Is Your Faith Yours, or Just Your Mom's?

Samson had a godly home, a covenant nation, and a vow over his life before he was born, and he still said, "Get her for me, for she pleases me well." So how do we move from careless pleasure back to the covenant pathway?

Make it personal

If you've been chasing pleasure, if everything you do is centered on what you want, you have to get real with God. It's no longer Mom and Dad's faith. It's no longer your country's cultural Christianity. It has to come home to your heart.

Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified. (2 Corinthians 13:5)

Maybe you're not a Christian. I'm not trying to shake you out of your faith, but if I could shake you out of it, I would. If you test yourself and your faith is real, the way you find that out is by taking the test.

Is this my faith, or Mom's? Did I come to church, or did I come to Christ? A lot of us just grew up here and never knew anything different. Now we're getting ready to leave home in that hatchback (nothing wrong with a hatchback) and make our own choices. So I ask you young people, those of you under the age of 104: is it yours? Am I a child of God, or just a church kid? Am I playing the part because my spouse goes to church, because I work at a church, or because I teach at a Christian school and had to sign a document?

Paul wrote that to the church at Corinth, to church people. It's awesome that you grew up in a Christian home. But is it yours?

Make pleasing God your priority

This one's hard, because I love me. All the foods I love, I love. Ask me my favorite food, and it's my favorite food too. I only go to Burger King because I can have it my way. I have to stop trying to get things done my way and start asking: Is this what God wants for me, or what me wants for me?

Samson never even considered that question. He came across the carcass of a lion with honey inside. Ever stumbled across honey inside the carcass of a lion? Me neither. Ever thought, I'll just reach in and grab some? Me neither. Samson was under a Nazirite vow not to touch a dead body, and he went for the honey anyway. Why? Because he wanted honey.

We get so caught up in pleasing ourselves that we make horrible decisions. Y'all eat food off the floor. "It's probably mostly clean."

Notice that the honey wasn't off-limits. The carcass was. We get pretty creative with our excuses about the means to an end. We joke about "evangelistic dating," but it's real. "They're not a Christian, but I'm going to win them to Jesus. I'll make them listen to Christian radio, show them some VeggieTales, and they'll convert just like that." Everybody groans because we've all seen it happen. "She pleases me. Just go pay her dowry, bring her home, and I'll make a good Christian out of her."

So when you decide how you'll entertain yourself or what you'll scroll through on your phone, ask: does this bring me closer to God or take me further from Him? Does it please God for me to do this, say this, or go there?

There are only two choices on the shelf: pleasing God or pleasing self.