I. EXORDIUM:
Are you strong in the LORD?
Yes.
Ephesians 6:10 (Amplified Bible)
In conclusion, be strong in the Lord [be empowered through your union with Him]; draw your strength from Him [that strength which His boundless might provides].
II. AUDIENCE PROFILE:
Believers/unbelievers
III. OBJECTIVES:
To show that we don't need to use our own strength and our weaknesses but we leave it all up to the LORD to use His Own Strength in our lives.
IV. TEXT:
Judges 14:18 (Amplified Bible)
And the men of the city said to [Samson] on the seventh day before sundown, What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion? And he said to them, If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle.
V. THESIS:
Praise, worship, glorify, adore, bless, honor, acknowledge and thank You very much LORD JESUS for Your Grace which is all sufficient for me in my times of weaknesses made me really weak in physical strength but strong, able and powerful in divine strength.
Lamentations 1:14 (Amplified Bible)
The yoke of my transgressions is bound by His hand; they were twined together; they were set upon my neck. He has made my strength fail and [me to] stumble; the Lord has delivered me into the hands of those I am unable to resist or withstand.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (Amplified Bible)
But He said to me, My grace (My favor and loving-kindness and mercy) is enough for you [sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully]; for My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show themselves most effective in [your] weakness. Therefore, I will all the more gladly glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power of Christ (the Messiah) may rest (yes, may pitch a tent over and dwell) upon me!
So for the sake of Christ, I am well pleased and take pleasure in infirmities, insults, hardships, persecutions, perplexities and distresses; for when I am weak [in human strength], then am I [truly] strong (able, powerful in divine strength).
VI. TITLE:
Samson: sweeter than honey stronger than a lion
VII. EXPLICATION:
A. Author: unknown, tradition attributes authorship to Samuel
B. Date written: 1086 - 1035 B.C.
C. Purpose: To review Israel's history following the conquest and prior to the Monarchy.
D. To whom written: Israel
E. Main theme: History of Israel during the time of the fifteen judges.
F. Keyword: apostasy
G. Key verse: Judges 17:6 (New Living Translation, Second Edition)
In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.
VIII. MAIN BODY:
GOD never intended for us to be sweeter than honey, and stronger than a lion in our days, in this dispensation, but what GOD wanted us to be is wise as serpents, and innocent as doves.
Matthew 10:16 (Amplified Bible)
Behold, I am sending you out like sheep in the midst of wolves; be wary and wise as serpents, and be innocent (harmless, guileless, and without falsity) as doves.
Samson gave a ridde and he never knew it will cost him his life, because the riddle is himself. His enemies were able to determine how to attack him, his weak spot, and of course his weak spot is not his strength, his weak spot is his sweetness.
Judges 14:18 (Amplified Bible)
And the men of the city said to [Samson] on the seventh day before sundown, What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion? And he said to them, If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle.
Judges 14:18 (King James Version)
And the men of the city said unto him on the seventh day before the sun went down, What is sweeter than honey? and what is stronger than a lion? And he said unto them, If ye had not plowed with my heifer, ye had not found out my riddle.
A. The men of the city determined Samson's riddle thereby determining his weak and strong spot. Samson's weakness is his sweetness, his strong spot is his strength.
"And the men of the city said to [Samson] on the seventh day before sundown, What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?"
ILLUSTRATION: Remember your male friends in high school whose tongue is sweet? They're in for a surprise. What they don't know is that they're displaying their own weakness, that is their weakness their sweetness to opposite sex. Some cruel female are destined to play with his weakness.
B. Samson can marry but he must not tell his strength and weakness to his wife, or much better he can be single all his days but unbeatable.
"And he said to them, If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle."
Don't treat mere flesh as your strength or don't trust men, only trust GOD.
Jeremiah 17:5 (Amplified Bible)
Thus says the Lord: Cursed [with great evil] is the strong man who trusts in and relies on frail man, making weak [human] flesh his arm, and whose mind and heart turn aside from the Lord.
But trusting GOD alone has blessing on it already.
Jeremiah 17:7-8 (Amplified Bible)
[Most] blessed is the man who believes in, trusts in, and relies on the Lord, and whose hope and confidence the Lord is.
For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters that spreads out its roots by the river; and it shall not see and fear when heat comes; but its leaf shall be green. It shall not be anxious and full of care in the year of drought, nor shall it cease yielding fruit.
Samson trusted his soon to be married wife, and poured out his heart to her telling him the answer to the riddle, little did he know, all the men of the city (supposed to be the enemies of Israel, the Philistines) already knew his weakness. His heart deceived him.
Jeremiah 17:9-10 (Amplified Bible)
The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly perverse and corrupt and severely, mortally sick! Who can know it [perceive, understand, be acquainted with his own heart and mind]?
I the Lord search the mind, I try the heart, even to give to every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.
IX. CONCLUSION:
Praise, worship, glorify, adore, bless, honor, acknowledge and thank You very much LORD JESUS for Your Grace which is all sufficient for me in my times of weaknesses made me really weak in physical strength but strong, able and powerful in divine strength.
