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A sermon is a manner of oral communication and therefore words and sentence structure/order would be added, altered, or deleted at the moment of delivery. + In Nomine Jesu + The Rev. Evan Gaerther Endurance is a measure of physical ability and mental strength. When Roger Bannister ran a sub 4 minute mile in the 1950's some actually thought that such a feat would be beyond the capability of the human body. Others thought that the kind of endurance exercise necessary to prepare for such a run would be harmful to the heart and cut years off of a man's life. Today the mile record is 17 seconds below four minutes. The ability to endure through a hardship or stress is different for each of us, each according to the grace that we have been given. Nevertheless the challenge in today's sermon text is to share in suffering as a good solider for Christ Jesus. The endurance of a soldier is almost beyond my imagination. Over 10,000 purple hearts given in operation enduring freedom in Iraq and Afghanistan are a measure of the hardship and stress that our country's sons and daughters face who serve honorably across the globe from the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan to naval watches at sea, from the foot solider to Special Forces, from undersea tours to supersonic flight across the skies. Enduring support, sharing hardship, walking alongside the stress and pain of those that suffer can only be sustained by the grace of God. Today on Memorial Day weekend consider with me how we can possibly endure in hardships as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. How can we possibly be a soldier for Christ when we truly what this is a call to? The Apostle Paul wrote, "No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who has enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules." Sharing in the suffering and hardship of this world as a soldier of Jesus Christ is to live with a heart of endurance. The ability to live life sharing in the hardships of others and finding yourselves in the muck of this world, flows from the grace of God. Through your faith in Christ you hold onto the promise of his grace which flows from the cross. Jesus died once and for all, the righteous for the unrighteous. From the cross three words span the centuries. These three words washed over you in your baptism as you were called into the family of God. These three words are consumed by you in the body and blood of Christ given and shed for you in the Lord's Supper. These three words are draped over all the bloody war-scarred course of human history like a thundering velvet banner. Three words from God's heart: You are forgiven! If we are forgiven then we have also died with Christ Jesus. Died to sin and risen to a new life. If we have died with him, we will also live with him. Through faith we endure in this world of hardship, stress. To live according to the cross is not something that we attempt to skirt away from. In fact we are being prepared by our Lord and Savior precisely to be in this world and sharing in suffering. Daily we are strengthened through the forgiving grace of God given to us upon the cross. We are prepared for holy endurance in this world by daily dying to sin and rising with Christ to a new life of forgiveness and redemption. We are prepared when we place ourselves under the cross and find our burdens relieved by our savior who bore them for us on the cross and was not defeated but rose again on the third day. Fighting in this world against sin, fighting in this world to share in the suffering of others comes about when we fight rightly. "Eyes right!" the platoon leader commands as his unit parades before the reviewing stand. The drill time during some moments will seem burdensome and a tired activity removed from the responsibilities that the soldier will carry. "Eyes right!" focuses the attention of every service member in uniform upon his commanding officer with one simple thought. Obedience. The soldier's life is found in the hands of his commanding officer. Even during the first century this focus of a soldier was found by Paul to be a demonstration of the Christian life focused upon Christ. Paul wrote, "No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him." Our Christian life is lived or strangled depending upon our focus. The object of faith must always be our resurrected Lord and Savior and His living promises. A life of endurance is found in rooting our daily lives not in what we must do or not do to please God. A life of endurance flows from the grace of God. If we focus upon attempting to carry our burdens of hardship, suffering, and stress we quickly become the burden is heavy and the yoke does not fit. "Eyes right!" is the command on the parade ground. In the Christian life it is not a command but a promise that directs our life and focus. Focused on the one who has enlisted us in this world, we are citizens of the kingdom of heaven, living as soldiers of Christ, spreading the good news of salvation through faith in Christ. We are all sinners, who have trespassed against God. But even as we repent of our sins we do so relying on God to not judge us on account of our sins, but on account of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. So we get up! We get back in the fight! We live today on account of Christ having died for us. We are training for endurance as we discover the grace of God flowing upon us, even as we falter. We live on uneven ground, knowing to stand and endure we must have Christ as our foundation. It is uneven ground because the devil, this world system of selfishness and self-righteousness, and the "spy behind the lines." Our own sinful flesh has not the pure desires of the spirit of God. Our own fleshy desires conspire against us to produce the wickedness that God despises. Our own sinful flesh is the Devil's spy being the lines. The "flesh" cannot be transformed, reformed, nor comforted to God's will. It must be crucified. We must die to sin, and rise in Christ. Living the Christian sanctified life is not about transforming, surrendering, submitting your life. It is about dying and rising. We endure daily against the hardships and struggles as we trust in Christ. Training to endure in righteousness, training to live a holy, a sanctified life, is not found in becoming stronger, but in fact in becoming daily dead. Dead with Christ on the cross to our sin, rising with him by the grace of God to live on account of him. Paul was right when a he wrote, "the saying is trustworthy, for: 'if we have died with him, we will also live with him." (2 Tim. 2:11). The Purple Heart was created as the Badge of Military Merit by General George Washington. The purpose of the award is to reward unusual instances of gallantry and extraordinary fidelity. Since 1932, the Purple Heart has been awarded to members of the armed forces of the
If you fight the fight and live on the battlefield of this world your heart will turn purple. That is as you reach out to help and be of service to this world, through the charity and love of Christ, you will be hurt. The cause of Christ demands extraordinary valor. As we endure hardships, striving against sin, our hearts are turned purple in the sight of God. It is the grace of God alone that sustains us as we are daily wounded. In our training for endurance in righteousness we discover that on our own we are of no strength to the kingdom; but on account of the grace of God are deeds are reckoned as righteous on account of Christ who redeems. You and I daily are called to endure suffering as a soldier of Jesus Christ. It is a battlefield we enter confident that we stand firm on this uneven ground. We stand firm in the face of our enemy, sin, death, and the devil, because we live by the valor of Christ. Take a moment with me and travel in your mind's eye to
It is Jesus victorious who stands for us. As we die to sin, die to the idea of victory through our own hands, as our hearts are turned purple enduring hardship, we live. "For me to live is Christ, to die is gain" Phil. 1:21. We daily die to ourselves but we endure for to live is Chirst. Training for endurance of righteousness flows from the grace of God. Soli Deo Gloria
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