11-2-08 Next Steps – Power 2

When I was a kid, I watched super heroes like Superman, Batman and Robin, and underdog . . . and I dreamed of being powerful like them. My favorite superhero was . . . Wonder Woman! I had a crush on her! Fess up guys, you all had a crush on her didn’t you?

 

We are all drawn to super heroes because at the heart of who we are, we all would like to have super power. We would love to use our power to fight against evil. 

 

Today there is another superhero that might not readily think of as a superhero, but he is. I was told that this super hero has 4 out of the top ten best sellers written about him. Four of the best selling books ever written have been written about this super hero. Do you have a guess who he is. Yeah, Harry Potter. This fictitious kid wizard has sold millions of books and millions of people have paid to watch his movies. Why? Because they are drawn to his super powers – powers that he ultimately uses to fight against evil.

 

There has been a lot of controversy in the Church about whether Harry Potter’s books and movies are good or bad for Christians to read. The answer to whether they are good or evil is that they can be both. Anything taken to an extreme or anything that is not filtered through the Word of God can be destructive. But if it is filtered through God’s word, it can be good.

 

The thing that intrigued me about the Harry Potter series is the use of power. Throughout the book there is always a constant battle going on between people who use their power in ways that give life and those that use their power to take life.

 Video clip – Harry Potter – Book five where Dumbledore and Voltemore are fighting it out at the Ministry of Magic until the regents come.

 

These people are not that different from you and I. The only real difference is that they use wands and we don’t. There is always a power struggle going on between good and evil. There are always people who use their power for good and people who us their power for evil.

 

We’re in this series called next steps and as we’ve said, there is always a next step for spiritual transformation, but people often times get stuck, and they stop taking steps and they get frustrated why they’re not growing, and so we’re looking at these next steps toward putting God at the very center of our lives, and today we are going to continue looking at how we use our power.

 

This morning we are going to be looking at two different kinds of power. The first is what I call the power of hell. The second is the power of heaven.

 

Two weeks ago we said that you and I were created to be powerful. God is powerful. God our Creator is all-powerful. All the power is his, and yet, as human beings we were created in God’s image.
 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” ²⁷ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. ²⁸ God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Genesis 1:26-28 (NIV) Emphasis mine

 

All the power is God’s, but God loans us power for the duration of our lives, so that we can experience freedom, and so that we can experience the goodness that God created us for. God created us to use power in a certain way, in a way that gives us and others joy, peace, love – life really. But in our freedom, God also gave us the ability to choose how we use our power. We can use our power for good or for evil; for death or for life; to curse or to bless.

 

Death is the day of reckoning where we must give our power back to God. Our power is only on loan from God, and we must give God an accounting of how we’ve used the power he gave us when we die.

 

God created us to use our power in a certain way, but he gave us freedom to use our power any way that we wish. So here’s how it happened. God has just got done creating Adam and Eve in his image and Adam and Eve are standing in front of him and God says to them, “Adam (Head nod), Eve (head nod) I want you to rule together  over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Genesis 1:28 (NIV)

 

God created Adam and Eve and you and me to rule over and govern over the creatures of the earth. With the power that God gave us, he commanded us to use our power, so that we rule over all the creatures of the earth.

 

But then something horrible happens. Adam and Eve stopped listening to God. They start thinking that they know better than God. They start thinking that maybe God was holding out on them. They start thinking that they could rule their lives better than God – they know what’s best – right? The fruit looked good. Adam and Eve take the fruit and eat it and immediately fear and shame entered the garden as a consequence of their wrong actions. When fear enters them, Adam and Eve hide from each other behind leaves and they hide from God. Fear is always the direct result of sin. Fear is always the consequence of doing things contrary to God.  So then, God comes to the man and the woman and he tells them what their consequences will be for acting against his word, his will, and his way. This is very interesting! God says this to the woman.

 

he said, “I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.“ Genesis 3:16 (NRSV)

In the first passage in Genesis 1, what did God command Adam and Eve to rule over? Yeah, all the creatures of the earth! God created human beings to rule together with one another, but as sin entered the world, it corrupted the power that God gave them and the consequence of their actions resulted in the fact that the man would no longer use his power to rule over  just the animals, but he would use his power to also rule over his wife.

Men, were created physically stronger than women, and the curse is that Adam and all males after him would use the physical POWER that God had given them in a way that would oppress and dominate their weaker spouse. It was not God’s will that the husband would rule over his spouse. It was God’s will that man would rule with his spouse over all the creatures of the earth. The result of sin is that the man would RULE OVER his wife INSTEAD OF WITH HER. This is the definition of the power of hell.

Using the power of hell never brings heaven to earth. It is always oppressive. The power of hell always breeds fear. It always brings hell to earth. It does not reveal a love for God and it certainly does not reveal a love for our neighbor.

One time James and John, Jesus’ disciples wanted power much like the rest of us. The mother of James and John asked Jesus if her sons could sit at his right and the other at his left when he came into power, thinking that he was going to become a different kind of king than he had in mind. She wanted her sons to be powerful, because that meant more power and more privileges for her and her family. The other 10 heard about this and they got really angry (why because they wanted the power for themselves) and so Jesus called them together and he said this:

You’ve observed how godless rulers (people who don’t believe in God) throw their weight around, and how quickly a little power goes to their heads.  It’s not going to be that way with you. Matthew 20:20

Why not? That’s the kind of power that had been used for thousands of years. It was the kind of power that was being modeled all around them. The Roman Empire modeled this kind of power, because they used their power to promote fear and oprresion to all their subject Their culture modeled this kind of power, being that it was a patriarchal society where the men ruled over the women.

 

I’ve had that kind of power modeled to me for my whole life. It’s called top-down-power. If you look at the power flow chart of most companies in the US, they use a hierarchical power chart with somebody always over somebody else. In this type of power, someone always rules over another person, not alongside them. The reason that Jesus didn’t want them to use that kind of power was because this is the power of hell. The power of hell came from the sin that entered the world. God did not create us to use that kind of power in the world. God did not create us to use the power of fear, the power of oppression. When we use our power to rule over another human being, that power kills people. It kills relationships. It kills marriages. It kills children. It kills all those who are oppressed by it.

 

I worked for guy who used this kind of power. Bill was a guy who used fear as a tool to get you to do what he wanted. He would yell and bark orders. He would belittle you and call you names in front of everyone. Some use this type of power subtly and others like Bill use their power like a sludge hammer right out in the open. Bill abused his power and because of it, others felt powerless in his wake.

 

I was a fourth year apprentice just about ready to become a journeyman electrician the year that I was privileged to work for Bill. I’m not sure how it all worked out the way that it did, but I ended up being basically in charge of the whole lower level of the, then, new ER center at Bronson Hospital. Bill ran the top half of the ER and I ran the bottom half.

 

The project was almost over and we were down to a punch list. I was working with a journeman by the name of Davey and we were fixing a punch list item that we knew needed doing.

 

Bill came down and asked us what we were doing. We told him. Bill told us to stop doing it the way we were doing and to do it a different way. My journeyman objected because Bill’s suggestion was a direct violation of the National Electrical Code which we had vowed to keep.

 

You could see Bill’s anger mount immediately at Davey’s dismissal of his power. Bill exploded to Davey, “You can pack up your tools right now and you can go back to the shop. Your check will be waiting for you.” This was Bill’s way of firing Davey.

 

Something came over me at that moment, and everything seemed to move in slow motion. I thought to myself, I can stand here and do nothing and watch a good man get fired or I can say something and maybe get fired myself.

 

The decision came easily for me (I’m not sure how, because a lot was riding on my decsion). I said to Bill, “I feel the same was as Davey, so can I pick up my tools and go back to the shop with him?”

 

In that moment, something changed in Bill’s demeanor. I had challenged him (I had never heard anyone challenge Bill, because of the fear that they felt from him. Something changed in Bill and all of a sudden a genuine smile came out of his face, and he began to share with Davey and I a third way of fixing the problem that was a bit unusual, but legal, and so we both agreed to it.

 

Each of us is free to choose to use power as Bill used it. The person who uses this type of power has the capacity (often times men, because of their strength and fierceness), or they have the authority because of their position, or has the ability to intimidate people. This person is powerful because they can hurt others in some way. They can embarrass them, humiliate them, impose sanctions against them, fire them, or take something away that someone values.

 

As Christ followers we are called not to use this type of power. Why? There was no fear in the world when God got done creating it. You and I were not created to use our power to produce fear in another human being. Fear is the result of using power in a way that is contrary to God’s will. When we use power over people instead of alongside them fear results and relationships are destroyed. Love, joy, and peace are destroyed.

 

Unfortunately one of the primary places that the power of hell rears it’s ugly head is in our homes behind close doors. Most would never have the gull to use this kind of power with people that they don’t know as Bill did. Instead, we use this kind of power against those that we love the most. We become fearful when our value or our authority is questioned or undermined, and then we use our power to inflict fear into those that we love. We seek to rule over them, so that they can see our value, and so that they can see our power.

 

Here’s the thing that I want us to understand. People who use the power of hell are at the core afraid that they don’t have any value and are afraid that they don’t have any power – the two things that God created them for. God created you and I and every human being unbelievably valuable and unbelievably powerful, but someone or many someone’s in this person’s life has made them think at the core of their being that they aren’t valuable or that they aren’t powerful, so they unconsciously fight to be valued and fight to be powerful and they often times fight with a power that is equally destructive as the one that destroyed their own sense of value and power.

 

So we are not to hate people who use this type of power, but instead we are to love them and pray that God would heal them, so that they can experience the goodness that God created them for.

 

The power of hell will never bring the goodness and life that God created you for. This power will never bring the joy and peace and love that you and your loved ones long for. The power of Hell kills. It oppresses. It breeds fear. It destroys love. It kills relationship.

 

Jesus said,

 

Whoever wants to be great must become a servant.  Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave.  That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not be served-and then to give away his life in exchange for the many who are held hostage.” Matthew 20:20-28  (MSG)

 

This is the kind of power that God created us for. This is the kind of power that God had in mind when he called us to rule over the creatures of the earth. When we use our power to come along side someone or even power that gets underneath someone else so that we can lift them up, so that they can live, so that they can experience the goodness that God created them for. We experience more of up there coming down here when we use the power of heaven, when we use power like Jesus, who was God – he had all the power and he left heaven – he left the place where he had everything and he came down to earth – a place full of sin and wickedness; a place that must of smelled like a pig pen to him, and he being God limited his power so that he could become like one of us, so that he could teach us and model for us what love is and what power rightly used is, and then the God of the universe – the God who has all the power – the God who could have used his power in anyway that he wished, choose to lay all his power down, and give up his very life on the cross. God was willing to lay down all his power, so that you and I could live. God, in the person of Jesus was willing to lay down his life – lay down his power – all of it, so that you and I could have life. God did what he did out of love for you and love for me, out of love for every single human being so that they could be set free and so that they could become all that he created them to be.

 

Whoever wants to be great must become a servant.  Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave.  That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not be served-and then to give away his life in exchange for the many who are held hostage.” Matthew 20:20-28  (MSG)

 

There are many Christians that see God as the great judge; they see God as the one who has all the power and they believe that he uses fear and guilt to motivate people to come to him, but this is god that they worship is a false god. It is not the God of the Bible. This is a god who man has created in his image. This is an image of a God who uses the power of hell to make people do things out of fear. This is not the God of the Bible. This is not the God of the Cross. God is a God who serves, and gives, and loves. God is the God in whom we were created in his image and God created us to rule over the animals and not each other. God chooses not to use his power to rule over us, but rather to rule with us. One of the great names of Jesus is Emmanuel, which means God with us, not God over us.

 

Sometimes people come to me and they say, “Why doesn’t God just fix this about my life or that about the world?” But God has chosen not to rule over us, but rather, to rule with us. When we make our mind up and say, “God I can’t do this alone, will you help me fix this part of my life?” God loves to hear those words! God doesn’t like to work alone. He likes to have you and I join him in his work. He likes us to join him in the right use of power, the kind that kind that he created us for, the kind that brings heaven to earth.