Power and Influence

Helping without hurting

The North Wind and the Sun

Ulrich Zwingli

• Mixing the bible with the sword

• According to Anabaptist Michael Sattler – “the bad thread” in the cloth of the church

Strasbourg• Education shared

with all• Fervent moral

teaching and example balanced by tolerance

• Power used to give refuge to the weak not kill those who differ

• Active discipling in small groups to bring real social/spiritual change

• Proverbs 27:17 Just as iron sharpens iron, friends sharpen the minds of each other.

How do we shine like the sun?

• Isa 42:1-4 Here is my servant! I have made him strong. He is my chosen one; I am pleased with him. I have given him my Spirit, and he will bring justice to the nations. (2) He won't shout or yell or call out in the streets. (3) He won't break off a bent reed or put out a dying flame, but he will make sure that justice is done. (4) He won't quit or give up until he brings justice everywhere on earth, and people in foreign nations long for his teaching.

How did Jesus shine like the sun?

• Shared a message of love, forgiveness, reconciliation, encouragement and hope

• Backed it up with his actions: healing, solidarity, willingness to suffer alongside

• Joh 2:14-17 There he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves in the temple. He also saw moneychangers sitting at their tables. (15) So he took some rope and made a whip. Then he chased everyone out of the temple, together with their sheep and cattle. He turned over the tables of the moneychangers and scattered their coins. (16) Jesus said to the people who had been selling doves, "Get those doves out of here! Don't make my Father's house a marketplace." (17) The disciples then remembered that the Scriptures say, "My love for your house burns in me like a fire."

Jesus also shone using oppositional power

• strongly denounced bad leadership • subverted Roman authority (over the

spirit and true freedom of the person) while subduing violent revolutionary thinking

• taught about our common enemy: Satan, and drove out demons

Concluding suggestions

• 1. We should not use force or coercion against those with less power than us.

• 2. We can be like “iron sharpens iron” with our friends that we treat with love, equality, respect and freedom.

• 3. Against spiritual evil and those in power, we need to vigorously oppose harmful actions/attitudes and passionately and persistently work to create better alternatives.