GYC Great Lakes 2011

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GYC Great Lakes

Alex Rodriguez

Be Careful What You Ask For

This is the fourth presentation then, 4 of 6 presentations.

And we're dealing with, like I said, a very difficult text.

And we're going to get into that text here in just a minute.

But before we do, Let me have a word of prayer with you guys and we'll get started.

Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, I thank you again for your blessing.

And I pray, Lord, that as we look at this, that you will shed on us the light that we need to have.

Help us to understand why this is in the Bible and how it applies to us relationally.

I pray that you will give us guidance, that your angels will be here, and that you'll open our hearts and minds to the Word of God.

And once again, Father, I ask that you speak through me in Jesus name.

Amen Now the same group that was here last night or yesterday afternoon is not here, so I'm going to skip Actually, I'm going to go ahead and do it for the recording.

Yesterday we had talked about Samson, And in the story of Samson, when Samson goes to Timna, if you remember the story, Samson goes to Timna.

He finds a woman that he's very attracted to in Timna.

And he wants to be married to this woman.

And the question that we first asked yesterday was what is Samson doing in Timna in the first place?

Because Timna is not a city of God's people.

So the fact that Samson is in Timnah is itself a huge problem.

We skipped from verse 3 and we jumped right over to another section which was in chapter 16.

Actually, if you have your Bibles, you can turn with me.

Judges chapter 14, you see where we begin the story there.

It says, Now Samson went down to Timnah and saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines.

So he went up and told his father and mother, saying, I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines.

Then his father and mother said to him, is there no woman among the daughters of your brethren among all my people that you must go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?

And Samson said to his father, get her for me, for she pleases me well.

So what we talked about yesterday evening was this issue of pleasing me well, this issue of allowing our eyes to give us the desires that we want.

We're trying to fill our lives with the things that we see and we fast forwarded all the way to the end of the lecture we talked about how it's not until Samson gets his eyes plucked out that he can finally actually see.

He had an eye problem at the beginning because he's focused on the things that he can see and it's not until the end, I mean, to bring him back into relationship with Christ He had to get his eyes taken out And I wonder how many of us have to do the same thing now.

Don't go out and take your eyes out, but spiritually We're blinded by the things that we see and we're attracted to these things and we're saying it pleases me well.

When we're talking about relationships, whether we're looking at a young lady or looking at a man, we typically go for what?

And if they don't look good enough, then many times, many of us write them off.

And this is why the Bible says God says that he looks at what?

Does he look at the outward appearance or the inward appearance?

Now, there was a gentleman here in the group yesterday that asked me why I was skipping from verse 3 to chapter 16 and why I was not looking at verse 4.

And encouraging me to look at verse 4 and I think we need to, I appreciate his comments.

So I talked a little bit about verse 4 yesterday but I wanted to start off with verse 4 before we got into today's lecture.

And a lot of it is really for the recording because in the recording they'll end listening to the last 1 and they can start listening to this portion.

So bear with me here, although you weren't in here yesterday.

It says, verse 4, But his father and mother did not know that it was of the Lord, that he was seeking an occasion to move against the Philistines, for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.

And the question is, that issue pertaining that it was of the Lord.

And so the thought is, okay, so it sounds like the Lord moved on Samson so that he would go to Timnah, find a wife that was not a Christian, if you will back then, it's the equivalent of God's people now, but find a person that was not God's people and marry that and it was the Lord's doing.

Do you think that the Lord moved on Samson to go find himself a Philistine wife that does not believe in God?

If you look throughout the Bible, it's constantly telling you that do not get a wife or a husband, do not get someone that doesn't believe in God.

So why would the Bible say that God moved on him or it was God that did this.

Could it be for the same reason that the Bible talks about God hardened Pharaoh's heart?

That's an example that we talked about yesterday where God hardened Pharaoh's heart, the Bible says.

It is Satan who was hardening the heart of Pharaoh.

You see, the gospel message, and I don't want to deviate too far, or I'll preach on this, but the gospel message is divisive in its very nature.

The Bible is divisive in its very nature.

It's going to separate the camp into 2 camps, either going to put it in God's camp or gonna put it in Satan's camp.

And so this is what the Bible is dealing with when it says, harden Pharaoh's heart.

It's just simply that truth came upon Pharaoh, and when truth came upon Pharaoh, he had to make a decision which side he was on.

And he was choosing Satan's side, thus hardening his heart.

We have a very similar example here in Judges chapter 14, that Samson is choosing against the will of God.

God is not moving on Samson and saying, I think it would be good for you, the leader of Israel, the chosen judge who is supposed to free the nation from the Philistines, I think it would be good for you to go ahead and get married to a Philistine.

But what you got to think about is the tenor of Samson's life.

And to sort of close this lecture and then get started on the next 1, I want to read to you something that will put into perspective the tenor of Samson's life.

It says, Had Samson as faithfully obeyed the divine command as his parents had done, his would have been a nobler and happier destiny.

But he became corrupted by association with idolaters.

The inheritance of the tribe of Dan to which Manoa's family belonged was adjacent to the country of the Philistines.

In other words, they lived right next to the Philistine city, the Philistine country.

Indeed, the little town of Zora, which was Samson's early home, was in close proximity to the dwelling places of the alien race.

And in his youth, don't miss this, and in his youth he came to mingle with them on friendly terms.

Samson, Did he all of a sudden grow up and say, there's Timnah, I think I'll go there.

He, as a youth, began to go into the cities of the Philistines.

And when you start going into the territory of the devil, of Satan, it becomes easier and easier to go back.

And it becomes harder and harder to stay away.

This is what's happening in Samson's life.

A young woman dwelling in the Philistine town of Timna so engaged Samson's affections that he determined to make her his wife.

In those days marriages were arranged by the parents, hence Samson requested his father and mother to secure him for this, secure for him this daughter of the Philistines.

Manoah and his wife sought to dissuade the young man from his purpose.

They warned him of the danger of forming an alliance with idolaters and besought him to seek a wife among his own people.

But arguments and entreaties were alike in vain.

Be Careful What You Ask For

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