Jesus calls you to be strong

In 2018, a young man named Matt Wennerstrom met some of his buddies at a restaurant to grab some food. They were playing pool when, suddenly, another man bursted into the restaurant with a gun. He started to open fire on innocent people.

What would you do in a situation like this? It’s difficult to know - it happened so fast that most people froze, in a sheer panic.

But not Matt. We hear from one of the ladies who survived, “There were multiple men who got on their knees and pretty much blocked all of us with their back toward the shooter, ready to take a bullet for any single one of us.”

Matt was one of those brave men. His first instinct was to hurl his body like a shield over the women, to protect them. Then, when he heard a pause in the shooting, he grabbed a chair and broke a window with it, to create an exit. Many people escaped the restaurant through that opening.

Matt was only 20 years old at the time! After the incident, he told a reporter, “I’m here to protect my friends, my family, my fellow humans. And I know where I'm going if I die."

Ephesians 6:10-11 says, "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil."

Be strong. Why have we forgotten that?

This is obviously a frightening situation. And a rare one, too. But it’s possible. Evil is always right around the corner. Matt was ready for it, because he had already decided to “protect” people. He knew that in following Jesus, a part of his existence meant protecting those around him. Which means strength.

You cannot protect if you are not strong. You cannot fight if you are not strong. There is a reason why the Apostle Paul starts out with a command in the famous passage: “Be strong.”

Your call as a young man is to be strong. You must. All that the Lord Jesus will require of you will demand strength. (Now, where we get that strength, how we use that strength, and what we do when we don’t feel strong, but feel weak, are conversations we’ll have soon!)

But you are on a battlefield. Friends and family are beside you, a great, big Enemy looms in front of you. Do you want to be strong or do you want to be weak? We are just talking about the muscles of your body. There are many types of strength. But in a world where boys are rarely told to be strong, the Bible gives you permission. And not just permission but a command.

“Be strong.” You must be strong because your Enemy is strong, Satan and all of his demons. Which means the choice is yours, to obey Jesus or to disobey Him. But there’s a problem isn’t there? You are probably thinking, “Uhh, but I’m weak! I feel spiritually weak! I don’t think I have what it takes.” And this is okay to think, but we must think one more thought:

Jesus’ Kingdom is for the weak. So you’re in the right place. But it is not for the weak to stay weak. It is for the weak to become strong, as we’ll learn. To make a truce with your weakness is disobedience. To accept weakness is to block the manliness God desires for you. The call is to be strong. Which means…and let’s end on this good news…strength is possible.

In Jesus, you become strong. In Jesus, you use your strength for others.

QUESTION

Why is it a bad thing if a warrior is weak? How is it bad for him and how is it bad for his allies closest to him?

PROMISE

Jesus loves to receive and strengthen the weak.

CHALLENGE

Today, find a moment where you can be strong for someone else. It might be helping carry in the groceries. It might be defending someone at school, maybe from a mean kid. It might be doing something hard so that somebody else doesn’t have to.