Man, the title of my sermon tonight is,
Strengthened in the Inner Man,
Strengthened in the Inner Man.
At the beginning of chapter three here,
the apostle Paul says,
For this cause I, Paul,
the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,
and then he goes on,
but the point there is that he is writing
this letter from prison.
This is one of the prison epistles of the apostle Paul.
Jump down to verse 13, he says,
Wherefore I desire that you faint not at my tribulations
for you, which is your glory.
It's interesting, he's the one that's sitting in prison,
but he's writing to the people at Ephesus saying,
you know, I don't want you guys to faint.
I don't want you to get discouraged or to quit or anything
because of the tribulations that I'm going through for you.
Don't faint at my tribulations, he's saying.
For this cause, verse 14,
I bow my knees under the father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
that he would grant you,
according to the riches of his glory,
to be strengthened with might by his spirit
in the inner man.
He's saying, look, I don't want you to faint
at my tribulations,
rather I want you to be strengthened with might
by his spirit in the inner man.
And that's where I'm taking the title of the sermon,
being strengthened in the inner man.
What does it mean to be strong?
We'll flip over to Ephesians chapter six.
While you're turning there,
I'm gonna remind you that in Luke chapter number one,
it talks about John the Baptist,
and it says the child grew and waxed strong in spirit
and was in the deserts till the day
of his showing unto Israel.
It says again of Jesus in Luke chapter two,
the child grew and waxed strong in spirit,
filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon him.
So both John the Baptist and Jesus Christ,
as they were growing up,
the Bible says that they waxed strong in spirit,
meaning that they became strong in spirit.
They grew strong in spirit.
God wants us to be strengthened with might by his spirit,
the Bible says, in the inner man, on the inside.
Not a physical strength from necessarily going down
to the gym and lifting a bunch of weights
or doing some other strength building activity,
but a spiritual strength building,
being strengthened according to our inner man.
Look what the Bible says in Ephesians chapter six verse 10.
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord
and in the power of his might.
Put on the whole armor of God
that you may be able to stand against
the wiles of the devil.
Jump down if you would to verse 13.
Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God
that you may be able to withstand in the evil day
and having done all to stand.
So I think by looking at this passage in Ephesians six,
we can get a little bit of an idea
of what it means to be strong in the Lord
and in the power of his might.
What does it mean to be strengthened in the inner man?
It has to do with being able to endure
whatever the devil throws at us,
whatever life throws at us,
being strong enough to withstand in the evil day,
to keep standing when things get hard.
When we're facing things
like the apostle Paul was facing, prison,
he says, hey, be strengthened in the inner man.
Be strong in spirit, be strong in the Lord
and in the power of his might
so you can stand in the evil day.
Put on the whole armor of God, be strong,
be able to endure those things.
Here's a famous verse, second Timothy two, three,
thou therefore endure hardness
as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
Again, that's what it means to be strong,
to be spiritually strong.
Another word that I think would be good to describe this
is being spiritually tough,
toughening up a little bit as Christians.
I believe that when John the Baptist
is out there in the deserts,
waxing strong in spirit,
when Jesus out in the wilderness,
getting strong in spirit,
they're becoming tougher out there
so that they can handle whatever life
and the devil throws at them,
they can withstand in that evil day.
I looked up tough in the dictionary.
What does it mean to be tough?
Number one, strong and durable, not easily broken or cut.
Number two, not brittle or tender.
Okay, definition number five,
capable of great endurance, sturdy, hardy.
And then number six, not easily influenced,
unyielding, stubborn.
Now, of course, this could be negative
if we were tough toward the Holy Spirit's leading
or obviously want to be tender toward the Lord,
tender to the word of God.
But you know what?
This world's trying to influence us too, aren't they?
And so being unyielding and not easily influenced
is actually good when it comes
to what the world is throwing at us, right?
They're trying to get us to bend over
to their way of thinking.
We need to be strong.
We need to be tough and not easily unmoored
when it comes to our faith in the word of God
and what the Bible specifically says.
We need to stand by those doctrines
and not be easily swayed.
Sure, we want to be tender
to the leading of the Holy Spirit,
but we don't want to be yielding
when it comes to this world
and when it comes to the onslaught of the devil
in the evil day.
We want to be strong and durable.
We don't want to be tender
when it comes to standing up to the world and the devil.
We want to be capable of great endurance.
We want to be sturdy.
We want to be hardy.
We don't want to be soft, weak, and easily unmoored
and easily thrown out of the path that God has us on.
And so we want to be strengthened in the inner man.
Now, if you would go to 1 Peter chapter five,
1 Peter chapter number five.
1 Peter five, while you're turning there,
the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15, 58,
therefore, my beloved brethren,
be ye steadfast, unmovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord
for as much as you know,
that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
Well, look, in order to be steadfast and unmovable,
you gotta be strong.
You gotta be tough in order to be unmovable.
But also he says, your labor's not in vain.
Well, guess what?
It takes strength to perform labor, okay?
Typically, when we hear the word labor,
we're not talking about an easy task, okay?
Now, some of you may be lucky enough
to where you have a job and it's super easy
and you get paid well to just do something really easy.
I don't know, maybe you're like George Jetson.
You just kind of push a button
and just kind of sit back or whatever.
You know, that's not really labor though, is it?
When we think of labor,
we think of somebody who's actually struggling
and working hard and you're out there digging
or you're out there lifting something heavy.
You know, you're laboring, you're working hard.
And obviously, that doesn't necessarily have to be physical.
There's a psychological hard labor
where the Bible says that pastors labor
in the word and in doctrine, right?
Because much study is awareness of the flesh.
So when I say difficult,
it doesn't necessarily have to be physical.
Sometimes you're mentally laboring.
Maybe you have a computer job or something,
but yet sometimes you have to work pretty hard.
You know, you're laboring, you're struggling.
You think of a woman being in labor, okay?
That's hard work.
It takes strength.
The mother is gonna have to be strong
in order to endure all that pain and suffering
and still be able to push out that baby
at the end of it all.
It's not easy, is it?
And so we need to be strong in the Lord
if we're gonna be steadfast, if we're gonna be unmovable.
And if we're gonna keep laboring,
it's gonna take strength to perform labor.
1 Peter 5, verse 8 says,
"'Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary,
the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about,
seeking whom he may devour,
whom resist steadfast in the faith.'"
And I love this last part here,
because it's so true,
knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished
in your brethren that are in the world.
You see, if you know that,
it'll actually make you better at resisting the devil
steadfast in the faith.
How can I resist the devil?
How can I be steadfast in the faith?
Part of the battle is just knowing
that the same afflictions are accomplished
in your brethren that are in the world.
Now, what does that mean?
It means that sometimes as Christians,
we can get this idea of,
oh man, I have it so hard.
You don't understand how hard it is for me serving Christ.
Here's what you don't understand,
is how hard it is for everybody on this planet.
Guess what?
Everybody's having a hard time.
Everybody is doing something hard.
Everybody is going through stuff.
And to sit there and say,
oh man, you know, it's just too hard
being gung ho for the Lord.
It's just too hard being a dedicated member
of a church like Faithful Baptist Church,
or it's just too hard to be involved in soul winning.
It's just too hard to live a separated Christian life.
Can I explain something to you?
The same temptations, the same tribulations,
the same trials, the same troubles,
the same suffering is accomplished in your brethren
that are in the world.
I believe he means brethren, saved brethren, Christians.
Fellow Christians that are out living in the world,
you think they have it easier than you?
You're working hard to read your Bible,
to pray, to be in church, to go soul winning,
while your brother is out there
just being worldly and living whatever.
Hey, you know what?
He's gonna go through stuff too.
If you're a worldly Christian, you're gonna suffer.
If you're a godly Christian, you're gonna suffer.
I mean, let me just explain something to you.
Every single person in this life is going to suffer
with no exceptions, zero exceptions to that, okay?
The Bible says the way of transgressors is hard.
So a life of sin is not the easy way out.
Being a worldly Christian is not the easy way out,
because whether you're a really dedicated good Christian
or a really worldly lazy Christian,
you're both gonna suffer, okay?
But even beyond that, everyone in the world is suffering.
Christians suffer and heathens suffer.
You think Buddhists are suffering tonight?
That's what their whole religion is about.
Their religion teaches that all of life is suffering.
That's like one of the key tenets of Buddhism
is that everything about life is ultimately suffering.
So hmm, I wonder if 500 million Buddhists
are suffering today.
Well, if you ask them, they'll say, yeah, we're suffering.
That's the basis of our whole worthless religion, okay?
Are Hindus suffering today in India?
Yeah, I'll bet they are.
Are atheists suffering?
Are agnostics suffering?
Everyone in this world is suffering.
Christian, pagan, they're suffering, okay?
Then even amongst Christians,
dedicated Christians are suffering
and worldly Christians are suffering, okay?
But not only that,
even just if we looked at other metrics of people,
you know, rich people are suffering today
and poor people are suffering.
You say, no, no, no, the rich people, man,
they've got it made in the shade
and it's so easy for them and they love it.
You know, rich people are some of the most miserable people
and that's a form of suffering.
If you're tortured inside,
you might be surrounded by all the food and all the luxury,
but if you're tortured on the inside,
that's the worst kind of suffering that there's.
You know, the Bible says a spirit of man
will bear his infirmity,
but a wounded spirit who can bear?
You know, we can put up with a lot of physical adversity
if our spirit is strong,
but if our spirit's messed up,
and let me tell you something,
you could look at some of the wealthiest,
most prosperous, easy street-type countries in the world
and you'll see that they're suffering.
You know, there's this thing
called the OECD Happiness Index
and I've preached about it before,
how it loves to rank countries like Denmark and Sweden,
like at the top of the Happiness Index,
but then you could also look
at how those countries per capita
are consuming more antidepressants
because the Happiness Index is just about
how good they have it as far as just
they've got everything there comfortable and it's nice
and they have wealth and prosperity and whatever,
but that doesn't actually do anything for them on the inside
and so if the rich are not suffering,
then why are these rich countries,
these rich Scandinavian countries,
consuming so many antidepressants?
Why are people there committing suicide?
Why are so many rich people committing suicide?
Why are celebrities committing suicide?
Why are celebrities getting in the car
and driving 100 and some miles an hour
and getting in a fatal accident?
Because they don't really care whether they live or die.
Why are celebrities caught shoplifting
and driving drunk and taking drugs
and they're on their seventh spouse?
Well, they must be really happy and well-adjusted people.
Let me tell you something, rich people are suffering.
You know, the sleep of a laboring man is sweet,
but the abundance of the rich
will not suffer him to sleep
and so rich people are suffering and poor people are suffering.
Obviously poor people are suffering, right?
Because they're struggling to make ends meet,
they have to work really hard,
they don't have money for basic necessities,
they're skipping things that they need,
they might be skipping food, skipping meals.
So yeah, poor people are suffering, rich people are suffering.
People who work hard, they're suffering
because man, they're working hard and working hard hurts.
Right, getting out there and laboring and working hard,
that's endurance of pain.
But you know, lazy people are suffering too today.
Drive around the city and look at all the lazy bums
refusing to work, holding up their sign,
that's filled with lies
and they're holding up a sign with lies on it,
refusing to work and lazy.
But you know what?
I feel bad for those people
because those people are miserable.
Look into their eyes, look at their face.
They look like they're having fun.
And you know what?
I go around the city,
I do a lot of traveling around the city on foot,
I walk around the city, I run around the city,
I ride my bike around the city
and you kind of get a little closer up
when you're on the sidewalk, walking or running or biking,
you get right up to these people and you see these people.
And let me tell you something,
it's depressing to be around these people
because they're not having fun,
they're not happy, the drugs aren't working, okay?
And so they're suffering, the lazy people are suffering,
people who work hard are suffering,
rich people are suffering, poor people are suffering,
Christians are suffering, pagans are suffering,
everyone's suffering.
So why don't you toughen up?
Why don't you buck up?
Why don't you get strengthened in your inner man
so that you can endure the cross that God has
for you to bear and keep serving God?
Why don't you strengthen your inner man
and be dedicated to the Lord?
And don't be a worldly Christian,
if you're gonna suffer as a worldly Christian,
you might as well suffer as a dedicated Christian
because you're gonna suffer no matter what.
Nobody has it easy in life, my friend, everybody is hurting,
everyone goes through pain, period, okay?
There's no person that just goes through,
you say, no, no, no, there's these people
and they're pampered and they're given everything
that they want, but then they just have
some emotional torture in their head
because that's not natural or normal
for a human to be like that.
There's no way around it, friend.
You know, when women give birth, they suffer,
they go through pain.
No, no, no, just take a painkiller.
But you know, here's the thing, women,
yeah, they take the painkiller, but you know what?
That can cause problems too.
And it's like, oh, you know, it's too much suffering
to have the baby, I'll get a C-section.
Well, I'll bet you that the women who are here
that have had a C-section would say,
you know, there's pain associated with that C-section
because you have to recover from it
and it's, you know, it's its own, it's its own thing.
Any ladies out there mad at me
or do you all agree with me on that?
Who agrees with me?
I only wanna hear from people who agree with me.
Hey, a C-section's hard in its own way.
All right, I got some people, all right.
Got some ladies agreeing with me
for those that are watching at home, all right?
Hands went up.
Look, the point is, yeah, the C-section's hard.
Giving birth naturally is hard.
You know, you can have problems with the epidural.
You're still gonna have after birth pains.
You're still gonna have to go,
there's still gonna be some kind of trouble
or hassle or pain or suffering.
There's just no way around it, my friend, okay?
You know, people who exercise go through pain
because exercise hurts if you're doing it right, okay?
You know, if you're like Obama in that hotel gym,
you know, it doesn't really hurt.
But if you're doing it right, there's some pain involved.
Rah, you know?
But you know, people who don't exercise,
I've noticed that they go through pain too.
Here's the thing, I exercise a lot.
I love exercising.
I'm kind of an exercise junkie.
And you know what?
Sometimes I literally just wake up
in the middle of the night
and my whole body is just screaming in pain.
Like torturous pain.
Like I'll wake up in the middle of the night
and my muscles are just screaming at me.
My muscles are just throbbing and I'm just like,
so much pain that just wakes me up in the middle of the night
who knows what I'm talking about?
Yeah, you know?
Because if you work out hard, man,
your muscles will scream at you sometimes
in the middle of the night.
And sometimes I'll just be laying there like,
why do I do this to myself?
Like why?
Is this the way life is supposed to be?
You know, and I'm just hurting.
But then I noticed that the people who don't exercise,
they go through pain too.
Because of all the health problems
associated with having a sedentary life
and you know, constantly with just, you know, problems.
Okay?
You know, I remember I worked with this guy that was just,
this is like many, many years ago, long, long time ago.
I worked with this guy and this guy was so out of shape
and he ate the worst food.
Never exercised and I mean, every single morning
we'd go to the gas station and this guy would get
a package of donuts, a big giant Diet Coke
and a couple of extra strength headache medicines.
Like this was this guy's morning deal.
And I said to him, why don't you just buy a big bottle
of those headache medicines?
Why are you buying them two at a time at the gas station?
It didn't make any sense.
You know, why don't you go down to Sam's Club.
I don't know if Sam's Club was around back then,
but why don't you go down to Price Club
or whatever it used to be called
and why don't you get a big giant thousand pack
of this extra strength headache medicine?
Why do you go to the gas station every day
and buy this little single dose
of maximum strength whatever?
You know why?
It's because the guy was so deluded in his mind
that he doesn't think he's gonna have a headache every day.
He thinks that the headache's gonna go away.
But guess what?
When you're eating this breakfast of champions every day,
there's donuts, pre-packaged donuts,
and then this giant Diet Coke.
I never saw him drink water.
This is the summer in Sacramento.
A summer in Sacramento, California
would sometimes be as hot as Phoenix, believe it or not.
It's hit 115.
This guy's just sweating and hot
and it's just Diet Coke and no water.
I've got like a gallon of water and a gallon of Gatorade
and this guy just has like one giant Diet Coke
and a bunch of donuts and then it's like,
oh, I just have this really bad headache
and then the next day he's got another headache
and the next day he's got another headache.
Now look, I'm saying if you don't exercise,
there's pain in that too.
You know, eating healthy sometimes hurts
but not eating healthy hurts too
because you're gonna wake up in the middle of the night
in screaming pain for other reasons.
We're all gonna wake up in the middle of the night
in pain at some point in our lives, okay?
You young people, you may not know this yet
but guess what?
When you're my age, you'll be like, yep,
sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night
in a torturous pain for one reason or another
because that's life, okay?
Life involves suffering and pain.
Go to 1 Peter chapter four, 1 Peter chapter four.
I think you're in chapter five, right?
So just flip right over to chapter four.
Look at 1 Peter chapter four verse 12.
The Bible says, beloved, think it not strange
concerning the fiery trial which is to try you
as though some strange thing happened unto you.
What in the world is happening?
No, he said, don't think it's strange
concerning the fiery trial which is to try you,
not maybe, it's going to try you.
But rejoice in as much as ye are partakers
of Christ's sufferings that when his glory shall be revealed
ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
So instead of being all surprised when something bad happens
being all surprised when you're going through pain
and hard times, why don't you get on the Lord's side
and serve God, then when the suffering comes
it comes for the right reason and then you can rejoice
and say, this is great.
I'm a partaker of Christ's sufferings.
See, here's what I've learned.
Enduring tribulation for Christ brings happiness.
And if you would flip over to James,
you're pretty close to the book of James there.
Just go back a little bit to the left, right?
Look at James chapter five verse 10.
It says, take my brethren, the prophets
who've spoken in the name of the Lord
for an example of suffering, affliction and of patience.
So he's saying, man, think back to the Old Testament.
Think about Moses, Joshua, the judges.
Think about guys like Elijah and Elisha.
Think about Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel,
just the whole gamut of Old Testament prophets
that have spoken in the name of the Lord.
And he said, think about these guys as examples
of suffering, affliction and of patience.
Behold, we count them happy, which endure.
We count them happy, which endure.
You've heard of the patience of Job
and have seen the end of the Lord,
that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.
He's saying, yeah, you look back at God's people
that have suffered and endured hardness
as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.
And these are examples of people who suffered affliction
and they had patience and we count them happy who endure.
Those are the happy people.
They're role models that we wanna be like them.
So enduring tribulation for Christ brings happiness, right?
If I go through persecution for Christ,
that makes me happy to come out the other side of that
and survive that.
There's a sense of accomplishment at the end of that.
Think about the apostles in the book of Acts,
they get beaten and whipped for Christ
and then they go rejoicing.
Now that might seem strange to you,
but honestly, I think we would probably do the same thing.
If any of us actually took a physical beating for Christ,
yeah, it would hurt.
We could get discouraged, but I think a lot of us
would just be like, wow, I just got beaten
for preaching the gospel.
This is just such a clear cut case of rewards.
You know what I mean?
I don't even have to wonder if I got rewards for this.
I mean, this is just clear.
Like, I don't know, like, is this persecution?
It's like, this is persecution.
And you know what?
And I got through it.
It hurt, it was bad, it was pain, but it's over.
Here's what I've noticed about life.
No matter how bad it gets, it always ends eventually.
Anything that we go through in life,
I think about all the painful, hard things
I've gone through in my life, they're all over.
Nothing hurts right now.
Okay, I'm up here preaching, okay?
And it's, you know what?
It's 6.45 p.m. and it's September 25th, 2022,
and nothing hurts.
My arms don't hurt, my legs don't hurt, my head doesn't hurt.
I feel pretty good right now.
That means that all the pain I've ever had in my life
up to this point is over.
Now there's gonna be other pain in the future,
but guess what?
It's gonna end too.
But enduring tribulation for Christ
brings joy, rejoicing happiness.
Now you're in James, just go back a few more pages to left
to Hebrews chapter 12, and let me say this.
Not only does enduring tribulation bring happiness,
but the opposite of that is true.
Enduring the consequences of your sins is depressing.
Enduring the consequences of your own sins is depressing.
Now, like I said, everybody suffers, right?
The people who do life right suffer.
The people who do life wrong suffer, okay?
But when you suffer for doing right,
when you suffer for well-doing, there's joy there.
There's rejoicing.
Whereas when you suffer as a result of your own mistakes
and your own sins and you're enduring the consequences
of your sins, it can be depressing.
Look, I've gone through stuff in my life
that was hard to go through, but you know what?
The worst stuff is the stuff that was my own fault.
It always feels so much better to go through pain
that is someone else's fault,
or that's just an external suffer.
But when you do it to yourself,
because you did something stupid or you blew it,
I mean, that's really depressing.
And look what the Bible says in Hebrews 12, verse 11.
It says, now, no chastening.
Well, before I read this, let me say this.
What is chastening?
Chastening is when God disciplines us because we've sinned.
So wouldn't chastening fall under the umbrella
of suffering for your own mistakes,
suffering because you sinned?
Enduring the consequences of your sins.
And so it says, no chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous but grievous.
Nevertheless, afterward, it yielded the peaceable fruit
of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
Wherefore, lift up the hands which hang down
and the feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet,
lest that which is lame be turned out of the way,
but let it rather be healed.
And the part I wanna focus on there is verse 12
where it says, lift up the hands which hang down
and the feeble knees.
What does that mean?
The hands which hang down the feeble knees is this.
You know, in order for your hands to hang down,
basically your shoulder posture is drooping
and then your hands get lower, okay?
And if I were to have you stand up and just say,
hey, naturally go into like a depressed slump,
this is what you do.
You'd loosen your knees and you'd hunch your shoulders.
Your knees would bend, right?
You'd go like, ugh.
And your knees would bend
and your shoulders would go forward, right?
So that's why it's saying lift up the hands which hang down
and the feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet.
He's saying, look, obviously when you're chastened
for your sins, it could be depressing,
but get over it, you know, deal with it, right?
Don't be overcome by that sadness or depression,
but pick yourself up and move forward
because in the long run,
it's good for us to be exercised thereby
and it's gonna yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness
if we can endure chastening, right?
Because the Bible says that we endure chastening.
That's the wording that it uses
because obviously chastening is no fun.
But if we get through it, it's good for us,
but let's just face the reality.
When we endure the consequences of our sins, it's depressing.
That's why he even has to say,
lift up the hands which hang down.
He wouldn't have to say that
if the hands weren't hanging down, why?
Because the tendency is to be depressed
about enduring the punishment of our sins
or enduring the consequences of our sins.
So if everybody's gonna suffer,
I'd rather suffer for doing right
than to suffer for doing wrong.
Because if I suffer for doing right, I'm happy.
If I suffer for doing wrong, I'm depressed about it
and then I have to make a point to like,
okay, I gotta lift up the hands which hang down,
and it's a struggle.
Why?
Because the tendency is that it's pretty depressing.
And so all of this points to the fact
that we need to work on toughening up spiritually,
being strong in the Lord and in the powers of might,
being strengthened according to the inner man
so that we can endure the hardness of the Christian life.
Because if we don't endure the hardness
of the Christian life,
and we try to take the easy way of being worldly,
the easy way of quitting church,
the easy way of being like everybody else around us
in this heathen world, well, guess what?
When you go that easy way, you know what you're gonna find?
New pain and suffering that you haven't imagined yet
that's gonna have no silver lining,
that's not gonna bring joy.
It's just gonna make you sad.
I guarantee you that godly Christians
are happier than worldly Christians.
I guarantee you that dedicated Christians
are much happier than unsaved people in this world, okay?
Even the apostle Paul getting beaten and thrown in jail
is happier than some rich person
with their night on the town.
Because of emotional torment and torture on the inside,
and even though they might be smiling
and laughing on the outside,
they're hurting on the inside,
because that's not what brings true happiness to anyone,
whether saved or unsaved.
And so turn if you would in your Bible now
to Jeremiah chapter 12, Jeremiah chapter 12.
Jeremiah chapter 12, let me give you another pair of thoughts
to think about, be strong, when life gets hard,
be strong, endure, don't faint.
And here's a verse for that, Proverbs 24, 10,
if thou faint in the day of adversity,
thy strength is small.
What's God saying there?
He's saying, I'm not impressed
if you faint in the day of adversity,
that just means that you're weak.
If you faint in the day of adversity,
your strength is small.
So we don't wanna be that guy,
we want to be strengthened in our inner man,
we wanna be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.
So number one, be strong when it's hard.
In the day of adversity, be strong,
withstand in the evil day,
stand against the wiles of the earth,
be strong when things are hard,
but secondly, be strong when it's easy.
Because what does the Bible say in Jeremiah 12, five,
if you're there, Jeremiah 12, five,
if thou has run with the footmen and they have wearied thee,
then how can thou contend with the horses?
And if in the land of peace,
wherein thou trustest, they wearied thee,
how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?
What's he saying here?
He's saying, look, if you can't be strong when it's easy,
you're never gonna be strong when it's hard.
If you can't run with the footmen,
how do you think you're gonna run with the horses?
You know, when things are smooth, you can't handle it,
what are you gonna do when Jordan is overflowing
all his banks and the swelling of the Jordan?
It's gonna sweep you downstream and knock you down.
So be strong when it's hard,
but be strong when it's easy, okay?
Because if you can't be strong when it's easy,
you'll never be strong when it's hard.
You've got to be strong in the Lord
and the power of his might.
You know, the tribulations that we endure today
as Christians in 2022 America are very light afflictions.
Okay, we, you know, we go to Facebook jail,
we don't actually go to jail jail, you know?
So, I mean, we go through stuff.
Yeah, we go through, our church has been through some stuff,
but you know what?
It's not like our church has been through
some kind of extreme brutal persecution.
You know, in the words of the apostle Paul
in Hebrews chapter 12, he said,
you've not yet resisted under blood striving against sin.
Have we as a church resisted under blood?
You know, have any of us bled for our faith in Christ?
No.
And so if none of us have shed a single drop of blood,
you know, we must not be getting persecuted that hard,
but yet some queer will be out in the parking lot
holding up a sign about our church.
And some people would just literally
just turn around and drive away
cause they can't face that little queer in the parking lot
that's protesting our church.
You know what I mean?
Some lesbian is out there, you know, waving a sign
and literally some people would quit the church over that.
Now that doesn't happen at our church
for the past several years,
but it has happened historically at our church.
But some of our pastor friends
are going through that right now
where their churches will be surrounded on a Sunday morning
by fags and lesbians holding up signs.
And then, you know, I say,
if you can't walk through that gauntlet
and still get to the Sunday morning service, you're weak.
There, I said it, you're a weak Christian.
Not only that, I consider you pre-trib.
Because you haven't even really gone
through a real tribulation yet,
and you're already trying to bail out.
You try to, you're just like rapturing yourself
out of there before the tribulation even starts.
You're like, oh man, post-trib after the tribulation.
Okay, well then can you handle some stuff, Mr. Post-trib?
You know, we got some post-trib pre-tribbers out there
because they're post-trib in their doctrine,
but they're pre-trib when it comes
to what they want to deal with.
You know, they're just like ready to beam out of here
before anything happens, okay?
And so we need to put things in perspective.
There's no chapter in Fox's Book of Martyrs
about people who went to Facebook jail
or had to deal with protestors
or had their bank account closed
or had some family member break fellowship with them
or got made fun of at a family reunion or something.
You know, there's no chapter like that
in Fox's Book of Martyrs.
So we need to put things in perspective
and understand that we have a light affliction here.
And if we can't handle this,
how are we gonna handle it when things get tough?
Because we're running with the footmen here.
None of us have really run with the horses yet
when it comes to being persecuted,
myself included.
You know, I look at what some of my pastor friends
are going through and people have often asked me,
they said, you know, the stuff that your pastor friends
are going through right now as far as persecutions,
you know, guys like Pastor Shelley, Pastor Mejia,
you know, they asked me like, when you've been persecuted,
was it ever that bad?
And that's the easiest question for me to answer.
No, it wasn't that.
I've never been persecuted as hard
as some of these other guys are being persecuted.
You know, that's just an easy answer
because I look at the stuff that they've gone through
and I'm like, man, the stuff that I went through
was so much easier than that.
It was so much lighter duty than that, okay?
I'm telling you, my friends,
sometimes it's easy when you're the one going through it
to just kind of freak out and think,
oh man, this is so hard.
But you know, it's all relative, isn't it?
It's all relative.
You know, running a marathon is the ultimate feat
of human endurance until you hear about ultra marathons.
You know, right?
I mean, there's always something else that's harder, okay?
And then the hundred miler, oh, that's the ultimate.
Then there's a 250 miler.
It's just like, what?
So the point is, there's always something worse.
You know, you can sit there, I look at my pastor friends
and I'm like, they're getting persecuted way harder
than I've ever gotten persecuted.
But then even they have not yet resisted
unto blood striving against sin.
They're still sleeping in a soft bed every night
in a climate controlled house with their spouse and children
eating good food, sleeping a good night's sleep,
living in the most prosperous, safe country in the world.
Even my pastor friends where I look at them and I'm like,
wow, these guys are enduring some really hard things.
It's much harder than anything I've gone through.
So I'm not downplaying it
because they're going through worse
than I've ever gone through.
But at the same time though, did they get beaten?
Did they get thrown into prison?
Did they get murdered?
No.
And so you see how it's all relative?
There's always something worse.
There's always something harder.
And so we need to understand that we are running
with the footmen and so we need to be strong when it's easy
so that someday we can be strong when it's hard.
So be strong when it's hard, be strong when it's easy.
Enduring tribulation brings happiness.
Enduring the consequences of your sins is depressing.
So you might as well toughen up and push through
on the spiritual front instead of just taking
that easy way out of quitting
because quitting has its own pain associated with it.
Quitting has its own torment, doesn't it?
Oh, it'd be so nice to quit.
I can just relax, I can just put my feet,
yeah, but then you have to live with quitting.
And then you have to live with the discipline
of being in sin and you don't wanna do that.
And so we wanna make sure that we understand
that enduring tribulation brings happiness.
Enduring the consequence of our sin is depressing.
You're gonna suffer.
You might as well do the one that has rewards,
which brings me to my next point.
Enduring tribulation brings rewards.
The Bible, you don't have to turn there,
but actually if you would turn to 2 Timothy 3.
But enduring tribulation brings rewards.
Revelation 2 10 says this, you're turning to 2 Timothy.
Revelation 2 10, fear none of those things
which thou shalt suffer.
Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison
that you may be tried and you shall have tribulation
10 days, be thou faithful unto death
and I'll give thee a crown of life.
If you're faithful unto death, you get the crown of life.
Tribulation brings rewards.
You get rewarded for whatever you go through.
But not only does tribulation bring rewards,
tribulation brings glory.
There's glory in enduring tribulation.
2 Timothy 3 10, but thou has fully known my doctrine,
manner of life, purpose, faith, long suffering,
charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions,
which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra.
What persecutions I endured, but out of them all
the Lord delivered me.
Sounds like a guy who is able to rattle off
the persecutions he's gone through
cause there's kind of some glory in.
Yeah, you know, I've been through persecutions.
I've been through afflictions.
I've been through it at Antioch.
I've been through it at Iconium.
I've been through it at Lystra.
Why is he rattling this off?
Because there's glory in enduring tribulation.
That's why.
And then the Bible says in verse 12,
yea, and all the will of Godly in Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution.
Everybody who will live godly in Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution.
And then of course, your brethren that are in the world,
they're enduring their own trials and temptations
and testings too.
They're going through bad things too.
They're going through suffering.
Oh, unsaved people, by the way, they're suffering too.
And so how in the world do we wax strong in spirit?
How do we strengthen our inner man?
I mean, it's, you know,
I know how to get strong on the outside, right?
I just go to the gym, lift weights.
Here's the thing.
You know how you get strong on the outside physically,
how do you get strong?
You get strong by doing repetitions, right?
It doesn't matter what the sport, it's repetitions, right?
You're going and you're doing the reps.
You know, you're running the miles,
you're lifting the weights, you're swimming the laps,
repetitions, you're counting,
you're doing it again and again.
Well, here's how you get strong in spirit.
Obviously you got to sow to the spirit.
You know, you've got to spend time feeding the spirit,
reading your Bible, praying, speaking to yourselves
in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.
Obviously by reading my Bible, praying,
soul-winning, going to church, I'm feeding my spirit.
But you know, when it comes to strength training,
feeding is only half of the equation.
You know, I could eat all the right food.
I could drink all the protein drinks or whatever
and think, oh man, this is gonna build some, you know,
I could buy some drink called Muscle Max and drink that.
But if I don't do the repetitions,
I'm not building any strength.
Okay, but if I do the repetitions
and I don't drink the drink,
I'm not saying you got to drink that stupid,
you know, gimmick of a drink,
but I'm saying I got to take in calories.
I got to take in, you know, the right protein
and nutrition and calories from food or whatever.
But the point is, you know, you got to do both.
You got to feed the spirit,
but you also have to do the repetitions.
And you know, the Bible talks about how
as we go through tribulations, we build experience.
Okay, and that makes us stronger.
You know what makes us stronger
is just doing it again and again.
So here's how you get strong in spirit.
You quit taking the easy way out.
You quit bailing out every time it gets hard.
Stop quitting every time things are hard.
Do stuff that's hard, right?
Read your Bible when it's hard.
Pray when it's hard.
Go to church when it's hard.
Go soul winning when it's hard.
When the persecution comes, endure it.
And every time you do that, you come out a little stronger.
So you endure afflictions.
You wax strong in spirit by communing with the Lord,
because you got to get that spiritual nutrition
from communing with the Lord.
And then you also just need the repetitions
of enduring hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
Every time something is hard
and you take the easy way out, you're getting weaker.
Every time something's hard
and you continue on the righteous path,
doing what's right, serving God, taking a stand,
that makes you stronger.
And so we need to be strengthened in the interment.
You know, bodily exercise profit a little,
but the Bible says godliness is profitable into all things.
And we want to exercise ourselves rather unto godliness.
And having that heart exercised unto godliness
and having that spirit that is strengthened
by might of God in the inner man
is going to be a matter of having a spiritual walk
with God every day,
which is feeding us the spiritual nutrition.
And it's going to be a matter
of actually enduring some pain for the Lord.
You know, the pain of just forcing ourselves to serve God
when we don't feel like it,
forcing ourselves to take a stand for what's right,
forcing ourselves to take the path of most resistance
instead of the path of least resistance,
and just taking the easy way out all the time, okay?
That's a recipe for weakness.
Whereas being strong in the Lord and the power of his might
so that we can withstand in the evil day.
How do you withstand in the evil day?
You already withstood on like 20 other slightly evil days.
And then when the mega evil day comes,
now you've got some practice, you've got some strength,
you've built some spiritual muscle, okay?
We are living in a day
where many people are spiritual weaklings,
the least bit of persecution.
And they're just, you know, they're just,
they're out of there, okay?
We don't want to be like that.
Why?
Because we know that number one,
Christ suffered for us.
And so we ought to suffer for him, right?
We owe him, we owe him everything.
We're not our own, we're bought with a price.
You know, we ought to serve God
because it's the right thing to do.
But you know what?
If that isn't enough for you, how about this?
How about the fact that if you quit and slack off
and become lazy and become weak and become worldly,
you're gonna go through just as much pain
as the guy who does everything right.
So it's just like, oh man, exercise, oh man,
that hurts too much.
Okay, well enjoy the pain that comes from not exercising.
You know, everybody's gonna go through pain.
And it's like, oh man, serving God,
going to faithful word, going soul winning,
that's too hard.
You know what's gonna be even harder
is the stuff you have to deal with
when God's not blessing you.
Because man, when God's blessing you,
even if you're working hard, his yoke is easy
and his burden's light compared to what people
out there are going through.
And you know what?
People out there, they're committing suicide,
they're popping drugs, they're upset,
and it's not because they went soul winning too much.
It's not just, I just can't take
this Bible reading schedule anymore.
You think that's what they're doing?
Huh?
I just can't handle it anymore.
The soul winning's too hard.
I'm gonna go through it.
The soul winning's too hard.
I'm gonna go kill myself.
No, they don't.
They're doing all the wrong things
and killing themselves and being super depressed,
super sad, super upset.
You say, I don't wanna go through pain.
Well, you know, if you don't wanna go through pain,
then you know what?
Why don't you just realize that that's literally impossible
and so choose which pain you wanna go through.
I'd rather go through the pain of serving God
so I can get the rewards, get the glory,
have the joy, the rejoicing,
rather than the regret and the sadness
and the depression that comes with being an idiot, okay?
Being wise, does the wise man go through pain?
All day long.
You know, look at Asaph.
Asaph was a super godly man and you know what Asaph said?
He said, man, I feel like I'm just chastened every day.
I'm just, I'm plagued every morning.
You know, but at the end of the day,
but then he looked and realized that you know what?
The people out there, they're going through pain too.
It's just different pain.
The difference is that my pain has a reward.
Their pain is a bad kind of pain that has no reward.
It's the one that gets you depressed, okay?
And so be strengthened in the inner man by his might.
And the inner man by his might,
wax strong in spirit and just make the decision tonight
and say, you know what?
I'm gonna be tough spiritually.
I wanna be tough spiritually.
I don't wanna be a spiritual weakling.
You know, here's the last verse I'll leave you with.
Watch ye, stand fast in the faith,
quit you like men, be strong.
Quit you like men means behave yourselves like men.
Act like men, be strong.
And so he's saying, you know, don't be a baby.
Don't be a child when it comes to suffering.
You know, be strong, endure hardness
as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
Let's bow our heads in our word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord,
and we pray that you'd help us all to be strong in spirit.
Lord, strengthen us in our inner man, Lord.
Please just help us to walk with you every day spiritually
so that we can be spiritually nourished
and help us to get in the habit of enduring hardness
for the cause of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it's in his name we pray, amen.