The Christian as an Individual

So I don't know how many of you are into international sports, but you might be aware that the World Cup started just in the last day or two. In fact, you see Chuck and Maria back there. I think Croatia is playing this afternoon, so if I see earphones in Chuck's ears for some reason, I'll know what's going on back there.

But, you know, one of the things that comes up, Olympic sports go on in international competition, in this case, the World Cup for soccer. And we always end up with these contrasts and thoughts between individual sports and team sports, what the differences are between them, how people act and interrelate in those sports. And so, using that maybe as a jumping-off point or as an analogy, I'd like to ask the question to everyone here, is Christianity an individual sport or a team sport? Is Christianity an individual sport or a team sport?

And I would say the answer to that is yes, because it's got plenty of elements of both, doesn't it? We're called as individuals, but we're also called to a congregation, a group of believers, and told that we're supposed to be together. We're supposed to support one another, we're supposed to love and courage, sometimes exhort and admonish each other, and we're supposed to gather together as Christians to worship God together.

In the end, the body, which is what the church is referred to, is a group of believers. And the Bible uses an analogy that we're all members of the body. In fact, it uses a physical analogy. It talks about eyes and ears, right? And if one part of the body is not functioning properly, the entire body itself can't function properly. And likewise, the body of the church is that way as well.

It's made up of individuals, and the health of the body is dependent on the individual health of the members. And so, what I'd like to do today is to take maybe a slightly different look at Christianity than we look at every day. We often think about ourselves as being part of a congregation, being part of a church. If you meet somebody who professes some sort of religious belief, typically the question will come around to, or the statement will come around to, I'm part of this church, or I meet with this group, and we tend to identify as a group, for appropriate reasons.

But for today, if you'd like titles, the title of my sermon is The Christian as an Individual. And I'd like to look at the individual level of Christianity. Now, those of you who attend the Fundamentals of Beliefs class will laugh in a moment, because I've divided this topic down into three parts. As you hear me often say I do, it's just an easy way. You know, God created things in threes, right? Have you ever looked at a cucumber? A cucumber naturally divides itself into thirds. Bananas. So, thirds have some sort of a natural recurring element in creation.

We can explore that. I see Mark is already letting his mind wander into that. I'll be interested in hearing what you have to say about that after services. But the three parts that I'd like to think about and talk about with you today is that God, first of all, knows us as individuals. God knows us as individuals. Secondly, not only does he know us as individuals, he treats us as individuals. And thirdly, he judges us as individuals. And as we'll cover, even though judgment has a heavy connotation to it, we can actually take solace in the fact that he does judge us as individuals after the fact that he knows us and he treats us as individuals.

So, let's jump into the first part of this topic and just look at some sections in Scripture talking about the fact that God knows us as individuals. Now, one of the analogies which we won't turn to in the Bible, which we might be familiar with, is where Jesus Christ talks about the fact that sparrows are not two sparrows sold for a farthing or a copper coin.

He talks about the fact that God knows everything that's happening, even with the sparrows, to the point that he can number the hairs on our head. And he uses that as an analogy. Again, I'm not one that I'm going to turn to, but he uses that as an analogy to talk about the level of understanding that God has of us and value that he puts in us as individuals. But let's turn to 1 Corinthians 13 as a starting point. 1 Corinthians 13. We'll read verses 11 and 12. And for those who have spent some time in 1 Corinthians 13, this might not be an area that we usually focus on in terms of what it brings out here, but it is very clearly stated.

1 Corinthians 13 will start in 11. It says, When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, and I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things. So talking about that experience, that time of maturing, in this case as a Christian and growing in God's love. And then in verse 12, For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know, just as I also am known. So in this section of Scripture, it's talking about here in this last verse that right now as human beings, I love this analogy of seeing in a mirror dimly.

We can only sort of make out what's really happening in terms of God's plan for us, God's vision for us, what it is that God is working out in life. We can see sort of the dim shapes and figures of it, but we can't see it all clearly. And it talks about how then, when Jesus Christ returns for the second time, when His kingdom comes, face to face, like the clarity of looking at someone in the eye from across the table.

But it's this last phrase, Now I know in part. So it's saying in parallel, just like I see in a mirror dimly, right now I know in part. But then I will know fully, just as I also am known. To what extent has that sunk into us before? I'm sure most of us, if not all of us, have read over this passage before. But I will be known as I also am known.

So that analogy where at first you see dimly and then face to face is in parallel with this other analogy, where in the future I will know just as I am known. That clarity of being known is the same here in parallels as being face to face. So what it's telling us in this scripture is the level at which God knows us. So in the future, after Jesus Christ returns, when all things are revealed, we understand everything clearly, we will know just as today God knows us. How often do we reflect on that? Is it comforting?

Is it scary? It's probably a little bit of both. If we stop to think about it, the fact that God really does know us, each and every one of us, as individuals. Let's turn to 2 Timothy 2. 2 Timothy 2, we'll read verse 19. 2 Timothy 2 verse 19. Here we read, nevertheless, the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal, the seal on this foundation, the Lord knows those who are His, and let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. So here it's talked about as a foundation, an integral part of the foundation of God standing, having this seal.

The seal on that very foundation is that the Lord knows those who are His. So exactly as we saw written in 1 Corinthians 13, that level of knowledge. And again, how often do we understand and think about the fact that God knows you individually are one of His? And what is it that comes along with that? We won't turn there, but if you... John 10 verses 14 and 15 is one of the famous passages where Jesus Christ talks about Himself as the Shepherd, the Good Shepherd.

And what is the quality of the Good Shepherd that's brought out in John 10? If you can recall. It's the fact that the Shepherd knows His sheep.

So one of the main qualities that Jesus Christ brings out about Himself and His quality as our Shepherd is that He knows each and every one of us. Such an important part of leadership. And if we take this into what we're maybe used to dealing with on a day-to-day basis, if you think about your neighborhood, if you think about the workplace that you go into, how do you respond to a leader that knows you versus a leader who doesn't? Now, if you're in a workplace, and you've been in a workplace before that's got a lot of politics into it, people will go through all kinds of gymnastics to try to be known by the boss, won't they?

Some people will go, and if they know that the boss likes to go duck hunting, they'll start buying camouflage and try to figure out guns and see if they can talk to the boss about duck hunting, right? I've seen other people who try to finagle where their cubicle is going to be, so they can strategically put their cubicle between the boss's office and the bathroom or the break room, so that whenever the boss is walking back and forth, the boss will look at them, and they'll be able to wave and say hi, and the boss will know who they are.

We think about it in so many little ways that we might deal with in the workplace and everyday life. If we're sitting in a classroom, and the teacher calls on us and calls us by name, what difference does that make? Because now we can't get away with as much, right? Because the teacher knows who we are. And that's exactly the type of thing that God is saying here that comes out in the Scripture.

Also, being known drives accountability, doesn't it? You think about living in a small town where everyone knows your business, you're a little more careful about what you do than if you're living in a big city and everything is anonymous, right? And I'll tell an embarrassing story on myself on this as well, because, you know, the way that we act sometimes when we think nobody is watching can be really different.

So, when we were first married, we lived down in Southern California, and at that point in time, in the Pasadena area where we lived, there were literally thousands of people in the church at that point in time. And it would not be unusual at all whether you were driving down the street, shopping the grocery store or something else, to run into people that you either knew if you were working for the church or in the congregation there locally.

And I still remember it was one Friday evening, I was driving, running some errands before the start of the Sabbath, and I was waiting to make a left-hand turn. And, you know, sometimes traffic is really heavy. One car will get out into the intersection, you could squeeze through on a yellow light. Well, I was behind that car, and I was in a hurry.

I thought, you know, I gotta get going, I'm gonna squeeze in behind them and go, and you know how you just kind of miss that timing, and the traffic starts going in the other direction, and I was out there in the middle of the intersection. I was able, this car sort of stopped a bit, and so I could, you know, make it out, make my left turn. And of course, the next light was a red light.

So here I am, and I'm gonna be stuck next to that car that had to let me in. And I could see out of the corner of my eyes, somebody with a big smile on their face, going like this. And at first, I was, this light's gonna change, I'm not even gonna make eye contact. This is just too embarrassing. And then the person just kept smiling and waving, and finally I had to turn over, and it was somebody I knew from work. So I was working for the church at that point in time, it was somebody I'd known, and I was as embarrassed as I can ever remember being in my life.

Because what I did, and somebody I saw knew, saw that, and there was a level of accountability there for my actions that I wouldn't have had if it was some complete stranger in the car next to me, right? Being known. What does it mean to us to be known by Jesus Christ? Turn with me, if you will, to Exodus 33. Mark Graham referred to this a couple of weeks ago in his sermon. I'm not going to try to replicate the voice of God calling out the name of Moses the way Mark could.

Let people work to their strengths, and that's not one of my strengths. Exodus 33, we'll read verses 12 and 17. Exodus 33 and verse 12. Then Moses said to the Lord, See, you say to me, bring up this people, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me.

Yet you have said, I know you by name, and you found grace in my sight. And in verse 17, he says again, so the Lord said to Moses, I will also do this thing that you have spoken, for you have found grace in my sight, and I know you by name. Powerful statement to Moses, right? Because God revealed himself, in this case, through the burning bush, to Moses. He gave him this job to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt.

And Moses saying, I have no idea who you are, God, but God knew him by name. He said to him specifically, Moses, you, I'm going to take you, I'm going to call your people out. In those scriptures that we read earlier as well, we know that God knows us by name. He hasn't called us to do the same thing that he called Moses to do, but we can be assured by the things that we see in the scripture, that God knows us by name.

He knows us personally. We have accountability to him, but there's a good side as well in the fact that he understands us. And we'll talk more about that later, the way that he knows us. He understands us clearly. We won't turn to Philippians 4 verse 3, but another way that we can prove that out in the Bible is there's a book of life that's talked about. And we're told in Philippians 4 verse 3 that our names are in the book of life. Now, if he doesn't know your name, he's not going to be able to write it in the book of life, is he?

And so we know that God knows exactly who we are. He's recorded us. We're part of his family. He treats us like a shepherd treats his sheep, knowing each and every one of them, knowing their frailties, knowing where they're likely to wander, and keeping them on the right path. So what's it worth to know somebody's name? You know, we drive down the street sometimes, we'll see these names on buildings, we'll see these names on hospitals.

I uncovered an article that came out of the Los Angeles Times a few years old from back in 1999. It's called The Big Business of College Naming Opportunities. When you talk about the value of knowing somebody's name, here's the length that people will go to to have their names remembered. The article starts, Immortality Doesn't Come Cheap. For $50,000, Chapman University in Orange will put your name on an elevator.

For $350,000, you can name the scholarship that puts a University of Southern California quarterback through school. This was back in 1999. It's probably gone up since then.

Interested in more academic pursuits, a million dollars will get your name on a UCLA professorship. But that's still in the bargain basement range. It took $35 million from the fortune of aerospace company founder Gordon Marshall to persuade USC to name its business school after him. $45 million from the Gonda family put their name on UCLA's Neuroscience and Genetics Research Center. But they have nothing on furnace company founder Henry Rowan.

For his $100 million, Glassboro State College in New Jersey was rechristened Rowan College. Universities and colleges call them naming opportunities. Hand over the cash and you can get almost anything named for you, from a brick to a scholarship to an entire university. You name it, we'll name it, said Paul Blodgett, Associate Vice President for University Relations at USC, where a street light goes for $15,000. While contemplating your gift, you can relax at the University on the Allentee-Gilchrist bench. Enjoy it because it sent Mr. Gilchrist back about $12,000. So we see that all the time. People want immortality. They want to be remembered, or they want to remember a loved one. And they'll go to these lengths. They'll pay big money to have a name put on somewhere so that people remember. How much more important that our names are remembered, that we're known by our creator God.

So, concluding this first section, I would just like to reflect back for a minute and realize and think about the fact that we are each and every one individually important to God. We're known by Him. The Bible emphasizes that He knows us as individuals in a very personal way. He knows us by name, and there is an element of accountability that goes into that. But there's also a huge element of care that goes into it as well. What greater thing than to be known by the Good Shepherd by name, to be known as one of His sheep, to be in His fold, and to be led by Him and cared for by Him? Let's move on to the second point, that God treats us as individuals. As we heard earlier today, of course, tomorrow is Father's Day. And a hallmark of a good Father is that He understands His children. Now, all of us who are physical fathers, all of us have had physical fathers, and the one guarantee that we have is none of them were perfect. None of us who are fathers are perfect, none of the fathers that we have or have had were ever perfect. God, as a father, is perfect. One of the hallmarks, though, is understanding your children for a good father. Different books get written. I know one of the Christian books that many of my friends have read, talks about fathers, talks about the fact that the wound of a father is one of the strongest things that lives in the lives of every person, and that we suffer from some of the weaknesses that our fathers had in the way that they raised us. And unintentionally, we pass those things on as fathers as well to our children in the way that we can treat them. Ephesians 6, verse 4, we're not going to turn there, and Colossians 3, verse 21, both include an injunction for fathers. And it says, in summary, fathers do not provoke your children to wrath. Fathers do not provoke your children to wrath. Other translations would say fathers don't exasperate your children, and then it talks about the things that they might do as a result of that if you do that. And what's embedded in that is this idea that a good father, somebody who is going to really try to understand the children, and again, no one does this perfectly, but a good father is going to treat their children in a way that they challenge them, they guide them, they discipline them, they direct them, but in a way that's appropriate to the makeup of that individual child, so that they don't frustrate them, so that they don't exasperate them, so that they don't drive them to rebel and do something exactly the opposite of what they should do. I have a friend who's a big fan of John Wooden. I don't know if any of you know who John Wooden is. He's a legendary basketball coach. He coached UCLA basketball for years and years. I think he might still hold a title for the most championships won, but I haven't looked closely at that recently. What I found interesting in reading parts of one of his books was that he said he would look at every individual team, and he said, as a successful coach, people always come up to me and ask me what team I'm the most proud of. And they'll have their favorite team, the team that won the championship in 1960, whatever, the team that won the championship in the mid-70s. Which team were you the most proud of? And he said in his book, I'll almost always baffle the people who asked me that question, because actually my favorite teams are the ones that didn't win the championship. And he said the reason for that is that I look at every team, and I look at what each individual is capable of doing. And the teams that I'm the most proud of are the ones where every individual has stepped up and they have advanced their game.

And he said, there are teams that I have that barely broke 500, and I'm more proud of that team than I am of another team that won a championship. Because what they did compared to the potential that they had, what I was able to draw out of that team and those individuals on the team, was far and away superior to what a championship team with a whole bunch of wildly talented individuals did. And I think that's instructive and good for us to think about, because again, God knows us each as individuals. And that's one of the reasons we're told not to look around and compare ourselves among ourselves. Because we're each living, in that sense, individual Christian lives. God, whether you want to use the analogy of a father or a coach, is trying to get the most that he can out of each and every one of us. And it's different for every one of us, right? Different based on our background, our makeup, our personality, our aptitudes. We're each unique as human beings, and what God wants for us and from us is also unique and individual.

So let me ask a silly question. What set of attributes or personality traits define a person that God can work through?

I say it's a silly question because we're not going to find an answer to that. God can work through a whole host of different personalities and people. Let me use a couple of examples and spend a few minutes on it to make my point. Let's think first about Daniel. What do we remember about Daniel? He wrote a book in the Old Testament.

Turn with me, if you will, to Daniel 1, verses 3 and 4. Daniel 1, verses 3 and 4. It gives us a brief summary of Daniel as a person and sort of where he came from and what he was like as an individual.

Daniel 1, verses 3 and 4. If you take a historical view of this, this is the kingdom of Babylon. Babylon has just conquered Judah, I'm sorry, Israel, and they brought a lot of the people back from Israel into captivity in Babylon.

Daniel 1, verses 3 and 4. Verse 3, the king instructed Ashpanaz, the master of his eunuchs, to bring some of the children of Israel and some of the king's descendants and some of the nobles. Young men in whom there was no blemish, but good-looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, who had ability to serve in the king's palace and whom they might teach the language and the literature of the Chaldeans.

So the first thing we know about Daniel is, we don't know for certain, many speculate that he was part of the line of David, because it says here one of the category of people that was brought across here to be specially trained were descendants of the king. Some were nobles, and it says others, and you know, you can argue whether young men in whom there was no blemish is another category, or if it's describing those people. But at the very least, Daniel was somebody who was already known before he was brought to Babylon as someone who was intelligent, somebody who had some sort of a privileged upbringing or family that he came from, some level of nobility, and somebody who had a lot of intelligence.

He's described later in the Scriptures as somebody who's incredibly wise. In fact, when Ezekiel refers to him, he refers and talks about wisdom. He uses Daniel as an example, not even Solomon, which is interesting in itself. So Daniel was reputed as somebody who was incredibly wise. He was somebody who was good-looking, strong of a noble background. So you would say, in modern terms, he was probably born with a silver spoon in his mouth. One of those people who just, you'd look at him and you'd say, this kid has everything going for him, right?

Young, good-looking, strong, intelligent, and ready to conquer the world. He was a dedicated and self-disciplined person. Look, if you will, in Daniel 6, and we'll read verses 4 and 5. Daniel is one of the interesting people in the Bible. There's no dirt on him. A lot of biblical characters, you can look in the Bible and everything is laid bare, all the good things they did, but also all of the sinful things that they did. We don't see any of that revealed with Daniel.

Daniel 6, verses 4 and 5. It's so much so that when his enemies wanted to get him, they knew what his weakness was. His weakness was his faith in God. They didn't say, if we want to get Daniel, we're going to put a bunch of alcohol in front of him.

They didn't say, if we want to get Daniel, we're going to try to bribe him. They didn't say, if we're going to try to get Daniel, we're going to get a bunch of women to try to entice him. They said, we know how we can get Daniel, his weakness is his faith in God. If only we could say that, right? My greatest weakness is I have so much faith in God. I know none of us can say that. I certainly can't. Daniel 6, verses 4 and 5. The governors and the satrap sought to find some charge against Daniel concerning the kingdom.

But they couldn't find a charge or fault, because he was faithful. Nor was there any error or fault found in him. Then these men said, we shall not find any charge against this Daniel, unless we find it against him concerning the law of his God. So he was incredibly disciplined. If we read that account further, he prayed three times a day, even after they passed this decree, after calling out against calling out to any other God, as his custom was, he went down and he prayed.

We also know that he was politically astute. He could get along with anyone. He could negotiate his way through difficult situations. Why do I say that? What doesn't always come out, we might not always understand when we read the book of Daniel, there was a change in empires, a change in world-ruling empires that happened during Daniel's time.

He continued to serve at the very highest levels of government all the way through that process. First, he served two Babylonian kings, first Nebuchadnezzar and then Belshazzar. You might remember Belshazzar as the one where the handwriting was on the wall and he was asked to interpret that handwriting. The handwriting foretold the downfall of the Babylonian Empire. After that came the Medo-Persian Empire. He also served King Darius and King Cyrus as part of the Medo-Persian Empire. Even in a country like ours, where when the government turns over, there's not a new empire, there's simply a new president, it is an extremely rare advisor who survives from a Republican administration to a Democratic administration.

It's even rare that an advisor will survive from one Republican or Democratic administration to another administration from the same party. Here we're talking about different world-ruling governments. Now, it was usual in those times to go ahead and try to draw on people who were already in power, and if they would continue to serve faithfully, they could do it and stay in their positions. But still, quite a large accomplishment that he was able to do this. So, even if he was in this world, Daniel would have been someone you would have looked at him, just by appearance, the way he held himself, the things that he did, you would have said, that guy's going to be a success, that guy's a straight arrow, that guy has all of the abilities.

Is that the only kind of personality that God works through? Let's think about Samson. He's trying to think of, you know, things that are opposite of Daniel. Samson was kind of the best thing that came to mind. What can we remember about the life of Samson? Turn with me, if you will, to Judges 13. Judges 13. So, we read about the fact that Daniel, at the very least, came from a privileged family. He was considered nobility, a promising young man in Israel before he was taken captive. What do we know about the family that Samson came from? Judges 13, verse 2.

Now there was a certain man from Zora of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoa, and his wife was barren and had no children. This is really the extent that we know of his background. He came from some family from Zora. He was just another guy, okay? So, in contrast to what we see from Daniel, Samson was just, there was a family who were living out there, probably some pasture land or farmland around this town called Zora, and it was just another one of those families. There was nothing apparent here that would set Samson apart. Nothing in terms of family background. We certainly don't read about anything that would identify Samson as somebody who had a great deal of intellect. We do see him as somebody who was extremely strong physically, especially when God would work through him with his spirit and augment that strength. In Judges 14, it talks about Samuel killing a lion with his bare hands. He kills 30 Philistines to pay off a bet that's made at his wedding. He kills a thousand people using the jawbone that he pulled off the carcass of a donkey, swinging it like a club and just taking down people left and right. So, this is a person who was an incredible physical specimen, okay? But, as some people would say, he was kind of a blunt tool. He was a bit of a blunt instrument, right?

He wasn't somebody who had a lot of finesse in him. You know, you read Daniel, and you can see how even in the accounts written in the book of Daniel about how he was wisely and very cunningly able to negotiate his way through situations. That's not something you would expect from Samson. Samson knew one thing, and that was blunt force, right? Strength. He didn't know an object that you couldn't hit and beat into submission one way or another, the way he's described. Judges 15. He was also somebody who didn't mind just finding creative ways to cause trouble when he had to. Judges 15, verses 4 and 5. Here, there's again an altercation between the Israelites and the Philistines, and Samson goes off in verse 4. He caught 300 foxes, and he took torches, and he turned the foxes tail to tail and put a torch between each pair of tails. So, let's just make sure we understand what's happening here, right? Foxes, okay? Now, how he herded them together, I don't pretend to know. Grab their tails, tie their tails together, and between those tails, a burning torch. Okay? Now, try doing that. Well, don't try doing that with a cat. Okay? But, if, hypothetically speaking, you were to try to do that with a cat, two cats, and set them loose, you'd have a commotion. Now, do that with two foxes, and it's going to be crazy, isn't it? Much less 300 foxes, 150 pair of them.

And he set the torches on fire, and he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and not surprisingly, burned up both the shocks and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and the olive groves. So, Samson was not above finding very creative ways to just torch the whole place. Right? In this case, 300 foxes tied tail to tail with burning torches. This would go under the don't try this at home category, by the way. So, it was not done in a controlled environment, in this case, but don't try it at home.

And he burned the whole place down. This is the kind of guy he was, right? And he was somebody who was driven by his emotions, right? Especially his inability to control his lusts. He could get caught up in the moment, and whatever was going on in the moment just took him and carried him away. You know, you view Daniel as somebody who was very deliberate, somebody who was strategic, somebody who thought everything through. And you see Samson as just exactly the opposite type of person, right? And that part of his personality, as we know, caused him all kinds of troubles.

So, we know that he was a Nazarite. So, back then, a Nazarite vow involved certain very specific things. One of which was to let his hair grow long, was not to drink any wine, was not to touch any dead thing. And there's an account here in Judges in this section where he had killed a lion, he came back later on the same path, and in the dried out carcass of this lion, bees had set up a nest, and there was a honeycomb in there, and he was hungry.

And he wasn't thinking about it, just reached in there, grabbed the honey, helped himself to have some honey, brought it home to his parents, and they had some as well. And from the biblical account, didn't realize until much later, oh man, I violated my Nazarite vow! He seems like somebody was just, he'd get carried away with what was going on in the moment, and could sometimes forget about even things that were very important to him.

We're not going to go deep into the story of Samson and Delilah, but we see it there as well. Right, it was the third time around with Delilah that he finally told her what the secret was to his strength, the symbol. It wasn't really the secret to his strength. The strength came from the Spirit of God. The symbol of it was his long hair. But what did the guy think after the first two times, when he told Delilah, you know, some fable, if you braid my hair, I'll lose my strength, and who comes in?

A bunch of big, strong Philistines that tried to take him away and fight with him or kill him. So what do you think is going to happen the third time? You talk about having seen the movie before, he let his emotions, his lusts and things get ahead of him and completely cloud what he was doing.

So in today's world, in my view, Samson might have been a WWF fighter. Maybe it would have done mixed martial arts or be in a cage match. I mean, he was one of these guys that was physical and just wanted to hit things. And when he was on the right track, he was fantastic.

What he could do for God was incredible in terms of freeing Israel from the Philistines. But his weaknesses also caused incredible difficulties for him in his life. So what conclusions can we draw from these examples and the contrast between these two individuals? So I want to be careful here, because I don't want to say that the flaws that Samson had that led to his sins are something that doesn't matter and is okay with God, because that's absolutely not the case.

There were personality traits that Samson had that he did not allow God to rule through his spirit. And that's what led to the sins that he committed. But the thing that is interesting to note is that Samson appears by name in Hebrews 11 as one of the heroes of faith. Daniel appears by connotation as one who stopped the mouths of lions, but doesn't appear by name. And I don't want to put too much in that.

I simply want to say that there's a strong argument to say that both Daniel and Samson are named in Hebrews 11 as heroes of faith. Could you find two diametrically opposite and different people by personality? Now, I would venture to say that if Samson had submitted his personality and way of doing things to God's spirit, he still would have done some of the things that he did in the service to God, but he wouldn't have gotten caught up in the terrible sins that he did.

In his case, womanizing and giving into his lusts being the biggest thing. But the thing I want to focus on here is the fact that God worked through both of these men in a very unique way. Now, if you wanted to write a comedy, you could write a comedy about Samson in Nebuchadnezzar's court, couldn't you?

Right? You try to switch these guys out for a minute, especially putting Samson into the context that Daniel was in.

If you threw Samson or threatened to throw Samson into the lion's den, what would he have done? He probably would have grabbed the nearest golden candlestick and given a whipping to whoever it was that was coming after him. And if they succeeded in putting him in the lion's den, he probably would have found some way with his bare hands to tear the lion's limb from limb. It's not the way Daniel handled it. That's not who God called into that situation in Babylon to serve him.

But he did call Samson into a different situation to serve him there because the personality type, the way that he was, was something that God wanted to use in that situation. So what is the ideal set of attributes and personality types for somebody who's called by God? I would say there is none.

We're all individual and unique human beings, and God is more than happy and able and willing to work with each and every one of us as we are as people. Now, we have to submit to him. We have to give our lives over to him, and we have to follow him. But how that looks on an individual basis is going to differ somewhat depending on personality. We all have to pray. We all have to study the Bible. We all have to reflect on God's ways.

We all have to fellowship and help our fellow Christians. But the way that we express that, the way that we do that, the way that that looks and feels, the substance of it is going to be as unique as each and every one of us. And that's good. That's the way it's supposed to be. You know, we just look out in creation. We see all the incredible, you know, the crazy animals that God made, and the foliage, and all these things. Each one of them is different. Why should we be any different as Christians? And God can work through each and every one of us. So don't let anyone tell you that. You have to have a certain personality or a certain way of doing things to be a Christian. What you do have to do is have an undying loyalty to God, a willingness to put everything that you do, all the thoughts and intents of your heart in front of Him, and make sure that He's ruling you. But your personality coming through and the way that you do that, that's natural. God would expect that, knowing you as an individual.

God also takes our individual circumstances, and I would say our personalities into account when He works with us. Let's look at Luke 21. Luke 21 will read verses 1-4. This is the story of the widow's might. Okay, so this is moving beyond personality, moving more to a person's situation in life. Luke 21, verses 1-4. And Jesus is there looking at people who are giving their gifts and the treasure.

He sees a lot of rich people walking up and giving large gifts. And in verse 2 of Luke 21, He saw a certain poor widow putting in two mites. And so Jesus said, So Jesus said, So Jesus said, So Jesus said, So Jesus said, So you see that God in this case made allowance, Jesus Christ in this case, when He saw it, He made allowance for the situation that this lady was in. The amount that was given isn't what mattered to Him. They were rich people who gave a whole lot more and they could afford to. But he knew, as a righteous judge, knowing the situation that these different people were in, that what this lady was doing in giving maybe just a penny was worth more in terms of the attitude, what it revealed about her heart, her intent, again, her devotedness to God, her submission to God. It meant a lot more than these rich people putting in all kinds of money into the treasury.

We can take a lot of solace in that, again, that God knows each and every one of us, in whatever part of our life it is, whether it's materially, whether it's emotionally, whether it's physically. God knows the limitations that we have. He knows what we're capable of. He knew what this lady was capable of giving, and when she gave that and more, that was worth a lot to God. He knows what each and every one of us is capable of giving and doing.

It doesn't need to be what the person beside us is doing. It needs to be what we are able to do as we submit ourselves to Him. So let's go on to the third and last point, which is that God judges us as individuals. God judges us as individuals. Now, judgment sounds threatening, and it is something we have to have respect for, and it talks in the Bible about us fearing God and realizing the fact that our works will be brought into judgment, and that's absolutely the case. What we can, again, take comfort in is that we have a righteous judge, a judge who knows us by name, a judge who understands us and knows everything about us. You know, matters of judgment are really difficult. I, through a mutual friend, had a chance to talk within the last couple weeks with a person who's part of the State House of Representatives here in Ohio. He was telling me a story. He was working on some issues related to prison reform, and he said one of the craziest situations he's encountered since he was a representative. He sat down, he talked with this person who I think works in the hospitality industry, and this person was talking about his experience. He'd been incarcerated as a teenager, actually for murder. He didn't reveal that until later, but he talked about his experience being incarcerated, got a couple of college degrees while in prison, got time off for good behavior as he was going through because he had been a minor, and was released sometime in his 30s. Became a productive member of society, runs a good business, and now advocates for prison reform. Now, you hear those stories, and it's what we all want to hear, isn't it? And this friend, this person I met, looked him up, and the murder he committed was very grisly as a 15-year-old or something. And how this person turned his life around coming through the prison system, I don't know. And that's something human judges struggle with all the time, right? Is issues of crime and punishment. What is the right punishment to give to a person? How do we know if this person will rehabilitate, or if this person, if we give them a lighter sentence, will simply turn around and do it again? And as far as I know, nobody has figured that out.

God is a righteous judge, and he can see right through all of the facades that we can put up as human beings, all the excuses we make for ourselves, all of the legitimate shortcomings and difficulties that we have, that we have to struggle to overcome every day. And he can perfectly weigh those things out in the way that no human judge can. And so when I think of being judged by God, there's no one I would rather be judged by than the person who can fully and completely understand when I'm totally without excuse, when there are things that are in my background or my makeup or something else that give me just a weakness and a proclivity towards something that he should make allowance for. And he can know that perfectly, and that's the way it is for all of us. Turn with me, if you will, to Isaiah 66. Because the thing that we need to come down to is, yes, we're all individuals, we all have different personalities, we all have different strengths and weaknesses through everything that we've gone through. There is, as I've already referred to, something central that God does expect of each and every one of us. It's phrased a whole lot of different ways in the Bible, depending on where you turn. I like the way it's put in Isaiah 66, verse 2. We'll start in Isaiah 66, verse 1, just to get a little momentum. Isaiah 66, verse 1, Thus says the Lord, Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you will build me? And where is the place of my rest? For all of these things my hand is made, and all those things exist, says the Lord. So God's saying, look, I made everything. I made the heavens, I made the earth. What do I need from you human beings? You're going to build me a house? I made the wood, I made the gold, I made all this stuff. What are you going to do for me? And he focuses on it here in the second half of verse 2. He says, To this one will I look, on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit and who trembles at my word. Okay, God says, I made everything that's out here. There's nothing you can give me that I don't already have, but the thing that I treasure, the thing that I want from every single person that I call, whatever and whoever they are as individuals, is a humble and a contrite spirit and trembling at my word. Okay, that is the common denominator. And we can read through the Bible, and again, we're going to see this very trait put in all kinds of different ways by the different people who wrote the different passages in the Bible, and it comes down to this. All right? Whether you talk about it in terms of repentance and forgiveness of sins, whether you talk about it in terms of being justified and walking according to God's way, it comes down to this attitude and what God is trying to build within each and every one of our hearts. Okay? There's not an excuse that we have to tell God, I can't have a humble and contrite spirit. I can't tremble at your word. That's what he's saying. He makes allowances for all kinds of differences, but this is something that he says he asks from all of us. How we get there, how we do it, how that looks and feels is going to be different for each one of us as individuals, but we all have to get there. We all have to get to that one same place.

Turn with me, if you will, to Philippians 2. Again, talking about the fact that God judges us as individuals. Philippians 2, and we'll read verse 12. Philippians 2 and verse 12.

Hear Paul writing to the Philippians, writes, therefore my beloved, as you've always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Now again, like I said at the beginning, the idea about talking about Christianity as individualism just doesn't quite sound right in a lot of ways, right? Because we're here as a congregation. We're supposed to be here and together as people. But in terms of our salvation, our relationship with God, what Paul's saying here is the fact that each and every one of us as individual Christians, we can't rely on anything outside of ourselves in order to be where we are supposed to be with God, having that humble and contrite spirit trembling at His word. That's something that's individually between us and God. Everything else that's in this Christian ecosystem is there to serve that one-on-one relationship. And that's where different religions have gone off the rails in different times. That's where Jesus Christ reveals Himself as coming as our High Priest, so that we don't need a temple service. We don't need a priesthood to stand between us and God. There's one single solid line between us as an individual Christian and God. Then there's this very important ecosystem that sits around it in order to nourish that connection. That's why all of us are here, right? To nourish the connection that others have with God through our interaction with Him. That's why we have the Church. That's why we have the ministry to nourish that connection that each of us as individuals have with God.

But our friends, our church organization, our pastors, our elders cannot drive your direct relationship with God. And that's what Paul is saying here. That's something each one of us as individual Christians, we need to take in that nourishment, we need to take in that encouragement, but that relationship is ours and ours alone. And when God in the end judges us as an individual, we'll stand up there individually before Him. And we'll have to answer for the things that we as individuals have done. And He'll give us His mercy and His grace, but He's also just God.

And so we will stand there as individuals. Last scripture on this point, we read this last week as part of our fundamental belief study. And it's a scripture that to me is very powerful. Hebrews 4 verses 15 and 16. And this is something that we can all put a lot of confidence in, in terms of being judged by God as individuals. Hebrews 4 verses 15 and 16.

In verse 15, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but he was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

So what God has given us here, in addition to the fact that we individually are going to stand before Him in judgment, is there's somebody there on the right hand of God, ready and willing to whisper in His ear and say, God, you know, you got to understand this is how it is when you're human. This is what those weaknesses feel like, right? This is how difficult it gets when you're tired. This is how hard it can be when you're sick. This is how awful it can be when friends are suffering.

And Jesus Christ is right there at the right hand, reminding God of those things. So He can take those things into account as a righteous judge and give the grace and mercy that we rely on every day from Him. So we don't have to view judgment as something that's just awful and we have to be afraid of. We have that advocate right there, somebody who walked in our very shoes, understands our human makeup and understands us as individuals, who helps us and talks to God. And it's certainly not inappropriate at all when you're praying to God to say, God, I know Jesus Christ is right there on your right hand and He knows how this feels.

Jesus Christ, come and tell God how this feels and why I'm in the place that I am.

That's what He's there for. And we can count on Him to do that. So in conclusion, as Christians, we stand as individuals before God. God knows us as individuals, God treats us as individuals, and He judges us now and in the future as individuals. And as we wrap up this message, I do want to come full circle for a minute back to the idea of why we're all together.

Because it doesn't end as individuals with our relationship with God. That's one incredibly important part of it, as I hope you've seen today. But turn with me, if you will, to Hebrews 10, and we'll close reading verses 19 through 25 of Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10, verse 19.

So what's being talked about there again is that individual relationship as each of us come before God. And I encourage you to go back to the Scripture and take it apart a little bit and think about the Old Testament ceremonial system. Because Hebrews is a lot about talking about how Jesus Christ replaced what was done in the old sacrificial system. And if you read the words here of chapters 19 through 23, there are all kinds of words that come out that if you had understood the old and been part of that Old Testament sacrificial system, you would understand that he's making reference to it. He talks about the veil that is his flesh, this curtain that stood between the main part of the temple and the Holy of Holies. A man was not allowed to go through. Only the high priest on the day of atonement could go through that veil, picturing God's throne room. He talks about a high priest. He talks about sprinkling because the priest would sprinkle blood in order to cleanse. He talks about washing with pure water, just as the priest would have to be washed and clothed in completely clean white garments in order to enter into the Holy of Holies. So there's all sorts of analogy here that's being drawn together, but that's saying, again, that we as individuals can go directly and straight before God to his throne room, and we should do that with boldness. But let's read on then, because this is where it takes us, which I think is important as the punch line to the whole thing. Verse 24. After he's saying all of this, let's come boldly before the throne of God, then he says, let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the matter of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. So again, if we think of that circle, what we're talking about here, God knows us as individuals. He deals with us as individuals. He judges us as individuals. But as we strengthen our individual relationship with God, as we see here in verses 24 and 25, the natural outgrowth of that should be that we are reaching outside of ourselves and seeking the strength and the relationships that others have with God by exhorting them, by comforting them, by getting together with them, by encouraging them, and in everything that we do, encourage them to continue their walk with Him. So I hope each and every one of you have a great Sabbath, continue to think about and enjoy the fact that we are all individuals before God, that He enjoys, created, and loves the individual personalities that we each have, and that together, as we come together as a body of Christ, we can encourage one another to strengthen that relationship with God. Have a great Sabbath.