One Minute Bible
52 Week Curriculum
Living Up to Your Potential
Samson
Objectives
- To explain and illustrate how compromise kept Samson from living up to his potential.
- To learn from Samson’s mistakes and build a solid foundation that will help us reach our potential.
Overview
The physical and the spiritual will war against each other until Jesus comes back. They can’t help it. They’re diametrically opposed to each other yet inseparably attached like Siamese twins. They’re joined in you, in me, and in the world we live in.
The Bible describes the inevitable, perpetual battle in various ways. It’s flesh versus spirit. Mammon versus God. Pleasure versus discipline. Sin versus sanctification. The temporal versus the eternal.
And usually the bigger twin wins. That’s why it’s not so surprising that Samson failed miserably at being a godly leader. His physical twin was just too huge! People who are blessed with tremendous physical gifts like talent, beauty, and money just don’t need the spiritual life like the rest of us do.
Think about it. After Jesus’ encounter with the rich young man, what did he say? “It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” Why? Because the rich man can buy everything he needs...everything physical, that is. And with power like that, who needs God? The rich man doesn’t need grace. If anything, he dispenses it. In the same way, those who have it all when it comes to looks, strength, and talent tend to get caught up in worldly pursuits. The world worships people like that! It bows to the big and beautiful. It’s their oyster.
So Samson was faced with a difficult battle right from the start. To live up to his potential he would need to be especially disciplined and God-centered. Otherwise, his physical gifts would overpower his spiritual progress, making him self-centered and worldly.
I think that’s why God said Samson was to take the Nazarite vow. He was to adhere strictly to Jewish kosher laws. His hair was never to be cut as a sign of his unique calling from God. He was to have nothing to do with fermented drink and the physical pleasures that accompany it. Samson was to be a spiritual man like few others.
Unfortunately, Samson was a worldly man like most others. From his youth he began breaking his vows and allowing his physical persona to dictate the course of his life. God still used Samson, even when he sinned; but not like he might have, had Samson resisted the urge to compromise.
“Physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise
for both the present life and the life to come.” 1 Timothy 4:8
Outline
This outline highlights the spiritual compromises of Samson’s life. Each one closely parallels a similar situation in many kids’ lives today. These compromises need to be avoided if we are to live up to our God-given potential.
Four Things that Short-circuit Our Potential
1.Irreverence toward our Parents -- Judges 14:1-4
Like so many of the unique and special kids in the Bible, Samson’s birth was announced by a heavenly messenger. That puts Samson in the company of men like Isaac, Jacob, Samuel, John the Baptist, and Jesus. That also put his parents in the company of people like Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Hannah, Elizabeth, and Mary and Joseph. Those are some pretty special names! Samson’s parents seemed to have lived up to this special calling. When the Lord appeared to them in Judges 13, they had been very careful to find out exactly how the boy was to live and work (13:12). But as a young man, Samson disregarded their godly input...first by seeking a Philistine wife. That was in direct disobedience to the command of the Lord, not just for Samson, but for all Israel. Judges 14:4 indicates that God would still use Samson in his disobedience, but Samson was still responsible for his actions. Disobeying our parents almost always has harsh spiritual effects. In the 10 Commandments, God said that honoring our parents was one key to a long and successful life. That’s a statement of our potential...a potential that is short-circuited by rebellion, disrespect, and irreverence.
2.Indifference in our Spiritual Lives -- Judges 14:8-9
This one little instance of scooping honey out of a lion’s carcass show the casualness of Samson’s spiritual life. This was a violation of his Nazarite vow! Sure, it seems small and insignificant, but spiritual compromise usually starts that way. Soon, Samson’s indifference to his vow grew. He partied with the Philistines, slept with a prostitute, and allowed his hair to be shaven. The hair was the “last straw.” It was the last part of his vow to be broken and the Lord left him. And Samson didn’t even know it at first! Samson’s let us eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die attitude was his undoing. We’re subject to the same consequences if we’re casual and indifferent in our spiritual lives.
3.Ill-advised Choices in our Friends -- Judges 14:10-11; 16:1-22
Samson was always fraternizing with the enemy. God had long ago passed judgment on the Philistines. Israel was to wipe them out, not hang out with them. Yet Samson continued to associate with these people. On his wedding night, he partied with 30 Philistine companions. Later he spent a night with a Philistine prostitute. Finally he fell in love with,and ultimately fell to a Philistine woman named Delilah.
Samson lost sight of the age-old fact that “Bad company always corrupts good morals.” 1 Cor. 15:33
4.Inferior Motives Behind our Actions -- Judges 14:9, 15:11
Samson never seemed to act as a godly man carrying out the business of God. Instead, he acted like a vengeful, spiteful jerk working from his own twisted motives. Notice these phrases:
Burning with anger...Judges 14:19 I won’t stop until I get my revenge...15:7
This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them...15:3
He attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them...15:8I merely did what they did to me...15:11
Inferior motives do not always keep God from using us. He still used Samson although in a lesser way.And even Paul said that some preach Christ from wrong motives...but people still get saved (Phil. 1:17-18). But impure, inferior motives always short-circuit our potential and rob us of God’s greatest blessing.
Discussion Guide
Open
- What does the word potential mean to you?
- Who are the people in your life who use this word the most?
- If you could achieve your potential and be your best in any one thing, what would it be?
- How do our spiritual priorities and potential mesh with our more worldly and physical potentials? Do you think they compliment each other? Oppose each other? (Explain).
Dig In
1.Transition into your study by highlighting the tension between what we want to be physically in this world and what God wants us to be spiritually. Generally, our temporary worldly potential fights against our spiritual potential. Few people in the Bible illustrate this better than Samson.
- Tell the story in detail. Better yet, if you have time read the whole story from
Judges 13-16.
3.Discuss the story:
- What do you see as the fatal flaws in Samson’s life that led to his downfall?
(If students don’t catch on, give them these categories and ask how Samson failed in each one: parents, friends, spiritual life, attitudes).
- How do you think Samson’s physical strength changed him? Did being “a stud” help him or hurt him?
- How do the big, bold, beautiful people today struggle with the same things?
- Why do extraordinary physical gifts--our seemingly greatest strengths--so often turn into our biggest weaknesses?
- If Samson had been a more spiritual, godly man, how would his life have gone differently?
4.Summarize your study by sharing the principles from the teaching outline.
Close
1.Do you have any gifts or goals that have gotten the best of you? How?
2.What changes do you think we need to make so that we will live up to our spiritual potential?
3.1 Timothy 4:8 says, “Physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” How does that fact summarize the point of this study?
Week 28 - Page 1