Heroes of the Faith, Part 5Sample

The Details

Bible story: Samson - Judges 13:1-25, 14:5-6, 15:9-20, 16:2-31

Theme Verse: Hebrews 4:16

Today we will learn of a very unusual hero. One day an angel of God came to a couple who had no children and told them they would have a son. He would be a Nazarite, dedicated to God with a special promise. He was not supposed to touch wine, any dead body, or cut his hair for his whole life.

The Nazarite promise is just a picture of our lives with God, not something we do today because Jesus has fulfilled the law. But God has not changed, and He still pays attention to the details. As long as Samson kept the promise, God gave him supernatural strength.

One day, a lion jumped out to attack him, and he tore the lion apart with his bare hands! Another time, the Israelites handed him over to the Philistines. Samson snapped the brand-new ropes off his hands, grabbed a jawbone and killed 1000 Philistines all by himself! Another time, the Philistines surrounded the city. Samson tore the city gates and bars off the wall and carried them to the top of a hill. There was nothing the Philistines could do to overcome Samson’s strength.

In the same way, we have God’s power inside of us and our enemy, the devil, can’t win. Later Samson fell in love with a Philistine woman named Delilah. She tricked him to tell her the secret of his strength until he told her about his hair. When she cut his hair, his strength was gone! The Philistines captured, blinded and imprisoned him.

God pays attention to detail. In our lives, we could attend church but not pay attention. It could be a grudge against someone. Whatever it is, you cannot hide anything from God. When you find what it is, repent of it, and God will give you your strength back.

After a while, Samson’s hair grew back. At a huge festival, the Philistines brought out Samson to mock him. He asked God to give him strength one last time, pushed against the two main columns of the temple, and the whole building collapsed. He killed more Philistines in death than in his whole life. In the same way, Jesus walked on earth in God’s power – no one could stop him. Though Samson committed a whole lot of mistakes, Jesus never sinned even once. Like Samson, Jesus won against sin and the devil with the strongest blow when He died on the cross and rose again.

Because of Jesus, we have grace for when we make all kinds of mistakes like Samson. Jesus is with us and will teach us how to live for Him, and often following Him means paying attention to detail.

I will follow God in the details.

Questions:

1. Can I do things my way?

2. Good people go to heaven, don’t they?

3. Why should I trust God?

Application to life:

Your homework this week is to pay attention to the details of life. Are you obeying your parents? Are you getting along well with people? Have you forgiven everyone? Is there something you are hiding from your authorities? Choose a detail that you are missing, ask God for forgiveness and ask Him for help, confess it to someone, then repent of it. Be careful to do the right thing with that detail for the rest of the week.