Power at the Magazine Rack

 

“The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.” Edmund Burke

 
In 1990, James Baker, President George H.W. Bush’s closest friend and at the time his secretary of state, delivered a remarkable address before the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington. In it, he told a story to illustrate the fleeting nature of power. While his driver took him to work one morning in his sleek black limousine, Baker noticed a man walking down the street alone. He recognized him as a former chief of staff. Baker said, “That mental picture continually serves to remind me of the impermanence of power and place. That man had it all, but only for a time.”
  Power and influence – here today, gone tomorrow. We humans crave power. Yet, we forget how temporary all power is.
  The Christian acknowledges that all power belongs to God. This means that God is the giver of power and that any power we possess should be used to bring glory to Him. Yet ever since the Fall, we humans are power brokers, looking for ways to use and amplify power for our own ends.
  In her book, None Like Him, Jen Wilkin focuses on four of the most common sources of power in our world. To discover them, we don’t need to look any further than the front covers of the magazines in the store checkout line. Our culture gives power to the strong, the beautiful, the wealthy, and the charismatic.
  Sports Illustrated: Physical strength is power. The physically strong wear Super Bowl rings, boast Olympic medals, endorse sport drinks. But we often cross the line into an idolatry of physical strength. It’s seen in the way we glorify physical fitness and most evident in the way we marginalize those who don’t possess it: the elderly, disabled, children. Yet, when we employ our physical strength to glorify God, we protect the weak among us with every bit of energy that we can employ.
  Glamour: Physical beauty is power. Our culture gives power to the attractive and beautiful. There’s an episode of Seinfeld where Jerry dates a beautiful blond woman named Nikki, using her attractiveness to gain preferential treatment wherever he takes her. At one point he intentionally tests the boundaries of what she can get away with, breaking the speed limit and boasting of his top speed to the cop who pulls him over, confident Nikki will get him out of the ticket. And she does.
  The attractive among us live a charmed existence where power isn’t earned or coerced; it’s simply granted. It’s why we’re willing to spend thousands of dollars and hours to achieve or maintain attractiveness. The beauty industry feeds us the tantalizing lie that if we fix the outside, we’ll fix the inside. Products and services promise we’ll feel better if we look better. But for the believer, how we look doesn’t rank high on the list of that which gives us joy and peace or helps us serve God and others.
  True beauty begins with internal change, not external. True beauty will withstand the passage of time. It’s why we must cultivate the beauty that points toward eternal purposes: the unfading beauty of a godly and gentle spirit. True beauty has staying power. It doesn’t fade on its owner but points others toward its origin. How hard we work for external beauty versus internal beauty reveals where our treasure lies. Inner beauty sees the least among us and sees them as beautiful even when others do not.
  Forbes: Wealth is power. The wealthy receive either admiration or envy. Nothing opens opportunities like money. We may not be a Warren Buffet, but all of us have some experience of the power that money conveys, whether it’s because we have it or because we don’t. Wealth gets better seats at the game, a better table at the restaurant, better nutrition, better health care, better education, better clothes, even better legal representation. Anyone who’s moved up the economic ladder can identify with writer Beatrice Kauffman, “I’ve been poor and I’ve been rich. Rich is better.” There’s more truth there than we’d like to admit.
  To be poor is to be powerless. In a culture of “self-made” financial success stories, we can easily view our personal wealth as our rightful possession, along with the power it grants, to be enjoyed and employed solely by us and for us. Precisely because wealth confers power, the Bible goes to great lengths to give us a correct understanding of how it’s to be viewed. It contains multiple warnings against greed, arrogance, and self-sufficiency that often accompany wealth.
  Regardless of how much money we’ve been given, for the Christian, the question must always be, “Do I control the money, or does the money control me?” A believer unable to give liberally has lost control of stewarding the wealth entrusted to them. We must do so joyfully, knowing we have nothing that we didn’t receive from our Father in heaven.
  People: Charisma is power. We grant power to those with outgoing personalities. Gifted with persuasive speech, humor, or the ability to cast a vision, they draw us in with their communication skills. They form networks of relationships they use to forward their causes. They’re the CEOs and NFL coaches, self-help gurus and news anchors. They’ve discovered the tantalizing truth that words have power to destroy and to create. In everyday life, they rise to the top of the mommy group, the PTA, the dinner party, or any other group they bless with their presence, even churches. Most of us don’t have the charisma of a presidential candidate, but we all taste the power of personality to some extent. Believers who are extremely likable face the challenge of drawing others to themselves rather than to Christ. The rest of us must guard against following the cult of personality. Wanting to be in the entourage of someone perceived as influential shows a desire for collateral power.
  Physical strength, beauty, wealth, and charisma—these are just a few of the most obvious sources of power we chase. Today is Palm Sunday. Rather than enter Jerusalem on a white horse, a symbol of power, Jesus came on the back of a donkey, the epitome of humility. Our Lord didn’t impress or overpower anyone with His physical strength or wealth. Though His ministry and message convinced many, He chose silence rather than persuasive speech when facing His accusers. Knowing that all power belonged to His Father, He walked humbly among us, leaving for us an example of how true power is nowhere more clearly understood than through the filter of human weakness. Unlike the passing power of our world, His power transformed human hearts from stone to flesh and it’s still transforming them today. He’s King Jesus! My friend, have you let the truly powerful One transform your heart and life?

Can we help you spiritually? Please check out more resources on our church's web page, Gracechurchwi.org. Or call us at 262.763.3021. If you'd like to know more about how Jesus can change your life, I'd love to mail you a copy of how Jesus changed my life in "My Story." E-mail me at Carson@gracechurchwi.org to request a free copy. Please include your mailing address. 

 

 

Who's YOUR King?

 

“Life is about making your own happiness and living by your own rules.”  Aimee Mullins

 

It’s a plot often found in history and portrayed in movies of having two monarchs vying for the same throne. Alexandre Dumas, in his final installment of the Three Musketeers series, The Man in the Iron Mask fictionalizes a tale of the powerful and corrupt King Louis XIV. According to his book,  Louis XIV had a twin brother imprisoned deep in the Bastille. This twenty-three-year-old prisoner known only as Philippe was forced to wear an iron mask and had been imprisoned for eight years. He has no knowledge of his true identity or told what crime he’s committed. He’s imprisoned by the king to protect his throne. There can only be one king.
  This morning as we continue our series in 1 Samuel, we find King Saul hunting down David, for fear that David will attempt to take his throne. There can only be one king. Today is also Palm Sunday. David’s future son, Jesus Christ, entered Jerusalem as Israel’s Messiah. He is the one true king. With more than one king there is chaos and anarchy.
  Ours is a world of chaos because when Jesus is not king, there is misery. Yet, there are many false kings in the world. You could call them idols. That false king philosophy is what Aimee Mullins is purporting, “Life is about making your own happiness and living by your own rules.” It’s a worldview that ultimately leads to despair. False kings promise everything yet leave us empty in the end. There can only be one king.
  The conflict of the ages is to have other kings, any king but Jesus. Luke 19:14 records this insurrection against having Jesus as King, “We do not want this man to reign over us.” Yet, you’ll quickly discover that if Jesus is not King, we enthrone a false king. Even Christians who have sworn allegiance to King Jesus do this. Here are some of the more common ones:
  Self. Our culture is awash with selfishness. Too often it seeps into the church with what Eugene Peterson describes as the “replacement trinity,” my wants, my needs, and my desires. While those have their place, they’re usurpers who ultimately steal our joy.
  God created us. Jesus died for us and ransomed us from the slave market of sin. The only king who will bring fulfillment to us is the One who knows us and loves us. Self must be dethroned. It’s a cruel tyrant. Only when Jesus is Lord is selfishness dethroned.
  Money. All around the globe wealth is thought to be a savior. We encourage young people to go to college and get an education. That’s good yet the motivation is so that we can get money to have all of the things that we believe will make us happy. We have a terrible struggle with preventing money from being our king.
  Living for money is a cruel taskmaster. Money is a good gift from God, but it is not God. Our retirement accounts, stock portfolios, and benefits packages don’t save. Only Jesus can save. Wealth leaves those who serve it empty. They find, to borrow a term from Mick Jagger, “can’t get no satisfaction.”  When we look for fulfillment or measure our worth by what we have, we’re trusting a king who promises much yet can never deliver.
  Power. Power is intoxicating. Power and authority were granted by God at creation. He made us humans to serve under His rule in a way that imitates His rule of justice and order. But humans have a strange tendency to twist power for their own ends rather than exercise power with justice. And when power slips through our fingers, we go berserk. Why? Because we’ve deified power. While power is a gift from God, it is not God. Power only works if we have submitted ourselves to the Lord and His care first.
  Sexuality. Sex is God’s idea. He made human beings inherently sexual. It’s God’s beautiful plan for a man and a woman to unite in marriage and have sexual intimacy. But sexuality is a tyrant when we make it a right, not a gift. God’s good gift devolves into a source of pain and frustration, far away from God’s original design. Outside of God’s plan, it leaves us broken, scarred, and in spiritual and emotional shambles. Those of us who have experienced the brutality of unrestrained sexuality, know that pain from its wounding. Sexuality is a fantastic gift, yet a cruel master.
  Relationships. God designed us to have relationships as He does in the Godhead in the Trinity. He created us so that we could relate first to God and then to our neighbor. Too often a relationship is enthroned in the false belief that it will make life wonderful. But human relationships can never fill the hole in our soul because of sin. While we’re made for relationships, relationships with others (romantic or fraternal) can never replace the primary relationship of the God who loves us and made us! Relationships put on the throne in place of God are fraught with anxiety and frustration.
  Family. With the fragmentation of marriage and the redefining of family in western culture, it’s tempting to enthrone family as a defense against this cultural erosion. The conjugal family—one man and one woman whose covenant union produces offspring—is God’s plan. It’s profoundly good, and a necessary and foundational element of God’s creational design, but it is not ultimate. A spouse, a child and even a grandchild must be secondary to King Jesus. Yet even churches can enshrine the family. A church can become so focused on families that they ignore singles and gear everything toward married couples or those with children. Somehow we forget that even Jesus was single and never married.
  Couples who prioritize their children or grandchildren, yet not a relationship with the Lord or their spouse, will find that choice sows seeds of future destruction in their marriage and ultimately leaves their souls empty. When children are the glue for 18-plus years, a couple finds the empty nest is an empty relational cave. Statistics show that the divorce rate jumps once the children are grown. The marriage was allowed to wither for lack of attention. and they have little in common anymore.
  The Enemy of our souls entices us to choose fake kings. It’s tempting to divert our focus from the one true Lord who gave His life for us. Even good things can cause Christ to lose preeminence in our lives and become an idol. Tim Keller writes, an idol “is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.” 
  Palm Sunday is a reminder that Jesus is the one true King. Is He your King?

Can we help you spiritually? Please check out more resources on our church's web page, Gracechurchwi.org. Or call us at 262.763.3021. If you'd like to know more about how Jesus can change your life, I'd love to mail you a copy of how Jesus changed my life in "My Story." E-mail me at Carson@gracechurchwi.org to request a free copy. Please include your mailing address.