Real strength
? Is not a matter of mere muscle power.
? Is not just brute force.
? Is not determined by how much weight you can lift.
? Is not represented in Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hulk Hogan or even Superman.
Strength that matters
? Is a thing of character, will, determination.
? Is a matter of the inner man, the spirit and soul.
? Is faith-based.
? Is grace given.
The individual who is truly a strong person is one who knows he or she is a weak one endowed with strength from the Lord.
When Paul was suffering an undefined “thorn in the flesh” he felt weak and appealed to God 3 times to remove it. God didn’t remove it, but said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.”
Paul concluded, “So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (NLT).
And to the Ephesians Paul wrote, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.” Ephesians 6:10-20 (NIV).
Sometimes we may all feel that our faith is weak and we feel like throwing in the towel – but far more enduring and powerful than the energizer bunny is the strength God breathes into those who trust Him.
That’s why David could say, “The Lord is my strength and my shield; My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart exults, And with my song I shall thank Him.” Psalms 28:7 (NASB).
“Be strong in the Lord!” I want to share three observations about that from the text.
But to assist in doing that I want to tell a story. It’s called “The Man From La Mancha.” It’s sort of reverse illustration because the main character demonstrates what NOT to do!
In the story, Alonso Quixano, a man who called himself “Don Quixote” is a middle-aged gentleman from La Mancha in central Spain.
He became obsessed with the chivalrous ideals of knighthood he read about in books. He decided to become a knight, to take up his lance and sword and to defend the helpless and destroy the wicked.
His first problem was that he only had a rusty old suit of armor and a weather-beaten nag for a horse. His armor would be useless in any serious battle. Not so God’s armor. We, too, have a need for armament, and that brings me to the first observation. We need to
I. PUT ON THE RIGHT ARMOR:
A. Notice the text again:
1. “Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.”
a. The thought is borrowed from the typical armor worn by Roman soldiers. SHOW image. Paul uses this imagery in order to parallel the thought of the armor of God.
b. In another place he wrote, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (NIV).
2. The armor of God: Spiritual weapons for spiritual warfare.
B. You may be wondering how we put on the armor of God.
1. You don’t just go down to a local Armor Shop and buy a suit. It’s not composed of physical pieces of armor.
2. It’s spiritual armor! Each piece of God’s armor is put on and maintained by prayer and Bible reading.
C. Notice Paul says:
1. Put on the whole armor, not just bits and pieces of it.
2. Also that Paul doesn’t mention any armor for the backside. It all covers our front.
a. That means we don’t beat a retreat.
b. That means that we press forward into the battle.
c. Unlike Sir Rodney who needs a backside armor since retreat is his game. He is working out in a gym. Suddenly, he shouts out in panik, "Yiiiie! Run for cover men!" Then the last panel we see a muscular brute and Rodney explains, "Sorry! Your dragon tatoo startled me."
D. We must not run for cover; we must stand firm!
1. We can only defeat this enemy by using the armor of God and the sword of the spirit.
2. We don’t want to be like Robert Toombs who is reputed to have said, just before the Civil War, "We could lick those Yankees with cornstalks."
When he was asked after the war what had gone wrong, he is reputed to have said, "It's very simple. Those dratted Yankees refused to fight with cornstalks."
LET US DROP THE CORNSTALKS, ARMOR UP AND BE STRONG IN THE LORD. NO RETREAT! NO DEFEAT!
So Don Quixote was ready to go out to battle evil. He mounted his faithful, but sway-backed, hay-burner named Rosinante. The new knight hoped by his conquests to win the heart of Dulcinea del Tobosa, a farm girl who had attracted his attentions.
After three days on the road, Quixote encountered a group of traveling salesmen whom he attacked after they refused to acknowledge Dulcinea's great beauty. He was badly beaten by the servant of one of the salesmen and forced to accept the help of a neighbor, who took him home on the back of a donkey.
When he recovered, he persuaded a neighbor, Sancho Panza, to serve as his page by promising Sancho his own island to govern.
And so this pair set forth. The adventure lasted for three weeks and among other things, Quixote battled windmills, thinking them to be giants. He saw nearly everything and everyone as an enemy to be fought and conquered.
We, too, have an enemy, a real one, and that brings me to the second observation. We need to
II. PIT YOURSELF AGAINST THE RIGHT ADVERSARY:
A. Paul wrote, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Satan and his nefarious minions are the adversaries we face.
B. We are told that we have the power capability to resist the devil and that he will flee from us.
1. But we must not presume to do that in our own power or mind:
a. Peter said, “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.” 1 Peter 5:8-9 (NASB).
b. If we fail to submit to God, to draw near to Him, and to stand firm in faith, we are defeated before we begin to fight. Note the incident in Acts 19:13-17: we read, “some of the Jewish exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, ‘I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.’ Seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. And the evil spirit answered and said to them, ‘I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?’ And the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.” Acts 19:13-16 (NASB).
2. As the song by Martin Luther says,
“A mighty fortress is our God,
a bulwark never failing;
Our helper He, amid the flood
of mortal ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe
doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great,
and, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.
Did we in our own strength confide,
our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side,
the Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth, His name,
from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.
C. We are not at war with other Christians whose opinions differ from ours; we are facing the devil, an ancient foe, one who is mighty, but not almighty; who is wise, but not all-wise; and who may in a few skirmishes but is already defeated by Jesus Christ.
D. Let me illustrate making a mistake about what we should battle. While I was still at Shasta Way in Klamath Falls we had a really nice flower and tree plot right at the south end of the building. One day I was looking it and noted that Virginia, who had always waged a valiant war against weeds in that plot had missed some. It looked to me that she had left several really ugly, tall, gnarly weeds.
“Weeds” I thought. I wondered how Virginia could have been so meticulous in eradicating the lesser weeds and overlooking those horrendous ones. I got my answer when they bloomed into beautiful flowers.
They weren’t weeds at all – I just didn’t recognize them for what they were. Had I stopped and uprooted them, their beauty would have perished – and I might have been dead meat.
Fortunately for me, and those plants, I hate yard work and especially weeding, and I was too busy right then, so I didn’t yank them out of the ground.
What I saw as “an enemy to be eliminated” was in reality a strange variety of poppy that, when in bloom, was not ugly at all.
Sometimes we see people as our enemies when in fact our real enemy is Satan. We need to recognize and contend with the right enemy.
Don Quixote mistakenly saw nearly everything and everybody as an enemy. He didn’t see the world for what it is, and imagined himself a conquering hero. He lost sight of reality and his mind was clouded by delusions of grandeurs. He needed to wake up and smell the coffee and be alert to reality.
So for us to not be deluded by the enemy, we all need a clear, alert mind, a mind given to regular communication with God in prayer.
And that brings me to the third observation. We need to
III. PRAY WITH THE RIGHT ATTITUDE:
A. Paul wrote, “be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.”
1. “Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.” 1 Corinthians 16:13 (NASB).
2. “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving.” Colossians 4:2 (NASB).
3. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus said to the disciples, “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." Matthew 26:41 (NASB).
4. To remain alert, don’t get distracted! “No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.” 2 Timothy 2:4 (NASB).
a. Stay un-entangled.
b. Be alert to the world’s many deceitful but fascinating distractions.
c. Stay faithful in prayer.
B. Prayer is simply:
1. Our communication with the Heavenly Headquarters.
2. Our life-line to God.
3. Our appeal for God’s reinforcements.
4. Our connection to Heaven’s Power.
C. If we stay alert and persist in prayer we can say with the song,
“I'll stand my ground and never back down
I know what I believe inside
I'm awake and I'm alive.”
D. We should always be alert, not only in time of difficulty, but always. Let me illustrate. Early African converts to Christianity were earnest and regular in private devotions. Each one reportedly had a separate spot in the thicket where he would pour out his heart to God. Over time the paths to these places became well worn. As a result, if one of these believers began to neglect prayer, it was soon apparent to the others. They would kindly remind the negligent one, "Brother, the grass grows on your path." Don’t let grass grow on your path.
So, to stay strong and to keep from falling, remain alert and constant in prayer!
Finally, Don Quixote set out again on his journey, but shortly after his arrival in Barcelona, the Knight of the White Moon – actually an old friend in disguise – fought and defeated him.
He went home, sad and disillusioned. The beaten and battered Don Quixote renounced all the chivalric truths he had followed so fervently, went to bed, and died from a fever.
Unlike Don Quixote, let us be wearing adequate armor, fighting the right enemies, alert, prayerful and victorious!
PRAY
WHEN WE ARMOR UP, BY PRAYER AND BIBLE STUDY, WE BECOME MORE THAN CONQUERORS IN JESUS.
WE CAN HAVE VICTORY OVER THE WORLD AND THE EVIL ONE WHEN WE SHARE THE VICTORY JESUS HAS ALREADY WON!
ALL WHO BELIEVE IN HIM, WHO TURN FROM KNOWN SIN, AND ARE OBEDIENT TO HIM ARE MADE NEW, AND ARE MADE STRONG IN THE LORD, AND ARE VICTORS WITH CHRIST.
