2 Timothy 2:3-4
Choosing Sides – Part Three
INTRODUCTION
Many of you have probably seen the Mel Gibson movie Braveheart. If you recall, Gibson plays the role of William Wallace. Wallace is a Scottish man who grows up in the 1300’s during a time when Scotland has been under the iron fist of English monarchs for centuries. The latest king of England is the worst. His name is Edward the Longshanks, and he was a ruthless king. He devastated Scotland, killing the men and raping the women.
Wallace rises up as Scotland’s liberator, charging England with a great multitude of Scottish peasants. At one point in the movie, Longshanks sends his armies to Sterling field to stop Wallace’s army. It’s time for a showdown, but many of the troops fighting for Scotland begin to loose heart and wonder whether what they’re doing is worth dying for. In their fear, they turn to go home.
At that moment, Wallace rides up with his band of warriors, blue war paint on their faces ready to fight. While some of the Scottish nobles ride out to negotiate a deal with the enemy, Wallace goes straight for the hearts of the fearful men. "Sons of Scotland…you have come to fight as free men, and free men you are." He gives them an identity and a reason to fight. He reminds them that a life lived in fear is no life at all, that every last one of them would die one day. "And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!" He tells them they have what it takes and the men are rallied and are now cheering.
Then Wallace’s friend says, "Fine speech. Now what do we do?" "Just be yourselves." As he turns to leave, they ask, "Where are you going?" "To pick a fight." While the nobles are out jockeying for peace and comfort, Wallace rides out and picks a fight that turns the tide in Scotland’s favor and leads to their eventual liberation. (adapted from Wild at Heart, by John Eldredge)
When the Scottish people began to walk away from that fight, they were doing more than going home, they were handing their weapons over to the English and were saying, "Here, we surrender. You win." Every time you surrender your life, your body, your heart, your mind, your time, your talents, your treasures, anything you have to offer, every time you surrender any of it to unrighteousness, you are hurting the cause of Christ.
All of you are going to die one day. You don’t know when that will be and neither do I. But in that day will it have been worth it to have merely existed in this life, cowering to your fears and giving way to Satan when God wants for you to live, to really live? All men die, but only a few really ever live. There is an adventure out there called life, and God wants for you to live it to the full in His will, but to do that means you will have to fight. It doesn’t mean you will win all the battles you face, but that you will fight.
At the end of his life, the apostle Paul said,
"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."
He didn’t say that he won the fight. He didn’t say he slew all the dragons, conquered all his enemies or saved the day every time. What he said was that he had fought a good fight. The Lord is not looking for those who will win every battle, but for those of you who will stand up by faith in Him and fight. Will you be one of the few who will step out and declare to Christ and to the world that you are ready to accept the challenge to live for Christ as a child of the King fully equipped for the challenges ahead? God is on your side. He is in your camp – will you join up with Him today and be a good soldier for the Lord Jesus Christ?
We began this series by acknowledging the spiritual warfare in which we are engaged. We are in the war whether we like it or not, and we are soldiers whether we like it or not. Last week I told you that as a soldier of Jesus Christ, you have an identity that is found in Him, a purpose for living that comes from Him, and you have what it takes to live and fight for Him.
Today I don’t want to give you three ways to be safe. I don’t want to share with you how to be a doormat to the world or how you need to roll over when faced with difficulties. I don’t want you to leave here thinking that you have to act like Mr. Rogers, all tame and pacified. I want you to leave this place in just a short while knowing that there is something in you that is fierce and dangerous and powerful. By now I am talking to those of you who have made the decision to be good soldiers. How do you do it? How can you be the soldier Christ wants you to be?
BE WILLING TO ENDURE HARDNESS.
You don’t have to dig around much in the book of Acts to find out that Paul knew what he was talking about when he mentioned opposition and enduring hardness. In Acts 13 Paul preached at Antioch Pisidia and was persecuted and run out of town. In Acts 14 Luke records how the Jews persuaded the people of Iconium to stone Paul and then drag him out of the city where he was left for dead. When the disciples found him, he got up and went back into the city. In Acts 15 we find that Paul and Barnabas faced such sharp contention that their mission team split up. In Acts 16 he and Silas were put in the Philippian jail, then in chapter 17 he was chased out of Thessalonica. The Thessalonians hated him so much they chased him all the way to Athens wanting to kill him.
How do you endure hardness?
Your ability to endure will depend on these four things:
· Put your confidence in God
· Know that your life is in His hands
· Be compelled by your high calling
· Maintain a life of intimacy with Christ
You are facing many battles right now. You wake up to trial and affliction on many fronts. You’re looking for significance in a world of opposing ideas. Will you find significance through Christ or by what you have and what you do and who you know? You’re looking for love. Will you find it in that relationship you are in or will you find it in Christ? You’re looking for security and peace and comfort and hope and assurance and so much more, and the battle is not finding what you’re looking for – the real battle is choosing the right side in the war for your heart and mind! The battles are fought in your marriage, at your jobs, in your schools, after retirement, here in the church, and everywhere else too.
Let me give you an example. All men and women want to find meaning in life. Young people ask, "What is my purpose in life? Why am I here?" As we grow older we ask ourselves whether this is how we want to spend our lives. You see, we are all looking for purpose and meaning – we want our lives to count, but the battle is not finding purpose and meaning – the battle is deciding where you will find it. You see, Jesus has already given you a purpose – to bring Him pleasure through a personal relationship with Him and by serving Him and loving Him. The enemy says that your purpose in life is to find personal fulfillment – to be happy in that marriage, to enjoy as many of the pleasures of this life as opportunity affords you, and when your marriage or church or job or anything else is not meeting that end – to bring you fulfillment, then abandon it all and find it somewhere else. The battle is in choosing which purpose you will follow.
God has called on you and me to be different from the rest. We’re not different because we’re Baptists. We’re different because God has called us to a higher way of life and you will have to endure many trials, much hardness in order to be different. Don’t give in and go with the flow, put your confidence in God, know that your life is in His hands, be compelled by your high calling and maintain a life of intimacy with Christ and you see how the Lord will bless you!
BE CONSCIOUS OF YOUR LIFE’S DIRECTION.
Paul said,
"No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life…"
What does that mean? It means this:
"No man that performs military duty bogs himself down in this life’s business and affairs…"
One night during a high school football game I was playing wide receiver. I was running down the sideline on our home side of the field, the pass was coming to me and I was wide open. We needed the touchdown in a bad way. I looked over my shoulder to see the ball sailing right to me as I kept stride. Just before the ball got to me you know what I did? I looked up in the stands to find my girlfriend. I wanted to make sure she was going to see this great catch! Boy did she see all right! She saw me drop it right between my hands.
How often do we drop the ball on the Lord because we forget what we’re supposed to be doing? God has called you into active military duty, and while He gives you the freedom to get an education, to work a job, to get married and raise families, how often do these things take the precedence over our first responsibility as soldiers for Christ?
God has called you to a life of holiness. Being conscious of your life’s direction as a child of God means that you can’t follow your hormones when they lead you contrary to the Word of God. Being conscious of your life’s direction means that you can’t take revenge or harbor hate for that person who did you wrong. It means that you know you’re headed somewhere and you’re not going to allow Satan to detour you along the way by leading you into sin or by distracting you with the good things in life. It means that you’ll take a stand against foul language and pornography and immorality and that you’ll be who God has called you to be with Godly pride and personal dignity.
BE DETERMINED TO PLEASE YOUR COMMANDER IN CHIEF
Who will be the Lord of your life? Why should you be a good soldier? Why should you endure hardness and be conscious of your life’s direction?
"[So that you] may please him who has chosen [you] to be a soldier."
God gave you a chance when He didn’t have to do it. He saved you when you didn’t deserve it. He forgives you when you abuse it. He has a future prepared for you that you can’t comprehend. What He asks in return is that you please Him with a life of faith and obedience to Him.
Do you remember what Jesus has done for you? He gave up the glories of heaven, His fellowship with the Father, His personal comfort to walk a mile in your shoes and die on that cross and shed His blood so you might have life and that you might be set free. Do you remember the saints of old, those heroes of the faith, those men and women who stood on the front lines before you? They were men and women like Abel, Enoch, Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, David, Samuel, and many others. Today they are in the stands of this arena of life and you are there in the midst of that, and the writer of Hebrews reminds us,
"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving yet against sin."
Do you get the picture? Imagine the movie Gladiator, and you are Maximus, standing in the middle of the great arena and there is this great crowd in the stands, a great crowd of saints who have stood right where you are standing, they have fought the fights, they have run the race, they have endured the trials, and now they stand, they watch and they cheer you on, "fight, fight, fight…"
Let us lay aside every weight, remember why we have been called and not get bogged down with the affairs of this life, let us remember that Jesus has done so much for us, and let us rise as soldiers of the cross and fight.
CONCLUSION
Before we close, I want to read to you a quote from the late President Teddy Roosevelt,
"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly…who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who have never known neither victory nor defeat."
Jesus said, "The kingdom of God suffers violence, and the violent take it by force." I want to issue a challenge before we leave. You are standing on the front lines of the great battlefield of life right now. The enemy awaits you on the other side. Many of you are staring him down right now as you want to make a decision for Christ. There is something stirring you inside to quit being so timid and passive and to be more bold for Christ. Will you loose heart and go home unchanged? Or will you decide here and now that you are ready to be a soldier for Christ and take back your world for Christ?
What are you afraid of? Will you surrender to that fear or will you surrender that fear to Christ today? Will you surrender your heart of God and trust Him to be the Lord of your life and lead you where He chooses? Will you stand up to what is wrong in your life, repent and begin to live the victory that is already yours?
· God may be calling you to some special place of ministry – calling you to preach or teach or serve or some other thing – will you answer that call and move out to the front lines?
· God may be leading some of you to go home and break off that bad relationship that is leading you away from Christ – will you do it in the power of the Lord?
· God is calling you to forsake that sinful habit – will you lay it down today?
· God is calling every one of you to an intimate walk with Him, to live on a higher plane, to turn your world upside down for the glory of God, to live by faith, to be a good soldier for Christ
Whose side will you choose? Remember William Wallace? "Where are you going? I’m going to pick a fight." Do you remember young David with a sling and some rocks? "Where are you going? I’m going to pick a fight." Will you go with me?
