All Fired Up To Do Something              

Late one night (because I’m a night owl and not a morning person) I was up watching an online video after the kids and Tom had gone to bed. It was former Pastor Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, IL, giving one of his phenomenal weekly sermons.

I remember he referenced a cartoon I never watched, but that many of you may be familiar with: Popeye the Sailor Man. Bill said Popeye had a habit of getting angry and keeping that anger bottled up inside until finally he couldn’t take it any longer. He’d be so upset, red in the face, and at his boiling point, he would shout out: “That’s all I can stands, I can’t stands no more!”

Bill used that illustration to ask the congregation what they got fired up about. What was the one thing, the one injustice, the one cruelty or evil action that stirred their insides, made them red in the face, made their blood boil, or made them cry because their hearts just absolutely broke each time they thought about it? What was the one thing that made them want to shout: “That’s all I can stands, I can’t stands no more!”?

He was encouraging the congregation to put their fingers on that one thing, and then go and do something about it. He was encouraging intentional action on the part of the church to impact and change lives. He was asking the church members to be the hands and feet of Christ in this world.

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