← The Wake-Up Call
The Wake-Up Call
The Surprising Way of Becoming Strong in the Lord
00:22:22
What if that’s the way—walking onto the battlefield of the Spirit bearing nothing more or nothing less than the image of God? is the story. Slavery is the fiction.
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Foreign.
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Rise and shine and give God the glory.
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It's going to be a good Saturday.
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It is May 16th in the year of our Lord 2026. I'm John David Walt, and this is
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your wake up call. We've got a lot in store today.
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I hope maybe you're able to slow down a little bit to maybe get
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out of that weekday grinding pace and
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slow down. Be still, believe, behold and become. That's on the. That's on the agenda for today.
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Dad's going to be with us today to sing.
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And so let's begin our meeting with Jesus this morning in consecration. Wake up, sleeper. Rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you. And we're praying. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Today's entry is entitled the Surprising Way of Becoming Strong in the Lord. And our text is Ephesians, chapter 6, verses 10 through 13. Hear now the word of the Lord. Finally be strong in. In the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground. And after you have done everything to stand
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the word of the Lord.
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Now consider this. What is spiritual warfare? It is a complex question. Paul assumes we share his worldview. First, we need to remember Paul understands reality as comprised of both the heavens and. And the earth. The seen and the unseen.
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Okay?
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Not the visible and the invisible. It's just. It's not invisible, it's unseen. The church of Jesus Christ has an opponent. It is never other people. Rather, it is against the rulers, it's the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Because our enemy is not flesh and blood, it would be foolhardy to do battle against it as mere flesh and blood. Paul tells us the way to fight in this kind of battle. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. What does this mean? How on earth does one put on the full armor of God? What is the armor of God? And what on earth are the devil's schemes? The entire passage testifies to an unseen reality and assumes we already know something about it. Here's the problem. I see we know what armor is and we have some sense of the devil and we believe in God. So we mistakenly assume we know what we need to know. Here we don't. Doing battle in the power of the Spirit requires deep understanding and intensive training. Be wary of those who claim to be experts. I'm not saying don't listen and learn from them, just be discerning why? This arena of discipleship can be highly subjective, which creates the possibility for so called experts to build a base of power on claims of knowledge and understanding that cannot be verified. Beware anytime people attempt to build status based on spiritual power.
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Why?
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Because it flies in the face of Jesus and the way of the Cross. It brings us back around to verse 10. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. If we are to understand the nature of spiritual warfare, we must keep coming back to this introductory verse. Might being strong in the Lord mean being weak in oneself? In Paul's second letter to the Corinthian Church, he recounted a word given him by the Lord. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me. That's 2 Corinthians 12:9. Our human tendency is to try to compensate for our weaknesses by focusing on our strengths. But what if being strong in the Lord means learning to glory in our weakness? Earlier in the same letter, Paul said it like this if I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. 11:30 all of this reminds me of the story of David and Goliath, particularly the point where Saul urges the boy David David to put on the king's armor. Saul dressed him in his coat of armor and put a bronze helmet on his head. David could hardly move under the weight of it all. David instead went out with his shepherd's staff, five rocks, and a slingshot. He had no armor, and yet the spirit mysteriously fitted him with the full armor of God. What if that's the way, walking onto the battlefield of the Spirit, bearing nothing more or nothing less than the image of God stripped of worldly strength on one hand and religious pretense on the other, could we be frail and weak in our human frame, yet boldly strong in the Lord? It strikes me as patently True. That's my big question for this reading. Again, it has never occurred to me before this very minute to ask it. What if the image of God is the armor of God? It would make sense, wouldn't it? Especially when we consider the perfect image bearer of God, the exact representation of his being. Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah.
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Let's pray.
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Abba.
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Father, we thank you for your son
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Jesus, who is the image of God, who shows us the way of God in emptying himself of all but love, who allowed himself to be lifted up into in his weakness on the cross and who in that moment demonstrated the ultimate way of being strong in the Lord. Teach us this way. Praying in Jesus name. Amen.
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That my friends.
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That, that, that, that.
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So, yeah.
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Putting on Christ is putting on the armor of God. Journal prompts how have you thought about the armor of God in the past? And how does today's reflection challenge your past thinking? I'm not saying you're wrong and I'm right. I'm just asking you as a thought exercise, how might today's thinking of mine,
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I guess, challenge your past thinking?
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Number two, how do you tend to deal with your human weakness? Do you try to cover it up, overcome it, to divert to your strengths? Or are you learning to boast in weakness? And then three, what keeps you from glorying in your weakness? What makes you want to hide your weakness? And could your way of dealing with your weakness be keeping you from the real strength of the Lord?
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Asking for a friend. Jeez,
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Jesus asking, what armor are you wearing? Are you wearing the world's armor?
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That's.
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See, that's what's going on there in the valley of Elah, where the boy David had showed up with provisions from home. And he saw that, that giant, and he heard the giant taunting the, the, the people of God. And he said no. And he went to Saul and he's like, let me, Adam. I mean, this kid, he, he had no experience, he had no military training. You remember, he reasoned, he said, the Lord has delivered me. From the, from the mouth of the lion and the paws of the bear. Goliath is a short putt. God will deliver me. David had spent so much time out there protecting sheep, herding sheep, writing songs, singing to God, that he had been made ready for the day of battle without any conventional training, just his relationship with God, his faith in God. I mean, that's a different kind of armor, isn't it?
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And of course, the first thing that,
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that Saul wanted to do. You're going to need my armor.
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Saul was Huge.
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David was not. And can you just picture all that clunky armor put on this? It probably weighed more than David weighed. And
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I wish I had my Bible
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right in front of me.
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I don't have it right here, but
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it'd be a great story for you to go back and read today the story of David and Goliath. It's in 1st Samuel. And just kind of learn. Just say, jesus, what can you teach me? What do you want to teach me today from this story? And he, he. He took. He said, I can't wear all this armor. That's. This is not how. This is not how I fight my battles. And he went out in the. In the vulnerability of no armor. And yet he was perfectly protected by the Lord. It's really quite remarkable, isn't it? Well, it's time to hand off the.
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The set here to dad.
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He's going to be with me and we're going to sing together a song that you're going to love.
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All right, gang, it's a good day to sing a hymn. You ready?
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I'm ready.
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It is Saturday and we have our favorite person, worship leader, farmer friend, David Walt with us today on the wake up call. Say hi to everybody.
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Hello, everybody. Praise the Lord. And
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it's with people when you don't sing that. I think they may turn me off. No, never think they might. And I get it.
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No, they're not going to do that.
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You're better for ratings. And tell them what we're singing today.
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We're singing a very old, wonderful Christian song, Onward Christian Soldiers. And if you're older than 60, you know exactly this song.
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That puts me in the younger group then.
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That's right. But we need the older group to hear this. And it'll bring. It'll bring goosebumps on them.
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And we need the older group to help the younger group sing it.
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Amen to that.
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Because the reason that we know this song is because when we were younger, the older people sang it to us
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and with us, people sang it.
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People. My dad's dad, the chief farmer of the Wall family, right? This was his favorite hymn. He knew it well and he did love this hymn. We're going to sing verse one and
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five, and we're going to dedicate this
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to Buddy Walt, Martin Lee.
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Buddy Walt. That's good. We've never dedicated to him on here before.
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No, we going here, but.
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And you know what? He's in the communion of saints. And the last time I checked, they're singing too.
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Let me tell you, he'll be on the front row.
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They are still singing. Yep. And you know, that's. That's where I used to sit in church on the front row. Meemaw and Pee Paw, Right? I remember that because you and mom
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was in the choir.
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Were in the choir.
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And you could not control us from the choir. So it was Missy. It was Erica, Meemaw, Missy, Peepaw, me. They sat in between us.
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I know it.
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Front row of the First Methodist Church of Dumas.
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They loved it.
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All right, we're ready to sing.
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Onward Christian soldiers Marching as to war with the cross of Jesus Going on before Christ the royal master Leads against the foe Forward into battle See his banners go Onward Christian soldiers Marching as to war with the cross of Jesus Going on before Last verse. Onward then ye people join our amphitheong Blend with azure voices in the triumph song Glory Lord and honor unto Christ the king this through countless sages, men and anger Angels sing all you got Onward Christian soul Marching as to war with the cross of Jesus Going on before.
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Amen. Well, people,
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I sense he is proud. I know he is not saying he would have been. I.
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Since he is.
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He is. And that hymn, that's a fitting hymn because today in the wake up call, we talked about the battle that we're
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in with Satan and with darkness.
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Right.
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And evil.
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It's the Bible says very clearly. You know what? Your battle isn't with other people. Other people are never your enemy. You have an enemy. You believe in the devil, don't you? And he's a formidable enemy for us. But not for Jesus.
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No, Jesus is strong.
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He's stronger.
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Yeah, he can. He can push him out of the way and let us through.
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That's what. That's why we're putting our faith in.
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And that's what we do. We don't try to go it by ourselves. We might not make it. But we put Jesus in there. They just seem to fold up.
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That's right. That's exactly right. So we're not onward soldiers. We're onward Christian soldiers. Which amen to say we are in Christ Jesus and he in us. Well, we got to get out on the Saturday fields today.
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Yep.
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We're in the growing season around here. All the soybeans and the rice and the cotton all planted, the corn, it's all growing. So you be out there, encourage people today. Think of somebody that you might want to call today. Ask Jesus, say, who do you want to call today? He'll tell you. Who do you want to text today? Who do you want to encourage today 3me. And just be ready to write down the name that comes to mind. The face that comes to mind.
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It'll be there. So you be there.
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We for the Awakening. I'm J.D. walt.
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And I'm David.
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Walt.
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We'll see you
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on the field.