Temptation In Your Sights
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Introduction
Introduction
Deer hunting…the struggle.
Picture from this year.
Not as big as I’d normally take...
Saw several bucks that morning.
Then this guy starts walking slowly by my deer stand.
Check him out through my scope...
The longer I look, the bigger he gets.
What if I don’t make it out again, what if this is the biggest buck I see, what if…, what if...
At one point I even set my rifle back in the corner intending to let it go…but then I thought I’d take one more glance at it.
That last glance, as it was slowly moseying its way towards some trees, was what finally convinced me to pull the trigger.
The longer I looked at it, the more justifications I created to take it and the harder it became to turn it down.
Isn’t that how temptation works?
The longer we look at something, the more we attempt to justify it and the harder it becomes to turn away from it.
Temptations observed grow.
The life of Samson...
A reminder about the book of Judges. A descending spiral. The further you get in the book, the further the nation gets from God. And Samuel is pretty deep into the book.
A special birth and a life set apart - Judges 13. The Nazarite vow involved being completely abstinent from alcohol, not to cut the hair, and to touch nothing unclean such as a dead body. This vow indicated that a person was set apart for some special purpose. Typically it was for a certain period of time, but in the case of Samson it was going to be a lifelong commitment. God had a special plan for Samson.
We remember his early exploits - his marriage, his riddle concerning the carcass of the lion and the honeycomb, hid battle against the Philistines and how he burned their fields and battled them with only a jawbone as a weapon.
Leads to the event he’s typically remembered for: his relationship with Delilah.
Judges 16:4 is where we start. “After this...” Samson had again followed wherever his eyes had led him and into a position where the Philistines thought they could ambush him…but he ripped out the gates of the city and walked away from them.
“He loved...” To breathe heavily and to be excited - Arabic. All he could think about was Delilah!
Philistines approached her, she was probably a Philistine herself and offered her 1,100 pieces of silver. $22.75/oz = $50, 960.
v. 6…Delilah is a little obvious here, not even trying to be sneaky! And why did Samson continue this conversation? Why would he even stay with Delilah?
Judges 14:3 (ESV)
But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.”
Samson followed his eyes. He locked his eyes onto that temptation.
First attempt vv. 7-9 / seven fresh bowstrings. Seven locks of his head.
Second attempt vv. 10-12 / How is there a “then”?
This is where he should have taken the exit from a relationship with her! Instead of keeping this destructive relationship going.
Is there a then in your life?
Something that you know you should part ways with, an influence, a relationship, a temptation. Things that you know you should part ways from?
Third attempt vv. 13-14 / Now Samson is talking about his hair. Getting closer. His pride was building because he had yet faced consequences.
Don’t confuse a lack of consequences with a lack of sin.
Fourth attempt vv. 15-17 / The emotional manipulation. Two broken people in a relationship together. This manipulation went on for days!
16 And when she pressed him hard with her words day after day, and urged him, his soul was vexed to death.
Again, we need to wonder why in the world did he stay in this relationship.
As he continued to snuggle up with temptation, it eventually led to his destruction. Why Scripture emphasizes to
Flee from temptation.
18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.
22 So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
14 Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.
There is a danger as we live in the presence of temptation...
Continued exposure to temptation causes acclimation to disobedience.
Boiling a frog…now, not sure why you’d want to…But, the idiom in our culture! Put them in hot water and they’ll jump out, but put them in cold water and warm the water slowly and they will sit and be boiled.
Samson was sitting in the warming water of temptation until he was boiled.
When Samson fell asleep, Delilah brought in a barber…the smoothest barber ever. Shaved off his seven locks from his head. She wakes him up. Torment - to oppress or assault. And his strength had left him, but he had no idea.
And Samson, assuming he is going to be victorious, as he has been in the past, jumps up and thinks he is going to be strong enough on his own. And he fails miserably.
What he thought he had been doing in his own strength was from God. He didn’t even recognize that God was no longer with him.
Do you recognize when you walk with or without God?
Gouged eyes out and imprisoned him.
V. 21 would be the worst ending to a story, but there is a v. 22.
In spite of Samson’s rebellion and rejection of God’s plan for his life, God still offers hope.
This is the Gospel.
Regardless of your past...
God offers you hope.
This is the power of the Gospel. Regardless of how good or how bad you’ve been, God offers forgiveness by the power of the resurrection of Jesus.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Temptation, left unchecked, will bring about destruction.
Samson was looking to fill an emptiness in himself and so he would fill himself with things.
Samson went through a cycle of emptying himself of the things of God and filled himself with the things of the world. What many people do and then experience a continual emptiness regardless of how much they try to fill themselves with.
Scripture calls us to fill ourselves with the things of God.
11 I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
Scripture, but more than that...
8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Make the effort to clear out the junk and then
Be intentional to fill your life with the things of God.