Text: 2 Timothy 2:4, Title: Cross-dressing Soldiers, Date/Place: NRBC, 7/6/08, AM
A. Opening illustration: story about Rene Descartes’ from Think Biblically, p. 45
B. Background to passage: As we continue to think about the vision and future of our church, today we will look at the next phrase in the vision statement that’s on your bulletin. Worldview is a complex term that is used regularly to mean a lot of different things. But the basic definition is just how it sounds—the way that one views the world. It is made up of five components—Metaphysics (reality), epistemology, anthropology, theology, and ethics. Your worldview colors everything you think or do; from politics, to music, to marriage, to church. According to Barna only 8 % of Americans even get close to a biblical worldview, although 69% claim to be Christian. And Barna only has five characteristics. According to Paul’s writing there should be a pretty significant difference in the worldview of a believer and others in the world. Paul likens it to the difference that is seen felt between the civilian and military world. The Queen Mary story, DWYL.
C. Main thought: In the text we will see the main points of a Christian worldview, and try to related it to what we are doing at New River and what is going on in your own lives. For our duty is to produce disciples that think, evaluate, and live like radically, sold-out, duty-bound, Christ-exalting, God-adoring people.
A. One Engaged in Warfare
1. The old KJV translates this “one that warreth,” others say, “one serving as a soldier,” or it could be translated “one that engages in military activity.” Paul assumes that we all know that we are in a battle. And he also assumes that everyone in uniform is engaged in the battle. It is a Christian truth that will affect every decision that you make: Life is War! The forces of darkness are not out there playing tittly winks or having a business meeting about nothing. They are fighting tooth and nail for your destruction. And they don’t do it democratically; they take orders and follow them. The life of a civilian is very much different than that of a soldier. No weekend warriors back then. Military men looked, acted, prioritized, and thought different than those not engaged in a war.
2. Eph 6:11-13, 5:14, 1 Thess 5:6, Rom 13:11-14, 1 Pet 5:8,
3. Illustration: “Christianity is not a settle-in-and-live-at-peace-with-this-world-the-way-it-is kind of religion” "I want deliberately to encourage this mighty longing after God. The lack of it has brought us to our present low estate. The stiff and wooden quality about our religious lives is a result of our lack of holy desire. Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people. He waits to be wanted. Too bad that with many of us He waits so long, so very long, in vain." –C. S. Lewis, “Until you believe that life is war – that the stakes are your soul – you will probably just play at Christianity with no blood-earnestness and no vigilance and no passion and no wartime mindset. If that is where you are this morning, your position is very precarious. The enemy has lulled you into sleep or into a peacetime mentality, as if nothing serious is at stake.” -Piper
4. But maybe this is not a good assumption. Many of us are spiritually asleep at the wheel. We don’t get alarmed at the plataeuing of the church, at the approximately 250K people that die every day (85% of which are not Christians), at the thousands of unreached people groups, or the thousands of lost people here in Tifton, or the 20-30 lost people within sight of your front porch, or the 20 lost people in your family that show no evidence of saving faith, or the defection rate of our young people, or the lack of passion for Christ within our churches! If we were bothered by it, we would be doing something about it. We are not taking steps to fight lostness in our own families, let alone the nations of the earth. We do not have wartime mentality. Reaching about the sacrifices America made during the depression era for the war effort this week. We value comfort and abundance and safety far too much. And when we are asleep on duty, radical assaults by the enemy can ravage the landscape of faith, education, family, culture, or politics. Do you look like a soldier? Do most things in your life clash with culture? Does most of your existence go against the grain of life?
B. Refuses Entanglement
1. Another thing a soldier does is to refuse to become entwined with the civilian world. That is what this word Paul uses means. That means that a good soldier of Christ will refuse to be involved in even “good” things that might hinder or restrain or restrict him from fully serving Christ. One paraphrase rendered it “a good soldier doesn’t hold a civilian job.” The idea is that we have job, and we should be about it.
2. Luke 8:14, Col 3:1-2, Pro 23:7, 1 Cor 9:25-26, Luke 9:57-62, 14:26-27, 33,
3. Illustration: all the convention politics and things were not even on the radar map in New England; there were to many lost people there, see non-Christian priorities below, “battles neither turn on a division or a brigade let alone a company or a squad. Rather, battles turn on the will of a man holding a rifle who takes aim or takes to heel.” –Robert E. Lee, “get all we can, can all we get, and sit on the can,”
4. One of the things that this means is discernment. We must learn to discern between good things and the best things. There may be some things that we don’t participate in, even if there is nothing sinful about them, so that we can fully devote ourselves to Christ. Certain hobbies or possessions may prohibit us from serving fully. Certain jobs or occupations may be in the way. Certain relationships will hinder God’s work in our lives and in the world. And this is not to say that anything overtly Christian is off limits. The goal is not to go out in the desert and meditate 24/7 on Christ. There is certainly time for relaxation, recreation, etc. But a Christian worldview is willing to sacrifice whatever personal gain or loss to achieve Christ’s agenda. And so the problem comes when you are willing to let those things get in the way or take priority over serving Jesus. Such as when family comes over, shouldn’t believers want to be in church, and unbelievers need to be in church, and demonstrating a convenience mentality works against it all! Are you involved in things that hinder your service to Jesus?
C. To Please His Enlister
1. Finally, Paul says that being a good soldier is about being single-mindedly committed to pleasing the commanding officer. The catechism question How do we glorify (or please) God? By loving him and keeping his commands. Therefore we must be uncomprisingly stubborn about following the bible’s instructions on everything. And this will require much thought. In the Christian worldview our epistemology is revelation. God reveals to us who He is and what He expects in the Bible. And so we must learn to evaluate everything based on the word of God and not the word of culture.
2. Matt 6:21-24, 33, 2 Cor 5:9, 1 Thess 2:4,
3. Illustration: Golf Pro Arnold Palmer: I took his hand and shook it, but as soon as I did, I knew I had lost my focus. On my next two shots, I hit the ball into a sand trop, then put it over the edge of the green. I missed a putt and lost the Masters. You don’t forget a mistake like that; you just learn from it and become determined that you will never do that again. I haven’t in the 30 years since. “No, Mr. President. I work for him, not you.” Tell about Alauna wanting to talk to me because she had a problem with the bible.
4. We operate too often on cultural view of things. For example politics, Christians are getting so worked up; so ask what the bible teaches. It teaches that God establishes all governments, places men where He wants, is sovereign over their actions, and the church will be built and prevail regardless of who is elected. Church is another example. We must learn to first ask the question, how do we please Christ. We tolerate unbiblical church structure and unbiblical priorities every day. We have unqualified people leading, and people leading that shouldn’t be, and money being spent on unkingdom things. We value comfort, tradition, safety, freedom, independence, abundance, democracy in excess over and against pleasing Christ in His church. Charles Lyons: no one ever promised you your family would be safe in kingdom work. In the family, we don’t practice biblical roles and responsibility, as if our culture’s view of the family is better than God’s. And we buck if someone mentions a word like submission or headship or responsibility as if we had a choice about what part of the bible we read. And the bible says that when we do that, the word of God is blasphemed. The way some of us dress does not embody modesty, but demonstrates a lack of concern for others and for Christ. Ladies, flashing flesh in short, tight, or low-cut clothing causes men to stubble, Christ to be displeased, and it happens in church. The Christian worldview would ask how do I help others around me in how I dress, what would Christ be pleased with. In education we share the priorities of unbelievers, and wonder why our children come back from college looking like the world. The music we listen to, TV we watch, internet sites that we go to. All these things are decisions that we make based on our worldview. And they all matter to Christ. And we treat them as if they don’t. If you want to please Jesus, do what He says, and love it, and love Him!
Closing illustration: “I need to hear this message again and again, because I drift into a peacetime mind-set as certainly as rain falls down and flames go up. I am wired by nature to love the same toys that the world loves. I start to fit in. I start to love what others love. I start to call earth “home.” Before you know it, I am calling luxuries “needs” and using my money just the way unbelievers do. I begin to forget the war. I don’t think much about people perishing. Missions and unreached peoples drop out of my mind. I stop dreaming about the triumphs of grace. I sink into a secular mindset that looks first to what man can do, not what God can do. It is a terrible sickness.”-Piper
A. We are called to think like Jesus, and live based on those biblically evaluated thoughts. We have a Southern, Bible-Belt, Western, American, Cultural version of Christianity, and we must begin to fight against it in a war. I want to create a band of disciples that is every increasing in its ability to sacrifice all things to obtain the kingdom, increasing in its willingness to suffer for Christ’s sake, that sees their world through the biblical lens, and lives like their citizenship is in heaven and their absolute loyalty is to King Jesus regardless of personal loss or gain. And my prayer is that we are willing to endure hardship and ridicule because we are pleasing the only one that matters!
B. Invitation to commitment
Additional Notes
The Non-Christian’s Priorities are usually somewhat as follows:
1. Leaving home, getting through school and choosing the right career. Being independent of parents is considered a virtue, and the chosen career should pay well, offer opportunity for advancement, and be always fun and exciting.
2. Earning a good income and accumulating wealth and property is what we are here for--it’s the good ol’ Protestant work ethic. Building up assets (not just savings for emergencies or vacations) is considered a fundamental American right, as stated in such expressions as "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
3. Meeting and choosing the right marriage partner. These days this is done by dating and often sleeping with a variety of partners until the right one comes along or is selected by a trial and error process. Wide range sexual expression before marriage is taken as normal and even desirable by many.
4. Raising the children properly, becomes an increasingly important priority while moving along a career path among the newly married.
5. Going to church and/or community and civic involvement is a lower priority goal, but may be postponed until the children leave home or if there is spare time for hobbies and such. Religion, if any, is supposed to be an aid in achieving one’s life goals through self-improvement. Some join churches to meet people or for enhanced social status of because it’s seen as noble and exemplary
6. Retirement, old age, dying---and presumably ceasing to exist forever follow. It is assumed that nothing is really known about an afterlife, and certainly in today’s society very little sense that we are accountable to God and must face judgment. It is best not to think much about such inevitabilities in an existential, hedonistic society where short term goals are preferred in an uncertain and confusing world.
John Kenneth Gailbraith, in his autobiography, A Life In Our Times, illustrates the devotion of Emily Gloria Wilson, his family’s housekeeper. It had been a wearying day, and I asked Emily to hold all telephone calls while I had a nap. Shortly thereafter the phone rang. Lyndon Johnson was calling from the White House. "Get me Ken Gailbraith. This is Lyndon Johnson." She replied, "He’s sleeping, Mr. President. He said not to disturb him." "Well, wake him up. I want to talk to him." "No, Mr. President, I can’t do that. I work for him, not you." When Galbraith called the President later, he could scarcely believe what the President said: "Tell that woman I want her here in the White House!"
