Basic Training: Serving Our Great Nation

· Training to be good soldiers… Our theme verse once again is , which gives us the standard that we are to live by if we want to be good soldiers. “3 You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 4 No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.” We are training to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ so we can guard ourselves from being entangled in the affairs of this life and so we can please God as we face please our Commander as we face the temptations and hardships that our adversary brings.

· One of the things that are often emphasized about being a soldier in basic training is that being a soldier is not about self, but about serving… Military work is a service to others. It is a service to the president, to those you are under the authority of, and to the country that you love.

· This is the case for us as soldiers of Christ also. Being soldiers of Jesus means that we have given our lives to be of service to others – to be at the disposal of our commander in service to the great nation we are a part of. As I said in our first lesson, as Christians we are part of the greatest nation known to man, the only place where justice and righteousness can be found, the only nation where it’s head is faultless and right in all of his judgments. We are part of the only nation where true freedom and hope can be found… the Kingdom of our great God. This is the “nation” we are privileged to serve as soldiers. In , Peter says that we are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession.”

· Of course, the biggest difference between the great spiritual nation we serve and fight for and fighting for a physical nation, such as the USA is that the army IS the whole nation. All of God’s faithful are the nation and the army. There is not one citizen who is not a soldier also. We are a nation of soldiers, fighting for the cause of the king.

THE IMPORTANCE OF SERVING OUR NATION

Serving our nation, our brothers and sisters in Christ is so important to our relationship with God. It is impossible to say that we love God and want to serve Him if we are not loving and serving His people. We are taught in scripture that to serve God’s people is to serve Him, and if we are neglecting His people, we are neglecting Him. A couple passages which show this principle:

· – In the context of , Saul has been ravaging the church. He has been going from house to house, dragging Christians out of their homes and putting them in prison till they could go before the authorities. Saul decides to make a trip to Damascus to do the same, and when he was on his way there, Jesus appeared to him and said this to him in 9:4, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” This is an interesting statement that Jesus gives to Saul. Once again, if you examine the context, you do not see Saul persecuting Jesus Himself. Paul was not persecuting Jesus, but was persecuting Jesus’ people. But you see here that, the way Jesus looked at it, to persecute His people was to persecute Him. He is one with His people…

· – In this section you have Jesus talking about what will happen at the judgment… All the nations are gathered and he separates them into two groups, and He then speaks to both groups regarding their reward or punishment… Here is what Jesus says to those on His right, “34 Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 'For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.' 37 "Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38 'And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39 'When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' 40 "The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'

o We see the same principle here. Obviously, those who received the kingdom here did not give Jesus Himself food, water, shelter, etc… They did it to those who were His brethren… Those who were His people… To do it for them was to do it for Him. To serve them was to serve Him!

o This is just so important for us to see as Christians. Too often we can think that if we read our Bibles and pray daily, go to church a couple times a week, and try to be a morally good person that we are doing all that we need to do… These are all good things to do, but with this said, if your faith in God is only these things, then your faith is pretty shallow. All the time you spend in God’s word, prayer, and worship needs to change you and lead you to serve when you are not here or at home… We can do these things and still be the people who were on Jesus’ left side; those who knew the good things they could be doing but were not stepping up to serve, and would be judged because of it… It seems they didn’t even think of doing something… If they did, the thought surely didn’t turn to action…

SERVING OUR NATION SHOWS THAT WE HAVE FAITH IN GOD THAT SAVES

· James declares that if one is going to have a saving faith, that serving others is an essential aspect of that faith.

· - 14 What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? 17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.”

· James gives some physical examples hereof a brother or sister in need of daily necessities… The words offered to this person in need are promising… They wish good will and show that they would like to see the person’s need be met, but what you would expect to follow was some kind of act of service to help them… But it doesn’t happen… No mercy or compassion is shown to meet the need… To say to someone that you hope that their need gets may sound like a good thing, but if you just expect someone else will take care of it and you don’t give of your own means to help that person, James is saying here that not only are your words useless, but your faith in God is useless… a true, saving faith in God will lead you to act.

· One can profess again and again to be a Christian and to have great faith, but if he does not see to the needs of his brethren he, in reality, does not have a faith that is worth anything… it is a dead faith….

· This is something you see often when someone comes forward when an invitation is given. They confess sin or say that they need help and many will come to them after the closing prayer and hug them and tell them that they will be praying for them… but they, outside of that (if they do pray), never do anything to actually help them spiritually… We believe in the God who got out of His comfort zone, became flesh, and died so should could be saved and we are unwilling to step up outside of our comfort zones to spend time with someone who is struggling spiritually by studying with them or spending time with them in prayer each week. We just assume someone else will help them...

· We need to act. We need to do something to serve. We look at this text in James only in the context of being forgiven of our sins by an active faith when becoming Christians but don’t think enough about it in its original context that is not talking about becoming Christians, but the faith that we claim to have as Christians.

SERVING OUR NATION SHOWS THAT WE LOVE GOD

· John says in , “he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” The love that John is talking about here is not merely a feeling… It is something that is active… It is a love that is willing to sacrifice in the context. If we love God, it will be reflected by serving one another. We will have a determination to look outside of ourselves to see the needs of others and to do what we can to meet those needs, whether we feel someone is worthy of that service or not!

· This is how Jesus is towards us! We surely are in no way worthy of His service towards us, but He was willing to humble Himself to become a human being, a servant, to die so we can be saved. This is the same love that we are commanded to have. Jesus says to His disciples to love JUST AS He has loved them!

· In , John gives a similar illustration to the one James uses in . If we see a brother or sister in need and are not willing to act, he asks the question, “How does the love of God abide in him?” To not act is a loveless act… it could be argued that inaction is even a hateful act…

CONCLUSION

· To bring this lesson to a close…

· Are you being a good soldier of Jesus Christ in serving your country? The heavenly nation you are a part of ?

· Some questions to ask ourselves:

o Am I too selfish in how I use the time the Lord has given me to serve God’s people?

o Am I making time to serve the great nation I am part of?

o Are there brethren in need here today that need me to step up and help, whether that be with a physical or spiritual need?

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Basic Training: Serving Our Great Nation

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