Fear is a Reaction; Courage is a Choice

Thank you, Mr. Barker. Good to be here with you. Hard act to follow. It's always exciting to come with ABC, especially the first one. You don't know if you're giving a sermon, a split, or a sermonette. Depending on how much time they leave you. The sermon today actually used for graduation address a couple years ago. And Mr. Barker said, why don't you come up to Dayton and give us a sermon?

So I finally got here. The title of my sermon, Fear is a Reaction, Courage is a Choice. Indeed, for the world, it's a time of fear. Wars going on, Ukraine and Russia, China may attack Taiwan. But we know there's a time of trouble even worse than that coming ahead.

But we also know the solution to that is the kingdom of God and the hope. They do not have that. They do not have the knowledge that we have. Do we have fear or do we have courage? In 1981, we had an appointment in Nepal with the recently crowned king and queen. His father, King Berenda, had died, and now we're meeting with his son.

Meeting with King Berenda and Queen Ashwarya, they had heard from the king and queen of Thailand how much the foundation had done our students and Armstrong to help their people. Nepal was a very poor country, very uneducated, and they sought help.

So they asked for us to come visit them, which we did. They spoke of the problems in Nepal, the government corruption, foreign aid that they needed. They wanted our help. To take us around the city, they assigned us Aditya Rana, a man whom I spent some time with.

Being over the foundation of the projects, I would deal with him in what we were going to do in Thailand. I spent time with him, his wife Serena, and his children. His son, his oldest son, was the aide to the crown prince. Aditya Rana at the first meeting wasn't a very impressive man. He was slightly above average height for Nepalese, about 5'8 or so. He wore wool pants, a shirt, and a very heavy coat.

Of course, he gets cold in Nepal. A lot of the people dress similarly. His demeanor was proud but not arrogant. He stood erect and walked briskly. He smiled warmly at everyone he met. Everyone in the country seemed to know him. Everywhere I went, I noticed people sit up straight. Some of them saluted him. They called him General. And I didn't know why. He didn't wear a uniform, and his age told me he had long ago left the army.

In the United States, becoming a General means a lot. In Asia, if you stay in long enough, you can become a General. So that didn't mean a whole lot. We spent considerable time with him. He was a retired Gurkha soldier. Michelle and I were impressed by him. He was not a great orator, but a quiet man. Like I said, everywhere we'd go, you'd hear the hushed tones. People would get very quiet. They'd look at him and point. Some of them stood at attention and saluted him. I learned that General Rana's grandfather was actually a Prime Minister, more like a King in Nepal, from a long line of Ranas.

They'd been unseated by the British about 50 years before. And the King and Queen, the Shah Dynasty, was restored over that. But that was about a half century ago. And here they were. There was humility in this family. As we talked to them and learned their thing, I finally asked someone, why is he so respected?

I thought they'd tell me it was because his father or his grandfather ruled Nepal. But that's not what they said. They said he saved Nepal from the Chinese. And they said this as if I should have known. When I asked why, I heard the story. The King heard from an outpost that the Chinese had sent a couple battalions of soldiers that were coming up from China through the past.

And he needed to stop them. If they came, it would mean Nepal to be annexed by China and become Communist. They didn't want to do that. It was a time for fear. And fear is a reaction. Courage is a choice. There had been no declaration of war, so this was a surprise attack. And there was little time to move an army up to 16,000 feet to the pass from Kathmandu, which stood at about 5,000 feet.

There were no roads. The Chinese army was on its way. The pass was about 30 miles away and about 2 miles higher than where they were in Kathmandu. And they'd have to go on foot. Without hesitation, Aditya Rana volunteered. Choosing courage over fear. He gathered about 25 to 30 men. They loaded up food supplies they could put in their pack and filled the rest of it with ammunition. And took off to fend over 2,000 Chinese soldiers. There was no time.

And it seemed like an impossible task. I'm sure there was some fear. But fear is a reaction and courage is a choice. With rifles and their food, they traveled all day and all night. And they got to the pass just ahead of the Chinese soldiers. He knew his small troop could not stop a superior Chinese army with hand-to-hand combat, so they climbed another 400 or 500 foot above the pass and held them off with their rifles.

They held them off for nearly a week in the freezing cold and rain. A small band of gherkies holding off the entire Chinese army. The Chinese finally gave up and left. General Rana and his band lived up to the reputation of the gherkas, where fear is a reaction and courage is a choice. Turn to Numbers 13, if you would. Israel faces situations similar to this in coming out of Egypt. In Numbers 13, God speaks to Moses. In verse 1, he tells Moses, in verse 2, Send men that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel.

Of every tribe of their fathers you will send a man, every one a ruler among them. Top men. Supposedly men of courage. In their commission, verse 18, See the land, what it is, and the people that dwell there, whether they are strong or weak, few or many. And the land is where they dwell, is it good or bad? And the cities, are they intense or strongholds? And the land, is it fat or lean? Is there wood there? And be you of good courage and bring the fruit of the land. Now is the time of the first ripe grapes. Going down to verse 26, they came to Moses and Aaron, to all the congregation of Israel.

Verse 27, they told him, We came to this land where you sent us, and surely it flows with milk and honey, and this is the fruit thereof. Nevertheless, the people are strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled and very great. Moreover, we saw the children of Anak there. The Amalekites were there, the Hittites, the Jebusites, the Amorites, and the mountains and the Canaanites dwell by the sea.

But Caleb, verse 30, stood up, and stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once and take it, for we are able to overcome it. Courage is a choice. But the men that went up with them said, We are not able to go against these people, for they are stronger than we. Fear is a reaction. And they brought this evil report of the land which they had searched out for the children of Israel. The land through which we have gone to search, a land that eats up the inhabitants thereof, the people we saw are men of great statue, the giants, the sons of Anak, which come from the giants.

We're like grasshoppers. They were in fear. Ten of them, only Joshua and Caleb, stood up with courage. In Numbers 14, verse 2, it says, The children of Israel murmured against Moses. And they said, We should have gone back to the land of Egypt and died there. Now we're out here in this wilderness to die. Verse 2, Why has the Lord brought us this land to fall by the sword? Our wives, our children should be a prey. Were it not better for us to return to Egypt?

They blamed God. Having just seen the miracles they went through with the plagues. And now they're afraid. Again, fear is a reaction. Courage is a choice. The ten reacted. They let fear stop them to the point of virtually denying God. Even He had just delivered them. He'd held the walls up of the Red Sea and all the plagues. Joshua and Caleb showed courage and trust in God. And said, Let's take the land.

But the people wouldn't listen. They went so far even as to want to stone Moses and Aaron. And God tells Moses, verse 12, chapter 14, I'll smite them with pestilence and disinherit them. I'll make you a greater nation and mightier than they. Now we see the meekness of Moses and the humility of Moses.

He shows that in reasoning with God to save them. He understood that this is about God and His glory. And so He says, God, the people who say you are big enough to get them out of Egypt, but you took them into the wilderness to kill them. They will not see you as the true God and all-powerful.

Don't do this. Forgive their sin. And He did. We can also react in fear. Our enemy is Satan the devil. He's huge. But God has given us help. 2 Timothy 1, verse 7, He can ask us if we live up to the reputation and courage of Joshua and Caleb. Or do we fear like the ten? Do we have the humility of Moses? Those who lived and died before us show us both the price of fear and the gain of courage. We should have courage because God gave us the help we need.

2 Timothy 1, verse 7, God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Don't be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me as prisoner. Be partakers of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God. Paul had courage. Fear is a reaction. Courage is a choice. And with God's spirit, it should be our choice. Turn to Mark 14. Let's look at the disciples and what they did. In Mark 14, Jesus is about to be crucified. They don't know it.

They're up there with them. The band of brothers. We're all here. And Jesus told them in verse 27, You shall be offended because of me this night. For it is written, I'll smite the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. But after I am arisen, I will go before you to Galilee. Verse 29, Peter says, Oh, although all shall be offended, I will not. I'll stand up. Jesus said to him, This day, even this night, before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times.

Verse 31, Peter, he spoke more vehemently. He was bold. Hey, if I should die with you, I will not deny you in any way. Likewise, also said they all. Bold talk. Ready to die. We'll stand up for you. But Jesus prays, and then Judas comes with the soldiers to take him away. Verse 45, Matthew, Mark 14. As soon as he was come, he goes straightway to him and said, Master, and kissed him. Judas betrayed him with a kiss. They laid hands on him and took him. Verse 47, one of them that stood by drew a sword, smoked a servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear.

He was bold, willing to be bold his way, but not God's way. Jesus answered and said, Are you come out against us, a thief with swords and staves, just take me? I was daily with you in the temple teaching. You didn't take me, but the Scripture must be fulfilled. In verse 50, they all forsook him. We'll never leave you. They all forsook him and fled. Fear is a reaction. Courage is a choice. Christ had the courage. They had fear. But in Acts 2, you turn there, you don't have to stay in fear.

Peter did follow them, and he did deny Christ three times. Peter and the rest repented. Fear is their reaction. Now, courage was to be their choice. In Acts 2, 22, the famous speech, The men of Israel hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, and you yourselves also know, him being delivered by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God you have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified him in slain, whom God has raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held of it.

A powerful sermon. They pricked them in their ears, and they asked, What shall we do? In verse 38, he said, Repent and be baptized, every one of you. He was bold now. He was special. What did they get for this boldness? Well, they went to the temple the next day.

Acts 3, verse 1, Peter and John went together to the temple at the hour of prayer. And a certain lame man from his mother womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered the temple. Who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked for alms.

And Peter, fastening his eyes on him, said, Look at us. Look at us. And he gave heed to them, expecting to receive something. Peter said, Silver and gold, have I none, but such as I have, I give it to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he grabbed his hand and pulled him up, and he leaped, and he walked. And the people saw him walking and praising God. And what did they get for this boldness, for this miracle? Verse 13 of chapter 4, When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived they were unlured men and ignorant, they marveled and took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus.

And they saw the man healed there. They couldn't deny what happened. He'd been there for 40 years.

Verse 16, What shall we do to these men? Indeed, a notable miracle has been done. Manifest to all them, we cannot deny it. And they called them and commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach in the name of Jesus.

John says, Peter, Whether it be right in the sight of God, to hearken to you more than to God, you judge that. We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.

Fear was a reaction, but now courage was their choice. And they threatened them further and let them go. God called them to be bold for him. He called you to be bold for him. John 6, 44 says, No man can condemn except the Father which sent me draws him. He drew you. He called you. My last visit to General Rana was in 1986. Shortly after Mr. Armstrong died, I was sent over to... ...to finalize the project to introduce what was happening with the New Pastor General.

It was an interesting time.

As we were sitting there in the airport about to leave, he said to me something I'll never forget. He said, We made a big mistake.

We should have lost to the British. You see, in Nepal, it was the only independent country in the region that actually beat the British as they were building their empire in their colonial expansion. Why do I tell this story to you today? Because we are a people very similar to the Gurkis. We get new members in the church and our youth. They need to know to be bold like the Gurkis, bold like the Apostles after the Resurrection.

As a church, God has put together a group who are similar to the Gurkis. Let me explain. I always thought the Gurkis were just a tribe, but actually it was different than that. It was a group of people. The British, in their colonial pursuits, learned the hard way 200 years ago how tough they were in the Gurkha War from 1814 to 1816. The British troop invaded this small country of Nepal. They expected a very quick rescue. They had just conquered India with a thousand times more people. This should be an easy war. Yet they suffered heavy casualties. Eventually, they signed a hasty peace treaty with the Gurkhas. They offered them to pay the Gurkhas to join their army. Come fight with us. We're tired of fighting against you. You killed too many of us. A British soldier of the 87-foot regiment wrote in his memoirs of this war, I never saw more steadiness or bravery exhibited in my entire life. Run they would not. Of death they seemed to have no fear, though their comrades were falling thick around them.

The Gurkhas then fought for the British for the next 150 years in two world wars in dozens of countries. Gurkha bravery and cohesiveness is legendary, but not without a cause.

Phil Marsher's Sam Menica once famously said about the Gurkhas, If a man says he's not afraid to die, he's either lying or he's a Gurkha.

During the unsuccessful Gallipoli campaign in 1915, World War I, Gurkhas were among the first to arrive and the last to leave.

The Gurkhas led the assault during the first major operation to take the Turkish high point known as Gurkha Bluff. They were the only troops in the whole campaign to reach and hold the crest and look down on the straits, which was the objective of the attack. The British didn't. Sarah, the Canadians didn't. Ris, the Azzies didn't.

Only the Gurkhas.

One of the most famous battles in the Battle of the Eighth Gurkhas that served with Lawrence of Arabia. Written by the British commander lieutenant, General Sir James Wilcox, they fought to the last man during the Battle of Luz from June to December 1915, hurling themselves time after time against the weight of the German defenses. They died to the last man.

Everyone wanted the Gurkhas to fight for. Why? They were loyal to their word. They were willing to die rather than betray a friend or give up in a fight. They never gave up. They never quit. Fear is a reaction. Courage is a choice. Why do I compare this small group of people who took on the British Empire and won to us? Well, every year we get a small group of students that come to Ambassador College. They come here with one purpose in mind, to learn to live God's Word, to learn to defend the faith. Just like the church, we're all called from a very diverse background, a group of people. To learn to live God's way. For 6,000 years, God has been selecting very few people to be part of His first fruits, part of His army.

People today scattered countries, not only in distance, but in time. People from a thousand years ago, from 2,000 years ago, from 5,000 years ago. The Gurkhas were not a single people, as I had thought, with some kind of special loyalty to their tribe. The Gurkha recruits actually were from many tribal groups, different ethnic groups. The Magar, the Rai, the Limbu, the Gurang, the Tamang, the Karanti tribes, which were the Tibetan-Mongolian background. Also, there were the ethnic Rajit and the Chitri and the Brahmin tribes. They all joined to make up what was called the Gurkhas. They have one thing in common. They lay aside their tribal uniqueness for a greater sense and a signal as a purpose. In essence, they become one for a cause, and that makes them a formidable force. The Bible describes people in 1 Peter 2, verse 9. If you turn there.

It says there, you probably don't need the turn, you probably memorized it. Because it says you are a chosen people. A chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, peculiar people. That you should show forth the praise of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. And in times past, you were not a people, but you are now the people of God. Which did not obtain mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Each of us, as different as we are from different backgrounds, from different places, have become God's army. When our young people can't come each year in August to ABC, they are a group of individuals. They have to learn to giveth themselves and to work with others. With people they mostly didn't know before. They have to put on activities such as this ABC Sabbath, the charity auction, service activities. And they become a team and a force for good. Likewise in the church, God has selected you to be part of a group of individuals from all around the world.

From different backgrounds, different ethnics, different nationalities, different races. We have to put out God's message of the kingdom and help make disciples. We faculty and staff can't make the students become one. The ministers, the elders, we can't make the people of God become one.

It has to be a choice that we each make.

A choice that you... We can't make you take on humility. We can't make you take on service. We can't make you take the courage to take on the world. Anymore than someone can make someone a gurka soldier. You have to choose to go, where fear is a reaction, but courage is a choice.

Perhaps there's some fear that you had coming into God's church. And it is truth, but you came. You let God's Holy Spirit lead you and guide you. You had to have the courage to forsake your own desires. Some of you may have been disowned by your own family. My wife was for a time. Some of you lost jobs to keep God's Sabbath and Holy Days. But you chose courage and began your journey toward a unified body with a single goal. The kingdom of God. Our young people face challenges in school. Challenges to accept wrong ideas. Challenges of people telling them there are no absolutes, no real truths. Everyone has their own truths.

If you use humility, you use courage, the knowledge that you're learning to build that relationship with God and Christ, you'll know the truth. By word is truth. You will succeed in your relationship with them and each other. Because courage is a choice. Satan wants you to give in to falses and to fear. Fear is a reaction.

Fear has taken many people out of the Promised Land.

When you enter God's army like the Gurkhas, you have to be willing to live or die for a cause. I ask you to take on that kind of spiritual bravery. Not for one battle, but for the rest of your lives. If you're willing to die, you'll also be legendary. More legendary than a Gurkha, more legendary than General Rana is to his people and his country. You'll be legendary like Joshua and Caleb. And enter the Promised Land. And you can enter God's Promised Land because the true Promised Land is the kingdom, the future. Just as the Gurkhas are in demand in this militaristic world, you're in demand now and in the future. You will teach the world how to have peace because you know how. The world doesn't know it yet, but it will. Your neighbors don't know it yet, but they will. Your school friends don't know it yet, but they will. You see, you don't have a choice of what will happen. God controls that. You just have a choice of whether you want to be part of it or not. That's your choice. You can react in fear and not go to the Promised Land. You can betray your calling and flee like the disciples of the crucifixion. Or you can have courage and be part of God's army, which ends in victory. It's the song they sang. We win.

Fear is a reaction. Courage is a choice. This world is built on lies.

Governments are corrupt. Media sends a narrative that they want you to believe. Instead of the truth, it's misinformation. Labeled is truth. Truth is often called misinformation. In Isaiah 5, verse 20, it was prophesied. This would be it if you turned there. It is true in many aspects of Satan's world. There's some truth, a lot of error. Satan is the father of lies and of division. We have both truth and misinformation in the world. In Isaiah 5, verse 20, God says, Woe to them that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight. That's where this world is. And it's getting worse.

In this world, truth is to be manipulated. Real truth is irrelevant to the world, but not to you. We are not like the world. We must deal in truth. Truth is God wins, not Satan.

In the not-so-distant future, the world will look to you, will ask you that way to peace. They'll know that you have been and are loyal to God.

We're told that in Zechariah 8, 23. I'll just read it one verse. In those days which are going to pass, of all the languages of the nations, they shall take hold of the skirt of him that's a Jew, saying, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you. You are destined under Christ to teach the rest of the world. Gurkhas became legendary through war. You'll make your mark by being humble, going against what the world values. There have been 26 Victoria Crosses and over 3,000 medals of bravery to members of the Gurkha regiments from the kings and queens of England. Very prestigious. The largest ethnic group to be awarded that many medals. Hebrews 11 gives us the faith chapter with God's Medal of Honor recipients.

Some were saved and some who died. They lived in difficult times.

The list is small in comparison to the population of the world, but you've been called to be on that list.

It's not complete.

There's yet more to come. All those God calls. 1 Peter 5, you turn there. What does God give us a reward? You're destined to get a crown, an eternal crown from God Almighty. 1 Peter 5 and verse 4, it says, When the chief shepherds shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fades not away. How do you get there? Verse 5, Likewise, you younger, submit yourselves to the elders. It's all of you be subject one to another. Be clothed with humility. All of our splits and divisions are caused because of a lack of humility. Seen it over and over in my lifetime. For God resists the proud, gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. Casting all your care on Him, for He cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour.

You don't have to slay Goliath. You don't have to do great acts of war. You don't have to climb a mountain and fight off the Chinese army. You have the biggest enemy of all, Satan the devil. He wants to devour you. He wants to pollute your mind. He wants you to fail, and He wants you to join Him in calling evil good and good evil. To live in fear when you're actually doing what is right. Will fear make you conform to the world? You may be called a hater simply for quoting Scripture, the Word of God.

We're told to be a living sacrifice. In Scripture, I often quote Romans 12.1, where He tells you to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, ready to live and ready to die for what He has for you, to not be like the world, but be transformed. Fear is a reaction. Courage is a choice. For you, this means the courage to be willing to sacrifice. For you, it's the courage to value your future more than you value the present. For you, it is the courage to give yourself and your time in obedience and in service. It's about making God the Father through Christ the center of your life. You will face trauma as part of God molding you. Paul did. And we do. I often say, why do we get upset at how God chooses to mold us? It's part of His plan. Sometimes these things come outside the church from the world. Sometimes it comes from within the church, sadly. That has been true for me. It's been true for others. People make mistakes. Sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. God is the judge. He knows why. It doesn't matter. You have to be true to God.

The Gurkis saw the enemy without. The Israel and the spies was the enemy within. The enemy that refused to see all the miracles and the power of God that they had just done coming out of Israel. All they could see was the physical challenges of the giants and the people in the fortified cities. They forgot what God did in Egypt. Do we forget? Paul tells us in Romans 8, 18 that he reckoned the sufferings of this present world are not worthy to be compared with that which is going to be revealed in us. When God calls us up to give us our reward, you must consider it an honor, as Paul did, with anything you might suffer. The Gurkis considered it an honor to follow their code of bravery. You must consider it a great honor to follow God's way of life. He called you. He wants you.

You will prove your willingness to follow God by doing the little things for each other, for the Church, even for humans and friends and people who may come to hate you as we near the end of this age. It's not easy and you will face trauma, but fear is a reaction. Courage is a choice. Your coming into God's Church is not a cakewalk. Like the spies in Canaan, we're told the way is narrow. It's hard. Christ said that in Matthew 7. Why does the gate and broad as the way that leads to destruction, but narrow and hard as the way that leads to life?

Romans 8, 36 says, For thy sake were killed all day long, and accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Willingly, as Christ did, if that's what it takes. There are no people like God's people. We are unique. The British found no one like the Gurkis. That's why they asked them to fight for him. In writing about the Gurkis, Sir Ralph Lillie Turnerl, the emcee, who served in the Third Queen's Alexandra's Gurkha Rifles in the First World War wrote this. As I write these last words, my thoughts return to you who are my comrades, the stubborn and indomitable peasants of Nepal. Once more, I hear the laughter with which you greeted every hardship. Once more, I see you in your bivouacs and about your fires, on forced marches and in the trenches, now shivering with wet and cold, scorched by a pitiless burning sun. Uncomplaining, you endured hunger and thirst and wounds. At last, your unwavering lies disappeared into the smoke and the wrath of the battle. The bravest of the brave, most generous of the generous, never had a country more faithful friends than you. We in the Church must become friends. Friends who can serve as a band of brothers, heroes in the cause that we fight for. Our trenches are not physical. Our rain and cold is not physical. Our battle is not with elements of smoke and war. That ends in a few months or a few years. Ours is a lifetime battle. We fight the spiritual fight every day that we live in Satan's kingdom. I'll gladly serve alongside of any and all of you, now and in the future.

As an elder, I want to help encourage you to be strong, by example, by prayer.

As I was passed this truth by my mentor, Herbert Armstrong, who I served with for 12 years, and others, I want to pass it on to them so they can pass it on to others so you can teach your children.

Truly God in Christ through the Holy Spirit holds us all up. General Rotten was tired of fighting, tired of the sacrifices, and for what? He recognized the futility. Why did this man so trained mentally that he could climb mountains, brave severe cold and harsh conditions, fight off a thousand Chinese, say to me, We made a big mistake. We should have lost to the British.

He answered his own question. If we had lost to the British, we would have roads, we'd have bridges, we'd have schools. We would not be so poor and uneducated. We would not have to go fight around the world. Instead, we have our pride. He knew there was a greater cause.

You could have rejected God's calling, made other choices.

If I may paraphrase in reality what General Rotten was saying, that he wanted but didn't even know it, but you do. Mankind, if he had surrendered to God and his way of life, we wouldn't have had 6,000 years of human suffering, of wars, of famines, disease, crime, corruption, poverty, and general human misery.

My last morning in Nepal, I had hoped to go by the shops and buy a kukri. Kukri is a gurken knife. I was impressed by the bravery and loyalty. I thought that'd be a good thing to have. But sadly, as I was leaving, it was Sunday and all the shops were closed. I couldn't have one. When I sat there in the airport with General Rotten, and I made a comment to him, I said, I really wanted to buy a gurken knife while I was here. I didn't have the chance. To my surprise, he reached behind his coat, his big heavy coat, and he pulls it out, and he hands me his gurken knife.

It was difficult to accept in some ways. I didn't believe it when he did it. Because technically, in Asia, if you had a person a knife, you're severing your relationship. You have to either pay for it or be considered a family member. For me, he had to consider me a family member.

If he handed it to me, I couldn't believe that he had done this. You see, it should have probably gone to his son. But he gave it to me. This is the same knife that he gave that he fought the Chinese with in the past. Same knife he carried all through his military career.

I was stunned by the gesture he gave me. I accepted his gift because protocol dictated I should. It had little intrinsic value, but it had great personal and historic value. I wanted to unshoate the knife, so I grabbed it and started it, and I stopped and put it back in. Because I knew you don't open and pull a gurken knife unless you intend to draw blood. I didn't have anybody I wanted to kill. I didn't want to kill myself.

We have been taught to surrender to God. Not with guns and knives, but God offers you spiritual weapons. You only have one offensive weapon, though. You know where I'm going, Ephesians 6. List those weapons that we have. When he tells us to put on the whole armor of God, Ephesians 6, 13, the whole armor of God to be able to withstand the evil day, to stand. Having your loins growed about with truth. Having the breastplate of righteousness. Verse 16, your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Taking the shield of faith, where you can quench the darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. We have a sword. It's our offensive weapon. And that's how we fight our spiritual battles. And you should draw your sword every day and open it and un-sheath it. And use it to draw blood, not others, but your own spiritual blood. To be closer to God and to Christ. You do it to harden yourself spiritually. For strength for your future battles. You do it to try to live up to the image of your older brother, Jesus Christ. And you do it to be like our Father in Heaven, as Christ did. I hope you're never afraid of what you might suffer standing up for God. Fear is a reaction. Courage is a choice. When you lose yourself to God, He begins to build those spiritual bridges. Those spiritual roads, those spiritual schools in your heart and in your mind. May it be written of the church in the last generation of this age and those who preceded us and those yet to be called. You stood together now and beyond for a common purpose. May it be written of you, encouragement you gave freely. Of sin you would not. Of death you had no fear. I never saw more steadiness or bravery and kindness and humility in service at every turn. May you fight with the sword of God's Word to the last man and the last woman. I see you all as future kings and queens in the Kingdom of God. May you, the spiritual body of Christ, go forth with the courage of what you have learned, what you have been taught, and live forever in the glory of God's Kingdom. You will face fear and it will cause a reaction. But may courage always be your choice.