Hi there Pastor Rivero from Liberty Baptist Church.
Before we begin, I just want to let you know you're going to be
listening to a sermon that is already in progress due to a
recording issue we had at the church.
We hope you enjoy the remainder of this sermon here at Liberty
Baptist Church in Easton, MA. Welcome to the Liberty Baptist
Sermon Archives. The message you're about to hear
was preached at Liberty Baptist Church in Easton, MA.
You can find out more about us or contact us at
mylibertybaptist.org or just look us up on Facebook.
And now we hope that this message from God's Word will be
a blessing to you. We saw the quality of war that
we were to war, what kind of warfare, a good warfare that we
were to fight in a biblical way. And we talked about what that
was to look like as well. And that really our fight is a
beautiful thing. Not because.
And if you're online, welcome here to Liberty Baptist Church
this evening. We've already been handing out
$100 bills to everybody. And you just miss that.
I can always say that so many times it's not funny after I've
done it a few times. But again, thank you.
And thank you for the guys in the back for taking care of that
as well. That we were to fight a good
warfare in the sense that it is a beautiful thing that when we
fight in the way that God would deem us to fight.
Then we talked about the tools of war, that they were to be
faith and a good conscience. You can't fight the war of faith
without having faith and a good conscience.
And then the stakes of the war. Remember that there was the
possibility that one could go no shipwreck, not that they would
lose their salvation, but rather that they would lose that which
they were trying to obtain here in this life and lose their
testimony, lose their way, lose their peace, lose well, pretty
much everything but your salvation.
And so we saw that that was a real possibility as well.
And then last week we gave 6 very practical applications that
we were to prepare ourselves for battle.
We were to guard our heart, that we weren't to ignore the
battlefield of the mind. That we were to know the rules
of engagement, that we're to clean tightly to the truth, and
that we were to be willing to train.
And we really based ourselves last week in Ephesians chapter
#6 Remember finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord
and in the power of His might, and to put on the whole armor of
God to make sure that we're putting on every piece.
And we saw that those were the loins girt about with truth, the
breastplate of righteousness, feet shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of
salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of
God. Then each piece being put on
with prayer. Of course, the hymn says that
that we often sing, but that comes from the Word of God
praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit,
and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication
for All Saints. And so that's just by way of
review of what we looked at the last couple weeks.
And again, I think this is important for us, particularly
as we approach a new year, to be thinking about the things that
we want to improve on in our life, those places where we want
to be spiritually fighting the good fight.
And I hope these have been helpful to you.
And that will be continue to have some thoughts tonight that
will be helpful to you in a very practical way as well.
But I want our jumping off place tonight to be second Timothy
chapter #2 beginning in verse #1 where it says this Thou
therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ
Jesus. And these things that thou hast
heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou
to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also.
Now look at this verse #3 we actually mentioned this last
week near the end of the message.
Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus
Christ. Those who are called to be
soldiers of the cross are not supposed to be those who are
weak. They you say, Well pastor, you
mean that we're not to be weak. I mean, but we're weak
creatures. The Bible says we are but dust
and certainly that is the case. And the Psalm says that he knows
our frame that we're but dust. And the wonderful thing about
that is, is that he gives us the strength He gives us the armor.
He gives us the courage that we need.
Quits yourselves like men. The Bible says that doesn't mean
just quit. It means to quit to equip
yourselves and to strengthen yourselves and be strong in the
Lord and in the power of his might.
So sure we are weak creatures. Sure we are but us, but yet we
are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ that says endure
hardness and that's why we have something like today that takes
place. You know, we don't go into a
corner and cry. Well, at least so I don't tell
you if I go in the corner and cry.
At least that's what it is. But we know what are we going to
do? We're still going to have
church. And listen, I know not everyone
can show up. In fact, there's a majority that
can't for a whole host of different reasons.
That's why we let you know what the situation was.
But I think sometimes we forget how good we have it as
believers, and specifically how good we have it as believers in
the United States of America, where our brethren around the
world are often persecuted in countries that we don't often
think of. Where are there those who will
walk great distances to go to church?
No, I didn't say drive 5 great distances.
They will walk great distances knowing the Lord's Day is really
just for going to church. And when the pastor preaches,
they hope he doesn't preach for an hour.
They hope he preaches for two hours or for three hours.
And some of you are saying, is that going to happen here
tonight? Who knows?
It's warm. Who knows how long I can go
tonight, right? But the idea is this, when they
get into the House of God, they are not trying to get back out
of the House of God. They're trying to see what they
can get out of their time being in the House of God.
And they knew it took them an hour or two to get to church.
It'll take them an hour or two to get back home, maybe in the
dark. So while they're there, they
want to hear more of the word. And here in America we don't
often deal with that the same way.
But we're supposed to endure hardness as soldiers of Jesus
Christ, good soldiers, mind you, verse 4.
No man that woreth entangled himself with the affairs of this
life that he may please him who have chosen him to be a soldier
in verse 4 gives us a bit of the secret here, gives us a little
bit of the secret sauce, if you will, of the spiritual life.
If you want to make sure that you stay on the path that you
need to be on, well, you better be be aware and you better be
engaged in spiritual warfare if you want to stay out of the
traps that Satan sets for you. And by the way, he is very good
at setting traps for us, isn't he?
He sets traps in the mind. He sets traps physically.
He sets traps in many hosts of different ways.
But if you want to stay out of trouble, you need to be active
and engaged in the fight for spiritual warfare.
Why? So you can please yourself.
And we talked about this morning, forget the issue of
pleasing ourselves. What does it say that he may
please him who has chosen him to be a soldier.
You say, well, I don't want to be a soldier.
Bad news man, if you're saved, guess what, you're a foot
soldier for Jesus Christ. He has chosen you to be a
soldier and again, he will make you victorious in the fight.
So we're going to go ahead and have a word of prayer this
evening and go ahead and as that bit of introductory to get us
into our message, but let's have a word of prayer and then we'll
continue with these other six items of the practicality of
spiritual warfare. Heavenly Father, I do thank you
for this evening and I thank you for all that you have done.
They do pray that you would just be with us in the word.
I pray that there's something here, something that's been said
the last few weeks that would just be very, very helpful to
someone who may be on the edge, someone who may be experiencing
some difficulty or maybe about to be experiencing some
difficulty. They don't even know it.
There's something they can take from these lessons, these
sermons that they can put away in their mind and pull out at
just the right time, be able to be a help.
Lord, thank you for your word. And I pray to you, bless, as we
continue this evening. And we ask it in Jesus name,
Amen. Well #7 this evening, as we
continue with the six items that I just gave you a few moments
ago in review #7 again, if you're writing these down, and I
encourage you to do so #7 shore up your defenses.
Shore up your defenses. That's one of the real keys of
spiritual warfare. Listen, what are your weak
points? Points when it comes to
temptation? What are your weak points when
it comes to spiritual warfare? You say I don't know what they
are. If that's the case, I got bad
news for you. Satan knows what they are.
Satan's very aware of what your weak points are and he is
constantly looking for the places in which to attack.
Listen, if you don't know what your weaknesses are, you need to
take some time in meditation, you take some time in prayer and
truly consider those triggers. Truly consider those things that
Satan can tempt you with and start to make a little bit of a
battle plan. Start to be able to pile some
things together to understand where he's going to attack and
how you are going to counterattack when those times
come. Listen, we need to be wise about
these things. Matthew 1016, Behold, I sent you
forth as sheep in the midst of wolves.
Be there for wise as serpents and harmless as doves.
The idea for us is that we had a better be wise as a serpent, but
at the same time we are not to be harmful like the serpent, but
rather harmless as a dove. Build standards in your life
like bulwarks against these difficult areas when you know
there's some places that need fortification.
Well, what would someone do back in the days when there needed to
be fortified cities differently obviously, than today because of
all the aerial warfare and different things like that,
although the certainly there are still some similarities.
But what would they do in those times when really warfare was
hand to hand and those types of things?
They would take the bulwarks and they would have to strengthen
them. They would have to find the weak
spots and they'd have to put more soldiers there or put more
earthworks there or build stronger walls there.
These are the things that they would do.
Listen, if you have weak points in your wall of defense, you
know what you need to do. You need to build them up.
You need to find ways the Lord will help you to be able to
build up your defense. You might need to shore up your,
your, your standards or your, your areas because of your life
situation or because of a particular temptation.
So it could be your life situation has caused some
difficulties that you need to be guarded against, or it could
just be some very particular temptations that you have in
your life because these are the ones that Satan likes to deal
with with you. Whatever they are, you do need
to have some protection. And the best way for us to be
able to do that is through biblical standards.
Now listen, when I say the word standards, people's eyes start
glazing over. They start thinking the
Pharisees and things like that. No, no, I'm not talking about
creating rules that the Bible does not talk about.
We see what the word of God says is what we're to do that we are
not to be like the Pharisees, that oral law, the Talmud where
they just started creating laws out of thin air and expected
everyone to live by them. But listen, only a fool would
not live their Christian life without having some personal
standards without understanding that there's some areas of
temptation. There's an areas of weakness in
my life and because of that, I'm going to make sure that I've
done what I, I can to shore up my defenses.
Listen, having standards is not a sign of weakness.
It's actually a sign of spiritual strength.
It means this, you recognize the areas you're weak, you recognize
the areas you're deficient. And instead of arrogantly
saying, well, nothing's going to hurt me, No, you say, well,
there's some things that I need to do above and beyond because I
know that if I get myself in a certain situation, if I get
myself into these types of issues, listen, I need to have
these standards in my life. It was a few years ago when and
Vice President Mike Pence had just become vice president that
some of you might remember he was openly mocked by people
because he had made the stand both as governor of Indiana and
then also as vice president that he was not going to be in a
meeting alone with a woman. That was a standard that he had.
Do you see book, chapter and verse where the Bible says if
you are alone with a woman, you know, there's nothing that says
in the word of God to do that. But is that a prudent standard?
Certainly. So it could be not just because
he was given to temptation that area.
It could just be that in his very real place of power, he
knew that it could be very simple for someone to come in
and make a false accusation. Can I help you with something
this evening? I don't meet with a woman alone
in my office by myself. If there's a woman that is of
any age near mine, even close to mine, at mine or below, unless
someone could be my mother or my grandmother, you know what I do?
I meet with my wife there. Why?
Because it's important that I have some level of standard
there. Because I'm afraid of myself.
No, I just want to make sure that I'm doing right and it's
not something I have to think about when the time comes.
It's just it's always my standard.
If you're a woman and I'm a man and we're alone, we're not going
to be alone. That's just the way that it is.
That that's, as you say, well, how does that work?
No, we're just not going to be, that's the way that it's going
to be. You know, there are all types of
other standards. We have gotten to the place
where we are. So the smartphone is so
ubiquitous. It's it's everywhere is what I'm
trying to say, that we feel like we have to have these with us
all the time. Listen, smartphones aren't for
everybody. The fact that you could be able
to look up almost anything in the world at any moment at any
given time, listen, that's a power that I don't know as we as
humanity ought to be able to have.
And it's caused a lot more problems of things that it's
helped. It could be that maybe you don't
need a smartphone. Why am I going to live without a
smartphone? Maybe that you need to live
without a smartphone. Or maybe that you need to
restrict what you can do on your smartphone and give an
accountability partner the password to your phone.
So you can't download apps, you can't delete apps, those kind of
things. You say that's crazy to be able
to think like that. Well, it could just be you need
some standards in your life to make sure that you're doing what
you need to do. It could be that maybe having a
television in your home is not such a great thing.
Now, listen, I know that when you have a phone, basically have
a television your home right from your phone, isn't it?
That's the way that it can be. But these are things that you
need to think about and these are things that you need to be
praying about. And it could be something small.
They could be something large. It could be that if you have a
difficulty with alcohol that you're not going to go to a
restaurant that serves alcohol. That could just be what you do.
Our family, we don't drink alcohol because we believe what
the Bible says about staying away from alcohol and not being
deceived by alcohol. But there are certain
restaurants that we go to that does serve alcohol.
I'm not sitting at the bar, but it doesn't bother me to be able
to be in the same building as where it is if I'm in a
different location in the building.
But listen, there's some people. That's not a good thing and you
know what you need to do. Don't feel bad that you have
made a decision of a stand in your life.
I'm not going to eat somewhere. And by the way, if there is
somebody that you know that has that standard, don't mock them.
Don't make fun of them. Say, oh, come on, what's the
matter with you? I really want to go to the 99.
Listen, nobody wants to go to the 99.
OK, That's no, that's not true. I like the 99.
But just say don't, don't do that, all right?
Don't make fun of somebody else because their standards are
different than yours. And by the way, don't try to
look down upon other people if your standards are higher than
theirs, All right? We're not talking about what the
Bible says. We're talking about principles
and precepts. Principles rather, that are an
outflow of what the Bible says. So be careful about that.
Standards aren't a sign of weakness, but rather a sign of
strength, as long as they're held in the proper place.
So #7 shore up your defenses #8 be aware of dangerous
situations. Be aware of dangerous
situations, and I know I just mentioned one of them as a man
to be alone with a woman, that's a dangerous situation.
But I'm talking about even far beyond that as well.
There's an acronym that I've heard of before.
I'm not the one who made this up, just to be very clear about
this, but I've heard it before and I've used it in teaching.
I've used it in preaching, and it's the acronym HALT.
HALT. It means this hungry, angry,
lonely and tired, hungry, angry and I would even put with the a
angry, I would put anxious as well.
Hungry, angry or anxious, lonely and tired.
Meaning this you better be careful in your decision making.
When you're hungry, you're angry, you're lonely and you're
tired. Listen, we know this.
What do we tell everybody when it talks about?
We talk about going to the grocery store.
Don't go when you're hungry. Why?
Because $100 bill at the grocery store, which you know $100 now
buys you like, you know, 3 loaves of bread and some milk.
I have something like that. I don't know, but $100 tab could
end up being a $250 tab because you went in hungry.
I made some bad decisions. You got home and you realized I
don't need half this stuff. I don't even like half this
stuff, but I bought it because I was hungry.
Listen, when you're angry, you make bad decisions.
You said Nah, that's not true. Are you for real?
You're going to argue with me about that?
We know that when we're angry, we make bad decisions.
You know what road rage is? It's people who are angry making
bad decisions, you know. Hey, you know what's a great
idea while you're driving to put your car and park in the middle
of the street and get out and start yelling at somebody?
That's a great idea, right? Well, in the moment it is
because you're angry. But when you calm down and cool
down, you think, what on earth was I thinking?
Why would I say that? Why would I yell at somebody?
Why would I gesture that way? No, no, this is not the way of
believers to act and to talk and to compose themselves.
You, you're angry. You're making a bad decision
when you're lonely. Listen.
A mind that is alone is a mind that can be dangerous.
Listen when you are alone, when you have a lot of alone time.
Could I encourage you find something to do with your alone
time. Exercise.
Find something to do with your alone time.
Listen or watch good preaching, good documentaries.
Try to learn something, try to learn a new language, download
an app and do something like that.
Fix something, buy something and build it.
Do anything like that. That will be healthy.
But when you're lonely, listen. A lonely mind is the devil's
workshop, and he will love to be able to tell you all these
different things. If you're lonely, text someone
else. Tell him you're praying for him.
And by the way, if you text someone and tell him they're
praying for him, here's something you ought to do.
Pray for him. Don't just tell him you don't
pray for him and don't pray for him.
All right, I'm kind of lonely, so I'm just going to text a
bunch of people, tell him I pray for him.
Well, you better have a lot of time to pray for him then,
because you're going to. You already wrote the check, all
right? You need to sign it and you need
to cash it. All right, That's what needs to
happen. Don't just say you're going to,
you need to do it and then tired.
How many times have we made just poor decisions because we're
sleepy? Poor decisions because maybe
we're emotionally exhausted just because we may have been slept,
but we haven't truly rested. You know, they say that you can
sleep, but doesn't mean that you're necessarily going to
rest. And boy, that's the truth, isn't
it? That you can get sleep from a
bottle, but you can't necessarily get rest from a
bottle. Where does rest really come
from? Rest comes from the Lord for the
heart of the believer. And so when you're hungry,
you're angry, you're lonely, you're tired.
Listen, you can make some very, very poor decisions, James 114
but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust
and enticed. Be careful.
This is what Satan wants to do. He wants to take you away from
that which is good and that which is right.
In those times when your defenses are down and get you to
make a very, very poor decision. Be aware of these dangerous
situations and listen. Don't be so naive to put
yourself in a dangerous situation because you feel like,
well, it's not like it's going to be a problem anyway.
Can I give you an example that here at Liberty Baptist Church,
we never have one person counting the offerings.
We have never since the very beginning had one person
counting the offerings. It was always me and someone
else. And now over time, we have
anywhere from two to three different people who can count,
of which I am not one of them. You know why we do that?
It's not because necessarily we are thinking that every single
person that counts, at any moment, they could steal all the
money. Although certainly I've been in
a church, I've told you before, where someone did steal of the
offerings. And it is a very real thing.
I want to make sure that no one is in a situation in which they
could be accused of a of a mispropriety and there be no one
there to be able to give them an alibi.
That's a dangerous situation. Once you get yourself in a place
where literally no one can say that, no, that's not what they
were doing. I could be alone.
Can I be honestly, I could be alone with the money here at the
church and not be tempted at all.
Listen, I'm not worried about stealing your money.
I'm not. That's the Lord's money.
Are you kidding me? I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to
make it out of the building without a lightning bolt coming
down from heaven and striking me or worse.
I'm not going to do that. I have no temptation.
But what would happen if someone says I see pastor alone with the
money all the time? I bet something's up with that.
Would I have any way to say that's not true?
I wouldn't, because I'm by myself.
Listen, be careful of dangerous situations.
The worst of accusations aren't even necessarily always the ones
that are true. They're the ones that you can't
refute because you've gotten yourself in a situation you
ought not to be in. So avoid dangerous situations #9
know this. You're on duty 24 hours a day.
You were on duty 24 hours a day. Remember, we've looked at all of
these verses about warfare, being a soldier, the armor of
God. We've looked at these week after
week. The military themes here are
very, very easy for us to be able to understand whether we
have been in the military or not.
And listen, there are times of rest and relaxation in the
Christian life. Even Jesus said to the disciples
that we need to come apart and rest for a while.
Although after he said that there was another burst of
ministry that they got put into. But yet the theory or rather the
the principle there is right that we need to come apart
before we get torn apart. That's what we need to do.
There are times when we need rest or relaxation.
That's why it's important. I think as a pastor, take those
vacations with my family or to have a day during the week where
I am just a family man unless there's an emergency or
something like that. Again, understanding that
because I think it's important to make sure that I'm rested and
recharged so I can be what I need to be for you all when the
time comes. But I will say this, even in our
times of rest and relaxation, listen, really, we're always on
duty. Just as the same way as I'm a
pastor, I can't say that certain times I'm clocking out.
You know, on Friday. It would have been great on my
day off. Remember I said that the offices
would be closed Thursday, Friday, and Saturday?
Guess where I was on Friday and Saturday?
Here. You know why?
Because I want us to have heat in the building on Sunday.
I want to have electricity in the building on Sunday.
To be honest, that's what I was thinking of in the first place.
There was not an opportunity for me to clock out and say, well,
I'll let someone else deal with it.
Why? Because it's who I am.
I'm a pastor and my family understands this and it's okay.
And I try to compensate on the other side of it, so they
understand that family is a priority as well.
Because without having my family being what it needs to be, I
can't be a pastor the way I need to be.
Because having a family being what it ought to be is one of
the requirements of a preacher In First Timothy chapter #3 But
in saying that, listen, in the same way, just as I'm always a
pastor, I'm also always a Christian.
And you're always a Christian. You never get to tap out of
being a Christian. You never get to say, hey today,
I'm not going to act like a Christian.
You know why? It's OK, Today is not a
Christian day. But five days out of the week is
fine. 40 hours a week. Being a Christian is fine, but
not listen, it is 24 hours a day.
I imagine in a war zone where soldiers would be, that there
are times when soldiers do need to rest.
There are times that they can't be out there on the front lines
24 hours a day. But could you imagine some of
them being in the barracks and an attack taking place and all
of a sudden someone came to the barracks, said, guys, everyone
get your weapon. Get out there on the front line.
You're needed. And all of a sudden there's an
uprising in the barracks and they say, are you kidding me?
We're off right now. It's not time for us.
Dave's laughing in the back. All right, hey, hey, Doc, we're
not going out there. We've got we got at least
another three hours before we're back on the lines.
Somebody would say, are you insane?
If you don't get out there, you may be dead.
Everybody get your weapon and get out there.
You may think you're off, but you're on.
You know why? Because you're a soldier.
And for us as believers, there's nowhere where the Bible says
that Satan attacks us from 9:00 to 5:00.
In fact, as I just mentioned to you, it seems that Satan tries
to attack us when we're out of our routine and when we were
unregulated in our emotions or in our physicality or any of
those things. This is when he loves to attack.
So I'm saying is this, you are always on 24 hours a day.
As a believer, you're always aware that there will be times
when Satan will want to attack when you're alone, when you're
awake at night, when you're on vacation, when you're taking a
day off, when you're far from home.
These are not the times to let your guard down.
In fact, recognize that because you're out of your normal
routine, Satan may be even more likely to attack you during
those times because he likes to get you in a place where you are
not thinking that things are are are that spiritual warfare is a
reality in your life. Don't let him lull you to sleep.
You are always on #10 Listen, don't go it alone #10 do not go
it alone. A term that's often used for the
military is something along these lines.
A band of brothers, and to be able to see the camaraderie, to
be able to see the closeness that veterans have that the
military has isn't an incredible thing.
And I've just been a party to just seeing a little bit of it
from the outside, being invited in by some of our veterans here
over the years at Liberty Baptist Church and particularly
our brother Dave. But I will tell you this,
there's a camaraderie and a closeness that the band of
brothers will have ancestors that lasts for a lifetime.
To be able to know there's someone that you serve with
that's in need years and years later.
Maybe someone's you didn't serve with, but you served in the same
with the same branch or even just serving for the same
country. There is something, there's a
closeness there that I, I don't know that I can even properly
explain because I don't understand it.
I was taking Brother Abel's. Of course, you remember Brother
Abel's here a few weeks ago, served in the United States Air
Force before he left the Air Force and went into the
ministry. But I was with him at Mansfield.
We were getting ready to go on the train to go into Boston.
He was talking to a gentleman and it was a veteran's day, I
believe that day or the day before, somewhere along those
lines. And he saw a man start talking
to him. And they both had served in the
Air Force. And these men have never met
each other in their life. And you know what They left
being, you know, friends be able to talk and to be able to
exchange ideas and thoughts. And I'm just kind of standing
there just kind of like, Yep, OK, I don't really know what
you're talking about, but that's all right.
You know, because they're they're giving letters like, you
know, your PT seven O 6. They're like, Oh yeah, you know,
I put a form FI7O2 like I, you know, like I don't know what you
guys are talking about, but you seem like you're having a good
time. Can I tell you, the only thing
that I can think of that would be closer than something like
that should be the closeness that we have as believers.
The closeness that we have. And I'm not trying to equate
what we are compared to the military because some of our
military friends and family, they are believers.
But I'm trying to tell you this, that we are a band of brothers
and sisters in Christ as well. Don't go it alone.
Satan wants to isolate. Satan wants to make you ashamed.
Listen, there should be the space here at Liberty Baptist
Church where someone can openly talk about the sin that they're
dealing with and that brothers and sisters in Christ can help
them, can pray for them, extend grace and also to extend a
helping hand when they're in need.
Now, I know that we don't want to say the deepest, darkest
things that are within us and there's probably some prudence
to that, isn't there? I know there's some
appropriateness to that, that sometimes there's some things
that men should only say to men and not in mixed company and
ladies should only share with ladies and, and not in mixed
company. I understand that.
I'm not trying to diminish that whatsoever.
But I will say this as you struggle and as I struggle just
to be able to be more like Christ and we have some very
particular struggles. You should be able to call one
of your brothers on the phone, men, ladies.
You should be able to text one of the other ladies in the
church and to be able to let them know where you're
struggling and have them pray for you and pray with you and to
talk you through it and to give you counsel and to give you
advice and to give you guidance. And you'd say, well, Pastor, I
don't even know what I would do if somebody called me and talk
to me like that. Well, I would tell you the best
thing that you could do is to be like 1 of Job's friends.
You say, weren't those the really bad guys?
I mean, they didn't seem very helpful to him.
Well, as I always say, Job's friends were the most helpful
the first week when they sat there with him and said nothing.
Once they started talking, they showed how foolish they were.
You want to be like 1 of Job's friends?
Here's what you do When someone comes to you and talks to you
about some need. Just do a whole lot more
listening than talking. You just listen to them.
Pray for them. Maybe even say something like
this. I don't even know how to help
you. I'm gonna be honest with you.
I don't even know how to unwrap what you just told me, but I'm
gonna pray with you. I'm gonna pray that the Lord
gives you wisdom. You can never go wrong with
James 15. If any man lack wisdom, let him
ask of God. If any man lack wisdom, that's
all of us. We don't have all the wisdom we
need. Ask of God, guess what, He will
give it to you liberally. The Bible says He will upgrade
you, not He won't chastise you for asking for help.
And so as you ask on behalf of someone else, and maybe someone
else asks on behalf of you, listen, there's a strengthening
that takes place. And I'm thankful that our church
has shown itself over the years to be a place of grace.
Yes, when sin needs to be taken care of, it is taken care of.
But when someone truly repents, when someone wants to get right
with the Lord, that this church does not push them off, but
rather puts arms of love, love around them, and says this, we
are going to help you get right with the Lord, because there
will be a time when you will hope that people will act the
same way towards you. Ecclesiastes 4 verses 9 through
12/2 are better than one because they have a good reward for
their labor. For if they fall, the one will
lift up his fellow. But woe to him that is alone
when he falleth, for he hath not another to help him up again.
If two lie together, then they have heat, but how can one be
warm alone? And if one prevail against him,
two shall shall withstand him. And a three fold cord is not
quickly broken. I always look at my friend David
Corley. He was just here in June for our
20th anniversary of ministry. And my friend David Corley is
that other friend that I have. He's the one since the 8th
grade. We graduated high school
together. We graduated college together.
He just celebrated 20 years of ministry all at the same church,
being the pastor just a couple months ago.
And I look at him as someone that when I have a struggle,
when I have a difficulty, when I just need something, when I need
to complain, that he'll listen. Now he may rebuke me when I'm
done for complaining, he'll do it in love, but he'll tell me
what I need to hear, not what I want to hear.
And everyone needs to have a friend in their life that tells
them not what they want to hear, but what they need to hear.
But then even then, doing it in love and kindness and godliness,
speaking the truth in love. Don't go it alone #11 be a
joyful warrior. Be a joyful warrior.
Nehemiah 810 says the joy of the Lord is your strength.
Listen, it's easy to get grizzled and bitter in the
battle. Can I tell you, I've seen a lot
of pastors that are older than I am.
They've been in the battle a long time.
They've dealt with a lot of stuff.
And can I tell you, they get pretty bitter about the whole
ministry thing? I've heard pastors say something
like this. I've seen it all.
And listen, there are times when I feel like I've seen it all,
but then someone always shows me.
I guess I haven't seen it all. You know what, I may have seen
it all. Even if I have seen it all, I
haven't seen everyone and I don't know everyone's heart.
I, I've met different people and I, I would say that there's
probably maybe 10 or 15 different characters, if you
will, that you could find at any given church.
You, you probably could say something along that line, maybe
not characters, but characteristics, if you would,
that you can find at any church. But I will say, even then I have
to take each person as an individual.
And you know what, I just don't want to be someone that's been
in the ministry for twenty, 30-40 years and just get so old
and bitter about things that really he's not only good for
anything, but you know, there's a lot of Christians that get
that way too. Just get tired with the fight.
They get tired of the struggle. They're flesh.
In fact, maybe they get tired of losing in their flesh and they
just get to the place was like, well, what good is this even
anyway? I try to do right for a few
weeks and I just go right back to the same things I hear about
revival, but I've never experienced revival before.
It seems like other people are so much further ahead in the
church than I am. Like, what's even the point?
What am I even doing here? And you get so down, you get so
discouraged. Listen in the fight.
Don't lose your joy in the fight.
Don't lose that bedrock joy that you have from Christ.
Don't let any of the fighting diminish the joy.
In fact, joy is a help in the fight.
Listen, when you are down, discouraged and depressed, you
don't want to fight. When you were down and
discouraged and depressed, you know what?
You know what I want to do? I want to get another carton of
ice cream. That's what I want.
When I'm down and discouraged or depressed, you know it's not
going to help me, but it's going to feel good for about 30
minutes and it's going to feel bad for about the next six
hours, especially if it's at midnight when I ate it, you know
what I'm saying? But this is what the world tells
us. It's like you need that short
little dopamine hit and everything will be feel better
and you get that dopamine hit wherever you get it from.
Listen, it can come from a bottle, it can come from a video
or a photograph. It can come from a food, It can
come even from things that aren't necessarily bad, but they
have been taken into indulgence, like food.
But listen, there's no joy to be found in those things.
The joy of the Lord is our strength.
Many warriors are broken by what they've seen, by what they've
experienced. But our warfare is different.
The more we war and the more victories we have, the more
joyful we should become as Christians.
The older we get in the Lord, the more joyful we should be.
We should get say, well, things are getting worse.
I can't give you a better example than Samuel.
Samuel went through ministry and life.
In many ways it would have seemed that he was a failure.
His sons were not worthy to take over his judgeship.
The Bible makes that clear. The people didn't want him
anymore. In fact, they didn't just reject
Samuel, they rejected the entire theocracy that God had set up
all the way back from the wilderness 300 plus years ago.
And they said what? They said, give us a king so
that we can be like the other nations.
It was a total rejection of him and of his family.
But what did Samuel do at the end?
He says, but I'll do what you say.
I'll seek the Lord first. But I want you to know I'm going
to pray for you. I'm going to help you.
I'm going to do what I can. Samuel in his very end where it
seemed like he was being rejected, still said this.
They may be sour on me, but I'm not going to get sour on them
because the Lord is too good for me to have that posture in my
life. Listen, be a joyful warrior.
And #12 and finally, listen, remember this, you're always
going to be a soldier. You will always be a soldier.
I remember the very first time I looked at my pastor, Pastor Pert
back at Westgate, who served in the Marines for a few years
before he went to into full time ministry.
But I remember saying something to him about being an ex Marine
and he looked at me and he straightened up in a way that I
hadn't really seen him straighten up before.
And he said there are no ex Marines.
And I thought, well, but you're not a Marine.
He says there are no ex Marines. And I kind of thought like,
well, calm down man, like you, you're not a Marine anymore, you
know what I'm saying? But his idea was as not original
to him, by the way, that when you're a Marine, you're a Marine
for life. That's the way that you're
regarded amongst the brethren of the Marines, that when you are
one, you are always 1. And that's the way that it is.
You know, when I look at us as soldiers, you're always going to
be a soldier. There will never be a time that
you won't be a soldier. You're a soldier The day you got
saved, you got put into the battle.
You'll be a soldier through your life.
And I would say to some of us who are younger than others, you
might even look at those who are elder and say, I can't wait to
get to that age and I won't, I won't fight anymore.
And those who are elders say this is the fight ever going to
end because it never ends, does it?
In fact, it'll never end till you get to glory and you're with
the Lord and the perfection that is heaven.
It'll never end. But until that time, guess what?
You're always a soldier. I think of seeing some of those
soldiers, including here in our church, those who have served.
And when you see them in their dress uniform, you know, when I
see when I see someone in the military in the dress uniform,
it almost makes me wish that, you know, I was in the military.
You know, that I, I, because I look at that, it's so admirable
because each one of those medals aren't just little trinkets.
They represent someone or something or somewhere, every
last one of them. And when you see a chest full of
medals, you see someone, you say, man, that's meaningful.
You know, we get to heaven. We're not going to get a chest
of medals, but you know we will have.
We'll have our works tried by fire at the great, at the
judgment seat of Christ. Some will be wood, hay and
stubble. Some will be gold, silver and
precious stone. That's that's your medals that
you'll receive. I've done military funerals
before, and you've been here long enough, many of you.
I'm not a weeper. I don't cry very much.
I can probably count on very few occasions where I've actually
openly wept. It's not that I think it's
shameful for a man to cry or anything like that.
In fact, I think that's a a really awful thing that often
times men buy into. But the idea is that my tear
ducts don't work like that. OK, I'm not saying that.
I'm not, you know, I'm just, I'm so happy that I don't cry.
No, no. It's just that doesn't seem like
it squeezes out of my eyes very often, but it does happen.
I'll tell you, one of the things that does bring tears to my
eyes, and I've done this probably a dozen times over the
years as a pastor, is any time I do a military funeral.
Often times the military funerals I do are for people I
don't know. It's usually for men and women
who died here in our town or in this general area who don't have
a pastor. And I get the call and I go and
I help the family. But there's never been a time
where I stand there and do what I do.
And then they take that flag off the coffin and they fold it in
the very particular way that only the military can fold it,
and with such precision and with such care.
They take that and they hand it to the widow or the widower and
say that on the behalf of the United States of America, that
we mourn your loss. And then what really gets me is
when they play taps every single time, because I didn't know that
person. I didn't know that man or that
woman, but what that song represents is this.
The fight's done, the fight's over, you're at rest.
Now. We don't know spiritually if
they're at rest or not, but you understand, just physically
speaking, they are at rest. We don't get taps at the end of
our lives, soldiers, but we do want to get this well done, thou
good and faithful servant. That's what we're aiming for is
soldiers of Christ, you know, not necessarily someone playing
the trumpet, not necessarily someone playing some instrument,
not a chest of medals or a flag that's folded up that we can put
on a shelf or put into a case. You know, we want our Lord and
Savior to be able to say, well done, thou good and faithful
servant. How does that happen?
Well, it happens by warring a good warfare.
It happens by practically putting into place the things
that we find in the Word of God. It doesn't make you weak.
It's a sign of strength that you recognize that you have a weak
flesh, but that God has given you the tools to be strong in a
wicked, wicked world. Fight the good fight of faith.
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.