Find joy in knowing what it means to be justified by God. Scriptures quoted in this episode: Romans 8:33-34, Matthew 4:17, and 2 Corinthians 5:21.
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There were months of planning and now we are 3 episodes into the SCBgO Podcast. The leadership of the State Convention of Baptists in Ohio (SCBO) approved the idea, episode guests have been so gracious in recording, and I hope people will listen, learn, and enjoy!
The idea came because I believe we need to celebrate what the Lord is doing around our state. As I have served the convention in an elected position the last year and a half, I have heard more testimonies of amazing ministry across Ohio.
Church members can often feel disconnected from the activity of their state convention, but we have the technological means to solve that problem. That’s exactly why the SCBgO Podcast exists: to motivate you to be active in Mission Ohio.
Even more specifically, here’s why I am working on the SCBgO podcast:
Be encouraged! God’s Word is authoritative for our lives, and the Holy Spirit will help you know what to say in the moment.
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Ryan walks through Psalm 144:1 to show how you can pray through Scripture. This based on Dr. Don Whitney’s book Praying the Bible.
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Samson exemplifies this principle. Judges 16 records the popular encounter between Samson and Delilah. The main point of that chapter is Samson’s flirting with presumptuous sin, and any one of us are like Samson in the way that we set our affections on something ungodly and are blind to any obvious attempts of that thing to lead us astray. Samson finally told Delilah the truth about the secret of his strength after he had tricked her three times.
Here is a simple but profound point that struck me when I noticed it. When Samson told Delilah the truth, he said “…A razor has never come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite 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” (Judges 16:17). Interestingly, he uses the name Elohim for God there instead of Yahweh, the Divine name.
Elohim certainly can be a reference to Yahweh, but it can also be used to refer to all kinds of gods. Delilah, a polytheistic Philistine, might have thought nothing of what Samson said because that’s how any one of her gods could have been addressed. In fact, the Philistines use Elohim to refer to their gods in this very chapter (four times in verses 23 and 24).
Right before he tells Delilah what it would take for him to break the last stipulation of his Nazarite vow (therefore, sinning against God), he refers to God in a way that couldn’t be well distinguished from any other so-called god. Samson’s view of God diminishes as he chooses to sin.
The same can be true for us. A temptation has risen to the level of being a god to you, and the One True God is nothing more than another option in a world of many gods.
It changes though. Samson has a moment at some point after his capture and imprisonment where he comes back to the realization that Yahweh is God, not himself or anyone or anything else. In verse 28, Samson called out, “O Lord God, please remember me…” Here Samson cried out Yahweh. He knows who the One True God is. He returns to having a proper view of God.
So, the question for you: what is your view of God when you are tempted beyond what you think you can handle? If He is nothing more than another option in a world of options, then you’re sure to rely on yourself and give in to sin. But if you view God properly as holy, righteous, and able to strengthen you in times of need, then you can choose and live in righteousness.
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When you take time to write everything out, you can more carefully craft your words for greater impact than if you get up there with some main ideas from bullet points.
RG Lee, long-time pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, was known as a master orator and wordsmith. For example, his famous “Payday Someday” sermon included the line, “I introduce to you Ahab, the vile human toad who squatted upon the throne of his nation.”
The same goes for illustrations–manuscripting forces you to take time to think through every part of the sermon, even the illustrations. I know some preachers who are skilled at giving illustrations off the cuff, but I tend to think through mine beforehand if they are actually going to help people connect the doctrinal truth to the illustration.
People might better remember those well-crafted lines and thoughtful illustrations, which hopefully leads to better memory of the meaning of the passage being preached.
I used to create a bulleted outline with main points and then sub-bullets. But when time comes to actually preach, if you haven’t thought through all of your words, then you’re more likely to let out those tics. Mine were uh and right?. Listening to my sermon recordings and manuscripting helped fix that (I’m not perfect but its better!).
Similar to higher-impact vocabulary, manuscripting makes transitions between main points smoother and easier for the listener to distinguish. I remember listening to sermons growing up and then wondering what did he just preach? Some of that is the listener’s fault, but sometimes it is the preacher’s fault for not giving clear navigation throughout the sermon. Manuscripting forces you to think through the introduction and conclusion to make them effective.
When I was using bulleted lists, I didn’t focus well on the intro or conclusion. I would just sometimes start by saying, we’re looking at Matthew 12:1-6 today so turn there and let’s go. Yikes! Thankfully, far better ways of introducing a sermon exist.
In a normal week, I’ve got the manuscript for Sunday finished by Thursday, which allows for plenty of time to be thinking on it. I don’t memorize manuscripts and just read them, but manuscripting allows it to be pretty well ingrained in my brain by Sunday.
One Sunday morning, I placed my iPad (I use to display my manuscript) down and another church leader placed his stuff on mine. He had a similar looking device and accidentally took my iPad. I didn’t realize that I didn’t have it until I got up to preach and it was too late to get it. But the sermon content had marinated enough by then that I knew where I was going and I trusted the Holy Spirit to do his work.
I am able to look back quickly on how I handled a certain verse or when I used that illustration. I nearly treat it like writing a paper in that I usually put citations in my manuscripts so I can see where I got a definition or a quote. It is also nice to be able to pull up a manuscript in short notice to preach if needed. Maybe you’re filling in for somewhere who got sick at the last minute or you’re on a mission trip and the unexpected opportunity comes. You can quickly pull up a manuscript from a previous sermon, review it, and preach away!
“Iron sharpens iron, and one person sharpens another.” (Proverbs 27:17, CSB)
Have you ever paused long enough to be thankful for the people in your life? The friends and family members who continue to shape you, encourage you, support you, and teach you. It has been refreshing to me to do this over the last month, and I would encourage you to do the same.
Whether you realize it or not, the people around you sharpen you. Recently I’ve had this thought: I can’t believe that I get to know him/her. I have been so blessed by seeing how people around me use their abilities and giftedness to serve the Lord and others, and their commitments sharpen me. We might not be in the same line of work, but their character is refreshing and leaves me proud to know them and learn from them.
I am so proud of people around me doing some incredible things: publishing books, leading university bands, motivating people in their organization as a supervisor, single mothers taking on the world, a dad who works hard hours and still serves his wife and young child well–I could just keep going on. They may not realize they are teaching anyone anything as they are accomplishing the world, but their skills, determination, and integrity are sharpening me.
We should be grateful for friends! Here are a few ideas on how you can show appreciation to these people in their lives:
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Since I grew up in church and “knew all the answers,” I was blinded to the fact that I needed to be saved from my sin. I thought the message of Jesus and the cross was just for others out there who were doing the really bad stuff. Essentially, I thought I could save myself by my knowledge and behavior.
If you are in a similar situation like I was, Samson could be helpful. Samson might be the most popular person in the Bible who was under the Nazarite vow, but it is also thought that Samuel was under the vow (1 Sam. 1:11-28; Hannah specifically mentions not cutting the hair); John the Baptist (Luke 1:15; no wine or strong drink); and the Apostle Paul (Acts 18:18; he cut his hair because he was under a vow-maybe at the end of a Nazarite vow). Nazarite is a word that derives from a Hebrew word (Nazar) meaning “consecrated or devoted one.”
Let me highlight details from Numbers 6 where we first read about the Nazarite vow:
Three things are unusual concerning Samson’s Nazarite vow:
Still, God called Samson out for a specific mission. At the end of v.5, we are told that Samson would start to save the Israelites from the Philistines. The cultural situation isn’t anything new to us by now. The Israelites had turned to their own ways and were serving other gods. God gave them into the hand of the Philistines for 40 years. The Philistines would continue to oppose God’s people and the Israelites wouldn’t find relief from them until near the end of King David’s life as you can read about in 2 Samuel 21. There are a few mentions of the Philistines after David, but David was able to break their power.
So, Samson was given great strength to be able to basically single-handedly take care of the Philistines. We know this was God’s strength upon Samson because the strength stopped when Samson’s hair was cut, which was the last part of his vow to be broken.
You can look at this information about Samson and a Nazarite vow and say so what? Here’s what I hope you will see:
The Nazarite vow was a voluntary claim to say I’m going to be holy.
Salvation today is God’s claim to say I’ve made you holy.
Samson is an example of someone who tried to be righteous but failed apart from the power of God–like me before I understood the power of Jesus and salvation.
Jesus Christ did what no Old Testament leader did—He broke the power of sin and death, and now you can be declared righteous and enabled to live a life of holiness if you profess faith in Jesus and trust Him to save you.
Even the strongest man in the Bible wasn’t powerful enough to save himself. If I were you, I wouldn’t try either.
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The most encouraging truth you might hear today is what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 3:8. You will be rewarded according to your labor, not according to the growth. We need to persevere in our service to God even if we get disappointed with what we think is happening as a result.
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