 So I don't know still having now decided to take this for a second drive tonight I don't know still whether it's a Ferrari or a Ford. I don't know I'm still careful how I handle it It is if it's a Ford. It's not about more people need Ford's than for our is But we should all have one or two for our is in our conceptual garage Something that's a bit rare something that is a head turner something that Takes your attention something you like to show people In a way you wouldn't if it was just a Ford that they've seen before And we that are committed to doing this well to saying things well We that feel that a huge part of our calling is to say a thing. Well I'm very interested in things that could possibly be Ferraris in the life of the church, so I don't know we'll see you'll be the judge I'm gonna speak to you about Samson Everybody says Samson We've misunderstood Samson terribly and as a result of misunderstanding him I think by and large we have been unkind and ungracious To Samson there are many young people here tonight, and I don't know how long you've been around church The possibility is that you have not been in church long enough to have heard a message About Samson because he is not often spoken about Therefore I am so glad if you are a blank piece of paper regarding Samson I'm glad that I may tonight be the first person to ever speak to you about Samson So that what you go on from here to hear about him Least you have something in your mind To balance out the overwhelming negativity about him that you will hear whenever you hear his name mentioned I think we have been unkind to him we've been unkind to a number of Individuals in scripture for instance Martha Mary's sister Fancy being known all of your life and forever after in church history as The one that didn't choose the best part The one that Jesus kind of rebuked Imagine being the person that's known throughout history as the one that had to be corrected because you're stressful and Mary chose the more worshipful part and that's Martha's kind of memory and legacy We have been so unkind to Martha because we have adored and sought to emulate Mary and Mary's part sitting at Christ's feet Worshiping him, but guess guess where Mary did that She did it in a home that belonged to Martha Wasn't Mary's house It's actually Martha's house No one mentions that And we get so excited and we get so Doe I had about the oil she put on Jesus feet What about the oil that was cooking stuff in the kitchen? That was producing hospitality That was serving Jesus great food is One oil more significant than the other I Have been to all Mary and no Martha churches They're the ones that forget to pick you up at the airport That's the sore way with the fairies I've been to the I've been to the all Martha no Mary churches They're the ones where it's hard to spot Jesus in it all because they're so organized and professional and corporate And these two girls were sisters and They were not the ugly sisters and these two sisters together Built and ran that house and we need these two sisters also in the church in great balance I think we've been unkind to Martha. I think we've been unkind to Thomas Imagine being honest doubting Thomas, you know, the Bible didn't call him that That's not a Bible idea We have called in that Jesus never called in doubting Thomas come here doubting Thomas And if you look at Thomas's life afresh you will see that he brought something to the team no one else did he's the one when Jesus said we're gonna go and raise Lazarus and The disciples were terrified at the prospect of going to try and Intercept interrupt get involved in somebody that's already dead. It was Thomas that said Let's just go. We'll all we'll all come and die with you Jesus. We're just gonna be that bad. I'm up for it We don't look at that part of him You do know don't you that Jesus intentionally chose a man to be in his core team who had a propensity to doubt He said I want a doubter on the team Somebody you wouldn't have on your team. He intentionally Physicianed him. I think to educate us about how much Doubt is a part of our journey and how important it is to not be threatened by doubt but to see great value in doubt and To see the disadvantages of doubt but never to stereotype people into being automatically loses The cost of their propensity to doubt I Think we've been on kind to Jonah Think we've demonized Jonah and only taken taken failure from his life, but I think we've misunderstood Jonah I think we've been on kind even to Judas and to John Mark I could go on all of these names that I am mentioning to you tonight were all called Chosen loved and used by God All of them had their part to play In the massive global plan of God They had a moment on stage They had lines to say They had things to do Some of their parts on the stage of history were unpleasant and difficult for any human being to walk that path But all of them had a path to walk including Judas and I have a whole Alternative take on him, too, but we'll get to him another time Samson Was one of what I call God's beautiful contradictions If you if you didn't think God has them, I'm looking a lot here tonight People that are filled with apparent Contra flows mixture Great not so great yay. Oh, not so much yay in the same life the title for this idea about Samson's life tonight, which Sums up what I want to help you see about him that I've never heard anyone ever ever Speak about something in the way. I will to you tonight Is Samson God's magnificent irritation There's my graphic. It is very graphic. Isn't it? That's the jaw-bong with which he killed a thousand of The best of the Philistine Navy Seals with that Thing he found on the ground This hardly even comes close to the carnage that must have been there that day Because this guy Samson could rip Lions limb from limb What could he do to a human being if he decided to rip them limb from limb so the carnage was probably far worse than anything that indicates but What I'm after is calling your attention to this idea I have about him That he was God's magnificent Irritation every message I've ever heard about Samson is negative tragic shame failure Immoral weak If you Google Samson, I promise you nothing good comes up I have googled him and nothing good comes up But one of the first things that comes up is an article written by a preacher Called Samson Silver Spoon It's about the fact that he was born with everything going for him and He threw it all away This is the lesson of his life, but he was stupid He was weak and he threw everything away that you would only dream has been a possible beginning for your life When I googled him and nothing good came up it reinforced my commitment to Around the world for a season speak about him celebrate him and I realized that I think differently about him Because I realized that part of my gift and calling is That I am drawn to underdogs I am fascinated by write-offs I'm interested in losers and failures Because all the Overdogs if there is such a term By their hundreds left our church in the late 90s When I transitioned our church from being too comfortable to inward-looking to white to middle-class Outwards to reaching our city And within a year of me deciding to do that I was busing in 500 people a week from the worst you call them projects From the worst council estates in our city and some of the top three worst in our country I bust in 500 scoundrels a week That's what they were 500 samsons a week and All the people that were the leaders and the elders and The givers and the leaders and the mature people we really needed to stay Left because they couldn't stomach the idea of coming and sitting next to certain types of people I Think ever since then and clearly before then when I think back I've had this heart this fascination because those our church halved in two years We're from just over 600 to less than 300 in about two years and I replaced them numerically, but you can't replace them in maturity or in Established habits of Christianity that are essential to building a great church And I knew that these 500 scoundrels a week were my opportunity To experiment they became my guinea pigs in my church laboratory And I thought this if I can grow these people If I can grow these scoundrels if I can make leaders out of them If I can turn them to be useful Then if I can grow these people I can grow anybody in the world and for the next 15 years I settled down to Looking at underdogs differently Realizing that hundreds of them and thousands since them are worthy of more investigation Because we have filed so many people under a weakness or a failure and walked away Not realizing that amongst them is a massive lost resource to the church to the planet Because we have been too lazy To look closer and we have bought into what others say about them. I'm glad God never did that about me Or you This is so out of control now in my life That when a pastor asked me a question recently in a pastor's conference in Australia He said can I ask you he said what is your counsel after 30 odd years of pastoring? What is your counsel about how to handle loose cannons in the church? I? Assumed by his question. He had people in the church that he felt were a threat To the stability of the church and he wondered how over the years especially hearing me talk about What I just said about the scoundrels Amongst which were many loose cannons that would be a compliment to them. That would be a good day. That would be that would be a good scoundrel He said what do you feel about loose cannons in the church? And I didn't hesitate and said to him if I were you I'd be looking amongst them for my leaders The last thing in the world he expected to hear or anyone else. I think they all Wanted a refund on the conference delegate fee for me coming out with such nonsense And I said don't you think Jesus all of his life was viewed as a loose cannon? Depends who's asking depends who's looking And I could go through and name these retrospective heroes There weren't heroes on the day they arrived and the day they stood up and went against the status quo The one heroes on the day they picked up a whip of cords and kicked over tables There was no be saying We should make him our leader then and I realized that the reason I'm drawn and fascinated by Samson and Seeing something of value in him and taking time to look at him differently is very much to do with how I Am wired am I learning to give myself much more to that as I age And as I try to do better as a communicator to ask you with me to Sit and listen and think differently About someone that if you've been in church any length of time you will only ever have heard negative about Here's Here's how we need to empathize. I think that's a fair word Here's how I think we need to empathize Put ourselves in the shoes of Samson and then ask yourself, how would that affect me? Because Samson unlike every one of us in this room Was never called by God. He was born a leader With no option. He'd never have the chance to say yes or no like all of us have from before he was born His destiny his fate his life was scripted He had no option. He had no choice Samson never volunteered He had nothing to volunteer to The volunteer option was removed from his life from before he was born He is only one of three in the whole of history Whose birth was announced by an angel The other two as you all know, I know you don't all know but I'm being kind to you Was Isaac and Jesus But he's the only one of the three To whom's parents the angel appeared twice not once twice He had a very godly but barren mother who couldn't conceive And it seems to me quite a dim unspiritual father Because the angel appeared to his mother knowing the father was not there and Told the mother of the child she was going to have When she saw her husband later and told him about the angelic visitation Which we think theologically this visitation by the way was perhaps Christ in one of his pre-incarnate appearances Just don't even bother with that if you don't know what I just said don't don't bother Nobody really cares, but it's fascinating to me as a student of angelic appearances that you don't get more senior appearance than this one and The husband said whoa, what what? Get the angel to come back if you can and stay it all again with me there So she asked God to send the angel again And the angel came again and still excluded the husband When he appeared a second time he appeared just to her and she had to beg him to hang around While she went and fetched her husband so she brings her husband and The angel repeats the basis of what's gonna happen. The husband was so disoriented So flummox so panicky. He said well Let me Tell me your name and the angel said my name is too magnificent To say it if I said it You would not be able to stay on your feet. My name is too phenomenal to utter to a human being so I can't do that so Samson's father to be said well, let me at least make you something to eat His wife must have been so embarrassed. Excuse my husband I'm so sorry now. I understand why you Why you excluded him and so he makes a little meal and lights a fire to cook the meal and the Bible tells us the angel Disappeared in the flame ascended to heaven in the flames When her husband saw that he looked at his wife and said we're gonna die God is gonna kill us And she said to him The world you're talking about why would God come to us twice? Tell us what's gonna happen and then kill us. Hello Was I guess how that? Conversation went So he has this beautiful godly mom and a very dull spiritual dad in his Parenting these are all factors that it's worth talking about as we try to get in Samson's shoes a little bit He was a Nazarite From conception Not only was he to be raised under Nazarite prohibitive laws and rules his own mother had to live as a Nazarite while she was carrying him This is never heard of anywhere else in scripture every other Nazarite was called to be that somewhere in their lifetime Samson was Chosen to be a Nazarite before he had a choice and his mother had to be behave like and live like a Nazarite While she carried him he was born into 40 years four decades of Philistine rule and Philistine oppression and government over Israel, but here's the interesting thing again to be in Samson's shoes There is no record in that four decades ever of the Israelites calling out to God for help From Philistine oppression Suggesting to me that they had become comfortable With living under the rule of the Philistines. I think the contemporary term for it is the Stockholm syndrome when people that are kidnapped form a codependent relationship with their kidnappers and almost Adopted as a new life for them rather than trying to escape or preserve their identity. I wonder if after 40 years of No one crying out to God. They had become comfortable under this ungodly Philistine rule Because at least they didn't have to make decisions every day for themselves because when someone else calls the shots governmentally Makes your life easier. I Think I think the more Fringy borderline Jews Enjoyed the mixture that they were able to have by being in a Philistine country Because they had maybe more options to be less dedicated less committed Because of that dilution effect of the Philistine rule Over the Israelites gave them Different options for that expression of worship perhaps many of them enjoyed that part of it, too 40 40 years of Philistine rule Samson Born with no option, but to from birth be raised as an Azerite as a leader according to what? The angel came and told his parents twice now You're okay All right, we're gonna try and land this baby in ten minutes Here's here's what I've never ever heard Any preacher speak about and it breaks my heart because I don't think you can read this and then skim over To him and Delilah He's forever linked with Delilah Are you kidding me are you telling me that what I just told you Are you telling me that the takeaway from this man's life is him and Delilah you kidding me? You telling me that that's the takeaway from his life this this amazing this amazing individual The amazing supernatural unprecedented way in which he arrived in the world you telling me that we are to reduce his life To that thing with Delilah you kidding me is what I think when I read this. I think this guy is amazing and here's Here's my Here's my insight to this title here and my angle on this judges 14 1 to 4 Samson went down to Tim now and saw a young Philistine woman when he returned he said to his father and mother I have seen a Philistine woman in Tim now now get her for me as my wife His parents replied isn't there an acceptable woman among your own people Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife? But Samson said to his father get her for me. She's the right one for me now watch this his parents did not know That this Was from the Lord watch this even carefully Who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines for at that time? They were ruling over Israel. Let me let me rephrase this for you after 40 years of Philistine rule and No be having a problem with it the only way for God to interrupt the only way for God to break this endless cycle of mediocrity and the average and settling down under way way less than God's best the only way for God to Do anything about this Was to send someone Through whom To send someone who is who's calling and commissioning of their life Was one simple reason God sent Samson To be his let me have my screensaver back up God sent Samson to be his magnificent irritation in the skin of the Philistines in other words listen carefully God wanted For decades God wanted to pick a fight with the Philistines And somewhere in the Council of Heaven They had an idea Let's let's send a man and through his life We will intentionally pick a fight With the Philistines and the fight he picks will be such an irritant in the lives of the Philistines That my people will never ever Go back under that rule again. Here's what else here's what else the preachers don't tell us for 20 years two decades Samson was God's divine Irritation under the skin of the Philistines and Israel never ever went back After this 20 years of his judge ruling 20 years He was a leader for 20 years and for 20 years. He Irritated the hell out of those Philistines He did and here's why this matters and here's why we don't talk about it Because we have no theology for a trouble-causing God We have no Framework for divine irritation We have no belief system for God inspired violence We have no belief system nor theology for God inspired unreasonableness stubbornness non-negotiables defiance And listen to me if you have never and I don't know if any of us have I think I Think I have experienced this in the crossing over of our church that I mentioned earlier In the church lead many of the church leaving and me been left with ground zero and these people I mean we were in financial freefall All the money went out the door as people took their tithes their building pledges with them We were committed to two thousand seater auditorium all the money went out the door as well as all the gift and all the ability In two years, it was just a nightmare for two years. I think somewhere in that two years If you have never been hijacked by God That's what Samson had let's be flesh call it what it is from birth He is hijacked by an agenda. He has no control over and no voice into If you've never been set up by God If you've never been used by God If you've never been a victim of Divinity You will never understand Samson you will judge him You will you will be lazy and go with the stereotypical opinions of him This tonight is about asking you to maybe disengage Autopilot about him and Maybe think of him differently and as I said earlier if this is the first time you have spent any time About Samson. I'm glad that this is your Thinking on him you'll get others as you stick around church. I asked you to remember this one Because he's never been hijacked by God and I in those two or three years of losing people I Was so drunk with the possibility of A better feature for our church That I spent two years day in day out Fighting the church mafia. I've had a scary bunch And I woke up every single day and Catapult boxing gloves on as I went to sit with yet another couple that came to tell me how much they hated my guts Before they left the church and took others with them and for two years I Slept like a baby To the point where I got concerned that I wasn't more upset And I didn't have a language for it then I had no language for it I think this is something to do with I was hijacked by God for two years to pick a fight With people in the church who had no intention of letting us reach People in our city that they would not even think about coming sitting next to I think I think for two years. I was God's irritation to To the Philistines as it were the Apostle Paul Talks about himself being Compelled This is a little bit what I'm talking about this this internal Compulsion to the point where when prophets say to him Whoever this belt belongs to that I'm tying your hands with now Agabas the prophet took Paul's own belt and Tied his hands and stood back and said to him God says whoever Whoever this belt belongs to knowing was his and what I'm doing with it He said this is what will happen to the person who owns this belt if he continues his Drive to want to go to Rome and Stepped back and Paul looked him in the eye and said I'm not just willing to go to Rome and lose my freedom I'm willing to go to Rome and die. So thanks a lot. I don't see that as God telling me not to go I see that as God give me a heads up if you do it's gonna be rough I'm because Paul is so compelled with something. No one could understand He went to Rome and lost his life in Rome and died before his time We might all think as by the way we might think Samson did Who died so tragically preachers tell me died so tragically with his eyes gouged out But then his hair Began to grow again And we don't know how old he was when he was died. Maybe he was in his 40s and the Bible tells us He took more with him When he died he killed more Philistines as if it was one final. I'm so gonna irritate you suckers even more and hey When you have when you have finished being God's divine irritation You might as well go Because when you call to be an irritation You're probably not good in peacetime You just not I've had to learn that I still am because I'm still up for a fight all the time with With the church status core. I hate religion and God knows that's killed the church in Europe for generations So I look at the other company and Moses that chose hardship In Jenna in Hebrews 11 it says when he was grown he chose to be mistreated with the people He considered disgrace which he knew would come he considered disgrace worth while going through for the sake of being a leader to break 450 years of slavery and bondage of God's people he chose to step away from royal privilege and suffer Moses was intentional about pain and Said I choose that pain Who does that who would do that and all of his life was just a catalog of Agony for that man's soul And then of course Jesus who set his face as a flint So I pray I've got to close I pray for the restoration of Divine irritation in our churches because I am irritated By our irrelevance Certainly in Europe I'm irritated by our small-mindedness and our territorialness I'm irritated by our insecurities and our crybaby attitudes I'm irritated by our entitlement mentalities I'm irritated by celebrity pastor culture and Irritated by our narcissism in the church I'm irritated by our obsession to grow the church instead of drawing people and if salt and light are anything They're irritants We don't think of them as that but what happened to salt is Put this in your eye What happened to irritation of light? Shone with such brilliance and such clarity That it becomes an irritant rather than just an illuminator Come on. Let's stand together times go Father we are humbled and we are thoughtful tonight about our brother Samson and we apologize for being unkind to him. Would you pass the onto him for us? Well, we have been unkind to him Would you would you give him this audio? That perhaps he might know that somewhere in the earth We are seeing him in a different light that we are seeing him as your beautiful Irritation in order to get some change in a generational settling in your people. I Pray for the reemergence. I pray for the Growth of this spirit in our young people I pray the young people will Will understand what it is to be an irritant in society in education in business as usual churches, I pray that they will shrug and and step away from Religion and safety and mediocrity that they will not settle for anything less than the best that you Have for their lives. I pray that we will look twice and look three or four times at those that we have written off I see no value in I pray there will be an outbreak as it were of us looking in different places for leadership in our future From where we've perhaps looked and assumed it would come from in the years gone by God, we thank you for this massive master plan you have That if it was our choice Would have far few people involved in it Then by your grace are involved Thank you for including us. Thank you for including us because we know we are your beautiful contradictions many of us Help us to have greater grace and empathy for that in each other And help us to celebrate a fresh Samson's life in a way perhaps That we're well overdue from doing in your church around the world raise up Samson's Who prays that? What leaders are praying that around the world? Raise up Samson's and nobody praying that But in light of how we seeing him tonight, we pray But in these places around the world where your church have settled For mediocrity of a business as usual. We pray for the emergence of a divine irritant There will be a game-changer In these nations and continents around the world where your church has gone to sleep And just accept Whatever the generations before them did Think if we're using my life To be an irritant in the late 90s To change things to break something free and loose in and through our church To the many many thousands that didn't even know we existed Prior to that time. Thank you, Jesus