YP Talk—Michael Hapanowicz
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Badly in love with the woman.
She didn't return his affection.
Not only did she not love him back, she categorically refused to even speak with him, and so he resorted to the only means of communication he had left. He wrote her six times a week, Monday through Saturday. He never even knew whether she opened his letters or not, because not once did she ever return one of his letters. He decided his problem was a problem of volume, so he increased his production to three letters every 20.
Hours, with six being delivered on Monday after the Sunday holiday.
Well, amazingly, his letters had an effect because she married the mailman. Well, that actually has nothing to do with what I'm talking about. I just heard that story yesterday and thought it was too good not to pass up. So, umm, what I'm going to do? And. And if this ends up being a little bit of a hybrid between, uh, talking and singing, it's just because.
I'm not confident enough in my singing abilities, but I'm going to start a song and if you know the lyrics then you should jump in. I may never March in the infantry, ride in the cavalry, shoot the artillery. I may never own more than I'm in the Lord's arms.
The earth. OK, well, we sang that song because, uh, today has a bit of a theme for some of the activities. And that theme, uh, has to do with being in the Lord's army.
I just wanted to look umm, and if I don't get in my own way and make this longer than it needs to be, there shouldn't be too long. I just wanted to look at a few verses to give us, umm, 33 characteristics of a good soldier in the Lord's army. And so the first verse that we're going to look at is in Second Timothy chapter 2.
Interestingly enough, this is the only reference to soldiers I could find in the epistles.
So in second Timothy chapter 2, umm, and this is starting with verse three, it says thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that wore it entangle him, entangle himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. So the three characteristics of a good soldier I wanted to look at two of them are brought out, uh, here in these verses. I don't, I don't spend too much time on it, but the first one.
Is in verse 3, enduring hardness? The ability to endure hardness is one of the characteristics of a good soldier. It must be fairly important. Paul mentions that again later in the chapter, uh, wherein he said the expression I suffer trouble that appears in verse 9. Umm, it's the same Greek, umm, expression as enduring hardness. He says we're and I suffer trouble as an evildoer even unto bonds. But the word of God is not found. And so he was treated as a criminal for the spread of the gospel.
That was a hardness that he endured and it's one of the characteristics of a good soldier. It's mentioned later again in the 4th chapter where he just repeats the exhortation to Timothy. He says endure hardness. And so that's one of the characteristics of a good soldier is the ability to do that. Umm, the life that we're called to is not an easy life. It's not a cushiony life. Uh, but it's one that involves, umm, hardness. It's one that involves even persecution. That was the hardness that Paul was facing.
The Lord said umm in the garden, umm that.
His his Kingdom was not a Kingdom of this world and so it wasn't a fiscal warfare, but it was one that was spiritual. The 2nd characteristic of a good soldier is mentioned in verse four. He says no man that warth entangle him, entangleth himself with the affairs of his life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And so the good soldier is one who is not entangled with the affairs of this life. His focus as a soldier is on being a soldier.
It's interesting, I kind of like this. If you look at the the last word for soldier in verse four, apparently that's a different Greek expression than the other ones.
And that has to be, uh, that's actually the word warrior. And so, umm, it says that we, God has chosen us to be warriors. Fighting is what we're meant to do. And so, umm, I wanna connect this with two verses. Umm, I can find them. One is in Matthew chapter 6.
Umm, let's see if I have these written down I guess. Well, hopefully I can find it.
00:05:04
Umm let's see umm verse 22. The light of the body is the eye. If therefore thine eye be single, my whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, my whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness? No man can serve 2 masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon. And so here I believe this is part of.
Turn around the mountain. The Lord umm, applies this principle in a specific way, umm, having to do with the master of money. But the principle, the general principle is, is broader than just having to do with money. You can't serve 2 masters, you can only serve one. And so, and like I said, I just wanted to connect that to the thought of what we saw in Timothy. You don't entangle yourself with the affairs of this life because your job is to please one person.
And that person, uh, is the Lord. And so you can't have two masters, and that includes ourselves. Umm, you can't serve yourself as a master.
And the Lord is master. Maybe that thought will make a little more sense if we just turn quickly to 1St Corinthians chapter 10.
And I I want to see in First Corinthians chapter 10 what I believe the single focus of the soldier is really on.
See, I know where it is verse 31. So this is First Corinthians chapter 10, verse 31. Wherefore, therefore, whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. That is, that should be the single focus of the soldier. That's what his aim is in pleasing his Lord and pleasing his Master and pleading his Sergeant, his overseer, is to fight for the glory of God.
Not our own glory. Like I said sometimes umm the opposing master between God and.
The other master is whether we try and serve ourselves. So that's the second characteristic of a good soldier is he has a single focus on pleasing his Lord. The third one I want to look at, and this is in Chronicles, I believe it's First Chronicles chapter 12.
And the expression that interests me actually appears twice in this chapter, but I see it in verse 33, so I'll just read it from there. And it says of Zebulun such as went forth to battle expert in war with all instruments of war 50,000 which could keep ring. They were not of double heart the expression that.
Me in this verse is keep rank. The men of Zebulun had the ability to keep rank, to stay in line, stay in the formation that they were given. And a brother shared this with me. I appreciated the thought, he said. You know what every assembly needs?
Every assembly needs more men who will keep rank and I, I apologize if if, if my examples are more directed to the men as I've thought about this verse on my own. That's obviously naturally the context in which I've been thinking about it. But I think the principle is true for umm, the ladies in this room as well. The ability to keep bring. What does it mean? What does it look like for a soldier, in this case a, a Christian in their local assembly? What does it look like to keep rain? I'm just gonna list an example of a couple of the things I think of what it.
Or what it looks like to be able to keep rank. Say you're, you go to the Wednesday night reading meeting and you're very happy for those who are older and for those who are more gifted to, uh, do the teaching. But what if some night, you know, people are gone at a conference or whatever and it's just a couple of brothers?
Who never normally speak in the reading meeting. Where are you? Are you gonna spend the next hour looking at each other?
Well, the ability to keep rank is the ability to jump in and fill the hole that's there. You might not be specifically gifted as a teacher, but you have the ability to teach because you know the Word of God. And so you can feel that role. Keeping rank, UMM, is being there where you're needed, when you're needed to do what's done, whether you feel like that's really your role or not. That's what I would take from this thought of keeping.
Need more than in our assemblies and more sisters who have the ability to keep ranked. So these are really just the the three qualities of a good soldier. I wanted to mention to us umm, just to summarize and what they are the it's the ability to endure hardness. We are in a war. War conditions are not cushy. The second quality of a good soldier is they have a single focus to serve their master and to please him in the third quality of.
00:10:11
Soldier is they have the ability to keep rank, umm, a willingness to do what needs to be done where they're placed. So those are the three qualities of a good soldier. That's really all I had. Umm, uh, I think we'll be able to enjoy some of the war themed activities, uh, through the rest of the day to remind ourselves we're in the Lord's army. I think our next activity is go. And if I remember what those initials stand for, it's God only.
And so I think most of you have been at this camp before, so you'll know what it is. I forget how long the time is scheduled, but basically the burden on our heart is what ended up being something.
Essentially that Josh Stewart talked about in his meeting and that's that you would spend time alone in the word of God, uh, with the Lord. And so whether you spend that time more in meditation on the word or whether you spend that time more in study on the word, uh, we want you out there, uh, with your Bibles forever along the scheduled time is just to send it with him, not with your friends, not on your phone, which probably doesn't work here anyhow. Umm, but just to spend it with your Bible and with the Lord. You can pray, you can read. Umm, it might be a longer time than.
Used to, sometimes our muscles need to be, uh, strengthened over time. Uh, so it might be difficult to spend this much time in the word of God if you're not used to it, but it starts with a step. We're just going to kind of throw you in the deep end. Umm, so you can, umm, pray, pray war. Being a prayer warrior was one of the things that was mentioned at this conference. Just read, umm, if you find you've matched your ability to meditate on a verse, just keep reading.
And I think you'll find that's a lot of profit.