Leave No Man Behind

1. I so appreciate our military, government officials, police officers, fireman, EMT’s, and our health professionals.

a. I don’t always agree with their decisions or their value systems but I appreciate them and I can tell you with conviction that I sincerely pray for them.

b. I challenge you as well as a body of believers to pray for these leaders knowing that God is exceedingly able to encourage, help, and guide them.

                                            i.     It’s very difficult to hate someone you sincerely pray for.

                                          ii.     Pray for the lost, pray for the abandoned, pray for the broken, confused, and bitter while leaving no man behind.

2. I enjoy a good war movie especially based on fact.

a. Some of my favorite movies are the ones that depict the resolution that no matter the circumstances, every soldier will be accounted for.

b. During the Kosovo War that commitment was demonstrated when a 40-aircraft task force, including helicopters loaded with Marines and backed by an armada of three warships containing 2,000 more Marines, flew deep into enemy territory to bring home one man.

c.  Mobilized to rescue one pilot, Captain Scott O’Grady, who was shot down by Serbians in 1995.

                                            i.     What is a human life worth?

                                          ii.     What is the soul of a man worth?

1. It’s worth everything; it’s worth the highest price known to man, life.

2. It is worth the life, death, burial, and resurrection of a man named Jesus Christ.

3. He paid the ultimate price and we have been doing our very best to mirror His efforts ever since.

a. He is the very first “freedom fighter.” 

3. Many armies devalue human life, and devalue their own soldiers, by caring more for the group than for individuals.

a. They will leave their soldiers in captivity or allow their bodies to remain on the field.

b. But American military, promise this: no man left behind.

c.  Whether you are alive or dead, your military team will do all it can to ensure that you, or your remains, are accounted for.

d. Your brothers-in-arms will fight for you, fight with you, even your superiors will battle on your behalf.

                                            i.     Risking their very life for yours.

e. I can only imagine the comfort and security this brings as soldiers march toward the battlefield. 

                                            i.     After all, what could be more intimidating than the thought of being forever abandoned and forgotten?

f.   I believe this with all my heart that Jesus Christ would have come and sacrificed His life if only for you, or only for me.

1. Refusing to leave no man behind.

4. If you’ve ever seen the movie, read the book or heard the news reports of Marcus Luttrell the Lone Survivor, then you understand this power.

a. His team ambushed, then killed one man left behind and U.S. military might was deployed to rescue him.

b. The story culminates as an American soldier bursts into this man’s hiding place, assuring him that he is now safe, and that he will not be left behind.

c.  The soldier, the audience, then breathes a sigh of relief, knowing that he is accounted for. 

                                            i.     As the credits rolled, I found myself thinking about the church;the place where I hope no man, woman, or child, would be left behind.

5. We as Christians are to be good news before we share good news.

a. The impression that people have of us will have a profound effect on how they view God.

b. This church will attract people who struggle with every kind of sin known to mankind.

                                            i.     They will bring that sin, addiction, depression, division, and heartbreak into the church with them.

                                          ii.     They will be vulnerable, they’ll sometimes sin in unashamed ways, and they may even wander off for a time.

                                       iii.     The temptation will be to allow people to fall by the wayside, permiting wanderers to wander indefinitely.

                                        iv.     While we just go on sharing the gospel despite the attrition, erosion, and slow destruction of their lives.

1. It is far easier to go about your convenient life than to risk your time, your attention or your comfort for one of “them.”

2. Months later, you find yourself asking, “Whatever happened to…?”

3. “They” are gone, and you barely noticed.

a. Oh well, we better move on.

c.  I think of Jesus as He prayed to the Father to say about the people that had been entrusted to Him, “I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost.”

d. He knew His mission, and He carried it out to the very end.

                                            i.     By all rights, they should have wandered and should have been lost.

                                          ii.     But He cared for them; He protected them to the end, and even into death.

6. As Christians, we are charged with caring for one another and I as the shepherd of this church must lead in that charge, then every church member after me, following our example, Christ.

a. It brings joy, comfort and security when we affirm, and when we insist, that we will not leave even one person behind.

b. We will guard them, we will guide them, we will pursue them, we will pray for them, and we will love them to the very end.

c.  We should carry this within our heart and spirit, that no man, woman, boy, or girl will be left behind.  

7. Shared by every firefighter, soldier and law enforcement person in America “no one left behind” is a universal creed.

a. Whenever they go out on a mission to fight fire, to fight crime or to fight an enemy of our nation, they are determined that when it comes to their own there will be "No One Left Behind."

b. After David’s son Solomon died, there was a civil war, in the Kingdom of Israel, the kingdom was divided into the southern kingdom, known as Judah, and the northern kingdom, known as Israel.

                                            i.     The northern kingdom of Israel, which we are reading about today, was under siege by the Syrian army.

                                          ii.     The city was surrounded, all supplies had been cut off and as you will see, the food situation was desperate.

                                       iii.     The nation was starving to death.

                                        iv.     With no way out, no ways of escape, and vastly outnumbered by one of the most powerful armies in the world.

1. Flight was impossible, fight was out of the question, and fright appeared to be the only option.

II Kings 7:3-4 “3 Now there were four men with leprosy sitting at the entrance of the city gates. "Why should we sit here waiting to die?" they asked each other. 4 "We will starve if we stay here, but with the famine in the city, we will starve if we go back there. So we might as well go out and surrender to the Aramean army. If they let us live, so much the better. But if they kill us, we would have died anyway."

8. Outside of the city walls sat four lepers.

a. Lepers, ostracized from society, with an infection caused by bacteria, this disease was contagious and devastating.

b. As they surveyed their situation they realized they had three options and every one of them were bad.

1. Stay and do nothing, which meant they would die.

2. Stand and go into the city, in which case they would also die.

3. Surrender to the Syrians, in which they would either live like captives or still die.

c.  Deciding that surrender was the lesser of three evils, they get up and make their way to the Syrian camp to see what their fate would be and they made an amazing discovery.

2 Kings 7:5 “So at twilight they set out for the camp of the Arameans. But when they came to the edge of the camp, no one was there! 6 For the Lord had caused the Aramean army to hear the clatter of speeding chariots and the galloping of horses and the sounds of a great army approaching. "The king of Israel has hired the Hittites and Egyptians to attack us!" they cried to one another. 7 So they panicked and ran into the night, abandoning their tents, horses, donkeys, and everything else, as they fled for their lives. 8 When the lepers arrived at the edge of the camp, they went into one tent after another, eating and drinking wine; and they carried off silver and gold and clothing and hid it. 9 Finally, they said to each other, "This is not right. This is a day of good news, and we aren't sharing it with anyone! If we wait until morning, some calamity will certainly fall upon us. Come on, let's go back and tell the people at the palace." 

d. When these lepers came to the outskirts of the military camp God had already been working supernaturally for them.

                                            i.     Hey you guys our lives have been spared!

                                          ii.     Hey guys we have to tell the others who are in suffering, we have to tell others who are in pain, we have to tell others who are struggling and dying all around us.

                                       iii.     Hey guys we have just been blessed beyond our wildest imagination.

1. We must not become so preoccupied with our faith that we neglect sharing Christ’s message with others.

2 Timothy 2:3-4 “Endure suffering along with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 Soldiers don't get tied up in the affairs of civilian life, for then they cannot please the officer who enlisted them.”

2 Timothy 4:7 “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. 8 And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to His appearing.”

9. Having a leave no man behind mindset and mission is about understanding and connecting to seeing yourself as a soldier in a battle.

a. Soldiers realize, recognize, and comprehend:

1. He is a follower.

a. Implies Relationship.

                                                                                                  i.     No one can be a soldier for the Lord until they first get into the army.

b. Implies Rank.

                                                                                                  i.     There is always someone higher than you.

                                                                                                ii.     Every child of God is ranked under Jesus and is responsible for following Him and His will for their lives.

c.  Implies Rule.

                                                                                                  i.     To refuse to follow orders is treason!

James 4:17 “Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.”

2. He is faithful.

a. His patience-Endures hardship.

                                                                                                  i.     The good soldier realizes that there will be troubles along the way and is not detoured by them.

                                                                                                ii.     Patience-characteristic of a man who is not swerved from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings.

b. His priorities.

                                                                                                  i.     Notice that the good soldier has no higher goal in life than pleasing His Superior.

1. The good soldier knows anything that interferes with his performance in the military must be done away with.

2. Who comes first in your life?

3. Whatever or whoever it is, that is your god!

c.  His practice.

                                                                                                  i.     Guards the truths of the faith.

                                                                                                ii.     Determined to do a good job, refusing to do anything to bring disgrace and dishonor upon his Superior.

3. He is familiar.

a. With the sound of the Commanders’ voice.

                                                                                                  i.     The way to get more familiar with His voice is to spend more time listening to it.

                                                                                                ii.     You do this by getting in the Word, worship, and prayer.

b. With the skill of using his weapons.

                                                                                                  i.     The good soldier knows that he is engaged in warfare and that the only way to succeed in the fight is to be proficient in the use of weaponry.

c.  With the strategy of the enemy.  

                                                                                                  i.     The good soldier knows that the enemy is ever active and never rests.

                                                                                                ii.     The good soldier studies the methods of his enemy and learn his weaknesses and then exploits to the fullest extent of his ability.

                                                                                             iii.     Jesus is greater than any enemy we will ever face.

d. With the shadows of his friends.

                                                                                                  i.     The good soldier not only cares about his own welfare, but he also looks out for the welfare of his fellow soldiers.

                                                                                                ii.     He learns about them by being around them.

4. He is a fighter.

a. He is determined.

                                                                                                  i.     The good soldier does not retreat in the face of the enemy; he does not run from a fight.

                                                                                                ii.     Instead, he stands his ground and fights the battle until the battle is over!

                                                                                             iii.     Many Christian soldiers have dropped out of the battle!

                                                                                              iv.     Went MIA!

b. He is driven.

                                                                                                  i.     The battle does not run according to his time frame.

                                                                                                ii.     He knows that another is in charge of the duration of the battle, but the good soldier is driven to finish.

1. Are you?

2. What would it take to make you quit this morning?

                                                                                             iii.     Many Christians are about one disaster, one disappointment, and one service away from quitting on their faith and their Savior.

c.  He is dedicated.

                                                                                                  i.     Dedicates himself to keeping his oath.

                                                                                                ii.     He keeps it by living it, sharing it and defending it all the time.

                                                                                             iii.     The faith is precious to the good soldier and he does everything in his power to keep it pure and undefiled.

5. He is a finisher.

a. He Has Resolve.

                                                                                                  i.     In it for the long haul.

                                                                                                ii.     God give us Christians with the attitude of finishers.

b. He Has A Reason.

                                                                                                  i.     Why does the good soldier endure hardship, stay in the fight, follow the Leader selflessly?

                                                                                                ii.     The good soldier knows God loves him, recognizes the price that Jesus paid, dying to make a way of salvation for him.

c.  He Has His Reward.

                                                                                                  i.     Finishes his course because he knows that at the end of the war, every deed will be rewarded by the Commander in chief.

                                                                                                ii.     They will hear Him say, "Well done thou good and faithful servant...", Matt. 25:21, 23.

                                                                                             iii.     What will be waiting you when you meet Jesus?

Would you classify yourself as a good soldier of the Lord?

If you are like me, you probably recognize areas where you could be a better soldier.

Is today a day of enlistment for you?