Toughen Up

That's good. But this morning, I'm going to talk about toughening up.

Who needs to be toughened up?

Roy, do you need to be toughened up a little bit? Andrew, toughened up?

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Let me read this verse to you first, and then we can sort

of get that out of the way because it's a very confronting verse.

Yeah, confronting verses are good. Proverbs 24 and verse 10 from the New King

James Version says, If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.

Do you want to read? Do you want to see the message translation for that one? Are you ready?

You ready? It says, if you fall to pieces in a crisis, there wasn't much to you in the first place.

That's why I wanted to get out of the way in the first, straight away.

If you fall to pieces in a crisis, there wasn't much to you in the first place.

Wow. I'm sensing something in my spirit.

I really am sensing something in my spirit that may not make sense in the natural.

But that's usually the case when it's prophetic, that it feels and perceives

things on a spiritual level, okay?

And what I'm seeing is this strong urging of the Holy Spirit to toughen up, to toughen up.

There's a saying where it's something to do with if someone needs to toughen

up, they need to drink some concrete.

What's that one? What's that say?

Yeah, have a cup of concrete and toughen up, sweetheart, or whatever it is, but there we go.

Okay, now we're going to get to a few, we're going to read from a few of Paul's

letters this morning, which talks about being tough, and who knows that Paul,

the Apostle Paul, had a lot of adversity in his life.

There's one scripture passage they're going to read in a little while that talks

about a lot of the adversity that he faced in his life.

And so let's read this one to start with. And it's to Timothy.

It's to Timothy. So when I preach to you about toughening up,

it's me that I'm preaching to predominantly.

And if it means anything to anyone else, then you take it on as well.

But it says this in 2 Timothy 2 verses 1 to 4.

2 Timothy 2:1–4

It says, Timothy, my dear son, be strong through the grace that God gives you in Christ Jesus.

You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses.

Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others.

Endure suffering along with me as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

Soldiers don't get tied up in the affairs of civilian life, for they cannot

please the officer who enlisted them.

Okay, 2 Corinthians, another letter of Paul's to the church in Corinth,

and it's 2 Corinthians 10 verses 3 to 5, and it says, We are human.

2 Corinthians 10:3–5

But we don't wage war as humans do. We use God's mighty weapons,

not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to

destroy false arguments.

We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God.

We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.

Okay, if there's one thing Paul understood from reading these letters and other

letters is that he understood the spiritual nature of the warfare that he was in, okay?

Because you know, the Bible is actually not written for those who just casually

pick it up and have a read. It's not written for casual onlookers as such.

The Bible is written as a manual for spiritual warfare, okay?

For those who are actively engaged in fighting the Lord's battles.

In another letter that Paul wrote to Timothy 2 verses 1 to 4,

actually, it's the one I read, but I'll read it again because it's what I want to talk about.

Timothy, my dear son, be strong through the grace that God gives you in Christ Jesus.

You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses.

Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass

them on to others. endure suffering along with me as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

Soldiers don't get tied up in the affairs of civilian life for them.

For them, they cannot please the officer who enlisted them. Now,

let's have a think about soldiers. Okay.

What are the characteristics of a good soldier? Call it out.

Characteristics of a good soldier.

Obedience. Yep. Bravery. Strength. Yep.

Courage. teachable, teachable, obedient, long-suffering.

Dependable, team player. They're always taught to watch for the person next

to you and they're disciplined, they're hardened, they're tough, they're tough.

That's why the armed services, when you go to join either the Army or the Air

Force or the Navy or in America, the Marines or whatever, they have a boot camp program.

And the boot camp program is to sift out those who have the qualities that we've just spoken about,

against those who don't. It's a sifting process. And the thing about these characteristics.

That they are within reach of all of us.

They're not necessarily automatic characteristics, but they're available.

We've got to choose those characteristics and you have to cultivate them.

Now, Paul the apostle, as we've read, is encouraging his spiritual son,

Timothy, to be a good soldier and to endure hardness.

And these words may not have meant much coming from someone else,

but Paul, as we spoke about, he had the credentials to be able to talk about

being tough. He knew what he was talking about.

Let's have a read about some of the things that Paul had to endure in 2 Corinthians

11, 24 to 27. Have a look at all this stuff.

It says, five different times the Jewish leaders gave me 39 lashes,

three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned,

three times I was shipwrecked, once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea,

I have traveled on many long journeys, I've faced dangers from rivers and from

robbers, I've faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as the Gentiles,

I've faced dangers in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas.

And I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not.

I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights.

I've been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food.

I have shivered in the cold without enough clothing to keep me warm.

There you go. He's got the credentials to talk about toughness, doesn't he?

We need to embrace the mindset and the attitude of a soldier who is on active

duty all the time, all the time.

A soldier may not be wearing his uniform all the time while he's on leave or

on a day off or whatever, but inside his heart and his mind,

he is still a soldier. Okay.

Through all adversity and struggles in life, and though there are a lot of hard

work done in the natural, it's the supernatural power of God that opens up the

sea for us and drowns Pharaoh's plans.

Okay? So we need to be fully clothed in the supernatural power of God.

As Christians, we have to seize the day.

We have to own this moment in history. Who knows that, you know,

the last few years have been interesting, interesting.

Well, it's time for us to seize this moment in history.

It's time for us to rise up and hold the spiritual territory that we win.

Do I have to remind you that when we pray to God that he will overcome all the

adversity and he will deal with this issue and deal, he's looking to us to do that for him.

We are his hands. We are his feet. We are his mouth. Okay.

We have to rise up and hold the spiritual territory that we win.

We have to stand our ground spiritually to enforce what has been done in the spirit.

We have to put on the armor of God that he's provided us.

We have to keep momentum going.

We have to keep pushing forward and reclaiming all the ground that gets lost.

Claim it back. Claim it back. And we have to take new territory as well. It's our role.

It's our role. We are soldiers. The worst thing that can happen to us now is

to become spiritually complacent.

Now, the truth is, an army is the most vulnerable right after a great victory, okay?

Because they're relaxed, they're enjoying the victory.

They're thinking, wow, that was great. We really powered through there.

We won that battle. They're celebrating their win.

And they aren't at the top of their game when they're celebrating their win,

when they're thinking about what's happened in the past.

They need to be prepared for what's going to happen in the future. You with me?

That's what John Bevere says. You with me? You with me?

We can't afford to do that. We can't afford to relax and go,

yeah, that was great. We won that. you know, awesome.

We can't afford to relax.

We have to remember that no matter how bad the enemy may have lost,

he's not going to give up either.

He's not going to give up. Remember this, the devil never takes a holiday and

his demons never quit plotting and scheming against us.

So we need to be ready. We need to be armored.

We need to be toughened up, ready to fight back. The devil counts on us becoming complacent.

He counts on us becoming lazy and letting down our guards.

He counts on us feeling overconfident and untouchable.

That's why we have to outsmart him. We have to take time. And here's a list

of things that we need to do.

Don't bother writing it down because you will not keep up. You'll have to listen to the podcast, okay?

I saw Brad going, right, here we go. I'm ready.

All right, you try your best. We have to fortify our resources.

We have to build up our armory. We have to tighten our belts.

We have to pray more diligently and more intelligently.

We have to worship more intensely and passionately. We need to serve more aggressively.

How are you going there, Brad? We need to build up ourselves on our most holy

faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.

Come on Wednesday night, we're talking about praying in the Holy Spirit.

We need to hide God's word in our hearts so it's there for us to grab when we

need it. We need to sharpen our spiritual weapons.

Because the truth is, even though we may not see it right now,

the battle is raging in the spirit.

It really is. and the devil is strategizing and he's plotting and planning for his next move.

We need to decide not to get caught slumbering.

Did they talk about slumbering spirits in that course that you've been doing there, Andrew?

Not yet. Not yet.

Not yet. We can't be caught slumbering.

I saw a thing on YouTube recently, and I've experienced this.

I'll talk about that as well.

I saw a thing on YouTube how soldiers are brought to the point of exhaustion

through their drills and their drill sergeant pushing them. They're brought

to the point of exhaustion.

And while they're exhausted and trying to rest, their drill sergeant goes around

and tries to take their weapons off them.

And if the drill sergeant is able to take their weapons off them,

then if he's able to, then the whole group, not just the one he took the weapon

from, but the whole group is made to run a grueling exercise course.

Now, when I was in the police, when I joined and did my initial training a long

time ago, 1985, I joined the police.

One of the things they did, the most important thing is retaining your weapons.

They'd issue us with a gun, they issued us with handcuffs and a baton.

Okay they would give us drills on how to

use the baton and you'd put it back in the baton holder on your

belt and then they would walk around and try and take that

out it's retent retaining your weapons is so important and if they were able

to take that baton out of your baton ring and get away with it and you let down

your guard everyone paid for it everyone paid for it so it seems mean but there

was a valuable lesson there as well.

The point is your life and the life of everyone around you depends on you being

in possession of your weapon at all times.

So it's very important. So what is the attitude that we should have going forward now?

Okay, here's another list for your write down, Brad.

Keep looking ahead. Keep your eyes open and lift your eyes up to see what's coming.

Keep moving forward. Don't get stuck.

Remember God's mighty works of the past.

Stay in an attitude of gratitude. Protect your eyes and your ears.

That's a big one. Protect your eyes and your ears. Don't take anything at face

value except the word of God.

Practice the presence of God moment by moment. Guard your heart and mind against all fears.

Confess God's word over your life

and loved ones. We've been doing this regularly, Angela and I recently.

Confessing God's word over our family and friends. Confessing God's word over

you guys. You're welcome.

Trust the righteousness of God to execute his judgment on the earth. Trust God's timing.

There's a few more. Wait expectantly for better days.

That's a big one too. Wait expectantly because those better days are coming.

Be an encourager to those within your circle of influence.

You want to know some very encouraging people? It's basically this whole front

row here and many more behind them.

Being encouragers to the people in their circle of influence Sing songs of God's

goodness and faithfulness Just like we did this morning Speak hopefully of the future.

Season all your conversations with God's goodness and fullness,

Imagine what you're believing God to manifest in your future Imagine what you

want God to manifest in your future Keep the word of God in front of your eyes

and rushing through your spirit.

Savor and magnify every good thing that happens in your life, no matter how small.

Keep sowing seeds. What seeds? Kindness, mercy, favor, forgiveness, and yes, money too.

Refuse to allow today's disappointments to rob you of tomorrow's possibilities

because they're going to come.

There's going to be disappointing days. There's going to be bad days,

but don't let that bad day rob you of the possibility of the future.

You must stay in possession of your weapons at all times, your baton,

your gun, your handcuffs, your capsicum spray.

You've got to stay in possession of all that stuff, which means never lose the edge.

Never lose the edge. Never let ease and comfort dull your senses.

Be ever ready because your enemy never sleeps.

Understand that despite victories won, we are still in a hostile environment.

It's all through the Bible. It's repeated. It's repeated. We're in hostile environment.

Your adversary, the devil, is continuing to prowl, looking for someone who is

slacking off and not keeping up.

He's looking to see if you're allowing yourself to drift into a deadly slumber or not.

Toughen up, toughen up. You may be a spiritual Rambo 10 times over,

but if the devil can catch you sleeping, you're no match for him.

The Bible's very clear about the fact that we are in spiritually active war

zone. We are in a war zone.

Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but it's against principalities and

powers and rules of darkness and spiritual wickedness in high places.

We're called upon to be good soldiers of Christ Jesus, enduring hardness.

Yes, we've been through some hard times over the last few years and maybe even

more recently. It's been very challenging and frustrating, but it's also been

very revealing, hasn't it?

It's been very revealing. We are seeing God pull back the covers and show us

much of the corruption and the deception in this world.

Very interesting stuff. But at the same time, we have to become more aware of

the faithfulness, the integrity, and the mercy of God working through us.

I believe that over the past few years, we saw the mercy of God on a level never imagined.

That's what I believe. As difficult as these past years have been,

I have to say that I believe I have learned some amazing life lessons about patience, endurance.

Trusting, even when I can't trace what God's doing.

Trust is there. We need to learn some trust in God.

I think the most important thing, probably the most important thing for me over

the past few years with the difficulties of what's been going on was the privilege of prayer.

The privilege of prayer and the benefits of staying in prayer to get through every situation.

Who agrees with that? Yeah. Yep.

I feel in my spirit a word for the body of Christ.

Okay. I don't mean to be mean or critical when I say it, and I'm including myself

when I say it, I believe the church as a whole needs to toughen up, toughen up.

Paul tells Timothy in no uncertain terms this. If you're going to be a good

soldier, you're going to have to toughen up.

You're going to go through some stuff. You're going to have your metal tested.

So toughen up. You're going to have to feel some discouragement and some discomfort.

Because you know what? You're not on a cruise ship. You're on a battleship as Christians.

The Bible you carry is not a shelter to shade you from the sun.

It's a weapon of mass destruction to the agenda of hell. That's what our Bible is.

Sometimes Christians end up going spiritually AWOL And part of the reason is

that we didn't tell them up front That they were enlisting into an army Who

was told when they became a Christian?

Well, you're enlisting into an army Raise your right hand.

You weren't told that? Doesn't matter. You'll be all right.

We made them think. We made new Christians think, and perhaps it was us as well,

that they were boarding the Carnival Cruise Line to heaven.

Paul never did that. Paul never did that.

Repeatedly, he spoke of trials and tests and hardships and tribulations.

All the time he spoke about that.

In 2 Thessalonians, here's a letter he wrote to the church in Thessalonica. 2

2 Thessalonians 1:3–5

Thessalonians 1 verses 3 to 5 it says dear

brothers and sisters we can't help but

thank God for you because your faith is flourishing and

your love for one another is growing we proudly tell God's other churches about

your endurance and your faithfulness in all the persecutions and hardships you

are suffering and God will use this persecution to show his justice and make

you worthy of his kingdom for which you are suffering.

He wrote another letter to the church in Thessalonica as well.

And in 1 Thessalonians 3 verses 1 to 4, he says, Finally, when we could stand

1 Thessalonians 3:1–4

it no longer, we decided to stay alone in Athens.

And we sent Timothy to visit you.

He is our brother and co-worker in proclaiming the good news of Christ.

We sent him to strengthen you, to encourage you in your faith and to keep you

from being shaken by the troubles you were going through. But you know what?

We are destined for such troubles.

Even while we were with you, we warned you that troubles would soon come and

they did as you well know.

I believe this truth. I believe this truth has been missing an ingredient in

much of our motivational speaking. Okay.

I believe that that truth has been missing in much of our motivational speaking.

You know, I can stand up here and motivate you and say, it's going to be good.

You know, it's going to be awesome. Nothing's going to go wrong.

It's a truth that's missing through a lot of our motivational speaking.

And when the bullets start flying around us, when the spiritual bullets start

flying around us, you're shocked because we didn't sign up for that, did we?

We did. We did. Josh, come on up for me.

Okay, so I'm telling you the truth, okay? I'm telling you the truth.

I want you to believe everything I'm saying. I'm telling you the truth. It's not easy.

It's warfare. It's spiritual warfare and warfare is uncomfortable.

Sometimes you get wounded during warfare. Sometimes you get attacked.

Sometimes you get lied about or lied to. Sometimes you get cheated.

Who can say amen to that?

Sometimes it's physical. Sometimes it's financial. Sometimes it's emotional.

And sometimes it's spiritual. Sometimes it's all of them, all of them.

But there's a very real adversary who hates you.

There's an adversary who hates

you and he wants to destroy you and he doesn't wanna play by the rules.

That's why we have to toughen up and we have to realise that this is a war, okay?

You never outgrow warfare. You never outgrow warfare.

You simply learn how to fight. Okay?

Do you know what? You and I, you know, was it you, Caroline,

that spoke about, you know, people used to say you're too spiritual.

Yep, yep. Have a listen to this.

You and I will never get so spiritual that we outgrow spiritual warfare.

Not possible to be too spiritual. You're never going to be fully spiritual.

You're never going to be able to outgrow spiritual warfare. You know what?

Think about Paul, the Apostle Paul. If the devil attacked Paul,

and if the devil attacked the apostles, and if the devil attacked Jesus,

don't you think for a minute he won't attack you?

The benefit of a boot camp, the benefit of boot camp is being properly trained

and for being mentally prepared for what's coming.

You're not overwhelmed when it happens. You're expecting it when it happens.

In fact, you're trained for it when it happens. You have to toughen up ahead of time.

The problem is that for many that never happened. Okay.

So we're getting, so now we're getting battle hardened in the battle.

Okay. But that's all right because greater is he that is in me and in you guys

than he that is in the world. Okay.

Yes, we've been through some fire over the last few years, but that's all part

of the process of toughening up.

No matter what comes or goes, we won't faint.

Let me finish with this passage of scripture. Okay.

Then we're going to stand and then we're going to pray and we're going to be

prayed to be empowered and strengthened.

I don't walk. I want you to walk out of here going, oh no, what's going on?

I'm walking out this door.

No, no, because it's all okay. Have a listen to this scripture.

Ephesians 6 and verse 10, very quick scripture. It says this,

a final word, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

That's my word over you guys this morning be strong in the lord and in his mind.

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Of God, then we are toughened up and we are ready for when that thing comes and we can deflect it.

We can knock it away from us. We can be empowered by the Holy Spirit of Jesus

Christ himself in our lives.

We can be empowered. We can be set apart.

We can be prepared. We can be wide awake to the schemes of the devil himself

and any other adversary. We can be wide awake.

And Lord, I pray this morning, Father, that you would instill in us right now

a sense of awakeness to that stuff,

a sense of awakeness and openness and power and strength to the stuff that can come our way.

Church, we know, and Holy Spirit, God,

Jesus Christ, I pray right now that, Lord, you would empower each of us to be

able to go into this world,

go into this life and overcome and be prepared to be a person who can overcome and will overcome.

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I pray over each of you now in Jesus' name that you would be strengthened,

that you would be wide awake and that you would be made tough and strong by

the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of the Holy Spirit.

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Word, Lord, for the letters of Paul the Apostle, Lord, a man who overcame so

much adversity, Lord, for your kingdom.

Lord, that's what we want. We pray in Jesus' name,

Lord, that you would fill us with what is required to overcome in our own lives as well,

to not take a backward step, but to take a step forward and to confront the

adversity face to face and look him in the eye and say,

greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. That's you. That's you.

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So we thank you, Lord. We thank you, Lord.

As I prayed at the beginning, Lord, I pray, Father, that as we walk out of here,

we will walk out of here with what we need.

That Holy Spirit, you will endure in us what we need to get through what we need to get through.

And I also prayed Lord if there's someone here that thinks

they don't need to be prepared then Lord you would speak to

them in particular Lord thank you Jesus

thank you Lord I bless everyone here in

Jesus name I bless you all with the power the passion and the strength of the

Holy Spirit in your life that you are ready to overcome that you are ready to

overcome in that passage that I read at the beginning of the service that when

we overcome then Lord you would send someone our way who needs to.

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