From His Heart

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Today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, discover if you're a good soldier of the cross.

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Did you know that the moment that a person places his or her faith and trust in Jesus and Jesus alone for salvation, that person is born again and that person is placed in the Lord's army?

Every Christian is in the Lord's army. Every Christian is a soldier. That's not the question.

The question is this: Are you a good soldier?

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What does it take to be a good soldier of Christ Jesus? That's what we're beginning to explore on From His Heart today as we begin a seven-message series from Pastor Jeff called Soldiers of the Cross. In these lessons, he'll offer transformational biblical encouragement to help you stand up strong for Jesus with boldness and confidence.

In this first lesson from the series, we'll learn three essential truths important to understand in order to fight the good fight of faith in this darkening world and to finish our race that the Lord has given us, having been faithful to our calling and His commands. Remember that all this month. If you miss any of these programs, you can listen again online at fromhisheart.org; click the listen link if it's possible.

Now, open your Bible to 2 Timothy chapter 2, where Pastor Jeff Shreve begins the first lesson in the Soldiers of the Cross series, and it's called Good Soldiers.

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Paul is writing to Timothy, and Timothy is the pastor at the church in Ephesus. Ephesus is a really big city. It's an important city. It brings people in from all over the known world at that time, and it's a difficult place to pastor. There are a bunch of false teachings that take place in Ephesus, and no doubt it was coming into the church. You know, Ephesus was the place where Paul had to leave because they were yelling for hours, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians." Paul wanted to go into the big amphitheater and address those people. I've been in that amphitheater in Ephesus; it holds 25,000 people. They estimate that the city had about 250,000 people, 10% of the size of the amphitheater. They wouldn't let Paul go in there. They said, "If you go in there, those people will rip you to pieces." And Paul had to leave Ephesus.

Timothy's the pastor in Ephesus, and it's tough going. He's starting to retreat; he's starting to get a little fearful. We know that because Paul says, "God hasn't given you a spirit of fear, but of power and love and discipline. Stir up the gift that was put in you. Don't give up. Don't throw in the towel, Timothy. Be a good soldier of Christ Jesus." Well, how can you and I be good soldiers? How can we live a life where, at the end, we do hear the Lord say, "Well done, my good and faithful slave. Well done, my good and faithful soldier"? What does it take to be a good soldier of Christ Jesus? I want to share with you three essential truths that you have to understand, that I have to understand, in order to be a good soldier and to fight the good fight of faith and to finish the race and the course that the Lord has given us.

Essential truth number one: Understand that you don't have what it takes, but the Lord does. You don't have what it takes to be a good soldier. I don't have what it takes to be a good soldier. Timothy sure didn't have what it took to be a good soldier. Paul didn't have what it took to be a good soldier, but the Lord does. Verse 1: "You, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." Strengthen yourself in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. It's not in you; it's in Him. You know, sometimes you see these athletes, and what do they do? I see this in football a lot, I guess. Basketball, some, but mostly football. They pull their shirt, you know, they do that thing, you know, they make a big play, and then they do this like, "Look at me, I'm Superman."

Hey, in the Christian life, when it's just you and you pull your shirt, all you find is a grease spot. There's nothing there. There's no Superman there in and of yourself. You know, there was a church in Houston; they had their big catchphrase, "Discover the champion in you." Listen, if you're not a believer, there is no champion in you. But if you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, then He is there, and He is the champion. But you and I, we don't have what it takes. He has what it takes. And we are to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

Now, you mark it down: The Christian life is all about grace and faith, grace and faith. Those two things are critical in the Christian life. How does a person come to faith in Christ? Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 8: "For by grace you've been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not as a result of works, lest anyone should boast." We are saved by grace, through faith, by God's grace, through our putting our faith in God's grace. You know, Jesus said, "If you have faith just as big as a mustard seed," which is the smallest seed that they knew, "you don't need much faith. You just need to have faith in God's grace."

God has a great big hand of grace. You and I have a puny little hand of faith. But if you put your puny little hand of faith in God's great big hand of grace, what does He do? He pulls you out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, and He sets your feet on a rock, making your footsteps firm. That's how a person gets saved, by grace, through faith. How does a person grow in the Christian life? Colossians 2:6: "As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him." How did I receive Him? By grace, through faith. How do I walk in Him? By grace, through faith. That is the Christian life.

Think about it like this: Grace is like electricity. Your house, no doubt, has electricity. I mean, that's just a must for us in America; we have to have electricity. When there's a power failure, man, everybody feels it. And women can freak out when there's no blow dryer. It doesn't bother me, but it really can bother a woman if she doesn't have a blow dryer. In your house, you have electricity. Well, now when you buy a new house, one of the first things you have to do is make sure the power gets turned on. Electricity at your house is grace; plugging into the socket is faith. If you don't have power at your house, you can plug in the toaster all day long into the outlet, and you're not gonna make toast. There is the ability to make toast because there's no power.

But now you can have power at your house, and if you don't plug into it, you put the toaster in the cabinet and just say, "Well, I don't want to plug it in. I'm just going to make toast here." It's not going to work. It has to be plugged into the power source. And Paul tells Timothy, "Hey, plug into the power source. Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." What is grace? When he says, "Be strong in the grace," what exactly is that? That can feel like a nebulous thing. Well, grace has been defined this way: It's the undeserved, unmerited favor of God. You don't deserve grace; I don't deserve grace. You can't earn grace; I can't earn grace. But God gives us grace because God is the God of grace.

The Bible says in John chapter one, "The law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. Of His fullness, we have all received," speaking of Jesus, "and grace upon grace," the unmerited favor of God. One man described grace this way: "Grace is the desire and the power to live for the Lord." That is, grace comes from the Lord, and we can strengthen ourselves in that grace. You're going to have to be strong in the grace to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

Now, how do you do that? We grow strong in grace through prayer and the Word. Those two things are critical to the Christian life: prayer and the Word. That's what the apostles said in Acts chapter six when they had their first deacons. Acts chapter six is the genesis for the first deacons. The disciples said, "It is not advantageous and a good use of our time for us to be serving tables. We need to get some deacons to do that. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word." Those two things are critical so that we grow in grace. Our 90-day New Testament challenge is designed to get us all into the Word so we can do what 2 Timothy 2:15 says: "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the Word of truth."

And so we saturate ourselves in the Word. Now, how are you going to grow in grace? By spending time in the Word of God and by spending time in prayer. And you know, sometimes we get the wrong idea about prayer. Prayer can become this thing, "Oh, it's just... it's like climbing Mount Everest. It's so hard." We talk about praying for an hour. "I can't pray for an hour. I have trouble praying for five minutes. How am I gonna do this?" God is not so concerned that you pray through this long list every time you come before Him. The Bible says, "Pray without ceasing." We call upon the Lord first thing in the morning, and we just constantly talk to Him. We never hang up the line; we're just constantly connected to the Lord.

I love this passage in Hebrews chapter 4 where it says, "For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin." God knows that you have struggles with sin, that I have struggles with sin, that we have struggles with sin. He sympathizes with us, says, "Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace." Not a throne of judgment for the child of God; it's a throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. What is grace? It's the desire and the power to live for the Lord. And I come before Him with my problems and with my sins, and I confess those sins and say, "God, would you give me grace so that I would have the power and the desire to live for you?"

"You, therefore, my son," Paul says to Timothy, "be strong. Strengthen yourself in the grace that is in Christ Jesus."

Essential truth number two: Understand that there will be suffering and hardships. Suffering and hardships. Paul is in prison. This is 67 AD. You know, if you read the Book of Acts, you find that Paul was imprisoned in Rome, and he's under house arrest, and there's a measure of freedom there. He was able to receive guests. This is not that Roman imprisonment. Acts doesn't talk about this Roman imprisonment. In this Roman imprisonment, he's not in his own rented quarters; he's in the Roman prison. And it's a dark, dank, stinky, awful hole, and it's there for prisoners before they're executed. This is under the persecution of Nero. Remember, Nero was the Roman emperor.

Nero, in 64 AD, the historians tell us, was involved in burning Rome, setting Rome on fire and burning a bunch of the businesses and buildings because he wanted to do something else with that. But when the blowback came, "Hey, this fire, where did this fire come from?" Nero said it came from the Christians, and persecution arose against the Christians. And that's where we read about Christians being taken to the Coliseum, Christians being put on a stake and lit on fire. They would light up Nero's garden as they would burn to death. Peter and Paul were executed under the persecution of Nero. It was a very, very difficult time. There was suffering, and there was hardship.

Paul says in verse three, "Suffer hardship with me, soldier of Christ Jesus." Hardship means afflictions, trouble, evil treatment. There's suffering in there. Now you say, "Why does the Christian life seem to be filled and fraught with suffering? Why does it have to be that way?" This is why it is that way. Paul spent a lot of time in prison. Paul, the greatest Christian who ever lived—arguably the greatest Christian who ever lived—spent a lot of time in prison. He was beaten for the message that he preached. Why is that? Because the world hates the message of the Gospel. You mark it down: The world hates the message of the Gospel.

You say, "No, they don't." I mean, the word gospel, "euangelion," means good news. Why would the world hate good news? Because what precedes the good news of the gospel is the bad news that says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and the wages of sin is death. And unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." And the world doesn't like that message. They don't like to hear that. The world likes to hear, "I'm okay, you're okay." The world likes to hear, "God loves you, and God has a wonderful plan for you," and you just need to tip your hat toward God every now and then, and everything will be hunky-dory. And God has a promotion in store for you, and God has this blessing around the corner for you. That's what the world likes to hear. They don't like to hear that unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

Paul came, and he didn't preach little sermonettes for Christianettes. He preached a powerful message that told people that they needed to repent. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved except the name of Jesus. He is the way and the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him. Man, that is a narrow message, and many in the world don't want to hear that message. I still remember years ago seeing Oprah Winfrey, and somebody stood up on her program and said, "Oprah was saying there are many ways to God." And she says, "No, there's one." This lady said, "No, there's not many ways to God. There's one way to God, and that is through His Son, Jesus Christ." And Oprah said, "That can't be true." It is true. It is true.

And so the message of the cross, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter one, that the preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. Now, John 3 is the passage that so many of us know. John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through Him." It says, "He who believes is not judged. But he who has not believed is judged already." Why? Because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

And then he goes on to say this in John 3:19: "And this is the judgment that the light..." See, Jesus said He's the light of the world. "The light has come into the world, and men love the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed." The light goes into the darkness. And if you don't respond to the light, if you say, "Hey, you're showing up my sin here. I don't like this," you know, it's like a cockroach. If you shine the light on the cockroach that might be in your kitchen in the middle of the night, you turn on the light. What do they do? They scurry because they want to get out of the light. Well, men are like roaches; they do that too.

Now, those who want to be saved, they come to the light and they deal with their sin. Those who don't, they want to put out the light. And that's what they did with Jesus. Jesus exposed all the religious hypocrites. And what did they do? "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" They wanted Him dead. Hey, the world hates the message of the Gospel. And the world will persecute those who stand up for Jesus. That's just the way it is. 2 Timothy 3, verse 12: "Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution."

What does it mean to suffer persecution? The word persecution literally means to pursue. They will come after you. Paul's whole ministry, people were coming after him. The Judaizers were coming after him. When he would leave a city, what would they do? They would come in behind him. You read the book of Galatians and find out. The Judaizers came in, and they tried to tell those people, "Hey, everything he said was false. You have to be circumcised to be a Christian. You have to follow the law of Moses to be a Christian." And Paul dealt with persecution his whole life ministry. The world will persecute those who stand up for Jesus. It's just part of the deal. That's the way it is.

And Paul knew that when he got saved. Acts, chapter nine. He wasn't Paul the Apostle; he was Saul of Tarsus, breathing out threats and murders against the disciples of the Lord, ravaging the church. He was trying to destroy Christianity. He was a bad dude. Like Corn Pop, he was just a bad dude. That's a little humor for some of you. And then he meets the Lord on the road to Damascus, and then he's blinded. And then the message goes to Ananias, says, "Go and pray for Saul of Tarsus. He's on a street called Straight. Go to him and pray for him that he would regain his sight." He says, "Lord, I don't want to go there. That guy breathes out threats and murders against the disciples of the Lord." He said, "Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine, for I will show him how much he must suffer for my name's sake."

And Paul suffered, and he knew going into it, this is a deal where I'm going to suffer, and there's going to be opposition. And people aren't going to like the message. It is good news, but they don't like the bad news, and they don't like the narrowness. Hey, understand and know going in, if you stand up for Jesus, you will get persecuted, and people will come after you, and people won't like it, and they'll try and silence you. We have far too many preachers that are afraid of what people are going to say about them. Who cares what people say about you? The only one that matters is Him, what He says about you.

So you understand, number one, that you don't have what it takes, but the Lord does. Understand that there will be suffering and hardships, and essential truth number three: Understand that your number one job is to please the Lord. That's your number one job. That's my number one job. That was Paul's number one job. That's Timothy's number one job: to please the Lord. He says in verse four, "No soldier in active service..." And we are soldiers in the Lord's army in active service. "No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier."

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Well, are you pleasing the Lord with the way you think and talk and walk with the Lord? The way you pray and obey him with humility? The way you respond to people who have wronged you? That's a big question that few could say, yes, I do. Yes, I do. Yes, I do. We all need to prioritize our focus, our thoughts, and actions on pleasing the Lord each and every moment of each and every day.

You are listening to the message called Good Soldiers from Pastor Jeff Shreve's series, Soldiers of the Cross, that we're in this month. While this language may be a sensitive one in some Christian circles, the Bible makes it clear that we are to be fighters, warriors in the battle with the devil for the souls of people in all nations. We're to be in the Lord's army, but what does it take to be an effective good soldier in that army?

In the message series that we're in now, we just began called Soldiers of the Cross. We can learn a lot about being an influencer for the Lord in order to fight the good fight of faith and to finish the race that the Lord has given us. This timely series is also our special gift of thanks to you for your support to From His Heart this month of any amount, a ministry from which Pastor Jeff takes no income. He is a chief volunteer for us, and with that gift, we'll also send you the companion booklet, The Lord's Army, both the seven-message series and the booklet for your gift today of any amount to From His Heart.

Your gift will help us create and encourage new soldiers for the battles this year that are surely to come against the Kingdom of God. Now and until the Lord returns, get prepared to be a better soldier of the cross and join the Lord's army today. Call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-BIBLE) or go online to fromhisheart.org to request the series and the booklet. Thank you for standing with us to fight the good fight of faith.

God bless you, and thank you for being here today to listen to From His Heart. We trust that you'll be back tomorrow. I'm Larry Nobles inviting you to do so. When we'll have part two of the message Good Soldiers. We'll have a short review then and then complete the lesson. That's on Tuesday as Pastor Jeff will open up God's Word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from God's Heart. Here on From His Heart, there is tremendous truth.

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There is less love. There is hope that you always dream of love. He can heal every scars.

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From His Heart is the listener-supported broadcast ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve, speaking the truth in love to a lost and hurting world.

Remember that no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

Find out more. Go to fromisheart.org.