How To Handle Victory (Judges [14]1-14)
How To Handle Victory
Text: Judges 14:1-14
Place Preached - (Mississauga International Baptist Church)
Date Preached - (03/24/02)
Introduction:
Last week we studied how a person may avoid wasting their life.
How can we make the most of the opportunities God gives us?
One of the best examples of this subject -- unfortunately from the negative perspective, is the man Samson.
By contrast we saw that a person who doesn't waste their life...
1). Realizes the Seriousness of the Times
2). Benefits from the spiritual influence of those God has placed in their life.
3). Pays attention to the work of the Holy Spirit in their life.
We could also say that person who will not waste their life learns how to make wise decisions.
Just like Samson didn't do when he chose his first wife. (vs.1-4)
Samson went to the wrong place - he gave in to the lust of his eyes & - he didn't listen to the spiritual counsel of others.
He made a terrible decision---which led to the waste of the gifts and abilities and opportunities the Lord had given.
Can I ask you this tonight -- what kind of decisions have you made this week?
Now tonight, we're going to push ahead in this passage and see that…..
A believer must also learn how to handle victory.
Often a person's weaknesses are revealed, not just when things are going badly, but when they are going well.
ILLUS: It’s surprising how many people fall into sin at a time when things in their ministry are going well.
When they are at the "peak of their ministry career" so to speak.
There are some biblical parallels to that.
1) One is right here in Judges 14 in Samson's life.
We're going to see that God gives Samson a great victory. But he handled it in exactly the opposite way of what the Lord would have desired.
2) Another example is the life of David
The Lord gave him tremendous military victories - Israel's kingdom was growing and growing and growing.
But in that context of victory---when David should have continue to press on and should have continued to work for God.
He sent the armies out with Joab -- and he stayed home.
It was that context in which things were going well that David sinned with Bathsheba.
These concepts should grab our spiritual attention.
There's a lot of victory around here. - God has blessed many in the auditorium tonight in tremendous ways.
I'm not saying that anyone here has a problem-free life -- thats not the point.
God has blessed most of us with many good things. He has given us victory in many areas.
Now, I realize that many of us might question the validity of that point.
The fact that any of us here tonight might question whether God has given us a measure of victory--or whether God has really been good - in and of itself illustrates how important it is to study the passage.
Part of Samson's problem was that He didn't recognize God had blessed him.
The truth of the matter is --- God has given each one of us a measure of goodness - a measure of blessing - a measure of victory.
Tonight, we'll all drive home in cars / sleep in warm beds / we’ll have full stomachs.
Many in the auditorium tonight have achieved some real successes at work.
Some are highly effective in God's service. You've grown and matured.
God has blessed and given victory, in one way or another, to every person in the auditorium.
We must recognize that and respond to it properly.
With that in mind -- let's look at Judges 14:5-14
We’ll find "Three things that should result when a believer has experienced victory--and (of course) three things that didn't result in the life of Samson."
The Bible is selective -- what is here is here for a reason.
Its never the Scripture's purpose to simply tell a story, or give us every little detail.
If the Lord had done that, your Bible would be so big you'd have to carry it to church in a wheelbarrow.
So it is also true in the text before us!!
There are some applicational points that are just crying out from this text
Our goal is to find them tonight and to work hard at applying them to where we live.
You'll find there are three things that are especially highlighted: All - after Samson had this victory:
1) He forsook his Nazarite vow
2) He got proud as if he had accomplished it himself
3) He continued his wreckless life with the men of Timnath.
Those three truths are going to become the basis for our outline:-
Three things that should result when a believer has experienced victory.
I. Victory Should Make Us Holy
The lion that came roaring toward Samson was no accident.
God had a reason for allowing that lion to be in that vineyard at that time.
That’s simply recognizing the providential work of our sovereign God in the lives of His people. (Romans 8:28)
God had a reason for allowing this particular event in Samson's life.
The shock of this event should have caused Samson to stop and evaluate what he was doing and where he was going.
Shocking situations have a way of doing that, don't they?
In fact, we even have a statement we use when we're shocked, or scared -- we say, "I saw my ________"? (whole life pass before my eyes)
Have you had any situations like that recently. (PERSONAL EXAMPLES)
Those kind of situations take your breath away. / They make you stop and think. / They make you stop and evaluate some things.
What if this had been my last day on earth? / What about the course I've been taking?
Shocking events cause us to evaluate some things.
The point of all of this is -- this shock of this event -- coupled with the incredible victory God gave - should have impacted Samson.
Now the impact it should have had was to make Samson a more holy man.
That’s what he was supposed to have been all along.
This passage emphasizes that that’s exactly what he wasn't---both before and after this event.
When the angel appeared to Samson's parents he told them that Samson was to take a Nazarite vow.
The word "Nazarite" means "to separate, or consecrate"
According to Numbers 6 there are three prohibitions included in the Nazarite vow…
1) Not to drink from the fruit of the vine
2) Can't have contact with anything that is dead
3) Can't cut their hair.
Those things were to be the outward manifestation of a person who had dedicated himself to God.
That’s what separation (or holiness) always is.
It's first and foremost separation--to God. And because we're separated to God -- the logical conclusion is that we're going to be separated from something.
Samson was supposed to be a holy man, a separated man in a day when the children of Israel were terribly "un-separated"
· They were intermarrying the pagan people around them.
· They were worshipping foreign people's gods
· They were being assimilated into the culture around them
The people around Samson desperately needed to see someone who was different because they knew the God of heaven. Someone who was holy!
This passage is shouting out to us – that’s what Samson wasn't!!
After the shock of the confrontation of the lion and the thrill of the victory and blessing that only God had given....
Samson should have said -- What in the world am I doing?
1) What am I doing going down to Timnath to get a wife of the Philistines?
2) What am I doing in this vineyard?
Warren Wiersbe says - "A vineyard was a dangerous place for a person who wasn't supposed to have anything to do with grapes."
Samson should have been on his face repenting, asking God's forgiveness and recommiting himself to the vow he had made.
But you see him continuing to break that vow.
1) He took the honey out of the dead lion's carcass
2) He went to a drunken feast in verse 10. He may have violated (not for certain) the vow not to drink.
He was becoming less and less holy, and less and less separated unto God all the time.
God gave Samson a great victory
Romans 2:4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?
The victory and the blessing He gives ought to cause to be more determined to grow in personal holiness.
Believers who are growing in personal holiness aren't going to waste their time pursuing sin.
How do you respond to the goodness, and blessing, and victory the Lord has given you?
ILLUS (1): When you got that raise -- did you say, "Lord, help me to have an even better testimony for you in this position."
I'm more committed than ever before to live for you in this new job
Did victory make you holy?
ILLUS (2): What about when you moved into that new house? Did you say, Lord, help us use this home for ministry more than ever before.
HELP us be more loving to others in the way we use it - HELP us be more generous - HELP us to be more in love with you than ever because of the great blessing you've given.
Did victory make you holy?
ILLUS (3): What about when something went well in the ministry God has given you?
Someone complimented you on the way you serve... There were some great results
Did you say -- Lord, help me to keep growing so I can be even more effective in my service in the days ahead.
Did victory make you holy?
If victory doesn't make us holy, it just might make us ________.
Let’s look at a couple of other passages that stresses the importance of being separated to God and from sin.
LOOK UP & READ II Cor. 6:14-17
2 Corinthians 10:5-6 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
6 And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.
Hebrews 7:26 For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
Our Lord and Savior loved lost people, He went to where they were, He spent time with them, and He ministered to lost people
He wasn't separated from them physically - but He didn't try to become like them in order to win them.
He was separate, He was different, He was holy
Victory ought to make us holy.
· People who are growing in holiness are productive
· People who are growing in holiness use their time wisely
· People who are growing in holiness will be able to give a good account at the judgement seat of Christ.
II. Victory should also make us Humble
When you step back and look at this passage, one of the questions that jumps out at you is…
How could Samson have such a great accomplishment and still respond the way he did?
The answer is -- he wasn't observant, he didn’t recognize God’s work, he didn’t give God His rightful glory.
There's no indication anywhere in this text that Samson, even for a moment, thought about the fact that it was God who gave him the strength to do what he did in the first place.
There's no worship / No praise / No thanksgiving!!!
This was a tremendous opportunity for God to get the glory He deserves because He is the true God of heaven.
What a great opportunity to recognize what God had done and give Him the glory before all the people. But Samson didn't let victory make him Humble!
When we don't observe each day how God has blessed, how God has worked, and when we don't give him the credit and him the glory...
What often happens? We become proud.
Isn't that what you see happening all through the passage?
Why, in verse 8, do you think Samson went back by the dead lion's body?
The passage says - "to see it" (to look at it) Why? - to have a worship service? To build an altar of remembrance to God?
Of course not, he hadn't done that the first time. More than likely, he went back to gloat. He went back to fuel his pride
He went back to remind himself of the great man that he was.
I John 2:16 "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.'
That pride continued to build, didn't it?
So when he got down to the feast and told his riddle -- what was the subject? His great feat of strength.
Samson failed to see God at work. He was full of himself.
Can I ask you tonight--are you observant when things are going well?
Does victory make you humble?
Do you make it a habit of looking for what God has done?
Do you regularly stop and praise and acknowledge him?
1) So, victory should make us holy -- but it didn't in Samson because he went on to violate his vow of separation.
2) Victory should make us humble -- but it didn't in Samson because he was too busy congratulating himself.
- and lastly tonight,
III. Victory Should Make Us Careful
Samson continued his slide downward when he got together with these 30 pagan men for his bachelor party.
And instead of being ashamed of the drunken feast he was at, and instead of being ashamed of the drunken people he was treating like his good friends.
Instead of being ashamed of what he had done with the lion and the honey...
He made a joke out of it / He turned his sin into a riddle / He made the stakes so high -- 30 fine changes of clothes that the enemy had to resort to wicked tactics to learn the answer.
He wasn't a careful man. Victory didn't make him careful--it made him wreckless.
Instead of thinking "God has been so good -- I must cautiously obey Him." Samson took God's goodness for granted and became more and more wreckless.
That often happens after a person experiences victory, doesn't it?
1) God blesses a person financially
And instead of them saying-- God has blessed, I'm going to be careful about how I spend it.
They live carelessly and recklessly.
Does victory make you careful?
2) God blesses someone else with certain skills and abilities.
Does victory make you careful?
3) God blesses another with success in ministry
Does victory make you careful?
4) God blesses us with victory over sin
Does victory make you careful?
2 Corinthians 10:5-6 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
6 And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.
CONCLUSION:
Main Points…..