Spiritual Battle Fatigue

Before I get started, I want to mention that Jacob Mammon has gone to ABC from our congregation. We have a small congregation in Rome about 20, and we've had three go to ABC. In fact, one of them started leading songs this morning and actually did a very good job. So we have come up with three new song leaders down there, and that makes some who've been trying to lead songs very happy. Several years ago, Norm and I went to see the movie Saving Private Ryan. Don't know how many of you have seen that movie. There have been hundreds of war movies made over the years, but that particular movie was very moving. It vividly portrayed the trauma, the pain, the suffering associated with war. In fact, as we came out of the theater, there were a lot of older couples in the theater. A lot of wives holding onto their husbands, holding onto their arms, arms around their shoulders, and you could see a tear here and there. Nobody was talking, because I think that the wives who went to see that movie were able to come away and say, now I understand why their husbands didn't talk about it, because when they saw what they went through. Over the years in war, many soldiers experienced battle fatigue from the constant physical, emotional, psychological pressures of combat that they go through. In World War I, this was called shell shock. Somebody was shell shocked. They couldn't handle it. It was thought to be brought on by an organic condition, but they found out that wasn't true. In a psychology book titled, Abnormal Psychology and Modern Life, Fifth Edition, by Jane C. Coleman, there's a section dealing with traumatic reaction to combat. That as soldiers go into combat, how does it affect them? What effect does it have on the individual? I'm going to be quoting extensively from this book today, or from that section dealing with the traumatic reaction to combat. Notice the following from page 186 of Coleman's book. Most of these men were suffering instead from the general combat situation with its physical fatigue, ever-present threat of death, of mutilation, of severe psychological shock. During World War II, traumatic reaction to combat passed through numerous classifications such as operation fatigue, war neurosis, and finally being termed combat fatigue or combat exhaustion. In World War II, 10 percent of the men developed combat fatigue. Slightly over 10 million men went to combat in the United States or were accepted for, I should say, military service. Out of that number, 1,363,000 were given a medical discharge. Out of that 1,300,000, approximately 530,000 or 39 percent were discharged for neuropsychiatric disorder. This was simply the single greatest loss of manpower in the war from those who had difficulty and could not cope with what they were going through.

Rather, I might say that it also accounts for some of the greatest losses that we have had in the Church over the years. What I'm referring to is what I would call spiritual battle fatigue that people go through.

Spiritual battle fatigue. Our modern history shows, when you go back and you look where the Church began again in this modern era, that over one-third of the membership of the Church have left for various reasons. They come in the front door, they go out the back door. And the only time that we ever really had growth in the Church was there were a lot more coming in the front door than going out the back door.

Over the years, if everyone had stayed in the Church who came in were baptized, we would have, instead of being 140,000 or 50,000, we would have been half a million strong. But yet, they came, they went. Our modern history has proven that there are those who do not stick or remain. Many have become, as 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 and verse 13 tells us, weary in well-doing. They've just simply become weary. In essence, it's like we've gone through shell shock. Begetting in 1995, with the events surrounding the apostasy in the Church, many have felt that way. Many are still suffering from the trauma of that experience. It's expressed in many different ways by people.

A lack of trust, a lack of commitment, a lack of loyalty, a lack of faith. All of these are signs of this fatigue. Many have become fatigued and exhausted. Simply want to be left alone. They want to be left alone as far as church is concerned. They want peace. They don't want any more fighting. They don't want any more confusion. They just want to be on their own. I think this is especially true with the recent division and separation in the Church, but I've heard that expressed by any number of people. When you begin to analyze the symptoms of battle fatigue, let me read from page 187 of Coleman's book.

Common symptoms among combat troops were dejection, weariness, hypersensitivity, sleep disturbance, and tremor. In the Air Corps personnel, the more typical symptoms were anxiety, frequently with accompanying defections, depression, and phobias towards combat missions, irritability, tensions, and startle reaction. What if you were part of a crew of a B-17? Hundreds of you every night took off from Germany. Out of that number, maybe a quarter of you didn't come back.

You know that if you could fly 25 successful missions without being shot down, that you could get out. How many flew that many missions or got to number 24? And the fear that they might have? Well, if this one gets shot down, I've had it, and I'm almost there. Hell, well, I remember, and perhaps you remember, the same symptoms when the church was going through its crisis back in the early 90s. The inability to sleep, the tension shaking inside.

My wife got to the point every time the phone rang, but she just shook all the time, anyway, internally. But she would shake because of the tensions and the problems that we were faced with.

The nightmares, the emotional hurt, the pain, the disbelief. Why? Well, we all felt betrayed, deceived, and felt used or misused. Notice a quote from page 188 in this book. In the majority of the cases, they followed a stereotype pattern. I just can't take it anymore, they would say. I just couldn't control myself. And so, therefore, they would react. They would emotionally shut down. We've all seen pictures of someone that they try to portray this way, who just balled up in a corner, maybe glassy-eyed, nothing going on, sucking their thumb, or just crying, whimpering, this type of thing.

The Bible very clearly reveals that we as Christians are in a spiritual battle for our eternal life. Satan the devil wants us to quit, stop, give up. He doesn't want us to continue on. He wants us to stop fighting. He wants us not to engage anymore, just to sit back and not be involved.

The Bible very clearly shows that we are Christian soldiers. That's mentioned numerous times. In 2 Timothy 2, beginning in verse 3, you therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. So just like a soldier goes through hardship when they're in battle, they don't sleep very much. If they get asleep and a mortar goes off, bomb goes off, somebody starts shooting at you. You maybe are not eating regularly. You're marching great distances. You get weary. There is hardship. You don't take a bath for weeks on end. But, he says here, you and I have to endure hardships. So the point is that as a Christian, the Christian life is not always going to be easy.

The Christian life is there. There are going to be hardships that we face that we have to endure. But, he says, we should endure it as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Commander-in-Chief. He's in charge. He's leading the Army. And so, therefore, we are to be good soldiers. No one engages in warfare and tangles himself with the affairs of this life. So we've been called to be a part of a unit, of an army that has a job, has a goal, has a purpose, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.

In 1 Timothy 6, 12, right across the page of my Bible, we read this.

Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life, in which you were called and have confessed. The good confession and the presence of many witnesses. We have a spiritual, daily battle with Satan the Devil. He is our arch-enemy. He is out to destroy us. We also have to do battle with society. Society is geared at Satan society. It's geared in such a way to lead us astray, to throw traps up, to get us to go in a wrong direction, to get us sidetracked. We also have the passions, pools of our own nature that we have to struggle against. When Paul looked back over his own life, he had this to say in chapter 4, 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy 4, verse 6. He could look back over his life, the calling he had, the commission he had been given, the responsibility of being a Christian as well as an apostle. He says, I am already being poured out as a drink offering. The time of my departure is at hand. He knew he was about ready to die. The end was near. This was probably the last book Paul wrote. Notice he says, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Now you'll notice here there are three things that he mentions.

He fought the good fight, so there is a fight that we're in. This isn't something where you just sort of coast through life. We've got a fight. We have to struggle. There are hardships. There are trials. God never promised us, as the song goes, a rose garden. We have difficulties that we have to face. We have to finish the race. All of us have a race. We have to endure to the end. He who overcomes and endures will be saved. We each want to have our own individual race. The race I run is not the race you run. We all have different jobs, different backgrounds, different skills, different abilities. We've been given different jobs, different things that we have to do. We have to run that race that God has given us. He said, I have kept the faith. So Paul was faithful. He did not give up. He did not quit. In 1 Timothy 1.18, Paul makes this statement, I charge this charge, he says, I commit to you, son Timothy. According to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare. So again, the warfare analogy as a soldier. So he encouraged Timothy in that direction. In verses 19 and 20, Paul lists some of the spiritual battle casualties of the first century, that there were those who had been called and who were no longer remaining faithful. He says, having faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected concerning the faith, have suffered shipwreck. Now, Satan would love to take our ship and put it up on the rocks and wreck us somewhere. He said, of whom are Hymenas and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. So he was concerned about that. None of us want to become the victim of spiritual battle fatigue.

Now, how do you prevent spiritual battle fatigue? What do you do? How can we help each other go through the battles of life? Because we all have common struggles, even though we have our own race to run. What can we do to prevent others and ourselves from becoming casualties? Well, J.C. Coleman, in his book on psychology, explains that there were four attitudes and approaches that helped the combat soldier resist in combat the confusion, the exhaustion, the fatigue, and to overcome. These approaches can also help us in our spiritual battle. That's what we want to take a look at today. So let's take a look at these four areas. Number one is clarity and acceptance or acceptability of war goals. Clarity and acceptability of war goals. In World War II, there was no doubt who the enemy was. The Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. Germany was conquering Europe. They were bombing London. They were trying to take Britain out. And it was obvious if Europe fell, Asia fell to the Japanese, then they would come this direction to attack the U.S.

We realized that the very being of our country was at stake. And so we went to fight this war to save democracy. Now contrast that with what's going on today. Attacking Libya, war in Iran, Afghanistan, even though they're there, we realize that we're trying to put down terrorists. It's not always really clear what our total objective is. And it's not clear from what some of our leaders have said, whether they're even considering victory. It's not victory. We're just going to fight to a certain point and pull out. When Vietnam came, contrast what happened in the Second World War to Vietnam. The average soldier did not know why he went to war. We were not trying to win the war. That was not the objective. The objective was to contain the Viet Cong, save South Vietnam. The morale of the soldiers at that time was very low, extremely low.

You look at the soldiers who would come back from overseas at that time, they'd be made fun of, ridiculed. There was no honor, no respect. Contrast that with what goes on today. Soldiers walking through airports and people standing up and applauding them. People going up and talking to them and thanking them for what they're doing. Quite a contrast. Coleman, in his book, on page 195, has this to say, in general, the more concrete and realistic war goals can be integrated into the values of the individual. In terms of his stake in the war and the worth and importance of what he's doing, the greater will be their supportive effort on him. Time and again, men who felt strongly about the righteousness of their course, and its vital importance to themselves, to their loved ones, have shown incredible endurance, bravery, and personal sacrifice under combat conditions. In a war, we have to realize, as a soldier, the enemy wants to kill you. It's either you kill or be killed. When you're out there in combat, bullets are flying all around, and you're down behind a log or in the corner of a house, and there are snipers around, and people are shooting, and mortars are going off, and tanks are coming, you realize, I could die here. That's what the soldiers are constantly faced with. Do we realize that the same thing is true of us? God has given us, and this is our chance, our time, for eternal life. He's called us now, and this is the time that we can have that life. There's an enemy out there who wants to kill you, take away, hamper you, get you to stumble, fall short, and not overcome, not endure, so that you do not make it into the kingdom of God. Now, you and I, as Christian soldiers, must have clear goals in mind. If I were to ask any one of you here today, what is our purpose? What is our goal? Why have you been called? Hopefully, the first scripture would pop in your mind. It's what? Matthew 6, 33, probably. Seek you first, the kingdom of God. That's what we're to go after first. And His righteousness, and all of these things, shall be added to you. That goal never changes. God has called us to have a part in His family. Our ultimate goal is to be a spirit being in the family of God through the resurrection, to be born again, to be transformed, made immortal, sons of God. Sometimes, the kingdom of God can seem vague, far off, it's in the future. And yet, our goal never changes. Our ultimate goal never changes. As we struggle to live daily, it's hard to focus on the future and our calling. The kingdom of God seems like it's over the horizon somewhere. We have to make ends meet. We've got to go to work. We've got to take care of our family. We've got to put food on the table. We've got to pay the rent. We have all of these things that we're faced with. Notice another quote, the following quote from page 195. In the actual combat situation, the soldier is concerned about the political goals of the war, somewhat remote. He's fighting for survival. He says, perhaps this is the reason why distant ideas such as democracy were the first to go in the personality decomposition associated with prolonged combat. You're not out there shooting at the enemy and saying, this is for democracy. Or you're out there saying, I hope I don't get shot. And you're trying to save yourself, and you're trying to move forward. So distant ideas then begin to waver.

If we're not careful, we can go for days without thinking about our ultimate goal, our calling, our purpose, forget to pray and study diligently like we should. It is proven that in actual combat, that short-term goals provide the impetus for soldiers to carry on, not the long-term. The long-term goals have to be broken down into the short term.

Again, quoting Coleman, page 196, the pursuit of short-range military objectives appears in general because less stress than the pursuit of long-range ones, where there always seems to be another hill, another town to take, that they have short-turn goals. You and I, likewise, brethren, are pursuing the kingdom of God. But that has to be broken down into daily objectives, weekly objectives, monthly objectives, yearly objectives. The kingdom of God can seem so far away, so much to overcome, so much to do. How can I obtain that out there? But if you have a daily goal, such as, I'm going to pray more effectively every day or a little longer every day, or I'm going to be more passionate in my prayers, and you do that for a week, and you look back over the week and say, yes, I accomplished that. You do it for two weeks, and you do it for a month or two. Then you've ingrained that habit, and it becomes a part of your character. Then you can move on to something else. I remember one year when I was an ambassador of college, I heard a sermon during the days of Unleavened Bread that really motivated me to overcome. So I put down, wrote a list of everything I needed to work on. It was a short list of about 20 things. And I got that list, and I started working on every one of them. Guess how many I accomplished? Zero. Didn't accomplish anything. So I realized after a while, you take one thing, you work on it, move on to something else, work on it. After a while, you've covered 20. But you can't just do all of them at once. So we should tackle one fault, one habit, one weakness at a time, and move in that direction. Remember this, that overcoming means to conquer, to carry off to victory, or to come off victorious, as taken from enhanced strong's lexicon.

Another thing that was found was the supportive factor in battle of the buddy system. Quoting page 195-196, the buddy system in which the individual is encouraged to develop a close personal relationship with another member of his unit often provides needed emotional support.

There are times that we all need encouragement, right? We all need to be encouraged. We all need help from others. And spiritually speaking, we cannot be an island to ourselves.

I want you to notice what Ecclesiastes chapter 4 has to say in verse 9.

This ties in directly with what Alan Dance was talking about in the sermonette. Ecclesiastes 4, verse 9.

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. Bewoe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up. Again, if two lie down together, verse 11, they will keep warm. But how can one be warm alone?

Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him, and three-fold cord is not easily broken. Alan demonstrated how little twig can be broken very easily. Put them all together, working together, and they cannot be that easily broken.

Now, brethren, it's a tremendous blessing when both members and a family, husband and wife, are in the Church together, because they can help each other, they can talk to each other, they can encourage each other. But in many cases, probably 35-40% are not that way. So we need friends, we need others who, in a sense, become our buddies. Locally, we have a fighting unit here called the Chattanooga Church. This is the unit that we belong to. And our strength comes not just individually, but it comes from us working together as a unit, as a group, that we have others that we can rely upon, we can trust in, others who can encourage us when we're down, somebody we can go to and talk to if we're having difficulties and problems. That we're a unit, and that we're part of a unit that's part of a larger army that is out here doing a work. And all of them working together are going to be able to accomplish much more than just one little congregation by itself or one person by themselves. So we're not to be an island off on our own. We are to work together to accomplish the work that God has given us.

In 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 3 and 4, Paul revealed here that God comforts and encourages us in all of our trials. He's there to help us. 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and God of all comfort, who comforts us in our tribulation that we may be able to comfort others.

You can go on and read the rest of that. You and I have to help one another adjust the battle conditions. Now that would be going through a trial, hardship, anything that we might be experiencing where we become discouraged or we become down. And that's one reason we come to services. Somebody who is isolated and out on his own, when he's down, he's discouraged, something's happening. Who's going to be there to hold him up? To encourage him? To help him? But when we're together, one of the benefits of fellowshiping, knowing one another, being friends, being able to pick the phone up and talk to somebody, is that you can help each other. What about when a raw recruit comes into a unit? We're the unit. A lot of old-timers here, a lot of veterans. But what happens when a new person comes along? Well, one of the things, if we're not careful, can happen is that we don't welcome them the way that we should. If we see a new person, everybody in here should be flocking around that person, talking to them, finding out about them, maybe inviting them out to eat so that they feel a part of the group and not isolated. As united, we may have people who come back to fellowship again with us. We shouldn't be critical of them, but we should welcome them and make them feel a part of the local unit. That goes on all the time. So we need to be and learn, like God does, how to comfort, how to encourage one another. So the first point is simply that we have clarity and acceptance of the goals, and we know what those goals are. Secondarily, the second point brought out is identification with the combat unit. That comes back to what I just finished talking about.

One thing that aided combat soldiers in dealing with combat fatigue was group identification, that they could identify the group that they were in. Page 195 again. It has been found particularly important to maintain good group identification in combat troops. The soldier who is unable to identify himself with or take pride in his group lacks the feeling of weenus, that is, a highly supportive factor in maintaining stress tolerance. Lacking this, he stands alone psychologically in island, are isolated and less able to withstand combat stress. In fact, the stronger the sense of group identification, the less chance that the soldier will crack up in combat. I believe in the spiritual battle that we all face and the greater Church of God community is faced, and that we're going through the Satan the devil has done a very good job of isolating Christian soldiers. People believe in the philosophy that I'll never trust anybody. I won't be a part of an organization again. So therefore, there are more loners. They become isolated. Satan the devil believes quite strongly in the philosophy of divide and conquer. Divide people up, conquer them, get them into smaller and smaller groups, and he can have a greater influence. You and I cannot be religious independents. We should not be religious loners. It's easier for Satan to pick us off in that way. Again, many today will have nothing to do with a church organization. You'll find the word commitment, or the, say the, not just the word, but the idea of commitment, is a biblical principle taught throughout the scriptures.

In the heat of battle, you need to know that your buddy can help you. You need to know that your unit is there to back you. There's strength in that unity. And yet, commitment today is something that's much like marriage in society.

Very few people are truly committed to marriage the way that they should be. And yet, God expects us to develop commitment and loyalty.

None of us want to be separate and unconnected to a greater work. Matthew chapter 24, 14, Matthew 28, 19 through 20 are still in the scriptures. We still have a job of going to the world preaching the gospel, making disciples, caring for those disciples. And so, we can accomplish a lot more together than we can accomplish isolated. Notice, quoting from Coleman's book again, page 195, in cases of combat exhaustion, the soldiers often return to his unit with feelings of apprehension. So he comes back to the guys. They know he's gone back here for treatment. He comes back up. What are they going to think of me?

So he has feelings of apprehension that his unit will not accept him or have confidence in him in the future. Will he do the same thing in the future? If the group does not accept him, or if the group does accept him, he is likely to make a satisfactory adjustment to combat. If it does not, he is highly vulnerable to subsequent breakdowns. In general, group identification and acceptance appears to be highly important in maintaining the appropriate role in his behavior.

Many people today are still wrestling with where to go, where to attend. There may be those who later on will come join up with us. They must be made to feel accepted without being judged. The same principle applies to anyone who might have been suspended or disfellowshipped. Remember the story back here in 2 Corinthians 2 and verse 6.

The apostle Paul had told them over in 1 Corinthians 5 to put the fornicator out of the church.

They did, turning him over to Satan the devil. Apparently, the man had repented. He was sorry, but he was not being welcomed back. Paul then told them, the punishment which was inflicted by the majority is sufficient for such a man. That on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and comfort him, for perhaps less such a one be swallowed up with much sorrow. Therefore, I urge you to reaffirm your love to him. To reaffirm it. To show it to him. So that's exactly what we should do. People should come back and feel like they're needed and they're wanted. So clearly, identification with the combat unit that people are involved in is one thing that really helped. Thirdly, is a spreet decor.

Now, I'm sure all of you know how to spell a spreet decor, so I'll spell it for you. E-S-P-R-I-T, one word. E-S-P-R-I-T, then D-E, small d, and then C-O-R-P-S, three words, a spreet decor.

On page 195, again quoting, closely related to a group's identification is a matter of a spreet decor. The morale of the group as a whole. How's our morale? How's our outlook?

Spirit of the group seems to be contagious. When the group is generally optimistic, incompetent, prior to battle, the individual is also apt to being good moral spirits. If the unit has a repug, a reputation for efficiency in battle, the individual soldier is challenged to exhibit the maximum effort and efficiency. Clearly, our attitude and our approach can have a very positive or negative effect on those around us. Have you ever been around somebody just totally negative all the time? Always everything is negative, always critical, judging, putting things down, just always negative. You know how that affects you? You walk away and you feel the same way. What about somebody who is super positive and they're always on the bright side? Well, you feel cheery, too. I want you to notice the instruction that God gave to Israel when they went to war. Deuteronomy 20, verse 1. Deuteronomy chapter 20 and verse 1.

When Israel went to war, God gave them specific instructions. These instructions apply to us, and let's notice what he mentions here.

In verse 1, when you go to battle against your enemies and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, have you ever been faced with a problem that seemed too big for you? Something that you couldn't get over? Some problems, some difficulties, some hardship? You know, something you think, I have no idea how I'm going to handle this. Well, that's like seeing a bigger army out there. They're greater. They're mightier. Well, what does God counsel us? Do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you. See, the problem might be out there, but God is with us. That's what we should never forget. Jesus Christ said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So he's promised to be with us. He's commander-in-chief. He's actively leading the church. He will never go away. He's in the battle for the long haul. He's out there to win the victory. So the Lord your God is with you brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

Now, certain reasons then are given here in the next few verses for excusing men from battle that could be summarized as divided loyalty. That they might go into battle not totally focused on the battle, but there's something back here at home that they're thinking about. Notice verse 2, So it shall be when you're on the verge of the battle that the priests shall approach and speak to the people. Now, you stop and think, does any army operate this way today?

And he shall say to them, Hear, O Israel, today you're on the verge of battle with your enemies. Do not let your heart be faint. Now, that's what God tells us. Do not be afraid. Do not tremble or be terrified because of them. For the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to save you. So we have God on our side. Then the officers shall speak to the people saying, What man is there who's built a new house? He's not dedicated it. Let him go and return home. He'd be excused. Verse 6, What man is there who's planted a vineyard and is not eaten a bit? Well, let him go and return home. What man is engaged betrothed? Not yet married. Let him go home. And then the officers shall speak further to the people and say, What man is there who is fearful and faint-hearted? See, there was a winnowing process going on here. They only wanted those in the battle who were going to be in the battle, who were going to stand up and fight. God has not called us to lay down on the sideline. He's called us into the battle, into the fray, to overcome, to conquer. It says, Let him go, return to his house, lest his heart of his brethren faint like his heart. In other words, his heart would influence others, and his attitude would rub off on them. It's not wrong to be positive and optimistic. It's not wrong to be positive and optimistic about the work of God or the United Church of God. Negative attitudes demoralize others. Let's notice again on page 195, it says, On the other hand, when the unit is demoralized or has a history of defeats, and a high loss of personnel, the individual is likely to succumb more easily to anxiety and panic. We have a classic example back in chapter 1, the book of Deuteronomy, verse 28. Remember the spies who went into the Promised Land? They went in to spy the land out. They came back.

What does the Bible say? Well, they discouraged the hearts of the congregation. They came back and said, Land is full of giants. Cities walled up to heaven. They have armies, chariots, all this military might, and the people were discouraged. They did not come back and say, The victory is ours. Let's go take it. Joshua and Caleb did, but they discouraged the people. It is so easy to be negative and cynical about almost anything, especially religion and the Church.

Do we understand how this can undermine the morale of those we come in contact with?

Some have never gotten over what happened to them in the past. They still are operating on resentment and bitterness.

Hopefully, all of us can forgive, move on, and not continue to be trapped in the past. Satan wants people trapped back here. That's all they can think of is back here, or hurt, or something that happened to them. They can't move past that. We need to be able to move past those things. Notice who should we direct our hatred and righteous indignation against?

Page 196 of Coleman's book, finally. Hatred of the enemy appears to be a factor that tends to raise combat, and that is a soldier's stress tolerance.

What are we supposed to hate? We hate sin. We hate wrong actions. We hate gossip. We hate the devil's approach, his methods. We hate division. We hate factions. We hate disunity. We should love people.

Ephesians 6 and 12 tells us that Satan and his demons are our enemies. Other human beings are not our enemies. They're not the ones that we're fighting. We're fighting against Satan the devil and all of his influence. So we should love people. Hate the wrong, hate the evil that people do, but love the people. So, as Spreet the Core, the morale of the group is extremely important. And then finally, we get down to the fourth point, and that's they found was quality of leadership. The quality of leadership. Quoting again from the book, confidence in military leaders is also vitally important. When the soldier respect his leaders, his confidence in their judgment, their ability, and can accept them as a relatively strong father or brother figure, his morale and resistance to stress are bolstered. Ephesians 1.20 tells us that Jesus Christ is the head of the church.

So he provides the best possible leadership. He'll never leave us or forsake us. He's given us the plan on how we should battle, what we need to overcome, what we need to resist, next hill to take, that type of thing. He will be with us to the end of the age. With his guidance, we know we will win. We know the end. We know that we're going to win. We just have to stay in the battle and continue to fight. But let's face it. What is the real problem with leadership?

The real problem with leadership is having confidence in human beings. Is it not? That's where people's confidence is shaken. We've all felt deceived and betrayed by some of our leaders in the past and maybe even so in the present. Some do not know whom to trust. Consequently, they say, well, I'll never be part of any government again, any organization. Brethren, we should realize that God has not left us even without leaders on the human level. If God never intended that there be shepherds to pastor the churches, that there be servants to help the people, then why did he ordain the ministry? Why do we find Timothy and Titus in books of the Bible talking about the ministry teaching, teaching sound doctrine, rebuking, correcting, loving, helping, being helpers of their joy? You know, this type of thing. We need to realize that God is the one who did that.

Paul explains something in 1 Corinthians 11 that we read, generally read around Passover time. 1 Corinthians 11.18. I'm not sure that in reading this, so we just sort of read over it and don't believe it. 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 18. Paul says, first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part, I believe it.

So divisions, factions, heresies, all of that was rampant in the first century and in the church in Corinth. But notice how verse 19 is worded. For there must also be factions among you. So there will be factions, differences of opinion and approaches, that those who are approved, so some will be approved and some will not be approved. Those who are approved may be recognized, or as the margin says, made evident among you.

God allows problems in the church. Sometimes we ask the question, why do all these things occur in the church? Well, God allows it for several reasons, and one of them is given here, to show among the leadership those who might be approved, those who are disapproved. And I think over a period of time, perhaps many of us have been disappointed, with many of the leaders that have failed the test.

I remember back in 1995, two of my brothers stayed in the church and went off with the new teachings. Victor Kubik had two of his brothers stay with the church and go off with the new teachings. Bob Dick had two of his brothers stay in the church and go off with the false teachings and so on that had been introduced. This happened to many of us. How many of us have family members, friends, or former pastors who are no longer with us, who may not have passed the test or failed the test? The word for approved is the Greek word dachomos. Notice the enhanced Strong's lexicon definition of what dachomos means, the approval. In the ancient world, there was no banking system, as we know it today, and for no paper money, all money had to be made from metal, heated, liquid, poured into molds, allowed to cool. When the coins were cooled, it was necessary to smooth the uneven edges. The coins were comparatively soft, and of course, many people shaved them closely. In one century, more than 80 walls were passed in Athens to stop the practice of shaving down coins, then in circulation. So if you owned a business, you got a lot of coins in, you'd just shave a little bit off of it. Thousands of coins, after a while, you got a big pile of shavings. Melt it down, you got a few new coins. But some money changers were men of integrity who would accept no counterfeit money. They were men of honor who put only genuine, full-weighted money into circulation. Such men were called dokamos or approved. You would want to go to someone who was a money handler that you knew was approved, because he was only going to handle coins that were full coins and not had been shaved. Rather, this applies, I believe, to faithful ministry and to faithful membership in the church, that we should not accept counterfeit ideas, doctrines, teachings.

You find that God is looking for people of honor and integrity. God has placed the ministry in the church to provide leadership and oversight, to guide and to teach, to be helpers of your joy. Those who have been faithful, honest, should be given honor, not rejected. Sometimes anyone who's a minister is outright rejected and condemned by somebody. I'll never trust a minister again, period. It doesn't matter who he is. Let me ask you a question. One-third of the angels rebel against God.

Two-thirds remain faithful. Do we lump all the faithful angels in with the demons and say, we can never trust an angel? I don't think God feels that way, because he uses two-thirds of the angels to help the human race to achieve his kingdom. They were created to the unseen helpers out there and protectors. We know that one-third rebelled, and you don't trust them, but that doesn't mean the other two-thirds are not honorable and faithful, which they were. Those who suffer battle fatigue had a high rate of recovery when they receive quick treatment, and that was extremely important. Quick treatment. One last quote here. In World War II, many men were able to return to combat after a night or two of such relief. Soldiers whose symptoms proved resistant to such treatment were evacuated to medical facilities behind the lines. It was found, however, that the further the soldier was removed from the combat area, the less likely he was to recover and return to battle. Removal to an interior zone seemed to encourage the maintenance of symptoms and reluctance to return to his unit. If you're back here 100 miles away in a hospital somewhere, and there's good food, pretty women, white sheets, everything is comfortable, you would want to go back to combat. During the first combat engagements of American forces in North Africa, combat exhaustion cases were transported to base hospitals hundreds of miles behind the battle lines. Under those conditions, less than 10 percent of the soldiers were able to return to duty. In contrast, approximately 60 percent of those treated immediately within 15 to 20 miles of the front lines were sent back to combat zone or duty, and apparently the majority readjusted successfully. The longer a person stays away with the church, the longer a person is isolated out here on his own, becomes alone with, the harder it is to return and to be integrated within the unit.

There are times that we all go through hardships. There are times we all go through trials. We all become discouraged and weary. We should seek help immediately.

We should ask for help. That's where a buddy comes in. That's where having those that are true friends come in. That's where having a local ministry comes in. One of the biggest helps, again, in those situations are close friends, a buddy, or, and not just or, but and or, the ministry. Brothers, let's realize that there is an enemy out there who's trying to kill us, to keep us away from eternal life. You and I have the help that we need. So, let's not allow spiritual battle fatigue to undermine our goal of being in the kingdom of God.