— Welcome & Introduction — But I might massacre something that relates to the military. So Jim and Doc and others, matter of fact, if you have served in one of our armed forces, would you stand and let us recognize you for a moment today? Yes, absolutely. Thanks to all of you. Absolutely. And we want to remember and honor you, but we also obviously want to remember and honor those who did not come home. Judy and I have been privileged to know a number of people not only here, but across the years in churches that served in the military. The very first church we ever served was the Pleasant Valley Baptist Church about 120 miles west of here, right in the farm country between Hamilton and Jonesboro. That church had an average attendance of seven, including Judy and I. Judy not only prayed, but she led the music there, letting in some of the gifts that she has. She led the music, I did the preaching, and we had an average attendance of seven. The pillar of that church was a man by the name of Junior Crosby.
— The Crosby Family's Loss — Junior became a dear, dear friend along with the few others in that congregation. But what I learned about the Crosby family nearly 40 years ago was the impact of a loss to a family. The Crosby family was a gold star family. Their son Jack, Junior's oldest brother, had been drafted into the military and served in World War II.
He served in Europe and he did not come home. And because he didn't come home, that family was shaped for the rest of its existence. Jack's younger sister, Mary Ann, and his younger brother Junior never married. Part of the explanation that Junior shared with me was, is that...
that their family had been so shaken by the loss of Jack in World War II, that his mother would basically shoo away any potential suitors for both Mary Ann and for Junior. So when we met them, Junior's parents were in their latter years. I got to watch and be a part of their 75th wedding anniversary. But Junior and Mary Ann, because of the loss of their brother so many years ago, dedicated themselves to the work of the Crosby family. And so they were able to get married. They dedicated themselves to simply taking care of their parents, taking care of the family farm, and taking care of each other. That's how profound their sense of loss was. This morning, I was texting with a couple of my friends who have served in the military. One in the Air Force. Some of you have met my friend Paul. Another of my friends, Bobby, served in the Navy. And another of my friends, Skylar, who works for a defense contractor, building many of the weapon systems that we use. today. We were talking and once I got them started, it was impossible to get them to stop talking via text. You can imagine the good-hearted wrangling that goes on between a guy who flew for the Navy and a guy who flew for the Air Force. As my friend Paul said, Air Force guy, if you want to make movies, Top Gun, you call the Navy. If you want to make history, you call the Air Force. Yeah, that's how they get along. So at the end of this text thread, my friend Bobby, who flew on P3s searching for submarines, by the way, Bobby wrote this. He said, I wonder how the military men and women who died in peacetime are regarded on Memorial Day. I never served with people that were killed in combat, but I knew several who were killed at the Pentagon.
I've known others who died of cancer due to radiological exposure at a military research unit. So our gratitude goes far beyond the typical ways we think of military loss.
— Pivoting to Scripture: 1 Peter — It stretches far and wide. And so that's given inspiration to me this morning as I want to talk to you from what the Bible says in 1 Peter chapter 4. I don't know if you've ever thought about it. I have over the years. I wonder if I would have been a good soldier. I wonder if I would have been able to cut it even through boot camp. Judy and I have a nephew stationed in El Paso today. He's been in the military, in the army for more than a decade. He's making a career of it. We've watched with pride as Stephen has served, deployed multiple times, and always come home safe. But I've wondered, could I have handled the training, the submission to authority, the sense of service, the skills required, and even the willingness and commitment to suffer and die? You know, the Bible uses a lot of metaphors for the way we should see ourselves as Christ's followers. Sometimes it describes us kind of as diplomats. The Bible says that we are ambassadors, representatives of Christ to a foreign land. It says that we are like farmers. Sometimes it says we're like athletes. And yes, it says that we are to see ourselves as spiritual soldiers. That there's a lot that we can learn about how we serve Christ by watching our friends and family members as they serve to protect our country. We are in a war, a spiritual war. We have a real enemy whose name is Satan. We have a glorious objection or objective, which is the glory of God, and we have a glorious objective, which is the glory of God. And we have a glorious objective, and the good of others. And fortunately, we have all of the gear, all of the equipment, all of the training that we could ever need through the Holy Spirit and through the Word of God and through the strength that we find in the gathered fellowship of the family of God.
— Pivoting to Scripture: Our passage this morning in chapter 4 of 1 Peter begins with a key word. It begins with the word therefore. That's a bridge word, a connecting word. It basically points back to what's going on in the world. It's just been said so as to set the foundation for what is about to be said. In chapter 3, this is, I believe, the heart of what Peter was connecting to when he used that word therefore. Chapter 3 verse 18 says this, for Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God. If you're looking for a verse that rivals the word, it's the word of God. It's the word of God. It's the word of God. It's the word of God. It's the word of God. It's the word of God. It's the word of God. It's the word of God. It's the word of God.
— Pivoting to Scripture: John 3 16 in the summation of the Gospel, Peter's words inspired by the Holy Spirit here are a good alternative if you're looking for one. Christ also suffered for sins once for all, not for himself, but for us, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. It is that incredible Spirit of Christ that then inspires what Peter says in these next verses. 11 verses. Out of reverence for Jesus and what he did for us in his service and sacrifice, would you stand and listen as I read these 11 verses to you? Peter is inspired to write, therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same understanding, because the one who suffers in the flesh is finished with sin. In order to live the remaining time in the flesh, no longer for human desires, but for God's will. For there has already been enough time spent in doing what the Gentiles choose to do, carrying on in unrestrained behavior, evil desires, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and lawless idolatry. They are surprised that you don't join them in the same flood of wild living, and they slander you. They will give an account of their sin, and they will give an account of their sin. They will give an account of their sin, to the one who stands ready to judge the living and the dead. For this reason, the gospel was also preached to those who are now dead, so that although they might be judged in the flesh according to human standards, they might live in the spirit according to God's standards. The end of all things is near, he says. Therefore, be alert and sober-minded for prayer. We'll read the rest of that in just a moment. You may be seated. Thank you.
— Pivoting to Scripture: — Arming Yourself with Christ's Mindset — Thank you for standing. Peter's helping us to understand in this spiritual war, you and I are soldiers. We are behind enemy lines, and he uses a key word in that first verse, arm yourself. Pick up your weapon and be ready for battle as a soldier for Christ every day. What is that weapon? What is that armament that he is talking about? Well, it is nothing less than the very mindset of Jesus Christ. This passage in Peter's words parallels what may be familiar to you in Philippians chapter 2, when Paul is inspired to say to us, take on the mind of Christ. This is Peter's parallel to that. And he tells us that in Jesus's mind, he was both eager and anxious to do God's will and to serve us in salvation by giving himself on the cross. And he tells us that in Jesus's mind, he was both eager and anxious to do God's will and to serve us in salvation by giving himself on the cross. That's how we arm ourselves. If you don't remember anything else from today's message, I hope you remember this. Jesus was not only willing to die for you and me on the cross, he was eager to do it. And that mindset, that mindset, that attitude, that perspective is one that we can borrow from him as our motto, to be armed with an eagerness to do God's will, to bring God glory, and to bring others toward faith. Not to bring them salvation in the sense that Jesus has, because he's the only one that could do that, but to bring them near that truth and that message by the way we love and by the way we live and by the way we share with them. So if we can, in some way, how can we put on the mindset, how can we arm ourselves with the spirit of God? How can we put on the mindset, how can we arm ourselves with the spirit of Christ today and serve with eagerness for the glory of God and for the good of others as we celebrate the spirit of our soldiers? Well, like a soldier, there's two things that you and I need to be aware of. We need to be aware of our battlefield, and we need to be aware of our army, of our fellow soldiers, what we commonly call the church. So let's spend a few
— Point 1: The Battlefield Mindset — minutes talking about what that looks like. How do you understand the battlefield? When you have the mindset of being eager to serve Christ? Well, two or three things about that battlefield. The first one is in the first couple of verses. He says something that can, at times, be difficult to understand and easily misunderstood. He says that since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourself with this understanding because the one who suffers in the flesh is finished with sin. Now, at first reading, what that sounds like is, when you are willing to suffer, particularly emotionally and even physically, to be obedient to God, that that kind of brings down the temptation temperature in your life. And that might be true. If you've ever battled that way, if you've ever been subject to slander or criticism from others, if you in some way have been persecuted, even in our country, because it does happen in our part of the world, it might be true. But if you're willing to suffer, if you have someone that you have someone that you have someone that you have someone that you have someone that you have someone that you have someone that you have someone someone that you have someone that you have someone that you have someone someone that you have someone that you have someone someone that you have someone that you have someone someone that you have someone someone someone someone someone someone someone way. Probably what Peter is saying here is that you and I are to think of ourselves so united to Christ on the cross that we were a part of his death and that our sin nature died with him when he died for us on the cross. That we have been spiritually united to Christ and so we can say, as Paul would say in the letter to the Romans, you can now reckon yourself, you can now count yourself as dead to sin. So when temptation comes, your simple response can always be, I'm dead to that. I'm dead to that world. I'm not a part of that anymore. That's not how I live. That's why Paul would write to the Galatians and he would say, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. I have been crucified with Christ. And if we can ask, to help us to enter into that mentality, then we will be equipped and armed to stand up whatever the temptations are that come our way. Because we are in the most profound holy war, not with other people, but with Satan himself, with sin and with death. And we should see all the people around us, whether they believe what we believe or not, as victims of sin. And in the end, we are not the victims of sin. We are the victims of sin. And in the end, we are not the victims of sin. We are the victims of sin. We are the victims of sin. We are the victims of sin. We are the victims of sin. We are the victims of sin. We are the victims of sin.
— Point 1: We are the victims of sin. We are the victims of sin. We are the victims of sin. We are the victims of sin.
— Point 1: We are the victims of sin. We are the victims of sin. because we know the truth and freedom of Christ and we have the privilege of introducing other people to that as we live and share with them. If that's not who you are, maybe that's where your prayer needs to be this morning. That you would be fired with the enthusiasm of the Holy Spirit in a greater and stronger way. I remember my pastor saying one Sunday morning about the passion of Christ's followers. He said, you know what?
— Point 1: If you're not fired with passion and enthusiasm, you ought to be fired with enthusiasm. We ought to be the most energized people in the world because we have, through Christ, died to sin and now live for the glory of God and the goodness of people. The second thing he says about the battlefield is that we need to remember that sin is always a dead end. It is always, always, always a dead end.
— Point 1: Even though we know there's a deception built in to almost all sin. That the Bible says that sin looks profitable and pleasurable for a time until it reveals itself in its real identity. But if you and I are going to be effective soldiers for Christ, we have to be trained to think critically and to become wise.
— Point 1: To adopt what the Bible says about sin. About sin as a dead end and as a waste of our time.
— Point 1: Let me draw your attention again to verse 3 where he says, For there has already been enough time spent in doing what the Gentiles or unbelievers do, carrying on an unrestrained behavior, evil desire, drunkenness, orgy, carousing, and lawless idolatry. If that sounds like a catalog of sins that you've heard and that in slang ways they said, well, he's just talking about sex, drugs, and wrongdoing. He's talking about sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
— Point 1: Well, yeah, he is talking just exactly about sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Well, not really about rock and roll. But he is talking about the things that characterize a worldly mindset and a worldly way of living. Has it struck you that any time that you see scandal in our world at any level, in the church, in the military, in the government, in business, is it not astounding to you to see how many people, how many stories of people who have worked hard, sacrificed a lot, served for decades at times, and they burned their lives down by going back into these dead-end behaviors? Now, we often all struggle with it when we are young adults, when we're teenagers. But it astounds me how these things continue to chase our lives and oftentimes very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very successful people in every arena of life end up, sometimes at the very end of their lives, burning up their lives around these same dead-end streets of uncontrolled sexuality and uncontrolled drug and drinking and all of those things that we thought we learned and got wise about when we were younger. Sometimes it doesn't happen.
— Point 1: We have to remember in this battle, we have to remember that we have to remember that we have to remember that we're dead to that.
— Point 1: And that that is a selfish bridge that literally leads nowhere. And that we have been called to something else, something better, something true, something beautiful.
— Point 1: The letter to the Ephesians says that we were created in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world to be God's masterpiece, to be full of love and good works for the glory of God and for the glory of God. And for the good of others.
— Point 1: And we have to count ourselves dead to everything else that the world outside of Christ might offer us. One other thing about the battlefield. We have to remind ourselves daily that we are here to serve our commander and not the crowd. Because he says that when you and I make this choice to not do what the world does, to not do what unbelievers, to not give ourselves to death, dead end things, guess what? The world notices.
— Point 1: And often the world slanders us. Because even if you don't say a word to somebody you know that is living a godless life, do you know that your godly testimony brings conviction to them? Because all of us as human beings, we want to make connections. We want to have friends.
— Point 1: We want to have a sense that we belong. And we learn very early in life, middle school, high school, college, we learn very early in life the power and the pressure of our peers. That we're tempted to do things that we know we shouldn't do simply because we want to be a part of the group.
— Point 1: We want to be in the crowd. We want to be part of them. But if you stand up and say, you know what, that's not for me.
— Point 1: If you stand up and say, I'm going to be different at any stage of your life, in any context, if you don't go along with the crowd when they're pursuing something that is godless, they're likely to not be silent toward you. And you have to be prepared for that. What do you do when you're in your 30s or your 40s and you're on a couple's trip to Fredericksburg or San Francisco and your group of three, four, six couples decides that they're going to do something that you know is godless? Are you going to be the one that says, no, we're not going there?
— Point 1: Y'all do what you want to do. Go where you need to go. But we're not going with you. It never stops.
— Point 1: It's always there. And the mindset of a spiritual soldier is I am here not to please the crowd. I'm here to serve the crowd.
— Point 1: I'm here to sacrifice for the crowd. I'm here to do whatever I can that serves the purpose of bringing them closer to Christ. But I am not here to please the crowd.
— Point 1: I am here to please my commanding officer. Because the soldier knows what the Bible says right here. Every one of us will answer to Christ for the lives that we've lived.
— Point 1: Whether we are in the faith or out of the faith. And those that want to pursue a worldly direction, a godless direction, want to deny, that reality. You remember we learned it in high school. The most foundational lie that the devil ever tells any of us.
— Point 1: Everyone is doing it. No, they're not. I had a great privilege this week. One of my members from my church in McKinney that I pastored for a long time sent me a text. He said, hey, my youngest son, Bryce, he's graduating from high school this weekend.
— Point 1: He's going to become a Texas Tech Red Raider. Which makes a lot of you very happy, I'm sure. He said, I wonder if you would just write a few words of wisdom to Bryce that I could put in with some other comments from other men that I know that he appreciates. And if you could share with him. One of the things I shared with Bryce in a short paragraph was simply this. You need to decide, Bryce, are you going to do college with Jesus or without Jesus?
— Point 1: And I hope that you will find a church home in Lubbock. I hope that you will find campus ministry and I hope that you will choose to passionately and intentionally pursue Christ in this next season of your life. And then the next thing I felt like I wanted to write to him was simply this.
— Point 1: Most don't be different. Most don't, when they step into college, you choose to be different.
— Point 1: Because that's what a soldier for Christ will do. All right, that's the battlefield.
— Point 2: Our Spiritual Army — Let's talk about our army. Let's talk about, let's talk about our fellow soldiers for a moment. The next few verses say this in verse seven.
— Point 2: The end of all things is near. Therefore, be alert and sober-minded for prayer. Above all, maintain constant love for one another since love covers a multitude of sins.
— Point 2: Be hospitable to one another without complaining. Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve others as good stewards of the varied grace of God.
— Point 2: If anyone speaks, let it be one who speaks God's word. If anyone serves, let it be from the strength God provides so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ in everything. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever.
— Point 2: Amen. Wow. You know it, right? We come to PK on the weekends, especially these long weekends for this purpose. We know we live so much of our lives in the name of God. enslaved to both clock and calendar, right? Matter of fact, every one of you is carrying a clock and a calendar in your pocket or your purse, I suspect. We live enslaved to it, and part of the reason we want to come here is to try to put that down. One of the things I did yesterday was I refused to wear my watch, and when we went to dinner last night to look over the lake at the cliffs, I refused to take my phone into the restaurant. I just want to try to get to that place where I am not enslaved to the calendar and to the clock. But Peter reminds us here, he says, the end of all things is near. That's an interesting phrase. You won't find another exactly like it in all the Bible. Technically, if you were to pull these words apart, here's what it means. Every significant detail required to ! All of it. All the significant details are already set, which means at any moment, at any breath, at any second, Jesus can part the sky and step into this world and bring an end to the world as we know it and the consummation of his kingdom, his glory, and his glory. And his power. So you and I are not to live in a sense of panic, but in a keen sense of awareness.
— Point 2: You know probably that Jesus made it clear before he ascended back into heaven after the cross and the resurrection, nobody knows the time or the day. We are not to be people enslaved to calendar and clock, trying to map how God is going to do this and when he is going to do this. We are simply to live with a keen awareness and urgency, not panic, but urgency that our lives matter and Jesus could come at any moment. Let's make the most of it. So how do we do that? Well, we keep our eye on the sky. We live every day knowing that life is a gift and that life is usually fragile and brief and that Jesus could step in at any moment.
— Point 2: And this is the day, this is the day to serve him obediently and passionately until we see him face to face. So keep your eye on the sky. That's not just a good advice when you're on the boat in the springtime watching out for lightning. It's good for you every day as a believer.
— Point 2: The second thing about our army is this. You need to keep the standing orders of the kingdom, of our commander. Now, I'm not saying that you have to be a commander. I'm not saying that you have to be a commander. Now, if you're not familiar with the term standing order, our military friends sitting around you could tell you. Let me give you what the internet official definition of a standing order is, okay? A long-term routine directive issued by a commander that remains permanently in force until it is explicitly amended or canceled. This is often what happens on a military base, I'm told.
— Point 2: So, if a military base anywhere in the world gets a new commander, one of the first things that that base commander does is he reviews the standing orders that govern life on that military base and he decides, well, I'm going to keep these or I'm going to edit these or I'm going to add to these standing orders.
— Point 2: And then he reissues the standing orders and those become the rules for how life is to be conducted on that military base. You get that? Do you understand?
— Point 2: It'd be like you having standing orders on your house. Like, hey, when you're in this house, this is how we behave. This is how we live. You'd be the commanding officer of your house in that sense.
— Point 2: — The Three Standing Orders — Well, Peter then goes on with the Spirit's help to give us three or four standing orders. These are the daily expectations of all of us. The first one is constant communication with headquarters. He says, live your life in such a way that you are a alert and sober-minded, that you're clear-minded for the purpose of prayer. Because in a military setting, communication is critical. If you're going to fight a war and fight that war well, you need to know where your enemy is and where your fellow soldiers are and how you can collaborate, communicate, and move together to accomplish the objectives of the day. You remember what happened just about six weeks ago? We had a pilot and his backseat weapons officer flying an F-18 over Iran. They got shot down.
— Point 2: You remember this story. They both ejected out of the airplane safely. The pilot was quickly recovered, but what happened to the weapons officer? Well, he was partially injured, and it took a couple of days and not a little bit of effort to go find this guy. He hid up in the mountains in Iran. Iran and the CIA immediately started putting out a deceptive campaign to try to convince the Iranian forces that he had already been found and that there was no use going to look for him, even though they offered a $60,000 reward that anybody could help them find this soldier before he could be rescued. He hid in the mountains for 48 hours. We put no small amount of planes and soldiers and all kinds of effort to go and rescue this guy. We even heard of this mysterious technology that could track this soldier's heartbeat. Now, I don't know if that's true or not, but if that's what we can do, just imagine what they aren't telling us they can do.
— Point 2: But all of that mission was about communication. The beacon on that airplane, the beacon on those soldiers when they ejected out of that airplane, the ability to communicate to their location, back to their home. That company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company company And to guide us and to fill us with wisdom any moment, any part of the day, we have that communication line. That's a standing order. The second thing is that he says the rule of the day, the rule of the base, is love one another.
— Point 2: If you don't get anything else right, get this right. Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And love your neighbor, love the people near you as yourself. Because love is the rule of the kingdom.
— Point 2: And he says here, an important reality that I suspect almost all of us have lived. Love covers a multitude of sins. It doesn't mean that you earn forgiveness by the way that you love. It means that when you are committed to loving the people around you, you have a greater willingness to put up with their brokenness.
— Point 2: Isn't that true? When you remind yourself that compassion and mercy abounds. And it's often been shown to you by God. And it's often been shown to you by other people.
— Point 2: And that that is the same mercy and kindness and patience and forgiveness that you should show to the other people around you. The rule of the base, the rule of the kingdom, every single day. Recommit your life to a life of love, of compassion, of forgiveness, of patience to the people around you. And that really kind of tumbles into the next standing order, which is the order of hospitality.
— Point 2: Isn't it interesting? Show hospitality to one another without complaining. Now, some of you in this room have a house full of guests this weekend. You've decided to be hospitable, right, Overton's?
— Point 2: And when you start packing people into your lake house around here, things can get a little edgy every now and then. Oh, well, it does. It does for Judy and I every now and then. Probably not any of y'all.
— Point 2: But we're just coming off, you know, a six-night vacation with our three grandchildren and their family and our two kids. You know, seven, five, and two. And if you don't live it every day, you forget that a two-year-old doesn't have to use words to get his point across. And when you live that for about eight hours when you haven't been around it for eight weeks, it can change. It can kind of get a little bit on your nerves. And it really becomes a test of spiritual maturity. But you know that this was written in a time when names like Hilton and Marriott and Holiday Inn didn't exist.
— Point 2: There were virtually no places like that. And the places that did exist were so horrible that no person would really want to stay in any of those inns of the New Testament. Right? In some ways, when Mary and Joseph ended up in that stable, they might have had an upgrade compared to what they would have experienced in the innkeeper's facility.
— Point 2: This is a lost art in the American Christian church these days. We don't open our homes. We don't invite people to our table the way we used to. I was doing a podcast with some people this week.
— Point 2: And I said, you know, I grew up. I grew up in the days of screen doors and walk-in friends and drop-in friends. When I was 8, 10, 12 years old, people just randomly pulled up in our driveway. They didn't call ahead.
— Point 2: They didn't make a date. They just showed up. And whenever they showed up, they were welcomed in. If we were near a meal, they were invited to join.
— Point 2: If they wanted to stay an hour or three, we just. Rolled with it. We had friends in our neighborhood where they were so close to us as friends, we didn't have to knock when we got to their door. And they didn't knock when they got to ours.
— Point 2: They just came right on in. We lived in the day of walk-ins and screen doors and drop-bys. And there was always somebody extra at the table, it seemed. But we've given up on that.
— Point 2: And it's an opportunity for you and I as people of Christ, as soldiers in the kingdom of God, to become the most welcoming people there are. And to do it, as he says here, without complaint. To just let it be the heart that flows out of us.
— Point 2: You know, I learned from my military friends early on that they learn a skill when they enter the military. They learn to make friends fast. Because they're often.
— Point 2: Often being moved around the world to different places of assignment. And if they're going to have fellowship, if they're going to have connection, they have to be curious about one another. And they have to be welcoming of each other.
— Point 2: And they have to do it quick. Because otherwise the military is going to be an incredibly lonely life. And that same idea can apply to us. The last standing order that he says here is you need to carry your load.
— Point 2: He says if anyone serves or anyone speaks, let him do it as unto God, on God's behalf. Or as if you were speaking the words of God. I just love this.
— Point 2: We sometimes get hung up in the church about talking about spiritual gifts. And we've got tests and all kinds of things to say. You've got to identify your spiritual gifts. And Peter's like, you know, I'm not so worried about all those details.
— Point 2: I just know that God wants you to be a part of what he's doing. And he might want you to use your mouth sometimes. And he might want you to use your hands sometimes. Both are important.
— Point 2: Both are legitimate. You just need to ask God. God, where and how do you want me to serve? We were talking with Judy's sister Sharon a few years ago.
— Point 2: We were asking her about her son Stephen who is in the army stationed in El Paso. And we were asking, well, what's Stephen doing now? Where is he going now? Is he going to get deployed again after a couple of times in Baghdad?
— Point 2: What's he doing now? And she said, well, he's changing his MOS. And I was like, I wonder what that means. Have you figured out that the military has an acronym for everything? Every single thing in the world. The only people who may have more acronyms than the military are the people in the medical profession.
— Point 2: Okay? And I was like, what in the world is an MOS? Well, MOS is a military term that means Military Occupational Specialty.
— Point 2: It's your job. Stephen worked on helicopters. And everybody in the military has a job. An MOS.
— Point 2: An MOS. Military Occupational Specialty. And one of the things that would serve you in the kingdom of God well is to prayerfully ask God over and over again, God, what is my assignment? What are the skills and the places and the opportunities that you want to put me into where I can speak for you and where I can serve others in your strength?
— Point 2: God, where, when, and how do you want me to do that starting today in a fresh way? Now, if you're familiar with the military on any level, you know that these branches of Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard, you know that they have mottos. Oftentimes, Latin phrases. The newly minted Space Force has a Latin phrase that they like to use as a battle cry, Semper Supra, which means always above. The Air Force must not know how to speak Latin because they don't use a Latin phrase.
— Point 2: They just use the word, aim high, fly, fight, and win. The Coast Guard, Semper Paratus, always ready.
— Point 2: The Navy doesn't use this much, but it is there. Semper Fortis, always courageous. And the Marines, those little guys, the Marines, they go by what?
— Point 2: Semper Fi. They have the best marketing officer of any of the branches. Semper Fi. Always.
— Point 2: Always what? Faithful. Let's pray. Father God, thank you that you love us and that you love us with such a perfect love that you were willing to become one of us. That you were not just willing, begrudgingly, coming all the way from heaven to earth, all the way from divinity to humanity, to suffer, to serve, and to die on our behalf so that we can be one of you. So that we might be forgiven, ransomed, reconciled, and included in your family. You were eager. You were excited to come. And because of the joy that was set in front of you of having an eternity, a kingdom, with us as your family, you were eager to look past the pain and the suffering, that is beyond our comprehension.
— Point 2: You looked past that for the joy of the salvation that would be made available. God, may that so touch us, so capture us, so compel us, that Lord, we would adopt and be armed with your mindset. And in the role and the way that you want us to be a part of what you're doing in the world in this time and place, God, help us to have that same eagerness to do your will, to bring you glory, and to serve this world in faith, sharing and serving in a way that pleases and honors you. God, thank you for all of those that have served us and served our country well.
— Point 2: — Closing Prayer for Service — Father, on this Memorial Day weekend, we pray for your comfort and peace and strength to be with their loved ones, their family, their friends.
— Point 2: And God, help us to honor them by serving you well. In Jesus' name we pray. And everyone said together?