Some Mighty Straight Licks With Some Mighty Crooked Sticks was the title of my dad's sermon today. And the title sums up the sermon perfectly. The text was Judges 13:1-15:20, on Samson.When you think of Samson, what visions do you conjure up in your mind?
Maybe a muscle man with long, flowing hair?
Or a great man of God, a mighty judge maybe?
Or maybe you think of Samson & Delilah?
Well, all the things above are Samson, but sometimes, like my dad said, we focus too much on saying, "Be like Samson." But do you know what kind of stuff that guy did? By golly, click on the link above to get the whole story, but let's just say that Samson was no saint. Drinking parties, forsaking his vows, lusting after forbidden women. Yeah, Samson was definitely not worthy to be a judge, which is what God called him to be.
But that's the point.
Samson wasn't worthy. I'm not worthy. You're not worthy. We're not worthy to do anything God calls us to do, but the Lord still calls us to do things for him. And we can still honour Him by doing those things. In the sermon, Samson was the crooked stick, but God used him to do some mighty straight licks. In life, we are the crooked sticks (we sin and forsake God time and time again), but God can still use us to do some mighty straight licks. We must repent of our sins and turn to Him, though. But it's all Him. We don't do anything in those cases. We are the sticks, He hits the licks.