August 24, 2003—RALLY DAY ; PROMOTION SUNDAY

Scripture: Ephesians 6:10-20

The Apostle Paul, as he is writing from prison in the last chapter of the book of Ephesians, talks about the armor of God. He says:

The Apostle of Paul, from prison, is writing a word of encouragement, a word of exaltation especially, as he brings this letter to an end, that he wants the Christians in Ephesus and the surrounding areas to have a strong and courageous witness for Jesus Christ, because persecution is coming and he does not want them to be tempted and to give in to the temptation of compromise, to water down their faith, but to be strong and be courageous and be strong spiritually. Even thought the Apostle Paul is imprisoned at this time, weak physically, weak politically, he is strong spiritually, and he shares that. He shared the need for spiritual power.

You know, when we don’t have electric power it certainly gets our attention. The greatest blackout in North American history set all kinds of records last week. Fifty million people in the United States and Canada were affected. Eight states and two Canadian provinces experienced power failures. There were three deaths attributed to the blackout. Twenty-two U. S. and Canadian nuclear plants shut down. Ten major airports shut down. Seven hundred flights cancelled nationwide. This is interesting: Eight hundred and fifty arrests on the night of the blackout in New York City, compared with nine hundred and fifty on a typical night. Apparently the criminals need light to do their work in New York. Twenty-three cases of looting reported in Ottawa and there were three hundred and fifty thousand people on the New York City subway when the power went out. Nineteen trains were in underwater tunnels.

When we lose our power, electricity, it certainly gets our attention. The Apostle Paul, though, is speaking of spiritual power and spiritual strength, and sometimes we find that, spiritually, we are not as strong as we think we are. On vacation Kat and I went to the YMCA to work out some. I especially went over there to swim because it is too hot to run down in Wilmington, but I went into the weight room a little bit. I hadn’t been there in a little while and it showed, but the first time I went I did the smart thing: I went into the part where you stick the little pins in and you can kind of monitor how much weight you can have. But the male ego in me came out and I went over to the real heavy duty weight lifting part and was tempted to see how much I could do. I put a certain amount on the bar and bench-pressed awhile and thought I was doing pretty well. Well, I wasn’t as strong as I thought, because I made the mistake of putting about thirty more pounds on there. It wasn’t but, oh, one-sixty-five, and I have done it before and I had someone spot me. I knew I needed that but, I tell you, it was embarrassing. I got it and it just went zoom, just right down, and just like I took a shot in the ribs. It was embarrassing and my ribs hurt for a couple of weeks, but my pride still hurts from that.

But, spiritually speaking, often we are not as strong as we think. And it is no secret why I didn’t do well. I hadn’t been training in that way. We just simply as Christians cannot just hit and miss on worship. We can’t just hit and miss in the scriptures. And we sure can’t miss daily putting our faith into practice - and still be strong spiritually. Today, as never before, we need Christians who really seek spiritual strength and it comes from a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

I want you to look for a few moments on this Rally Day, as we look about how to be strong spiritually, at the source our strength. I’ll say it again: The source of this strength is our personal relationship with Christ. It is getting to know Him as someone who is real, far more than someone who lived a long time ago; as someone who is real that you invite into your heart and who lives and reigns there. Paul talks about this power in Ephesians, Chapter I, verse 19. He wrote it this way:

In Chapter 3, verse 16, Paul wrote that:

And in Philippians 4:13, he says:

This man from prison knew about spiritual power; he had been there before.

In Acts, chapter 16, Paul and Silas has been preaching the Gospel very powerfully in Philippi, but finally they are put in prison and they are beaten and had all kinds of reasons to give up, to whine and complain, “God, is this the thanks I get for being faithful?” But then they took charge. They began to praise God. They began to sing hymns, and there was a great shaking and an earthquake, and the prison doors flew open. The prison guard was converted, became a Christian. Great things happen when we praise God, and spiritual power comes into our lives and into the lives of others.

His name is Dennis Rogers. He is only 5’9” and 168 pounds, but he bills himself as the strongest man in the world. Maybe pound for pound he is. He grew up, not a ninety-eight pound weakling, but a seventy-eight pound weakling. He got picked on so much as a freshman in high school they finally put him in a special ed class just so he wouldn’t get picked on so much. So you can imagine as a thirteen or fourteen year old boy, he is just about as low as he could get, as far as ego, but his dad got him lifting weights down in the basement. He realized that he was getting stronger, but he realized what really needed changing was up here {his head}. It wasn’t so much what was on his biceps or his shoulders. He began to enter arm wrestling competitions and there was only one fellow locally that he couldn’t beat, and this guy was six feet and two-hundred and forty pounds and he thought that was the reason.

The man told him, “No, Dennis, that’s not why I can win. I win because my strength comes from the Lord. When you figure that out, you will do a lot better.”

Well, he began to really seek the Lord for strength. In fact, God gave him quite a gift because now he has a youth ministry. He goes around putting on feats of strength. He can take a bar and bend it. It can rip the New York City phone book in half. Well, I haven’t seen him do it, but it was in the magazine I was reading, he can actually pick up a cage with a twelve hundred pound tiger. He can hold back an airplane going full throttle. How can he do these feats of strength? He has been studied. Doctors have studied his blood and they can’t explain it. It’s more than just working out. God has given him a gift of strength. When he does these feats of strength, it is only to get the attention, and then he goes on to share, especially with the youth, his real source of strength; it is Christ. Samson had a gift like that. Samson could beat a lion in a wrestling contest, but Samson’s strength was lost, not just because he got a haircut, but because he was morally weak and he misused the strength that God gave him.

Why do we need this strength though? Why do we need this strength? Well, life is hard. Scott Peck, author of the very popular, The Road Less Traveled, begins with, “Life is difficult.”, and many people have a hard time because they just won’t accept that. They keep looking for some path they think is going to be easy.

Jesus said it: In this world you have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.

He said there is a cross that we aim to take up. There is abundant life, but it is not an easy life. It is a hard life, but it is a godly life. It is the life that God calls us to live and to serve him.

Why do we need it? Well, several reasons. First of all we are in a spiritual battle. Jesus was very clear about that when He spoke of His encounter with the Devil in the wilderness in Matthew, chapter four. He was tempted three times to go a different direction.

The Devil said, ...tell these stones to become bread.

And how did Jesus respond? It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone,’...

Each time he would come back with God’s word that he had memorized. And often times we think of Jesus being so weak in the wilderness and maybe physically He was, but he had been praying, and in solitude, and fasting all this time. He was as spiritually strong as He ever was.

Why do we need spiritual strength? We need spiritual strength to resist the temptations to sin that come our way. The great promise that Paul gives:

But I was thinking in my life. What saps my strength? What keeps me from being stronger spiritually than I would like to be? And I have come up with two other reasons. First of all is worry. Just when I think that I have kicked the worry habit something else comes about that I worry about. You may not worry about what your children do when they are six and eight and eleven. But then when they get to be twenty-two and twenty and seventeen, you find new things to worry about. It seems that way.

Vance Havner, old Baptist preacher said, “Worrying is like rocking in a rocking chair. It’s something to do to pass the time, but it won’t get you any where.”

Do you worry? Is it a habit? Some people feel guilty if they are not worrying. Why not pray? Why not trust the Lord about what you are worrying about?

Then, oftentimes, it is fear. Paul, writing to Timothy, said:

Timothy was a young, young pastor of a large, large church and he had a lot of anxiety. That is why Paul wrote,

Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. That all may know your forbearance. The Lord is at hand. Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything, by prayer, with supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Why do we need this strength? Because we want to do more than just live under the circumstances. We want to live above the circumstances.

Her name was Mabel. John Ortberb writes about her in the book, The Life You’ve Always Wanted. A friend of his used to visit her in a state run nursing home. Mabel wasn’t very pretty. She had been there for some twenty-five years. Her face was being eaten up with cancer. Her eyes were white. As he was going around on Mother’s day he gave her a flower and said, “Happy Mother’s Day.”

She said, “Thank you!” He realized there was a good mind with this weak body. And she said, “I can’t see. Would you mind if I gave it to someone else?”

And he didn’t, so he wheeled her over to someone else and she gave that flower to someone else there and said, “I give this to you in the name of Jesus.”

And he got to know this Mabel. He found out Mabel had grown up on a farm. He found out that Mabel had never married. She ran the farm after her parents died and she became very ill at about sixty-five, so she had been there almost a quarter of a century. But she was full of love for the Lord. She would sing hymns. Whenever he would read scripture she could almost by memory finish the passage for him. And he was just amazed at how she could be in these circumstances and be filled with the love of the Lord. But you see, she wasn’t living under the circumstances. She was living above them because she had spiritual strength. She had time to pray. She had time to really get to know her Lord in a way that many of us will never know.

Why do we need this strength? Because life may be very hard. We are in a spiritual battle. Worries grip us. Fears seize us. But with faith in Christ, He gives us the strength to overcome. How do we receive this strength? Let me share with you about this armor that Paul wrote about. Since Paul was in prison and Paul had the Roman soldier right there beside him, he just used, “Well the Romans have their armor, but the Christian has his own armor.”

There are six parts of this armor: The strength comes from the Lord. These are means of grace or spiritual disciplines. The first one is truth. When he talks about the belt of truth, it was like a girdle that they would have and they could move better when they had this and especially, what you are doing right now - worship - is one of the best ways to be exposed to God’s truth. There is something special about being with God’s people, week after week, a family of God, and hearing the truth, of hymns, and being with God’s people. I pray this will be a day that you will make a renewed commitment to be here and worship. We miss you when you are not here. You need to be here.

And then, there is righteousness. That is the breastplate of righteousness is that we receive this strength by putting this faith into practice every day. It was William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, who grew up an orphan, who knew what it was to be poor, who did a tremendous work among the poor that still goes on today, who said that the greatest tool of evangelism is a holy life. Today we need this righteousness.

Then there is the gospel of peace. And that is that the gospel is the good news of God’s love, especially his forgiving love. And how many people desperately need today to know that their sins are forgiven and that they can live, not only receiving forgiveness, but also extending forgiveness to other people? They don’t have to live with grudges. They don’t have to live with hatred in their lives, but they can know the forgiving power of Jesus Christ who, when upon the cross said, Father forgive them for they know not what they do.

There is the weapon of faith which can quench all the fiery darks of the evil one. Abraham and Sarah were called, not only to be the parents of a great nation, but to go forth to journey. Oftentimes what makes it so difficult for us put our faith into practice, is that God calls us to change. He wants us to change our circumstances, change the use of our time. But he wants us to try something different, and we resist. But Abraham and Sarah were blessed because they went on that journey. And we will be too, when we put our faith into practice.

And the last two are the scriptures and prayer. Paul calls them the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

The Psalmist writes: Blessed in the man who walks not in the paths of the wicked nor stands in the way of sinners nor sits in the seat of scoffers. For his delight is in the law of the Lord and on Him doth he meditate day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields his fruit in its season. All that he does will prosper.

Let the scriptures come alive and feed your soul and prayer. Jesus certainly prayed in the garden. He prayed all night before choosing the disciples. What did they ask him? Lord teach us to pray.

He still will teach us to pray today as we honestly come to Him, acknowledging this as the greatest source of spiritual strength. And let me close by sharing this story to illustrate, especially, strength through prayer. His name was Ron Lance and Ron Lance’s life changed, very much so. Six years ago his son was dying of multiple sclerosis. He went by to see him one day and he was actually sitting up on the bed with his hands raised, praising the Lord. His son was a devout Christian.

He said, “ Daddy, someone is going to come through that door today and take me home, and I want to be sure when I get there that you are going to be there. So here’s what I want you to do: I want you to go see my pastor today in my Church and I want him to talk to you about becoming a Christian.”

Well, Ron Lance, Sr. did that. He went over there and talked to the pastor and he gave his life to Christ, and sure enough, his son did go home to be with the Lord that night. His life changed after that. He became very active in the Church, Sunday School, Men’s Group. He was a trucker, had been for thirty-six years. He put his faith into practice. And then came along the Beltway sniper, terrorizing Washington, D. C. He was, of course, keeping abreast of what was going on as he drove through that area quite a bit. And he finally, one day, as he went to Church, they talked about there is power in praying together, so he invited anyone who wanted to, to pull off at the truck stop to come on and pray. Well, he didn’t just have a couple of truckers stop off with him. He had like forty or fifty trucks stop off at that truck stop. They all got out to pray and they held hands. For about fifty-nine minutes they prayed. And guess who led them: Well it was a ten year old boy who started off:

“My Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.” He says he was especially moved when they prayed, “Deliver us from evil.”

Ten days later he was at a truck stop. His day had just gone whacko. It seemed like nothing went right. It was like he was just destined to be at that truck stop at one o’clock in the morning. He had written down the license plate as he had heard over the radio: New Jersey NDA-212. A blue Caprice. Lo and behold, right there in front of the rest room, a light was shining right on a blue Caprice. He could make out the license plate, and sure enough, this was it.

So he hit his cell phone, 911. They said, “Wait a minute.” They got back with him and said, “Go block the exit there.” So he took his truck, went over there, blocked the exit. He was very quiet. He was pretty calm. And then, real quietly, here come the police. And, lo and behold, then all the lights come on, and people are just all over everywhere. And the snipers have been caught.

About five minutes out down the road he really started shaking and he realized what had happened. But he just shares, “I was just simply doing what God called me to do that day and happened to be available.” But what had happened? His boy knew Christ, shared Christ with him. He became a Christian. He began to put his faith into practice, began to listen to the Lord. It all had to do with spiritual strength. It all had to do with a commitment to grow spiritually.

Lives are touched, and changed, and saved when people make this commitment to be spiritually strong. Will you do that? Will you make a commitment to being a true disciple of Jesus Christ? To seek the spiritual strength. Let us pray.

Lord, today, on this Rally Day, We thank You for the tremendous freedom You have blessed us with and have for so many years in the life of this congregation. Our Lord, we recommit ourselves to serving You with faith and joy, and do pray that You pour out this strength upon us as we seek to live faithfully. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.