Strength from the Lord
January 5, 2026
Ephesians chapter number six. This is going to be our theme verse for the year. If you have not got it memorized, I challenge you to memorize Ephesians 6 and verse number 10. It is such a familiar verse, and it starts off, really introducing us to the armor—six pieces of armor—that I think we get so focused on that we forget about this verse.
We are not going to read all the verses below it. We are just going to focus on this one verse. We will turn to another and get going from that. Ephesians 6 and verse number 10. We like to stand just to show the Word of God respect as we read our text first. They did that in the book of Nehemiah, so we like to do that. If you would please stand as we read the Word of God at the beginning here: Ephesians 6, and just one verse, verse number 10.
He is winding this book down, the book of Ephesians. It is the last chapter. He just finished talking about marriage, children and parents, and your employer-employee relationships. He is starting to close the book out. In verse number 10, he says, “Finally, my brother.” He is speaking to saved folk. If you are a born-again Christian, he is speaking to you.
“Finally, my brethren, be strong.” It is not God’s will for a Christian to continually be weak.
Now, I worded it the way I worded it on purpose: It is not God’s will for a Christian to continually be weak. He says right there, “Finally, my brother, be strong.” That is God’s word. That is not a suggestion. That is the command from God’s word.
“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.” Look over in chapter number three, would you please? Chapter 3 of the book of Ephesians.
Verse number 16. By the way, as I have studied for our theme for a month or two now, I am shocked how much the Bible talks about strength and being strong. It is all through there—Old Testament, New Testament—it is all through the Bible. These are just two verses, kind of as a way of introduction to get us into the subject this morning.
But chapter 3, look in verse number 16. He said that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be what? It is all through the Bible: “to be strengthened with might by his Spirit.” By the way, capital S—I do not put everything on the punctuation of his capital or whatnot—but it bears noting he says there by his Spirit (capital S) in the inner man.
Our theme has this picture on the banner here of a sailboat. The reason why we picked that is because the strength or the power or the thing that is running that boat, driving that boat, is kind of an outside force: it is the wind. A strong Christian, that strength is not from him; it is the Lord. “Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.”
Let us go back over there, chapter 6, verse number 10. If you can quote it, let us quote it together. If you need to read it, let us read it together. But let us say it out loud together, would you please? Here we go. Ephesians 6:10: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power…” All right, chat without looking. Here we go. You ready? Here we go. We will not use a reference. Here we go: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord.”
Just as a way of introduction, I have already mentioned this first one, but it is a command in the Bible to be strong in the Lord. Sometimes we get this little complex that we are supposed to be weak all the time if you are a born-again Christian. That is really anti-biblical. The Bible is right there; it says, “Be strong in the Lord.”
The strongest people I know are not Hollywood actors or sports figures. The strongest people I have ever met are born-again, godly men and women. Those are the strongest people I know.
When we talk about strong, and the Bible is talking about strong for the most part, it is not talking about someone that has big biceps and all the rest. Can I just say a word about that? Especially to our young men: manhood is not measured by your biceps. True manhood is measured by whether you are handling the responsibility God has given in your life. A true man can handle responsibility. That is going to be different for every man, but a true man is someone that can provide for his wife, can love his wife, can provide for his children, be the dad and the husband he ought to be. That is responsibility. But a true man is someone that can handle responsibility. Amen.
Working out all the time is not the issue, but all they do is work out, work out, and they never pay a bill, they never love their wife, they never take care of children, they never help anybody else. That is not the manhood I am talking about. I am talking about strength from God, where you are a good, godly Christian. The real strength is those that shine brightly in darkness.
You talk about strength. It is somebody that can pray in the middle of a restaurant, and everybody is going to look at them, and they do not care. They are going to shine brightly for the Lord right there. That is the kind of strength I am talking about. God is talking about here: strong in the Lord.
It is amazing. “Well, I do not want to follow the crowd. I am going to dress like I want to dress.” You look at all their friends, and they are all dressed weird, but they are all dressed alike. I am like, you are not dressing different; you are dressing exactly like all your friends dressed. Give me somebody that says, “I do not care what my friends or anybody else says; I am going to do what I think God says to do.” Now that is real strength right there. Amen.
Strong in the Lord. Real strength is those that have peace during the time when their loved ones have passed and the heart is breaking, and yet they have an inner strength from the Lord. That is what I call strong. Strong in the Lord. They have a peace that passes all understanding, and they are not losing it. They are hurting, but they are not losing because they have an inner strength that is from the Spirit of God. Strength. They are strong enough to share the gospel in a hostile world.
I love the story of the boy. He was carrying his Bible to school, and he was just a smaller-sized fellow, but he was carrying his Bible, and he would get picked on all the time for carrying his Bible to school. One of the big boys—the big old fellow in the locker room—pushed him up against the locker, and he said, “Hey, you are always carrying your Bible.” The little boy just kind of snapped and he said, “If you are so big and so tough, why won’t you carry it all day long?” The big old boy did not have strength.
I am talking about real strength from God. The Bible says, “Be strong in the Lord.” It is time that God’s people gather strength from God, and in 2026 in America, where sometimes it is hard to be a little different than everybody else, they rise above and say, “I want to be a godly man or a godly lady.” Strength from God. Not complaining with everybody else at work and groaning about the day, but they have a joy from the Lord’s strength. It is a command. It is a command: “Be strong in the Lord.”
Now look over in 2nd Corinthians chapter number 12, just as a way of introduction about this theme this year. “Be strong in the Lord.” I do not want you to see this. Second Corinthians chapter number 12. Once you find that chapter, would you say amen?
Before we look at the verses, let me just say a word or two. God does specialize in giving His strength to the weak. It is kind of confusing sometimes. God commanded us to be strong in the Lord, and He does that many, many, many places. Joshua: “Be strong with the Lord,” over and over again. Paul—we will look at these things over the year—but just over and again, “Be strong.” And yet, God specializes in giving His strength to weakness. He is amazing at it. That is part of the formula, but I want you to notice the end of the formula. Look over at the end of Second Corinthians chapter number 12. Look in verse number nine. This is where Paul had asked the Lord to remove the thorn in the flesh, and he begged God about it three separate times. Look what God says in verse number nine, Second Corinthians 12, verse number nine: “And he said it to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for thee.’ Watch this: ‘For my strength is made perfect in weakness.’”
God specializes in giving strength when we know we are weak. That is very important. But I want you to notice the end, if you will: God’s strength plus weakness—what does it equal? A Christian that is weak for the rest of their life? Let us look at the formula and how it ends up. He said, “My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” That does not sound like weakness to me. But watch this. Look at the next verse: “Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong.” What is the next word? The end product is not to be weak for the rest of your life, the rest of the week, where you cannot be the husband, the wife, the child, the teenager. You cannot be the Christian man or lady God intends. No, yes, God’s strength plus weakness, but it equals strong. That is why I go back to that statement I made earlier: It is not right for a Christian to continually be weak. That is not what God wants. Now, He wants you to realize on your own: without Him, you can do nothing. But with Him, you can do anything, Paul said over there. The end result says he will be strong.
This morning, we are going to take David a little bit and just use the life of David. David had a lot of ups and downs. How many like the book of Psalms? I love it. It is a great book. Someone said because David had so many ups and downs, so many enemies, so many battles, and so many trials, and he messed up sometimes and all the rest of that, about half of the Psalms are penned by David, showing the emotions of a Christian in the midst of all the ups and downs of life. We can identify with David because he went through so many ups and downs, and God uses him about half the time to pen these Psalms. But at the end of the day, David was incredibly, or maybe I should say, supernaturally strong.
He was a boy, you know, 17, some will say, however old he was. The Navy SEALs are out there, the Rangers are out there, the 101st Airborne—that is what I was trying to get now, you know, that is my dyslexic mind there. But all of them were there, and a little 17-year-old shepherd boy, David, goes out there and says, “I can take on Goliath,” and he whips him. I am talking about supernatural strength. He spends his days running from Saul, the king at the time, five years plus, and he is like a fugitive, and God gives him the opportunity twice to kill Saul, no problem.
He did not have to be the one that sheds his blood. His little partner right there with him, under his command, says, “Hey, I will not have to hit him twice, and we will cut his head off; it will be done. You do not have to do anything, David.” David was strong enough to say, “No, I will not lift my hand against God’s anointed. God wants to take him out; that is God’s man, it is God’s business to take him out.” You call that strength. If you have been running from a man for years, and he is trying to kill you, and you have the opportunity, and you are bitter about it, but you are not getting bitter about religion—you call that supernatural. That is not human. And then the shepherd boy, when the preacher comes to anoint someone king, the other seven brothers are there, but God says, “No, that is not it, not the big tall one there, that fellow out there watching the sheep.” He becomes the king, David. He is one of Israel’s greatest kings. They still talk about the Star of David on the Israeli flag. They just made a movie about David. David is so strong, and he illustrates very well this truth: God wants His people strong. So, just a little bit, let us look at the life of David this morning as we start off on this subject of being strong. God commands us to be strong.
Look if you will over in Psalms chapter number 18. This is David, the one that God used to pen this. They say this Psalm was when he was delivered from Saul. This is when David was delivered from Saul, who was trying to kill him out of jealousy. Look what he says. We are going to look at three different places very quickly in the book of Psalms, all of them by David. Psalm 18, verse number one. Here you go. Verse number one: “I will love the Lord, my strength.” Did you get that? “I will love the Lord, my strength.” Verse number two: “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, in whom I will trust; my butler and the horn of my salvation and my high time.”
Look in chapter 29, another place written by David. Psalm 29 and verse number 11. The Lord… Psalm 29, verse number 11. The Lord will give what? I like this verse. There are verses all through the Bible about God promising you strength. I want you to start looking for them this year and start reading, memorizing them. God has an unlimited power supply of strength. When the devil is on you, society is on you, pressures are on you, disappointments are on you, loneliness is on you, God gives strength. I am not asking you to be the strongest person in the world by yourself because you cannot. God specializes in giving strength to the weak, but He will give you strength. It is all through the Bible. “The Lord will give strength unto his people. The Lord will bless his people with peace.”
Look in chapter 144 of the book of Psalms. Chapter 144, look at verse number one again. “Blessed be the Lord my strength, which teaches my hands to war and my fingers to fight.” Now, David was a warrior in a lot of physical battles. Typically, in our day and time, that is not going to happen to us, but spiritually there is battle after battle. There is going to be a battle when you go to work tomorrow. Everybody is going to want to complain about the boss. Are you going to conform to everybody else, or are you going to say, “Well, you know what? He pays my salary. He hired me. He has not fired me yet. I am not going to spend my time complaining; I am going to try to work with a good attitude.” I am just saying there are going to be battles.
You are going to get that phone call, and Aunt So-and-so has got cancer, or Uncle Joe had a car wreck. I am just saying there is battle after battle after battle. We are typically not fighting with our hands physically in our day and time, but there are going to be battles, and God gives you strength for the battle.
But David knew his strength came from God. He knew. He said, “My strength is from the Lord.” I am saying this year, God wants to give you strength. God wants His people to be strong people, and He has it available. But you and I need to understand: it is not going to be by us pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps, saying, “I have a lot of character, and I have a lot of talent, got a lot of ability, all that.” When it comes down to it, throw all that out of the window and depend on His strength. He has the strength you need for the battles. Amen. It will be available. Strength. People who have gone through so much—how can they have a sane mind? Because you have gotten your strength from the Lord. What a wonderful thing. “The Lord will give strength unto his people.”
It is amazing. I have pastored here in the only place I have pastored for, what, 25, almost 26 years—25 years. I have had the privilege of watching so many Christians go through the toughest of battles. I have watched when their spouses have walked away from them, cheated on them. I have watched when their children have been messed with by a sinful, wicked man. I have watched incredible things. Things that make me cry when I get the phone call. But I have watched God’s people have incredible supernatural strength drawing from God, and they raise their heads. In this wicked society, this world where they are trying to dumb down Christianity, I have watched those people time and again say, “No, I am not going to dim my light. I am going to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.” They are amazing. Time and again, I have watched it. It is almost like, where do they get it from? I will tell you where they get it from: they get it from the Lord. David knew where his strength came from. Look, if you will, over in 1st Samuel, chapter number 17.
1 Samuel chapter number 17. 1 Samuel comes right before 2 Samuel. 1 Samuel chapter number 17. Once you find that, would you look right this way? 1 Samuel 17, if you have got it, would you look right this way for just a second here? Let me talk to you. Here is what we are—and I say we are, me too—prone to: I am going to rely on the Lord. I know He has got this strength. But then in the heat of the battle, we tend to be prone to self-reliance, and we kind of grit our teeth and get through it in our own strength. That is what we are prone to. The nation of Israel is in a major battle, and all of the military men are relying on their strength. But David knows where his strength comes from, and he does not fall prey to that in the heat of the battle. When there are problems and everything is going on—you are at the hospital with your loved one spending the night, or the phone call, or the bills—we are just prone to self-reliance. David did not fall for it. It is in the heat of the battle, and David says, “No, no, I am not going to fall for that trap right there.” In the heat of the battle, he still remembers where his strength comes from.
The battle here is this giant called Goliath. Goliath was about nine feet, six inches tall. The top of our wall—that is a 10-foot wall there—so almost to the top of that wall is how tall Goliath is. You are not talking about some basketball player that is seven-foot, whatnot. No, Goliath would dwarf some of these—you know, what is his name? Shaq, yeah. But Shaq would look like a midget compared to Goliath. Goliath is nine feet, six inches; he is almost 10 feet tall. He was a warrior. He had been working out; he was prepared. That is the battle, and everybody else in Israel is just panicking because they are relying on their strength: “We do not have the strength to face that giant.” I dare say every single person here has a giant in your life right now. I do not know what your giant may be, but I dare say you have got a giant in your life that is something you are battling. You say, “I have got a giant.” Raise your hand if you say, “I have got a giant in my life right now.” I think all of us do, somewhat. Let us see how David handles this giant, this battle in this life. Look, you are in 1 Samuel 17. Look in verse number 45. The battle is coming. Goliath and David are coming at each other; it is on. Look in verse number 45, 1 Samuel 17, verse number 45: “Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword and with a spear and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee into my hand. I will smite thee and take thine head from thee. I will give the carcasses of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air and to the wild beast of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.” That does not sound like somebody that is weak to me; that is someone that knows their strength is from the Lord, and the Lord is able and capable of giving you the victory through His power and through His might. Be strong in the Lord, but you must know where your strength comes from. You must know. David knew, even in the clutch, the last-second shot of the game, he knew where his strength came from.
Number one was he knew where his strength came from. Then let me say this. Look, if you will, in Psalms 86. This is another psalm penned by David. Psalm 86. Notice what he says. Are you all there? Good. Psalm 86. Typically we talk about Psalms being songs, but notice what he says here—what a prayer. Some of the Psalms are prayers. Sometimes singing to the Lord is a prayer to the Lord. But notice, this is a prayer. It is the prayer of David. Now look down in verse number 16, Psalm 86 and verse number 16: “O turn unto me and have mercy upon me; give thy strength unto thy servant. And save the son of thine handmaid.”
Let me just read it for you. 1 Chronicles 16:11: David says, “Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His face continually.” Look over in Psalms 105 of God’s word. Once you find that, would you say glory to God? Look over in Psalms 105, and it is really kind of the same story from 1 Chronicles, but Psalm 105, look in verse number four. Notice what he says. He says, “Seek the Lord and His strength. Seek His face every more.”
Let me word it this way, very simply: David prayed for strength. When is the last time you have prayed, “Lord, give me strength?” It ought to be a great thing on our prayer list. It ought to be an often prayer that we have: just pray for strength. David, this great warrior, he is praying for strength. And when is the last time you prayed for strength?
Look, if you will, over in Philippians chapter number four. Because we are Baptists and we get stuck in ruts, once you find it, would you say amen? Amen. Look at there. Philippians chapter 4. Paul penned this book from prison. He is sitting in jail when he wrote this. Watch what he said. Look in Philippians, look in verse number 11. We are about to get to a very familiar verse, but look at verse number 11. He says, “Not that I speak in respect of want,” for I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. He is sitting in prison and he is writing; he says, “I am content. I have learned. It does not matter where I am at. I am just content.” Pretty amazing. He said, “I learned it. I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things, I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.” By the way, I think he knew very well how to abound; he grew up at the feet of Gamaliel. And he said, “I know how to live in prison and be content,” and he said, “I have learned that.”
Now look at the next verse, a very, very familiar verse. What does he say? He says, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” How in the world could Paul say, “I can do all things through Christ”? He said, “I know where my strength comes from.” I can live high on the hog. I can live where I ain’t got a penny and I just got barely enough food to keep my body alive. I can live everywhere and be content there because I know my strength comes from the Lord.
Hey, let me ask you, when is the last time you have sincerely spent time asking God for strength? “Well, I cannot be a wife like that.” No, you cannot on your own, but you can through God’s strength. “Well, I cannot be a good dad.” No, you cannot on your own, but you can through God’s strength. Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Friend, your strength comes from God, and you are going to pray for strength. God does not want a Christian to be continually weak. His strength is made perfect in weakness, but the end result of 2 Corinthians 12:9 and 10 is strength—strong. That is what God wants. Strong in the Lord.
Now let us get this last part, and we are going to be done. Last point in a story, and we are going to go home and eat something. Look if you will over in Psalm 29. Look at Psalm 29, would you please? Psalm 29. We are just going to see it one place. Psalm 29 and verse number one. By the way, this is again a Psalm of David. Verse number one, Psalm 29, verse number one. He says, “Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty. Give unto the Lord glory and strength.” Isn’t that amazing? We get our strength from the Lord, but it is not about us looking like we are all that and showing how strong we are to everybody. No, I am not about all that. We turn around and we give—or if you will, we use—but we give our strength back to the Lord. If you want God to continually give you strength, it ought not be about you. God says, “You know, I have been giving them strength, and they have been turned around and giving that back to me.” Lord, I want to be exactly what You want. I want Your light to shine through me. We are called to be an ambassador for Christ. Ambassadors from America go over to other countries, and they do not go over there and flex their muscles to show everybody how strong they are in that country. They go over to that country, and part of that job is to show that other country how strong America is. We are not to go around showing everybody how strong and intelligent and smart and all the rest of that stuff. We are supposed to go around and say, “Man, I have got a mighty God. You have given me some strength, Lord, and I want to give it back to you. Wherever and however you want to use it, it is from you anyway. I want to give it back to you.”
Look over—you are already in Psalms. Look over in Psalm 71, verse number 18. I am sure this verse will not apply to anyone in this room. None of you are like 56 years old or in your 30s or younger. So this does not apply to you. Look at Psalm 71, verse number 18. This might apply to some of us here. Look at what he says. Psalm 71:18: “Now also when I am old and gray-headed, O God, forsake me not, until I have showed thy strength unto this generation, thy power to everyone that is to come.” By the way, your grandchildren might need to see a godly grandpa and grandma that is strong in the Lord.
Sometimes we let young people pull us and our standards and convictions all over the place, so we change to fit them. Can I say this? You are not showing them any strength of God or power of God by doing that. They say, “Lord, I am old, but would You give me enough strength to show this generation You are a powerful, mighty God?” It was not about him; it was about the Lord.
David Gibbs founded the Christian Law Association. He is an attorney. They represent churches and Christians all across America when they get sued for standing for the Lord. I heard him just this week tell a story I had never heard before. He got a call from a state in New England. The preacher called and said, “Brother Gibbs, they are passing laws in our city against us passing out gospel tracks.” Brother Gibbs said, “Well, it has happened all across the United States. It is blatantly unconstitutional.” He said, “Fine, we will help you out, no problem.” The preacher said, “Brother Gibbs, I want you to understand that they are passing these laws to stop me.” Brother Gibbs said, “No, do not take it personal. It is happening all across the United States.” The preacher said, “Well, it is hard not to take it personal when they pass the law, look at you, say your name, and say, ‘We are doing this to stop you.’” Brother Gibbs called the county lawyer and the attorney general. He said, “So-and-so has called and said you are passing laws to stop him from passing out gospel tracks, and you are doing it against him personally.” They said, “We are.” The lawyer asked, “Brother Gibbs, do you know this man?” He said, “Well, actually, I do not know this man.” The lawyer asked, “Do you know how many of those little pieces of literature churches give you to tell you are going to heaven? Have you ever heard of that piece of literature?” Brother Gibbs replied, “Yeah, I think I have heard of those gospel tracks before.” The lawyer said, “Do you know how many of those this man passes out daily?” Brother Gibbs said, “No.” The lawyer said, “He passes out 400 of those every day, Brother Gibbs.” Brother Gibbs thought, “Wow.” The lawyer continued, “I know you are going to overturn this, but we are just trying to slow him down. This guy is like Superman on steroids. Our town was happy; we all thought we were going to heaven. He keeps passing out those little pamphlets, and now we are all worried. Are we really going to heaven or not? The Catholic priest in our town even got saved.” Brother Gibbs called the preacher back and said, “You are right, it is personal.” He got a plane ticket to come up. When he got off the plane, a man was there to meet him—the man who was picking him up. The man looked hunched over, dragging a leg, with gnarled-up hands. He said, “Hey, good to meet you. It is going to take me a while to get down there, so why don’t you go ahead and get your luggage, and I will meet you down there because I will have to stop a lot of times. I am just very, very limited.” So Brother Gibbs said, “No, no, I want to stay with you. The church sent you to pick me up; I want to hang out with you.” So he went with the man. The man said, “Brother Gibbs, I am sorry, I cannot help you get the luggage. You are going to have to get it yourself.” Brother Gibbs said, “You have got a heart of gold, and I appreciate that. But when we get to the church, I am going to talk to the preacher and say, ‘This guy is awesome, but can you send someone else?’” The man looked at Brother Gibbs and said, “I am the preacher.” Brother Gibbs said, “You are a Superman?” David Gibbs said, “I know I am very damaged goods. I cannot even pick up a gospel track without putting stick them on my hands. My whole life, no one wanted me on their team. But when Jesus saved me, He wants me on His team.” David Gibbs said the next five minutes changed his life. The man said, “But I pray for God to strengthen me.” According to that lawyer, that man had the whole town shook up. They were trying to pass laws just to stop him personally because that man knew where his strength came from, and he was praying for it. He was not used to show himself strong; he was giving his strength back to God. Strong in the Lord and the power of His might.
“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.”
Original File: 2026-01-05 - Pastor Paul Chisgar ＂Strength from the Lord＂ - Sunday AM 1⧸4⧸2026