We started out by looking at God’s holiness and then expanded that by discussing how we can’t be holy if we don’t respect our parents and those in authority over us. In this session we studied the life of Samson to see how strange it was. We also looked at how Samson lived disregarding God’s call to live a holy life and paid the penalty for it.
First we divided the group into teams of 2 or 3. We passed out the team assignments and, using a Bible and a pen, the groups were each asked to complete their assignments (which were different questions based on the life of Samson in Judges 13-16). The teams had 8-10 minutes to finish their assignments. After they finished, we called on the teams in order and asked them the questions on their sheet. By the end, everyone had a quick but pretty complete overview of the life of Samson.
As you can see, Samson was a man who was driven by his passions. He let his emotions and immediate pleasures control his life. He was a sucker for pretty women and they eventually led to his downfall. Samson didn’t pursue God’s holiness and because of that he never lead the Israelites to freedom from the Philistines. That is, of course, until at the end of his life when God listened to his prayer and used him to liberate the Israelites from the Philistines.
Most teenagers (most people actually) live their lives like Samson. They are controlled by their emotions and live life for the moment rather than following the ways of God. Because of this they often end up hurting or broken and wondering if they can still be used by God. The story of Samson shows that God can use anyone, and that He is a God who offers second chances.
We had a great time of discussion then.
- What would you see as some lessons for your life that you can learn from this story? (Stop and think before you act. Don’t take God’s gifts for granted, etc...)
- What can you take home and do differently this week because you looked at the life of Samson? ("I will make an effort to control my emotions.""I will give God credit for the blessings in my life." "I will ask God for strength to stay away from places I know I shouldn't go.")
- Do you think that most of the time you control your emotions or they control you?
- Have you ever acted out of your desire for immediate pleasure or out of your emotions and gotten in trouble for it?
You are powerful. You have the spirit of the living God inside of you, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is the power that God gives to you. The question is are you going to use that power to help change the world or are you just going to be controlled by your whims and immediate desires like Samson? What will be your choice this week?
For our object lesson, we used a magnet, a piece of iron labeled sin, and several large nails. Magnets are like people. My magnet is strong and attracts anything made from iron. It can easily lift these large nails. It reminds us of how our lives change when Jesus comes into our hearts. He makes us clean inside so that we want to love and serve Him. And this attracts other people to Jesus.
Samson had great strength and when the Philistine enemies of Israel captured him on several occasions, he was able to overcome them easily. His strength came from God and if he had been wise, he would have realized that God could only work through him while he lived a clean and pure life that would honor God every day.
However, there came a time when sin came into his life. It's like taking this piece of iron labelled "SIN" and putting it over the ends of the magnet. Now the magnet has lost its strength and can't pick up the nails anymore.
One day Samson sinned by telling Delilah that his strength lay in keeping his hair long and uncut. She was delighted and had a man shave off all his hair while he lay asleep. On waking, Samson didn't know that the strength God had given him was gone. The Philistines jumped out of hiding and grabbed Samson and easily overpowered him. They blinded him and then bound him with bronze chains and made him their slave!
Just as my magnet is now powerless to do the things it once did, Samson could no longer do the great deeds he once did. It's the same with us today. We need to pray to Jesus each day and trust Him to lead, guide and strengthen us, so that we can keep sin out of our lives. And then we will be able to serve God and do great things for Him. But, if we allow sin to come into our lives, we will become too weak and powerless to serve God!
Great visual! And, as customary, we ended with a little humor and a YouTube. This one by Tim Hawkins, who so eloquently (NOT!) tells his version of the Samson and Delilah story through song.
