God's Blueprint for Strength Before Expansion
The following message has been summarized from the live recording. You can listen to the entire message by click the image above or by playing the audio recording below.
Isaiah 40:31: "But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."
Every builder knows that before a structure can go higher, it must first be strengthened. If you just keep building up and up without adding any more stabilization or stability, pretty soon it will fall over. You may have seen a blueprint of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I've never been there, but so often we get a little beyond ourselves and try to grow beyond the foundational strength and growth that God has for us. Before walls can be extended, supports have to be put in. Reinforcements have to be added. Attempting to grow too quickly means that even the best blueprint is going to fail and collapse.
God wants us to serve Him. God wants us to be involved in His work. God wants us to be doing all we can for the cause of Christ.
But God does not want us to grow outside of the foundation that He has for us. God oftentimes is doing His deepest work in you and in me in seasons when we don't feel like we're seeing a lot of outward progression or forward movement.
We ought to pray, because we have the opportunity to pray. We ought to pray because that is God's command. We ought to pray because that's our line to heaven. Every prayer, every act of obedience, every moment of faithfulness is strengthening the supports and lengthening the stakes for what God intends to do next.
If you've ever been out in a tent in a storm, you know you've got to have good stakes in the ground and good lines, because the wind tests your material and tries to blow everything over. You've got to tighten it and put the stakes deep. Every time we do that, we get a bit deeper in our foundation and strength.
As Isaiah 40:31 reminds us: "But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." Faithful preparation is never wasted.
I. Strength Comes Through Obedience and Faithfulness
Spiritual strength is not built through enthusiasm alone. It is built through consistent obedience to God's Word.
Consider Joshua. Joshua was the servant of Moses, and when Moses was taken off the scene, God chose Joshua and had him lead the children of Israel. It was Joshua who would lead them into the promised land. It was Joshua who would lead them as they marched around the city of Jericho and the walls came tumbling down. God's charge to him is found in Joshua 1:7: "Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest."
Why does God want us to be strong and courageous? To obey Him. It's not about us, it's about Him. That strength and courage is so we have the courage to obey, to be faithful. In the Bible, strength is connected directly to obedience. When we move into obedience, strength comes with it.
My neighbor Omar worked for a tree pruning service. He had a problem with alcohol, but at least he was a cheerful fellow. He was a unique guy. He would decorate his trailer for Christmas and leave the lights up all year long. I loved Omar and shared the gospel with him many times. He was a dear friend. One day he took a backup alarm off a piece of equipment at his job and wired it up to the reverse light of his Dodge Omni, a small little car, so that every time he put it in reverse it would go BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP with a really loud alarm. He'd back up and everybody would start laughing. My wife wouldn't let me do it to my car, but I wanted to. The backup lights and that backup alarm were tied in to reverse. When he put it in reverse, that connection was made, the power went back there, and it came on. They came on together. The Bible tells us that strength is connected directly to obedience in the same way. When we put it into that gear of obedience, strength comes with it.
The apostle Paul echoed that truth: "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 15:58).
In Nehemiah's day, the people did not stop working because the opposition arose. They strengthened their resolve and continued the work. Their obedience and vigilance went hand in hand. God strengthens those who remain faithful when the work feels repetitive and the progress feels slow.
II. Strength Is Developed in Seasons of Challenge
James 1:2-4 tells us: "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing."
That is not talking about being sinlessly perfect. It is talking about being complete. And the way God develops us and completes us is during seasons of challenge.
God often uses difficulty to develop spiritual strength. There is nothing unique about that when it comes to physical strength either. Strength is developed by more challenge, by more resistance. You find how much weight you can handle, and you push against it. That is how you grow. God does that spiritually for us.
Trials produce endurance, and endurance produces maturity. As Paul wrote in Romans 5:3-4: "And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope."
Nehemiah's builders worked under the constant threat of attack. That is why they had to have a sword while they had the trowel. Yet Scripture tells us they did not abandon the wall. They adjusted, they fortified, they pressed on. They were watching. God uses pressure to develop your strength. God wants you to carry more.
When I was eight years old, I worked with my father on the first construction job I helped him on. He was laying brick on a split-level home. I helped my dad by mixing all the mortar, the sand and the cement and the water. I would mix that together, put it in a bucket, carry the bucket of mortar, and put it on the pad for my dad. I also carried all the brick for the entire job, and I was eight years old. I used brick tongs. Brick tongs have a long handle, and as you lift the handle it closes the jaws. You put it on the bricks, adjust how many bricks you carry, pull the handle, and it holds those bricks together. My dad had to modify the brick tongs to make it where I could carry a shorter load, because I was eight years old. There was a certain amount I could carry, but at eight years old I couldn't carry the normal amount.
As time went on and I worked with my dad, several years later when I was about fourteen, I was the size I am now. On one of the renovation jobs we were doing, my dad was laying a chimney and there were chimney flue blocks, big square blocks. I had to carry them from one place down to where we were working. My dad made me carry four at a time. He'd make me slip my arm through one so it would rest on my arm, and then I'd grab another one in my hand. Four of those chimney blocks per trip, because to him, if I carried less than that I was wasting a trip. And to be fair, it wasn't hard for me to carry. I was strong, but I grew in what I could carry because when I was eight years old I carried those few bricks, and I grew, and I carried more, and I carried more.
God wants us to grow so we can carry more. Imagine how wonderful it would be if we could carry more and be a part of more of the ministry of God. Some of you are going through some pressures right now, and we want to fight against the pressure. We don't like the pressure. We don't enjoy that. But a lot of the pressure that God is allowing in your life right now is probably helping you to grow, so you can carry more in the future.
III. Strength Prepares Us for Greater Responsibility
God never expands capacity before establishing faithfulness. We say we want to do more, we want to carry more, but if we're not faithful in what God has already given us, God doesn't lead that way. God doesn't direct that way.
In Luke 16, we have the parable of the stewards, and in that parable we find this verse: "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much" (Luke 16:10).
Little things matter because if we're not faithful in the little things, we won't be faithful in the big things. And big things are made up of little things. God gives us greater responsibility, but only when we're faithful in the small things first.
Many people think, if I ever had that responsibility, then I would be faithful. No. We have to be faithful all the time. Faithfulness has to precede it.
Before the wall in Nehemiah's day rose higher and higher, it had to be reinforced. Weak points were secured. The gaps were closed in. The work was methodical. The work was deliberate. And Scripture all the way back in the book of Proverbs instructs: "Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field; and afterwards build thine house" (Proverbs 24:27). Preparation has to come before we expand.
Strength is built quietly. God wants us, as we look at the blueprint, the pattern in God's Word, to be built stronger spiritually: emotionally stronger, stronger in our prayer life, stronger in our walk with the Lord, stronger in our relationship with the Word of God. Why? So we can stand. Having done all, to stand. And God strengthens us long before that strength is required.
God has a purpose for you. God has a purpose for me. And God is the one who equips us for that purpose. God is the one who prepares us and gets us ready to carry that role, whatever it is that God has for us. Many of you who have been saved for many years and have been serving the Lord faithfully, faithful in church, faithful sharing the gospel, maybe teaching a Sunday school class, involved in ministry in some way, could look back and say: I can see how God was preparing me. I can see how God worked in me, preparing me to be able to carry and do some things that I carry today. God knew, but I did not know.
Brother Kevin Paed came to see me before he went to Batangas in the Philippines to be there with Pastor Alex and get a chance to preach. He came to talk to me about his interest in pursuing Ruth, and he also wanted some advice. He said, "Pastor, you were just in Batangas, you were just with Pastor Alex. What should I be prepared for? What should I expect?" I told him, "Kevin, be ready to preach several times. Before you go, have a few sermons ready." He said, "Oh no, Pastor, I don't think he's going to have me more than maybe one time." I said, "Kevin, be ready to preach several times." When he came back, he said, "Pastor, thank you. If you hadn't prepared me, I would not have been ready." He wanted to know what to be prepared for, and preparation made all the difference.
Christian, God knows what's coming in your life. God knows what you need. God knows the areas that you need to be built in. God knows the areas He wants you to carry in the future, and He is using your present responsibilities to give you greater capacity. Don't look at small responsibilities in your marriage, as a parent, or in the local church as unimportant. Don't look at the small responsibility of sharing your faith as small and unimportant. Realize every one of them is important because God is using that to prepare you for the next responsibility, as He is strengthening us before He expands us.
IV. Strength Requires Prayer and Dependence on God
Strength is not self-produced. Spiritual strength is received from the Lord. The Bible tells us in Ephesians 6:10: "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might." In Philippians 4:13, Paul said: "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." Paul didn't say he had all power. He said God has the power. We need to realize it, and we need to rest in God's power and strength.
There is a cartoon called He-Man, and in that cartoon he would hold his sword up and say, "I have the power." I'm afraid that as Christians we sometimes think we have the power. We don't have the power. God has the power.
Nehemiah's builders, as I mentioned, worked with their tools in one hand and a sword in the other. They had to be ready to fight. But their confidence was not in their own strength. It was in their God. And yet they still had to get up and strap on the sword. They still had to get up and pick up the trowel. They still had to mix up the mortar, carry the stones, set them up, build the wall, hew the gates, set them, and hang them. They had to be busy. But they were dependent on God. There was no wall yet around the city, no protection yet. They were building the wall of protection, but they were trusting God for their protection while they built it.
Prayer sustains obedience. Prayer sustains our dependence. Prayer guards against pride. It is our shield, our guard against pride.
Before a soul-winning day, I had some young men with me and asked them to clean up outside. I gave them a broom, a dustpan, a trash can, and rubber gloves, and I told them: "Fellas, you don't touch anything out there with your bare hands. Use the rubber gloves. They'll protect you from anything you shouldn't be touching." Our protection from pride, our protection to keep us obedient and dependent, is prayer. We have to have it. Strength requires prayer. Strength requires us being dependent on God.
As Psalm 31:24 declares: "Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD."
Practical Ways to Strengthen Your Foundation
Here are some practical ways to strengthen up now, so that God can develop us, deepen our foundation, drive the stakes deeper, and tighten the lines, so He can increase and build our lives and use us in His purpose.
Have a daily time in prayer and in the Word of God. Not a weekly time, a daily time. Spend time every day in prayer and in the Word of God.
Be faithful in your current responsibilities. Whatever responsibility God has put on you, make sure you're faithful there. Don't say, "If I had that responsibility, then I'd be faithful." Be faithful in your responsibilities right now.
Have consistent obedience even in the unseen areas, the areas nobody knows about, the areas nobody's watching.
Be patient and trust God's timing. Before God expands our influence, He strengthens our character. Before He gives us more to carry, God will strengthen and deepen that before He increases our responsibility.
God wants to increase our responsibility. But before He does that, He deepens our faithfulness. Before God builds the outward, as we look at our theme of being built from the inside out, God works on the inside.
Like Nehemiah's wall, our future growth will only stand if we strengthen what already exists. May we follow God's blueprint. God may be building the foundation in your life right now, building your faith, strengthening you so you can carry more. Or maybe God is getting ready to place more on you. Understand, we have to trust Him.
Strength always precedes expansion. God builds capacity before He builds growth. You have to have the capacity to carry what God has for you. We have to strengthen those cores and lengthen the stakes so God can allow us to carry more. We can't see the future, but God can. It may be that God has a lot for some of us to carry in the next weeks, months, and years ahead. But if those things are going to happen, we've got to be strengthened. We've got to be ready.
