Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Subscribe: RSS
We are in the last week of our Super Power series. We have talked about vision, super strength, Invincibility, and Teleportation. to check out the previous weeks.
The most popular Super Power is the ability to fly. You have probably thought about what it would be like to fly. To fly through clouds, to just take off and look down on the beautiful world. It’s not rare to have dreams about flying. Flight is fantastic.
Humans aren’t created to fly normally. There is a force that pulls all of us back to earth called Gravity. This law of physics speaks to every area of our life. There is always something that holds us down and holds us back from the future we want. So what are we to do?
The good news is that even though this gravity pulls against everyone, there are still those that overcome and take to the sky.
Flying defies the law of universal gravity. When the Sparrow flies it is actually overcoming the power trying to pull it down.
Jesus shows us in scripture that there is a force stronger than the sin that drags you down. With this force behind you, we too can fly.
Super Power 5 – Fly from Redemption Church on Vimeo.
Super Power 5 – Fly
Sermon Notes by Chris Fluitt
Super Power 5 – Fly
**Bumper Video –
Life isn’t meant to be ordinary. Life is meant to be Super.
Welcome to Redemption Church! My name is Chris Fluitt and I serve as lead pastor here. I am so glad you are with us in person and also glad for whoever might be listening or watching our podcast online.
We are in the last week of our Super Power series. We have talked about vision, super strength, Invincibility, and Teleportation. I won’t take time to do a revue today, but if you missed any of the proceeding weeks I would encourage you to visit our website, www.Redemption-Church.com and you will be able to find all our sermons.
Life isn’t meant to be ordinary. Life is meant to be Super.
This is true no matter who you are. Whether or not you believe in the Christian God of the Bible, there is something that is on the inside of you and says “I was meant to do Big things! I am on this earth to be super! I am going to be a super dad, a super mom, a super kid, a super spouse, a super employee or employer, a super friend… You know deep within you… Your Life isn’t meant to be ordinary. Your Life is meant to be Super.
You may believe that you were Created by God or you might believe that you were created by some happy accident of evolution, but even though those views seem miles apart, can we at least agree that what we have here in front of us, this day, this moment is an unbelievable opportunity. We would be crazy to take this opportunity for granted. It would be insane not to make the most of this life. This life should not be ordinary, it should be super.
We asked you to text in and tell us what Super Power you would choose and most people wrote this. I bet you can guess.
SUPER FLY *audio attached to file*
Oops wrong slide… Not Superfly “One man’s plan to stick it to the man” Theme song by Curtis Mayfield… but rather the Super Power to be able to…
FLY – I believe *audio attached to file*
Ok tech team… very cute.. R. Kelly before he was creepy…
Fly
Most people when asked about Super Powers thought of the ability to Fly.
Superman of course is usually the comic super hero we think of flying. But how does Superman fly.. I asked google and found an amazing amount of nerds arguing in forums… Originally Superman could not fly! Did you know this? He could as stated in the 1940’s cartoon, “leap tall buildings in a single bound” but not fly.
When making the cartoons, the Fleischer Brothers found it difficult to keep animating him leaping and requested to DC to change his ability to flying; this was an especially convenient concept for short films, which would have otherwise had to waste precious running time moving earthbound Clark Kent from place to place. Writers gradually increased his powers to larger extents during the Silver Age, in which Superman could fly to other worlds and galaxies and even across universes with relative ease.
There are other arguments about Earth’s yellow sun or Kryptonians mastery over gravity.. but at the very least Superman and all comic characters can fly because their creators said they could.
Storm is mutant on the X-men team. Mutant genetics give her the ability to manipulate weather. Storm is able to fly by creating winds strong enough to support her weight, the weight of others, and to propel her forward through the air. Storm can thus travel as fast as any wind can, and has reached speeds up to 300 miles per hour.
Magneto is a super villain and nemesis of the X-men. Also a Mutant he has the ability control magnetism. A very strong super power. And he can fly! He apparently has several means by which he achieves flight, one of which is by gliding along the planet’s natural magnetic lines of force, another by simply creating a repulsive force between himself and the planet, propelling himself thus.
Thor is the Asgardian god of thunder and possesses the enchanted hammer Mjolnir, which grants him the ability of flight. As posted on ComicalMusings.com… “Thor is able to fly using a combination of his hammer, “Mjölnir”, and a poor understanding of physics. Basically he uses his super-strength to throw Mjölnir, then he holds on to its strap and it pulls him to his destination.”
FLY
No matter how one is able to fly, we can all imagine how amazing it would be to fly. I am afraid of heights but even I would love to be able to fly. If you can fly you shouldn’t fall to your death anytime soon right?
You have probably thought about what it would be like to fly. To fly through clouds, to just take off and look down on the beautiful world. Flying is a cool Super Power.
Mankind has long dreamed about flying.
Daedalus & Icarus in greek mythology craft wings to escape the King Minos’ labyrinth.
Artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci seemed obsessed with building a way for mankind to fly. His sketches predated…
…Orville & Wilbur Wright who created the 1st successful airplane. Their 1st flight was on December 17, 1903. If you think about it man hasn’t been flying all that long… The first Human space flight was April 12, 1961 by the Soviet Union cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.
Humans aren’t created to fly normally. Your grandmother use to say “If God had intended men to fly, then He would have given them wings..”
I am no physics expert, but as I studied flight something jumped out at me. Flight is basically defiance against the law of gravitation. Newton… not fig newton the cookie, but Sir Isaac Newton the physicist, gave us the Law of Universal Gravitation.
It states that any two bodies in the universe attract each other with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them… Got that? Me neither!
Basically 2 objects, bodies, anywhere in the universe are attracted to each other. The bigger they are and closer they are… the stronger the attraction. That’s why all the girls were attracted to all the huge muscular dudes in high school and not us scrawny guys on the chess team. Science!
By the way this law has led to several great nerdy pickup lines. “Baby, I can feel an attraction between you and me, and it’s more than just our universal gravitation…” or “Baby I’m attracted to you and according to Newton’s Law of Gravitation, I know that you are attracted to me also.”
Ok… so Flight really is a defiance against the law of universal gravitation. 2 bodies are attracted to each other… Your physical body and the ground are attracted to each other. Gravity keeps you together.
For centuries this law kept mankind from achieving the dream of flying. The dream of flight, grounded. Men who dreamed about flight where held down by this law that said anytime you try to rise above the earth, gravity will bring you right back down. What goes up must come down.
The law declares that these 2 bodies will be pulled together. That no matter how far you are you are going to be pulled. Anywhere you go in the universe this body will be pulling against this body
This happens to us. We have these laws that always seem to hold us down and hold us back. Maybe there is something in your life… maybe a past mistake, maybe a habit, maybe something someone said about you.
No matter what you do in life there are these things pulling at you. It’s a universal truth..
But.. Flight defies the law
Even though there is an object pulling back open with a gravitational pull, still objects are able to fly.
A common sparrow with just a little effort is able to defy the pull of the earth. That Sparrow defies the law.
A 747 jet weighs over 400 tons yet through a good design and proper use of force it is able to overcome the law of gravitation and its own weight to fly.
Bumblebees are a special example. Given their body shape and weight and the size of their small wings it has always been amazing that Bumblebees fly. The Bumblebee has a lot to overcome but it flies.
Flight is an amazing super power. This super power goes far beyond being able soar through clouds or as a mode of transportation. Flying defies the law. Flight means you have defeated what was pulling you down.
Jesus defies
Jesus Christ did things no man should be able to do…
There is this law that pulls on every one of us and says “you can’t do that. That is physically impossible.” But even though the natural pulled against Jesus he broke free from the natural law and Jesus did the Super Natural.
History bears that he healed the sick and raised the dead. “..But that is impossible!” Jesus defies that law.
Jesus fed thousands of people with only enough food to feed 1 or 2 people. He defied that supply law when he took some fish and bread, broke it and blessed it.
Jesus lived a sinless life. It is a fact that all of us do wrong things, say wrong things, and think wrong things. That is just natural… but Jesus defies the natural according to scripture.
1 John 3:5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.(NIV)
And everyone dies and stays dead right. No one is buried in a tomb and 3 days later comes out of the tomb. That just doesn’t happen. But don’t tell Jesus that… A resurrected Jesus declares…
Revelation 1:18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.(NIV)
Jesus defies the laws of this world. Everything pulled on him… he was tempted in every way just as we are yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15). He withstood everything and overcame.
Jesus doesn’t just defy the things that pulled on him… he defies the things that hinder you.
Romans 8:2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.(NIV)
You are free from the law that pulls you back to earth. Through Jesus you are free from SIN & DEATH.
What is pulling you down?
In order to fly you have to have a force at work for you that is greater than the gravity pulling you down. That bumblebee needs to have enough force coming from his wings to overcome his weight, gravity, and lack of an aerodynamic body.
This law of universal gravitation says that you are being pulled from every direction in the universe. The closer and bigger the object the more effect they will have.
So what is the big close object that is keeping you from flying?
Do you have an alcohol addiction, a drug addiction, a porn addiction… any kind of addiction that keeps pulling you down? Have you tried to stop but keep falling back into it? You aren’t strong enough to break free. It always drags you back.
Jesus Christ defies this law. He declares you to be free. If the son has made you free you are free indeed.
Are you haunted by what you were told by someone else? Has someone labeled you and no matter what you do it keeps dragging you back. You keep hearing that person call you a loser, ugly, stupid, unlovable, unworthy.
Jesus defies this! He declares His love for you. He says you are not a loser, but that you are more than a conqueror through His love.
Do you have something in front of you that looks impossible? It’s too big and heavy for you to bear. Jesus defies that! He is a God who does the impossible. Will you try Him? Will you ask Him today?
Do you have a past mistake that you can’t get past? Do you live with constant guilt? Even though the mistake is years old you are constantly pulled back into the mistake like it is current. Jesus defies that. Don’t let that ground you.
Micah 7:8 Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light.(NIV)
Musician
You are meant to do great things in this life. It would be a shame to allow
other things drag you down.
Remember.. In order to fly you have to have a force at work for you that is greater than the gravity pulling you down.
Jesus Christ was buried in a tomb, but Death couldn’t keep him down. He rose from the grave. He then walked this earth as a resurrected Lord but this earth couldn’t hold Him down. He ascended…
Acts 1:9 ..he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.(NIV)
Acts 1:10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.(NIV)
Acts 1:11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”(NIV)
Nothing on this earth could hold Jesus down. He flew up to heaven. The disciples stood around squinting, trying to see Him. I guess they would have been there forever because an Angel told them “What are you standing around and looking in the sky for?” It’s like the angel was saying… Guys there is so much work for you to do. There are amazing things that you will do. And this Jesus has gone to Heaven but He will return in the same way He left. He is going to come on the clouds. He will be flying and so will all those that trust Him and follow Him!
The Bible tells us that the force that raised Jesus from the dead and carried Him to Heaven… is available to us.
Romans 8:11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.(NIV)
Jesus defies everything that holds you back. And He gives you strength to overcome everything you face!
If you could ever get off the ground
Here is a little secret. The hardest part is starting. The hardest part of flying is Taking Off… (I hear landing could also be rough..)
Remember the closer you are to an object the more gravitational pull it has on you. That means the takeoff is the hardest part.
What I am about to say is crucial. LISTEN UP!
I am talking to some people that are standing REAL close to their problem. You aren’t flying. That thing you face has a huge hold on you right now. It’s tough. It’s difficult.
But… If you could ever just get off the ground… It would be easier. You see if you could get any distance between you and that object, then the power of that pull… the power of that gravity would be lessened.
I am talking to people who need to take that first step…
As we open this altar today I am going to ask EVERYONE TO COME. I know this is different for some of you. You watching this online right now I want you to get ready to pray. You in this place I want you to get ready to take that first step. I am going to pray before you come. I am going to pray that as you come you are making the choice to be closer to Jesus and further from your secret struggles. To be closer to the Savior and further from your past. To be closer to your Father and further from what is weighing you down.
{Pray}
These altars are open. Take that step. Take that step.
You can’t save the day for others if you do not rise above your own struggle.
