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Now, the part of the chapter I'd like to focus on is beginning there, verse number 10, where the Bible reads, 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. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. And the title of the sermon this morning is, Be Strong in the Lord. The Bible says, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Now if you would go back to the book of Joshua chapter 1, this is a command that's given over and over again in the Bible. God is just constantly telling us in the Old Testament, the New Testament, be strong, be strong, be strong, be strong, over and over again we see that. And he says in Deuteronomy 11, you turn to Joshua 1, let me read for you from Deuteronomy 11, 8, Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land whether you go to possess it. Deuteronomy 31, 6, Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them. For the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee, he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. And Moses called unto Joshua, and said unto him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of a good courage. For thou must go with this people unto the land which the Lord hath sworn unto their fathers to give them, and thou shalt cause them to inherit it. Verse 23, And he gave Joshua the son of Nun a charge, and said, Be strong and of a good courage. For thou shalt bring the children of Israel into the land which I swear unto them, and I will be with thee. Look down at Joshua 1 verse 6, again Moses speaking to Joshua. Be strong and of a good courage, for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance of the land which I swear unto their fathers to give them. So Moses said it to Joshua three times, now the Lord directly is telling it to Joshua. Verse 9, Have not I commanded thee, be strong and of a good courage. Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. Verse 18, Whosoever he be that doth rebel against thy commandment, and will not hearken unto thy words, and all that thou commandest him, he shall be put to death. Only be strong and of a good courage. What does he mean by only be strong? He said look, this is the most important thing. This is the one thing upon which your success or failure depends. Just if you'll only be strong, you'll succeed, he's saying. If you'll only be strong, you will be prosperous and have good success. He says only be strong and of a good courage. Go to chapter 10 verse 25, pages to the right there, chapter 10 verse 25. Joshua said unto them, Fear not, nor be dismayed. Be strong and of good courage, for thus shall the Lord do to all your enemies against whom you fight. Now I don't know, as you've heard all these scriptures that I've just read for you, about eight different scriptures on being strong. Have you noticed a common theme that keeps recurring and an association that God keeps making with being strong? Because when we hear the word strong, that can mean a few different things. Because there are different areas of our life in which we can be strong. For example, the obvious connotation of the word strong has to do with physical strength. And the Bible definitely talks about physical strength. And many great men in the Bible exerted great amounts of physical strength. You know, we think of Jacob in the book of Genesis was a very strong man. And if you remember when Jacob first met Rachel, he lifted the stone off the well's mouth that usually many men had to come together and all worked together to lift the stone. He went and lifted it on his own. Later in his life, he wrestled with the man most of the night, or a good portion of the night. And even when his leg was out of joint, he continued wrestling. And if anybody's ever done any wrestling, you know that wrestling is very, very physically exerting. Any kind of fighting, you know, you look at boxing or kickboxing, and you know the rounds are just a few minutes long. But wrestling, often the rounds are one minute long, two minutes long. Because when you're wrestling, your whole body is engaged, you're using all your strength. And it's very intense, and that 60 seconds, or that 120 seconds, you say, well I could do anything for 120 seconds, but that, those are the longest 60 seconds of your life. You know, when you're wrestling. And Jacob wrestled and wrestled. And you say, well that was just because he wanted it so bad, and it was coming from his heart. But let me tell you something. No matter how much your heart wants it, you gotta have some muscle on your body. You have to have some physical strength to be able to wrestle like that. I don't care how bad you want it, okay? You know, we see other great men in the Bible like Elisha, plowing with the oxen. We see men in the Bible like David, who could break a bow of steel with his bare hands. You know, we see all kinds of men throughout the Bible who are physically strong. And you know what? I think there's something to be said for that. I think that being physically strong is a virtue. Now that's not the main thing I want to deal with this morning, because the Bible is usually dealing with spiritual strength and other types of strength. But let me say this. In the Bible, being physically strong is a virtue, and God never praises anyone for their physical weakness and says, you know, strive to be a weakling. And we as men today especially should strive to be strong men. Now how did Jacob get so strong? Well, he's a hard worker. I don't think he had a gym membership, you know, I mean at least it's not recorded in Scripture, you know, maybe so, but Jacob was a man who was a very hard worker. That was the thing that throughout his whole life stands out about him. Every time you look at him, he's always working very hard. He's not a lazy man whatsoever. And so therefore he gained strength, and if we think about it, throughout history, men have done physical and physically demanding jobs, haven't they? Go to Genesis chapter 3 if you would, Genesis chapter number 3. God talks about this in Genesis chapter 3 when he's dealing with man after he has sinned. And he says in verse number 19 of Genesis chapter 3, In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out of it wast thou taken, for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return. So God's explained to Adam that throughout his life he's going to earn his bread, he's going to make his living by the sweat of his face. And throughout history, most people have had very physical jobs. Now there are some people obviously who had jobs that were not as physical. It's always been that way. But throughout history, the vast majority of people had a physically demanding job. Most people have been farmers throughout the history of our world. Many people have been blacksmiths or other types of jobs that are physically demanding. Even a person who's a shepherd is constantly picking up the sheep and lifting animals and doing a lot of walking and a lot of running and all those types of things. And so mankind throughout history has been very strong. Now today, because of all the modern conveniences, a lot of us have jobs that are not physically demanding at all. And I know that my job can kind of go either way. Sometimes I'm hauling around big heavy ladders, sometimes I'm climbing around and doing things that are physically exerting, carrying heavy tools. Other times I'm sitting at a computer for days and days on end. You know, sometimes I'm out doing a lot of walking, other times I'm doing something that's more sedentary. But I'll tell you something, if you're a man and you have a job that is a very sedentary job, I would recommend getting out and doing some kind of physical activity so that you do not become a weakling because we should be strong. Men and there's a lot of scripture on this, I'm going to get into more scriptures on this. The Bible says, for example, in Proverbs 24-5, a wise man is strong, a man of knowledge increase its strength. And today a lot of men, because of the effeminacy of our culture, and because men have become such little sissies, they almost make a point to demonstrate how weak that they are and they wear it as a badge to be delicate and dainty and weak. They put on their skinny jeans and they prance around and the way that they gesture and their mannerisms are weak, the way that they act is in a weak way that is deferential. And look, I'm telling you something, weakness is not something that characterizes the great men of the Bible. They weren't putting on a pair of skinny jeans and getting their faux-hawk just right as they went out to battle the Philistines and as they went out to slay Goliath. Men in the Bible had physical strength. Now you say, what about the woman? You know what? Women are also, and you may be surprised by this, but the Bible also teaches that strength is a virtue for women also. Now the Bible is really clear that the woman is the weaker vessel. The Bible tells us that in 1 Peter 3 that we should give honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel. Meaning we should respect her and understand the fact that she is the weaker vessel. But that does not mean that she should be as weak as she can. Now is it a fact that women are weaker than men? Absolutely. But does that mean that they should strive to be weak and seek to be weak? No, the Bible talks about the virtuous woman in Proverbs 31, that she girdeth her loins with strength and strengtheneth her arms. So she's not a weak woman. Now I think it's fine for a woman to be strong and I think many times women are admonished to be strong and have strength. Now you know, if your wife is stronger than you, that's a problem. It's time for you to hit the gym, alright? But you know, there's nothing wrong with being strong for a man or a woman. Physical strength is a good thing. But beyond physical strength, when we want to talk about spiritual strength, and most of the time when the Bible talks about being strong, it's not talking about physical strength. Sometimes it is. Most of the time it's talking about an internal strength, a spiritual strength, which is even more important than being physically strong. You see, the Bible says bodily exercise profited little, but godliness is profitable unto all things. He said, exercise thyself rather unto godliness. What does that mean? That means if I have the choice between being physically strong and spiritually strong, I'm going to choose to be spiritually strong. Not to say that it's bad or wrong or unimportant to be physically strong, but it's much more important to be spiritually strong. If you're going to the gym and putting in hours at the gym, and you're putting in less time reading your Bible, less time praying, less time soul winning, less time in church, you've got the wrong priorities because yeah, you're getting a little bit of profit from what you're doing down at the gym, but you're going to get much more profit in all areas of life by exercising yourself unto godliness. And just as people who want to be in shape have to exercise or work hard on a regular basis and not be inconsistent, being spiritually strong takes the same kind of dedication and effort and motivation as becoming physically strong. Now many of you, if you want to be physically strong, you don't need to join a gym. Many of you that have a more physical job, you just need to start working harder at your job. Start working faster and harder at your job, that'll get you in shape. Just move a little faster, you know, lift things and you'll get in shape just fine. Those of you that have a more sedentary job, obviously it's more of a challenge. But what is the thing that came up in those eight scriptures over and over again when God is telling us to be strong and Moses is telling Joshua to be strong and the Lord's telling Joshua to be strong, it's always associated with these words, fear not. Did you notice that? Or be of a good courage, right? Which courage would be the absence of fear. And so he says, only be not afraid, fear not, be of a good courage. I mean, over and over again, every single time he's bringing up strength, the opposite of being a strong person is being a fearful person. Basically fear is weakness. Now you say, well is fear always wrong? Well the only time the Bible ever talks positively about fear, out of all the hundreds of mentions, is when he talks about fearing the Lord. And you know what? We are weak compared to him. I mean, when it comes to him, we're very weak. And so being weak in the presence of the Lord, that makes perfect sense because he is the boss, he is God, he is the creator of all things, and we should stand before him with fear. And some people will say, well fear doesn't really mean fear, it just means respect. Okay, then why did he say fear and trembling? I don't just tremble about things I respect. I tremble before something that I'm afraid of. And so when the Bible says fear God, don't try to change that, it means fear God. Have a healthy fear of God. And you say, well but the Bible says there is no fear in love for perfect love casteth out fear because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. Yeah you're right, but are you perfect? Am I perfect? No. You see, if we keep God's commandments to a T, and if we do all the right things and live a life of righteousness, you're right, we have nothing to fear. But because we are imperfect, and because we do commit sin, and because we do make mistakes, we have to have a healthy dose of the fear of God saying, man I better watch out, I better repent of what I'm doing, I better get my sins in check and get my body under control, because otherwise God is going to judge me, and God's going to chastise me. It's just like children fear their parents because of the punishments that are doled out. The Bible says, furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence. Okay? Why? We had respect and a fear for the fact that they're going to correct us, and it says of course, you know, that whom the Lord loveth he chasteth and scourgeth every son and we receiveth. And so we ought to fear that scourging. We ought to fear that punishment. And we ought to realize that, you know, yes when we are doing right and doing well we have nothing to fear, but that none of us is going to be at that place all the time. And that's why we're told over and over again to fear the Lord, to fear God. But any other type of fear is the wrong fear. We should not fear the devil. We should not fear our fellow man. The Bible says, Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. The Bible tells us that the fear of man bringeth a snare. And so strength, yes physical strength, strength that's a spiritual strength is an absence of fear. It's a courage. It's a boldness that we see in someone that is strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Now, often boldness or courage or strength in a man is often confused with pride and arrogancy and haughtiness. These are two different things, because sometimes people will look at somebody who is a strong leader or somebody who is a man who is strong in the Lord and in the power of his might or someone who is bold or someone who has confidence and they will accuse that person of pride, arrogancy, haughtiness. Now, yes it is possible for someone who is a strong person to cross that line and become prideful and become arrogant. But look, pride and arrogancy the Bible says the Lord hates. So we want to be careful in our quest for strength and our quest to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Again, this goes for male and female. Strength is an attribute that should be in both genders. As we strive for strength we should beware of pride, arrogancy, and haughtiness. You say, well what's the difference? How can I become strong and courageous and bold and confident without becoming proud and arrogant and haughty? How do you do it? Well here's how. Notice what he says over and over again, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. See pride is when we think that we are better than we ought to think of ourselves. When we look at ourselves and we think that we are better than the people around us, we look at ourselves and we think, man am I really just a great person. I'm a great Christian. You know, unsaved people are the worst at this. Because the biggest reason why people don't get saved is because of pride. Because it takes a humble person to accept the free gift of God which is eternal life. See the proud person wants to earn their own way into heaven. The proud man wants to boast. And the Bible says it's not of works lest any man should boast. And so you often see unsaved people with a lot of pride. You'll knock on their door, we were just out soloing on Wednesday, we had a couple of people give us this answer because we were in a wealthier neighborhood. When you're in a wealthier neighborhood, people have more pride. And we had a few different people tell us, you know, man I'm just a great person. I've lived a wonderful life. That's why I'm going to heaven. And that's a very proud, arrogant, and haughty answer to give, isn't it? But you see a person can be strong and bold and confident without being prideful, without being arrogant, and without being haughty. And let me tell you how, because the Bible says, for the Lord shall be thy confidence and shall keep thy foot from being taken, Proverbs 3.26. It says be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. You see the proud person says I can do all things because of me, and the humble and yet bold person says I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. The humble person says without Jesus Christ I can do nothing. Without him I am nothing. You know, by him we live and breathe and have our being, the Bible says. We can do nothing without him. He gets all the glory. He gets all the praise. Everything that we do is because he gave us the power and the ability to do it. Any strength that I have can be removed by him at any moment. I mean God could strike me with illness tomorrow and cause me to be able to not even have enough strength to get out of bed. Isn't that the truth? I mean God, you say, oh yeah, I have so much strength and I'm so good at business and I'm going and making so much money. You know, God could destroy my business in a moment. He did it to Job. I mean God can destroy our power to get wealth at any time he wants to. And the humble man realizes that every day, gets on his knees and thanks God for everything he has because he said I didn't do it myself, it was all given to me. What hast thou, oh man, that thou hast not received? Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning. And the humble man gets on his knees every day and thanks God for everything that he has and realizes that if God wants to, he can take it away from me at any time and it's not by might nor by power but by his Spirit, saith the Lord, that we can do or accomplish or be anything. But many people will not be able to strike this balance in their life of on the one hand being strong, bold, courageous, and on the other hand being humble and meek and of a lowly spirit. And either mistake is a fatal mistake for you because you see if you're a man, let's say a pastor of a church for example, who's got this part right, humble, meek, and lowly, those are great attributes, important attributes to not think man I'm such a great person, to have a low view of yourself, to be as King Saul was in the beginning, little in his own sight. That's how we should look at ourselves. We should understand that we are but clay in the potter's hand, I mean we are nothing without him. He is everything. Okay, but the pastor who has this right but he fails to have the strength, boldness, and courage, he's just going to get up and preach a weak sermon. He's not going to be authoritative. He's not going to be bold. He's going to keep apologizing for himself and you know there's so many pastors who get up and it's like they just apologize for even being there. You know, I mean I'm not a preacher. I'm not a good preacher and you know I probably need this message more than you do. You know I'm preaching on homosexual, no I'm just kidding, but anyway, you know, people they get up and it's like they're going to always apologize for telling the truth and you know I like what the Bible says about Jesus when he preached. It said he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribe and let me tell you something, I have the same authority that he had because these are his words that I'm preaching today. It's not, I don't have authority because of who I am. My opinion means nothing. My viewpoint means nothing. My words should all be taken with a grain of salt this morning, but God's word has all authority and all power and when I preach God's word, I don't have to preach it hoping it's right and say, well, you know, here's my opinion, take it or leave it. You know, if I'm preaching it directly from the Bible, I know it's right and I have the confidence to get up and to say it loud and clear. You know, you ever ask people a question for a raise of hands and some people are kind of like, you know, they don't have, now if you ask people a question that they know, their hand goes up, but some people, they're not sure, it's like, you know, so a lot of preaching can be like, you know, instead of, if we, if we've studied to show ourselves approved, why are we ashamed? He said, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed. Rightly dividing the word of truth, that means you don't have to get up and get embarrassed to get up and tell the truth, to get up and preach the word of God, to get up and speak the words of the Bible. It's not your word, it's God's word and you know, you're not taking pride in yourself, you're taking pride in the word of God. The Bible says, him that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Not glorying in ourselves up here, glorying in what the word of God says and the wisdom of God. Not our own wisdom, but God's wisdom. And so we need to strive in all areas of life. You may not be a pastor, in fact, none of you are, but you still have areas in your life where you need to balance these two attributes of strength and humility. Strength and humility, that's the balance. Those are the two things that must come together in your life. You must be a strong but humble person. And by the way, this goes for male and female, both. Okay, see as a man, you have different areas. For example, in your job. You don't want to go to your job and be indecisive, weak, fearful, scared. You know, you want to walk in, you want to have confidence, you want to have boldness. You know, you don't want to go out soul winning weak. Because people who go out soul winning and they're weak, they sense that weakness, well this guy doesn't have anything to say. You know, you show up at the door, you know, you wouldn't want me to show you from the Bible, would you? You probably don't want to listen to this. Or the opposite of that would be to go out with confidence and assume that people are going to listen. You know, and I've noticed that people who go out and expect people to get saved, they get more people saved than the people who go out with a defeated, beaten down attitude that expects nothing, that does not expect people to get saved. And they're afraid. People who are afraid to tell people about hell, or people who are afraid to tell people about their sins, or people who are afraid to give the honest truth from the Gospel, you know, they're not going to be effective because they're being weak. They don't have courage, they don't have boldness. The Bible tells us over and over again that when people were filled with the Spirit, the evidence of that was boldness. The Bible says they were all filled with the Holy Ghost in Acts 4.31, and when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake the Word of God with boldness. But my friend, that's not pride. You see, when you go to your job, yes you should have strength and boldness and courage at your job and not be a weakling or a coward, but at the same time, when you go to your job, you should treat other people as if they're more important than you. You should, you know, look out for other people. Let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth. You know, praise them, lift them up, help them. See, the prideful person wants all the attention, they want all the glory, you know, the strong person goes to work with boldness and confidence, does a great job and then gives other people the credit and doesn't go out seeking the glory and the credit for themselves. You know, obviously these principles could be applied in your home, the same thing. You know, for example, ladies, be strong in your home. Now, strength and humility. You see, a mother should be a strong leader unto her children. You know, and the Bible talks about the law of the mother and a mother laying down the law with her children. You know, both parents need to be strong, the husband and the wife need to be strong and lead the children, be strong leadership in the home, both mother and father. But the mother has to be humble enough to submit unto her husband, but she has to be strong enough to boldly lead the children and to boldly rule over them and so on and so forth. So that's another application. But go if you would to 1 John chapter 2. So we've seen a few aspects of strength so far. Number 1, we've seen the aspect of physical strength. Number 2, we've seen strength over and over again coupled with the idea of courage, boldness, or a lack of fear. And we also talked about the fact that courage, boldness, and strength have to be balanced by humility. That's where being strong in the Lord and in the power of his might comes in. Not thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, but being bold because we know that we have the truth. Being bold, look, why can I be a bold soul winner? Because I know that the gospel I preach is right. People who are confused about the gospel, people who are mixed up about the plan of salvation are ineffective at soul winning. People who have got it nailed down and realize salvation is by grace through faith alone, it's not of works, it's not turning over a new leaf, it's not living a good life. People who just have it very clear in their mind that it's all faith and nothing else, believe only, those people are going to be effective because they have confidence in what they're saying. People who have doubts about that need to study more, get it nailed down, get the truth down, and then go out there and preach it boldly. You see, boldness, my friend, strength, courage, going out and preaching with authority. Look, why do I have boldness out soul winning? Because I know that the gospel I preach is biblical. Not because I'm, well I have boldness out soul winning because I'm so smooth, or because I'm so well dressed, or because I'm such an interesting person, or I just have such great people skills. No I don't. You know what the power of God unto salvation is when I go out soul winning? It's not Stephen Anderson. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's the word of God that has the power. And so when you go out you can go with boldness, not because you're good looking, because you're not. Not because you have great people skills, because you don't. Not because you're so smooth, not because you're so skillful, but because you know that the word has power. Expect it to have power. Expect it to do something. Expect it to be a two edged sword. Have boldness in the Lord. Why can I be bold in my home? Because God gave me authority over my wife and over my children. That's where the boldness comes from. Not because, well you know, the reason that I have authority in my home is because I'm always right. The reason I have authority in my home is because I'm smarter than my wife. It's none of those things. Well I just know that if we do things my way it's always going to work out better because I just have better ideas. No, no, the reason I have boldness in my home is because of the fact that God gave me that authority. It's all coming from him. Why can I go to work and have boldness and have courage? Because the Bible tells me that if I have diligence and that if I work hard and that in all labor there is profit, I can know that my labor is not in vain if I'm doing it unto the Lord and not unto men. And so in every area of life our boldness should be derived from God's word, the promises of God, and a daily constant reliance on God. Saying God, give me the strength I need to do my job. God give me to work safely. God give me the wisdom that I need to live my life righteously today. It's all based on him. He gets all the glory, he gets all the credit. How is that pride if God gets all the glory? It's pride when we receive the glory to ourselves, when we think that we are better than someone else just because we happen to have received the word and instruction and knowledge. Did you know that a lot of the things that I preach, that I'm known for preaching, I didn't come up with those things. I learned them from other people. I learned them from church. You know, I went to church like you and heard preaching and was taught things by friends and mentors. You know, you say, well, did you come up with that? It doesn't matter. It's just, it's the truth that matters. It doesn't matter who came up with it. Is it in the Bible? Is it true? Did you know that I was the first person to think of that? You know what? Is there anything? Listen to me. Is there anything whereof it may be said, see, this is new? It has been already of old time which was before us. And so you may think that you came up with something new. If it's new, it's not true, okay? Because everything in the Bible is old. Okay, did I return to 1 John chapter 2? Look at verse 12. I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. I write unto you, fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because you have known the father. I have written unto you, fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, watch this, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. And then of course the famous verse, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the father is not in him. So here we see another aspect of strength, and that strength is a strength to overcome sin. A strength to overcome sin. He says, look, you've overcome the wicked one. And he says, you have overcome the wicked one because you're strong. And then he says, love not the world, neither the things of the world. If any man love the world, the love of the father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the father as of the world. You see, part of strength is overcoming temptation, overcoming sin, and overcoming the wicked one. You see, the strong man, well is he bold, is he confident? Yeah, but you know what, there are unsaved worldly people that have boldness. They're bold to do wrong. They have confidence in themselves, okay? There are worldly sinful people who have physical strength. But wait a minute. The Bible teaches that a man who is a strong man is a man who has the ability to rule over his own spirit. And the Bible says the man that ruleth his own spirit is greater than he that takes a city. And you see, a man who can control his eyes is a strong man. It takes strength, doesn't it? You know, to control your lust, to control your eyes, to control your actions, to control what you do. Because sin wants to take dominion over you. And it takes a strong man to resist the temptation, to yield not to the temptation. And God says here, you're strong, you've overcome the wicked one. You're strong, you're overcoming the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Over and over again, he teaches that. Go if you would to Mark chapter 3. Mark chapter number 3. Mark chapter 3. And so a strong person, physically strong, great. But what's more important than that? Being spiritually strong. See John the Baptist, you know what it says of him as he was growing up? It says the child grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. He says the child grew and waxed strong in spirit and was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel. That was about Jesus and about John the Baptist respectively. Both of them, it says, they became strong in spirit. They waxed strong in spirit. They grew strong in spirit. What does that mean? The strength of their spirit increased over time. So you're not just going to be hearing a sermon like this on a Sunday morning, and the next day, man, you are a strong man. Just as if I decided to start a workout program, I'm probably not going to be that strong the first week. So this is something that we need to continually work on. This is something where we continually wax stronger and grow stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger over time by being disciplined, by being dedicated to it, by being consistent with it. You know, when you're reading your Bible, you're gaining strength. The Bible talks about eating for strength and not for drunkenness. And when we read the word of God, we are eating a spiritual meal and we're getting those spiritual carbohydrates from the bread of life, from the bread of God's word, from the hidden manna of God's word. And we get that spiritual carbohydrate that gives us the strength that's going to allow us to be strong in the Lord to the powers of might. It's going to give us the boldness. It's going to give us the courage. It's going to give us the ability to resist the temptations of Satan, to resist the devil. See Jesus Christ, when he was tempted of Satan, he had not eaten in 40 days and 40 nights. He'd been fasting. And at that time, the devil went to tempt him, knowing that he was physically weak at that time. Someone who has not eaten in 40 days and 40 nights is going to have weakness in their body. But Jesus Christ was strong in spirit. That's how he was able to resist the devil, resist the temptations that he was presented with. Look if you would at Mark chapter 3 verse 27, the Bible reads, no man can enter into a strong man's house and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man and then he will spoil his house. So what that's saying is that if somebody wants to rob my house, and when do thieves usually come, in the daytime or at night? If somebody wants to come to my house at night and rob my house, aren't they going to have to go through me first? You know, if they come into a strong man's house and spoil his goods, they're not going to be able to do it because a strong man is not just going to sit back and just allow his goods to be spoiled. Right? A strong man doesn't just sit back, and you know, you may be one that believes that if somebody breaks in, you need to get under the bed. But that's not biblical. I mean the Bible teaches us that we have the right to defend ourselves, you know, go back to Mosaic law and Exodus talks about the fact that somebody is stealing in the daytime, breaks in in the daytime, they pay back fourfold, somebody breaks in at night and they're killed. Well, that's the way it goes when you break into somebody's house at night. Nobody knows what your intentions are. You're risking your life if you break in at night, okay? Because obviously we have to think of protecting ourselves, protecting our family, and you know, if you're going to spoil the strong man's house, you're going to first have to bind the strong man, right? You're going to have to get him out of the way, get him out of the equation, and then you can spoil the house. Well think about this. Today, you know, we probably wouldn't see a robber coming in and physically binding up the strong man of the house with cords or handcuffs or rope. I mean that could happen, you know, someone could be physically bound. But you know what you probably see a lot is that maybe one person would put a gun to that person and say, you know, don't move. And then they're basically bound in a sense, right? Because even though they're not physically restrained with cords, they're actually there with a gun pointed at them and someone is keeping them in check maybe while the accomplice begins to, you know, go through the cash or the jewelry or the, you know, carrying out the flat screen TV or carrying out, you know, whatever they think is of value in the home. One person has to bind that strong man or, you know, as soon as the robber is getting into the stuff, you know, he's going to find a baseball bat connecting with the back of his head or he's going to find, you know, some kind of a gun or some kind of a weapon that's going to be used to stop him, okay? But how do we apply this when he says no man can enter into a strong man's house and spoil his goods except he first bind the strong man and then he will spoil his house? You know, this is the devil's plan. The devil's plan for destroying the home, the devil's plan for destroying the church, the devil's plan for destroying society is to first bind the strong man first. And that's why today men have been bound and men are being weakened and men are being told not to be strong. They're being bound and weakened and think about it, the devil, if he's going to destroy the home, he must first take dad out of the equation either by taking dad physically out of the home and, you know, where it's just a home with a single mother, you know, that's going to be easier for him to spoil that house than with a strong man there, okay? Or he can take him out of the equation just by binding him. What does that mean? Taking away his power. You know, you remember Samson was a man of great strength and great power and remember Delilah was trying to figure out how she could bind him and take away his strength from him and weaken him. That is what our society is doing. The Delilah's of this world, you know, the rulers of the darkness of this world want to bind the strong man. You know, they want to take away the pastor's power in his preaching. They want to take it away from him. They want to bind him. Now what does binding do to you? It limits you. When you're bound, you have limited movement. You can only move certain parts of your bodies and not others because you're bound. And you know, I've heard preachers sometimes say that, you know, they felt, when they preached, they felt at liberty to preach in a certain venue. Whereas in another venue, they just didn't really feel at liberty to say what needed to be said. Do you understand what that means? Basically they're saying, you know, I felt at liberty because they feel it's going to be well received. They feel just the freedom to just preach. But here's the thing, every preacher should always be preaching that way all the time no matter what venue they're in or they need to sit down and shut up because I'm telling you, preaching is supposed to be Spirit-filled and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there's liberty. So it's not, I just felt at liberty because of the venue. No, no, no. Just feel at liberty because you're indwelt by the Spirit. Feel at liberty because you're filled with the Spirit. And the Spirit brings you the liberty to preach. See, I want to feel at liberty to rule my home as I see fit. I want to feel liberty to pastor the church and preach as I see that God has commanded me to preach. I don't want to feel tied up or bound or, you know, I don't really have the ability to say or do what needs to be done because I'm being constrained by this Delilah force that's out there. And you know, our world has sought to take away the man's authority in his home, to take away the authority from preaching, to take away the authority in so many areas. Why? Because they can be spoiled, so that they can be destroyed. You know, if you want to destroy a church, get rid of the strong pastor or make the strong pastor weak or make the strong pastor bound. You want to destroy a home? You got to destroy that father figure. You've got to turn him into a weakling. You've got to turn him into somebody who doesn't have any real power and strength. And you know, there's so many ways to do that. You know, we hear of women's lib, women's liberation. I would like to start a new movement, men's liberation, to unbind the strong men of this country. I mean, I want to be liberated, my friend. See, the women don't need to be liberated. It's the men that need liberating. They've been bound. They've been bound. They're being taught to be weak and to be subservient and not to take charge and not to be a leader. And you know, pastors in many churches are being taught the same thing where, you know, you've heard of the proverbial, you know, the deacon-run church where basically the pastor doesn't have the liberty to lead. And you know, there are many people today who are part of a movement that is a movement against pastors or a movement against strong pastors. And here's what they say, it's wrong for the church to have one pastor. Who's ever heard of that movement or heard that teaching? Few people. They say, you know, a church having a pastor is totally unscriptural. There should be a board of elders and there are many churches that are run that way by a board of elders. And they say, well, you know, there shouldn't be any pastor at all, just the men in the church should just take turns preaching. Well that's just simply not true. And if we start at Genesis and we go through Revelation, we see that strong leadership is helpful, not a hindrance. We look at the children of Israel, they were led by a leader, Moses. And then when Moses was away, when the cat's away, the mice will play. And remember, Moses went up in the mouth for 40 days and 40 nights and what happened? A weak leader was left in charge, Aaron. And you know, they walked all over him, they talked him into doing stuff that was horrible. They talked him into making the golden calf, they talked him into this wild party that they had of drunkenness and fornication. Why? Because he was a weak leader. And when the strong leader was gone, the board of elders, you know, just basically starts worshipping the golden calf, okay? And then you see that after Moses is gone, Joshua. And then as soon as Joshua dies, what happens? Go into sin, right? So then Othniel rises up, rallies the people for righteousness, and then he dies. They go back into sin. Eud is raised up, a deliverer, to preach righteousness, to bring the people back to the truth, and to fight against their enemies, to be strong physically and spiritually. He's gone. They go back into sin, you know? And then of course the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of Jephthah and so forth and of Samuel, you know, men who God raised up to be a leader. Because we need people to rise up as leaders. That's why Paul said that we need to ordain elders in every city as I had appointed thee. But it wasn't the board of elders, it was a bishop. He said the bishop must be blameless, the husband of one wife. If a man know not how to rule his own house, how should he take care of the church of God? You know, and I'm not saying that a very large church would not have other leadership in place. No question about that. And when a church is larger, there could be other leadership that comes into play. But you know what? This attitude that says, hey, let's get away from strong leadership, let's not have a leader, let's not have a pastor, because we don't want to follow man. No, Paul said follow me as I follow Christ. He said be ye followers of me and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensemble. And for many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame. And over and over again, God is talking about the need for faithful men to teach others also, for leaders, for bishops, for elders, for pastors, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the body of Christ. You know, we need leadership today. Every home needs a strong leader. Every church needs a strong leader. Every nation needs a strong leader. You see, people on this earth need to be led by strong leaders. Children need a strong mother to lead them and guide them and direct them and teach them and train them and educate them. And they need a strong man there to guide and to teach them and to educate them. They need strong leadership from mother and father. You know, every business that's a success is led by a strong leader. That's why even these big corporations that have a board of directors and so on and so forth, you know, they have that strong CEO that leads. That's why they pay these guys the big bucks. Why? Because that guy is worth his weight in gold. Because he's leading the whole company. If you get the wrong CEO, the company is going down. Have you ever been at a job where the boss is a weak leader? Have you ever been at a job where the owner of the company is a weak leader? You know what? You see the company fail. And then you go to another company where the boss is a strong leader. And sometimes you think, man, why does this guy have to be so hard? And sometimes you look at him and say, man, he's too strict. But you respect him. But you do what you're supposed to do. You show up on time and you work hard and you get your job done. You have fear and trembling before him. Do you always like him necessarily? Well, but you know what? On the inside you do. But sometimes you're like, man, chill out. Relax. Hang loose, baby, you know. But I'm telling you, you know, we need strong leadership. We need men that are strong in all areas of life. You know, and we need strength in men and women, both. You say, oh, you know, you're a male chauvinist, you want women to be weak. No, I want women to be strong, I just want men to be stronger. That's all it is. And if you would turn to, let me just close on this. Turn to Haggai chapter 2, Haggai chapter 2. I mean there's so much scripture, you know, I don't have time to read all these verses. I mean there's so many scriptures telling us to be strong. And what does it mean to be strong? Physical strength is good, but that's not the main thing. What does it mean to be strong? It means to have courage, an absence of fear, boldness. What does it mean to be... And look, don't just let this sermon go over your head. I bet a lot of people are just listening to this sermon like, oh, that was a good sermon. No, no, listen to what I'm saying, okay? And apply this to your life. You need to make a concrete decision today. You can't just walk out here and just say, well, I'm going to be stronger. I'm going to be stronger. That's, I mean, that's not going to get you anywhere. You need to walk out and say, okay, what can I do to be stronger? What specific changes am I going to implement in my life to gain strength, to become a stronger person? What am I going to do? You know, well, you say, well, I need boldness. What do I do? How do I achieve boldness? How does the Bible say you get boldness? Pray for boldness, number one. The Bible over and over again talks about praying for boldness. They prayed in Acts 4 that boldness would be granted unto thy servants, and then what do they get? Boldness. Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. So if you want to be strong, pray every day for God to make you stronger. Pray every day for boldness. Pray every day that God will give you courage. That's one way. Number two, you can begin to exercise your strength. You know, if you're a person who wants to be bold as you proclaim God's word, why don't you get experience out soul winning? Why don't you spend time out soul winning and the more doors you knock and the more people to whom you preach the gospel, you know, that's just another repetition that you're doing. And the more strength you're gaining, you're becoming a strong person, you're becoming a strong leader. See how do I become a strong leader with my children? Make rules and enforce them. And here's the thing, strength doesn't look for the approval, you know, of your teenager and say, hey I'm going to make this rule, oh teenager, but is that okay? Is this going to work for you? I mean am I being too strict? No. Strength is saying, no, this is the rule and it's going to be enforced. That's strength. And weakness is when you want to make a rule and you know it's right and you know the Bible teaches it, but you say, I'm just afraid how they're going to react. No, just be strong. Just do it. Now then, do it. Where did I return? Haggai 2? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord, and be strong, O Joshua, the son of Jazadek, the high priest, and be strong, all ye people of the land. So he says, look, we need a strong leader physically. You know the governor of the land was Zerubbabel. He was the governor. He's a physical leader. And then he says, be strong, O Joshua, son of Jazadek. Who was Joshua the son of Jazadek? He was the high priest, a spiritual leader. So we have a strong physical leader, we have a strong spiritual leader, and then he says, be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work, for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts. How do you get strong? You work. You do the work. You know, people talk about working out, but how about just forget the out, work. Do the work. He says, according to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you, fear ye not. Now we started the sermon in Ephesians 6, you remember that? He said, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might, and he said, put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rules of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. And he said that one way that we're going to be strong is by taking unto us the whole armor of God. He said, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, that you may be able to overcome the wicked one and be strong, as he said in 1 John chapter 2. What is the whole armor? Of course, he says, having your loins girt about with truth. See when you have the word of God on your side, doesn't it give you boldness and strength and courage to know, I know what I'm doing is right because I'm doing what God said for me to do. He said, have on the breastplate of righteousness. What does that mean? When you're giving in to temptations of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, that's weakness. So you need the breastplate of righteousness to keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. So what do we need to be strong? What do we need to be bold? What do we need to be of a good courage? Well, we're going to need the truth. The word of God gives us strength. Strengthen thou me according to thy word. We're going to need a righteous lifestyle that will give us strength. That's the breastplate of righteousness. We're going to need our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Your feet are always associated with the gospel because you go out and preach the gospel to every creature. That's going out soul winning. He says that's going to make you stronger. That's going to build your courage and your boldness. He said above all, taking the shield of faith wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, that shield of faith is above all not only to just have the truth, but to believe the truth. Not only to have the promises of God and to know the promises of God, but to believe the promises of God. And look, if I believe the promises of God, I know that I cannot fail. I know that I cannot lose. I cannot be defeated. I cannot be destroyed. I have eternal life. No weapon that is formed against me shall prosper. How could you not be bold with that faith and believing that? I mean think about this. What if you were going out to war, a physical fight? You've got the sword, you've got the shield, you've got the helmet, and you're going out to fight. What if somehow God told you, you will not die in this battle? You will not even receive a scratch. You will not take one arrow. You will not be injured. Be strong and have a good courage. You are invincible. Would you go out there and you'd be bold, right? Say, yeah, let's go, you'd be leading the charge, you're invincible. But here's the thing. You know what? Spiritually, that's the confidence that we should have just knowing that, you know what? My faith will quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. I just have to be strong and have a good courage. I just have to know, you've got to know God's word. You know, I mean, otherwise you need to be ashamed. What's the purpose of a belt? Well, it keeps your pants up. And when your pants aren't up, you ought to be ashamed of yourself, you bunch of sagging, gang banger looking, you know, guys with your sagging, or even worse, the sagging skinny jean crowd. Some of these skinny jeans, I think it was Sean that demonstrated, you can't even pull them up. You pull them up and you hit resistance before it even gets to your waist. Okay, so what I'm saying is, you know the truth. The truth makes you free. You put on a righteous lifestyle. You live a righteous life. You go out and preach the gospel to every creature, developing boldness as you proclaim God's word. And above all, you have the faith to know that if God be for me, who can be against me? I will succeed. I will win. I'm on the winning side, not by my strength, not because of my greatness, but only because of the power of the Lord. Wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds, that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak." Strength and boldness, hand in hand. How do you get it? Truth, righteousness, faith, and preaching. Soul winning. Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer. Please help us to be strong in the power of your might. Help every man, every woman, every boy, every girl to decide to take specific steps to gain strength. Not just a general, oh yeah, I'd like to be stronger. Well, wouldn't we all? But what are you doing to get stronger? These are specific things in Ephesians 6 that we can work on. Help us to do these things. In Jesus' name we pray.