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IS THE LORD YOUR STRENGTH?
Habakkuk 3:19
INTRODUCTION:
19 The Sovereign
Lord is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to go on the heights.
Do you remember what happened on Sunday, October 29, 2006? It was a
triumphal entry…of the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals in a victory
parade down Market Street to 7th and ending at Busch Stadium
where a rally and program took place. The WORLD CHAMPION ST. LOUIS
CARDINALS! My, my, oh my, that sure sounds good!
And now, today is the date of the home opener for the Cardinals. This
evening, at 7:05, the 2007 Cards take on the New York Mets.
There has been quite a controversy in baseball circles about the use of
performance enhancing drugs. It’s been said that steroids can make an
average player a good player, a good player a great player and a great
player a Hall of Fame player.
The scandal has become so widespread that no one is above suspicion so I
thought I should go on record as saying that I do not use
performance-enhancing drugs to help me preach. I can talk this long
naturally and without stimulants.
But I can understand how some athletes are tempted to take steroids. They
play in a very competitive environment and it must be very enticing to use
anything that will give a player an edge over the competition.
You live your life in a very competitive environment; and I am not talking
about business competition or classroom competition or financial
competition. I am talking about the competition for your soul.
Satan desperately wants your soul. He does not want your soul because he
cares about you at all but he wants you so that his real enemy, the Lord,
cannot have you.
On the other hand, God loves you so much that He became a human being, He
earned the right to pay the penalty for your sin and then He died in your
place.
There is a cosmic competition going on for you. You are living in the midst
of the most competitive environment imaginable. You are also living your
life in the midst of a very difficult environment. It is not easy to live
victoriously for the Lord. In fact, life is so tough that to make it
through, you need an edge. Habakkuk says that the strength of the Lord is
the edge we all need if we are going to emerge from this life as champions
over the world.
I.
OUR NEED FOR THE STRENGTH (life is difficult)
Life is difficult!
As his UCLA football team suffered through a poor season in the early
1970’s, head coach Pepper Rodgers came under intense criticism and pressure
from alumni and fans. Things got so bad, he remembers, that friends became
hard to find. “My dog was my only true friend,” Rodgers said of that year.
“I told my wife that every man needs at least two good friends – and she
bought me another dog.”
Life is difficult. To emerge as victors, we need an edge. One edge we have
is to realize why we need the Lord’s strength. We need to recognize:
A. Our
Vulnerability – We have an enemy! Do not foolishly believe that you do
not have to contend with one who has been called “the enemy of your souls”.
It is not being paranoid to realize that someone is out to get you. He is
and his name is Satan.
Once you acknowledge that Satan is out to get you, you can make a sober
assessment of your areas of vulnerability that he is likely to attack and
then you can be especially vigilant in those areas. Are you prone to
discouragement? Beware and be aware, Satan knows that about you. Are you
vulnerable to being a people-pleaser? Beware and be aware, Satan knows that
about you. Are you vulnerable to lust? Beware and be aware, Satan knows
that about you. Are you vulnerable to envy? Beware and be aware, Satan
knows that about you. Are you vulnerable to lying? Beware and be aware,
Satan knows that about you. Are you vulnerable to being a gossip, a
manipulator, a glutton, a co-dependant – whatever your vulnerabilities are,
beware and be aware that Satan already knows them and he is prowling,
crouching and ready to pounce.
If you knew a burglar was in your neighborhood and casing out your home,
wouldn’t you want to find your areas of weakness, exposure and vulnerability
and then strengthen those? Well there is a thief who is out to steal your
soul. We’d better recognize our vulnerabilities and address them.
B. Our
Disposition – If we want the strength of the Lord to give us our edge,
we need to know our state of mind, our inclination and the predominant or
prevailing tendencies we have.
Are you an optimist or a pessimist? Do you tend to see problems or
possibilities? Are you an impatient person, an aggressive person, an
impulsive or an immature person? Whatever your personality and tendencies,
you ought to acknowledge them, own them and understand both the strengths
and weaknesses that derive from your disposition.
If you are going to be faithful unto death, you have to develop a high level
of resistance to temptation and resilience to change.
C. Our
Motivation – Be honest with yourself about what inspires you and
energizes you to act as you do.
Ask yourself, “Am I motivated by the blessings or the Blesser?” Do I
worship God for Who He is or for what I get from Him? Also, ask yourself,
“Do I seek to please men or do I seek to please God?”
The point is that we all have strengths and weaknesses, natural temperaments
and inherent motivations. When soberly assessed, we would all have to admit
that we have a great need for the power of God. In this battleground we
call life, we need the edge that the strength of the Lord can provide.
During the Civil War a Union soldier from Ohio was shot in the arm. His
captain saw he was wounded and barked out an order, “Gimme your gun,
Private, and get to the rear!” The private handed over his rifle and ran
toward the north, seeking safety. But after going only about two or three
hundred yards, he came upon another skirmish. So he ran to the east, and
found himself in another part of the battle. Then he ran west, but
encountered more fighting there. Finally, he ran back to the front lines
shouting, “Gimme back my rifle, Cap’n. There ain’t no rear to this battle
nowhere!”
My friend, just in case you haven’t discovered this yet... “there ain’t no
rear to this battle called life!” But there is strength for the battle.
God Himself is our strength!
II.
THE STRENGTH FOR OUR NEED (the Lord)
As a hurricane quickly approached a small coastal town, all the people had
hurried to the town’s storm shelter. There they were huddled together in
the dark with the winds howling, sheets of rain beating down and the door of
the shelter just about to rattle off its hinges!
Everyone huddled in the shelter had their eyes fixed on the door because
they knew that if it were to blow off its hinges, everyone would be sucked
out of the shelter by the hurricane.
The town’s elderly pastor stood up in their midst & began to pray with great
oratorical effects. Crying out he prayed “Lord, send us the spirit of the
children of Israel, the spirit of the children of Moses and the spirit of
the children of the Promised Land."
At this, an old man, not as polished but certainly direct cried out in
prayer, "Lord, don’t send nobody. You come yourself! This ain’t no job for
children."
I don’t know if you can relate but I can! There have been times in my life
when I desperately needed God and God alone! I love the way Psalm 46 has
expressed this desperate need.
Psalm 46
For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. According to alamoth. A
song.
God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging. Selah
“God is our refuge and strength!"
§
Remember Moses and his rod? It wasn’t the rod that parted
the waters of the Red Sea or brought water from a rock; it was the Lord.
§
Remember Shamgar and his oxgoad? It wasn’t the ox goad that
killed six hundred Philistines; it was the Lord.
§
Remember Samson and the jawbone of the donkey? It wasn’t
the jawbone of the donkey that killed a thousand Philistines; it was the
Lord.
§
Remember David and Goliath? It was not a rock that killed
Goliath; it was the Lord.
§
Do you remember a little boy whose lunch of five loaves and
two fishes were used to feed five thousand people? It wasn’t the boy’s
lunch that fed the people; it was the Lord.
It is the Lord who is the strength for your every need. You may be tempted
to rely on your own resources but your own resources will always come up
short in the face of a great need. But it is not your own resources that
will be the strength for your need; it is the Lord who will be your
strength.
A newspaper ran this story several years ago. One evening a woman was
driving home when she noticed a huge truck behind her that was driving so
close behind her that it made her uncomfortable. She tried to speed up, but
the truck sped up. She got off the freeway and turned onto main streets
trying to lose the truck. But the truck ran a red light to stay behind
her. Finally, the woman whipped her car into a service station and bolted
out of the car screaming for help. The truck driver also sprang out of his
truck and ran toward the woman’s car. He yanked the back door open and
pulled out a man hidden in the back seat. From his higher vantage point in
his truck, the truck driver had spotted a would-be rapist in the woman’s
car. The truck driver was not chasing the woman to harm her but to rescue
her.
So often in life, we misunderstand God’s ways because we do not see from His
point of view. With our very limited perspective, we think we know what is
best for us or for those whom we love. But we do not always know as we
think we know. God knows our need and His strength is more than equal to
our need.
We have a great need for strength and we have a great strength for our need:
the Lord.
CONCLUSION:
Carol Schuller, daughter of evangelist Robert Schuller, lost a leg in a
serious motorcycle accident when she was a teenager. When she was eighteen,
she went on a cruise with her parents. She made no effort to conceal her
artificial leg, wearing shorts and going swimming. She noticed people
staring and could see the curiosity in people’s eyes. In response to the
looks she had been getting, she decided to volunteer for the ship’s talent
show. When she walked up to the microphone she said this, “If I have one
talent, it is this: I can tell you that during that time after my accident
my faith became very real to me. I look at you girls who walk without a
limp and I wish I could walk that way. I can’t but this is what I’ve
learned, and I want to leave it with you: It’s not how you walk that counts,
but Who walks with you and with Whom you walk that counts.”
I want to ask you, are you walking with the One who will give you strength
for the journey? If so, you do not need to worry.
§
No matter what life send your way, know that God will give you
the strength to overcome it and He will take care of you.
§
No matter what toil or dangers you may face, God will give you
the strength to overcome it and He will take care of you.
§
No matter what needs you may encounter, God will give you the
strength to overcome them and He will take care of you.
§
No matter what tests you may run into, God will give you the
strength to overcome them and He will take care of you.
Who is walking with you and with Whom are you walking? Will you walk with
God?
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