The power of Christ is often talked about in the church today. I know I’ve personally heard the message dozens, if not hundreds of times. Talking about the power of Christ in our lives is a popular topic amongst brothers and sisters. As I grow closer and closer to God I am realizing more and more how much our selfish tendencies have subtly crept into something as powerful as the message of the gospel. I am writing this message at 6:30 am, after having been up since 4:00 am tossing and turning. I couldn’t figure out why tonight I wasn’t able to sleep. This is not a normal for me. I decided to lean on some advice I had received and started praying. I wasn’t praying anything in particular, just praying and spending time talking to God. Eventually, I got tired of speaking and just lay there. I’m not entirely sure how I got onto the topic I’m going to share with you today but it came about and I needed to write it down. I was thinking about what it really means to be Christian in today’s culture. Talk about a deep topic at this ridiculous hour for someone who is typically a night owl. The song “break every chain” came to mind. I started thinking about what I was willing to give for my faith should it ever come to that. Would I be willing to go to jail? I thought about it, my initial thought was “of course”! After some more thought, I considered my wife, my family, my job and those that were dependent on me. This line of thinking made the decision more of a sacrifice, but then again, isn’t that what we are called to do? I am someone who likes to play scenarios through my head that coincide with the thoughts I was just thinking. I started imaging what would happen if I were to actually go to jail for my faith or worse. This was an amusing hypothetical scenario but it led me to thinking about what the power of Christ really looks likes. The song break every chain came back to mind and all of sudden the dots were connected. What are the chains that are broken and how are they broken? What does the power of Christ really mean? The power of Christ is infinite and so this is by no means meant to limit or box what Christ can do in our lives but it is an aspect that I just had to share. When I think chains, I’m thinking sickness, debt, brokenness, addiction, fear, anxiety, the sensation of loss (loss itself isn’t a chain), complacency, apathy, indifference and so on. I spent many years going to conferences, being in church every Sunday, watching people go up for prayer and asking God for these things to be broken off. I’ve seen God do some pretty fantastic things and watched people get completely and radically transformed. I also took note that how often that happened was very few and far in between and I couldn’t help but wonder….why? I watch so many Christians, myself included, bound by chains that limit their influence, ability and power. I watch as we claim to be sold out for Christ but at the first sign of inconvenience we “conveniently” have something else to do. Over the past few months, I have watched people sell out their power in Christ for what they consider to be the “moral high ground”. So why is that? What makes a church powerful? What makes God’s people, a powerful people? Well, the answer to that question is found in Luke chapter 18.
18A ruler questioned Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 19And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. 20“You know the commandments, ‘DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER.’” 21And he said, “All these things I have kept from my youth.” 22When Jesus heard this, He said to him, “One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” 23But when he had heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. 24And Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God! 25“For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 26They who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” 27But He said, “The things that are impossible with people are possible with God.”
Luke 18
Sometimes we decided that we’ve done our moral obligation by simply doing our best to follow the rules and be “good little Christians”. Jesus wasn’t JUST interested in your obedience (although this is very important), he wanted all of you. Consider for a moment what true freedom looks like. It’s not a lack of rules, because God has rules. It’s not a list of rights because the Bible says we have no rights. It’s not something we can purchase because the bible says that Jesus had to purchase it for us. So what is it? This is important because it’s in that freedom that our power is found.
That freedom is found in our death. Not a physical death where our bodies stop working, but a death where everything we have, everything we do, everyone we love is put in its proper place… at the feet of Jesus. Take a moment and think about this, its life changing if you catch it. Consider the fearful person. Proverbs talks about a man who has nothing has nothing to fear for nothing can be taken away. The person who has much has the potential to fear much for he has much he fears to lose. For this person, the power of Christ that breaks the chain of fear is really letting everything you own be for the Kingdom. Now, this is super easy to say with our mouths but it’s not an easy thing to live out. Consider for a moment a time where meeting together as a body of believes had massive financial consequences, is it worth the risk? Follow this through to conclusion and if you truly believe your money isn’t yours you would consider this to not even be a problem. Let’s throw a huge BUT in there. “I can’t afford those fines, what happens if they send me to jail”. Ahhhh, remember when I said that even those that are loved ones need to be laid at the feet of Jesus? Well, are you willing to go to prison for your faith? Are you willing to let your loved one go to prison for their faith? If so, you’ve found freedom. In that freedom you’ll find the power that Jesus walked in. You’ll find the power that the disciples walked in. The thing about breaking chains is that every single chain you’re ever going to need to have broken off of you is about you. When you live completely sold out for Christ, not even death can hold you down.
So you want to be free of your chains? The answer is relatively simple in theory but difficult in practice. Let everything you’ve ever worked for, earned or fought for, go. Give it to God. Let your whole life mission be about the kingdom, and the power of the enemy will have no hold on you. Consider where it all began, sin I mean. It was about man, doing something selfish and in return, becoming a slave to sin. The beautiful thing about what Jesus did on the Cross is that He paid the price on our heads to come out of slavery. That means that we need to live the way He asks to live if we truly want freedom and power. So many of call ourselves free yet we stay slaves to the one who destroys because our focus is on things that are temporary. This principle applies to every aspect of our lives. It’s a walking out of our faith and this is just the first step of many.