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STAYING POWER #3
USE YOUR BEST WEAPON
Welcome once again to our series on Staying Power. I hope you've enjoyed making discoveries in the book of Hebrews.
The issue we've been zeroing in on is: how to keep going forward, instead of slipping backwards, in our lives.
Now, sooner or later any discussion of personal growth has to deal with something called "willpower." And of course, as soon as we mention that, we start to cringe a little, don't we? That's sort of the weak link in our strategy for change.
Well today we're going to learn about a wonderful weapon we can wield, a weapon that can transform weakness into strength. And that weapon, believe it or not, is the cross of Jesus Christ.
The cross is how sinful human beings can find a place of acceptance in the Most Holy Place, at God's right hand.
But there's also another picture of the cross in this book that may be new to you. The cross is also a weapon, a very powerful weapon---and all believers are invited to use it.
Here's something from Hebrews chapter two, verses 17 and 18: "Therefore, in all things He [that is Jesus] had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest...[verse 18:] For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted." Heb 2:17,18
What's the bottom line here? Jesus can come to the aid of those who are tempted. He can help us when our willpower is bent over backwards, when habits get the best of us. Now, think about this, why can Jesus come to our aid in those circumstances?
Because He Himself has suffered, being tempted. He suffered as a man, "made like His brethren." Now, when did Christ suffer most? When was He most severely tempted?
That's right. On the cross. He endured the anguish and torment of hell there. He was tempted to give up His mission there. Remember that He begged His father, "take this cup from Me."
But Christ won, didn't He? Christ persevered on the cross. He took the worst that the Devil could dish out, and won redemption for mankind.
Now here's the point: Calvary spreads out for us a spectacle of Jesus' will against all the odds. It started in Gethsemane, when Christ willed Himself into submission to the divine plan. During the proceedings before Pilate and Herod, He willed Himself to be silent before His accusers. Jesus willed His bleeding body through the streets of Jerusalem; He set His face toward the Place of the Skull. He willed Himself onto the wood to be nailed down and flung up as a criminal.
Listen, no one compelled Christ; no human hand could force Him through the scenes of His passion. Every step was voluntary, every act freely chosen.
Jesus was not just a victim at the cross. He was also the hero of the story. He was the chief protagonist. He made every gesture, every word, say exactly what He had intended from ages past. Jesus made a stand. The cross plunged into the earth is above all an act of Christ's will. It's a choice to save us no matter what the cost.
Now, here's how all this affects us: that will can become our weapon, that will can become something we wield.
Take a look at a very interesting verse, Hebrews 10:10. The verse before it talks about Christ's declaration that He has come to do God's will. Then verse 10 says: "By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."
By that will we have been sanctified. The willpower we need is in Jesus Christ! It's right there at Calvary where Jesus offered Himself up. Christ's act of volition is our starting point in coming up with a will of our own. That's why Scripture invites us to come to the cross and identify with the One making a stand there.
Jesus willed Himself to die for our sins: we're invited to share in that experience--with a difference. Jesus died because of sin; we're to die to sin.
To put it simply: in order to arouse our will, we first look at the cross. We don't just look at the habit that's threatening us; we don't look at our past record of failure and moan. We look at the cross. Because if we look carefully and prayerfully, we'll be inspired.
Success in dealing with habits starts when our will is inspired. If we try to start the fight on our own, simply on raw determination, we usually don't go very far. We're trying to jump-start a cold will. How much better to heat it up first at the cross!
In other words, don't try to go one-on-one with a habit. Always approach it through the crucified Christ. Practically speaking, this means that Jesus' act of will must loom larger in our thoughts than the habit we're trying to overcome.
A boy named Dudley just had too many strikes against him in the slums of New York. His father deserted the family when he was six. Mom had to go work in a defense plant. She soon married a man who beat the boy severely.
At school Dudley constantly got into fights. At the age of 15 he was expelled, and sent to a military academy. Within a year he'd been kicked out of there too.
But one weekend he wandered over to New Castle Air Base and got his first close up look at an airplane, a Mustang fighter. Dudley was hypnotized. He was even more taken with a former fighter pilot who befriended him. Captain James Shotwell seemed to sense how lost and confused the boy was. Soon Dudley was spending every weekend at the base; he felt drawn closer and closer to Captain Shotwell.
Dudley found he could open up about the rotten time he'd had so far in his life. Once, when the boy said he wanted to quit school, the Captain said, "Dud, you remind me of a blind sparrow. He knows how to fly but he can't because he can't see...You have all the right tools, Dud. Use them! No matter what you do in this life, you need to develop one thing: a sense of direction!"
Well, Dudley appreciated Shotwell's encouraging words. But he was still getting into trouble at school; his grades were still very poor. Finally he was sent to live with an Aunt in Los Angeles.
And that's where he received shocking news. James Shotwell had been killed. He'd lost an engine while returning to the air base from a practice mission. Shotwell could have ejected to safety; he could have saved himself. But the plane was going down over a populated area. The Captain stayed with his plane, steering it away from the houses--until it was too late to bail out.
Hearing the news, Dudley was overcome with emotions he'd never felt before. And he came to realize how much this man had meant to him, how much his life had really counted. His words about the blind sparrow kept coming back. And suddenly, everything clicked. James Shotwell had given him a sense of direction. This young man could see where he was going and what he had to do to get there.
Well, that blind sparrow did indeed take flight. He enlisted in the Air Force and excelled as a pilot. His negative attitude gave way to faith in God and respect for his fellow-man. Dudley wanted to go places! He became one of the best flight instructors in the country.
One man's sacrificial death finally turned on the lights for this kid with all the strikes against him. That courageous act seemed to overshadow Dudley's dysfunctional past. It gave him a new starting point.
That's exactly what the cross of Christ can do for us. Jesus, after all, is the friend who's taken us under His wing. He speaks words of encouragement; He works to give us a sense of direction. But what counts the most, what becomes our greatest weapon, is His sacrificial death. Jesus' heroic act of will. He chose to give up His life; He chose to use the cruelty of the cross as an instrument that rescues weak human beings like you and me.
This great act of will is how we come up with a will of our own, how those of us whose lives are broken and confused come up with a sense of direction.
We need the perspective of the cross in our everyday lives. That's why this book of Hebrews throws a spotlight on Christ's sacrifice and all its meaning. It presents that event as a great weapon, the best weapon we can wield in making steps forward, in making real changes.
So let's come to the cross. Let's accept Christ's great act on our behalf---not only as a sacrifice for sin, but also as a resource, as a weapon. Let's determine to see it, to wield it, to thank God for it. We don't have to be blind sparrows anymore; we can take flight. We can tap into the momentum of the cross of Calvary.
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