The Stored Potential Energy of the Gospel

            

           Tis’ the season, once again, to experience all the joys of the frozen tundra of the winter season (waiting for the applause, but hearing nothing but sighs). Within a few short weeks, as night falls around 4:30pm, we will be bundling up in our homes, praying that we have a calm winter and that the temperature doesn’t get into the negative arena, like last year. But in the middle of all the depression of the coming of such dark and dismal days, we have a God-given friend who can lift our spirits and warm our bones, his name is firewood.

When you stack up your firewood in preparation for the coming winter months, what you are doing is building up stored potential energy. Although those ricks of firewood look peaceful and harmless, one small spark will release the energy needed to keep you warm, cook your food, and if allowed to get out of control, destroy your neighborhood! There is a power that your firewood contains that needs a spark to release it in order to accomplish the task it was set aside for.

Let me take a moment to get a little scientific on you. When you burn that log of wood, you are releasing a chemical reaction through combustion that changes the potential chemical energy within the log into kinetic energy in the form of heat. I know maybe a bit much to consider for simply burning some firewood, but there is an incredible picture for us as the church here.

What I have observed during my lifetime is what I would call the “Gospel regression” of the church. What I mean by that is that I’ve witnessed so many churches and believers put the priority of their faith on so many other things that we’ve suppressed the Gospel message and the Gospel lifestyle we are commanded to live and locked it away in the closet.

Why did this happen? For some, it was about the offensive nature of exclusivity of the Gospel of Christ. For others, it may be that they deemed the message as simply the beginning of faith with their focus on the seemingly more weighty, doctrinal issues. It also could be that we have simply assumed, that living in America in the information age, that everyone already has heard about Christ’s message of redemption. But, I think, a larger problem is that too many people have viewed the proclamation of the Gospel message as being the responsibility of the clergy only. In any case, the power of the Gospel has become the stored potential energy of the church, and that stored potential energy is ready to be released!

In any case, the power of the Gospel has become the stored potential energy of the church, and that stored potential energy is ready to be released!

Like kindling in a firepit or logs in a fireplace, the Gospel message is just waiting for each believer to add the spark of commitment from our lives to set it ablaze. In Hebrews chapter 12, the writer makes a contrast between the Israelites in the Exodus and the believer in Christ. It was their disobedience that caused God’s wrath upon them so that they wandered in the wilderness for forty years. The writer of Hebrews is not only warning and encouraging us to be thankful and grateful for what we have received in Christ, but he is also challenging us to be faithful. He concludes the chapter by summarizing his point by saying: ²⁸ Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, ²⁹ for our God is a consuming fire. The all-consuming fire of God both burns away our apathy and stokes the flames of faithfulness for His glory!

The all-consuming fire of God both burns away our apathy and stokes the flames of faithfulness for His glory!

When I look at the church today, I see a massive army of believers just lying dormant. In the second Lord of the Rings film, called the Two Towers, Gandalf references the hidden power of the tree people and says, “The Ents are going to wake up and find that they are strong.” My prayer is that the church will wake up and find that it is strong in the power of the Gospel!

What would happen if God’s church added the spark of faithfulness to the kindling of the Gospel? I can tell you what would happen, the Gospel would spread like wildfire across the dry prairie! The hopeless would find hope, the broken would find grace, and the prisoner would find freedom in Jesus!! Church, it’s time to Ignite the power of the Gospel in our world!!

                                                                                                                                                    Pastor Paul