Go in the Strength of the Lord!

15th Sunday after Pentecost, 9/13/09
Ephesians 6:10-20

Go in the Strength of the Lord!
I. That’s necessary, considering your opponent.
II. That’s possible because the Lord supplies it.

Of all the stories about victory in the face of insurmountable odds, perhaps the story of Alexander the Great is the greatest. Right around 330 BC he defeated the Persian army, the greatest army in the world at that time, not once, but three times and always with far fewer soldiers and cavalry. In his third victory his forces were outnumbered 600,000 to 40,000. But the Greeks easily won.
Do you suppose, prior to that battle, Alexander told his men, “We don’t have a chance. We’re outnumbered 15 to 1 and we’re on their turf, not ours”?
I doubt it. I think it’s safe to assume he told his men that victory belonged to them because they were the best trained, best equipped and best led army in the world.
In this morning’s text from Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, Paul informs us that we’re in a battle. Do you recognize it? And the problem we face is that we’re simply overmatched on our own. Our own weapons are useless against this enemy. No one would ever bet on us winning.
And yet Paul tells us to go forth into battle and to do so confidently because we have the strength of the almighty God on our side. So let’s go! Let’s go in the strength of the Lord. May the Lord use these words of our text to inform us not only about who our enemy is but also about the weapons he gives us.

I.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about an opposing sports team, an enemy nation or just the business competition that you face. One of the key elements of success in taking on the competition is to know the opposition as thoroughly as possible. That’s why sports teams scout their next opponent. They want to know their opponent’s strengths and weaknesses. That’s why businesses spend untold amounts of money and time understanding as much as possible about how the competition produces their product and what the strengths and weaknesses of that product are. That’s why any intelligent nation desires to be overwhelmed with military intelligence before it makes its first move. In another part of the Bible Jesus makes that very point about analyzing your opponent before going into battle.
Paul’s words to us this morning assist us in doing that very thing. He helps us understand our opponent. So, who is your opponent? Well, if I were to ask you that question as we were casually enjoying a cup of coffee at some local coffee shop, you might tell me that your opponent is a co-worker who seems to have it in for you. If you’re a student, you might tell me it’s the class bully. On the other hand, maybe your opponent isn’t a person at all. It might be financial stress, unemployment, or a chronic health issue. Those are the “enemies” we think of most because we seem to deal with them every day.
But those are not the enemies Paul is talking about. The enemy Paul speaks about is none other than Satan himself. Listen to his description: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Our opponent is not something physical or of this world. It’s not even human. Our opponent operates out of the spiritual world. It’s none other than Satan and all his evil angels. You see, when Satan fell away and rebelled against the holy God, he didn’t do it alone. He led an uncounted number of angels with him. Satan and those angels now live as the enemies of God and every human being. As an angel he’s not all-powerful as our God is but he’s vastly more powerful that we are.
And to make matters worse, he’s exceptionally clever. Paul mentions that he schemes against us. We’re often completely unaware of it. Look at how he schemed to cause Adam and Eve to fall into sin. He got them to believe that he was their friend. He convinced them that God was their enemy because he was withholding something good from them. He claimed to offer them true happiness. And within minutes he had them hooked. Paul tells us that Satan is doing that all day long every day against you personally and us collectively.
But at other times, his attacks aren’t so subtle, they’re over-whelming. Paul speaks about “the day of evil.” Bible scholars disagree on just what this day of evil is, but I think it’s best to understand this term as a reference to those times in our lives when crises occur and our faith is tested right to the brink of failing. Just as he did with the ancient believer Job, Satan may send one catastrophe after another into our lives to cause us to curse God and fall into despair. Have you experienced that kind of spiritual attack? We all have. And Satan is the evil general behind them all.
So, if we’re going to have any chance of surviving these attacks, let alone winning the battle, we’re going to need a strength that isn’t found in us by nature; it’s going to have to come from the Lord.
That’s why Paul tells us to go in the strength of the Lord. That’s necessary, considering your opponent.
Long ago someone told me, “My memory is good, it’s just short.” The statement made me chuckle but there’s some truth to it. I don’t think I’ve shared anything new with you in the past few minutes. We’ve talked about Satan and his attacks on us. I don’t think that’s news to any of us. But our memory is short. How long will it be before we don’t even recognize that Satan is attacking us? How long will it be before he’s leading us to think that sinning is actually what we want to do and need to do? How long will it be before he convinces us that listening to him and not to our loving Lord will make us happy? I’ll bet not that long. Probably before the sun sets tonight. And when we do realize we’re in a spiritual battle, somehow we think we can overcome it ourselves. We’ll handle it without hearing what God says in his word. We can manage this without the encouragement of our fellow Christians. We can separate ourselves from our God, his word and his sacrament and everything will still be OK. And that’s when Satan has us right where he wants us. We’ve lost the battle and our souls are in danger. We can do nothing on our own to overcome Satan. That’s why our God sent us a Savior, a Satan-crusher. He overcame Satan by living a holy life for us, perfectly resisting every temptation, and then suffering and dying for our sins. His resurrection is the proof that he defeated Satan for us. By faith in him now we can go. Go in the strength of the Lord. That’s necessary, considering your opponent.

II.
Do you mind if I share another war analogy with you? A critical consideration in waging any battle is being able to support your troops as they advance. If those troops run out of food, ammunition and fuel as they advance, they’re sunk. The enemy will soon reverse, surround, and overwhelm them.
Our God is sending us out to face a foe much more powerful than we are. That would indicate that we don’t have a chance. But it’s been said, and it’s true, that our God never asks anything of us that he hasn’t already given to us. Let me repeat that. Our God never asks anything of us that he hasn’t already given to us.
So, if we’re going to defeat a foe much stronger than we are, we’re going to need troop supplies—some added strength. And true to his word, our God supplies it. Paul talks about that spiritual strength in the terms of military equipment.
The first piece of equipment he mentions is the belt of truth. An ancient soldier’s belt was much more than the thin pieces of leather we might wear. It actually protected the area from his upper legs to the middle of his stomach—an area that was often the target of a sword. Paul calls it a belt of truth. Satan is a liar and the father of lies. To defeat him we have none other than the absolute truth of our God. We can confidently proclaim as Jesus did when defeating Satan’s temptation, “Thus says the Lord” and then quote his saving truths.
The next piece of equipment is the breastplate of righteousness. The breastplate protected the soldier’s most vital organ—the heart. Satan not only lies, he accuses. He often reminds us of our sins to get us to despair, to make us feel that we are not loved by our God. But the truth is that we wear the righteousness or holiness of Jesus. God imputes the holiness of Jesus to us by faith in Jesus. We’re forgiven of all sins. We’re holy in God’s eyes.
Next Paul speaks about what’s on our feet. It’s been said that a soldier is only as good as the boots he wears. If he can’t move over all sorts of terrain because his footwear is inferior, he’s useless. As Christians, we stand firm on the truth that we have peace with the holy God because Jesus won that peace for us. Our God has nothing against us. He’s on our side and thus we can stand against Satan and all his attacks.
The fourth piece of equipment is the shield. The soldier used a shield to defend himself against spears and arrows. Satan is constantly shooting the arrows of temptation at us. Our faith tells us what we believe about our God who has saved us. With that faith we can deflect every one of Satan’s temptations and lies.
Next Paul refers to the soldier’s helmet. Again, that’s a critical piece of armor. Our salvation by Christ has won forgiveness and eternal life for us. That’s where we’re headed. Satan can’t take that from us. We have that protection no matter what Satan throws our way.
Having listed five pieces of the soldier’s protective equipment, Paul now turns to his weapons. First, he calls attention to the sword. For the Christian, our most important weapon against Satan is the sword of the Spirit. That’s the Holy Spirit and his sword which he places in our hands is none other than the word of God. It’s the very same word of God Jesus used in defeating Satan’s temptations.
And finally, Paul reminds us of the power of prayer. Jesus often spent days in prayer. He asked for his heavenly Father to strengthen him for his battle with Satan. As God’s people, we have the same weapon to use against every temptation and attack of Satan.
Paul lists all this equipment to convince us that we are more than adequately equipped to battle Satan himself. So go! Go in the strength of the Lord. That’s possible, because he supplies it.
As a Christian you never can make the excuse that you couldn’t help it. You had no power to resist temptation. The truth of the matter is we often leave unused the weapons God gives us. So soak up God’s word! Take eat and take drink of your Lord’s body and blood! There’s your forgiveness won for you by Christ. There’s your power to battle Satan. Go in the strength of the Lord! Amen.