Gold Medal Church: Week Three

Here’s what I’m a hundred percent sure of. When you watch Olympic athletes compete, nobody ended up there on accident. So whether it’s pole vaults or whether it’s swimming, or whether it’s one of those sports that you don’t quite understand when you’re watching field hockey, speed walking none of those did someone just wonder into the trials and say, yeah, I’ll try that. Sounds good. And then they happen to be amazing at everybody who’s competing in the Olympics that they have spent a lifetime pursuing this goal. And you can imagine that there were certain days that they woke up and they just didn’t wanna do it, and they’re like, I don’t know if I wanna train anymore. And yet they push through. Why? Because ultimately, and we talked about this a couple weeks ago, that affection determines direction that the things that we love in our life, those are the things that we will prioritize.

And those are the things that we will chase after. Now that plays itself out in big ways, the overall direction of our life, and it plays itself out in small ways. There’re small things that we love, and because we love those things, we end up spending our money, our time, our energy, our effort on those things and, and our culture. It’s kind of a badge of honor to be busy. So you, you ask somebody, Hey, what do you got going on? You’re like, oh, I’m just so busy. I got so many things, you just wouldn’t believe it. But haven’t you found that even when you’re really busy and you’ve got a lot going on, if the right opportunity presents itself, you’ll drop everything for that opportunity? I, I just want you to imagine that this year you’re really busy, you got a lot going on, but, but somebody gives you a phone call and says, Hey, I, I’ve got some, some really great tickets to a Broncos game.

And, and maybe you had already told some other people that you were busy and you couldn’t do something, but, but all of a sudden you, you got a better offer and you’re like, oh man, o oftentimes when someone asks us to do something, it’s, it’s not that we wanna say yes or no, we’re just trying to weigh, is this the best offer I’m going to get on that particular day and that particular time. And so you get a better offer and you say, well, what is it gonna take for me to clear my schedule in order for me to do that? Because I love the Broncos and therefore I will make it happen. Or even smaller ways, and I dunno about you, but, but at my house we treat new things different than we treat old things. So I want you to imagine that you got a brand new couch one like this.

This is not my couch, this is just a Google image. But you get a brand new couch. And when you get a new couch, how you treat that couch. And we got a new couch about a year ago, and when we first got the new couch, it was all kind of rules. Hey, listen, we’re not gonna drink on the couch and we’re not gonna eat on the couch because it’s it’s fabric couch. And I, I want you to take your shoes off when you are on the couch and don’t jump up and down on the couch. As a matter of fact, don’t sit on the couch, kids, just mom and dad, we’re gonna sit here. We’re we’re gonna cone off the couch and you’ll sit on a

Beanbag and we will sit up here by ourself. Why? Because we value it. And so we have rules to try and protect it. Now, I want you to compare that to the couch that you’ve had a long time. That’s the old couch. Maybe it looks something like that. <Laugh>. There’s no rules to that couch. Like we have a couch in our basement. You want to eat on that couch? Go for it. You wanna, you wanna drink Kool-Aid, that’s red. That will permanently stay. I don’t care. You wanna bounce up and down, go over. If the dog gets sick and throws up on that couch, no big deal. It’s the garage couch. Nobody cares. The garage couch, it’s the basement couch is what we do not have a couch in the garage. It’s the basement couch, <laugh>. Nobody cares about that couch. But, but here’s the truth in our life that how we treat something depends on how we value it.

If we value something, we treat it different than when we don’t value it. Here’s what we find in the early church. We have kicked off this sermon series, still looking at acts in the early church really trying to say, what, what does a gold medal church look like in my life? What does it look like to achieve all that God has called me to be for our church? What does it look like for us to be all that God has called us to be? And here’s some consistent themes that we found in the early church, that they had a goal, that their affection, their love for God drove their direction. And that direction was taking the kingdom of God to the uttermost parts of the earth. That they were witnesses for Jesus, that the early church was willing to pay the price. That’s what we talked about last week, that they counted the cost.

There was persecution coming against them, and yet they were willing to continue on the mission that God had given them. And then here’s another truth that we find the early church loved others well, that we value things. How we value things determines how we treat them. They treated other people well because they valued them. Look with me in Acts chapter six, starting in verse one. This is one of the early turmoils that we see inside the church. And it says this. Now, in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the hellness arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. Now, pause for a second and let’s unpack a couple things. This word complaint can be translated a few different ways. It can also be translated as grumble. Now, if you have been around the church for a long time, that probably shocks you, that people inside the church were grumbling and complaining.

The only thing that’s shocking is, is what they’re complaining about. Most of the complaints that a big church or a small church gets, it, it tends to be more about just personal, personal preference one way or the other. But their complaint was that you’ve got the hellenism, this would be the Gentiles. They’re saying that the hellenism, the Greek widows, were not getting the same daily distribution as the Hebrew widows. There’s a way to say this is unfair. This isn’t lining up the way that it is supposed to. We aren’t being treated well. It says in the 12, that’s the apostles, the 12 summoned the full number of the disciples and said, it is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Now we’re gonna come back to serve tables in a second ’cause it’s a key phrase.

But why do they say that? Well, Jesus taught the disciples his 12 for three years. Now Jesus has ascended into heaven. Now you’ve got thousands of people who are new converts who have started following after Jesus. And the disciples, the apostles, they’re taking the teachings of Jesus that they know, and they’re teaching it to these thousands of people. And they’re saying, we can’t stop that good work. That’s really important for us to continue. But they also recognize that we need people to serve tables. And if you asked me, if you said, Hey, we we got a really important job. We need people to serve some tables for this event. And and you asked me, what would you consider the qualifications of table serving? I probably would be like, well, I mean, you gotta be able to serve tables. That seems like, seems like end of list.

That’s it. But that’s not the qualifications that we see the, the qualifications that we see. And the next verse is this. They say, therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of God seven men of good repute full of the spirit and of wisdom whom we will appoint to this duty. They say, we need table servers. We need people to serve. So who are we gonna look for? Really Godly people. Now doesn’t that seem kinda strange? It seems like, well, hey, we need table service. Anybody can do that. Just grab anybody you want. Doesn’t matter. But that wasn’t their priority. Their priority was find people who love God. They have a good reputation, they’re following after Jesus. Those are the type of people that we want to serve Tables. Why? Well, it goes back to the teachings of Jesus. Look in John chapter 13, Jesus talking.

He says, A new commandment I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you. You also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. You see, there’s two really critical things that the apostles understood, that they understood that the way that we love others is because of an outflow of us first loving God. We, we see that throughout the entire New Testament, that if my affection is towards Jesus, if I’m chasing after Jesus and I truly love him, then the overflow of that, the direction of my life will be loving the people around me well, and that if I love him, then I will love others really, really well. And they also understood that if the early church was going to thrive, so much was at stake on how they treated people.

The early church was saying, we, we value each and every person. And so how we treat that person, because God created them in his own image, that matters a lot. And so you see the early church do this extremely well. And yet, I I think to my own life, sometimes that’s really, really hard. It made me ask myself this question, why is it so hard for us to love and serve others? Why do I struggle with that? Like I can do that in short spurts really, really well. But to make it a lifestyle can sometimes be challenging. For a long time in our world we had a geocentric theory. Go back to your elementary school days. Geocentric theory was this idea that all the stars, the sun and the moon, they revolved around the earth. Everything revolves around us. And and for most of human history, that’s what people believe.

A geocentric earth centered theory. Now why did we think that? Well, because if you sit outside at night and you look up at the stars, kinda it makes sense. It feels like everything is revolving around us. Now, if you go back even three, 400 years before Jesus, there were people that that saw some flaws. There were some Greek scientists that were saying, well, well wait a second. I, I’m watching the stars. And, and there’s some inaccuracies. There’s times where a planet will be going forward. And then it doubles back and it kind of does this little loop. And so they just tried to explain it away. They say, well, well, yeah, they’re revolving around us. And occasionally they do a loopty loop and they keep going around us <laugh>. And it wasn’t until a thousand years later that the geocentric theory died, and the heliocentric theory came about, what’s that? That that will, in fact, everything doesn’t revolve around us, that we are revolving around the sun. And so is everything else. Now, I would argue that in life the same challenge every day is what we face. That there is a tendency to make everything revolve around us.

And the moment that we have to stop and say, wait, the world doesn’t revolve around me, that’s a hard step because there’s a part of us that naturally thinks everything revolves around us for kids. That’s, that’s just how you’re wired. That’s how you are born. You just assume that the whole world is around you. I I’ll give you an example. I I I told you last week about how sometimes my kids will use the phrase, that’s not fair. It’s not fair. Here’s what’s fascinating. Every time my children have ever used the phrase in their entire life, that’s not fair, guess who they’ve been talking about themselves? Never one time ha have my kid ever come up and said, dad, it’s just not fair that I have more than my siblings. It is just not fair that, that I’ve got some toys that that neighborhood kids don’t have.

And, and I, I just think for it to be fair, I need to get rid of some of these things so that it’s more equitable. And my house sometimes will be chopping up things because you only got one of ’em. And so whether it’s a cookie or a brownie or, or insert whatever food item it is, and we have to have the rule, maybe you have this rule that whoever’s the person that cuts it, the other person gets to choose their side. Because if I’m cutting it and I’m choosing my side, guess which one’s gonna be a little bit bigger and never have I have I sliced something in half and my kid look at their piece and they say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, this isn’t fair. Pretty sure mine’s bigger than theirs is. Why don’t we swap? That’s just not how life works. That’s not how we’re wired.

We, we wire things to revolve around us. And because we wire things to revolve around us, that’s our, our natural normative state, it’s really challenging to break apart from that temptation. Now, I wanna look at a story in the Old Testament, a a story that oftentimes we think of as a kid’s story. It it’s Samson. There’s this really important, that lesson that we learn from Samson that we tend to look past because we don’t look past the fact that Will Sampson was strong if you grew up in children’s church and you saw the felt board, he had long flowing hair and he had really big muscles, and he did cool stuff. And if you think back, what was the point of the story of Sampson? We tend to think don’t cut your hair. That’s the, that’s the point of that. And that’s about all that we think of.

But, but I think if we unpack this story, there’s a real lesson that we learn l look at judges chapter 13. This is before s Samson is born. We get the context for what his life is gonna be about. It says, there was a certain man of Zora, of the tribe, of the Dayan Knights, whose name was Manoa, and his wife was barren and had no children. And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, behold, you are barren and have not born children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. Therefore, be careful and drink no wine or strong drink and eat nothing unclean for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head. For that child shall be a nazarite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.

Now, before we go away from the slide, I wanna point out, and if you’re someone who underlines in your, your Bible, we get the purpose of Samson’s life right here, that he shall begin to save Israel. So Samson is born and appointed by God to serve and to save Israel. That’s the purpose of his life. And to his mom, to his parents, they’re told from the angel, he’s gonna be set apart from birth and he’s going to take a Nazarite vow. Now, Nazarite value, go back to the book of numbers, and you can read all about what a Nazarite vowel looks like. But there’s three critical components that anyone who takes a nazarite vowel that they have to follow. And so the first critical component is that they don’t cut their hair. So as long as the Nazarite vowel goes that their hair shall not be cut, shall not be shaved.

The second is that they’re not allowed to drink wine. No ative drink whatsoever. And then the third is that they’re not allowed to come in contact with a dead body that would make them ceremonially unclean. It, it actually specifically even says that if a family member dies, that they cannot go near the body of a dead family member. That’s how specific the rule was. Now, now put your, your mind into the position of Samson. Here’s what’s fascinating about the story. God does not talk to Samson. God does not send an angel to Samson to say, Samson, you need to take this vow from the rest of the story, the the best of our knowledge. Samson never hears from God like that. He has just told the message from mom and dad that Samson, you are special because God has made you special and created you for this purpose.

And that’s why you have to follow this vow. And so, so imagine he, he’s 10 years old, he’s got this long hair and he wants to cut the hair. And the parents are like, no, no, no, you can’t do that because you have made this vow. So as he grows up, he notices there are some things about him that are a little bit different. In chapter 14, verse five, there’s this crazy story. It says, then Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah, and they came to the vineyards of Timnah. And behold, a young lion came toward him. Rory, then the spirit of the Lord rushed upon him. And although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat. Now, you probably fall into two categories when you hear that either you’re like, oh, that is disgusting. That is that poor lion that got torn apart. Or you fall in the category of, dude, that was awesome <laugh>.

And and now there’s some context. I, I will, I will give some context. And that time clearly tearing apart a young goat meant something to the reader. I’ve never torn apart a young goat. So when I hear that, that that’s lost on me, never had that experience. But, but I can tell you, if you can tear apart a lion as if you’re tearing apart a goat, seems like you’re pretty strong. And that’s what we see through Sampson’s life. We see s Samson doing some amazing, really cool, whoa type moments where he’s just awesome. Like here’s a list of some of his feats. So he tears a line to pieces, as it said, like a goat. He, he also defeats 30 men by himself. Then he caught 300 foxes and burned a field. Now you have to add a, a, a little bit of unpacking for that to sound cooler.

Like how hard is it to catch a fox? I’ll give you an example. I’m 40 years old. My lifetime record of catching fox is zero right now. Haven’t caught one. They are really fast to catch. Not only did he catch one fox, he catches 300 foxes. And then he ties torches into their tails and he sends them into the fields to destroy the Philistines crops. So not only is he super strong, apparently he’s super fast, then he strikes down a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey. Like it would be really cool if it says that he picked up a giant war hammer or a giant ax or a giant sword and defeating a thousand men. It’s almost taunting those thousand guys to say he, he just picked up a bone he saw on the ground the jawbone of a donkey, and then he goes to town and kills a thousand dudes.

Like there’s, there’s no more manly warrior figure in scripture than Samson. And yet, if you know the story, it doesn’t go well. And so here’s the question to ask. What is it that goes wrong with Samson? Now, at this point in the story of the three vows that he has made, he’s already broken two of them. And so vow number one is that he is not supposed to drink alcohol. And earlier in chapter 14, it says that he throws this party. And the way that it gets translated in English, it it’s, it’s translated as he, he throws a party much as young mid did at that time. And really the better translation is that he threw a booze fest, is what it was. It was like a giant frat party is what he throws. And so one of the vows he made is, I’m not gonna drink alcohol.

And we see that he breaks that vow with how he’s living. Another of the vows that he makes is he is not supposed to touch a dead body. And that lion that he kills a little bit later, he comes upon the corpse of the lion and says, bees have made a beehive, and there’s honey inside that lion. And it says that he goes, and he, he scoops that honey out from the dead body. So second vow, he’s broken. So the only vow that he hasn’t broken at this point is this idea that he’s not supposed to shave or cut his hair, but probably there’s a part of Samson in the back of his mind that’s like, would that really make a difference? I’m not supposed to drink. And I’ve done that and I’m still super strong and awesome, and I I’m not supposed to touch a dead body, but, but I, I touched a dead body and I’ve done that probably a few times and haven’t had a problem yet.

So in the back of his mind, he’s probably wondering about his hair. And then we see the famous exchange with Delilah. And I was a kid. I remember hearing the story of Samson and Delilah, and in my mind, here’s how the story went. Samson’s an idiot. Like, like, why did you not pick up on the fact that, that this woman is evil and is just stringing you along? Like I, I think most of us would, would treat the story like that dude is just stupid. Or he was just so ahead over her heels in love that, and she’s so evil, he didn’t care because he loved her so much. And some people will point out, well, he just had really bad relationships with women. And that is wholeheartedly true. But I think the root issue of Samson was not those things. So if you don’t know the story, here’s what happens.

He starts dating romantically, being involved with this, this woman, Philistine woman named Delilah Philistines are the bad guys in the story. And then she tells him, she says, please tell me where your great strength lies and how you might be bound. That one could subdue you. Like that should be warning flag number one, right? <Laugh>, that’s a heavily specific question that you’re asking me there, Delilah <laugh>. But, but he gives an answer. So first he says, well, if you bind me with seven fresh bow strings that have not been dried, and guess what happens right after he tells you that he goes to sleep, he gets tied up with seven fresh bow strings that have not been dried. Delilah cries out. S Samson, the Philistines are upon you. And guess what happens? Bam. He busts out of ’em. He beats everybody up. They have a good laugh.

And then she goes, Samson, you lied to me. You, you told me that seven fresh bow strings would remove your power. And it didn’t. I I’m, I’m heartbroken. That should be worn it. Sign number two. He should have said, well, wait a second. The only person I’ve ever told about the the fresh Boer thing was you, and then that happened to me. But, but he doesn’t do that. What does he do instead? He says, well, actually, if you bind me with new ropes that have not been used, and then guess what happens? He goes to sleep, he wakes up and he’s bound with new ropes. She says, Samson, the Philippines are upon you. Boom. He busts out. He beats everybody up a third time. He says, well, if you weave the seven locks of my head with the web and fasten it tight with the pen, and now here’s what’s interesting about this one.

The first two have nothing to do with his hair, probably in the back of his mind. He’s, he’s like, why I got this Nazarite vow and I’m not supposed to cut my hair. My parents have been really specific. Don’t ever cut your hair. Don’t ever cut your hair. But, but maybe there’s something to my hair. And so now he says, well, well actually, if you, I’ve got these seven long locks of hair and if you weave them together, then tie it down tight with a pen, then I lose all of my strength. Now that is the most specific thing you can possibly imagine. And yet that exact thing is what happens that night to Samson. And then he busts free, still has his power, beats everybody up. Probably the first two you could say, maybe Delilah really does love me. And it just so happens that people tied me up with fresh bow strings.

But when you get to seven weaving of my hairs together into a like that is at this point, he knows Delilah is evil and is clearly trying to destroy me. So it’s not that he’s an idiot, it’s that he’s unsure where his power really comes from, because then what happens? Then he says, A razor has never come upon my head fourth time and shave off my head. That’s where my power comes from. But did he think his power actually came from that? Look what it says the rest of the story. It says she made him sleep on her knees. So she’s sitting down, gets him to fall asleep, his head is in her lap, 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. And she said, the Philistines are upon you, Samson.

This is the same phrase that she has said three other times. And then look what it says. It says, and he awoke from his sleep inn. He said, I will go out as at other times and shake myself free. He, he don’t miss this. ’cause I, I think this is the whole point of the story. I think it’s the point of the story that we missed past. Well, we skip right past it because we said, well, he is strong and the woman is evil. And that’s the story of Samson. But this, the story of Samson comes down to this. He thought he was gonna do the same thing he had always done. His hair was gone, and he assumed even with no hair, he’d bust out and punch cow pow kabam beat everybody up. And then one of the scariest lines in all scripture it says, but he did not know that the Lord had left him. Here’s the point of the story of Samson. I believe that Samson’s downfall was not his stupidity, it was his ego.

S Samson was strong and he was awesome, and he was amazing. And he had these three things he was supposed to do. And his parents from birth said, you’re set apart to serve Israel to to save our nation. Man, we need you to not drink and we need you to not touch dead bodies, and we need you to not cut your hair. And he’s walking around, he’s like, man, I’m awesome. Like I, I tear lions apart like they’re a goat. He, he’s walking around and, and he thinks he is the man. And then he, he drinks some alcohol and he’s like, well, that didn’t change anything. I’m still the man. And then he touches the dead body and he’s like, Hey, I, I’m still really strong. I I’m still awesome. And somewhere in the back of his mind, he, he’s like, I don’t think my awesomeness comes from this Nazarite vow thing.

I don’t think it’s from God. I think, I think it’s just the fact that I’m awesome. And so he says, well, go ahead and cut off my hair. And even with his hair, God, he assumed that he would get up just as before and everything would be the same. But it wasn’t because he thought his strength was from him, but really his strength came from God. You see, here’s the truth. For each and every one of us, our greatest danger is thinking to highly of ourselves. That affection follows direction. And so when I elevate myself up in life, then guess what’s gonna happen in my life? Everything is gonna going to revolve around me. The the reason that, that Jesus teaches that, hey, I need you to love me so that you can love others, is because he has to get our heart right before the actions of our heart will display ourselves correctly.

Look, look what John writes in his letters in first John chapter four. He says, we love because he first loved us. Now notice how different that is. I don’t love others because I’m awesome Now. I don’t love God because I am great. I love in response to his love. And then as a result of that, it says, if anyone says I love God and hates his brother, he’s a liar. For he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen, then it goes on to say, and this commandment we have from him, whoever loves God must also love his brother. If my affection is for God, then the direction of my life will mean that I’m serving. I am loving other people. But what will wreck that, the thing that will erect that more than anything else is my ego.

That if my affection is for myself, then that is going to drive the direction of my life. It changes everything. That, that when I look at my life, and I think that all the success, all the positive things, all the great things in my life are because of my own hand, my own awesomeness. Then it causes me to be judgmental. And I see other people and I see ’em struggling in their career or their job. And I think to myself, man, if you’d just be more like me, you wouldn’t have that problem. Or I see other people in their marriages falling apart and I’m thinking to myself, if you would just do marriage the way that I do marriage, then you wouldn’t have those same struggles. You know, I see other people struggling with how they parent, and I’m thinking, if you could just be more like my parenting style, ’cause I’m awesome, and if you would just be as awesome as me, then you too could be awesome.

And so I become judgemental because I think that the success of my life is entirely based off of me. But here’s what the gospel tells us. The gospel says that everything I have is a gift from God. That that every moment is his grace and his mercy, every breath, every heartbeat, every success. And if I can reorient my life instead of everything revolving around me, if all of a sudden my life starts to revolve around God and he’s first and foremost in my life, then the way that I interact with the people around me radically changes. Because if I’m walking and humility saying, but for the grace of God, that challenging situation that that person is in that, that could be me, but but for the grace of God, everything I have is a gift from him. And so humbly, I’m just gonna walk and be thankful that every single moment is precious.

When that happens, it causes me to look at the world around me, the way that God looks at the world around me. And I see someone who’s struggling. And instead of having judgment and say, oh, if only I have empathy and grace and compassion, because I can relate. And the way I can relate is because I, I say, oh, everything I have in my life is not because of how amazing I am. It’s because of how amazing he is. And so I’m gonna look at you and I’m gonna recognize that, that I love because God first loved me. I am a wretched sinner who God has saved on the cross. And because he saved me, I’m gonna look at you and say, oh, we all need help. I did. And so because of that, the overflow of my life is going to be loving other people.

When I think of our church and I think, what do we wanna be known for? Who do we wanna be? Here’s the thing that I always go back to when I think of what, what constitutes a healthy church That if every other church in the world ceased to exist other than this one, what would the trajectory of Christianity look like if we were all that’s left, every other one gone in a moment and it’s just us 50 years from now, would we have taken the message, the gospel of Jesus to our city and to our state and to our country, and to the uttermost parts of the world? ’cause That’s what the early church did. The early church, they were not content with just hanging out with each other, know that they had this goal. They said, Jesus has given us this mission to be his witnesses to the other most parts of the earth.

And they were willing to count the cost. They said there’s persecution coming against us. But because that mission is so important, we are willing to pay the cost to do that. And then every step of the way, guess what they did? They served. They loved others so well. And if we are gonna be a church that if it was just us didn’t cease to exist a hundred years from now, we’ve gotta be a church that does those three things well, that we have a goal that we’re chasing after it doesn’t happen on accident. That we’re willing

To pay the cost, the sacrifice with our time, our energy, our effort, and we’ve gotta love people exceedingly, exceedingly. Well, what could it look like if each one of us lived a life just like the early church? Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the privilege of coming and worshiping you. God, I thank you for the story of Samson, that so often we look at that story and we think of it as a kid’s story, and we think of it as Sunday School. And we miss the point that you had an appointed purpose for Samson for him to serve. I know what could have been. You still accomplish your goals through his life, but what could have been if you didn’t have the ego? Lord, help each and every one of us to be willing to set aside the ego, to put you first and in loving you that we would love others. Well, it’s the name, the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.