Ep 146 | Cover to Cover 25 | Pastor Chris Ryan | June 21, 2026

Hello, this is Pastor Ryan Clark.

You are listening to a message from St.

John's Lutheran Church in Buffalo, Minnesota.

Oh Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall declare your praises in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

Who do you think had the highest IQ ever? Some people would guess Albert Einstein.

Other people would guess Nikola Tesla.

And those people would all be wrong, because it was actually this guy right here, William James Sidis.

Scientists measure his IQ was right around 275, which is actually over 100 points higher than even Einstein.

And you could tell from the youngest of ages that this Sidis, oh boy, was he gonna be something special.

By the time he was six months old, he was talking in full sentences.

By 18 months old, he was reading the New York Times aloud to his parents.

At the age of eight, when most of us are just trying to master the English language, Sidis could read, write, and speak in at least eight languages, including Latin, Greek, German, Hebrew, French, and Russian.

Not bad for an eight-year-old.

By the age of 11, he had enrolled in Harvard University because clearly middle school was not gonna be challenging enough for him.

And by the age of 12, he was delivering complex lectures on four-dimensional geometry to the Harvard Mathematical Club.

How many of us at the age of 12 even knew there was a fourth dimension, right? And I'm still a little bit skeptical of that one at the age of 35.

And of course, at the age of 16, Sidis was graduating right at the top of his class from Harvard University.

You could tell he was gonna be special.

He was going places.

He was gonna be a big deal, which begs the question, how come you have never heard of him? I'm gonna guess hardly anyone here has heard of William James Sidis.

How come when someone messes up, we sarcastically say, "Good going, Einstein," and not, "Good going, Sidis"? Well, if we fast-forward to his adulthood, we find a rather sad story.

Sidis decided that rather than use all that God-given potential to do special things, that he just wanted to blend in with the crowd.

He wanted to be like everyone else.

And so in his adulthood, rather than taking on some amazing professorship and solving the world's big problems, he takes on a fake name and works low-paying clerical jobs just to fit in.

And when people figure out who he is, because it's hard to hide that kind of talent, isn't it? Well, he takes on a new fake name and takes on another low-paying clerical job.

And in the later years of his life, he doesn't spend his time solving and coming up with cures for cancer, solving some mathematical equation that would bring so much good to the world.

He spends the later years of his life actually inventing his own language, which he called Vendergood.

It was a combination of French, Latin, and Russian, spoken by approximately one person, himself.

The story of William James Sidis is truly a story of so much potential wasted And if you have been following along in your two-year Bible read-through we've been doing here at St.

John's, this week you encountered a story of someone who wasted a lot of God-given potential.

God gives Samson basically unlimited strength and potential to lead the Israelites to defeat their enemies, the Philistines, and rather than use that potential, he wastes it and just tries to blend in and be like everyone else around him.

And the truth is, St.

John's family, God actually gives you and me more potential to serve Him in big ways than even Samson, and we don't wanna make the same mistakes that he did.

We don't wanna waste all of that God-given potential.

So let's see if we can learn how to not do that from his mistakes and his story, which begins at Judges 13.

It says, "Again, the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord.

So the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for 40 years."

Pastor Clark talked about this last week, right? There's this cycle of sin in Judges.

We see the Israelites doing the same thing over and over again.

At some point, the generation will forget about God.

They'll start worshiping false gods, and then God removes His protection from them.

They get oppressed by their enemies.

Well, after some time, be it four, eight, or 16 years, they'll cry out to God to be rescued, and in God's grace and mercy and love for the Israelites, He sends them a rescuer, what we might call a judge, someone who saves the Israelites from their enemies.

Well, then they'll praise God, and then the next generation will be born, and they'll forget about God, and the cycle will start all over again.

At this point in the book of Judges, this cycle's been going on for 40 years, and actually, for the first time ever, the Israelites aren't even gonna cry out to God to be rescued.

But in God's grace and mercy and love for the Israelites, He sends them a rescuer anyways.

He sends them this judge, Samson.

And look at him.

He is clearly gonna be something special.

You could tell that from the youngest of ages.

We know he's gonna be something special for a couple reasons.

First, an angel actually comes to Samson's mom and announced that he's gonna be born.

Whenever an angel announces an upcoming birth in Scripture, take note, that baby is gonna be something special.

But beyond that, we know he's gonna be special because a Nazarite vow, of all things, is actually placed on him from the time he's in the womb.

The angel says to Samson's mom that Samson's head is never to be touched by a razor, because the boy is to be a Nazarite, dedicated to God from the womb.

He will take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines.

Now, a Nazarite vow, it's something we see throughout the Bible, but primarily in the Old Testament, and it was a way of indicating that someone was specially set apart and super dedicated to the things of the Lord.

Their life was gonna be all about serving and following God.

You would indicate that you had taken a Nazarite vow by doing these three things.

First, you would have no contact with grape products.

Second, you would have no contact with any dead bodies whatsoever, human or animal.

And third, you would never get a haircut during the duration of your Nazarite vow.

Understanding that these are the three conditions of the Nazarite vow completely unlocks the story of Samson, because what we're gonna see is it's truly the story of how he breaks that Nazarite vow in every way you possibly could.

And in fact, we see that as soon as an adult Samson comes onto the scene in Judges 14.

Listen to the first words that Samson speaks here in scripture.

It says, "Samson said to his father and mother, 'I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah.

Now get her for me as my wife.'

And so Samson went down to Timnah together with his father and mother.

As they approached the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him.

The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat."

There's a couple of significant problems here in those first few verses of an adult Samson.

First, he has decided that he wants to marry a Philistine woman, the enemy, right? These people that he's supposed to be totally different than.

It's like he wants to be one of them.

You're gonna see that throughout the story.

But second, and actually even worse than that, is where Samson finds himself as the story begins.

He's in the vineyards of Timnah.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't vineyards usually really full of grapes? And wasn't Samson supposed to avoid all grape products? If he was taking his Nazarite vows seriously, what would he have done when he came to that vineyard? Would've walked all the way around it, right? But he decides to go right through it, and because Samson was where he wasn't supposed to be, he faced an attack he should never have had to face.

And there's a whole other sermon there for us, by the way, on how we do that same thing, but that'll be for another time.

Samson faces a battle he should never have had to face because he's not taking his Nazarite vows seriously at all.

But the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him.

He rips apart that lion as one does a young goat, and then he just goes on living his life.

It says, "Then he went down and talked with the woman, and he liked her."

He decides, "She is the one for me."

And so he heads back to Israel to get all the things he needs, and then he heads back down to Timnah to marry her.

And when he went back to marry her, he turned aside to look at the lion's carcass, and in it he saw a swarm of bees and some honey.

He scooped out honey with his hands and ate it as he went along.

So Samson, he's gonna take the same route back to Timnah.

He finds himself in the vineyard again.

Why not? He goes to check on his kill.

The lion is still dead, believe it or not.

He had ripped it apart with his bare hands.

And in that lion, he finds a little hive, some bees, and some honey.

And so he reaches on down.

It's a long journey.

He has himself a little snack, and he goes on his way.

But what did Samson just do? He just had contact with a dead body, right? That lion is very dead.

He has broken the second condition on his Nazarite vow in the story.

This man who was supposed to be so set apart and so different from all the other people, he's just like them.

In fact, he's just like the first humans who walked this earth, isn't he? He's just like Adam and Eve, who saw something sinful, desirable, and sweet to eat, and they reached out and they took it for themselves.

That's what Samson does here.

And if that story isn't strange enough, the story gets even stranger from that point on.

Samson goes through with the marriage.

He gets married, and as part of his wedding party, he has 30 Philistine groomsmen.

No Israelite groomsmen, but 30 Philistine groomsmen up there to support him as he makes those marriage vows.

And he gives them this strange speech.

He says, "Let me tell you a riddle.

If you can give me the answer within the seven days of the feast, I will give you 30 linen garments and 30 sets of clothes.

If you can't tell me the answer, you must give me 30 linen garments and 30 sets of clothes."

"Tell us your riddle," they said.

"Let's hear it."

He replied, "Out of the eater, something to eat.

Out of the strong, something sweet."

Not a riddle in the common sense, not as we would think of one anyways, but we know the answer to that, right? Out of the eater, something to eat.

Out of the strong, something sweet, is talking about that lion that Samson killed and the honey that he took out of it.

Now, Samson's Philistine groomsmen have no chance of figuring out the answer to this riddle on their own, do they? It looks like they're gonna be out 30 sets of clothing, which in a time when people only had a set or two of clothing, this is a very big deal.

But then they do something that makes Samson a little mad.

Samson's groomsmen go to his new bride, and they get her to tell them the answer, and of course she did.

She's a Philistine.

She's on their side.

And Samson becomes so enraged by how they figured out this riddle that it says he struck down 30 of their men, stripped them of everything, and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle.

The Book of Judges is pretty violent, isn't it, as we go through it? But his debt has been paid.

Of course, he's still so angry at the Philistines that in Judges 15 it says he takes the jawbone of a donkey and kills 1,000 Philistines with it.

You say, "Pastor Ryan, that's great.

He's finally doing what he's supposed to do.

He's finally taking down the enemies of Israel, the enemies of God."

But even in that action, he's breaking his Nazarite vow, isn't he? Because believe it or not, that jawbone belonged to a dead donkey.

Samson, were there no swords available to you, or spears, or even a stone? Did you have to break your Nazarite vow to kill those enemies of God? You say, "Well, Pastor Ryan, at least he has to be done with the Philistines now.

I mean, there's no going back and hanging out with them after all of that."

Not exactly.

Sometime later, Samson fell in love with a Philistine woman, whose name was Delilah.

The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, "See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him.

Each one of us will give you 1,100 shekels of silver."

So Delilah said to Samson, "Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued."

Now, I have no idea how Samson falls for this, but Delilah goes to him and says, "Oh, Samson."

"What's the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued?" "I don't know, babe.

That seems like kind of a suspicious question.

It seems like you might be a double agent for the Philistines."

"Oh, Samson, you can trust me.

Just tell me, please."

"Well, okay, but don't tell this to anybody.

No razor has ever been used on my head," he said, "because I have been a Nazarite dedicated to God from my mother's womb."

Oh so dedicated.

"If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man."

After putting him to sleep on her lap, she called for someone to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him, and his strength left him.

And of course, it had, because he had shattered his Nazarite vow now in every way that you possibly could.

And Samson's life, it basically ends, the story basically ends with him captured, the Philistines blind him, and then they throw him into a Philistine temple to be an entertaining spectacle for all of God's enemies.

Look, there he is.

There's Samson.

He could have been something so special.

Samson could have led Israel in amazing ways, but the truth is, he can't get out of his own way, now can he? He wants to just blend in with the Philistines rather than be set apart.

He wants to say yes to the things of this world rather than yes to God's will.

And in that last regard, boy, are we a whole lot like Samson, aren't we? In fact, I would say we're even worse because we waste even more potential than Samson did.

Pastor Ryan, what do you mean I waste more potential than Samson did? I know I've been working out a lot, but there's no way I'm strong enough to rip apart a lion with my bare hands as one does a young goat.

Well, it's not necessarily this kind of potential that I'm talking about, but listen to what Jesus says about your potential in our highlighted verse of the day, words he speaks to his disciples and those who would become his disciples.

He says, "Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these."

Let's not overcomplicate this verse.

Think about the amazing things that Jesus has done.

Think about the miracles.

Think about how he spread the gospel in incredible ways.

Jesus says, these are his words, not mine, that his disciples and those who will become his disciples are gonna do even more amazing things than he did.

And the reason that we can do even more amazing things is because the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you.

The Holy Spirit gives us unlimited potential to do, as Jesus said, once again, his words, not mine, even greater things than him.

Which begs the question, how come so many of us aren't doing amazing things at all? How come we're not praying over people to be healed and seeing amazing things again, and again, and again, and again? How come some of us aren't sharing the Good News and having it be received in incredible ways like Jesus did? I think the reason for that is because we're a whole lot like Samson.

Like Samson, we get caught up trying to fit into the world, trying to be like everyone else around us, rather than doing the things that we were set apart by God to do.

Like Samson, there are sins we should say no to that we say yes to, that take us away from doing God's will.

Like Samson, we put ourselves around things that we shouldn't, and because of that, we face attacks from Satan and this world that we could've easily avoided.

Like Samson, with that lion, and the honey, and the vineyard there, we return to our place of sin again and again for momentary sweetness.

We're a whole lot like Samson, and we sure do waste a lot of that potential that God gives us to serve Him in big ways.

Thankfully, there was someone who came along that lived up to the billing, that used all of that God-given potential.

That someone is, of course, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

And by the way, as we look at Jesus' story, He's a whole lot like Samson, and yet he's the opposite of Samson in many ways.

An angel does come to Jesus' mother to announce His upcoming birth, just like Samson.

And just like Samson, that angel tells Jesus' mother that this boy is gonna be something special, set apart to serve God in big ways.

Now, unlike Samson, who went down to the Philistines and would never stop sinning and breaking his Nazarite vow, Jesus comes down to this earth a Nazarene who follows God's will perfectly.

He does all the things that He was set apart to do, and then He takes His perfect self to the cross, where He dies on it just for you and me, and finally breaks that cycle of sin that we see over and over again in the Book of Judges.

And in that action, He removes the space that was between you and God.

Now God can have a personal relationship with you, you can have a personal relationship with Him, and God gives you the gift of His Holy Spirit.

The same Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you and giving you the potential to do even greater things in the service of the Lord than Jesus did.

Once again, Jesus' words, not mine.

And as we close out this message today, I want you to understand that as long as you are still breathing, as long as you are still living, you still have that potential within you to serve God in incredible ways.

Just look at how the story of Samson ends.

It doesn't simply end with him blind being made fun of by the Philistines in one of their temples.

No, it ends with him crying out to the Lord.

Finally, finally someone breaks that cycle in Judges 13, 14, 15, and cries out to God for the Israelites to be rescued.

God responds.

He fills Samson with His Holy Spirit once again, and Samson, with that strength for one last time, he pulls down that temple on himself and all the Philistines that were in it, defeating many of the enemies of God, crushing them, in fact.

As long as you are still living, as long as you are still breathing, it is not too late to cry out to God like Samson did, to repent of your sins, and to ask God to fill you with that Holy Spirit once again that you may do even greater things than Jesus.

And actually, as we close out this message today, that's exactly what we're gonna do.

We're gonna cry out to the Lord like Samson did.

If you would pray with me, say, Lord, help me to remember that you have set me apart for special purposes, and that through your Holy Spirit, you have given me unlimited potential to serve you in amazing ways.

May you help me to say no to the things of this world, and yes to you.

May you reveal to me the special purposes for which you have created me, and then may I do those things in Jesus' name, Amen.

You've been listening to a sermon from St.

John's Lutheran Church in Buffalo, Minnesota.

If you would like more information about St.

John's and any of our ministries to our community and beyond, you can go to our website, www.

stjohnsbuffalo.org.

Thank you and God bless you.