Basic Training: Knowing Our History

· 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.

· As soldiers begin basic training, often one of the first things they need to learn about is what they are fighting for and about the great legacy they are part of being a soldier. This will be the focus of our lesson today. This is important for everyone who is a soldier of Christ because learning what we are fighting for and learning about the history of this great army that we are part of is something that should challenge us as soldiers and motivate us to overcome when in battle.

· So this brings us to the most important book that the commander gives us: Our soldiers handbook/manual: God’s word. This is just one of the many lessons in which we will talk about the importance of God’s word to us as soldiers and how we need to use it as soldiers. It is our greatest weapon in the battle, and the better we know it the better equipped we will be to fight against Satan.

· So for today, I would like to talk about the importance of the history that God gives us in his word of the fighting force we are a part of. I would like to remind us of many of the things we see in scripture as we examine our great heritage that can encourage us and strengthen us as we are fighting all of the hardship in the trenches…

WE ARE GIVEN REMINDERS OF WHAT GOD HAS DONE TO MAKE VICTORY POSSIBLE FOR US

· Turn your Bibles to . This passage, I believe, sums up the planning of God and the work He has done for His army so that they can be victorious and receive eternal life. Let’s read verses 3-14: “3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”

· Our great history as God’s people and army goes all the way back to before the foundation of this world. Before even creating the world, He created a plan to make it so His people could be triumphant over the enemy.

· Because of the great sacrifice of our commander, God cleansed us and made us an army of sons and daughters

· By His grace, He has given us His wisdom and His will so it can be possible for us to be pleasing to him as soldiers….

· Because of Jesus, we have obtained an inheritance. The victory is promised to those who are in Christ. He speaks of it here in the PAST tense. It is a done deal for Christ’s faithful army.

· And if all of this was not enough, He gave us His Holy Spirit to dwell within us as His soldiers. Among many other things that the Spirit does for us that we will, Lord willing, talk about in another lesson, the Spirit is God’s seal on us, showing His ownership, His presence within us, and His guarantee that He will give what He has promised.

· This brings us to our next point…

WE ARE GIVEN REMINDERS OF GOD’S ABILITY TO DELIVER ON HIS PROMISES

· Whenever we are facing hardship, there can be a temptation to doubt whether God will deliver on his promises… Will He give the way of escaping the temptation…? Will he strengthen me by His Spirit to overcome…? And when we fail in the battle, is there really the hope of His forgiveness…? There are many other examples we could give of questions we ask as we go through hardship…

· It is at these times when we need reminded of the faithfulness and strength of our commander. He is one who cannot be defeated and ALWAYS fulfills his promises… It is important for us to remember that there has NEVER been a time in Biblical history where God ever failed to fulfill the promises that He has given…

o He fulfilled His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to make a great nation of them, to give them the land of promise, and to, from their descendants, bring forth the Messiah who would bless all nations and bring all of these promises to their ultimate fulfillment.

o Regarding these promises, especially the land promise, we are told in Joshua, “Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass” ()

· There is no reason for us to think that God’s nature will change and that, for some reason, he will just abandon His soldiers and let them fall before the enemy. If we are following the voice of our Shepherd, we CANNOT be snatched out of His hand… (). No enemy, no trial, NOTHING, can take us away from the love of God in Christ (). God made these promises. tells us that it is impossible for God to lie. We have good reason to, as we face hardship and temptation, to stand up and fight, knowing God will deliver on His word and be faithful.

WE ARE CHALLENGED BY THE EXAMPLES OF GOOD SOLDIERS WHO FAITHFULLY FIGHT

· The history of our great army is filled with so many examples of good soldiers who show us how to courageously fight and endure hardship. We learn a lot from these examples. I will mention 2 things:

o First, we learn from them that victory IS possible in spite of the hardship. Being told this in God’s word is one thing, but seeing examples of it is another… God shows us in so many examples of in the New Testament showing that we can overcome no matter what Satan throws at us in this life…

§ whether it be Jesus defeating temptation and showing love to those His enemies in dying for them,

§ or Paul going through so many physical trials – sleepless nights, shipwrecks, beatings that nearly killed him, being stoned at least once, being imprisoned multiple times, and dealing with false brethren and false teachers… In all of these, Satan could not defeat him because he trusted in the Lord…

§ or even a man like Epaphroditus (a man Paul called his fellow soldier), who, in spite of a sickness that could have killed him, we are told in that this did not stop him from doing the Lord’s work…

§ These great soldiers show us how we can be victorious and how we can even have peace and joy as we endure hardship…

o Second, the historical examples that we see in the earliest soldier of Christ show us what it looks like to live in a way that pleases God and to have peace with God… For instance, Paul tells us in that if we want to have the God of peace with us, then we would do well to follow in the example that he set for the Philippians… He showed them what a Christian w/ a mature mind was like. He showed them a willingness to suffer. He showed them a single-hearted devotion to Christ and gaining his victory. He set them (and us) an example to challenge us, an example we need to follow if we want to be pleasing to God.

And now, our final point…

WE ARE REMINDED JUST HOW PRIVILEGED WE ARE TO BE PART OF THE GREATEST NATION AND FIGHTING FORCE ON THIS EARTH!

· No other nation and army compares to what we are a part of as Christians!

o We have the greatest of missions there is for an army… We are the only army fighting for things that give ultimate purpose, hope, and satisfaction… We are the only army fighting for the will of God… every other army and nation is fighting for temporal things.

o Also, no other nation is eternal in nature. Our fighting and hardship may be temporal, but when our final battles are over, we will have an eternal victory! Every physical army and nation will come to an end at the return of Christ if it does not fall before his return.

o We are part of a “brotherhood” and family more valuable and better than any other. Christians are “soldiers in arms”, fighting together to help one another be victorious and to gain the greatest prize…

· We have great reason to be “patriotic” regarding the holy nation that God has added us to and allows us to fight for! We should be patriots for the cross of Jesus Christ…

CONCLUSION

· Being soldiers in the trenches daily fighting against the enemy can affect us spiritually, physically, and emotionally. Because of this, when we go out into battle, it is important for us to remember what we are a part of as soldiers and what it is that motivates us to fight. These are the things that we learn as we look at the history of God’s great army.

· Hopefully these are good reminders to us as to why we need to be spending time in God’s word daily as we battle against our enemy. We need God’s help. We need the hope that the scriptures offer us… We need the knowledge that the scriptures offer whenever our feelings are taking us in the wrong direction as we go through hardship.

· Lord willing, in our next lesson, we will begin some training on getting to know our weapon – the sword that God’s Spirit gives us in our battle against sin and our defense of the truth.

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Basic Training: Knowing Our History

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