Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:07] It's Rick. Welcome back to the Nomad Pastor Podcast.
[00:00:10] All right, today we're going to do episode eight of Judges, and I think this is the last one. I think, you know, we've spent a long time kind of walking through what happens when a nation walks away from God.
[00:00:24] And so we're going to finish this up with Samson and talk about strength without surrender and how that.
[00:00:30] How that leads to destruction.
[00:00:33] But before we talk about Samson, we got to get back to kind of where we have been, right? Because if you don't understand where we've been, you're not going to really understand what's going on here. And so last episode, we talked about Jephthah. And this is a man that was shaped. His whole life was shaped by rejection. He didn't grow up accepted. He didn't grow up in this secure environment.
[00:01:02] And what happened is he spent his life trying to prove something.
[00:01:06] And when the moment came, when leadership showed up in his life, he stepped right into it.
[00:01:14] But he never dealt with what was going on underneath.
[00:01:19] So what he did was he made a vow God never asked for.
[00:01:24] He tried to secure something from God instead of just trusting God. And it cost him.
[00:01:30] It cost him dearly. And that's the lesson that if you haven't listened to that episode, you should go back and listen to it, to kind of understand and make sure where we're at.
[00:01:41] Because if your identity is broken, your decisions are going to be broken, too.
[00:01:46] And in life and in everything you do, you can win battles and you can still lose your life.
[00:01:53] And that's a hard lesson to understand and to talk about. So like I said, if you haven't listened to that episode, you should go back and listen to episode seven.
[00:02:04] And then today we're going to move to Samson, right?
[00:02:07] And Samson, I think most people know this story, right? He's this strong guy, he's got this long hair, and he takes down his enemies. That's what people remember.
[00:02:20] But that's not the whole story, right? Samson, it's probably not even the story at all.
[00:02:27] Samson is not about strength.
[00:02:30] Samson is about this potential that was wasted in life.
[00:02:36] And his story starts completely different than Jephthah's, right? He's not rejected.
[00:02:43] He's actually chosen before he's even born. God sets him apart.
[00:02:49] He's a Nazirite from birth. Set apart and called.
[00:02:54] The purpose on his life was set and it was there from the very beginning. And so I think that's very important for us to understand because.
[00:03:03] Because Samson didn't struggle with rejection.
[00:03:07] He struggled with discipline.
[00:03:11] And I think.
[00:03:13] I mean, for a lot of my life, I struggled with discipline.
[00:03:16] And I think if I was to just ask or if you're listening to really think about things in your life, there's a lot of people who struggle with discipline.
[00:03:28] So if we watch this pattern of his life, this isn't one mistake that he's made.
[00:03:35] It's a pattern. And let me apologize real quick because I've been sick. And so if you hear some sniffles or coughs, I apologize. But if you've listened to me long enough, you know that I don't edit these podcasts.
[00:03:48] I don't change the content.
[00:03:50] What you hear is what you get. One pass, that's it.
[00:03:54] So, again, I apologize. I've been sick.
[00:03:57] So we're going to jump back in to Samson. It's this pattern.
[00:04:02] He sees what he wants and he takes it. He doesn't ask if it's right. He doesn't ask or think about, hey, does this honor God? He just goes and gets it.
[00:04:12] And he does that with relationships, places, decisions.
[00:04:21] These are relationships he shouldn't be in. These are places he shouldn't be. These are decisions he knows better than to make.
[00:04:32] And here's what makes that dangerous.
[00:04:35] God still uses him.
[00:04:39] The danger of God using him while he's still making these decisions is real.
[00:04:50] And so I want to try to say this as blunt and clear and as honest as I can.
[00:04:57] Just because God is using you doesn't necessarily mean he's pleased with you.
[00:05:04] Samson had strength. God gave him that strength.
[00:05:08] And even while Samson was living wrong, God still accomplished things through him.
[00:05:16] And I think that's where people get it twisted.
[00:05:20] I think I got it twisted.
[00:05:24] Well, things are still working fine. So I must be doing good. I must be doing right. I must be good with God.
[00:05:32] No.
[00:05:34] And this story about Samson, Samson's life, it proves that that's not true.
[00:05:42] Because we can be gifted and still be undisciplined, and we can be called and still be compromised.
[00:05:53] You see, here's the thing.
[00:05:56] It's a slow drift.
[00:05:59] Samson didn't fall all at once.
[00:06:02] He drifted.
[00:06:04] One decision, then another, then another.
[00:06:10] How many times in your life.
[00:06:13] Excuse me? How many times in your life have you thought, wow, it's just this little thing.
[00:06:19] But every time you make one little decision that drifts you away from what is God's will in your life, it's easier to make that next one until you're standing in places you never should have been.
[00:06:37] That's how it happens. That's how it happened for Samson.
[00:06:41] All of a sudden, he's in this place he shouldn't be.
[00:06:45] Because it was one little decision after another.
[00:06:51] Nobody wakes up and decides to destroy their life.
[00:06:57] You know, I've been with men at the mission and in recovery for years and years and years now, and never once have I had anybody say to me, today I just wanted to ruin my life.
[00:07:17] What happens is people just keep saying yes to the wrong things.
[00:07:23] As tiny as it may feel, continually saying yes to the wrong things leads your. It destroys your life.
[00:07:34] So if we look at Samson's life, he drifted.
[00:07:40] And as he's drifting, along comes Delilah.
[00:07:45] And this is where everything starts to come out. Samson knows he shouldn't be there. He knows this isn't right.
[00:07:55] But he stays.
[00:07:58] And then, little by little, he.
[00:08:03] One decision at a time.
[00:08:06] One tiny, small decision at a time.
[00:08:09] He continually gives away pieces of himself.
[00:08:15] And then eventually, he gives away the one thing he was told to protect.
[00:08:25] There's a line in this story that should stop you.
[00:08:30] It's the moment everything breaks.
[00:08:34] You see, Samson didn't know the Lord had left him.
[00:08:41] Think about that for a minute.
[00:08:45] He didn't know he had drifted so far away. One decision after another, One tiny little decision after another. He had drifted so far away that he didn't realize that God's presence was gone.
[00:09:03] Think about that.
[00:09:05] That is dangerous.
[00:09:08] Because that's not just falling.
[00:09:10] That's just not like, oh, I'm not going to listen to God anymore.
[00:09:16] That's falling and not even knowing it.
[00:09:20] And I think in society and in our lives today, we do that a lot.
[00:09:25] We don't even recognize that God's presence is gone because we've compromised one choice at a time.
[00:09:35] Until God's presence is gone, we don't even know we're in trouble.
[00:09:40] And there's consequences to that. Just like there was in Samson's life. You see, Samson loses everything.
[00:09:47] He loses his strength. He loses his freedom. He loses his sight.
[00:09:52] He ends up in chains, blind.
[00:09:58] This man who was set apart a Nazarite by birth, is now bound in chains and blind.
[00:10:09] You see, the truth is, sin will take you further than you want to go.
[00:10:18] It will keep you longer than you want to stay.
[00:10:23] And it will cost you more than you want to pay.
[00:10:27] And when I was thinking about this in that it will keep you longer than you want to stay. The thing that came to mind. And I know it's just. It's probably crazy, but right years ago, there was a Show that came out called Percy Jackson the Lightning Thief, right?
[00:10:46] And in part of that movie, they go into the Lotus Lounge or the Lotus Casino or whatever it was, right?
[00:10:55] And it kept them longer than they wanted to stay.
[00:11:01] Sin is the same way. And that whole thing was about, like, the sin that was going on in there, right?
[00:11:09] And it's going to cost you more than you ever wanted.
[00:11:15] But God, but even here, for Samson, God's not done.
[00:11:25] Because Samson's hair begins to grow back.
[00:11:29] And let's just be honest, it's not about hair, but it's about what it represents.
[00:11:35] It represents that God is still willing. God is still present, and God is still ready to respond when there is surrender.
[00:11:47] That's the key. Surrender.
[00:11:52] And in that final moment, right, I mean, there's tons of movies about it and books and stories.
[00:11:59] In that final moment, Samson, he stands with between these two pillars.
[00:12:05] And this time it's different because he's not relying on himself. There's no pride, there's no ego. He cries out to God, and he cries out to God for strength. And in that moment, God answers.
[00:12:23] Samson accomplishes more in his death than he did in his life.
[00:12:32] So if I can just maybe try to summarize it right, some of you have strength. Some of us do.
[00:12:42] I don't. But some of you do.
[00:12:44] Maybe you have talent or opportunity or influence, and you're relying on that.
[00:12:54] That's what Samson did.
[00:12:56] Some of you are drifting right now listening to this, and you don't even realize how far it's gone, just like Samson.
[00:13:07] And some of you feel like you've already messed it up too far, just like Samson.
[00:13:17] You see, the truth is, strength without surrender is going to destroy you.
[00:13:25] A calling without discipline will collapse.
[00:13:30] And if you're gifted without obedience, it's going to cost you everything.
[00:13:37] But after every failure, as long as you surrender, God will still respond. And he shows that in this story of Samson.
[00:13:53] So I want to kind of close this out the right way, because through this series, we didn't just talk about a few stories. We kind of.
[00:14:04] Not kind of. We talked about a pattern.
[00:14:08] We walked through what happens when people slowly walk away from God.
[00:14:15] You can go all the way back to the beginning.
[00:14:21] We started with this foundation that Israel is in this land, but they are not anchored in God anymore. There was no leadership.
[00:14:31] Everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes.
[00:14:35] Then we saw this cycle, right? There is this rebellion. Then there are consequences to the rebellion. And then because of those consequences, the people cry out.
[00:14:45] And when they Cry out there, deliverance, a judge.
[00:14:49] And then there's this temporary peace.
[00:14:53] And then right back at it again, one small decision at a time.
[00:15:03] And as we walked through the story, we met Otniel. He's quiet, faithful, obedient.
[00:15:10] That's what leadership is supposed to look like.
[00:15:14] Then Ehud, uncomfortable, messy, but yet God still delivered.
[00:15:21] Things started to reflect the condition of the people.
[00:15:25] Then there is Deborah.
[00:15:27] And we recognize when leaders hesitate, God is going to raise someone who is going to step forward.
[00:15:36] Then Gideon reduced, stripped down, taken from this very large army to this very small army so that he would finally trust God.
[00:15:52] Then there was Jephthah, trying to prove something, making a vow that God never asked for, and paying a price that he didn't need to pay.
[00:16:04] And today, Samson. Strength without surrender.
[00:16:08] And it cost him everything.
[00:16:13] And when you go through this and you step back and look at all of it, the entire book of Judges, people don't collapse all at once.
[00:16:23] They drift slowly, quietly, until what used to be wrong feels normal.
[00:16:33] And if you look at the culture today in America, we have drifted slowly, quietly, and it feels normal to a lot of people.
[00:16:51] And it used to be wrong, and it's still wrong.
[00:16:55] Just because it feels normal doesn't make it right.
[00:17:01] But as we look back through every failure, no matter what it was, God kept showing up.
[00:17:09] And he didn't show up because the people deserved it, because I don't deserve it.
[00:17:16] But that's because he showed up. Because that's who he is. That's who God is. He's faithful even when we are not.
[00:17:29] Every one of these Judges point to the same thing.
[00:17:36] It shows us that we don't need better people. We need a savior. And that savior is Jesus Christ.
[00:17:48] So let me ask right in your life, where are you drifting?
[00:17:56] Where are you relying on yourself instead of surrendering?
[00:18:03] I pray that you don't wait till it costs you everything.
[00:18:09] There's still time. Come back now.
[00:18:13] That is the entire story of Judges.
[00:18:16] It's not about perfect people.
[00:18:19] Israel, the chosen by God, they weren't perfect.
[00:18:25] It's about a faithful God.
[00:18:32] It's.
[00:18:34] It's. Sometimes it's. I don't know, maybe it's really hard for people to understand or comprehend. But every decision you make, as small as it may seem, that is one step farther away from God, has impact.
[00:19:00] But God.
[00:19:02] But God is still there.
[00:19:07] And he's still waiting for complete surrender.
[00:19:13] Surrender your life.
[00:19:20] What do you got to lose?
[00:19:22] You got everything to gain.
[00:19:25] Before I came to Christ, I used to think Like, I ain't worthy, I don't deserve it, and what's it going to matter?
[00:19:40] But when I completely surrendered and said, jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior, everything wasn't like flip of the switch better.
[00:19:59] In fact, a lot of things got harder.
[00:20:02] But God was there to take care of it, to help me, to guide me where I needed. And when I relied on God, it worked out. And when I didn't, it did not.
[00:20:14] It's something we have to learn every day.
[00:20:17] And throughout this story of judges, when the people relied on God, everything was okay.
[00:20:26] And then as they made one tiny decision after another and drifted farther and farther away, it got worse and worse and worse until they had no choice but to cry out to God.
[00:20:39] So I really, really want you to think about, where are you drifting that you may not even recognize it?
[00:20:54] Instead of surrendering, where are you relying on yourself?
[00:21:01] Because it. It will cost you everything if you don't come back now.
[00:21:09] We are not perfect people, but we have a faithful God.
[00:21:18] That's where I'm going to end it today.
[00:21:21] Hey, I want to thank you for listening. This is Rick with the Nomad Pastor podcast. If you enjoy this, subscribe, look, share it with your friends. I think this is like episode one. I don't know, 60 something. I don't really keep track of them, but we've been doing this for a long time. And if it. If it helps one person, if it helped you share it with somebody else, because that's what this is for, right? There's no advertising. There's no, you know, we don't ask for money.
[00:21:49] This is just something that God has called me to do. And I'm just going to try to be as obedient as I can through my surrender to him, because I don't want it to cost me everything.
[00:22:03] One decision at a time.
[00:22:07] Thank you again for listening. And I just want to remind you to love God and love people.
