Blank Check

 Read Psalm 91

Today (this message was delivered on 10 November 2024) is the Marine Corps Birthday, and tomorrow is Veterans Day. Normally, we show a video and have the vets stand and be recognized, but today, we will talk a little about warriors.

There is a lot of war and combat in the Bible. War involves killing but is not always murder. Sometimes it is.

Modern warriors train and trust their training. In most Western societies, plenty of safety measures are in place, not to avoid danger but to practice doing dangerous things.

The old phrase there are no atheists in combat is a lie. The human heart can deceive the mind and declare there is no God, even when there is existential risk. That means risk to your existence. Even when someone is trying to kill you.

Chances are that I won’t ever see a combat zone again, unless we decide we are having a civil war—which is an oxymoron—here in these United States, but God has expectations for warriors.  They are not really that different from those of other Christians. They just hit home a little differently for the warrior.

Christian warriors trust not only their training but they trust God.

They have faith not only in each other—the guy or gal next to you is often your greatest motivation for taking personal risk—but they have faith in God as well.

Bombs and bullets don’t really discriminate. They don’t care about your faith, but the One in whom you have faith does.

I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,

    my God, in whom I trust.”

Surely he will save you

    from the fowler’s snare

    and from the deadly pestilence.

He will cover you with his feathers,

    and under his wings you will find refuge;

    his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

We understand what refuge is. We know what a fortress is. We know what a shield is. We don’t use the traditional shields that protect the warrior from enemy arrows or swords, but we have other shields.

The psalmist declares that God will be those things for us.

Does anyone know what a rampart is? It could be the walkway at the top of a castle wall or a dirt berm in front of a fighting hole.

What does it do? It stops some, hopefully all, of whatever the enemy is sending your way:  arrows, bullets, rockets, and things that go boom or through your body.

God will be a rampart for you. The psalmist declares that God will protect you.   

Does that mean that only atheists die in combat? No. The risk to life is the same for the righteous and the wicked, but the righteous know that there is life for us even when our life-sustaining functions in this body cease.

So what’s the point of a warrior being a godly person?  It’s no different than for any other person. This message is not for armed combatants. It is for every Christian.

We should have a warrior mindset in much of what we do. What’s that mean?

Let’s start with our mission. We are commissioned to accomplish it. We must see it as an objective assigned to us by our Commanding Officer. What mission?

Go! Make disciples, baptize, and teach. It is that straightforward, yet we often think of it as secondary to the day’s schedule. Yeah, okay, if I can work it in.

Paul used the examples of an Olympic athlete and a soldier to make this point. The soldier—the warrior—wants to please his commanding officer. He is not distracted by other matters.

For us, let’s be creative and say for a soldier of the cross, that means keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, taking his yoke, learning from him, and putting his words into practice. No arrows. No bullets. No bombs, just obedience.

We take his word to the world and make disciples.

We trust in the Lord completely.

We keep our eyes fixed on him and press on.

We desire to please our Commanding Officer more than we might be afraid of what we must overcome.

We trust and obey.

Has anyone read the Charge of the Light Brigade? It’s a classic by Alfred Lord Tennyson from about 170 years ago. The battle takes place in the Crimean War. It is dubbed the Battle of Balaclava. The United Kingdom is fighting Russians. The Russians have the key terrain and are more than ready to defend it and defeat their British enemy if they attack.  And they do.

It didn’t go well. Only after it was too late did the senior officers in the brigade realize they were hopelessly riding to their deaths. For you Trekkies, this was the real-life version of the Kobayashi Maru-the no-win scenario.

But the brigade kept moving forward. The words will sound familiar to most of you.

Half a league, half a league,

Half a league onward,

All in the valley of Death

   Rode the six hundred.

“Forward, the Light Brigade!

Charge for the guns!” he said.

Into the valley of Death

   Rode the six hundred.

And they were decimated. Few survived. The battle was lost but he soldiers trusted their officers and the officers trusted their orders and they kept pressing forward despite the hopelessness.

The battle was lost, but Tennyson kept their courage alive and made it legendary. Despite the mission's impossibility becoming more evident with each passing minute, they rode onward.

Theirs was not to reason why. Theirs was but to do or die.

Nobody is shooting at us, but how often do we abandon the mission that God gave us? Maybe I will give it a try tomorrow. Maybe when I get around to it. Maybe…

We paused today to remember our veterans. A country that forgets its veterans will soon be without warriors to serve today. Today, however, we move beyond remembrance and recognition to adopting some of their warrior qualities.

Translated into 2024 terms, that means:

·       We take his word to the world and make disciples.

·       We trust in the Lord completely.

·       We keep our eyes fixed on him and press on.

·       We desire to please our Commanding Officer more than we might be afraid of what we must overcome.

·       We trust and obey.

We trust and obey.

The story of David and Goliath might have been good for today. I also thought about the Battle of Jericho or of God reducing Gideon’s warriors so it would be evident that God gave him the victory. Still, I ultimately settled on these thoughts on a Sunday when we consider our warriors.

Trust and obey.

I thought that today would be good for a few Marine Corps quotes. Have you seen the one that accompanies the picture of Jim Mattis still in uniform. It reads:  Marines don’t know the meaning of the word quit. Of course, they are Marines and don’t know the meaning of a lot of words.

I don’t think he actually said the last part, but my brothers from another mother keep sending it around anyway.

Today’s Veterans Day message is simple. Trust and obey.

Marne recruits are taught instant, willing obedience from the moment they step off the bus at Parris Island or San Diego. The instant—the immediate—obedience is easy.

Obedience that is instant and willing takes a while longer. But success lies in the warrior's willing obedience.

Every warrior thinks at some point, perhaps at many points, that the orders of his seniors are ridiculous, but they obey immediately and willingly. It’s something of a paradox.

Long ago in a place called Parris Island, I was second in command of a recruit training company. The company commander would send me to the weekly staff meeting.

I would brief him after the meeting. I would say something, and he would reply, "Whose boneheaded idea was that?"

I would tell him the next item and get the same reply, "Whose boneheaded idea was that?"

I would give him the next item and get the same response. Sometimes, I would say that was the colonel’s idea, to which the captain would say, “Lieutenant, that’s what we call a good boneheaded idea.”

Every warrior thinks at some point, perhaps at many points, that the orders of his seniors are ridiculous, but they obey immediately and willingly. It’s something of a paradox.

But what if our Commanding Officer is God, and we don’t think he thought his orders to us through?

We trust and obey. Get in warrior mode and think instant, willing obedience to orders.

Think to Proverbs 3:5-6. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart. I will stop there for a moment.

Trust God with everything you’ve got. You don’t have to understand everything that went into God’s command, but you must be willing to obey what he tells us to do instantly and willingly.

How could we give God less than we expect a soldier to give a human commander?

This is God we are talking about. How can we say, maybe later, to something God has told us to do.

How can we dismiss the commands of our Lord and Savior so casually?

The answer is in the next part of the proverb. We do what we are told not to do and rely on our own understanding over that of God.

We have used this analogy for several decades. The veteran is someone who wrote a blank check to his country at one point in his or her life. It’s a fair comparison.

So, Christian, are you prepared to write a blank check to God? Will you do what he commands, or is it easy to dismiss them as casual suggestions? Let’s start with just a few.

We take his word to the world and make disciples.

We trust in the Lord completely.

We keep our eyes fixed on him and press on.

We desire to please our Commanding Officer more than we might be afraid of what we must overcome.

We trust and obey.

After the Korean War, the United States developed the Code of Conduct for members of the Armed Forces of the United States. The nature of warfare had changed, and the code was required to prepare warriors for possible captivity by the enemy. This was a time of brainwashing and we needed standards.

The words that I remember have been changed somewhat to make them more gender-neutral, but this is how I remember it.

I am an American fighting man. I serve in the forces which guard my country and our way of life. I am prepared to give my life in their defense.

I will never surrender of my own free will. If in command, I will never surrender my men while they still have the means to resist.

The rest goes on to what to do if captured—the name, rank, and service number thing and the duty to escape. It wraps up with this summary.

I will never forget that I am an American fighting man, fighting for freedom, responsible for my actions, and dedicated to the principles which made my country free. I will trust in my God and in the United States of America.

That’s some patriotic stuff right there. Why don’t we Christians have a little mantra like that.  How would it go?

I am a Christian warrior. I serve God and put his commands into practice and they are not a burden. I am prepared to give my life to the One who gave his for me.

I will never surrender to the enemy, for in Christ I am victorious.

If I am surrounded, I will strengthen what remains.

If captured by the enemy, I will trust God’s Spirit to give me the words to say.

I will never stop trusting God and obeying his commands.

I will never forget who I belong to and will give my life to bring glory to his name.

Being a warrior for God, a Christian warrior, a soldier of the cross is mostly about our mindset. As far as the battle goes, it belongs to the Lord and the Lord has won. God wins. We share in his victory.

The question is how we will face the world, especially when our orders seem to send us to certain death, failure, or embarrassment. Not everything is combat, but we should be ready all the same.

Half a league, half a league,

Half a league onward,

All in the valley of Death

   Rode the six hundred.

“Forward, the Light Brigade!

Charge for the guns!” he said.

Into the valley of Death

   Rode the six hundred.

Are we ready to write that blank check to God?

Let’s not be the Summer Soldiers and Sunshine Patriots that Thomas Paine described. Let’s be genuine in writing our blank checks to God.

Amen.

 

Matthew 4 - Part 1

 

Read Matthew 4

Sometimes, looking at the original language is helpful.  Sometimes it is confusing.  Language is no currency exchange where on any given day there is an exact exchange rate.  Language is always an approximate fit.

Even today, language varies from decade to decade.  Sometimes it seems to vary year to year.  There are new words and new idioms and of course, there is slang.

When I was in the United Nations, we had officers from 32 different nations.  English was the official language.  We had 10 radio channels of which not all were assigned.  Channel 1 was not assigned, so if a Russian in the Southern Sector wanted to talk with one of his countrymen in the Northern Sector, he would ask that officer to switch to Channel 1 for a national conversation.  Then the two officers would speak in their native Russian.

One evening we were passing the time in the desert talking about all manner of things, and I mentioned that the Americans could never have a private conversation because everyone had to speak English and it didn’t matter what channel we were on, anyone could listen in.

I was surprised when many officers told me that when two Americans were talking to each other, nobody else knew what they were saying.  Language is not always as straightforward as it might seem.  Exploring various translations of the original language can be helpful or sometimes a rabbit trail that does not produce much fruit, but it is interesting to consider some various translations of a few words in this first verse.

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

The root word here is anagó.  It is a verb that means, by most translations, to be led or led up, but consider the other meanings attached to it:  bring, brought, launched, led, put out to sea, putting out to sea, set sail, setting sail.

Last week when I talked about the baptism of Jesus being like the commissioning of a ship, many of your just thought I was using nautical analogies because all of my cruises were canceled.  Consider the validity of this analogy.

The ministry of Jesus set sail.  He was underway.  The Spirit put him out to sea.  In this case, the sea happened to be the wilderness, but Jesus was underway in his ministry and his ministry began with a head-to-head encounter with the devil.

Jesus fasted 40 days and nights.  That will bring you to the point of physical weakness that none of us have experienced.  He was as weak in the flesh as a person can be, and then he faced the temper—the devil.

We know what comes next.  Jesus was hungry.  There was no way he was not starving at this point and the devil said, why not just make some bread out of these stones?  C’mon now.  You’re the Son of God.  This would be easy stuff for you, C’mon!

You know the response.  Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.   

Think to John 4 when Jesus tells the disciples that he has food they know nothing about.  His food is to fulfill the will of his Father, to do the things he was sent to do.

Think to his baptism.  Jesus was baptized to fulfill all righteousness.  It all comes down to doing what God says to do, even if you are starved and could turn rocks into rye bread.

The devil didn’t pack up and leave, he took Jesus to the highest part of the temple in Jerusalem.  He double dog dared Jesus to jump off.  C’mon, you know that your Father will dispatch angels to save you.  You won’t even hit the ground hard.  The angels will set you down gently.  C’mon.

The devil knew God’s words as well, at least one psalm. 

Jesus Knew his Father’s words as well.  Do not put the Lord, your God, to the test. Read all of Deuteronomy 6 to get the full context.  Here’s the short version.  God gets really angry if you test him by putting other gods before him.  Just do what he says.

Is there ever a time to put God to the test?

This part is prelude to the next temptation.  The devil took Jesus up on the highest mountain and told him to take a good look around.  For the simple act of bowing down and worshipping his tempter, Jesus could have everything that he saw. 

C’mon man.  This is the deal of deals.  Whatever your Father has sent you to do is going to be difficult at times.  This is all yours for one simple act of worship.  C’mon.

What’s the real offer here?  Skip the trip to the cross and take the immediate payout.

Jesus told the devil to hit the road.  It is written:  Worship the Lord, your God, and serve him only.  Deuteronomy 6 was a popular chapter in this encounter.

Perhaps these temptations remind you of Jacob and Esau.  Esau was famished and sold his birthright for a bowl of stew.  Imagine being 40 days famished and staying the course of what your Father in heaven sent you to accomplish.

It would be so much easier to take immediate gratification.  Who could blame a starving man for eating?  Who among us could have held out a moment longer?

But Jesus would fulfill all righteousness. The devil hit the road and angels came to attend to Jesus. 

Understand that Jesus could have done everything he was tempted to do.  We know the 4 gospels.  Jesus turned water to wine.  He fed multitudes with a couple fish and a few loaves of bread.  The wind obeyed him.

Jesus could have done a triple backflip off the top of the temple and landed more gently than if he was diving into a pool.

Of greater importance to Jesus was to do the will of his Father.  He did.  Now it was time to preach and minister.  Jesus identified himself as the light of the world in John’s gospel.  Isaiah told the world that this light was coming.

Jesus—the light of the world—has come.  Hear the message of the Lord as he began to preach.

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.

Amen.