Sermon Tone Analysis

Leader Guide ESV, Unit 9, Session 4

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Edited by Rev. Lex DeLong, M.A. June, 2022.

Summary and Goal

In the previous sessions, we saw how God uses unexpected people and circumstances to accomplish His purposes.

But how does God work with those who seem to have their lives put together: the successful, strong, and spiritual?

In this session, we will look to Samson, a man who appeared to be able to succeed on his own by relying on his own cleverness and strength.

We will see that while he seemed to have all the puzzle pieces of his life in the right arrangement, he forgot whose image he was supposed to follow.

We will also see that often we aren’t much different.

Our strong personalities and abilities to muscle through life sometimes leads us to forget who it is on whom we depend.

As with Samson, sometimes God’s gift of grace comes in the form of being humbled, in order to remind us upon whom we depend.

God’s act of humbling the proud is more a gift of grace than it is an act of chastisement, and will accomplish His plan and purpose.

Session Outline

++1.

Pride and lust lead to destructive disobedience (Judg.

14:1-3,8-9).

++2.

Pride and lust lead to destructive relationships (Judg.

16:4-5,16-17).

++3.

God’s gracious gift of humility leads to relying on God and the Risen Christ (Judg.

16:21-22,26-30).

Session in a Sentence

God’s act of humbling the proud is more a gift of grace than it is an act of chastisement, and will accomplish God’s plan and purpose.

Christ Connection

Samson’s downfall was the result of his own pride and disobedience, and yet, God used his death to begin the deliverance of His people.

Jesus’ humiliation (Phil.

2) and death was the result of His perfect obedience to pay for our disobedience.

God used Christ’s death to bring deliverance “once for all” for His people.

Missional Application

Because we have experienced victory over sin through Christ’s humility and sacrifice, we live in humility before others as we call them to put away their sins and turn to God for deliverance.

America’s Funniest Home Videos...decades of being on air...

Ask the question p. 112 DDG.

What are moments you remember that, if recorded, might have won AFH?

(be prepared to give an answer of your own to jump-start the conversation)

Read DDG (p.

112).

All of us have experienced something we wish we could have avoided.

While there are some humiliating moments we couldn’t have stopped, there are others we could have dodged but for whatever reason we did not.

When our pride flares and we deviate from God’s commands, we dive headlong into trouble.

Humility will arrive one way or another, sooner or later.

Know that God opposes the proud, but know that He also gives grace to the humble (Jas.

4:6).

Rightly understood, humiliation under the care of God is a gift of grace.

Today we are going to read about Samson, a man who appeared to be able to succeed on his own by relying on his own cleverness and strength.

While he seemed to have all the puzzle pieces of his life in the right arrangement, he forgot whose image he was supposed to follow.

Often we aren’t much different.

Our strong personalities and abilities to muscle through life lead us to forget on whom we depend.

As with Samson, God humbles the proud, and that is a gift of grace.

Point 1: Pride and lust lead to destructive disobedience (Judg.

14:1-3,8-9).

Pack Item 12: The Judges Handout: Recall this handout to help you make the following point: By the time we reach Judges 14, God had provided the Israelites with a number of judges to rescue them from the affliction of their enemies.

Many of the judges didn’t look the part, but then came along Samson.

It seemed God had finally given the Israelites the leader they truly needed.

It wouldn’t take long, however, to realize that this man was strong on the outside but quite weak on the inside.

Read Judges 14:1-3 (DDG p. 113).

1 Samson went down to Timnah, and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines.

2 Then he came up and told his father and mother, “I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah.

Now get her for me as my wife.” 3 But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?”

But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.”

DDG (p.

113)

From birth, Samson had been dedicated to God as a Nazirite.

He wasn’t to drink wine or beer, cut his hair, or touch dead bodies, but more than that, he was to have a heightened sense of God’s word and God’s mission to spread God’s glory.

Samson’s impulses, however, led him to be rebellious about what God wanted.

Everyone else—his parents, this Philistine woman, and even God—took a backseat to his selfish desires.

· It didn’t matter to Samson that God prohibited inter-faith marriages with the peoples surrounding them in the promised land (Ex.

34:15-16);

Nor did it matter to him that God’s plan for him from before his conception and birth was to save his people from the Philistines (Judg.

13:5).

He wanted this Philistine woman he saw, and nothing else mattered.

His parents tried to discourage him from following his impulses, but they failed.

In his own eyes, she was the right one for him to marry.

Commentary: “The Hebrew term [for Nazirite] means consecration, devotion, and separation.

Two traditional forms of the Nazirite are found.

One was based on a vow by the individual for a specific period; the other was a lifelong devotion following the revelatory experience of a parent that announced the impending birth of a child.

The Nazirite’s outward signs—the growth of hair, abstention from wine and other alcoholic products, the avoidance of contact with the dead—are illustrative of devotion to God.

Violation of these signs resulted in defilement and the need for purification so the vow could be completed.

Numbers 6:1-21 regulated the practice.” 1

Fill in the blanks: DDG (p.

113).

Sin as Selfishness: When we sin, we are acting out of a selfish attitude and mind-set that assumes our action will lead us to more happiness than if we were to obey God.

Essential Doctrine “Sin as Selfishness”: When we sin, we are acting out of a selfish attitude and mind-set that assumes our action will lead us to more happiness than if we were to obey God.

Because sin is manifested in our tendency to be “curved inward” toward self, it is the opposite of love.

Love looks outwardly to place others before oneself, operating from the mind-set that others are more important (Phil.

2:3).

Where sin selfishly seeks personal gratification and happiness...love works for the joy of others in the hopes of making others happy in God.

Read Judges 14:8-9 (DDG p. 113).

8 After some days he returned to take her.

And he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey.

9 He scraped it out into his hands and went on, eating as he went.

And he came to his father and mother and gave some to them, and they ate.

But he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey from the carcass of the lion.

DDG (p.

113)

By the power of God’s Spirit, Samson had killed a lion with his bare hands while on the way to make his wedding arrangements with the Philistine woman.

Later he found honey in the lion’s carcass, so he scooped some to eat and gave some to his parents too.

The problem? Touching a dead animal, including eating out of one, violated Samson’s Nazirite vow, and it also defiled his parents without their knowledge or consent.

Samson’s impulsiveness ruled his life, and his careless living affected those around him.

Ask the following question.

Why is impulsive, careless living contrary to God’s way?

(impulsive living reflects our selfish hearts rather than obedience to the commands of God; as sinners, our natural, impulsive instinct in life is to sin and do what is right in our own eyes, not God’s; impulsive living takes advantage of and hurts others in one’s quest to fulfill his or her own desires)

Point 2: Pride and lust lead to destructive relationships (Judg.

16:4-5,16-17).

Samson’s marriage didn’t go as he had planned, but it was part of God’s plan to force a confrontation between His judge, Samson, and the people His judge was supposed to fight, the Philistines (14:4).

Though Samson’s motives were impulsive, careless, and selfish toward his wife and in his retaliation against the Philistines, the Lord was with him and strengthened him to fight the people’s oppressors (14:19; 15:14).

Read: Judges 16:4-5,16-17 (DDG p. 114).

4 After this he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. 5 And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Seduce him, and see where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to humble him.

And we will each give you 1,100 pieces of silver.”

.................................................

16 And when she pressed him hard with her words day after day, and urged him, his soul was vexed to death.

17 And he told her all his heart, and said to her, “A razor has never come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb.

If my head is shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man.”

DDG (p.

114)

In time, Samson found a new love interest, Delilah, and the Philistines bribed her to discover the secret of Samson’s strength.

Three times Delilah asked, and three times Samson lied about the source of his strength, not out of concern but seemingly out of pride and play.

Delilah persisted and eventually Samson told her.