Outline // Sunday School #12: Samson & Delilah

Samson's problem: His eyes

1 Corinthians 6:18-20
Judges 16:4-22

God can use us in our weaknesses.

We only believe the enemy's lies as long as we WANT to.

Judges 16:21-31

Our takeaways:

• Our culture is also ruled by our eyes. (pornography, food, materialism, etc)
• We're also spiritually weak, and it's making us physically weak.
• We're handing the enemy victory after victory.
• But God redeems!

Pornography is the enemy’s camp.
Sex outside of marriage between one man and one woman is the enemy’s camp.
Gossip is the enemy’s camp.
Addiction - drugs, alcohol, sex, food, workaholism, all the enemy’s camp.
Witchcraft! - new age practices.  Believing more in a crystal than the bible! 

Disobedience of any kind. Sin separates you from God. It puts you in the danger zone for the enemy to know your strengths, and how to break them.

The good news of Samson’s story is the same message many of us sing to our children: we are weak, but God is strong.

Though Samson spent his life in the enemy’s camp….pursuing other gods, in the end he at LEAST acknowledged the source of his strength: “God . . . please strengthen me,” and he became strong again (Judg. 16:28). 

He called on the name of the Lord.

Samson is named in Hebrews as an example of those who “through faith . . . were made strong out of weakness” (Heb. 11:33–34). In the same way, all those who acknowledge their weakness and put their hope in Jesus will be saved, and will find their strength restored.

Through Samson's story, I am forced to remember that: 

1. God can do what HE wants, because He is sovereign and not bound by MY ideas of who He should be. 
2. Sometimes God uses flawed people not for their own sake, but for the sake of the people they are serving.  (That can be a hard pill to swallow, but it’s true.  He uses us in our weakness for the sake of others.)
3. I am also flawed!!

 
If there's anything good to be learned from Samson's example, let's remember:
1. Samson fought.
2. He cried to the lord in his most desperate moments.

Candace's fast:
First 40 days: 

• Fast one full day a week (36 hours really), no food, just water, and one cup of coffee. 
• The other 6 days: no bread or candy, and limit ALL portions of food to half of what you would normally eat

After that:

• Alternate Day Fasting. One day, "fast", next day, "feast", repeat!
• Fast day: 
  • one cup of coffee with cream in the morning, 
  • 1 piece of fruit around lunchtime (something that you eat with the skin on, i.e. 1 apple, a handful of blueberries, strawberries, etc.  Not citris, banana, etc)
  • 1 piece of protein for dinner or before bed (the idea here being that you don't have to go to bed hungry.  1 piece of grilled chicken, a protein bar, a couple eggs, etc)
• Feast day:
  • Eat whatever you want, just avoid full sugar soda, alcohol, and over doing it!  You'll find that your cravings, taste buds, and everything sort of changes the longer you do this!