In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of making a new dedication to walk with God and regain spiritual vision. He calls for a renewed desire for spiritual things and encourages the young people in the audience to give their lives to God. The speaker shares personal experiences of being in the military and relates them to the discipline and hardships that Christians may face in their spiritual journey. He highlights the need for faithfulness, courage, and discipline in order to be a soldier for Christ. The sermon concludes with a reminder that hardships, opportunities to fight, and being part of the victory are to be expected in the Christian life.

This recording is provided by Times Square Church in New York City. You're welcome to make additional copies for free distribution to friends. All other unauthorized duplication or electronic transmission is a violation of copyright and other applicable laws. This recording cannot be posted on any website. However, written permission to link to the Times Square Church homepage may be requested by emailing info at timessquarechurch.org. Other recordings are available by calling 1-800-488-0854 or by writing to Times Square Church Tape Ministry, 1657 Broadway, New York, New York, 10019. I want to talk about a soldier. I'm going to read from 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 3 and 4. Father bless the reading of the word tonight. If you ever help a human preach, help me. Help us to hear. Help us to respond. Let the word of God have free course in the name of Jesus. Amen. Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warth entangled himself with affairs of this life, that he may please him who has chosen him to be a soldier. You know, the first thing that has to be relearned, I think in our time, is that the church is not a democracy. We've reduced it down. In a democracy, a man can have a choice and be right. But in this military government of the church, this theocracy, there is no suggestions and no possibility of a man having a choice. We're under orders. That somehow has got lost in the shuffle. And the church, we have arrived at the lay of the sea in time, the laity rules. It's a political system and not a people under orders. But the church must come back to understand. We must learn. If we are to be such a people as described here as soldiers of Christ, in this final day, we must come to recognize this is not a democracy. The church is more of a military government. Mr. Montgomery, the field marshal of England, he was second in command under Mr. Eisenhower during World War II, but was a born again Christian. Somebody asked the field marshal, sir, how do you interpret the Great Commission? And he answered very strongly, he said, you don't interpret that, you do it. Not a matter of interpretation. I believe this is the way with most of the gospel. It doesn't so much need interpretation as it does need as a people that recognize they're under orders. There are no suggestions in the Bible. God commands and we do and the result is his presence from our obedience. But there is no suggestion. You're not your own, said Paul. We have been bought with a price. Now that has to be recognized again. I think it's a sad thing of our time. You know, I was making a study of the tabernacle that Moses built. There were two compartments to that tabernacle. One was a holy place and the other, we sing something about it tonight, the holiest of all. Jesus is a minister of that sanctuary, the very presence of God. But it's so sad. You know, the priest was in the holy place once a year. The high priest went in to that holiest of all with the blood only for a little while to come back out after he had done what he had to do. But Paul said, or the writer of the book of Hebrews said, that as long as that veil was there, meant that the way into that holiest of all had not been opened up. But when Christ died, when he gave up the ghost, that veil was ramped from top to bottom and the way into the presence of God was made open to us. But I recognize as preaching around this world, most of Christian never goes in there. They came into the holy place, they found an altar, they found forgiveness, but never went back into that holy place, into the presence of God. Now, I know that because the Bible said, in his presence, his fullness of joy, and at his right hand, there's pleasure forevermore. Well, most of the church I know has to be entertained. Ninety percent of the day, they've got to have some kind of an entertainment and things are their pleasure. They've never come into that place with God where God's Son actually becomes their life. Nothing else is needed. There is a place in God, if we'll give ourselves to Him, where Christ is all and in all and nothing else is needed once that's happened. You know, in a democracy, there's a choice, in the military, there's not so. I spent four years in the Marine Corps during World War II. I joined right after Pearl Harbor. I never had a time that they asked me would I like to take a hike or was breakfast served too early. No, never, never one time did they think this hit me too hard with it. They just said, they appointed time and place, we'll be here, you will be there, and you'll do what we tell you to do. And all was a matter of order. All scriptures taken together show us to be part of such an organization. The Bible said the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they're spiritual. He says we are to put on the whole armor of God. Talks about the church being as terrible as an army with banners. Talking about you and I and our place on this planet. Now, if you look at most of it today, the dainty fingers that we have, we're so afraid that we're going to somehow another disturb or tear, upset somebody, that we preach like we're walking on eggshells. But we live in a time when the church must be the church. One more time, just let Christ live again. That's the answer to everything. That there's nothing so exciting as being a part of the church of the living God. We are in a warfare. We're not a party. We're in a battle. This is not a debating society. It's a matter of life and death. All of it hinges there. The whole of the church, it's a matter of life and death. There's a real enemy out there tonight, walking these streets, determined to destroy everything that's right and good. He has no respect for your children, your wife, nothing. Everything is up for grabs. And the purpose of hell is to destroy it all. One of the great preachers, I never met him, was here in New York, named Bishop, his name was, I've got his name, Bishop Washington. Some of you may have heard him. He used to come on late at night. I picked him up one night. I was driving to see my father. He was very ill, and he was doing the Vietnam War. And the bishop was preaching, and he was called Lyndon Johnson by name. Mr. President, he said, it isn't bigger bombs, it isn't bigger planes and artillery that America needs, Mr. President. America just needs militant preachers, men that are willing and not afraid to talk the things as they are. And he catalogued things. He said, Mr. Johnson, when Nineveh was so rotten that a turkey buzzard had to hold its nose to fly over it, all God needed was a man. Once God got a man there, he said, with three million slaves in Egypt, when God got Moses back to Egypt, it's over with the Pharaoh. He'll flop around a little, but it's over with. All God needs is a preacher. When the bones were so dry that God asked the question, can they live? And Ezekiel, being a wise man he was, said, you know, God, God said, if I can find a man with enough faith to preach to the bones, they can live. I believe America can live tonight. I believe a revival can come to this land again. I believe New York can feel again what it did in the 1850s, when businessmen by the thousands walked these streets with Bibles. I believe that can happen. If the church, if the church will rise up to the challenge of this hour. One of the greatest needs is simply that. When the church stands up as God intended to be, the world will listen. The world will listen to what it cannot control. It's afraid of what it cannot control. And when the church, by the Holy Spirit, becomes the church, there's nothing can stop her. Men will die, but nothing can stop that church. That no devil we can't cast out, no sickness we can't heal, no river we can't cross, and no country we can't preach to. The church is here as a victor, not a victim. We need to rise up to that occasion tonight. The church is a military organization, and we must understand, we're in this world under orders tonight. We're not trying to find out what to do, or to draw a blueprint, rather, for God. We must know our purpose in this earth and begin to walk in it. We're soldiers in the army, not drafted, but we've come under orders. And we must, as our commander said, come to do thy will, O God. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, I just got out of high school in May. And it was December, I was working the oil field, going to get in the university at the first of the year. On the way from work, I heard that we're in a war. I told my mother, I'm joining the Marine Corps. Well, she said, why would you join that? Understand, they're a very mean organization. But I don't know why I just joined it. But at that time, I knew, I went to the post office, I joined, everything was beautiful. But about 5 o'clock, I took that oath, and everything changed. He let me know from that moment, he said, Your father sired you, your mother birthed you, but we bought you $21 a month. You're ours now. You'll do what we tell you from here on. There was nothing else. I thought they were the nicest people before that, but everything changed. Let the church be the church, and you'll get the attention of the world. Because men listen to what they're afraid of. The church is in the earth under orders. We're not of the world, but we're here to establish a beachhead. We will not usher in the millennium. Christ will do that when we come back with Him. But we are to establish a beachhead of the kingdom of God. And this poor sick world needs to see a kingdom citizen. It's a world of sickness. It needs men that are well. It's a world of evil. It needs to see holy people. It's a world of hate. It needs to see the love of God shed abroad in our heart by the Holy Spirit. It's a time, never been a greater opportunity for the church as the hour in which we live. The kingdom of God, Jesus said, doesn't come with observation, but is within us. Wherever the boundaries our church is planted, rather, the boundaries of that kingdom have been set. At that point in time, wherever a real church has been planted, this church, planted here in the midst of this great city, declared this to be the kingdom of God. And declared, when Mr. Wilkerson came, he said to the devil, I've come to take back what Adam gave away. And God's going to give it back in the same way that he lost it. He could have slapped the devil, put him in hell, whatever he wanted. But he's going to take it back to a man. If that man died, then it all might happen. But it all, you understand what I'm telling you. We are here. This earth is still the Lord's, and the fullness thereof. We're not the squatters. They're sitting on our property. If we just keep walking with God, we'll rule this place. I said, we'll rule this place. The reason the governments of this world hate us, are going to fear us, they fear us more than the new Osama Bin Laden, is because they know, or at least their boss knows, that we're going to supplant them. We will be, we'll take the place of the rulers of this world's darkness. There will come a time when we'll sit on the throne with Christ, and we'll rule this universe with Christ. If we'll walk with Him, and be faithful, prove ourselves to be the kind of a soldier that that requires. Wherever the church is planted, where Mexico and Canada to invade this land, cross those borders, they'd be in trouble. They are our friends now. But if they came across that border with any hostility, then there'd be trouble. Amen. When they set up, when Mr. Wilkerson came and set this church in the middle of this city, and now under the pastors it moves on, people are coming to Christ more and more, as you feel out across this land, you're declaring that this is kingdom territory. Hell is still out there. Jesus said, as my Father gave me a kingdom, so give I you a kingdom. Not another kingdom, the same kingdom, but you're going to have to take it. What's yours, you're going to have to take. Jesus came and set the boundaries. Said, no devils, no fear, no sickness is allowed in here, no sin. He set the boundaries of that kingdom. One day, righteousness will cover this earth like the waters cover the sea. But right now, we're a testimony that that's going to happen. You and I are a testimony that what He said is going to come to pass. We are God's people, we are here under orders, and we must recognize that and stand up to be that in this awful time. Jesus said, as my Father gave me a kingdom, I give you. When we declare territory by planting the church to become the kingdom of God, all hell breaks loose. They tried to kill Paul, they killed James, Paul was at death. Often, Stephen died. They said by their presence, this is no longer the devil's territory. We have come and set up a beachhead, and from here, it's all going to become again under the rule of God. That's a testimony of the church. Now, the cheap grace being sold in the marketplace of religion is a disgrace to God and His kingdom. Men are being told, if you're having problems, you've missed the will of God. If that's so, Paul never was in his Christian life in the will of God. It was trouble from the moment he met this Christ till he cut his head off in Rome. He was in a warfare, and he knew it all of the time. The devil's shooting at you, it means you're a threat to it. Let the church step up and say, the devil, we've come to take back what Adam gave away, and I can tell you hell is going to visit that place. There is going to be trouble. Long as it's a congregation where people come to hear a sermon, he's not going to bother that. But when you begin to feel out across Brazil and around the world, and send teams across this earth to disturb the devil, therefore, something you can believe the darkness is going to try to engulf it. If we stand with our loins girt about with truth, I believe one more time we can see a revival come to this land. Abraham didn't have to save a sodomite, just find ten righteous people there. Well, I can tell you there's more than ten righteous people in New York. God has a people here. And if we'll stand up and be that people, I sense, listen, I sense in my heart and around this world, it just came from Poland, where for three weeks I put this school in the Polish language. I felt such a stirring deep down in the soul of that place. There's something going on in our world. Now, the only man that saw that cloud that looked like a man's hand, and the only man that heard the sound in that mulberry tree was a man looking and a man listening. I've been looking, I've been listening, I can tell you folks there's a sound in that tree tonight. God is on the march. God is about to invade one more time. There's millions of people that'll be saved if we'll believe Him. David said the nation that forgets God will be turned into hell. That word, that word turned into is the same word used when Samuel said to Saul, you're going to meet with three men that prophesy and you're going to be turned in to another man. That simply meant his nature was going to be changed. And God said the nation that forgets God, then the nature of that nation will become hell. Well, our streets are hell tonight. Our schools are hell. There's drugs, there's abortions, there's a thousand things out there that say the nature is hell. That doesn't mean you're turned in to a lake of fire, but the very nature of the nation has been changed. God is looking for a few good folk, that's all, a people that live what they believe. As our pastor said, when we took that communion and eat that bread, may God help us to know and if we're not going to live what we're eating, then we ought to leave the eating off. Andrew Murray, when he's prayed, he read the script, you're going to speak from it, that our body is a temple of God. And he prayed this prayer just before he began to speak. He said, God help me, God help me not to say it and not live it. God help me not to talk about Him living within me and not live where He's seen. The greatest crime committed in New York City last night was somebody walked the streets with Christ living in them and the poor world never saw Him but them. That's the greatest crime, that we live in a world, Christ within us, and men never come to know that Christ. Jesus said, let your light shine. Now there's three things I want to suggest to you tonight that it takes to make a soldier. I pray that God will help us to hear. Faithfulness, courage and discipline. Those three things have to be a part of a life. If it's going to be a soldier, whether that's in Uncle Sam's army or an army of the living God, it must be these three things, faithfulness, courage and discipline. We look at them for a moment. First, you must be found faithful. According to Paul in 1 Corinthians 4 and 2, faithfulness is a key. God demands and God looks for faithfulness. Faith, it is bottom line, means to be made faithful to God in every part of our life, every circumstance of life. Whatever comes, whatever goes, that we remain faithful to God. No matter how much comes against us, how difficult the thing may be, that we be Christians, we be faithful to God. In World War II, if I'd been caught in the camp of the Japanese, I would have been shot for collaborating with the enemy. Yet modern Christianity, for the most part, no longer looks upon the world as an enemy, but rather as a misunderstood friend. That's been our greatest curse. You see, worldliness is not a look. Religion says it is, but worldliness is not a look. Worldliness is to be influenced by the wrong system. And most of the church is in that place today. It's a sad thing. All the devil has to do to keep us off the front line is to send grandmother to visit us on a Sunday. That's all. Let grandmother come to visit us on Sunday, and the whole household stays out. Well, if grandmother doesn't want to go to church, then let grandmother cook the dinner. We belong in the house of God. We belong at the post of duty. If we're going to be soldiers, there's no excuse for us ever, ever not being where we belong. And no matter what it is, wherever that world influences us, we have become worldly. We've allowed the wrong system to dictate to our lives. In Vietnam, I met young men. My wife and I spent seven years in Vietnam. We left the church in hands of others, and from 1968 to 1975, we were there. I saw Pentecost come to that world for the first time in 4,000 years of history. The best that we could see. We saw, but I saw there as we went, I saw young men who had grown up on a Pentecostal pallet. Yet in 30 days, the devil shot them down morally. I saw that. Their problem was they grew up in a church, but by its action, made the world not an enemy, but a friend. It never knew they were cross-eyed. They didn't know where the world stopped, and the church started. It all fell. Nashville, Hollywood, Las Vegas have invaded the church. They sing in the church on Sunday, and in Vegas on Monday. Is it any wonder that the young people fail? They don't know the difference between walking for God and a mixed up something with the world. To be a friend of the world means that you and I are an enemy of God. Faithfulness is a commitment to a cause. There is nothing else. The soldier must believe the cause to which he is in is bigger than himself. That there has to be that belief. We commit to what we believe. There's no other, no matter what the 21st century witch doctor says, we commit to what we believe. The psychiatrist says we're a product of the advances of some traumatic something. Your mother stumps your head on the floor when you're born. Something else. That's when you act like you do, but that's not so. Amen. The epistle of John said Jesus would not commit himself to certain people because he knew what was in man. We as Christians are not a product of our past. Our past is dead. Where's the future with us? We're born again. We're new creatures. Hallelujah. If that past is still what's influencing your life, then you haven't found your way to God yet. Paul said to the Hebrews, if you're mindful of where you come from, you're going to go back there. But now, we're not products of the past. We're a product of our will. And our will is governed by one of two things. Our love or lack of love. Entirely. If we're God's children, then that will is governed by our love or lack of love. We're a product, amen. Those early Christians, the Bible said, loved not their lives unto death. They were committed to something they believed were bigger than they were. Their life inside that church was more important than their life outside of that church. Because Christ was their life. A man stopped me in church one night years ago. He said, Pastor, there's a sin in my life which I cannot quit. I said, I don't know what your trouble is. If it's smoking cigarettes, then that cigarette didn't jump out of your pocket and light itself. You willfully put it in that mouth and lit it. And it's a product of your will. Don't come whining to me that you can't. God will if you will. But it isn't a matter of whether you can or can't. I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me. Not a matter of can or can't. I joined the Marine Corps right after Pearl Harbor, 18 years old, just out of high school. But I reckon the freedom of this land was worth my life. In fact, what it would have cost, I believe that. As I told you, I joined the Marine Corps. My mother said to me, I understand those are mean people. Why don't you join something else? Well, I never met nicer people. They treated me with royalty. Gave me a voucher. Allowed me to go eat in a restaurant. As far as I know, first restaurant was every end of my life. I mean, poor people called us poor. They just, you know, we had nothing. We didn't know it, though. That's the wonderful part about it. We didn't know it was poor. But that was probably the first restaurant I ever ate in. Amen. But that afternoon, 5 o'clock, everything done. We raised our hands and swore in everything changed. It's all over now. He said, I've put up this slouching around this place all day. Now, that's enough of that. Amen. Now, you straighten up. Here's the ideas. He read the largest ideas from here on. You'll do what I tell you. You won't run in and out of this place. Amen. That was all it was to it. It's over with once it took that oath. I got the boot cap. Sergeant met me. Had a world globe and an anchor on his cap and collar. Written on it was Seamper Fidelis. And I said to him, Sergeant, what does that mean? He said, it means always faithful. And don't you forget it. You become one of the part of one of the greatest fighting forces on this earth. You become a part of the world's greatest force. Even the gates of heaven, he said, are guarded by Marines. That's one of the verses of the hymn. One of the verses says, you'll find the streets of heaven guarded by United States Marines. You all didn't know that, but you know now. I've let you in on that secret. He said, when you go outside that gate, whenever you get a liberty, I want that cap straight, that tie on, shoes shine, everything about you. You're a part of something. Keep your shoulders squared. You're a part of something. You and I belong to God. You hear me? I said, we belong to God. We need to keep our shoes shined. We need to walk and talk like a Christian. We must be faithful to God. I said, we must be faithful wherever we are. Wherever we are, under every circumstance, riding that airplane, amen, wherever, we represent somebody. A stewardess said to me, why do you ride here with your coat and necktie? You just take the coat and give it to them. I said, I represent the king. What country? I said, heaven. She walked away. She walked away, but reckoned she'd come back. She said, tell me a little more about this. I said, I'm glad to. Amen. I represent somebody. I said, I represent somebody. Hallelujah. We must always, at all times, be ready to give an answer for the hope that is within us. You and I belong to God. When done all to stand, the Bible said stand. You know, I joined that outfit. I believe I was the only heathen in the Marine Corps. Everybody else had religion. Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, Pentecostal here and there. I was the only man that didn't have any kind of religion. When I first joined, when I joined, the man signed me up. He said, are you a Catholic or a Protestant? I said, I don't know. I didn't know what we the one. Well, he said, if you was a Catholic, you'd know it. Made me a Protestant. That's all the religion I had until I was born again, 1949. I went through the war, Protestant. I didn't know what was protesting, except the Japanese. I went through that whole war of Protestant. Finally, one day, found out what it was. I surrounded by people all that claimed to be Christians. Every time they had a little church service, they were there, always wanting me to go. I said, you know, why would I want to go with you to your church service? I'd rather nurse this headache here. You got the same one. You're chasing the same women I was last night. You're as drunk as I was last night. Why would I want anything to do with you? I didn't know anything about God, but I knew if there was a God, He would have nothing to do with that. I said, there was nothing, absolutely nothing, amen, to do with that. If He don't change your life, if a changed life isn't the evidence of being born again, then nobody is ever going to be born again again. Nobody. If a changed life isn't the evidence of that. Amen. I was surrounded by them, all of them wanted to get me to be a religious man. We'd been on the island of Peleliu, and a great part of my battalion had died there. Out of 1,100, there were only a few of us able to walk back aboard that ship. But when we came back to the island where we regrouped, they gave us replacements. And they gave me a young man, about 18 years of age. I was a sergeant at that time. I was all of 22 myself. And he was 18 years. I signed him to a tent, took him in, introduced him to the boys, and then they come in with a free beer. You know, they had free beer. And he said he didn't want it. He didn't want it. I said, well, I'll hold his for him. He'll probably come after that while. But he had a little Bible in his pocket. I took him in the tent, introduced him to him, went back to my tent. It wasn't long before those boys came over and said, what are we going to do with that young man, that new recruit in the tent? I said, what do you mean? They said, well, come out here. You'll hear him. I said, when you left, he opened that little Bible, had a New Testament. He read it a while. Read it to himself. But now listen to him. He's kneeling by that cot, and you can hear him two or three tenths down. Amen. He said, pray him. I said, well, then we didn't have no rules against prayer. Amen. You couldn't stop a man praying. I said to him, there's nothing I can do about it. But the next day, I was in a crap game in the company street and lost $100. Now, when you make $40 a month, that's a lot of money, especially when you make it in a war. And I was very angry, and I walked along. He was sitting under a coconut tree reading that Bible. I said to him, you're some kind of religious crazy, ain't you? I said, you'll get over it. I said, you'll get over it. He stood up, all six foot of him, put that little ribbon in place, closed that Bible, put it in his pocket, buttoned it, then put his finger on my nose. And he said, Sergeant, not you nor this Marine Corps will separate me from the love of God. I met a Christian. I knew I'd met somebody different. I met him. Last time I saw him, he'd been hit in the head. They brought him by me. He was bleeding terribly. They carried him back. I never saw him again, whether he lived or died, I don't know. If he lived, he's walking with God. If he's dead, he's in heaven. But I do know I met somebody that day. I met somebody that I never forgot. Years later, when I got saved, I remembered that young man. A soldier must be faithful. That's the key. You can't serve Christ without being faithful. Second, a soldier must be faithful. Second, must be of courage. Courage is born out of conviction. A man asked me, he said, why don't the church have any convictions? I said, because they don't have any. That's all just nothing wrong anymore. There's absolutely no link between believing and behavior in most churches anymore. It's just got all out of bounds. But there must be a courage born of conviction. I've never seen a man that when he really thought he was going to die, that didn't want to die. I mean, there's suicides I'm not talking about. But a man, when he comes to that point, it looks like it's over with. Then there's a fear that takes a hold of him. I saw a lot of men, because they had conviction, could face death and hell no matter what was against them. Because there was a conviction about their life. They could face, they never ran. Amen. There was a fear come, but they never ran. Young people, you're in a high school. You're in a jungle. Please, have to continue to be on the presence. Amen. Drugs are pushed. Sex education, all of it defined to destroy your life. It takes more courage to be a Christian on that campus than it ever took to fight a war. Yes, sir. For a young person to live for God in this time, on the campuses of America, takes more courage than it took for me to spend four years in a war. To stand up in this crooked and perverse generation and be a part of what Christ is. There's a difference between being afraid and being a coward. Cowards never make soldiers, never. It takes more courage to be right than to fight a war. I did not know what I'd do when I faced that enemy. I just didn't have any idea. I could shoot a rifle, I had a little .22 rifle. I could hit a squirrel, jump it from one tree to another. So I thought I'm ready for war. I'm just ready. I'm ready to go, just get out there and get a uniform. But it didn't work out that way. I grew up in a small community. My greatest fear was that the headlines of that little community would be, Clinton didn't run when he looked down the wrong end of that gun barrel. I didn't know what I was going to do. I never looked this way. It's always this way. I didn't know what I'm going to do whenever that happens. Amen. On the way over to that canal, the first place we hit was the water canal. On the way over, there's a young man went to boot camp with me. He had a big tattoo on his shoulder. It was a skull and crossbones. Under that had written, death before dishonor. I remember I used to think I'd see him walking around on that ship without his shirt on. Oh, I wish I had that courage. The last time I saw him, they read him 20 years in Leavenworth for deserting under fire. Takes more than a tattoo to be courage. Courage is born of conviction. That what I'm in is right. What I'm doing is right. It doesn't matter. My daughter, Brenda, you all met her there. She's the love of this preacher's life. Amen. As a little girl, she's always afraid. Had to have a little nightlight. Always in her room, had to have a nightlight. Amen. Because she's afraid of the dark. But then she got married and my granddaughter came. Of course, all daughters want to get home with mama when the baby comes. So she come. There's the little baby, six weeks old. We had church every Tuesday and Thursday morning. And so that Thursday, we went to church, left her and the baby at the house. We got a call. Hadn't been that long. Got a call. And we went back to the house. And she had heard a man rattle the door, looked, and a stranger looked through the door. And so she wouldn't open the door, but she watched him. He went across the street, stood looking in the house a while. Then come around and pried up that garage door. But when he come through that garage into that kitchen, she's standing there with that old 357. And she said, if you come in here, I'm going to kill you. He ran, had the door about that high. He held that. He rolled under the door and went down the road. You know what gave her the courage? The love of that baby. The love of that baby. That little six-week-old baby. Give her a courage she didn't have, you see. That's the whole thing. That conviction. That's something that's bigger than we are. That gives a conviction. The courage to keep going. The courage to stand under worse circumstances. It's a love to God and His cause that gives the courage. Paul said, the love of Christ constrains me under every circumstance. Whether prison, beaten, threatened, whatever, shipwrecked, fighting the beast of Ephesus. It was the love of Christ that kept the great man of God. If you lose that first love, you will compromise what you believe. You listen. If you leave that altar, if you stop praying, leave the Bible. If you begin to compromise that first love, you'll compromise what you believe. And like Peter, you'll be warming in somebody else's fire. It cannot be otherwise. But the third thing required is a discipline. That's a galling word in this generation. It's a generation of the undisciplined. This is an unbridled age. Trial, marriages, divorce, rampant, amen, rebellion is rampant. Every man does what's right in his own eyes. Amen. You know Katrina wasn't a disaster. It uncovered the disaster. Amen. Katrina just uncovered the disaster of what happens when you take away the dignity, amen, and things from a people. Paul wrote, the love of Christ constrained me. That is discipline. The Holy Ghost told him, everywhere you go, they'll imprison you, you'll be beaten, striped. In the face of it all, he said, the love of Christ constrains me. Discipline is a difference between the army and a mob. You know, after joining that Marine Corps, they put us in boot camp. Twelve long weeks. I'd shoot a rifle, thought I was ready to go, but here I am for twelve weeks. Fall in, fall out, get up, get down. Crawling under barbed wire, swimming a river with a pack on your back. Running twelve, fourteen hours a day. I couldn't understand what's going on. I wrote my mother, I said to her, I believe this sergeant is the meanest man I ever met. But twelve weeks later, I was mean as he was. Amen. From a farm boy to a man of war in twelve weeks. That's what he did. That's how we made this school in Russia. Twelve weeks, locked in, go nowhere. Day and night, under prayer, every minute, all the time. Never letting them get away from the fact that this is what it is. But for twelve weeks, ought to be in a war. The end product though, they were making me a machine. Instant obedience. That's what they were after. The whole thing, to make me a machine. When we hit that canal, and the bombers began to come, machine guns began to fire, artillery began to explode, and the captain said, hit the deck. Everybody that said, what did he say, is not here tonight. No, no. He's dead. He never made it. You see, instant obedience. That's what God is after in our life. He don't ask you a question for information. He just wants to show us our ignorance, so he can teach us. Amen. And the whole thing with God, amen, is to bring us to where we obey. My father told me to do something one time, and I said, why? Never ask that question again. No, not one time. Discipline is a quality of life that gives courage. A disciplined man is not afraid of the night. When a man is committed to Christ, he's constrained by the love of God to obey God. But when the commitment to success and not to Christ, then fear takes over, because you're afraid of what you're going to lose. Whenever that commitment is not to Christ, I preached in places all the time. I could feel them pulling on my coattail. I was afraid I was going to fend some terror out there or something. Amen. All the while. You see, because the commitment wasn't to Christ, it was some kind of a job. Amen. It was some kind of a something. So there was a fear, because they could take that away from him. Amen. You know, a board may vote me out of the church, but they can't vote me out of Christ. I said, they can't vote me out of Christ. Any commitment to anything but Christ will always wind up with fear. I read the scripture where Isaiah said that Jesus was a root out of dry ground. Now, coming from a farm, I saw a lot of old, dead, ugly roots, amen, out of dry ground. And I wondered, what could the great man be talking about? Nothing more ugly than that root, and in that dry ground, it was nothing. I wondered what it was. But then the Lord showed me, you take a root, put it in dry ground, it'll die. Because for that root to live, it must take something out of that earth. It cannot live unless it takes something out of that earth. Unless you water it, it cannot do that. Isaiah said of Jesus that he was a root out of dry ground. There was nothing of this world in him. There's nothing the world could take from him. I lay it down, I take it up. Nothing can take Christ away from me and my commitment to him. Three things I want to tell you, and I'll close. You can expect this as a soldier. Hardships, a chance to fight, and a part of the victory. That's the three things. If you're going to be a soldier, faithfulness, courage, discipline. But you can expect hardships, a chance to fight, a part of the victory. Don't listen to that soft spoken voice that denies the struggle. The training's hard, it's intense. Has to be. Joseph, ten years a slave, three years in a dungeon. Iron came into his soul. The Bible said iron came into his soul. God's form in a vessel. Fifty years he ruled Egypt. Second to Pharaoh. I think Pharaoh seconded him. They may hate the Jews in Egypt, but I'll tell you, every ten man's name's Joseph. He made an impact on that world. He was a man, but thirteen years, ten a slave, three in a dungeon. All of what God did, he tried him with the word of God. God spoke to him when he was seventeen. We have no record he ever repeated that one time. He may have, but we have no record of it. But all the while, God's testing to see whether he really believes that or not. Does he believe what I told him? Under every circumstance of life, he passed through it all. One day he sat in that cold, damp cell. A thousand devils said, you never heard from God. But the next day at noon, he's riding the second chariot to Pharaoh. Amen. He's heading for the castle. Because he knew it is difficult. The first week I wrote my mother, and I told that sergeant, mean, from a farm to a boy, man of war in twelve weeks. It was a total different life. Had a boy in my tent from Alabama, could have been from anywhere. Cried all the time. See, you wear the hide off your elbows, knees, crawl around in that sand, parking them fleas, swimming that river. He cried all night. We're getting there, he cried. Wanted his mama. Amen. We're both 18, but he cried, wanting his mama. I couldn't get any rest. I blew that trumpet one morning to get up. I put my pants on running. I'm putting running. I want to talk to that sergeant. I got out there and said, sir, I want to talk to you. Yeah, what do you want? I said, that boy in that tent with me. I said, he's underneath me, cries all the time, wants his mama. You run me 18 hours a day, I get four hours in there. He keeps me awake. Would you please leave him in that tent? I grew up in an unsafe family. I knew what it was to cuss. Not curse, cuss. That sergeant invented words. He said, leave him in that bed. Say, I'm going to do one of three things with him, boot. I'm going to kill him, send him home to his mama, or make a marine out of him. Last time I saw him, he's still crying, going home to mama. He's dragging his seat back. He's going home to mama. He said, you know what this boot camp's all about? And I said, no, sir, I'd like to tell my mama, though. I didn't know that. He said, right in my ear, it's to get rid of the undesirable. Many call, few chosen. See, it's a test of life that eliminates the many. Everybody wants to go until the sand burns their feet. Everybody's wonderful. Got that roast lamb, all the gold of Egypt in my pocket. But when that desert began to burn the feet, ready to go back to Egypt. Oh, yes, everybody. Listen, he said, to get rid of the undesirable. That's what this is all about. The test, many call, few are chosen. Amen. All along this life, it will be difficult. Amen. If God can't make a soldier out of you and I, it's a test of life to determine whether you're going to be a part of the purpose of God. The Bible said, many call. By the new birth, every one of us have been called to be a part of all this. But few are chosen. The rest are eliminated through the tests, through the struggles. It's intense. It's long. But it pays dividends in the end. They that endure. Endure means there's something come against you. Amen. They that endure to the end. We'll see it. That's what boot camp's all about. God makes the training intense to make a soldier out of you. The test will drop you out. If it can, you're no benefit. He said, everything that can be shaken will be shaken. That in the final analysis, only that which cannot be shaken will remain. Second, you'll have a chance to fight. This is a war. Soldiers go to war. Hell wants you back. If you can be knocked out, you will be. Soon after boot camp, we went to that canal. And the first strike back at the enemy. We saw what it was. I spent 33 months out there in that Pacific. Live like an animal, slept in holes. One time, they cut us off. All we had to eat was what we took away from the Japanese. All they ate was fish head and rice. I don't know what they did with the rest of the fish. Amen. I never could find out. I come through that first time. That old loon, the mesquite, that kept you in diarrhea all the time. He threw that fish head and rice in there. And that old fish there. I said, just can't eat this. Just won't be able to handle this. After a couple of days, I'm seeing if any of it's left. Amen. You get used to anything in a war. You know, we've made Christianity a luxury. It isn't. I said, it's a war. You've listened to all this out here today. We've made it a luxury. But you can make it. You have to make it. I've lived to see it preached. It makes Christianity a luxury. Faith has demonstrated what you have. What a tragedy. The New Evangelist told us happiness is things. The Apostle Paul spent most of his time in jail and said, I've been content there. The writer of the Pilgrim's Progress, Mr. Bunyan, spent 12 years in Bedford's jail in a cell that he couldn't sit down in. His knees hit the front and his back hit the back. Twelve years. And a big part of it was in there. Every day a devil-possessed priest come with slop for food and said to him, If you will deny what you're preaching, we'll let you out. Every day he said, Why do I want out? Anywhere that Christ is, is a kingdom. Now for me. That's a soldier. Those are the kind of people that make a difference in life. You will face enemies. There will be casualties. Be faithful, refuse to bow, and God will be with you. The Hebrew children refused to bow. They couldn't burn. If God has sent you, you will also have a difficult time. You'll have a chance to fight. The cheap gospel tells you that you're not going to have any difficulties, but that's going to leave you empty. You may not always be first class. God may put you in the economy class most of the time. You may not stay at the Hilton or eat at Chris Ruth because the supply lines may be short. But if you'll be faithful in the final analysis, there will be more than enough. Amen. Third, you'll be a part of the greatest victory this world ever knew anything about. We've tried to keep the young in the churches by parties and games. How we belittled Christ. We had to stuff their pockets full of tracks. Put them on a street corner to face an enemy. Iron would have come into their soul. They didn't leave us because we expected too much, because we expected too little. They wanted something to challenge their lives. And Garibaldi passed through Italy. He came across young people in Florence standing in the street corner at 2 o'clock in the morning. Garibaldi said, follow me. The youth said to him, what's in it for us? Garibaldi said, cold, weary nights. Hungry stomachs, bleeding feet. But a part in Italy's greatest victory. They followed him to the man. I said they followed him to the man. When I got to the Pacific, they had no plans for us to come home. You're there until the war's over. That's the way it was. I'd been there for 33 months. Amen. 33 months I spent out there in those foxholes. And in that world got hit once and all kinds of things. But no hope of going home. But after we came back from Peleliu, we found that Congress had a plan. Passed a plan that certain points you can come home. Discovered that me and some of those with me had those points to come home. They called us out. Said to us, you've been what Congress had done. Now you're going to be able to go home. Could you be on the dock at 8 o'clock in the morning? Well, I can tell you at 4 o'clock I was down there everything on. I was down on that dock. We boarded an old freighter. Been turned into a troop carrier. All the bunks were down in the bottom. It was hot. Hades wasn't 10 foot from where I slept. I'm telling you. It was terrible. The heat of it. We began a 28-day journey home. We looked like tramps. We'd burned black out there along that equator and that sun. Ms. Roosevelt wanted the President to put us off at the island to civilize us again. But that's the one time he won and we got to come on home. We looked like tramps for three years. We'd lived and fought. I looked like a skeleton. Amen. I'd washed an old set of macaque trousers, field scarf, and a shirt. Slept on it. Washed it in salt water. Now if you've never done that, you've never lived. Amen. You never get anything out of it once you put it. Soap it up. I slept on it all the way home. Put it on. Preston. Going home. Them old brogans, I worked on them. I'm going home. I want to look my best. Well, 28 days, I'd go up. I'd ask that sailor, where we at? He said, I don't know. We're lost. Haven't saw a tree for days and days. Amen. But I went up one morning. I went up there one morning. Looked out there at the front. There's a land. Oh. I said, sailor, what is that? He said, California. Heaven won't look any better. No, never. California. I hollered down that hole. California. Man, there's three Marines trying to get out of the hole. Just one could get out, you know. California. Just look. Oh, tears streaming down. Didn't think I'd ever see it again. You know, just think I'd ever. Tears streaming down those cheeks. We'd come look. They told us, they told us, said, well, the Marines are going to get off first. You coming home, we're going to let you off first. And said, just be ready to disembark. Well, we all went down. I said, get everything together. And I got up. My suit all pressed up now. That little old khaki field scarf looked like a shoestring. But I tied her. Amen. Put them pants on. Oh, they looked terrible. But they looked better with a hat on. So I'm best I can. And I got that cap, best I could. Got up there. They put us off. Got us lined up. Finally, the captain said, drop the gangplank. Said, first, disembark. Well, when I came down, I was leading the way. I was a sergeant in charge of that little group. And when we started down that gangplank, off to the right, there's a Navy band. And it struck up the Marine Corps hymn, From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli, We'll fight our country's battle on the land as on the sea. I walked off that ship. Hundreds of people all along that line, screaming, welcome us home. I'm coming along. Pretty girl run out there. Said, could I have your autograph? I said, honey, you have anything I've got? I said, I didn't think I'd ever see another one here. Oh, I walked down that street. Listen, that crowd, welcome us home. Those girls wanting an autograph. I could have went back faster. I could have got on that ship for three more years. It was worth it all. I tell you, I said, it was worth it all. Just to walk down that street. Let me tell you something. Fifty-seven years ago, I boarded an old ship toward Zion. I boarded an old ship called Zion. I've been riding that old ship. It's been rough water sometimes. I've slept in Sunday school rooms. I've slept in native huts. I've been sick. I've fought devils. I've lived, walked. There have been times I didn't have enough money to feed my family. There have been times an old car wouldn't run, couldn't get it started, couldn't buy nothing. A businessman said, you know how long I'd ride on them tires? I said, if you had my money, you'd pray over them every morning, get in there and ride. I saw the old sails torn. Sometimes the old ship looked like it was taking on water. I said, sometimes it looked like it was taking on water. But God said, stay with the ship. Just stay with the ship. Don't desert the ship. Then sometimes it looked like it wasn't going to make it at all. But I want to tell you something. In the last few months, I was in Israel. I put the school in the Hebrew language. I had 56 leaders there. I really saw God showed me something there. That orthodox Jewish community will not be touched. The Nicodemus here and there will not be touched until Christ comes to that Mount of Olives. That secular Jewish community is ready to hear this gospel. Those soldiers are going to India, Pastor. I found that out. They're going to India, trying to find some answer in the three billion gods of Hinduism. It's right for penny cost one more time. Oh, yes, sir. I was there. I put the school in that Hebrew language. Now we got it in many homes in the little churches. I'm going to go back in November. We like two spells. I left there. I went to Southeast Asia. I was in Indonesia where we've had a school and those rabid Muslim country on this earth. I was there in on a morning in the prayer meeting. I'm talking about this old ship. We're heading to the house. But I was in the morning prayer meeting, sitting on the front seat. And I realized we're never going to reach this country unless again it explodes like it did on the day of Pentecost. You save one, they'll kill him, banish him, something else. But if we can see thousands more and spring across the world like it did on the day of Pentecost. And I was agonizing that morning. And I said, oh, God, let that wind blow. And he said to me as clear as a bell, if I answer your prayer, you probably won't live to get out of this country. I knew what he was saying. I brought you to your decision. Are you willing to pay that kind of a price? I didn't jump up and say yes. Amen. Took a little while. I said, you'll have to help me. But I would. Well, I thought it happened. I never saw such a service. I preached the final message of Christ was my text that morning. And I've never seen preachers beating their head on the floor, screaming. I prayed they fell. My coat was like I'd been in the rain. They wept on me. I kept waiting on the people in the streets to say, what means this? I really thought that Pentecost had come. It didn't come at that moment. But God would never spoke that to me if it wasn't going to happen. I said never would have spoken if it wasn't going to happen. I'd just come from Poland. Three weeks I was there. I never faced the darkness that I faced. I wrestled with the darkness. I didn't know what it was as I strove and wrestled with that. Amen. But then that devil attacked one of the greatest students in there. Got in his head, screaming at him. He said, pastor, as real as anything, I couldn't hear you. He was saying, that's a false prophet talking about me. What he's saying is false. You better run. Get out of here. Well, I knew, listen, that night after he told me, God woke me up at two and for four hours before the prayer meeting started, I agonized with God. Amen. I fought. I knew what was up against. A darkness that Islam is almost like in compared to it. But that morning, I walked out there. I knew I had the victory and I knew he did. He'd come in. But, you know, I realized with that hell doesn't attack. Hell never attacks unless there's something about to happen. I knew, I knew, I knew that something's going to happen in that world. There's a break going to come in Poland. They furnish every missionary for all of Europe. Don't. Ninety-nine percent. Amen. That all is coming, coming down the line. But in that prayer meeting that morning, when I pressed to listen, I want to tell you, I saw the shoreline. I did. Listen. I said, I saw the shoreline. It wasn't California, folks. It is heaven. Amen. I said, it wasn't California. It is a heaven. In a little while, in a little while, this old ship's going to pull in. It's going to drop that anchor. I said, it's going to drop that anchor. And that church is going to walk off. There'll be a thousand million angels there to welcome us home. David and the band will strike up. Or we'll walk down those streets. Amen. We'll be home. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Hallelujah. It will be worth it all. No matter what you've been through, no matter what you've had to face, it'll be worth it all when we see Christ. At the turn of the century, I'm quitting right here, but turn of the century, an old missionary came home. He'd been 25 years in Africa, bared a wife and three babies. Now he'd come home broken and ill, all of his belongings in a suitcase. He'd come to Europe, caught out of London on a ship, president. At that time, the United States had been to England and was on that boat. He'd come back home. Of course, he had to stay in his cabin until he got to New York here and the president got off. Tens of thousands of people were out there to welcome him home. Confetti everywhere, everything, such a welcome. Finally, they let the old missionary off, and not one human being was there. Not one. Twenty-five years, three babies and a wife, graves in Africa. Nobody. He said he got off and he sat down on the curb. They began to weep, and he said to God, that man's been on a vacation, luxury. He'd come home and 10,000 people met him. I've been 25 years, I left my wife and babies. I don't have nothing, and nobody met me. And he said, I sat there feeling terrible. He said, I felt an arm around me. And the voice said, but you're not home yet. Said to him, we've got a real celebration planned for you as soon as you get home. We're not home yet, children, but it will be worth it all. If you believe that, lift your hands. Hallelujah. Oh, great God. Great God, great God, great God. Help us here tonight. Help us to see ourselves for what we are. Soldiers of the Lord Jesus Christ. A people in a war with the rulers of this darkness. Oh God, you said we're the light of the world. Let us be that light. No arguments, no shouting, nothing dispels that darkness but light. Help us to be that light. Help us to make a dedication here tonight, standing in this altar. To be that soldier. To be faithful. To be courageous. Have our lives under discipline, a time to meet with you and a time to do the will of God. Help us, Lord, to understand it's not going to be easy, but it will be worth it all. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah, hallelujah. You can't hear a message like this tonight without an opportunity to respond. If you're not part of the army of God, it's time to become enlisted. If you are a soldier but you're double-minded, it's time to cleanse your hands, as the Scripture says, and purify your hearts. And make a decision that, by God's grace, I'm going to live for Him. I'm going to live for Him. I'm going to be a Christian by the grace of Almighty God. If that's in your heart tonight and you truly mean it, I'm going to ask you to step out because you've heard something from heaven tonight. There is no room for the double-minded and there's no room for the religionist in this generation. This generation needs soldiers again. New York City needs to see soldiers for Jesus Christ. If that's in your heart, would you slip out in Balcony, go to either exit in the main sanctuary? Folks, soldiers are not worried about getting their car first from Howard Johnson's. This is a battle for the souls of men. It's a battle for the honor of God. Just slip out wherever you are. Make your way here. And Brother Clendon is going to come back and pray for you. Young, old, whoever you are, the Holy Spirit is speaking to your heart tonight. Say, God, I'm not fully enlisted in this war, but I want to be. I want to be obedient to you. I want to walk with you. I want to trust you for the grace that I'm going to need. And whatever it means, wherever you send me, whatever the calling is on my life, Lord, I yield to it tonight. God, I do. And I ask you to use my life for your glory. Father, we have heard your heart tonight. Lord, if we're not moved by this, it's all just songs. Lord, it's just empty. God, you're calling us to walk with you. You're calling us, Jesus, to be part of what you began 2,000 years ago. You're calling us to be part of a triumphant army, the body of Christ in our generation. God, help us. God, help us tonight. God, help us as a church. God, help us. God, help us to make an informed decision to follow you. Father, I thank you for it. I pray tonight for students, schools, colleges, businessmen, ordinary men and women who would stand and become extraordinary in God and make a difference in this generation. Oh, God, thank you for what you're doing. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. You know, there comes a time when you're in the service, you have to come to a point to either re-enlist or get out. You know, you re-up, they call it. I believe we need to re-enlist tonight. Some of us got careless along the way, been neglectful of this great duty. But I think we've turned the last lap. I really believe that we got two years or less to do what we're going to do. I'm not saying Christ is coming. I'm just looking at things, how they are in that Middle East now. It's going to blow up, folks. We got to do what we're going to do. They can't be people. I want us tonight to give ourselves anew and afresh to this great God. Just lift your hands again. Let the lifting up of our hands be as an evening sacrifice. That's Romans 12 and 1. I give my body. Father, standing before us tonight and out in this great audience with hands lifted toward heaven, we want to re-enlist, Lord, in this army tonight. Commit ourselves to the cause for which we are. What we are, all we are. What we have, all we have. We give to you tonight. God, if you can use nothing, I'm here tonight to offer that to you. All that I am. God, young people, all of us, with whatever we are, it's a time to stand up and to be what you're called. I ask in the name of Jesus that there's going to be birthed in these hearts a determination. Oh, God, a desire, a determination to give ourselves to you in a way we never have. Make that dedication one more time to walk with you. A new consecration where the vision is regained. The channel is opened up again. A desire for spiritual things is born. That that will all be a part of this service tonight. Take the young in this audience that don't just have a soul but a life to give. Let them give that, Lord, in the name of Jesus tonight. Let all of us be all of us for you in the name of the Lord Jesus. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord. This is the conclusion of the message.