When Kings Go in to Battle

Transcript

One of the most famous stories in the Bible tells of an episode in the life of one of the most famous people in the Bible.  It is the one of whom it was said he was a man after God's own heart.  The one who is going to be ruling over Israel and the Kingdom of God.

And that episode, that story is how he very nearly threw everything away through a near fatal character flaw.  You probably know the story, I'm sure you do, about this very dark chapter in his life.  

And that story was preserved for us not to hold up his sin and be a memorial to short comings to embarrass somebody.  But it was for the purpose that Paul said in first Corinthians 10 and verse 11.  1st Corinthian 10:11 Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. 12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.  (that these things were written for our admonition on whom the ends of the ages have come.  They were written for us.  So that he who thinks he stands will take heed and stop and ponder and think lest we fall.)

And Paul linked these ancient stories of Israel to the church pointing out how the temptations that face humanity are nothing new, just the same old song different verses. And we all deal with the same issues in life that have hit humanity throughout the ages.

So that dark time in David's life was preserved not to condemn him but to help us all to learn from the experience.  Because it's a story common to the human condition and it speaks to the theme of this Winter Weekend.  The absolute constant need for the people of God to live a life in pursuit of godly character.

In the larger principles contained in David's story, we have a mirror that we hold up to our own lives and in that we see the workings of temptation.  We see the danger of carelessness.  We see the deceit of assuming we're strong  when we're not as strong as we may think we are.  

We see in that the powerful pull of sin.  We see the bitter penalty of sin.  We see the futility of running from God.  We see the need to come face to face with ourselves.  We see the work of deep repentance.  We see the comfort of reconciliation with God.  We see what a fight it is to overcome.  And, we see the absolutely necessity of building godly character in order to win spiritual wars. 

Now I'm not actually going to go through that account today.  It's generally known as the story of David and Bathsheba.  But it's really a much bigger story than that.  If people think of it in those terms, they're only taking a little slice of it.  Because it's also the story of David and Uriah, and David and Nathan, and David and God, and David and David;  David coming to see himself. 

It could easily make a sermon on the issue of character but assuming you know the story, I would like to take us to a single scripture that provides the setting for what happened in this story.  It's an often overlooked scripture.  But readers tend to hurry past it to get to the main plot.  But this verse, 2nd Samuel, chapter 11.  This verse contains a very interesting statement that deserves some focus and it will indeed be the focus for what we consider today.

 In second Samuel 11 in verse 1.  2nd Samuel 11:1 (We read now it came to pass) It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.  That is not an inconsequential piece of information, when we consider the rest of the story and what happened.  

I'd like you to notice the phrase, "at the time when kings go out to battle."  "At the time when kings go out to battle."  It's sort of a sad statement of affairs that we talk about times of life like that.  Oh, that's when we go fight.  That's when we go kill each other.  Humans have always gone out to battle.  But back then it was, there was a time, it was almost seasonal; because it was a matter of practicality.  There was a rainy season and a wet, a dry season.  And it's tough to wage war when you're cold and wet. And in those cold and wet months it was hard to travel; it was hard to maneuver.  Then there's the challenge of simply maintaining an army.  Keeping them fed and dry and clothed, and plus keeping morale high when the weather is miserable.

So, they had their times when they would back off back home, get retrenched.  But then the spring would come, and the weather warms up, and it's almost like….baseball season's coming!  It's battle season!! Let's go fight!  This time, for the first time, apparently, King David was going to take a break.  

Maybe he thought, you know, I'm getting old, I'm getting too old for this.  It's time to back off the combat a little bit.  My body, I'm just not up to it as much anymore.  My men, they've got it under control.  And so, I'm going to take it easy.  And he stayed back.

What David did not realize is that it was in Jerusalem in the comfort of his palace where he would fight the biggest battle of his life.  It was right there he was going to fight the biggest battle of his life.  You think protecting your sheep from a lion or a bear is tough?  This was tougher!  This was worse than facing Goliath.  This was worse than dodging the spears thrown at you from a paranoid king.  This was worse than going to war against nations around you who were trying to defeat you.  

This was going to be David's battle against himself.  His biggest battle he would ever face.  Without realizing it, he was entering a long war that would be entirely fought and either won or lost internally.  This battle was going to be fought, won or lost internally: in his mind, in his thinking, in his heart, in his character.

Now David was eventually going to win the war but he was going to lose some of the battles.  And, there would be a lot of casualties.  And looking back on it, he would learn the same lesson that we all learn sooner or later.  It's actually more than one lesson; it's a series of lessons.  Those lessons are: sin will take you into situations where you never intended to go, sin will take you there faster than you ever thought you would go, sin will take you farther than you ever thought you would go, sin will keep you longer than you want to stay, and sin always cost more than you want to pay.  Big lessons for humanity.

I had a working title for this sermon in mind for quite a while.  The title was going to be, "When Kings Go Out To Battle" taken right from the verse.  But as it developed and thinking about it further, it seemed more appropriate to change it just slightly to fit us.  So the title of today's sermon is "When Kings Go In To Battle."  Not into, one word but two words, "When Kings Go In To Battle." 

Meaning when we go in-side ourselves, inside our minds, inside our hearts to fight the enemies at the gate.  When we go inside, and it also means us who, according to Revelation 5:10  
Rev 5:10 And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth."  (have been made unto our God's kings and priests).  That's what we've been called to.  To rule with Jesus Christ on the earth and we're in that time of preparation.  

And we are in a time of ruling right now.  And we have to go no further than our own lives to realize where the battle is to rule.  We, who also like David, realize that just because we have a special calling and position, we have found that that does not exempt us from going to war.  It doesn't, the war doesn't rage out there while we're in our little spiritual cocoon, does it?

We have battles to fight.  Often within ourselves, sometimes from with out.  We've all fought our battles with out.  We've had the ugly bosses, we've had the hostile relatives who are against everything we stand for; but those things come up occasionally.  

But everyday we have battles in ourselves.  We have the war there and when those spiritual enemies are at the gate, that's when you really, really want godly character on your side!  That's when you either wish you'd been working harder on that character development all along or you're very thankful that you were.  Sometimes you realize this battle was a little easier than it might have been ten years ago for me because thankfully I've really been working on this.  And when the big test came, I made it!

But sometimes I found myself in places thinking like…Uh, I wish I would have worked harder on that area of my life because when the big test came, I should have  done better!!

It's when you realize the value of a theme, like we have at this weekend, because this isn't new stuff necessarily, this isn't spiritual rocket science but it's the kind of thing we put our minds on and we rehearse and we think of new applications and we understand new elements of this and we begin to realize; I need this.  I really need this reminder because this is what my life is all about in following God.  

It's when you realize that if you have been really dedicated to building godly character all along, that that character is often forged in the small battles of life.  And that forging of character in the small battles of life, really pays off with godly strength to take you on to face the big enemies.  

"When Kings Go In To Battle," whether the battle seems big or small, it's never inconsequential.  It is never inconsequential!  And there is one big difference between the account of David here in 2nd Samuel 11 and us today. And that is that the time when kings go in to battle spiritually to battle sin and develop godly character, that's not a seasonal thing.  

Mr. Winner did not stand up here a while ago and say, "Hey, folks don't forget, in just fourteen more weeks, fourteen weeks from today we'll be at the first day of Unleavened Bread and you know what that means…We have to start battling those pesky sins again. It's been nice since the Feast to have six months off, hasn't it?  But, you know, I just wanted to remind you that you know the battles will be here before you know it.  I want to give you a heads up.  Mark your calendar, April 4th.  When Kings Go Out To Battle."

We don't get any breaks, we don't get any off-season when it comes to sin.  Our enemies are at the gate every day.  The battle for godly character is ever present.  And the primary battlefield is the one that's inside.  I think we all grasp that but if we don't, just consider the way we think, just start with the way we think about every situation we face whether it's carnally or spiritually. 
That's an inward battle.  That's on the inside.  

The way we think about our options.  Okay, how am I going to react with this?  That's inside.  That's an inside job.  How long we decide to linger with temptation when it comes along, that's an inward battle.  How deeply and thoroughly we address sin or righteousness is an inside battle.  Whether or not or how soon we decide to go to God for help, that's an inside battle.  How long we will persevere against sin is an inside battle. 

Proverbs says a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again but that determination to rise, that's an inside battle.  I've seen people who fell like six times and they decided not to get up anymore.  And that was inside battle.  When God sends us some kind of wake-up call, and He always will, just like He did with David, He sent Nathan.  He will always send us something. Whether we wake up or (knock knock on the desk) hit the snooze button, it's an inside battle.  These are all internal battles.  

And so this week at the Winter Family Weekend, we've heard a lot about character development.  It was mentioned frequently at the classes all week long.  Every seminar today was about character.  The Bible Study last night was about character.  And so we're hitting it really hard here and I hope that if there's one thing we leave here with today, that it will be a clear awareness to the answer to one of the fundamental questions and most important questions that we can have for God: why is character so important?  Why is it so important to us? Why must we be on a quest for character?  

Let's start at a very basic place where we find a very familiar statement.  Matthew chapter 6, very familiar, one you can probably quote without turning there, Matthew 6:33. Matt 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.   Think we, not purposely, but we just sort of happened to stress that first part more, "seek first the kingdom of God," but on the same playing field, on the same level is "and His righteousness."  "And His righteousness."  Doing the right thing at the right time for the right reason.  

The righteousness of God is doing the right thing at the right time for the right reason.  And the habit of doing that is the expression of godly character.  The natural reaction that where we do it automatically, the right thing at the right time, for the right reason means that character has been instilled.  It's our, when our default reaction is do the right thing at the right time for the right reason, that's because godly character has been built in there over a period of time.  And it wasn't naturally there to begin with but it doesn't come without seeking it.  Furthermore, when you think about it in that phrase, you can understand the difference between worldly character and godly character.  And sometimes people get a little confused over this.

We can look around the world and we see people.  We hear stories every day that are expressions of tremendous displays of character.  And you see these in people who maybe they're of another religion or maybe they're not religious at all.  But they do things we admire.  Good things, high quality, a sacrifice, they're diligent, they persevere.  

It's about this time a couple of years ago or maybe three years ago I was reading Laura Hildebrand's book "Unbroken".  Which just came out this week as a movie.  Inspiring story, I mean you read that story, it was so moving, and it’s a tremendous character story of a man whose life was admirable on many counts ranging from perseverance and endurance all the way to forgiveness and redemption in so many ways.  And I found myself at times reading this saying, "I don't know if I could do that!"  And here I am a Christian.  And I'm thinking man, that guy was strong, the way he just stood and did the right thing.  Man that was admirable.  

Humans can have good character.  Humans can have strong character.  And stories like that are good.  But his story is nothing next to the people of God.  His story is nothing next to the people of God.  Louie Zamperini and "Unbroken" is not our model.  He is an example of great character in a few specific areas of life.  And it's good; it's wonderful that he had that.

But our model, the One we look to emulate, is Jesus Christ.  Louis Zamperini was tested in some points and he came through with some flying colors.  Our model was tested in all points as we are and was without sin.  All points.  I've never ever seen, read or met an unconverted person who is on the same quest for character that we are.  

You might say, "Oh, wait a minute now.  I've known some people; they were really trying their best to be good people."  What I mean, I'm not disputing that.  But the world is not seeking first His righteousness.  And the difference is: His righteousness is a complete package; it's everything! It's everything!  You can see people who are disciplined in certain areas of life, but a Christian is on a quest to build character in every area.  Every area that God says, "Be this way."  We say, "That's what I want to be."  And Wow!  That's a big job.  That's a big task.  

We're not content with being strong in a few areas but examining everything.  Bringing every thought into captivity.  You mean seven out of ten's pretty good, right?  No, He said, "Bring EVERY thought into captivity.  That's the standard for godly character.  And as we do that, as we strive to attain a measure of 40% of the stature of Christ.  (laugh) It isn't that is it?  

As we strive to attain the measure of the fullness of the stature of Christ.  And as we grow in those things, as we develop that character, you know what a Christian does?  They start looking for other areas.  They start looking, what's next?  What's next?  I want to grow more.  

We are striving to improve in all of our lives.  And not only that I said righteousness is for the right reason.  It's for the love of God that we're trying to do this.  It's not just to save our skins.  It's to honor God.  And so there's a more complex reason, there's deeper motivation; it's far more reach in its span than the quest for character in the world.  Godly character is everything.  

Now very few people out there are mindful of godly character.  The Barna research group, The Barna group is an organization that conducts regular surveys about the state of religion in America.  And a while back they surveyed the spirituality of America in terms of what people were satisfied with.  

And their survey came back and it said almost, it said although most adults 62% of Americans consider themselves "deeply spiritual."  62% of Americans consider themselves "deeply spiritual."  Nearly half of the public, 46% is satisfied enough with their spiritual condition that they have no aspects of their spirituality that they would like to change.  The survey said half of the Americans who consider ourselves "deeply spiritual" say, "There's nothing I need to change!"  And among the ½ half of adults who would like to enhance their spiritual makeup, the desire transformations varied greatly.

The most commonly noted shift was the desire to be more involved in a church.  Yeah, I need to change.  I need to go to church more.  That was named by 12% of all adults.  And those 12% most of them were already active in a church.  The next most prominent transition, 7%, was the desire to be more devoted to spiritual "things."  Ranging from the stated need for more time to devote to spiritual matters to developing a deeper stronger faith.  5% said they would like to be a better person.  5% mentioned having more knowledge of the Bible would be their top priority for spiritual change.

Barna wrote in his conclusion a very insightful analysis.  He said, "Americans are busy people and have no qualms about admitting that they find it difficult to successfully juggle all the pieces of their lives.  However, when close to half of the adults say 'there is nothing they would change about their spiritual life in order to optimize their faith fulfillment' and another  ¼ gives general answers such as 'going to church more often' or 'having more time to integrate spiritual activities into their lives.'  One could easily conclude that most Americans have no plan for spiritual advancement and are not exerting much effort to grow in their faith."  

That's a pretty powerful analysis isn't it?  So we can't really look to the world around us and say, "Now here's how we do it!"  Because they're not doing it.  The people of God will be different.  But we have to have a plan.  I mean we have to be very focused.  We can't have general ideas, that yeah, I need to grow more; I do I need to, yeah, I do.  I need to grow.  

But what does that mean?  What's our plan?  Where're we going in godly character?  What are our, what are your enemies at the gate?  What are mine?  We all have them!  Do we know them?  Do we know them right now?  Do we have clearly in our minds; I'm working on this?  Right now!  This is something I see and I'm working on it.  

The degree to which we are mindful of growing in godly character will fluctuate probably from person to person.  I'm sure it will.  And actually sometimes it fluctuates in our own lives.  Everybody's been a Christian for a while and striving to follow God realizes there are seasons in life when you're really working hard and then there are sometimes that we just find ourselves coasting a little bit.  But it fluctuates some.

I have no doubt that at times in David's life, he was very conscious of: I've got to do the right thing.  There were times he had to be right on top of that battle.  You know he was like that most of the time.  And he was very conscious of seeking first God's righteousness.  

But for whatever reason, when it came to that evening when he had decided to take it easy at home.  And it says he rose from his bed in the evening, he was out, he was taking it easy.  And he looked out over the rooftops and he was faced with a battle that seeking first His righteousness just somewhere vanished in the back of his mind.  And that can happen too.

It wasn't David's beliefs that got him in trouble.  He believes the same thing we do.  It was behavior.  It was behavior.  And that’s where character comes in and that’s why God put so much stress and emphasis on seeking first His righteousness.  Seek to be developing holy righteous character in very specific areas. Not just, you know I need to get to church more often.  That's not it.  

Let's look at an example; let's look at the original SWOT analysis.  S-W-O-T.  SWOT analysis.  There are a lot of businesses today who engage in SWOT analysis.  That is they examine in their companies the four elements that S-W-O-T stands for: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.  Strengths: what are the strengths of my operation here, my project that that give it an advantage over others?  Weaknesses: what are the characteristics of my business or my project that put me at a disadvantage?  Opportunities:  what are the elements around that I could exploit to my advantage?   And the threats: what are the elements in the environment that could cause trouble for me down the road?  

A SWOT analysis is actually a really good template to use in preparing for the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread.  If you want to, if you want to template for examining your life, just use, do a SWOT analysis.  What are my strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?  But SWOT analyses are nothing new.  It's just a way that somebody came up with to organize an easy to remember system of evaluation.  

But when you look at the messages to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, you see God giving a SWOT analysis to each one.  In Revelation 2 and 3, we're not going to go through all of these, you had an entire seminar if you were able to go, that Mr. Meeker gave on this couple days ago.

But there's one that God says many different things in the analysis to each church but there's one thing that He says to every one of them.  There's a comment made to every one.  And notice what it says because it has to do with being character-conscious.  Being character-conscious.  Chapter 2 verse 7:  Rev 2:7 "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes (to him who overcomes) I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God."  Verse 11, in the middle of the verse: Rev 2:11 "He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death."  Verse 17, middle of the verse: Rev 2:17 "To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. (And a white stone and a new name) And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written" (Verse 26) : Rev 2:26  And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations-  (Chapter 3 in verse 5):  Rev3:5 He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; (verse 12 ) Rev 3:12 He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, (Verse 21): Rev 3:21 (He who) To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.  Seven times to each church, the single thing in common is: overcome, overcome.  And what does that mean?  Overcome what?  

And where would that fall under the SWOT analysis?  It would fall under the O, for opportunity.  We all have the opportunity.  No matter what church area they were in, no matter what the situation was, everybody had the chance to overcome and it was so important.   When you read what was hanging on each one of these things.  It was it was there and today it is the biggest opportunity that we have in the Church of God around the world.  And that is to overcome, to meet the challenges and to beat them.  

When we kings go in to battle, it's an opportunity to overcome.  And that will have the hugest impact, what we do today on what happens to us tomorrow.  God is telling us we must be the church that character built.  We must be the church that character built, the people who have met and overcome the enemies at the gate.

Our SWOT reviews are a little different that what you'd find in the business world because as Christians we're in the character business.  We're in the overcoming business.  That that's what we're centered on and as we review our lives through that lens, you see everything is there.  The greatest strengths that you will list will be character issues.  The greatest weaknesses you will list will be character issues.  Our greatest opportunities will be in character areas.  And our greatest threats will be character related.  It's that pursuit of godly character, godliness as we heard about last night.  That's what will protect us from the dangers out there.  That's what will strengthen us spiritually.  It's what will keep God with us.

What about our threats?  Why is the pursuit of godly character so important for that?  A number of you in this room are probably businessmen and women.  And every one of you knows- I need to know what my competition is doing.  In the area of spiritual business, character business, it's no different for us.  What is our competitor doing to get an edge on us?  What is our what is our enemy, what is our adversary doing to try to get an edge on us?  We read a verse last night in the Bible Study I'd like to look at again, first or second Peter, or 2nd Timothy 3 in verse 5: Second Timothy 3 in verse 5.  This was one Mr. Franks pointed out that as he said, Paul writes a lot about godliness.  And in this it's describing the false godliness that the form without substance and he says, 2 Tim 3:5 having a form of godliness but denying its power.   What is the power of godliness?  

What can godliness do for you?  What is the power of godliness?  The power of godliness is the ability to make real change.  It's the ability to really change one's life.  Those that were being described here had a form of it meant it really did not influence them deeply.  It did not effect change in their lives.  It put no restraints on them.  It did not control their lives at all.  But on the other hand, the sincere pursuit of godly character does influence us deeply.  It changes us.  It restrains us.  It controls us.  

A lot of people, we just naturally don't like to be controlled.  Have you ever been around a controlling type of person?  After a while, you just uhhh!  We don't like to be controlled.  But there is an element of being controlled that we've that we hope to learn to love.  And that is to be controlled by God's Spirit.  To be constrained by it.  That is really important.  Proverbs 29:18 says, Where there is no revelation, (the) people cast off restraint;   Where there is no vision, (the old King James says) the people perish;  Well, they perish because they cast off restraints.  And the restraint is the rest of the verse: (But) happy is he who keeps the law.  Happy is he who keeps the law.  People don't like to be controlled but the whole essence of character development has to do with self-control.  

It's a quest for self-control through the Spirit of God.  And when we cast off restraints, see how that works.  Ask David someday when we meet him in the future, how much he enjoyed the freedom of stepping outside the bounds of God's law.  Did you like that?  Was that good?  That doesn't work.  I was I was trying to think of the song title today.  There's a song back in the 70s by Dobie Grey, I can't remember the name of it.  One of you will tell me afterwards.  But he had this phrase in there, "Looking back and longing for the freedom of my chains, lying in your loving arms again."  "Looking back and longing for the freedom of my chains."  

When the Spirit of God, when the law of God builds that fence, that restraint around it and we have the vision, the revelation to stay there; what a powerful thing that does for us.  Let’s come back here to the thought though in 2 Timothy.  What's going on here in verse 5?  Well, if you go back to verse 1, notice what precedes this.  In verse 1 it says, 2 Tim 3:1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:  And the margin in the New King James is very interesting, It says, "Times of stress" There are going to be things that stress people.  And there will be spiritual stresses in life.  

You ever you ever get stressed in life?  If you ever do, come back here and say are any of these things at work here?  There are a lot of things that cause stress but these will cause it and what is it that's going to happen in the last days that pose perils?  He lists 19 descriptors here of the perils of the last days.  And as we go through here, consider, ask yourself which of these have to do with character?   2 Tim 3:2-5 "(For) men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power."  How many did you count of those 19?  I count 19 have to do with character.  These are the character issues that he says in the last days; these are going to be perilous.  And they do represent perils and that's why he says, 2Tim 3:5 (And) from such people turn away!"  From such people turn exercise the godly character to turn away so that stuff doesn't come upon us.  Because what happens to us?  

What happens to us if any of these are enemies at our gate?  Pick any one of these, just pick any one at random and analyze it deeply for a while and say what happens to my character if I cave in on this thing right here?  And then analyze another one.  And then analyze another one.  Until you look at all of them carefully.  And the more you study this and think about how does what does the effect on character; how does it erode character?  And you begin to see these things are dangerous!  These things are perils.  These are spiritual perils.  And, in the last days, they've always been around, but in the last days they're going to crank up.  They will be out there.

So, when Barna says that Americans who are living in this environment don't really recognize anything they need to change, you sort of shake your head, and say, "our character nationally is going to erode!"  Our character will erode and we must be a character-conscious people.  Because, as David and everybody else in the Bible discovered at one time or another, with one thing or another, sin lies at the door.  Sin's there.  It’s the reality of the world we're in.

Every minister has his own approach to baptism counseling.  We all cover the same things but we have different way of talking about it.  And whenever we gather for the actual baptism, at every baptism, I have the opportunity to conduct; I like to read through Romans six with those there.  And as the person being baptized is about to take that step of making that covenant with God, it's good to be reminded that it's a covenant that's binding us to the pursuit of holy righteous character.  

We are telling God from this point on, I'm going to be dedicated to building your character.   I'm not going to read through the whole section but, there are three verses here in which we find some statements that are so helpful and motivating in reminding us of who we are and why we're on this quest for character.  And these three verses has some thoughts that are put together sort of like a sandwich.  There are two very similar statements on either side and they're they're holding between them like two pieces of bread another statement in the middle.  

Let's look first at what's in the middle:  that's in Romans 6 in verse 13.  In Romans 6:13 it says Rom 6:13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness (for) to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.  Now I tried to spend some time there and convey to the person being baptized, when you come up out of that water in a few minutes, you are alive from the dead.  You were dead spiritually.  But God has pulled you out of that and He's given you life.  The opportunity to live now in a certain way of life and the opportunity to live forever.  

And so the primary motivation for everything that follows in your life is this deep inexpressible gratitude that you've been given a chance to live.  I'm alive from the dead is the way it's said there.  Present yourself yourselves to God as being alive from the dead.  Being a Christian, being in the household of faith, being committed to God through this covenant that you are making. You're telling God, I am going to go on a quest for character.  I'm going to go on a quest to change.  Being in being in the Church of God is about change, the Bible is about changing and it's a covenant; a quest for godliness.  

And we talk about this more.  Everyday you will have a chance to present you life.  And it's good to talk of God every morning about this.  I want to present my life as an instrument of righteousness.  I don't want to be careless to present my life as in instrument of sin.  Now I encourage anybody being baptized everyday present yourself to God and seek His help so that you can be a tool, an instrument, in His hands.  That you can do whatever He wants to do with you.  And as you're sitting here today, having gone through this process of repentance, and now you're ready to go into that water, and be baptized, this is your motivation.  This is your ambition.  

How can you make sure you don't lose it?  You go to battle.  You go to battle.  You go to battle willingly and gladly.  When Kings go in to battle.  And that is the theme of the verses sandwiching verse 13.  Verse 12.   He says, Rom 6:12 "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts."  Paul is very straightforward, don't let it happen.   And he tells us this; God is telling us this: Don’t let sin do this.  In verse 13 or 14 rather, 
Rom 6:14 "For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace."  Very similar themes.  

Now I've pondered verse 14 before, is this a command or is it a promise?  "Sin shall not have dominion over you," is this a command or a promise?  Well, I think it's both.  You know, in many ways we could look at it as a promise because it is a promise in the sense that through the grace of God we have a chance to fight another day.  And when we make mistakes and we sin and we stumble, we have a chance to fight another day.

We have the promise of Hebrews 4:16 that we can come boldly to the throne of grace that we may find obtain mercy and find grace and help in time of need. (Heb 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.) So there is a promise that sin won't have dominion over you because of the grace of God working in us.  But when you read verse 12, Rom 6:12 (Therefore) do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.  That sounds like a command!  Sounds like God is saying "Go to battle!"  "Go to battle!"  Now, this challenge has been around for a long time. If Paul's writing sounds familiar, it's because it's something we find all the way back at the beginning.

Let's go back to Genesis chapter 4. This is such a fundamental rule of life.  For anybody seeking to follow God, to have a relationship with God, to respond to God, to be in the Kingdom of God.  This is something that was established really early in life.  We'll break into the story in verse 7.  Here's the statement that applies for all people, Genesis 4:7 "If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it."  Some say, "You must rule over it."  There's doing well, not doing well.  

Now this of course is the story of Cain and Abel.  Cain thought that his battle was with his brother and with God.  Cain thought that's where his battle was.  But the battlefield, the real battlefield was in Cain's mind.  And Cain's only enemy was himself.  His only enemy was himself and his character.  It's an interesting story; there's a lot we're not told.  We don't know what Cain and Abel said when they talked together.  We don't know a lot about the sacrifice, we can speculate some.  But that's not really the main importance in this lesson here.  The main point that God is giving to humanity in this account is something that is written for us to see, to see ourselves in the story.  Cain needed to fight Cain!  Cain didn't need to fight his brother; he didn't need to fight God.  Actually God was trying to help him.  God was trying to help him work through this thing in his mind because the battle was going to be won or lost in his character.  Cain went out to fight his brother Abel but he didn't go in to fight himself.  

Now sin lies at the door.  We can do well.  It says, "If you do well," we can do well.  It's not like we had these enemies out there and we said, "Ohhh, I'm dead in the water!"  No, God didn't call us to be dead in the water.  He said, “You can do well."  You can do well!  You know why?  It's not stated here but godliness lies at the door too.  Godliness lies at the door.  Paul told the Athenians in Acts, chapter 17 that God wants people to seek the Lord in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him though he is not far from each one of us for in Him, we live and move and have our being.  (Acts 17:27-28 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and have our being,)  And for those that God is called, He's not far from us.  Godliness lies at the door too.

Godliness was right there for David to grab hold of had he made a different choice.  We don't have to go around groping in the dark trying to find God.  He He's there for us.  He was even right there with Cain.  He's there for us, He's there to help us, He's quick to direct how we live move and have our being.  

But there's that sin that lies at the door too and it really has a strong pull to take us away from God.  In verse 6, the Lord said to Cain, Gen 4:6 the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? This is really interesting now Cain obviously had a behavioral issue to address.  He had a behavioral issue to address, anger.  And he was beginning to act out on that anger that was growing.  And it was a serious threat to him.  But God did not say to Cain, "You better settle that temper there, son. You better watch that temper."  That's not what He said to him.  God ask Cain to do something.  

And it's the same thing that God asks us to do in every area of life; and that is: examine ourselves.  We are we will come in just a few weeks to that season.  When we do something as a group around the Passover that we're always encouraged and we know God wants us to do it all year long.  Examine ourselves.  He asked Cain to examine and answer a very simple question and if Cain would have done it, it would have led him to some profound understanding.  The question was simple: why are you angry?  And it wasn't, well, my brother did this or you did… no, no, no!  I know what your brother did.  I know what the sacrifice was. I know which sacrifice I honored.  That's not the question.  The question is: why are you angry?  What's going on in your head to make you react this way?  Out of all the possible ways to react, why are you reacting this way?

God was asking Cain to dig deeply in himself.  And figure out some things and see some things.  And that's what He asked David to do.  And in Psalm 51 David's prayer of repentance, you see in Psalm 51 the mind of a person who is dug deeply into themselves to understand sin and the causes of it.  And to take on the challenge of turning around and going in a different way.  And that's what David did.  And that's the only way that character is built.  God was telling Cain everyone knows you're angry but why?  Retrace your steps, Cain.  How did you get here?  What's working in your mind to bring you to this point? 

 It's interesting, God was not rejecting Cain.  He was He was working with Cain.  He was trying to help this this fella get through this.  But Cain had to go in to fight the battle.  He had to go in and he wasn't willing to do that.  What did Cain need to rule?  What did he need to rule?  In what areas of his life did he really need to do well?  If he would have been interested in pursuing godly character, he would have come to see: (wait a minute…it's my thinking, my thinking's been misdirected in several areas that have led to: this anger bubbling up.)  Cain needed to sift through a whole lot of character traits and identify the issues that were really plaguing him.  

What do you think he might have seen if he'd have really dug deeply?  If Cain would have been thinking about godly character, what would Cain have come up with?  Maybe he would have seen: (I'm pretty ambitious, I'm pretty proud, I'm a little bit undisciplined here, actually my thinking's been pretty shallow, I'm suspicious, certainly touchy, jealous, stubborn, selfish, aggressive, disrespectful, moody, competitive, strong-willed, independent, critical, crafty, revengeful.) Now there are all sorts of potential character issues that were at work.  And while none of us know all of the factors in play in his mind, one thing is very sure, the quest for godly character was going unmet in Cain's life, unchallenged.  And then it finally spilled out in the form of uncontrolled anger.

His battle was misdirected.  He was angry with God and his brother but not himself.  Anger management is also a character issue.  But it doesn't operate in a vacuum.  Anger doesn't operate in a vacuum.  Anger has many friends that push it.  Anger has a lot of friends that push it to the surface.  And if Cain did not see them all and go in to battle, one of them was going to get him.  And sure enough, it happened.  

It's hard; it's hard to do battle with the self.  It really is.  I mean it's a, we all know that.  You know when David faced Goliath, it says he picked up his five smooth stones and he ran to face the enemy.  He ran toward his enemy.  But when the enemy was himself, he just didn't see.  He didn't see the sin that was lying at the door.  And he didn't do well.  And he didn't exercise the godliness of self-control.  He didn't say, "Hey, my option right now is to go to God as fast as I can and get this fixed."  The dominoes started falling in David's life one after another.  

If you do well, you will be accepted because in the process of doing well, we will be ruling over sin.  We will be ruling over it.  This is the law for every human being.  Enemies are at the gate.
Character will be shaped.  It's just a matter of will it be carnal and weak or will it be godly and strong?  But life does hang in the balance.  

You know someday Cain is going to be resurrected and he's going to have to fight this battle.  And he he's going to see his brother there too, righteous Abel.  I don't know I don't know how Cain went to his grave but I suspect like most people, when the resurrection comes, the biggest challenge in the resurrection's going to be helping people start shifting to, "I've got to pursue godliness. I have to be seeking godly character."  And God wants us to be there to help all of the Cains who have ever lived learn how to fight the battle.  And God wants us to see the potential of ourselves in Cain and in David and every other example that we have.  And to learn from those that we learn to rule our spirits.  That verse is quoted in the in your brochure about the theme of the weekend.  We have to learn to rule our spirits so that we can help other people learn to rule theirs.  

There's a student that asked me recently or talked to me, he said…"It bothers me a little bit that David's going to rule over all of Israel because, I must be missing something but it just doesn't seem right.  The stuff he did.  And yet God's going to have him rule over Israel."  And we talked about it and the explanation is: it's not because I've turned a blind eye to his sins, that's not why he's going to rule over Israel.  It's because David saw; I mean God saw David learned how to rule it.  David learned how to rule himself.  And he had some big battles; other battles besides the one in First Samuel 11.  He learned how to rule it.  

Last night after the Bible Study, Mr. Franks and I had a spontaneous opportunity to sit for a half hour or so with six or seven young men in their room here at the hotel and chat for a while.  It was really enjoyable.  We appreciated the invitation.  Part way through the conversation one of them said, "Some of us were talking before you came up here and we were wondering if we could ask if there's was one piece of advice that you could give us on how to develop leadership as young men in the church, what would it be?"  Well, those are the kinds of discussions you enjoy having.  It's a huge area for discussion.  And one of the things that was mentioned right away, sort of hard, just to boil it down to one thing.

But as I thought about it more later, I think David himself provided a short little statement that really gives the summary.  The most powerful thing that we could say, the best advice that you could hear:  let's go to first King's, chapter 2.  First Kings two, beginning in verse one: Then 1Kings 2:1-2 (Now) the days of David drew near that he should die, It’s like Paul said you reach a point where you realize I'm winding down now and Paul said, "I fought a good fight."  And David had fought his fight too.  He'd lost some of the battles but he'd won the war.  But the days were near that he should die. and he charged Solomon his son, saying: 2 "I go the way of all the earth; be strong, therefore, and prove yourself a man.  "Be strong and prove yourself a man."  I think the best piece of advice that could be given to a young person is "prove yourself a man."  

Now what does that mean?  David wasn't talking about gender.  He was talking about character.  He was talking about character.  And he's said to his son, "You know you're on the throne but you need to prove that you can be a King.  You're on the throne but you need to prove you can be a King."  There weren't many kings in Israel and Judah that proved worthy of being a King because most of them could not rule themselves.  

How was he to do that?  How was Solomon supposed to prove himself a man?  What was David's advice?  Did David say, Now listen, Solomon, you got to show you're smarter than everybody else.  You know if you got some people out there smarter than you, you're not going to do very well.  Or, Solomon, You need to let the hammer down right away and you got to show them that you got the rod of iron.  You can keep everybody in control.  That's how you prove you're a man. Or he didn't say to him, You know, Solomon, the first thing you need to do is go out there and conquer a few new nations so they can see you can fight like your Daddy. You got a mean streak in you.  You know you can, you're not afraid to get nose to nose with somebody."  It's not what he said.  Verse 3 tells us where the battles are won 1Kings 2:3 And keep the charge of the Lord your God: to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments, His judgments, and His testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn; The charge that David gave his son in verse 3 is a very spiritual charge.  And it hit to the core of the spirit.  You are the King, now take the way of God, understand it, and fight to live it.  Fight to live it.  Don't let it go.  Rule yourself according to Godliness.  Prove you are a man of godly character.  Prove yourself a man.  

We need in the Church of God today; we need spiritually strong young men.  Young men who are dedicated; they've made a personal dedication to pursuing godly character.  They are working to rule themselves in order to lead and help others.  They're not worried about leadership.  If they rule themselves, leadership will come; it'll emerge.  Leadership will emerge if we rule ourselves.  All the skills in the world mean nothing without godly character.  

We want to see young men of whom we can say as the Apostle John wrote in First John 2:14:  1John 2:14 I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, And you have overcome the wicked one.  Young men can overcome.  Young men can abide in the word of God.  They can be strong.  

And we need equally strong young women; and the criteria is no different.   Now I'm not going to tell you, you prove yourself a man. You might prefer a different expression so I will prove yourself as Paul said in 1st Timothy 2:10  prove yourself a woman (1Tim 2:10 (but, which is proper for women) professing godliness) Prove yourself a woman professing godliness, a strong woman standing like Deborah facing the spiritual enemies of the world and setting a godly example for women and men alike.  We need young men and women of character. 

 It's nice to see you up here singing that song and as was whispered in my ear, "When I see them, I feel good about my future."  And I do too but not because of your singing.  I will feel good about our future when we see young men and women who are dedicated to the pursuit of godly character.  And we need strong aged men and strong aged women showing the way for the younger.  

One of the sad statements in the Bible is found nine chapters later from where we are in chapter 11.  This is a truly a sad statement; verse 4.  First Kings 11 1Kings 11:4  (For) it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David.  Solomon reigned when Israel had a relatively peaceful time with their external enemies.  But he still had to face situations in his life where kings have to go in to battle.  And his battle was lost on the fields of character.  Solomon's battle was lost on the fields of character.  And it wasn't just his personal loss; his example hurt all the people of the nation.  

So, the Church of God, yes, we need aged men; we need the old men and we need the old women and the middle age men and the women who are continuing to fight and win the character battles.  That's one of the strengths of the aging church you know.  Sometimes people say, "We're an aging church" as though that's a bad thing.  Actually it's not a true thing.  Look around here.  Look at our Feast registration where one third of the Feast is thirty and under.  But on the other hand, we're aging in a way that I hope is the most important; we're growing older in terms of spiritual maturity.  

God's concern is the spiritual not the physical.  And the beauty of God's way of life is that as we grow older and the body starts to wear down and wear out and grows weaker, what's going on in here has no such limitation.  The spirit has no such limitation.  In fact spiritually speaking those who are on the quest for godly character, we never retire from it.  The battle never ends.  It goes all the way through.  And those who are pursuing godly character will be growing and they'll be getting stronger and stronger even as their bodies get weaker and weaker and that makes a strong church.  

So, the bottom line is we need everyone.  We need all ages from our children on up to those of you who are in your last days to be a people dedicated to the pursuit of godly character; the pursuit of holiness.  

Last night looking around during the Bible Study, I was sitting back there and just started looking around a while.  There were hundreds of people in here but the room was quiet, just almost dead quiet.  And I saw people looking really intently and taking notes and studying.  And I looked around and I thought, it's really quiet and that's really good.  It's good to see because it's a sign of a group mentality that takes this way of life seriously.  That takes God's word with a lot of importance and if we do that, we will be the church that character built.  Godly character.  

Let's close by reading just a couple of words from an older man who, like David, had been through his wars.  He had fought his character battles and he wrote very insightfully about the process.  Paul was writing to a younger man who he had mentored: first Timothy.  And, as you read through his two letters to Timothy, and the one to Titus, you will see how so much of what he wrote focused on the importance to live a life of godly character development.  It's all about character development.  He kept driving this point home time and again.  And so in Fist Timothy chapter 6, in verse 11:  he said, 1Tim 6:11 "But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue" Now let's stop right there Thayer's Lexicon says, "this word pursue means: to run swiftly in order to catch a person or a thing, to run swiftly.  To pursue something, to get after it, to press for it.  Get after it"; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.   It's the pursuit of character.  

These are character issues.  These are basically the fruit of the spirit.  He said make that your pursuit.  Strive to build godly character, make it a priority everyday and work on specific applications of these things.  Don't generalize them but work on specific areas.  How does godliness, how's it manifested?  We heard three examples last night, there are many more.  

How is love supposed to be manifested?  How about patience and gentleness and so on?  We just focus on these things.  And verse 12:  When you kings go in to battle, 1Tim 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith, (and) lay hold on eternal life, to which you were (also) called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of  (these) many witnesses.