Where Did the Power Go?
INTRO: As we take a serious look at the “church” in America today, it is simple but sad to conclude that the American Church is failing. The “now generation” is witnessing the greatest demise in American church history. What used to be the pillar of our nation’s strength and the beacon of its truth has now become an icon of days long past.
Over the past 4 or 5 decades, we have witnessed many of the mainline denominations upon which this nation’s past was firmly grounded begin to divert their strong godly beliefs away from the teachings of God’s Word rather choosing to follow the ways of political correctness and liberalism—choosing to accept the practice of murdering babies through abortion; choosing to accept the belief that God didn’t mean what He said in His Word about His hatred for the practice of homosexuality, adultery, fornication and all the other sins so many churches have accepted as the norm.
God owes Sodom and Gomorrah an apology if He doesn’t rain down judgment upon those who have caved to the worldly pressures to accept these sinful practices into their midst.
Today, we are witnessing some of the more fundamental, conservative denominations beginning to crumble under the same pressures choosing to accept these ungodly practices rather than standing up and speaking out against them.
What has happened to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ? She has chosen friendship with the world as more important than friendship with the Lord. By so doing, she has exchanged her power to change the world for a sense of being a friend with the world. As we can see in reading the book of Acts, God’s purpose for the church is for it to impact and bring about a radical change to a hell-bound world. I’m reminded of the accusation brought against a group of believers recorded in Acts 17:6 where it says: “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here too.” I am challenged daily to turn my world upside down and I do my very best to see it happens. What about you?
Let’s read some Scripture so we can get a better understanding of all of this.
TEXT: Judges 13:1-5; Judges 16:15-21
1 The Israelites again did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, so the Lord handed them over to the Philistines 40 years. 2 There was a certain man from Zorah, from the family of Dan, whose name was Manoah; his wife was barren and had no children. 3 The Angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “It is true that you are barren and have no children, but you will conceive and give birth to a son. 4 Now please be careful not to drink wine or other alcoholic beverages, or to eat anything unclean; 5 for indeed, you will conceive and give birth to a son. You must never cut his hair, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from birth, and he will begin to save Israel from the power of the Philistines.”
15 “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ ” she told him, “when your heart is not with me? This is the third time you have mocked me and not told me what makes your strength so great!” 16 Because she nagged him day after day and pled with him until she wore him out, 17 he told her the whole truth and said to her, “My hair has never been cut, because I am a Nazirite to God from birth. If I am shaved, my strength will leave me, and I will become weak and be like any other man.” 18 When Delilah realized that he had told her the whole truth, she sent this message to the Philistine leaders: “Come one more time, for he has told me the whole truth.” The Philistine leaders came to her and brought the money with them. 19 Then she let him fall asleep on her lap and called a man to shave off the seven braids on his head. In this way, she rendered him helpless, and his strength left him. 20 Then she cried, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” When he awoke from his sleep, he said, “I will escape as I did before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him. 21 The Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles, and he was forced to grind grain in the prison.
INTRO: Now let me begin to weave this all together by encouraging you to recognize a vital link that exists in this story of Samson that relates to all the church as well as every individual believer—Samson’s power was determined by his personal purity. A Nazarite vow was a commitment to living a life of purity before God. True Godly power cannot exist outside of a life of purity. In Matthew 5:8, Jesus tells us: “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.”
So, with all this in mind, let’s attempt to answer the question:
I. Where Did Samson’s Power Go?
A. Samson was separated out by God – consecrated before his birth for a special purpose and commanded to live his life in purity and holiness.
1. Samson’s purity was the secret to his power.
2. When he compromised his life of purity, he began to compromise his God-given power.
B. When he compromised his morals through his relationship with a woman who was not a Jew, every step of every day took him closer to his eventual demise.
APPLICATION: Samson stood powerless before his enemies after divulging the secret to his power. His eyes were gouged out and he was paraded through the streets powerless and humiliated. A man of God turned powerless prisoner. What a pitiful turn of events for a man who had been so used by God. Samson discovered the hard way that dabbling in the sinfulness of his society would bring about his utter destruction.
What does this have to do with us? How does this relate to this church and others across America?
Let’s make an attempt to answer the question:
II. Where Did The Church’s Power Go?
A. Samson was lulled into a deep sleep by the lies and deceit of Delilah—many churches in America today have been lulled to sleep by the lies and deceit of the enemy brought on through the integration of an ungodly society into the church house.
1. People across America are hurting today—they need answers that are tangible, that give hope, that give strength, that give help in this godless society we have become.
2. The church holds the key—the church has the answer—yet we have allowed ourselves to become powerless by preaching a powerless, lifeless gospel message—by allowing ourselves to be infiltrated by the “Everyday’s a Friday Gospel” when we all realize the fakeness of such a message.
3. Pulpits have been taken over by men more full of themselves than by the power of God—sermons empowered by the power and the fire of God have been replaced by silly sermonettes laced with self-help feel-good little diddies that are powerless except to empty the churches of their people.
4. When we fail to call sin—sin; when we fail to acknowledge and preach about the reality of hell-fire and damnation of lost souls, we are selling our people out and the church no longer has any reason to exist.
5. When we fail to speak out while 57 million babies are being murdered at the hands of abortionists; when we fail to take a stand against an out of control government that removes anything and everything Godly from our society, we have relinquished our nation over to Satan and his demonic forces.
B. The early church recognized the necessity of the power of God in operation in order to survive in a world of ungodliness.
1. Paul said in Philippians 1:21: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
2. Confessing to being a Christian in the early church was similar to confessing the same in the Middle East under ISIS today—ridicule, persecution, imprisonment and death were very much a likelihood.
3. But the early church continued on in the face of all of this, recognizing God had given them a mission to impact their world and they did just that.
APPLICATION: But, here in America the church has failed and failed big time. We will answer to God for those babies. We will answer to God for our apathetic ways and our failure to maintain God at the forefront of everything our nation stands for.
So, things appear pretty desperate from the perspective of things at this juncture. What can I do? What can you do?
Let’s attempt to answer one final question:
III. Where Did The Believer’s Power Go?
A. Change within our nation will only come about when there is a radical change within the church across America.
B. A radical change within the church will only come when there is a radical change in the lives of the individual members of the church that makes them rise up fresh, new, excited —taking ahold of the falsities that have invaded and throwing them out demanding that once again the church be the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
1. But, before that will happen we need to understand just what it will require of each of us. Jesus said: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.” (Lk 9:23-24)
2. This call was to absolute surrender and total separation unto Him for anyone who desired to continue in a relationship with Him.
3. One cannot be a friend of the world and a friend of Christ—like mixing oil and water, it will never happen; like mixing darkness with light, it will never happen—one will always suppress and overcome the other—a friend of the world cannot be a friend of Christ.
C. Jesus took the issue a step further when He said: “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life, he cannot be My disciple.” (Lk 14:26)
APPLICATION: I am telling you right now, there can be no fire where there is no power; there can be no power where there is no purity of living and separation from this ungodly world.
CONCLUSION: The reality of everything I have shared today is harsh. The possibility of any change coming is questionable. I ask myself, Is there any hope today for America? For the church in America? For each of us?
Let’s go back to Judges 16:22-30 for an answer.
22 But his hair began to grow back after it had been shaved. 23 Now the Philistine leaders gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon. They rejoiced and said: Our god has handed over our enemy Samson to us. 24 When the people saw him, they praised their god and said: Our god has handed over to us our enemy who destroyed our land and who multiplied our dead. 25 When they were drunk, they said, “Bring Samson here to entertain us.” So they brought Samson from prison, and he entertained them. They had him stand between the pillars. 26 Samson said to the young man who was leading him by the hand, “Lead me where I can feel the pillars supporting the temple, so I can lean against them.” 27 The temple was full of men and women; all the leaders of the Philistines were there, and about 3,000 men and women were on the roof watching Samson entertain [them]. 28 He called out to the Lord: “Lord God, please remember me. Strengthen me, God, just once more. With one act of vengeance, let me pay back the Philistines for my two eyes.” 29 Samson took hold of the two middle pillars supporting the temple and leaned against them, one on his right hand and the other on his left. 30 Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” He pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the leaders and all the people in it. And the dead he killed at his death were more than those he had killed in his life.
We see Samson’s hair begins to grow back. His heart returns to God and to the purity of living that God had called him to. We see that the power of God came upon him one more time and he finished his life in the victor’s circle.
The church in America is in a sad, sinful, backslidden condition today. Revival and renewal within the church will only come about when God’s people recognize their own personal sinful lifestyles and determine by willful acts to turn from their sinful ways back to a holy God.
Each of us must come to an altar of complete repentance for all the spiritual shortcomings in our lives. We must confess and turn away from those lifestyles.
God is sending out a call for His church to rise up out of the ashes in purity and holiness in preparation for His soon return. He is coming back for a church without spot or wrinkle. God is ready to pour out a fresh anointing of His Spirit and His power but to receive from Him, each of us must be found to be holy as He is holy.
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