The Journey: Authority & Responsibility
Psalm 23
Psalm 23:1–6 (ESV):
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. 3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
As we look into the scripture, it’s clear that we’ve been called to follow and allow Christ to lead us!
Around Hub City Church we talk a lot about building:
"Real Devotional Life, Real Community, and Real Responsibility"
Today we want to talk a bit about what it means to take responsibility.
Namely:
To take responsibilities for my actions
To take responsibility to the Gospel
This is the difficult thing in following Jesus -
By nature, I want to take control
By nature I want to make the rules
I want results that at least match the effort
It's so hard to manage Authority & Responsibility
Sometimes, we live our lives in a way that gives us the authority and God the responsibility.
That happens when I live in a way that:
I do what I want to do
I go where I want to go
I push past the boundaries of the Word of God
I say what I want to say
I let my mind wander into any kind of thought life I want
Once all of that is done, I give God the RESPONSIBILITY of fixing it and blessing it.
Let’s take a look at a story of a man named Samson:
Samson had a massive responsibility:
When Samson was born, it was for a particular purpose
When he was born, God told Samson's parent's to raise him according to a "Nazarite" lifestyle
This required certain parameters in Samson's life
As Samson got older - he falls in love with a girl from a girl who isn't an Israelite
Judges 14:4 (ESV)
4 His father and mother did not know that it was from the Lord, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. At that time the Philistines ruled over Israel.
God was literally leading Samson this direction so that he could place him at the right place at the right time to overthrow the Philistine rule!
→Samson is a man full of divine strength.
He caught 300 foxes, tied them tail to tail, and burnt down the fields
He tore down the gates of an entire city.
He killed 1000 men with the jawbone of a donkey.
So, we are talking about "Responsibility & Authority" right?
Samson walked with a supernatural authority in his life as long as kept the responsibilities that were given to him.
What we see in Chapters 14, 15 and 16 of Judges is that Samson has some relationship problems
The woman he fell in love with? Ended up marrying the best man.
In chapter 16, he's with a prostitute
In Judges 16:4 - he meets Delilah
Over and over she tries to figure out the source of his strength and over and over he protects it
BUT in a moment of weakness, Samson gives up his responsibility and actually gives the authority to Delilah…..
Judges 16:16–17 (ESV)
16 And when she pressed him hard with her words day after day, and urged him, his soul was vexed to death. 17 And he told her all his heart, and said to her, “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.”
You can only put yourself in compromising positions so many times before you become a compromising person
Let's look at Samson for a moment to what happens when you compromise your responsibility and God's authority.
When he told her where his strength came from:
Judges 16:19–20 (ESV)
19 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. 20 And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him.
When you compromise your responsibility and God's authority: You lose your strength
→Samson lost his focus and let Delilah cut his hair. When he went to free himself as usual he found that his strength was gone.
→When we lose our focus to do the things God has called us to do, the strength to do those tasks will be lost as well.
Unused muscles deteriorate after a period of time.
It is the will of God that we be a channel THROUGH which His supernatural abilities flow, not a vessel that is used to store it up.
→ When I find that I don't have the strength to carry out the purposes of God, it's usually because I have compromised my relationship with the person of God.
That's why our own willpower only carries us so far.
What happens next?
Judges 16:21 (ESV)
21 And the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles. And he ground at the mill in the prison.
When you compromise your responsibility and God's authority: You lose your vision
→Soon after your strength for the task has departed, your vision will follow thereafter.
→Sometimes we lose our vision and our burden because we have forgotten who we are.
Samson lost his physical vision, but our spiritual vision is much more important than that.
Proverbs 29:18 (ESV)
18 Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.
When I mix up who has the responsibility and who has the authority - it doesn't just affect me, but everyone around me!
→There is a lost community around us that is relying on us not to lose our vision and our burden.
When I take God's authority away and I forget that I had a responsibility I lose the ability to see into the supernatural
I stop believing that the impossible is possible
I stop believing that He can do what He said He could do
Ultimately: - When we lose our strength and lose our vision, we end up just as Samson:
Judges 16:21 (ESV)
21 And the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles. And he ground at the mill in the prison.
When you compromise your responsibility and compromise God's authority: You lose your freedom
→It won’t be long after your strength and vision go, that you feel a sense of distance from God.
At the onset of this distant feeling, the enemy will tell you that you are no longer worth anything to God and that you are no longer even a child of God.
Have you ever walked into the church service, and because you feel such condemnation, you can’t worship and can’t raise your hands like you want to?
Whether we become slaves to our habits, our thoughts, or to the lies told to us by the enemy - we are just that:
SLAVES
You may feel like you've lost the liberty to be who God has called you to be, the story is not over yet!
Judges 16:22 (ESV)
22 But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.
While he was still without the supernatural abilities he had before
While he was still blind
While he was still in prison
Look how his story ends:
Judges 16 says that the Philistines had a huge celebration to honor one of their pagan Gods:
Judges 16:25–30 (ESV)
25 And when their hearts were merry, they said, “Call Samson, that he may entertain us.” So they called Samson out of the prison, and he entertained them. They made him stand between the pillars. 26 And Samson said to the young man who held him by the hand, “Let me feel the pillars on which the house rests, that I may lean against them.” 27 Now the house was full of men and women. All the lords of the Philistines were there, and on the roof there were about 3,000 men and women, who looked on while Samson entertained. 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.” 29 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 and his left hand on the other. 30 And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” Then he bowed with all his strength, and the house fell upon the lords 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.
The Bible is filled with stories of people who
Got ahead of God
Wanted to do it themselves
Tried to speed God's plan up
Whatever the case - over and over - When they turned to God, took responsibility for their actions, and gave the authority back to God - He immediately went to work in their lives!
I don't believe this story ended exactly how it was originally intended, but there is no denying that God took Samson's negligence and disobedience and redeemed it for his glory.
When you look into your life, it may be off track a little
You may have compromised your responsibility
You may have compromised God's authority in your life
Like the Philistines, the enemy is making a mockery of you, but in the midst of that I believe that God can turn it all around for your good and His glory!
