Don't Make Promises You'd Rather Not Keep

South Union Baptist Church

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Don't Make Promises You'd Rather Not Keep

October 15, 2023 • Pastor Chad Thompson • Judges 11:29–40

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Bottom line: We don't need an "if...then..." bargain with God. We need an "if not" clause in our statement of faith.

Jephthah sought to bargain with God to get a guaranteed victory over the Ammonites. He had faith that God had the power to deliver the Ammonites, but he didn't have confidence in what he and his army could do, so he rashly made a vow that in the end he wished he didn't have to keep, but he did. Instead of bargaining with God, Jephthah needed to expand his faith in God. He needed a faith that went beyond believing in the power of God, to a faith that believed in the purpose of God, i.e. trusting not only in what God could do but what God would do through him and his army.

We can learn some important lessons from Jephthah's vow.

1) Don't bargain with God.

2) If we make a promise or commitment to God, fulfill it.

3) Expand our faith to believe in God's power, purpose, and promise. When we do, we sense God's peace and presence with us in the "foxhole" moments of life.

Awestruck

November 26, 2023 • Pastor Chad Thompson • Judges 17, Isaiah 6:1–8

Bottom line: The Christian life is lame when God is not King! In the time of the Judges, the nation of Israel struggled with idolatry. That struggle is as real for us today as it was for Israel then. The first commandment is: Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. It reveals the biggest struggle of our lives, i.e. the struggle to keep God first in our lives, to live in a way that God is truly God of our lives. The second commandment is: thou shalt not make any graven image. It reveals our struggle to worship God as He truly is. We don't have to fashion a physical image in order to worship a god who is the work of our hands. We can reshape and revise who God is in our minds and hearts. We can bring God downward in holiness and man-ward in appearance (i.e. character, behavior, etc.). When we revise and reshape God, we practice idolatry, and our Christian experience becomes lame. Being awestruck with God is the result of recognizing God as our uncontrollable, holy King.

Repent And Fight Another Day

November 19, 2023 • Pastor Chad Thompson • Judges 16:21–31

Bottom line: Rock bottom doesn't have to be our final defeat; it can be the place from which we repent and fight another day victoriously. At rock bottom Samson humbled his heart in repentance and sought God's help by faith to restore his strength. Samson's greatest victory was on the other side of his rock bottom experience. Samson repented to fight another day. By faith he won the victory. Samson's experience is an encouragement to us to not give up or give in to the apparent defeat of hitting rock bottom. Instead, let's do what Samson did - repent and fight another day victoriously.

Samson's Kryptonite

November 12, 2023 • Pastor Chad Thompson • Judges 16:19–21

Bottom line: A compromised calling + a corrupted character = a collision course with a sinful disaster. Samson is the picture of a believer who gets on a collision course with a sinful destruction. Samson compromised his calling by not living a life separated from sin and to God. He regularly chose to sin sexually, pridefully, disrespectfully, selfishly, etc. Samson literally became imprisoned in Gaza because he first became a prisoner of sin. The lesson we learn from Samson is that sin will not only eventually bring destruction, but it will predictably bring destruction. The course of sin in our lives is enticement, control, and betrayal. Sin will do to us metaphorically what actually happened to Samson. Sin will blind us, bind us, and make our lives grind.