The End of Human Strength
September 12, 2021      |     By: Jonathan Brickley      |      Category: Sermons      |      Location: Wichita
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A Great, Cosmic Spiritual Battle
2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (NIV)
3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.
4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Matthew 26:31-35 (NIV)
31 Then Jesus told them, “This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written: “‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’
32 But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.”
33 Peter replied, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.”
34 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.”
35 But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the other disciples said the same.

Jesus’ way:
- Shepherd Struck
- Sheep Scattered
- Resurrection
- “I Will Go Ahead of You”

Man’s Way:
- I “NEVER” will fall away
- Even if I have to die with you, I will “NEVER” disown you

Matthew 26:36-38 (NIV)
36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.”
37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled.
38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

Peter’s Seven-Stage Deliverance from the Strength of the Flesh
Matthew 26:40 (NIV)
40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter.

Matthew 26:43 (NIV)
43 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy.

Matthew 26:45 (NIV)
45 Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners.

Matthew 26:56 (NIV)
56 But this has all taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.

Matthew 26:70 (NIV)
70 But he denied it before them all. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.

Matthew 26:72 (NIV)
72 He denied it again, with an oath: “I don’t know the man!”

Matthew 26:74 (NIV)
74 Then he began to call down curses, and he swore to them, “I don’t know the man!” Immediately a rooster crowed.

Culminated in the breaking
Matthew 26:75 (NIV)
75 Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.

Spirit = willing (ready, eager)
Flesh = weak (impotent, feeble, infirm, without strength)

“God is waiting for your store of strength to be utterly exhausted before He can deliver you. Once you have ceased to struggle, He will do everything. God is waiting for you to despair.”
- Watchman Nee (“Sit, Walk, Stand”)

After the struggle ceases - Graduation to:
Psalm 57:2 (NIV)
2 I cry out to God Most High, to God, who vindicates me.

Isaiah 26:12 (NIV)
12 Lord, you establish peace for us; all that we have accomplished you have done for us.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (NIV)
9 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.
10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Phillipians 2:13 (NIV)
13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

Luke 4:27-30 (NIV)
27 And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”
28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this.
29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff.
30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

Naaman the Syrian Commander
2 Kings 5:1-14 (NIV)
1 Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy.
2 Now bands of raiders from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife.
3 She said to her mistress, “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”
4 Naaman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said.
5 “By all means, go,” the king of Aram replied. “I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten sets of clothing.
6 The letter that he took to the king of Israel read: “With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you so that you may cure him of his leprosy.”
7 As soon as the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his robes and said, “Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy? See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me!”
8 When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his robes, he sent him this message: “Why have you torn your robes? Have the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.”
9 So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house.
10 Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.”
11 But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy.
12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage.
13 Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!”
14 So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.

Naaman the Syrian Commander
- A great man
- Highly regarded
- Valiant Soldier
BUT
- He had leprosy

“SO HE WENT DOWN…” (v14)

1) Humility
2) Faith in His Word
3) Obedience to His Command

God has no regard for the Flesh’s Strength or Sacrifice

What has God “Told” us?  Some "Great thing"? - No

“Go”, Humble yourself, Pray, Seek My Face, Turn from Your Wicked Ways