Take next few wks & look at what the life of Samson can teach us

As we begin in ch. 13 of Judges, Israel had sinned against God and were defeated in wars against the Philistines & came under their rule

Israel was notorious for getting things right with their lives & God & then slipping back into sin, just as we all are

After they were conquered by the Philistines they began to pray for deliverance

& because God loves his children, he began to move in answering their prayers

At the same time a very Godly man & his wife were not able to have children

they served the Lord faithfully but wanted a child & they had prayed for yrs for the Lord to bless them

Theres an old saying, Be careful for what you pray for, you might just get it!

God had already decided to deliver Israel & he heard the prayers of this godly couple to have a child

God puts a plan together, not only was he going to deliver his people, but he would use give this couple a child & use him to deliver Israel

Jud. 13:1-3

Again the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for 40 yrs.

2. now there was a certain man from Zorah of the family of the Danites whose name was Manoah and his wife was barren & had no children

3. And the Angel of the Lord appeared to the woman & said to her, indeed now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and bear a son

God sends an Angel to deliver the news to this couple

now this isn’t just some ordinary angel, this is Jesus, as I told you last Sunday night

in the OT whenever it says “the angel” = Jesus its a pre-incarnate name for Jesus

when it says “an angel” its just your everyday run of the mill spiritual beings!

2^nd he identifies himself as God in vs:11 he says “I AM” which is Gods name

3^rd he says in vs:18 my name is “secret” in Hebrew is interpreted “wonderful which is another title for Christ

clear that Jesus himself brings – message to this couple of having a child

Manoah & his wife knew their prayers had been answered & that they had been touched by God by receiving this wonderful gift

We sometimes forget that children are a gift, not necessarily the child themselves, but the ability of having children is the real gift

theres allot of confusion when it comes to this subject of Gods gift of a child

theres a belief that every child is placed into the mothers womb by God himself

that would make all of us Jesus, because thats what God did for Mary

I don’t know about you, but I’m a far cry from being Jesus

It also doesn’t fit with Gods character either, why would he place a baby that was going to be murdered before their even born?

Or killed in a car accident, or a drug overdose?

Or after their born, their abused or abandoned?

Another problem is: the bible says that we are conceived in sin, so that would make God the author of sin,

or if we were perfect & then placed into our mothers sinful womb, then God would be a very cruel & uncaring of what happens to his little ones

if we were placed in the womb as perfect babies, then we would be born perfect & then our parents would corrupt us

Gen 1:28

and God blessed them and God said unto them, be fruitful & multiply and replenish the earth

God gives Adam & Eve a commandment, that “THEY” were to conceive & multiply & fill the earth with people

the gift that God gave man & women was the ability to have children

but our bodies aren’t perfect & thats why there are times when a child is born handicapped because these bodies fail at times of producing a healthy child

there was only a few special occasions that God supernaturally opened a womb & allowed her to get pregnant but even then it still took her husband

& in the story of Samson, this was one of those times that God had a plan that involved a husband & wife wanting a child

Jud, 13:7

This godly woman was ecstatic, to have her prayer answered

Do you remember the last time you prayed for something specific & it was answered?

I do, I prayed that God would bless me with a great church with great people, and he did.

You’ll notice that God put some stipulations on what she could eat & drink because this boy wasn’t going to be an ordinary boy, he was going to be a priest

God tells her, if your going to be a mom, your going to have to conduct your life in a certain way to be a great influence on your son

Can you imagine God actually expecting a soon to be mom to conduct her life in a way that she would be a good influence on her child??

outlandish

every mom ought to be able to eat what she wants, drink herself into a drunken stupor, act like a immature baboon

& not discipline her children, afterall they raise themselves right??

& ignore God altogether, right?

Its not right, do you realize what God demanded of Samsons mother is the same thing he expects from every mother today

take care of yourself, raise your child with discipline, & lead them to the knowledge of God

But what if the child turns out rotten & I did what God asked me

Then God will honor you for doing what he asked, the child will answer for his own decisions

Jud, 13:24

Samsons mom did raise him right, as he grew up, he did things that pleased the Lord & the Lord blessed him

Armies trembled at the very sight of him, never in history did one man cause entire armies to shake in fear

he tore the gates off a wall at Gaza, he killed a lion bare handed

he made superman look like Pewee Herman

But theres always been a misconception about Samson, most think he was muscle bound like the incredible hulk & I think he really did look like Pewee Herman

Why? Because no one could figure out why he was so strong, even Delilah who was sleeping with him couldn’t figure it out

But thats exactly what made him so scary, a 90 pound weakling that killed a 1000 soldiers with a jawbone of a donkey

remember God has always used the weak things of this world to confuse the strong

Samson had a good home life, he started out well, God was blessing him, but something went wrong

jud 14:1

need I say more?

Its the same old thing, Adam saw a woman, David saw a woman, Jacob saw a woman

looking at women can get you into a whole lot of trouble!!

Samson invited sin to come into his life & he was filled with lust, disobedience, & disgrace

why would this be considered sin? Every red blooded man needs a good woman right?

Heres the problem, go back to 13:5 bottom half of verse

a Nazarite unto God from the womb and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines

First of all he was a Jewish priest who is only suppose to marry another Jew

secondly; he was suppose to deliver Israel from the Philistines, not join up!!

won’t there be a conflict of interest if you tell your wife I’m going to war against your family? Be back in a few hours? Love ya!!

14:3

his parents can’t believe what their hearing & ask him can’t you find someone from our own people?

& he says no, I want her and you better get her

this is Samsons first step into sin & his parents must be taken aback at what their son wants

How many parents have had kids that they never had any trouble with all of a sudden get involved with sin & they watched their lives come unraveled?

Bible says in Ex. 20:12 that if children honor their parents that God will give them a long life

we’ll see later that Samson didn’t honor his parents and he dies at a young age

many people wonder why theres so many things wrong in their lives & all they would have to do is go back & remember how disobedient they were to their parents

When parents begin to have the most trouble with their kids is when their kids discover the opposite sex

up until that time, kids rely on their parents wisdom, after they discover Mr or Mrs right, parents are the dumbest people on earth

jud. 14: 7

there are millions of people who have messed up their lives just because they couldn’t live without them

their parents protested but their child wouldn’t listen, & that decision came back to haunt them the rest of their lives

Samson ignored his parents protest & from that moment, his life began a downward spiral that he will never recoup from

we all know some of –the bad decisions we make as a teenager can last a lifetime

If you were to bring Samson up to today, it would go like this:

Samson who was a Christian saw an unsaved girl, she was beautiful but she didn’t believe the gospel

But Samson said, I want her, & she’ll change after we’re married

they get married

yrs later, Samson is just like her instead of her being like him

Samson should have backed off, but his flesh got ignited by the sight of a hot girl

Some of you might remember an evangelist by the name of Bob Harrington otherwise known as the Chaplain of Bourbon st. in New Orleans

he was right down in the thick of where the Mardi Gras was held ministering to the worst of sinners

He preached to huge crowds using his great sense of humor about the love of God

But Bob took sin too lightly & was continually exposed to the most immoral images & drunkenness

Yrs later, Bob lost his ministry & reputation under accusations of drunkenness & sexual perversion

He disappeared from the public

Yrs later an old friend got thinking of him & wondered what ever happened to him

& he began to search for him, it took a long time but finally found him in a skid row motel

Bob was a wreck and was contemplating suicide, he was at the end of his rope when his friend showed up & extended to him the love of Christ

Sal and I had the privilege of seeing Bob Harrington, at a pastors conference at Liberty University as he spoke for just a few minutes

Jerry Falwell & others reached out to him and gave him the help he needed

The Bible is clear that we cannot take fire into our bosom without being burned

Samson took fire into his bosom, & Samson is about to be burned

Every Christian will get burned when we abandon our promise to be separated from the things of this world