“Veteran’s Day”
November 11, 2012
Deuteronomy 20:1-4
“When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, because the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you. When you are about to go into battle, the priest shall come forward and address the army. He shall say: “Hear, Israel: Today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not panic or be terrified by them. For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.”
Before I share this Scripture with you I want to take a few minutes and give you some impressions of the elections we just went through. As you know, I was running for a seat on the City of Weed’s city council. All four candidates received 20 something percent of the votes. I was in the low 20’s and both incumbents were in the higher 20’s. I put out some signs and but didn’t campaign. That was a mistake. If I wanted to win I needed to fight for it. But in this, my first election, I really didn’t care too much. I entered because I thought God wanted me to set an example and I was offering myself in service for my community. I kind of thought I was a shoe in because I know so many people in the community. I was wrong. But I am glad for the experience and have no regrets. I am already looking forward to the next election in two years.
As for the General election –WOW! I was way off! I thought Romney would win in a landslide. With broken promises, high unemployment, economic woes, deficient sky high and the lies and deception of Libya – I didn’t think there was any way the majority of American’s would vote for Obama. I didn’t realize how effective his negative campaigning worked and how unaware, uninformed and uneducated the majority of the American public is. We will reap the result of those choices – probably for the rest of our lives. Let’s look at what our country voted for this election:
Wisconsin's Baldwin becomes first openly gay senator
Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize marijuana for recreational use
Voters in Maine and Maryland approved same-sex marriage.
It is pretty clear to me that we, as a nation, have rejected God and His ways. What is an abomination to God, homosexuality, is regarded as normal or unimportant and even approved by a majority of people. God says,
“Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.”
Ephesians 5:11-12
In 1956 we passed a law that made the government sovereign over God. That is when we gave authority to the government to license churches by giving them, or withholding from them, the tax exempt status. In 1963 we took prayer and religion out of school. We have continued, as a nation, to become a Godless nation. We will reap the consequences of our choices.
One of the members of the liberal media said,
“Mitt Romney lost the election because he couldn't separate himself from the Republican Party’s growing extremism.”
Do you know what he was referring to? He was referring to me – and you, if you are a Bible believing Christian. That’s extreme! Another talking head said, “The Republicans just don’t get it!” No. THEY don’t get it. There are some of us under no circumstance will compromise some issues. I could never support a candidate who supports abortion. Let’s call it for what it is – baby killing. And Obama recently signed into law a bill that allowed, not only partial birth abortion – but that the baby could be killed if it is alive outside the womb. God says that is an abomination. To vote for someone who supports killing babies or to NOT vote at all is giving your approval for murder. God will not hold that person guiltless.
The media doesn’t get that kind of value or stand. The Bible says,
“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.” 1 John 2:15-17
A few hundred years ago Christians were being killed because they would not compromise their belief in the Bible and communion theology and a lot of things we think are unimportant. It wasn’t unimportant to them. Many of them chose to be burned at the stake or killed in horrible ways rather than compromise their beliefs. There are some of us who will never compromise to win an election or to go along with the crowd. Some of us would rather go down in defeat while standing for our values than win the victory through compromising. The mainstream media just doesn’t get that.
Today some sell their soul to win an election. Lie, cheat, steal, deceive, distort – anything it takes! “Just WIN, Baby!” The headlines read,
“Voters largely blamed the recession on President George W. Bush, which ultimately helped President Barack Obama in his bid for a second term.”
No one ever says that in Bush’s last two years he had a democratic controlled House and Senate. Every budget came from them – not the President. His biggest fault was compromising. For that he will always bear the brunt of causing the recession.
The election was won because of lies and distortion of the truth – and negativity. The Left pitted American’s against one another. Look at this!
“Non-whites made up 28 percent of the electorate, up a bit from 27 percent in 2008. This group largely backed Obama: 71 percent of Hispanics (it was 67 percent last time), and 93 percent of blacks (down a touch from 95 percent).
Our leaders ought to be bringing our country together instead of pitting the poor against the rich and people of color against whites. “A house divided against itself will fall!”
There were two ideologies in the election. One was the John Locke model that our forefathers adopted which puts the individual as the most important part of the nation; the other was the Jean Rousseau model that makes the individual the servant of the masses. The individual should give up self for the good of the whole. That philosophy was stated clearly by Chris Matthews that gleefully said,
"I'm so glad we had that storm last week!"
After interjecting to give some final thoughts, somebody off-screen could be heard saying "ooo" at that remark. The MSNBC host ended election coverage by saying he's "glad" the storm hit, suggesting it served a greater good by boosting President Obama to a second term.”
That is Rousseau’s philosophy in reality. The means doesn’t matter if the greater good (in your opinion) is served. From that philosophy come socialism, communism and dictatorships. Our forefathers were aware of those two philosophies when creating our nation. They chose the Locke model for good reason. Listen again to their Declaration of Independence:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the consent of the governed...”
Do you see that the government exists to ‘secure’ the rights of the individual? The individual does not exist to serve the government. We are slowly losing our individual rights and power and big government is taking over.
Are you surprised? You shouldn’t be. The Bible talks all about it. A one world government is coming. Agenda 21 of the United Nations clear reveals how it is to be done. Christians are going to be thought of as extremist and eventually a day will come when people think it’s a good thing to kill a Christian. Jesus said,
“...the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.” John 16:2
Folks, we are at war – a spiritual war! The good news is that we know how it ends. We are on the winning side! But let’s get back to our Scripture. There are three things our Scripture tells us about war. The first is not to be afraid.
What? How can we NOT be afraid? : The enemy is like giants and we are like grasshoppers”, eight of the spies said. “They are stronger and taller than we are and the walls around the cities go up to the sky!” (Deut. 1:28)
Gideon was called by God to go fight the nation’s enemies. He said,
“Pardon me, my lord, but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” Judges 6:15
When Elisha’s servant got up in the morning and looked out the window he saw that an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” he asked. (2 Kings 6:16)
Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, LORD, so that he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
How can we not be afraid when we go into battle? Simple. Trust God. Put your trust in God. Put your faith in God. Faith gives you a quiet confidence.
We don’t have to live in fear. It doesn’t matter if we are in the minority! It doesn’t matter if we are out numbered and surrounded. The command is “DO NOT FEAR!” Fear is a choice. You can give in to fear – or you can give in to faith. When fear grips you by the throat and sets your insides on fire – choose to NOT fear. Your God will be with you.
And that is the second point. Go into battle with God’s blessing.
“When you are about to go into battle, the priest shall come forward and address the army. He shall say: “Hear, Israel: Today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not panic or be terrified by them. For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.”
Did you notice what God’s instructions were? You are to get the Priest to speak to the army words of encouragement. It is important when we go into battle to go with chaplains and men of God. We need their prayers. We need their encouragement. We need their faith. When our country was founded the clergy was right there along with the foot soldiers. They were encouraging and praying and fighting. Our country has a long and distinguished history of pastors and chaplains invoking God’s blessing on our country and on our fighting men. May it continue to be so.
The third point we get from our Scripture is to ‘go with God’. It says,
“For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.”
Listen – you better not go into battle without the Lord. Before we ever send out an army - we better be prayed up. When we fight our individual battles – we need to make sure we are in a place where God can go with us. We like to sing that song, “The Battle Belongs to the Lord”. And it DOES – if the Lord is with us. But sometimes we enter into conflicts like the Children of Israel did at times. They didn’t consult the Lord and they certainly were not in a position to be blessed of the Lord. And He was not with them. AND they were defeated.
God longs to be with us; God delights to be with us; God yearns to be with us. He can’t be with us if we are against Him. He can’t be with us if we are rebelling against His will. He can’t be with us if we accept what He says He abhors. He can’t be with us if we are not following his laws, rules and instructions. So to enter into battle with the Lord, we have to be walking WITH Him – not against Him.
The veterans we honor today gave up so much for us. They gave the best years of their lives. When they were young and strong and bright they sacrificed those years for their country. They probably didn’t think of it in those terms – but they did. They suffered physically, emotionally and in a lot of cases – spiritually. Every soldier, whether on the front lines in the heat of battle or back home in supply – was important. Every vet is important. The old poem “For Want of a Nail” says it well.
For Want of a Nail
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the message was lost.
For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
I want to thank every veteran for their years of service. Every one of you is important. You may not have received any glory nor had the opportunity for any acts of valor. But you did your job – and for that we are grateful.
Most of you never served in the military – but you did join the Lord’s Army when you accepted Him as your Savior and Lord. Be a good soldier for the Lord. Be courageous! Live in God’s Blessing! Go with the Lord every day! Things are going to get worse in the coming days – but as we walk with Jesus Victory is assured.
This week, where ever you go; whatever you do – fight the good fight of faith.
SONG:
