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A TRUCKLOAD OF PURITY #5
POWERING UP THE DeLOREAN
There's an old Christian story coming out of World War
II, from the great heroic survivor, Corrie ten Boom. Perhaps you've heard
how, years after the war ended, she was speaking to a gathering of believers.
And then at the close, she suddenly saw a man walking toward her. Instantly
she recognized that he was a former guard at the concentration camp. And
not just a guard, but one of the most brutal in the regime. A tormenter,
a sadistic soldier whose cruelty had been in large part responsible for
the death of her own sister, Betsie.
And with a flash she realized what was about to happen. This was a Christian
meeting; she was the speaker. Obviously this guard, all these years later,
was going to seek forgiveness from her.
And you know, that was simply an impossibility. It was one of those situations
that you and I both know so well. You can talk to yourself about what's
the right thing to do; you can pin up on the wall those words in the Bible
about "love your enemy" and turn the other cheek and all the
rest. But tell your GUT about forgiveness, and you suddenly realize that
what Corrie ten Boom was facing just could not happen. It was a physical
and emotional impossibility. There was no way.
As we close up with this marvelous, incredible book of the Bible called
Philippians, we find here in chapter four a verse which tells us NOTHING
should be impossible. Here it is in verse 13:
"I can do EVERYTHING through Him who gives me strength."
In the King James:
"I can do ALL THINGS through Christ which strengtheneth me."
The NIV text notes for this hopelessly challenging verse
say this:
"Union with the living, exalted Christ is the secret
of being content" - we discussed that yesterday - "AND the source
of Paul's abiding strength."
Now, friend, no one could deny that this Corrie ten Boom was living in
unity with Christ. She was one of the most beautiful, loving Christians
in the world. And yet, as this former gendarme walked slowly toward her
in that church, she could tell that an impossible moment, an insurmountable
confrontation was about to occur. This man had made life hell for her!
He had helped to destroy her own flesh and blood, her beloved sister.
There was no way she could forgive him or love him. She could probably
LIE and force words out of her mouth, in keeping with the testimony and
sermon she had just shared. But what kind of a witness was that?
She had just a few seconds, and all she could do was pray about this impossibility.
And sure enough, the man took her hand and began to stutter his apologies.
He was so sorry. For years he had wanted absolution. Now, dear sister,
could she give him peace of mind by forgiving him?
And you know, all at once, as she looked at this man, she no longer saw
the Nazi uniform and the former hate. She saw instead a victim, almost
a child, a person who had been himself scarred by sin and evil. And all
at once, she felt something come into her from an outside source, from
a HIGHER source. It wasn't her; she knew that. But she looked at this
man and felt . . . more than PITY. She actually loved this fellow child
of God. She LOVED him! And so she poured out words of forgiveness, of
acceptance, of love . . . words that were NOT fake, expressions that were
not convenient lies. "My brother, I forgive you!" she cried
over and over, embracing him.
Well, we have that story, and then we have this amazing verse. Philippians
4:13:
"I can do EVERYTHING through Him who gives me strength."
You can take that verse right there, that promise -
and if you believe it, you can apply it to all of the hard things we've
studied together this week. "Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS." Now
that's hard! That sound impossible! But it's not impossible if verse 13
is true. "Don't be anxious about ANYTHING," Paul cheerfully
tells us in verse 6 . . . and remember, he's sending us this happy-face
telegram from jail! In verse eight we have the hardest list in the world,
a list of eight adjectives, how our thoughts should be continually on
things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent,
and praiseworthy. How can we possibly keep our minds on track like that
24 hours a day? You wouldn't even try, except for this promise from God
in verse 13.
One of the best Bible study tools you can own is to have a Bible with
cross-reference notes in it, where one verse sends you over to verses
with similar or companion messages. And here, Philippians 4:13 sends us
backtracking to another letter of Paul's, his second epistle to his Christian
friends in Corinth. In chapter 12, he confesses to us about a mysterious
ailment or "thorn in the flesh" he's always had. That doesn't
sound much like "I can do all things"; why doesn't God take
away this persistent curse? But Paul's concluding thought about it all
is this:
"But He [the Lord] said to me, 'My grace is sufficient
for you, for My POWER is made perfect in weakness."
And that's a great insight - how, despite our weaknesses, we have access
not just to God's power, but to the unlimited resources of His power!
We can have it all! Is there really any problem we have where, if ALL
God's power was applied, we couldn't succeed?
Interestingly, in the very next chapter after what we've studied this
week, Colossians one, Paul uses that very expression:
"Being strengthened with ALL power according to
His glorious might so that you might have great endurance and patience."
There's a gospel song some of us like to sing - kind
of a military march - which goes like this:
"I can run through a troop, And leap over a wall;
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! He's my Strength and my Shield; He gives POWER
to all. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!"
Well, it's catchy, but you don't take it too seriously
until you discover that the words come right out of the very real battles
of the Old Testament. Those words are right from Second Samuel chapter
28, where none other than King David - or, we should say, General David
- writes them:
"For by Thee I have run through a troop: by my
God have I leaped over a wall."
In just about the most secular illustration we can think
of, we're reminded of a young man named Marty McFly in the old time-travel
trilogy, Back to the Future. He's stuck in the year 1955 with a DeLorean
time-machine sports car that's out of plutonium. And the mad scientist,
Dr. Brown, cries in despair: "It would take 1.21 jigawatts of power
to get you back to the future! It's hopeless! Where could we find 1.21
jigawatts of nuclear power here in 1955?" And then the interesting
line: "The only thing around here with 1.21 jigawatts of power would
be a bolt of lightning." Which, because of time-travel, they know
is coming up that very Saturday night at 10:04 p.m.
And maybe today something is very dark in your life. Perhaps you've lost
a child, and you're so completely in despair that you don't know how you
can possibly go on. "I'm powerless to face the future without my
little girl!" you scream into the wind. And where could you find
the power, the bolt of lightning, to face tomorrow?
Did you know that the great Oliver Cromwell once faced that very kind
of anguish? His son had died, and he was absolutely inconsolable. Oh,
it was fine for others to preach about the Resurrection and about a future
life in the distant future. But this was his own boy! Do you know what
saw him through? We read this story in Dr. Ralph P. Martin's Tyndale New
Testament Commentaries for Philippians. Oliver Cromwell found his hope
in this verse, Philippians 4:13. It was, in his own words, "one beam
in a dark place" of utter despondency and misery. "I can do
all things through Christ" was the promise that saw him through.
It's important to notice where this promise applies and where it doesn't.
Are we guaranteed here that we can drive 85 miles an hour and not get
tickets? Score 1600 on our SAT's? Make $200,000 in our next job? Bench-press
500 pounds? No, the context of this verse - remember, it's the core promise,
the buried nugget in chapter four - is talking about Christian work, about
witness, about doing God's work . . . and it's also about contentment
during the trials of living for Jesus Christ. It's about "rejoicing
always."
"This statement, then," writes Dr. Martin,
"does not make Paul a wonder-worker, a spiritual 'super-man,' who
towers so far above the rest of men that his life is no encouragement
to lesser mortals."
No, friend, this verse is for all of us. Not for getting
our speeding violations fixed, but when we need power to do God's will.
Not when we want an A on a calculus test, but when we need heaven's encouragement
to face the loss of a best friend. In other words, Philippians 4:13 is
for the really big things of life.
And how do we tap into it? How do we claim those 1.21 jigawatts of raw
spiritual power for our own? Well, that power resides in the person of
Jesus Christ, so the answer should be obvious. We get with Jesus and we
stay with Him. In John 15:5 Christ Himself gives us the recipe.
"I am the true Vine and you are My branches. If
you REMAIN IN ME and I remain in you, you will bear much fruit."
And then the flip side: "Without Me, YOU CAN'T DO A THING."
You know, the fictional Marty McFly had to have
that DeLorean in the right place at exactly 10:04 p.m. to receive that
lightning bolt's power. Thank God you and I can be plugged in . . . all
day . . . every day.
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