The Armor of God - Strength in Truth

Strength in Truth

Intro

Eph 6:-

Ephesians 6:10–14 ESV

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

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pray

[picofstrongman]

You can’t really start this section, and this topic of the armor that Paul is pointing us towards, if you don’t start with talking about strength. I say that, because we sometimes view strength the wrong way.

- What are you strong in? What are your strengths.

- What are you strong in? What are your strengths.

[examples] maybe you are strong in…

- Whatever your strength is, at whatever you are doing, you are never as strong alone as you are with someone else, right?

Ecclesiastes 4:12 ESV

And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

[read]

So you might be strong, and together, we are in fact stronger; but it isn’t until we fold in the strength of God that we become what we need to be!

- But we know that, right? We say that we are strong in the lord all the time, don’t we? I think we say it so much, that we have lost what it really means!

[examples...main point is that we have taken “strength” to mean “be patient until God gives you what you want.”]

[quote]

But that isn’t at all what strength is. Strength is standing bravely in the face of oppression, regardless of the victory. Strength is meeting fear face to face, knowing that it could take the very heart of you, but you stand all the same. Strength is bearing every lash, every insult, every blow against the very body of Christ and not expecting to be vindicated FROM it, but to have God glorified THROUGH it!

- So when we say, be strong in the Lord, what we should really mean is that everything around us might be failing. The world might look awful. There might be work that needs to be done that I don’t understand and could never do. But I am going to step up to the plate and allow God to do through me whatever it is that He will, not caring about results or even process, but instead, knowing that His strength - for as long as I must use it - is more than sufficient for all that I might encounter!

---Not that I will succeed. Not that things will go my way. But church, strength never asked that of me. Strength just asks me to stand.

[picoftianamensquare]

[talk about generally] Lose/gain…seque to next point…not struggling with those tanks but the spiritual forces of evil that will win if we never stand! Whether we win or lose in that moment.

Eph 6:12

Ephesians 6:12–13 ESV

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.

You see, we don’t fight with people, really. We don’t struggle with forces that can be overcome with our brute force! If it were, perhaps our strength would be enough. But we don’t fight them. We fight those forces that tear at our soul. Those voices that tell us to quit, or to stop trying to follow Christ, or that no matter what we do, it is never enough, so why do anything anyway!

That’s what we fight against. [read]

We fight for the poor. The destitute. Those in prison. Those who are hungry. The widows and orphans. All those that Jesus tells us in to care for and to stand up for! We fight against the evil that starts by dividing us as it devours the “least of these!”

We stand for them, church, because Jesus stands for them. And to not do it, is to follow a force that is not Jesus.

And we do that by fighting against those spiritual forces that tell us to stop. That it is inconvienient. That it isn’t worth it. And by making the best of every situation we are in.

[picofdietrichquote]

“I believe that God can and will bring good out of evil, even out of the greatest evil. For that purpose he needs men who make the best use of everything. I believe that God will give us all the strength we need to help us to resist in all the times of distress. But he never gives it in advance, lest we should rely on ourselves and not on him alone. A faith such as this should allay all our fears for the future.”

Church, I don’t know why bad things have to happen - why we would ever need God’s strength. But I do know that this life - not physical life mind you, but our life in Christ - it is worth fighting for if only so that someone beyond me might know Christ. And don’t get me wrong here, I don’t mean fighting physically, or even socially arguing about faith, I mean fight just as Paul means here. Focusing on our strength to handle any situation with God and then having done all that we can do, to stand!

To be the example. To show our fear. To not hide our failures, but instead, allow God to use them to show those around us His strength and grace. And to lead them to a better understanding of how to live with Christ.

After all, church, we are what they grow beyond. So we must approach our lives understanding that we will fail, and that things are difficult, but that if we only rely on God’s strength, and put on His armor, we can stand and show the way for others.

[beltoftruth]

And that all starts with truth.

- In our men’s discipleship group, one of the men mentioned that being honest with ourselves is the most important aspect of being a man. And I greatly agree with that. But I want to submit to us all, today, that being honest is the most important aspect of being a Christian as well!

That is Paul’s point in putting this down as the first piece of armor! You have to start there, because not only is truth the very thing that allows us to be able to understand our true needs, but it is, in fact, Christ Himself!

And if God is the truth, we must start there! After all, if we start there, everything else we do will be made easier because of it!

It’s like squatting, or doing deadlifts, with and without a belt on…

The belt gives us the strength to lift! It gives us the stability we need to keep pushing, to keep driving on!

[picofJesus lastsupper]

That is Jesus for us spiritually. When you get to the end of your strength, you will get to the beginning of Christ, church. And that is the case because He is the truth! And church, I promise you, both from this passage and from experience in life. There is Strength in Truth.

There is strength because God is truth. So we must stand firm, relying on God’s strength, and start everything we do with the truth - both the truth for ourselves, to others, and most importantly with God.

And that truth, is the very one who showed us the very picture of God’s strength. The one who was poured out for us, and who made a way, through the strength that God gave Him, for us to be with Him forever. And not just forever after we die, church, but forever starting right now.

Communion and Invitation