Unlimited Potential (Young)

Watching someone drawing a picture is fascinating because the observer can see the potential of the canvas. That's kind of like the potential God sees in us. At http://www.fellowshipchurch.com/currentseries, Ed Young talks about how, every Sunday, three people show up in each chair of Ed's church; one is each person as they are, the second is what each person could be if they were obedient to God and the third person is each person as they would be disobedient to God. Sampson means "sunshine" or "light". Sampson was arguably the strongest man in many ways besides strength. People enjoyed his company, he was spiritually strong and he was mentally strong. Sampson's parents were spiritual supporters and Sampson had taken the Nazarite vow. Sampson had HUGE potential. When he was young, Ed found a snake and everyone thought it was poisonous. But Ed thought the snake wasn't poisonous, he put on a glove and reached in, in front of his friends, and picked up the snake even though his parents expressly told him not to handle it. Although Ed was right about the snake not being poisonous, he was proven wrong in not erring to caution when the snake bit him. If you make a pet out of sin or a befriend sin, "WHOP", it will get you. Sampson was risking everything by toying with sin when he went down to the Philistine town of Timnath. It was a pagan town and Sampson was disregarding everything that he knew about his faith. He sees a woman he wants and tells his parents to get her for him. But his parents knew that this was not of the Lord. Then Sampson went back to Timnath, but doesn't tell his parents where he has gone. He, of course, has gone again to see this woman. Sampson's plight against the Philistines began so small but ended so large. He wasn't leading Israel at all, this was all about Sampson!! Things progressively got worse and all along the way, he left a path of destruction. It didn't work out with the woman from Timnath (the Philistines killed her and her father), but Sampson continued to associate himself with the land even though he had so many run-ins with the men there. At one point, he even defeated 1,000 soldiers. His ultimate downfall, of course, was when he met the temple prostitute, Delilah. The Philistines pay her to nag him until he finally tells her the secret of his strength, his hair. This is truly a great tragedy of the Bible when he awakens in Judges 16:20. This was a guy who was raised on the principles of God, who became proud and thought he could resist the power of sin. But once he was finally captured, once his eyes were gouged out and once he was placed as a slave to grind food for the Philistines, Sampson finally realized what he had done to God and to himself. It was a sad time. But God didn't leave him. Over time, and it may have been a long period of time, his hair finally grew back, unnoticed by the Philistines. Then, one evening when the Philistines were celebrating the day of their God, they brought out Sampson to show how their god had "defeated" Sampson's God by defeating God's Sampson. BUT IT WAS SAMPSON WHO DEFEATED SAMPSON. We know the end of the story. Sampson pleads with God and says, "Remember me just this once" and pushes apart the temple columns, killing more people than he's killed over his entire life. Can you imagine what a magnificent leader Sampson could have been? Ephesians 5:14 begs us to wake up from our disobedience and to recognize who we are in Christ. God can accomplish so much through us if we just remain close to Him. Don't give up. Don't compromise. Realize that God holds much in store for us.

Created about 4 years ago