The Power of Weakness (Unmasking the Idolatry of Power)

Transcription

1 The Power of Weakness (Unmasking the Idolatry of Power) Scriptures: Matthew 4: 1-11 and 2 Corinthians 12:8 10 Matthew 4: 1-11 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. 3 The tempter came and said to him, If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. 4 But he answered, It is written, One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. 5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 saying to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, He will command his angels concerning you, and On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone. 7 Jesus said to him, Again it is written, Do not put the Lord your God to the test. 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; 9 and he said to him, All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me. 10 Jesus said to him, Away with you, Satan! for it is written, Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him. 11 Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him. 2 Corinthians 12:8 10 Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, 9 but he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness. So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong. 1

2 Purpose: To call Christians to practice humility to break the temptation to make power an idol in their life I. Introduction: A. It s a big deal to be invited to preach at Urbana! 1. Huge international mission s conference sponsored by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship with thousands of college students from all over the world. 2. They asked me to speak! I wanted to do well. I wanted God to use me. I wanted to knock the ball out the park! Ok, I wanted POWER! (but only for the glory of God, of course!) So I really prepared for this speaking engagement. I studied. I prayed & fasted. I wrote and re-wrote the message. But still something was missing. I wasn t feeling anointed. Or what we called Holy Ghost POWER. B. So one week before the event my husband, Derek, and our Bible study group prayed for me. They asked God to use me and anoint me to speak powerfully at Urbana. Everybody prayed a normal prayer except Derek. He laid his hand on me and said, God, Brenda represents the best of who we are. We give her to you and ask you to use her as your sacrificial lamb. I remember thinking to myself, I don t want to be no sacrificial lamb! What kind of prayer is that?! C. So, I dismissed Derek s prayer and decided to side with the people who had prayed the prayers asking God to anoint me with power. Little did I know that God was about to teach me something about the Power of Weakness. 2

3 II. Here in our Text Jesus has just been anointed with power from God. A..The heavens open up, the Holy Spirit visibly descends on him in the form of a dove and there is an audible voice from heaven that says, This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased. 1. Now, that s undeniable power! 2. Right after that powerful encounter, Satan comes to Jesus with temptation after temptation to try to get him to abuse the power that he s been given. B. First, he tempted him to distrust his Father's goodness and care concerning him. 1. Jesus has been fasting in the wilderness for 40 days and he feels like he is starving. 2. It is one of the tricks of Satan to take advantage of us when we re weak and vulnerable. 3. It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone but by 4. Take matters into your own hands. You don t need God! Use your power to supply your own pressing wants & needs C. Next, Satan takes Jesus in a vision to the holy city and tempts him to test his Father's power and protection to keep him safe. 1. Satan has no problem tempting us in church! Let s not be off our guard in any place. 2. The holy city is the place, where he has done some of his greatest damage because as Christians sometime we may take for granted that we know the word of God o Satan misquoted the words of scripture to try and cause Jesus to believe something that is not true. D. Finally, Satan tempted Christ by offering him all the kingdoms of the world. 1. Everyone will adore you and give you glory! 3

4 2. The temptation was that Christ to get all the adoration of everyone in the whole world, he would have to worship Satan. 3. Jesus rejected that proposal with disgust! Get away from me!! III. We, too, have power and can be tempted to misuse it to bring glory to ourselves. A. Power is our sense that we have the ability to change our circumstances and the ability to influence and control others. 1. Some people have been socialized to believe that they have the power to change society and make a difference. 2. From the time they were children they had a sense of their own personal power to choose and to change things! B. But there are others who have been taught over time that they are powerless to change the status quo. So they have learned to accept injustice as a part of life that a they have to endure because that s just the way it is. 1. i.e. You can t fight City Hall! C. The question for the powerful is how are we going to use our power? 1. What is the purpose of our power? 2. How are we supposed to use our power to also benefit and empower the powerless? D. Just like with Jesus, this is where Satan comes in with temptations to try to get us to abuse our power and turn it into as form of idolatry to replace God with something or someone else. 1. Use the things around you to feed yourself. Turn people and things into commodities to meet your needs. a. Don t take a day off! Make people work too much overtime because that puts money in your pocket 4

5 b Like Jesus, we have to trust God and believe that in some way the Lord will provide. 2. It is so important that we study scripture so we can know what God s word says! When we don t the evil one can cause you to question or believe something that is not true. o Some scheme or scam to protect yourself 3. You can have fame, fortune, career, relationship everything you want! o All you got to do is sell your soul to the devil o How many people have we seen do that chasing their dream and it ended up destroying them?! IV. There has to be a better way. How do we, keep power from becoming an idol that will ultimately destroy our lives? A. I learned that it is through the power of weakness. B. At the Urbana conference I told a story of how Ricky Byrdsong, the former head basketball coach at Northwestern University and member of my church, was tragically killed by a young, white supremacist in Skokie, IL. 1. However, I neglected to say the name of the young, Korean graduate student was also killed that same weekend while he was standing in front of his Presbyterian church in Indiana. 2. I hadn t forgotten it but I chose not to say it because I was afraid of mispronouncing it in front of all those people. 3. Later it was brought to my attention that a few Asians students were upset because I hadn t mentioned the Korean graduate student in my message D. The next morning God spoke to me and said, I want you to be a symbol of repentance. I replied out loud, l don t want to be no symbol of repentance! 5

6 A. When I came out of the shower I told my husband that I believed God wanted me to apologize. It was then that Derek s prayer about being a sacrificial lamb began to make sense to me. After much internal debate and struggle, I asked the conference leaders for time to go back onstage and apologize. B. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, let me show you what happened. Show Video V. That apology was a turning point at Urbana. The positive responses I received were overwhelming. People from China bowed and greeted me with honor. I was invited to come to other countries to speak. God used that 2-minute apology more powerfully than he used the entire message I preached at Urbana! A. God s supernatural power is revealed in our weakness. 1. Weakness summons the presence of God. 2. That s why the apostle Paul said, Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that the power of God may rest on me. B. That s hard for us to believe because we are socialized to admire people with power. 1. The people who make the news or get on the front of our magazine covers are those who have some kind of power military power, financial/economic power, technological power, intellectually (brain) power, political power, star power. 2. If we re not careful we can be tempted to bow down to the idolatry of power in our culture. 3. That s why God calls us to embrace the power of weakness by practicing humility. Conclusion: Humility is how we break the temptation to make power an idol in our lives. So I call you to experience the supernatural power of God as you practice the power of weakness through humility. And when you do, my you know what it is to hear God say This is my beloved child in whom I m well pleased. Amen! Let s pray. 6