Be A Tough Soldier! Capt.
Kelly Durant 10-28-12
II Tim 2: 1Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the
grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 And the things that thou hast heard of me
among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able
to teach others also.3 Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of
Jesus Christ.4 No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this
life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.
2. In Bolivia, in LaPaz, I had a few friends in the
military and sometimes I would visit the base. On the base everyone would
always be jogging. It seemed no matter where you looked the Soldiers were
jogging and I asked my friend why are they in such a hurry. He explained that
the rule is that if you are a new Soldier, you are required to run all the time
while on the base! Only the 4th year Soldiers were allowed to walk.
Interesting training, don’t you think? Soldiers need training!
New Soldiers need preparation to learn to be tough!
Spiritual warfare is a different war from what most of us know of war. Each
Soldier must do his or her own training to make their selves tough, or strong
in the Lord’s grace as mentioned in verse 1.
How do you get strong in grace? Personal prayer
time, Bible study time, and obedience to Jesus! But are you really sacrificing
and suffering as much as you should? Ask God that question and he will show
you! As General Linda Bond says, God does not want mediocre servants!
3. How many of you here have served in the military or
know people in the military? Our son Enmanuel, which all of you got to know,
served in the Air Force and we saw the difficult training he went through. One
of our own Soldiers, Wendy Pantoja, has just gone through a tough training. Isn’t
that right?
Being a Soldier for any nation of the world implies
doing a great sacrifice, the laying down of your life to die if need be and even
people as young as age 18 must die if necessary. In the military your life is
no longer yours, you are the property of the state for them to use, and abuse
as they wish. A Soldier of Christ must recall that they also are giving up
their life to follow Jesus as he states Luke 9:23 And he said to them all, If
any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily,
and follow me. 24 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever
will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.
Being a Soldier in the world requires hard labor, getting
extremely tired, withstanding extreme temperatures, working stressfully long
hours, getting blisters, bruises, and cuts, putting up with punishments,
humiliations, and yelling, and learning how to dominate an enemy when he is attacking
you trying to kill you!
4. I have met quite a few military vets in TSA &
they usually say, “Thank God, we are not in the “killing army” anymore but in
the “saving army” now! Soldiers of Jesus have hardships, and this includes
mental, spiritual, and physical ones. But how do we make war, when our mission
is peace and God’s love?
Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they
shall see God.” That simple statement
was a like a double edged sword cutting down all the aggressiveness and
authority of the Roman warmongers who took pleasure in mass carnage! Jesus says
be a peacemaker, love your enemies? There is no pride in that!
As Christian Soldiers we need to distinguish what
our war is all about, it is about living a new life of living in grace. Grace
is a clean slate for our sins, and when your sins are gone and you obtain
holiness and you are inspired to never sin again, to never want to feel the
dirtiness of a guilty conscience. And you are so happy for discovering Jesus
that you never stop sharing about Him!
It also means learning the scriptures and then
teaching others to teach others about Jesus, which is discipline. Our war is
not one in which we desire destruction on those that attack us as those in the
world, ours is a war in which we desire the salvation of all those in the world
as Jesus gave the example of.
5. Our war is a war on Satan and all the world’s evils
destroying people’s bodies and souls. We
seek to save anyone living in ignorance, sin, and suffering. Christian Soldiers
must be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause! What a contradiction,
how ironic, from the world, we seek to save our enemy and do good to those that
abuse us!
What does the salvation we offer imply? Obviously it
includes forgiveness, grace, eternal life, and heaven for the soul. But ours is
a salvation that helps people out of poverty, hunger, clothing, and education needs
as well. We provide for this in part, but the world’s governments claim that
they provide for their people, and they do cover some things, but their help is
never enough to really help as needed. The military and government’s role in
the world does not eliminate the greater destructive evils of mass deaths in
wars, crime, addictions, and violence.
6. A Soldier of Christ will store up their reward in
heaven, but to serve the world means you will never get anything without you be
charged Cesar’s pound of flesh! If you borrowed from Cesar in Rome, and you
could not pay it back in money, you would pay it back in a body part in the
amount of pounds you owed!
Contrasting serving Christ with the world; no
government prepares the people of the world to answer to God and answer for the
consequences of their sin which leads to eternal death.
Governments are sterile institutions and necessary
evils set up to put the brakes on man’s abuses or the violence would be
absolute as in the days of Noah with anarchy, chaos, and murder non-stop. It is
the governments that need soldiers in the end for their self-preservation. Thank
God for them. We do want to preserve our nation; we believe that God has Blessed
America!
But no government by their programs or military
might can save the soul; that mission is up to you the Christian Soldier! Consider
this quote from the Salvation Army’s first street Soldier that preached a few
dozens of thousands of sermons on the filthy London streets streets…Gen.
William Booth
7. “To get a man soundly saved it is not enough to
put on him a pair of new breeches, to give him regular work, or even to give
him a University education. These things are all outside a man, and if the
inside remains unchanged you have wasted your labor. You must in some way or
other graft upon the man's nature a new nature, which has in it the element of
the Divine.” (8. Sp)
In other words Soldiers, you must preach Jesus and
serve others in need, but if Jesus does not change a person’s heart, it is not
on your conscience. This person who got help with an unrepentant heart may just
keep on going down the wrong path in life and the generosity and compassion did
nothing. It basically means this person still remains on the wrong side of this
war, the one of destruction by living for selfishness, and animalistic passions.
Proverbs 10:16The labour of the righteous tendeth to life: the fruit of the
wicked to sin.
9. But with Jesus it is black or it is white, you
are on His side teaching others to save others, or you are by default dividing against
Him. The world is in a spiritual war against the rulers of darkness in high
places. Matthew 12:30 He that is not
with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. You
are either fighting for Jesus as a Soldier, or by default, you will be fighting
against Him by living out life in your own prideful stubborn will!
The founder of this worldwide Salvation Army had
such a vision for souls, such an aggression and passion to fight for the Lord
and save souls, that he started this massive movement that has kept the
momentum and the fire burning ever since! I personally have seen dozens of
churches start up and then after just a few years fade away but not so with TSA!
The SA is still growing strong! In the past 4 years in Miami, between all
Corps, we have grown by 200 new Soldiers! There are over one million around the
world!
10. We should learn more from the original founding
father, the General, of this worldwide dedicated army who by battling the enemy
won many victories through people just like yourselves, the priceless Soldiers
for Jesus Christ! God’s royal priesthood! He said:
“While women weep, as they do now, I'll fight; while
little children go hungry, as they do now, I'll fight; while men go to prison,
in and out, in and out, as they do now, I'll fight; while there is a drunkard
left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, while there remains one
dark soul without the light of God, I'll fight-I'll fight to the very end”!
This is our war! Our mission is to fight until the end of the world! (11. SP)
12. All of us as Soldiers have the challenge to
fight in all places to teach others of Jesus and the true doctrines. We
recognize evil and what to battle! We must bring more Holy Ghost power in the
Corps and in our own personal life, and preach a Jesus that does expect us to
repent and be so sorry for our past sins being willing to do anything to live
and fight for the right! Are you willing to take a bullet and be made fun of
for standing up for Jesus? Don’t get so involved with the affairs of this world
that you are compromised. Our fight is to save souls into heaven!
Will you suffer for Jesus? Paul did. 2
Corinthians 11:24-26 24 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save
one. 25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered
shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;26 In journeyings often,
in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in
perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in
perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;
You are now, as Soldiers of Jesus, going out to
start serving Jesus in this Corps with passion and dedication! You are expected
to tell others of Jesus, to pray and grow from the study of God’s word, sort
through rotten vegetables to serve those in need, visit the elderly in the
homes, and do anything in the kitchen or in the community that the Lord needs! There
are dozens of ministry opportunities with us. Which one will you choose? How
will you show to God and all you are a good Soldier winning some victories in
this war against the evils in the world?
Translation of Quotes
"Para que
un hombre sea salvo, no es suficiente poner en él un par de pantalones nuevo, darle
trabajo regular, o incluso darle una educación universitaria. Estas cosas son externas,
y si el interior permanece inalterado han perdido su trabajo, no vale de nada.
Usted debe de alguna manera injertar sobre la naturaleza del hombre una nueva
naturaleza, que tiene en ella el elemento Divino." Gen. William Booth
"Mientras
las mujeres lloran, como lo hacen ahora, lucharé; mientras los niños pasan
hambre, como lo hacen ahora, lucharé; mientras los hombres van a la
cárcel, adentro y afuera, adentro y
afuera, como lo hacen ahora, lucharé; mientras hay un borracho en la esquina,
mientras que hay una pobre chica perdida en las calle, mientras que sigue
habiendo un alma oscura sin la luz de Dios, lucharé-lucharé hasta el final
"! Esta es nuestra guerra! Nuestra misión es luchar hasta el final del mundo”! Gen.
William Booth
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