Sermon Tone Analysis

*Preparing to Live*

*Living Requires Inner Strength*

(Ephesians 3:16)

 

Some of you will remember G. Gordon Liddy.

G.

Gordon Liddy was a former FBI agent turned political activist and spook who masterminded the Watergate Break-in that eventually brought down the presidency of Richard Nixon.

Liddy spent several years in jail for his role in the affair, and, whereas one of his partners, E.

Howard Hunt, eventually spilled the beans, */Liddy never would have talked/*.

Once out of jail, Liddy, of course, spoke plenty, mostly on a talk show that he hosted in the Washington D.C. area.

I used to hear him every time I was back there on business and never ceased to be amazed at the American system that could condemn a man for bringing down the government and then give him a talk show and make him a high-priced celebrity, but such is life.

If you want to get some insight into a bizarre personality, read his autobiography, /Will.

/It is a piece of work.

Not long after his release from prison, Liddy spoke to a college audience in Missouri, basically urging upon his audience his standard litany that only force, strength, ruthless use of violence and an iron /will/ could earn the respect of friends and foes in this “real world which is, in fact, a very tough neighborhood.”

Then during a question and answer session, one faculty member rose and rather timidly commented that he felt most people in the US based their ethics on the teachings of Jesus, and then rushed through his challenge, “this-doesn’t-sound-much-like-the-teachings-of-Jesus.”

Liddy’s reaction was telling.

He just glared a moment, took in a breath, and then bellowed: “Yeah—and look what happened to Jesus!”

He flailed his arms outward, holding them as if on the crossbeam of a gibbet: “They crucified him.”

To Liddy, the case was closed.

The audience reacted, briefly, as if stunned, astonished—and then with thunderous applause.

After all, Liddy only said out loud what everyone else had already concluded: “Failure, persecution and pain, instead of success, appreciation and a good retirement—that’s no way to end up.”

Now, I used that illustration because it demonstrates in a nutshell the way Jesus looks at things versus the way the world we live in sees them.

Even more than that, it represents two completely different approaches to life – and we have to decide, even as Christians, which we will adopt.

In our study through Ephesians, we’ve come to the second of Paul’s prayers for the Ephesians – this one in chapter 3.  We’ve entitled this section “Preparing to Live” because Paul is here praying for five things that he believes will be needed to enable their conduct to accord with their calling.

In a word, he wants them to mature – mature to the point where they understand that living with pain, persecution and failure from a worldly point of view can result in joy, happiness, fruitfulness and contentment.

Life lived upside down – but with purpose and vitality /despite/ difficulties.

*/And, so, one can think of Paul’s requests in this prayer as constituting a ladder comprised of five steps to help us climb from the G. Gordon Liddy, worldly way of thinking, to the far superior glory of a life lived for, in and through Jesus Christ/*.

This morning, preparing to live, step one – Living Requires Inner Strength.

Look at verse 16 of Ephesians 3:  “16) that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,”  As we consider this first step – inner strength, we will look at three questions to guide our consideration.

*I.

**Why is Strength Needed?*

* *

Our first question is, why do I need inner strength?

I’m doing fine on my own.

Why do I need this inner strength?

#.

*To Grow*

* *

The first reason that we need inner strength is that we start our Christian existence as babes.

Just as we don’t come into the physical world as full-grown mature adults, so we enter a spiritual relationship with Christ as a babe.

Paul says in I Cor 3:1, “1) But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.”

The analogy is apt.

Just as the weakness and immaturity of a physical baby shows in many ways, so our spiritual weaknesses are evident.

We have no idea initially of the dangers surrounding us in this new world we have entered.

We have no discernment, very limited ability to fend for ourselves, feed ourselves spiritually or defend ourselves against intrusions large and small.

Every new challenge throws us into a turmoil of doubt, of despair for we have not learned yet to trust; we have not learned how to counter trouble; in short, we are not strong, but weak.

Now, whereas a normal, healthy physical baby will mature on a rather predictable schedule, the timeframe for moving from babyhood to maturity on the part of the /spiritual/ babe may vary radically.

One man asked his friend, “What is your son going to be when he graduates?”

The friend answered, “An old man.”

Some of us are, or have been, on a similar path to spiritual maturity.

Lack of spiritual food, lack of prayer, lack of spiritual parents to guide us, distractions introduced by the world, career, temptations of the flesh – all may have combined to leave us looking like Baby Huey, spiritually.

You know, it’s fun to see a baby in their cute little outfits and carriers, right?

Not so cute to see a full grown adult in that condition.

And, yet, spiritually, we well may be.

We need strength.

But even if we have reached a certain degree of maturity spiritually, we still need to be working constantly on our spiritual strength.

When you reach maturity physically, you don’t give up on building strength, right?

We still take in nourishment; we still exercise, some more and some less, but to the degree that we continue to train our bodies and maintain strength, we benefit.

Same thing spiritually, folks – the need never goes away, and that’s why Paul was praying for it.

Truth is we’re all somewhere on that line that starts with infancy and ends with full maturity/.

We need inner strength because we haven’t arrived yet./

#.

*To Fight*

* *

A second reason we need strength in the inner person.

Very simple – that inner person—your inner person, the real you – he or she has an enemy and that enemy never rests.

Peter says in I Peter 5:8, “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

Listen, that’s not addressed to unbelievers.

That’s addressed to */believers/*.

He’s suggesting that our enemy is just looking for some */weak believer/* whose spiritual life he can destroy.

Paul himself says in 6:12, “ For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood (that is our own bodies or other men primarily), but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

We’ve all got an enemy, folks, and he is serious about maiming and destroying us spiritually – although he /is/ very */subtle/*.

Listen to Paul I II Cor 11:14, “And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”

Most of the time, Satan and his minions will look very, very good when they come, convincing us that wrong is right and right is wrong.

That it’s all relative, that there is a reason it’s excusable in /this case, /that the end justifies the means and a thousand other ways.

We must be strong.

Former heavyweight boxer James “Quick” Tillis was a cowboy from Oklahoma who fought out of Chicago in the early 1980s.

Years later, he still remembered his first day in the Windy City after his arrival from Tulsa.

“I got off the bus with two cardboard suitcases under my arms in downtown Chicago and stopped in front of the Sears Tower.

I put my suitcases down and I looked up at the Tower and I said to myself, ‘I’m going to conquer Chicago.’

When I looked down, the suitcases were gone.”

That’s just like our enemy, folks.

He’s even happy to have us with our eyes on what it is we’re going to conquer for God if in the meantime he can steal away our prayer time, our devotional time, our joy, our trust without us even noticing that they are gone.

/We need inner strength because we have an enemy/.

#.

* To Increase Our Capacity for God*

* *

A final reason we need inner strength is to increase our capacity for God.

This is really the burden of Paul’s prayer.

Look beginning at verse 16, “16) that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17) /so that/ Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,”  He wants them to know in all its glory the love of Christ – eventually in verse 19, to be */filled with the fullness of God/*.

Seems like Paul is asking for the sun, moon and stars spiritually – and he is, but at the same time he realizes they can’t absorb it all at once.

Our tendency would be to say, “Well, bring it on, right?

Man, I’m ready.

Give me both barrels.”

The American way, right?

*/Why do we need strength to absorb blessing/*?

Let me illustrate from the physical world again.

Spiritually, we’re like men who who had been in concentration camps rescued just on the verge of starvation.

One’s natural tendency would be to sit them down at a table and put a great square meal before them.

But to do so would kill them.

They are not strong enough to take such food.

They must regain strength by injections of glucose or by ingestion of meat extracts, lightly boiled eggs or something with little nutritional value because a weakened person cannot take strong food.

That’s why Paul said in I Cor 3:2, “2) I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it.

And even now you are not yet ready”  If you gave a baby red meat, strong meat, it will give him acute indigestion and cause him great sickness and illness.

Similarly, we cannot absorb at once all that God has for us.

Pride would eat us alive; or we might fail to recognize God’s goodness in some particular trial.

We’re not ready yet.

/We need inner strength to increase our capacity for God./