This is the transcript of Restitutio episode 581: Standing Strong in the Lord with Jerry Wierwille This transcript was auto-generated and only approximates the contents of this episode. Audio file 581 Jerry Wierwille - Standing Strong in the Lord.mp3 Transcript 00:00 Hey. 00:01 I'm Sean. 00:02 And you are listening to Restitutio, a podcast that seeks to recover authentic Christianity and live it out today. 00:12 Happy New Year everyone. 00:14 Have you started to think about what you want to change in this coming year? 00:18 Today, we're going to listen to a powerful message by Doctor Jerry Werewol about standing strong. 00:24 In the Lord. 00:25 The world is always pressing on us, squeezing us into its mold. 00:30 How can we resist? 00:32 What can we do in this? 00:34 We will explains how putting on the armor of God will empower you to withstand the darts that come your way. 00:42 Turning to God as your protector and refuge will help you stand strong today and throughout this coming year. 00:49 Here now is episode 580. 00:51 Stand strong in the Lord with Jerry Werewol. 00:59 The. 01:02 In Ephesians Chapter 6 in verse 10. 01:06 It says. 01:07 Finally. 01:09 Strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 01:14 Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 01:19 We're told to be strong. 01:21 This is Paul's telling us something that we must do. 01:25 It's in the Greek. 01:26 In the imperative. 01:28 I mean, it's a command we are to be strong now when we talk about being strong. 01:35 We talk a lot about, you know, we need to gain strength in certain areas of. 01:40 We need to become better at things. Well, when I think about the word strong or the instruction to be strong, my mind as an athlete tends to go toward physical training. 01:54 I have this idea of strength training, weight lifting, ways to help my muscles become stronger. 02:04 And so to be strong in my mind, as I'm talking right now in a physical capability sense. 02:10 To be able to lift more and more weight or to be able to run faster or longer, and so there are ways to discipline our bodies in order to gain strength. And some people in the world. 02:26 Are really good at strengthening their bodies. 02:31 They have worked their bodies so much that they are able to produce massive amounts of force, be able to perform all kinds of incredible feats in life, physically speaking. 02:45 There are different things that strength brings though, not just the capability to to pick up a a big boulder and carry it or be able to have two massive suitcases coming off the airplane and one each hand. 02:55 Know sometimes those 50 LB suitcases. It's hard for the people at the check in desk to even pick them up over the counter and put them on the. 03:03 To be loaded onto the airplane. 03:06 Well, it's interesting when we talk about human strength, human strength as great as we might think, it can be to have a physically fit body and be able to perform incredible feats. 03:18 I like this passage in one Corinthians chapter 1. 03:21 Where it says that the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom and the weakness of God. 03:29 God is stronger than human strength. 03:34 Paul's talking figuratively here because there is no foolishness in God, and God does not have any actual weakness. He's completely all wise. 03:46 And he's all powerful. So there is no deficiency in God. But he's making a point, saying even if you could take the weak link in God, it is better than anything. 03:59 That a human could have wisdom strength. 04:04 God is above all of that, and so when we're encouraged to be strong. 04:10 In the Lord, that's because he is where true strength lies. 04:15 And no matter how strong we could become, God is always stronger. 04:20 And we know that God is stronger. 04:23 There is no one who has ever bested God. 04:27 There's no one who's ever trumped God and has taken advantage of him and has exploited him. 04:32 He is above all and there is no God besides him. 04:37 Now there's other ways to look at strength too. 04:41 You could have strength by being able to endure through austere conditions on the planet. 04:49 There's a lot of different places that have very severe climates, and I think about mountain climbing as one example. 04:57 See mountain climbing the people that traverse into the upper atmosphere. 05:03 Way high, where the oxygen density it becomes very low and therefore it's hard to breathe sometimes and the temperatures drop significantly and people they travel up into these really high peaks to try to get to the the summit, the top as like a form of achievement. 05:24 And it takes great strength to be able to endure those climates. 05:30 Well, I also think of people who go into the Arctic, the Antarctic, places where it is sub zero temperatures. 05:36 The wind is bitterly cold and they have to have the strength to endure those conditions. 05:43 That's another type of strength. 05:45 But you know, I think some of the most incredible strength really is when you're able to actually slow down. 05:58 To actually stand still when everything else is going on. 06:03 See Pastor Sean talked about Psalm 46 and I love that Psalm in Psalm 4610. It says. 06:12 Says. 06:13 Be still. 06:14 Be still. 06:17 When you think about it, that's actually kind of. 06:20 Really it's simple simple language, but in practice, gosh, when there's so much going on, it takes a lot of strength. 06:31 To be still. 06:34 To quiet your soul, to not get caught up in all the commotion and the bustling and busyness of everything going on. 06:41 If it's the time of a crisis, the panic and the frenzy, it takes real strength. 06:50 To separate yourself from all that. 06:54 And part of it is because there's something in us that tends to want to conform. 07:03 Psychologists call it. 07:05 Social conformity, where we just tend to kind of want to be with everybody and to do things, and we kind of like, begin adapting ourselves to our environment. 07:17 It's it's just kind of the way that we. 07:20 Look to be like other people. 07:23 And so to step away from that, to push against that, we're called not to be like the world. And that takes effort. 07:31 Takes lots of effort. 07:32 That takes strength. 07:35 Now where do we get the strength to really? 07:38 Push back against the world. I want to go on in Ephesians Chapter 6. 07:44 Ephesians Chapter 6 it. 07:47 Let S start here in verse 11. 07:50 Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 07:59 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, 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. 08:15 Therefore, because this is the way things are, because we are embroiled in this spiritual warfare. 08:24 Paul says therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day now that evil day isn't some coming day down the road. 08:37 He's talking about the present darkness in this world, the present powers, the present rulers. 08:44 That are under the influence and are under the adversary who is working his schemes throughout the world. 08:52 This is the evil day that we live in. 08:57 We live in a day where the world is ruled by the devil, the wicked one. 09:04 This is what John writes in his first letter. 09:06 First, John chapter 519. I believe that. 09:10 The world is under the power of the Evil 1. 09:15 And so we need to have the whole armor of God, Paul says, in order to be able to, with stand in the evil day today. 09:24 And having done all to stand firm now, he lists off what is this armor of God, the armor of God here. 09:35 Is required to not be conformed to the world. 09:39 And there's multiple components to it. 09:41 Uses this great military analogy. 09:44 Let's read the list. It starts in verse 14. 09:47 Therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth. 09:52 And having put on the breastplate of righteousness. 09:55 And as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace in all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil 1 and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit. 10:11 Which is the word of God. 10:14 When I was younger, I got this cool little figurine that depicts the armor of God. 10:21 It kind of shows as a Roman soldier outfitted for war that various components that they use. 10:29 You have the helmet. 10:32 The helmet of salvation. 10:34 We have the breastplate of righteousness. 10:38 The belt of truth. 10:41 The shoes or your feet that are fitted or made ready by the Gospel of peace. 10:47 You have the shield of faith and you have the sword of the spirit. Now out of all of these pieces of armor or equipment. 10:59 They're all defensive except one. 11:03 The offensive equipment is the word of God. 11:07 And part of being strong in the Lord is not just defending against the way the adversary attacks. 11:15 But also being able to defeat him. 11:20 And being strong in the Lord takes both. It takes both being able to defend against the fiery darts that he sends at you, and also be able to overcome him and defeat him. And that is done with the word of God with the scriptures. 11:37 The power of the revelation of the knowledge of truth that we have received. 11:45 The cool thing that I think about the armor of God is that you can take an ordinary person. 11:53 An ordinary believer. 11:56 Somebody who isn't physically strong, somebody who's not able to ascend to Mount Everest, up in the top of the sky at -40°F and be able to endure all that, you take an ordinary person who trusts in God. 12:14 And the armor of God makes him extraordinary. 12:18 I think this picture here of justice, the person with the shadow, the shadow of showing that he is strong. 12:25 With what he has in his heart. 12:29 See strength not on the outside, strength on the inside. 12:35 The armor of God makes us strong not to be able to endure through physical afflictions, necessarily or hard times in our life. Busy schedules and other stuff. It makes us be able to be victorious in the spirit realm. 12:52 Where the attacks from the adversary are called fiery darts and those fiery darts are ways that get us to doubt God get us to look at the circumstances in the world and think that we have to be able to do things by the sweat of our own BR. 13:07 And the strength of our own shoulders. 13:10 But that's not what being strong in the Lord is. 13:13 That is self-reliance and that is a trick from the enemy. 13:18 It distracts us and takes us away from the strength that is in the Lord. See being strong in the Lord. Actually, that word being strong is actually in. 13:27 Passive voice. 13:28 But what it means is that it's not something necessary that you are going to make yourself strong. It's let yourself be a filled with power. 13:37 Be empowered. 13:39 See the strength that comes from the Lord is strengthening inside of you. 13:45 It doesn't make you this Superman. It makes yourself in your spirit strong to withstand the attacks of the adversary. 13:58 Sometimes being able to live with strength, it takes some discipline. You have to actually actively do something to work at putting on the armor of God. 14:10 Armor of God isn't something automatic. 14:13 You don't just wake up one day and all of a sudden the armor of God is fully employed in your life and you're just really adept at being able to just swat off all the flaming darts of the enemy. 14:26 The armor of God is something that actually you have to equip yourself with. 14:31 The strength comes from God, but the equipping is something that is our responsibility. 14:36 We. 14:36 Have to actually put on he. 14:39 We put on the armor of God now. 14:43 The discipline that I was just mentioning, I think about as I do in athletic terms often. 14:50 I love athletics and everything. 14:52 Well, there's one particular athletic competition when I think of discipline and that is in cycling. One of the most famous races in the world is the Tour de France. 15:06 This is a a race, a cycling race that happens every summer, and it's about 3 weeks long, and it consists of some over 2000 miles. 15:19 It's a super long race, grueling and intense, and the people who race. 15:25 In the Tour de France, they are extremely disciplined individuals. It took a lot of discipline to get the strength to do a race of that caliber. 15:36 Back when I was growing up, there was one racer, 1 cyclist, who was particularly adept at this race. 15:43 His. 15:45 Name is Lance Armstrong. 15:48 Lance. 15:48 He actually won the Tour de France 7 times. 15:55 Unprecedented no one has ever won the Tour de France 7 consecutive times. 16:03 It was unbelievable what he did, but his story's even more unbelievable when we understand that he actually 2 1/2 years before that. 16:13 But he had cancer. 16:16 He had an aggressive form of stage 3 cancer in 1990. 16:20 He was diagnosed with cancer and he underwent some treatments and his body responded well to the treatments. 16:29 The doctors didn't think he was going to. 16:31 They didn't give him a good prognosis, but his body responded well and 2 1/2 years later he enters the Tour de France to become its champion. 16:42 And in his life, he decided he wanted to be able to give back, to be able to help in Cancer Research. 16:51 He started a foundation. 16:52 He started a foundation called Live Strong. 16:56 And he looked at the way he said that, you know, before he had cancer, he said he just lived. 17:01 But cancer and defeating cancer made him have this new outlook on life. And so now, he says he lives strong. 17:12 I think that this is a really incredible slogan. 17:15 You know Livestrong, the he was founded on the principle that unity is strength, knowledge is power and attitude is everything. 17:24 I think that's very. 17:26 You know, when I was in high school, I wore the Livestrong band because I wanted to be disciplined in my life as an athlete too. 17:34 I want to be able to have a better attitude because in athletics and when you're working to extend yourself your mind and the focus of your mind is almost 80%. The battle in athletics is not predominantly physical, it's mental. 17:50 And so to live strong is to be like, focus your mind if you can focus your mind, you can deliver incredible strength. 17:58 But rather than live strong, I think in light of the battle that we're in, in the spirit realm. 18:04 I want to change this whole slogan, kind of like take it over and reformulate into be strong. So we we're part of a a be strong foundation for the Lord where we want to help each other be strong. 18:20 See the Livestrong Foundation was a fundraiser for Cancer Research. 18:25 I'd say rather, let's do the be strong foundation for the Lord and let's help each other. 18:31 Let's help each other be able to overcome adversity in life. 18:35 Because we're so. 18:36 Not because we have this wisdom to prevent or to avoid certain. 18:41 Not because we're physically able to endure through austere circumstances or perform incredible feats. 18:48 But we are strong because our strength comes from the Lord and we do not turn away from that source of strength. 18:56 In Psalm 46 it says God is our refuge and strength and ever present help in trouble and in proverbs 1810 it says the name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run to it. 19:11 And are safe. 19:14 And one of my favorites, Psalm 73, though my flesh and my heart may fail, the strength of my heart is God. 19:23 God is strength in my heart, my portion forever. 19:26 Forever. 19:29 God is the strength of my heart. 19:35 I want to discipline myself. 19:38 To that attitude. 19:42 I want to be able to say no matter what. 19:46 I know that I am better and stronger with God than with anything else. 19:54 Despite the circumstances, despite what might be happening around me, I can be still and know that God is my strength. 20:05 I'd like to go to an example in the Old Testament. 20:10 If you guys would turn to Isaiah Chapter 7, I want to give a little bit of background here. 20:15 So during this time in the world. 20:20 The. 20:20 Superpowers at B. 20:23 Primarily was the nation of Assyria, and this is about the mid to early 8 century BC747 Hundred 30s BC. 20:34 Assyria was the dominant superpower. The other nations we're going to deal with here, Assyria, Israel and Judah. These little guys down here. 20:46 Comparatively speaking, they are very insignificant in light of the size of the Assyrian Empire. 20:54 Assyrian Empire is this massive conglomerate. 20:58 We're. 20:58 Going to pick up the record here in Isaiah Chapter 7. 21:02 Says in the days of Ahaz. 21:04 The son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah resin, the king of Syria, and Piqa the son of Ramalia, the King of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack. 21:21 Against it. 21:24 So both Syria and Israel here. So these two nations and the kings of these nations want to come down to Judah and they want to attack Judah and particularly Jerusalem, the capital. But it says that they were not able to. 21:42 Well, that's kind of the conclusion of the matter. 21:45 What Isaiah then lays out is kind of the situation that happened. 21:49 To bring us to that point where the kings wanted to attack but couldn't, and also if you want to know this record is also born out in Second Kings Chapter 16 in further detail as well. 22:02 All right, let's do a verse 2. 22:04 We're in the House of David was told. Syria is in league with Ephraim, which is another name for Israel. The heart of Ahaz, who's the king of Judah and the heart of his people shook. 22:18 As the trees of the forest shake before the wind. 22:23 So King Ahaz in Judah and the people of Judah, they hear that the king of Syria and the King of Israel are coming to attack. 22:36 These two bigger forces are joining up and they are mounting a joined attack. 22:41 And it. 22:43 That their heart, the heart of a has, and the people of Judah. It shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind. 22:54 This is incredible metaphor. 22:56 You guys ever been out walking? 22:59 And you you, there's a light breeze and you hear the leaves rustling in the wind. How much wind? 23:07 Does it take to rustle the leads? 23:10 Very little, actually, very little wind. 23:15 What Isaiah is saying is that the heart of the king and the heart of the people in Judah. 23:22 Were so frail, so delicate, that just hearing this news causes them to shake like the leaves in the wind just blowing left, blowing right. 23:34 Sirius coming, Israel's coming. 23:37 Oh my gosh, what are we going to do? 23:39 Well, they basically were panicking. 23:42 They were like we're doomed. 23:45 These people, these enemy nations, are coming to our front door and they're going to breakdown our walls and destroy us. 23:54 Well, the Lord sends Isaiah. He tells him to. 23:58 To meet with Ahaz. 23:59 In verse three, he says, and the Lord said to Isaiah, go out to meet Ahaz. 24:07 UN share yasheb your son at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the washer S field. 24:16 That seems like a really specific place to meet up tell Ahaz Yahweh is telling Isaiah here. 24:21 This to ahaz. 24:23 Be careful and be quiet. 24:26 Be. 24:27 It's not like be careful like be. 24:28 This is more like pay attention and be quiet. 24:31 He's basically telling them, hey, stop your panicking and shut your trap. 24:39 What Isaiah's telling here? 24:40 Is that all this talk about this incumbent invasion is causing widespread panic, and furthermore, when you are preoccupied with a certain topic and all you do is you do talk about it and you talk about it and you talk about it. 24:59 That's what you focus on. 25:01 Your mind becomes fixed on what you preoccupy it with, and that's why we have to be careful what we put in our mind. 25:07 What we entertain with our thoughts? 25:10 Isaiah is telling Ahaz pay attention and be. 25:14 I don't want to hear what you have to say about these armies that you think are coming to destroy you. 25:18 I have something to tell you. 25:21 And what he tells them, he tells them. 25:23 Do not fear and do not let your. 25:26 Be faint. 25:28 Because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands and the fierce anger of resonance, Syria and the son of Ramalia, Isaiah tells him, don't be afraid. 25:41 Be quiet. 25:42 Don't be afraid. 25:43 Don't let your heart be faint. Don't be weak. 25:49 Don't let your heart be swayed like the leaves in the wind. 25:53 Have some resolution, man. 25:56 Have some faith in God. 26:00 And then, Isaiah, further, actually he calls these kings a name. It's pretty derogatory. 26:07 Basically saying that they're just little smoky stumps. 26:10 They're not even burning. 26:12 He's kind of talking about how impotent they are. 26:15 They can't even start a fire because they're just smoldering. 26:19 They don't actually produce any heat. 26:22 It's a false assumption to think that they're dangerous is what he's saying now. Why is that? 26:28 It because they have no power. 26:30 No. The armies of Syria and Israel. In fact, if you read back in Second Kings chapter 16. 26:37 They actually do a lot of destructive things in the land of Judah. 26:42 But when it comes to Jerusalem, they never are able to take it. 26:47 Verse 5, it says. 26:49 Because Syria, with Ephraim and the son of Ramala, has devised evil against you, saying let's go up against Judah and terrify it and let us conquer it for ourselves and set up the son of Tabl as king in the midst of it. 27:01 Thus says the Lord God. 27:02 Here S Isaiah S prophecy. 27:04 Here is. 27:04 Yahweh says it shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass. 27:12 For the head of Syria is Damascus and the head of Damascus is resin. And within 65 years Ephraim will be shattered from being a people and the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Ramalia. 27:25 He tells them basically this isn't going to happen. 27:29 What you're worried about, what you're afraid of? 27:31 What has caused your heart to crumble? 27:35 Not. 27:35 Going to come to pass, not going to be. 27:39 In fact, he says, these countries that you're afraid of are actually going to be no more. 27:45 Within 65 years, they're going to be shattered, Isaiah says. 27:49 And this is a prophecy leading forward to the conquering of Assyria that to exile both Syria and Israel from those regions. 27:59 So Isaiah gives us prophecy to Ahaz, saying don't be afraid because what you think is going to happen isn't. 28:06 But then he concludes his prophecy with this at the end of verse 9, he says if you are not firm in faith. 28:16 You will not be firm at all. 28:20 If you don't trust God. 28:24 Then you will not have strength. 28:28 What Isaiah tells Ahaz now, Ahaz wasn't a very good king. You can read all about him in Second Kings. 28:36 But the fact that Isaiah tells him where strength resides and that he needs to trust in God and not in himself, which you can learn about in Second Kings, he actually doesn't really. 28:49 He turns to and tries to make a pact with a serial king of Assyria to actually take care of Israel and Syria for him. 28:57 But that ends up turning. 28:59 He trusts in himself to bribe another nation to kind of like be his mercenary. 29:05 That ends up backfiring on him as a Syria comes to take over the entire region, and Judah suffers great devastation because of that as well. 29:13 But Isaiah is telling Ahaz you need to be firm in faith. 29:19 Faith in God that God is the one who will be able to protect you, bring you strength and deliverance. 29:28 If you guys would go with me to two Corinthians chapter 4 here in Second Corinthians chapter 4, Paul's talking about suffering suffering in his body the way that Jesus also suffered. 29:44 Physically to the point of death. 29:47 And that the idea is that we should believe that. 29:53 The one who raised Jesus from the dead in verse 14. 29:58 Will also raise us with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. 30:04 Now this reality, Paul then says in verse 16. So we do not lose heart. 30:11 Because of this, we don't allow our hearts to become faint. 30:17 We are encouraged by this. He's saying this gives us strength. 30:22 This is part of the hope, the hope of resurrection. 30:26 The hope of being in the presence of our God and Lord Jesus one day. 30:32 She. 30:32 We do not lose. 30:34 Verse 16, though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 30:45 Because our outer self, our physical body. 30:49 Even our physical body is undergoing affliction. 30:54 In life. 30:57 Suffering, decay, even sickness. 31:00 Though our Outers body is undergoing these things, our inner self is actually being renewed each day. 31:10 Paul says the same thing over in Ephesians Chapter 3. In 3/16, he says. 31:16 He may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner self. 31:25 God will grant you to be strengthened in your inner self. 31:30 Through his spirit, God's spirit in you brings strength to you. 31:35 The inner self is just a designation for who you are, who you are on the inside. You could say it's like your soul the the person you are apart from your physical body. 31:46 It it constitutes your mind and your heart and your thoughts and your emotions, that is your inner self and see when facing difficult times, it's the inner self that typically needs the greatest strength. 32:02 Are outer bodies if we sleep and we provide them with nourishment and take care of them, they carry on. 32:11 But in the face of adversity, it's our inner self that is most susceptible to being broken down and harmed. 32:19 And so Paul is saying that God will grant you strength if you trust in God. He will grant you strength. 32:27 In your inner self, through his spirit. 32:31 Back in two Corinthians. 32:34 In verse 17. 32:36 Now he goes on to explain a comparison. 32:39 He's going to try to get people to Orient their perspective appropriately here. 32:44 17 for this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all compare. 32:55 It's strange that he talks about this light momentary affliction, especially when Paul had undergone severe persecution and physical suffering. 33:06 Being beaten, starved. Sometimes he got shipwrecked. 33:10 He was in jail multiple times. 33:12 He knows what it's like to suffer physically. 33:17 And so he calls it this light momentary affliction like. 33:20 No big deal. 33:21 Little pinch on the arm. He's gonna be here for a moment, and it's gonna be gone. 33:26 It's almost like he's belittling the suffering of this life. 33:31 But it does that because it's a rhetorical. 33:33 Because what he's doing is he's pointing to the so much greater. 33:38 Significance. 33:41 When he calls me eternal weight of glory. 33:45 He's saying that glory that we can look forward to one day when our bodies will be raised from the dead or will be transformed if we still live when the Lord returns into a body of glory like that of Jesus Christ. 33:59 That eternal weight of glory makes everything in this life seem. 34:06 Momentary. 34:08 Wow. 34:09 That puts things into perspective. 34:14 His encouragement on how to gain this perspective in verse 18 is that as we look not at the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen for the things that are seen are transient or temporary. But the things that are unseen. 34:31 Are eternal. 34:33 It tells us there's two ways to look at things in this world. 34:37 You can look at what you can see around you with your own two eyes. The stuff that goes on from day-to-day in life. 34:45 The struggles you might deal with with your job, with your family, with the economy, with the weather, you look at the things that are seen, he says. 34:55 That's on one hand. On the other hand, you look at things that are not seen. 35:01 You look at invisible. 35:03 What do you mean? Look at it. 35:04 Do you look at invisible things? 35:07 Well, he's talking about the things that have not yet come to pass. 35:11 See Paul writes in Romans Chapter 8 that if we hope in things that we see, then we don't actually hope in them, because what we hope in is we hope in things that have not yet come to pass, things that we do have not yet seen. 35:24 Happen. 35:27 So on one hand, it's what you see. It's on another hand. What you can't see because it hasn't yet occurred yet. He's saying if you stop looking at what has already happened or what you can see around you currently. And if you look on the things that are. 35:40 Come. 35:42 That makes you have a perspective to see that what happens now is so far beneath what's going to happen then. 35:53 And that hope. 35:54 That one day God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. God will give us immortality. 36:01 A body that is incorruptible, that looking forward to that helps us through what we can currently see. 36:09 Now that is this light momentary affliction. 36:12 And oh, how painful it is life. 36:16 We suffer. 36:18 It's not fun. 36:21 But if we're not strong in the Lord, then our heart will blow in the breeze like leaves of the tree. 36:28 And what do we have then? 36:31 We can't give up on God. 36:34 During our times of trouble. 36:37 He is our refuge. 36:40 God is restricted my heart and my portion forever. 36:43 I told myself that every day. 36:46 Sometimes it's hard to make it through the day. 36:50 But if we look at what is not seen, if we trust in God and we put on the armor of God the trust, the faith, the righteousness, the truth, the Gospel of peace that we have with God. 37:06 And the shield of faith and the sword of the spirit. If we stand with these armaments, we will be able to weather any storm in life because we are made strong by the Lord. 37:19 We look to God to be strengthened in our inner self. 37:23 That's the strength we need to be able to have endurance, to make it through the pain and the suffering and the hardships of life. 37:32 So let us stand strong in the Lord never waver. 37:39 Well, that brings his message to a. 37:41 What did you think? Come on over to restitudio.org and find episode 581. Stand strong in the Lord with Jerry Werewolf. 37:48 Now I remember this sermon so well because the world was falling apart. 37:55 Around us, when Jerry delivered it originally spoken in March of 2020. 38:01 In New York State, where reports were coming out about a strange new virus killing, hundreds of people in New York City, this message was a powerful reminder to be strong in the Lord, even though news agencies worked hard to stoke fear. 38:17 Thus, driving clicks and generating revenue for themselves. 38:20 Jerry's passionate message here helped our congregation to weather the storm, and I hope it did the same for you. 38:27 Whatever comes your way in this upcoming year. 38:30 Well, that's going to bring our show to a close for today. 38:32 If you'd like to support us, you can do that at restitudio.org. 38:37 Catch you next week and remember the truth has nothing to fear.