Overcome Weakness with Strength
Overcomers • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Week 2 of overcomers is already here. Last week we discussed how over the next several months we will explore the concept of overcoming challenges, struggles, and growing pains of the faith through utilizing what we have learned earlier this year about trusting and obeying God. This week we will explore the idea of overcoming Weakness with strength and we will be in Romans chapter 12. In order to get into this though we must define what we consider strength. In your opinion what is strength?
Fulcrum exercise: Place a board on the stage with a block closest to the other person. Tell them that you want them to lift you up off the ground. Dont tell them that they cannot move the fulcrum closer to the center and in doing so they should be more easily able to lift you.
We often consider strength as the ability to move something or make something happen utilizing force. What we just learned is that strength than a physical function and is about knowing how to overcome a challenge or obstacle. Strength is not simply forcing something to happen but utilizing knowledge and understanding to make the best choices in overcoming whatever challenges you are facing. This morning we will learn through scripture that to overcome weakness in our lives does not mean that we must be stronger, we must understand that Jesus is the strength to overcome in our lives. Turn with me in your Bible to Romans 12:1-3. In Romans 12:1-3 we will see how we can utilize the knowledge of scripture and who we are in Christ to overcome weakness. We will first see that Strength is spiritual. Second we will see that Strength is transformational. Third we will see that Strength is found in God’s Will. Please stand and read the scripture with me this morning.
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Strength is Spiritual
Strength is Spiritual
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Strength is so often times though of as a physical attribute. The scripture though spends quite a bit of time in trying to help us understand the strength is found not in physical power but spiritual submission. It is a concept that is very difficult to understand. How in submitting to anything can one become strong? If you lay down your rights and bow to anything you are not strong you are weak. Growing up I remember times when my dad was trying to raise me up to be a man. He would tell me things like toughen up. If someone hits you first you give them a reason to never do it again. He spent time trying to make me a physically strong person. Not much time was spent in helping me to develop a mentally strong personality except to not show much emotion. My dad was not doing anything overtly bad he was teaching me what he believed was good for me. Many of you have faced similar experiences in your life. We have experience it in our every day life where the challenge for our Country is to never look weak. Strength is a common concept in every aspect of life. The Bible though is teaching us here in Romans that we must sacrifice our physical strength and live in a spiritual mindset and in doing so we find ourselves in worship to God. Essentially what is being said is that Worship is giving up the concept of physical strength and learning to lean into and trust in the spiritual strength that we can find in Christ.
Glass of water illustration
Hold up a glass half full of water and ask the congregation. How can I get the air out of this cup? Let the responses come in. Some may say vacuum the air out. Explain that the suction would likely crust the cup. Once some answers have come in take the pitcher of water and fill the cup up and explain that the filling of the spirit has caused the air to leave the cup
When we walk in the spirit we find strength. Strength is not taking the bull by the horns and making things happen it is understanding everything from a spiritual aspect. Read again what the scripture says.
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
We are not to lean into the strength of the flesh but even the strongest men in the world are to offer their bodies as living sacrifices and to trust in the spirit. This idea of saying our bodies down is a concept of no longer trusting in the flesh to solve the problems. We must look for the spiritual solution to our problems. Strength is found in the Spirit.
The Scripture tries to teach us over and over to live as spiritual beings laying down the flesh.
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,
8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Strength for believers is not found in being more physically fit, or being physically strong. It is found for the believer through offering our bodies as living sacrifices and living as though we are spirits in our world now. Trusting in God to handle all situations. When we do this it leads us to being transformed.
Strength is Transformational
Strength is Transformational
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
What does it mean to be transformed? Conformity is defined similarity in form or type; agreement in character:
We are told not to conform to this world. To simplify this we are not to have the same character and we are not to agree with the world. We are to be transformed.
The definition of transformed is :make a thorough or dramatic change in the form, appearance, or character of
Show Wall-e video.
Wall-e is a robot who is left on earth after all the humans go to space and his job is to take piles of mess and conform it into a standard cube. Wall-e will never make anything other than cubes, nothing spectacular and nothing amazing simply take a pile of trash and compact it into a square. Take that square and stack it into bigger squares. The world works the same way, it wants to press us and conform us all into the same type of people. Only thinking about ourselves and being selfish. The world wants us to use physical strength to overcome challenges and use what we have to oppress and hold others down. That is what the result of worldly thinking leads to. Jesus on the other hand calls us to be transformed to change the way we see the world, change the way we see our troubles and problems and challenges, to change who we are completely. We are called to be different and to be transformed in our relationship with Christ. The problem is that many of us never do the first part of the scripture. We try to live a spiritual life while maintaining the flesh thoughts and habits. What does the scripture say about the flesh?
7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.
5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
We are called to live in the spirit and not in the flesh. Many of us however try to live in both. We want to be spiritual beings who get to still enjoy the ways of the flesh. God calls us to lay down the way of the flesh and to understand the way of the spirit. The problem is though that many view the way of the spirit as weakness. Think about it, the way of the spirit lead Jesus to the Cross. The way of the flesh lead Caesar to great wealth and power. Which one would you choose? The way of the spirit is not the way of the flesh and so when we try to live with both of them we find ourselves in a constant state of weakness. We find ourselves continuously challenged with the things that we know are right to do and the things we do conflicting. So how should we think? What does that transformation look like?
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.
7 for we walk by faith, not by sight.
being transformed means that we walk in the spirit of God. We no longer look with our eye and make decisions based on the things we see. We see things from a spiritual view and we trust that we have a God who will handle all situations. If you live in a life of worldly strength trying to handle all things on your own. You miss out on the true strength of a God who can handle all of your problems and struggles. We are called to offer our bodies as living sacrifices and to be spiritual beings. We are called to transform our thinking and not be pressed by the world into conformity to the things around us. We are also called to see the strength that is God’s will.
Strength is found in God’s will
Strength is found in God’s will
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
God’s will in our lives while to the world may look like weakness to the world and may in fact be worldly weakness, it is spiritual strength. It is Irony. Leaning into the flesh makes us spiritually weak and leaning into the spirit will often times make us look weak to the world. As believers though we find the greatest strength through living by the spirit. The greatest example of this is Jesus. We see Jesus in Matthew
1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written,
“ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple 6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,
“ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’
and
“ ‘On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ”
7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,
“ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God
and him only shall you serve.’ ”
11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
Jesus could have chosen to live in the flesh and recieved all the rewards that the devil was presenting to Him. He chose though that He would be transformed in his mind so that He would respond spiritually.. This lead Jesus to seek in His life the will of the Father.
40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.
Jesus found strength in the will of the Father. Jesus found that transforming His mind and seeking the will of the Father have Him the ability to live in the spirit and to overcome the way of the flesh.
One day Dwight Morrow and his wife, the parents of Anne Lindbergh, were in Rugby, England. After wandering through the streets they realized that they had lost their way. At this moment an incident occurred that entered into Morrow's philosophy and became a guiding principle in his life. He stopped a little Rugby lad of about 12 years. "Could you tell us the way to the station?" he asked. "Well," the boy answered, "You turn to the right there by the grocer's shop and then take the second street to the left. That will bring you to a place where four streets meet. And then, sir, you had better inquire again."
"This answer came to symbolize for Dwight Morrow his own method of approaching complicated problems," writes Harold Nicolson in his excellent biography. "It implied in the first place a realistic skepticism regarding the capacity of human intelligence. It was in the second place an object lesson in the inevitability of gradualness. And in the third place, it was a parable of how, when the ultimate end is uncertain, one should endeavor to advance, if only a little way, in the correct, rather than the incorrect direction."
Strength is not found in your ability to create a path or to force things to happen. Strength is found when we stop and ask God where to go and what to do. Like Christ did, to seek the will of the Father. The will of the Father is true strength. The will of the flesh is weakness. We have the ability to overcome weakness if we will offer our bodies as living sacrifices, transform our minds, and seek the will of the Father. The will of the Father is what brings us the greatest ability to overcome weakness.
29 He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
7 The Lord is my strength and my shield;
in him my heart trusts, and I am helped;
my heart exults,
and with my song I give thanks to him.
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
We can overcome weakness if we will lean into the Spirit and into the will of God. Are you going to be an overcomer? Are you going to trust God to handle things and give it all to Jesus?
