ENTANGLEMENTS.

When What’s Close Becomes Costly.

Judges 16:4-21 [NIV]

3 Things We Can Learn From Samson’s  Entanglement.

1. Stop Letting The Wrong Person Get Close.

4 He fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. 5 The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, “See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him.”

Judges 16:4-5 [NIV]

20 Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm.

Proverbs 13:20 [NIV]

33 Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”

1 Corinthians 15:33 [NIV]

26 One who is righteous is a guide to his neighbor, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.

Proverbs 12:26 [ESV]

8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.

Romans 13:8 [NIV]

4 As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods…

1 Kings 11:4 [NIV]

4 No soldier in active service gets entangled in the [ordinary business] affairs of civilian life; [he avoids them] so that he may please the one who enlisted him to serve.

2 Timothy 2:4 [AMP]

11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

1 Thessalonians 5:11 [NIV]

2. Stop Living In Compromise.

16 With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was sick to death of it.

Judges 16:16 [NIV]

1 Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine woman. 2 He said to his father and mother, “I have seen a Philistine woman; now get her for me as my wife.”... 10 Now his father went down to see the woman. And there Samson held a feast…

Judges 14:1-2, 10 [NIV]

8 He turned aside to look at the lion’s carcass, and in it he saw a swarm of bees and some honey. 9 He scooped out the honey with his hands and ate. When he rejoined his parents, he gave them some, and they too ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion’s [dead] carcass.

Judges 14:8-9 [NIV]

5 [Paul said,] “Hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.”

1 Corinthians 5:5 [NIV]

16 “There are six things the Lord hates…19 a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.”

Proverbs 6:16 [NIV]

13 A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy person keeps a secret.

Proverbs 11:13 [NIV]

1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

Galatians 5:1 [NKJV]

3. Let Grace Have The Final Word.

21 Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding grain in the prison.

Judges 16:21 [NIV]

22 But the hair on his head began to grow again… 

Judges 16:22 [NIV]

28 Then Samson prayed to the Lord, “Sovereign Lord, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more…”

Judges 16:28 [NIV]

7 When a tree is chopped down, there is always the hope that it will sprout again. 8 Its roots and stump may rot, 9 but at the touch of water, it sprouts once again.

Job 14:7-9 [CEV]