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“A Warrior's State of Mind”

Jim Boyd
10/20/24 - Sun AM

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We'll take the reading from Deuteronomy chapter 20.

I'll start in verse one, read through verse four.

I'm using the ESV, which I think is also behind me.

If you want to follow along Deuteronomy 20 starting in verse one.

When you go out to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them.

For the Lord, your God is with you who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

And when and when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people and shall say to them here o Israel today, you are drawing near for battle against your enemies.

Let not your heart faint, do not fear or panic or be in dread of them.

For the Lord, your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you the victory.

Hi, it's me again.

I don't want to disappoint you, but this is not closing announcements.

So just hang on a minute there, there's something that's been on my mind for a little bit and uh appreciate Jim's selection of songs based on what had been on my mind.

And it kind of started in a recent sermon that Allen priest talked about uh the spiritual battle that we're in.

That the battle that we're in is not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces.

And that our enemy is really the devil.

And, and our goal in this spiritual battle comes, I believe from Second Corinthians 10 5 where it says we destroy arguments in every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ.

And then in the recent class that we had on Jeremiah when it was talking about the destruction of the nations around Israel.

Uh This was said in one of those prophecies for this is what the Lord says, behold, one will fly swiftly like an eagle and spread out his wings against Moab Kot has been captured and the strongholds have been seized.

So the hearts of warriors of Moab on that day will be like the heart of a woman in labor.

Now, when that, that struck me, I never really thought about it before.

I decided to, I wasn't teaching class, but I decided to ask the women with their thoughts on that.

I was like, what does it mean that a warrior's heart becomes like a woman in labor?

Didn't really get a lot of response to it.

Maybe they had ptsd from childbirth.

I don't know.

But um I just decided to offer what I thought, admit and I got some head nods.

Whereas a warrior typically you view somebody that, that longs for battle, they want to be in the fight.

They want to serve the one that they're fighting for.

But in this case, the horror was so bad, the pain was so bad.

They just wanted it to be over with in their mind, the fight was lost and they just wanted that to be over with.

Think about how bad things would have to be for a warrior to just want it to be over.

So that led me to another thought.

What is the heart of a warrior?

There's, there's a famous quote that I've always liked.

It says this out of every 100 men, 10 shouldn't be there.

13 are just targets.

Nine are the real fighters and we're lucky to have them for, they make the battle all.

But the 11 is a warrior and he will bring the others back.

Now that's attributed to an ancient Greek philosopher that it, it's attributed to him.

But there's no real proof of that.

But this is a statement that has been floating around the military for a long, long time.

So it got me to thinking this, put all that together to get to the point of should Christians have a warrior state of mind?

We're gonna go through my thoughts on that and then I'll let you decide that for yourself.

We're gonna do that by start with a look at Warriors in the Bible.

The first one I look at is, is Abram and his rescue of lot we remember, uh many of us probably know the story of when Abraham was called out to go uh from the pro or from his home to the promised land.

And then eventually when he set out into the promised land, he was uh 75 year old, had a lot of riches and I'm not going to read all the verses up there every time, but I'm going to read the things that I want to emphasize.

So in verse five, it says, and Abraham took Sarah, his wife and lot, his brother's son in all their possessions they had gathered and the people that they acquired in hearing and they set out, go to the land of Cayman.

So he had a, a lot of people with him to include one of his nephews.

Well, as time went on, there was a, a famine that forced him to go into Egypt.

And then when they could come back, it seemed like his riches had increased even more.

So as they came into the promised land, they had to decide where they wanted to go.

And the reason they decided that they had to go to different places was they, they were so big that lot's men's and, and Abraham's men were starting to have conflicts because the land couldn't support them all where they were.

So they split up, lot, went to the Jordan Valley, which was very fertile.

And then in Genesis 14, later on, we, we see a battle that was very dramatic.

Now, what had happened was there was nine kings who had joined forces and they were serving a king named K de La Mare, I think is how you say it.

K De La Mare.

And that's the best.

I'm gonna do.

Look it up.

All right.

They serve for 2000 years.

But in the 22009th year, there was a revolt, five kings from the Dead Sea region revolted and they were fighting four kings from the east.

And there was this big battle that took place in the dead sea region.

And sometimes it's called the, the battle of the Valley of Sam or the, the Salt or Dead Sea or the battle of the nine kings is sometimes called in that battle.

There are some, some kings you're gonna recognize.

So Genesis 2519 through 220.

So the enemy took all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their provisions.

So the king of Sodom and Gomorrah were in the fight in that fight and they lost and went their way.

They also took lot, the son of Abram's brother who was dwelling in Sodom and his possessions and went their way.

Then one who had escaped, came and told Abraham the Hebrew who was living by the oaks of memory, the Amorites brother Eshkol and Anner esk of an, these were allies of Amon.

When Abraham heard that his kinsman had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men born in his house, 2100 of them and went in pursuit as far as Dan and he divided his forces against them by night, he in his service and defeated them, pursued them to Hobba north of Damascus.

Then he brought back all the possessions and also brought back his kinsman lot with his possessions and the women and the people.

So here's the point I have about Abram.

Everyone was a leader who knew the value of having allies.

He was also somebody that, that prepared.

Now in his household doesn't mean they were his Children.

But people that were born in his household servants, different things.

He had 230 men who had trained for war.

Not, hey, we find ourselves in war.

Now let's go fight.

They had trained for war and he was bold said he split his forces, which is very risky and not only did he split, split his forces, he did it at night.

Now modern soldiers have night vision goggles.

They even have little things that were in their arms that if it's working properly, which I'm told it seldom does.

They can see where their other soldiers are.

They can't see the enemy, but they can look on this little map and see where their guys are.

But we're talking about a different time.

He split his people think about how difficult communication would be between the forces that are split, coordinations of efforts.

It's extremely risky.

But he took that risk.

I also want to talk about David's thirties.

Now, King David was a man after God's own heart.

But I want to focus on these men that recall his 103.

It seems that he had gathered a special group of men around him and they were called mighty men.

And there are warriors who serve David among this group of mine men at the time who it seems they numbered as many as 210.

There was 21613 when you look at different places, sometimes the names change a little bit, but like any force, you can imagine that it's fluid.

People come and go.

But there's 214.

It seems men who seem to be chief lawyers and sometimes they led squads of three, three men who would go into enemy territory and do things.

They, they were extremely loyal and they often risked their lives for David and therefore for God, they were renowned for their skills in battle.

And there are some notable members, Josh Behe was known for killing 800 men at once.

Eli Azar fought along Da and became famous for his bravery.

Shamma defended to fill the lentils and single-handedly turned the tide of the battle.

But now I killed a lion in the snow in a pit on a snowy day and was known for his exploits, exploits.

And then there was Uriah, the Hittite who was loyal and committed.

Let's talk about right?

You write for just a minute.

King David, when his army was in the field was not with him.

He saw a beautiful woman, her name is Bathsheba.

And he went and he took her and he laid with her and this was Uriah's wife, she became pregnant and David knew he had a problem.

So to try to cover it up, he brought Mariah back and he's like, hey, go be with your wife.

And this was Mariah's response, right?

Said to David the Ark in Israel and Judah dwell in booth and my Lord Joab and the servants of my Lord are camping in the open field.

Shall I then go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife as you live and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.

He was loyal to king, he was loyal to God, but he was loyal to those he fought with.

Now, when these 30 men were introduced in one of the places everyone's used those first chronicles 1110.

This is what was said about them.

Now, these are the chiefs of David's mighty men who gave him strong support in his king kingdom together with all Israel to make him king.

According to the word of the Lord concerning Israel, it's not explicitly stated.

But I, I just have to believe that if these men thought God that David was not doing God's will, they wouldn't have served him.

I think a lot of their faith in David came from the fact that they believe that David was the rightful anointed king who is going to be the king.

And that's why they served him.

And then there's another person we want to look at as a warrior.

Now, you may not think of Jesus as a warrior.

We know he didn't fight as we heard this morning.

The purpose was not to fight by the sword but what we were talking about his heart and attitude.

When we see him in revelation, we know it's not a literal picture, but this picture of Jesus is meant to display his power and look at part of what it says.

It says his eyes were like a flame of fire.

His feet were like Bernice bronze refined in a furnace and his voice was like the roar of many waters.

Jesus was depicted as somebody very powerful.

He's also depicted somebody who had swords coming out of his mouth, the sword of his word.

As we continue reading.

He says in his right hand, he held seven stars from his mouth, came a sharp two edged sword and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

When this vision was was shown to John, he collapsed as if he were dead.

And Jesus said, fear not.

I am the first and the last and the living one I died and behold, I am alive forevermore.

And I had the keys of death in eighties.

There was at least eight times when Jesus was on earth that people wanted to kill him or plotted to kill him that we're told of.

And three times, Jesus explicitly told his disciples, uh they're gonna kill me yet, even with all that, this is what the heart of a warrior looks like.

Says, when the day is too near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.

Now, the way most humans think is if I know there's danger over here and we even teach our kids this stay away from it.

Don't take risk, don't see how close you can get to the edge, stay away from it.

Jesus knew what was coming and he set his face, he determined to go to Jerusalem and face the enemy as we heard this morning, the outcome was his death.

So what I wanna do this morning is talk about just a few things.

Now, I'm gonna start off with this, some modern things.

You, you may have heard of an organization called Rangers in the United States Army.

This is what they wear.

People, go through the training and get this little tab that goes on the shoulder.

It's called a Ranger tab in 1974.

When the army decided that the Rangers of World War Two and then some of the ranger companies that were Vietnam needed to be kind of reinvigorated as a special force.

They were formed in Savannah, Georgia.

And the leaders of the organization said, we've got to give these men something as guiding principles.

So they come up what they called a ranger creed.

Now the, the letters rang, er, are like a stanza in it And there's a joke that goes around when it comes to n it's like a song.

They say n is for knowledge because some people think the rangers aren't the smartest guys in the world, but they are, uh, it's just a joke in it for knowledge.

We're gonna look at that in because here's what it says.

Never, shall I leave?

No, never shall I fill my comrades?

I will always keep myself mentally alert, physically strong and morally straight and I will shorten shoulder more than my share of the task, whatever it may be 100%.

And then some, that's the attitude they wanted to instill in rangers.

Now years, I'm talking decades later, the army said, hey, we, we need to capitalize on this attitude and start giving all soldiers something to look at.

So they came up with what they called the warrior ethos and this is what it is.

I will always place mission first.

I will never accept defeat.

I will never quit.

You know, we will never leave a fallen comrade.

So what I wanna do is let's just say this is the heart of warrior, this is the ethos that and we should have is there a biblical equivalent for us to examine?

So let's go through it.

I will always place the mission first.

Did Jesus and you can nod your head.

Did Jesus place the mission first?

Always. He says for I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

And this is the will of him who sent me that if everything he has given me, I will lose nothing, but we'll raise it up on the last day.

For this is the will of my father that everyone who sees me or sees the son and believes in him will have eternal life and I myself will raise him up on the last day.

That was his mission to raise us up on the last day and he never lost sight of it.

Ever ever.

It didn't matter what the situation was.

He put that mission first.

Well, what about us?

Should we put mission first in Matthew six?

This is a lengthy reading.

So I'm just gonna hit some highlights from it.

It says do not be anxious about your life.

Now, this goes on to talk about the needs that you have and, and your physical needs.

But let me ask you this.

How well do you think a warrior is gonna fight if he's anxious about his life.

Uh I'm, I'm here to tell you that warriors will put others first and they'll sacrifice.

How many times have you heard stories of guys throwing themselves on a hand grenade during a fight that's in, that seems insane to me, but they do it in our instructions.

Don't worry about your life.

Things are taken care of.

He says, why are you anxious about these things?

God cares for them?

Do you have just a little faith but seek first?

The Kingdom of God and His righteousness?

That is our mission in all situations to seek the Kingdom of God first.

Whatever your vacation plans, your job plans, your retirement plans, your school plans, it doesn't matter.

You seek God first in everything that you do.

That is our mission and that's what we have to do.

I will never accept defeat.

Did Jesus accept defeat?

You can nod your head.

Yes or no.

If you think he was defeated at the cross and the answer is yes.

But if you think the cross is a victory, then the answer is no.

Jesus said behold, an hour is coming and it's already come for you to be scattered, talking to his disciples.

They're, they're gonna take off when it's time to be to do warrior stuff.

There's a saying everybody wants to be a warrior until it's time to do warrior stuff and they were gonna scatter is to his whole home, own home and leave me alone.

And yet I am not alone because the father is with me, these things I have spoken to you so that in me, you may have peace in the world, you have tribulation, but take courage.

I have overcome the world.

He said that before his death, the victory was his and he knew it.

He was not going to accept defeat.

Now let me ask you this.

Could he have given in the victory?

Think about the temptations, he could have sinned.

Think about the prayer we heard about in the garden.

What if he decided to put his will first, he wasn't going to do it.

He submitted himself to God's will.

So what about us in second Corinthians?

48 to 16133?

It says we are afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed, but not despairing, persecuted, but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed.

Always carrying around the body, the dying of Jesus.

So that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

We're not defeated.

I don't care what you hear in the news.

I don't care how much it you know, it just tortures your mind about things that are going on.

I don't care if this country becomes a, a dictatorship led by a communist like red China.

We're not defeated.

People that live in China that are faithful to God are not defeated.

People that live in oppressive government, anywhere in the world are not defeated.

As long as you don't look at what you're doing on earth at this moment and what your circumstances are and you keep looking to attorney.

I will never quit.

Now, this one is interesting and I have a friend that actually lived this.

He said I would rather cough up along than stop when my brothers needed me.

In other words, he was saying it didn't matter how physically demanded it was, he was never gonna stop.

And I think that's the heart that Jesus had.

He never quit.

Jesus spoke these things and raising his eyes to heaven.

He said, father, the hour has come glorify your son.

So the son may have, the son may glorify you.

We read this this morning and look what he says.

At the, at the end of this passage, I glorified you on the earth by accomplishing the work you have given me to do.

He did not quit no matter how many times people wanted to kill him.

You know, matter of times he was opposed, you know how many times the the political and religious leadership opposed him, he didn't quit.

He accomplished the mission.

What about us Galatians 610 in that passage, when it talks about the things that we're doing and, and what the flesh is good for and, and what we, we sow reap.

It says, let us not grow weary of doing good.

Do you ever get weary of doing good.

I, I'm gonna tell you that most people I know at some point will get weary of doing good.

I think I've told this story before, but I'm gonna tell it again.

I had a friend that was in, in where he worked, was in a leadership position and everybody knew is a Christian.

And he told me one time I, I get tired of people calling me at all hours for help because they know I'm gonna help them.

They know that's part of my life.

He said, if, if I just go do it is, it is my heart in the right place.

And so I asked him, I said, well, why do you do it?

He said, well, he was, I think it's what God wants me to do.

So I make myself do it.

And so my answer was then you have submitted your will to God and yes, it does.

You good.

So never grow weary of doing good for in due season.

We will reap if we do not give up, it's disheartening to see people give up whether the young Christians or old Christians, whether they're been a Christian for a year or they've been a Christian for 10 decades, which that would be kind of hard.

That was Allen's math.

My point is when you quit it disheartens others and when you quit in due season, you're not gonna get what you would hope.

And then the other is I will never leave a fallen comrade.

This is Mount massive in Colorado.

I don't know if anybody's ever been there.

Um It's, it's enormous.

The highest peak is over 14,000 ft in 2009.

There was, there was an accident, the helicopter crashed on there and Terry Gear, it hurt stars.

Terry Gear.

Uh Rob Johnson, Chad Tucker and Paul Jackson were killed in that accident.

Two of them survived the initial accident.

The first ones that got there were these like really hippie looking college students.

I mean, they had dreadlocks, all kind of stuff, but they were the first, they were hiking, they were first there.

They were trying to help people and when they were trying to help Paul Jackson who is still semiconscious, he said, they said, he said it over and over and over.

They didn't say how many times he said it.

He said there's four of us.

He died and in his dying breath, he said there's four of us.

He, he cared about the ones around him.

There's a memorial I'd love to go to someday.

It's at the trailhead to get to the peak.

But he, he embodied even in peace, what we would call peace time, that mentality of never leaving another behind.

Did Jesus leave anyone behind when we look at Jesus?

And he told this story about the shepherd who goes alone in the mountains.

Now, I want you to think about going alone into the mountains after sheep.

That that's not a journey without peril.

There would be beasts, there would be ways you could hurt yourself up in those mountains, but he was never gonna leave anyone behind.

Well, what about us?

We should look at Jesus who in his dying breath, looked at all the Children he had been sent to save and he said, father forgiven.

They know not what they're doing.

He was not going to leave anyone behind if he could help it.

And we shouldn't either if, if we know someone that's struggling and they're in sin, it says, restore him in his spirit of gentleness.

And while you do that, keep watch on yourself, but go and restore them.

And then James 519 through 20.

My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings them back, let them let him know that whoever brings him back a sinner from his watering will save his soul from death.

Now, we know it's not us saving his soul.

It's the power of God, but we have the responsibility to go after people never leave a fallen comrade and you'll cover multi sins being there.

So the heart of a warrior I believe is this.

I will always place the mission first.

Now I'm gonna tell you that in the modern military, there's really not that many people with a warrior mentality.

II, I hate to disappoint you and think, oh man, if we fight Russia or China.

What's gonna happen?

There are actually entire units that are made up of, of guys that have that warrior mentality.

But across the military, it's just not there.

And that goes back to that thing.

We read the very beginning that nine are the real fires out of 100 and, and one is a warrior and this is what a warrior does.

He places a mission first, our life and God should come first.

Never accept defeat, never quit.

And I'm gonna tell you this, you cannot fight alone.

You cannot fight alone.

You will lose.

If you don't have God on your side, you're, you're lost.

If you don't have your brothers and sisters on your side, you're fighting alone and you cannot do it.

I promise you.

Why do you think God gave us each other?

Because we're not in this fight alone, we have to have each other.

So thinking about Abraham and David 30 Jesus in these warrior ethos, the question really is, what are we gonna do?

Well, I'm gonna tell you some, just some practical things.

Be on the watch, pray and love each other.

Ephesians six where it talks about the armor of God.

It's kind of bracketed by two things.

Strengthen the Lord in prayer.

And 1st 10, it says finally, be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might warriors today like we saw in that ranger creed will do everything they can to make they sure they are as physically fit and able to serve as they can.

We have to do the same thing.

We have to prepare ourselves with God's word.

We have to understand that the strength is from him and not ourselves.

And at the end of that sex is praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication to that end.

Keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.

And then in first Corinthians 1613, 14, be watchful stand firm in the faith act like men.

That's not aimed just at men.

Act like a man.

That's another servant on itself.

Be strong and let all that.

You do be done in love.

So this will, I will direct at the men.

If there's not love in your life, you're not acting like a man.

I want that to sink in.

But this is for all of us, watch pray and do so in love.

So ask yourself after this lesson, do I have a warrior state of mind?

Now, the question I posed was, do we need to have a warrior state of mind?

You're gonna have to answer that for yourself.

I'm gonna tell you what my answer is.

I wouldn't preach a sermon.

I think you need a warrior state of mind.

And my prayer is that we all develop that let's pray to God father.

We appeal to you for your strength.

We know that it is your son who makes all things possible.

It is your power through him that created the world holds it together.

Now, it was your power through him that gave us the hope of salvation.

We pray lord that we can look at the examples of men who understood what it meant to be a warrior and take that attitude of always putting you first, always putting love for others first.

And it deep in our hearts.

So that even in the hardest times, we have a single minded focus to fight for you.

We thank you for our brothers and sisters.

We're thankful that we don't face this alone, that we have others, we can rely on.

The more we pray that you give us endurance, help us to never quit so that we can be with you in glory.

It's in Jesus name.

We pray, amen.

We're gonna sing a, a song of invitation.

We're gonna stand there in that song.

And the re I've said this many times to me, the reason we stand is because it's easier to walk when you're already standing.

So that's our tradition.

And if, if you think you need something in your life spiritually, you don't have to do it right now, but please do it, do it by getting with some of your fellow warriors and pray for each other.

Watch out for each other.

But more than anything, if you're not in God's army, if you're not a warrior for him.

You are lost and none of us want that.

So think about that and what you need to do in your life while we stay in the thing.