Read-along
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Well, hey there. Wow. So it's Memorial Day weekend, if you hadn't realized. Hence, I'm honoring my camouflage shirt. And if you're not familiar, you're barbecuing or whatever you're doing tomorrow, just take a moment to think about
what Memorial Day is about. It's not to say thank you to the soldiers that serve. We're always thankful for that. Memorial Day was originally intended for remembering those who fought and died fighting. It's now come to add on since we've had wars and guys and guys who have fought and since died.
And and so that's what we're remembering at Memorial Day. And and and it's a special moment for me because my dad is one of those guys that fought and and and and and has since died. And and if you're newer here, because it's gonna be important for the message I'm gonna give today. My dad
fought in World War two, Korea, and Vietnam. Saw combat, literally combat in all three. Matter of fact, in his twenty two year career, eleven of it was we were at war. But five years of his career wasn't just being in the military in war. He actually was in combat for five years of his of his life.
It was it was 25% of his career and 7% of his entire life he was in battle and and and fighting. And that's a pretty extensive not too many people that have done that.
And and so he knew a lot about it, and and he knew a lot about fighting. And and it's kinda what we're gonna do something a little bit different today. I wanna give a little bit of a message about lessons
that I've learned from an old soldier to pass on to us that actually apply to the spiritual life as well in our spiritual battles. And one of the first lessons he learned about being a soldier, which we are called to be as Christians, was when he first went into the military. In 1944, he was 17 and
he had his dad sign a waiver for him to go fight World War II. He actually walked away from a professional he had made the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Major League team as a seven year old, and walked away from that to go fight in World War two.
And and he signed up, went through boot camp. Eight weeks later, he's a 17 year old on a ship heading to the South Pacific. And at first, he said, hey. This war started off pretty nice, man. They went down into the cargo hold and found out that their cargo was Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer and Hershey's chocolate bars.
Which is kind of a big deal to a 17 year old, beer and chocolate, especially because there had been a sugar ration in The US for like a while, several years. So it's sugar and candy did not come by very often.
So he just said, let's just say between him and his friends when they were off duty, a lot of beer and chocolate didn't make it to its intended destination.
And so what he said is this war started. He's a soldier and what he's doing is, yeah, he's doing his job during the day. Then they would sneak down there, get some beer, get some chocolate,
and then sing all their victory songs and celebrate how we're gonna go save the world, you know, and and and and all of that. And it seemed kind of fun. You know, he's I'm a soldier. I'm I'm I'm a He was more like he's on a cruise. He's beer chocolates and singing. Until about day five battle stations.
And he had to run up to his battle station and his battle station was a big 50 caliber machine gun on the stern of the ship. And as he runs up there, he just sees right on the one side, one of their other ships burning and sinking.
And what he found out later is the reason they went to battle stations is a Japanese submarine was in the area. It had fired a torpedo that went right across their bow, right across the front, missed them and hit that ship. And then as he got to his machine gun and looked down, he called out torpedo,
and there was one that just missed them to the behind behind them. So they got targeted twice. He watches a ship going down in flames. The boat's getting into the water and the only thing they can do is he sat there's a machine gun going, what am gonna do with a 50 caliber machine gun when the battle's under the water?
And it was quiet, eerily kind of quiet. And all he could hear is the destroyer cruising around, dropping these things called depth charges that go to different levels and blow up to distort and mess up the sub. And so he would sit there in the quiet and you'd hear this and then the ship would roll from the distortion
from the explosion. And he says, he sat there, all he thought about is all the ways he could die right now. And all of a sudden beer and chocolate turned into battle. And he realized to be a soldier is to be in a fight.
As Christians, we're going to see today we're called to be soldiers. And I need to challenge us today. Here come this is this is the drill sergeant talking today that many of you are about to get throat punched
because there are too many of us that are beer and chocolate Christians that like to come to church. Enjoy the benefits kick back sing a few Victory songs. And then go back to our everyday life, but we are in battle and we need to be combat Christians not combative Christians, combat Christians.
And the lessons I've learned, my dad, you fast forward after three wars after being multi, he was literally a war hero. Many, many, many medals of valor and heroism leading men in combat.
Many years later, he was talking to me about two years into this church plan. I planted the church and I was talking to my dad and he went back to some of these lessons. He raised me that he I realized it was leadership. There was spiritual value. He called it just being a man. Then I found out he told my sister the same thing. This is what a woman does.
And I realized we crossed notes. I'm like, oh, I thought he was telling me something is like told me the same thing and and and it was really how do you fight in life? How do you do this? But he loved the Lord and he learned as he got involved in the spiritual side of things. He said you realize the spiritual and the physical. There's a lot of similarities
that God created that we can learn some lessons that apply to the spiritual world as we're going to see today about being in this fight and the last this conversation I had with him. He started talking to said son you are a leader and what you need to do to lead your men and women
is you need to tell them what they need to hear. You're not trying to be popular. Want to teach them how to win and live.
And one of the things you're gonna have to understand is don't tell people what they want to hear tell them what they need to hear and stay in this fight. Stay faithful. Do not get distracted be a good soldier stay on mission and you don't give up because he did say, hey son,
this is for free. This isn't one on my list, but he says because you got to learn that if people don't like your peaches, they don't got to shake your tree. And I go, do you mean? He goes you like to be liked
and the reason is because you actually like people and you love people. That's a great aspect of your leadership as a pastor. But if you lean into that too much, you're gonna lose track of the mission and you won't challenge your people. And when you lead that way in a fight, you and your men get killed.
So be willing to do that because he says, I'm not long to this world is what he said. And he knew what he was talking about because he died the next morning. That was the last conversation I ever had with my father was he challenged me to stay in the fight. And he challenged me to be a leader that challenges us
to stay in the fight. And the crazy thing is there is a story very similar in the Bible between an older soldier and a younger soldier when it comes to the spiritual fight. It's a man named Paul and he's writing a letter to a kid named Timothy a younger leader a pastor and Paul's now in prison
second Timothy. It's the last thing he wrote. He knew he wasn't getting out. He's down in a dark prison about to be killed because he stayed in this fight and
he's writing to encourage Timothy to stay in the fight as well. And in chapter two, he says you need to be a soldier and what he meant by that is he says it right there loyalty to the commander in chief meaning you take your orders from God. And then secondly,
you stay on mission. Do not get distracted by what he called a soldier doesn't get distracted by civilian affairs. They realize we're at war and we got to be on mission. We got to be in the fight. And then in chapter four, he has a final conversation with him.
And he says something very similar to what my dad said, only he says it a lot better because he's a pastor and a writer and a theologian and the Holy Spirit inspired him. My dad said a little bit rougher than this, but he says this,
for a time in verse three of chapter four. For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears wanna hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths.
But you should keep a clear mind in every situation. Don't be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Work at telling others the good news. That's pointing people to Jesus. And fully carry out the ministry God has given you. As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near.
I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race, and I've remained faithful. And now the prize awaits me, the crown of righteousness,
which the Lord the righteous judge will give me on the day of his return. And here's the thing we gotta listen to. He's not just talking about him as this great leader and Timothy as a pastor leader.
He says and this prize is not just for me, but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing the whole time. He's trying to say Timothy what I'm passing on you what I'm doing you need to do and what you need to do is teach people that follow to do. That's my job.
My job is to get us ready. And here's the big idea for today that we're gonna talk about as we remember Memorial Day and learn from an old soldier. Stay in the fight.
We need to stay in the fight. And for some of us, here's the big throw punch. Some of you know Jesus, but you've never even gotten in the fight. So it might be today you need to have the courage to get in the fight. Quit drinking the beer and eating the chocolate and and and coming here and singing some victory songs
and get in the fight. What does that look like? How do we do that? I wanna give five statements my dad used to use that he used as a leader in combat that a lot of you that have been in in combat or in the military will understand.
But they directly apply in our spiritual world as well. They help in our physical and spiritual battles as well. And the first one, if we're gonna stay in this fight or even get in this fight, is you got to embrace the suck. Embrace the suck.
Now do you guys know what this means? Some of you are mad. You're already offended. He just said suck. I've been telling my kids not to say suck.
It doesn't mean what you think it means. It's a military term. That means, hey, soldiers do hard things and they choose to do hard. Hard things happen to them, but they also signed up to choose to do. Soldiers run towards the things that everybody else runs away from.
And and and you have to do that. To be on mission is you're gonna have to do some hard things. And embrace the suck is the concept of how they choose to go into these missions. Because, you know, on the other end
of this mission is something very good. There's freedom. There's a cause. There's a reason. There's a good end to this mission. But from where we're at to succeed at that mission, it's going to suck.
It's gonna be hard. We're gonna suffer. We're gonna sacrifice. Some of us might not make it. And and things always go wrong. The military has lots of fun words they make up that have to do with how things are not gonna work right. You go in expecting it to not work right. That's the whole point. And what they do, but they do it on purpose. That's the whole point. When he says, you need to be a good soldier for Christ and don't get distracted. I go, guys, as Christians,
we don't just have to endure hard things. We're good at that. We say, I gotta endure. We love reading scriptures. We like sermons that say, hey, let's be encouraged as hard things happen to us, as as as things we didn't even see coming just came, and just hold on to Jesus while we endure, that's a different thing.
To be called to be a Christian and called as we are to be on mission, we have to be like good soldiers, as Paul said. And it's not just endure hard things. We need to run at hard things. We need to choose hard things.
And I think a lot of us think of our faith as I'll endure. It helps me endure when these things happen, but I pretty much wanna get around them and through them as fast as possible and avoid hard things altogether. And if that's what you think being a Christian is, then I don't know what you signed up for.
There are people that literally have joined the military. Oftentimes, it's the reserves. They'll they'll join the guard or something like that just for the benefits. And then they get shocked when we don't have soldiers and they get deployed.
That's happened. They've been shocked. Like, I can't believe I got deployed. But it happens way more in church. Like, today, I'm gonna challenge everyone who comes to this church. I'm just gonna call my shot right up front. If you are a Christian and this is your church,
I'm gonna try to deploy every one of you today into the ministry to serve, to give financially,
to plug in, to actually do the hard thing that we're called to to do this mission. And I'm gonna challenge you to do it. And some of you are gonna act offended and have excuses and have reasons why you don't wanna do it. That tells me that if you've been a Christian for a long time and you don't wanna listen to this and you don't wanna deploy, you're like a soldier that signed up to just get benefits. I wanna get paid. I wanna have college paid for. I wanna have some retirement. I'd like to have the medical coverage, but don't ask me to fight.
You don't understand what you you got into then. Because we need to be deployed. We need to that's what Paul was telling them. And the the only way we're gonna do it is, yes, there's some things we're called to do. And you're like, but it's hard right now. Exactly. And that's when you need to choose to do it.
It's hard to serve. My life's messy, right? You need to serve. It's hard to give right now. I don't know about it. Do hard things. Embrace the suck. It's hard to love my wife like Christ loved the church because she's she's so unlovable.
Embrace the suck.
It's true. It's funny too.
And you know what I think we are missing so much in that? Is when we do that, we got to choose the battleground. My dad said in combat, your likelihood of victory goes up a lot higher when you get to choose where you fight. And you can't win a war on defense. At some point, you got to attack.
We have too many defensive Christians. We're circling the wagon. We don't want the world to influence this. We don't do this. I go. We want to be safe. We don't want to be bothered. You're going to get attacked. There's an enemy that wants to destroy you.
So how about we get in the fight and we run off and take the offense to the enemy and then at least when we're attacked and going through hard things. We got to pick the high ground. Get to pick where we fight.
Matter of fact, that's what Paul was saying in second Corinthians chapter six when he's talking to this Corinthian Church and challenging them. He said guys, do you know what we've had to do to bring you the gospel?
And look what he says in chapter six verse three. We live in such a way that no one will stumble because of us and no one will find fault with our ministry in everything we do, we show that we are true ministers of God. We patiently endure troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind. We have been beaten, put in prison,
faced angry mobs, cheered for the Cardinals, worked to exhaustion, endured sleepless nights. I threw one in there. Sorry. And gone without food. We prove ourselves by our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness by the Holy Spirit within us.
Notice what he said, our patience, our kindness, our love, our purity. Like like, you know what he's saying is? We're supposed to be combat Christians, not combative Christians. We're good at being combative. We like to fight over politics and all that stuff. But we're not on mission. We're not in the right fight.
Matter of fact, my dad said the weirdest thing is how many soldiers get hurt and killed when there's peace because they just do the dumbest things.
He says, we faithfully preach the truth. God's power is working in us. We use the weapons of righteousness in the right hand for attack and the left hand for defense.
We serve God whether people honor us or despise us, whether they slander us or praise us. We are honest, but they call us impostors. We are ignored even though we are well known. We've lived close to death, but we're still alive. We've been beaten, but we've not been killed. Our hearts ache, but we always have joy. We are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others, and I love this. This is the embrace the suck. What's on the other side of the suck? We own nothing,
and yet we have everything. What he's trying to say is, yes, it can be hard, but life's hard anyways. And at least there's a victory on the other side of choosing this hard. So where do you need to choose hard? Where do you need to embrace the suck? Where do you need to get in this fight?
And maybe it's time to do it. Get in the fight. Embrace the suck. It's the key. And I think one of the reasons we struggle is because of the second point. This is a fun one. I had to church up some of what my dad said. You can guess which word I had to church up. Eat, drink and poop whenever you get the chance.
Now I'm sorry. Some of you are saying, okay, he's made two points and he said suck and poop. Sorry.
But if you're a believer and you're going to ignore everything I say and that's offending you, I can't help you because you have no clue what we're supposed to be doing. But what he meant here was when you're in combat, there's a combat rhythm.
You can't yet you got to take care of yourself, but you can't do it like in everyday life. You can't just draw these hard fast boundaries.
You can't just say my life's nine to five. A soldier can't sit there. Go ahead. I put in my eight hours. You're in the middle of a fight, and he just sits down, rolls up, pulls up his pillow, goes to sleep while everyone else is shooting, and then complains about the noise.
You you can't do that. So he says there's this combat rhythm that sometimes and that's what Paul was describing. The exhaustion, the sleepless nights, the this. He goes, there are moments when you just can't stop, and you got to embrace the suck, and you got to do it. But what you need to learn to do, as my dad said, is as soon as there's a lull, you take care of yourself.
You gotta take yourself physically and emotionally, and I believe in the spiritual battle spiritually. And and and you need good mental health. You need rest. You need that. Don't get caught up in distractions.
Meaning, anytime something slows down, you better take care of the things to take care of yourself. Go get extra socks. They had a lot of that problem in the South Pacific. You get this trench foot thing or this, you know, swamp foot they called it. And you better go clean. You better get some food in you. You better rest. My dad could fall asleep anywhere at any time. We went to the car wash once when we were younger. It's the ones where you got out, the car kinda went through so you could sit there and wait for it. And I'm sitting there looking to watch it go through the car wash. My dad sits in a chair and took a nap.
I'm like, how could you fall asleep? He goes, well, because we got a lot. I got a busy day today and I thought I was little tired. I'll get a little shut eye right now. He goes, what are you doing? You're an idiot watching a car get washed.
And I'm like, true. It's like we have to choose that. And then the other thing when it comes to this, I think we are learning now the part of taking care of yourself.
Go read first Kings 19.
There's a story about a guy named Elijah that's serving God, doing great things. He has this incredible victory, but then he feels alone and the queen says it. I'm gonna count you by tomorrow, my sweetie. I don't know if she said it that way, but and and then he freaks out and runs until he collapses.
An angel shows up and doesn't yell him right away, wakes him up, gives him food, gives him a drink, goes back to sleep. Does that several times realized he didn't take care of himself when he had a chance. He just kept going from Victory to Victory to Victory and he in the lulls. Just wasn't
so he needed that and then when God finally speaks to him, he actually speaks the truth to the lie. Like he felt like part of the thing, his mental health was going because he's like, I'm all alone. His attitude changed and God says, you're not all alone. There's 9,000 other people like you still in this fight.
And then he sent them back. I go, what I mean by this combat rhythm is yes, we have to take care of ourselves, but we use the need to take care of myself as an excuse to pull back from the mission God has given us. What my dad was saying is we can't do this at the expense of the fight of the mission.
So what his point was is what a lot of young people when he led them in combat, they would get a lull and they wouldn't do the things they needed to do to take care of themselves. So then they're beat up and they're not ready to fight.
In other words, my point too many of us, your first call when you're worn out is instead of pulling back from the distractions, you pull back from the mission. When life gets crazy, you're like, I can't come to small group right now. So you pull back from community, which we desperately need.
When when when when finances get tight, I can't give anymore. When time gets a little busier, your kids are acting up, I can't serve for a while.
Because that's not what a soldier does, and that's not what a soldier for Christ does. What you need to do is look at your life and go, where are the distractions? And you need to eliminate the distraction and pull back from that. Don't get caught in the civilian affairs. God always gives us enough time and resource
to do what he's asked us to do. So if you feel like you don't have the resource or the time you're spending your time and your money on something you shouldn't be and that's the problem
and you will never get it and you will be tired and you will flounder and you will be like the enemy has taken you out of the battle as long as you believe for my own health. I need to back off from the very purpose God gave me. It's the distractions
some of them. It's your hobbies some of them. It's how you incessantly have to always go someplace some of you. It's the 9,000 things you got your kids in that's usually where the time and the money is going your kid is not going to become a professional arm wrestler or checkers player or whatever sport that is you think or ballerina,
especially if they already you're like six three, that's not happening.
That's not the critical thing.
It's not serving and giving that's the problem. That's the solution. Are you doing that? Are you in the fight? Are you in the fight? And I think what helps with that is this third point my dad used to say, planning is everything and nothing.
Planning is everything and nothing. What does that mean? Well, Mike Tyson said it this way. Everyone has a plan till they get punched in the face, which Buster Douglas proved the point to Mike Tyson.
And and and the whole point was you may have a plan going into a fight, but then you have someone you're fighting, so plans change.
Things is not always the same. So my dad said, if you go into a combat without a plan, you get everyone killed. But he also said, if you have an officer, you go into combat and they get fixated on the plan and they replace the purpose with the plan, meaning the plan became the purpose.
Plans are simply our attempt to meet certain objectives towards victory. Right? And he goes, the problem is you'll get a guy that says, they make it about the plan come hell or high water, as they would say. And it's like, we are not deviating from the plan because this is the plan. Well, the battlefield changes. And if you can't adapt, improvise, and overcome,
you're gonna get everybody killed. And so he said, you gotta hold you have the plan, but you gotta hold your plans like this. And you gotta have the right plan. And then you gotta understand that the plan is not your purpose. The plan is your attempt to get to the purpose.
And so if the plan is not working, you change the plan.
When it comes to our lives, what I think we do, like a bad soldier would do, is we confuse our own plans for our life with our purpose for our life.
How many think like the job I'm gonna have is the purpose of my life? How many kids I wanna have is the purpose of my life? How much money I wanna make is the purpose of my life? When I'm gonna do this is the purpose of my life. When I'm gonna do that is the purpose Because it's a plan we're making,
but we confuse the plan with the purpose. And here's the problem when you confuse the plan. What happens when the plan won't work? What happens when that's not God's plan?
You know what we do? We make our plan, then we pray about it before God. And then when the plan doesn't work, we think our purpose isn't working. And then we talk and then some of you come to me and go, why won't God answer my prayers? And a lot of times you mean it in the right way, but so many times I go, what do you mean by that? How is he not answering prayers? Well, I kept praying that he'd open the door for this or he'd give me that or he'd do that because that's what I feel like my purpose is in life. Go well,
and it's not happening now. He just he's not answering me and I have to say you realize knows an answer, right? You told your kids that, didn't you? When they say, you're not listening to me. Yeah, I am. Well, why aren't you answering me? I did. I said no.
It's funny how we know that with our kids, but when God's doing that to us, all of a sudden, we just lose it. You know why? It's because you've confusing your plan with your purpose.
Matter of fact, the book of James talks about this. In James chapter four, he says this in verse 13. Look here, you who say today or tomorrow, we're gonna certain town and we'll stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit. How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow?
Your life is like the morning fog. It's here a little while then it's gone. What you ought to say see, he's saying you should plan, but he goes, what you ought to say, if the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that. Otherwise, you're boasting about your own pretentious plans and all such boasting is evil.
Now let a lot of people take that to say before I leave read the slabs first is is oh, so what I'm supposed to do is make my plan and then say, bless it. God bless it. God bless it. God that's not what it's saying.
It's not saying you make your plan and then hope that and then involve God in the in in the making it happen. It's basically saying not, God, I hope that you will will this to happen. He's saying when you plan, you ought to plan your life around God's will.
Meaning, as you make plans, are your plans based on God's purpose for your life?
Like when a lot of us make plans, make New Year's resolutions like, I wanna get in better shape. That's good. It's a health thing. But why? I I I wanna make this many sales. I wanna go to this school. I wanna get married. I wanna do that. I wanna see the Cardinals win a Super Bowl. You know, sometimes things just aren't gonna happen.
But do you sit there and say, alright, based on the fact that God's called me to know, grow, and go, then I'm supposed to be part of church. I wanna get healthier so I can serve better. I'm gonna find out what my spiritual gifts are.
I'm gonna I'm gonna up my game in how I serve in the church. I'm gonna tell, here's the five people I'm gonna start praying for in my life that they come to know Jesus. I'm gonna go work on my career because I think I have a chance to make more sales because I can give more to the cause of the kingdom when I do that.
Or do you think I just need more money for retirement or I need more like that? Do you base your plans out of your purpose that God has given you? Because if not, he says that is pretentious and that is evil. And the reason I know that's what he's saying because if he's not saying that, verse 17 makes no sense.
Because it just randomly says, remember, it's a sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it. What he's talking about is you're thinking that life is okay. I come to church. I sing the songs. I believe in Jesus. And then I make sure I don't do anything on the to don't list.
And then after that, I do whatever I want.
But what he's saying is no. God has given us a mission and a purpose. When you know him, he's like, now that you know my love, from my love you need to trust me. I have a mission for you and I want you to center your life around it and make your plans around it and move towards it.
And he's saying, when you don't do that, you're ignoring what I've told you to do and I need to remind you something. We think that
sin is doing the bad thing, and then all these good things I said, like finding your gifts and serving in your church. And you know, I sound like a broken record because I am. I'm like a drill sergeant. In the military, it's kind of boring. You train the same things over and over again cause you have a mission. You can even know how to shoot your gun. You need to know how to attack because you need to stay in physical condition. You're doing the same things. And there's certain things we need to do as a church. We're a body. If you're a Christian, you come to church, you have gifts. You're supposed to be serving and using them. If you're giving any resources, you're supposed to put your time and your money into the kingdom to help us build something. We're supposed to keep moving forward and sharing the love of Christ. I should be praying for families and friends and stuff to show them Christ. I should be trying to raise up the level of my family's love as a father. Lead your home. Are your kids are you helping them move towards Christ or you're just helping them to be a better athlete? Do you spend more time teaching your kids about sports and and other jobs and all that than you teach them about the love of Christ and what it means to know how much he loves them and what he formed them to do? And if you don't do that, that's not optional.
You are a sinner. You are rebelling against God. You are a soldier that signed up and you are saying, I refuse to take orders.
Why would you do that? Because you don't understand what our calling is. He's saying don't do that. Planning is everything and nothing. And even when you do plan around what God wants you to do, you still gotta hold it like this. God will change things.
Paul knew that. He kept trying to plant churches one direction. Go read the book of acts. He said several times the holy spirit kept stopping him. So he finally he didn't sit down and say, god, why are you not listening to me? He just turned and went the opposite direction. You know what happened?
A whole bunch of these new testament letters are written to these churches in these places. Those places was the direction he went. He stuck to the purpose. He let the plan change. But if you make it about your plan, you get stuck
and you just keep trying to make your plan work. You plead with God and you think God's not listening and you're getting frustrated,
planning is everything and nothing. Matter of fact, this whole sermon, if I've been too pushy because I know there's some of you in this room that you should be pushed. There's some of you in this room. I am punching you in the throat directly as followers of Jesus.
And you might be mad because my dad did say this is another one for free. You throw a rock into a pack of dogs. The one that yelped got hit. Well, if you're yelping and you're mad at me, here's what you need to do. Write a really terse letter to pastor Brent Hatchett.
Because it's his fault you have to listen to this message right now. You see, this week was supposed to be the end of the King series. The problem was the plan the content I had planned, Brent showed up two weeks ago and preached that message. He took my message.
There was a mistake. And when when when we found that out the week of, what am I gonna do? If I was like, nope. I'm sticking to the plan. I don't care that he did that. I'd get up here and and preach the same message again. And you know what you guys would have done? You go, this is weird.
Why is he saying the same thing that Prince said? Only he's doing it longer and meaner and and not as good.
No. I said, let him do it. I think the Lord's led him to this. Let him do it. I'll figure something else out. I know that God there's gonna be something else God wants me to share. And you know what's crazy? When he called people to come forward and a lot of you did, I was one of them.
I felt God convicting me on some things in my life that I just wanted to walk up there and say, Lord, I surrender. I was crying. Went up after and he says, you know, once again, I'm sorry. I I took your and I go, no. I'm not.
Because God revealed to me that I was the man that needed to hear this message, not the one that had needed to say it.
Do you do that, or you just fight for your plans because you've confused your plan with your purpose? Planning is everything and it's nothing. What would happen if you started thinking about that way and you started making plans around your purpose?
And when the plan doesn't work, you just alter the plan, but you don't change the purpose. You keep going for it. Because if you don't, you're going to probably do what my dad's fourth statement was. You can win or you can whine, but you can't do both at the same time.
You can win or you can whine, you can't do both at the same time. Look what it says in Philippians chapter two verse 14 through 16. It says do everything without complaining and arguing. Oh, man. So that no one can criticize you.
Live clean innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. Hold firmly to the word of life. Then on the day of Christ's return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless.
So he's talking about our attitude. Do you realize that even if you do serve God, even if you work really hard at doing things, but you have a bad attitude about it, it's gonna dismantle what you're doing. My dad said in combat, a bad attitude could actually cost everybody their lives.
You know why? Because there's never enough of something in battle. There's never enough. There's always something to complain about. And if you get fixated on what you don't have, you will not get creative with what you do have.
You will not be thankful for what you do have. You will not push it. If you that you will not see there's an opportunity to turn this fight right now, but you won't see it because you're too busy arguing and complaining and whining about what's going on.
I feel that is the problem in most of the majority of the American church right now. We don't see the opportunity to go for the victory and point people to Jesus because we think the battle is let's fight with each other, let's fight politically, let's yell, let's be angry, and let's be loud
because we're losing our rights. Our rights aren't the problem. Our sin is the problem. And the answer to the world is the love. But we have a bad attitude, And you can't win the fight God's called us to and whine about it at the same time.
This was a great lesson for sports. My dad taught. This is where I heard this one the most from him when I was playing sports. I was bowling in a in a in a pretty important tournament once it was actually an Olympic qualifier at the time
and it started off and they did these six game groupings and after every six games, they would cut half the crap half the people started with 400. So it's gonna go to 200 after six games. I bowled a 120 the first game. I was in four hundredth place and I knew that I only have five games to get ahead of a 199 people.
And I was mad. I was kicking and acting like an attitude. My dad goes come here. He goes, if you're gonna do that, I'm gonna go back to my room and I'll see you five games from now. And we can pack up and leave early because you're gonna be out of this tournament.
Because if all you do is complain about what's going on, you're not gonna relax and figure out what adjustment you need to make to move forward. So you consider and whine and be done or you can change your attitude and maybe start winning.
I made me so mad. Don't you hate it when someone says something you know to be true? You wanna get mad at them. Some of you are mad at me right now because you know what I'm saying is true. And you know you need to make a decision and you just don't want to. I get it because that's how I felt with my dad. But he's right.
All I did was change my attitude. Started to figure some stuff out. I was the two hundredth at the first cut. The second cut, I was the one hundredth. The third cut, I was the fiftieth.
Down to 25, I was twenty fifth. At that time, they did this round robin where it's head match, hat match to match. So you said to beat the guy in front of you and they got down to the top five and then they did this little step ladder and I beat the first guy and then I'd love to say I won the tournament. I lost to the second guy came in fourth place,
but I went from 400 to fourth place and that felt better than any win I ever had. You know why? I had no business getting there and all I'd had to do was change my attitude. So guys, here comes. I'm just gonna be honest with you because my dad said if you're not honest with people in combat, people die.
Some of you the difference between winning right now and figuring out what God's asked you to do is simply quit whining, quit getting mad at me because I'm saying something that's pushing you
and surrender to the commander in chief and get in this fight and then see what happens. But if all you do is think of the excuses and the complaints, nothing's going to change. And if nothing changes, nothing changes. It's true. And the only way we're going do this consistently is finally this last point.
This was a fun one. My dad used to say if you ain't scared at ain't courage.
I think that's grammatically correct. It was just complicated, but
he would say that to me when all the way growing up. I'd be kidding. He said, right son just you gotta have courage, but I'm afraid. He goes, you gotta have courage, but I'm scared. And then he'd laugh at me, which is probably something I should talk to a counselor about someday.
Probably not his best move. He just laugh. And I go, why are you laughing at me? And he goes, well, no, son. It's like you just don't get it. I go, what do mean? He goes, you think courage is not being afraid. And courage you need courage in moments that something is scary. It is hard. It might even seem impossible.
And it might be actually something that could be very, very, very possibly dangerous at times. And he goes, courage is not the absence of fear. Courage only exists when there's fear.
You see, because if you're not afraid, you're either a baby you see babies do the dumbest things. They're about to kill themselves. Is it because they're wow. That baby is so brave. No. That baby is clueless.
Or you get some arrogant jerk that thinks he can do anything. You know, the weekend warrior. The guy, you know, the the guy that like me, that gets if I keep hurting myself doing the same thing, realizing, hey, I can't do that anymore.
And and so you're either clueless you know, or or arrogant and prideful and you're dumb. Courage means I am terrified to do this, but I'm gonna step out anyways. That's what courage is.
You need to have courage to do any of this. And a lot of us go, but you don't understand. I can't take courage. I can't because some of these things you're saying are impossible.
Is no way I can do this. I can't consistently step out and trust God. There's a my life's hard. There's a mess. I can't trust them with my time. I can't trust them with my money. I can't do this. It's it's it's impossible. If you looked at my situa I can't do it. And you know what God's answer is? You're right.
What? You can't. We can't do any of this. That's why we need courage. What do I mean by that? Jesus says this in John sixteen thirty three.
Look, he says, I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Okay. He's told, how do I have peace? I just want peace. Don't you want peace? He's like, I'm taking notes, Jesus. Okay. What is this what's the secret here? What are you telling me of peace? He goes, here on earth, you have many trials and sorrows.
Wait. Wait. What? You said peace. Now you're talking about trials and sorrows. See, we think peace comes when there's no trial, no hard stuff, none of that. And he's like, you're gonna have trials and sorrows if you're gonna do this because it's gonna be hard.
It's difficult what we're doing because he also said, you need to count the cost and take up your cross. Do hard things. The cross didn't fall on you. He wants you to pick some up. You gotta pick it up and make a choice.
And he says, it's gonna be hard. It's gonna be sorrow. But then look what he says, but take heart. You know what this means? Take heart that word for heart. It means take courage. It means you're afraid. You feel inadequate. You can't do it, but you need to make that step anyways. Step out. But why?
Because I have overcome the world.
What he's saying is the reason I ask you to give when you feel like you don't have money, to serve when you feel like you don't have time, to to share when you feel like you might be rejected, to love a spouse when you feel like you're not gonna be loved back, to be kind to someone that has a different political ideology than you and and and still be kind to people that you don't want to be kind to all these things you can't do is because he's already overcome and when I choose to take courage and step out you will feel the power of God come in and he'll enable you to do it. And then you'll accomplish something. Go, wow. I really should trust God.
Because I'm gonna get a victory that I can't get on my own. We fall back because we think it falls on us.
All I need to do is take courage. All I need to do is take that step. And then what's the next step? And what's but the reason we get afraid is we go, but if I take that step, what about this? And what about that? And what about we start running so far ahead of the Jesus. Like, No. You understand. I already overcame the world. I'm just saying follow me. Just take one step. Just follow me. Because the Lord is the one that goes before us, behind us, and he's with us. And he's saying, the only way you will experience that kind of victory in the fight is when you step out and take courage and see that I'm gonna provide the victory. And that's how you learn. The only way you'll ever stop worrying about money is when you start spending it the way God told you to. Because then you'll find out, it doesn't make sense on paper, but somehow I didn't die.
If you keep doing it your way, the Lord isn't with you. He didn't overcome that. You're all on your own. All the pressure's on you. All the bow is on you. And that's why you're always afraid. But we need to take courage.
What does that even look like? My dad told me once when he said, Tigers, he goes, son, let me tell you about the time in war, in combat, I had to have the most courage I ever had. I go, this is gonna be epic. He's like he, like, killed Hitler with his pinky or something. And he and he and he goes,
it was a mission. I got called in in the Korean War, and they said, we need you to go with the 100 and Air Force airborne rangers to go behind enemy lines on a mission.
And this sounds oh my gosh. That sounds terrifying. He goes, yeah. But that's no one scared me. I had no problem with the combat part. I have no problem being behind enemy lines. He goes and I said, okay. Where are we meeting him at? And he goes, no. You're going with them. He's like, but they jump out of planes.
And he goes, yeah. And my dad had never jumped out of a plane. And there's a reason. He was terrified of heights.
So his problem with this whole mission that he was afraid of had nothing to do with what most people would think is the scary part. It was the I gotta jump out of a perfectly good plane with nothing but some rope and a table cloth to keep me from splattering on the ground. I mean, my dad was so afraid of heights. If he watched a movie that showed heights in it, his he would tense up.
He would just and he would say, I gotta go to the bathroom. No. You don't. You're a coward. And and and and and he knew that. He's like, I go, what, dad? What did you do? He goes, the problem is this mission was important, and what he did was kind of a special force thing that the whole mission relied on him.
That if he doesn't do this or if he fails to jump out of that plane and chickens out, everyone on that plane's gonna die and thousands of soldiers are gonna die. And the mission will fail. So he knew he needed to suck it up and embrace the suck and and and do this hard thing and take some courage.
And I go, well, how are you able to do that being that afraid of the ice? He goes, all I had to realize is I'm not gonna think about everything that's gonna happen.
The first thing they did, I wasn't gonna think about how I could even die getting out of the plane or how I can break a leg falling. Because the problem is is when you hit the ground is another danger. And he goes, my only training was I've never slinked. So they took me to the side of the plane, they had me stand, and they go jump. But when you hit the ground, hit light and roll. That's what you need to when you hit the ground. He goes, really? Yeah. So he jumped. Alright. Be more relaxed. Be more relaxed. He did it like five times. You're ready to go.
And now he's sitting in an airplane with a hundred and first air airborne hundred first airborne waiting to jump out of a plane, and that's all the training he had. And he's afraid of heights.
And he goes, son, had to take courage. Got you to that. He goes, all I did is I said, I only have to think about the very next right move.
What is the very next step? I'm not thinking about ahead. I'm not thinking about what's gonna happen. On the ground, not to get think about the door, just what's next. And the first thing they said was stand up. So the first thing he had to do was stand up. And then they had to attach their line to pull the chute.
He goes, that's kind of important because if I didn't do that, I would never have to worry about jumping out of an airplane again. And and then he goes, then I just stared at the guy in front of me, the back of his head.
And he knew he had to do this. You know why? Because he also was a bunch of soldiers. They were younger. They hadn't really seen combat. They weren't afraid of a planes, but he knew they had never seen what they're about to see when they get on the ground.
And he didn't wanna look like a chicken in front of them. He's like, I'm the only one who'd been in World War two. I'm a decorated war hero. I can't roll up on the ground and say I can't do this. So
he says, when that guy took a step, I took a step. When he took a step, I took a step. And then finally, you get to the front, you turn, and he goes, what happens when there's no one in front of you to take a step? I looked at that little red light, green light thing.
They have a light. It's red, don't jump. When it turns green, you go. They tell you that. They'll tap you on the shoulder, you go on green. He goes, go on green. So I just looked at that, and I just told myself, go on green. Go on green. Go on green. Go he goes, I refuse to look out the window. I refuse to look out. I refuse to look at what I was afraid of, and I looked up instead. And I looked for the green light. Green means go. Green means go. Green means go. And what do you do when it turned green? I just jumped.
I go, then what did you do? And he goes, and I screamed at an octave 10 octaves higher than I should possibly. I sounded like I was the highest sounding audience. Like He goes, I screamed for, fifteen seconds.
I go, I'm glad they didn't have video and no one was around. I at least knew they I wasn't gonna embarrass myself in front of everybody. I just did that. And then what do you then I had to stop and go, now I need to think about what's next. Hit and roll. Hit and roll. Hit and roll. Hit
Hit and roll. And I just thought about that instead of what could go wrong. And when it hit the ground, I rolled. He says, I rolled up. I did it fine. One the guys goes, good job, Sarge. And he goes, I unattached my stuff, and then they all gathered around me for what we're gonna do. And I looked in their faces, and you know what it dawned on me? They all had that dead stare I had on the plane now.
Because now they're hitting their moment for courage. And he goes, now it's time to lead.
Take courage. Take courage. It doesn't matter. My dad was so brave in so many ways. His courage moment was he's afraid of heights. What's yours? What's the green light of God's will that you need to go on green?
And you don't have to think about everything else. Just think about what that first step is. What's that first thing you need to go for? Because the whole idea is that's how you build faith. That's how you see that the love of God is real. That's how you know that you know that you know. Because it says the Lord has overcome the world, that Jesus has overcome the world, that it says in the Bible that the Lord goes before you. He comes behind you, and he is with you.
But you have to get in the fight. You have to stay in the fight, and you have to stay in your life that when the Lord's will says green, I go.
And are you ready to do that? Just take the next step. And just like my dad, the first step we need to take is stand up. Stand up right now. Everyone, stand up. And the first step we're gonna do is let's look to the Lord. Let's look for that green light, and let's sing because the Lord is in the battle. Amen.
Is how we fight.
Amen.
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