'GOD'S MONKEY WRENCH'

Rev. Canon George Sinclair

by Rev. Canon George Sinclair                           

 Pastor of the Church of the Messiah, Ottawa, ON.
  www.messiahchurch.ca

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Podcast of CFRA broadcast on Sunday,   

September 20^th, 2020

http://accm.ncf.ca/images/20.09.20.mp3

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This week's broadcast is the sermon I gave at Church of the Messiah. 

The sermon was called "God's Monkey Wrench" 

 It is part of my series, "Judges: Messy People, Faithful God"

"God's Monkey Wrench"

  

Today’s Reading: Judges 14 and 15  (ESV)

Samson's Marriage

14 Samson went down to Timnah, and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines. 2 Then he came up and told his father and mother, “I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. Now get her for me as my wife.” 3 But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.”

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.

5 Then Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah, and they came to the vineyards of Timnah. And behold, a young lion came toward him roaring. 6 Then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done. 7 Then he went down and talked with the woman, and she was right in Samson's eyes.

8 After some days he returned to take her. And he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey. 9 He scraped it out into his hands and went on, eating as he went. And he came to his father and mother and gave some to them, and they ate. But he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey from the carcass of the lion.

10 His father went down to the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, for so the young men used to do. 11 As soon as the people saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him. 12 And Samson said to them, “Let me now put a riddle to you. If you can tell me what it is, within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes, 13 but if you cannot tell me what it is, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes.” And they said to him, “Put your riddle, that we may hear it.” 14 And he said to them,

“Out of the eater came something to eat.
Out of the strong came something sweet.”

And in three days they could not solve the riddle.

15 On the fourth[a] day they said to Samson's wife, “Entice your husband to tell us what the riddle is, lest we burn you and your father's house with fire. Have you invited us here to impoverish us?” 16 And Samson's wife wept over him and said, “You only hate me; you do not love me. You have put a riddle to my people, and you have not told me what it is.” And he said to her, “Behold, I have not told my father nor my mother, and shall I tell you?” 17 She wept before him the seven days that their feast lasted, and on the seventh day he told her, because she pressed him hard. Then she told the riddle to her people. 18 And the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down,

“What is sweeter than honey?
What is stronger than a lion?”

And he said to them,

“If you had not plowed with my heifer,
you would not have found out my riddle.”

19 And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon and struck down thirty men of the town and took their spoil and gave the garments to those who had told the riddle. In hot anger he went back to his father's house. 20 And Samson's wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man.

Samson Defeats the Philistines

15 After some days, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife with a young goat. And he said, “I will go in to my wife in the chamber.” But her father would not allow him to go in. 2 And her father said, “I really thought that you utterly hated her, so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her instead.” 3 And Samson said to them, “This time I shall be innocent in regard to the Philistines, when I do them harm.” 4 So Samson went and caught 300 foxes and took torches. And he turned them tail to tail and put a torch between each pair of tails. 5 And when he had set fire to the torches, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines and set fire to the stacked grain and the standing grain, as well as the olive orchards. 6 Then the Philistines said, “Who has done this?” And they said, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion.” And the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire. 7 And Samson said to them, “If this is what you do, I swear I will be avenged on you, and after that I will quit.” 8 And he struck them hip and thigh with a great blow, and he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Etam.

9 Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah and made a raid on Lehi. 10 And the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” They said, “We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he did to us.” 11 Then 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?” And he said to them, “As they did to me, so have I done to them.” 12 And they said to him, “We have come down to bind you, that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines.” And Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not attack me yourselves.” 13 They said to him, “No; we will only bind you and give you into their hands. We will surely not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.

14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. Then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands. 15 And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put out his hand and took it, and with it he struck 1,000 men. 16 And Samson said,

“With the jawbone of a donkey,
    heaps upon heaps,
with the jawbone of a donkey
    have I struck down a thousand men.”

17 As soon as he had finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone out of his hand. And that place was called Ramath-lehi.[b]

18 And he was very thirsty, and he called upon the Lord and said, “You have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant, and shall I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” 19 And God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came out from it. And when he drank, his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore the name of it was called En-hakkore;[c] it is at Lehi to this day. 20 And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.

Footnotes

1. Judges 14:15 Septuagint, Syriac; Hebrew seventh
2. Judges 15:17 Ramath-lehi means the hill of the jawbone
3. Judges 15:19 En-hakkore means the spring of him who called

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NOTES:

 

Judges: Messy People, Faithful God
God's Monkey Wrench
Judges 14 and 15

1. Samson is God’s monkey wrench in Israel’s plans.

2. The Lord is saving Israel despite Samson and despite Israel.

3. The Lord saves you despite you!

4. In the whole counsel of God, the end never justifies the means.

5. Cheap grace whitewashes and baptizes selfishness and sin.

6. God’s grace invades you, revealing selfishness as selfishness and sin as sin, while working for your true good in redemption and amendment of life.

George Sinclair George is the Lead Pastor at Church of the Messiah. 

More about George Sinclair

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To listen to the above broadcast, click on the following link:

http://accm.ncf.ca/images/20.09.20.mp3

'ANXIETY AND TRUST'

Rev. Brent Russett

By Rev. Brent Russett

Pastor of Sunnyside Wesleyan Church in Ottawa:

http://www.sunnysidechurchottawa.com/   

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PODCAST LINK to CFRA broadcast - Sunday, August 17^th, 2014:

http://proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/24247/good_news_118_aug17.mp3

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‘Anxiety and Trust’

 

            Good morning. And welcome to good news in the morning. My name is Brent Russett. I am the Senior Pastor at Sunnyside Wesleyan Church. It is my pleasure to look at some of life’s challenges, and then bring you some good news in the morning.

            This program is brought to you by Good News Christian Ministries.

            You can find Good News in the morning on the internet at Goodnewsinthemorning.ca. There you can hear past episodes and find interesting articles.

            This morning I want to talk to you about Anxiety and trust.

            I am going to take you to a passage of scripture found in the Old Testament book of Isaiah 30:8-22. Isaiah was a prophet 

            Here is the background to this scripture that was written about 2700 years ago.  Israel is in danger. Israel seemed to go through these cycles. When Israel was faithful to the Lord God  kept them safe. Then they would turn from the true God, and they would allow idols and altars to infest their land. God would warn them. God would send prophets to let them know that this is not going to work.

            But usually they would not listen. They would continue their ways of worshipping false gods, and promoting injustice. Then an enemy would overtake them. After a while they would repent and God would deliver them.

            Well they are in one of those phases where they have turned away from God. The enemy is at their borders. God is calling them through is prophets to repent and turn back to them.

            But they say, we have a better idea. Let’s make an alliance with Egypt. Egypt has chariots and horses, and if we make an alliance with them and pay tribute to them, then we will be safe.

            That is the shorthand of the background. With that, let me read the scripture to you. I am going to read the first part of this passage in a translation called The Message – it takes a lot of interpretation license but tells the story better. I am going to read the second part of this passage from the New Living Translations – because it is a more accurate translation – which will be more important for our purposes latter on.

Isaiah 30:8–14 (The Message) – VS 18

^8–11      So, go now and write all this down.

            Put it in a book

            So that the record will be there

            to instruct the coming generations,

            Because this is a rebel generation,

            a people who lie,

            A people unwilling to listen

            to anything God tells them.

            They tell their spiritual leaders,

            “Don’t bother us with irrelevancies.”

            They tell their preachers,

            “Don’t waste our time on impracticalities.

            Tell us what makes us feel better.

            Don’t bore us with obsolete religion.

            That stuff means nothing to us.

            Quit hounding us with The Holy of Israel.”

^12–14     Therefore, The Holy of Israel says this:

            “Because you scorn this Message,

            Preferring to live by injustice

            and shape your lives on lies,

            This perverse way of life

            will be like a towering, badly built wall

            That slowly, slowly tilts and shifts,

            and then one day, without warning, collapses—

            Smashed to bits like a piece of pottery,

            smashed beyond recognition or repair,

            Useless, a pile of debris

            to be swept up and thrown in the trash.”

NEW LIVING TRANSLATION

God Takes the Time to Do Everything Right

¹⁵ This is what the Sovereign Lord,

the Holy One of Israel, says:

“Only in returning to me

and resting in me will you be saved.

In quietness and confidence is your strength.

But you would have none of it.

¹⁶ You said, ‘No, we will get our help from Egypt.

They will give us swift horses for riding into battle.’

But the only swiftness you are going to see

is the swiftness of your enemies chasing you!

¹⁷ One of them will chase a thousand of you.

Five of them will make all of you flee.

You will be left like a lonely flagpole on a hill

or a tattered banner on a distant mountaintop.”

¹⁸ So the Lord must wait for you to come to him

so he can show you his love and compassion.

For the Lord is a faithful God.

Blessed are those who wait for his help.

            Now I need to tell you that I like you have not put my trust in the chariots of the Egyptians lately. But never the less, I do find myself in the same boat as the people of Jerusalem from time to time.

            Imagine if you lived in Jerusalem at the time of Isaiah. The walls are high and thick but within the walls the fear is palpable. The enemy is rumbling. The enemy is stirring. Now the walls have not been breached in recent memory, but the army that is coming is bigger and badder than anything we have seen in our life time. The walls that have served us well in our lifetime – well we are not sure that they can hold, that we can survive.

            And worse than that everything we are hearing from God lately seems negative. Well we are not sure if it is God or not. To tell you the truth the people who we are hearing it from, well they are really annoying.

            After all if I followed what they said, it would cost me money. But I could deal with that, but they want me to get rid of the little silver idols that are in a couple corners of my house. I like my idols. I need my idols, especially when I am feeling stressed out. They bring me comfort.

            But I got to say, they are bringing me a lot less comfort than they use to. The anxiety, the fear, the uncertainty they overwhelm me.

            But I know what we need to do. We need a strategy. The enemy is coming – if we could just deal with the enemy then we would be ok. Everything would be fine.

            I know what we need to do. I am worried about the fact that we are not going to be strong enough to deal with the enemy. So what we need is more strength. Maybe we can buy strength.

            The Egyptian Army is pretty impressive. They have horses and chariots and everything. If I were to make an alliance with them, well then they would help me with enemy. Now, I know that back in our history that they enslaved us. But I won’t let that happen. And I know that they will demand tribute for protection. I know that there is nothing saying that the protection money won’t go up and up every year. And if we stop paying it, they might attack us, but at least it deals with the immediate problem.

            I know it is not perfect, but it is the best strategy I can think of.

Here is what God says,

Isaiah 31:1 (NLT)

¹ What sorrow awaits those who look to Egypt for help,

trusting their horses, chariots, and charioteers

and depending on the strength of human armies

instead of looking to the Lord,

the Holy One of Israel.

            But at least our friend in Jerusalem would feel like he was doing something. We all trust something. But God says to the people of Jerusalem, trusting in horses and chariots and armies, creates sorrow.

            Can you imagine the kind of anxiety that the people of Jerusalem would be feeling as they lived inside the walls. There are rumours of an army that is coming.  Food is in short supply. Life is harder because everyone around you seems anxious.

            The crazy thing is that a lot of you will not have to go too far in your imagination to get at that anxiety. Oh, you don’t have an army bearing down on you, but some of you are under so much stress at work that it feels like an army is against you. For others of you, you know what it is like to feel the anxiety that comes with marital discord. For others you live in constant fear because of something that has happened to you earlier in life. I could go on, but most of us live with a fair amount of anxiety.

            Here is what you need to know, anxiety can be your friend. Because in anxiety can be God’s sign post. It can show you what your soul hungers for, and what your soul finds security in. It can show you what your  soul is thirsty for. Anxiety is the megaphone of the soul. It lets you know what your soul is saying.

Music (Fear not? – Trust)

            Some of the most peaceful, joyful people I have met have been brothers and sisters in Christ from very poor countries. I know this one pastor from Egypt who knows what it means to have his life threatened, and he knows what it means to go without. And yet there is a peace and a joy in that man’s life that is incredible.

            I know another man from Sierra Leone. He came through the war where the rebels were cutting off peoples limbs. He lives in one of the poorest country in the world. Yet you meet this guy and there is a genuine smile on his face and there is real peace and joy in his life.

            I have also sat with millionaires who are really stressed out. I have sat with people who have everything and their anxiety is through the roof. I have had periods in my life where my anxiety has been through the roof.

            And when I look at my friend from Egypt whose life has been in danger, that danger has caused him to turn towards to Lord and he has found the Lord to be sufficient.

            When I look at the lives of those who are living in high anxiety, I often see us turning towards our equivalent of Egyptian horses. If we are worried about finances, then we need to figure out how to make more or save more. If we are worried about job security we need to figure out a way to minimize the risk.

Here is what God says.

Isaiah 30:15 (NLT)

¹⁵ This is what the Sovereign Lord,

the Holy One of Israel, says:

“Only in returning to me

and resting in me will you be saved.

In quietness and confidence is your strength.

But you would have none of it.

            God says, you have a choice. If you will return to me you will be saved. If you will trust in me and put your confidence in me you will have the strength to do what you need to do to live well in the face of the enemy.

            But he says to Israel, “You would have none of it.”

Isaiah 30:16–17 (NLT)

¹⁶ You said, ‘No, we will get our help from Egypt.

They will give us swift horses for riding into battle.’

But the only swiftness you are going to see

is the swiftness of your enemies chasing you!

¹⁷ One of them will chase a thousand of you.

Five of them will make all of you flee.

You will be left like a lonely flagpole on a hill

or a tattered banner on a distant mountaintop.”

            And the same thing happens to us, when we refuse to trust God with our issues. We implement our strategies, we trust in our own abilities and the cycle of anxiety continues in our lives. The sleepless nights and the worried filled days continues. Then we make decisions based on fear, which are often bad decisions.

            Often in our fear, we wall ourselves in, and others out. We hunker down and hope the storm flies by and all the while are souls shrivel. Our hearts grow cold. What a description

You will be left like a lonely flagpole on a hill

or a tattered banner on a distant mountaintop.”

            Where is God in all this,

Isaiah 30:18 (NLT)

¹⁸ So the Lord must wait for you to come to him

so he can show you his love and compassion.

For the Lord is a faithful God.

Blessed are those who wait for his help.

            The Lord is longing to show you his compassion and love. He is waiting for you to turn to him, and put the full weight of your life on him. He is waiting for you to trust him.

Isaiah 30:19 (NLT)

¹⁹ O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem,

you will weep no more.

He will be gracious if you ask for help.

He will surely respond to the sound of your cries.

            God is waiting on you to trust in him.

            So the questions are, will you trust him with your reputation? Will you trust him in your finances? Will you trust him with your career? Will you trust him with your future? Will you trust him with your life? Will you trust him with your death? Will you trust him with your eternity? Will you trust him with your family? Will you trust him with your kids? Will you trust him will all of your life?

            Now if you have been around the church for a while, and if you have given your life to Jesus, then you will know that the right answer to all of those questions is, “Yes, I will trust him.”

            But sometimes knowing the right answer, even telling God the right answer, doesn’t do it.

            So what do you do with the anxiety and fear that is in your heart. I would encourage you to think of it as God’s built in way, of allowing your soul to talk to you. Anxiety is the soul’s megaphone.

            This is sometimes where we need Christian Counselors, or Spiritual directors, or spiritual friends, or people with pastoral gifts. Sometimes just taking up the discipline of journaling will help. But sometimes it is hard to hear what our own soul is saying to us.

            Our fears speak so loud that we can’t seem to hear what our soul is hungry for, and what our soul is trusting in. Some people find journaling a helpful way of hearing their soul.

            But in the middle of your anxiety and fear, God wants to teach you about himself and yourself. God will give you over to your own anxieties until you come to him with your anxiety.

Isaiah 30:20–22 (NLT)

²⁰ Though the Lord gave you adversity for food

and suffering for drink,

he will still be with you to teach you.

You will see your teacher with your own eyes.

²¹ Your own ears will hear him.

Right behind you a voice will say,

“This is the way you should go,”

whether to the right or to the left.

²² Then you will destroy all your silver idols

and your precious gold images.

You will throw them out like filthy rags,

saying to them, “Good riddance!”

            As you start to listen to what your own soul is saying, God is going to teach you. You are then going to hear what God is saying, you are then going to hear him directing you.

            As you do that, you are going to see the idols in your life. Those idols can be made of gold or silver like in Jerusalem, or they can be made of comfort and pleasure and security and significance and a whole lot more materials.

            As you see what God is offering you and what they are offering you, you are going to throw them out and say, “Good riddance.”

Isaiah 30:23 (NLT)

²³ Then the Lord will bless you with rain at planting time. There will be wonderful harvests and plenty of pastureland for your livestock.

            The passage goes onto say of what the blessing of God will look like in the life of Israel. I don’t know what the blessing of God will look like in your life, but it will be good. He will take care of the enemies of your soul and he will do what is good and right both now and to eternity.

            But that all starts out by answering the question, what is my soul saying to me?

            And when you answer that question, are you willing to turn to God with that. Are you willing to trust God for that? Are you willing to deal with the idols of your soul.

            Here is what you need to know. The answer to those questions will dictate your journey into the future.

Let’s Pray:

Lord, for many who see what their soul is saying and the anxiety is overwhelming, I pray, Lord, that you would reveal their soul to them, what’s their soul saying to them. And Lord, that you would show them how faithful you are to them.

Lord, I ask these things in your name. Amen.

            Thank you for your words of encouragement, and for keeping us in your prayers.  Keeping this program on the air continues to be a work of faith. If you can help with that, please make out a cheque payable to Good News Christian Ministries, Box 184 , Rideau Ferry , On. K0G  1W0. Or you can give online by going to goodnewsinthemorning.ca

May you know Jesus Christ personally and profoundly.  May the Holy Spirit reside deep within your heart .  And may the heavenly Father surround you with His constant and abiding and accompanying love

MUSIC –

- Rev. Brent Russett

Sunnyside Wesleyan Church in Ottawa

http://www.sunnysidechurchottawa.com/

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To listen to the above broadcast, click on the following link:

http://proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/24247/good_news_118_aug17.mp3