightly found only and completely in him.

LUST OF THE EYES (VS. 1-3)

Let’s just say - if you know Samson’s story, you know he had a weakness for and an insatiable desire for women.

The text says he “saw a daughter of the Philistines.” He was completely awestruck by her beauty. That desire to be with her sexually overcame him/consumed him. Do you see the issue, here? SHE’S A PHILISTINE!!! AN ENEMY!!!

His eyes saw, he lusted - he would do whatever it took! God forbade it…his father, Manoah, forbade it (cultural standard of father choosing bride).

Samson disobeyed God & disrespected his father? Why? He was overcome by uncontrollable desire.

Look what Samson says in vs. 3 - “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.”

Just like Eve - I’m going to provide for myself!

LUST OF THE FLESH (VS. 5-9)

Samson - going down a road he had NO BUSINESS going down chasing something he had NO BUSINESS chasing.

Vineyards - he’s a Nazarite!

He wasn’t supposed to touch anything dead - he dragged his family into sin, too!

PRIDE OF LIFE (VS. 10-18)

Samson goes down to Timnah and puts on a show - he’s arrogant, he’s prideful - he’s going to get what he can - he’s going to exploit people, he’s going to pompously use his wits and smarts to get the most out of people regardless of what he’s got to do. The riddle - “I’m smarter & craftier than you and I’ll exploit you for all you’ve got!”

{TURN}

Genesis 4:7 ESV

If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”

“Sin always takes you further than you ever wanted to go, keeps you longer than you wanted to stay, and costs you more than you wanted to pay.”

It is a heartbreaking thing when you realize that sin has mastered you…when you’re no longer in control.

Uncontrolled desire leads to unstoppable rebellion.

Samson rebelled against every authority in his life because he was so blinded by lust & desire. He didn’t care what anyone said or thought.

SAMSON CARED MORE ABOUT PLEASING HIMSELF THAN HE CARED ABOUT PLEASING GOD OR HIS PARENTS.

Proverbs 13:1 ESV

A wise son hears his father’s instruction, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke.

Proverbs 12:15 ESV

The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.

Uncontrolled desire leads to undesired results.

Proverbs 14:14 ESV

The backslider in heart will be filled with the fruit of his ways, and a good man will be filled with the fruit of his ways.

Proverbs 16:25 ESV

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.

Uncontrolled desire leads to unpredictable reactions.

Samson - anger - being mastered by sin & desire affects every one of my relationships.

Proverbs 14:29 ESV

Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly.

Proverbs 19:3 ESV

When a man’s folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the Lord.

So, how do I live in freedom? With fewer regrets?

In Jesus, I have a new life.

Romans 6:

Romans 6:6–11 ESV

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Galatians 2:20 ESV

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

In Jesus, I have a new love.

1 John 2:15 ESV

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

2 Corinthians 5:14 ESV

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;

In Jesus, I have a new Master.

Romans 6:12–14 ESV

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

John 8:36 ESV

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.