Preparing Mentally for the Rigors of War

The following story is a first-person account of Leroy M's, a Marine who served in South Pacific during World War II. It begins like this. Shortly after we hit the beach, our M-M-ered amphibious tank took two artillery shells broadside. We immediately evacuated our disabled vehicle and darted from hole to hole towards the enemy airstrip, which we were to take. The sergeant began to check on us to make sure that we were okay. He crawled over to me and asked, You alright, M's? I answered, Yeah, I'm okay, Sarge. He looked at me and asked, M's, where's your helmet? I fell to the top of my head and answered, Must be in the tank, Sarge. Where's your duty belt? Our duty belt carried ammunition for our rifles, a canteen of water and a bayonet. Must be in the tank, Sarge. As a matter of fact, M's, where's your rifle? He looked at me with disgust and pity, because in our hasty departure from the amphibious tank, I was dressed about the same way I would be dressed for a game of volleyball. And there I was, hopping from hole to hole, from tree to tree. And this is how it concludes.

I think at times in our life, we can mooch sight that you and I, that all of us, are in the midst of a great battle being fought all around us. This is our spiritual battle against a giant and great enemy who wants nothing else but to destroy each and every one of us. In fact, he's not only after us, he's after all of humanity. But we are warriors for God's way. We are fighters for his truth. And as a soldier for God, we must be ready at all times to be called on for whatever duty God has for us. This isn't just an analogy for today. This really is real life. Let's begin today by turning to 1 Corinthians 12. Actually, 1 Chronicles 12. 1 Chronicles 12. Because here in this account, we have mentioned here some of David's mighty men and the characteristics that they displayed. And I'd like, as we read through this, to consider these characteristics that they displayed here in 1 Chronicles 12. And we'll read verses 1. We'll start off in verse 1. 1 Chronicles 12.

And then let's drop down to verse 8.

Now, let us consider for a minute how this spiritually could be used to describe each one of us sitting here. We are hard workers, and we have been practiced in our talents. We are spiritually tough and spiritually determined. We are spiritually in shape, and we are dedicated to serving both God and our fellow man. We really can take this to heart and say that this is spiritually words that can describe each one of us. These were men here in this chapter that served a purpose for both God and for man, and we too can be mighty men and mighty women for God. Let's turn to the back of the book in 2 Timothy 2. As we see how Paul encouraged Timothy in one of his letters using a soldier analogy. This is in 2 Timothy 2. 2 Timothy 2 and we'll read verses 3 and 4.

The one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this wife, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. We are called to be soldiers for Jesus Christ, just as Timothy was outlined here for Timothy. We are enlisted as soldiers for God. We are warriors for his way, and we are fighters for his truth. Being a soldier takes discipline, and it takes a willingness to sacrifice and to achieve results. As a soldier for God, we must be ready at all times to be called on for whatever duty God has for us. Once again, this isn't just an analogy. This is real life. A while back, Laura and I had a friend over for dinner, and while we were talking after dinner, Laura was describing to our friend a struggle she was going to be having to take on. A really heavy, weighty thing that she was going to have to endure through. We were laughing about going to war in this aspect, that you have to be spiritually ready for war. So, got her kind of curious. She decided to Google preparing for battle or preparing for war. I don't remember the exact phrase that she Googled. One of the first articles was a weekihow.com article entitled, let me see, how to mentally prepare soldiers for the stress of warfare. It was just one of those things she pulled up, and started reading through it. As we went point through point of reading through this, we started laughing because we realized there are so many spiritual examples that we can draw from a physical article that says how men and women should prepare for battle. It could have been for men who were in the army or people who were in the reserves and who were gearing themselves back up to go to war.

But as we read through these, we just couldn't help but think of these spiritual aspects of these items that would describe these points. And so, I'd like to read through this list with you some of them as we work through this message today because I really think we see the physical aspect of these points, but we realize there is a much deeper spiritual aspect that we can also draw from and live our lives. So, the title and the point of today's message is, Preparing Mentally for the Rigor of Battle. Preparing Mentally for the Rigor of Battle. So, as I said, let's take a look at some of these points. The first point that was from this article starts off and says, Once you know that you are heading into a battle zone, gather as much information as you can about the terrain, the people, the climatic conditions, as well as the political scenario and the cause of the conflict.

We know that the Bible is full of example after example of describing our adversary, Satan the devil. God wants us to know about the history of who Satan was, all that he did in rebelling against God and his hatred for mankind and his desire that all man be destroyed and that all man would lose out on their chance in the kingdom of God. This is the enemy that you and I are up against. This enemy is described as our adversary and roaring lion. That's from 1 Peter 5a. He's also described as the accuser of the brethren, Revelation 12 verse 10. Apollyon, which is translated destroyer. That's also from Revelation 9 verse 12. The deceiver, 2 Corinthians 11 verse 3, and liar, father of liars and murderer. That's from John 8 verse 44. So we see the way that our enemy is described, none of them in a positive light. We also have captured in the Bible the tools that Satan uses to do battle with us. We are not ignorant of his devices, and we have had them practiced on us, and we see them practice on the world that we are part of. One of his tools is deception. Deception. Where he makes good appear evil, and evil appear good. We could lose count. We go around the room and just number off all the things that we see around us. That God says should be good, but the world says, no, that's trash. We don't need to worry about that anymore. And yet they lift up on high esteem the things that God says, no, that's evil. It's plain and simple evil, and yet they call it good. The world has been deceived by Satan, and they're wrapped up in it. Once again, we just read John 8 44, but when speaking of Satan, he is the liar and the father of lies.

So we see deception all around us. Another one of his tools is doubt. Doubt. From the beginning, Satan caused Eve to doubt God, and it has been one of his tools in his tool belt ever since. I saw a friend that posted on Facebook a quote that was attributed to Susie Kasem. The quote goes, Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will. The doubt of trying something, the doubt of succeeding. And so we don't even try. We don't even try to push forward. We just stop. In Hebrews 11 verse 6, you can put this in your notes, Hebrews 11 verse 6, But without faith it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is. It takes faith to please God. It takes faith to get up every day and to battle the doubt that Satan tries to cast into our lives. It's another one of his tools. Deception, doubt. The third tool of one of many, just the third tool that I have here today, is discouragement. Discouragement is another powerful tool of Satan. Can God really love us as sinners? Can he really, truly offer us the kingdom of God for who we are, our faults, our flaws? Is there even a hope? Can we even proceed? Is it worth getting up every day? Can we get down on discouragement sometimes? Can we let the weight of just discouragement hold us back from achieving everything that God wants for us?

But the opposite of discouragement is remembering that his promises are true. His promises are accurate. The last part of Hebrews 11 verse 6 says, And that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. So we see that there are tools that Satan uses to attack his people, or God's people. He uses deception. He uses doubt. He uses discouragement. And these are powerful, but they can all be overcome. This is the war. This is the battle that we are up against. This is our adversary, Satan. We know who our enemy is, and we are aware of some of the weapons he uses. But to better understand what we are up against, we have captured in our Bibles history of man and his interactions with God.

We can read the example of Satan trying to attack God's people and them prevailing. We can also see examples of Satan attacking mankind over the ages and failing. We have examples of both good and both bad, right and wrong. And all this helps us to understand what and who we are up against. This is one of the foundational things that our children begin learning early on in life in Sabbath school and our teens in the Bible studies that we are able to give. We have good examples in the Bible, in God's Word, but you know what? We have some bad examples too. We can all learn from, all going from. It's one of the foundational ways our children can understand how God's ways have been followed and not followed over the many years by men and women of the past. And some of us are new to understanding, or some of us are young still at heart, but young in age too. And we still have that opportunity for God to show us His ways and for us to glean more and more and deeper knowledge and understanding from His Word. Part of knowing what we're up against is understanding that our terrain is a physical world that consists of physical life. But there's also a spiritual component to it as well. And part of our battle recognizes the people that we are interacting with and possibly battling with, our other humans. Many times it's ourselves. It's satanic influences, and it's Satan the double himself. We can see the climatic conditions of the world around us, of our own nation. We can see that the events of history seem to repeat themselves. And yet, we don't learn many times from our own mistakes as part of humanity. We can see the root causes of conflict that have existed from the beginning of man. Greed, selfishness, the going after money, the love of money, pride, a lack of empathy, a lack of compassion. All of these things over time have led mankind down the bad path and allowed Satan to influence and to control many people over the years. Let's turn to 2 Timothy, because we know it's only going to get worse, this aspect. Actually, we're still in 2 Timothy. Let's just look at chapter 3, verse 2. Because we know we can list off the list, similar to what I did, of things that are wrong with the world today, that Satan has his influence, his hand involved with, that we need to battle. But right here in God's own word, we have a list that we should look at, because this is what it's going to describe, a future time to come. A time that we live in today, but a lot of these things just describe it in so much more detail. This is 2 Timothy 3, verse 2.

Headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying its power, and from such people, it says, turn away. Turn away? I mean, this list, don't do it justice just by rattling through all these attributes, do I? But we see it on the news, we see it in life, we see it at work, we see it at school. Wherever we go, we see these attributes being displayed. And these are not human attributes, as far as they don't come from us necessarily, they come from Satan and his influence on us. Do we accept some of these? We do. We bring some of these into our lives. But this is the battle that we're up against. This is the battle that you and I can fight. The Bible provides priceless information that outlines man's walk with God, and man's walk without God involved in their lives.

This is why we need to understand our battle zone and gather as much information as we can about it. The second point from this article goes like this. It says, Start taking your physical fitness seriously if you haven't up until now. All the knowledge in the world is not going to save you if your body fails to deliver. Once again, it's talking about physical battle. But there's a spiritual aspect we can draw on from this. When God first started working in each one of us, we had decisions presented to us. One of the biggest was would we accept the challenge to run the race set before us? Just like a physical race, we don't wake up one day, go downtown, and run a marathon with other people who've been training for months for this. There are a few people, I believe, that has done that, but that's not the wise way to go about trying to run a marathon. It takes time and diligence to start training and go day after day after day. It takes effort. We've got to stay motivated. Our eyes constantly have to be on the finish line of our focused goal. Let's turn to Hebrews 12, verse 1. It's just a few pages back in your Bible from 2 Timothy. Hebrews 12, verse 1. Here we have a race analogy that we can review and glean knowledge from in Hebrews 12, verse 1.

Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight in the sin which so easily ensnares us. You can't run a marathon with a backpack of rocks. You can. It's not going to go very well. It's not going to be very effective. We have to cast off the weight of sin. We have to cast off the extra weight that we want to carry in this life. Cast that off. And then continuing, And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Our spiritual race requires spiritual fitness, and this comes from the time that we spend with God in prayer, the time we spend in His word, and the time we spend when we need to fast from time to time. We must develop habits of connecting daily with God. Just like that runner, they don't just go out for that run once a week and say, yep, that's good enough.

I'm ready to take on that marathon in a couple months. Just once a week will be enough for me. Now, they train normally daily in one way or another. They'll either be on the road running, they'll be in the gym lifting weights, they'll be focused on the food that they eat.

That's how they know that they have to train their bodies in order to do these types of endurance races. And there's no difference in you or I when we run our spiritual race. We have to make sure our body is fueled, ready for the run. We have to make sure that we're getting the rest we need, the exercise that we have to get on that road and physically make the right decisions in life.

This is what we have to do. Is training always easy? I wish. Don't we all wish that? Don't we all wish we could just, hey, it's fun to get out and run for nine miles. Wouldn't that be easy? It wouldn't be nice if that was that easy, but it's not. Sometimes during our training, we slip and we fall. Sometimes we skin up our hands or our knees. But do we quit? We can't. That goal is out there. We want to run that race. And we have to keep our vision on the finish line.

So we get up, we dust ourselves off, and we keep running the race. We keep training for that race. By doing this, we develop perseverance, as we read here. Perseverance is defined as continuing a course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition, continuing that course of action even when it gets difficult. We are told to run with endurance, to hold up under the pain and the fatigue, to continue to last. We develop perseverance by daily getting into God's Word and maintaining a focused prayer life.

There just isn't another way to achieve spiritual fitness results other than spending time with God. Just like you can't train for that race without physically running. We can't train for the spiritual battles that are going to come our way without spending time with God. We cannot and will not be prepared for the stresses of our spiritual warfare battles without that. A third point that they brought out in the article.

Brush up on your basic soldiering skills. You may have been a hotshot during basic training, but that won't cut it if you are out of touch. So you must brush up on your basic soldiering skills.

God's teachings are simple enough for a child to understand, yet so broad that we can study God's principles for the whole time of our life and still glean things from His Word. I like to use a phrase that is referring to this as simplistically complex.

God's way is simplistically complex. Simple in the way that there are 10 commandments. How many would you come up with? If God said it's time for you to come up with the commandments of life, could we have narrowed that down to just 10? That's pretty simple. And it's 10 that we can apply and understand daily.

But yet, what is the weight behind each one of God's commandments? Is it just the simple phrase that we see there, or is there much more to it? Much more that we can grow into as we continue to advance our Bible knowledge, as we continue to live life, as we continue to apply His Word. We realize that the commandments are much deeper than just 10, and they're much broader than just those simple words that's in God's Bible here.

Simplistically complex. At times, we need to get back to the basics of God's Word and His instructions for us. Maybe it is studying each one of the 10 commandments individually. Because we've looked over them before, we've read over them, we know them by memory. But to dive back into them one at a time and to look at the death that's in each one of these commandments, or maybe it's remembering the Holy Days, each time we come around the Holy Day season, to dive into what does that Holy Day represent to us today and for the future in the kingdom of God?

What does this Holy Day... How does it reflect Jesus Christ? How does each Holy Day reflect Jesus Christ? To spend time in each one to study it. Or maybe it's the doctrinal beliefs that we have, or 20 fundamental beliefs here in United. What does each one represent? What is the depth behind each one? And why do we call it one of our foundational, one of our fundamental beliefs?

These are the foundation, the building blocks that we have all put to our heart. And these are the building blocks that we live our lives. If you are like me, each time that I dive into one of these topics, one of the fundamental beliefs, something else pops out of me normally that I didn't see the first time around or the second or the third.

Because each time, I'm at a different point of life than I was when I last studied it. Events have happened. Maybe I've suffered through some trials or some things at work. And so each time we dive into these new things pop out, things that we can each build on more advanced in our life. Things I can apply to my life differently today because my life today is different than it was yesterday, last week, last month. Every day we should be making progress and every day living life, a new life comes our way.

And like the point said, you may have been a hotshot in the past. You may have already studied all the fundamental beliefs. When you first came into the church, you've studied and studied and there's zeal. And you know them and you can still, to this day, teach others about them. But that doesn't mean that we just stop using them or stop studying them or stop really focusing on it. It's like that Marine or that army man that cleans his gun.

You don't just clean your gun once and say, well, it's good. It takes getting back into cleaning that gun over and over to make sure it's always going to be ready when the time comes to use it. We've got to continually be diving into God's Word, into these fundamental, these building blocks of our lives, to make sure that they're fresh in our mind, to make sure that we can describe to each other, to teach others when new people come, to share with co-workers when they have questions.

We must be able to do this because these are building blocks and we must be ready. We must never feel like we've figured all this out in our life. Does anybody figure out they've got this whole Bible all figured out? That's the beauty of God's Word. Is it simplistically complex? It's simple enough that we can read over it and we can apply it today. The first time somebody starts reading some of God's Word, they can apply this today.

Yet you and I and everyone else can apply this same book for the rest of our lives, continuing to grow, continuing to learn, continuing to change, continue to apply. That's the beauty in all of this. We realize there is no coasting into the kingdom of God. There really isn't. Just like that NASCAR race, that driver in that car, or the jockey on the back of a horse, they don't look over their shoulder coming up to that last lap and say, I've got this pretty much in hand.

They keep driving that car. They keep riding that horse till the finish line because they don't let up. They don't let up and we must also never, never let up. It's good that we continually go back to the basics of God's teachings. He has given us the perfect way to live our lives and to achieve peace, happiness, hope, and joy in this life.

And when we really get down to things, we're not trying to wrap our minds around advanced calculus or the U.S. tax system. Imagine that for a minute. You've been instructed to take on the U.S. tax system, memorize it, and to be the number one expert on it.

You ready for that? We haven't been asked to do those things by God. We've been asked to apply things that He's made very simple for us, yet are difficult to apply at times in life because of the world we live in and our physical weaknesses. Yet He's made them simplistically complex, simple that we can apply the Ten Commandments starting today and complex enough that we can study them for the rest of our lives, continuing to peel off the layers of the onion, realizing that this is deeper.

Every year, His commandments get deeper and more meaningful. God has not given us something too complex for us to understand, but He's given us a great gift in His Word. So the fourth point that we gained from this article in a physical sense, it says, start meditating. When the bullets start flying, a cool head might just save your life. Just three to ten minutes to begin with are enough.

So to start meditating. Some think of meditation as simply as just a freeing of your mind, getting rid of all thoughts. Remove everything from your mind and just find that perfect state of emptiness of mind. That in doing that, you can meditate and find relaxation, find true meaning in doing that. But God's Word defines meditation differently. Notice what these following scriptures say is the focus of Godly meditation. The first one is from Psalm 1, verse 2, and you can put these in your notes.

Psalm 1, verse 2. But His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law He meditates day and night. So in His law, He meditates day and night. Psalm 119, verse 99. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. Your testimonies are my meditation. And finally, we heard in the sermonette, Philippians 4, verse 8. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there's any virtue and if there's anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things.

So we can see that spiritual meditation is not just an emptying of our mind alone. That's not the end result. It is a clearing of your mind of worldly things, clearing your mind of human nature and those types of things, and then replacing them with the ways of God, meditating on His Word, meditating on the things and the thoughts of God. A focus on Godly thoughts or attributes allows us a chance to consider God and His workings in our lives.

Maybe as we drive our car on the way to work, we can just turn the radio off, not to lose focus on where you're going or that you're driving, but to also say, you know what, I can spend this time instead of listening to the radio or the sports talk program to think on, like, how am I doing right now? What was that sermon I listened to last week? Am I applying those principles? It's something we can think on as we're driving to work. Or maybe as we sit quietly in a park, maybe that's a time when we can just... you're on your lunch break at work. You go out and you sit on a bench outside and you say, you know what, I'm not going to worry about work for right now. I'm not going to worry about life for right now. Let me just think back, and how am I doing this week? How's God's Word sitting in my heart this week? It gives us a chance to allow the Holy Spirit room to prompt our thoughts and to spark ideas that are wise for us to consider. It gives us a chance to remember how we are to be in the world, but we're not to be of the world. This is probably one of our biggest difficulties that we face as human beings as we desire to follow God. He has given us the ability to live in a physical world, to connect on a physical level with each other and with our environment, and the joys that we have from this physical life. He desires that we enjoy His creation, and He created all these things for the purpose of mankind interacting with it. But it was intended from the beginning to be perfect, and it was until sin entered in. And with sin came the desire for man to use the physical world for his own gain, for his own joy and just pleasure, doing whatever, seeking his own, whatever it was that he wanted to do with it. And this is where we find ourselves today in this type of a world, part of a world where physical life is the most important thing to most people. Because we are physical ourselves, the physical world can rub off on us as well, if we're not on guard against it. This is how meditation can help bring our focus back to where it should be. Let's turn to Romans 12, verse 2.

Romans 12, verse 2.

Romans 12, verse 2.

Let our minds be transformed, is what we're being asked to do here. And that's what meditation does. It gives us that break from a focus on the physical, and allows us to instead focus on a spiritual, where our minds are filled with godly precepts and principles.

Let's turn forward to 1 John, chapter 2.

Because we're being asked to do something else with the physical world around us.

1 John 2, and we'll read verses 15 through 17.

1 John 2, verse 15.

1 John 2, verse 15. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it. But he who does the will of God abides forever.

We can simply see that this world is passing away. This world is going down a path of destruction. And are we along for the ride?

At times in this physical life, we do find ourselves along for the ride. But we've got to change that type of thinking. We've got to continue to be ready to do battle against the world and against Satan's influence on us.

We can't love the world, because this world is not of God right now. This is of Satan. So when we take time to meditate, we take time to clear out the world we're thinking, to clear out the world we're worries, and replace it with things to focus on. God's principles to apply.

This gives us the ability to continue writing ourselves for the spiritual battles that you and I face each day.

There's a fifth aspect from the article. The fifth aspect says, prepare yourself mentally for the period of separation from your loved ones. Prepare yourselves mentally for the period of separation from your loved ones.

The spiritual lesson for this point is that there are some things that we have to give up when we commit our lives to God. There are things that we have to give up.

When we accepted our calling and became baptized, we told God that He would always be more important than the things that we could achieve physically in this life.

There are things that appeal to our human nature side, but do not align with God's ways and His desires for us. So we told Him we'd give those things up as we continue forward through life. We promised Him we would give up those types of things.

We said that if our career ever got in the way, we would give that up. There are those who've had to give up careers over many years, and there are some of our young adults who are starting out careers that had to choose different paths.

I remember it was brought back to my memory. We visited somebody yesterday. He was in the Navy. He brought back the idea. I one time at one point thought it would be really cool to work on a sub, to be in the Navy and work on a submarine. I don't know. I was a teenager. The technology sounded fun and everything else. That couldn't be. You can't keep the Sabbath in the military. You're asked to do a lot of other things that we can't do as Christians when you join the military. So that was something that I had to give up on just a personal level. But we each have those things, don't we? That we've given up at times. Maybe it was a career. Maybe it was a job. Maybe it was... you fill in the blank.

We've all had to give up those things because we told God we would. Maybe it was a girl or a guy one time we gave up because we realized I can't marry someone who doesn't have the belief structure I do. That has committed themselves to God and those types of things. Maybe we're still making those decisions today, some in this room. These are things that we gave up, that we said we will follow God to the end of our lives because of the importance and the promises that we made. These can be some of the toughest decisions that we will ever make in our lives. But God has to know that we will always put Him first. That means there isn't room for anything else, for anyone else to be more important in our lives than God is. Let's look at Luke 14, verse 25.

Here in this account in Luke 14, we have the command that we have to not follow anyone else. That we have to put Him first in our life. Luke 14, verse 25. Luke 14, verse 25. Now a great multitude went with Him, and He turned and said to them, If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brother and sisters, yes, even his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. The word hate here, as we know, does not mean to truly hate as the world hates. It's to love less by comparison. We have to be willing to love everything of this world, both physical and human, and everything in it, less than we love God in comparison. This doesn't contradict the commandment, of course, that we are to honor our mother and fathers. That's not what this Scripture means, but it shows the link that we must be willing to go in order to follow God. Heading into battle, our focus must be on the job before us, not on cares or distractions around us from our primary mission, not on our own personal cares either. We've got to push all that aside as we continue to prepare spiritually for this battle that continues to be around us. A sixth point from this article says, to start gradually reducing your alcohol intake. Excessive consumption of alcohol can lead to fatal errors in judgment. It's kind of comical to think about that, but it's an important point that these people going into military battles have to remember.

You've got to be very clear in your thinking and in control of everything about you. The important takeaway is the biblical principle of moderation. God doesn't desire that we just not enjoy food and drink. He's given these things to us for blessings to be used in a proper and moderate way. Let's turn to Proverbs 25, verse 26. Proverbs 25, verse 26.

Consider the aspect of moderation as we read through these verses. Proverbs 25, verse 26 through 28.

A righteous man who falters before the wicked is like a murky spring in a polluted well. It is not good to eat much honey, so to seek one's own glory is not glory. Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down without walls. The New Living Translation for verse 20 says, A person without self-control is like a city with broken down walls.

Walls aren't much use. They were once strong. They were once solid there. But once they get torn down, those walls are not much use to a city. We must have self-control in our lives, in all aspects of what we do. And of course, I'm not talking about drinking to excess. We all know that drunkenness is a sin. What I am talking about is that second or third drink that maybe sometimes we have that ends up starting to change the way that we think slightly. Maybe we become a little more angry or we become a little more argumentative when that happens. This is at all times making sure that you are able to also get in a car and drive to go help someone else out in the church or pick up your children when they're over at a friend's house. This is that aspect of always being ready to give a biblical answer the right way. To always be ready to be called on by God at any time to do His will in our lives. We must be moderate with alcohol and moderate with all aspects of our life so that we can be qualified before God. It's actually, if we were to turn to 1 Timothy, I'll just reference it, but 1 Timothy gives instructions to those who are going to become elders. The church is going to ordain an elder or a deacon. And yet these principles apply to each and every one of us because we are all in practice to be rising to that level of responsibility.

These are all aspects of self-control. So just think of self-control as I read through 1 Timothy 3, verse 2.

And even for the deacons. White-waste deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money. Self-control. And if necessary, we may need to separate ourselves from those who tend to enjoy alcohol a little bit too much, or enjoy worldly pleasures a little too much. We must make sure that we are always remaining true to God and removing sin from our lives. And that may mean removing sinful influences from our lives.

So that was the sixth point of making sure that we remain moderate. Number seven says, you will never be constantly in battle. You will never be constantly in battle. There will always be some downtime. Use it constructively. Basically, stay busy. Stay busy. Maybe you have been blessed with a law in your life from time to time, and maybe that time is right now, where things seem to be going pretty well for you right now. Life is coming right along. Job is paying the bills. Everything seems to be going good. If so, how are you doing spiritually? Sounds like a pointed question, doesn't it? I've had to ask myself that same exact question. How am I doing spiritually with my life when things are working out pretty well for me right now? Or when things have worked out well in the past? Maybe you're young, healthy, strong, and have a lot of things going for you right now. How are you doing spiritually? It's a question that we each have to be willing to open our minds to and ask ourselves from time to time. How am I doing? For most people, there are times in our lives where things scope pretty well. During these times, it's important that we continue our spiritual training and allow God to continue building our spiritual readiness. We don't know when the next trial or spiritual battle is going to come. But we all know it will come. It will come. No one has ever been immune to trials and difficulties in this life. Let's turn to Acts 14 with this thought in mind. Acts 14. Let me read verse 21. Acts 14 verse 21.

There's an example we have of when Israel took the Promised Land and they started building cities. And they took over some cities that already had walls. It's the example of the watchman. The watchman was someone who was given a job to stand on the wall or in a tower where they could see out among the city, beyond the city, to anyone who would advance, anybody who would want to do battle with that city so that they could then warn and get the military, get the armies ready for battle. That watchman had a very important job because many times battles weren't going on. It was a calm time, maybe even a peaceful time. Yet that watchman still had a job to do. They still had to remain steady on that wall. They still had to remain alert. They still had to be doing their preparation, making sure that their equipment was ready for battle. Making sure that others were ready for battle. We must also do the same. We must have a watchman mentality as we continue through life, ready in ourselves, continuing to stay in God's word, continuing to build up our strength, our spiritual strength and understanding. Because at some point, that enemy is going to test us. They're going to show up at the gate. They're going to show up at the wall. We must be ready. We must have the watchman mentality. So that was point number seven. You will never be constantly in battle. The eighth point, which is the last one for today, it actually says, last but not the least. Believe in yourself. You are a trained soldier. Remember the basics. Stick to them and you will be just fine. Have faith in yourself. You are never alone. No matter what happens, you'll all face it together. You'll all face it together. Believe in yourself. We must remember it's God who is making us into a spiritual being, His new creation. Let's look at 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17.

We have our part to play. We definitely have our part to play. But we are being transformed into a new creation.

2 Corinthians 5 verse 17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Soldiers who are trained and prepared for warfare are no longer the people they once were. They have been made into a new person with new advanced skills and abilities. And they have been trained specifically with a purpose in mind. That's the same for you and me. We are no longer our old selves. We have been trained for a new purpose. We must never forget that. We aren't to go back and be that civilian that we once were. Because we've been called out of that way and we made an agreement that we would not go back to that way of life. That we would strive forward with new skills and new abilities. God equipped us with the Holy Spirit. I mean, do we need anything better than that? How powerful of a tool have we been equipped with? We can't go back to the old way of life. We are being transformed and changed. Our hearts are being replaced with softer, more sensitive hearts that will conform to God's ways and to follow Him. We are adding characteristics that reflect that God's Holy Spirit is abiding and living powerfully in our lives. Through Christ living inside us, we are being changed. And that change comes through God as we submit to Him more and more each day. You can put in your notes Philippians 1 verse 6. Being confident in this very thing that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. We have been transformed and we are continuing to be transformed. We can believe that He will complete this work in us. We can believe that we can overcome the physical draws to this world and everything that we get wrapped up in. So we can be encouraged and strengthened in the knowledge that we are being trained for the Kingdom by the soon coming King Himself. Is there a better mentor? Is there a better trainer that we could have than Jesus Christ Himself? So as we finish up today, let's turn to Ephesians 6 verse 10. Ephesians 6 verse 10.

Ephesians 6 and we'll read verses 10 through 18.

Again, spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Satan wants to throw lies at us. He wants us to believe those lies. Yet what does a belt do? It holds up your pants, right? Keep your shirt tucked in. This is what keeps us together, is the Word of God, the truth that we have in His Bible. We must lean on this truth and stand with it. So having girded your ways with truth, having put on the breast place of righteousness, God's righteousness protects our heart, protects us from damage done when we live a life for His righteousness in us. We are protected in verse 15. And having shot your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, putting on the shoes of the kingdom of God so that we don't just put the shoes on and then sit back in the chair with them up on the table, do we? No, the shoes are for us to get out and to do work with, to spread the gospel message, to tell others, to encourage others with this gospel message that we have. In verse 16, He is faithful. He will see us through to the end so we can hold up a shield of faith knowing that everything that we have been promised will be given to us. It's ours. We just have to keep fighting, keep defending, keep doing everything we can to do that, to battle off, to shield off all those darts. In verse 17, and take the helmet of salvation, this helmet that protects our mind, promise of salvation and promise of the kingdom is what we have in store for us. When we were baptized, we received the down payment of eternal life. Eternal life has been given to us as long as we continue to endure, continue to battle, and that helmet of salvation is there to protect it. And lastly, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Everything else was defensive weapons, defensive armament at this point. But the Word of God is sharp. It is powerful. It can cut ourselves to the heart. God's Word can cut ourselves straight to the heart to get to the core of who we are. And this is the power of His Word. And we can defend our actions. We can defend the decisions we make using His truths daily to defend everything that you and I do. That's the power of His Word in our lives in verse 18. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. So, as we conclude here, let us remember to stick to the basics. Keep placing our faith in God and stand in His armor. Remember that we are never alone. We are never alone. We are worrying aside our fellow Christian soldiers. Each and every one of us is fighting side by side along together. If we can do these things, we can be mentally prepared for the rigor of battle. As Christian soldiers, no matter what the future brings, we will all face it together. We will be prepared and we will be ready.