Awakened to Grace

Chad Roberts: Welcome to Awakened to Grace. I'm Chad Roberts, and I'm so glad you're joining me today. Have you heard about my partnership with Lifeway and the new book that I am about to release called Blind Faith: Seeing God Through Darkness? This book will release nationwide on March 10, 2026.

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Today, we're going to look at Samson. As we study Gideon, and as we study Barak, and we study Samson and Jephthah, I'm calling this portion of Hebrews 11 "Faith That Falters." It's because I resonate with these men. Do you ever feel like your faith has faltered? Do you ever feel like you get it wrong seemingly more times than you get it right? Do you ever feel inadequate? Do you ever feel like you're just messing up? Well, I certainly have.

And these are people that, although they may not have started out all that great, they've ended well. And how many of you know it's not how you start; it's how you finish? And some of you may be in a place in your life today that you're going to resonate with so much of what we learn about Samson. And there's much to learn.

You know, I like to study Scripture very slow, and today's a great challenge because to fit the life of Samson into one talk is overwhelming to me. There are so many pictures, there are so many scenes and portraits of his life that the Bible paints between the chapters of Judges 13 to Judges 16. To condense it all into one Sunday morning talk is just impossible.

So rather than getting into all of the details, which I would love to do, and all the insights that the narrative of Scripture gives us, I'm not going to be able to do all of that today. But what we are going to do is take a 30,000-foot view. I was sharing with the worship team in our prayer time, I said to condense it all into one talk, you're talking four incredible chapters. And Heath, who plays electric guitar, he spoke up and he said, "Is today a Snack Sunday? Should I have brought something?" We're going to try not to make it that.

Go to Judges chapter 13. I'm not going to try to take you verse by verse through all of this content, but you would do well to spend some time on your own reading and pondering these four incredible chapters of Scripture that span the life of Samson. If you're going to take notes, I want you to note this right off regarding Samson. Yes, he was a man of faith. Hebrews 11, verse 32 reinforces that.

And we're going to come back to that at the close today. He was indeed a man of faith. He is mentioned in the Hall of Faith. But I want you to write this down: Samson was not a faithful man. It is possible today for you as a Christ follower to be a man or a woman of faith, but not be faithful to the Lord.

He disregarded God's commandments. He disregarded God's word. He disregarded the call of God that was upon his life, and Samson lived his life on his own terms. Does that describe you today? He was a person of faith, but yet he was faithless. And you and I are vulnerable to the same temptation.

The good news is 2 Timothy says that even when we are faithless, God remains faithful, because he will not deny himself. Let me tell you the good news in that verse. That means times in your life you've gotten off track, times you've gotten off course, times you've chosen sin and you've gone your own way. You know what the good news of the gospel of that verse is? There's still hope for us.

God's not going to abandon you. And you may be in a place of your life today where you have walked away from the things of God, but let me tell you, brother, let me tell you, sister, God has not walked away from you today. That's why you're hearing this sermon on the life of Samson today, because God's not abandoned you. God hasn't forgotten you.

God has not written you off. As a matter of fact, God has written your name in the Lamb's Book of Life. So whatever sin that you're in today, I'm giving you a call: walk out of it today. Walk away from it today. Leave your rebellion and follow Christ. Samson is a cautionary tale. His life is a great warning to believers today to not go the path, to not go the way of Samson, which is your own way. There's going to be much to learn today.

If you're going to take notes, write this down. I love this. I want you to note, number one, how Samson even came into being. Number one, there was a great divine call upon his life. I love Samson's parents. I can't wait to one day meet them in heaven and have coffee with them. Can you imagine what coffee in heaven is going to taste like? A good Mormon would disagree with that, but I think there'll be great coffee in heaven. We can debate that theologically later.

And I love his parents. His parents were humble people, yielded to the Lord, receptive to the Lord, faithful, but they weren't able to have children. One Bible teacher pointed this out, and I thought this was remarkable. He said if you follow the thread of the Scriptures, whenever God wanted to do something great in the earth, he sent a baby.

Think about Abraham and Sarah, who were barren, and God gave them Isaac. Think about Joseph and Rachel. Rachel was unable to have children, but then God gave her Joseph. Think about Hannah and the way Hannah wept bitterly before the Lord, and God gave her Samuel. Think about Elizabeth and Zechariah, who were unable to have children, and God gave them John the Baptist.

Think about Mary and Joseph and how the Savior of the world came as a baby. Isn't it remarkable that when God wanted to do something great, think about Amram, who we just studied, and how God brought to them Moses. Isn't it remarkable that when God wants to do something great in the world, he does it through a baby?

And how does it not show the patience of God? This Bible teacher said, look how long it takes for a baby to grow and mature. God's never in a hurry, is he? And so at this stage of Israel's life, God wanted to raise up a man. God wanted to bring a judge to them named Samson. If you're going to take notes, you should note this: the name Samson means brightness. And God intended for Samson to be one of the greatest lights that Israel ever had. But sadly, that was not the case.

What we find is Samson came into the world with a divine call. His parents all of a sudden are encountered by an angel of the Lord. You know, we believe that throughout the Old Testament, when men encountered what the Bible calls the angel of the Lord, we believe that was Christ.

And here this angel of the Lord appears to these two humble, yielded, submissive God followers, and he says to them, "I'm going to give you a son. You're to name him Samson." And here's the thing. Listen to this. He's to be a Nazirite. You're to take a Nazirite vow. Now, what's a Nazirite vow? That's not a Nazarene. Jesus was from Nazareth.

A Nazirite vow was a consecration to God. It was a separation from worldly things to be separated, set aside, consecrated for the use of God. And his parents agreed to this. And what the conditions, what the stipulations were of a Nazirite vow, there were three conditions. Number one, they couldn't drink strong drink; they cannot partake of alcohol.

Number two, they could not touch a dead body; that would defile them. And number three, very interesting, they were forbidden from cutting their hair. Now, in Samson's case, he had divine strength, supernatural, superhuman strength because of his long hair, we say. But in reality, it really wasn't his hair.

It was the spirit of God upon him. The hair was symbolic of that, just like the precious people baptized today. The water means nothing. The baptismal means nothing. We've baptized many in lakes and rivers; it doesn't matter. The water is not the point. The water is symbolic of the cleansing of a life. It's the power of the Holy Spirit.

And so it was with Samson. It was not necessarily his hair; it was the spirit of God and what the hair represented in his life. He was to be consecrated, he was to be set apart, he was to be holy unto the Lord. So the angel of the Lord tells these remarkable parents the plans of God. And think about this in a day of food scarcity, they ask the angel, "May we prepare you a meal?"

And the angel said, "Well, I won't partake of the meal, but you can give it as a burnt offering." And they bring the food in a day that food was very precious and very rare. They bring the food, and all of a sudden fire from heaven consumes it. It's received as an offering, and the angel of the Lord vanishes within the flames. Could you imagine it?

And now the promise is made, and Samson burst onto the pages of your Bible. What a remarkable life he could have lived. But there was a problem with Samson. Samson played spiritual games. I want you to write this down: Samson never took serious the call of God on his life. He simply played games.

Brother, sisters, I want you to understand today because if you're like me, I'll listen to this but I'll think, well, I'm no Samson. But I want you to hear the word of God today. Do you realize that each and every one of you are born with a divine call upon your life? You say, "Chad, how do you know that? I'm a nobody. I'm a nobody within my family, let alone in this world. How are you so confident that God has a call on my life?"

I'll tell you how I'm so confident: because the Bible says in Psalm 139 that God knew you before you were in your mother's womb. The Bible says that while God formed you within the womb and knitted you together, he set his love upon you. The Bible says that before you ever came out of the womb, every day of your life was already recorded in God's book.

You tell me God doesn't know you and have plans for you? You're going to tell me that Jeremiah 29:11 does not apply to you? "For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord, "plans to help you and not to harm you, to give you a hope and a future." Brothers, sisters, that's for you.

How am I so confident that you have a divine call? Well, look at Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10. Listen to what it says. It says we are the workmanship of God. Do you know what the Greek word workmanship is? It's where we get the root word in English for poem. It literally means the poem of God.

You know what this verse is saying? When it says you are the workmanship of God, that means that God's writing a story with your life. You know what that reminds me of? Doesn't the Bible say in Hebrews that God is the author and the finisher of our faith? He's the initiator and the perfector. The author of your faith is writing a story with your life.

We are the workmanship of God, created in Christ to do what? To do good works. Brother, sister, that's the story God's writing through you, those good works that he's created you to do, that he's already ordained that you are to walk in them. And you know, some of them will be in public and people will see some of it, but you know, most of it will be in private, things that people never know, things that people never see, but they're good works that God's ordained you to do.

Last night, Sadie and I had the opportunity to marry this young couple, and I just love them so much. And it was really interesting. They did their wedding at the International Storytelling place in Jonesboro. Isn't that interesting? I've never done a wedding there. Turns out it's a great place for a wedding. I mean, I couldn't see it, I don't know how it looked, but it felt good; it felt right.

And apparently, if you've been there, you know what I'm talking about. I have been there, and I really don't know what I'm talking about, but apparently they have a deck area outside that overlooks the main street. And Sadie and I went out there; the weather was so good. And we went out there, and she flirted with me a little bit; it was fine.

But I leaned over that railing, and you could hear traffic, and I heard a car stall. And you heard it die right in the middle of the road. And Sadie said, "Oh no." She said, "That's a little elderly lady, and she's by herself right in the middle of the road." And I just felt this prompting from the Holy Spirit. I could feel every word that I was praying guided by God.

And I said, "Oh God, right now will you help her? Right now, God, will you give her angelic intervention? God, cause that car to start, and let her get to where she needs to go. Let her be able to repair it, God, and make it affordable for her, and meet her needs, oh God."

And all of a sudden you hear that little motor just putter up, and it started for her, and she drove off. I'll never know who she was. She'll never know who I am. We'll never know. But as she drove off, I said, "Lord, whoever she is, I bless her in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ."

Friends, there are good works that God has for you to do that people won't ever see, but heaven sees. And God's got a special call on you. He's got a purpose for you. He has a reason for you living right now in this age that you and I live in. Are you fulfilling it, or are you like Samson, distracted, playing games, not as serious with the Lord as there ought to be?

Well, as Samson began to grow, so his strength did. And Samson misused his gifts. One of the things that I had never noticed about the life of Samson is in all of his conquests, in all that he was able to defeat of the enemy, you never see him working with others. You never see him raising up an army or being a leader. As a matter of fact, he wasn't a leader; he was a loner.

And everything he did, everything he conquered, he did it alone. You know, I think that's a word for some people that you've isolated yourself. Whether you've isolated yourself because you're reclusive, which is not God's will for you, you're to be in community, you're to be part of the body, you're to join yourself to the body of Christ and not be isolated out on your own.

Or whether you're a loner out of pride because no one can do it better than you. Nobody can do the things that you can do. Either way, you're wrong for that. And if you're somebody that you look around your life and really you're doing it alone and you've got a loner mentality, you don't serve with others, you don't pray with others, you don't work with others, you don't join hands with others, if you are doing that, I plead with you, reconsider.

And say I'm like Samson; I'm doing life alone. And join yourself to those who want to see God's kingdom come and his will be done. Can we say amen to that today? Don't be a loner. God's called you to be a leader. Now we also see that he just played spiritual games.

In chapter 14, he gives this riddle to the Philistines. A riddle. Now, listen to what he does. He's a Nazirite, right? Do you remember the three things that a Nazirite was not supposed to do? Number one, drink strong drink. When he goes down into Gaza, every time that Samson went down, he would go physically, geographically down, but then spiritually he would also go down.

And he goes down into Gaza. He lived right on the border, and he got too close, too familiar with the enemy, that he fell in love with a Philistine prostitute and decided to marry her. His godly parents said, "Samson, why would you do it? Reconsider." And you know what Samson said? He said, "She is right in my eyes."

He disregarded anything that God thought or God said. And when he goes with his parents to arrange the wedding, you know where they go? Into a vineyard. A vineyard's a dangerous place for somebody who's not supposed to drink a strong drink. He had no business being there. And God sends a young lion, perhaps as a warning. The young lion roars at him.

And you know what Samson does with his supernatural strength? The Bible says he ripped that lion to shreds with his bare hands. Could you imagine the strength that he possessed? He then broke the second part of his three-part vow. He then went back a few days later inside the dead carcass of this lion was a beehive with honey.

Knowing he was not to touch the body of anything dead, it would defile him, Samson did not care. And he reached into the lion and he scooped the honey out. Now, although he disregarded what God thought and what God had said, he turned around and he played games with the enemy.

Here's what he told the Philistines: "If you can figure out my riddle within seven days, I'll pay you. If you can't figure it out, you pay me." Games. Games. And here's what he told them: "Out of the eater came something to eat. From the strong came something sweet." Oh, isn't that clever? He played games rather than real warfare.

So many Christians today are doing the exact same thing. They play church. They play the Christian look. They talk the Christian talk. But they're attracted to things of the world, things they have no business being around. I don't know what your personal thoughts are of Elvis Presley. If I offend you right now, I mean, I can't see you, so it doesn't bother me.

You may be a die-hard Elvis Presley fan, and that's fine. I've been to Graceland. I've toured Graceland with eyesight, and I saw all of his toys. I saw his wealth. I'm not against Elvis, but I will say this. I heard a pastor say many years ago and I've never forgotten it. There's a lesson to be learned in the dead carcass of this lion. The lesson is that a believer cannot get satisfaction or sweetness out of the dead carcass of the world.

Did you know that I'm a pastor, husband, and father of four who suddenly went blind in 2018? Today, I teach people how life is not random, but it is actually orchestrated by God for a great purpose. Learn more about my story and Awakened to Grace at chadroberts.org.