Break the Cycle: Turn Back Now!
Text: Judges 16:20
Bug Idea: Time and again, we find ourselves in the same state of brokenness. The ironic thing is that we are given opportunity after opportunity to turn back before we slide any further. The story of Samson shows us how ignoring red flags leads to trouble.
INTRO
• Isn’t it funny that our lives are quite often defined not by the great things that we do, but by the dumb choices that we make?
• We’re at the end of our series on Judges, which has driven home the idea of humanity being stuck in cycles of behavior.
• Week after week, we’ve sat here and honestly looked at how we repeat self-destructive choices over and over again.
• I wish I could just tell all of us what the simple solution to this dilemma is, but I can’t.
• I just don’t have the words to describe what we need to do to break out of our destructive behavior.
• Fortunately, and incredibly wise man does. And this morning I want to focus on his truthful and simple teaching.
• And that man’s name is Bob Newhart.
• Let’s watch a video clip…
o Wouldn’t it be great if fixing our issues was that simple?
o For all of the flowery language we use to define and summarize our problems, the answer really is just that simple: STOP IT!
o Now, we could all just agree that this makes sense, pray and call it a day, but that doesn’t seem right, so let’s talk some more.
SAMSON: STRENGTH AND STUPIDITY
• There are certain characters that transcend their medium into popular culture.
• In the book of Judges, we are given one of the most charismatic and renowned people in the entire bible: Samson.
• Samson’s name goes far beyond the biblical narrative.
• He is a symbol of strength, on par with other characters such as Hercules.
• His name evokes images of power and might.
• While the average person may not know the details of his story, the probably know the highlights: he was a big guy with long hair, and on occasion he ripped apart lions and Philistines.
• Rather than gloss over the details, let’s look at a few of them from the Bible itself:
o Samson’s story begins like the rest of the Judges:
• Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, so the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years. – Judges 13:1
o And there it is again.
o How many times will people do the same thing over and over again with the same stupid results?
o Isn’t that the definition of insanity? When the same people do the same thing but expect different results?
o So, Israel walks away from God yet again, and they find themselves in trouble. Shocking.
o So, God – ever faithful – gives them another savior: a warrior born to a barren woman.
• A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was childless, unable to give birth. 3 The angel of the Lord appeared to her and said, “You are barren and childless, but you are going to become pregnant and give birth to a son. 4 Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean. 5 You will become pregnant and have a son whose head is never to be touched by a razor because the boy is to be a Nazirite, dedicated to God from the womb. He will take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines.” – Judges 13:2-5
o If the Bible is anything, it is a book built on certain themes.
o Does this sound familiar? An angel appearing to a childless woman promising that she would miraculously give birth to a son who would play a part in God’s grand plan.
o The same story plays out several times in the Bible, with only the names changing: Samson, Samuel, John.
o Samson eventually fulfills his birthright:
• The woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He grew and the Lord blessed him, (v. 24)
o How many of you remember that one guy in high school who walked down the halls and stood a foot taller than everyone else? I’m convinced that every school had that same guy, the loud, muscular dude who just owned the entire crowd around him. In my school, his name was Deke. In Philistine controlled Israel 3400 years ago, his name was Samson.
o We don’t know much about Samson during his developmental years, but we know that he eventually developed a sense of entitlement based on his stature.
• Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine woman. 2 When he returned, he said to his father and mother, “I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife.” – Judges 14:1-2
o Guys, wouldn’t life be easier if this is how dating worked?
o “Mom, Dad – I saw an attractive woman today. I must have her! I’ll be waiting in my room.”
o Well, here we have the first example of Samson’s own destructive cycle of behavior: the guy had women problems.
o Now, in this first example, God uses Samson’s weakness to His own end.
o He positions this woman in Samson’s life so that the Philistines will become aware of what Samson represents.
o After his marriage, Samson goes on to kill thirty of their men and gives away their possessions as an example of his might.
o He leaves this Philistine wife, and returns home, but the legend of Samson begins to grow.
o The story continues with the Philistines retaliating, and Samson uses his strength to slay 1000 Philistine men with the jawbone of a donkey.
o I’m sorry, but there are some really cool stories in the Bible, and that is one of them.
o I guess that’s just my testosterone speaking.
o As cool as those details are, the story of Samson returns to his failures, despite his victories.
• One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her. The people of Gaza were told, “Samson is here!” So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They made no move during the night, saying, “At dawn we’ll kill him.” – Judges 16:1-2
o Where do I begin with this one?
o Not only is this the leader of Israel, but he is a man with a destiny from God.
o Still, as a man, he had his weaknesses.
o So, again, Samson finds himself in the arms of the wrong woman.
o And it puts his life in danger.
o When the crowd comes to kill him, he does what every man would do – he rips the gate off of the city wall and carries it on his shoulders away while the mob looks on in fear.
o Now, surely he’s learned his lesson about women and his problem with them, right?
o Let’s go to verse 4:
• Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, “See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.” So Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued.” – (v.4-6)
o What’s the saying? “Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times – then I’m an idiot.”
o Yet again, Samson has associated himself with the wrong woman.
o So, what happens this time?
• Three times, Delilah manipulates him into revealing the secret of his strength, until finally Samson breaks, which lead us to 16:17:
• So he told her everything. “No razor has ever been used on my head,” he said, “because I have been a Nazirite dedicated to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man.” When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines, “Come back once more; he has told me everything.” So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands. After putting him to sleep on her lap, she called for someone to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him. And his strength left him. Then she called, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” He awoke from his sleep and thought, “I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him. – Judges 16:17-20
• Do you know that our sin hinders God’s work in our lives?
• It doesn’t matter if you are the muscle man of Hebrew legend, or the quiet mailman in a sunny neighborhood – your sin will undo all that God works inside of you.
• Each of you has a glorious purpose ordained by God in heaven.
• You are no different than this hero of the Old Testament.
• Yet, you are just as likely of falling into the web of lies that Samson did, leaving you powerless, broken and defeated.
o Samson’s story could end right here, but like every great tale, it has a moment of redemption that gives us hope.
• Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding grain in the prison. But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved. (v. 21-22)
• Blind, weak, humbled – Samson had nothing left.
• The hype of his legend was gone, and his strength was a memory.
• His pride undid him, and left him with nothing,
• But, when all seemed lost, and everything was taken away, a small flicker of hope twinkled in the darkness.
• HIS HAIR STARTED TO GROW AGAIN.
• His hair. Those flowing locks that symbolized a promise from God.
• Even after every one of them had been shaved off, they grew back, resilient in the face of oppression.
o God’s promises never fail.
o No matter how hard we try to strip them of truth, His promises cut through sin and stay faithful.
THE BIG FINISH
• I want you to have hope this morning.
• Maybe the foolish example of Samson hits home for you.
• Maybe you are a repeat offender of stupidity today.
• Sure, maybe your trouble isn’t caused by women, but it stems from your habit of gossiping. Or making foolish investments. Or from being lazy and unmotivated.
• Or maybe we can all take a moment and agree that the one thing we truly have in common with Samson is our pride.
• Isn’t that what’s at the root of this story? A false belief that we can somehow avoid consequence for our foolish pride. We just as susceptible of believing our own hype.
• So what do we do?
o TURN BACK NOW!
o When the next temptation comes along that will lead us down a familiar path – STOP.
o Turn and walk away.
o You don’t have to repeat this step in the cycle.
o Do you know what the effective prayer of an addict is?
• It’s not, “Lord help me to stop using.”
• Its “Lord, help me to make it through the next five minutes.”
o The temptation will always be there.
o Recovery doesn’t mean that the trigger that sends us spiraling downward doesn’t just magically disappear.
o It means that we learn to finds the strength to say “no” over and over and over again every time we face our downfall.
• We can do it. We can turn back.
o God will never leave us.
o Even when his eyes were gouged out and he was humiliated, Samson found out that God was still there.
o In one final, culminating act, he pushed through the foolishness of his life and used the strength of God to accomplish something that left a legacy we still talk about today.
• You don’t have to reach that point to feel the strength of God.
o Turn back now – run into His arms and find the strength to say no.
o Break free from the cycle of your life and turn back to God. Let’s pray.
