Rich Kao

We all know about the bad Samson -- you know the guy who fell asleep in Delilah's lap, gave away his anointing and messed up his calling.  Truth be told, we all have a bad Samson in us.  We are all susceptible to Delilah's temptation.  At the moment of weakness we think  not of the consequences of giving in to Delilah's seductive, silky voice that tries to strip us of our secret strength.  We think not that our vision may be lost (eyes gouged out), that we will live in a prison of guilt and shame over losing our call and destiny, and that life will become a grind.  No, we are not that clear minded.  But that need not be our lot, our course, the end of our story.  In fact there was a good Samson, and everyone of us has an opportunity to be a good Samson.

Samson, after all, was a judge of Israel for 20 years.  He was the leader of the nation.  He did subdue the Philistines.  He was God's appointed servant, and his calling and birth was supernaturally given.  But here's the best and most powerful part of Samson - the key to his secret strength.  The bible says he was under a Nazerite vow, which meant he didn't cut his hair or drink wine.   What is the significance of this?

1) Hair speaks of covering, speaks of our headship.  Samson's uncut hair signified his on-going, continuous, unbroken fellowship with his covering, his head - God himself.   Although not explicitly given in the scriptures, Samson had a deep abiding intimacy with God.  He knew God's voice, how to move in the anoiting, and as a result had supernatural strength.  Samson was close to God!   He had a lifestyle of being close to God.  He walked with God.  That's what his uncut hair was about.  It was the first part of his secret strength.

2) Wine is a relaxant.  It dissipates stress.  We all need stress relievers in our lives.   Movies, reading, vacations, recreation, exercise, etc.  However, the pursuit of relieving stress can take away from our spiritual power.  Rather than dissipating our stress in God, we dissipate it in natural or sometimes carnal ways.     God knows this.  So when he put Samson under that Nazerite vow, he was putting a boundary on how Samson could relieve stress --- he had to bring it to God and not give it to wine.  (I have nothing against wine btw; wine in this illustration is a representation of forms of stress relievers we have).  By forcing Samson to bring his stresses to God,  God was intensifying Samson's reliance and dependency on God and converting that negative stress energy into power and anointing.    Could you maybe "use" God instead of wine as a "relaxant?"    I guarantee you, you'll experience an increase in power.

Long hair, no wine - keys to Samson's secret strength.  Good Samson.  There is an invitation for all of us to be good Samson's.  Jealously nurture unbroken intimacy and fellowship with God, and rely on God even to dissipate your stresses and you will start walking in a new realm of anointing with God.    Out with the bad Samson, in with the good Samson.

 

Share on Facebook  

This is the title of my fourth message from the book of Colossians.  Understanding our death in Christ is absolutely essential to moving on and growing up in God.  Col. 3:3 says "You have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God." This is the cross-over verse between the first half of the book and the second half.  It's how we move from theology to doxology, from orthodoxy to orthopraxi.   When we understand how we have been crucified with Christ, we not only enjoy our own funeral service, we celebrate it.  Death is God's change agent.  Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, who had a near death experience with pancreatic cancer, said this in his commencement speech at Standford in 2005:  "Death..is the single best invention of life.  It is life's change agent.  It clears out the old to make way for the new."  Amazing words (may he find the real author of this truth).  To hear this fourth installment, click here.

 

In Part 3 of my series on Colossians, I  talked about how the Colossians were in jeopardy of getting salvation wrong because they didn't understand all the parts that make up salvation.  Based on Pauls words in Col. 2:6, there are three key components:  "Therefore as you received (#1 - It's an event) Christ Jesus as Lord, so walk (#2 - It's a process) in Him (#3 - It's a person)."   In particular, the Colossians were about to fall down on pt #3, and come under the beguilement of some heretical teaching that blended gnosticism and jewish mysticism.  They were moving off the person of Christ.  In my concluding points, I talked about the soaring prose penned by Paul which depicted the beautiful all sufficiency and supremacy of Christ (Col. 1:15-19).  Then I played the following video clip to celebrate the point.  Many of our members requested that this be posted after seeing it; so here it is by popular demand.  (Explanation:  Speaker is Louie Giglio, founder of the passion movement; he's closing out a service by extolling the awesomeness of Christ and the protein "laminin;" you'll see when you watch! )

Share on Facebook  

Col. 2:8 - "See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy or empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ."

"Building a Spiritual Firewall" is the title of my second message from the book of Colossians.  The overall title of the series is called "The God-centered Life."    We all know what a firewall is in computer-ese; it's a configuration of hardware / software meant to keep out intruders, viruses, malware, security breaches, etc.  So in Colossians, Paul helps us build the strongest spiritual firewall possible against the doctrines of men, worldly philosophy, and vain theories.  Without a solid grounding in who Christ is, it's easy for the enemy to breach our thinking, and lead us astray.  Paul provides what theologians called the highest "Christological" statement of his varied epistles.

Here was my intro...

- Since the beginning of time, there has always been a war against Christ-centered thinking, a war to push Jesus out of the middle, and relegate him to the sidelines, if not eliminate Him altogether.

- But those who do so, do so at their own peril, not realizing that in fact, a Christ-centered world-view,  philosophy, and theology is the most beautiful, magnificent and satisfying way of thinking there is.

- When Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life (jn 14:6),”  it was the ultimate distillation and reduction of high powered thought and truth into it’s simplest terms.

For the rest of the sermon, you can listen in here.

Share on Facebook  

Recently, I was introduced to the amazing father-son story of Dick & Rick Hoyt, which talks about the deep devotion of the father (Dick) to his son (Rick). Upon viewing the footage about their incredible bond, I knew it was a way to convey the love of God, which I preached on this past week in our services (you can listen here). But first watch the two videos below as an introduction to my message. The first one is about eight minutes and gives you the background of their relationship. The second video is cued to the powerful song "I Can Only Imagine." I wept when I watched these clips. May you be touched and inspired, and most of all drawn closer to the love of God by what you'll see & hear.

Share on Facebook