Where Were You When the Power Went Out?
Judges 13:1-16:31
Dr. Burnie R. Burnside
How do we get to be unplugged from the Holy Spirit? What makes our light seem to burn out; the switch is turned on but the light is off? To help us discover how spiritual power is lost, we are going to look at the life of Sampson (his story is found in Judges13-16).
One of the things we learn from Samson’s life is that sin will always take us further than we want to go.
Three commitments a Nazirite must keep during the period of his vow:
Avoid any contact with the drinking of wine.
Never touch a dead body of any kind.
Let your hair grow and never get it cut.
Seven Steps of Sliding Into Sin
He Went to The Wrong Place: "Samson went down to Timnah." (Judges 14:1)
He Was Looking For The Wrong Thing: "Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine woman." (14:1)
"Go get her for me. She’s the right one for me." (14:2)
He Rejected Godly Counsel.
He Continued A Wrong Relationship: "he went down and talked with the woman, and he liked her." (14:7)
Samson is hormone-driven, not Holy Spirit-driven.
He Compromised His Commitment.
On the outside he looks like a man of God, but on the inside he’s a man controlled by his lusts.
He Ignored His Weaknesses: "Coax your husband into explaining the riddle for us, or we will burn you and your father’s household to death." (14:15).
It’s our refusal to deal with our weaknesses that most often gets us in trouble.
He’d rather take revenge than repent.
The Road to Revenge: "This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines. I will really harm them." (15:3)
When you try to seek revenge for wrongs done to you, you set in motion an unending cycle of violence.
The only way to get off the treadmill of terror is to not seek revenge but instead to offer forgiveness.
Samson’ learned that God was adequate to meet any need he had and so he ruled Israel and led them in prosperity and peace for two decades.
Samson’s Destruction - the night the lights went out for Samson: "One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her." (16:10
The proclivity to sin never dies of old age and our weaknesses never go away.
He got involved with another wrong relationship.
He toyed with temptation.
He reveals his secret in order to save face.
Sin will always take you further than you want to go.
"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 in the prison." (16:21)
If we don’t recognize and deal with our fatal flaws, we’ll end up just like Samson - blinding, binding, and grinding.
Blinding will take place as we lose our moral compass and vision.
Binding will result as we lose our freedom and liberty.
And we’ll spend the rest of our lives grinding out a purposeless existence.
Action Steps.
Acknowledge your fatal flaws.
Psalm 38:18: "I confess my iniquity; I am troubled by my sin."
Admit you need help.
Psalm 34:17: "The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; He delivers them from all their troubles."
Avoid temptation.
Genesis 4:7: "…Sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."
Ask for help.
First of all, ask for God’s assistance.
Second, ask for the help of others.
Assimilate God’s truth into your life.
Be with God’s people.
Read God’s Word and put it into practice.
Psalm 119:11: "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you."
"There is no pit so deep that the love of God is not deeper still." (Corrie Ten Boom) No matter how far you run away from God, you can never go so far that God can’t find you.