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John Green, Emmaus of Chicago

The Greatest Social Need
It happens to be something that evangelicals are specially gifted to meet.
A Christianity Today editorial | posted 1/19/2009 10:15AM
 

The greatest social need in the world today is not HIV/AIDS outreach. It's not hunger. It's not global warming. Not ending poverty or eliminating malaria or tuberculosis. Not clean water. Not racial reconciliation. Not sexual trafficking. Not abortion. And it's not peace in the Middle East, and not even world peace.

These are not unimportant social issues. They grab the heart of God. God's compassion has always been focused on the poor and oppressed—something noted all through the Bible. So it's no surprise that God instructs his people to "learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause" (Isa. 1:17, ESV).

And they have grabbed the hearts of evangelicals in a fresh way. One telling example: A decade ago, it was still rare to find an evangelical church with an HIV/AIDS ministry. Today, one can hardly find an evangelical church that doesn't have or support one.

HIV/AIDS ministry is one book in a library of social action we have written recently. And it's been noticed. Just last February, we felt our chest swell with pride when New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof said:

Today, conservative Christian churches do superb work on poverty, AIDS, sex trafficking, climate change, prison abuses, malaria, and genocide in Darfur. … Today, many evangelicals are powerful internationalists and humanitarians.

Other examples abound in politics, foreign policy, and international justice. It's been quite a ride on the racehorse of social action.

Despite the advances, none of this constitutes our movement's greatest contribution to the world. None of these good works—nay, great works—deal with the most profound social problem facing humankind.

DIGGING OUT THE ROOT

That social problem is alienation from God.

It is in fact the first social problem. After Adam and Eve eat of the tree in the midst of the garden, the Lord God—with whom they have had warm fellowship—seeks them out. But they hide in fear and shame. From this, the biblical story unfolds to reveal murder, lust, greed, loneliness, pride, oppression, and a host of other evils that plague humankind.

The biblical picture is clear: The breakdown of society is rooted in the breakdown of our relationship with our Creator. And the biblical response is equally clear: The way out of social chaos begins with people being restored to God. This won't solve all social problems immediately. But transformed individuals go hand in hand with transforming social networks.

Of course, this alienation is much more than a social problem. It is a fundamentally spiritual problem that constitutes humanity's greatest crisis: billions of men and women who do not know the love and grace of their Creator. Some live in societies characterized by fear of the spiritual world. Others live in religious cultures where people are taught they must earn their way through heaven's gates.

Many people live in ignorance of life's richest possibilities—that they can know a loving God, and that his power can move within them. He calms fears, forgives guilt, and instills an unearthly joy. He establishes the lonely in the family of faith and gives life to the dying—life of startling and enduring dimensions, not just for individuals but also in the community we call the kingdom.

We are right to give so much of our energy to relieving social ills, but we must never forget that the greatest social ill has spiritual roots. John Green is the founder of Emmaus Ministries in Chicago, an outreach to male prostitutes. His ministry offers food, shelter, counseling, and an array of social services to help men move out of that degrading lifestyle. Some would think that is more than enough. But Green disagrees, saying, "We do violence to the poor if we don't share the gospel with them."
The Greatest Social Need
It happens to be something that evangelicals are specially gifted to meet.
 

Throughout history, many groups within the commonwealth of Christianity have specialized in mercy and justice, and they have done marvelous things. Evangelicals have done their share as well. But the one thing evangelicals have done better (if not always perfectly!) than most other Christian movements is sharing the euangelion, the Good News that God loves and forgives us and invites us into his family, into his work, and into life abundant, now and forever. It is our unique charisma, our special gifting of God.

The mainline American churches up until the middle of the last century held in healthy missional balance social action and evangelism. But slowly the evangelistic mandate got squeezed out. A myopic concern for the social undermined the church's spiritual mission. This has led to spiritual decline, from shrinking membership to a loss of spiritual vitality to faddish theology. It would be a shame if evangelicals did not learn from this sad history.

We are not calling for creation of more evangelistic institutions or more evangelistic tracts and techniques—we have plenty of each, thank God. We are not threatened by our newfound enthusiasm for social action, and in fact rejoice in it.

But we are urging that we not inadvertently "do violence to the poor." We must enter into neighbor-loving outreach with a mindset that fully incorporates the greatest need we are called to meet.

Copyright © 2009 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
January 2009, Vol. 53, No. 1

 

Back to the Top

Bill Hybels

I wonder if you've ever asked yourself a question and had it roll around in your mind so many times that it almost came to the point of being of vexation to you - pondering a question you couldn't answer. I had that happen to me a few years ago.
 

I like to study the subject of leadership and I know how important vision is to leadership. One day I started asking myself the question, "What precedes vision? What is it that happens in the heart of a fired-up Christ-follower that moves her or him into action that gets them up off the couch, that gets them moving toward addressing a great cause or need in this world?" Vision comes later, when you're putting together the strategy and painting the picture of the future for the followers. But where does it all begin really? What is it that inspires anybody to do anything with regard to achieving good in this world?
 

While I was tossing that question around in my head, I was reading a part of the Bible with which some of you are familiar. In the Old Testament area of the Bible, I read about Moses who, in fact, was a great leader. One day he went out to see where his own people were working. Moses, you know, was a Hebrew. He was a Jew. He'd been raised in Egypt, however, by the Pharaoh's daughter. He was educated there and accustomed to the privileges of growing up in Pharaoh's family. Yet, he knew he was Jewish and, in those days, the Jews were in Egyptian captivity, subjugated to merciless labor. So, Moses decides he's going to go watch his own people labor. The story says that, while Moses goes out to watch his people the Jews labor, he saw an Egyptian physically beating a Jew.
 

Now I want to stop for a moment and ask a question I hope that most of you can answer. I wonder, when was the last time any of you saw up close and personal a physical beating? I've only ever seen one in my life. It happened when I was in high school. It happened so fast I couldn't stop it until it was almost too late. I had a locker mate, just a few locker doors down. He was putting his books away when one of the largest kids in the school came by, knocked the kid's books out of his hands, and said, "Pick 'em up!" When the kid bent over to pick up the books, this older violent young man said terrible things. And once my friend had an armload of books, this bully kid wound up and hit my locker mate in the face, three or four times, so fast that those of us standing around couldn't react quickly enough to stop it. I will never forget the sound of breaking teeth and the visual of blood splattering up on the locker behind this kid's face. I'll never forget looking down and seeing the blood splatter on the white terrazzo floor. It was one of the most unnerving, up-close things that had ever happened to me in my life. When we finally figured out was going on and what his intent was, we dropped our books and hauled the bully off the other guy. However, by that time, it was too late; a lot of damage had been done. That sight has stayed with me all my life and it sickens me to this day.
 

Well, Moses was watching a scene similar to what I watched that day in high school. He watched an Egyptian, probably with some instrument of cruelty, trying to beat a Jew to death. When he can't stand it anymore, he decides to defend his fellow Hebrew brother. So, he jumps into the fight. He defends himself and his friend and eventually the Egyptian soldier who started the fight died. It says in the scriptures that Moses buried him in the sand.
 

In the same section of scripture, the very next day, Moses goes out again to watch the people working. However, this time he sees two Hebrews, two fellow Jews, in a fight, beating each other. Moses runs up to them, hauls them off each other, and screams, "Why? Why would you do this? It's one thing if those in authority over us are beating us. It's a terrible thing; it should never happen. Here we are, of the same country. Please, don't fight with each other!" I think Moses saw all of the oppression and frustration going on in the lives of the enslaved Hebrews and it was about all he could stand.
 

A few frames forward, Moses encounters the burning bush, something that would change Moses forever. The scripture says in Exodus 3:7 that God speaks to Moses and says, "I have seen the misery of My people in Egypt. Moses, you think you've seen some bad stuff, you've seen some oppression, you've seen some beating and bloodshed. However, I have seen it from heaven. I have seen the misery of My people in Egypt and I have heard their cries. I am concerned about their suffering and I'm going to rescue them." Then verse 10 of Exodus 3, "And I am going to use you. I am going to use you to do it."
 

Now listen to me very closely. If you get nothing else from what I say in this service, please get this. I think what's really happening is that God is saying to Moses, "What you saw that day in the physical violence that made you so unbelievably frustrated and angry, what you saw on earth, I saw all of that in heaven, I heard that suffering, I heard the cries and I can't stand it in Heaven either. I'm stirred in My spirit and I'm going to intervene and clean up this mess on planet Earth, but I'm going to use you to do it, in part, because I see a passion in your life. I see your emotion. I see someone who can't stand idly by when his people are being beaten and oppressed. I see your capacity for activism and I've been looking for someone like you who has an internal firestorm that gets ignited in you about the same time it gets ignited in Heaven." And I'm going to take your frustration that I share in Heaven and put my power into that. I'm going to use you in a very significant way."
 

Do you see what's going on here? Heaven's frustration is being harnessed to someone who has the same kind of frustration on planet Earth so that something great will be done in terms of liberating an enslaved group of people. I call this concept "holy discontent." When a Christ-follower sees some injustice in society and it wrecks them, it bothers them, it upsets them internally, and they say I just can't stand watching that, it's then that the whisper comes from God. "Here we are in heaven and we hate it too. We are abhorred by that injustice and because you see it and feel it the way you do, we see it in heaven and maybe that means we're supposed to hook up and do something together." The power of God and the power of the frustrated one on earth, maybe that's supposed to give life to something new to solve that problem. And we come at this a totally different way.
 

In my day, growing up in the United States, all kids my age watched a particular cartoon. The celebrity on this particular cartoon was a sailor guy named Popeye the sailor man. Do any of you remember his girlfriend's name? Olive Oyl. I'm impressed. I'm very impressed. She was something, wasn't she? She made men whistle and dogs bark. Nevertheless, sometimes in some of these episodes, someone would threaten the wellbeing of Olive Oyl. Popeye would be easygoing about it until the point when it started to look ominous. Then, when it started to look like something terrible was going to happen to his beloved Olive Oyl, Popeye would feel his blood pressure rise and his pulse would race. It was then he would say a phrase that was embedded in the language of almost everyone my age in the United States growing up watching this show. He would get to that point where he would say, "That's all I can stands. I can't stands no more!" Then he would open up a can of what vegetable? That's right, spinach, and he would eat it in one big gulp and it would turn his forearms into weapons and then he would crush the opposition and he would save Olive Oyl from distress. At the end he would say, "I'm strong to the finish 'cause I eat my spinach. I'm Popeye the sailor man!" I'm very impressed with the intellectual rigor of the home crowd. That's famous line: "That's all I can stand; I can't stands no more!"
 

Moses couldn't stand seeing fellow Hebrews being oppressed and beaten. He just couldn't stand it. Now I ask you a question that I'm going to ask you several more times before I close this sermon. I'm dead serious about it. What can't you stand? What, when you see it in this world, wrecks you? What, when you see it on television, when you see it in the community, when you see it in the inner city, when you see it at school, when you see it around a church, when you see it in business, what is it that you can't stand that affects you perhaps more than it does anybody else and it affects you deeply? Did it ever occur to you that your holy discontent might be precisely the kind of discontent that Moses experienced, expressed to God and that God joined him in to liberate an enslaved group of people?
 

Think of King David. King David used to bring food to his brothers while his brothers were on the battlefield. There was a giant named Goliath who was trash talking God day in and day out; trash talking the holy God. It didn't bother David's brothers, but it wrecked David. David said, "How can you stand this? He's blaspheming our great God!" Then one day he said, "That's all I can stands. I can't stands no more." And he gets a slingshot and he runs full speed. He's going to go at the enemy. He doesn't even know how it's going to come out, but that's all he could stand. He couldn't stand anymore.
 

I think of Martin Luther King, Jr., in the United States, 50 or 60 years ago. He can't stand the "whites only" signs on the drinking fountains, the bathrooms. He can't stand that blacks are always pushed to the back of the bus and to the back of the educational opportunities, and to the back of the employment and housing lines. Finally, there came a holy discontent in him to the point where he said in the privacy of his own soul, "That's all I can stands. I can't stands no more!" And he knew that his activism would probably cost him his life and, in fact, it did. However, his holy discontent wouldn't let him live otherwise.
 

I was on the board of World Vision; it's a fantastic organization that feeds starving children in the name of Christ. I was on that board for many years and that's where I heard the story of the founder of World Vision, a business guy from this area, actually, who was over in a faraway place monitoring a food line where a lot of little kids were being fed. It was a very hot day, and there hadn't been much food and this man named Bob Pierce is going along the food line. He sees some of the tiny little children keeling over, some were fainting, and many were dying right there in front of his eyes. He gets all upset, runs to the front of the food line, and says, "You have to serve the food faster!"
 

That's when the people at the front of the line said, "We have no food."
 

He said, "What? You're out of food?" He looked back at this whole line of kids and that was his Popeye moment. He stood there and he said, "That's all I can stand. I can't stands no more." He got on a plane, flew back to the U.S., and he and some buddies started raising money for starving children. That gave birth to an organization called World Vision, which now feeds millions of starving children in the name of Christ. All of that great work that's going on all over the world now can be traced back to a single guy at a single point in time who said, "That's all I can stands. I can't stands no more!"
 

And Heaven met him at that time and said, "We can't stand it either. Let's go."
 

I look back at my own life. I grew up in a church I couldn't stand. I'm not saying they weren't great people, but we were this ingrown little group of people who wanted to sing our hymns, and stay close to each other. There were people far from God whose lives were falling apart and they were a nine-iron golf shot away from our parking lot at our little Dutch church. We never lifted a finger to reach them. We were the quintessential comfortable, convenience-oriented casual Christians who met to meet, who then took seven days off and met to meet again. It did something terrible in me.
 

Later on in my life, I was introduced to a professor of theology who described how a church ought to be, what a New Testament Acts II church should be. He told me about the power, the beauty, and the potential of a local church. So, when I juxtaposed what I had seen all my life into what should happen, I just remembered well thinking, "That's all I can stands. I can't stands no more!" have to give myself to the planting and the development of an Acts II church if it kills me because I can't stand the dissonance and the not knowing, "Might this work? Let's see!"
 

May I ask you again? What can't you stand? What is it, when you see it, it hurts you more than it hurts your spouse or your kids? You lay awake nights and think more about it than other people do. What is it? Is it racism, is it homelessness, is it abused children, is it extreme poverty, is it AIDS, is it immoral business practices, is it businesses that operate unethically and treat their customers poorly? Is it the sick that don't receive care? Is it under challenged young people who are drifting further and further from God? Is it a dysfunctional church? What is it? It's very important that you figure this out because it could very well be that what wrecks you is supposed to lead you to that Popeye moment where heaven and earth are fused together in a firestorm of frustration that is ignited in you by the powers of Heaven so you'll move forward in ways that will change the world.
 

Let me give you four quick observations about this holy discontent thing and then I'll close you in prayer.
 

First: while it is important for Christ followers to have a social conscience about everything that's wrong in this world, there is a unique holy discontent that God probably means for you to prioritize. By that I mean, when all of us watch CNN or read the newspaper and we understand that what's going on in certain parts of Africa or where a hurricane touched down in another part of the world or in the inner city, if you have a conscience at all, and it's a conscience that's been softened by Jesus Christ, these things should affect your heart and they should cause some movement and even some check writing or maybe some volunteering. However, I make a distinction between those kinds of general heart-touching needs in this world and that unique kind of need that just breaks you inside, when you say to yourself, "That one I can't stand watching. That one's my assignment to solve. That one I think God is wired me up to address and to give the rest of my life to, either vocationally or avocationally." Please take the time to differentiate from all the needs in the world the need that is your unique holy discontent.
 

My second observation on this is, if you try doing that for a while and you say, "Well, one of those just doesn't come to my mind that easily. I try but I can't identify it," my piece of counsel to you on this is not to give up too soon. Don't give up too soon. I tell, particularly, Christian leaders who I've talked to about this kind of thing before, "Maybe you need to change environments, visit other ministries or churches, go to certain hospitals or inner cities. Venture into places where you've never gone before. Serve in an AIDS clinic. Build a Habitat for Humanity house. Do something that exposes you front and center. I mean, get your hands dirty to the needs of this world, and don't be surprised if, as you do this with open hands before God, He doesn't actually just grab a hold of you at some point and say, "This is it! This is what you can't stand and I'm going to use you powerfully to rectify this situation for the rest of your life!"
 

Here's a third, rather counterintuitive piece of counsel for you regarding holy discontent. When you find it, and you start to act on it, feed it. Feed your holy discontent. By that I mean, if perhaps your holy discontent is the plight of the poor, then slowly increase your exposure to people who are caught up in the cycle of generational poverty. Get around it in fresh ways. Smell, feel, and be reintroduced all over again to the horrors of global poverty, the kind that causes young people to die every single day. It probably comes as no surprise to you that my major holy discontent is dysfunctional and dying churches. They drive me crazy. It doesn't bother me so much when I drive by a business outfit that tried a new product for a year or two and found out that it didn't work so they're going to sell the building. Or a hot dog stand that didn't work out and the "for sale" sign is on it. I know that happens and I don't wish that on anybody, but it doesn't wreck me.
 

When I go by a church that was once filled with people, where the activity of God was dynamic and transforming, where God was changing lives and marriages were being brought together and kids were finding Christ and the work of God was really happening, but then something happened or someone left, some problem occurred and the church started to go down and down and then there was that day when they held the last board meeting and they decided to shut the lights out and put a "for sale" sign on it. I'm telling you friends, I drive by churches with "for sale" signs on them, and it wrecks me. So one of the ways I feed my holy discontent is, several times a year I go to churches mainly in the underdeveloped world that are really struggling.. I just came back from a group of them in Ghana and in Nigeria and in Egypt, churches that meet in little hovel places where they're fighting resistive governments. So when I meet with these church leaders, oh, how that fires me up to want to bless them and help them train their leaders and flow resources to them.
 

Whatever your holy discontent is, make sure you get around it enough that you feed into it the kind of firestorm of energy that God will use and reuse to bring resolve to it someday.
 

The last thing I'll say about your holy discontent is that, as you give your life to this, make sure you don't lose hope along the way. Working in areas of holy discontentment can take a lot out of you. Martin Luther King, Jr., came to the point of total exhaustion many times as have many other leaders who have given themselves to try to make something right in the world that's gone way wrong. It's very important that you keep hope alive, that you feed your soul so that you live with a faith-based optimism so that your shoulders are erect and so your followers can sense your God-based optimism. They'll keep going, following you and the effort.
 

Do you know what happens when people lose hope? One of the most difficult funeral services I've ever done in my life was my son's best friend, not that long ago, who was killed in an automobile accident. The family my son's friend are wonderful, wonderful people. Some of the finest people I know, but they've never been close to God. This was by far the biggest tragedy in their lives. They had no pastor to turn to, no Christian friends to turn to, really, so I did the funeral. It was one of the toughest I've ever done. When we were at the cemetery and we were lowering that young man's body into the ground, the father of that son who was being lowered into the ground, got up off his chair in front of the casket and started to seek me out because I had gone to stand by my family, maybe ten or fifteen yards away. He couldn't find me right away so he was walking throughout the gathered crowd and people wondered what he was doing. Eventually found me and walked right up to me, a business guy not given to emotion, and he threw his arms around me and he said words I'll never forget. He said, "Bill it just can't end like this." What was he saying? Life can't end with death and then no hope. Life makes no sense if there's not a resurrection and the possibility to be reunited with his son someday. It just could not end like this. I didn't know what to do, but the spirit of God led me. I kept my arm around him and went back toward the casket. I said, "Clark's dad has asked me if I would say one more prayer before we go." He sat back down and I prayed a prayer that was unpracticed, of course, and Spirit-led. I couldn't assess any other power to what came out of my mouth for about three minutes, but it was a prayer all about hope. The power of hope, the power of Christ, the power of knowing that you can live after you die. The power of knowing that with the Spirit of God at work, things in this world can be different and tomorrow can be a lot better than today.
 

One of the reasons I've loved the Hour of Power for almost four decades is because, if there's one television show I can count on receiving hope from, it's been this particular television show and this particular congregation. You have no idea the hope that you've inspired and why so many people click on that button. They're looking for hope; they know it can't end like this.
 

Now in my final words, I say to you unashamedly, our ultimate hope is not in a religion, it's not in a program, its not in a creed, its not in a bunch of religious hoops - our ultimate hope is in a person. The person is Jesus Christ. He is who He said He was. He did what He said He would do. He loves you and His hand is extended to you. No matter where you've been, what size hole you've dug for yourself with sin and wandering, He'll reach in, He'll take you, He'll lift you out, and He'll walk with you toward a different future and toward a different eternity. That's where hope comes from. That's who the originator and the sustainer of hope in this life is - Jesus Christ. I commend Him to you this day. Let's pray:
 

Our Father in heaven, we believe that You will give all of us the opportunity to look around us as we drive home, as we read the papers, as we watch the television news, as we see what's going on in this world and sometimes don't even understand why some wrongs in this world bother us as much as they do. Yet, You understand. There is this phenomenon called holy discontent and when it occurs in us, we need to pay attention to it because it's probably already occurring in Heaven. God help us to discover what our holy discontent might be. Might You join us in it and, together, might we fix so much of what's broken in this world? Keep our eyes and our hope on the hope-giving one, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, and everyone agreed and said, Amen.
 

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The Champion in You
Written By Bishop Kenneth Ulmer
2035 02/01/09
 

I want to thank my friend and my brother, Dr. Schuller, for he is a true champion and God has used him to bless men and women, literally, around the world.

The world loves champions. We celebrated it last year at the Olympics when Mike Phelps led a championship team, and when you see Phelps, you see a champion. The world is celebrating, in this season of political transition, a new champion leading this country. When you see Mike Flynt (the interview guest) and you hear his story, you see a champion. When you see these young people from around the world, the Children's World Choir (music guests), you see champions.

But I want to suggest to you that there is a champion even in you. The person sitting next to you, the person in front of you or behind you, there is a champion in you. If you get nothing else out of what I say, today, let the Lord put that in your spirit. Someone is watching from the other side of the world and God has brought you to this broadcast today to deposit into your spirit a truth that there is a champion in you.

That's what Paul was saying when he wrote to the young church of believers at Rome. And in that eighth chapter, he said in verse thirty-seven (of Romans), "Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." And in all these things we are more, Paul says, than conquerors. We're champions. There is a champion in you.


At the end of the game, at the sound of the last bell, across the last finish goal, when all the goals have been scored, and all the baskets have been counted, the champions will stand. The world loves a champion and there is a champion even in you.

Paul says we are more than conquerors. We not only win, but we win big. There is a champion in you. Why is that so? How can Paul make such a profound proclamation? What he speaks in this chapter seems to be kind of a hinge between the preceding part of this letter and the remaining part where he spends about eight chapters talking about doctrine and then the remaining chapters he talks about duty. And it is this section on conquerors, that seems to hold together or place a hinge between what he's already said and what he is about to say. It is in this section that he says we are more than conquerors. Why is that so?


First of all, because of God's presence in you, there's a champion in you. Paul says, and we know, that all things work together for good to those who love the Lord. Paul says all things work together. There is a grammatical problem in this phrase because after suggesting that all things work together, he then raises issues that give us another nuance and another implication of this text. He says all things work together. Therein lies the problem because "things" is the subject and "work" is the verb. Things don't work. Things have no volition. Things make no choices. Things have no mind. Things have no consciences, things have no will, and things cannot work.

A more accurate translation of this verse, I believe, is found in the New International Version that does not say that all things work, but rather that in all things God is at work. Ah, a significant difference. In all things, God is at work. God is working all things together to release the champion that's in you. He's able to blend and to work and to mix and to match all the elements of our lives to release the champion, the conqueror in you.

Few people in this room have ever had the pleasure of eating three or four cups of flour. Few people in this room have ever had the pleasure of drinking maybe a bottle of vanilla extract or a couple gallons of water or milk or, or various ingredients that come together to make a cake. My Momma had a way of mixing eggs and mixing flour and mixing ingredients and, when she put them all together, she had a pound cake. You don't know about a pound cake here in Orange County, but Momma could make a pound cake by mixing ingredients that, in and of themselves, were not very tasty. Paul says God is at work mixing together elements of our lives that, in and of themselves, are not always pleasant. In and of themselves, are challenging and painful and sorrowful and often discourage us. And yet God says we know that in all of these things, he is at work mixing and matching and blending and working together on our behalf so that he might release the champion that's in you.


Because of God's presence, also because of God's power, he says, "If God be for us who can be against us?" The power of God, the presence of God in your life, is there to release this champion that's in you. Paul says, but God is at work conforming us to his image. He's doing a work in your life right now, conforming you to his image. God did not save you to bring you to heaven to be with him; he's not lonely. But, rather, that on your way to heaven, you might become more and more like Jesus the Christ. And so the Bible says that he is at work conforming us shaping us.

We just sang a song that says, "Melt me, mold me, shape me." He's conforming us to the image of his Son, so that he might release this champion that's in you.


There was a very famous sculptor who one day instructed his servant to bring into his workroom this huge mass of unfinished marble covered with dust - a rugged looking piece of marble. He pulled it in and pulled it in and finally the servant said, "Master, what will you make of this unattractive mud- and dust-covered mass of marble?"

The sculptor backed up and looked at it this way and looked at it that way and looked at it this way again and looked at it that way again, and then he said, "I see a magnificent stallion. I see a stallion with glaring eyes and flared nostrils and flowing mane. I see encased in this mass of unattractive marble, a magnificent stallion.

The servant said, "Well master, how will you get such a masterpiece out of this unattractive dust- and mud-covered mass of marble?"

The sculptor said, "Well, I'm going to take my hammer and I'm going to take my chisel and I'm going to begin to chip away and chip and away and chip away and chip away and I'll chip away everything that does not look like a horse. There's a horse in there and when I get rid of everything that does not look like a horse, I'll have a masterpiece."

God says he wants to conform you into the image of his Son to release the champion in you. And those times when it seems as though life is battering you, and your experiencing pain and sorrow and confusion and disappointment and discouragement and even failure,. God says, "I'm going to chip away everything in your life that does not look like a champion so that when I finish, the champion in you will come forth. There is a champion in you."

God says he has the power to conform you to the image of the Christ in you who was the champion. Because of God's presence, because of God's power, because of God's protection, he says, "Who can separate us from the love of God?" And then he says, "I'm persuaded that nothing can separate us from the love of God." He sets up two bookends - he says who can separate us and then he says I'm persuaded that nothing can separate us. And in between these two book ends, he says now, we are more than conquerors; who can separate us from the love of God" I'm persuaded nothing can separate us from the love God, why? Because we are more than conquerors.

Paul says I'm persuaded I'm persuaded that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Who can separate us? But there's another grammatical problem in this text. Because he asks the question, who can separate us? But then he goes to give a list of things. He says "who" and then he talks about "what." A grammatical problem. He says who can separate us and then he goes to give us a list of things. Therein lies the issue. Paul says, "Recognize that we wrestle not against flesh and blood." We don't wrestle against the stuff and the things, but there's always a "who" behind the "what." That who can never separate us; the word means to pull apart. Who or what can pull me apart from God's love? The word means to bring distance between. Who or what can put distance between me and the love of God? The word means to separate, to put distance, to bring apart. Who or what can ever separate me from the love of God?

Paul says, I'm persuaded, I'm persuaded. The word means I've been moved. It suggests that I was once in this position and I've now been repositioned to a position of possibility and positivity. I've been moved. I've now shifted. I'm now convinced. I've had my mind changed. I've had a shift in my thinking. And what I thought might have been possible, I now realize nothing can separate me from the love of God. He says neither things present nor things to come.

The summary is that nothing now and nothing later can separate me from the love of God. The phrase "things present" means the things that are set before me now. The phrase "things present" means things that I'm dealing with now, things that are eminent now, things that are attacking me now, things that are challenging me now, things that are discouraging me now. Paul says none of the things I'm dealing with now can separate me from the love of God. His love is that strong that none of the stuff that would seek to separate me would be successful. Weapons will be formed against you, but no weapon that is formed will prosper because nothing shall separate you from the love of God.

Now in order for there to be a separation, someone must move. God says, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." If you turn around and God is not there, guess who moved? God says, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." The word "leave" means "to stay behind." God says I will never let you go into this challenge and I will stay behind. I'll never leave you. I'll never let you face this problem, this trial, this pain, this affliction, while I stay behind. I'll never leave you.

Then he says, "I'll never forsake you." The reverse of "forsake" means to "go ahead of." God says I'll never go ahead of you and let you handle the problem. I'll never do it. God says I protect you with my presence. I'll never leave you, nor will I forsake you. In order for there to be separation, one of the parties has to move, but what if I am moved? What if the challenge, the problem that I face, shakes me loose? What if the struggle that I'm facing dislodges me from the presence of God and I sense I feel that I'm out there all by myself?

Champions feel alone sometimes. Champions feel abandoned sometimes. Champions feel like giving up sometimes. But what happens when I find myself off course? He says, "I'm persuaded that nothing can separate us from the love of God." The love of God. We are conquerors through the love of God. This love of God - listen now - God's love is not linear; it is not straight line. God doesn't only love me when I'm on this straight and narrow path. Not so. God loves is not linear. God's love is angular. So that, even when the trials of life blow me off path, even when the struggles that I face, the failures that I experience, the bad decisions that I make, the bad choices that I make get me off course, his love, because it is angular and not linear, loves me back to himself. Paul says, I'm persuaded. Paul says, I've been moved, I've been repositioned, I've been shifted, I've been brought back in a relationship with him. He loves me back to him. He moves me closer to himself because God always has the last move.

There was a man, an international chess champion, walking with a friend through a museum. He came by this one particular picture that caught his eye and he stopped and looked at it. He said to his friend, "There's something wrong with this picture." The man continued to study and ponder this picture, scratch his head, and he said, "Man, there something wrong with this picture." Because the picture was of a scene of two men sitting on opposite sides of a table and in the midst of this table there was a chessboard and the title of this picture was "Check Mate." It was a picture of two men sitting opposite sides of a table, one obviously portrayed as the devil, and the other as a bewildered perplexed man. The picture suggested that the game was over because there were no more moves on the board. This man looked at it and studied it and looked at it and studied it and said, "There's something wrong with this picture. Because I am an international chess champion and as I studied this board, something is wrong." He began to look at the board and look at the picture and move his hand and look at it and move his hands and look at it and move his hands. He said, "Ah! I've figured it out. We must contact the man who painted this picture because he must either change the name or change the picture because the picture is named Check Mate, which suggests that the game is over, but the King chess piece still has one more move."

This game is not over yet because the King still has one more move. It does not matter how life tries to dislodge you. Does not matter how struggles try to pull you away from God, how your faith begins to weaken, God always has the last move because the King still has one more move. Does not matter what happens on the stock market, does not matter what happens in the economy with the falling real estate and the challenges of the corporate world, God always has the next move because there's a champion in you and you will come through this. You will make some adjustments. You'll make some changes, but by the champion that's in you, you shall come forth. Success is on you. Favor is on you. The power of God holds you up and pulls you through because there is a champion in you and God will always reposition you to get that position of glory because the King still has one more move.

You remember Moses, don't you? Moses was down at the Red Sea leading the people out of Egypt when he came to a cul de sac with the Red Sea in front of him, mountains on both sides, and Pharaoh's army behind him. It looked as though the game was over. God told Moses, "Raise your rod!" God did a karate chop on the Red Sea, parted the waters on both sides, and the people of God walked through on dry land. Why? Because the King still has one more move.

You remember Paul and Silas, don't you? Paul and Silas were in a Philippian jail with shackles on their hands and shackles on their feet and they were doomed and they were struggling and Paul said, "Long about midnight, let's have a prayer meeting. My name begins with P; I'll do the praying. Silas your name starts with S; you do the singing." Long about midnight, they began singing and praying and singing and praying and singing and praying. God called an earthquake and said, "Go down and release my children." God said to the earthquake, "Go down and shake the place up."

Earthquake said, "Do you want me to level it?

He said, "No. Just do a whole lot of shaking going on." He shook the place and they walked out because God is the King and the King still has one more move.

You remember Jesus, don't you? They put Jesus on an old rugged cross. They put nails in his hands and rivets in his feet. They put a spear in his side and crown of thorns on his head. It was looking like the game was over and it was checkmate. They took him down from the cross, put him in the borrowed tomb - all night Friday night, all day Saturday, all night Saturday night. Here comes my Baptist, y'all. But early Sunday morning, he got up with all power and heaven and earth in his hand because the King still has one more move.

I came to tell somebody, today, somebody watching by television, don't throw in the towel. Don't throw up your hands, don't walk off the court, because the King still has one more move and there is a champion in you. Give yourselves a hand - for the champion that God wants to release in your life. You are victorious, you are successful, you've got the power of God and the favor of God, and the King still has one more move.

Come on and give God glory in this house. Come on and bless him. There is a champion in you. It does not matter what you are wrestling with today, does not matter what kind of attack you are under today, does not matter how discouraged you might be today, there is a champion that God wants to release in you. It might be a delayed release like Mike Flynt, but there's a champion in you that God wants to release and come forth in success and in victory. You are more than a conqueror. You don't just win, you win big. Because the King still has one more move.


Father, we bless you in this house today. We thank you for your word, Father. Now I ask that you would encourage your children with your strength. Oh God, bring us through every challenge that we face physically, financially, mentally, relationally. Release the champion in us and then you take all the glory. You are the King and you always have one more move. In Jesus name, Amen.

© Copyright Hour of Power 2009. This message was delivered by Bishop Kenneth Ulmer from the pulpit of the Crystal Cathedral and aired on the Hour of Power, February 1, 2009
 

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