I'd  like to thank you once again for listening and tuning in to the Cultivating Growth podcast. Each and every week we pick a topic and we talk about how it is that we can grow in that,  ultimately growing in our relationship with God and each other. Throughout the New Testament, there are various analogies that God will use to describe one of his followers.

And in the midst of all of those analogies, the one of a soldier certainly stands out. And so today, John and I will talk about how it is that we can grow as a soldier in the Lord's army. And I'm looking forward to this conversation. So let's get right to it. 

You know, Jeremy, when Jesus was here on earth, There were a lot of people who were confused about his mission and his purpose and one of the things that they were assuming that the Messiah would do is he would come and rebuild the Israelites It's It's It's Into a superpower that could then overthrow Rome.

That was their perception of what the Messiah was going to do. And of course, Jesus spent a lot of his time talking about the fact that that's not the kind of kingdom that I came to build.  However, he did come to enlist soldiers into his army, but not in the way that many thought that he would. And I think that's what we see when we see a lot of this.

soldier and war imagery that Jesus and the Apostles use. They aren't talking about a physical battle that we're preparing to fight. They're talking about a spiritual one. But we, no less, have to be prepared to fight that battle. And so, in that regard, we have to train. We have to prepare ourselves so that we can be soldiers In that battle that we are going to be fighting every day and through Jesus's teaching and the teaching of the apostles, they prepare us for that battle.

But it's crucial that we grow as soldiers in that arena so that we're prepared to fight the enemies that we're going to face. And that we're prepared for the conflict that we're inevitable, inevitably going to be involved in. And so growing as a soldier, not in the physical carrying swords and guns way of thinking about it.

But in the spiritual, we are called to grow in this arena because we are going to be faced with battles. Yeah, man, that's an important point. I mean, before we really kind of, you know, talk about growing as a soldier, I mean, there's a couple of things we have to understand. And one of them most certainly is what kind of.

What kind of battle are we fighting? What kind of war are we fighting? And so when we kind of look at it from the physical versus the spiritual side, you're right. I mean, that certainly is something that Jesus himself had to deal with. There was massive amounts of confusion, certainly, you know, surrounding the Messiah and when he would come and, and when Jesus came, you know, people were confused about that.

But you see Jesus, not just in his words, but even his actions, I mean, he'll have in his conversation with Pilate. about his kingdom, and he makes the point that, listen, my kingdom is not from here. If my kingdom was from here, hey, my followers would fight. But that's not, you know, what we're doing. You go just hours before then by Jesus's actions.

One of his followers, Peter, pulls out his sword to physically engage in battle by even striking someone and cutting off their ear. But Jesus puts an immediate stop to that. And so you see that. Certainly throughout then the writings, especially in the epistles, second Corinthians chapter 10 comes up, you know, to, you know, to mind specifically verse three, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.

The weapons of our warfare are not. carnal, but mighty in God. And then, you know, he kind of goes on to, you know, talk about that. And then certainly in Ephesians six, I mean, there is a, you know, the picture that's given to us that this is a spiritual battle, not a physical one. And really before we grow as soldiers, it's really important for us to understand what kind of battle we're fighting and it is spiritual, not physical.

And this is, this imagery is so helpful because. All of us understand what it takes to be a soldier and what they're faced with in battle. Whether you're talking about first century Christians that these are written to or us today, one constant that we've seen throughout history is war. And that has always been something that people have had to deal with.

And so we understand What soldiers have to do and the work they're called to do and how they prepare to do that and all of those things. And that's why this image is so useful and so helpful because it's applicable to anyone at any point in history. And one passage that, that really helped me as I was thinking about this was in second Timothy chapter two, as Paul there's writing to his friend Timothy.

And he says in verse one, But you need to be strong in the grace that is in Jesus Christ. And then in verse three, he's going to use this soldier analogy. He says, you therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier, soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare and tangles himself with the affairs of this life.

That he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. And so he is calling upon that understanding of a soldier. And hey, if you're engaged in battle, you're not worried about what's going on back home. You're not worried about what's going on in the cities around you. You need to stay focused on what you're doing.

You need to be a good soldier and stay focused on the work that's in front of you. And we can apply that principle then to how we work in God's kingdom. We need to stay focused. We can't let distractions pull us away from the work that God is calling us to do. And so he uses that imagery as a way  to apply some of these principles that we easily understand about war and soldiers to our life as a Christian.

And that's really, I think, where we see the benefit of these analogies is because it really points us to the seriousness of what we're being called to do And the responsibility that we have to take this seriously Yeah, and I was just thinking about when you were talking, you know to kind of take a quick kind of step aside if you will and just point out the The greatness of god and his teaching and the power of his knowledge and wisdom You made the point about you know, the analogy of a soldier  Whether you're a soldier or not, I'm not a soldier, I, nobody in my family has been a soldier, I don't know many soldiers, but yet I understand what a soldier is all about, right?

And you make the point, it doesn't matter now, in 2024, the year that we are now, or a thousand years ago, or three thousand years ago, or five thousand years ago, people understood what a soldier was. those things have always been around. And you see that with other analogies as well. The farmer comes to mind.

We don't, you know, certainly dive into that analogy, but very similar kind of way. I'm not a farmer. I don't really even know any farmers, but  when I read in scripture analogies, uh, portraying God's follower as a farmer, well, I know what a farmer is all about. And it's been that way. Today, and it's been that way a thousand years ago, 2, 000 years ago, 5, 000 years ago, everybody understands what a farmer, and I think that points to, you know, just the power of God's knowledge that he's able to provide something that, man, throughout centuries, people are able to read and be able to understand easily.

And that's the point with this idea of a soldier. You don't have to dig very deep to start to realize the principles that come out of soldiering and how they apply into our spiritual war that we're battling certainly against Satan. Yeah. Well you referenced earlier Ephesians chapter six, where, uh, Paul, their rights of the whole armor of God that we are to put on.

What's interesting about that really versus. 10 through 20, give or take, as he kind of spells out the, the armor of God that we are to put on. Paul is making some pretty profound statements about how someone who is a follower of Christ needs to prepare themselves, but it's very simple and easy for us to understand because of the analogy that he's using.

I mean, you can literally picture it in your head. As he's going through this, of a soldier who is preparing for war, you can see it, it's so simple to, to see and understand what each piece of this armor does for a soldier, and how that soldier would be vulnerable if any of those pieces were missing. He's able to take  Relatively profound teaching and even challenging teaching to a Christian, but simplify it using this analogy that, as you pointed out, every single one of us can picture in our mind at a moment's notice.

And that's the beauty of how God chose to give us his word. And so when he's calling us to, to put on this armor of God and to be a soldier in his kingdom, we can think back to the pictures that we see of a soldier and how they prepare and what each part of their armor does for them. And we can make those applications then to how we handle.

Faith and how we handle the word of God and all of these things that he's talking about here in Ephesians chapter six. And it all starts to click really quickly for us because of the simplicity of this analogy. And that's really a good, again, maybe a little bit of a sidebar here, but  that's a great lesson for us as teachers.

Uh, we can use analogies like this to simplify. complex ideas for people. And that's what God is doing for us with analogies like this. He's helping us understand really what it means to be a soldier in his kingdom and be prepared for the battle that we're going to face. And what I love about Ephesians chapter six is it's so much more than, you know, Jesus telling us, and he does, and you've got to put the whole armor on.

I mean, that's a big part of the very beginning of it in verse 11, and he goes through these various pieces of the armor, and there's lessons and principles to be gained by going through that, but one of the great things about Ephesians chapter 6 is as God is telling us to put these things on to prepare ourselves, he provides with us the why that we are to do that.

And so you have in verse 11, you have Twice in verse 13, you have at the beginning of verse 14,  you have that word stand, right? This is the reason that you're doing is so that you can stand or stand therefore, even telling us whom we're standing against, right? So, you know, an understanding, not just of what kind of war that we're, we're fighting.

fighting, but also an understanding of who it is that we're fighting, who our adversary is. And he paints the picture of the devil specifically. He's firing at you, and so you've got to prepare yourself for that. And the reason that we're putting these things on is because we're defending ourselves. And, and, and You get the, you get the why given to us right away.

And so that helps us to understand that God is, he's preparing us. He is helping us to make it through, to be able to stand, uh, when the devil is looking to knock us down. Yeah. And this, uh, that's a great reminder to us that there is, there would be no need for soldiers if there wasn't an adversary. And so in this imagery, in these analogies.

that God uses, not only is he teaching us the importance of faith and truth and his word and all of those things, but he is reminding us, constantly reminding us every time we see an analogy used like this, that there is an adversary, that there is an enemy and you better be prepared. You better not take him lightly.

A soldier would have no need to think through all of their weapons and their armor. if the enemy was not someone to take seriously. If they were fighting a little child or something like that, we don't need to take that seriously. They're not capable of hurting me anyway. But, but the way that God uses this and talks about this, it keeps fresh in our minds.

The fact that we have an adversary that we need to take seriously. And if we slack on preparing for this battle that we're engaged in, then we're going to leave ourselves vulnerable. And that's why Ephesians chapter six is such an important passage, because every single aspect of the armor that's being talked about here is crucial to our survival and to our success as a soldier in Christ's army.

And if any of it is left out, it's going to leave us vulnerable. Yeah, there's no doubt about it. I mean, listen, Peter reminds us in first Peter chapter five about this adversary, that he's not, he's not kind of looking to cause us pain or cause us to, you know, have issues or cause us to have a little difficulty.

He is looking to devour us. That's what he's looking to do. And certainly God knows that. And so now he has prepared us in a way that we can withstand that. And so how do we do that? We grow as a soldier. We prepare ourselves. We understand that we are enemies. In battle, it doesn't matter whether we are declaring war on anyone or not.

That doesn't make a difference. Satan has declared war on me. And so I've got to, I've got to realize that. And so I've got to prepare myself for it. You know, there's, throughout the Bible, there are examples of And God's people who did have to engage in physical warfare as well as spiritual warfare. And one of those examples, of course, is David.

He's, he's maybe the first one that would come to mind. He's known as a great warrior who led the people of Israel into battle. He defeated Goliath as a young man. He was a warrior.  But he was also someone that had to be prepared to fight the spiritual battle. And he wasn't always as prepared for that one as he was for the physical battle.

You know, and we see examples of that throughout his life where he fell short of what he was called to be and fell short of what God's expectations for him would be. And so as we were talking about this and we were thinking about how to wrap things up for today, it made me think of Psalm 144, a Psalm that's written by David and the very first verse of this Psalm is where we'll stop for today.

And I think this first verse really sums up David and who God was trying to mold him into becoming. It says, Blessed be the Lord my rock who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle. 

Thank you for listening this week. If you haven't already done so, we'd appreciate it if you would take just a second to subscribe to the podcast, whatever platform you're listening, rate and review the show so we can continue to spread the good news of Jesus widely and effectively as possible. Thanks again for joining us this week, and we'll talk again next week.