Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
This past week I had a very tough talk with someone.
In that talk there were things shared that were very hard for me to hear.
I felt a great sense of frustration that caused me to wrestle with what the person shared.
I wanted to be defensive and I wanted to push back what they were sharing and saying.
I was struggling with anger, frustration and a great sense of being misunderstood.
Afterwards I went home and I was struggling with being encouraged.
I was wrestling with doubt and a great weight of heaviness and frustration was on me.
It felt like a great fight began in my soul.
This fight caused some grief that had me troubled and questioning my very call.
Do you remember being at a place like this yourself?
Where you were wrestling with hurt, frustration and anger?
Over what somebody said or did to you?
What usually happens after when offended and hurt?
What follows is anger.
What follows are thoughts of saying things you know you shouldn’t say.
There can be thoughts of retaliation and payback.
You play scenarios in your mind on how to refute the person.
You strategize on how to win an argument.
How to get back at the perceived negative in what they said.
We are tempted to find ways of hurting in return for being hurt ourselves.
As we used to say, hurting people hurt people.
Friends, this is exactly where the enemy (the Devil) plays and presents reasons to sin.
When we are hurt, wounded or offended its afterward where most of the battle is lost.
The mind is the devil’s playground.
Especially when wounded or offended.
Much of what happens is self afflicted because at the end of the day, its not about what people have done to me but it’s about what I do with what people have done to me.
Do I pray?
Do I go to God with what I am going through?
Do I actually see the true enemy at work for my destruction?
Or do I go to where I am most comfortable?
Namely, self control.
Self righteousness and self autonomy.
We know what God has written and commanded when dealing with offense but instead we attempt to take matters into our own hands.
The devil is an expert at presenting to us things that are designed to lure us aways from God’s commands.
He is always presenting temptation to God’s people.
• The temptation to do things on our own strength.
• The temptation to control instead of trusting.
• The temptation to see others as the problem forgetting that we are our greatest problem.
The temptation to do what God says not to do will come.
And they come most when we are hurt the most.
Especially when our pride is at stake.
While the Devil is behind the scenes deceiving and luring us away from the truth.
What’s difficult is exposing the lies that seek to deceive you at that moment.
To make you believe that it is the person who offended you that is your core problem.
But that is not the case.
That is not true.
Our passage today gives us the means to see what we should see so that we do not fall victim to the lies that come when facing opposition.
The wound I felt was real.
But the lies that followed the wound cannot be taken as truth.
Lies comes most after an offense but we must keep in mind the actual struggle.
The struggle of the truth and the devil’s deception is the fight of the Christian life.
But what is also present in this struggle is freedom.
Freedom from lies and deceit.
And for the Christian who is in a wrestling match against the spiritual forces of evil, we must remember what God has done in Jesus Christ.
What many forget or don’t know at all, is that the spiritual realm is real and that God has already given us what to do with those who hurt us or do us wrong and what to do with the devil’s schemes.
In order to wrestle with the right opponent, we must know where our strength comes from, what has God given us in order to fight and who our enemy is.
But what is most important is to remember that Jesus Christ has accomplished absolute victory at the cross.
I had to remember this myself this past week.
After our time together I’ll conclude with how my situation this past week ended.
Be strong in the Lord, put on His armor and stand.
In verse 10 Paul tells believers to be strong in the Lord.
In verse 10 Paul tells believers to be strong in the Lord.
1: We see that this is a command.
Paul says to be strong.
Notice what He doesn’t say.
He doesn’t say feel strong.
He doesn’t say feel strong in the Lord.
He doesn’t say be strong in yourself.
He says be strong which can also be read as “be strengthened.”
This is a command.
Which means that we can choose to find our strength in the Lord.
There is a choice that can be made.
That choice is called faith.
Believing in who the Lord is.
But its important to note that this choice to be strong in the Lord is an act of faith and trust.
We must trust and believe that we can be strong in the Lord.
2: How can one be strong in the Lord?
By believing in the strength of His might.
What does His strength and might mean?
The NRSV reads verse 10 this way.
NRSV Ephesians 6:10
Strength deals with His power to direct and govern.
And power deals with the reality of God being able to accomplish what He desires.
So God governs and accomplishes what He wills whenever He wills.
In short, God is sovereign and in control!
That is why Paul calls Him Lord.
So how is the believer strengthened by this?
Lord, which was a title for God and for Christ, spoke of one who exercised and possessed authority.
One who commands.
Which is what strength and might refers to.
I want to highlight who the Lord Jesus Christ is, because Paul is pointing to Him as the source of our strength.
Ephesians 1:16
The Lord Jesus:
was raised from the dead
was seated at the right hand of the Father in the heavenly places
is far above all rule and authority and power and dominion
has a name above every name that is named
was given all things and all things are under his feet
is head over all things in the church, which is his body
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