8.18 - Be Strong in the Lord!

As the apostle Paul begins to conclude his letter, he encourages his readers to stand strong in the strength of God. His reason? We are at war!

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Paul and Noah both preach and teach with the Cedar Park church of Christ in Cedar Park, TX. You can visit our site at: https://www.cedarparkchurchofchrist.org/

Transcript

Noah: 0:30

Well, good morning and welcome back to the Stand Strong podcast. I'm here with Paul and we are in Ephesians chapter six as we are. Slowly but surely making our way to the end of this letter that the Apostle Paul wrote so long ago. It's been a rich journey, Paul, and I've really enjoyed especially these last few episodes as we've slowed down in chapters five and six and really tried to. See our 21st century application to these ancient words here. Yeah.

Paul: 0:58

Yeah. And, and we're gonna get to a section today where he starts with the finally. So those who've been joining us in the journey, maybe you've been ready for the finally Podcast or podcast. So that's where we are in Ephesians chapter six. So welcome to all listening today.

Noah: 1:12

Yes. Verse 10 of chapter six is when he says. Finally which is a transition, right? I'm most recently Paul here has addressed our walk, which again, zooming out, looking at the whole letter we've talked to, we've, we've called this season calling and conduct because. It very much talks about, you know, in the first part of the book about our calling and, and the, the spiritual implications of that. And then the latter part of the book is very focused on how that calling affects our conduct. The way that we walk, you know, we reference chapter four verse one walk worthy of the calling. So. Most recently here, back in chapter five, Paul addressed our walk in submitting to one another and doing that out of reverence for Christ. And then he goes into some, some details on how our service to Christ and our submission to Christ will affect our relationships, like the husband, wife relationship, the parent child relationship, the master slave relationship. And then he says in verse 10, finally. So he's, he's tying this all together. In fact, he's tying the whole letter together at this point. He says, finally, be strong in the Lord and 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 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 so we know the Apostle Paul likes drawn out finally that he's beginning to end this letter, but I want us to notice there in verse 10, the, the admonition, the, the instruction is be strong. But the clar, the clarification that he immediately offers is in the Lord and in the strength of his mind.

Paul: 3:18

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Noah: 3:19

So as he's tying up all of these messages about our calling and our walk, within that calling, he is encouraging his readers be strong, not in your own strength, not in your own ability, but be strong in the Lord and in his might. And that's a really important thread that's gonna go through the next 10 verses.

Paul: 3:42

Absolutely. You know, Paul's already prayed about this strength twice.

Noah: 3:47

Mm-hmm.

Paul: 3:47

He prayed about it back in chapter one in verse 19. Talked about the exceeding greatness of his power toward us, who believe according to working of his mighty power, which he worked in Christ Jesus. Then he talked about it in chapter three. I love the one, Noah in chapter three in verse 16, we're still talking about divine strength, not our strength, that he would grant you chapter three, verse 16, according to the rich of his glory, to be strengthened with my, through his spirit in the inner man. You know, we talked, we started the podcast with this what is the calling? And man, chapters one, two, and three in Ephesians are so rich. Mm-hmm. They're just so rich. And then we got to chapter four. And he says, okay, walk worthy of the calling. And so we've been dealing with the, what is this worthy walk, what does it look like? And, and I've told people as, as you start in chapter four of Ephesians, maybe in your own time as you're reading through this, just read, just erase chapter Ephesians. Mm-hmm. And in four or five and six, up to where we are today, six in verse 10, where he says, finally be strong in the Lord's strength. If you just go through it. I, I call'em, list them as action items like he's been telling me now as his child in this worthy walk, put off this, put on this, think like this, so that you'll make choices and decision in your life. So you'll live like this, and then look at the various relationships, how that impacts me on a daily basis. All these action items that you put down, like for me as a husband, as a father, as a preacher, you know, on and on. We could ago. Then once you've made that list from Ephesians four or five up to chapter six in verse 10, then grab hold of what Paul says. Oh. It's the Lord's strength. Mm-hmm. Not yours. And here's my point. When God calls his people to action, and clearly he does in Ephesians four, five, and six, when God calls his people to action, he always promises his aid.

Noah: 5:46

Hmm.

Paul: 5:47

Always. And just file that away. God has never called his people to action. Without promising his aid. Yeah. Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his mind.

Noah: 5:59

Yeah. And he emphasizes that he really makes that tangible through this instruction to put on the armor of God, the whole armor of God. Mm-hmm. He actually gives that instruction twice. Mm-hmm. I mean, once in verse 11, once in verse 13, he says, put on the whole armor of God in verse 11 that you may be able to. Stand against the, the schemes of the devil in verse 13 that you are able to wi to withstand in the evil day. So, slightly different wording, but same concept there. Put on the armor of God. I would argue, and I we'll get into this probably a little bit more either later this episode or maybe next week depending on how, what time allows. But in some ways this is just rephrasing. The idea of be strong in the Lord and in his might. Yes, absolutely. Put on his armor. Mm-hmm. This is what, what is gonna protect you here. It's not, it's not your own ability, right? It's not, it's God's ability. It's not your strength. It's God's strength. It's not your armor. It's God's armor. But why, why put on the armor that's there in verse 12. In between the instructions to put on the armor, he, he gives this really vivid description of why we need this protection, why do we need this armor? Mm-hmm. And I would summarize it this way. We are at war. Yes, we are at war. And for those of us that have grown up in relative peace time and have not seen up close and firsthand, you know, the, the brutality of human warfare sometimes we forget that there is, regardless of what appears peaceful. On Earth. There is a, there is a war going on that we can't see. There's a reality that we are struggling to realize, that we struggle to, to visualize. We, we are in a conflict. We may not, you know, be out there every day crossing blades with somebody. We, and we may not be in the, in the trenches of World War I. But we are in a conflict, a conflict of ideas, a conflict of beliefs, a conflict of of loyalty, a conflict of integrity, a conflict of justice. I, I guess what I'm, what I'm trying to get across here, and I think what Paul is trying to help people understand and visualize here is that spiritual warfare is real. Mm. Even if it's harder to discern, harder to make out than earthly warfare and earthly violence and earthly conflict.

Paul: 8:48

Yeah. Spiritual battle requires spiritual pre preparation. The, the strength is the lord's the stand is ours. And, and those are two completely different things in terms of. One, I'm responsible for the other God's God. My responsibility is suited up in the armor. We'll talk about that. My responsibility is my decision and my choice to stand against.

Noah: 9:18

Yes,

Paul: 9:18

God's gonna help me in that, but it's my conviction and my conscience. It's my commitment to Lord and what? And to the Lord and what is right. Yeah. To the, to, to light versus darkness. But these, these, this spiritual battle that's going on in the spirit realm is real. And we may not understand everything about it. I can tell you I don't, but it exists. Yeah, it did in the first century. It still does in the 21st century. And Satan is still the prince of darkness. He's still the ruler over the realm of darkness. But all of these principalities powers, these various rulers whatever these cosmic forces are in the spirit realm. And I do believe that Satan works through people, spiritual rulers today, that that. And, you know, exercise their will to partner with Satan, to do his will, to try to bring this world under the control of darkness and the influence of darkness. That's a real thing. We have to acknowledge like first what Peter says First, Peter five in verse eight, you, you have an enemy. He's real. He's been on your destruction. You've gotta a suit up in the armor. You've gotta understand, you've gotta take a stand, but take comfort in the fact that the strength is provided to you. God will give you the strength that He knows that you, you need, you know, you're a song guy, Noah, as the song leader in the room. That song that we typically always sing, like if, if the song leader comes to you, Noah, and says, Hey, what you preaching on tonight? And you say, the Armor of God. We know the song or the songs that are gonna need to be on the list. And in one of those songs that we sing, we have these words, leave no unguarded place. Mm-hmm. No Weakness of the Soul. And I think that's Paul's point here. Leave no unguarded place. This is a real enemy. These are real forces. You need the strength of the Lord suit up in the armor.

Noah: 11:11

Yeah. Yeah. I, I think part of the reason that we, that we struggle with that and therefore then struggle to leave no unguarded place and we sometimes fail to, to put on the armor that God has provided is because. We've got lots of we've got lots of other things going on. We've got lots of, I mean, that really, that's, that's what it comes down to. We've, we've got a lot of, a lot of things in our lives, a lot of distractions and obligations and responsibilities, and we view those as sometimes as separate from our spiritual life. But when we look at the message of Ephesians, hmm. You can't separate our spiritual calling from our physical walk. You can't take those apart. And so when we do that, when we bifurcate that and we say, okay, here's my spiritual walk over here and here's my physical life over here, well then is it any wonder that we're walking into the, the obligations and responsibilities of our everyday life completely unprepared for the spiritual warfare that's gonna be happening there? Because, well, that's not my spiritual life right now. We don't, I don't think anyone listening to this probably speaks in those terms or even necessarily thinks explicitly in those terms. Well, this is my, that I, I, this is my physical life and there's no spiritual bearing here. I think we all understand that there is, but there's a difference between understanding that and operating that way. Oh, whoa. There's a difference between understanding that our, our physical responsibilities and obligations have spiritual implications. And operating on that understanding.

Paul: 12:59

Okay. File that away. I'm filing that away if y'all were in the studio. I'm sitting here across from Noah while he's testifying. Really good. I'm getting some stuff here. Y'all didn't see me. I wanted to throw a flag. That's like the coolest thing I have heard in a long time as a preacher. But what was that? Bifurcate?

Noah: 13:22

Yeah, bifurcate. I hope that's, I hope that's the right word. I don't

Paul: 13:25

have it. The story. He just dropped the bifurcate. That is beautiful. Anyway,, you lost me at bifurcate. Sorry.

Noah: 13:33

That's awesome. Well, some, somebody out there's gonna go look that up and I'm gonna have completely misused it looking. Yeah. If I misused it, please let me know. I won't use it again if that's the case. But the idea that we can compartmentalize our physical life from our spiritual. It. That's just not how it works. And that is also important for us to realize that the way that Paul phrases this, we are engaged in this conflict. It's not just a conflict that's happening where we can't see it. We are wrestling. Yes, we are engaged in the conflict. And so there's gonna be, there's gonna be an interplay here, there's gonna be spillover from spiritual warfare into our physical. Lives, and here's where the other danger comes in, that, that that comes to my mind, and that is sometimes when spiritual warfare spills into physical things, we are tempted to engage in spiritual warfare with physical weapons or carnal weapons. Very, very true. Very true. That is not standing in the strength of the Lord and in his mind. Yeah. That's standing on our mind. Yes. And so we have to, we have to be able to take a step back and go, okay, here's how I want to respond.

Paul: 14:55

Mm-hmm.

Noah: 14:56

But how does God want me to respond? What type of weapons does he want me to use? And that's kind of where Paul ends up going here as chapter six. Contends

Paul: 15:05

Yes, Paul to the Corinthians, the weapons of our Warfare. Or not carnal. Right. It's interesting. No, I think you were reading from the ESV earlier in chapter six, verse 11. It's got schemes of the devil. Yeah. Is that correct? Mm-hmm. The new King James has wiles of the devil. That's an interesting word. Various translators, schemes, devices, wiles.

Noah: 15:27

Yeah.

Paul: 15:27

I even like methods'cause I think that's closer to the Greek term, but, but anyway, it's interesting. Most people that are listening. Have an appreciation for the fact that our real enemy. Operates differently. What, like, what works on Noah May not work on Paul and what works on Paul May not work on Noah, but he's an expert strategist. Satan is, and he has various devices and schemes, methods of attack and, and there. All right, you're gonna like this, this is as close as I can get to your multitudinous. I think that's a word, but he's got a lot of different weapons and he's really good at his approach. What Paul says is, listen, your decision is to educate yourself to be enlightened. Enlightenment means to be empowered. I mean, he's gonna talk about the belt of truth. Mm-hmm. But the, the scripture is there for a reason. God warns for our good. He enlightens to empower. Knowledge can be a powerful thing. We need to understand and know, and it's not just a knowing of our enemy. It's a knowing of our God. Mm-hmm. It's an understanding of how God operates in this world and what he's revealed to us by his spirit. That is for our good. That gives us insight, that helps us to become people of wisdom and discernment. But he says, your, your, your part of your stand here, or your, your, your, your strength in the Lord is it empowers you to make a stand. It doesn't do any good to put armor on a soldier who's already determined to run from a fight. Mm-hmm. Retreat's not an option, and I'm not saying, oh, Liz, listen, that we're, we're never gonna be tempted to retreat. I've been tempted to turn and run. Right. It's like, this is bigger than me. What do you want me to do here? These people are opposed to everything I'm trying to do and all that. I'm saying, well, welcome to a world of opposition because of the spiritual darkness. Yeah. He says, don't retreat, don't surrender. Stand your ground. I like the stand your ground kinda language.

Noah: 17:41

Yeah. To stand firm in, in the evil day. To withstand in the evil day. I, whenever I'm reading this I'm challenged because. There's, there's so much comfort in understanding that God, like you said earlier, God will supply the strength that we need, but he expects us. To stand in that strength, to trust in his strength and to do so positively and productively. Mm-hmm. We, we don't have the option to be spectators in this, in this struggle, in this battle. We don't, we don't get to sit on the sidelines and eat popcorn and then when God wins go, yay. I was on God's God's side all the time, you know? He expects us to be in there, in the mud, in, in the battle. Not because we're so great. Yeah. We're standing in his strength, but he expects us to be there. That goes along with what you're saying about we can't just turn and run. We also can't just. Stand there and say, well, I'll just watch it play out. I'll just watch it play out.

Paul: 18:55

Yeah.

Noah: 18:56

And there's a whole host of places we could go in scripture to see that kind of idea that those for instance, the one that immediately pops into my head, it's not direct application, but in Proverbs though, the, the one, the, the lazy man is brother to the one who destroys. Right? There's this idea that if you're not. Working toward the goal, you're hurting the goal. And that's a very real concept for us in spiritual warfare. If we are not engaged in, in this wrestling with the, with the spiritual forces, if we're not engaged in wrestling with our temptations and wrestling with evil and wrestling with injustice, then. We're just spectators. We're bystanders. Bystanders, excuse me. And that's not what God is looking for.

Paul: 19:44

No, I, I wanna offer this in an encouraging way. I've got my questions about notice. He says, evil day, not evil days.

Noah: 19:54

Mm-hmm.

Paul: 19:55

I think that had a specific application to those in the first century. Surely it, it still has. As much significance in application to us today. What I wanna say about the evil day as I understand it, is there, there are certain seasons or a season of life sat the way Satan works is one of his strategies in devices, if I can be clear, is coming against us when we never saw it coming.

Noah: 20:28

Hmm.

Paul: 20:29

There, there are certain things you can't be prepared for. Everything. You can't'cause you can't read the future. So let me give you a, a scenario, okay? There's somebody listening today that loves the Lord, wants to serve the Lord wants to raise up their kids to honor the Lord. They've got a heart for the Lord. They're in the word all the time. They pray fervently. Lord, I just want to be your vessel to do what you've called me to do and raising up my family and being the kind of man for my wife, and on and on we can go. Thank God for those kinds of people, those kinds of men. And all of a sudden out of nowhere, here comes the forces of darkness and the opposition his boss calls him in and says, Hey, I found out that you, you, you didn't tell the lie or you didn't do what the company wanted you to do to be a company man. And since you've had integrity, guess what? You don't have a job.

Noah: 21:23

Yeah.

Paul: 21:24

And his world just starts crumbling. Stand. That's, that's an evil day.

Noah: 21:31

Mm-hmm.

Paul: 21:32

Stand. Stand your ground. Don't give into doubt don't give into bitterness. Don't say, well, maybe it doesn't pay to do the next right thing. Mm-hmm. And on, and just, Satan can use that as, as an opportunity. Get into your, get into your thought process to gain interest into your heart. And Paul is saying, look. You don't wait for the day of testing. You don't wait for whatever that evil day is. You don't wait and say, Ooh, wow, I didn't see that coming. Let me try to reach out for a faith and discover you reaching out for what you never had, or you haven't been trying to lay a foundation. You haven't been taking the spiritual thing seriously. You haven't been preparing yourself for the day. And though I'm not saying it's just a one and done. Yeah, I can tell you as a 57-year-old man, there are times when you never saw it coming. And what you have to do is say, okay, here's what I remember. The strength is the Lord's, the stand is mind. Satan has his devices, he, he's coming. And I may not understand everything that's intended by the forces of darkness, but not today. Satan, not me. And it's not just you coming against me, it's you coming against those that I have an influence over. He's not after one, he's after five. Yeah. He's not after five, he's after 50. Mm-hmm. But Lord, let it start with me today. I choose the side of, right. I choose the side of truth as hard as it may be, and I leave the result to you. I'm gonna stand my ground and I'm gonna trust that your strength will be available.

Noah: 23:05

Hmm. That's a really good reminder and, and one that I needed. I'm, I am. My mind is overflowing with specific applications that, that we could make in this area. You know, you gave the example of the, the man who lo loses his job because he demonstrated integrity and therefore wasn't, you know, a company man. And maybe people who are listening go, yeah, but that's, that's not the kind of thing that I fight. Well, the principle is still there. Satan will, will work sometimes in very overt ways like that. You're gonna get thrown under the bus for doing what's right. Sometimes he's gonna work in a lot more subtle ways tempting you toward apathy in your marriage or in your parenting. Tempting you toward you know sourness and bitterness toward your brother or sister in Christ. These, these little passive things that he will, he will tempt you and he'll, he'll try to set the, set the stage for discontent and frustration and anger and division and, and the, the. The sweet thing about it, the thing that makes it go down so easy is we don't have to do a thing,

Paul: 24:25

right?

Noah: 24:26

We just have to let you know, let the dominoes fall and not intervene. And we can feel very justified in doing that. Again, all of these examples are coming to mind. And I know that we're coming up on the end of our time, so I, I'm not gonna try to get eyeball deep into those, but I encourage you if you're listening. Rewind, you know, sixty, ninety, a hundred twenty seconds here. And listen again to what Paul was saying about how Satan operates and how in the end, our decision to stand in the strength of the Lord is what's gonna make the difference. It's God's strength, it's ours to stand in it. I think that that's a pretty good place for us to go ahead and segue. We'll next week we'll get into the armor of God actually looking at that, that pretty famous list of the Armor of God and trying to talk about again, what is Paul communicating with this imagery and, and what applications we can draw from that. Thank you for joining us today in this podcast. We're looking forward to wrapping up the, the Armor of God next week. And especially relevant to our discussion today. In the meantime, between now and next week, we pray that in the Lord's strength, you can stand strong.