Message Notes:

Judges 15:19-20 Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived. So the spring was called En Hakkore, and it is still there in Lehi. Samson led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.

· Samson didn’t ruin his life all at once. He ruined it one step at a time.

Judges 16:1-2 One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a

prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her. The people of

Gaza were told, "Samson is here!" So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They made no move

during the night, saying, "At dawn we'll kill him."

Samson’s Small Steps Toward His Big Destruction

1. Samson taunted his enemy.

Judges 16:3 But Samson lay there only until the middle of the night. Then he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He lifted them to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.

1 Corinthians 10:12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!

2. Samson rationalized the same old sin.

Judges 16:4 Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah.

Judges 16:5 The rulers of the Philistines went to [Delilah] and said, "See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him...”

Judges 16:15-16 Then she said to him, "How can you say, 'I love you,' when you won't confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven't told me the secret of your great strength." With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was tired to death.

Judges 16:19 Having put him to sleep on her lap, she called a man to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him. And his strength left him.

3. Samson assumed his disobedience would never cost him.

Judges 16:20-21 Then she called, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" He awoke from his sleep and thought, "I'll go out as before and shake myself free." But he did not know that the Lord had left him. 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.

Judges 16:22 But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.

If you’re stepping away from God, what should you do? You should turn around! When you turn around who will be right there waiting for you? Your God! He is that good.

Response Time:

Where are you stepping away from God?