back to indexBerean Community Church Sunday Service 3.14.2021
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>> All right, good morning church family, happy Lord's Day. 00:16:36.000 |
We will begin now by praising his name and worshiping our holy God. 00:38:04.000 |
>> My name is Priscilla Chen, and I'm a freshman in the college ministry, and 00:38:08.000 |
today I'll be sharing my testimony with you all. 00:38:10.000 |
Before attending Berean, starting in high school, I grew up in another church that 00:38:17.000 |
I knew all the other kids and their families. 00:38:19.000 |
My parents were both leaders in the church, and my siblings and 00:38:24.000 |
I was convinced that my Christian-like deeds and shallow knowledge of God and 00:38:28.000 |
the Bible were enough to prove that I was a Christian, and in 2017, 00:38:34.000 |
A month after I was baptized, our youth pastor passed away unexpectedly at a 00:38:38.000 |
young age, and it shook the youth ministry and church as a whole. 00:38:42.000 |
What a fragile illusion of faith I had was completely shattered as I turned in 00:38:46.000 |
anger towards God, questioning why he had cut short the life of a man so 00:38:55.000 |
I soon began to doubt the existence of God altogether, refusing to believe that 00:38:59.000 |
this could be part of the plan of a God who truly loved his people. 00:39:04.000 |
As I dwelt on past memories, I was consumed by overwhelming guilt about the 00:39:08.000 |
reflection of Christ's love my pastor had shown to me all those years that I had 00:39:15.000 |
Guilt, coupled with my growing unbelief, quickly drove me away from the church 00:39:19.000 |
and Christianity, as I tried to run as far away from God as I could. 00:39:24.000 |
I got a job and began to hang out with bad friends who introduced me to all the 00:39:31.000 |
For every empty void that I felt in my life, I found a sin to indulge in, to find 00:39:41.000 |
I had the means to buy and do the things I wanted, and friends to reassure me that 00:39:49.000 |
During the summer after my sophomore year of high school, my sister sat down to 00:39:53.000 |
talk with me about the concerns my parents had voiced about my rebellious 00:39:59.000 |
She invited me to visit Berean with her, and when I joined the youth group, I saw 00:40:03.000 |
believers who were my age or even younger who had genuine faith and lived a life 00:40:09.000 |
Instead of being encouraged at the time, I felt ashamed that all the years I'd spent 00:40:13.000 |
growing up in the church had led me to this point of living a double life, feeling 00:40:18.000 |
guilty and turning on my Christian act every Friday and Sunday, yet returning to 00:40:22.000 |
my self-serving, sin-ruled lifestyle every day in between. 00:40:26.000 |
My pride and unwillingness to accept the challenge of rebuilding my faith led to a 00:40:30.000 |
long period of struggle between wanting to hold on to this newfound worldly freedom 00:40:37.000 |
During a youth retreat in February of 2020, Pastor Nate spoke on cultivating a 00:40:44.000 |
He said, "A hunger and thirst for the Word can't be artificially generated. 00:40:51.000 |
And if you say, 'I need God,' and don't immediately turn to the Bible, you don't 00:40:57.000 |
I remember him reading John 11, 25 to 26, in which Jesus says, "I am the 00:41:03.000 |
He who believes in me will live, even if he dies. 00:41:06.000 |
And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. 00:41:11.000 |
For the first time, I felt truly confronted with the question, "Are you a believer?" 00:41:16.000 |
Up until then, I had never even considered that I might not be saved since I had done 00:41:22.000 |
I went to church since I was young, memorized Bible verses, served, and even got 00:41:27.000 |
But as I considered the lifestyle of an unbeliever reflective of complacency and 00:41:32.000 |
unrepentant sin, there was a moment of realization when I finally accepted that 00:41:36.000 |
despite all the years of playing the part of being a Christian, there was no gray 00:41:41.000 |
I had no relationship of God and nothing of Christ in me. 00:41:44.000 |
The weight of this realization and recognition of the consequences of my status 00:41:49.000 |
as a transgressor against the holy God had set in, and I understood for the first 00:41:53.000 |
time why the good news truly is good news to a sinner like myself. 00:41:58.000 |
Looking back now, it was truly only possible by God's mercy and grace that my 00:42:02.000 |
hardened heart of unbelief was softened and my eyes were opened to see the utter 00:42:09.000 |
I was convicted of countless sins as I began taking baby steps as an infant 00:42:13.000 |
believer and reading the Bible, praying, and making my relationship with God 00:42:19.000 |
As a result, my life began to change as I let go of the worldly things I had held 00:42:23.000 |
onto so tightly in light of this newfound treasure that had been revealed to me. 00:42:28.000 |
Since then, I've still fallen into sin and no doubt will continue to until the day 00:42:33.000 |
But I trust that I am being sanctified through each and every trial and triumph in 00:42:37.000 |
life, all for the glory of God, as I strive to live out the calling of all 00:42:41.000 |
Christians, having received and being a steward of God's grace. 00:43:34.000 |
>> All right, if you can turn your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 11. 00:43:42.000 |
And again, thank you, Priscilla, for the testimony. 00:43:45.000 |
And again, Priscilla, because she was a friend of my daughter, Faith, we're able 00:43:49.000 |
to see her since high school grow and mature and then come to church and really 00:43:54.000 |
So, you know, hearing her testimony just, again, personally, it's been a great 00:44:01.000 |
If you can, again, look at verse 32 to 35, reading out of the NASB. 00:44:09.000 |
"And what more shall I say, for time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, 00:44:13.000 |
Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who by faith conquered 00:44:18.000 |
kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of 00:44:23.000 |
lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness 00:44:27.000 |
were made strong, became mighty in war, but formed armies to fight. 00:44:32.000 |
Women received back their dead by resurrection, and others were tortured, not 00:44:36.000 |
accepting their release so that they might obtain a better resurrection." 00:44:47.000 |
We pray for your Holy Spirit to guide us, not only to understand the content, 00:44:54.000 |
Help us, Lord God, that we may see a glimpse of your glory through this text. 00:45:02.000 |
You know, now that the pandemic is slowly releasing, obviously we're not there 00:45:08.000 |
yet, there's quite a few other things that need to happen, but there's more and 00:45:12.000 |
more talks, especially in the church, of what the church is going to look like 00:45:17.000 |
Open up meaning like fully open, and we're back to whatever we were doing 00:45:21.000 |
before, without the concern of being distancing and wearing masks and, you 00:45:27.000 |
know, having group pictures without wearing masks. 00:45:30.000 |
I mean, we're going to get back to that at some point. 00:45:33.000 |
But now that we're headed toward that direction, there's more and more 00:45:36.000 |
conversations among churches, what is the church going to look like? 00:45:40.000 |
Because according to statistics, half of the millennials, half of the 00:45:44.000 |
millennials, if you don't know, are somewhere around 39 to 40 and under. 00:45:49.000 |
And then I don't know where the next generation starts, but that's the 00:45:52.000 |
millennials, which is a big part of our church falls into that category. 00:45:56.000 |
And they said that over 50% has either dropped out or moved away from their 00:46:04.000 |
I'm not exactly sure what the statistics for the other age groups, the 00:46:08.000 |
X generation and the boomers and then the younger generation are, but, you 00:46:12.000 |
know, because that's kind of like the demographic that our church is in, 00:46:15.000 |
at least a large number, there's a lot of conversations. 00:46:21.000 |
Are the people ever going to really come back? 00:46:23.000 |
And I've had conversations with a few of my friends in other places who are 00:46:27.000 |
just starting to open up, and they're having a hard time getting their church 00:46:33.000 |
And so that fear is going to linger for a while. 00:46:35.000 |
And so within that conversation, there are talks about having churches 00:46:40.000 |
completely different going forward, that in order to accommodate what has 00:46:45.000 |
happened, that maybe we should just be online. 00:46:51.000 |
In fact, there are more and more conversations about church planting 00:46:56.000 |
There is no physical gathering in order to kind of roll with the punches and to 00:47:00.000 |
accommodate what's going on in order for us to reach this new generation of 00:47:04.000 |
people who are fearful of gathering together. 00:47:08.000 |
So the concern that we have now going forward is what is the church going to 00:47:11.000 |
look like in the next two to three to four to five years because of this? 00:47:18.000 |
Obviously, we are concerned about that going forward, you know, 00:47:26.000 |
I remember when I was back in college and maybe come in seminary, 00:47:30.000 |
one of the biggest questions that they were trying to deal with at that time 00:47:37.000 |
The X generation, right after the boomers, you have the X generation, 00:47:40.000 |
and they were saying that the X generation was having a mass exodus away 00:47:45.000 |
And we were hearing statistics that for every two people that converted, 00:47:51.000 |
In particular, in the Southern Baptists, for every one church that was planted, 00:47:57.000 |
And so they were losing that generation rapidly. 00:48:01.000 |
You know, I was a youth pastor at that time, and I started to see the exodus, 00:48:05.000 |
and I started to see that the statistics was, at least in the community that I 00:48:10.000 |
belonged to, about 80% of them attended church until high school. 00:48:13.000 |
But by the time they got to college, that 80% turned to 40%. 00:48:17.000 |
And by the time they graduated college up until they became young adults, 00:48:20.000 |
they said somewhere around 87% that attended church in high school by the 00:48:25.000 |
time they became young adults were no longer going to church. 00:48:29.000 |
So because of this fear, there was this stir. 00:48:33.000 |
If the church doesn't do something, within the next generation, 00:48:38.000 |
And that's where the Seeker Friendly Movement came in, 00:48:44.000 |
Instead of having the traditional church, since it doesn't work, 00:48:52.000 |
Maybe we can have maybe more skits, just like we are attracting children. 00:48:59.000 |
But the fundamental reasoning behind why the church started to change was 00:49:04.000 |
because there was this great concern that we're going to lose this generation. 00:49:09.000 |
So as a result of that, they started challenging everything. 00:49:21.000 |
Do we need to do this? Do we need to do that? 00:49:23.000 |
So anything that wasn't absolutely crystal clearly nailed down in Scripture, 00:49:29.000 |
everybody wanted to test the borders and just kind of, 00:49:31.000 |
"Let's have a new church to bring a new generation." 00:49:34.000 |
And this method, physically, humanly speaking, worked. 00:49:43.000 |
Large churches started popping up, left and right, 00:49:46.000 |
where prior to that, the churches were dying. 00:49:54.000 |
and we're going into a field where people are leaving the church instead of coming. 00:49:58.000 |
But now all of a sudden, you have churches that are popping up, 00:50:01.000 |
and you have hundreds, not just hundreds, and thousands, 00:50:04.000 |
tens of thousands of people are gathering together. 00:50:06.000 |
And so all of a sudden, people started to copy that model, 00:50:10.000 |
and that seeker-friendly movement started to spread all over the world. 00:50:15.000 |
We're in a similar stage right now where everything is being questioned. 00:50:23.000 |
Do we really need to physically meet together? 00:50:26.000 |
Now, before anybody gets confused, let me make that crystal clear. 00:50:38.000 |
So you can't call it a church without a gathering. 00:50:41.000 |
Obviously, temporarily, because of what was going on, we had to go online. 00:50:46.000 |
And the reason why we got together as soon as we were capable of getting together, 00:50:58.000 |
Not just participating on Sunday morning for that one and a half hour, 00:51:02.000 |
just sitting in front of the television and watching this. 00:51:05.000 |
For a period, we had to do that because of what was going on around us. 00:51:08.000 |
But the very essence of what a church is, is to gather. 00:51:11.000 |
That's why we want to encourage, at some point, 00:51:15.000 |
you have to get off online and need to come to church physically, 00:51:19.000 |
because it is not the church you are experiencing online. 00:51:29.000 |
whether it was back then, fear of losing the church, 00:51:32.000 |
and whether it's now, where my guess is, in the next two to three years, 00:51:36.000 |
you're going to see churches just solely online, 00:51:46.000 |
In fact, if you studied church history in the last 2,000 years, 00:51:50.000 |
you might be shocked to think, "How did we get here?" 00:51:54.000 |
There was a period in church history where the top leader of the church 00:52:01.000 |
And anybody who wanted to read the Bible or translate the Bible, 00:52:04.000 |
they were the ones who were persecuted, burned at the stakes, 00:52:07.000 |
and had their heads chopped off for questioning the church. 00:52:13.000 |
In 2,000 years, we can pinpoint many, many times 00:52:17.000 |
where we would have humanly said, "There's no way that this church 00:52:20.000 |
is going to make it outside the first century." 00:52:23.000 |
But if anything that church history teaches us, 00:52:38.000 |
Chapter 11, as much as we highlight these men and women, 00:52:41.000 |
these heroes of faith, the cloud of witnesses that have gone before us, 00:52:45.000 |
the real power behind what he's saying in Chapter 11 00:52:48.000 |
is not that God found these faithful men, these few faithful men, 00:52:53.000 |
and that He raised them up and did powerful things 00:52:56.000 |
but He found quality people in the midst of all these people who are falling out. 00:53:06.000 |
Chapter 11, that's why he says it is by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith. 00:53:10.000 |
By faith, Gideon did this. By faith, Jephthah did this. 00:53:15.000 |
If we look carefully at who these people are, 00:53:19.000 |
in fact, I'm going to discourage you instead of encouraging you today 00:53:23.000 |
because it's much easier to find faults in people 00:53:30.000 |
You ask somebody, "What do you appreciate about that person?" 00:53:33.000 |
You have to sit there and think a little bit. 00:53:35.000 |
"What do you think they're going to work on?" 00:53:37.000 |
"Well, I've got a whole list. I've been waiting for the opportunity to tell you." 00:53:44.000 |
What he says in Hebrews 11, verse 32, we have three sets of people. 00:53:52.000 |
The judges lasted during the period when Israelites came into the Promised Land 00:53:56.000 |
and they didn't have a formal government yet. 00:53:59.000 |
So God would raise up these judges and this cycle of judges that would come. 00:54:05.000 |
And after that, we come to the kings and prophets. 00:54:08.000 |
Where kings are established and prophets are sent by God 00:54:12.000 |
to constantly warn them and tell them that they're going the right direction. 00:54:18.000 |
We're now talking about the period of the judges. 00:54:21.000 |
And then he summarizes all of the kings and prophets by David, Samuel, and the prophets. 00:54:29.000 |
So it's like a very broad brush that he uses. 00:54:33.000 |
Now, all of these things he kind of summarizes. 00:54:37.000 |
He's been going into detail about what these men and women did. 00:54:40.000 |
But now he just summarizes by saying, "Who by faith conquered kingdoms, 00:54:44.000 |
performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, 00:54:47.000 |
shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, 00:54:50.000 |
escaped the edge of the sword, and on and on and on." 00:54:55.000 |
So our natural tendency is to look at what was it about Gideon? 00:55:01.000 |
He conquered an army of over 100,000 with 300 men. 00:55:07.000 |
What was it about him that God would allow him to use? 00:55:10.000 |
Samson single-handedly delivers Israel from the Philistines. 00:55:22.000 |
And our natural tendency is to want to see what is it about their character? 00:55:28.000 |
What is it about their upbringing that God was able to see their faithfulness 00:55:37.000 |
But if you take a closer look at who they are, I think you'll agree with me. 00:55:43.000 |
You'll come out with a bigger question than answer. 00:55:52.000 |
Gideon was a doubting conqueror of the Midianites. 00:55:59.000 |
So Gideon, basically during that period of Judges, 00:56:05.000 |
the theme in the Book of Judges is they all did what they thought was right 00:56:09.000 |
in their own eyes because they didn't have a king. 00:56:12.000 |
So as soon as they started to do their own thing, 00:56:14.000 |
they started straying away from God and disobeying the commandment. 00:56:17.000 |
And as a result, the Midianites and the Canaanites and the Philistines, 00:56:24.000 |
And after they are conquered, they are oppressed. 00:56:26.000 |
And in their oppression, they would cry out to God, 00:56:31.000 |
And God would be merciful to them and raise up a judge, 00:56:36.000 |
And so this is a constant cycle in the Book of Judges. 00:56:41.000 |
And so, with the Gideon, the Midianites took over, 00:56:44.000 |
and they were being oppressed by the Midianites. 00:56:46.000 |
So God calls Gideon and tells him that he's about to deliver the nation of Israel from them. 00:56:54.000 |
Judges 6, 13, Gideon said to him, "Oh, my Lord, if the Lord is with us, 00:57:03.000 |
And where are all his miracles which our fathers told us about, 00:57:06.000 |
saying, 'Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? 00:57:09.000 |
And now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.'" 00:57:13.000 |
You see, Gideon's response when God says that he's going to deliver them isn't, 00:57:17.000 |
"Thank you, Lord. We've been waiting for you." 00:57:20.000 |
He says, "No, if you're really going to deliver us, 00:57:28.000 |
You know, I think a shortened version maybe of this is, "Yeah, right." 00:57:34.000 |
I think there's a long way of saying, God says, "I'm going to deliver you." 00:57:37.000 |
He's like, "Yeah, right. You're going to deliver us? 00:57:43.000 |
I heard of what you did in the past, but I haven't seen anything recently." 00:57:50.000 |
"The Lord looked at him and said, 'Go in your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. 00:57:58.000 |
You remember that? He says exactly the same thing to Moses. 00:58:04.000 |
Gideon says to the Lord, "Oh, Lord, how shall I deliver Israel?" 00:58:16.000 |
and the Israelites were so weak until Gideon came. 00:58:19.000 |
Finally, we have our deliverer, Gideon, and then God coming to Gideon, 00:58:31.000 |
Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father's house." 00:58:38.000 |
Maybe the guy down the street, his father's wealthy. 00:58:43.000 |
"But the Lord said to him, 'Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man.'" 00:58:50.000 |
Now, I mean, think about the patience of our God. 00:58:57.000 |
I heard of you, but I haven't seen anything recently. 00:59:03.000 |
He's like, "I don't know. I don't know if I'm the right guy." 00:59:08.000 |
"So Gideon said to him, 'If now I have found favor in your sight, 00:59:11.000 |
then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me.'" 00:59:23.000 |
You would think God would say, "Okay, let me move on. 00:59:32.000 |
Gideon is the guy who talked back to God, and he died. The end. 00:59:39.000 |
He said, "Well, I'm going to set out a fleece, 00:59:41.000 |
and then make the due on everything except for the fleece." 00:59:49.000 |
I mean, even the proof that he asked for is so trivial. 01:00:01.000 |
sustaining this nation, conquering of Jericho. 01:00:04.000 |
He said, "You prove yourself. Keep this thing dry. 01:00:10.000 |
And then so, God's patience, he keeps it dry. 01:00:13.000 |
Okay, okay, okay. All right. That's a good trick. 01:00:18.000 |
"Make just that wet, and everything else dry." 01:00:23.000 |
I mean, think about even what he's asking for proof is so trivial. 01:00:28.000 |
God, in his patience, actually answers his prayer, answers his request. 01:00:34.000 |
But he wanted to make sure, because he knew what was in his heart. 01:00:40.000 |
As soon as he delivers them from the Midianites, 01:00:43.000 |
that they're going to say, "Oh, maybe I was the right guy. 01:00:46.000 |
Maybe I wasn't. Maybe my sin was I didn't have a high view of myself." 01:00:55.000 |
"The Lord said to Gideon, 'The people who are with you are too many for me 01:01:01.000 |
For Israel would become boastful, saying, 'My own power has delivered me.'" 01:01:06.000 |
So in order to keep them humble, letting them know it was God who delivers them, 01:01:09.000 |
despite Gideon, despite the sins of the Israelites, 01:01:21.000 |
He dwindles that down, and he says, "Well, anybody afraid, you don't need to stay." 01:01:26.000 |
And only 22,000 of them leave, and then eventually he dwindles them down. 01:01:32.000 |
And so you go to the water, and only the ones who drink and lap up the water, 01:01:36.000 |
the ones that put their mouth into the water like a dog, let them go home. 01:01:50.000 |
He's like, "No, no, no! Don't put your face in that! Oh, we lost another one!" 01:02:02.000 |
And obviously God miraculously delivers them because he wanted to make sure 01:02:06.000 |
that God was being faithful to his covenant promise, 01:02:17.000 |
Barak is... his name is not known very well because along with Barak is Deborah. 01:02:25.000 |
It's like, "Oh, how come we don't have a woman pastor? What about Deborah?" 01:02:32.000 |
and God tells Deborah that he's going to deliver the Israelites from the Canaanites. 01:02:40.000 |
And so Deborah calls Barak and says, "You know, God wants to establish you as the commander, 01:02:44.000 |
and he's going to deliver you." And this is what Barak says to Deborah. 01:02:48.000 |
Then Barak said to her, "If you will go with me, then I will go. 01:03:00.000 |
It's not enough that God says he's going to go with you. 01:03:09.000 |
"I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the honor shall not be yours on the journey 01:03:13.000 |
that you are about to take, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman." 01:03:19.000 |
Because you couldn't be man enough to trust in God, 01:03:24.000 |
and you need a woman to lean on, so the honor is not going to go to you. 01:03:29.000 |
It's going to come to me, right? Ultimately, it's going to go to God. 01:03:33.000 |
Barak, in his fear, despite his fear, instead of crushing Barak, 01:03:43.000 |
You're almost kind of like, "Why is Deborah not there? Why is Barak there?" 01:03:47.000 |
Because the point of it was not Gideon and Barak to begin with. 01:03:52.000 |
Samson, man, this guy, it's hard to believe he's on this list of all the people. 01:04:00.000 |
I think most people, Christian and non-Christian, know who Samson is 01:04:04.000 |
because he's a guy, single-handedly, who conquered the Philistines. 01:04:10.000 |
But I remember the first time preaching through judges, and by the time I got to Samson, 01:04:14.000 |
I read this story over and over and over and over again because I thought I'd missed something. 01:04:20.000 |
But I did not. So I want to show you what I saw. 01:04:26.000 |
Samson was a Nazarite who was dedicated to be set apart for God's use. 01:04:33.000 |
And so there were two particular vows that a Nazarite was supposed to have, 01:04:37.000 |
to never touch wine and to never cut his hair. 01:04:41.000 |
Well, he broke that not touching wine. I don't know when he broke it, 01:04:45.000 |
but according to what we see, it looks like he broke it as soon as he was able to drink 01:04:58.000 |
The only vow that he, at least that we see that he kept, was he didn't cut his hair. 01:05:03.000 |
That was the only thing that kept him to his vow was he didn't cut his hair. 01:05:08.000 |
And my guess is it was probably because he was lazy. 01:05:14.000 |
So in that situation, the Philistines have conquered Israelites. 01:05:18.000 |
God has mercy on them because they're crying out. 01:05:25.000 |
I think the best way to describe what Samson was like, 01:05:35.000 |
He's going to drink it up and he's going to have plenty of stories to tell. 01:05:41.000 |
So if you're curious, go read it for yourself. 01:05:44.000 |
But I'm just going to highlight the point where Delilah shows up. 01:05:50.000 |
Delilah must have been really pretty because the Philistines choose her 01:05:54.000 |
knowing that he's a womanizer to get the secret out of this guy 01:05:58.000 |
because he's been causing so much trouble for the Philistines. 01:06:01.000 |
Find out the source of his strength so that we can bind him and kill him. 01:06:04.000 |
So Delilah is deliberately sent to him and he falls in lust. 01:06:13.000 |
'Please tell me where your great strength is and how you may be bound to afflict you.'" 01:06:24.000 |
You want me to tell you how to kill me, right? 01:06:29.000 |
If he was a normal person, that would have been enough. 01:06:33.000 |
I know my mom, my friends warned me about Delilah, but here it is." 01:06:41.000 |
'"If they bind me with seven fresh cords that have not been dried, 01:06:44.000 |
then I will become weak and be like any other man." 01:06:55.000 |
Verse 8, "Then the Lord of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh cords 01:07:01.000 |
that had not been dried, and she bound him with them." 01:07:07.000 |
She didn't even just get the information and move out. 01:07:09.000 |
She actually binds him with the information that he gave her. 01:07:13.000 |
And then now she had men lying in wait in the inner room, 01:07:17.000 |
"And she said to him, 'The Philistines are upon you, Samson.' 01:07:20.000 |
But he snapped the cords as a string of toe snaps when it touches fire, 01:07:30.000 |
'I told you the secret, and you bind me, and then you call the Philistines? 01:07:37.000 |
"Then Delilah said to Samson, 'Behold, you have deceived me.'" 01:07:47.000 |
"Behold, you have deceived me and told me lies. 01:07:51.000 |
Now please tell me how you may be bound so I can kill you." 01:07:58.000 |
"He said to her, 'If they bind me tightly with new robes which have not been used, 01:08:03.000 |
then I will become weak and be like any other man.' 01:08:07.000 |
So Delilah took new robes and bound him with them and said to him, 01:08:13.000 |
For the men were lying in wait in the inner room, 01:08:15.000 |
but he snapped the robes from his arms like a thread." 01:08:26.000 |
You would think second time, 'I didn't get away with the second time. 01:08:33.000 |
'Up to now you have deceived me and told me lies. 01:08:43.000 |
If you say you love me, show me how to kill you." 01:08:49.000 |
"And he said to her, 'If you weave the seven locks of my hair with the web 01:08:54.000 |
and fasten it with a pin, then I will become weak and be like any other man.' 01:08:58.000 |
So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his hair 01:09:01.000 |
and wove them into the web, and she fastened it with a pin 01:09:04.000 |
and said to him, 'The Philistines are upon you, Samson.' 01:09:07.000 |
But he awoke from his sleep and pulled out the pin of the loom and the web, 01:09:20.000 |
If any of your friends were in that situation, 01:09:24.000 |
you would probably beat him senseless and drag him out of that house. 01:09:32.000 |
Verse 13, "Then she said to him, 'How can you say I love you 01:09:45.000 |
and have not told me where your great strength is.' 01:09:48.000 |
It came out when she pressed him daily with her words." 01:09:52.000 |
Daily. "Pressed him daily" is another word for "nagged him to death." 01:10:00.000 |
"She nagged him to death daily with words and urged him, 01:10:09.000 |
Her with her nagging, and he just couldn't stand it anymore. 01:10:13.000 |
"So he told her all that was in the heart and said to her, 01:10:16.000 |
'A razor has never come on my head, for I have been a Nazarite to God 01:10:22.000 |
If I am shaved, then my strength will leave me, 01:10:24.000 |
and I will become weak and be like any other man.'" 01:10:29.000 |
You can tell him he shaves his head, he becomes weak. 01:10:32.000 |
And we look at that, well, was the strength really in his hair? 01:10:38.000 |
That was the little connection that he had with God. 01:10:41.000 |
And then when he told her the secret and his head is shaved off, 01:10:45.000 |
that little connection that he had with God, he lost. 01:10:51.000 |
And then they drag him in, and then he repents and comes before God, 01:10:54.000 |
and he has one more chance, and that's how he conquers the Philistines. 01:11:09.000 |
Maybe after all this, that something great happened, he redeemed himself. 01:11:16.000 |
That's what he did, and then God used this drunkard who was womanizing, 01:11:22.000 |
to bind to what Delilah was doing, and then he conquers and then he dies. 01:11:28.000 |
These men do not come out as heroes, at least not when we read them. 01:11:33.000 |
Jephthah, there's not a whole lot, but Jephthah, during his time, 01:11:37.000 |
the Ammonites take charge, and God says to Jephthah, and he pleads with God, 01:11:42.000 |
"If you would deliver Israelites to me, then I will dedicate whatever comes out of my house, 01:11:50.000 |
the first thing that comes out of my house, as a burnt offering." 01:11:54.000 |
Well, they end up conquering the Ammonites, and he comes back, 01:11:58.000 |
and his only daughter, he only has one daughter, one child, 01:12:02.000 |
one daughter that he loved and cherished, and she's the one who walks out. 01:12:05.000 |
And he keeps his vow, and so if you read the commentaries, 01:12:15.000 |
But if you read the story, it looks like he sacrificed her. 01:12:25.000 |
What's interesting is during that period, human sacrifice was part of the pagan worship. 01:12:32.000 |
So it could have been, again, this is my take on it, 01:12:35.000 |
that Jephthah was already so compromised that human sacrifice was a part of their practice. 01:12:41.000 |
The only thing that he regretted was not that he gave human sacrifice, 01:12:47.000 |
But what's also interesting about Jephthah's story is God is never mentioned in his story. 01:12:59.000 |
So at the least, Jephthah, even he is questionable, a big question. 01:13:05.000 |
Well, it doesn't stop with the judges, right? 01:13:11.000 |
And Samuel, the reason why he's prominent is he's the last of the judges 01:13:15.000 |
and first of the prophets during the king's era. 01:13:18.000 |
Samuel is the one who anoints Saul and then anoints King David. 01:13:29.000 |
But if you look at how they transition from the judges to the kings, 01:13:36.000 |
This is what it says, 1 Samuel 8, 1 through 9. 01:13:39.000 |
"And it came about when Samuel was old that he appointed his sons judges over Israel. 01:13:44.000 |
Now the name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second, Abijah. 01:13:50.000 |
His sons, however, did not walk in the ways, but turned aside after dishonest gain 01:13:58.000 |
So the people of Israel got tired of them, this family, for what they were doing. 01:14:03.000 |
"And as a result of that," in verse 4, it says, "then all the elders of Israel gathered together 01:14:07.000 |
and came to Samuel and Ramah and said to him, 'Behold, you have grown old, 01:14:13.000 |
Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations.'" 01:14:22.000 |
And so they started seeing all these problems in Israel. 01:14:25.000 |
And so their solution was maybe the reason why we keep getting into this trouble 01:14:30.000 |
is because we don't have a king like the other kings. 01:14:33.000 |
Maybe we need a king like the Philistines and the Ammonites and the Midianites. 01:14:42.000 |
not realizing the reason why they kept on going into this cycle 01:14:56.000 |
they choose to worship the Creator rather than the creation. 01:15:00.000 |
So they thought maybe if we had the king that our destiny will change. 01:15:06.000 |
Verse 6, "But the thing was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said, 01:15:15.000 |
The Lord said to Samuel, 'Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, 01:15:19.000 |
for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.' 01:15:34.000 |
And so the era of the king starts as a rejection to God. 01:15:41.000 |
The next person that comes up on this is David, 01:15:47.000 |
He gets rejected. That's the guy that he chooses. 01:15:49.000 |
But David's the man that God chooses himself. 01:15:54.000 |
He's a young man who is after his own heart, he says. 01:16:00.000 |
they will say the greatest of the king was David. 01:16:03.000 |
In fact, the majority of the kings in Israel led the nation astray. 01:16:09.000 |
David was the man that they would lift up and say, "He's our true king." 01:16:19.000 |
David's sin was probably the most heinous from a human point of view. 01:16:34.000 |
and he sent his soldiers out, and he was just kind of perusing on the rooftop, 01:16:39.000 |
and he saw Bathsheba taking a bath, and again, he falls in lust. 01:16:46.000 |
So he commands her to come, and he sleeps with her. 01:16:50.000 |
And basically, after that, she gets pregnant. 01:16:53.000 |
And in order to hide his sin, he has an idea. 01:16:57.000 |
He's going to call her husband back from war. 01:17:01.000 |
He was a commander, so he said, "We're going to give you a special privilege," 01:17:05.000 |
pretending like he's doing him a favor, and asked him, 01:17:08.000 |
"You want to come back and sleep with your wife? 01:17:10.000 |
I'm going to give you a break before you go in because you did such a great job." 01:17:17.000 |
instead of going in and sleeping with his wife, 01:17:20.000 |
he says, 2 Samuel 11, 11, it says, "Uriah said to David, 01:17:23.000 |
'The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in temporary shelters, 01:17:27.000 |
and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. 01:17:32.000 |
Shall I then go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? 01:17:37.000 |
By your life and the life of your soul, I will not do this thing.'" 01:17:45.000 |
Even though David was trying to trick him to cover his sin, 01:17:51.000 |
"My men are out there fighting. How can I go in to do that?" 01:17:57.000 |
But David hardens his heart, and he needs to cover his sin somehow. 01:18:02.000 |
So he lets Uriah go into battle, and he tells the other commanding officers, 01:18:06.000 |
"When he's at the front of the battle, withdraw all your men 01:18:10.000 |
so that he's by himself, and so that he will be killed, 01:18:14.000 |
and so that in history books it will say that he died fighting for Israel. 01:18:35.000 |
simply because he wanted his wife, and simply because he was the king, 01:18:54.000 |
who were called valiant warriors for David, for the nation of Israel. 01:18:58.000 |
So these were the guys, if they went to battle, and if every other person died, 01:19:02.000 |
these are the 30 men that would surround David and take the sword for him. 01:19:07.000 |
These are the men who would sacrifice everything, that they came up the ranks 01:19:11.000 |
and were known to be loyal to David, who loved David. 01:19:17.000 |
Uriah was such a man because in 1 Chronicles 11, 26-47, 01:19:28.000 |
And in this list, without reading all of it, if you get to verse 41, 01:19:34.000 |
Uriah the Hittite, his name is on the list of 30 people 01:19:56.000 |
We look at that and say, "How can God choose this man? 01:20:00.000 |
How can this be a man among heroes that we're to emulate and follow?" 01:20:06.000 |
Because the point of redemptive history are not these people. 01:20:12.000 |
The point of redemptive history is by faith, by faith. 01:20:16.000 |
Despite the weakness of their faith, despite their fear, 01:20:20.000 |
despite their moral shortcoming, despite murder, 01:20:33.000 |
The only reason why you and I are here is not because God found 01:20:43.000 |
The only reason why you and I are here is because God was faithful to his covenant, 01:20:47.000 |
that if you confess your sins, he is faithful and just to forgive you of all your unrighteousness, 01:20:55.000 |
As long as we have faith to believe that Christ forgives us 01:20:59.000 |
and causes us to continue to repent and seek after him, 01:21:06.000 |
You and I are not here because we were more disciplined than others. 01:21:10.000 |
You and I are not here because we were more faithful than other people, 01:21:14.000 |
that we were more talented, we had better character, we had more morals than other people. 01:21:25.000 |
That's why Paul, when he describes himself in 1 Timothy 1, 15, 7, 01:21:30.000 |
it is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world 01:21:34.000 |
to save sinners among whom I am the foremost. 01:21:38.000 |
Yet for this reason I found mercy so that in me as the foremost, 01:21:41.000 |
Jesus Christ might demonstrate his perfect patience as an example for those 01:21:49.000 |
God didn't choose him because he was a Roman citizen. 01:21:52.000 |
God didn't choose him because he was being educated above all his peers. 01:21:56.000 |
He said the primary reason why he was chosen, so that when people see his salvation, 01:22:00.000 |
they say, "God can save him? That guy was a murderer. 01:22:05.000 |
He's responsible for the first martyr in the church, Stephen. 01:22:11.000 |
He was beating up our friends, our father, our children. 01:22:16.000 |
And if God can save him, what does that say about the gospel?" 01:22:21.000 |
He was chosen because he was unworthy, because he was the greatest of sinners, 01:22:27.000 |
in order to demonstrate that it is by faith and by faith alone. 01:22:33.000 |
And it is that same message all throughout the Old Testament, 01:22:37.000 |
all throughout the New Testament, all throughout the end times. 01:22:43.000 |
Anytime you and I begin to have confidence in our flesh, 01:22:53.000 |
because you're one step away from the Israelites saying, "We don't need him." 01:22:58.000 |
Go through the motion, the desperateness, the sense of urgency to cling to him has gone, 01:23:05.000 |
because pride has come in, and we think somehow we can. 01:23:10.000 |
In 2 Timothy 2, 11-13, it is also a trustworthy statement. 01:23:15.000 |
"For if we died with him, we will also live with him. 01:23:23.000 |
If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself." 01:23:28.000 |
I mean, what he says here is a perfect example of Israel's history. 01:23:32.000 |
God made a covenant, a unilateral covenant, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 01:23:38.000 |
And when they sinned, they saw the consequences. 01:23:53.000 |
God still remained faithful, because he made that covenant. 01:23:57.000 |
So the only thing that keeps us connected to this God is by faith. 01:24:10.000 |
Because the only strength that we have for us to persevere is by faith. 01:24:23.000 |
That's why we don't simply copy what we think is successful out there. 01:24:27.000 |
We just do what the Word of God says, in season and out of season. 01:24:32.000 |
And let God's children hear the voice of Christ, and those who are his will follow him. 01:24:39.000 |
That's our ministry philosophy in a nutshell. 01:24:43.000 |
Because it's not in me, it's not in you, and it's not in them. 01:24:49.000 |
So my prayer is--again, I ask the praise team to come up, to take a few minutes to pray. 01:24:55.000 |
That we would take some time to reflect and pray, where is your confidence? 01:25:18.000 |
So again, as our worship team takes some time to lead, let's take some time to reflect and to pray 01:25:24.000 |
and recalibrate our hearts, where Christ and Christ alone will be exalted. 01:27:08.000 |
As we sing our closing praise, would you please stand with us again? 01:27:38.000 |
I once was lost in darkest night, yet thought I knew the way. 01:27:47.000 |
The sin that promised joy and light had led me to the grave. 01:27:57.000 |
I had no hope that you would own a rebel to your will. 01:28:06.000 |
And if you had not loved me first, I would refuse you still. 01:28:28.000 |
But as I ran, my help and grace, indifferent to the cost, 01:28:37.000 |
you looked upon my helplessness and led me to the cross. 01:28:47.000 |
As I beheld God's love displayed, you suffered in my place. 01:30:05.000 |
Now Lord, I would be yours again and live so all might see 01:30:14.000 |
the strength to follow your commands could never come from me. 01:30:24.000 |
Oh Father, use my ransom lap in any way you choose. 01:30:33.000 |
And let my song forever be my only boast, it is you. 01:31:48.000 |
Heavenly Father, we come before you humbled, in desperate need, Lord God, of your grace. 01:31:55.000 |
Lord, as you promised, that your grace is sufficient for us. 01:31:59.000 |
Help us, Lord God, to come to you before we seek family, friends, leaders, 01:32:08.000 |
to recognize, Lord God, that you are truly our only hope. 01:32:12.000 |
Help us, Lord, to build a church, build families, Lord God, build relationships, 01:32:17.000 |
centered around the only hope that we have in Christ. 01:32:21.000 |
So we pray, as you send us, help us, Lord God, to open our eyes to see the darkness around us, 01:32:27.000 |
that we would not covet the world and what they have, and the experiences that they experience. 01:32:34.000 |
Help us, Lord God, to covet eternity, to covet what Christ has, 01:32:39.000 |
so that we would spend our days longing and waiting for the coming of Christ. 01:32:44.000 |
So wherever you send us, help us, Lord God, to be a light, 01:32:48.000 |
especially, Lord, as you have given opportunity now, 01:32:51.000 |
that so many people have their eyes opened in asking, 01:32:55.000 |
there must be something more to life than this. 01:32:57.000 |
Help us to stand between that gap and to be a witness to them, wherever you send us. 01:34:14.000 |
And life is worth the living just because He lives. 01:34:27.000 |
All right, again, if I can have this side of the room go out that door, and then this side this way. Thank you.