Battle Drill #41:

Manage your Household Well!

Proverbs 31:25-31 (NAS95)

Today, we are going to walk through the four action steps of a soldier’s training routine to learn Battle Drill #41 – “Manage your Household Well!” Interestingly, this is one of the requirements of church leadership. As Paul taught his protégé in 1 Timothy 3:5, “but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?” Before you complain that this is coming from a West Pointer and former military officer, I forthrightly acknowledge that I am bent this way in my personality type and professional training. I assure you though that this is a biblical exhortation and an important battle drill as you will see from today’s teaching of Proverbs 31.

Allow me to explain by using another example from my days as a paratrooper. Last week, Pastor Ken closed out the service talking about how those who jump out of airplanes trust the people who pack their parachutes. What he probably doesn’t know is that the soldiers who pack our parachutes are called Riggers. They are a special group of paratroopers, but do you know why we trust them with our chutes? Is it because they have a title, wear cool red hats, or have special training? Partly, but titles, education, cool clothes, and training are not enough to trust someone with your life! There is only one reason we paratroopers trust them; it’s because their Commander requires them to regularly jump their own parachutes, randomly selected from all the parachutes they have personally packed. They have an awesome responsibility, for which the Army has given them authority and recognition, but then holds them accountable to ensure they are willing to put their own lives on the line, just as we are asked to do. Their willingness to submit to their Commander builds trust with the rest of the paratrooper family!

The same thing is true in the church! James 3:1 emphasizes, “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.” While you may appreciate my specialized training, high levels of education, two decades of pastoral experience, and various titles and recognitions, what truly matters is that I submit myself to God, the Commander, for what I teach from the pulpit, how I conduct my ministry, and live my life. I must jump my own chute every day – my Commander requires it of me! Am I teaching the Field Manual accurately? Am I walking the talk and living up to the Field Manual myself? I will incur a stricter judgment. That should never be forgotten nor taken lightly by me or you – that’s part of me counting the cost in answering the call! Have you counted the cost of your calling?

Christian leaders must live lives that are worth following! Over thirty years ago, when I was learning about leadership as a plebe at West Point, I was taught this simple rule of leadership – “Look over your shoulder, if no one is following you, then you are not a leader!” After three decades of holding various leadership positions in numerous organizations I have found this to be true, but especially in the church. If your Christianity is not worth following, then no one is going to be convinced to follow the Jesus you preach. This is nowhere more visible than in our households, at home and in the church, so let’s learn how to manage our households well.

Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.

Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she smiles at the future. She opens her mouth in wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and bless her; her husband also, and he praises her, saying: “Many daughters have done nobly, but you excel them all.” Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her the product of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.

We know what the Field Manual says, let’s now take the second action step to learn how to apply today’s battle drill to our everyday lives as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.

Action Step #2) Train together as one unit.

As verse 31 concludes of the book of Proverbs, “Give her the product of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.” You will reap what you sow! Your life will reflect that which you were devoted and the works of your life’s devotion that survive you will proclaim that truth.

Proverbs 31 is emphasizing the role of a wife and mother to her family, and the blessing that her well-managed household is on the entire community. She represents a life in submission to God. This passage demonstrates how we are to answer God’s call on our lives as a Proverbs 31 people. The Proverbs 31 woman is an embodied picture (a metaphor) of a faithful life. Some of my favorite biblical imagery about our relationship with God, and how we are to live, is found in this kind of familial language – we are the children of God! This family-oriented imagery cultivates a deep security of identity and a profound motivation for managing our lives according to His wisdom, as the beloved of Jesus communicated in 1 John 3:1-3:

See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

There is a deep intimacy to be had with God when we understand Him through terms of such endearment, which is why Proverbs 31 leverages the image of a Jewish wife and mother, the one who manages her beloved household. A similar usage of embodied wisdom is Proverbs 6:20-23:

My son, observe the commandment of your father and do not forsake the teaching of your mother; bind them continually on your heart; tie them around your neck. When you walk about, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk to you. For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light; and reproofs for discipline are the way of life.

Clearly, the foundational unit of God’s household is the home. This is the tried-and-true way of God’s people, generation to generation, generation after generation, as instructed through the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4-9:

Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

This is God’s intent for each of our households. Our households are a training ground for the mission of God by learning from Proverbs 31 parents how to become Proverbs 31 people. Let’s now turn to the third action step.

Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval.

How does a baby bond with its mother? How do children learn to trust their parents? Why is it parents or grandparents expect to have influence over their children and grandchildren? It’s all about building trust by first responding to their cries, then providing for their needs, then discerning their wants. The proper management of your household is about relationships because the Kingdom of God is a relational kingdom! We see the priority of relationships in the New Testament’s household codes for God’s family. There is clear teaching on marriage in Ephesians 5:22-33 and Colossians 3:18-19. These passages are immediately followed by clear instruction on parenting, emphasizing the parent-child relationship in Ephesians 6:1-4:

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. (cf. Colossians 3:20-21)

Parents, before you apply this to your children, you must first ask yourself if you are a Proverbs 31 person – are you submitted to the Commander in your mission? You must apply the household codes to your relationship with God as your Father, where you are the child, and He is the Father. His will for your life is that you mature in the discipline and the instruction of His Word for His glory! Therefore, you must learn to observe all His commandments, just as you expect your kids to know your expectations and obey. The people of God, as the children of God, shall not forsake the Word of their heavenly Father, but memorize it, meditate upon it, and apply it to their everyday lives. As we’ve seen, this is learned in the household of God – at home and in the church! Are you reaping at home what you are sowing with your heavenly Father? The same question can be asked of us as a church family.

This is the power of the Bible’s familial imagery – it is an embodied metaphor that helps us experience the security of our identity as God’s children and the motivation of living as loyal participants of God’s covenantal love. As one author explained of the household codes:

Relationships within the household thus become a concrete expression of what it means to live under the lordship of Christ. … It gives mundane household relationships an entirely new focus and motivation; the way Christians behave toward others is an outworking of Christ’s lordship over the community (Col 3:17).^[1]

The Christian household is where mission begins – to manage one’s household well is to live on mission because you are training up your children to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ! A child’s god-ordained chance at life and blessing is to live according to the training their parents give them. Are you managing your household according to God’s priorities? Just like a child honors his or her parents by obeying them, we are to seek our Commander’s approval by managing our lives, and the church, according to His Word so that we may live on mission for God. That leads us into our final action step.

Pray, then, in this way: “Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

Why this familial language in the book of Proverbs and throughout the Bible? Because children represent their parents – you are image bearers of God (Genesis 1:27)! We are commanded to train ourselves to live on mission for God and the only way to do that is to put ourselves willingly and wholeheartedly under the instruction and discipline of the Lord, just as children are commanded to put themselves under the authority of their parents. There is a rightful authority that flows from Heaven to Earth, through parents to children. With this authority comes the responsibility to do so as a men and women under submission, who are willing to be held accountable to how they managed their households.

We are to be the mature adults who can do this, which is why the embodiment of wisdom, as given to us in Proverbs 31, is of a Jewish wife and mother who manages her household well. The church is the household of God on earth and our mission is to invite all who will listen and accept all who receive, but we don’t stop there because we are then to help the family mature in Christ so that we can live on mission together. This process of raising up new Christians into spiritual maturity follows the example of the family, which requires the same anguishing hard work and commitment to the family. This is the calling of every member of the body of Christ. We all, at one time, were little children in the faith, but we must grow up and pass on what we were given to others who will grow up and pass it on (2 Timothy 2:2). This is the mission!

When we live according to this battle drill, then we, like the Proverbs 31 woman, will leave a faith legacy of praise to the One who called us to Himself. As Revelation 14:13 declares over the life that is lived on mission for God, “‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!’ ‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them,’”

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FOOTNOTE:

Battle Drill #40:

Trust your Training!

Proverbs 30:5-6 (NAS95)

Today, we are going to walk through the four action steps of a soldier’s training routine to learn Battle Drill #40 – “Trust your Training!” You are going to find that this battle drill serves as an effective bookend with Battle Drill #3 – “Trust the Commander!” from Proverbs 3:5-6. These two are intimately yoked as we learn to trust God and the Bible from which He calls us to train ourselves in godliness. This is a critical reality for the church, just as it was for me as a soldier in the military to learn to trust my training.

For example, the United States Army’s Airborne School is unnecessarily long – it is three weeks long but could be consolidated to one week! Honestly, all you must do to earn your wings is successfully complete five jumps, including one night jump. Of course, it is highly encouraged that you can walk off the jump zone each time and stand at graduation. The first week is called ground week and you spend most of the day, every day, learning how to do a parachute landing fall (PLF) in sawdust pits. It is mind-numbing training and besides getting sawdust in every possible place in your body, you are constantly being evaluated for mental and physical toughness before you are allowed to move to the second week, which is called tower week. Tower week is doing countless simulated jumps from a ten-meter tower simulating the procedures you must follow upon leaving the airplane, preparing to hit the ground, and executing a proper PLF at the approximate force of an actual jump. The intensity of training increases in every way for one reason – to prepare you for jump week when you must trust your training because nothing can quite prepare you to jump out of a perfectly good airplane! The third week is jump week and you quickly learn that nothing can quite prepare you to step out of that airplane at 1,250 feet, flying at 130 mph when you step out of it, but by this point you have done more PLFs, simulated leaving an aircraft more times, and followed all airborne procedures so many times that you reflexively, instinctively, and habitually do what you are trained to do when it matters – as you plumet to earth at 13 mph, hitting at the equivalent force of jumping off a nine-to-twelve foot wall. The first two weeks of Airborne school are to ensure the person is mentally, emotionally, and physically capable of trusting their training when it matters.

This is what this battle drill sermons series is all about. We must learn to trust our training so that we execute the Field Manual according to the Commander’s intent when it matters the most. Regardless of how much you know about God or say you love Him, if you don’t learn to trust your training, you will not live on mission. You will be hijacked by your circumstances, driven by your feelings, or engulfed by your nervous system.

To illustrate the importance of learning and applying today’s battle drill in real life, Katie Kinnaird is going to share with us a recent testimony.

Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.

Action Step #2) Train together as one unit.

Just as an army must trust its field manuals so that every soldier is being trained according to the same doctrine and strategies, the church must be unified in the Bible as infallible in its authority and inerrant in its source. We must trust God’s authority and that He gave us a trustworthy Bible, our Field Manual. As our battle drill states in Proverbs 30:5, “Every word of God is tested; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.” Psalm 18:30 complements, “As for God, His way is blameless; the word of the Lord is tried; He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.” When we trust God, we will walk in His ways, according to the Scriptures.

Paul taught his protégé in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” The Word of God is sufficient to the task for which we were called, so trust it and don’t adlib, as the second half of our battle drill emphasizes in Proverb 30:6, “Do not add to His words or He will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar.” Don’t hijack the process by trying to fix it yourself. You will only make it worse!

The Commander has given you His battle drills to protect you and provide for you all that you need to fulfill His mission. From Joshua 1:8, the Commander said to one of His first generals, “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.” Do you believe this?

In the same way that we learn to trust that God has enlisted us to successfully fulfill His mission according to the Scriptures, we must learn to trust that we aren’t alone in the mission. As fellow members of His body, we need one another. This is God’s will for our lives as Paul emphasized through the body imagery of the church in Romans 12:4-5, “For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”

We need one another, more than we know, just as we learned from our previous Battle Drill, “Train with a Battle Buddy!” We need to walk in the way of Jesus Christ with one another and carry one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:1-2). A significant component of the training regimen is training as a fellow member of the body of Christ, and not alone, because if we are to do what Jesus, the head of the church, commands us, and please Him, then we must do it in concert with His will for our lives, collectively as the individual members of the one body of Christ. As Paul said in Ephesians 1:22-23, “And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” Ultimately, God is glorified through our unity as Jesus prayed in John 17:22-23:

The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.

This is how we are to train together! Now, let’s turn to the third action item.

Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval.

For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.

This teaching applies to every area of our lives because this battle drill gives you the tools to defeat your self-will (the flesh); it is winning the battle for your loyalty so that you can CM on God’s rescue mission! You will trust in God or in yourself, but don’t be deceived – there can be only one in whom you ultimately trust and that is revealed in the moments where the stakes are the highest. Don’t make assumptions – train this trust into your bones! Now is not a time to swim in da Nile (denial)!

Do you remember the second half of our battle drill that I touched upon earlier? Proverbs 30:6 warns us, “Do not add to His words or He will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar.” In other words, don’t adlib or else! When you add to or modify His words, you demonstrate your lack of faith in God as infallible and your inherent mistrust in His Word as inerrant. Remember, the higher the stakes, the more we must trust our training; that God is our shield and refuge!

Allow me an anecdotal story from my days as a paratrooper. There is a major mistake paratroopers make when they are about to hit the ground – they reach for the ground with their feet. This is so natural to do that you must train yourself to not do it! Otherwise, you end up with a major injury like a twisted knee, broken leg, smashed ankles, or worse. You must absorb the ground upon impact by keeping your knees and ankles flexed, but it takes an incredible amount of discipline to trust your training, especially in night jumps when you can’t see the quickly approaching ground. It’s this same survival instinct that causes so many broken wrists when people fall. It is natural to reach out to stop yourself from falling, but those who have been trained how to fall know not to – often what you feel is the right thing to do is not!

Allow me to give you a word of grace: If anyone tells you that at any point in your Christian life you won’t struggle with your humanity and the effects of living in this tent (2 Corinthians 5:1-9), then they are placing a burden on you that Christ has not. Holiness is Christ in you, not your ability to perfectly master the flesh. The righteousness you have is imputed upon you through Christ’s victory, not one earned by a life of perfect thought life, perfect emotional stability, and perfect mastery of your body. Training this battle drill is about trusting the Holy Spirit to do in and through you what God promises! The life we live is a life submitted to Jesus Christ, just as Paul commented about himself in Galatians 2:19-21:

For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.

This is our victory – our faith (1 John 5:4)! That leads us into our final action step.

Action Step #4) Live on mission.

On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance. For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers.

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Battle Drill #39:

Communicate the Mission!

Proverbs 29:18 (NAS95)

This month, I am finishing our 2022 sermon series, “Train to Live on Mission Today: The Battle Drills of a Christian Soldier.” After laying a firm foundation from 2 Timothy 2:1-4 so we can properly understand how the Bible uses the soldier imagery as a metaphor for the Christian life, we have then taken a year-long journey through the book of Proverbs.

Today, we are going to walk through the four action steps of a soldier’s training routine to learn the next battle drill – “Communicate the Mission!” It is standard military practice to ensure that all soldiers know the mission so that even if they are the last soldier remaining, they can seek to accomplish their unit’s objectives. In fact, leaders communicate the mission of the next two levels of command so that soldiers, when necessary, can take on an even great responsibility to ensure the mission is accomplished. A common military example of this is when a higher-level commander knows that the ultimate purpose of his unit is to gain control of a specific bridge to ensure the army can successfully get across a river. He communicates this mission so that a soldier doesn’t think guarding an intersection on the way to the bridge is the only thing that needs to be done to accomplish the mission. While guarding an intersection is important, and it needs to be done without distraction, it serves the larger purpose of helping the unit seize the bridge so that the general can move his forces into position for what comes next. Every task must work toward the accomplishment of the larger mission! That same is true for the church!

For us to CM, continue the mission, as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, we must train ourselves to communicate the mission so that we know how what each of us is called to do fits into the larger purposes of God. So, whether you greet people, help collect the offering, hold babies, teach children, work with youth, teach a class, prepare and deliver foods, send cards, help others with practical assistance, provide counseling, make videos, do visitations, care for the facilities, cut grass, fill potholes, keep the books, manage a webpage, send emails, or run a sound board may all that you do be to the glory of God, as Paul said in Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men.” Let’s turn to the Field Manual and take the first step of a soldier’s training regimen.

Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.

Action Step #2) Train together as one unit.

But isn’t that every good father’s desire – to watch their children fulfill the purpose of their lives? John said in 3 John 4, “I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.” My brothers and sisters, John wasn’t talking about his spiritual children – the Church, and that is the whole purpose that I as your pastor must train all of us as a congregation to keep communicating the mission to one another and to our youth and our children. Because we will have no greater joy that to hear of one another, our youth, and our children walking in the truth. Yes, that includes you as parents teaching your children in the Way of Jesus because you are the primary disciple-makers of your children. You bear the responsibility, but we, your church family, are your partners in accomplishing this mission. The mission of God that we all must know, not just missionaries and pastors, was given to us by Jesus in Matthew 28:18-20:

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

This is the mission we must keep communicating! We hear Jesus proclaim His great rescue mission in Luke 19:10, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Then again in Acts 1:7-8 when Jesus spoke of the coming Pentecost:

“He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

Our battle drill for today comes from Proverbs 29:18, “Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, but happy is he who keeps the law.” Allow me to show you something that is going to bring today’s teaching together for you – the word “vision” is actually best translated, “revelation.” It is not talking about our plans, but God’s Word! Listen to this short explanation of Proverbs 29:18:

The familiar KJV “where there is no vision” is misleading. The word “vision” is the revelation (ḥāzôn) a prophet receives. Also the KJV translation “the people perish” does not refer to unsaved people dying in sin. The verb pāra‘ means to cast off restraint. So the verse is stating that without God’s Word people abandon themselves to their own sinful ways. On the other hand keeping (obeying) God’s Law (cf. 28:4, 7) brings happiness.^[1]

Or said more plainly, Tony Evans taught it this way:

Without the wisdom God’s Word gives, people are prone to throw off all restraint. This, in fact, is a description of our culture today: people are running into walls and down blind alleys for lack of truth. The remedy to the problem is found in hearing and receiving biblical instruction.^[2]

Interestingly, the Greek word for “truth” in 3 John 4 is used right before today’s proverb in Proverbs 29:14, “If a king judges the poor with truth, his throne will be established forever.” Talk about a strong position for a king to be in to win the game, better than castling to protect your King in the game of chess is for a king to judge the poor with truth, to stay on mission according to God’s Word. Why is this important? Because if the people don’t know the truth, then they will go astray, throw of restraint, live outside of God’s purposes for their lives and miss out on the many blessings of knowing His Word and living according to it!

We have a lot to learn about ministry in the church from the game of chess. If we are going to communicate the mission through our lives, then we need to know not only the ultimate goal – the King, but we also need to know what we are to do as one the unique pieces on the table, whether a pawn or bishop, a knight or rook, and how we each fit into the strategy of God’s plan. That brings us to the third action step of a good soldier of Jesus.

Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval.

“Where there is no vision” (v. 18) refers to the absence of an open revelation of the word and will of God. It does not necessarily mean that if there are no plans being made, the people will perish. Rather, it calls for prayer, preaching, and consecration, so that God’s plan for life may be known.^[3]

This is exactly how I see my calling. I am going to share with you two Scriptures that undergird my ministry philosophy – how I answer my pastoral calling. The first is from Acts 6:4, which captures the collective voice of “the Twelve” when they were calling forth the deacons of the Church (Greek for “servants”) to do the work of ministry, “But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” I am convinced that I am, through the Word and prayer, and the ongoing work of the Spirit to consecrate the congregation, that I am not to lead you in trusting our plans or initiatives, but in trusting God’s Word and Spirit to lead us in the mission of God. Therefore I pray, “Lord, please don’t bless our plans, but bless us to be a part of your plans, and to know the difference.” I put no hope in the integrity of my (our) ways, but in the infallibility of God and the inerrancy of His Word – His vision for His people will never perish!

Second, Paul’s words in Ephesians 4:11-16 shape my calling as your pastor because they show me how we, each of us, fit into God’s mission purposes for sending Jesus Christ from Heaven to Earth to show us the way to salvation:

And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

It is a revelation (“vision”) from the Lord which keeps a person and a people in the way. Outside of the way, we perish, we fall, we stumble. What is it we are to bring to one another, to encourage one another, to lift one another up, to equip one another? Is it our own strategic plans filled with mission and vision statements, goals and ambitions, marketing schemes and church growth strategies? No, there can be no worldly or humanistic approach to doing church. Rather, our scripture lesson is clear that it is the vision of God, given to us through the revelation of God, His Son Jesus Christ, as Paul taught us in Colossians 1:13-20:

For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.

You were blessed to be a blessing! That is what I’m trying to communicate to you and that is what I want your life to communicate to all who know you – you are to communicate the rescue mission! This leads us to the final action step of our soldier’s training regimen.

Action Step #4) Live on mission.

But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame.

We communicate the mission because that is how the mission is accomplished, as revealed to us at the end of all things in Revelation 12:10-11:

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. (emphasis added)

We CM when we keep the vision of God, His Word, in our hearts and on our tongues, when we meditate day and night on His Word, when we are like trees planted by streams of water, when we are like fruit-bearing branches abiding in the Vine – the One who is the source of the vision, when we find rest for our souls in the easy yoke of Jesus, the Fulfiller of the Law. We have been blessed to a blessing! We have been enlisted to communicate the mission of God!

You can listen to the message by clicking below:

You can watch this week’s message by clicking HERE.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, Dallas Theological Seminary, The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 968.

[2] Tony Evans, The Tony Evans Study Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible, 2019), 743.

Pursue Godliness in your Finances!

Proverbs 28:6-8 (NAS95)

Today, we are going to walk through the four action steps of a soldier’s training routine to learn the next battle drill – “Pursue Godliness in your Finances!” We are going to learn the importance of putting God first in all that we do. Ultimately, godliness is the inside-out obedience to the Greatest Commandments, given to us by Jesus in Matthew 22:37-40:

And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

I say “inside-out” because we serve that which we love! Then, ultimately, we love that which we serve. Personally, it always starts with what we love in our secret places, whether that is what we say we love or not in our public declarations. The evidence of what we love is in that which we serve, that which we give our most precious commodities. Which is why Paul warned his protégé in 1 Timothy 6:10, “For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

Christian soldiers must not allow anything to distract them from the mission, for which we have been saved (2 Timothy 2:4). Can we all agree that financial issues can be quite distracting, and at times pierce us with grief? Whether it’s a repossessed car, growing medical bills, the monthly pressures of household costs, or the desire to save for education, housing, a vacation or your retirement, the realities of financial pressure can be daunting. It is not uncommon to find ourselves more than distracted by money issues, but dominated by the worries of tomorrow as our minds and hearts are hijacked by insecurity and fear. For us to CM, continue the mission, as good soldiers of Jesus Christ we must train ourselves to pursue godliness in our finances. Let’s turn to the Field Manual and take the first step of a soldier’s training regimen.

Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.

Better is the poor who walks in his integrity than he who is crooked though he be rich. He who keeps the law is a discerning son, but he who is a companion of gluttons humiliates his father. He who increases his wealth by interest and usury gathers it for him who is gracious to the poor.

This is what the Field Manual says, let’s now take the second action step to learn how to apply it to our everyday lives as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.

Action Step #2) Train together as one unit.

The answer to this question is where the rubber meets the road in the importance of this battle drill in your daily life. As we learn from the book of Proverbs, pursuing godliness in your finances is all about living a life of integrity! Proverbs 28:6 teaches us that our integrity is more valuable than wealth – “Better is the poor who walks in his integrity than he who is crooked though he be rich.” Solomon continues in verse 8 to rebuke the ungodly gain of wealth, especially when taking advantage of the poor through “interest and usury” (Proverbs 14:31; Exodus 22:25; Leviticus 25:36-37). Truly, we are to love our neighbor, not use them for financial prosperity. That will only diminish your soul! Quite the opposite as Proverbs 11:24-25 explains, “There is one who scatters, and yet increases all the more, and there is one who withholds what is justly due, and yet it results only in want. The generous man will be prosperous, and he who waters will himself be watered.”

There is a greater purpose of wealth management that I will highlight at the end of today’s sermon. But, before we get there, let’s look at the larger scope of the “love of money” passage that I referenced in the introduction so that we can see how pursuing godliness in your finances is an essential battle drill to the Christian life, as Paul taught his protégé in 1 Timothy 6:6-12:

But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

The larger context of pursuing godliness in your finances is only 18” away – the distance between your head and your heart! You can’t take money with you, nor can it fulfill you in this life or in the life to come, so I exhort you to get your appetites under control and in submission to Christ – Learn contentment! Paul testified to this in Philippians 4:11, “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.” Here’s the bottom line, if you are not content with God, then you will never manage your finances well. Your passions are in control if God isn’t the one shepherding your heart. By the way, contentment is a promise of the Good Shepherd – “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1). Because Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd of your soul (John 10:11-18), you are invited to practice this battle drill every day by bringing to Him your discontentment, caused by the lusts of the world and passions of the heart.

The beginning of your pursuit of godliness in your finances is learning to pursue God above all other needs or desires, to seek Him first! Until Christ is enough, nothing will satisfy! Let me teach you a simple equation for contentment: CHRIST + nothing = EVERYTHING you will ever need! That brings us to the third action step of a good soldier of Jesus.

Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval.

This is a human problem, as described in Proverbs 27:20, “Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied, nor are the eyes of man ever satisfied.” This is not a new phenomenon. For example, when asked how much money is enough, John D. Rockefeller summarized the answer for most of us, “just a little bit more.” An ancient Chinese proverb states, “As gold is tested by fire, so man is tested by gold.” We all struggle with this – contentment is not easy because of this!

Pursuing godliness in your finances is all about your daily participation in the healing of your sucking chest wound! Jesus gave us the answer in Matthew 6:31-34:

Do not worry then, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear for clothing?” For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Do you trust what Jesus said and prescribed to you is true and effective for you? You see, every person is born with a God-sized hole in his or her heart! Once again, I’m not talking about a physical wound, but a spiritual one, but one that affects every area of your life. The Bible is very clear that we have no life apart from God – in fact, it says we are “by nature children of wrath … dead in our transgressions” (Ephesians 2:3, 5). Jesus Christ came to fill that God-sized hole – to “[make] us alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:5). The question is are you going to invite Jesus Christ to fill the hole and seal the sucking chest wound [the vacuum] of your soul or are you going to continue to treat it with band-aides. Nothing else will satisfy, at least not for long, and definitely not for an eternity, until you put Christ first and trust Him for everything.

So often, we try to fill the God-sized hole with things other than God. We try to find security in money; meaning in jobs; status in people, but only God will satisfy. Only God, the Mighty Physician, can heal your sucking chest wound. Apart from Him, the best you can do is the temporary fixes we infantrymen learned, slap something on the surface of the real issue to temporarily seal the vacuum so you can breathe for a while, but that is only a temporary fix. Both the answer and the call to mission is found in Paul’s words in Acts 20:33-35:

I have coveted no one’s silver or gold or clothes. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my own needs and to the men who were with me. In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

This leads us to the final action step of our soldier’s training regimen.

Action Step #4) Live on mission.

Did you hear the motive clause of why a Christian work ethic? Not to do a temporary fix on providing for yourself; rather, it’s the motivation of Jesus Christ, as Paul taught us in 2 Corinthians 8:9, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.” Again, in Philippians 2:6-7, Paul defined this as the way of Jesus, “who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.” This refers to Jesus’ generosity given to us freely through His incarnation and death. Jesus offered Himself willingly and sacrificially as an example for all believers to follow. John put it this way in 1 John 3:16-18:

We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.

This is the higher purpose of wealth management for Christian soldiers – we work hard not to increase our portfolios, but to increase our capacities for even greater generosity than before! Pursuing godliness in your finances is an inside-out process of bringing all things into submission to Christ so that all that you think, say, and do points to Him, including how you utilize the resources God has provided for you. May we all see it as the highest lifestyle choice to give more as we make more, to increase our giving as our earning power increases. Here is the easy win, which happens automatically when you make the decision ahead of time to set apart the first fruits for the Lord – as the Lord brings increase you’ve already purposed in your heart to give more of it; that is the beauty of tithing, not as a legalistic approach to giving, but as a fulfillment of 2 Corinthians 9:7, “Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” When you do so, you are living on mission as a good soldier of Jesus Christ because you are no longer distracted by the tools of the trade, you are focused on continuing the mission – CM and live a generous lifestyle!

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Battle Drill #37:

Train with a Battle Buddy!

Proverbs 27:17 (NAS95)

This month, I am finishing our 2022 sermon series, “Train to Live on Mission Today: The Battle Drills of a Christian Soldier.” After laying a firm foundation from 2 Timothy 2:1-4 so we can properly understand how the Bible uses the soldier imagery as a metaphor for the Christian life, we have then taken a year-long journey through the book of Proverbs. We will cover the final five chapters of God’s book of wisdom this 5-Sunday month, starting with chapter 27.

Today, we are going to walk through the four action steps of a soldier’s training routine to learn the next battle drill – “Train with a Battle Buddy!” We are going to learn the importance of spiritual friendships. I define a spiritual friend as someone you believe is important to the strengthening of your own spiritual vitality. Like every athlete needs a training partner and every soldier needs a battle buddy, every Christian needs a spiritual friend who is closer to them than a brother (Proverbs 18:24b). This is one of the foundational disciplines of a faithful Christian life.

In the military, we call the person we are assigned to train with our battle buddy. We have each other’s six, and we carry one another’s burdens. I never would have graduated the US Army Ranger School in 1997, if it wasn’t for my ranger buddy. I remember how, on a long night patrol through the swamps of Florida, he locked arms with me when I was losing consciousness; my battle buddy kept me going in the right direction until I found the necessary next gear deep down! Apart from him, I would have failed at that moment because in that unforgiving environment, there was no grace apart from what your battle buddy could give you. Wherever we were and whatever we were doing, we carried each other’s burdens. It was mutual!

Learning to train with a battle buddy is a fulfillment of Galatians 6:2, “Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.” A battle buddy is a person we have learned we can depend upon to help us carry the burdens of God’s purposes for our lives. Let’s turn to the Field Manual and take the first step of a soldier’s training regimen.

Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.

Action Step #2) Train together as one unit.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

Let’s discuss the value of spiritual friendships based on today’s battle drill from Proverbs 27:17. This famous scripture, often used in accountability relationships, can be explained in a simple way, “Close friends provide constructive criticism and accountability. Just as sharpening an iron blade makes it more effective, close friends sharpen one another’s character.”^[2] Because both parties are made from iron, their words are not intended to hurt one another, they are intended to aide. Paul explained to his protégé in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 what we are to use to sharpen one another in our spiritual friendships, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” We are to use the Field Manuel!

But the Word is sharp which is why Proverbs 27:5-6 teaches, “Better is open rebuke than love that is concealed. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.” In other words, your battle buddy will love you by telling you the truth, and even if their gentleness wounds you, it will be done for the sake of love. Paul admonishes us of this in Galatians 6:1-2, “Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.”

This is the hard work of our battle drill today, found in Proverbs 27:17, “Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” We must not turn away from one another because one party has acted towards the other with a sincere love that was sharp. We need to be made of iron! As Paul says in Ephesians 4:15, “but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ.” That brings us to the third action step of a good soldier of Jesus.

Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval.

There is no greater desire in my life than to hear Jesus’ words as I enter His presence for eternity, “Well done, good and faithful slave” (Matthew 25:21). I know that I can’t do it alone so I want people in my life who will walk with me to this destination. I know that this goal is only possible in Christ, but I also need my brothers and sisters. The following are some biblical precedents for why I feel that I can’t accomplish God’s purposes for my life as a lone ranger; thereby, demonstrating each of our needs for a battle buddy as a foundational spiritual discipline:

We are refreshed by one another to carry on with the mission of God. A beautiful example of this is from 2 Timothy 1:16-17 and how Paul was refreshed by his battle buddies in the mission of God, “The Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains; but when he was in Rome, he eagerly searched for me and found me.” Another example from Paul’s testimony is found in 1 Corinthians 16:17-18, “I rejoice over the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have supplied what was lacking on your part. For they have refreshed my spirit and yours. Therefore acknowledge such men.” Paul did not try to conceal his need for others; rather, he openly named names, of those whose ministries refreshed his own. Not to show favoritism, but to demonstrate God’s design.

I believe that you, like Paul, want to be faithful to God and please your commander, Jesus Christ. I know you want to run the race in such a way as to not be disqualified (1 Corinthians 9:24-27), but that is exactly why you need a training partner, a battle buddy, a spiritual friend. As Proverbs 13:20 teaches us, “He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.” Never forget that when Proverbs speaks of wisdom, it is talking about the fear of the Lord – a faithful life that aligns with His commandments and fulfills His purposes.

I don’t think any of us can complete the mission, CM through difficult times, apart from the assistance of the Holy Spirit working through our battle buddies. Just like there came a time when I could not keep myself going during that long patrol in the swamps after months of fatigue and stress wore me out to the point of being like the walking dead, there will come a time where you need someone to take your arm and keep you on path, putting one foot in front of the other, helping you CM! Why wait to hit you the wall of your own pride and self-sufficiency? You can start today. This leads us to the final action step of our soldier’s training regimen.

Action Step #4) Live on mission.

The Commander I serve now has a higher purpose in His mind for my life and yours, one that is eternal. It is found in Romans 8:29, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son.” In other words, God enlisted you to be all you can be – an image bearer of God, the reflection of His Son Jesus Christ for all the world to see! Why is this important to our Commander, why does He even care about your being the truest form of you? Because God is glorified when you bear His image through your faithful fulfillment of all that God intends for you to do as an image bearer of His Son, just as Ephesians 2:10 declares of your salvation, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (cf. Philippians 2:13).

Just as I have been teaching you every step of this way in this sermon series – your salvation was an enlistment into the mission of God, so that you can fulfill the Commander’s intent for your life as a member of the body of Christ – the church, the hope of the nations! Your job is to submit yourself to His rule over your life so that you can become what He always intended you to be. Today’s battle drill teaches you that you can’t become that alone – you need to train with a battle buddy. I am going to conclude by reading an excerpt from the Mentor Commentaries:

A blade is fashioned, honed to an edge and polished to a fine finish by the use of other metal – the one working over against the other. The process, though for a different purpose, is described in Isaiah 44:12: “The man shapes iron into a cutting tool, and does his work over the coals, fashioning it with hammers, and working it with his strong arm.” In a similar fashion, “one man sharpens another.” The verb translated “sharpens” in both lines describes making something sharp or keen. … We are better for our social interactions, even the ones we least appreciate. We are a debtor to every man whose path we have crossed, for no social contact need be a waste if we will but learn from it. How much more valuable, then, those friendships in which our companion has our highest good in mind! “Two are better than one” (Eccles. 4:9a). “He who walks with wise men will be wise” (Prov. 13:20a). Indeed, as we have just discovered, “a man’s counsel is sweet to his friend” (v. 9b). Think of Jonathan’s benefit to David, for he “arose and went to David at Horesh, and encouraged him in God” (1 Sam. 23:16). Little wonder we are exhorted, “let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together” (Heb. 10:24–25a). No man can be his best or reach the heights God intends for him without those blessed friends who comfort, provoke, challenge, rebuke, chide, affirm, stimulate and encourage until his thinking is clear, his wisdom mature, his purpose refined, and his faculties sharp.^[3]

Athletic coaches and championships athletes know that every athlete needs a training partner to bring out their best and win the championship as a team. Military officers and veteran soldiers know that every soldier needs a battle buddy to be all they can be and ensure mission success. God knows you need a spiritual friend to be the best version of you, transformed into the image of Jesus Christ, to His glory and the accomplishment of His purposes through your life. The question is: do you know your own need for a spiritual friend?

Don’t know where to start? Start by being a spiritual friend! Make training with a battle buddy one of your top priorities of your life this year. We all need to be in the easy yoke of Jesus to find rest for our souls from the heavy burdens of living in this fallen world, then we each of us must learn to “Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.”

You can listen to the message by clicking below:

You can watch this week’s message by clicking HERE.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015), Pr 27:17.

[2] John D. Barry et al., Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016), Pr 27:17.

[3] John A. Kitchen, Proverbs: A Mentor Commentary, Mentor Commentaries (Fearn, Ross-shire, Great Britain: Mentor, 2006), 615-616.

Battle Drill #35:

Endure the Refining Process!

Proverbs 25:4-5 (NAS95)

Isn’t that what God is doing with us in the long slow obedience of progressive sanctification? We have all picked up a lot of bad habits through our years of living “under the sun” and He is refining us by teaching us how to bring all things in submission to His Son. We were enlisted to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ and that gave us our justification before God (our positional holiness), but our ability to be good soldiers doesn’t happen just because we are saved; it’s a process of growing in our personal holiness – breaking the habits of the flesh so that we can live in the freedom of the Spirit. There’s a new language to learn, and some old language to work out of our system. There’s a new way of communicating and dealing with conflict, and some old communication patterns and ways of dealing with conflict that need to be unlearned. There’s a new way of living if you are going to represent the Commander and live on mission for God. Let’s turn to the Field Manual and take the first step of a soldier’s training regimen.

Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.

Action Step #2) Train together as one unit.

As a disciple of Christ, I am to simultaneously trust God for the completion of my life – when I will reflect Him perfectly, while I learn to walk with Him, becoming like Him each step of the way. This gives me the hope to be courageous throughout the long slow obedience in the same direction of Christlikeness. We see this dual charge in Philippians 2:12-13, “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” There is a promise to be trusted – our perfection before God – and there is a praxis to embrace in every area of our lives – the reflection of His holiness in our relationships, marriage, parenting, etc. Remember, this is the will of God, His good pleasure, for your life – “to become conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29).

Brothers and sisters, I am here to teach you that you can’t have it one way or the other; it is a both-and that must be trained into your perspective of life circumstances, and in the mindset of your training regimen as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. If you are going to become the best version of you to the glory of God, then you need to trust God and His ways for the completion of that which He calls you to embrace wholeheartedly. Stop trying to hijack the process! For example, your marriage is more about your holiness than your happiness because He called you to represent Him in and through it. Until you get this, then you will continue to chase your tail.

Let’s pull at the thread of the biblical theme of today’s battle drill then we will understand how God intends for it to be applied to our lives as good soldiers. “Dross” is the waste material (scum or impurity) that is extracted from the silver during a repetitive process of heating and melting the silver to purify it. While dross is literally the impurity of metal removed during the smelting process, it was used to symbolize personal or national impurity, specifically the spiritual contamination of God’s people, as in Ezekiel 22:18, “Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me; all of them are bronze and tin and iron and lead in the furnace; they are the dross of silver.” God wanted His people holy – set apart for His purposes and His glory!

In Proverbs 25:4-5, dross represents the wicked of the kingdom that renders the whole society impure – the wicked and unrighteous. If a king wanted his kingship to be marked by justice and righteousness, he had to remove the dross – the wicked and unrighteous who were corrupting his kingdom. We see it used this way of God’s kingdom in Psalm 119:119, “You have removed all the wicked of the earth like dross; therefore I love Your testimonies.”

This repetitive process for the spiritual refinement of God’s people through discipline and difficulties became deeply imbedded into the psyche of God’s people through Israel’s history of prophecy, as in God’s promise to His people in Isaiah 1:21-26:

How the faithful city has become a harlot, she who was full of justice! Righteousness once lodged in her, but now murderers. Your silver has become dross, your drink diluted with water. Your rulers are rebels and companions of thieves; everyone loves a bribe and chases after rewards. They do not defend the orphan, nor does the widow’s plea come before them. Therefore the Lord God of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, declares, “Ah, I will be relieved of My adversaries and avenge Myself on My foes. I will also turn My hand against you, and will smelt away your dross as with lye and will remove all your alloy. Then I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning; after that you will be called the city of righteousness, a faithful city.”

This is how God’s people were taught to interpret their history and their current events – through a lens of God’s providential purposes of refining them for His glory. During God’s justice, in Jeremiah 6:27-30, God made Jeremiah the prophet an assayer, a tester of metals:

“I have made you an assayer and a tester among My people, that you may know and assay their way.” All of them are stubbornly rebellious, going about as a talebearer. They are bronze and iron; they, all of them, are corrupt. The bellows blow fiercely, the lead is consumed by the fire; in vain the refining goes on, but the wicked are not separated. They call them rejected silver, because the Lord has rejected them.

This prophetic tradition continued in Ezekiel 22:18-22, then it ultimately culminated with the foretelling of the coming of the Messiah in Malachi 3:1-3:

“Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the Lord of hosts. “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness.

What is the refiner’s fire, and why does God use this imagery of the smelting process in His people’s lives? God is described as a consuming fire, but the consuming fire did not consume the burning bush when God called Moses. The friends of Daniel were tossed into the fire but were not consumed – the Fourth was with them! God is not a wildfire – He is controlled and has our best interests in mind. God is a holy fire because His fire has a purpose – to refine us into His image! Just as we see in God’s Creation, fire is an essential ingredient to life – for our warmth, for cooking, for production of materials, for the cauterization of wounds, and even for forests to thrive. So often we only think of the destructive power of fire, rather than its life-giving intent!

In the spiritual, Psalm 12:6 explains, “The words of the Lord are pure words; as silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times.” This sevenfold refining process of the Word speaks to its perfection, and the purpose for which God sent forth His Word – to bring His people to perfection so that they can be with Him. As Isaiah 45:23 states, “I have sworn by Myself, the word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness and will not turn back, that to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance” (cf. Isaiah 55:11).

This is the purpose of the smelting process – to bring all things to completion through the fire of God’s glory, the refinement of His presence upon the earth. This is the reason for Christ coming! This is the purpose of His church! This is God’s plan to enlist you, and it is His pleasure to refine you through His Word and Holy Spirit. That brings us to the third action step of a good soldier of Jesus.

Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval.

Jesus is the Living Word and His coming brought God’s refiner’s fire not only to Israel, but through Israel to all the nations. Jesus fulfilled the prophetic imagery of Israel. This is the imagery of Pentecost as the glory of God fell on the early church in “tongues as of fire” (Acts 2:3). The Holy Spirit came as a refiner’s fire to purify a new priesthood through faith in Jesus Christ, one that would offer right sacrifices in righteousness as foretold in Malachi 3:3. Peter expressed this plainly in 1 Peter 2:5 and 9:

You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. … But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

This is who you are, and that is why Christ has enlisted you, but let’s not forget that the smelting process, which removes the dross from your life, is a repetitive one. This is not a “once upon a time” or “one and done” proposal. While your salvation is exactly that – you are justified by the blood of Jesus – your “usefulness to the Master” is dependent upon your willingness to participate in the refinement process that the fire of the Holy Spirit continuously is doing within you, with every thought, word, relationship, and deed. As Paul taught his protégé in 2 Timothy 2:21, “Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.”

Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). With God’s continuous presence in your life, what are you asking the Holy Spirit to cohabitate with? What impurities are you asking God to “tabernacle with” in your life? Are you useful to the Master?

Interestingly, each time the refiner of metal repeats the refinement process he raises the heat to skim even more dross. His goal is to increase the quality and purity of the refined metal. Should it surprise you then that God does the same in our lives – He turns up the heat to increase the quality and purity of your life. Maybe you thought the hardest (hottest) work of your Christian life was at your conversion, and in the beginning years of sanctification, but I believe, from biblical and anecdotal evidence, that the work of the Spirit gets hotter the deeper it goes into your life. Issues of external holiness, what so many churches and pastors are focused on, are superficial compared with the deeply rooted issues of rebellion that fuel them. Therefore, when you experience fiery trials in your life, you can take comfort in knowing that God’s refining fire is removing the dross for your ability to reflect His glory through your effectiveness and fruitfulness in the mission! He perseveres in this work until the last breath – so that you may learn how to, and then, ultimately, surrender all to God unto death for His glory!

It is because of this understanding of God’s intent that Tevye, the beloved father from Fiddler on the Roof, prayed during suffering and hardship, “I know. I know. We are Your chosen people. But, once in a while, can’t You choose someone else?” God loves His chosen people, and He continuously increases the heat so that we may reflect Him more to allow who watch our lives – this is our mission! This leads us to the final action step of our soldier’s training regime.

Action Step #4) Live on mission.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

In conclusion, the mission of God in and through your life is found in your faith and in how you walk through the refiner’s fire of your life with faith. Paul expressed this purpose to His followers in 2 Corinthians 4:5-10:

For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

God is at work in your life because you are a temple of the Holy Spirit. You and your life are the very presence of the refiner’s fire in the world. May God’s unquenchable fire of holiness, His refiner’s fire, remove all that is perishable from you and purify all that is imperishable. May God’s image be reflected more and more in you and through your life as you shine His piercing light in the darkness of these last days. May you start seeing every circumstance and every challenging situation as an opportunity to become more like Jesus until your very life proclaims the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Make this battle drill a reflexive, instinctive, and habitual part of your Christian life so that you can CM – Continue the Mission! Therefore, live on mission today and train the battle drill of the week for the glory of God. Let us pray.

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Extra Materials

(not preached, but still for the edification of the brethren):

Today’s battle drill helps us make sense of the smelting process of our difficulties, as described in Romans 5:1-5:

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Every circumstance of your life – the good, the bad, and the ugly – now makes sense when you learn to endure God’s refining process. As Paul taught in Romans 8:26-30:

In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

Even the evil of this world – the wickedness and injustices – will be used by God for His glory, and in the refinement process of His people, as taught in 1 Peter 5:6-10:

Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.

Battle Drill #34:

Building up Heart & Mind

Proverbs 24:3-6, 10-12

Pastor Jerry shared last week about learning resilience, and that it is more than just being tough and having a ‘thick skin”, learning from the example of Paul’s life and skills. Today I would like to take follow up on that thought and take us through the fundamentals that this resilience comes out of… the building up of your heart and mind.

Proverbs 24:3-5, 10-12

“By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established;
And by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches. A wise man is strong, and a man of knowledge increases power.

I. It starts with the heart, for the heart of the matter is the matter of the heart.

It takes a heart of integrity! Look at King David! It was said of him:

Psalm 78:72

“He shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them”

His son, King Solomon wrote:

Proverbs 4:23

“Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.”

A. Know the field manual: He Weighs the Heart

Romans 10:9-10

“that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

1 Samuel 16:7

“But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for ^[a]God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

1 Thessalonians 2:4

“but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts.”

God uses the Word to measure

Hebrews 4:12

“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

B. Importance of Training Together: It Brings Unity

ILLUS: “Don’t Lose Heart” by Steven Curtis Chapman

It is the home of your hope and faith

2 Chronicles 30:12

“The hand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of the Lord.”

Acts 4:32-33

“And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them. And with great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all.”

C. Seek the Commander’s Approval: More than just good intentions

1 Tim. 1:5

“But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”

Heb. 10:22

“ let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”

Benefit: God will guard your heart

Philippians 4:7

“And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Proverbs 24:3-5

“By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; And by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches. A wise man is strong, and a man of knowledge increases power.

A. Know the field manual: Set your mind

ILLUS: On the line of scrimmage – no flinching

Romans 8:5

Colossians 3:1-2 (NIV)

“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”

1 Peter 1:13

“Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Psalm 26:2

“Examine me, O Lord, and try me; Test my mind and my heart.”

B. Importance of Training Together: We Need Each Other!

ILLUS: Things we can’t go without: Air/3 minutes; Water/3 days; Food/3 weeks; Fellowship/3 months.

Starts having impact on our overall well-being.

Human touch inspires positive thinking & expands trust, reduces social anxiety & stress, boosts immune system & lowers blood pressure.”

In an article published in a secular psychology magazine, the writer stated:

“It’s ironic that during a highly contagious pandemic where our immune systems are being the most stressed, we are being deprived of something (human touch) that is so essential to our body’s function.” *

How the early church started

Acts 2:42

“They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”

Philippians 2:5 (ESV)

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus”

Hebrews 10:24-25

“and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”

C. Seek the Commander’s Approval: Put God first!

Proverbs 24:12

“If you say, “See, we did not know this,” Does He not consider it who weighs the hearts? And does He not know it who keeps your soul? And will He not render to man according to his work?”

ILLUS: Reading or hearing the instructions.

Proverbs 3:6

“In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.”

1 Corinthians 10:31

“Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

Colossians 3:17,23-24

“Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father… Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.”

How do we Live on Mission? K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Silly)

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FOOTNOTE:

Battle Drill #33:

“Keep Getting Up! (Learning Resilience)”

Proverbs 24:16 (NAS95)

Today, we are going to walk through the four action steps of a soldier’s training routine to learn the next battle drill – “Keep Getting Up!” Today, we are going to undergo resilience training, one of the favorite teachings of the US Army Chaplaincy School. In the military, the role of the chaplain to his unit is complex and multifaceted. In addition to other duties and responsibilities, the chaplain performs or provides religious services to the diversity of soldiers in the unit as requested, and the chaplain serves on the commander’s staff as a “combat multiplier.” Some commanders only care about this last function because they have a utilitarian view of chaplains and religion – whoever and whatever can make their soldiers more effective on the battlefield is all that matters to them! This last role of a chaplain can be daunting to the uninitiated.

As a combat multiplier, the chaplain helps soldiers focus on the mission, without distraction, and give their very best, without compromise, to the job that needs to be done. This may feel clean and easy, especially when it looks like marriage conferences and stress management seminars back on base. But what happens when it starts to include doing critical incident debriefs after combat missions to mitigate the immediate effects of a traumatic experience so that the soldiers can go back out on their next mission? Or when it is the transitional work to help minimize the long-term effects of repeated traumatic experiences after being in a theatre of operations for a sustained time before redeploying home to loved ones? Battlemind training is real and helping soldiers transition out of it and come home is a critical work of a team.

Resilience training is the work of a team – the chaplain, the medical providers, and the chain of command (to include the Family Support Group at home in preparation for receiving soldiers back from deployments). Resilience training aims at teaching soldiers the skills to retain their mental health, emotional well-being, and physical capacity to be able to CM – continue the mission – regardless of what the mission has asked of them or taken from them, or their buddies. This is hard work, and the Army has recognized that spirituality, for those who practice their own, has an essential role to play in increasing a soldier’s resilience!

As a church, we must learn how to CM after we’ve been through traumatic experiences, either personally or vicariously. To put it simply, resilience is the ability to bounce back when you have no reason to be able to get back up from being knocked down (or falling) in the first place. I summarize resilience like this, “Never stop starting!” Don’t just get up, bounce forward! Resilience is the ability to learn from the worst of experiences and demanding of circumstances to get better. Imagine what the church would look like today, what your family would look like, what you would look like if you learned resiliency skills. Let’s turn to the Field Manual and take the first step of a soldier’s training routine to live on mission.

Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.

Action Step #2) Train together as one unit.

Cindy Sheffer’s testimony

To further illustrate, we are going to turn to God’s Word and contrast two of the disciples of Jesus Christ – Peter and Judas. Both were hand-picked by Jesus, through the same discernment process of prayer. Both walked with Jesus for three years, and both forsook Jesus at the end of his life – Peter by denying Jesus three times and Judas by betraying his location to the Sanhedrin. What was the difference?

I know we can spiritualize the answer to this question and let ourselves off the hook by explaining how Peter was preordained to be the rock of the church and Judas the son of perdition. While we wouldn’t be wrong to point that out, we would be wrong to think that neither man had choices of their own to make along the way of becoming what they were. C.S. Lewis explained it this way in Mere Christianity:

Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different than it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing into a heavenly creature or a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow creatures, and with itself. To be the one kind of creature is heaven: that is, it is joy and peace and knowledge and power. To be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal loneliness. Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state of the other.[1]

I believe that Peter demonstrated the best of resiliency; whereas Judas fell and did not get back up. They are an illustration of Proverbs 24:16, “For a righteous man [Peter] falls seven times, and rises again, But the wicked [Judas] stumble in time of calamity.”

Allow me to emphasize my point by talking about the end of their journeys with Jesus. Judas’ story ends in Matthew 27:3-5:

Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” But they said, “What is that to us? See to that yourself!” And he threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself. (cf. Acts 1.18)

I believe with my whole heart that Jesus would have forgiven Judas the same way He forgave Peter if he had been resilient. Let’s now turn to that critical moment with Peter in John 21:15-17:

So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Tend My lambs.” He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Shepherd My sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Tend My sheep.

His fall was foreseen, he was warned about it, and in his pride he fell anyways. But here is the difference between the two – three days! Three days after His death on the Cross, Jesus defeated death through His resurrection, which made redemption possible for anyone who came to Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins. The atonement of sin was made through the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary. In response to the shed blood of Jesus Christ, Judas killed himself, whereas Peter was cleansed from his unrighteousness by it, because of three days!

We each have the same choice to make! Will you train spiritual resilience by learning to trust in the healing and cleansing power of the blood of Jesus Christ? Will you live your life according to the promise of the resurrection – Jesus got back up! So can you – learn resiliency!

There is a better way to live than giving yourself over to bitterness over your hurts, habits, and hang ups. That brings us to the third action step of a good soldier of Jesus.

Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval.

There are numerous Bible characters we can study to learn resiliency skills. From the Old Testament, Joseph and King David come to mind, as do the prophets, such as Jeremiah and Daniel. From the New Testament, we have already learned from Peter, so let’s look at four verses from Paul’s ministry that give us insight into his real-life resiliency skills, each of which we can apply to our own lives:

As you learn to apply God’s Word in practical ways, you will cultivate a positive outlook on your life and circumstances (mind), care for your physical well-being (body), apply healthy coping mechanisms to regulate your emotions (heart), and maintain your moral, ethical, spiritual compass in the midst of your response (soul). In other words, your resiliency skills, when properly trained into your life will help you obey Jesus’ Greatest Commandments, found in Matthew 22:37-40, regardless of your circumstances:

And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

In doing so, you are assured to please your Commander by obeying Him. This leads us to the final action step of our soldier’s training regime.

Action Step #4) Live on mission.

God has given every believer the same power that gave Jesus the resiliency to live His life on mission for God, without distraction, and to face His own death for the glory of God, without compromise. Paul prayed according to these truths for his own ministry in Philippians 1:21, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” As good soldiers of Jesus Christ, this is my closing prayer for you, that may you walk in the power of the Holy Spirit, the same power that raised Jesus from the grave, so that you may live your life on mission for God, without distraction, and face your own death for the glory of God, without compromise. Join with me in praying, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Say that out loud three times. If you believe that, and learn to live it, you will be able to get back up and CM, no matter the circumstances of your life.

Jesus was tempted. You will be, too – Get back up and CM!

Jesus was misunderstood. You will be, too – Get back up and CM!

Jesus was gossiped about. You will be, too – Get back up and CM!

Jesus was ridiculed. You will be, too – Get back up and CM!

Jesus was betrayed. You will be, too – Get back up and CM!

Jesus was abandoned. You will be, too – Get back up and CM!

Jesus wept and was grieved. You will, too – Get back up and CM!

Jesus anguished and experienced anxiety. You will, too – Get back up and CM!

Jesus experienced pain and suffering. You will, too – Get back up and CM!

Jesus died. You will, too – Glorify God with your death and CM!

Jesus was resurrected. You will be, too! Do you believe this?

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FOOTNOTE:

Battle Drill #32:

Get a Grip on your Appetites before they take hold of you!

Proverbs 23:1-5 (NAS95)

Today, we are going to walk through the four action steps of a soldier’s training routine to learn the next battle drill – “Get a Grip on your Appetites before they take hold of you!” Appetites come in many shapes and sizes. Speaking of which, so do we! Soldiers of Jesus Christ are a diverse group of people, and, in fact, often it is our diversity that highlights our unity in Christ more than anything else. Often what threatens our unity is when our appetites take hold of us, and we no longer want what God wants for us. We are to desire holiness above all else, but what happens when our appetites for sensual pleasures, worldly success, or wealth take over our agendas and calendars? What happens when congregations lose their focus on godliness in the name of the mission, or for the good of their community, and pastors drift away from their first love as they strive to serve their people, or their careers? We must get a grip on our appetites before they take hold of us! Let’s turn to the Field Manual and take the first step of a soldier’s training routine to live on mission.

Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.

When you sit down to dine with a ruler, consider carefully what is before you, and put a knife to your throat if you are a man of great appetite. Do not desire his delicacies, for it is deceptive food. Do not weary yourself to gain wealth, cease from your consideration of it. When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.

This is what the Field Manual says, let’s now take the second action step to learn how to apply it to our everyday lives as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.

Action Step #2) Train together as one unit.

Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness.” Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work. Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

Paul taught Timothy that if we are to be “useful to the Master” then we must “flee from youthful lusts and pursue faith, love and peace.” In the same way, a good soldier of Jesus is not to be distracted from the mission (2 Timothy 2:4). The Christian life is not one of sin management! That is a frustrating and distracting way to live, one that doesn’t lead to fruitfulness and effectiveness! Quite the opposite, the life of a good soldier of Jesus is a positively focused life, as Galatians 5:16 states as an introduction to the fruit of the Spirit, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”

What are you focusing on – your sin or God’s Spirit? We are to walk in the freedom of the Spirit, not in slavery to sin. Both seek to rule your every impulse and thought, but only one for your good and God’s glory! Allow me to further demonstrate from 2 Peter 1:2-11, the supernatural reality of how self-control works in the life of a good soldier of Jesus:

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.

Did you hear that promise? “As long as you practice these things, you will never stumble!” We must train the promises of God into our lives, such as 1 Corinthians 10:13-14:

No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

Are you stuck in a negative sin-management mindset? Have you allowed your appetites to take a hold of your life? Do you have idols you need to flee from today?

What are idols in our culture? We do not normally go to a pagan temple and serve the pagan god by making offerings. But, what do we bow down to (or submit to) when it makes a demand on our lives? Is there something that belongs only to God, that we give to someone (or something) else? To help you understand, here is a parallel question: Is there something that belongs only to our spouse, that we give to someone (or something) else? Idolatry is spiritual adultery! Just like with adultery, an idol overpromises and underdelivers. Idols, and the sin that manifests from them, hold no power except what we feed them. Therefore, as Paul said, make no room for idols in your life – Flee from idolatry! There is a better way to live and that brings us to the third action step of a good soldier of Jesus.

Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval.

When someone struggles with addiction they habitually and repeatedly expose themselves to a substance or behavior that alters their brain chemistry, until the brain and body become dependent on either that substance (e.g., drugs, alcohol, or other chemicals) or the effect of that behavior on their brain chemistry (e.g., dopamine release from screens or activities). Addiction causes that substance or activity to become rooted into the physiology and psychology of the person, and that must be addressed wholistically – spiritually, but also emotionally, mentally, physically, and many times with body chemical adjustments that should be provided and monitored through your medical provider. Today, I’m addressing the spiritual reality of it.

There are two areas of addiction that many people in our culture struggle with and are named in today’s chapter from Proverbs: sensuality (specifically food and drink) and wealth. Both, your senses and wealth, are gifts from God when they under the blood, but without the mastery of the Holy Spirit they can destroy your life. Let’s deal with sensuality first. In this category we find the issues of food and drink as mentioned in our battle drill, Proverbs 23:1-3, and throughout Proverbs 23, such as in verses 20-21, “Do not be with heavy drinkers of wine, or with gluttonous eaters of meat; for the heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe one with rags.” This calls for self-control, just as we see prescribed in Proverbs 23:29-35:

Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who linger long over wine, those who go to taste mixed wine. Do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly; at the last it bites like a serpent and stings like a viper. Your eyes will see strange things and your mind will utter perverse things. And you will be like one who lies down in the middle of the sea, or like one who lies down on the top of a mast. “They struck me, but I did not become ill; they beat me, but I did not know it. When shall I awake? I will seek another drink.”

In the same way that God calls us to self-control in our food and drink for our own good, He does in our sexuality. Paul teaches in 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8:

Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more. For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.

Please realize that God is not trying to rain on your parade! Quite the opposite, He is wanting to reign over your life so that you can experience abundant life of Jesus Christ through the sanctification of the Holy Spirit (John 10:10).

The second place God calls us to self-control is with our wealth, as our battle drill teaches us in Proverbs 23:4-5, “Do not weary yourself to gain wealth, cease from your consideration of it. When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.” Jesus made this clear in Matthew 6:19-24:

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

The only solution is to get to the heart of the problem – mistrust of God! John says in 1 John 5:21, “Little children, guard yourselves from idols.” While this seems to come out of nowhere in his triumphant letter, it is the perfect conclusion because idolatry is a lack of faith in God. Because we don’t believe God will keep His promises on time every time, we put our hope and faith in lesser things to meet our needs. For example, an ungodly desire for wealth reveals a lack of faith that God is Jehovah-Jireh. This is a faith issue, the root of idolatry is not money, but the love of it (1 Timothy 6:10) – it’s the failure to realize that everything we own has been given to us by the grace of God. God is the provision, and He meets our every need. We rest and live in an effective and fruitful life when we trust that this is true, when we believe God; that is saving faith! This leads us to the final action step of our soldier’s training regime.

Action Step #4) Live on mission.

But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place – unless you repent.

You must invite the refiner’s fire – the Holy Spirit – to purify your heart and lead you into repentance! Paul taught his protégé in 2 Timothy 1:7, “For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline [sound mind, self-control].”

The mission of God requires the soldiers to be focused on the mission. In combat, a distracted soldier is a dead one! You must train yourself to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit who gives you all you need for life and godliness, from love to self-control and everything in between so that you can live on mission – “For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thessalonians 4:3a; cf. Romans 8:29). James 1:12-17 teaches us how to do this:

Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.

Outside of Jesus’ nail-scarred hands, your sin will take hold of your life and keep you weak and ineffective. To be useful to God, you must crucify you flesh and walk in the freedom of the faith God has given you (Galatians 2:20). Are your appetites under the blood of Jesus Christ or are they still wreaking havoc on your mind and heart, distracting you at every turn? Get a grip on your appetites today by bringing them to the throne of grace and know that in God’s hands you are forgiven of your sin and cleansed from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9; Hebrews 4:16).

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] John D. Barry et al., Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016), Pr 23:2.

Battle Drill #31:

Build a Good Reputation!

Proverbs 22:1 (NAS95)

Today, we are going to walk through the four action steps of a soldier’s training routine to learn the next battle drill – “Build a Good Reputation!” In the military, your reputation means everything, not only within the unit you serve, but also in determining your future opportunities. While there are professional qualifications that do set you apart by their mere presence on your uniform and in your personnel file because,let’s be honest, the military loves their uniforms and bureaucracy, what really matters is the character and conduct of the person who is wearing the uniform. Whether you are a private or a captain, and whether you have badges and tabs on your uniform, at the end of the day, it is your reputation that will determine your success. Yes, making the next rank, earning special qualifications, and graduating from elite schools are indicative of your potential, ultimately, it is what you do with your potential that matters.

In the same way, you can dress the part in the church, you can learn the language of Christianese, and you can even hold important positions in the congregation, but what matters is your character and conduct. Just like in the military, it is what you do and how you do it that shapes your reputation amongst the congregation and the community. While appearances, positions, and education can make a positive impression up front, it is your character and conduct in the everyday situations of real life that builds your reputation. God’s Word speaks clearly to the importance of this in today’s battle drill. Let’s turn to the Field Manual and take the first step of a soldier’s training routine to live on mission.

Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.

The battle drill we are going to learn and apply this week is from Proverbs 22:1, “A good name is to be more desired than great wealth, favor is better than silver and gold.”

Ecclesiastes 7:1a states it this way, “A good name is better than a good ointment.” This is what the Field Manual says, let’s now take the second action step to learn how to apply it to our everyday lives as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.

Action Step #2) Train together as one unit.

Your name, which is your reputation, is more valuable than any measurement of wealth (silver, gold, or ointment); in fact, it has eternal value.

To learn how to properly train this, we are going to learn to do two things:

Let’s start by training ourselves to live life backwards by cultivating an eternal perspective of our reputations. Watch Jesus train His disciples to live on mission in Luke 10:17-20:

The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” And He said to them, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.”

The disciples’ names were written on the roll call of the Commander – they had been chosen by God to be enlisted as good soldiers of Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 2:3-4)! Here’s the point: You don’t deploy yourself to become a soldier or because you want people to think you are a soldier; soldiers train to live on mission so they can deploy at their Commander’s direction, according to His authority for the fulfillment of His mission.

Jesus emphasized this kind of thinking in John 15:16, “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.” You have been chosen, now bear the good fruit of eternity. Paul emphasizes this in Ephesians 2:8-10:

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

God chose you by grace (remember Proverbs 22:1 stated, “favor is better than silver and gold”), so now walk in the good works He prepared for you ahead of time. God gave you good works to shine His light and to proclaim His Kingdom. There is a backwards feel to this because in the world your works determine your reputation, but in the Kingdom, you don’t earn Heaven with your works. In direct opposition to that, you proclaim that you belong to Heaven by your good works! You do the works of the Commander because you are being a good soldier whose name is on the rolls of His army. Jesus explained such thinking with the fruit-bearing imagery of the Christian life in Matthew 7:15-23:

Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.”

Pointedly, this haunting passage teaches us that we could do the same kinds of things as those people – claim ourselves to be people who can cast out demons, be prophets, or perform miracles, but if we are not doing so as good soldiers, in accordance with God’s will, then we are equated with the lawless one. Church, let us not be so easily impressed with personality, charisma, or self-righteous proclamations of faith,let’s watch the consistency of conduct and character, the good fruit that demonstrates whether we are good trees. There are charlatans out there, wolves in sheep clothing, who can dress it up and talk the talk, but only those who belong to Heaven will persevere to the end. In Revelation 3:5, Jesus challenges us with the truth of having an eternal perspective on our name, “He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.” This is the backwards way of living – it is an eternal perspective on your name which allows you to persevere until the end because you know it is what God says that matters. This brings us to the third action step of a good soldier of Jesus.

Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval.

Today’s battle drill exposes our heart issue of hypocrisy.

This is a significant issue, especially seen in social media, where people present a false front of what is true. To the point that many people have multiple social media accounts – one that is for their teachers, employers, or family to see their crafted identity, and the other, often under a different name, so that those same people do not know who they really are.

Allow me to give you a piercing but liberating truth so that we can eradicate the issue of hypocrisy from our own lives. Hebrews 4:13-16 gives us the treatment plan:

And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Praise God that He knows the truth about us! We don’t have to hide from Him, but rather we can find rest for our souls in surrendering our lives to His lordship and working out our salvation with fear and trembling so that God has full access to bring about His good works through our lives. This is what Paul promised in Philippians 2:13, “for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”

God wants to build our reputations from the inside-out! The heart of Jesus’ invitation to become His disciple is take on His easy yoke and find rest for our souls – in relationship with Him we become like Him, gentle and humble in heart, so that the world may see and hear Christ through us (Matthew 11:28-30). We are called by God to be His image bearers and our reputation, our name, is shaped by His Spirit in us. We are to shine brightly, just as Jesus said in Matthew 5:14-16:

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

My name is designed by God to point to His Name – my reputation to His gospel proclamation because “there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12)! This leads us to the final action step of our soldier’s training regime.

Action Step #4) Live on mission.

Paul spoke of those who served in the mission alongside of him in a special way in Philippians 4:1-3:

Therefore, my beloved brethren whom I long to see, my joy and crown, in this way stand firm in the Lord, my beloved. I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to live in harmony in the Lord. Indeed, true companion [yokefellow], I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel, together with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

Paul was saying that those who are His true companions are those in the yoke of Jesus Christ. The mission is to make Christ visible through us, so that people will repent of their sins and put their faith in Jesus Christ. Our reputations make visible which kingdom we belong. I have tried to make it clear that we will persevere until the end when our names are written in the book of life because God does His work from the inside-out through His Holy Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, Paul speaks of it in terms of our inheritance of the Kingdom of God:

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

It is not that you have struggled or once were a partaker of these sins. No, haven’t we all sinned and struggled?! It is that you are not defined by your sin – such things are not the pattern of your life nor definer of your name. Quite the opposite, your name, your reputation, are washed through the blood of Jesus Christ to shine Christ alone. John admonished us in 1 John 1:5-10:

This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.

We conclude with a glimpse of the New Heaven and New Earth from Revelation 21:23-27:

And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

If your name is written in the Lamb’s book of life, your name will point to the eternal name of Jesus Christ! That is the work of the Holy Spirit in you because the Spirit causes you to persevere until the end – to proclaim the name of Jesus Christ through the good works He appointed you to do. This is God’s will.

Make this battle drill a reflexive, instinctive, and habitual part of your Christian life so that you can CM – Continue the Mission! Therefore, live on mission today and train the battle drill of the week for the glory of God. Let us pray.

You can listen to the message here:

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“Do Righteousness and Justice!”

Proverbs 21:3 (NAS95)

Today, we are going to walk through the four action steps of a soldier’s training routine to learn the next battle drill – “Do Righteousness and Justice!” This is an essential battle drill because, just as we learned the importance of preventing friendly fire incidents, which demoralize an army and reduce its effectiveness, so, today, we learn that we must avoid war crimes, which tarnish the reputation of the Commander and the nation he represents, as well as jeopardizes the moral high ground and legality of the mission. War crimes happen in every war, and when war criminals are brought to justice, they are tried by military tribunals and civilian courts, alike, to measure their actions according to the laws of land warfare, such as the Geneva Convention, and the specific rules of engagement as established by their Commander.

In the same way, as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, when we do things outside the authority God has given us as His agents, actions which are not representative of our Commander nor the kingdom He represents, and are outside of His purposes for His army and His will for His people, we tarnish the reputation of Jesus and His kingdom, as well as jeopardize the moral high ground and legality of God’s rescue mission, as Jesus’ commissioned us in Matthew 28:18-20:

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

War crimes must be avoided if we are to fulfill our mission! Let’s learn how to train today’s battle drill, “Do Righteousness and Justice,” by seeing what the Field Manual has to say about it.

Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.

Action Step #2) Train together as one unit.

The word selection of “justice and righteousness,” used by Solomon in Proverbs 21:3 is found throughout the Old Testament and it “represents the ideal standards for legal and ethical behavior and an ideal for kingship modeled on the righteousness of Yahweh.”^[1] These words are yoked together as a word pair to signify a larger concept of God’s kingdom and, as such, they cannot be separated in the eyes of God, nor should be in our own. We cannot shirk justice under the guise of “being righteous” and we cannot place justice on a pedestal above righteousness. The two are integral concepts to being loyal citizens of God’s kingdom.

We find this word combination in 1 Chronicles 18:14, to describe David’s kingdom, “So David reigned over all Israel; and he administered justice and righteousness for all his people.” Very interestingly, this idealistic description of David’s kingdom as one of “justice and righteousness” is used in Jeremiah 22:1-5 to establish a standard by which Israel would be judged:

Thus says the Lord, “Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and there speak this word and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, who sits on David’s throne, you and your servants and your people who enter these gates. ‘Thus says the Lord, “Do justice and righteousness, and deliver the one who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor. Also do not mistreat or do violence to the stranger, the orphan, or the widow; and do not shed innocent blood in this place. For if you men will indeed perform this thing, then kings will enter the gates of this house, sitting in David’s place on his throne, riding in chariots and on horses, even the king himself and his servants and his people. But if you will not obey these words, I swear by Myself,” declares the Lord, “that this house will become a desolation.” ’ ”

The word pair of “justice and righteousness” is God’s standard of conduct for His chosen people. When we carry this into the New Covenant, we realize that Jesus not only exemplified “justice and righteousness” in his own life and ministry, but He also fulfilled it on the Cross of Calvary so that we, through faith in Him, may live according to His example as citizens of His kingdom. Jesus commanded His early listeners to the equivalent of the Old Testament’s “justice and righteousness,” by teaching us in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

The kingdom of God that Jesus calls us to prioritize is His fulfillment of what Israel got only a glimpse of with David’s kingdom. As we just saw, David’s kingdom, though not perfectly, was modeled on the righteousness of Yahweh, and, in fulfillment of God’s promises, unified the twelve tribes of Israel and gave them rest from their enemies within the secure boundaries of the Promised Land – a partial and temporary fulfillment of God’s promise to Abram in Genesis 12:1-3:

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

Whereas David’s kingdom saw its fulfillment in Solomon’s Temple and his golden era of prosperity and influence, Jesus’ kingdom will not fall into decay and division, and will have its ultimate fulfillment in the eternal Kingdom of God, called the New Heaven and New Earth, with a New Jerusalem, as described in Revelation 21-22. Until that time, Jesus’ kingdom, in which we, His Church, the living temples of the Holy Spirit, are called to administrate His kingdom on Earth as it is in Heaven as kings and priests, with justice and righteousness, in order to unify all nations under His banner of love, with the promise that one day Jesus will return to rule from His throne with a “rod of iron,” a symbol of God’s unerring government of justice and righteousness where there is no corruption, perversion, or favoritism (Revelation 2:27; 12:5; 19:15). Until the completion of the promise to see all nations blessed, we are to continue the work of blessing all the families of the Earth through the blessings we have received in Jesus Christ as rightful heirs to the promise of Abram, as I read from Genesis 12:1-3 earlier, and for which Jesus succinctly stated in Luke 19:10, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

We are to train ourselves to take the blessing we have been given and bless others with it – we are to bring Christ’s rule of justice and righteousness to all people. This is our mission! Now we must deal with what causes us to become distracted from the mission. This brings us to the third action step of a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval.

Today’s battle drill exposes our heart issues of worry and anxiety – the worry that causes us to lose focus on the mission of God and the anxiety that entangles us in the affairs of everyday life. As one pastor explained, “Our actions flow from what we actually BELIEVE to be true – not from what we SAY we believe. We worry because we really don’t believe that God owns everything, that he provides our resources and protection. Worry is a statement of belief that God will not fulfill his promises, and is not a good father.”[2]

This is a common example from our daily human experience – many of us struggle with financial security, finding ourselves worried about whether we or our loved ones will have our daily bread, enough money for retirement, or enough (and the right kind of) insurance to pay for our increasing medical care, or whatever it is we are fretting about at that moment. In that place of worry, we have a decision to make in our daily walk with Jesus Christ – to trust God and walk faithfully in His ways, or to trust in ourselves and do it our way or the world’s way.

To do justice and righteousness as a battle drill, we must trust the Commander and seek His will, His way, even in the places and times of our insecurity and fears, which cause us anxiety and worry. Simply trusting in Him is a huge step toward quelling the fears that try to overtake us. Faith moves mountain of unbelief within our own mind and hearts. Faith calms the storms that are raging inside of us. Paul promised God would do this for us in Philippians 4:6-9:

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Right actions flow from right emotions which flow from right thinking. Right thinking comes from meditating on God’s Word, which is the spiritual principle behind the promise of prosperity found in Joshua 1:8, “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.”

We must actively separate our thinking from the thinking of the world. It is the thinking of the world that often feeds into our anxieties and fears. But God’s way is different, and better, from the world’s way.[3] We are admonished to do just that in the promise of transformation found in Romans 12:2, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” If you want do righteousness and justice, then you must submit to God’s ways.

Let’s take this into our everyday lives. Jesus explained how we are to have victory over our worry and anxiety so that we can prioritize justice and righteousness in Matthew 6:25-34:

For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear for clothing?” For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Jesus diagnosed us accurately and told us the truth of why we struggle to do justice and righteousness – we allow our worry and anxiety to control our lives, instead of living by God’s grace and walking in the Spirit. We are reacting to people and situations from fear and not faith, worry and not grace. We are not trusting God to calm the storms. Jesus is inviting you to a great faith. This leads us to the final action step of training as a good soldier to live on mission today.

Action Step #4) Live on mission.

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

The conclusion of this passage, verse 25, has military image in the original language. The picture given by Paul is that when we live by the Spirit then we are walking in rank and file as His good soldiers, submitted to His commands.[4] The Commander is calling you to train yourself to live by faith and walk in the Spirit, and in doing so, you will not commit war crimes – you will do justice and righteousness – you will seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.

You can listen to the message here:

You can watch the message by clicking HERE.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] John D. Barry et al., Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016), Je 22:3.

[2] Shared with me in an email from Curt Ferrell on September 22, 2022.

[3] Comments to me in an email from Emily Hurst on September 23, 2022.

[4] Emily Hurst commented on this passage in an email to me on September 23, 2022, “The original Greek shows us something interesting about verse 25. The word live here comes from the Greek verb ‘zaó,’ which means both the physical vitality of being alive as well as the process of living life. The phrase ‘let us walk by’ comes from the Greek “stoicheó” WHICH IS THE MILITARY WORD FOR WALKING IN RANK, AS SOLDIERS!!! So, a paraphrase of this verse, based on the Greek roots, might be: ‘Since the Spirit gives you life, stay in rank for the Spirit.’ Which is literally the whole point of the battle drills we are learning.”

[5] Curt Ferrell commented in this statement in an email to me on September 22, 2022, “Reminds me of John 1:12-13 – ‘But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.’ This translation seems to imply that while we have the ‘right’ to become children of God, we might not claim that ‘right’ – and lose out on being called Children of God. But I recently saw a different perspective/translation – ‘he gave the AUTHORITY to become Children of God.’ If we are truly children of God, we must act within the authority that he has given us. We could simply ‘claim’ to be children of God, or be ‘identified’ as children of God – but we can only ACT as children of God if we have his authority and act according to the power inherent in that authority.”

Battle Drill #29:

Prioritize Peace!

Proverbs 20:3 (NAS95)

Today, we are going to walk through the four action steps of a soldier’s training routine to learn the next battle drill – “Prioritize Peace!”

Nothing will lose a battle quicker than friendly fire! It’s demoralizing to the army when soldiers are taken away from accomplishing the mission by either intentional or unintentional friendly fire. Unfortunately, and to the detriment of our mission success, the Church of Jesus Christ has had to learn this lesson repeatedly, throughout our two-millennia history, but we must continue to learn it afresh in every generation, and on a more frequent basis within our local assemblies. The strife and division caused by infighting, and the quarrelling that comes with it must be dealt with directly by their fellow members of the body, and when people won’t listen to their brothers and sisters, then by church leaders. Just like when the blood cells in a person’s body turn against other blood cells, a congregation that turns against itself will become unhealthy, and, if not treated, will die.

It is one thing to discuss, and even debate, ideas on what the Bible teaches about different topics, but to assassinate people’s character and attack them because they don’t agree with your perspective is completely another. You see, it is ok to disagree (at least it should be!) and it’s even okay to debate the weightier issues of life and godliness, but to quarrel is never acceptable for the children of God. We, as the people of God, just like we, as Americans, have lost the civility (and humility) to prioritize peace over our own opinions and perspectives.

There is hope – the hope that comes through faith in Jesus Christ, who gives us peace with God, offers us His Holy Spirit who guards our minds and hearts with God’s peace, and invites us to live on mission as His peacemakers to all people. These are the precious and magnificent promises, and we covered all these promises of peace, in detail last year – vertical peace, internal peace, and horizontal/external peace – and this is the purpose for Christ coming and it is our mission! [To learn more about this, you can find them in my study on the Promises of God, Live Like a Champion Today: The 40 Promises in 40 Days Challenge!] Let’s learn how to train today’s battle drill, “Prioritize Peace,” by seeing what the Field Manual has to say about it.

Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.

Action Step #2) Train together as one unit.

Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

We will yield “the peaceful fruit of righteousness” when we submit ourselves to the discipline of our Heavenly Father, and that includes whenever we find ourselves quarreling with  our brothers and sisters, in thought, word, or deed (Hebrews 12:11). No good parent finds joy in watching his kids fight, but, rather, good parents desire to see their children cultivating a lifelong friendship. Let’s be honest, children of God, we reap what we sow! If you want to be a peacemaker during your week, in the hard places of work and life, then you must prioritize peace in here, with your church family. We are off mission whenever we quarrel.

Paul gave the following instructions about prioritizing peace in their ministries to the church to both of his famous protégés:

Paul requires us to train ourselves according to the will of God, and the will of God is for us to become like His Son Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. This requires discipline. I have repeatedly told the elders of our church that they are not allowed to be quarrelsome, but to be listeners and to be people of prayer. That if they are to speak, they do not speak from political ideology or personal perspectives, but from the Word of God. This is a hard discipline to be under, and all church leaders fail at it because we are all human, but we must prioritize peace, especially the Gospel of Peace. That means we must deal with our own heart and mind issues that war against the Prince of Peace and His Cross. We can’t give the world what we first don’t carry ourselves. That takes us into the third action step of a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval.

Now Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. And the land could not sustain them while dwelling together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to remain together. And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. Now the Canaanite and the Perizzite were dwelling then in the land. So Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no strife between you and me, nor between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brothers. Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me; if to the left, then I will go to the right; or if to the right, then I will go to the left.”

Abraham avoided a quarrel by giving up the chance to seize the best portion for himself. After all, he is the one called by God, and Lot was a just a tag along. Why should he allow, nevertheless offer Lot the first choice of the land? And that question is the crux of the matter; there is our heart issue – it’s why Jesus Christ came as a servant (Philippians 2:3-11)! We are always looking out for #1 and trying to make our lives work out for us according to our own desires. Humanity, from the beginning, has proven to be a bunch of schemers, who are willing to rebel against God, and one another, to get ahead. We orchestrate events in our best interest, so that we can be the masters of our own destinies! Oh, don’t get me wrong, we give lip service to worshipping God and living for Him and His will (“take the wheel God”), but ultimately, every single person in this room has already proven that they would sell their birthright as a child of God to gain worldly happiness or comfort – it’s called sin, and according to Romans 3:23, every single one of us is guilty, deserving of judgment.

This is why Jesus Christ came – to rescue us from the grip of our selfish ambition and vain conceit, the sin that seeks our own desires (Philippians 2:3-4). Apart from Jesus Christ, we are not at peace with God; therefore, we cannot be at peace with ourselves, or with others. While we can orchestrate a cease fire, which only works as long as it benefits everyone according to their own desires (well, at least until someone feels like they get a better deal by breaking the cease fire). That’s the peace the world has to offer; it is a counterfeit of what God offers us through Jesus Christ. Jesus promised in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”

As you already know, every promise of God comes with a praxis, and the praxis of peace comes with a hard discipline – the discipline of crucifixion, to carry one’s cross. In the same way Jesus had to be crucified to bring us peace with God, you must crucify your own rights to be a peacemaker. The gospel invites you to carry your cross; listen to how Jesus invited His followers to follow Him in Matthew 16:24-26:

If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

So go ahead and justify your quarreling with your pompous self-righteousness and arrogant pride, but don’t be deceived, God will not be mocked even if you are swimming in da-Nile (denial), the Bible exposes the real issues that your quarreling exposes; it cuts to the heart, as diagnosed by Jesus’ half-brother, in James 4:1-4:

What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. [Open your Bible and read the rest of the chapter; it’s relevant!]

With the heart condition of today’s battle drill diagnosed, and your training regimen established through Paul’s exhortations to Timothy and Titus, let’s conclude by looking at the final action step.

Action Step #4) Live on mission.

In my opinion, there is only one thing that I should ever do that is offensive to you and that is to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to you without compromise, declaring that the wages of your personal sin is your death, the second death of eternal torment in Hell. There is a coming judgment, and the only solution is to humbly yourself, confess your sin, repent of it, and cry out to God for His peace through faith in Jesus Christ. This is the only way to receive God’s peace, because it was Jesus Christ who came to take away God’s quarrel with you and, in His place, gives you His righteousness. The Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, saved you to be peacemaker who proclaims the Gospel of God’s love with grace. Therefore, there is no place or time for you to wage a war that has already been won on the Cross of Jesus Christ. You are to declare it in word and deed; therefore, you are to prioritize peace as your way of life – vertically with God, internally within your own mind and heart, and in your relationships as you extend the gospel peace of Jesus Christ to all people, regardless of their ideologies and perspectives (Philippians 2:14-15).

I dream of peace within the people of God. While it feels like a pipe dream in today’s world, nonetheless, I pray for it, and I prioritize working together with God’s people, His Church, to fulfill the angelic proclamation that accompanied the birth of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World, in Luke 2:14, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” Peace is the good fruit of the Christmas miracle!

We are the branches upon which we are to bear that fruit! It is the Holy Spirit who brings peace to the nations through the coming of the Messiah. That is the promise of Isaiah 9:6-7:

For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.

The Holy Spirit works through the people of God to accomplish this purpose for the coming of Jesus Christ. God is bringing the world under His peace, through the Church’s faithful proclamation of the Gospel of Peace, in preparation for the Messianic Kingdom. This is what He has saved you for, He bestowed love and grace upon you, to give you peace and reconciliation, to enlist you for His peace-making mission. As Paul stated in Romans 5:8-11:

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

Prioritize peace today. I pray Paul’s words from Colossians 3:15 over you, “[may] the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.”

Make this battle drill a reflexive, instinctive, and habitual part of your Christian life so that you can CM – Continue the Mission! Therefore, live on mission today and train the battle drill of the week for the glory of God. Let us pray.

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Listen to Counsel and Accept Discipline!

Proverbs 19:20-21 & 27 (NAS95) 

Today, we are going to walk through the four action steps of a soldier’s training routine to learn the next battle drill – “Listen to Counsel and Accept Discipline!” 

The military is an uncompromising environment for obedience; that is for one primary reason: the mission is dependent on every single soldier doing his or her job, regardless of the circumstances. Soldiers are expected to follow orders, to listen to the counsel of those who have been put in places of responsibility over them, and to accept discipline when they have not done the first two. The Church of Jesus Christ is set up the same way because, like the military, we are a missional people – the mission is dependent on us understanding clear lines of authority. In other words, just like the military exists by decree of national authority to execute the will of its Commander, so the Church exists by the grace of God to fulfill the will of God. The clearest illustration of this is Jesus’ praise of the centurion’s faith in Matthew 8:9-10: 

“For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel.”

Let me be clear, in praising the centurion, Jesus was not praising Rome nor affirming the military occupation of Israel. Jesus was not rubber-stamping might makes right, political coercion, nor the subjugation of a people. Jesus, the Prince of Peace, was praising the centurion, a Roman military officer, for understanding authority and submission to authority, in a way that military people uniquely understand – good soldiers reflexively, instinctively, and habitually follow orders! Paul understood this and called the church to have the great faith of the centurion – to teach us how to live under authority and focused on the mission of God for the glory of the King of Kings, Jesus, our Commander. Let’s learn how to train today’s battle drill, “Listen to Counsel and Accept Discipline,” by seeing what the Field Manual has to say about it.

Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.

Action Step #2) Train together as one unit.

From the beginning of the book of God’s Wisdom, as we previously discussed in this sermon series with the battle drill, “Heed God’s Wisdom,” Proverbs 1:33 states, “But he who listens to me shall live securely and will be at ease from the dread of evil.”

Just as today’s Scripture, Proverbs 19:20 reminds us, “Listen to counsel and accept discipline, that you may be wise the rest of your days.” Stated in the negative, Proverbs 19:27 illustrates the same point, “Cease listening, my son, to discipline, and you will stray from the words of knowledge.” The connections between these verses are obvious. If you want to live the victorious life of Jesus Christ, then, like a good soldier, you must submit to God, by listening to and obeying your Commander! I’m not trying to be overly simplistic, but, truly, just like I would counsel a recruit in the Army, it is that simple. [So why do we make it so hard? I’ll explain that in action step #3, but let’s keep learning how we are to train this before we focus on why we don’t do it.]

There is a very important theme here, and for those of you who were with us last week, it will sound very familiar: Listen! There is an important Hebrew word behind this big concept, and it is found in all three of the above verses: Shema, translated “listen” or “hear” is a famous Hebrew concept because Jesus Christ declared the Greatest Commandment (Matthew 22:37) to be what the Jewish people traditionally call, “the Shema,” from Deuteronomy 6:4-5: “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

Every good soldier of Jesus Christ must learn that if you want to train to live on mission, then you must listen to and obey God’s wisdom. We must heed God’s reproof when He warns us or disciplines us. This is the way of wisdom! The book of Proverbs gives us the primary way to discern whether you are a wise person; it is by how you respond to the wisdom of God – to His counsel and His discipline. Accordingly, King Solomon teaches us that there are only three categories of people: 1) the wise, 2) fools, and 3) mockers (“scoffers”). Fools and mockers hate God’s wisdom, do not listen to counsel, nor accept discipline; rather, they turn away from it and hate God’s messengers who bring it. This is made clear in Proverbs 1:20-33:

Wisdom shouts in the street, she lifts her voice in the square; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the gates in the city she utters her sayings: “How long, O naive ones, will you love being simple-minded? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing and fools hate knowledge? Turn to my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you. Because I called and you refused, I stretched out my hand and no one paid attention; and you neglected all my counsel and did not want my reproof; I will also laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your dread comes, when your dread comes like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but they will not find me, because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would not accept my counsel, they spurned all my reproof. So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way and be satiated with their own devices. For the waywardness of the naive will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them. But he who listens to me shall live securely and will be at ease from the dread of evil.”

This passage captures one of the major themes of the book of Proverbs – be wise by listening to and obeying God’s counsel; don’t be like the fools and mockers. Wisdom must be trained into our lives and that requires the discipline of listening to God’s counsel through His Word and its messengers, and accepting God’s discipline through providence, the direct work of the Spirit through the Church, which is Paul charged his protégé in 1 Timothy 4:6-11:

In pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following. But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance. For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers. Prescribe and teach these things.

Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval.

Last week’s battle drill was dependent on you cultivating the character quality of humility, and we learned that humility is forged in the crucible of your prayer life. It is in your quiet times with God that you become like Jesus.

Today’s battle drill is dependent on cultivating the relational quality of trust! Trust and humility go hand in hand. They have a reciprocal relationship – you will never learn to trust God until you humble yourself and submit to His authority! We learn to trust our Commander by putting Him to the test every time He tells us to do something. What do I mean by that? I mean you listen and obey! You listen to His counsel as if your life depended on it, and you accept His discipline as from the hand of a good and loving father who only has good plans for you. Until you trust God, you will not listen to counsel, from God or His people, nor will you accept discipline from God or those He has placed in authority over you. 

In fact, until you learn to trust God you will be a stubborn, stiff-necked person who will not listen to anyone else’s counsel, but only that which agrees with you and presumptions about how your life should work out, and you won’t even accept the premise of your need for discipline, because all that you do is right in your own eyes. That’s not being a good soldier of Jesus Christ, that’s being a self-righteous person who does what is right in your own eyes! I have countless stories from the 929 chapters of the Old Testament to pull from for where such thinking will take you, but allow me to read what the prophet Samuel said to King Saul in 1 Samuel 15:13-23:

Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed are you of the Lord! I have carried out the command of the Lord.” But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?” Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord your God; but the rest we have utterly destroyed.” Then Samuel said to Saul, “Wait, and let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.” And he said to him, “Speak!” Samuel said, “Is it not true, though you were little in your own eyes, you were made the head of the tribes of Israel? And the Lord anointed you king over Israel, and the Lord sent you on a mission, and said, ‘Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are exterminated.’ Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord, but rushed upon the spoil and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord?” Then Saul said to Samuel, “I did obey the voice of the Lord, and went on the mission on which the Lord sent me, and have brought back Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took some of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the choicest of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God at Gilgal.” Samuel said, “Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king.”

The word “obey” in verse 22 is shema – listen and obey! You think you are worshipping God with the things you choose to do for Him, by doing what seems right to you, but the fact is, according to God’s counsel and the example of His discipline, you are only truly worshipping God when you are doing what He commands you to do. So, listen to my counsel today and hear God’s word of counsel to His people from Jeremiah 7:22-28:

For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, saying, “Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you, that it may be well with you.” Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward. Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent you all My servants the prophets, daily rising early and sending them. Yet they did not listen to Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck; they did more evil than their fathers. You shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you; and you shall call to them, but they will not answer you. You shall say to them, “This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God or accept correction; truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth.”

This is a prophetic word to our nation today. I beseech you, God’s people, train this battle drill until its reflexive, instinctive, and habitual – listen to God’s counsel and accept His discipline. Trust that your God is a good and loving God who only speaks truth and only disciplines His true children for their good, and for His glory, as Hebrews 12:7-11 explains:

It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Action Step #4) Live on mission.

In John 15:8-11, Jesus calls us to this very purpose:

My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, just like soldiers who are serving in the military, the church has a mission that depends on every member of the body of Christ to do his or her job, regardless of the circumstances. Paul teaches this in Ephesians 4:11-16, where we hear the reason why the centurion’s faith is so critical for us today because God has placed each of us under authority so that His church will be faithful to fulfill His purpose for enlisting us as members of His body:

And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

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Battle Drill #27:

Listen Before You Answer!

Proverbs 18:12-13 (NAS95)

Today, we are going to walk through the four action steps of a soldier’s training routine to learn the next battle drill – “Listen Before You Answer!”

Effective communication skills are essential to the success of any military operation. In radio communications, there is a very important word that you must learn if you are going to be successful as a soldier. That word is “over.” When the speaker says, “over,” it means he is finished speaking. It implies that you, the receiver of the message, are now allowed to answer. If the speaker doesn’t need or expect an answer, and has nothing else to say, he doesn’t use the word, “over;” rather, he uses the word, “out.” Now, you as the receiver must give the appropriate response, such as “roger,” which means, “received,” and implies you understand what was communicated. That is different than “wilco,” which means “will comply” and indicates that you understand and will complete the task that has been given to you. Here’s the point of this lesson, both military protocol and basic communication etiquette dictate that you would never answer “roger” or “wilco” until the other person says, “over” because you can’t answer wisely without first listening to the entire message being communicated. You always listen before you answer, and that skill must be learned if we are going to CM as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. Let’s learn how to train this skill, by listening to what the Field Manual has to say about it.

Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.

Action Step #2) Train together as one unit.

Good communication requires two things: 1) assertiveness, which is the ability to put into words what you are trying to communicate; and 2) active listening, which is the ability to listen and hear what the person is saying to you. It takes both people to achieve effective communication, but it is active listening skills that allow you to verify you have heard the message before you answer the message; it is the skill of mirroring and validating the person for sharing their heart and mind with you. Which is why active listening requires your full person, your full attention. You can’t multitask when communicating with a person and expect to do it well. You need to stop what you are doing and give your full attention to the other person.

I encourage you to pray in the Spirit for God to give you wisdom and discernment so that you can have ears to hear what the person is trying to communicate to you. Often, we all need help to do this because what we hear is not always what the person is trying to say because we have filters from our own life experiences, our hurts, habits, and hang-ups, which can distort an accurate interpretation of the intended message. There are not only filters, but assumptions, particularly in situations where we already perceive we have been wronged. Therefore, active listening requires God’s assistance, as well as full body listening, to include your eyes to watch for non-verbal cues, and your ears to listen to words and tone because we all know that the same words can have different meanings based on how they are said. It requires patience to seek validation that you heard properly and to seek clarification when confused by what the person is saying, or why they are saying it to you.

If you care more about your response than you do the other person’s message, then you will never be good at communication. You may be able to lead meetings, give presentations, or speak from the front, but you will not achieve effective interpersonal communication skills. Listening before you give an answer requires you to have humility, one of the greatest attributes people can achieve through their relationship with God, and one that defined Jesus. A powerful illustration of this, from the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, is found in Mark 10:46-52:

Then they came to Jericho. And as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the road. When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many were sternly telling him to be quiet, but he kept crying out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him here.” So they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take courage, stand up! He is calling for you.” Throwing aside his cloak, he jumped up and came to Jesus. And answering him, Jesus said, “What do you want Me to do for you?” And the blind man said to Him, “Rabboni, I want to regain my sight!” And Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and began following Him on the road.

Until you realize your own need, as a fellow blind beggar, to cry out for mercy and ask Jesus to open the eyes of your heart, you live in the reality of Proverbs 18:12a, “Before destruction the heart of man is haughty.” A prideful person never listens before they answer because they presume to know what the other person is thinking and is going to say. A prideful person interrupts instead of listening, rushes to make judgments about the other person, and imputes motives on the other person based on those judgments. No wonder such pride leads to destruction, of our relationships, and of our own lives. There is a better way! Let us now take the third action step of a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval.

If you haven’t learned the humility to sit in prayer and listen for God, then how do you expect to sit with a person and listen to them? Do you have a regular rhythm of practicing silence as a part of your prayer life? Silence with God is where humility is forged into our character! It is my firm conviction that there is a direct correlation between our prayer life – our consistency to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen – and our ability to listen before we answer. Why? Because a good listener is someone who has learned the value of humility, and a humble heart is forged in the crucible of your prayer life, not the productivity or efficiency of your work life. A famous example of this is found in Luke 10:38-42:

Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.” But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

Mary was humble to listen, as Proverbs 18:12b states, “humility goes before honor.” Jesus honored her and forever established the precedent that sitting at His feet and listening is the one thing necessary in the Christian life. Are you daily doing the one thing necessary? Why is it that we so often give ourselves to answering before we listen, to working before we pray, to going into our day without first reading the Field Manual? I’ll tell you why, because of pride! And we demonstrate our pride through our inability to be good listeners. Our relationships are filled with presumption and pride and that is why we are experiencing destruction in so many aspects of our culture and communities. Presumption and pride are the enemies of communication! That brings us to the final action step of our training regimen.

Action Step #4) Live on mission.

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails…

Jesus taught us in John 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” This is our Commander’s intent – for the world to know that we belong to Jesus and that they, too, can come into God’s family through faith in Jesus Christ, in His life, death, and resurrection. This is the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ – Christ crucified, resurrected, and glorified is coming back to rescue His bride.

Are you listening? Or, in military language, “Do you copy? Over.”  

We are to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ. How are we to know how to serve others, in the name of Jesus and with the love of God, if we don’t listen well enough to know the needs of our neighbors, which includes those in this room, those at home, and those with whom we work and play? Let’s take our cue from Jesus who went up to the blind beggar and listened to Him. We must learn to ask that same question, “What do you want God to do for you?” Instead of being presumptuous and prideful, assuming we know their answers or imputing motives on their lifestyle or circumstances, what if we actually listened? If we want people to understand Jesus is the answer, then we must be different when we approach them – humble, active listeners who care about them as real people and not just targets of evangelism.

Do you copy? Over.

According to military radio etiquette, you can respond to today’s message in one of two ways: 1) “Roger,” which means, “I have received and understand;” or 2) “Wilco,” which means, “I understand and will comply.” Maybe “Roger” is the best you can manage today. That’s ok; it is my prayer that as you walk with Jesus, it becomes easier and quicker for you to respond not just “Roger” but “Wilco.” May we work hard to discipline ourselves to listen before answering. Maybe “Roger-Wilco” is the right answer, even if it is redundant, “I receive, understand, and commit myself to training myself to comply.”  We will all fall short, but don’t quit just because you fail. Just like in anything, get back up and do it better the next time.

You can listen to this message here:

You can watch this message by clicking HERE.

Battle Drill #26:

“Apply First Aid – The Joy of the Lord is My Strength!”

Proverbs 17:22 (NAS95)

Today, we are going to walk through the four action steps of a soldier’s training routine to learn the next battle drill – “Apply First Aid – The Joy of the Lord is My Strength!”

When I was a soldier, we were required to learn first aid and CPR. Why? Because the potential is high that a soldier, whether in training or on a battlefield, will need to apply first aid. In the same way, and for the same reasons, the good soldiers of Jesus Christ must train themselves to be able to apply first aid in all circumstances. God has provided a great medicine for our soul – the sweet balm of joy! There is much suffering and many tribulations in this life; therefore, we must build our lives upon the sure foundation of what Christ has given to us – His joy!

There is great joy found in a relationship with Jesus Christ. This is not only the joy of our eternal salvation, secured through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, but this is the work of the Holy Spirit, the fruit of God’s presence in and though our lives that gives us a joy that will empower us through the mountaintops and valleys of our emotions and life experiences. Nehemiah 8:10 commands and promises, “Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Let me be clear from the beginning that the joy of the Lord is not a response to your circumstances, it is the posture of your heart in your circumstances, it is the firm foundation upon which you can biblically respond to your circumstances as a good soldier of Jesus! The strength of your joy is found in none other than the Rock of your Salvation – Jesus Christ! Let’s take the first action step of a soldier’s training routine to live on mission.

Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.

Action Step #2) Train together as one unit.

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones. He caused me to pass among them round about, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and lo, they were very dry. He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, You know.” Again He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.’ “Thus says the Lord God to these bones, ‘Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life. I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will know that I am the Lord.’ ” So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold, sinews were on them, and flesh grew and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to life.” ’ ” So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

An exceedingly great army came to life because God breathed His Holy Spirit upon a bunch of dry, lifeless bones. Ezekiel described the bones as “very dry,” as if to say, “there’s absolutely no life left in these bones, and there hasn’t been for a long time.” And how similar is the experience of a broken spirit? A broken spirit dries up the bones! The decay is not instant, but the longer the spirit remains broken, the more apparent it becomes that there has been no joy in that person’s spirit for a long time.

Have you lost your smile? Do you feel dried up by the circumstances of your life – weary from this life and heavy-burdened by sin? The answer to your dry-bones condition is the balm of joy through a relationship with Jesus Christ because a joyful heart causes good healing!

As I shared with you at our worship in the park service in Memorial Park a few weeks ago, my favorite song to start off the day is from Psalm 118:24, “This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” This verse both reminds me and exhorts me to live according to what is true. One of the greatest ways to train this battle drill is through singing, so let us sing together this wonderfully simple, yet powerful hymn from Psalm 118:

This is the day (this is the day).

That the Lord has made (that the Lord has made).

We will rejoice (we will rejoice),

And be glad in it (and be glad in it).

This is the day that the Lord has made.

We will rejoice and be glad in it.

This is the day (this is the day)

That the Lord has made.

The reason this verse, and its corresponding song, are so powerful to me is the context of the passage, found in Psalm 118:20-23:

This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous will enter through it. I shall give thanks to You, for You have answered me, and You have become my salvation. The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief corner stone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.

We rejoice and are glad because Jesus Christ has come and brought life to our dry bones! Jesus told us in John 10:7-11 that He is the gate of the Lord:

So Jesus said to them again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

Additionally, after Pentecost, in Acts 4:8-12, Peter preached that Jesus is the chief corner stone which the builders rejected:

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people, if we are on trial today for a benefit done to a sick man, as to how this man has been made well, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by this name this man stands here before you in good health. “He is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the chief corner stone. And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”

The Holy Spirit brought life to the Church on Pentecost, raising up a new exceedingly great army for God. In the same way that the dry bones of Israel needed the Spirit of God to bring life and raise them up for a purpose as God’s army, so do you and I, today, as His Church, need the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon our dry bones. Like the first Pentecost nearly two thousand years ago, God calls forth life to our dry-bones condition on purpose! He’s doing the same today, in and through us! Let us now take the third action step of a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval.

Paul invites us to join him in Philippians 2:18, “You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me.” Later, Paul commands in Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!” You can declare this in song, just like we did with Psalm 118:24, but you are to apply this to every circumstances. This decision, whether you rejoice, or not, has significant implications on your emotional stability, mental health, and spiritual vitality.

We see this truth laid out for us in Proverbs 15:13-16:

Joy is not about our ever-changing circumstances, but our unwavering trust in God and His promises – our rejoicing in Him and His power to perform every promise, on time, every time, in us and through us! How many of would “rejoice always” if we walked under own strength. It’s impossible! Our joy comes from knowing that the resources at our disposal are not limited to the inadequacy of our humanity, but rather the resources we have access to flow from the fountain of grace that brings us salvation and the power to walk confidently and securely in all our circumstances – the Holy Spirit! In His power, we live on mission for God. This brings us to the final action step of our training regimen.

Action Step #4) Live on mission.

We live on mission by reflecting the heart of Jesus Christ in how we live our lives and in how we conduct our business. This is our calling as image bearers of God – to reflect Jesus by living our lives as He did His. Jesus was motivated by the joy of the Lord, and went to the Cross for His joy to be made full in us, as promised in John 17:13, and as described in Hebrews 12:2-3:

Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

You can listen to Pastor Jerry’s message here:

You can watch his message by clicking HERE.

Battle Drill #25:

Commit Your Work to the Lord!

Proverbs 16:1-9 (NAS95)

Today, we are going to walk through the four action steps of a soldier’s training routine to learn the next battle drill – “Commit Your Work to the Lord!”

For 25 years, I have learned how to start my day by committing myself and my day to the Lord. I have not done this perfectly each day, and there have been some seasons of drought in those years, but as a general practice, this battle drill has defined my Christian life. This is a very important daily discipline for me that became anchored in my soul during the late summer/early fall of 1997, during my second time in the two-month US Army Ranger School. The first time I went through the training, the winter of 1997, I only made it two-thirds of the way through it before I was medically dropped, but my deeper story was how my perceived failure broke me. I was sent to my unit at the 82^nd Airborne Division without the coveted Ranger Tab that every Infantry Officer is expected to have earned.

Looking back, I realize that this was one of the most important moments of my life because how I handled my deep level of disappointment was a critical decision point on the person I was to become. By God’s grace, I chose wisely and started back to church. I rededicated my life to Jesus Christ and started my Christian discipleship with a renewed vigor. Six months later, I was graduating from Ranger School, and I testify to you that it was night and day. Not the school, but me! There was a dramatic difference in my experience because I had changed – Christ was now the center of my life! I went from being a basket case the first time to missing honor graduate by one spot the next time. Every single morning of Ranger School, that second time, I did two things: 1) I dedicated myself and my day to the Lord; and 2) I promised myself I wouldn’t quit. To the glory of God, I continue to make those two decisions as your pastor.

Being faithful is a trained behavior! It doesn’t happen by accident, and you must learn to train it daily. So, let’s take the first action step of a soldier’s training routine to live on mission.

Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.

The battle drill we are going to learn and apply this week is from Proverbs 16:1-9:

The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. All the ways of a man are clean in his own sight, but the Lord weighs the motives. Commit your works to the Lord and your plans will be established. The Lord has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil. Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord; assuredly, he will not be unpunished. By lovingkindness and truth iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the Lord one keeps away from evil. When a man’s ways are pleasing to the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. Better is a little with righteousness than great income with injustice. The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.

This is what the Field Manual says, let’s now take the second action step to learn how to apply today’s battle drill to our everyday lives as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.

Action Step #2) Train together as one unit.

Let’s talk about how to do this. According to the Bible’s creation account your day begins with how you go to bed the night before. Listen to the refrain of creation in Genesis 1, “And there was evening and there was morning, one day” (5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31). We often miss this or hear it as a poetic device to separate the creative work of God in the creation account, but I believe that there is a profound truth here that will change your life, as it has mine. It’s simple, but not simplistic: How you go to bed determines your day!

Grace always comes first – sleep comes before work, just like grace comes before works. You don’t earn a good night’s rest because it’s all grace. You do nothing during your sleep, God’s got you and you are completely dependent on His grace to sustain your life until morning, which is why people still pray this very old Puritan bedtime prayer, “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep; if I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” Newer versions make it even more clear, “His love to guard me through the night and wake me in the morning’s light” and “Please angels watch me through the night, and keep me safe till morning light.”

Allow me to describe how I do this: I get up at 6 each morning so that I have an hour with the Lord before others in my family wake up. That is the most important hour of my day, and it often goes longer. It is when I pray, when I read Scripture, when I meditate upon what I’m reading and seek to apply it to my life. This is the time of the day when I commit my work to the Lord and when I resolve that today I will get in the easy yoke of Jesus, abide in the Vine, carry my cross, and remain faithful to my family and church. It’s a time that I decide that I will not quit – a time of covenant renewal as the sun rises.

But my key to success is not an alarm, though that is helpful on some mornings, but a good night’s sleep. I seek to be relaxed and ready for a good night’s sleep by 10 PM each night. That means well before that time the dishes are done, doors are locked, messes are cleaned up, the kids have been read to and prayed with, the work of the day is over so my computer and devices are off, all of that before 10 so that I can be in a place of relaxation to rest well, to get good REM and deep sleep, and not just shallow restless sleep. The quality of my morning devotion time is determined by how I get to bed the night before. Except for my personal Sabbath day, which is Friday night until Saturday night, if I want to get extra sleep, then I must go to bed earlier, not sleep later. My whole day is messed up if I don’t have this time to commit my work to the Lord. This time of devotion is hindered if I don’t take intentional daily steps to sleep well. Sleep is a gift from the Lord and a product of God’s grace, as Proverbs 3:13, 21-24 explains:

How blessed is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding. … My son, let them not vanish from your sight; keep sound wisdom and discretion, so they will be life to your soul and adornment to your neck. Then you will walk in your way securely and your foot will not stumble. When you lie down, you will not be afraid; When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.

For me to commit myself and my work to the Lord, then I must daily get back in the easy yoke of Jesus to work from a place of rest because everything I have is by God’s grace and not the work of my own hands nor earned by the sweat of my own brow. It’s for the glory of God alone. That takes us to the third action step.

Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval.

Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

We commit our work to the Lord because work was God’s idea first! Work is not what you do to earn your daily bread or find your identity. Both of those come from the Lord. When we commit our work to the Lord, then we put our work in a right perspective, which is under the Lordship of Christ. The Apostle Paul made this very clear in Colossians 3:23-25:

Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality.

There is a divine purpose for work, it is a part of God’s plan that we work hard. When we commit our work to the Lord, then our work becomes a part of God’s mission to demonstrate the rule of God to the world. No matter what it is you do, when your work is committed to the Lord it can be used by God to bring glory to His name and advance the Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven. That brings us to the final action step.

Action Step #4) Live on mission.

Your work is intended to have eternal fruit – results that last! Jesus taught us this in John 15:12-17:

This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. This I command you, that you love one another.

Faith, hope, and love are the currencies of Heaven, and they are our greatest commodities here on Earth. Faith, hope, and love are what we use to build the Kingdom of God. Paul soberly admonishes us in 1 Corinthians 3:10-16 to be wise with which we build the Kingdom:

According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

Your legacy is determined by your work so be very wise in where you are investing your most precious commodities – your time, your love, your energy. When I do graveside services, after I have done the committal prayer, I read Revelation 14:13, “And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Write, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!’ ” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.” After I read this, I look out at the people who have gathered, make eyes contact with them, open my arms, and say, “You are the good works who follow this person’s life.”

You can listen to Pastor Jerry’s message here:

You can watch his message by clicking HERE.

Battle Drill #24:

Serve Properly

Proverbs 15:13-18

If you have been listening to the daily phone calls this week, you have received the hints on what this week message is about…our ‘serve’. 

S was for ‘surrender’ (1 Corinthians 13:3);

E for ‘effort’ (2 Peter 3:14);

R for ‘respect’ (1 Peter 2:17);

V for ‘vow’ (Matthew 5:37); and

E for ‘encourage’ (1 Thessalonians 5:11).

We need to examine our lives to make sure that we are serving properly and not sitting back waiting to be served!

In the game of tennis, the score is Love/Love at the beginning, and the score doesn’t change until someone serves. The same can be said in the Christian walk in that our ministry filled with love cannot begin until we truly serve. And we are called to be servants of the Lord. When Jesus was speaking to the disciples in John 12:26:     

“If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.”

He also told them in Mark 10:45:

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Here He is, the Son of God, but He was taking the lowest position in mankind’s standards, even to the point of giving His life for them.  We are called to follow the example He set and serve properly.

Proverbs 15:13-18

A joyful heart makes a cheerful face, But when the heart is sad, the spirit is broken. The mind of the intelligent seeks knowledge, But the mouth of fools feeds on folly. All the days of the afflicted are bad, But a cheerful heart has a continual feast. Better is a little with the fear of the Lord Than great treasure and turmoil with it. Better is a dish of vegetables where love is Than a fattened ox served with hatred. A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, But the slow to anger calms a dispute.

I. Know the field manual: In your heart and in your mind

1. Know it in your heart

(Proverbs 15:13).   TURN TO AND READ

~What’s in your heart shows on your face

ILLUS: Been on an emotional rollercoaster the last few weeks

-all the ‘firsts’

-retreat time

-kids moving to Florida 

-Comment made to Tina…”that explains…”

~Had to practice what I have been preaching and take it to Jesus!

2. Take action to make sure heart is in the right place

(1 Peter 5:6-8).    TURN TO AND READ

3. You must read the manual to know the manual!

(2 Timothy 2:15) TURN TO AND READ

~Last time I challenged the parents to train up your children

~We are never too old to keep learning….stay in THE WORD!

4. Your head will affect your heart and your heart will affect your head!

II. Importance of Training Together.

1. Every servant needs some encouragement.

(1 Thessalonians 5:8-11)

“But let us who live in the light be clearheaded, protected by the armor of faith and love, and wearing as our helmet the confidence of our salvation.

2. Don’t have a wrong attitude

(Proverbs 15:17)    

“Better is a dish of vegetables where love is Than a fattened ox served with hatred.”

ILLUS: Every have a waiter(ess) with a bad attitude?

3. Know that we are not alone

(Roman 5:5).  

“And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”

III. Seek the Commander’s Approval!

1. Easiest way to get approval is by doing what you are supposed to by listening to the right voice.

(Galatians 5:25).

“Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.”

~Why?

(Romans 8:5-6)  

2. How will this be best accomplished?

(1 Peter 4:10)

“God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.”

~Are you using your gifts here at FBC? In the community?

IV. How do we Live on Mission?

~Surrender daily to the leading of the Holy Spirit

~Make every Effort to follow His leading

~Respect those in authority over you AND those you work with.

~Keep your Vow, your promise, to love and serve the Lord and others with joy, and not with a wrong attitude.

You can listen to the message here:

You can watch Pastor Ken’s message by clicking HERE.

Rejoice and Be Glad!

Proverbs 15:13-16 (NAS95)

Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.

Action Step #2) Train together as one unit.

Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval.

Action Step #4) Live on mission.

Listen to the message here:

You can watch the message by clicking HERE.

Battle Drill #22:

Keep Control of the Rudder of Your Life!

Proverbs 15:1-7 (NAS95)

Today, we are going to walk through the four action steps of a soldier’s training routine to learn the next battle drill – “Keep Control of the Rudder of Your Life!”

I was a soldier, once upon a time, but I have never served as a sailor. I do know that the rudder is one of the most important components of any boat. The rudder allows the pilot to steer, control, and direct the vessel when out on the water. In a small sailboat, the rudder is controlled by a tiller, a long rod that allows the pilot to turn the rudder directly. It’s simple, reliable, and effective, all you must do is keep control of the rudder. If you want to get from point A to point B, then you must keep control of the rudder of your ship. That may not be hard when there are calm waters, but it can be incredibly difficult during storms.

The same is true in life! As a Christian, you are not who you once were (Point A) and you are not yet who God desires you to be (Point B), you are sailing to the destination, on the journey of life. Along the way there are calm waters and there are stormy seas, and in every circumstance, we must train ourselves to keep control of the rudder of our lives. We will now look at the first action step of a soldier’s training routine to live on mission.

Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.

The battle drill we are going to learn and apply this week is from Proverbs 15:1-7:

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise makes knowledge acceptable, but the mouth of fools spouts folly. The eyes of the Lord are in every place, watching the evil and the good. A soothing tongue is a tree of life, but perversion in it crushes the spirit. A fool rejects his father’s discipline, but he who regards reproof is sensible. Great wealth is in the house of the righteous, but trouble is in the income of the wicked. The lips of the wise spread knowledge, but the hearts of fools are not so.

This is what the Field Manual says, let’s now take the second action step to learn how to apply today’s battle drill to our everyday lives as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.

Action Step #2) Train together as one unit.

The long slow obedience of daily decision making to become like Christ, through both the calm waters and stormy seas of life, requires you to have control of the rudder of your life, which is your tongue! We must keep control of our tongue if we are to fulfill God’s good pleasure for our lives. We learn that from Proverbs 15:1-7, which states three times in quick succession:

“Tongue” and “lips” in these passages, as well as in other passages, is referring to our spoken words, what we say. In today’s world, that will also include the words we text, post on social media, etc. Proverbs 18:21 teaches us the power of our words, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” It is not the actual fleshly tongue that is the rudder, but the spoken word that flows from our hearts. As Jesus said in Matthew 12:33-37:

Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil. But I tell you that every careless word[1] that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.

Your spoken words reveal your heart! It is an everyday reality that we talk and write about what is important to us. It is also true that our idle and thoughtless words reflect what is hidden in our hearts, sometimes even from ourselves. Do your words reveal that your heart belongs to Jesus Christ? Who or what rules your heart? Your tongue has the power of life or death, so train yourself to submit your tongue to the lordship of Christ and be vigilant in what you say – “be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger” (James 1:19). Let’s take the third action step.

Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval.

Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well. Now if we put the bits into the horses’ mouths so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well. Look at the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.

When you yoke together Jesus’ teaching about our words proceeding from our hearts and James’ teaching about our tongues and hear them through the lens of the ancient wisdom of Proverbs, then you know that it is all about whether you are a wise person or a fool. Jesus made it very clear in Matthew 7:24, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.” Your tongue, your spoken and written words, reveal the truth about whether you are wise or foolish, and whether or not Christ rules in your heart.

If you want to do a heart check, then check your tongue! Paul taught us this, as the fourth example of the new life we have in Christ, found in Ephesians 4:29-32:

Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

Again, Paul said in Ephesians 5:1:

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.

In one last example, Paul exhorted in Colossians 3:8-11:

But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him – a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.

There is no contradiction between the teaching of Paul and James. Paul’s exhortations of how we are and are not to use our tongue agree with James’ teaching that no one can tame the tongue and that it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. It is the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives when Christ takes His rightful place on the throne of our hearts. Our words are transformed for the work of the gospel – to build up others and praise God.

When we live on mission for God, then our tongues come under His dominion, and are no longer our own. This is not automatic, it requires training! We must train ourselves to use words surgically, effectively, and productively with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. A well-timed word can transform a person’s attitude, actions, or even the course of the person’s life. Paul explained in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” A temple is place of making right sacrifices unto God. This is a daily choice; a daily sacrifice so that you can know what God expects of you as you live your life on mission. God calls us to do the work, and sacrifice our own emotions and agendas to give Him dominion over what we say. This is the action item of Romans 12:1-2:

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Your life, including your tongue, coming under the Lordship of Christ to be a spiritual house of worship through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit brings us to the final action step.

Action Step #4) Live on mission.

Each of us is being challenged to set sail on the next leg of the course, which is your life mission while you are here on Earth. Paul testified near the end of his journey in 2 Timothy 4:7-8, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.” The only way to get to Point B is to undock yourself from whatever is paralyzing you, let the sail out, and allow the Holy Spirit to propel you forward. You must be vigilant with the rudder when your sails are full and you are on mission on the way to the destination of God’s good pleasure for your life, which is your Christlikeness!

Have you gotten comfortable sitting at the dock? You’ve got one hand on the tiller with a drink in the other hand telling tales of your days out at open sea. Maybe you’ve had too many storms and you just don’t think your boat can handle another one. Until you arrive at the destination of your life’s end, you are called to CM until the race is finished. Just as Paul testified of his own life as he was having to sail directly into a storm in Acts 20:24, “But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.” Never forget that while it may feel safe to sit on the dock, in a safe harbor, but that is not the life God created and saved you for – you have enlisted to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ, to live on mission for His glory and your good (2 Timothy 2:3-4)!

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FOOTNOTES:

Battle Drill #21:

Slow to Anger!

Proverbs 14:26-30 (NAS95)

Today, we are going to walk through the four action steps of a soldier’s training routine to learn the next battle drill – “Slow to Anger!”

Soldiers must be emotionally healthy. Emotional health doesn’t mean you will experience your emotions less, it is the ability to be aware of your emotions so that they don’t hijack your thoughts, words, or actions. The military trains soldiers in a difficult school so that they can learn to make good and right decisions, regardless of their circumstances or emotions. Soldiers are pushed emotionally, mentally, and physically to be able to do the harder right instead of the easier wrong. As soldiers for Jesus Christ, we must train ourselves in the same way.

Today we are learning the battle drill, “Slow to Anger” because anger is a real emotion that every single person must learn to bring into submission, otherwise, it has the potential of causing a wildfire. For example, the thought of a trained soldier with a gun on mission doesn’t bother most people, because that is a soldier’s life. But what does bother us, is when a trained soldier with a gun has lost control because of their anger. In the same way that this is a scary reality, so are Christians who use the Word of God in anger.

It is my calling to equip you to use the Word of God effectively, so that you may bear the good fruit of a disciple of Jesus, but it’s not enough for me to teach you the Word of God, I must disciple you to use it with emotional health, under submission to the Holy Spirit, not in your flesh. We will now look at the first action step of a soldier’s training routine to live on mission.

Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.

The battle drill we are going to learn and apply this week is from Proverbs 14:26-30:

In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence, and his children will have refuge. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, that one may avoid the snares of death. In a multitude of people is a king’s glory, but in the dearth of people is a prince’s ruin. He who is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who is quick-tempered exalts folly. A tranquil heart is life to the body, but passion [jealousy, envy, rivalry, zeal] is rottenness to the bones.

To better understand how I am applying this Scripture, you need to hear these verses in their context, as a part of the whole of Proverbs 14. (Read from the Bible). This is what the Field Manual says, let’s now take the second action step to learn how to apply today’s battle drill to our everyday lives as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.

Action Step #2) Train together as one unit.

For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal [same Hebrew word “passion” in Proverbs 14:30] of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.

Who will accomplish bringing righteousness and justice to the nations? God will through His Messiah! God has a plan; trust Him. He reminds us of this in Psalm 46:10, “Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

Is it your zeal or striving that exalts God? No! It is “the zeal of the LORD of hosts [who] will accomplish this.” Don’t take on the offenses of God; He is fully capable of exalting Himself! God accomplished this through the coming of Jesus Christ and we are His body, the Church. We must remember that God will establish the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and uphold it with justice and righteousness. As Psalm 100:3 proclaims, “Know that the Lord Himself is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.”

Paul reminded the Church in Galatia with his rhetorical questions in Galatians 3:3, “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” In other words, if the zeal of the Lord is to establish the Kingdom, will your flesh now uphold it with your anger at people’s mockery of God, fueled by your self-righteousness religious zeal?

No, absolutely not! That is an arrogant, prideful, and blasphemous thought! One, which has fueled churches for way too long! We must keep reminding ourselves of this if we are going to train ourselves to be slow to anger. Anger is often fueled by discouragement and disappointment, in ourselves and others; when expectations are not met and ideals are not realized. We hate it when our plans, or, even worse, God’s plans seem to be thwarted every which way we turn by evil and sin. And when I’m angry about something, I feel powerful and when I act upon it, I can do mighty things. In the past, as a teenager and young military man, I fueled my anger, thinking that I could harness it for greater accomplishment, only to learn the hard way that anger was a wildfire that while powerful, yes, it was destructive as it spread into areas of my life that I did not want fueled by it, such as my relationships. I made hurtful and bad decisions because I was trying to harness the power of a wildfire. A popular culture illustration of this is the transformation process of Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader in the Star Wars universe.

Anger is very real, but it must not be allowed to be in control of your faculties. God does not desire for your life to be fueled by wildfires, such as anger. Rather, God desires your life to be fueled by His holy fire, the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus desires that our lives be fully submitted to His yoke – His ruling authority of peace! Paul taught in Ephesians 4:17-27:

So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity.

What are the first two examples Paul used in applying this teaching to our everyday Christian walks? First, you are to give an honest report (see my sermon from July 3, 2022) – “Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another” (25). Second, you are to not sin in your anger (26-27), which means, when you are experiencing the very real emotion of anger, you are not to give it lordship of your life. Nor are you to use anger as a motivation or fuel source in your life. Your Lord is Jesus Christ crucified, risen, and coming again. Your fuel source is the Holy Spirit, who dwells in you to give you everything you need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). Your motivation is the glory of God alone! That takes us to the third action step to training yourself to being slow to anger.

Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval.

How? By becoming like Him! God is “Slow to Anger.” That is one of Yahweh’s first descriptions of Himself, as God revealed His character to us in Exodus 34:6, “Then the Lord passed by in front of [Moses] and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth.” This is one of the most repeated verses in the Bible because God wants you to know who He is. He has revealed this truth to us on purpose.[1] The following passages repeat that God is “slow to anger”:

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] For an easily accessible study on “slow to anger,” watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeQ1nq_YJD0.

[2] “Was Jesus ever angry?” https://www.gotquestions.org/Jesus-angry.html. Accessed July 14, 2022.

Battle Drill #20:

Be a Hope-Bearer!

Proverbs 13:12-17 (NAS95)

Today, we are going to walk through the four action steps of a soldier’s training routine to learn the next battle drill – “Be a Hope-Bearer!”

In a recent news article, the author explained the importance of teaching your children the practical life skills of hope, a timely reminder since we are living in a world filled with hopelessness and darkness:

Research shows that hopefulness can dramatically reduce childhood anxiety and depression. Hopeful kids have an inner sense of control. They view challenges and obstacles as temporary and able to be overcome, so they are more likely to thrive and help others. Yet despite its immense power, hope is largely excluded from our parenting agendas. The good news? Hope is teachable. One of the best ways to increase this strength is by equipping children with skills to handle life’s inevitable bumps.[1]

The article continues with “nine science-backed ways to help kids maintain hope.” Those ideas include the following: stop negativity in the moment, share hopeful news, celebrate small gains, create gratitude rituals, and embrace service opportunities. I must point out to you that these “science-backed ways” all find their origin in the Bible; therefore, I am going to give you a Proverbs-backed battle drill that encourages you to train yourself everyday to be a hope-bearer.

Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.

The battle drill we are going to learn and apply this week is from Proverbs 13:12-17:

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life. The one who despises the word will be in debt to it, but the one who fears the commandment will be rewarded. The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, to turn aside from the snares of death. Good understanding produces favor, but the way of the treacherous is hard. Every prudent man acts with knowledge, but a fool displays folly. A wicked messenger falls into adversity, but a faithful envoy brings healing.

To better understand how I am applying this Scripture, you need to hear these verses in their context, as a part of the whole of Proverbs 13. This is what the Field Manual says, let’s now take the second action step to learn how to apply today’s battle drill to our everyday lives as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.

Action Step #2) Train together as one unit.

It is not God’s will that you become a jaded, cranky doomsdayer. Rather, it’s God’s will that you become a loving, patient hope-bearer! So, let’s get to the heart of this very real human experience. The biblical concept of hope is linguistically and thematically connected to waiting on the Lord. An example of this is found in Isaiah 40:31, “Yet those who wait for [hope in] the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.” The “wait for” and “hope in” are interchangeable; both translations are found in the same Hebrew word, “Qavah” (קָוָה), which has an original connotation of twisting or stretching.^[2]

How’s this for a new translation of Isaiah 40:31, “Yet those who are stretched by the Lord will gain new strength…” In response to that, maybe we should write a new Beatitude: “Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape.” Or “Blessed are those who are stretchable, for they shall not snap!” In returning to the soldier imagery of our sermon series, many a military person has expressed a common parody of the US Marine’s motto, “Semper Fi: Always Faithful” with the ever-present military reality of “Semper Gumby: Always Flexible!” I never realized that the US Army’s philosophy of “hurry up and wait” could bring about good.

Seriously, this is the key to being a hope-bearer. To truly understand biblical hope, you must understand that at the heart of hope is trusting God! Concepts like trust and hope are in short commodity in our culture today because we are not a patient people, we hate waiting and despise being inconvenienced. We are notorious for being the masters of our own fate. If we had to be honest, and not take offense at our own honesty, it is not the over 1.02 million deaths in America that dominates most American’s frustration with the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been the disruption and inconvenience to our schedules and lives. As a culture, we struggle with hope because we don’t wait gracefully, and we don’t tolerate inconvenience very well.

There is hope with every season of darkness because there is a sunrise coming! Creation reveals the majesty of God! As Jeremiah wrote in Lamentation 3:19-26, there is hope, even in the darkest night of the soul and in the worst possible circumstances:

Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness. Surely my soul remembers and is bowed down within me. This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him.” The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him. It is good that he waits silently for the salvation of the Lord.

This is real hope – biblical hope! It is not wishful thinking! It is not my life working out for me the way I want it to, or else everyone will hear about it. Quite the opposite, biblical hope is learning to trust God as the Good Shepherd of your soul. We train hope into our lives by learning to walk with the One described by David in Psalm 23, based on his life of waiting on God:

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

There is no secret sauce to hope! It is 100% trusting God! It is learning that God is who He says He is, to take Him at His word to do what He says He will do, when He wills to do it. His time is always best! That takes us to the third action step to training yourself to be a hope-bearer.

Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval.

Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain.

In John 10:10-11, Jesus described His purposes for our lives as our Good Shepherd, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” An essential reality to training to be a hope-bearers is found in not separating verses 10 and 11. Jesus came to give abundant life by laying down His life for the sheep! The lie of the thief is that you don’t have to lay down your life and you can still have abundance. God’s creation declares His glorious plan for our redemption: Just as there is no sunrise without the night and no spring without the winter, there is no crown without the cross and no resurrection without the grave.

There is no hope without the need to wait for “it.” It being God’s good pleasure for our lives – Jesus gave His life so that we may have life in Him. God’s good pleasure is to become like Jesus; therefore, even our waiting is a part of God’s redemptive purposes, every time, no matter the length of the wait, no matter the human explanation for the delay or inconvenience. God uses all things for His good pleasure; that is a fundamental truth of a hope-bearer! This is the reality of Paul’s promise in Romans 8:28-29, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son.” Therefore, wait upon the Lord and He will strengthen you for the mission. That brings us to the final action step.

Action Step #4) Live on mission.

It is why you were saved! In Matthew 5:14-16, Jesus calls His disciples to the mission of God, to carry on His work as the Light of the world:

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

This is a radical statement – “You are the light of the world.” Jesus used the title given to Him and applied it to you. A significant way we train ourselves to be hope-bearers is to remember who we are, to memorize this truth and to recite it to ourselves – “I am the light of the world. I am a hope-bearer!” If we believe this about ourselves, then we can fight off the temptations of disappointment, despair, discouragement, and even depression. There is meaning and value in every dark season, in every delay and set back, and in all my waiting upon God.

Being the light of the world is more than a verse to memorize, it is a promise to experience, and a battle drill to train by giving yourself to the daily work of being hope-bearers. I wrote about this in Seize the Moment: New Testament Devotions for Today:

God is not surprised by your current darkness, whatever it is. But, if we let it, the darkness can prevent us from being the light of the world. Don’t let the darkness prevail – we are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus! Shine the light into the darkness. Reflect specifically today on how you can help others to see the light of God in the midst of all the darkness. Seize the moment by being a hope-bearer, not a doomsdayer![3]

One person can make a difference by being a hope-bearer! It’s contagious. Bring the light of hope to all you encounter! Go from this place and may the light of your good works pierce the darkness. Christ is coming again to make all things new. Wait on Him and anchor your hope in His promise of the New Heaven and New Earth that awaits us all.

Make this battle drill a reflexive, instinctive, and habitual part of your Christian life so that you can CM – Continue the Mission! Therefore, live on mission today and train the battle drill of the week for the glory of God. Let us pray.

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] Michel Borba, “Child psychologist: The No. 1 skill that sets mentally strong kids apart from ‘those who give up’ – and how parents can teach it.” https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/04/psychologist-shares-the-top-skill-that-sets-mentally-strong-kids-from-those-who-give-up-easily.html. Accessed on July 6, 2022.

[2] Francis Brown, Samuel Rolles Driver, and Charles Augustus Briggs, Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977), 875.

[3] Jerry D. Ingalls, Seize the Moment: New Testament Devotions for Today (New Castle, IN: Northside Books & Media, an AGF Publishing Imprint, 2021), 7.

Battle Drill #19:

Give an Honest Report!

Proverbs 12:13-20 (NAS95)

Today, we are going to walk through the four action steps of a soldier’s training routine to learn the next battle drill – “Give an Honest Report!”

In the military, reporting is critical to the mission success, whether it’s your location, an update on your situation, or a description of enemy activity, giving an honest and accurate report is an essential task for every soldier. For example, reporting your accurate location, on time every time, saves lives because when artillery or close air support is called in, or when friendly forces are moving into your area of operation, your location being properly posted on the map is a life-or-death reality. A false report easily leads to confusion, friendly fire, and even death. The same is true within the Church of Jesus Christ in our mission to seek and to save the lost.

Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.

The battle drill we are going to learn and apply this week is from Proverbs 12:13-20:

An evil man is ensnared by the transgression of his lips, but the righteous will escape from trouble. A man will be satisfied with good by the fruit of his words, and the deeds of a man’s hands will return to him. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man is he who listens to counsel. A fool’s anger is known at once, but a prudent man conceals dishonor. He who speaks truth tells what is right, but a false witness, deceit. There is one who speaks rashly like the thrusts of a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. Truthful lips will be established forever, but a lying tongue is only for a moment. Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil, but counselors of peace have joy.

To better understand how I am applying this Scripture, you need to hear these verses in their context, as a part of the whole of Proverbs 12. Read from the Bible. This is what the Field Manual says, let’s now take the second action step to learn how to apply today’s battle drill to our everyday lives as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.

Action Step #2) Train together as one unit.

Psalm 133:1 proclaims, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!” Paul teaches in Ephesians 4:1-3 that there is a way for the body of Christ to dwell together in unity:

Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

We must, each one of us, walk in a manner worthy of our calling as soldiers of Jesus Christ – we are fellow members of the one body of Christ (Romans 12:4-5). For us to grow into maturity, Paul further teaches in Ephesians 4:11-16 that we must give an honest report to one another by speaking the truth in love, and he makes it very clear that it starts with the spiritual leaders:

And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

To give one another an honest report is to speak the truth in love. This is how the body of Christ matures in Christlikeness. In John 1:14, Jesus is described as coming to us, “full of grace and truth.” We must go to others as Christ came to us – full of grace and truth, not full of grace and, most of the time or only when it feels comfortable, truth. And not full of truth and, when we feel like it, grace. Jesus was full of grace and full of truth. It seems to me that very few of us find this balance of doing both. It boils down to fear and trust. A fear that grace is the same as complicity. A distrust that truth will be received well. I find this tension within myself.[1]

I, and my fellow leaders, are to teach you the Word of God “until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and the knowledge of the Son of God.” Paul teaches us in Galatians 6:1-2 that we must be careful in how we do this, “Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.” Our logos of truth must be expressed in the pathos of grace so that the ethos of the gospel is love.

Our hearts must be aligned with our minds. We must live what we know is the truth. There is a prescribed way to go about giving honest reports to one another (accountability) and to avoid giving honest reports about one another (gossip). This is taught in Matthew 18:15-20:

If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.

This passage ends with a very popular promise – the promise of Jesus’ presence. We often forget that it is given within the context of loving confrontation and accountability. It’s not talking about worship or prayer times. Jesus is present during loving confrontation, and that should shape our conversations. Whereas Matthew 18 has been used to justify blacklisting people and shaming people for their decisions, that is not what God intends for us. It is to the glory of God and the good of His people that we do all things His way, which is why we now turn to action step 3 to see how we are to do this.

Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval.

The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.

Let’s look at what it means to be LEADERS when it comes to applying today’s battle drill:

Lead by example; follow Jesus and the standards He has set for us in faith and practice. First and foremost, leaders live lives that are examples to imitate (Philippians 3:17; 1 Timothy 4:12; Titus 2:7-8; Hebrews 13:7; 1 Peter 5:1-3).

Evaluate the situation; start the process at the lowest level possible (brother to brother, sister to sister), just as Matthew 18:15 commands.

Approach the person prayerfully, with gentleness, humility, and in a timely manner, just as Galatians 6:1 teaches.

Discuss, discern, and decide the next steps with God in prayer, and with the person face-to-face, whenever possible. Pastors and elders must be prayerfully ready to uphold the holiness of the Lord in the body of Christ if we get to the final step of Matthew 18, which is for the purpose of loving the person back to a full fellowship with God, and then the church.

Empower the congregation before, during, and after the process to be a people who love well, relate as brothers and sisters in Christ, revere God, seek a holy life, and live a life as fellow members of the body of Christ according to 1 Corinthians 12-13.

Respect confidentiality; avoid all gossip, dissension, or unnecessary public exposure by walking in the Spirit through the process (Galatians 5:1-26).

Submit to and support your leaders. Trust that God works through God-fearing, Christ-exalting, Bible-teaching leaders, especially when you may not have all the facts (Hebrews 13:17).

When we each follow these seven steps as LEADERS, then we are living on mission in how we are conducting ourselves as His body in speaking the truth in love. This is how we are to give an honest report and that takes us to the fourth action step.

Action Step #4) Live on mission.

Follow up praise report for Backyard Bible Club (Davisson’s). Then, call up the DR short-term mission team to pray over them as they “go” to live on mission, taking the love of Jesus.

By training ourselves to deal with one another in love and according to God’s Word then we will not only give an honest report to one another, but our public witness will be an honest report that we belong to God and are proclaiming His gospel, in word, deed, and in how we do relationships. As a church leader expressed to me this week on this very point:

Many outside the church know the story of Jesus. They have heard the gospel. But they don’t believe it, or don’t want to associate themselves with it because of how they see the people within the church hurting each other, or hurting those outside the church, in the way they do relationships. Yes, the gospel is the uncompromised core of who we are and why we do what we do, but if our relationships, which are the thing that is the most relatable and most visible, are not loving and healthy, then we cannot hope to draw people to the Jesus we serve.[2]

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] Informed by my email conversations with both Curt Ferrell and Emily Hurst.

[2] From an email conversation with Emily Hurst, June 28, 2022.

Battle Drill #18:

Protect Your Priorities!

Proverbs 11:1-5 (NAS95)

Today, we are going to walk through the four action steps of a soldier’s training routine to learn the next battle drill – “ProtectYour Priorities!”

As a good soldier, you need to know the mission of your commander, but you also need to know the commander’s priorities for the mission. When I was an AT (anti-tank) platoon leader in the Army, we would have high value targets that we were to engage first with our TOW missile systems. Every round mattered and we trained hard to not only get a solid hit with every missile, but to also be able to identify targets and make critical decisions, under stress, on which target to engage first based on mission priorities, to accomplish the commander’s intent. In the same way, I believe there are mission priorities that every good soldier of Jesus Christ must know and train themselves to identify and engage successfully, first, regardless of the stressful conditions.

Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual. The battle drill we are going to learn and apply this week is from Proverbs11:1-5:

A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is His delight. When pride comes, then comes dishonor, but with the humble is wisdom. The integrity of the upright will guide them, but the crookedness of the treacherous will destroy them. Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death. The righteousness of the blameless will smooth his way, but the wicked will fall by his own wickedness.

To better understand how I am applying this Scripture, you need to hear the rest of Proverbs 11, so let’s continue with verses 6-31. Read from the Bible. This is what the Field Manual says, let’s now take the second action step to learn how to apply today’s battle drill to our everyday lives as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.

Action Step #2) Train together as one unit. Priorities reveal our hearts! What we devote our lives to is ultimately what we serve and what we serve is where we put our time, money, and energy. Where you put your time, money, and energy focuses your loyalty and grips your heart.

As a friend recently reminded me, “This is also true of our conversations. If we are into politics, that’s where our conversations will frequently focus on. If we are into New Castle HS Baseball and their recent run to Semi-State, our conversations will be peppered with baseball, or New Castle sports.” This is what Jesus was teaching us in Luke 6:45, “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.”

You are defined by that which you prioritize so be wise and discerning in what you put first in your heart. As you meditate upon it, it molds you into its image! This happens because God designed you this way, on purpose – we are designed by God to worship and that which we worship, we become like because we become enmeshed, or entangled, with it, for life or death.

A biblical illustration of this is found in Jesus’ confrontation of the rich young ruler in Matthew 19:16-26:

And someone came to Him and said, “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?” And He said to him, “Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” Then he said to Him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not commit murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honor your father and mother; and You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?” Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property. And Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. “Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, “Then who can be saved?” And looking at them Jesus said to them, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

The rich young ruler was enmeshed with his possessions. He couldn’t imagine his life and well-being without them, no matter what Jesus promised him. He, like each of us, is called to open his hands and pray the ancient prayer of Job, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). The point isn’t that we need to sell everything to follow Jesus, but that nothing we have should grip us so tightly that we can’t surrender it to follow the Lord. In other words, you must be very careful what you consider precious because it will take hold of your heart. We are all unique and can become uniquely enmeshed with different priorities that are not inherently sinful, but become sinful because of our devotion to them. Who or what is “your precious”? Who or what is on the throne of your heart?

To further emphasize the point of Jesus’ encounter with the young ruler, and encourage us to train this into our lives, listen to Jesus’ parable from Luke 14:16-24:

But He said to him, “A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many; and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused.’ “Another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.’ “Another one said, ‘I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’ “And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ “And the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ “And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled. ‘For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.’ ”

Jesus was intense in His teaching – don’t miss the eternal wedding feast because you have become distracted by the things of this life! He was making it clear that when we don’t protect our priorities, we become derailed from God’s purposes for our lives. This is why Paul said to his protégé in 2 Timothy 2:3-4, “Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.” As good soldiers of Jesus Christ, we are commanded to protect our priorities – to not become entangled in the affairs of everyday life. Why? Because there is an eternal feast waiting us and we never know when He is going to call us to it.

Bob Sheffer to share his testimony.

Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval. It is easy to be distracted in today’s world. There is a constant feed of information and entertainment available at your fingertips. Beyond those distractions, there are also a multitude of good causes and charity organizations to focus your time, money, and energy. These are good things, but are they God things? Jesus modeled for us how we are to protect our priorities in Mark 1:32-38:

When evening came, after the sun had set, they began bringing to Him all who were ill and those who were demon-possessed. And the whole city had gathered at the door. And He healed many who were ill with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He was not permitting the demons to speak, because they knew who He was. In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there. Simon and his companions searched for Him; they found Him, and said to Him, “Everyone is looking for You.” He said to them, “Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also; for that is what I came for.”

The amazing testimony of Jesus Christ is from John 17:4, “I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.” Jesus was focused on the Commander’s intent for His life and prioritized high value targets with His words and deeds. Jesus did this by first taking time to be with His Father. Jesus knew God’s Word and Jesus spent time with His Father in prayer. He sought the pleasure of His Father above all; this is how He protected His priorities – He accomplished the work which God gave Him to do! Mission first!

There are so many things you can be a champion for in today’s world, but are you doing the work that God gave you to do? Paul stated in Ephesians 2:10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” You can only walk in these good works when you are first prioritizing time with God, in His Word and in prayer, like Jesus modeled for us. Jesus emphasized today’s battle drill of protect your priorities with this command from Matthew 16:24-27:

Jesus asks you today, “For what will it profit [you] if [you] gain the whole world and forfeit [your] soul?” Live your priorities and may your priorities be to the glory of God as you do His will on Earth as it is in Heaven. Make this battle drill a reflexive, instinctive, and habitual part of your Christian life so that you can CM – Continue the Mission! Therefore, live on mission today and train the battle drill of the week for the glory of God. Let us pray.

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Establish a Strong Defense!

Proverbs 10:9-12 (NAS95)

Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.

The battle drill we are going to learn and apply this week is from Proverbs 10:9-12:

He who walks in integrity walks securely, but he who perverts his ways will be found out. He who winks the eye causes trouble, and a babbling fool will be ruined. The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence. Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all transgressions.

To better understand how I am applying this Scripture, you need to hear these verses in their context, as a part of the whole of Proverbs 10. Read from the Bible. This is what the Field Manual says, let’s now take the second action step to learn how to apply today’s battle drill to our everyday lives as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.

Action Step #2) Train together as one unit.

Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel, “You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods.” Solomon held fast to these in love. He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites. Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not follow the Lord fully, as David his father had done.

Ironically, the very words of Solomon in Proverbs 10:9 are illustrated through Solomon’s life, “He who walks in integrity walks securely, but he who perverts his ways will be found out.” God was angry with Solomon because “his heart was turned away from the Lord” (1 Kings 11:9) and God judged Solomon accordingly in 1 Kings 11:11-13:

So the Lord said to Solomon, “Because you have done this, and you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant. Nevertheless I will not do it in your days for the sake of your father David, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen.”

Solomon had taken steps to ensure a strong national defense through the vanquishing of enemies, successful treaties, successful administration of his kingdom, and a strong conscription program for the temple project. But Solomon did not set up a strong personal defense against his own flesh! As my friend recently said to me, “It is so easy to busy ourselves with perfecting what is visible, to the detriment of that which is invisible.” Solomon missed that his true enemy’s strategy was subtle, and that evil had a foothold in his heart! We must learn from Solomon’s positive words, and, also, from his negative example. Paul explains about the enemy within in Romans 7:14-25, from whom we all need to establish a strong defense:

For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.

A significant reality of establishing a strong defense is to forsake the three major forces of the fall that must be brought into submission to God’s will – the devil, the structures and systems of this present age that are in rebellion against God (i.e., the world), and the flesh (our self-will that seeks to make life work out on its own terms). We have spent time, and will continue to spend time, learning how the battle drills of a good soldier must be trained into our lives so that we live a victorious life and not be distracted or derailed by either of these three forces.

From today’s chapter, Proverbs 10:29 states, “The way of the Lord is a stronghold to the upright, but ruin to the workers of iniquity.” To keep God first and foremost in our lives is to make Him our stronghold, and that is the greatest defense against the devil, the world, and the flesh. To do so we must learn to live for the approval of God alone and not be so easily seduced by lesser things. That takes us to the third action step of being a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval.

Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

What is essential about this truth is that the victory is not from us, but from God – He is our stronghold. God provides the way of escape so that we can persevere to the end. But we must choose His way and the key to that is that we must have our eyes and ears, hearts, and minds, open to seeing God’s way of victory. Often, the way of escape is well before the potential threat even appears, and we must faithfully walk in the way of Jesus, daily, so that we don’t walk down the wrong street through bad decision making. As I’ve taught you before, sometimes it’s too late to ask, “WWJD” because Jesus never would have allowed Himself in that dangerous situation in the first place. The way of victory was in not taking the exit ramp of the flesh – stay in the easy yoke of Jesus! Paul makes this clear in Galatians 5:16-26, as he teaches us the training regimen of a soldier for Jesus to set up God as our strong defense against the enemy within, our flesh:

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.

Do you remember what God said about Solomon at the conclusion of his life? It was the exact opposite of God’s verdict of his father, David’s life! David was a man after God’s own heart; whereas, in 1 Kings 11:9, “the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the Lord.” Once again, it is ironic that it was Solomon who wrote in Proverbs 4:23, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.”

It was not for lack of wisdom that Solomon fell, it was from his disobedience to God’s ways in the most intimate places of his life – he didn’t watch over his heart with all diligence! Maturity as a Christian is not in how much Bible information you have in your head, but how much of what you know gets in your heart and establishes God as the stronghold of your life! Because Solomon did not guard his heart, the enemy got a foothold through his lust, ultimately making his heart a place of idol worship. It is only when our hearts are the throne room of God, His stronghold, that we can establish a rescue mission for God in this world. That takes us to the last action step.

Action Step #4) Live on mission.

This cannot be done by our own power! In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus commanded his disciples to pray in Matthew 26:36-41 because He knew the flesh was weak:

Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.” And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour? “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

If Jesus couldn’t fulfill His mission on Earth apart from prayer and the Spirit’s consolation of His spirit, then how much more do we need to pray and seek the power of the Holy Spirit to empower us to preserve in the mission? Paul confirmed Jesus’ words in Galatians 3:3, “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”

The best defense you can establish for this life and the life to come is to put your faith in Jesus Christ. It is only by believing that you can do anything to further the Kingdom of God on Earth; to do the Lord’s will on Earth as it is in Heaven. Jesus explained this to us in 1 John 5:4-5, “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”

Jesus promised the way of victory will come with tribulations, but don’t fear, find rest in the easy yoke of Jesus, and walk in the Spirit – His way of victory is belief. This is how you establish a strong defense. Make this battle drill a reflexive, instinctive, and habitual part of your Christian life so that you can CM – Continue the Mission! Therefore, live on mission today and train the battle drill of the week for the glory of God. Let us pray.

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Battle Drill #16:

Accept the Commander’s Correction!

Proverbs 9:7-10 (NAS95)

Today, we are going to walk through the four action steps of a soldier’s training routine to learn the next battle drill – “Accept the Commander’s Correction!”

Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.

The battle drill we are going to learn and apply this week is from Proverbs 9:7-10:

He who corrects a scoffer gets dishonor for himself, and he who reproves a wicked man gets insults for himself. Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you, reprove a wise man and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man and he will be still wiser, teach a righteous man and he will increase his learning. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

This is what the Field Manual says, let’s now take the second action step to learn how to apply today’s battle drill to our everyday lives as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.

Action Step #2) Train together as one unit.

Wisdom is crying out for you to walk in a habitual lifestyle of covenant faithfulness with God. The Hebrew word translated, “Come,” in verse 5, is הלך (hālakh), used in an imperative form, meaning it is a command. God’s people must “walk” in a habitual lifestyle of covenant faithfulness to God and His commandments, as explicitly used in Deuteronomy 10:12-13:

Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the Lord’s commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good? [italics added]

The key to walking in covenant faithfulness is to obey the greatest commandment, as given to us by Jesus Christ in Matthew 22:37, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Because the essential ingredient to a life that submits to the Commander’s correction is love! Jesus Christ made this connection very clearly in John 14:15, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”

Jesus commands people to a lifestyle of covenant faithfulness when He invites them, “follow Me,” as in Mark 1:17, or to “Come to Me,” as in Matthew 11:28-30. The Hebrew word of hālakh, and all of it implications of walking in the habitual lifestyle of covenant faithfulness, is the foundation of Jesus’ invitations. Check out the connection between the use of this word in wisdom’s calling in Proverbs 9:4-6 and the prophet’s calling in Isaiah 55:1-3:

Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in abundance. Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, according to the faithful mercies shown to David.

It is not just the wisdom of God and the prophet of God who is calling, Jesus is calling! There is a further connection between these Old Testament passages and Jesus’ words in John 7:37, “Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.” Furthermore, listen to Jesus’ words from the throne of Heaven in Revelation 21:6-7, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.”

We are to accept the Commander’s correction in the same way, and for the same purpose, that a child heed’s his parent’s discipline. Listen to Hebrews 12:7-11:

It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Did you hear those final words, “those who have been trained by it”? What are we to be trained by? You’ve got it – the Commander’s corrections (i.e., discipline). We must train into our minds and hearts the importance of accepting the Commander’s correction, as a posture of our hearts and minds, because He loves us and we love Him. That takes us to the third action step.

Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval.

Apart from the respect, reverence, and awe of God as the Sovereign King, the Ruler of all creation, the Supreme Commander of Heaven’s armies, then there can be no training of wisdom, or instruction in righteousness, for us as the good soldiers of Christ Jesus. We must know who it is we are seeking to please with our lives; therefore, we must train into our minds and hearts a complete submission to the one who saved us, called us to be His, and chose us to be a part of His plans – His search and rescue mission to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10).

This is what Paul teaches his protégé in 2 Timothy 2:3-4, “Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.” Your salvation is your enlistment as a soldier of Jesus Christ. If you are going to live on mission as an active-duty soldier, then you must learn to accept the Commander’s correction because He is trying to help you stay focused on the mission at hand and be effective and fruitful in the mission.

Action Step #4) Live on mission.

We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

Our mission is to love as God first loved us. When we don’t do this well, we should expect to be corrected by the Commander. I don’t know about you, but I don’t love as well as God. Unlike God, my love is impacted by selfishness, defensiveness, insecurity, and fear. Therefore, if I am ever going to live on mission for God in a way that is fruitful and effective for the Kingdom of God, I better expect His discipline and accept His corrections whenever I fall short. How I respond to Him is really the point of this whole battle drill. Listen again to Proverbs 9:7-9:

He who corrects a scoffer gets dishonor for himself, and he who reproves a wicked man gets insults for himself. Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you, reprove a wise man and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man and he will be still wiser, teach a righteous man and he will increase his learning.

How do you respond to correction? Are you quick to get defensive and rationalize your actions, protect your ego, and blame others? If so, then welcome to the party of fools and scoffers. Today is the day to humble ourselves before God to become wise and righteous through the way we listen to feedback and accept correction. Are you already good at listening and learning from the correction, knowing that you can get better because of it? If so, you are wise and righteous. Continue to yoke with Jesus and become like Him – gentle and humble in heart.

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