Empowered But No Self-Control Series

Samson was the strongest man alive, yet something went wrong along the way that has changed his life's direction.

The four D's of Samson's downfall - His Desire, His Disrespect, His Disobedience and His Deception.

First, he was overwhelmed by his desire for the woman.

When he went to Timnah, he could not think of anything else but the woman.

Then, when he returned home, his first request to his parents is to get her for him.

His mind was already focused in marrying her in spite of the fact that he did not really know her.

He insisted that she was the best woman for him.

His parents resisted and advised Samson to get a woman from among Israel, yet he refused.

He disrespected his parents and pursued his fleshly desire.

It was part of the downward pull.

His parents could not do anything but to give consent to Samson's request with a heavy heart.

As they were on their way to the place of the woman to arrange the wedding, Samson met a lion and killed it with his bare hands.

The Lion was a sign from God to prevent him from pursuing his desires yet he ignored God's warning.

On their second trip to the woman, Samson goes to look at the carcass of the lion he killed and lo, and behold, he saw a bee hive in the lion's carcass.

There was honey in it and he immediately scooped some of it with his bare hands and ate.

He thereupon gave some honey to his parents without telling them where he took it.

It was a sign of disobedience to God.

God commanded that he should not touch dead objects for these are unclean before God but again he did not take heed.

And finally, we learned that when he gave the honey to his parents to eat, it was a form of deception - hiding the truth.

Those were the four D's we learned about Samson's in our previous message.

Samson was a man who was gifted with supernatural strength but has not much with regards to his moral character.

He was greatly empowered by God but he was not able to control his desires.

It was unfortunate for a man who was raised with a purpose to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines.

The apostle Paul put it this way.

1 Corinthians 9:26-27 (NIV) “26 Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. 27 No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize."

Samson was like running the race without an aim or a goal in hand.

He was like also a boxer hitting nothing but air.

If one thing we need to avoid is to be disqualified for the prize.

We must therefore do something significant with our lives.

And so, we must run the race of life by focusing on the goal.

We must not waste our punches and box in the air hitting nothing.

That great boxer, Manny Pacquiao when he strikes a punch, it was usually fast, with so much energy in it directly hitting his opponent to the head or to the body.

It was said that his punch speed is 0.12 seconds.

Compared this to blinking an eye that takes 0.3 seconds.

The force of his power punches is about 806 lbs (equivalent to getting hit by a shotgun blast.)

Such a bone-jarring blow has enough force to cause a concussion, fractured bones, internal bleeding, detached retina--you get the picture. By comparison, Olympic boxers typically punch anywhere between 450 lbs to 1,000 lbs of force, and at a minimum, elite boxers can punch with 750 lbs. of force but Manny Pacquiao, 806 lbs. Wow! That is a supernatural gift from God!

No wonder, he has been winning in almost every boxing fights he enters.

Likewise, God wants us to run the race of life with a purpose in mind.

He wants us to strike a blow to sin with a powerful force and make our body obedient to Christ so that at the end, we will not be disqualified.

Every single step we take should bring us closer to the fulfillment of God's plan for our lives.

If only Samson knew this principle and apply this in life, his legacy would have been different indeed.

But all these have been written for us so that we can learn our lessons from his mistakes.

In our study for today, we will look at Samson's wedding, at his riddle and at his uncontrolled wrath.

He was empowered by God but has no self-control.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE LIFE OF SAMSON.