Be A Tough Soldier! Capt.
Kelly Durant Re: 7-16-17
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!
Who is a Soldier here in Our Army? Soldiers need preparation
to learn to be tough! Spiritual warfare is a different war from what most of us
know of war. But each Soldier here must do his or her own training to make
their selves tough, or strong in the Lord’s grace as mentioned in verse 1. The
battle is to share your faith!
How do you get strong in grace? It comes by personal prayer
time, Bible study time, and obedience to Jesus! But are you really sacrificing
and suffering as much as you should? Most Christians are not! Ask God the
question of how dedicated you are or not and He will show you! As former
General Linda Bond said, “God does not want mediocre servants!”
3. 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, commanders yelling at you, and learning how to dominate an enemy
when he is attacking you trying to kill you! Christian Soldiers are always
under attack by Satan as he wants them to sin and leave the faith because of
guilt, be complacent, lazy, and in the end be a traitor to Jesus who gave you
and me the mission of fighting against his evils!
4. 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 must distinguish what our war is
all about, it is about living a new life in grace. Grace gives us is a clean
slate for our sins, and when your sins are gone and you obtain holiness then you
are inspired to never sin again, to never again want to feel the dirtiness of a
guilty conscience. And you are so happy for discovering Jesus that you never
stop telling others about Him! Ours is a war in which we fight with the desire
to give salvation to everyone as Jesus did!
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 being
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 to serving Christ in us; 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 total anarchy, chaos, and murder non-stop. It is
governments that need soldiers 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, and me: I mean you sitting on that
church pew, 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 our sacrificial love, 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. 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. Our war is a spiritual war against the rulers of darkness in high places.
Jesus said, 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 this is not so with the SA! Especially
around the world! The SA is still growing strong after 152 years! But our few
millions of members are not even 1% of the world’s population! We have a lot of
work to do!
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 of the true doctrines. Do you 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 sorry for our past sins being willing to do anything to live to 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 and a lukewarm ineffective Christian. Our fight is to save souls
into heaven! But are you doing it?!
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;
Jesus and I beg you, as Soldiers of Jesus, to serve 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, and to serve those in
need, visiting 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?
Come and pray or conviction to obey the call!
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