Theme: God can use flawed people
Scriptures: Judges 16:1-31
Objectives: (From the D6 Fusion lesson book)
Know: Samson’s patterns of sin and lust led to the Spirit leaving him, taking away his strength. God later used Samson again when he cried out to God.
Think: Maintain a mindset of humble obedience and dependence of God.
Do: Stay in close fellowship with God by confessing sin daily and avoiding sinful patterns.
Notes and questions:
B1 Basics
C1 Images: Source
C2 Samson
D1 What were Samson’s strengths?
D2 What were Samson’s weaknesses?
D3 Why did God use this fellow as His judge?
D4 Did Samson always love God the way he should have?
D5 How does this verse apply to Samson? “If you love Me, keep My commandments. (John 14:15, NKJV)
D6 How does Samson compare with Moses? By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, (Hebrews 11:24-25, NKJV)
D7 Did Samson live this verse? LORD, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill? He who walks uprightly, And works righteousness, And speaks the truth in his heart; (Psalms 15:1-2, NKJV)
D8 Did Samson repent? See Judges 16:28
B2 Judges 16:1-3,
C1 Why is Samson in Gaza?
C2 Samson sinned, but he was still able to lift the gates to the city with its bars and posts and carry them off to the top of a hill. Why did God still give Samson strength?
C3 A quote on Samson and the gate: The Gaza gate would have consisted of two thick doors that could be barred, and the side posts probably turned in stone sockets. Many of the ancient gates were also covered with metal or at least reinforced with metal bands. Samson pulled up the barred gate with the side posts attached and carried the whole thing off. It was as if he pulled a flower out of the ground, yet Dr. William Barrick computed the weight of the gate and posts to have been between five and ten tons (“Samson’s Removal of Gaza’s Gates,” drbarrick.org, n.d.) And Samson carried the gate to Hebron, which was 36 miles away and 3,200 feet higher in altitude!
B3 Judges 16:4-17
C1 Love This word describes a serious love. It is used
D1 Then He said, “Take now your son, your only [son] Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” (Genesis 22:2, NKJV)
D2 “Nevertheless the LORD your God would not listen to Balaam, but the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loves you. (Deuteronomy 23:5, NKJV)
D3 By night on my bed I sought the one I love; I sought him, but I did not find him. (Song of Solomon 3:1, NKJV)
C2 1100 pieces of silver from each Philistine lord.
D1 Five lords each giving 1100 pieces of silver equals 5,500 pieces of silver.
D2 Thayer believes that a silver piece used to pay Judas the Betrayer was a tetradrachm.
D3 A tetradrachm weighed about 0.5 troy ounces.
D5 It is believed that one silver piece was worth about $8.24.
D6 1,100 pieces of silver would be worth approximately $9,065.65.
D7 The 5,500 pieces of silver would be worth about $45,328.25.
D8 The buying value of that probably was a lot more than that. The 30 pieces of silver given then returned by Judas the Betrayer bought a field for a cemetery. But the chief priests took the silver pieces and said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, because they are the price of blood.” And they consulted together and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in. Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of Him who was priced, whom they of the children of Israel priced, “and gave them for the potter’s field, as the LORD directed me.” (Matthew 27:6-10, NKJV)
C3 A withe in the culture of that day was probably a small rope made from green tree bark. The Hebrew word suggests a small rope or cord.
C4 A tow would be similar to a wick or thread.
C5 The new ropes would have been made from seasoned materials, not green.
C6 “That he told her all his heart, and said to her, “No razor has ever come upon my head, for I [have been] a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaven, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak, and be like any [other] man.” (Judges 16:17, NKJV). What was the source of his strength?
D1 It is not long hair.
D2 It is his dedication and vow as a Nazirite.
E1 The strictest abstinence from wine and from every product of the vine
E2 The keeping of the hair uncut and the beard untouched by a razor
E3 The prohibition to touch a dead body
E4 Prohibition of unclean food (Judges 13:5-7; Judges 13:6)
D4 As long as he kept his vow, God was with him. Thus, he had to obey to have God’s blessing.
C7 Why did Delilah love money more than Samson?
C8 What was wrong with Samson that he could not see what she was really after?
C9 How do we deal with weaknesses, our failures to stand true to God’s rules? It was a moral weakness that took Samson down to defeat. How do we stay true to God? How do we avoid sin ruining our character and testimony?
C10 Why is sin so appealing to the flesh?
C11 Will a little compromise lead to more compromise?
B4 Judges 16:18-31,
C1 What is the significance of the words: But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him. (Judges 16:20, NKJV)?
C2 What happens when we sin and have moral or other downfalls? So David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” And Nathan said to David, “The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die. “However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also [who is] born to you shall surely die.” (2 Samuel 12:13-14, NKJV)
C3 While the Philistines were praising dagon, they were soon to find out that dagon was not able to protect them from their enemy.
B5 Steps in downfall
C1 Each human Romans 1:18-32
D1 Everyone knows there is God.
D2 God shows Himself through creation. This is part of prevenient grace.
D3 Truth is deliberately suppressed. This is resistance to God’s grace.
D4 Unrighteousness is how people suppress truth. This is the unrighteousness that comes from the heart, the inner person. “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. (Matthew 15:18-19, NKJV). People do not live in thoughts, words, desires, or deeds that way God wants us to. There are no excuses as, “I didn’t know.”
D5 They resisted glorifying God and thanking God.
D6 The consequences of this leads to a change in thinking (it becomes futile, that is, starting to think their unreasonable thoughts are the truth). It also leads to the heart becoming darker, that is, there is less light from God to know truth.
D7 Self deception comes next, for they believe they are very wise, but in reality, they are fools.
D8 They start to worship an other god, usually themselves and whatever is comfortable for them. This has consequences leading to uncleanness. This is spiritual but also physical, not the dirt of hard work but the dirt of sin. They wanted freedom, but they became slaves of sin. Compare: knowing this, that our old man was crucified with [Him,] that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. (Romans 6:6, NKJV)
D9 This leads to God removing His grace even more, so that now they desired, lusted, for things that God disapproves of. Dishonor their bodies refers to mistreatment of our body in any way, especially sinful ways.
D10 People leave God’s truths for lies, then worship and serve those lies. We are addicted to sin.
D11 They turn to unnatural sin practices of all and any types in words, thoughts, desires, and deeds.
D12 This has consequences and affects the body.
D13 Still rejecting God and His ways, God allows them to have a debased mind, a reprobate mind. It is the mind that rejects good and chooses evil. Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20, NKJV)
D14 Now, it seems, there is no stopping of the flood of evil that people do. Among these are...all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful. (Romans 1:29-31, HCSB). They not only do them but are filled with them.
D15 Finally, they are recruiters of others to do evil, even though they know the punishment of God.
C2 To sin (James 1:13-15)
D1 God does not tempt. God cannot be tempted.
D2 Our hearts choose to lust after something evil. This builds, sometimes for years. We are tempted to sin.
D3 So then (sadly) we often decide to do evil (...desire has conceived).
D4 We sin.
D5 We die. This would be our testimony, our prayer life, often our family, our____.
B6 Remember
C1 We must know what God wants. We must read and study the Bible daily.
C2 We must pray for God’s deliverance and protection. So we must avoid sin.
C3 If we sin, we must repent, confess, and ask forgiveness.
C4 We are in this together. Pray for one another.
C5 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The urgent request of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours; yet he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the land. Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land produced its fruit. (James 5:16-18, HCSB)
C6 [Let your] conduct [be] without covetousness; [be] content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we may boldly say: “The LORD [is] my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:5-6, NKJV)
C7 Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. (1 Peter 5:7, NKJV)
B7 Next week:
C1 Pleasing God
C2 Theme: Walking in Godliness
C3 Scriptures: 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12
No comments:
Post a Comment