Judges: Recognizing Idols, Found by Strength

Well, we're back in the Old Testament book of Judges.

It's this weird ancient book in the Old Testament that most of us never read.

And when you read it, um, it's just it's weird.

We can just admit that.

It's weird.

Uh it's a soap opera, and we've been at the end of this book of Samson's life.

And this guy, he's married his enemy's daughter.

So the other people group that's enslaving his people.

He went and married one of their ladies.

He then abandons her.

He burns their fields.

He kills in total, at this point, 1,030 of their men.

Um he's a bit of a Rambo.

And then he has a God moment, right?

We saw that in the last week.

We were looking at it, we're like, oh, okay, finally.

Like he's begging for God, like God to quench his thirst.

We're like, here it is.

Like this is it.

This is the moment.

This will be his turning point, right?

Like this is the this is the retreat, top of the mountain.

Like everything's gonna be just fine in his life.

He's gonna find the sweet woman and a few acres and settle down.

And that's what his life's gonna be about.

And then we get Judges 16:1, which says Samson went to Gaza.

Judges 16:1

There he saw a prostitute and went in to her.

So that's what he does right after his big God moment.

Um, that's his follow-up uh sanctification process is uh 16.1.

Well, let's try to make sense of this if we can possibly make sense of it.

Um we begin with our third point from last week's sermon, and that's point number one for this week.

Idols and our hearts are always toxic lies, empty promises, and dry wells.

Now, let's not let that terminology about idols or idolatry or idols in the heart be too like super religious, because sometimes you hear something like that and you go, ah, not for me.

Here's what it means.

This is sort of like our ongoing working definition in our church.

Idols are anything we love too much, anything, even good things, anything we love too much that end up holding power over us from actually being at peace.

And they do that because idols aren't really God, but we position them in our hearts as God.

But really, they're just like something else.

Like they're just part of our life, they're just something that can't deliver on that level of filling the holes that are in our heart.

Christy and I are watching the seventh season of Alone.

Or anybody watch Alone?

I've talked about Alone before.

I love this show.

And mainly because we watch it and I pause, and then I tell Christy everything that they're doing wrong.

That's just our and she sits there and takes it, and eventually she falls asleep, and then I'm just talking to the room about everything.

In the seventh season, I think it's like the third episode, Sean loses his fire starter.

So remember the setup here is it's like 10 people or 20 people get dropped off out in the middle of nowhere.

They're totally alone, separate from each other.

They get to pick 10 items, they have to work their own camera.

They are alone in the Arctic wilderness.

So a fire starter is a big deal, right?

Big deal.

Sean loses it, I lose it.

I lose it in my living room.

How can you, how can you possibly lose your fire starter when you are alone in the Arctic wilderness?

Like, I'm telling Christy everywhere you could hang it, how I would hang it and where I'd put it and what I would do.

And then some of these people, they don't even take a gill net to fish, hadn't figured that out yet.

Like, you have to take a gill net.

I've never fished with a gill net, but like that's apparently a big deal.

And I know how to kill a wolverine at this point, right?

Like, I know how to do all of this.

And I love it.

Like, it's like, you know, I get to be the judge, right?

I mean, that's why we love so many of these shows.

And most importantly, I'm just I'm not like him, right?

Like, I would not lose my fire starter.

That would not be me, right?

And we do this, we can do this with Samson when we read this story, right?

We can read Samson and read all this absurdity and insanity and violence and abreaction.

We can and we just we can pause the story and go, well, at least I'm not like that.

Like I may be messed up, but at least I'm not Samson, right?

That's why you watch The Bachelor.

You're like, well, at least I'm not that.

Like I may be messed up, but I ain't that.

And you know what?

It does work a little bit.

It does make you feel better about yourself.

But slowly, what happens in this story with Samson is this story starts to read us, right?

Because if we're gonna talk about it on the level of what's going on inside of us, where we're all inside jobs, uh, eventually it reads us.

And so as we unpack this, this is what's gonna happen even again this morning.

Verse 2 the Gazette were told Samson has come here, and they surrounded the place and set an ambush for him all night at the gate of the city.

They kept quiet all night, saying, Let us wait till the light of the morning, then we will kill him.

But Samson lay till midnight, and at midnight he arose and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and two posts, and pulled them up, bar and all, put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill that is in front of Hebron.

After this, he loved a woman in the valley of Soric, whose name was Delilah.

So remember the idols in this guy's heart that we talked about last week.

We see them in action here again because he's with another woman, and then he falls in love with another woman, third woman in the story.

And then also, you know, when these people surround him to come and get him, he doesn't just like sneak away and go lay low.

No, he rips the doors off, puts them on his shoulder, puts them at the top of a hill for everyone to see.

Like, how dare you try to come against me?

Right?

So here's the idols that we've talked about in his heart romance or sex, idolatry.

If I don't have him, if I don't have her, if I don't have it, I won't be okay or I won't be enough.

I just keep needing her, him, that next person, the next person.

Power, idolatry, or even influence idolatry.

If I don't have power or influence, I won't be okay.

I won't be enough.

Right?

These are those toxic lies, empty promises, and dry wells that we can live out of, out of our hearts, but never really fulfill.

Right?

You just keep getting to the next place, keep getting to the next place.

Delilah is the third woman in the story of Samson, but she's the only woman with a name.

They all have names.

She's the only woman given a name in the story.

And Delilah means feeble.

Okay, so her parents named her that.

So let's pick up on that.

Just kind of like pause.

Her parents named her feeble.

So, I mean, talk about putting you on a mission in life to overcompensate, right?

Like that's that's where Delilah's coming out of here.

So we're gonna see something going on in her own heart as we unfold the story.

Verse 5.

And the lords of the Philistines came up to her, said to her, Seduce him and see where this great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to humble him, and we will give you 1,100 pieces of silver.

Okay, here we go, right?

So Delilah said to Samson, please tell me where your great strength lies and how you might be bound, that one could subdue you.

So Delilah will sell out her man for money.

That feeble heart of hers thinks, if I can only get 1,100 pieces of silver, then I'll be okay.

That'll be it, right?

That's money idolatry.

Works in our hearts also.

Works in my heart, works in your heart.

If I don't have that amount, that salary, that investment, I won't be okay or enough.

And we can reverse the sentence, right?

If I have that amount, that next amount, that next raise, like it's the next one, right?

Like the next one.

Then finally I will be okay.

If I if I could live like that, them, the other person, the person that you've been looking at, like them and what they do and how they live and what they have, if I have that, then I will be okay.

It's a toxic lie, empty promise, dry well.

So Delilah starts to work this manipulative magic on Samson.

I mean, she's she's loving on him, you know, like, hey babe, you know, just tell me, why can't you tell me?

Don't you trust me?

I mean, we're in a relationship, you know, a good relationship.

We're supposed to be vulnerable with each other.

You can be vulnerable with me, you can tell me.

And Samson kind of likes the game.

Like he's playing the game and he's lying to her, and then she's going back to them and telling them, and then it's the wrong information.

She comes back and you embarrassed me, and I thought we're in this relationship, and why can't you tell me?

And here's verse 15.

And she said to him, so to Samson, How can you say I love you when your heart is not with me?

You have mocked me these three times, and you have not told me where your great strength lies.

And when she pressed him hard with her words, day after day.

Anybody resonate with that?

And urged him.

His soul was vexed to death.

Why are y'all laughing?

I didn't even plan on that being a laugh, but apparently this is resonating.

And he told her all his heart and said to her, A razor has never come upon my head, for I have been a Nazarite to God.

So remember talking about that, like way back.

Like that's like he was he was devoted to God, set apart from early on in this devotion to God, from my mother's womb.

If my head is shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man.

When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, and she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up again, for he has told me all his heart.

Then the Lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hands.

She made him sleep on her knees, and she called a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head.

Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him.

Now, what in the world, what in the world could this have to do with like us today, right now, where we live?

Well, the very thing that Samson wrongly loved is the thing that stole his strength.

That's something to take note of.

For me, a contemplative question for application, for like growth and grace, for our walk with God, what it means to honor God, would start with a question like this.

What idol of the heart do I keep toying with that will never give strength to my heart?

And we could replace strength with wholeness or forgiveness or righteousness.

But what's the idol you just keep playing with?

That motive, that thing you think will deliver like only God can deliver.

I mean, this is his calling into a contemplative and confessional life.

And confession, like we've said before, is not despair.

Confession is relief.

It's bringing to light something that needs to be brought.

God already knows.

He already knows.

And in his kindness, he's saying, hey, let's bring that to light for your own healing.

We're the ones who need to voice these fears, these idols, the sin inside of our heart to him.

We are already in his grace in Jesus.

In our weakness, we actually know a more profound strength than us acting like we're just like always and forever strong.

And haven't you known it?

Haven't you known it that like in moments and seasons of like extreme brokenness, and maybe you're there this morning, extreme brokenness and difficulty, like some transformation comes out of that.

Like some greater strength in some way.

It didn't happen like that afternoon or like right after lunch, right?

I mean, it might take a while, it can take a while.

But always out of a weakness comes a more profound strength because we're tapping into where our real strength lies, which is not really in us.

It's in the fact that God accepts us, welcomes us, delights in us, dotes in us, forgives us, grants us righteousness, forever loves us.

So the Philistines take Samson, they finally get him.

Boy, this has been a long journey for that.

They gouge out his eyes, they bound him in shackles, and they put him to work for them.

But, but, verse 22.

But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.

So the hair's growing.

That's an imagery for us to see.

Something's going on.

The end is not the end.

The bottom is not the bottom.

War's going on.

The Philistines they gather to worship their false God, and the text says, when their hearts are merry, they called Samson in.

3,000 people in this huge building, 3,000.

And they're having a great time.

So their hearts are married.

So they are having a great time, and they can't wait to bring Samson in.

I mean, this guy is a legend.

They're going to bring him in, but he is weak, so they're not afraid anymore.

They're going to bring him in and they're going to mock him.

They're going to be entertained by his weakness.

They can't wait for this to happen.

And remember, these people are Samson's enemies, okay?

So these people are the ones enslaving his people.

And then we get verse 28.

Then Samson called to the Lord and said, O Lord God, please remember me, and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.

And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on the one, his left hand on the other.

And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines.

Then he bowed with all his strength, and the house fell upon the Lord's and upon all the people who were in it.

So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life.

Point number two is this in our nothingness we are open to God's victory for us and God's strength in us.

Here's how we see this in the arc of this story in the book of Judges.

We have to kind of back out and get a little macro level view on this.

At the beginning, the nation of Israel did rise up and fight.

And then by the time of Gideon, 300 people fought.

And now, and this is how this book's such a brilliant piece of literary work.

Now only one will fight.

And now we understand this in terms of this is a military situation.

This is nations enslaving another nation.

At first the nation will fight, then only 300, and now just one.

And the others are so apathetic in their slavery they don't even care.

It's a brilliant picture for us to see that God can save and welcome us and love us and have us and we can be safe with him.

Not because of 300 of us or our entire nation, but just because of one.

Because of him.

A couple of years ago, Christian and I we were given some tickets from some family to go down to Mercedes-Benz Stadium to go to the Garth Brooks concert.

So for me, that was like a highlight as a big deal for me who owned the Garth Brooks uh hits CD in my truck, in my four-wheel drive truck, as a teenage boy.

And so I was ready for this.

And so we get into the stadium and we have on a lanyard, our tickets in a lanyard.

And if you've worn a lanyard, you know a couple things are possible.

Number one, you're in charge of something, right?

You get to be bossy.

Or number two, you're going somewhere other people can't go if you have a lanyard on.

That's what's going on with the lanyard.

And so at first I'm going, okay, this is gonna be good.

This is gonna be a good situation here.

We start to follow where the numbers are at and walking down the concourse, follow the numbers, and we get to a door with a guy in front of it that has a suit on.

So one of the doors, non-lanyard people walk by and look in, and you're like, oh, okay.

So that's going on in there.

So I have the lanyard, just splash that sucker, walk right in.

It's a beautiful lobby.

There's two counters over here.

You could order food.

No lines, no lines, all lanyard people.

Big bar, all these tables and chairs, comfortably sit with your children.

It's a very relaxed atmosphere there at the stadium.

You could go down to your seats and watch.

You come back up, come back up, get more food, get more drinks.

And then I went to the restroom.

It was unbelievable.

It was only Lanyard People restroom.

It wasn't like you didn't have to go back out in the hall.

Like it was just in there.

And it was pristine.

You had TVs in there.

I hung out in there for a while.

I mean, this was amazing.

It was an amazing experience.

And all of this, I didn't, I didn't pay for anything.

Like I didn't buy anything, right?

Like it was gifted, right?

It was gifted on me, on us.

I received it.

And receiving is always a position of weakness.

It makes us feel really strange sometimes.

Sometimes we want to pay it back.

Live your whole Christian life trying to pay back something that was a gift rather than in response to it.

It's a position of weakness, but that position of weakness has such joy and freedom.

I mean, if you think back on the Samson story as this unfolds in that position of weakness where he finally admits he doesn't have anything, he needs to receive something, right?

He is bound, his eyes are gone, his strength is gone.

But something actually does happen there because his strength starts to come back.

He's probably embarrassed.

He has no moral upstand.

I mean, this guy is not a moral example at all.

This guy's a train wreck.

But something happens when everything has been taken away from him.

Right?

I mean, it's like we say what David said.

We're more broken than we originally thought.

I mean, we're we are we are beautiful and worth in the image of God, but we are more broken than originally thought.

And as we open that up in God's grace, we realize we're more loved by God and Jesus than we dare to dream.

That is such a freeing reality for the Christian life.

So Samson wipes out 3,000 people, and that military victory is given to all his people.

This is what we see throughout the Old Testament.

We see victory by representation.

It's not victory by your victory, it's victory by one guy wins, and the victory is given to all of them.

It's a foreshadowing for sure, of a coming victory for our secure position with God, not because of everything we do to get all the right fights correct, all the moral fights correct, but rather that God Himself, that's what Christ Jesus is for us.

Our victory.

And our effort ceases to be a performance to finally be okay.

No, it's an effort inside of God's grace to us.

Listen to this.

There's a whole bunch of Bible for us just in a row.

Just perhaps you've heard these verses, very possible.

If you've been around church, maybe you've heard these verses.

Just contemplate and be astonished of the victory have, but where the victory is coming from.

So in Christ we have victory over law and death.

1 Corinthians 15, 22, and then jumping to 54 and 56 through 56.

For as in Adam all die, there's a representation.

So also in Christ shall all be made alive.

Death is swallowed up in victory.

O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?

So if you're nervous at all about death, you don't have to be.

You can be nervous in terms of it being like, like, what in the world?

What in the world will that be, right?

Like what's that gonna be?

But you don't have to be worried about any suffering if you're in Jesus.

The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Also, in Christ, victory over sin and guilt and shame, all the stuff we carry around.

Romans 8, 1 through 2.

Therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.

So you may hear a condemning voice.

I hear a condemning voice all the time.

But it's not God's voice.

It won't be God.

It may be me.

It may be like something weird I ate last night, but it's not God.

It's not from God.

And we don't have to be governed by it.

In Christ, we have victory into righteous standing.

So God's provision for us is a full righteousness we don't have to earn by our performative life.

2 Corinthians 5.21, for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God.

In Christ, we have victory over any suffering, any possibility that you'd be separated from God.

So if you think, oh, if I if I just ah, I just don't know if he's still with me, because I did this or did that or this stuff's going on in my life, and is he still with me?

Where'd he go?

Where'd he go?

Romans 8, 37 through 38.

No, no.

In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Last one, in Christ we have victory over fear and anxiety.

Philippians 4, 6 through 7.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds.

In Christ Jesus.

Now that's not an equation to fulfill.

It's not an equation.

It's a description of a relational life with a God who delights in you and welcomes you and accepts you.

2 Corinthians 12, 9 through 11.

This is what came to mind thinking about Samson.

But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you.

For the sake of Christ, then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, calamities.

Why?

Why?

Why would you say that?

That's insanity, right?

That's my response.

What?

For when I am weak, then I am strong.

So maybe here and you would say, Yeah, but you don't know me.

You'd say, that's great, church talk, but you don't know me.

And you don't know because I'm not strong enough and I don't hold it together, and maybe I can put on some good church clothes on a Sunday morning, but you don't really know.

You don't really know.

And you're right, maybe I don't know.

But I know me.

I know Samson.

I know a few of you.

I know none of us are as good as we've let on.

I know all of us have stuff in our hearts that isn't great.

Like idols in our hearts that never fulfill, and we can keep toying with them.

But in our weakness, we find a more profound strength because finally we're freed from a performance-oriented life.

For us having to be strong enough.

Here's how I think it works out.

Because I know I'm welcomed by God and perfectly loved by Jesus.

I get to rest in him.

That I can be enough for God, and I can be enough in this world because of him.

Okay?

There's the freedom.

Then, second, because of that, I get to rely less.

It won't be perfect.

It will not be perfect.

But I get to rely less on the idols in my heart to make me feel validated, affirmed, important, in control, to feel okay.

I get to do that less.

Which means I'm free and I'm becoming free.

And that's the good news we have in the gift of Jesus.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you for your love for us.

That while we are more like Samson than we would wish to admit, maybe we don't have the stats of violent deaths, but we certainly have hearts that rely on things that never deliver.

And forgive us for all the ways we turn to the things of this world to grant us fulfillment and wholeness and even a sense of salvation or forgiveness or righteousness.

Help us to trust more in you, to understand that you are pursuing us in your love, calling us to a confessional life, not to burden us, to condemn us, not to put us in despair, but to free us.

Help us to see that your grace is always bigger and deeper than any of our sin, any of our faults and imperfections, and help us to see that in our weakness we can find a more profound strength than we would ever imagine.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.