How To Avoid Major Mistakes
Back
To School With God Series
A Sermon
by Jim Hammond from Judges 13-16
Introduction
Some mistakes are irreversible. These can be tragic mistakes, life-changing blunders.
They set into motion a series of consequences.
They sometimes change our appetites and desires setting us on a
course of addiction and destruction.
It was a party
to end all parties. The main entertainment was a tragic comic display.
They called out a blind hulk of a man and forced him to do tricks in
front of the drunken crowd. This was not just any old slave; this was
their former enemy. His name was Samson.
In the midst
of all this, Samson did something he had done little of the rest of his
life. He prayed. In that simple prayer he asked God to let him have the
last laugh on his enemies. What brought Samson to this terrible,
desperate place? It was a series of major mistakes, a series of life
changing blunders. Samson had so much potential, yet he failed
miserably. The excitement
of all his adventures does not cover up the tragedy of a wasted life.
Focus:
We will not be able to eliminate all mistakes, but we can learn how to
avoid those life-changing blunders that can ruin our lives by learning
from the major mistakes of others.
As a young
child I was often told the “G Rated” version of Samson’s story.
I was under the impression that Samson was a hero.
I pictured him with bulging muscles, kind of an Arnold
Schwarzenegger with really long hair, the strongest man ever to have
lived. He was God’s
champion. But now as an
adult I realize that Samson probably looked like a regular sized man,
that’s why everyone tried to figure out “the secret” of his
strength. He didn’t have
unusually large bulging muscles. He
looked ordinary, and that is what baffled his enemies.
The Bible also presents a much more realistic picture of this
“hero”. He’s a hero
with warts. The Bible
version of Samson’s life is rated “PG”.
Although the enemies knew there was a secret to Samson’s
strength, Samson himself began to believe his strength was his own.
Though his extraordinary physical strength came to him by the
power of the Lord, it came so regularly that Samson took the Lord for
granted. He began to assume
this power was his and not as a result of the promises of God.
Samson’s life is one of the most tragic wastes of the whole
Bible. He had so much
potential, and wasted it.
I.
Learn From the Mistakes of Others
II.
Avoid Samson’s Mistakes
Major Mistake 1:
Ignore Your Heritage (13)
Samson came from a praying family and was an answer
to prayer. He had
taken a special vow to be pure and serve God but did not seem to
appreciate the significance of this.
Today, many also ignore their heritage—some even despising it!
In Judges 13 we get a picture of an older devout
couple who God blesses by visiting them and promising to give them a
special child. This child
was to be set apart and dedicated to the Lord by a vow from the day of
his birth.
The first specific thing recorded about this child,
however, is how he disappoints his parents.
Judges 14:1-3 1Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine
woman. 2When
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.”
3His
father and mother replied, “Isn’t there an acceptable woman among
your relatives or among all our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised
Philistines to get a wife?”
But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me. She’s
the right one for me.”
Samson falls in love with a
Philistine woman!—falls in lust, is probably more accurate.
It’s bad enough when your son disrespectfully makes demands
like Samson does. It’s worse when it is a total disregard for your values,
and the values of your people, and brings shame to the parents.
In order to understand this first you have to enter the mind set
of an Israelite. They were
forbidden by God’s
command to marry a Philistine. Besides
that the Philistines were the enemy!
Deuteronomy 7:1-4 1“When the LORD
your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it,
and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites and the
Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and
the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than
you, 2and when the LORD your God delivers them before you and
you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no
covenant with them and show no favor to them. 3“Furthermore,
you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to
their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. 4“For
they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods;
then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you and He will
quickly destroy you.
Our heritage includes a nation that was built upon
faith in God. Our
nation’s forefathers thought to make sure we remembered this by having
printed on our money, “In God We Trust.”
Many of our nations problems stem from the fact that from
generation to generation we have ignored our heritage.
What one generation holds loosely the next generation abandons.
Hold on to the baton tightly while you run the race, and
carefully pass it on. Do
not forget that you hold a baton, and do not set it on the shelf.
Run with it in your hand wherever you go, and whatever you do,
then you will be passing it properly to those that come after you.
Those that are ready to run the next leg too often
start running without looking back to pick up the baton. There is responsibility on both generations, the passing
generation and the receiving generation.
The generation gap is the gap where the baton is dropped.
Young people, your friends do not have the
experience or the answers you need to take up the baton that will help
you finish the race successfully, the generation before you does.
Major Mistake 2:
Unleash your rage (14:19; 15:3; 15)
Samson had an anger problem; he was
frequently out of control. He
seemed to enjoy giving full reign to this anger.
Let me name a few of Samson’s anger responses:
·
After Samson loses a bet at his wedding party, to get
revenge he kills thirty men in order to pay off his debt (14:19)
·
He leaves in a huff without getting married, then when he
cools off to see his fiancé he discovers she has been given to someone
else. This makes him so
angry he catches 300 foxes. This
is a feat all by itself. Can
you imagine how long this took. Where
did he keep the captured foxes? He
must have built a pen he carted around.
You can tell this grudge was nursed for a long time.
He fed his anger. He
plots and plans an amazingly effective and destructive plan to set fire
to everything so quickly that very little can be salvaged.
Without the aid of gasoline he becomes a pyro-technician
extraordinaire, and a deadly arsonist.
He ties pairs of foxes together by their tails and lights a torch
attached to their tails and releases them in the Philistine fields just
before harvest. The animal
rights people would lynch him! The
wheat fields, olive orchards, and vineyards all go up in smoke! (15:1-4)
·
This action angers the Philistines who find out why, so
they put to death his old fiancé and her father. Then Samson really gets mad and slaughters many more
Philistines. (15:5-8)
·
The Philistines then respond with an army and surround the
Israelite city where Samson is and tell them to give Samson over or
else. Samson’s anger has
brought the whole nation into trouble.
·
After Samson is tied up and handed over to the enemy, the
Lord again gives Samson super human strength, and he takes the jawbone
of a donkey and kills 1,000 of them. (15:13-17)
·
What we must understand at this point is that God is using
one man’s character flaws to accomplish his purposes with Israel’s
enemy.
Judges 14:4 4(His
parents did not know that this was from the LORD, who was seeking an
occasion to confront the Philistines; for at that time they were ruling
over Israel.)
In spite of Samson’s victories, his
anger led him to many sins.
Major Mistake 3:
Forget your promises (13:4-5; 14:8-10; Numbers
6:1-10)
Samson broke his promise to stay pure.
His parents had trained him from youth to be committed to the
Nazirite vow (see 13:4-5; Numbers 6:1-10 below).
Judges 13:4-5 4“Now therefore, be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, nor eat
any unclean thing. 5“For behold, you shall conceive and
give birth to a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the boy
shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver
Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”
Numbers 6:1 through Numbers
6:10 1Again
the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2“Speak to the sons of
Israel and say to them, ‘When a man or woman makes a special vow, the
vow of a Nazirite, to dedicate himself to the LORD, 3he shall
abstain from wine and strong drink; he shall drink no vinegar, whether
made from wine or strong drink, nor shall he drink any grape juice nor
eat fresh or dried grapes. 4‘All the days of his separation
he shall not eat anything that is produced by the grape vine, from the
seeds even to the skin.
5‘All
the days of his vow of separation no razor shall pass over his head. He
shall be holy until the days are fulfilled for which he separated
himself to the LORD; he shall let the locks of hair on his head grow
long.
6‘All
the days of his separation to the LORD he shall not go near to a dead
person. 7‘He shall not make himself unclean for his father
or for his mother, for his brother or for his sister, when they die,
because his separation to God is on his head. 8‘All the
days of his separation he is holy to the LORD.
9‘But if a man
dies very suddenly beside him and he defiles his dedicated head of hair,
then he shall shave his head on the day when he becomes clean; he shall
shave it on the seventh day. 10‘Then on the eighth day he
shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest, to the
doorway of the tent of meeting.
Samson broke this vow early on when he approached
the dead carcass of the lion he had killed and ate honey from it
(14:8-9, and 14:10). He
broke his vow again when he threw a drunken party.
He broke his promise to keep ceremonially clean.
Later, he breaks his promise to keep his symbolic hair long.
We have too many like Samson today.
With many today, promises and vows mean virtually nothing.
Take a vow lightly and you will be hurt in the process.
Major Mistake 4:
Indulge your Passions (14:1; 16:1, 4)
Samson was a he-man with a she-weakness.
·
Samson’s passion caused him to choose a marriage partner
poorly (14:1). His first
recorded words were “I saw a woman” (14:1
NASV). He was
attracted to women strictly on the basis of outward appearance. “Get her for me,
for she looks good to me.”
(14:3 NASV)
·
His passion led him to prostitution. (16:1)
·
His passion led him to his betrayal by Delilah. (16:4f.)
If you haven’t heard this story you need to read it.
As a kid back in the 70s I learned a little song about this
story. The lyrics go to the
tune of “Michael Row your Boat ashore”.
“Samson had a lot of hair, hallelujah, but then Delilah
creamed it off with “Nair”, Halelujah”.
For those of you who don’t remember, Nair was a well advertised
hair removal product.
Feeding Illicit Passions will Blind you, then Bind You
Judges 16:4-31 (NIV) 4Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley
of Sorek whose name was Delilah. 5The
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.”
6So
Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me the secret of your great strength and
how you can be tied up and subdued.”
7Samson
answered her, “If anyone ties me with seven fresh thongs that have not been dried, I’ll become as weak as any
other man.”
8Then
the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh thongs that had
not been dried, and she tied him with them. 9With
men hidden in the room, she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines
are upon you!” But he snapped the thongs as easily as a piece of
string snaps when it comes close to a flame. So the secret of his
strength was not discovered.
10Then
Delilah said to Samson, “You have made a fool of me; you lied to me.
Come now, tell me how you can be tied.”
11He
said, “If anyone ties me securely with new ropes that have never been
used, I’ll become as weak as any other man.”
12So
Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them. Then, with men hidden in
the room, she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!”
But he snapped the ropes off his arms as if they were threads.
13Delilah
then said to Samson, “Until now, you have been making a fool of me and
lying to me. Tell me how you can be tied.”
He replied, “If
you weave the seven braids of my head into the fabric on the loom and
tighten it with the pin, I’ll become as weak as any other man.” So
while he was sleeping, Delilah took the seven braids of his head, wove
them into the fabric 14and tightened it with the pin.
Again she called to
him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” He awoke from his sleep
and pulled up the pin and the loom, with the fabric.
15Then
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.” 16With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was
tired to death.
17So
he told her everything. “No razor has ever been used on my head,” he
said, “because I have been a Nazirite set apart to God since birth. If
my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as
weak as any other man.”
18When
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. 19Having put him to sleep on her lap, she called a man to shave off
the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him.
And his strength left him.
20Then
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.
21Then
the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to
Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding in the
prison. 22But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had
been shaved.
23Now
the rulers of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to
Dagon their god and to celebrate, saying, “Our god has delivered
Samson, our enemy, into our hands.”
24When
the people saw him, they praised their god, saying,
“Our god has delivered our enemy
into our hands,
the one who laid waste our land
and multiplied our slain.”
25While
they were in high spirits, they shouted, “Bring out Samson to
entertain us.” So they called Samson out of the prison, and he
performed for them.
When they stood him
among the pillars, 26Samson
said to the servant who held his hand, “Put me where I can feel the
pillars that support the temple, so that I may lean against them.” 27Now the temple was crowded with men and women; all the rulers of
the Philistines were there, and on the roof were about three thousand
men and women watching Samson perform. 28Then Samson prayed
to the LORD, “O Sovereign LORD, remember me. O God, please strengthen
me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the
Philistines for my two eyes.” 29Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which
the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the
one and his left hand on the other, 30Samson said, “Let me
die with the Philistines!” Then he pushed with all his might, and down
came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed
many more when he died than while he lived.
31Then
his brothers and his father’s whole family went down to get him. They
brought him back and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of
Manoah his father. He had led
Israel twenty years.
Feeding illicit passions will train the
flesh outside of God’s design. You
become blinded to consequences. You
begin to rationalize, that is tell yourself “rational lies” excusing
your behavior. You
become blind to the distance placed in your life between yourself and
God, and many times the distance you place yourself with others.
Feeding illicit passions, whatever passions they might be, leads
to a kind of blindness to the destruction that is coming.
Samson was already blind to what was going to happen, before he
was made blind when his eyes were destroyed.
He was blind to think his strength was unstoppable.
He already believed lies about his own strength.
How else do you explain the fact that he told Delilah about his
hair after Delilah had already deceived him repeatedly in order to have
him destroyed. Samson was
stupid. Why?
Sin makes you stupid. It
makes you do stupid things.
Feeding Illicit Passions will put you in bondage
Samson was literally put into bondage.
Feeding illicit passions will make you crave more and more while
being satisfied less and less. This is the formula for a destructive addiction. It escalates
until you are bound in spiritual chains.
The picture of Samson in chains without eyes is the picture of
the results of many addictions.
Sexuality is a powerful urge.
Many people have found that failure to control this urge leads to
physical, emotional and spiritual problems.
Samson could strangle a lion with his bare hands but because he
allowed his life to be ruled by his feelings, or his passions, he
didn’t recognize the deadly lioness in Delilah.
She was a roaring lion stalking her prey.
How do you keep your desire for love and sexual
pleasure from deceiving you? You
must decide two things. 1)
You must decide what kind of person you want to be and 2) what kind of
person you want to love BEFORE passion takes over.
You will need to train yourself to look beneath the surface into
the indicators of character. To
do this you will need to operate from a different premise than the world
tells you to operate. The
world tells you to move too fast. Be
patient. It is time that will reveal what is beneath the pleasant
appearance and attentive touch. Use
your head and your heart when you are aiming for a life partner.
Young people, there is a fork in the road when it
comes to relating to the opposite sex.
If you choose the left route, the route of experiencing passion
as a way of relating and dating, and getting to know people, you usually
blind yourself to the character of the person you want to get to know.
If you take the right route, it will be the route of getting to
know a person’s character as a friend.
Set passion on the warm burner of a marriage commitment where it
belongs. That means wait
till your head and heart, and God lead you to the right person for
marriage before you even entertain taking the fork in the road that
includes passion. Don’t
allow sexual passion to become a pattern for relationships.
This is reserved for marriage.
When lust suggests a rendezvous, try this; send Jesus Christ as
your personal representative. How
do you do this? Say a
simple prayer. Lord, go
before me. I’m not going
there. Guard me and keep me
from temptation.
Major Mistake 5: Take
Your Revenge (15:3, 11)
Look at Samson’s words in 15:3 and 11.
Judges
15:3 (NIV) 3Samson
said to them, “This time I have a right to get even with the
Philistines; I will really harm them.”
Judges 15:11
(NIV) “I only
paid them back for what they did to me.”
Revenge is an uncontrollable monster. Each act of
retaliation brings another. It is a boomerang that cannot be thrown
without cost to the thrower. The revenge cycle can be halted only by
forgiveness. Bitterness is
the acid that destroys its container.
The “I’ll show you” attitude usually shows how low you will
stoop. Anytime you try
“to get even” you are lowering yourself to get even at a lower
level, doing damage to your own character.
Don’t get even, get unhooked from the destructive acid
of bitterness. Leave room
for God to work.
Major Mistake 6: Believe
In Yourself more than God
How did Samson get there?
It began with a false confidence.
The false confidence was based on believing in himself more than
on God. He took God for
granted. He didn’t follow
and obey God. He even began
to attribute God’s gifts to himself.
He no longer believed they were from God really, or that God’s
blessing could be withdrawn. These
were his gifts. Any time we
begin to lean on our own strength rather than depending on God we will
fall.
In fact this is the most practical point.
This is the “How to” part of the avoiding of major mistakes.
I believe that apart from God we are prone to mistakes.
We are born with the bents.
We lean towards disobedience and living apart from God in
whatever independent endeavor. The
way to reverse this dangerous bent in our lives is to consciously,
purposefully, and intentionally depend upon God.
I know from experience that this is the main area to solve if I
want to solve other areas of my life.
Here’s where we get into the practical “how to”.
I must daily deny myself, pick up my cross and
follow Jesus. What does
this look like. Well for
me, it means I must carve out some time to spend with God.
I know that God is with me all the time everywhere.
However, I don’t have confidence in this area unless I have
been talking to him, and depending on him.
The practical side of denying myself and picking up my cross
looks like this. I get up
early enough to spend time with God alone.
In that time I am telling him, by my words and actions, I need
him. I read from God’s
word and I pray. C.L.A.S.S.
201 teaches you how to do this. But this is the starting point, the thing that keeps me on
track before God in a personal relationship of dependence. I can assure you Samson was not doing this.
His life was not characterized by leaning on God, but by leaning
on self, and living for self.
III.
There is Only One Unforgivable Mistake
According to the Bible there is a sin that is unforgivable.
It is called blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.
Mark
3:29-30 (NIV) 29But
whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is
guilty of an eternal sin.” 30He said this because they were saying, “He has an evil
spirit.”
What exactly is this sin?
To put it in its simplest terms, this is the complete and total
rejection of Jesus Christ in spite of the evidence the Holy Spirit has
brought you. When the
evidence is in, and you call white black, and good evil, then you are
committing the unforgivable because there is no evidence left available
to God’s Spirit to convince you otherwise.
Many people fear that they have committed the
unforgivable. Let me assure
you, that if you want to be forgiven through the grace of Christ, you
haven’t committed the unforgivable.
It is those who do not want to be forgiven because they don’t
think they need to be that are closer to this dangerous sin.
If you’d like forgiveness, God has made it available to those
who will believe what he has done.
A.
Samson knew that God could use him in spite of his failings.
Samson believed God could use him with whatever
time he had left, and he was right.
Samson believed God could use him no matter how he had failed
before, and he was right. We
serve a gracious God. Avoid
the mistakes of Samson. He learned the hard way, but you can learn from
his example, and that’s a lot less painful. But never forget, if you
do fail, that God is a God of mercy and grace. Enjoy his grace when you
need it, but don’t learn your lessons the hard way.
Dear Lord,
There are
too many lessons that I have been learning the hard way. Let me learn from the mistakes of Samson.
Help me to avoid these mistakes.
Help me to look back accurately and pick up the Spiritual
Heritage that has been passed on to me. Help me to look forward to pass on that baton of spiritual
heritage to someone else. Let
me not forget my heritage.
Lord, help
me to keep a short leash on my anger.
When something blocks my goals and I become angry help me to see
things the way you do.
Lord, I
have made promises to you and others.
I haven’t taken the Nazirite vow, but I have covenanted with
you. Fill me with your
strength to keep my promises. Help
me to honor your name with my life by my actions, words and thoughts.
Lord,
I thank you for making me a complex and passionate person.
I submit my passions to you.
Give me the fruit of your Spirit, namely self-control.
I will walk with you. I
will feed my spirit before you instead of indulging my flesh in ways you
did not design. Give me the
self-control that comes by your control.
I determine to yield myself to you daily.
I submit the members of my body before you.
You created me. Help
me honor you with my body, and the passions you gave me.
Lord, I
know the damage that bitterness can bring when I don’t forgive others.
I release to you those who have harmed me.
I let them off my hook. I
don’t need to “get even.” I
leave room for you to work with them in your justice, rather than my
justice. I’ll trust you
with them. I let them go.
Lord, I
know it is my tendency to try to be my own boss, to run my own life.
I know that when I do, I tend to leave you out of my way of
thinking. Lord, I determine
to let you be Lord of my life. I
know this means leaning on you regularly, and keeping appointments with
you daily in order to keep my life before you. I am willing to do that.
Draw near to me as I draw near to you.
Help me to see what you are doing so that I will be strengthened
in you.
Lord, thank
you for forgiveness. I
thank you for the grace found in Jesus Christ.
Thank you for cleansing me and empowering me.
Thank you for not giving up on me.
I love you.
In Jesus
Name, Amen.
|
