INTRO. – ILL.- Military expectations. While talking to a potential recruit, the military recruiter said, "Exactly what kind of job are you looking for in the military?"
The high school kid said, "I’m looking for something with an enlistment bonus of about $20,000, where I won’t have to work too hard, and won’t have to deploy overseas.
The recruiter said, "Well, what if I could hook you up with a skill that allowed you to come straight in as an E-7, where you’ll only work weekdays, and you can have the base of your choice and stay there as long as you want?"
The young recruit sat up straight and said, "Wow! Are you kidding?" The recruiter replied, "Yeah, but you started it."
Military life is not easy. You don’t get you want when you enlist. Here is how “not” to honor a Vet.
ILL.- Oct. 27, 2005, CALEDONIA, Mich. - A woman who took an unpaid leave of absence from work to see her husband off to war was fired after failing to show up for her part-time receptionist job the day following his departure.
“It was a shock,” said Suzette Boler, a 40-year-old mother of three and grandmother of three. “I was hurt. I felt abandoned by people I thought cared for me. I sat down on the floor and cried for probably two hours.”
Officials at her former workplace, Benefit Management Administrators Inc., confirmed that Boler was dismissed when she didn’t report to work the day after she said goodbye to her husband of 22 years.
Brothers and sisters, perhaps we don’t know all the details of this firing, but it sure sounds like she and her Vet husband were not treated with due honor and respect.
ILL.- Someone wrote: IT IS THE VETERAN
It is the VETERAN, not the preacher,
who has given us freedom of religion.
It is the VETERAN, not the reporter,
who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the VETERAN, not the poet,
who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the VETERAN, not the campus organizer,
who has given us freedom to assemble.
It is the VETERAN, not the lawyer,
who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the VETERAN, not the politician,
Who has given us the right to vote.
It is the VETERAN, who salutes the Flag,
Who serves under the Flag.
Today we want to honor all our armed service veterans. To you, veterans, we owe a debt of gratitude because you were willing to go, to serve and to give on behalf of the United States of America! God bless you!
PROP.- Let’s think about some veterans of the faith who also deserve some recognition or honor from us.
1- Veteran Enoch walked with God
2- Veteran Noah worked for God
3- Veteran Jacob worshipped God
I. VETERAN ENOCH WALKED WITH GOD
Heb. 11:5 “By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.”
Faith walks with God. Faith talks with God. Faith spends time with God.
ILL.- The English professor emphasized in his class the importance of developing an extensive vocabulary. He said, “You have my assurance if you will repeat a word eight or ten times, it will be yours for life.”
In the back of the class, an attractive young woman sighed, closed her eyes, and whispered softly to herself, “Steve, Steve, Steve….”
Have you ever been so absorbed with a person that you wanted to be with them ALL the time? Like a couple in love? That may be rare, but it’s very similar to what it means to walk with God.
ILL.- I have read that Buddhists have a saying, which goes like this: “Life is divided into three parts. The first part is for pleasure. The second part is for the accumulation of money and goods and the third part is for religion.”
Most people divide their lives. Some time for this and some for that, BUT ENOCH WALKED WITH GOD CONTINUALLY, DAY IN AND DAY OUT! There was no such thing as sacred and secular. Everything was sacred to him because of His walk with God! God was with him in everything; everywhere he went and everything he did.
For most of us, it’s pretty easy to walk with God on Sunday morning. We sing the songs, partake of communion, listen to the message, give an offering and we consider these a great act of faith in God. BUT ENOCH WALKED WITH GOD!
Enoch walked with God on Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon, Sunday night, Monday morning and all week long. Faith walks with God.
I think Enoch was a better man than I am, far better. And probably better than you as well. Apparently his faith never wavered and his walk never faltered. He never got up in the morning, saying, “Good Lord, it’s morning.” He got up saying, “Good morning, Lord!” He was in constant communication with the Lord, as friend with friend.
Enoch’s walk was so fervent, so faithful and so pure that the Lord did not allow him to die. He just took him from earth. How amazing is that?! How holy Enoch was!
We need to remember Enoch, imitate his walk, and praise his God who had such a tremendous hold on his life! What a Vet!
II. VETERAN NOAH WORKED FOR GOD
Heb. 11:7 “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”
Q. Who was the greatest financier in the Bible?
A. Noah. He was floating his stock while everyone else was in liquidation.
Noah is an example of faith working and faith obeying. “By faith Noah built an ark to save his family…”
Noah was a worker. His faith caused him to work. Can you imagine how difficult a job he had to take on? Build an ark? Apparently, something that no one had ever seen before. Build an ark that was 450 ft. long, 75 ft. wide, and 45 ft. high.
I’m just glad that it was Noah and not me, because I can’t nail two boards together and get them straight.
I couldn’t build a doghouse, let alone an ark, and not even a small ark, a play ark.
It is estimated that the total available floor space on the ark would have been over 100,000 square feet, which would be more floor space than in 20 standard-sized basketball courts.
And it took Noah something like 100 years to build. Ugh! Can you imagine going to work every day, lifting wood, hacking, etc.? How boring and how hard that would be!
I can’t imagine how difficult it was for Noah to build the ark. And yet, he was faithfully committed to that work every day. I am both amazed and humbled, because I don’t think any of us would have been as faithful or as committed to that work.
Noah obeyed and Noah worked. A natural result of faith in the Lord is work or Christian service.
ILL.- Some years ago it was announced that a General Booth was losing his sight, and that his days of usefulness were over. After many weeks’ seclusion this Christian man of 80 years appeared having had one eye removed and possessing only poor vision with the other. To an audience of over 4,000 in London, he spoke for an hour and a half. “I want to do more for humanity,” he said, “and I want to do a great deal more for Jesus. There are thousands of poor, wretched, suffering and sinning people crying out to us for help, and I want to do something for them.” And this is why we have the Salvation Army today reaching out to so many people.
General Booth was a man of faith. His faith worked. He wanted to work for the Lord until he could work no more.
James 2:26 “Faith without works is dead.”
There is someone wrong with a person who claims to have faith in the Lord and doesn’t work or serve in some form. Today, we honor Veteran Noah and thank God for his strong, committed faith that caused him to work for the salvation of his family.
III. VETERAN JACOB WORSHIPPED GOD
Heb. 11:21 “By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.”
Jacob enters the Old Testament in the twenty-fifth chapter of Genesis. He is the brother of Esau, the younger son of Rebecca and Isaac and the grandson of Abraham. While Esau wandered off to hunt (a "man of the field"), Jacob stayed put with his parents and tended the sheep.
Jacob, though devoted to God, was a bit of a cheater: he conned his brother out of his birthright and got his father’s blessing by pretending to be Esau. This deception made Jacob fear that God would allow Esau to come and kill him. During a marathon prayer session, Jacob was visited by an angel with whom he wrestled. They wrestled all night, and at one point the angel touched Jacob’s hip and it miraculously went out of joint. Jacob realized he was communicating with God and felt rotten about what he’d done in his life.
In spite of his flaws, or because of his persistence, Jacob was chosen by God to continue the patriarchal line that became the nation of Israel. Jacob ended up having two wives and twelve children (the roots of the twelve tribes of Israel). But Jacob was far from perfect.
ILL.- One man said, “One month not long ago my wife made a real effort to balance her checkbook. Instead of throwing away her canceled checks as she usually does, she matched them with her stubs. After one whole morning, she handed me four sheets of typewritten figures with items and costs sitting neatly in their respective columns. I checked her total with the bank statement—and it balanced! Then, out of curiosity, I went over her list of items: Walmart—$35.46; Cleaners—$9.50; and so forth. Everything was clear except for one item reading E.S.P.—$24.56. ‘What does E.S.P. mean?’ I asked warily. She said, ‘Error Some Place.’”
Brothers and sisters, our veteran Jacob did not have an error some place in his life. He had a number of errors at various places in his life. In fact, we wonder how anyone with so much deceit in his life could ever be pleasing to God.
J. Vernon McGee said, “If it had not been for the grace of God, Jacob would have been lost. He had no human merit – none whatsoever.”
Jacob may well be a picture of our human nature. Jacob was something of a deceiver and a cheater. However, in the book of Hebrews we see a different picture of Jacob. When he knew he was dying he blessed his grandsons. By faith, he blessed his grandsons. Meaning what? Meaning he believed that God would bless his grandsons. He trusted God for that blessing.
And perhaps we, too, need to bless our children and our grandchildren. How? You ask God to bless them and use them to His glory.
I have two sweet grandchildren whom I want God to bless and use in life. I can influence them by asking God’s blessing on them and even by doing this in their presence. That is, praying for them and asking God to bless them in their presence. Do you pray that God will bless and use your children and grandchildren?
And by faith, Jacob worshiped as he leaned on his staff. Why did he need a staff upon which to lean? He had become crippled earlier in life and he was also an old man.
I find it quite interesting that he worshipped the Lord as he leaned on his staff. Does this have any meaning for us today?
One lesson could be that he got it right in the end. God wants us to learn to worship Him in life, from day one to the end. It’s just a shame that some people wait until they are senior citizens to get with God’s program of honoring Him.
Worshiping the Lord and having a personal relationship to Him is one of the most important things we can do to please God.
We could also make this application. We can worship anywhere, any time. While leaning on our staff, while driving our cars, when we get up in the mornings, when we go to bed at night, when we eat lunch we can pause and pray and praise Him!
Brothers and sisters, Jacob made many mistakes but he gives us hope. And today, this is why we remember him and praise our God of graciousness! If Jacob made it, we can too! But it’s not about us. It’s about the grace of God!
CONCLUSION---------------------------------
II Tim. 2:3-4 “Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs – he wants to please his commanding officer.”
Brothers and sisters, in a sense, we’re all vets for Christ. We’re all on “active duty” when it comes to serving Christ.
ILL.- Shortly after joining the Navy, the new recruit asked his officer for a pass so he could attend a wedding. The officer gave him the pass, but informed the young man he would have to be back by 7 p.m. Sunday. "You don’t understand, sir," said the recruit. "I’m in the wedding." "No, you don’t understand," the officer shot back. "You’re in the Navy!"
When we chose Jesus, we not only joined the church, we also joined the service of Christ, which requires attention, etc.
ILL.- A man said, "A young friend of mine just got back from boot camp. It was a rude awakening to life in the military. It was 24/7 for him - not 9:00 to 5:00." The Christian life is not a matter of coming to church on Sunday morning and then forgetting all about the faith the rest of the week. It’s 24/7.
As soldiers of the cross, let’s live the faith that walks, works and worships. Let’s live in such a way that someday we, too, will be considered veterans of the faith.
