Be Strong!
Ephesians 6:10-20
Pastor Jim Luthy
I received an e-mail the other day with the subject reading "How did we ever survive?" I don’t know who authored it.
Looking back, it’s hard to believe that we have lived as long as we have. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pickup on a warm day was always a special treat. Our baby cribs were painted with bright-colored lead-based paint. We often chewed on the crib, ingesting the paint. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes we had no helmets. We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem. We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. We played dodge ball and sometimes the ball would really hurt. We ate cupcakes, bread and butter and drank sugar soda, but we were never overweight; we were always outside playing. We had Little League tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment. Some students weren’t as smart as others, so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade.
That generation produced some of the greatest risk-takers and problem-solvers. We had the freedom, failure, success, and responsibility, and learned how to deal with it all!!!
Americans are obsessed with survival. It’s almost maniacal how so many people fight and scratch for the right to kill their unborn children and sick grandparents and pass every conceivable law to keep them alive in-between. We’ve mandated seat-belts and bike helmets and banned lead-based paint. To guard our children’s fragile self-esteem, we’ve banned dodge-ball and picking teams and keeping score. This week’s debate: ballistic fingerprinting. Our favorite TV show is Survivor. And now there is a new show that shows us how to deal with life-threatening situations--you know, the common everyday survival techniques that we need to know if we’re ever attacked by a water buffalo while walking down the streets of Portland!
We are on a never-ending quest for a long life of ease, and we’re trying everything possible to have it. We’re finding its easier to pass laws than to demand personal responsibility for people’s safety. We’ve also discovered that it takes a lot less work to medicate our children than to teach them self-discipline. Yet in spite of all our efforts, people are less prepared to overcome adversity and trial than ever before. In America, we have worked so desperately to insulate ourselves from trials that we could never endure what Christians in other countries face every day. We freak out if we can’t find a ride for our hair appointment or don’t have a place to watch the big game while the people of Rwanda are still digging out from years of Civil War that has left every man, woman, and child with the haunting memories of people being slaughtered with axes and machetes. Truth being told, we’re not so tough. How will we ever survive?
Listen carefully, because we live in a culture that teaches us to avoid trouble at all costs. But no matter how much we legislate and medicate and educate, we still have trouble. In fact, Jesus said, "In this world, you will have trouble." How can we stand?
In this next section of Ephesians—this letter from the Apostle Paul to the church in Ephesus that invites us to live on another level—Paul exhorts us to "Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power." Living on another level requires us to recognize that what we see is not the only reality. We must recognize that there is not only the natural, but the supernatural, and we survive in both realms by being strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
In the natural, we recognize our enemies and we eliminate them. When disease spreads, we research it and do all that we can to eliminate it. The battle goes on in our fight to eliminate cancer and AIDS and the West Nile virus, but we’ve pretty well conquered polio and rubella. We legislate more and more safety laws hoping to make accidental deaths less likely. And, if necessary, we can sue the big corporations to make sure we don’t burn ourselves with that hot cup of coffee.
But in the supernatural, we have an enemy that won’t go away. 1 Peter 5:8 tells us to be "self-controlled and alert" because "your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." I’ve seen our enemy knock off a few of our brothers and sisters, some close friends, and even some of our acquaintances too. If we don’t know how to be strong, we’ll be next. At best, we’ll be like the poor citizens in the D.C. area who stay indoors every day and risk nothing in fear that they will be the next victim of an indiscriminate sniper.
This week, there have been people in the D.C. area who did not go to work, kids who did not go to school, and housewives who did not run errands for fear that they would be killed. Paul tells us that living on another level means giving God glory as we live as children of light, live a life of love, and submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. The devil is against that! If we are not strong in the Lord and in his mighty power, we cannot live for God’s glory. We become useless and ineffective. The invitation to abundant life will only be a passing dream if you will not learn to be strong.
So Paul exhorts us: "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."
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote this about our spiritual battle:
A man who does not understand the nature of the problem he is confronting is a man who is already doomed to failure. Christian people are like first-year college students—they think at first that every subject is quite simple, there is no difficulty. Well, we know what is likely to happen to such when they face an examination! The first thing you have to do is to understand the nature and character of your problem. So we have to realize that we are called, in the Christian life, to a battle, not to a life of ease; to a battle, to a warfare, to a wrestle, to a struggle.
I want to encourage you along with Paul to do two things: 1) "be strong in the Lord" and 2) "be strong…in his mighty power" so that you can stand in the battle to make Christ known by living as children of light, living a life of love, and submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Paul is not stuttering with his pen. There is a difference between being strong in the Lord and being strong in his mighty power. We understand that difference by going back through this letter of Ephesians. Being strong in the Lord comes from understanding that we are blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. When we understand the nature of these blessings—the wonder of being predestined for adoption as sons of God, the glory of knowing Jesus as our prize, the awe of being his workmanship, and the joy of belonging to his family—we are rooted and established in the promises of Christ and, therefore, we are strong. Confidence in him and in his promise makes us unshakable against the devil’s schemes.
Do you want to hear a pro-choice message? God gives you the freedom to make a choice that will make you strong in him. The strength that comes from him is available to everyone and anyone who makes the choice to be informed about who Christ is, what he has done for us, and who we are in Christ. We also must make a choice to commit to that message. We cannot waver through unbelief. The exhortation to be strong implies that we must remain committed to our belief that Christ blesses us with his promises. To do otherwise is comparable to a boxer choosing to box with his guard down. Sooner or later, the day of evil will come and punch you right in the nose!
Being strong in his mighty power is something additional. We are not only established with him in our faith, we receive his life in us by his grace. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead comes to us by the Holy Spirit and makes us able to stand. We not only have the information that helps us choose Christ, we have power that comes from him living in us. It may seem like bad news, but we can’t earn that power. We can’t work it up. We can’t educate ourselves to a certain to become eligible to receive it. But it’s good news. That power is part of the promise. It is his grace toward us that the life of Christ dwells in us richly to make us able to stand.
So to be strong in the Lord and be strong in his mighty power means that we have the brains and the brawns to make our stand against the devil.
So, we must then put on the full armor of God. We put on the belt of truth by holding fast to the revelation of Christ and the blessings promised in his word to those who will believe. We put on the breastplate of righteousness when we allow the Holy Spirit to testify to our spirit that we are made right with Jesus because of Jesus. Our hearts need not fear and our emotions need not be out of control because we have the promise of righteousness guarding our hearts. We put on the sandals of the gospel of peace by not being ashamed of the gospel and allowing it to bring peace with God to all we come across in the course of our lives. We take up the shield of faith by taking every thought captive for obedience to Christ. With confidence in his promises, we take the lies and deceptions and accusations of our enemy and we cast them aside.
We are strong in the Lord and in his mighty power when we put on the helmet of salvation. When salvation is on our mind, we are not overwhelmed by the troubles of this earth or age. The word of God is written so that we may know that we have eternal life. When we know that, we cannot be shaken.
Our only weapon in this armor—the sword of the Spirit—is the word of God. 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us that "all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness." But it is also good at destroying. Every other piece of the armor defends us. But God’s word is a double-edged sword. Who can withstand it? When the devil tried to destroy Jesus in the desert before his ministry even started, Jesus slam-dunked him with Scripture. When you and I are confronted with the evil that is stored up in our flesh, we destroy that flesh with the written Word of God. This battle is not like Rocky. When the devil goes down because we’ve wielded the truth of God’s word, he cannot take us down with him because that word that destroys him is the word that establishes us. Don’t tell me you can skip your time reading, meditating on, and memorizing God’s word and make a stand. You must wield it! And you can only wield it if that word is in you and you are in it.
Some of you claim all the promises of God but can’t figure out why you’re beaten down and attacked all the time. I’ll tell you why. You don’t have any weapons! You have on all the armor of truth and righteousness and peace and faith, but you don’t carry your weapon. So the devil beats on you and beats on you and beats on you and sooner or later you start to lose confidence in your armor. Sooner or later you put down your shield because you’ve been beaten so many times you are beginning to wonder if you really believe whatever you’ve learned in church. Let me tell you, you’ve got to fight back. Don’t just stand there, pick up your sword! Get in to God’s word and let what he has established be your weapon.
And Paul adds this little addendum to putting on the full armor of God: "pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests." Get in the armor and get in touch with headquarters. You are in a battle, and you need instructions. If you are not confident in your commander and if you do not have the full force of his resources behind you, you’re going down. But if you will believe and let his power be at work in you; if you will pray and make your requests known and learn to listen to the voice of God, you will be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. You will be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. You will be able to stand when the day of evil comes.
In the last year, I have seen so many people who are active in the church, even ministers and pastors, fall to the schemes of the devil it just breaks my heart. What’s worse is that the devil has used that as a scheme to try and defeat me and to try and destroy my marriage. As I’ve lamented over fallen brothers and sisters in Christ, the devil has made every attempt to try and cause me to lose confidence in my wife. Throughout our married life I have had every confidence that we would be together ‘til death do us part. But in the last year, every time she has gone through a spiritual dry spell, I started to worry. With every hint that she loves something of the world, I began to fret. Any time she lacked joy or experienced disappointment, I began to have thoughts that she wouldn’t stick it out. And every time she came home later than expected, my mind wandered into all sorts of imaginations of where she might be and what she might be doing. Remember when Elvis sang, "We can’t go on together with suspicious minds." Having seen people fall who I thought were strong in the Lord gave the devil the opportunity to give me a suspicious mind. That wasn’t fair to Tammie and it has been an incredible strain on our relationship. It had nothing to do with Tammie’s faith or actions, and everything to do with doubt in me.
A few nights ago, the battle was incredibly strong. I was up a good part of the night battling the thoughts before I finally woke Tammie up and told her what I was going through. We spent a little time clarifying what was true and what wasn’t true. Then we claimed the promises we have in Christ and took up the word against our enemy. We rebuked the devil, told him we were on to him, and asked the Lord to be our strength. Immediately, a peace that passes all understanding came over me. I laid there with renewed confidence in my wife and greater joy in Christ.
I wouldn’t wish that kind of experience on anyone. I certainly hated to take Tammie through it. But consider the alternative. People get suspicious of their wives all the time. Wives get disappointed from time to time as well. The question isn’t about whether or not you’ll face trouble, in this world you will have trouble. If you don’t have trouble, I would guess you’re no threat to the enemy. I am convinced we went through this and will continue to battle similar issues from time to time because we are as close as ever to being a real threat to the kingdom of darkness. The question is not about whether you will have trouble, but whether or not you will stand. If you have pursued understanding and received the grace of God, then you must be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. You must believe him and you must receive him. Then you can stand for the gospel and for his glory.
When God was establishing laws for his people, he gave them specific instructions about going to war in Deuteronomy 20:1-4. I would like to paraphrase it and apply it for you for your battle this week and in the years to come: When you go to war against your enemies and find their force is too great for you alone, do not be afraid of them, because the Lord your God, who delivered you from slavery to sin, will be with you. As a priest before God on your behalf, I remind you that today, you are going into a battle. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not be terrified or give way to panic before them. For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.
To him be glory as you are strong and as you stand.
