Oorah

The title of my sermon, I don't have a screen. I don't work that thing out yet, but we are webcasting. So I decided I always like for people to know my title. And this one might be a little hard, except for you former military men. So the title of my sermon is Ura! Nobody got it now? How do you pronounce it? Ura! It's with enthusiasm. Ura! It is a marine phrase. And it is not only a word that they use, but it's a declaration. It's actually a phrase that came up about the Korean War by a man who's still alive, who gave that, because he saw Marines coming in as Marines were leaving to go into battle.

And the ones coming and leaving, and on the ship, and coming and leaving the battlefield. It was them that were telling the ones going out there, Ura! Which was enthusiastic. Let's go! We did ours, now you carry on. Very powerful meaning to that phrase that they all understand. I had a couple Marines that actually worked for me. And when they would get done with a job, I'd go by and they would actually, I'd say something.

I'd say, how'd it go? Ura! Because they completed the mission. It was successful. And they were enthusiastic. Well I bring this up because in Acts, Chapter 28, you don't have to turn there. Most of you know the story. It's the last chapter in the book of Acts. Tells the story of Paul being taken up to Rome. It was a long trek. A lot of things happened. That's another sermon in itself. But he was delivered to Rome by a centurion. And that centurion delivered him to, as the Scriptures say, the captain or chief of the soldiers. So the centurion was an officer, as you might say back then.

But the one he gave this chief or captain was the chief of the palace guard. He was chief or commander, you might say, of the Praetorian guard. The Praetorian guard was very interesting at the time. They were the elite of the elite of the Roman army. They were the cream of the crop. They were brought into Rome, and where they had the prison or houses that Paul would be housed in, brought to, it was right near the emperor's home.

And the housing for all the guards, the Praetorian guards, surrounded the actual emperor so that if the city was under attack, these men would be the last stand and would fight to the death to protect the emperor. Similar to David's mighty men, if you go back and you realize where Uriah the Hittite was and David could see his house, well, he, David, the palace was surrounded by these 32 mighty men that he had.

So the Praetorian guard was something like this. And so it brings us to an interesting story because Paul was surrounded by these men. It took more than one or two months to even get from the centurion taking him because of the shipwreck and Crete and all the storage. So here you have Paul taken as a prisoner from Jerusalem to where he went before Felix and then he was sent up because he appealed to the emperor. So Paul was surrounded for months by a centurion. And then he's handed off to the Praetorian guards. These military elites were treated with special privileges since they were given double the pay of a normal Roman soldier.

And they had many special benefits that came only from the city of Rome. They only had to serve 16 years in the military, this Praetorian guard, where the normal soldier, even the centurions, were given their term of duty at 20 years. So they were only required to do it for 16 years. And the most interesting part, I found out that when they did retire, they were given seven years pay as a retirement benefit.

And many were given land so they could go and have a family go and do these various things. So I want to look at one scripture in Acts in Acts 28 and verse 16. Go there because that's the catalyst for it. If we could go back to the book of Acts. Acts 28 tells us that story. Acts 28 verse 16. So when he came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard. But Paul was permitted to dwell by himself, this is in a house, with the soldier who guarded him.

Soldier who guarded him. This was an elite man. Paul stayed in that home for, we know, at least two years under guard. 24-7. He saw so much. He learned so much and I bring this out because of his writings. His even his prison epistles, which he wrote while he was there, under house arrest, with his guard.

Prison epistles, Ephesians, Philippians, Philemon. What am I forgetting there? Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians, yes, Colossians, and Philemon. But besides those books, you'll find that Paul seems to be, and I don't want to use this word, but I want to. Mary told me I shouldn't use this word when I talked to her. But I have this feeling, looking at this, that Paul became obsessed with the Roman military. And I feel like the better word would be he was so influenced by the Roman military. It was the greatest army at its time. They had no equal at this time, at Paul's time.

They were impressive. And so I want to look at that today for us, because this Praetorian soldier who would have guarded him was like our modern-day Marines, dedicated, strong, fearless, and disciplined. All the things that Paul brings out in his writings, we sing a song called Onward Christian. What? Soldiers. It kind of ties to us, this form of military. If you study his language, he has so many military terms that none of the other writers have in the New Testament, which obviously he was influenced. Just think about it. That's Ephesians 6 about putting on the what? Whole armor of God.

That, I mean, he goes into great detail explaining every piece. You spend time 24-7 with someone. I don't care if you don't agree with them, whatever. Something's going to rub off. And it's kind of like us. You spend enough time with this, you may not totally agree, but something's going to rub off. And I think that's what God intends. Like you go with me, too. Philippians 1. One of those books.

Philippians 1, verse 12. Prison of Pizzos. He's writing, and he's telling the story. And he says in verse 12, New King James Version. And I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the Gospel. So it has become evident to the whole... What does your book say? Palace Guard. Paul was known by all of them. Isn't that amazing? Even the Palace Guards, they all knew why he was there, what had happened.

They had to tell him, the centurion, I'm sure had to pull him aside and say, let's go get some mead. And let me tell you about what happened in the water when this man that I just delivered to you even said, what was going to happen? And it happened. And he said, none of us are going to die. I actually had to start taking orders from him. This had to be an amazing story. So it has become evident to the whole Palace Guard and to all the rest that my chains are in Christ. Go over with me to 2 Timothy, if you will. Second Timothy. Paul writing Timothy here.

I would say encouraging him. Second Timothy 2 and verse 3. He's telling his assistant. He says, you therefore must endure hardship as a good... What's the word? Soldier. As a good soldier. Of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself. Warfare entangles himself with the affairs of his life. That he may please him who enlisted him as a... What's the word? Soldier. One of the many examples I could give you word after word after word after word of military terms that he used.

I want you to think of that because there's another time that Paul talks about something that I feel like is a military term because one of the things about when you joined the Roman army, you were put to a test. You were supposed to be in amazing condition. You were supposed to be not only strong but be able to fight with spear, sword, armor that we see Paul talking about in the Ephesians 6. You can imagine how this soldier that stayed with him 24-7, he was an elite soldier. He was one who had seen battle. He's one that if you knew the soldiers at that time, you fight with a sword, with daggers, spears, you're going to get cut, aren't you? Can you imagine the scars that Paul would have seen on this man? That's part of who he was. The scars. Because I find it so interesting that once a soldier in the Roman army, they were trained even from a young person, 17, 18 years old. And they would be trained for a year or two years or even three years of warfare before they ever went into battle. But once they went into battle and saw battle, that's when they were officially a soldier. And at that time when they became a soldier, they were branded with a brand. Yeah, a hot iron. A lot of times it was on the shoulder. That's all right, yes. You read too.

They would, this man would be branded. And everybody would know who he was and that he was a soldier of the Roman army and he had seen battle. And it was a sign of respect that went out once people would see that. Go with me to Galatians. Go with me to Galatians 6. Verse 17, as Paul is wrapping up, he's wrapping up this, his letter to the Galatians. And he says in verse 17, he says, From now on, let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ. This also could use the word scars. He had gone through a lot, hadn't he? Paul had. He had the scars of being in God's army, being a Christian soldier, as so many of us. Isn't it interesting? The military. We have a few men. I don't want to, yep, there's one there. I know there's another one here.

There's others who have been in the military. Interesting that so many of them, I forget which one of you told me that, but you, was it, you feel about tattoos? No. Well, you, somebody was telling me. Was that you? Oh, okay. Yes. Because that's one of the things that soldiers, especially Marines, Navy guys are known because they go somewhere and they're out there and they get what? Tattoos. They see them up and down, all around their body and so forth like that. I had a, like I said, I had two Marines that worked for me before this job and they each had a tattoo. Do you know what their tattoo said? Semper Fi! Semper Fi! And every Marine knew what Semper Fi meant. Every who, and they were proud of their tattoos. As a matter of fact, they weren't at the same time, but they each had to tell how their tattoo looked better than the other one. But that's Marines anyway. What does Semper Fi mean? That's right, John. Always faithful. Always faithful to the Corps.

Brethren, what about us? I don't plan on getting a tattoo because I see what Scripture says, but in the namado that we also, as Christian soldiers, can say, Semper Fi! Always faithful. Always faithful to God. Always faithful to each other. It's a powerful statement. And isn't it something we, when we go through things, we share some of the battles that we go through? You were there when I wasn't able to be there, but my prayers were with him as he dealt with the loss of, one of our own, dealt with the loss of his mother. You were there. Why? As support. Your words, kindness. Because we need to be there to encourage each other. We have problems. We have troubles. We're like Paul referencing these soldiers. We need to be there for each other. We shouldn't be afraid to be there for each other to help, because that is what Christian soldiers do. As dedicated, because the one thing, always faithful. They never leave a man out on the field. He was injured, even dead. They tried to carry this body off. That's what soldiers do. Always faithful to each other. Brethren, that's what God wants us to do. For first, faithful to him. Faithful to Jesus Christ. That is what this will be about on April the 4th. It shows we are faithful to God.

And we remember what our older brother, soldier, did for us. It can't be replaced. Very very important. See the brand mark? That brand that was put on his shoulders was one of the highest honors a Roman soldier could have. Because there were soldiers. But unless you had that brand, you didn't have that distinction, that honor. Because you hadn't gone through the battles. You hadn't fought the good fight. What's been told. And we, many of us have scars. Just like Paul, where we've gone through things, gone through trials, temptations, tragedies in our life, that the only way many of us got through them was by the faith of Jesus Christ. Right, Richard? It's what we do. It's who we are. Yeah, it's a battle. But he said it would be. He said he'd never leave us nor forsake us. Brethren, we should feel honored to be a Christian soldier. So I want to, in the time I have left today, I want to go through about Christian soldiers.

And how we, as Christian soldiers, relate to the military. Now many, I think it would be better done by Jeff or one of the military guys who had actually served there. I never served in the military. I had a grandfather who did. I had a father-in-law who did. I had four uncles who did and one that didn't make it back. Oh, matter of fact, I had six uncles. One of them didn't make it back. I was a military and as a kid I grew up hearing the stories, hearing the tales. I was 12 years old when my second cousin came back from his third tour in Vietnam. And he was on leave and he came over and spent time, lived just down the road from us. And I was always going fishing at age 12. And so he decided I'd just like to go fishing with me. My little Zebco 202. And we did and he spent the whole afternoon on a bank of a creek. And I wondered why in the world is he with this 12-year-old kid? But he'd just look around and go, how peaceful this is in the Tennessee woods. Because he was a chopper pilot and he'd done that for two tours. And he told me, he taught me something I'd never thought about before. He brought me over fireworks from China. Had cherry bombs, first time I'd ever seen cherry bombs, which are unlike the cherry bombs you can buy today because these things were about four times as powerful. And he taught me after we'd caught only two fish in about three hours, taught me how to light those cherry bombs and throw them out into the water and we went and picked up quite a few fish at that time. And he realized how powerful they were. But I like that he spent time with me because he was a soldier. He had been there for 14 years at that time. He was only his 30s. Chopper went down, never came back. What Charlie was doing was checking the weather. He never made it back. Soldiers are special. Perhaps some of your family were soldiers. I like to look at that. Paul spent hours and months and even years with a soldier right by his side. Maybe it's multiple soldiers. Because of what's expected. So I want to give you five points. Answer these questions that I think Paul brings to each one of us. Because the military answers them. Why you are and who you are.

If you don't know who you are, why you're there, in basic training, they're going to let you know. And they're going to have one word that's going to come out to each and every one of them. Your GI. Anybody know what GI means? Government issue. That means they own you. Everything you have on. Your shoes. Your clothes. Everything is government issue. You don't own anything. Matter of fact, they own you. Yes. Very good. Yes, I cannot forget your husband. Yes. You know what I'm talking about. Your government issue. Brethren, that's us. Except we're not government. We're God-issued. Right? We're God-issued. We've got to be a part of the government. We're God-issued. We were branded at baptism because we were going into battle. What were we branded with? The Holy Spirit. That's what we're branded with. It helps us to carry on. We are God's issue and that should be important to us. Before baptism, during the time we're here now, even, we're educated. We're educated on our calling. We know why we're here. It's reinforced every week. One of the things that my uncle told me the worst thing about being in Korea was that he said they would tell us the same thing over and over and over and over. And he said, we've already heard us go. We're having a meeting. They'd tell you the same thing over and over and over. And I said, why did he do that? He said, so you would not forget. You would not forget and you would be able to come home safely. That was why they kept telling us the same thing. What does God tell us? Too many times in here. Time and time again, he tells us the same story. He asks us to know who we are and why we're here. And he renews that every year at Passover. And we have that drilled into us seven times a year why we're here. We are God's issue. And it's something we should feel good about the brand and that we should always feel like. Always faithful. Because he's always going to be faithful to us. Can we do the same? Number two, physical training. Hmm. Conditioning is a must for a soldier because you're going to battle. Are spiritual conditioning? How spiritually conditioned are you? Am I? Well, we'll find out when we examine ourselves. Find out do we need to be in a little better, stronger position? Do we need to be strengthened a little more spiritually? Soldiers had to do that. With us is prayer.

Soldiers are disciplined. That's one of the first things you're taught. You're disciplined. You must have discipline. Prayer is a discipline, isn't it? We who are in spiritual battle know, hey, it's not always great to just say, okay, let me go and pray about this. And sometimes, after we've messed up, we don't want to go pray. We don't want to have drop-down and say, I did it again, God.

But that's what He wants us to do. So part of our conditioning is spiritual conditioning is prayer. It's also, what? Meditation. We have to meditate on what we're doing. How about fasting? None of us. Oh, well, let's see. I think I'll fast another day. I don't hear many people saying that.

Let me take a week of fasting. No.

But we know we need it sometimes. And we definitely need it before the spring holy days. Make sure we get our mind right. That we're in spiritual fighting shape, just like physical soldiers.

We also have to know where we're coming from. Number three, mental training.

Because so much of, before you can do something with this, you got to do it with this. You got to know you can do it. And in the military, I guess all of you that military experience or lived with that, know that the military tests your mind. They mess with your mind to get you to a point that you will follow an order, even when you don't want to follow that order. Even when you don't want to do something, you do it anyway. Does that remind you of us? I have some time. I really don't want to do that. But I do it anyway because afterwards I'm glad I did it.

It helps us to focus, as they would always say, soldier, listen up, usually private. But in their mental training, they learn one thing. It's called perseverance because they take you to the point where your body can't go, but it's only your mind that drives you on.

I worked with a man. He was in Vietnam for one tour. He said he stayed in a foxhole because he got trapped. He couldn't get out of it and go forward for seven days. He said, just me and another guy.

And one of us had to stay awake. He said after seven days, we were just like zombies. We didn't know we'd carry on. We were laying in our own waste. We had run out of food four days before. We drank whatever moisture came out of the sky.

And he said, I hated my drill sergeant until that time. Then I realized why he put me through that so that I was prepared. Brethren, we don't know what's ahead, but we're being prepared, aren't we? We're being prepared. That's why we're called Christian soldiers.

And the one thing we do that helps us in our mental training is we read the book.

We read the Bible every day, supposedly. So what he wants us to do, man should not live by bread alone, but by what? Every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, you have it in front of you.

This is what we do.

It does test your mind.

Your trials. Can you go to a scripture that inspires you?

Can you go to scriptures that brings you peace?

They're all there.

It gives you enthusiasm. That should go, ooh-rah!

After you've overcome something that you thought was going to get you down.

Because you're God-issued. That's why. You're a G.I.

But when it comes to Bible study, Christie, you remember we took you out and baptized you that day?

Waves were up, right, Jeff? Everybody who was here went out there that day. Wind was blowing, it was raining. We went out into the ocean.

So let me ask you, when it comes to the Biblical water that we go into every day, do you take a deep dive or do you just put your toe in the water? What should you do? It's now time to evaluate your spiritual life, your Bible study.

Say, I want to do more. I want to do better.

I want to start going to the deep end and dive in and not just see what the water feels like. Do we? Do we want that? Because see, that's what God wants from us.

Number four, recognize talents and limitations. You see, in the military, they recognize whether you have talents or not.

Not everybody can be a sniper. Not everybody can be a Marine.

Not everybody can fulfill a job. But they know your talents, they recognize those, and they know your limitations. Well, guess what? You GIs. God does too. He recognizes your talents, your abilities, what you're going to be able to accomplish, not only now, but in the coming Kingdom of God. And He also recognizes our limitations.

We've all got them, don't we? I wish I didn't have them.

I wish I wasn't limited in so many ways.

There are gifts that God's given us. Is it important enough for us to recognize those gifts and know where our strengths are? Because He wants to know that. He wants us to take that gift and blow it to such a size. Blow it up to such a size that people are like, wow, how did those people, they used to know them, never saw that out of them.

God does. And our areas of weakness. God knew what certain people could handle.

He also knows what we can handle and knows what we can't. Remember He says He will not test us beyond what we can stand. It was Elijah and Elisha. And he went and lived with a widow woman on the side of a house.

She even built a little room there when her husband was alive and built and he moved there and stayed there so he could stay there anytime he wanted. She wasn't a follower, necessarily, of His that we know of.

But he had no problem doing that. Now, King David, I guess God decided I better not use Him because He'll be seducing the widow woman. Because He liked women.

Hey, wife, just look at the story. Look at the story. One dies, the husband dies, and he says, go get her for me.

Another one he sees on the roof, go get her for me. He had a weakness. God knew it. God didn't put Him like Elisha.

So God knows our limitations, and He wants to use us. But you know one of the things that God does not want any of us to do?

No matter our limitations, no matter our gifts, is to go what?

AWOL.

Somebody know what AWOL means?

Absent without leave.

It means any time I saw my uncles and they were from being, He was on leave.

And they let Him leave. They gave Him leave. Because you just don't walk off. Because why?

Your government issue. You're a G.I.

That's why we, we cannot just decide, well, I think I'll quit for a while.

I think I'll go out. I'll just go do this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I'll just, I'll go back. Yeah, take a break. Time out. Okay, God, give me a year and then I'll come back.

AWOL. We can't go AWOL because we're God-issued.

He said, He who endures to the what? And the same shall be what?

Oh, man. Yes. That's, that's what we have to keep in our minds. That's what we have to keep focused.

This is bigger than us. It's bigger than our, well, I don't feel well today. I don't think I'll study.

I don't feel well. How many of you, I've done that.

It may be when we need it the most.

Number five. Wrap this up.

One thing that's with Christian soldiers and soldiers in the world, they must be ready to be an officer.

Ready to be an officer because guess what's going to happen?

In the battle, many times, officers are killed.

What do the men do? Stand around and look at each other? What do we do? What do we do? What do we do?

Next man up. Right, Jeff?

On field, battlefield promotion.

We need to be ready. The centurion was an officer. The Praetorian guards were all officers.

At one time, they thought there was between 13,000 and 30,000 Praetorian guards.

They were all considered officers because they were the elite of the elite.

How about us?

In the military, they have a phrase for somebody who has incredible potential.

They will talk to you about OTS. OTS.

Anybody?

Officer Training School. That's right. They're going to send you to school to teach you to be an officer.

To lead.

Brethren, we're giving a once a week OTS because we're training to be leaders in the coming kingdom of God every week.

We take our notes home, hopefully, and study them. We meditate.

We look at the potential.

And what are we trained to do? We're trained to help people.

That's what I am. They always have some training for us ministers that they have us do.

Some of them I don't like, but I do them anyway.

Some of them feel redundant. Have I done this before? Yes.

But the whole purpose is to train us to help people.

And as leaders, we can't look at the world and look at some of the leaders we have.

You wouldn't follow them to the end of the road.

And they're supposed to be leaders.

I'll give you an example as I begin to wrap this up.

I had the opportunity, Mary did too.

The year was 2000.

The opportunity to go to Washington, D.C. and stay at Fort McNair, which is right on the Potomac.

And it's where the military college is, the Army, War College.

Potomac, we had the opportunity to go and spend time with someone who's related by marriage to us.

He was a three-star general.

His name was General John Pickler. He's still alive. He's retired now.

But I never spent much time. He was always this place and this place, so we never really had a lot of time with him before.

But we were able to spend three or four days with him as we kept Thanksgiving with John Pickler.

Stayed in those big brick, two- or three-story houses that all align there with generals in each one of them.

And I so admired this man, I still do, because he's retired.

But even when he was at the Pentagon when 9-11 hit, but all the years before, even when he was a one-star general, he was a colonel when he was a one-star, a two-star, besides a lieutenant general, he ran every day. He got up and ran five to six miles every day, sometimes bring it to ten.

So he could run with his men.

Every year he would jump out of an airplane.

Never had to do this since Vietnam, but he did it every year just to show he could.

And on this time when we could have had this nice big meal in this big brick house with all family there having this Thanksgiving meal, he said, no, we're going to go eat with the men.

And we ate in the mess with all the soldiers.

He is a unique man, not a lot of ego with him, very rare.

And that is interesting when 9-11 hit it, the plane hit two doors down from his door, killed some of his friends, and he helped bring them out of the building at that time.

Just two doors down. He actually took us through, showed us where his office was when on Thanksgiving Day because the whole Pentagon was closed, but he gave us a tour of it by ourselves.

It was very interesting.

But that day there was no telephones working. There was nothing when that hit.

And he wanted to assure his wife because she knew exactly where.

You could see the picture of the plane. She knew it had to be him. He couldn't get a hold of her.

He knew how worried she'd be. So he ran the 10 miles after he made sure everything was fine.

He could do that because he what? Stayed in condition.

Brethren, let us stay in condition.

Let us not get worn down. Let us not get tired of well-doing, weary in well-doing.

Because you see, perfection is within our grasp.

Miracles should be expected. They shouldn't be surprised to us.

See, we need to be God-focused. We need to remember.

God wants us just like he gives us and reminds us that he's Semper Fi, always faithful.

We also need to be Semper Fi.

And never, ever forget who we are. We're God's issue.

We are Christian soldiers. And we go to battle quite often.

And when we need to help each other, we can do it.

Hoorah!