Win by Losing

Greetings! My name is Mr. Adams, too, for uh... for finding me. I was lost and now I'm found. I simply ask that we're still in Filneyville, and that was, yes we are, that's true, but you're not sure. I used to be.

I was trying to enlarge your church over there preaching to the Samaritan, but... Next time, we'll get to them. Appreciate being here. Enjoy the drive over this morning. Beautiful. There's a camp out there since I had this weekend. Hopefully it's the 10th after the storm. Otherwise they may be out here in the field somewhere. Wind was really howling over in Ohio as well, so we lose power about it.

So, Lausanne, now can you reheat that the next time? Is that cooking it or is that just reheating it? No. It's fun. This Lausanne is great at reheating it all the time. I just love that part of it. Excuse me, about the second or third time around. I don't know why, but it must be an Italian thing. I'm not sure if we've tried being here the same way. We're still trying to go the same way.

I appreciate having the opportunity to come here. I appreciate the fact that the campos can be up with their new grandchild. They keep adding to their clan. I hope people are trying to enlarge their church by pregnancy, by myself. Competition with some of the families. It's made that you go to different churches, and there's one family that kind of dominates it. My daughter married into one. We gained about 400 relatives when she married. Her family in California is kind of well-known. They all have boys. It's a tone family. The grandfather had four or five sons, and then they had sons, and they're all over the place. So a lot of us are related to each other. If you go back around, all of us are related somewhere in there, which is nice. It's interesting. We're here today to praise God, to learn about Him and His way of life and about true life. In John 10-10, when Christ was talking, He made the comment, The thief comes not but to steal and to kill and destroy, but I have come that they might have life, and they might have it more abundantly. We're here about life, abundant life. Yet, the sermon that, from all the things we read, when people are unemployed in different cities and the problems and the bankruptcies, etc., we know that life isn't even what it used to be in this country. It's certainly not that good in most of the rest of the world. As we approach the end time, giving life is something that we have to think about. Now, God's son came to give life. In the title of this sermon, I'm entitled, Gaming Life by Losing, which is probably an odd title, but I should go through this sermon. I don't understand what I mean by that.

It's interesting that God's plan through His Holy Days, the springboard, for a great many things. It gave me a lot of encouragement. The message of the Feast, the plan of God, everything that it stands for, was always joyous from the time of my earliest memories in childhood, to understand what life and death was about, that there was life beyond this life. My dad died when I was three, my mom died when I was 56.

It's never been sad, but at the same time, I've always known exactly what's going to happen. When you know where the future is, it's a comfort to that. The Holy Days gave that to us. It was interesting. You think about the days of Josiah, back in the kings, who probably read that story if you haven't, it's a good story to read. As a young man ate, he started turning toward God. In his teen years, they found the book of the law. They didn't, in example, which no one had read for years, and they saw the feast days, started keeping them, and it brought them back to God, just as the knowledge of the feast in the last century brought us back closer to understanding more about God and His plan. For the feast, God put Christ back into the church, really. This world doesn't understand Christ, because they don't keep the feast days. They use His name all the time in Christianity. The Jewish people keep the feast, but they don't keep Christ, so they don't understand why the full meaning of their days. But it does play Christ exactly in the plan where God put it, to die for us, to give us His Holy Spirit, to reign with us when He returns. All those things we understand through Christ is qualifying over Satan. Indeed, the plan of God was a springboard for many of the meetings that I witnessed when the Gospel was basically preached by one man who traveled to normal, Mr. Armstrong. At that time, there were other people who taught different things, but as far as any type of magnification to the world, we thought the world was going to end because we were covering that. Obviously, we cover now more of the Internet in different countries than we did before, if there were to translate things.

But it's interesting because a great many people heard the words that he spoke, but without a spirit and a willingness to yield to the truth, they didn't really understand. And even those who wanted to believe it didn't really understand it. I could talk today, though, a little bit about what Kepa did recognize, a bit of what he said, and saw that there was more to it than met the eye.

When he talked about the strong winds in hand, about the peace coming to this earth, the return of God's true government to earth.

This was the prince of ours that we made in Kathmandu, Nepal. Kathmandu is the largest city in Nepal. Nepal is a small country just north of India, a sandwich between China and India, not one side to that. It is like Utah.

The Armstrong met with King Mahindra for the fall of the 70s. I had flown the plane at that time. I had never met King Mahindra. Then later in the 80s, he met with King Buranda and his wife Queen Anshwaria. They had won us through a project in Thailand, because the Queen had spent a lot of time with Queen Sirica. And they talked to Mr. Armstrong about Mr. Armstrong because the Queen sold how they started their projects. Mr. Armstrong helped them to build some schools and teach people to quit growing opium and to grow fruits and vegetables. And then the various other projects that we had supported in their country. So Queen Anshwaria and King Buranda were anxious to help Mr. Armstrong if we could do some of the same things there. They wanted that project and the same success that the Thai projects had had over the years. So in about 1984, Leon Sexton and his wife, Laura, were sent over to Thailand with some students. And they stayed with a man named General Aditya Farana and his wife, Sunita. He was a fairly quiet man, but he had a great deal of respect in the country. When we were there, Mr. Armstrong, in 1984, they asked him if they would go to lunch at their residence.

General Aditya, which is a nice one. He didn't really like getting out of people's houses, especially in other countries, you don't know what you're going to get. I mean, he's picking them. They do the dietary laws, so it wasn't a problem there. Leon Sexton had explained that to him. But again, the way it's cooked was, I remember the fishballs that we had in Thailand at one point. They thought they were clean. They were clean, but they weren't really washed. They'd taken out of the river, dropped in the dirt, taken back to a big board, chopped up, and got some all, made the fishballs.

Although it was a clean fish, it wasn't exactly clean. So you don't really know what you're going to get. And so he agreed to go to have lunch with General Rana and his wife. And we got there, and this party in the meal was actually fairly good. But during this time, Mr. Armstrong had an issue with his heart.

And of course, Kathmandu is 4,500 feet high. Most of the people, off the low part of the fall, the rest of it is up to 20,000 feet or so. 25, not ever. And so he was having problems taking nitro and had to take oxygen. And Suneeta Rana told me, she said, we need to call and cancel the meeting tonight. Because that night was a banquet with the parliaments of Nepal. All the leaders of Nepal would be at that banquet. And she said, you have to cancel this. I said, no, no, don't cancel, can't cancel. Well, you're going to kill him.

Well, I didn't intend to kill Mr. Armstrong. Never did. But I had seen enough of God working before to know this isn't, you don't cancel. You wait and see. And so he left their house with that hotel at Breston. And the people, the guests came to the hotel. And they were waiting, and it was interesting because Suneeta Rana and his wife were sitting on the table on one side. And that table was up at the top. And they could see down the hallway, and as I brought Mr. Armstrong down, he had to take auction in the hallway. He stopped and covered up, and he was breathing it.

And rested, took a couple of microfills to turn the blood. And then, a couple minutes later after resting, he walked in and sat down at the table. And the middle ground elected me and said, you can't do this now. He can't. He can't. This isn't right. And I said, just wait. And he sat there, and she watched him, and decided he took his plate, and the meal came, and he served, and he kind of picked that little bit.

It didn't mean a whole lot. And he snapped at all the time. Mrs. Rana was really worried and nervous about this whole thing. And she kept saying, why did you do this to him? And I said, just wait. Just wait. And they pushed the microphone in front of him. And he stood up. And he started speaking. From all the power and authority that you can imagine, pounding on the table and telling him what's going to happen.

And Mrs. Rana, about two or three months into it, she said, you know, that's not Mr. Rana's trying to speak, and that's God's speaking. That man doesn't have that strength. And it was true. He didn't have that kind of strength. You know, in Matthew 10, verse 18, turn over there. And you read what Christ said. Verse 18 in Matthew 10, he said, And you shall be brought before governors and kings, for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles, And when they deliver you up, take no thought of how or what you will speak, Who will be given to you in that same hour, what you need to say.

For it's not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father, which is in you, who speaks in you. I witnessed that several times, time and again, and yet that period for him is done. And I'm sure there's yet to happen, obviously, to witnesses and whatever work we have. And often, any of us, when we're talking to a neighbor or something that comes up, words come and thoughts come to your head that you don't really expect. And you're able to say things that you didn't really expect to say. Are you prepared for God to speak through you?

Can you see what you need to know? Do you read the book? Do you have a close relationship with God so that he's able to speak through you? The same way Christ said what happened with His disciples. No, John Marana never came into the church. There was a knowledge and truth that was limited. God didn't call him. He died a few years ago. But I was always impressed with John Marana. He was a quiet man, and he knew the ins and outs of every government bill that mattered to anyone I had known.

Now, as a general, you know, generals of this country are a shame because they tend to earn the rank. If you know much about Asia, though, like a lot of the generals in foreign countries become generals simply by time in. You know, Thailand, if you're in over 25 or 28 years, you become a general. If you're in that long, you are a general.

Period. You may have done nothing. Never. You may have run away from balance. You may have been a coward, but if you manage to stay in the army that long, you become a general. So being a general in itself doesn't always mean that you're important. So becoming a general is lots of journals in some of those countries. But everywhere I went with John Marana, everyone would get very quiet. And they'd be great respect, and they'd salute him. He'd been out of the military for years. I knew that.

But yet, they would stand attention. Well, I've heard more about John Marana and why he knew every government building, because actually his grandfather had been the king of Nepal. And the Rana ruled over Nepal for many, I mean, a couple hundred years. It was actually the British that helped remove his son from the trauma, but in the current legal family, the Shahs, some 50, 60, about eight years from now, whatever.

But it was interesting, because his grandfather was the last in a series of the Ranas of Nepal that we refer to. King Mahathir and King Brabant, we met, were part of the Shah family. And the crown, so to speak, was removed from the Rana family and given to another.

We turn to Revelation 3. We see God telling us not to lose our crown. But understanding what your crown really is, so to speak, is different. Revelation 3, verse 7, the angel the church of Philadelphia writes, These things sayeth he that is holy, he that is true, he that has the key of David, he that opens, no man shuts, and shuts, and no man opens. And I might add, he holds our crowns, because all the judgment is given over in Christ. I know thy works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, and no man can shudder. For you have little strength, and have kept my word, and has not denied my name.

I'll make them of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews. The thousand against the Jews seems like a compliment there, and are not. But do lie. Behold, I'll make them to come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you, because you have kept the word of my patience. I will also keep you from the hour of temptation, which I'll count upon the entire world, and try them to drown the earth. Certainly, I'll always want to be spared from what is coming shortly at our time.

To him that overcomes, verse 12, will I make a pillar in the temple? Or, verse 11, behold, I come quickly. Hold fast that which you have, let no man take your crown.

You can't lose our crown.

To him that overcomes, I'll make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out. And I will write upon him the name of my God, the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God. I will write upon him my new name.

We're going to have a name. We're going to become a people who God knows who we are, an identity that we will have.

General Raunas seemed to bear no animosity for the ruling family, but was there indeed his son, Colonel N'Arma, who was the assistant to the Crown Prince, and A.D. Camp to him. And there was humility in this family. Although this wouldn't seem to be so with what had happened.

But all these things didn't seem like that would be what would create a respect for such a general that I saw in him. It was interesting, I came to see, in his mind, his crown really was service to the people. It wasn't a matter of being a king or not. I finally asked some people, and I got aside from different ones, I said, Why is he so respected?

There's other generals around. They don't stand up with him. They don't salute. And the answer was, he saved the Paul in the Chinese. And so, what do you mean? How did this one man save the Paul in the Chinese?

It didn't make sense. But then I started getting parts of the story. General Raunas was a Gurkha soldier. Gurkhas were well known. In the 1950s, the Chinese had sent a whole division of men to take Nepal to come through the passes to cross the Himalayas. It was a surprise attack. They weren't prepared for it. And when they got word that the Chinese were approaching Nepal toward the pass, word was sent to General Raunas. And there was no time to move an entire army up to him. And so what General Raunas did, he took about 20 or 30 men, a small band of people, and a small quantity of food, because they took packs with them, but they were laying down with ammunition and their rifles, as much as they could possibly carry.

They took off and in one day hiked up to the top of that pass, about 18,000 feet, where the Chinese had been coming through. He knew he couldn't stop them sitting at that 18,000 foot pass. There would just be too many of the Chinese and too few of them. So he took his men, hiked up above the pass, to about an elevation of around 20,000 to 21,000 feet, where they could look down at the pass. And for nearly a week, in the freezing cold and rain, this small man, the men, shivering in cold with the rifles there, held off the entire Chinese army until the Chinese retreated.

Obviously, this one favored him within the police people. General Arana lived up to the reputation of the gherkas. Do we live up to the reputation we have in Christ? I was very impressed by the story, and I wanted to buy a gherkin knife when I was there in Thailand. Because I'd seen the movie, Gunga Din, all the old-timers that saw that movie, about the gherkas and the fighting. Unfortunately, all the cloth shops were closed that last day. It was Sunday.

All the shops were closed, and the markets were closed, and I couldn't get one. As the general was handing me off on the airplane, I just made a comment, and I wish I could have probably placed the buyout on the gherkin knives before I left. And I was stunned at his gesture of friendship, because he reached behind a heavy coat, and they all wore heavy coats for the opportunity to call. But behind his back, he pulls out his personal gherkin knife, and he gives it to me. This is the one he held when he was up with the Chinese fighting him down.

It's the one he used the entire time. He was a soldier in the army. I didn't really want to take it, but I could not turn it down, because it was a gift he was giving. And it was difficult to take it in some ways. I knew the difference. Customs with knives was interesting, because in Japan, if you give a series of knives, one of the German steel companies gave a gift to one of their head people, a knife for his wedding.

He refused the wedding. He kept saying, No, please, no, no, it's too much, too much. The reason he made the excuses is because you give a knife for a wedding gift in Japan, you're saying that the marriage is going to be severed and then be divorced. So it's not exactly the best gift to give for a wedding present. In Thailand, when I was there, it's a lot.

I wanted to hear some knives there, and he kept saying, You have a quarter, give a quarter. Why? So I'd say, I'd give a quarter. If you gave a knife, you meant your friendship was gone, but if you bought it, it was okay. So if you wanted to give him a quarter, it's not a good gift. So technically, you don't usually give a knife as a gift, because he was offering this, and what I had said, and it was not the typical severed friendship as such, protocol dictated I think, and so I accepted it. Because of what it meant, what it was.

And it was interesting, because the first thing I wanted to do when I got it was, well, take it out and look at it. I didn't. Because if you understand the customs, a gurkha doesn't draw his knife unless he intends to draw the knife or die. And so I didn't want to violate that protocol on that really soil. I had no one I wanted to cut. I didn't want to bleed myself.

I didn't want to die. And so I stopped and put it down. I left it in the sheath. Turn to John 10, if you would. Verse 11. Being willing to die as he and the other gurkhas reminded me of Christ's words in John 10. Verse 11. Right after the verse I quoted at the start, when Christ said He was giving life more abundantly, He continues.

Verse 11. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. That he that's a harling and not a shepherd, whose own sheep are not, sees the wolf coming and leads the sheep. The wolf flees, the wolf catches them and scatters the sheep. The harling flees because he is a harling. He doesn't care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know my sheep, and I am known of mine.

The father knows me even so. I know the father, and I lay down my life before the sheep. The other sheep I have, which are not in his fold, that also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and be one holder, and one shepherd will read to them. Therefore does my father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man takes it from me, but I lay it down with myself.

I have power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it again. In this commandment I have received of my father. Christ loved everyone in this world. That's why he died for all of us.

General Rama loved his people, and he was willing to die for all of them, to lose his life. Jesus Christ, perconized, so to speak, was the word of his father. The words that he bring, the words of life, his book, he knew it, and his code was that of a lifestyle of his father in heaven. The sard should be. But it was then after this receiving the night that General Rama said something to me that even was more startling, since I prepared to board the plane.

The last thing he said to me was, To Aaron, we made a big mistake. We should have lost to the British. This is an odd statement for a general, for a nation of country and circus who are known for their warrior, for their courage. And yet, we made a mistake. We should have lost to the British. Why do I tell this story today? Because they could have some points that we can use in our lives for our spiritual journey. To understand them, you need to know a little bit of the history of the gurkhas. So I'll read to you. The gurkhas were a very special group of people.

The British in their colonial pursuits learned this when almost 200 years ago, in the Gurkha War of 1814 to 1816, when the British East India Company Army waged war against them, the troops in support of the British East India Company invaded the vault, and they suffered heavy casualties at the hands of the gurkhas and then decided to sign a hasty peace treaty rather than die.

A soldier of the 87th foot cavalry wrote in his memoirs, quote, I never saw more steadiness or bravery exhibited in my entire life. The run they would not, and of death they seemed to have no fear, and though their comrades were falling thick around them, they stayed. The British were impressed by their gurkha soldiers, and after reaching a stalemate with the gurkhas, they made Nepal a protectorate and offered to pay the gurkhas even to join their army and fight with them. Who were these people that the British fought and lost and then decided to enlist in their army?

It's interesting. There's no tribe anywhere in Nepal that's called the gurkhas. They're not a single people. The gurkha soldier was recruited, and the recruits were mainly drawn from several ethnic groups. When the British began recruiting them from the interior of Nepal, these soldiers were mainly drawn from the Magar, the Garun, the Rai, and the Limbu. Ethnically, gurkhas are all originally from Nepal, but are made up of many ethnic groups.

They comprised the Indo-Tibetan, Mongolian, and ethnic Rajput gurkhas of Tebento, Mongolia, and origin, mostly from the Magar, Rai, and the Buangaran tribes, along with the Tamang, and the Karanti. Gurkhas of the Aryan origin mostly belonged to the Tureti and the Brahman origin. It's not a single people. How could they unite and fight in the way they did? How could they give up their own identity? Turn to First Peter 2. We'll see something to make it beautifully. We have to do spiritually. They have one thing in common. They lay aside their tribal uniqueness for a greater sense and signal this purpose. And that's as they become one for a cause, and that makes them a very formidable force.

First Peter 2, verse 1, Therefore, laying aside all malice, all guile, all apocracies, all envies, and all evil species, as newborn babes desiring the sincere hope of the word that you may grow thereby. The word is your sword, your girdenite. If so be that you have tasted that the Lord is gracious, to whom coming as unto a living stone, this allowed indeed a man, but chosen of God, and precious. You also, as lively stones are built upon the spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Wherefore also it contained the Scripture, behold, I lay Zion, that ye will keep the chief cornerstone, elect and precious, that he that believes on him shall not be compounded. You know what his goal is, what he is to do. And unto you, and you here today, which believe he is precious, but unto them which are disobedient, the stone which the building disallowed and rejected, the same as made they had, the chief. Christ is our chief, our leader. The stone was stumbling in a rock of offense, and he was to the Greeks and the philosophers and the people who didn't understand and give him instead of getting.

Even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient, where I am too also, they were appointed. They don't have a spirit. It's not their time yet.

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that you should show forth the praises to him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. And like the Eirchas, which in times past were not a people, which are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

Dear beloved, I beseech you all, the strangers and pilgrims, who stand in question thus with war against the soul. Have your conversation honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they may speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God, and they have visitation. By your good works they seek Christ, they glorify him, just as the gurpus of their code. My honor for them, I pray for you today. Does the world see oneness in our purpose? Do they see a group known as the children of God? Or do they see individuals seeking things for themselves, just as the world does? Sadly, we've been split apart at times throughout history by men seeking their own. It takes faith to be brave before God, to humble yourself to be like Christ. If you're willing to die, the gurpus had a legendary bravery. But it was not without a cause. One quote from a British officer, killed Marcher Sam, Manish-ja, said about the gurpus, quote, If a man says he is not afraid to die, he's either lying or he's a gurkha. History shows why he said this. In the Indian rebellion of 1857s, gurkhas then fought on the British side and became part of the British Indian Army in this formation. During the conflicts, 25 Indian orders of merit and wars were made to men, gurkhas from the regiment, during the one siege of Delhi. Three days after the mutiny of the Indians had begun, a gurkha battalion was ordered to move to Nuru, where the British garrison was fairly holding on. So they had to march up to 30 miles a day to get there. During the four-month siege of Delhi, they defended the garrison, losing 327 out of 491. From the end of the Indian rebellion in 1857 to the start of World War I, the gurkha regiments saw active service in Burma, in Afghanistan, the Northeast frontier, the Northwest frontiers of India, Malta, the Russell-Turkish wars of 1877-78, in Cyprus, Malaya, China, and the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, and Tibet, in the expedition of 1905. Between 1901 and 1906, the gurkha regiments were numbered from the first to the tenth, and reassigned as the gurkha rifles. Real name. In this time, the raid of the gurkhas, as the regiment came to be collectively known, was expanded to 20 battagans with 10 regiments.

During World War I, 1914 to 1918, more than 200,000 gurkhas served in the British Army, suffering approximately 20,000 casualties, resulting in receiving 2,000 gallantry awards. There were also large numbers of serves in combat in France, in Turkey, in Palestine, and Mesopotamia. They served on the battlefields of France and Ludo, as a convention, Nudol-Chevel, and Yapri. They served in Mesopotamia, Persia, Suez, and the Palestine against the Turkish advance in Gallipoli and Salonika. During the ultimately unsuccessful Gallipoli campaign in 1915, which movies are made about, the Ashkara others especially took a heavy hit, said the gurkhas were among the first to arrive and the last to leave. The first of the six gurkhas, having landed in Cape Hells, led the assaults during the first major operation to take out of Turkey's high point.

In doing so, they captured a feature that later became known as Gurkha Hill. At Safar Bar, they were the only troop in the whole campaign to reach and hold the crustline and look down the straits, which was the ultimate objective. The British were there, the Australians were there, the gurkhas were there, but the gurkhas, the only ones that took it, were heavy casualties.

During World War II, there were ten gurkha regiments, two devalues making 24 pre-orbitalians. It required ten training centers to establish a basic training to train all the different men. A total of 250,280 gurkhas served in war in almost every theater. In addition to keeping peace in India, the gurkhas fought in Syria, North Africa, Italy, Greece, and against the Japanese in the jungles of Burma, in northeast India, and also in Singapore. They did so with such considerable distinction earning 2,734 regular wars in that process, suffering around 32,000 casualties. One of the most famous, the detachment of the serp of Marx and Arabian.

While during the Battle of Luz, a battalion of the eight gurkhas fought to the very last man, curdling themselves time after time against the weight of the German defenses until they all died. The struggle of 9, verse 23. Do we have that kind of spiritual bravery in us? We should. It's Luke 9, 23, the willingness. And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily, and follow me every day. For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it. For whosoever will lose his life for my sake, shall come and save it.

For what is a man's advantage? If he gains the whole world, and loses himself, will be cast away. Whosoever shall be ashamed of me, and my words of him, shall the son of man, also be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his fathers, and with the holy angels. If you are willing to die, you also will be legendary. Not in this time, not in this world. What will you look like? It's interesting. The Gurkhas were given a very special marine uniform in the British service, so they would stand out. Verse 27, But I tell you the truth, there be some standing here which shall not taste death, till they see the kingdom of God.

When it came to pass, about eight days after these sags, he took Peter, and John, and James, and went up to a mountain. And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and the grahamant was white and glistening. And behold, there talketh of two men, which are Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory, and spoke of his death, which he should accomplish in Jerusalem. But Peter and Medgar with him were heavily asleep.

And when they were awake, they saw this glory, and the two men stood with them. And they wanted to go make a temple. They thought it was here. They actually saw what it would be like. Verse 34, While they spoke, there was a cloud overshadowed them, and here, as they entered the cloud, there came a voice saying, This is my beloved son, here, and. When the voice was passed, he was just found there alone. They kept it close and didn't tell anyone at that time.

They didn't want anyone to think they were seeing things. But they realized what it was later on. How do we know it would look like him? That's what we're going to look like. Right. First John 3-1. It tells us we'll be like him. Turn there after the word, First John 3, Verse 1. Because what they saw was what they would look like. He would see a vision and see it was John and Peter with them.

Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knows us not, because it didn't know Him. Verse 2, First John 3. Behold, now we are the sons of God, and it doesn't yet appear what we shall be, but we know. When He shall appear, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is. We will serve. Every man that has this hope in Him purifies himself, even as He is pure. We have our uniforms. Our uniforms are our code of conduct. How we treat each other and how we treat the world.

Our relationship with God. Our night, that hopefully we open every day and let it cut us, so that we understand if the word of John, the sword, the Bible, we should draw that every day. It's interesting. Everyone wanted the Gurkhas to fight for them, because they were known to be so fierce and so loyal.

Along with the fighting in World War I and World War II, the Gurkhas were stationed in so many places, and in China even in 1962, in Sri Lanka. They've been used for peacekeeping operations around the world, in different places, Sierra Leone, Bosnia, Kosovo, and even in the Fauquon's conflicts. Everyone wants them because they're loyal to their word. They're willing to die rather than betray what they've said or to give up, even if it's the last man. Are we like that? Part is like what I hate, if you would. Verse 23. Because the Gurkhas are in demand in this military world, and we've lived in.

When the world is finally at peace, you'll be in demand. You look into your future. Zechariah 8, verse 23. People will know you've been loyal to God. And they're going to say, Thus says the Lord of hosts, in those days as shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all the languages of the nations. Even shall take hold of the Spirit of the humans of Jew, someone who knows the truth, or spiritual Israel. And they'll say, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.

The British wanted the Gurkhas with them. They knew they could trust them. They knew that they would fight. They knew they'd break through the toughest of lines. They'll have known that you and I have fought our fight through the toughest of times.

You've been willing to die. Some of us indeed may have to. Who knows what God has in store? The only job of the apostles seemed to die of old age. We don't really know exactly what's going to happen. But we know we're going to teach the law of God. We'll have to have learned that. We'll have to open the sword, abuse that knife, and blend through it. Understand it. They'll overcome to be able to rule with Him. Are we listening? Are we close to God?

There have been many false teachers. Many people have left over time. Because they get away from God. They listen to rumors. They turn away from the truth, sadly. We have to hear Christ. We have to listen to Him. Revelation 3, verse 20. Christ says there, So behold, I stand at the door of Naught. If any man hears my voice and opens the door, I will come to him, and will stop with him, and be with me.

To him that overcomes, I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I overcame and sat down with my father in his throne.

God is doing this for us now. At a very tough time. That's why He said, blessed are those who take part in the First Resurrection.

We receive all those medals of honor because of our humility, because of our service, because of our sacrifice.

Yes, the girding of us were legendary through the war. We make our mark by being humble and by going against the world's values. How necessary being considered a hero who collected the most toys, who had the most power, who became president, or whatever in this world.

There have been 26 Victoria Crosses, in the highest note of the Britain, awarded to members of Gertrude Regiments. The first was awarded in 1858, the last in 1965. Of note, there have been two George Cross medals, awarded to Gertrude soldiers for active bravery in situations that didn't even involve combat at all. Large numbers of Gertrude men were also recruited for specialized functions as paratroops, as signalers, and doing other aspects in British service.

It's interesting. They were engineers. They were also military police. Many Nepalese volunteers served in non-combatant roles in the various battalions. It was interesting because you don't hear a whole lot of legendary names among the Gertrude. You hear about the Gertrude. There won't be a lot of legendary names, necessarily, among us. It's going to be a whole list of people. You don't have to slay Goliath, where everybody knows he was the biggest guy, and you took it down, like David did.

You don't have to do great acts of war. It's about doing the willingness of sacrifice and the little things, because every little thing you do to God, He sees it as Goliath. You do it to one of them, you do it for Goliath. You do it for Him. It's about giving up yourself. It's about valuing the future more than the presence, about making God in Christ the center of your life. And you do this not by drawing a sword at the cut, like this, but by drawing this sword and reading and applying an application that you know and you learn from that book, from God's Word.

Turn to Matthew 10, if you would. Matthew 10, verse 37. We have to have God at the center of our life, no matter what happens. I've seen too many people turn away, turn to each other with friends and friendships because of them instead of God. Not waiting to see things through and having the faith, you know God's in charge. Verse 37, Matthew 10, He that loves Father and Father more than Me is not worthy of Me. He that loves Son or Daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.

And He that takes not His cross and falls after Me is not worthy of Me.

He that finds His life shall lose it. He that loses His life and my sake shall find it. He that receives you receives Me, and he that receives me receives Him that sent Me.

He that receives a prophet in the name of the prophet shall receive the prophet's reward.

And he that receives the righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward.

And who stores a drink to one of these little ones, a cup of cold water, only in the name of the disciple, verily I say to you, he shall not wise lose his reward.

You don't have to be going, boy, it can be someone who's thirsty.

Especially thirsty for God's Word, and you're willing and able to share that with them.

Down a few verses in verse 35, the section where it says, I was hungry, you gave me meat. I was thirsty, you gave me drink. I was a stranger, you took me in. They even eat cold meat. I was sick and you visited me in prison, you came to me. The little things. We know that the people there didn't even know they did it. The ones who were blessed, the ones who thought they were following you, he said, I don't know who you are, because they didn't do it. Unless it was Goliath, unless it was crossing the road, unless it was some big thing that they could gain. Like the Pharisees, when they threw their mites into the treasury, and they beat themselves and prayed aloud.

You do it by the little things for each other, and for human beings who may even hate you.

You're a way to help. It's not easy. It's not easy. And the world we never has been easy.

Professor Ralph Tilly, Sir Ralph Willie Turner, in every city who served in the Third Queens, Alexandria's own Gurkha Rifles, in World War I, wrote of the Gurkhas.

As I write these last words, my thoughts return to you, who were my comrades, the stubborn and indomitable peasants of the fall.

Once more, I hear the laughter with which you greeted every hardship.

Once more, I see in you your bibwax or about your fires, on forced marches or in the trenches, how shimmering with wet and cold, now scorched by a fiddlest and burning sun.

I'm complaining you endure hunger and thirst and wounds.

At the last, your unwavering lines disappear into the smoke and the wrath of battle.

The bravest of the brave, most generous of the generous, never had a country more faithful friends than you.

Turn to 1 Corinthians.

1. They saved the weak of the world. Like he said, they were peasants. They weren't even going to try.

They were different groups of people, not educated, but fully committed, fully dedicated.

Yes, you couldn't ask for a true or friends.

1 Corinthians 1, verse 24.

Under them which are called, both Jew and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, the weakness of God is stronger than men.

For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.

But God has chosen the foolish things in the world to confound the wise.

God has chosen the weak things in the world to confound the things which are mighty.

And the base things in the world, which are the things that are despised, God has chosen, yes, and the things which are not, to bring them not, the things which are.

Why did no flesh ignore Him as presence?

But of Him are you at Christ Jesus, who of God has made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that according us it is written, He that glories, letting glory in the Lord.

We may be despised, we will be, as the world turns sighted, or totally, with a religion that will be accepted by the false prophet.

And we face dangers that come ahead in the next few years, I'm sure, because the world is rapidly collapsing.

It's going to happen when we think it's not going to happen overnight at will.

That's how quickly things go now, in computer age.

God hasn't been called the weak.

The Gurkhas served as a type of band of brothers. The group of people brought together, different tribes, heroic in their cause.

We can do no less.

I'm proud to say I've served aside people like you and others who don't think highly of themselves, don't seem to feel that educated, don't feel that important.

For the people of God, though, and every one of you is important, every one of you has a reward that's coming soon enough to endure, to hold on.

I pray that I can help encourage you to be that example, an example for others.

Truly God in Christ, through His Holy Spirit, holds each of us up in these times. It's not us, it's Him.

But why did this man, John O'Rana, who was trained so lovingly that he could climb mountains, he could break the colds, he could hold off the entire Chinese army, say, we made a big mistake, we should have lost to the British.

He went on to say, we had lost to the British, we would have roads and bridges and schools.

If we had lost to the British, we would not be so poor and so uneducated.

If we had lost to the British, we would not have had to fight and die around this world.

He recognized, his bravery they had, that that wasn't the right prize, it wasn't what it was about.

Indeed, this world doesn't know what the true prize is. You and I do. We know what that prize is.

Mankind is given into the way of Satan. Many people have been good at learning Satan's way of deceit.

It's risen to the top only to harm others. 6,000 years have been prevailed, by the time Christ had returned.

If I can paraphrase what General Ronald was really wanting, didn't even know it, what he wanted was that mankind had only surrendered to God.

If he hadn't taken to the tree of knowledge of good and evil, if we had learned the way of life, that he'd run, Christ, we wouldn't have had 6,000 years of human sufferings and wars and famines and disease and crime and corruption, poverty and general misery for most of the people of this world for 6,000 years.

We have the knowledge of God's Word and His Spirit. We have to be a dedicated army of Christian soldiers to Him, to enjoy letting God win in our lives, despite the cost, to enjoy the shadow. Now, of what's coming.

In knee-width, Mr. Armstrong spoke at the back when he was not even speaking, as Serena Ronald said, it was God's speaking. In our lives, hopefully, it's God acting and God's speaking.

General Ronald was a Kubera soldier, but he would have loved to have had the peace that Mr. Armstrong spoke about in his message to Parliament.

I have learned a lot from them, I go on. And others who have been willing to die for causes that are not so noble, is the cause that we fight for. We join a group in Hebrews 11 that have lived and died for the right cause.

The cause that we know in faith will happen, a true reality of what's about Hebrews 11.

Verse 1, faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.

The gurkhas never knew that they would take a place, but they knew they would die trying to take it.

We don't see all these things, but we see them on our mind's eye. We know we're going to try to take it to the best of our abilities.

For by it the elders obtain the good reports. By faith you and I can have a good report.

Through faith we understand the words we're framed by the words of God, so the things which we're seeing are not made of the things which we appear.

He talks about evil and Enoch and others.

Verse 6, without faith it's impossible to please God.

For he that comes to God must believe that he is.

He is rewarder of them that diligently seek him, that you're willing to die whether you take the hill or not, because it's the right thing to do.

By faith no, if they are warned of God, the things not yet seen, the things that would seem impossible, the world being covered, the mountains tossed by water, but you can go with the iron.

Verse 8, by faith Abraham is called out to a place which is to receive an inheritance obeyed and went out, not knowing where he went, no children, but yet to claim a great nation.

He looked for a city in verse 10 which had his foundations and builder and maker as God. That is what we look for.

That's why we're willing to go against the grain of this world, to lose in Satan's world, to win in God's world, to die for our cause if that is necessary, to draw our shoulders, to be able to claim God's Word, to draw that blood, spiritual blood that unites us, this Holy Spirit.

Verse 13, these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers in pilgrims on the earth.

They, to save such things, declared plainly they seek a country. You and I seek that country, and truly, if they had been mindful of that country, for once they came out, they might have had opportunity to return.

Unfortunately, some have returned over the centuries, millennia. We can't. We have to be like verse 16. We desire a better country, heavenly, for God is not ashamed to be called their God.

He's prepared for the city. He's prepared for you and for me.

Like Moses, who forsook big Pharaoh, is going to the wilderness, to the cheap, then to go back and read Israel without the pomp and ceremony that the Pharaohs had.

And then there were those who had to die.

Verse 33, who through faith subdued kingdoms brought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped them off the lines, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness from a strong, vast violin fight, the armies of the aliens, women who received their dead race of life again, others though were tortured, not accepting glitherers. They might obtain that better resurrection. Others had trials of mockings, cruel mockings, discourages, yet broke the robots and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sauna-sundered. They were tempted and were slain for the sword. They wandered about with sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, and tormented.

Verse 38, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains and dens and caves.

And these all, those who were saved and those who died, obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise of stowing the ground, waiting.

God had been provided some better thing for us that they might, without us, should not be made perfect.

We all ride that crown. You and I, the apostles, Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, David.

We also cannot be afraid to die. We can't be afraid to face the enemy. Whatever daily life challenge comes to us.

We also have to obtain that good report through faith, as they did, because we have a cause that we know is just and true.

And a love of God that abides in us, and a faith in our God, that he indeed will fulfill the promises that he has made.

Promises we haven't seen, we've only read, heard, and believed.

And we indeed have become one people. We have to, from different walks of life in distant places on earth, different races, different colors, different religious backgrounds, calls to the truth, to understand the true God and the true religion.

We have become comrades. We all fight with girden eyes and with guns and swords.

We fight with this sword. We draw blood. And yes, our own blood. Understand the blood that Christ gave for us.

We have to be willing to shed. If indeed we're called to do so. We fight with the word of God. We hopefully draw that blood every day.

We fight an enemy that never sleeps. Satan isn't human. He's always there to take us down.

But we can't be afraid to die because we are the children of God, joining that people, that diverse computer people, that God has made and want his family.

We may be considered losers by this world, even, in some way. And I'm glad of that. Because if you win in this world, you lose eternal life in the next one.

May we all live by the code and example of Jesus Christ. And indeed, we will win the war.

Thank you.