Dedicated Service

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Romans 12:1

In Children’s Church, we recently had a couple of lessons on Samson. I purposely broke the subject up into a couple of lessons. We always talk about Samson’s down fall…Delilah. We did talk about the fact that Samson was unequally yoked and he hung around with the wrong people. This behavior cost him his strength and the full purpose God had for his life. But before we got into the sin that crept into his life, we talked about his Nazirite vow. Samson started out living a clean life in devoted service to God. This is what I want to focus on today.

Nazirite is a Hebrew word meaning “separated” or “devoted”. The prophet Samuel and John the Baptist were also Nazirites from the day they were born. Nazirites were set apart to be an example to other people of God’s standard of holiness and commitment. The Nazirite vow was designed to teach Israel that total devotion to God must show in a person’s life. As Christians, we are called to live clean and pure lives. The way we live and what we say should show others that God is first in our lives.

The Bible makes it very clear that God says right and wrong are absolutes. We must be serious about guarding our hearts, minds and bodies from sin and Satan’s destructive, destroying schemes. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. Romans 13:13

We can’t live clean lives if we spend a lot of time with people who do not love and serve God. We can’t live clean lives if what we read, watch and say is glorifying sin. We certainly can’t live clean lives on the outside if we have unclean thoughts and attitudes on the inside. The Nazirite’s complete devotion to God is an example of what every Christian must seek to be…set apart from the world, dedicated to God, and living a clean life.

Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? And who may stand in His holy place?

He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood And has not sworn deceitfully.

Psalm 24:3-4