Samson
About this sermon
In “Samson,” Pastor Dean Odle presents a Scripture-centered message about Samson’s life, faith, prayer. Drawing especially from Ephesians 5, Galatians 5, Jeremiah 1, Judges 13, the teaching emphasizes that Samson’s calling and failures illustrate the tension between spiritual gifting, appetite, and obedience. Odle connects that foundation with the conviction that biblical faith trusts God’s character and acts upon His promises.
Chronological teaching outline
Select a section heading to play the sermon from that moment.
Odle focuses on Samson’s life while working through Ephesians 5. The message argues that Samson’s calling and failures illustrate the tension between spiritual gifting, appetite, and obedience. It connects this with the conviction that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise. The practical emphasis is to test the teaching by Scripture and apply it through faithful obedience.
Odle focuses on faith while working through Galatians 5. The message argues that biblical faith trusts God’s character and acts upon His promises. It connects this with the conviction that spiritual anointing is given for service and must remain joined to character and obedience. The practical emphasis is to trust God’s promises and refuse decisions governed by fear.
Odle focuses on family discipleship while working through Jeremiah 1, Judges 13, Judges 16. The message argues that faithfulness in the home requires instruction, loving correction, protection, and a consistent Christian example. It connects this with the conviction that Samson’s calling and failures illustrate the tension between spiritual gifting, appetite, and obedience. The practical emphasis is to test the teaching by Scripture and apply it through faithful obedience.
Odle focuses on Samson’s life. The message argues that Samson’s calling and failures illustrate the tension between spiritual gifting, appetite, and obedience. It connects this with the conviction that the sermon relates Israel’s place in Scripture to the unfolding prophetic picture. The practical emphasis is to practice patient, truthful love in relationships and conflict.
Odle focuses on salvation. The message argues that salvation is presented as God’s work in Christ that produces a changed life and continuing faith. It connects this with the conviction that the inner life must be healed, guarded, and brought under the truth of God’s word. The practical emphasis is to test the teaching by Scripture and apply it through faithful obedience.
Odle focuses on Samson’s life. The message argues that Samson’s calling and failures illustrate the tension between spiritual gifting, appetite, and obedience. It connects this with the conviction that Satan’s work is described through deception, accusation, temptation, and opposition to God’s purposes. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
Odle focuses on prayer. The message argues that prayer expresses dependence on God and prepares believers to hear and obey Him. It connects this with the conviction that thankfulness remembers God’s mercy and guards the heart from entitlement and complaint. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
Odle focuses on the soulish life while working through Romans 7, Romans 8. The message argues that natural emotion and self-directed reasoning must yield to the Holy Spirit and the mind of Christ. It connects this with the conviction that biblical faith trusts God’s character and acts upon His promises. The practical emphasis is to trust God’s promises and refuse decisions governed by fear.
Open each passage and read it in its complete biblical context.
Read and follow along
Read representative excerpts here, or open the complete indexable transcript to search every timestamped section.
Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
- 0:00:00
to the book of judges i know that's odd i rarely preach from the book of judges of course i've alluded to things but the lord is bringing this to my attention and he brought it to my attention last night um let me just see where i want to go first because i don't want to read the whole story this morning that can be for your homework if you want to go back and read the whole story but it's the story of samson in the bible and to me um samson uh samson's story there's a lot of great victories in his life and there's a lot of great defeats and sadness in his life but i think as i was looking at this last night and praying about it this morning i think the lord was just speaking to me speaking to me a word of encouragement prayer for me personally and as well as um i think it's going to be some encouragement for some people that are in the church that have been in the church for and when i say church this morning i mean in a broad in the broad sense because you know what all of us have struggled as christians with our flesh and with sin um you know even though i preach we should live holy lives and obey god and that god's going to hold us accountable i do know very well that christians struggle with the flesh and with temptation and with sin in their lives and some of them make a big mess of it um thank god that there is uh mercy with him and there is patience with him if we go to him and confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness but i guess what i'm feeling today is that really you know i i got into another long debate on facebook this past couple of days uh about the once saved always saved issue and i'm just seeing that there is just a total lack of understanding about sin and about what god is okay with and what he's not okay with and what will separate you from him or what won't separate you from him but it's amazing it just seems like people who really cling to the once saved always saved theology and belief system tend to just make excuses for sin and it it's it's really pretty sickening i mean like this guy even argued well you know teenagers got their hormones raging they can't help but live in the fornication well guess what i don't care whether teenagers have their hormones raging or you know 45 46 year old men it's not the issue you see what i'm saying god wants us to control ourselves we're not animals and he's given us not only a will to be able to do it
- 0:03:00
but he's given us if we're born again he's given us his holy spirit within us to give us the strength to resist temptation and to live for him now again i'm not saying we will always do that perfectly but as i've said many many times in here that you know sins like that sins like adultery or like fornication or lust or pornography or um lying or you know those sins that the bible specifically spells out that if you practice these sins you will not inherit the kingdom of god now when we say those those sins will they be in the lives of christians sometimes yes but what did the apostle paul say in ephesians 5 he said those sins should not be once named among you now paul knew that there would be some but again this is something that we need to get let it sink down into our spirit the carnal christian will not inherit the kingdom of god and there have been a lot of christians and there are a lot of christians right now who started out right like samson did they started out right they had a call from god on their lives they had the anointing of the holy spirit they had the strength of the holy spirit they had the boldness they were doing what god wanted them to do but they let something get them off base something of the flesh now with samson it's uh the issue with most men and it's not just a man problem but lust lusting after women that he was not supposed to have and that eventually took him down because he would not get control of it and i think sometimes the story of samson and i shared this a little bit last week about the stages of spiritual growth and talked about the corinthian church and how that you know the corinthians the bible said came behind in no gift you remember that they have all the gifts of the spirit that means they spoke in tongues they had interpretation of tongues they prophesied they had the gifts of healing and working of miracles the word of knowledge the word of wisdom the gift of faith they had all the supernatural gifts of the holy spirit working in their church and yet paul said that they were babes and he could not speak unto them as being spiritual and what we fail to realize some is that the gifts and calling of god that god gives us whether it be to be a pastor or to be a teacher or an evangelist or an apostle or an elder or a deacon or a musician in the helps ministry whatever it may be that god gives us gifts and even anoints us to do does not mean that will carry us through that that means we're okay with god if it if that gift is working it's one of the biggest deceptions that we can latch on to in our lives well i felt the
- 0:06:01
anointing of god to preach and teach he must be okay with me even though i'm secretly struggling with adulterous heart and there are many christians that are not just struggling with it there are many christians that are indulging it they're indulging their lust regularly i mean it's not like they stumbled with pornography one time but it's like every other week or every other month and it keeps on going and it keeps on going and it keeps on going but then maybe they go to a prayer meeting or they go to church and the spirit of god comes on them and they speak in tongues or they give an interpretation of tongues or they prophesy or maybe they witness to somebody at work or or whatever and feel the anointing and go well god must be okay with me and that's one of the greatest deceptions that we can fall into is to think that the gifts and the calling of god mean that we are right with god and that we are strong spiritually boy this is something that needs to sink down this is one of the biggest problems within the charismatic and pentecostal world and it has been for decades and decades and decades because we think that because the gifts are flowing the anointing is falling and maybe even folks are coming to the altar and getting saved do you know that jimmy swaggart was one of the most anointed gifted preachers of the 20th century he led personally led millions of people to the lord i love to listen to him i used to listen to him on sunday mornings before i went to church because i knew that man was going to have a message from god and that man would read the bible through every six months he prayed two to three hours every day he was called as an evangelist he was anointed and powerful i i went to his meetings i was in services of his alive not just watching on tv the anointing of god was there but guess what the anointing of god and the power of god and the gifts of the evangelists that he had were working through him while he's visiting prostitutes now finally he got caught now i know some things about jimmy and i know jimmy had some open doors there were some things sexual things i think some sexual abuse that happened to him when he was young and he never went through deliverance because of his assembly of god background that a christian can't have a demon and that that contributed to the problem but one of the things i believe is that jimmy also had a pride problem and his pride problem was look at how big the ministry is even leonard ravenhill said of jimmy swaggart in 1986 that he was the best of them right before it all came out it was a hard lesson and of course the
- 0:09:01
world mocked jimmy and i remember my friends coming to me that i had led to the lord baby christians and going well what do you think about this they were awful because they knew i loved jimmy swaggart and i guess they thought that i was going to fall because jimmy fell right and you know what they said when they they all gathered around me what what do you think about this when jimmy got caught you know the first time and i said he's a man i said he puts his pants on one leg at a time just like i do and i said i can fall and you can fall so you better be careful i said did that change the fact that jimmy was an evangelist called by god from birth no did it change the fact that the anointing of god was on him to preach no did it change the fact that the gift of healing worked through his life no he had an issue in his in his life in his secret private life that he hid for years that he thought and listen i want to tell you something there's no doubt in my mind i heard the man share about this many times there's no doubt in my mind that he fought that thing and he wrestled with that thing and he resisted it and he would beat himself up when he would fall and it was something that he struggled with but the bottom line was jimmy never sought help he was too proud or too afraid too worried about losing maybe his ministry or his support or whatever or maybe he just thought well you know i will will this thing out of me i will read the word of god and i will pray it out and i will overcome this by myself sometimes you can overcome it by yourself and listen to me i don't take a thing away from what jimmy did jimmy did a great work for god and you know what i believe that jimmy's going to be on heaven when he when he dies i believe he will i believe he's repented i believe he sought help he you know what the greatest thing that jimmy needed in his life was not another crusade a stadium full of people at that time what jimmy needed was humility i'm broke i need help somebody helped fix me and i think you know he had to learn the hard way he had to go the way of being exposed publicly and ridiculed publicly and for years but that maybe saved his soul from going to hell why because i don't care what gifts you have great evangelists led millions to the lord but these great gifts if he was sleeping with prostitutes habitually according to the bible galatians 5 he will not inherit the kingdom of god so
The complete timestamped transcript is published as a crawlable reading page so every sermon topic remains searchable without making this video page unnecessarily heavy.
Read and search the complete transcriptThe overview attributes the sermon’s interpretations and disputed claims to the speaker; inclusion does not indicate independent verification.