Small Steps Toward Big Destruction
Samson Week 3
We are in the middle of a 4-week series called Samson.
In case you missed last week, let me give you a quick review.
At this time in history,
Israel had been conquered by and were being oppressed by
the Philistines,
and Samson was called by God
to free God’s people.
God gave Samson supernatural strength
in order to do what God called him to do,
and God just asked Samson to obey 3 Nazirite vows,
to not cut his hair,
touch dead things,
or drink alcohol,
as a way of showing that Samson was set apart
to be used by God.
Unfortunately we saw that,
just like many of us who have so much potential,
Samson again and again made bad decisions.
The first week, we looked at
3 attitudes that make strong men weak.
The first attitude is lust; 'I want it',
as he pursued a Philistine woman,
something he was forbidden to do.
The second attitude is entitlement; 'I deserve it',
as he went and touched something dead,
so he broke one of his Nazirite vows.
The third problem we see is pride;
as he throws a drinking party,
and breaks the second of his 3 Nazirite vows,
because he says, 'I can handle it,
I want it, I deserve it and I can handle it!'
those are 3 attitudes that our spiritual enemy, Satan,
loves to use, to make strong men weak.
The good news is though;
we serve a God
who loves to make weak men strong.
Now, last week we talked about
another weakness of Samson.
He was emotion driven, not Spirit led.
We watched him give in to two common emotions
that hurt men so often;
the emotions of anger and of pride.
But at the end of last week, we watched as Samson,
after defeating 1,000 men in battle,
kind of came to himself in the middle of a desert
and realized, 'I'm in big trouble.
I am going to die of thirst out here in the desert.'
And we learned the principle that
when you allow your deepest need to drive you to God,
God will meet your deepest need.
Today, as we pick up the story,
Samson’s in the desert, dying of thirst
he cries out to God.
Then God does a miracle,
and provides water for him,
Judges 15:19
Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived. So the spring was called En Hakkore, [which means, the spring of the one who cried out] and it is still there in Lehi.
20 Samson led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.
If you're not careful,
you can read just right past verse 20,
but that is actually an amazing verse.
because in one verse
it captures 20 years of apparent faithfulness.
20 years is a long time.
I’ve been a pastor here only 18 years,
but that seems like a really long time.
Samson humbled himself,
and cried out to God for help,
he was revived and refreshed
and all of a sudden now,
he's on the right track,
and he stays on the right track for 20 years,
doing what he was created to do.
We're going to watch though,
as tragically, this guy who is doing things well,
honoring God, serving Him,
as many of you may be doing right now.
we're going to see this guy
with so much God-given potential
after 20 years of faithfulness,
he makes some terrible decisions
that destroy his life,
and destroy all that he worked for,
In fact, by the end of the story today,
He’ll be a blind slave,
with his eyes gouged out,
his hands shackled;
and he's the laughing stock of his enemies, the Philistines.
And it raises the question,
How could a man with so much strength,
with so much God-given potential,
mess up his life so badly?
And the answer --- is our key thought for the day:
Samson didn't ruin his life all at once.
He ruined it one step at a time.
And the interesting part is,
that’s exactly the same way
many of us have, or will mess up our lives,
one step at a time.
Most people don't do it all at once.
How do we do it?
we mess up our lives one step at a time.
Lets continue our story…
Judges 16:1
One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute.
Whooooo! Wait a second!
We just read that he served God faithfully 20 years
and then it says,
One day, he does what?
goes to Gaza, and gets a prostitute?
One day – he just went the wrong direction.
Have you ever read the story in the bible about King David,
when he made the biggest mistake of his life,
he went and had the affair with Bathsheba,
Did you know that his story starts out
the very same way?
It says in 2 Samuel 11:2 GNT
One day, late in the afternoon, David got up from his nap and went to the palace roof. As he walked around up there, he saw a woman taking a bath in her house.
One day, he saw Bathsheba and he was like,
'Whoa! Check that out!'
and he went the wrong direction.
David had been a godly leader for years and years,
But, one day,
After years and years of faithfulness… just happened.
That’s how people destroy their life,
and blow 20 years a faithfulness.
Just takes one day.
You get up one day,
take a step in the wrong direction,
make a bad decision
it leads you into a step-by-step downward spiral,
and you ruin your life.
One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her. The people of Gaza [These are the Philistines]
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."
Now, what's the significance of this? MAP
Gaza was one of the five capital cities of the Philistines.
Not only that,
it was the farthest one from Israel,
Zorah (Samsons home) to Gath is 25 miles.
So, idiot Samson,
goes 25 miles,
deep into the heart of Philistine territory,
as far as he can go from home,
to get a prostitute.
Why did he go all the way to Gaza.
He could have gone to Ekron or Gath, a lot closer.
Maybe he wanted to hide the fact he was going to get a prostitute.
Maybe he was hoping nobody would find out.
If that’s what he was hoping, it didn’t work,
because here we are talking about it 3000 years later.
It didn’t stay hidden long.
But he travels 25 miles
to go and risk 20 years of faithfulness.
That raises the question:
Who would be so stupid
to risk so much for so little?
And the answer is,
A lot of us are,
because people do this every single day, don't they?
You can hardly read a newspaper
without seeing a story of some successful person,
Business leader, politician, religious leader, school teacher,
somebody who’s successful
with a great life,
good marriage, good family,
good integrity, good career.
they have all of these good things
and they'll risk it all, for a quick experience.
a quick high,
or a quick sexual hit.
Who would risk so much
for something so little?
The problem is,
people like you and I do it all of the time.
I did some thinking about this…
I asked myself,
how many steps would a person have to take
to walk 25 miles, like Samson did?
Did a little research
and I found that, to walk 25 miles to Gaza,
Samson would have taken about 56,000 steps.
it would take 56,000 of these.
How do people ruin their lives?
Not all at once,
but they do it one of these at a time.
When you think about it,
you realize that Samson also had 56,000 opportunities to say,
"This is stupid!
What was I thinking?"
I need to turn around.
He had 56,000 opportunities to say that,
but he didn't do it!
Did you know that,
most people don't make plans
to mess up their lives?
In fact,
I don't know a single person who ever said,
"You know what?
My ten year plan is to be an alcoholic.
Or, you know, if I really work hard at it,
and stay disciplined,
my goal is to become a sex addict,
with an addiction to pornography.
If I just follow my plan.
No, I don't know anybody that plans for that,
but you go there step by step by step,
And then one day,
you find yourself in a very bad place.
I don't know anybody who says,
"You know what?
My life goal is to rack up so much debt,
that I live the rest of my life,
wondering if I can pay the bills at the end of the month,
and if I really work hard on my plan,
maybe I can even declare bankruptcy.
No. Nobody plans for that.
But what happens?
Somebody says,
I really need a new car, golf clubs, computer!
Maybe if I go to the boat,
I can gamble my way out of debt.
There’s all kinds of steps we can take…
And step by step by step,
you work your way into big, big trouble.
I don't know a single person who’s ever said,
"You know, I have such a good marriage
and great kids that love me
and things are going well,
I think I'll blow it all with an affair!"
In fact, "I was just walking along there day
and like, there was this bed with this woman
and I just fell into it!
I don't know how it happened!"
No, that doesn’t happen does it?
The way you ruin your life,
is not all at once,
but one step at a time.
So lets look at three small steps Samson took,
that destroyed his life.
The first thing we see:
Samson taunted his enemy.
He's shacking up with this user-friendly girl:
...in the middle of the night.
The Philistines are making plans to kill him in the morning.
In Verse 3:
But Samson lay there only until the middle of the night. Then he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He lifted them to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.
So he goes under the cover of the night,
out to their gates
and he takes the doors and he rips them off the hinges.
Now, these were not hollow-core doors.
One commentary I read said they'd weigh from 700 pounds.
He rips them off
and basically he's mocking the Philistines.
because the gates of the city symbolized their security.
He’s saying to them,
I can go get a prostitute right in your capital city,
and you can’t do anything about it.
Na, na na na na.
He taunts the enemy.
It was one small step toward his destruction.
In fact, before the end of our story,
Samson will be back in Gaza again,
but the next time,
he’ll go there as a slave, in chains, to die.
Many people forget
that we have a very real spiritual enemy
whose mission is to destroy you and me.
Scripture says:
Our enemy roars around like a lion seeking someone to devour.
He wants to devour us.
You need to understand, that Satan
doesn't want to just hurt you or frighten you,
he wants to destroy and devour you.
Now, by the way,
what general family does the lion come from?
They come from the cat family!
Just saying...cat, Satan, lion;
you see the connections?
I’m joking…
Cats aren’t really from Satan. They just act like it.
Cat toy…
Samson taunted the enemy.
Now, you’re asking,
what does that have to do with you and me today??
We taunt and underestimate our enemy
when we put ourselves in places of temptation
over and over again.
Maybe some of you singles have decided,
you want to honor God
by staying sexually pure till marriage,
but then you have a girlfriend or boyfriend,
and you're like,
"Hey, stay the night!"
You're taunting the enemy,
putting yourself in a stupid place.
Maybe you’re married,
on a business trip without your wife or husband,
and everybody else is going out for drinks afterward.
You're like, "Hey, I can handle this, it's no big deal!"
And so, you go to the bar and have several drinks,
You're putting yourself in a place of temptation,
taunting the enemy.
Or financially you're strapped.
but you're like, "Hey, let's just go walk around the car lot!"
We’re just gonna look,
we’re not gonna buy.
You're taunting the enemy.
You see, a lot of us think we're fine,
we can handle it,
we think we're standing firm.
1 Cor 10:12
So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!
In other words,
It’s when you think you’re standing firm,
when you think you can handle it,
that’s when the enemy loves to sneak in and attack.
You think you are standing firm? Be careful.
Samson taunted the enemy.
The second thing he did is:
2. He rationalized the same old sin.
Remember the first week of this series?
The very first sin we see Samson commit,
is when he went after a Philistine woman.
God says, she’s off-limits,
because she worships idols.
Samson says, I don’t care.
20 years later, we see him get a Philistine prostitute.
Then in Verse four it says:
Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah.
Another Philistine woman.
The way it happened is,
he was dedicating a love song on the radio,
and he got talking to Delilah,
next thing you know, they hooked up.
Some of you are going,
Ken, "What are you talking about?"
If you can’t figure it out,
go home and google Delilah.
But anyway, this is the third time
Samson's messing around with a Philistine woman.
They say, third times a charm,
but in this case, its 3 strikes and you’re out.
Why did Samson keep going back to the same sin,
and eventually let it ruin his life?
Simple.
Because that’s what people do.
Almost all of us have done that before,
and most of us are still rationalizing some sin in our life.
That’s just what people do.
For a lot of us it's like,
"Hey, this is just my one thing.
I mean, I'm a pretty good person;
except for this one thing, my one thing!"
Or hey, "It's nobody's business anyway.
It isn't hurting anybody.
If nobody knows, what's the big deal?
I'm only looking!
If she'd do a little more I wouldn't have to...
If he wasn’t like this, I wouldn’t do that.
People are the masters
at rationalizing the same old sin,
and that's what Samson does.
Verse 5-6
The rulers of the Philistines went to Delilah and said, "See if you can lure Samson 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."
Samson responds with a lie.
He says:
'If you get seven bowstrings...'
Actually, my version says 7 thongs,
but whenever I think of thongs I think of shoes,
or something else.
and since my bible footnote says
its actually referring to bowstrings,
I'm going with bowstrings, not thongs.
So Samson says,
tie me up with 7 bowstrings and I’ll lose my strength.
And so he goes to sleep
and they tie him up with these seven bowstrings.
And then Delilah says:
'Samson, the Philistines are upon you!'
And he snaps the bowstrings like they’re silly putty,
and so then she's like,
'Oh, you lied to me.
Tell me what it really is!'
So then he says,
Well, the secret is actually brand new ropes!
Tie me up with brand new ropes
then I'll be as weak as any other man.'
He goes to sleep and they tie him up.
She says, 'Samson, the Philistines...'
And he snaps the new ropes,
and she's like, 'You lied to me again!
Tell me the real thing!'
He says, 'Okay, it's my hair.'
Notice he's getting close to telling the truth
but not quite.
He says, 'If you take my hair braids
and weave them into fabric
Then I'll be as weak as any man.'
And so they do that.
And she says, 'Samson, they're on you!'
And he jumps up, he’s still strong,
and now she’s really upset.
Verse 15:
Then she said to him, "How can you say, 'I love you,' when you won't confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven't told me the secret of your great strength." With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was tired to death.
Men, here's what I want you to see;
Samson was strong enough to kill a thousand men,
he was strong enough to kill a lion bare-handed,
he was strong enough to lift a 700-pound door above his head,
but he wasn't strong enough to lead a woman.
Instead, he’s letting her lead him
down the path to destruction.
He’s letting her destroy his legacy.
He led Israel faithfully for 20 years,
but what is he gonna be remembered for?
His downfall with Delilah.
Men, it is not okay,
to just be strong in business.
or just be strong in your hobbies
or physical strength or in your sport;
you need to be strong at leading those around you
into righteousness.
If you’re married,
that means primarily your wife and family.
A lot of men are strong in a lot of ways,
but then you let other people lead
when it comes to spiritual things,
and when it comes to making godly decisions
for your family.
That is not okay.
That’s not honoring to God.
Its time to man up,
and lead where it really matters.
Watch what happens in verse 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."'
Remember his Nazirite vows;
don't get drunk,
don't touch anything dead,
don't get your hair cut.
We saw a couple weeks ago,
he’s already broken two of these 3 vows,
but he hasn’t broken the 3rd.
And notice he says,
dedicated to God from my mother's womb
It sounds like he's remembering for a moment
who he was created to be.
He’s about to destroy his life,
but he remembers for just a moment,
I was created for more than this.
God made me for a good purpose.
I would say very respectfully,
that there are some of us here today,
and you've forgotten who you were created to be.
That God didn't just put you on this earth
to take up space
or just to go be semi-successful in a job.
God put you here to use
the gifts, the passion, the skills that He's given you
to glorify Him
and to make a difference in this world.
You need to remember,
"You were made for more than this!"
God has things he wants you to do,
he wants you to make a difference in this world,
and be a blessing to people,
not just fritter away your life.
Unfortunately, Samson forgot about that…
Verse 19, it says:
Having put 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 then what happened?
Lets say this together out loud.
And his strength left him.
And his strength left him.
I wonder how many of us,
that would be true about.
God’s strength has left you.
I wonder how many of us,
as a result of disobedience to God,
or just simply not making time for God,
we’re trying to get along each day
on our own strength.
God's strength has left us,
and we’re weak.
God’s strength left Samson.
Why?
He didn't mess up his life up all at once,
he did it one step at a time.
One broken vow at a time,
one disobedience at a time
one rationalized sin at a time.
Step by step,
He taunted the enemy,
he rationalized his sin, and:
3. Samson Assumed His Disobedience Would Never Cost Him.
Just like so many of us today…
We assume,
"Hey, I can get away with this again,
I've gotten away with it before,
why not again?
Samson assumed his disobedience would never cost him.
Verse 20:
Then Delilah called, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" He awoke from his sleep and he thought: "I'll go out as before and shake myself free."
I've done this 3 times already,
I'll do it again.
I got myself free before,
it didn’t cost me then.
I’ll be fine.
...But he didn't know that the Lord had left him.
What a sad statement.
he didn't know that the Lord had left him.
Can I say humbly,
there may come a time for some of you here,
when you've gotten away with it once
and you've gotten away with it again.
And nobody’s found out
nobody’s held you accountable,
and you think, just like Samson did,
I got away with it before,
it’ll be just the same this time,
I’ll be fine,
I’ll be okay,
nothing to worry about.
Numbers 32 tells us:
You may be sure that your sin will find you out.
There’s not a whole lot in life you can be sure about,
but the bible says there is one thing,
you can be sure that your sin will find you out.
Eventually it will happen.
Samson didn't realize
that his sin would find him out,
that it would overtake him,
overpower him,
and overcome him;
He didn’t realize that it would destroy his life.
Satan prowls about like a roaring lion,
and this time the lion got Samson.
He didn't realize that the Lord had left him.
Verse 21, Its painful to even read this:
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.
They took him to Gaza,
the same place he went before to get a prostitute,
the same place he taunted the enemy,
by ripping off their city gate.
56,000 steps to Gaza,
only this time he can’t see his steps,
because he’s blind,
and he’s dragging chains with every step.
How did a man with so much God-given potential
end up in such misery?
He didn't do it all at once.
How did he do it?
One step at a time.
For some of you here this morning,
this may be the moment of truth right now,
I want to ask you a question,
and I ask you to be really honest with yourself:
Where are you stepping away from God?
Where are you taking steps away from God?
It could be step number 1 for some of you,
or it might be step number 55,999
and its almost over for you.
Where are you stepping away from God?
I believe that if you open your mind to God right now,
he’ll show you the area in your life
where you’re stepping away from him.
Now, I want to summarize the whole message
in 2 words.
If you are stepping away from God
in any way;
whether its step number one,
or step number 55,999,
if you're stepping away from God in any way,
what should you do?
here's the message in 2 words.
Are you ready?
What should you do? Turn around!
turn around, go the other way!
It's not complicated,
its very simple!
And here's the deal,
when you turn around,
who’ll be right there waiting for you?
God will be right there waiting for you,
He is constantly with us,
and waiting for us simply to turn around,
and then he will bless every step we take,
in the right direction.
I want to look at one more verse in this story today.
And this verse is an amazing picture of God’s grace.
God’s forgiveness.
Now, help me out, here.
what was the outward symbol
of Samson’s inward devotion to God?
It was his hair.
His long hair proclaimed that he was a Nazirite,
dedicated to God.
But his hair had just been shaved,
now he’s bald.
He's publicly shamed,
His lack of hair tells everyone around,
'I’ve disobeyed God!'
But Samson’s story is not yet over.
Despite all Samson’s sin and unfaithfulness,
God hasn’t given up on him.
God still loves him,
just as much as God loves you and me.
So this chapter of the bible has one more verse.
Verse 22 says this:
But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.
Why is that verse there?
Because of God's grace.
It is never too late to get another chance from God.
Your sin will find you out,
you’ll pay the consequences,
it may mean huge pain in your life,
but yet God will never give up on you.
He will always give you another chance to turn to him,
and get your strength back.
Samson’s hair began to grow again.
And next week, we’re going to see that
just because a man is down
does not mean he’s out.
Satan loves to make strong men weak,
but our God loves to make weak men strong.
Lets stand for prayer
Father, I pray that your Spirit would speak to each of us here today, and that our hearts would be open to what you would say to us.
For those of us who would just say honestly, "I've stepped away in some area and today God, I'm turning back!" God, I thank you for your grace that whether we're on step one or step five thousand, that you never give up on us, we have got the opportunity to stop and turn back to you. God, please give us the courage to do what your Word says; to confess our sins to you and to one another, because we know that when we turn around, confess our sins, and pray for each other, we can be healed.
If you’re not sure of your relationship with Jesus Christ…
Pray with me…
Jesus save me, make me new. I give my life to you today. Jesus forgive me, be the Savior of my life, be the Lord of my life. I believe you died for me so I could live for you. Fill me with your Spirit so I can serve you for the rest of my life.
In Jesus' name I pray.
