Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream

by David Platt

somewhere along the way we had missed what is radical about our faith and replaced it with what is comfortable. We were settling for a Christianity that revolves around catering to ourselves when the central message of Christianity is actually about abandoning ourselves.

We are molding Jesus into our image. He is beginning to look a lot like us because, after all, that is whom we are most comfortable with.

And the danger now is that when we gather in our church buildings to sing and lift up our hands in worship, we may not actually be worshiping the Jesus of the Bible. Instead we may be worshiping ourselves.

“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

Do we really believe he is worth abandoning everything for? Do you and I really believe that Jesus is so good, so satisfying, and so rewarding that we will leave all we have and all we own and all we are in order to find our fullness in him? Do you and I believe him enough to obey him and to follow him wherever he leads, even when the crowds in our culture—and maybe in our churches—turn the other way?

churches—turn the other way? In

In

One Christian in India, while being skinned alive, looked at his persecutors and said, “I thank you for this. Tear off my old garment, for I will soon put on Christ’s garment of righteousness.”

A scene where we refuse to operate in a mind-set dominated by an American dream that depends on what we can achieve with our own abilities. A scene where we no longer settle for what we can do in our own power. A scene where the church radically trusts in God’s great power to provide unlikely people with unlimited, unforeseen, uninhibited resources to make his name known as great. I want to be a part of that dream.

The reality is that it doesn’t matter how many resources the church has. The church I lead could have all the man-made resources that one could imagine, but apart from the power of the Holy Spirit, such a church will do nothing of significance for the glory of God. In fact, I believe the opposite is true. The church I lead could have the least gifted people, the least talented people, the fewest leaders, and the least money, and this church under the power of the Holy Spirit could still shake the nations for his glory. The reality is that the church I lead can accomplish more during the next month in the power of God’s Spirit than we can in the next hundred years apart from his provision. His power is so superior to ours. Why do we not desperately seek it? ORDINARY CHRISTIANS, EXTRAORDINARY GOD Consider the implications for Christianity in America if this is true. What if God in all his might is simply waiting to show his power in a people who turn their backs on a philosophy of life that exalts their supposed ability to do anything they want and who instead confess their desperate need for him? What if God in all his grace is radically committed to showing himself strong on behalf of a people who express their need for him so their lives might make much of him? This is the story of George Muller. (We have so much to learn from church history.) Muller (1805–98) pastored a church in Bristol, England, for more than sixty years, but he was best known for the orphan ministry h...

ORDINARY CHRISTIANS, EXTRAORDINARY GOD Consider the implications for Christianity in America if this is true. What if God in all his might is simply waiting to show his power in a people who turn their backs on a philosophy of life that exalts their supposed ability to do anything they want and who instead confess their desperate need for him? What if God in all his grace is radically committed to showing himself strong on behalf of a people who express their need for him so their lives might make much of him?

CHRISTIANS, EXTRAORDINARY GOD Consider the implications for Christianity in America if this is true. What if God in all his might is simply waiting to show his power in a people who turn their backs on a philosophy of life that exalts their supposed ability to do anything they want and who instead confess their desperate need for him? What if God in all his grace is radically committed to showi...

of a people who express their need for him so their lives might make much of him? This is the story of George Muller. (We have so much to learn from church history.) Muller (1805–98) pastored a church in Bristol, England, for more than sixty years, but he was best known for the orphan ministry he began. During his life he cared for more than ten thousand orphans. Remarkably, and intentionally, he never asked for...

“I remember a time at my last congregation when a missionary from Japan came to speak,” he said. “I told that church that if they didn’t give financial support to this missionary, I was going to pray that God would send their kids to Japan to serve with that missionary.”

How often are we willing to give a check to someone else as long as we don’t have to go to the tough places in the world ourselves?

He has created each of us to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, and I propose that anything less than radical devotion to this purpose is unbiblical Christianity.

“David, I am going to impact the world.” An interesting statement. Here was a guy in the African bush with almost no resources. A guy who hadn’t seen much of the world beyond the villages that surrounded him. A guy who by all outward appearances did not have much hope of changing his lot in life.

In this chapter I want to propose that the plan Bullen identified for his life is the same plan that Jesus identified for each of our lives.

The plan of Christ is not dependent on having the right programs or hiring the right professionals but on building and being the right people—a community of people—who realize that we are all enabled and equipped to carry out the purpose of God for our lives.

If making disciples is the plan of Christ, and if it is accessible to all of us and expected of all of us, then how do we do it?

“Live for them. Love them, serve them, and lead them. Lead them to follow me, and lead them to lead others to follow me. In the process you will multiply the gospel to the ends of the earth.”

When we realize we have the responsibility to teach the Word, it changes everything about how we hear the Word.

When we gather at the building, we learn to be good. Being good is defined by what we avoid in the world. We are holy because of what we don’t participate in (and at this point we may be the only organization in the world defining success by what we don’t do).

Part of our sinful nature instinctively chooses to see what we want to see and to ignore what we want to ignore.

Ultimate satisfaction is found not in making much of ourselves but in making much of God.

Meaning is found in community, not individualism; joy is found in generosity, not materialism; and truth is found in Christ, not universalism.

William Carey (1761–1834) stayed committed to preaching the gospel for seven years before he saw one person saved in India.

When Jesus looked at the harassed and helpless multitudes, apparently his concern was not that the lost would not come to the Father. Instead his concern was that his followers would not go to the lost.

Operation World, an invaluable book by Patrick Johnstone

If we want to know the glory of God, if we want to experience the beauty of God, and if we want to be used by the hand of God, then we must live in the Word of God.