A Pattern of Trouble

There's a famous Bible story that has intrigued children and adults for thousands of years. It's a story of trouble and sin, but it's also a story of zeal and finally triumph. Our hero in today's story led a pattern of sin lead to his demise. The lesson for us is, if we allow secret sins to remain in our lives, cracking our character, we may not be able to say precisely when we'll fall, but it will happen. We can be certain eventually it will happen. 

When we violate God's standards, we can be sure we're not going to get away with it in the end. When we break God's laws, if we do not repent, we will eventually have to pay the consequences. This is the story of putting every sin, even what may seem the smallest of all, out of our lives completely so that cracks of unrighteousness do not take root. So, let’s turn to Song of Solomon chapter 2 verse 15. 

Catch the foxes for us, 
   the little foxes 
that spoil the vineyards, 
   for our vineyards are in blossom.”

Sin always takes you further than you want to go, longer than you want to stay, and costs more than we can pay. And we miss it a lot because the details are so small. Now, why did we read that scripture because if you know your bible then you know Solomon is the wisest man who has ever lived. The son of King David. He says catch all the foxes the little foxes because it’s the little things that ruin the most. It’s the small foxes that ruin the vine and take you somewhere you never intended to go. It’s the small things that sometimes have the biggest impact. Remember this The enemy loves to use the smallest things to wreck our lives in the biggest ways. He wants us to just think it’s so small, it’s so

small what harm can it do. Let’s be real if the enemy just came up to you and straight up told you what he wants to do in your life then you wouldn’t let him do it. The devil is real and he is very smart. I’m not here to glorify the enemy I’m here to expose him. 

The enemy doesn’t bring us chains he brings us a choice. With some of us our chain started with a link. Things start as a small seemingly thing but what the enemy doesn’t tell you is that leads to a full invasion of your life. It’s not just one choice because one choice leads to another and another. It’s never just one time. What a shame it is to live heaven-ready but hell on earth. When I die I’m going to heaven but until then I might as well make it hell on earth for myself. Jesus took care of the eternal consequences but it didn’t take care of the temporal consequences. There are natural consequences for our decisions. Let me tell you God did not do it to you. What happened because you did something is not God’s fault. He did not give it to you because of what you did. You did it yourself. There are natural consequences for our choices in life. If you keep avoiding him you are going to keep running into them. After a few choices, it becomes a habit. Once it becomes a habit it becomes automatic. It started as something to help me but now it is me. After its automatic, it becomes your identity. It becomes who you are or who you believe you are. Once it’s our identity it becomes natural. If sin feels natural to your you are in chains. We are not here to pick on people in chains. I have been in chains. We are here to break them off. We wonder why for some many circumstances in life and it’s simply because we are in chains. Today’s choices become tomorrow’s chains. I understand that some of us have chains for years and you’ve tried to get free. What you put into your body doesn’t trump the blood of Jesus AMEN.  

Deuteronomy 30:19  

“Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! 

I’m praying you will choose life. Your decisions are way bigger than just you. They never affect just you. It’s you choosing life around you and those coming after you. There is nobody this shows up more in than Sampson. The story of Samson gives us a window into the deception of sin and how it can take over a person's life. I've titled this message very simply A Pattern of Trouble. 

And as you'll quickly see, the example of Samson is generally not a very good one, but there's triumph at the end of the story. So this true story, one of the most well-known in all the Bible, especially by children perhaps, because who doesn't like the story of the Superman, provides an important insight into deception and sin. 

Samson's a striking biblical example of a man who suffered a moral slide. And his all too familiar story is told in the book of Judges. He's a man who had it all going for him. He was young, strong, handsome, influential, a natural-born leader. And so his story is one made for children's story books. He came from a good family and enjoyed all the advantages of a solid upbringing. He was the church kid of his day, yet in the end, his life was ruined. 

Why? Of course, it didn't just happen. In fact, Samson's demise was preceded by years of little problems, a pattern of trouble, ongoing indiscretions that began so insignificant. We might be tempted to think there was hardly anything to them. But in fact, these indiscretions ran their course for a period of 20 years, cracking his character beneath the surface. So what was it that really caused Samson's failure? 

Of course, many who know the story will be quick to exclaim Delilah. Samson was undone by that conniving woman, Delilah. But this is the story of Samson before Delilah. We tend to make a big deal about Delilah. Hollywood likes to make a big deal about Delilah. Almost everything written about Samson today and his ultimate failure centers on her. And we're all quick to think that she was his greatest fault, the root of his downfall. But in reality, some 20 years before Delilah, secret problems began to run their course through the character of his life. 

She just happened to be there at the end. It's easy to slip into habits and sinful habits, moral compromises, ethical lapses, spiritual accommodations, things that we might rationalize away as insignificant or unimportant if we're not careful. 

Today I have four points of how we can avoid sin that Samson just didn’t get. 

Our first point today is Avoid the Situation That Precedes the Sin. If you know you've got a problem, avoid the situation that will lead you to that problem. So, Samson was particularly advantaged. We are told he was a Nazirite from his mother's womb. A Nazirite was someone specially set apart for the work of God, and he was distinguished in holiness by three vows he was to keep. 

First, he vowed to never drink wine or eat grapes or raisins, or anything from the vine. Second, he vowed to never touch a dead person because he was to live a separate holy life, unblemished by the curse of death. And third, he vowed never to cut his hair. And you can read all about these Nazirite vows in Numbers 6 if you want to. 

Now each of these vows outwardly represented an inward commitment to holiness and righteousness. And when men and women saw a Nazirite walking down the street, they immediately recognized him as a man of commitment, a man of resolve. But sadly, Samson trivialized his Nazirite vows even early on in his life. A pattern of moral shortcomings began. So look at chapter 14.

Judges 14:1 Now Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines

Now remember, our point is avoid the situation that might cause you to sin. So he saw a woman in Timnah and she was a Philistine girl. The Philistines were pagans. They were the very oppressors God had raised Samson up to defeat. And according to the verse, he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines. So right then and there he was smitten. 

God warned the Israelites about marrying outside of their faith. Samson especially was to be different, holy, a Nazirite, representing God's way of doing things. And so here was one of his first mistakes. He should have avoided the situation that could lead him to sin.  

Was Samson avoiding a situation that could cause him to slip into sin by having a relationship with a pagan woman? Woman of a different religion? Was Samson following God's advice on marital relationships? We too must put God first in our life. We must avoid situations that may cause us to fall short of the mark—anything that comes between us and God. Samson was where he should not have been, down there at Timna, down there with the godless people, down there among the Philistines. He was not avoiding a situation that could cause him to fall short of his calling. 

So as we proceed, you'll see the cracks in Samson's character, which at first seem to be minor issues, but they show an ongoing pattern of trouble. Our second point is Replace wrong actions with righteous actions. If you've got a lot of emptiness in your life, you may just do the wrong thing. Fill your life with righteousness to push out the unrighteousness. So replace wrong actions with righteous actions. So we get to about halfway through verse 5 and verse 6 in Judges 14 where we see a lion attacked Samson while he was in the vineyards of Timna. 

Judges 14:5–6 

“To his surprise, a young lion came roaring against him. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he tore the lion apart as one would have torn apart a young goat, though he had nothing in his hand”  

He did not tell his father or mother what he had done. He went down and talked with the woman, and she pleased Samson well. 

So here we see Samson's newly found famous superhuman strength coming into play. But sin has consequences. We may be ingenious in our efforts to avoid those consequences, as Samson was when he faced the lion in the vineyard. God protected him. But he really should have stayed clear of the vineyard to begin with. 

One compromise leads to the next. Samson very nearly met with disaster because he was where he should not have been, doing what he should not have been doing, with someone he shouldn't have been with. It's all compounding now. It's almost as if he was winking at danger and sin, and there was no righteous behavior to counteract it. 

So Samson returned to the vineyard. When he did, he revisited his narrow escape from the lion. And he returned to the carcass of an unclean animal—which a Nazarite would avoid. Maybe this is why he omitted telling his parents where the honey came from. Despite such promising beginnings, Samson showed himself susceptible to being foolishly enticed, and he's not replacing questionable actions with righteous actions. 

Samson, bit by bit, was not fulfilling his life with righteousness, but rather with wrong actions. Our third point is Stay close to God. 

Judges 15 tells the story of the demise of Samson's relationship with the woman from Timna, which is actually a very tragic story. 

Samson's Philistine wife from Timna was given to a friend by her father. So Samson burned down vast amounts of Philistine crops. So what had happened was, Samson had used his superhuman strength to catch 300 foxes, lit torches between all their tails, burned down vast amounts of Philistine grain—including vineyards and olive groves... 

So they answered, "Who has done this?" Samson has done this—the son-in-law of the Timnite. So Samson's marriage ended in tragedy. In retribution, the Philistines then killed Samson's father-in-law and wife by burning them alive. 

Now remember, all these events we've read about so far—we've skipped over a lot of them—occurred some twenty years before Samson ever met Delilah. This is all Samson before Delilah. In the book of Judges here, there are many more stories of Samson using his superhuman strength to antagonize the Philistines. And we won't cover them all here today. But it appears he thought he could get away with not treating his Nazarite vows seriously. And carried along by passions of the moment, he forgot that actions always have consequences. The consequences may not be immediate—they may not be for twenty more years, right? But they are sure and certain nonetheless. Because it was two decades before Samson was finally entirely undone. But the stage was set in those vineyards of Timna. 

And so twenty years later, Samson met Delilah. And then came the final blow. And his life ended in ruin. 

And so it can be with us. Marriage doesn't just fall apart. It's slowly undermined over a span of time. Ethical violations in the workplace begin with small indiscretions. And then we get demoted, or lose our job completely. We must stay close to God to avoid sin and its consequences. And if we don't stay close to God and avoid the warning signs of sin, we will eventually fall. 

Most people don't wake up in the morning and think, "I think I'm going to have an affair today." No, it happens gradually in stages—one lapse leading to another in a chain reaction. So it's vital that we stay close to God. 

Remember James 4, verses 7 and 8 "Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded"  

A very important passage in James about staying close to God in order to resist sin. So you would think that somewhere along the way, Samson would have learned his lesson. Sadly, though, his disappointing experiences with the Philistines only deepened the pattern of rebellion in his life, exacerbating the cracks in his character. He claimed belief in God. He had the outward appearance of a Nazarite. But he didn't act like it. He wasn't close to God, and he wasn't living a holy life. His actions had already made a mockery of his confession as a Nazarite. And before long then, his life was to be reduced to ruin. 

By the time he had his infamous encounter with the temptress Delilah, he had reinforced his bad habits for many years. And during that time, Samson's character become damaged—so weakened by secret sins that he was eventually unable to stop himself, even in the face of obvious danger. He became a slave to his sins. And you can read about some of those sins in the intervening chapters of Judges, chapters 15 and 16, if you want to read the whole story and some of the other things he did. Some of these include prostitution, touching more dead animals—unclean animals—and generally relying on himself instead of recognizing his superhuman strength actually came from God. Samson physically wasn't any different than any other person. His superhuman strength came from God. 

This leads up to our fourth point Don't become enticed by sin.

Don't become enticed. That leads us to Judges chapter 16 here. We skipped over a few stories. 

Judges 16:4-6: 

"Afterward it happened that he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, 'Entice him, and find out where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to afflict him; and every one of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver. So Delilah said to Samson, 'Please tell me where your great strength lies, and with what you may be bound to afflict you'" 

So up to this time, Samson had been a thorn to the dreaded Philistines. He disrupted their reign of terror among the people of Israel and became a champion of freedom. But now they saw an opportunity to exploit his obvious weakness for beautiful women. So apparently Samson still had some of his wits about him, so he lied to her. Delilah, intent on her betrayal, proceeded to do what he said and bound him while he slept. But when his attackers came out from behind the curtains in the bedchamber to pounce on him, Samson surprised them all—tearing off the bowstrings—and then furiously beat them. 

Strangely, Samson failed to learn from this betrayal and narrow escape. He was so smitten by his attraction to Delilah that he remained captive to her affections. And in a very real sense here, as we read the rest of the story, Samson went from dumb to dumber—without a doubt. Just as we can do when we become captive to temptation. 

So undeterred, Delilah pressed her ploy further. And even though Samson knew he was toying with disaster, he kept his wits about him and deceived his lover. And once again, Delilah called the Philistines out of hiding. And once again, Samson defeated them decisively. 

Then next, notice verse 13: 

"Delilah said to Samson, 'Until now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me what you may be bound with.' And he said to her, 'If you weave the seven locks of my head into the web of the loom'"  

So Samson here is weakened. On this third attempt, he came so close to telling her the truth about his hair. He'd become so overconfident that he thought he could just about get away with anything. This is what ongoing sin does to us. We think there won't be consequences.  

So verse 15: 

"Then she said to him, 'How can you say, "I love you," when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and have not told me where your great strength lies'"  

And of course, that's one of the oldest clichés in the book, right? "How can you say I love you and then do this to me?" And so like many men before, and so many since, Samson fell for it. Delilah pestered until finally his resistance was worn down, and he relented. And it's remarkable that in spite of knowing what Delilah was up to, Samson actually told her the truth. 

Judges 16:16-17 "It came to pass, when she pestered him daily with her words and pressed him so that his soul was vexed to death, that he told her all his heart, and said to her, 'No razor has ever come upon my head, for I have been a Nazarite 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'"  

So here now, even in the midst of his collapse, Samson could still articulate the truth. He still understood the essence and significance of his calling—even though he had squandered it, actually, throughout his life. He could still speak the truth. But that night, he was made to look like a fool. 

And I suppose many of us can speak the truth, but we also have to live it, right? So that night, Delilah cut away his long Nazarite braids, and the final remnant of his righteous commitment as a Nazarite was gone from his life. Samson was not close to God. He disrespected his Nazarite vows, and now he finally—twenty years later—paid the penalty for it. The Philistines took him. They put out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza. They bound him with bronze fetters, and he became a grinder in the prison. 

Overpowered and blinded by the Philistines, he was forced to grind wheat. Some Bible scholars say he was harnessed to a grinding stone like an animal, as a beast of burden. For years, he had flaunted his power over his enemies. And now his enemies flaunted their power over him. While he was forced to live out his final days like an ox—like an animal—his humiliation was complete. And for their parties, the Philistines would bring him out and mock his God. "Where is your God now, Samson?" 

Samson lost his strength. He lost his sight. He lost his freedom. He lost his usefulness. He lost his reputation as a Nazarite. He lost everything. 

But it didn't just suddenly happen. It was preceded by years of moral failings—a pattern of sin and trouble. 

There is always a sacrifice before the promise. Timnah. Timnah was a philistine occupied territory. Samson made all the wrong moves but the spirit of God was still with him. This disaster of Samson’s life was a process over 20 years. It was one after another after another that led to his downfall. Samson couldn’t get his sin under control so it became in control of his life.  

Judges 16:20-22 

Then she cried out, “Samson! The Philistines have come to capture you!” When he woke up, he thought, “I will do as before and shake myself free.” But he didn’t realize the LORD had left him. So the Philistines captured him and gouged out his eyes. They took him to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze chains and forced to grind grain in the prison. But before long, his hair began to grow back. 

His choices became his chains. You may be able to get away with it for a while but eventually, your sin will find you out.  If you are here and you realize you are in chains and you feel helpless. Remember this isn’t the end of his story. IT’S GROWING AGAIN!  God will renew you. You know what it is. I want to make it right. You are Samson in the story but you are not Samson in the moment. It’s not on you to shake yourself free but to trust the one who put his arms out for you! Jesus accomplished more in His than you could in a million lifetimes. Do not waste your life trying to accomplish what His death already did for you. Freedom is yours, liberty is yours. God didn’t send a condemner he sent a Savior. Don’t let your choices become your chains.  

Four ways we can avoid sin. 

• 1. Avoid the situation that precedes the sin 
  
• 2. Replace wrong actions with righteous actions 
  
• 3. Stay close to God  
  
• 4. Don't become enticed by sin