FBCPS
Sermons, teachings, and podcasts from First Baptist Church in Powder Springs, Georgia.
FBCPS
When Your Strength Falls Short | Judges 13-16
Have you ever confidently thought "I've got this" only to discover you're completely out of your depth? When the bike chain falls off, the GPS would've been better, or your strength simply fails you - these moments of humility reveal a profound spiritual truth.
Looking at the infamous story of Samson from the book of Judges, we discover a biblical superhero who possessed extraordinary physical strength but catastrophic character weaknesses. Despite being miraculously conceived and set apart for God's purpose, Samson repeatedly chose his own desires over divine direction. His life follows the tragic cycle we see throughout Judges: idolatry leads to oppression, which eventually leads to crying out for deliverance.
What makes Samson's story so compelling is how it foreshadows Jesus in reverse - everywhere Samson failed, Jesus fulfilled perfectly. Where Samson used riddles to deceive, Jesus used parables to teach. Where Samson pursued relationships for self-gratification, Jesus sacrificed himself for his bride. Where Samson used God's power for personal pleasure, Jesus channeled divine strength for others' salvation. Both were ultimately humiliated and killed, but with profoundly different attitudes and outcomes.
The message rings clear: our human strength will always fall short, but Jesus stands strong. This isn't about mustering more personal willpower or developing greater self-confidence. It's about recognizing that the foundation matters more than the feeling. As the sermon illustrates, a person with enormous confidence standing on thin ice faces certain disaster, while someone with tentative faith standing on solid ground remains secure.
Are you trying to navigate life's challenges through your own limited strength? Take the leap of faith to build your life on the only foundation that never crumbles. Because when your strength inevitably falls short, Jesus never will.
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Yeah, it's been such an awesome summer, man. It's been such a sweet summer. We've been able to have kids camp or kids week and summer camp for the students, our young adult gatherings, our basketball camps. I mean, it's been one thing after the other and I'm so thankful that I get to serve alongside all of you. As you can see, I'm not Pastor Chip this morning. Pastor Chip is having a much needed vacation with his family, but he's actually here this morning. So if you wanna go bug him, you can go bug him after the service. But if you wanna hear some good preaching, you got one to two options. One you can come back next week when Pastor Chip is preaching. Get some good preaching next week. Or the other thing you can do is you can come tonight to our young adult gathering. If you're a young adult 18 to 35, and you're looking for community, you're looking for a place to belong. We would love for you to be with us here tonight in this exact room, from six to 7.30. We're gonna have free dinner. We're gonna get to hear a great word from Pastor Chip tonight as he talks about really what God is doing in the next generation of our young adults, the revival that we've seen sweep across campuses in the country and really the world just to see what God is doing. And so I'm excited because this morning we get to talk about one of my favorite stories in scripture, probably one of the most infamous people in all of scripture, and that is Samson. And so the title of the sermon this morning is when excuse me, it's not up there, it's up on the screen. It says when your strength falls short, how many of you have ever thought, oh, I got this, I got this, like I don't need any extra help, I got it. I feel that way whenever I don't use a GPS and my wife can attest to this, the amount of times she has told me, christian, just use the GPS, we will get there on time and I say no, no, no, I got this. My famous last words before 15 minutes late, I got this. That's often how I feel is I feel like I got it. I feel like, oh, I've been there once, or I kind of know in general where it's at, and so I end up getting us there. I would say most of the time on time, but maybe not all the time on time, and so, in my strength, I feel like I got this. Another story that I can kind of share this morning is the story of just a few weeks ago. Actually I was.
Speaker 1:I decided to go on my next athletic adventure, right, this is what happens whenever you don't play organized sports anymore. You just kind of live your midlife crisis all throughout your life. You just got to find a new hobby all the time. And so in January I decided I'm going to sign up for a half marathon. I always hated running. I didn't like it. My mom was a marathon runner. Football it was always a punishment, right. If you know, if you play football, if you played any organized sports, you know your first line of punishment is always running. And so I decided I'm going to do something that I don't enjoy to make myself enjoy it. So I ran a half marathon in May. I actually did enjoy it. But I thought, naturally the next thing after 13.1 miles is to start training for a half Ironman. Right, just go ahead and just tack on 56 miles on a bike and a mile swim, and just go ahead and take that big leap, right. Well, here's where I was humbled.
Speaker 1:About a week ago, I got on the Silver Comet. Most of you kind of know where that's? At the Silver Comet. I got out there to get my bike that I bought on Marketplace. I did some research. I thought, oh, this is a good bike. I got a good deal. But I triathlon bike before People. There's a difference between like a regular, like ching ching bike, you know little tassels. There's a difference between that bike and like a triathlon bike. The things weigh like an ounce. The tires are paper thin. I'm a big, bigger dude, right. So the tiny frame of the bike, when I got on it I was starting to wobble like crazy. It was very, very humbling. But I thought you know what? I'm going to start slow. I got this. I got this. I didn't even make it to the trail church. I didn't even make it on the silver comet.
Speaker 1:I got out there the chain fell off. I thought, okay, well, I've fixed the bike chain before. So I get down and I start to do the chain and try to pop it back in place. Well, then it falls off. On another part of the bike I've got grease all over my hand. There's grease all over my shirt. There's grease everywhere. It's a hundred degrees. I'm sweating. I'm really angry, I'm really upset, and it was in that moment that I realized I don't got this. And so I call Laura and I'm like, hey, babe, I'm frustrated, I'm headed home. She's like how was your ride? I don't want to talk about it and I just decided to go home and go for a run and use my legs because those are a lot easier than the bike. But that's also my hey. If any of you know how to ride a bike, please teach me, because I need to know how to ride a bike in order to even be able to do this thing.
Speaker 1:So when life humbles you, it's sometimes hard but it's necessary. And this morning that we're gonna see in the book of Judges, we're gonna look at the life of Samson. Samson was probably the most famous judge, but definitely the worst judge by far. I mean, if you look through verses excuse me, chapters 13, 14, 15, 16, the guy doesn't do one thing right. He's an awful person, he's a terrible judge, he doesn't do anything for the people. But we're gonna see in his last moments is what mattered the most for his life and for our life and for the faith of us. And so we're gonna see in all of this really the repeated cycle that we've been seeing in the book of Judges we're gonna see in the life of Samson. The first thing that kind of happens that we see is God's people forget God. We see this in the book of Judges. The next thing that happens in the book of Judges, in this unit that we're looking at this morning, is that's really finicky. There we go, there we go, boom. God lets them face the consequences. Right. And so not only do they have to go in, they're delivered over into their actions, they face the consequences of those actions, and the next thing we see is that God raises up a judge to rescue them over and over and over again.
Speaker 1:And we have a good visual of really what this judge's cycle kind of looks like is that it starts out with idolatry. It starts out with there's something that I want, there's something that in my heart that I say I got this, I want it, I gotta have it. And so idolatry to Samson was his own strength, it was his ways, it was his pleasure. Idolatry may not be your strength. Idolatry to Samson was his own strength, it was his ways, it was his pleasure. Idolatry may not be your strength, idolatry may not be the certain pleasures that Samson shared, but your idolatry. May be your phone, it may be your free time, it may be just you in general, it may be another organized religion or belief system, but we know if it's not Jesus it's always gonna lead to oppression.
Speaker 1:We see this in the book of Judges that it always led to oppression. There was never once where the Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and it led to freedom. Church sin will never lead you to freedom, ever. And then we see that in this, in the oppression, in the enslavement, in the sin, it is natural for us to cry out to God because we realize we don't got it and in that God is good to deliver, that God is good to free us. You see, samson is probably again the most famous judge, but the worst. And we see in his story in the book of Judges, in Judges chapter 13, we're introduced to not even just Samson first, but his parents. It says and the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord gave them into the hands of the Philistines for 40 years, again did evil in the sight of the Lord. And so this shows us that God will give us what we want.
Speaker 1:God is not always. Some people have this view of God that he is a dictator in the sky with a great white beard and he's about to strike you with lightning the first time that you sin, the first time you mess up. But sometimes he lets you get what you want. He lets you try it out on your own first and see. The Israelites did what was evil in his sight and so what he does, he hands them over for 40 years to be enslaved by the Philistines.
Speaker 1:40, we see this number in Scripture. It often symbolizes a time of testing. 40, we think of the 40 years that the Israelites were in the wilderness in the book of Numbers. 40, we think of the 40 days and nights of Noah in the ark, in the flood, in the test to see where his faith would lie. Or we think of the 40 days that Jesus fasted and prayed and the devil himself tempted and tried Jesus. And over and over and over again, jesus said it is written, it is written, it is written.
Speaker 1:Church, it is a good reminder for us that you are going to be tested, and James talks about that. To count it all, joy right when you face those tests, because in those tests, you can turn to Jesus, but that's not what Israel does. Israel doesn't turn to their creator in these moments. They turn to an earthly judge and in turn, that earthly judge more often than not turns to himself or their ways. And so, despite their testing, israel failed, even with a superhero in their midst. I mean, samson, by all means, was a biblical superhero. The feats of strength that we're gonna see a little bit later shows us that he was no ordinary man and God did not create him ordinary, and God did not create any of us ordinary to just blend in. And so what we're going to see this morning is Samson gives us a flawed, broken preview of the Messiah to come. So everywhere Samson fell short, jesus fulfills Everywhere, right In his deliverance and the way that he approaches the Lord and the way that he approaches people. He messes up over and over and over again. Church myself, we mess up over and over and over again, but God is faithful to deliver.
Speaker 1:Let's pray before we go into our message this morning. Heavenly Father, I pray right now that you would give us humble hearts, god, that you would be with us as we listen, as I teach Lord, as we just approach your word this morning. I pray that we would not approach it with a. I got this type of mentality that, lord, we would not take anything for granted, lord, that our faith would not be in ourselves and in our power and in our might, but would be in the words of the living God. So, lord, I pray that you would just speak to us this morning. Give us hearts and ears to receive and hear. It's in Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1:Well, this morning we're going to see a few different points. I've got six. I know what that sounds like. It sounds like we're going to be here for an hour and a half. You know typical Baptist sermons three points, I'm going to go six. So if you do the math there, it's a little bit longer than normal, but I promise I'll be good with your time.
Speaker 1:The first thing I want us to see this morning in all this is the first point is going to be here in Judges, chapter 13. It says you were born by God, for his purpose. You were born by God for his purpose, not your purpose. Again, so contrary to really us as people that we feel like we live this life for our purpose, for our glory, for our benefit. Us, us, us. We're a me-centered people. That's what we do, we just, we love ourselves.
Speaker 1:Judges 13, three again, where we see for the first time it says the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her behold, you are barren and have not born children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. And so what we see? Samson is set up for miraculous things. He has a divine foretelling. He is not like a normal kid, he is set up to lead and see, in this there's this divine foretelling also for Jesus, as we see in Luke, chapter one. It says and the angel Gabriel said to her do not be afraid, mary, for you have found favor with God, and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus. We see two similarities. These stories almost are like the same as we see an angel. But I want you to notice and Pastor Chip shared this last week about the angel. But I want you to notice, and Pastor Chip shared this last week about the angel, right when we see the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament, it is what we call a Christophany. It is where Jesus most likely Jesus himself is showing up on the scene appearing to his people.
Speaker 1:And so what we see here in the life of Samson and the life of his parents, manoah and his wife, is that they didn't even recognize the angel of the Lord Because, like we said earlier, in the testing for those 40 years, the Israelites were mixed and merged with the Philistines, they were mixed and merged with the pagan Canaanite culture, and so Samson's name even means that, if we look at both of the births and both of the names, samson means son or child of the sun, s-u-n, because they believe Shemash the God, the Canaanite God of the sun, was their power source. And so they were confused on who the true God was, because Manoah and his wife never really raised Samson to be a believer, because how could they lead him to something or to someone that they did not know himself? That's the difference between them and Mary is that Mary knew God, mary knew the teachings of God. You see, both again were miraculous.
Speaker 1:But Jesus was going to deliver humanity from spiritual oppression, not just physical oppression. That was the role of Samson and Judges was to deliver his people from the physical oppression. That was the role of Samson and Judges was to deliver his people from the physical oppression. But Jesus said there's more than the physical. I've come to deliver us from death. And see, jesus delivers us from death and he is the son of God, and even the name we see there, the name of God, is in this, in the book of Judges, chapter 13, verse 18, we don't have it on the screen, but it says and the angel of the Lord said to him why do you ask my name? Seeing it as wonderful. What we see in the book of Isaiah is saying that he is the wonderful counselor.
Speaker 1:You see his parents, manoah and his wife. They should have known who God was, they should have known his teachings, but they were so influenced by the culture that they did not know how to raise Samson. There's a lesson for us in that church is that it can be so easy as parents raising our kids in 2025 in this modern world, to think, oh, I've gotta give my kids the modern taste of this world that I wanna give them a good life. I want them to know what it's like to be everybody else, to have every other kid's life. But we were not created for this world. We were not created to fit into this culture. We were made to stand out. What's so important to notice, you guys, is that holiness is greater than happiness, is that we are created to be happy in this world. Our culture says be happy, do what you think is right. But, as we're gonna see in the story of Samson, his happiness never led him to freedom. You see, god's word is incredible. It is so incredible. And we're gonna see again the comparisons, the back and forth between Samson and Jesus, and Samson is ultimately leading us to Jesus, because everywhere he tried he fell short, because it was only ever about himself. And see in that, in God's word, church, you will find your purpose. Probably the greatest question that not even just young adults but humanity has always asked is like what is the point? What is the point of my existence, what is the importance of my being? What am I here for? And so we all wanna know what is our purpose. Well, in God's word, we find our purpose. The second point we see is you were born by God to be led by him.
Speaker 1:As we see over in the next scripture, it says Samson went down to Timnah and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines. And then he came up and told his father and mother I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. Now get her for me as my wife. There's two things that Samson does incredibly wrong here in this passage. First, he went down to Timnah. This was a place of pagan roots. This was not to be a place where he should have been mixing and mingling and being in. But he went there and then it says he saw one of the daughters. So he saw someone that he was not supposed to be with, to be associated with, and he said I want her, give her to me. And you see, his parents didn't know the right to tell him yes or no, because they wanted to tell him hey, what about one of your relatives? But they never really implemented the authority there. You see, he was led by his eyes. We're gonna see. The comparison between him and Jesus is that he was led by his eyes and that was his downfall. But Jesus, however, was led by his father.
Speaker 1:As we see that in the book of John, chapter six, Jesus gives us a verse of what he has done. He says for I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but to the will of him who sent me. I want you to notice the phrase there going back is Samson went down to Timnah. Samson was physically going down to sin. Samson was physically going to a place where he should not have been, he should not have been associating with. But I want us to see is, long before church, long before we ever do the physical of the sin, it's in our hearts, it brews in our hearts. That's why Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount said before you ever commit adultery physically, it started in your hearts. That's why Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount said before you ever commit adultery physically, it started in your heart. Adultery starts in the heart Long before you ever murdered someone. The hatred that was brewing in your heart is what led you to that and that's sinful.
Speaker 1:I know most of you have probably been on Instagram or Facebook and you've seen the latest scandal that was out there with the CEO and the woman that he worked with. They were at the Coldplay concert. You know what I'm talking about. Yeah, it's all over the place and there's been all of these different memes and things that have been kind of like even poking fun of it and stuff. But long before they were ever at that concert, sin entered into their hearts Right Long before they ever bought the tickets or went there or decided to commit adultery and be in an affair that started in their hearts.
Speaker 1:You see, that's what sin does. It's a slow fade. It's a slow creeping up. It's a slow. I'm gonna start here and then I'm gonna push the limits. I'm gonna push the limits a little bit more.
Speaker 1:That was Samson's life. He was pushing the limits a little bit, over and over and over again. Why? Because he said, I got this. He relied on his own strength more than he relied on the strength of his heavenly father. You see, samson's heart followed his eyes. He said I'm gonna go there, I want her, give her to me.
Speaker 1:You see, he blurred the line between sacred and secular. Heathen and holy, however you want to phrase it, don't let that be you. Heathen and holy, however you wanna phrase it, don't let that be you. Church, don't let that be you. Whenever you wanna kinda get a little bit of sin and a little bit of Jesus, you were not created for a little bit of sin. You were not created to mix and match your sin and Jesus. Jesus says you can only serve one master. It's either gonna be fill in the blank or it's gonna be him and I promise you, and just like we saw in the cycle, if that idol at the top, if the thing at the top is not Jesus, it will lead to sin, it will lead to oppression, it will lead to death.
Speaker 1:And you see this in Judges, chapter 14, verse three, with Samson's dad trying to kind of speak some sense into him. He says but his father and his mother said to him is there not a woman among your relatives or among all our people that you must go to the uncircumcised Philistines? Do you know what sin does? Sin makes you do things that you know you're not supposed to do. It takes logical sense out of the equation and it just gives you over to that primal, sinful instinct, that instinct that you were not created for. You were created to follow and love Jesus.
Speaker 1:And so again, this theme that we see. It's not up here, but in Judges 21,. It says that everyone did what was right in his own eyes. This is the overarching theme of all of scripture. Eve, the very beginning, the very first sin. What does she do? She saw the fruit, she wanted it, she took it. Every sin that has followed after that has been I see that, I want it, I'll take it and it always leads to sin and death.
Speaker 1:You see, god did use Samson's mistakes. However, samson was not perfect, as obviously we're going to see all throughout this, and I would encourage you, church, go back and read Judges 13, 14, 15, 16. I'm not going to be able to hit every single verse, but in this story you're going to see where he messes up over and over and over and over again, and God delivers over and over and over again, not because of the perfect nature of Samson, but because of his perfect nature. And so Samson makes the mistake and God delivers. It's like the story in Genesis when Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery and at the end of the story, his brothers are apologizing and they're worried to death that he's gonna put them to death, and he's like, no, no, no, what you meant for evil, god used it for good.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of things, probably in your life that you can think of that are just evil, that are just not the way that you had in mind. Maybe it's a relationship you had with somebody, maybe it's the circumstance that you're currently in, maybe you are 100% innocent in this and it just seems like the enemy is attacking you over and over and over again. Church, stay faithful, because God is good to deliver you from that, and God will use every bit of bad in this world for his good, because he is undefeated and he is untried. In that. The third thing I want us to see this morning, the point of all this, the point of verse three or, excuse me, point three, is that you were born by God to believe his truth. You were born by God to believe his truth.
Speaker 1:And the differences we see in Samson and Jesus in this one is Samson used riddles to deceive and Jesus used parables to teach. I noticed similarities between these as I was looking through this teaching. I was looking at Judges, chapter 14. There's this story where Samson's first wife is being. They're trying to get her to entice Samson to give them the answer to this riddle. Because Samson is in this wager that if they don't get the riddle then they're gonna owe him some stuff. They were gonna owe him some garments, some changes of clothes, but if they do get it then he owes them, and so he gives this riddle. Out of the eater came something to eat, out of the strong came something sweet. And so Samson kind of gets his Dr Seuss on and he's trying to create this funny little story and this funny riddle. And only he knows the answer to this, because it was just him there. Only he knows he wasn't trying to give this riddle for them to actually solve. He was doing this so that they would be deceived.
Speaker 1:You see, samson concealed the truth to gain power, but Jesus in his parables, uses them to teach, to give life. Do you notice most of scripture, when Jesus is teaching, he doesn't leave with a. And here's the answer he doesn't leave with a. Oh, by the way, the whole thing that you're wondering and thinking about, I'm gonna give you every single answer to that. Most of the time he left audiences and people with questions because he wants them and wants us to seek him, truly, truly seek him. And you see, his parables were never straightforward. You know, it's possible to be not straightforward with somebody, but for them to either get the answer or for them to be deceived. You see, samson, the whole point of his riddles was to deceive. He had something that they wanted. He had something that he said if I keep this from them, then I'm going to have the power. I'm going to have this.
Speaker 1:But Jesus in his parables, especially the parable of the talents that we see in Matthew 25, he used this parable to teach. He wasn't straightforward, it wasn't something that completely made sense. And there were two audiences that, after Jesus' parable, did two different things. One said what does all of that mean? And they walked away and they didn't care about the parable anymore. And there was another audience you and me, and maybe us churches that they saw what he wrote in scripture and they thought what does that mean? And it was there where Jesus met them in their questions, in their doubts, in their concerns.
Speaker 1:And he says seek me. You'll find me when you seek me with all your heart. And so it's important to seek Jesus because he is not concealing his truth to give himself power. He is revealing truth so that you will have that Holy Spirit power. You see, jesus used stories again, like the parables and all these, so that we can see him. You see, when used stories again like the parables and all these, so that we can see him.
Speaker 1:You see, when Jesus looked down from the cross. I want us to notice that when he looked down from the cross, he forgave, he prayed for people, he loved the people, the people that were spitting in his face, that were mocking him, that were beating him, that were killing him, and think about all of that power that he had. All of that he had. He could have easily wiped them out and would have been justified in doing so, but he loved them instead, that when he was on that cross, he thought of you, he thought of you and he thought of you and he thought of me, because he loves us. So this leads us to our fourth point in all this is that you were born by God to love like him, not to love like this world, not to love like the world talks about love. There's a lot of love talk in this world, but the thing is that the truth of the matter is church, that this world does not know what love is in itself. They don't. There's love that this world will try to say is love, but it's really just lust. Or there's love that people will say, but it's really just pride and greed.
Speaker 1:And I want us to notice the similarities between Jesus and Samson here. See, samson sought to marry a pagan woman for himself, but Jesus gave himself for the bride for the church. We looked at the very first verse that we looked at. It said that Samson went down to Timnah. But he went there to find a pagan wife. He went there to indulge in his pleasures. He went there to give something to himself. That's not love. A lot of people will say well, if I feel it and I want it, I gotta have it. That's love. There's a whole culture that says act on your feelings, because your feelings equal love. That is never the way that Jesus defines love and Jesus defines love by sacrifice. Jesus gave himself for his bride.
Speaker 1:You see, both of them went down and stooped into sinful places. The difference between Samson and Jesus was Samson went to a sinful place to stay there in the mud, to stay there in the sin, to say this feels good to me. But Jesus went down into sinful humanity and said I'm going to bring them up. I love them too much to let them stay in their sin, and some people will choose sin too much to let them stay in their sin. And some people will choose sin and some people will choose to not follow Jesus. And he still did it.
Speaker 1:You see, in this, this pagan woman, samson should have not married her. He should not have even sought out a pagan woman, he should have sought out an Israelite or, like what his parents said, one of the relatives among him, but he sought out someone that he knew that he was not supposed to have. So I'm gonna tread lightly, but I'm gonna speak boldly from scripture and I'm gonna give some relationship advice. Now I'm not perfect. I'm not about to write a book on matchmakercom or anything like that, although I will say I'm pretty good at matchmaker Our brother-in-law's getting, or my brother-in-law's getting married this weekend and I set him up, so I'm doing pretty good on that end. But I will not write a book on relationships. I got to give that another like a hundred years until I'm married. But I will say what scripture says.
Speaker 1:I will speak boldly about what scripture says when it comes to relationships, to anyone considering marriage or dating. I know we have some young adults in the room and I know that's kind of on the forefront of your mind all the time, like when am I going to get my wife? When am I I gonna get my wife? When am I gonna get my husband? When, when, when? Like you're just wondering when it's all gonna happen and I know that. Look, trust me, I was in that season and I know what it's like to want a spouse. I know what it's like to not want to be alone. I know what it's like to want.
Speaker 1:But my first in every relationship, but especially those of a future spouse or current spouse, Seek Jesus first, seek him first. Because here's the thing church is if you are not faithful to seek Jesus and serve Jesus, you probably won't be faithful to seek and serve your spouse. If you're always about yourself. It's not a healthy foundation for a marriage. Serve your spouse, serve the other. That's what Jesus did. And see my encouragement. And what God's word says is don't marry someone who doesn't follow Jesus. Don't enter into a relationship with someone who doesn't follow Jesus.
Speaker 1:I can say the last church that I was at, when I was acting as just the young adult pastor, the majority I would say 90% of the conversations I had with young adults was them come up and asking hey, man, I really like this girl. You know she's beautiful, we've got a lot in common. She likes to do this, I like to do this. You know, we're a match made in heaven, but she's not a believer. What do I do? And I said in the most loving yet truthful way you don't do that, you don't enter into that relationship, not because that person's probably not a good person or because they are great and they are beautiful, but because is that what you want in a relationship? Is someone who doesn't seek a savior, someone who doesn't point people to a, is someone who doesn't seek a savior, someone who doesn't point people to a savior, who doesn't know the savior themselves? Because Jesus designed us for love and we can only find love in him.
Speaker 1:And so I know for some of you this is a touchy subject, because you might be in the room here alone, your spouse might not be here with you, because your spouse might say I don't understand all this. None of this makes sense to me. This whole church thing doesn't make sense to me. Why do you follow Jesus? Why do you get up every Sunday and go to a place full of hypocrites Sorry, we're all hypocrites. Why do you go to a place where everybody's all messed up? Yeah, we're all messed up. That's kind of the point of why we're here. Why would you go and do that?
Speaker 1:And I understand that that's a tough subject because that might be your reality, that your spouse, your husband, your wife, they may not follow Jesus. But I wanna encourage you what scripture says about that for the husbands and wives, and this primarily talks to the wife first. But it says in 1 Peter 3, it says wives be subject to your own husbands so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be one without a word by the conduct of their wives. Husbands, you can do the same thing, but what I do notice is most of the time it is the wives. I know that from kids' ministry to student ministry is the majority of the time it's the wife that is in the room and it's not the husband.
Speaker 1:And so, church, I can't speak for this church. I know that there are definitely churches there that I've been a part of or I've served at or I've met at or whatever, where the majority of the volunteer base is women. They are women, it's just the majority of them are, and the men don't step up. But I can say I am encouraged, especially this past weekend, seeing all of the men who are at our men's breakfast and all of the men who get up and serve here in this church. And obviously none of us are perfect, but we can see that we are a serving church and that we're trying and that the Lord has called us to do more than just sit at home.
Speaker 1:And so, church, I wanna encourage you, if you are the wife that is here alone, or the husband here alone, that it's not too late, that, while they are still breathing, there is time for them to follow Jesus. And, just like it says in his word, the way that you live your life may get them to ask why do you still love me, why are you still faithful to me? Why do you still treat me the way that you treat me and I don't treat you the way that you should be treated? And the answer is because Jesus does. Because Jesus was faithful to me when I was a sinner and he still loves me while I am a sinner and he died for me while I'm still a sinner. And you can serve the other person while they're still a sinner. Because you see the faithfulness that was implemented by Jesus. You see, christ gave himself to and died for imperfect people like me and like you, not because we're perfect, but because he is, and he sought to save us by his power, which leads us to our fifth point is that you were born by God for his power.
Speaker 1:Now, judges, chapter 15, shows off all of the strengths and the feats of Samson. Samson was a just to be honest, he was a messed up dude. Now, samson was a just to be honest, he was a messed up dude. We see here in the comparison, samson uses the power from the Lord for his pleasure. Jesus uses his power for our good and his glory. Some of the feats that we see in Judges, chapter 15, if you're looking along here and kind of skimming through this chapter, it says Samson's physical strength was unmatched. Also, I didn't know this, someone came up to me at the end of the first service and showed that the timeline of Samson and Hercules were about the same. So it talks about like there's these great men of strength, one rooted in scripture and one rooted in pagan theology, and so there was nobody on earth like Samson and his feats of strength. You see, samson's physical strength was unmatched.
Speaker 1:He ripped a line apart. That's what it says in Judges. It says he ripped a line apart as you would a baby goat, because you know, we're all just ripping apart baby goats in our free time. Like I read that scripture and I'm like what do you mean? We're all just ripping apart baby goats. That doesn't make any sense. I guess that was like a pastime back in the day. It says he killed 300 men in Ashkelon. He killed just 300 men. It says this one's probably the most twisted one that we see here. It makes no sense how his mind decided to do this, but it says so.
Speaker 1:Samson went and caught 300 foxes and he took torches and he turned them tail to tail and put a torch between them. So he ties 300 foxes together, puts a torch in the middle of them and says giddy up, and he just sends him in a field and he burns down a field. They all burn down the field. He was messed up. Samson was a messed up guy and he used all of this strength that he had for just his own pleasures, things that he enjoyed doing. It also shows that he killed 1,000 men with the jawbone of a donkey. He's like no, I don't need a sling or a stone or a sword, I'm going to go get a donkey's jawbone and I'm going to take out a thousand men, but I want us to see churches.
Speaker 1:His strength did not come from his build, it came from the Lord. Now most of us have probably grown up with the same picture of Samson that I have. I often picture Samson, basically the rock with a wig. That's kind of just just me. That's kind of how I picture Samson, this big, buff, strong dude who probably has like 400, 500 pounds on his back every day, just like calf walking, getting his calf built up, doing bicep curls. I just see Samson in the gym a lot, but the reality of it probably was there was really probably no telling what kind of or how his strength was what it was, because they wouldn't have asked the question. There was really probably no telling what kind of or how his strength was what it was, because they wouldn't have asked the question where does your strength come from if he was built like the rock, just being honest? And so they wondered where his strength came from. And that's why it says in these acts of strength, it says the spirit of the Lord rushed upon him. And if I were or, excuse me, if he were jacked again, there would not have been this question. So people often had to ask what's his secret? What is his secret? What makes him so strong? And church, that is the point.
Speaker 1:The point of all this is that the source of our strength is not visible, it's spiritual. Your strength. It's not in the physical. It's not in the monetary, it is in the spiritual, because everything else will pass away. There will always be somebody stronger. There will always be somebody faster. There will always be somebody fitter and smarter and braver and funnier and more charismatic. There will always be somebody more. And so those things cannot be where the source of our strength is. It has to come from above, and so what I want you to know is that you don't have to be famous to be faithful.
Speaker 1:I think one of the worst lies that our generation we're talking about, like Gen Z and millennial, and our students and our kids that they buy into, is that they cannot preach the good news of Jesus because they don't have a pulpit, or maybe they don't have a PhD, or maybe they don't have 500,000 followers on TikTok or Instagram, or they don't have a pulpit, or maybe they don't have a PhD, or maybe they don't have 500,000 followers on TikTok or Instagram, or they don't have a blue check by their name. So I guess I cannot be faithful with my gifts and my talents. Church, you don't have to have any of that stuff to be faithful. It does not take any of that, and I think some of the most obviously we revere men like Billy Graham. We revere men like Billy Graham. We revere people that we see in scripture that God anointed and God used for all sorts of things. But it's not even just those men, it's not even just the people that we see with the platforms and that speak at Passion Conference and that get up and preach and all those things. It is the faithful men and women who every day live faithful lives, and so I want to share. There's a few people here with you this morning.
Speaker 1:Anybody know who this is? Sir Isaac Newton. Yeah, he did not discover the apple, right? He just this is gravity. It was used by the apple, right? He discovered gravity. And so he was actually a Christian, he was a believer, and so he would often credit his brain, his intellect, his gifts, his knowledge to God. In fact, he actually wrote more on theology than he did on science, and so his whole mission and aim in life was he believed that science revealed God's design In his intellect. He believed that that wasn't a way to deflate creation, that was a way to reflect and open up the gift of creation.
Speaker 1:And so maybe you're like Isaac Newton, maybe you're smart. That ain't me. Maybe you're smart, maybe you're a teacher, maybe you're molding the minds and stuff that are in school and you're being told to teach something different from scripture and you can use your gifts and your talents to lead this generation and the next generation and all the generations to know that science and everything that was created reveals a creator Next person I want us to see. You probably know who this is CS Lewis. Many of you have probably read the Chronicles of Narnia or Mere Christianity or Screwtape Letters, but him and JRR Tolkien, who wrote Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit and those books. They were pretty much like the founding fathers of imagination, like the reason that we have probably some of the books and the movies and the comic books and all of the fun stuff that we have is probably because of those guys and this guy here, cs Lewis. You see, he used his imagination to draw people to Christ and I want to take a moment just to highlight and thank those who work in our kids ministry, because every day, every Sunday, every time that my Selah and my Isaiah come out especially Selah she can always tell me what she's learned from class.
Speaker 1:And look, I know you can't just get up in front of dozens or however many kids, and just say all right, children, let's open up the word. You have to use imagination, right, you have to use imagination when you teach children, because that's how we were created and our teachers here do a fantastic job of using their imaginations, using their gifts, using their abilities to create future pastors and future theologians and future disciples of Jesus. And so thank you, church, for that. But I want to share, kind of going along the lines of the children.
Speaker 1:This last lady you probably never heard of her before, right here in the middle. Her name is Lillian Trasher. Lillian Trasher didn't speak at Passion. Lillian Trasher did not have TikTok. Lillian Trasher did not have a pulpit or a PhD. But Lillian Trasher did not have a pulpit or a PhD. But Lillian Trasher was faithful. In fact, she actually broke off an engagement that she knew that she wasn't supposed to be in and she pursued missionary work in Egypt where she raised over 10,000 orphans, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with them.
Speaker 1:And because of her faithfulness not her flashiness, not her fame, but because of her faithfulness, not her flashiness, not her fame, but because of her faithfulness there are now tens of thousands, if not way more, children who grow up to give their life to Jesus, who would be in heaven, and there's nothing more important than that. And so you don't have to be flashy church, you just gotta be faithful. And I've heard Pastor Chip share this, and other pastors, that God does not call the qualified, he qualifies the called. None of us are perfect. I'm not up here because I'm perfect. Pastor Chip is not up here because there's not one single person that preaches from the word or learns from the word or reads the word. That is perfect. That is just not us.
Speaker 1:And we see this in Zechariah 4, 6, talking about our might and our power. It says, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts, that what we do does not come from our power, it does not come from our flash and from our fame, it comes from the words of Jesus. The final point that I want us to see in all this is that you were born by God to be raised up. You see, what you notice about Samson and Jesus is both were humiliated, both were beaten down, both were pushed down, both were mocked, both were put to death, but God's power was not done. In Judges 16, verse 21,.
Speaker 1:We see the verse of what kind of happens to Samson. It says they gouged out his eyes and made him entertain them. I think it's obviously this way on purpose. But what was the one thing that always led Samson to sin? It was his eyes. It was him looking at sin. It was him looking at something that he wasn't supposed to do or going to somebody he wasn't supposed to be around. But the same thing kind of happens to Jesus not the gouging out the eyes, but the mocking and the beating, it says. Then they spit in his face and they struck him with fists. Others slapped him and they said prophesy to us, messiah, who hit you?
Speaker 1:Church, I can kind of understand why they did what they did to Samson, if I'm being honest. I mean, the guy humiliated them. If somebody tied 300 foxes up and ran them into my pasture, I would probably be pretty upset too. I would probably wanna get my revenge. But, church, what I cannot fathom is this how a perfect savior, who never did anything but love them, create them, die for them, care for them, they spit in his face, they struck him with their fist and they slapped him and mocked him. Because what we like to do is we like to make those. We like to put people under us, we like to have the power, we like to feel like we've got this. And so when they did this to Jesus, it was almost like their way of saying, oh, he can't be perfect, because look what we're doing, Because Jesus, obviously he's not the savior of the world, because we're able to beat him, we're able to mock him, we're able to spit in his face, and they thought they had won in that moment. But I want us to know this this morning is that Jesus wasn't done and Samson wasn't done.
Speaker 1:In Samson's defeat, his hair began to sprout. There's this word, samach. It means to sprout, to grow, to spring up, and the same word, sort of that we see in the story of Jesus is that when Jesus was put in the grave, he was raised to life by the Holy Spirit. This word that we see is ikero. It is not the same word, but there is this thematic overlap that happens with these two words.
Speaker 1:That talks about the most important thing, which is restoration. Restoration and what we see in Jeremiah, chapter 23,. It gives us a verse of Jesus I will raise up Samach for David, a righteous branch. You see, jesus was not done when he was in the grave. Church, your life is not done if it feels like it's in a grave, like what you're going through right now. You are not done because Jesus has still given you breath in your lungs. You are not done. Jesus is not done with you. There is still a raising up to be done.
Speaker 1:You see, samson, like all of us, believed that abundant life came from abundant pleasure money, power, pleasure, influence. He believed that's where the source of happiness was, that's where the source of power was. But Jesus shows us that true life is only found in obedient surrender. Another way that Jesus put this was in Luke, chapter nine, when he said in order to save your life, you must lose it. He talks about picking up your cross and following him. This is the verse that we see, that we see Samson in the end of his life.
Speaker 1:Judges, chapter 16. Oh Lord, please remember me and please strengthen me. Only this once Now church. I wish it would have ended there. I wish he would have ended there because he would at least have had a little bit of redemptive quality about himself. But he goes on to say oh God, that I may be avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes. Even in Samson's humility he makes it about himself.
Speaker 1:Even in Samson's redemptive arc he still falls, but still, I want you to notice God responds that God responds to his faith. That he has here it's not much, but he responds to his faith. And the reason that is is because in Hebrews 11, it says that the only way to please God is by faith. It's in Jesus. In his last moments, it says, he called out with a loud voice and said Father, into your hands I commit my spirit Church. I want you to know this. In the last moments of Jesus on the cross, as he breathed his last breath, as he prayed for the people, as he was on the cross, he thought of you, he thought of me and he did it all for you and all for me and all for the glory of his father. He didn't do it for himself. So here's the gospel Samson bowed in brokenness and pulled down a building. But I want us to see is that Jesus bowed in obedience and opened up the gates of heaven for all of us, so that by his death we may live.
Speaker 1:And so I wanna close this up with this is that when your strength falls short, jesus stands strong. When your strength, you feel like is not enough. That's the point. The point is not you have enough strength or you got to muster this up. The amount of people that I've talked to that I meet on the streets also this is just a sidebar People are wanting to be invited to church. People are wanting to be invited into abundant life. The amount of people whenever I just open up the word, they ask me what I do.
Speaker 1:I'm a pastor. Boom, there's just all of a sudden, this shell comes off, this whatever comes down, and they just think, man, I've been meaning to get back in church, I've been meaning to do that, I've been meaning to do all this. I just don't feel like. You know, maybe I'm ready, or you know, I'm trying to find a church, and so they feel like, because they've fallen short, that they don't feel like they're right in the eyes of God. But what we notice is we don't have to, we don't get clean and then come to church. We come to church. We come to the Lord in our brokenness, in our sin, in our shame, because he loves us and because he wants to restore us, because he wants to raise us up. That's the point of scripture. And see, it's not about the size of your faith, but the object of it. It's like this verse.
Speaker 1:You've probably heard this verse before. I think almost everybody has. Even if you're not a Christian, you've at least heard like the teachings of it. Right, if you have the faith, like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here and there and it will move. This verse as a kid I thought meant like I had to unlock a superpower. If I'm being completely honest, the way that the child Christian actually, I'm going to be completely honest until probably I was in my 20s I thought that's. I was really confused by this verse. I was like why is it a mustard seed? I don't understand. Like, I feel like I've got, I feel like I've got a faith size. You know, mustard seed size, faith. Like I feel like I've got that, but I never been able to make a mountain move. This doesn't make sense to me. But that's because I was prioritizing the wrong thing in the verse. You see, often we prioritize the mustard seed, but it's never been about the mustard seed, it's been about the faith. You see, it's like this I'll put it this way, the best way that I've heard this put about the size of the mustard seed and the object of your faith is.
Speaker 1:Imagine that there are two people. There's person A. Person A is very, very confident in the ice that he is standing on. He has created t-shirts and social media agendas. He even has the top celebrities in the world that are backing up the ice that he is standing on. There's a whole month dedicated to the pride of the ice that he is standing on. He thinks the ice is good because he's confident. He thinks the ice won't go anywhere and won't crush, because he is really good at what he does and how he talks about the ice and how he puts other people down about the ice. But what matters to him, church, is that it's not his arrogance and his cockiness, but underneath him there's a centimeter thick of ice. And then there's the person B, who also decides to take a leap of faith, who steps on the ice and he's a little concerned. He's never been big in his beliefs. He doesn't have all the answers, he doesn't know everything, but he's been taught that the ice is good and that as long as he stands on it and as long as he has faith, it doesn't matter how he feels inside the ice that is beneath him will stand forever, and underneath him is a thousand feet of ice Church.
Speaker 1:The first person, person A, is the person who builds their foundation, who has their feelings, who has their confidence in the stuff of this world, in the pride of their life, in the stuff, in the things, in sin. It doesn't matter how confident you are in your sin. What matters is the object of your faith, and sin will always lead to oppression, it will always lead to crumbling life, it will always lead to death. What matters is that you live your life like person B who. You may not have all the answers, and none of us do, but the object of your faith is strong. Jesus, if he is the object of your faith, will never crumble. And so you may be here this morning and you don't know what foundation you're on, you don't even know where to take a step.
Speaker 1:I would encourage you by taking a leap of faith this morning. Take a leap of faith to know that it is not about your faith, it is about the object of your faith that matters the most, jesus, or fill in the blank. So I wanna pray for you this morning and encourage you. Where it says where Samson failed, jesus never did so. Don't be like Samson and build your life, your foundation, on something that's gonna crumble and fall. Build your foundation on Jesus. Can I pray for you this morning If we'd all bow our heads and close our eyes Before I pray? I just wanna encourage you just to think for a moment.
Speaker 1:Who or what have I built my foundation on? Is it good? Are they faithful? Does it love me? Do they love me? Is that foundation willing to die for me? Because if the answer is no, and the answer is not, jesus friend, I would encourage you to shift your focus to a different foundation, to focus that foundation on Jesus. And so, lord, I pray for that person.
Speaker 1:Lord, I pray for that person this morning who has not taken that leap of faith, who has not put their hope and their faith and their trust in you, jesus. And maybe they don't have all the answers and they're worried about that leap of faith. But, lord, give them supernatural peace right now To be like Samson in his final moments. In all of his imperfections, he still cried out to the Lord to rescue him. Lord, I pray that we would cry out right now, lord, I pray that we would put our hope, our faith, our foundation in you.
Speaker 1:So, lord, if there's anyone in here this morning that needs to pray that Lord, I pray that you would give the encouragement right now to pray. You can pray that Lord, I pray that you would give the encouragement right now to pray. You can pray something like this it's not the words of your prayer. Again, as we've all been looking at this morning, it is about your heart, the posture of your heart, and your salvation prayer could be Hosanna. It could be oh, save, just save me, lord. You can say Lord, I pray that you would just save my life. Pray, lord, that you would be the redeemer of my life. I pray, lord, that you would be the savior of my life. Lord, I don't have all the answers, but, lord, you do.
Speaker 1:So, lord, I put my hope, my faith and my trust in you this morning and, lord, I pray for us as the church, as some have prayed that prayer, lord, I pray we would encourage them, that we would encourage them with a solid foundation that is, jesus. That we would continue to speak life to them and to bring them up and not push them down, and be the church for them. And so, lord, equip us, strengthen us and humble us when we need it. In Jesus name, amen, and we'll give it up for those that said that prayer this morning, that gave their life to Jesus. And I want you to know you're just getting started. I don't want a pastor to ever, or anyone to ever, tell you that, hey, after you give your life to Jesus, it's just smooth sailing For you believers in the room. You know that's not the case. You know that you've now taken on the world, but greater is who that is in you than he who is in the world. Amen. So, church, I just wanna pray for us for a second as we go. We're gonna go into a time of worship after this. I wanna thank you for joining us this morning. I wanna just pray for us as we encourage those that are around us, as we get into the word, as we continue to serve throughout this week, as our kids go back to school. I know all of you kids are so excited about that. You can't wait to go back to school, but I just pray for us as a church. I'm so thankful for you.
Speaker 1:I often see the letters when you read in scripture Paul. Paul and the writers of the New Testament would often say I thank you, god, for this church. I thank you, god, for this church. I thank you for Powder Springs. Let's pray, heavenly Father. We thank you this morning for this church. I pray that we would encourage those around us, god, I pray that we would continue to build our life on the foundation that is Jesus and not build it on any other foundation. Lord, I pray that you would equip us and strengthen us this morning and today and as we carry on in our life, lord, to again not to seek out pleasures of this world, but to seek out the power that is you, jesus. And so, lord, equip us, strengthen us, and may this time of worship be pleasing to you, as we give you our all and it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.