-No good infantryman ever gets lost
-I’ll extend that out even more, no good man ever gets lost
-A map is only for those that are weak
-Men never get lost
-Temporarily misoriented yes, but never lost
-Oh, but have I been misoriented
-When I was stationed at Ft. Riley I had just come from spending four years at West Point which is a dream to navigate. There are lots of hills and valleys that are easily distinguished on the map and on the ground.
-I had spent a year at Ft. Benning, Georgia. A little different but still very easy to navigate. There were lots of hills and wadis and even the roads through the wooded areas were on the map.
-But then I got to Ft. Riley. The roads were not where the map said that they should be. The hills were indistinguishable on the ground because the whole training area is just a bunch of slow, rolling hills.
-I spent a few months there trying to figure out where I was.
-It was maddening.
-But then I cracked the code.
-I noticed that everywhere there was a little line of blue representing a stream or creek, there was always a long not so straight row of trees
-You see, Ft. Riley like Israel before irrigation is a very arid region
-The only thing that grows well in western Kansas is sunflowers. The thick clay soil holds enough moisture to sustain them and a bunch of wild prairie grass but not much else.
-They do not get enough moisture to sustain trees so the trees that lived and thrived were the ones that had their seeds planted near some bodies of water, near the many streams that run through the training area at Ft. Riley.
-I’m sure it is similar in the nation of Israel during their early history and also during Jesus’ day.{PAUSE}
-After being within driving distance of Ft. Riley for some time (when we were in Des Moines for 5 years and then here for over a year), I finally got the opportunity to take my family there and show them where I was stationed.for three years.
-The post has changed a lot. They are in the midst of building all new barracks and headquarters buildings and a whole brand new housing development. The area around the post has been built up as well.
-What I had forgotten but as we drove around I noticed was that the streams that run through Ft. Riley’s training area guaranteed a near constant supply of water. There are a couple of big damns that the Corps of Engineers built, I think around the Great Depression era when they did much of their building. One is in Milford, Kansas on the west side of the post, adjacent to the training area. The river that is now a lake feeds the streams that run through the training area so that even in a drought, the water that the Corps of Engineers have to let loose periodically will supply enough water to the vegetation and animals downstream to keep them all alive.
-And they do have a serious animal population as well. They actually have a small Elk herd (which I never got to see) that lives in the impact area (where all the bullets and artillery rounds land) of all places. {PAUSE}
-The Psalmist in Psalm 1 says that people who read and study and meditate on God’s word are like that tree that is planted by a stream at Ft. Riley.
-Does the tree have any worries?
-Absolutely not!
-It certainly has enough water to sustain it. I saw at least one really bad drought when I was stationed at Ft. Riley but even though my lawn was crispy and the prairie grasses were kinda crunchy, the leaves on those trees planted out in the training area were always green.
-The biggest thing the trees had to worry about was getting run into by all of our mechanized vehicles rolling through their backyard. {PAUSE}
-If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?
-Sounds like a goofy question that they might ask you in a job interview or during a psychological exam. Maybe better yet, what they might ask in a Miss America pageant.
-Do you think of yourself as a big strong Oak or a towering Pine? I think most Christians think of themselves as seedlings or saplings.
-Why?
-Martin Luther in his explanation of the third commandment says, “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy.” What does this mean?--Answer. “We should fear and love God that we may not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred, and gladly hear and learn it.”
- Just a side note, you might be thinking that is the fourth commandment. Lutherans and Catholics number the ten commandments differently than do other Christians. We don’t count, “Do make for yourself any graven image as a separate commandment.” We see that as part of the first commandment. And since I’m on the topic, Jews also number them differently. They see the preamble as the first commandment. Just for your edification.
- But the point of the Martin Luther’s explanation is that one makes a day holy by putting some of God’s word in it. When we study his word, our day is enriched. Our day is made holy.
- You feel like a seedling because you haven’t immersed yourself with God’s word.
- You feel like a sapling because you haven’t shared that word with others. You haven’t seen a mighty display of God’s power as people come to faith through the words God has given you.
- Martin Luther said that there are three things necessary for spiritual growth – oratio (prayer), meditatio (meditation, study) and tentatio (tension, struggle).
- So when you face trials in your life – you ask God for help, you study His word and then you see how God gets you through the trial and then you depend on Him and His faithfulness to you.
-That is what makes you a bigger, badder Christian for Jesus’ sake
-Let’s look at this passage in your Bibles – turn to Ephesians 4, verses 11-16
-"It was he (Jesus) who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work."
-God has given you pastors and teachers, brothers and sisters in the faith to teach you and to encourage you so that you are no longer infants or seedlings, tossed around by the world
-In fact, it was Jesus who carried a tree to Golgotha and was nailed to it and lifted up on a tree so that your sins of despising His word and ignoring His teachings and skipping chapel or Sunday School or Bible study might be forgiven
-Now that Jesus has come, this next passage of Scripture has been fulfilled from Isaiah 61. Please turn there
-The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the LORD
for the display of his splendor.
-God has declared that in Jesus, you are an oak of righteousness
-You are here to display His splendor
-As you study His word and share it with others,
-When you do good deeds to those around you,
-God is praised because of you
-Come and let us study God’s word together more
-Won’t you come to Sunday School today
-Won’t you come and enjoy the Thursday afternoon bible study that I lead
-No more seedling for me
-I want to live up to God’s high standards for me.
-I want to be an oak of righteousness
