Fear is a Reaction, Courage is Choice

Thank you, Ms. Guy. I'd like to thank Jimmy Guy, too. He actually helped my wife about 10 years ago, if he remembers that. Probably would. My wife was going back to see her father, who was in the hospital and dying. And I was in the Philippines. I couldn't go, so she drove the car and got a flat tire right around here. It was January 1st, and no one was there to help. A friend called Guy, and he came and picked her up and took care of her. She went on. I'd written her father's eulogy, because when he had the stroke for two years, he told all sorts of things that he never told anybody else in the family.

So I wrote it for her, and she read it. It worked out really well for her. But I thank you for the help back then when I couldn't do it. That's what members do for one another, is they help each other in times of need. I'll get everything situated here, if I can.

I appreciate being able to come up here and speak to you. It's always fun.

Mr. Armstrong, when I was flying with him, those of you who are new, I flew for 12 years with Mr. Armstrong before he died. He asked me several times, why don't you speak more? I said, well, they didn't come to hear me.

So he died, and I spoke more.

This day is very special in so many ways. It's actually my birthday.

Not on the Julian calendar, but on the Hebrew calendar. I was born on the Feast of Trumpets. Didn't know it at the time. My mom was to the church. She came in and started listening right after I was born. My name, Erin, was a biblical name, but she hadn't read the Bible once she named me. So it was more coincidence than anything else. But about age 40, somebody was asking, what day you were born on. We had one of those calendars that converts days to the Hebrew calendar. It turned out I was born on the Feast of Trumpets in 1952. Didn't even know it. So I get to celebrate my birthday twice. Months was second time.

It's always fun.

A little less than 2,000 years ago, John records Pilate asking Jesus, are you the king of the Jews?

And he answered him and said, my kingdom's out of this world, or else my servants would fight.

Every kingdom change has a war. It has a time of change, whether it was from Babylon to Persia, or Persia to Greece, Greece to Rome. And there will be another war when this day is fulfilled, when Christ returns. It's a day of reckoning, a day of hope, a day that all of us look forward to. It's a day for fear, for some, a day of courage for others.

When Christ said he was a king, Pilate asked him, are you a king then? And he says, to this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness of the truth, and those, everyone that hears me, hears my voice, everyone who wants the truth.

Jesus was about to enter his worst trial, and he was unafraid. His courage was full.

We're here today to praise God, to look at his plan, to look at our destiny, and I'd ask, do you hear your king? Do you hear the truth? We're here to learn that truth. God's plan through the Holy Days has always been a great fascination for me. I think it's the best thing that God has revealed in his word, is what he has in store for us through his plan, through the Holy Days.

People used to say we didn't talk about Christ that much, but Mr. Armstrong actually talked about him all the time, and yet with the Holy Days and keeping them, we put Christ exactly where God put him. Christ is at the center of every single holy day that we observe, whether it be Passover, where he died, whether it be Unleavened Bread to have our sins removed, whether it's Pentecost, the first of the firstfruits, or the piece of trumpets when he's the first to rise from the grave and returns as king of kings, or Atonement where he qualifies and puts Satan away, or the feast in the millennium where he reigned for a thousand years, or the last great day of judgment where all judgment is given over to Christ.

He's center in every one of those days. The world doesn't want to hear the truth now, but it'll soon have to, because when Christ returns, they'll have to listen to what he said. Indeed, the plan of God was a springboard for many of the meetings that Mr.

Armstrong had. He didn't try to convince them, he just told them peace was coming. This is what's going to happen. You don't have to believe it, but this is what's going to happen. And your chance, being called by God, is whether you want to be part of it. You don't have a choice of what's going to happen.

You just have a choice of whether you want to be part of it or not. And that's the choice you've all made when you accepted baptism and the truth. I gave the graduation address this year entitled, Fear is a Reaction, Courage is a Choice. And someone came up and told me I should make a sermon out of it. They wanted me to give it somewhere else, and that's what I did, and I'm going to give it to you today. So you're going to practice a new one on you. It was 1981, and we had an appointment with the king and queen of Nepal. Mr. Armstrong had met his father, King Mahendra, and now he was invited to go see King Berinda and his wife.

And when they asked to see him, they had known the king and queen of Thailand and known that Mr. Armstrong had done a lot of things for them. And so King Berinda and Queen Ashwarya wanted to meet with them, see if he could help Nepal. They wanted help from him, and they brokered the problems in Nepal, the corruption, the government.

They wanted us to help them to solve some of those problems. We had already helped stop the opium growing in Thailand with the king and queen there, and done other projects with them, and they wanted us to do that. To take us around the city, they assigned us a man, an older gentleman, Aditya Rana, was his name. And since I was over all the projects, I had to spend quite a bit of time with him and his wife, Serena. They were a wonderful young couple. At first, he was not an impressive man.

He stood about 5'9", which was a little taller than most of the Nepalese, because they were generally a shorter people. He wore wool pants, a shirt, and a heavy coat. He walked briskly. His demeanor was proud, but it wasn't arrogant. He stood erect, and everyone in the country as we went around seemed to know who he was. Everywhere I went, I noticed that people stood up straight, some saluted. They called him General. And he didn't wear a uniform, and that his age told me he had been some time since he had been in the Army.

In the United States, being a General means something. In Asia, if you stay in the Army long enough, you become a General. So it's not quite as important, so that didn't make him so special. But he was a retired Gurkha soldier. He was not a great orator. He was a quiet man. But everywhere he went, people would get very quiet. You'd hear him whisper. Often people would salute, even though he wasn't in a uniform. I learned that General Rana's grandfather had been king.

The British, actually, about the time that General Rana was born, or one or two years old, had helped this other family become king. There was no animosity there. There was a humility in his family. He was a special man. I finally asked someone why he was so respected. I expected them to say, well, his grandfather was king. He was a prince. It's not what they said. What they said was he saved Nepal from the Chinese. I said, what do you mean? And they said this is if I should have known. And I didn't know anything about Nepalese history at the time.

And then I learned why. You see, the king, back in the 1950s, had learned from an outpost that the Chinese were sending a couple battalions of soldiers over a pass to take over Nepal. The communists were taking over other parts of Asia at the time. And they were coming for Nepal. They were expanding. If they got across the pass and into Nepal, they would take it over and make a communist annex that more than likely, and it would be under communist rule.

It was a time for fear. China was a great big country. Nepal is a small one. And so they didn't know about it. It was a surprise attack. There was no declaration of war. And there was little time to move an army up to that pass of 16,000 feet, with Kathmandu being about 5,000 feet, to fight the Chinese army and to intercept them.

It was over 30 miles away and 2 miles higher. And where they were, no roads, and they'd have to go on foot. At that time, General Rana was a young Gurkha officer. Without hesitation, he volunteered. He gathered about 35 to 30 Gurkha soldiers to fend off over 2,000 Chinese soldiers. How would he do that? Without hesitation, he volunteered. It would seem an impossible task. Fear is a reaction. Courage is a choice. With rifles, a small quantity of food, and as much ammunition as they could carry as they knew they could not be resupplied, they hastily left Kathmandu.

They knew there'd be little help. They traveled all day and all night to get there before the Chinese. Conditions were harsh. It would take incredible human stamina to get there. But they made it. In the cold, at that altitude, they beat the Chinese army there.

They knew because they were outnumbered so badly they couldn't beat them in hand-to-hand combat. They couldn't take them out of the pass, so they hiked up the steep terrain about 500 yards so they could hold them off at the pass. And for over a week, in the freezing cold, the small band of Nepalese men held off the Chinese army, until they finally retreated and left. They saved Nepal. They lived up to the reputation of the Gurkhas. They were known not to have fear. Fear is a reaction. Bravery is a choice. On my last visit with General Rana in 1986, I went over there right after Mr.

Armstrong died to meet with the king and queen once again. I met with him, and he was there. He told me, as I was about to board my flight to go home, he said, we made a big mistake. He said, we should have lost to the British. You see, Nepal was the only independent country in the region that the village came into that was not conquered by the British Empire.

Why do I tell this story? Because God calls people similar to the Gurkhas. Let me explain. The Gurkhas are a very special group of people. The British and their colonial persepst learn the hard way some 250 years ago. They had just taken India with its 1,000 times more people than Nepal, and they figured they'd take Nepal very easily. Instead of that quick victory, they suffered heavy casualties. They were getting beat up badly. They finally made peace with the Gurkhas. Not only that, but they enlisted them to fight in the British Army because they were that strong.

A British soldier of the 87-foot wrote in his memoirs of this war, quote, The Gurkhas fought for the British for the next 150 years, in two world wars and in dozens of countries. The Gurkhas' bravery and cohesiveness is legendary, but not without a cause.

Field Marshal Sam Maneskiu once famously said about the Gurkhas, During the unsuccessful Gallipoli campaign of World War I in 1915, the Gurkhas were among the first to arrive and the last to leave. They led the assault during the first major operation to take the Turkish high point, which became known as Gurkhas Bluff. They were the only troop in the whole campaign to reach and hold the crest and look down on the straights, which was the objective. The British didn't make it and the Aussies didn't make it. None of the Allies made it.

One of the most famous battles, the Battle of the Eighth Gurkhas that served with Lawrence Arabia, was written by the British commander, Lieutenant Colonel James Wilcox. They fought to the last man during the Battle of Lawrence in June through December of 1915, hurling themselves time after time against the weight of the German defenses. They all died.

They wouldn't quit. Everyone wanted the Gurkhas to fight for them. Why? Because they're loyal to their word.

They're 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.

Turn to Luke 9, if you would, with me. Luke 9, verse 23. I ask, do we have that kind of spiritual bravery?

At a time when the world is falling apart, do we have bravery toward our cause?

Verse 23 of Luke 9. I said to them, if a man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.

For what is a man advantaged if he gains the whole world and loses himself for cast away? For whosoever shall be ashamed of me, and of my words of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed, and when he shall come in his own glory and in his Father's and of the holy angels?

If you're willing to die, you also will be legendary, like the gherkis. What will you look like then? Well, we're told what we are in Luke 9, verse 27. I tell you the truth, there will be some standing here which will not taste of death till they see the kingdom of God. And indeed they did in a vision they saw Christ. After eight days of these things he took Peter and James and John up into the mountain where they did see it. In figure. Verse 30, they talked to him two men which were like Moses and Elijah. But their countenance, verse 29, was altered. Their ramment was white and glistening. That's what they're going to look like. The gherkas had a special green uniform there given by the British, so you could recognize the gherka units in the war. They got to see Christ, what it would be like to be glorified, to be white. And of course we're told that we will see him as he is. They saw his glory.

In 1 John 3 it tells us, we'll see him like he is. When he shall appear, we'll be like him. We'll see him as he is. That's what this day, when it's fulfilled, when we rise to meet Christ, that's what we're going to look like. We must be like the gherkas. Why do I compare this small band of people, this small group who took on the British Empire and won, to those in God's church today? You see, the gherkas were not a single people. I always thought they were. I thought the gherkas was the name of their tribe. Like the Cherokees, the Apaches, or whatever. It's not true. The gherka soldier recruits are made up of many ethnic tribal groups. The Majar, the Rai, the Limbu, the Garung, the Taman, the Karanti tribes of Tibetan and Mongolian background. Also, the ethnic Rajaprut, the Chetri, and the Brahmin tribes, all joined to make up the gherkas. And they all have one thing in common. They lay aside their tribal uniqueness for the greater sense of signalness of purpose. In essence, they become one for a cause, and that makes them a formidable force. Does that sound familiar? Turn over to 1 Peter, chapter 2. Does this not describe us as the people of God? In 1 Peter 2, how do you qualify for this day? Verse 1, therefore, laying aside malice and all guile, hypocrisies and envy and all evil speaking, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow. That's part of the qualifications for this day. Going down to verse 9, But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation of a peculiar people, that you should show forth the praise of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. In times past you were not a people, but you are now the people of God. You are God's army. Special, unique, and on this day is when you rise to meet Christ. On this day when it's fulfilled you get to see Jesus Christ in his glory. You'll be there with him. God calls unique people from various backgrounds into his church. Different backgrounds, different nationalities, different ages, different fellowships, different walks of life. Not only different walks of life in this time, but for 6,000 years special people. Some dead, some alive. All part of his army. His special group of people that he has called. Does the world see our oneness of purpose? Do they see a group known as the people of God? Verse 10 of 1 Peter 2, which in times past were not a people, but now are the people of God. We are the people of God. That's why we keep these days. Because we're part of his army, preparing. There are times when it's scary. They should see a group of people. Again, with a signal as a purpose. Divisions happen when it should not. God tests all of us, and he knows who his people are. You had to learn. Before you were called and baptized, you were not the people of God. You were individuals. You had to learn to give of yourself, to work with others you didn't know before. Most of us would not be friends. We would not know each other if it were not for God, for his calling, for his church. And you chose to become part of a team with the good of mankind, to do your part that Christ gives you when he sets up his kingdom.

None of us can make you become a Christian. God calls, you repent, you're baptized. We can't make you take on that humility or that service. You choose to do that. We can't make you be it any more than you can make you become a Gurkha. It's a choice. Fear may be a reaction, but courage is a choice. Perhaps there was some fear coming into the church, knowing persecution might come. A lot of Scriptures that tell us there'll be difficult times. But you accepted your calling, and you joined up for your king's army to live a life that's different from this world. You had the courage to forsake those other opportunities of things the world wants, to be part of his army. You had the courage to forsake those opportunities. You left your own desires. You put the truth of God ahead of what you wanted to create a unified body. And if you use humility with the knowledge that you learn in this book, then you will succeed in your relationship with God, with Jesus Christ, and with each other, your fellow servants. You enter God's army because, like the Gurkhas, you're willing to live or die for what you believe. Being willing to die, as the Gurkhas were, reminds me of what Jesus said in John 10, verse 18.

He says, No man takes it from me, but I lay it down on myself. He chose to give his life because we needed it, to be able to rise to meet him on this day when it's fulfilled. I ask you to take on that kind of bravery, if it's required of you, and not for one battle, but for the rest of your lives. If you're willing to die, you also will be legendary. More legendary than the Gurkhas. More legendary than General Arana is to his nation. And just as the Gurkhas were in demand in this militaristic world, you are in demand as God's future army.

Out of the billions of people, you're the people he's called to be part of his army, to rise with him. You'll have to teach. You'll have to know his way and the way to peace, which is what we'll teach. The world doesn't know this yet, but it will know. When this day is fulfilled, they'll have a lot of learning to do. And it's not in the distant future. It's not that far away. Anyone who sees the world in the shape it's in now knows that it's coming.

We should have a sense of urgency. And people, when that day comes, they'll look to you, because they'll know that God is with you. They'll know that you have been and are loyal to your God and your cause. Whether you die before Christ comes or you suffer during a time of tribulation ahead, whether you're spared, whatever, but your loyalty to God is there. You know, in Zechariah it says that they're going to take hold of the skirt of him as the Jew, and they say, we know that you know God.

Teach us. We'll be teaching, and we'll teach the people that will be with them, because they'll have heard that God is with us. You're destined to rise to meet Christ as his return, as we heard in 1 Thessalonians 4, in 1 Corinthians 15 this morning. The Gurkhas became legendary through war, but you're going to make your mark by being humble, through service, through giving, through sharing, through going against what the world values, not trying to collect all the toys or serve yourself and your own desires.

There are 26 Victoria Crosses and over 3,000 medals of bravery given to the Gurkhas by the kings and queens of England. Very prestigious, more than any other group of people, by percentages. You're destined to get an eternal crown from God Almighty, as Christ presents you to him, to his Father. You don't have to slay Goliath. You don't have to do great acts of war.

You don't have to climb to 16,000 feet and fight off a battalion of Chinese. For you, it's about being willing to sacrifice. For you, it's about valuing your future more than the present. For you, it's about giving up yourself and your time in obedience and service. It's about making God the Father and Jesus Christ the center of your life. To be there on this day, that's what you have to do. The Gurkhas considered a great 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. And you chose to be part of that. He says, blessed is he who has part in the first resurrection. That happens on this day when Christ returns, when that trumpet sounds. You must have that courage to give up yourself. Give up the wrong values of this world. In Matthew 10, verse 37, we're told how to make Christ and God the center of our life. Christ, in verse 37 of Matthew 10, says, He that loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.

He that loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. It doesn't mean we don't love them, but we have to love God and Christ more. He that takes up, takes not his cross and follows after me is not worthy of me. He that finds his life shall lose it. He that loses his life for my sake shall find it. He that receives you receives me. He that receives me receives him that sent me. The father who called you. It's a special time. Of course, we know in Matthew 25 when Christ says, when the apostles, when they said you need to feed the hungry and visit in prison, and they said, well, when have we done that?

And he said, if you've done it the least of these, you've done it to me. When I was hungry, you gave me meat. When I was naked, you clothed me. When I was in prison, you visited me. It has to be second nature. We just do that automatically. Like a gurk or soldier throws himself into war. No matter how fearful it might be, courage is a choice. It's not always easy. You'll face trauma. I've faced a great many in my life.

I know God prepared me for those. I didn't know at the time, but I look at my life, and I think probably everything I've gone through from the time I was two years old. From the time my father, my mom, came into the church, my father had nothing to do with it. He had a stroke, and my mother was praying for him to be healed. All of the dean family was making fun of her because they didn't believe in the church and religion. She got pretty much disowned for that. Then he was healed and went back to work.

Two years later, he died in a construction accident. There was a murder trial because he got run over by a runaway crane, which goes three miles an hour at full speed. They couldn't prove it was murder, but most of his pictures of him and things that happened to him are in a vault somewhere, some box in some government place. But he was an athlete. He was a special person.

Why did God heal him and then have him die? But if he hadn't died, I wouldn't have been taken to Big Sandy with his funeral, where my mom was told to go down there with the widows. I went to Imperial schools. Two years in Big Sandy, my mom moved to Pasadena, and I went another 10 years there. I had Bible every day of my life.

My dad hadn't died. I'd have been to sports. My dad was actually drafted by the Minneapolis Lakers to play basketball. He chose not to because he didn't pay enough in the 50s. He went to work for Link Belt Construction. But all the things that I had to do in my life, and the people I've met as a youngster, helped me work my job with Mr. Armstrong. Going to college, both campuses, visiting all three campuses, actually, I didn't have a loyalty to one. It helped me have loyalty to God.

And those things serve me. And Christ does things in our life that are difficult. Seemingly, I've been at the center of so many traumas and so many splits. Another story I tell to the students I teach is, at a time after 1979 when someone was trying to take over the church, and I was kind of in the way because I knew all the things they'd done wrong. I'll never forget the phone call Mr.

Armstrong gave me one day after a trip. He said, Leave town immediately or life's been threatened. And I jumped motels for over a month. I know the book of Acts. Fear is a reaction. Courage is a choice. But that's another story. I'll tell it later. But this day, when Christ returns, is when the reward is given to you. It's special. It's not easy to face trauma. But again, fear is a reaction. Courage is a choice. Your life and service to God is not an easy commitment. Nobody promises you health and wealth.

It's not a health and wealth gospel. But you have to do it. Have courage to let Christ complete the job that He started in you, for you to rise with Him on the day of trumpets. In writing about the Gurkhas, Sir Ralph Lilly Turner, an emcee who served with the 3rd Queen's Alexander Battalion of the Gurkha Rifles in the First World War wrote this.

As I write these last words, my thoughts return to you who were my comrades, the stubborn and indominate peasants of Nepal. Once more, I hear the laughter with which you greeted every hardship. Once more, I see you in your bivouacs or about your fires. On forced marches or in the trenches, shivering and wet with cold, now scorching by a pitiless and burning sun. Uncomplaining, you endure hunger and thirst and wounds, and at the last your unwavering lines disappear into the smoke and the wrath of battle. Bravest of the brave, most generous of the generous, never had a country more faithful friends than you.

Those with God's Spirit are part of the spiritual body. We are friends. We are brave. We serve as a band of brothers. We meet on days that other people don't meet on. We believe the words that God gives us, and we do them. We have the courage to face that. Turn to 1 Corinthians 1. The Gurkhas seemed weak. They were small people. They seemed like the weak of the world, not big men, not well-educated, peasants, but fully committed and dedicated. You couldn't ask for a true friend. We may not seem heroic to this world. But who are we? 1 Corinthians 1, verse 26. You see your calling, brethren. Not many wise men after flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and the base things of the world, and the things which are despised, as God chosen. Yes, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are. We may not seem heroic to the world, but God has called us to be heroic.

I gladly serve alongside any and all of you. I want to help encourage you to be strong. Be strong and example in your lives and in prayer, in all that you do, whatever that may be.

I was past this truth to my mentor many years ago, Mr. Armstrong, and many of you here. If you have gray hair, you probably know of him. The young people don't.

I'd bring them to my house to show them the pictures and tell some of the stories to give them courage and to give them strength.

Truly, God and Christ through the Holy Spirit holds us all up. We don't do it ourselves. We have to work as if we do. But it's through God and Christ that he does it. He says he'll be gone and work in us, he'll finish it. But yet, we have to choose. There may be times of fear, but courage is the choice.

On a subsequent visit to Nepal, Mr. Armstrong accepted to go to lunch with General Rahn and his wife, Serena. He was supposed to speak to the parliament that night, and he was a kind man. He always accepted things, whether he should or not. He was 93 or 91 at the time, I think, when this luncheon happened. He was there at our house. He was kind of picking his food and eating. And while he was there, he had a heart attack. Of course, he had a heart attack several years before, which actually he died, and they revived him and brought him back. They said he'd never travel again, but here we were in the 80s, traveling all over the world again with him in his late 80s, early 90s. And he's eating his food. He had a heart attack there, and she said, I need to call the parliament and cancel them anytime. I said, no, no, don't do that. Just leave it alone. Don't worry. He took oxygen. He took some nitro pills, and took him back to the hotel. When it came about 6 o'clock, I took him down to the room where the parliament and the government people were meeting. And General Arana and his wife were sitting there by the door where they could actually see down the hallway, and Armstrong had to stop and take oxygen on the way walking in, in the hallway. And when he came in, he went and sat at the head table, and he started kind of picking at his food and eating a little bit. And Serena Arana said to me, you're killing him. You can't do this. Why didn't we cancel this? I said, just wait. They finished eating, and he stepped, put the mic in front of them, and he started talking. He started talking about the plan of God, how this world would have peace someday, not through man's efforts, but Jesus Christ was going to come and bring it.

We talked about this day of trumpets. A couple of minutes into the speech, Mrs. Arana leaned over to me and says, that's not him talking, that's God talking. That man's not that strong. They could see it. It reminded me of Matthew 10, verse 18. I'll read the verse to you. You shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. And when they deliver you up and take no thought of how you shall speak, it shall be given you that same hour.

What? You will speak. For it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father, which speaks in you. I saw that time and again. We weren't being delivered up to be killed or anything, but I saw God giving me strength. And there are times in our lives when we deal with our neighbors, our friends, that God gives us strength in the words to speak. We live in a dangerous world that requires courage. In my opinion, these mandates and things are just the prelude to the mandates that will come down the road when we're told we can't keep the Sabbath, when we're told we have to do things against our God.

We'll have to have courage. Fear is a reaction, but courage is a choice. And you don't agree with the beast power and the false prophet? We'll be threatened with death. We hope we're in that place prepared for us in Revelation. We used to call it a place of safety. We pray for that protection from the time they come, but we may or may not be protected from it. Depending on our position, what God does, when it happens, we know the two witnesses aren't protected from it. At the end, they are for three and a half years, and I always wonder what it'd be like to know exactly what's going to happen to you in three and a half years.

Most of us don't know when we're going to die or what's going to happen, but they do. They and Hezekiah, who knew he had so many years left, and Peter, who was told how he was going to die, there's a few people that have been told. Most of us don't know that we have to be prepared for it. Are you prepared for God to speak through you, even if it means death?

Fear is a reaction, but courage is a choice. Will courage be your choice? General Rana never came into the church. He knew a lot about us. He read Mr. Armstrong's book, Mystery of the Ages, as did a couple other kings and queens, and he gave the book to them. They knew quite a bit, and their knowledge of truth was limited. But General Rana was tired of fighting, tired of the sacrifices, and for what? He recognized the futility of all those Gurkha wars, all those soldiers who died, and even if you won, what did it mean? Why did this man so trained mentally that he could climb mountains, climb up to a pass in the middle of the night, fight off a thousand Chinese, save Nepal?

Why did he say we made a big mistake? We should have lost to the British. He answered his own question a moment later. He said, if we'd have lost to the British, we'd have had roads, we'd had bridges, we'd had schools. Instead, we have our pride. He knew there was a greater cause than that. You could have made other choices when God called you. For these many months or years, depending on how long you've been in the church, a lot of water under the bridge.

I never expected to get out of college before Christ came. I'm a grandfather. Scrivensont thought he'd be here until Christ's return. He realized a few months before he died that wouldn't be so. He gave me all sorts of strict orders of things to do. It made me promise to see him in the kingdom. And I expect to. Didn't expect to go on this long.

I don't think there's a whole lot more time left, but God's in control of that. If I can paraphrase what General Rauno was actually saying and what he really wanted but didn't know it, but you know it, if mankind had surrendered to God and his way of life, we wouldn't have had 6,000 years of human suffering, of human misery, of diseases, of wars, of famines, of all the problems and the general misery of mankind under the sway of the God of this world.

When this day is fulfilled and the millennium starts, the world will finally be glad that they lost that war that started this day when he returned. My last morning in Nepal with General Rauno in 1986, last time I saw him, he's died since then, I think in 96 or 98, as we were leaving, going to the airport, it was Sunday morning, and we were driving by some shocks, they were all closed, and we got to the airport, and I wanted to buy a kukri, which is a gurka knife, that's the proper name for it.

I was always impressed with the bravery of the gurkas, and I thought, well, it'd be nice to get a knife, but the shops were all closed. When I sat with General Rauno in the airport, and we talked before getting on the plane, I made an offhand comment to him that I'd always wanted to buy a gurka knife and have it because of what the gurkas did, and he surprised me.

He had that heavy coat on him, he reached behind his coat and he pulls it back, and he reaches back behind him and he pulls out his gurka knife, and he gave it to me. This is the same knife that he had when he fought the Chinese. This knife should have gone to his son, I felt, but technically in Asia, you don't give a knife, because you give a knife means you're severing your relationship, unless you're family. He could sit in your family. And although I thought it should go to his son, the protocol dictated I could not turn it down. And so I took it. First thing I wanted to do was pull it out, and I started on She-Thith, and I stopped and put it back in.

Because I knew you don't draw a gurka knife unless you intend to draw blood. And since I didn't have anybody I wanted to kill, I didn't want to draw my own blood, I put it back in a sheath. So I accepted it as a gift. I wanted so badly to take it out and look at it right there, but I didn't. But you see, we have a sword. And we need to take it out and unsheath it every day. And follow what it says. We don't leave it sheathed. We don't leave it closed up. We open it and we read it, and we do what it says.

You need to draw your sword every day to draw blood. Spiritual blood, not others but yours. So that you change. You do it to harden yourself spiritually for what may come, for what God may put you through for any future battles. You do it to try to live up to the image of your older brother, Jesus Christ, what he went through.

You do it to be as he was, like our Father in heaven. And you do it to rise to meet him on this day of trumpets when he returns. I hope you're never afraid of what you might suffer for standing up for God.

Fear is a reaction. Courage is a choice. Here's the disciples when Christ was taken. Peter had said, I'll never leave you or forsake you. And it says, so said they all. When they couldn't do it their way, and they wanted to draw their sword, and Peter cut off a man's ear, Christ said, stop it. When they couldn't do it their way, they fled. Because fear is a reaction. They didn't yet have God's Spirit. Christ faced it alone.

Christ was unafraid. The disciples had fear. But when the Holy Spirit came, the apostles had courage. Fear was a reaction. But now with God's Spirit they saw the bigger picture, the same picture you and I see, that Jesus Christ brought. And we saw in the prophets of old, and we saw in the apostles, and we see in the people around us who fight their battle for God.

I hope you're never afraid of what you might suffer for standing up for God. Fear is a reaction. Courage is a choice. When you lose yourself to God, He builds those spiritual bridges in your life. He builds those spiritual schools.

He builds those spiritual roads that allow you to grow, to be like Him and His Father. It's interesting that the mercenaries in Nepal, after the king and queen were assassinated a few years ago, they made an edict that they stated the recruitment of mercenaries would be stopped. They wouldn't be able to fight anymore. They'd be banned from fighting. Someday we may also be banned from being able to preach the gospel the way we do now. We can be cut off the Internet in a moment. We already can't place ads in certain places, on certain sites, and they may just close that whole thing.

We may not be able to print a magazine down the road. We may not be able to do anything. It may be us, you and me, who become individual examples of what we believe and what we do. We don't know. It may be that we're the witnesses willing to die for what we believe. People of this world will think they're winning when they're actually losing to Satan the devil. They may think our turning the other cheek is cowardice, not bravery, that we don't want to collect goods we want to give and serve, that we're willing to die for our cause because our cause is about life, because we want to rise when this day is fulfilled.

May it be written of those alive today, as with all those who preceded you in death, the Old Testament and new, and those who will come after you, that you stood together for a common purpose. May it be written of you, I never saw more steadiness or bravery and kindness and humility and service at every turn, encouragement you gave freely of sin you would not of death, you had no fear. That is where we should be. May you fight with the sword of God's Word, not with a knife, with the Bible, with the knowledge of God. Revelation 3, 11, we're told, Behold, I come quickly.

Hold fast what you have, don't let anyone take your crown. Fear is a reaction, courage is a choice. I see you as future kings and queens, because you are. May you, the spiritual body of Christ, go forth with courage with what you have learned. May you rise on this day of trumpets and live forever in the glory of God's kingdom. Fear is a reaction, courage is a choice. You will face fear. It's a human reaction. May the courage that you display be your choice. May you join those of Hebrews 11, who all died in faith, seeing they saw a country far off, wanting that country, waiting for this day. As we heard this morning, to rise with me Christ, those who are dead.

Paul got his we and those mixed up. He should have said, we who are dead and you who are alive. I don't know. Many of us in this room may be alive when he comes. It's more eminent, I think, than it's ever been. It's close. The world is falling apart. The morality has gone into the total doldrums. I mean, everything and everything. When did you ever think they were more than two sexes? When did you ever think they'd allow all the things that they've allowed? When did you ever think you'd be a hater to say anything normal? It's sad. We don't know exactly when.

We don't know the day or the hour, but we certainly can look at the times. If you look at the trumpets, it's good to read Revelation. Revelation is a great book to read because it says there's a promise to anybody, a blessing, for anyone who reads it. So I try to read it all the time if I can get blessed, because it's easier when you're not getting killed.

But we look at the trumpets and we see what's coming. This world has a lot of bad things coming ahead of it. When we look at the seven trumpets and the plagues of God that come, we realize that those things are going to leave the earth in pretty bad shape. And we will be there to rise and meet Christ to help restore.

If you want to restore the land, so many things will be destroyed. A third of the waters turn to blood. People have died. Most people, if you do the numbers, about 90% of the people on earth have probably died. It'll be a scary time to work with those people. From their standpoint, they'll be shell-shocked.

PSD will be the norm at that time for most of humanity. But you and I will be there to teach them, to help them, because we had courage to stand up. And we can teach them that, yes, you're afraid, but Christ is now your Lord and your King. And it's a new world. It's a new set of rules. It's a new set of values.

This day starts it. This day, when He begins that war, takes the victory, and binds Satan, puts him away, we get to teach others for a thousand years, and then when the rest are resurrected, all of our ancestors, it's going to be funny.

I'll meet my dad. I'll be a lot older than he was. I always thought, if you need to meet my dad and see what he was, then I realize, I'm going to be older than my dad. But we'll get to see those people. In the upcoming feast, we get to again come before God on days that other people don't deserve. But the earth will be full of God's knowledge then, and you'll be legendary. You'll be one of those, one of those firstfruits who rose on this day to meet Him. You'll be one of those people for which fear was a reaction, but courage was your choice.