WHEN IS IT RIGHT TO FIGHT? Strength for Stressful Times - Part 1 of 4 Romans 12:18 Rick Warren

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1 Romans 12:18 Rick Warren Romans 12:18 "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." 1. WHAT IS THE REAL CAUSE OF WAR? "Where do these wars and battles between yourselves first start? Isn't it precisely in the desires fighting inside your own selves? You want something and you haven't got it; so you are prepared to kill. You have an ambition you can't satisfy, so you fight to get your way by force." James 4:1-2 (JB) 2. IS IT EVER RIGHT TO FIGHT? "There is a time for war and a time for peace." Eccl. 3:8 Numbers 32:6-12 "When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers." Proverbs 21:15 "(Government) is there to serve God for your benefit. If you break the law, however, you may well have fear... he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of justice to bring punishment on the wrongdoer." Romans 13:4 (JB and NIV) 3. WILL THE WORLD EVER HAVE PERMANENT PEACE? "He (Jesus) will settle disputes among great nations. They will hammer their swords into plows and their spears into pruning knives. Nations will never again go to war, never prepare for battle again." Isa. 2:4 (GN)

2 4. IS THIS THE FINAL WAR? (Jesus) "Don't be fooled. Many will come in My name saying, `I am He!' and `The time has come!' But don't follow them. Don't be afraid when you hear of wars and revolutions; such things must happen but they do not mean the end is near. Countries will fight each other and kingdoms will attack one another." Luke 21:8-9 (GN) "No one knows that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father!" Matthew 24:36 "It's not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority. But... you are to be My witness... to the ends of the world." Acts 1: HOW SHOULD WE RESPOND DURING WAR? 1. "First of all pray... for kings and all others who are in authority, that we may live a quiet and peaceful life... " 1 Timothy 2: "The Lord is my light and salvation - whom shall I fear?... Though an army besiege me... and war break out against me, even then I will be confident." Ps. 27:1,3 3. "Turn from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it!" Ps. 34:14 4. "Carry each other's burden... and fulfill the law of Christ." Gal. 6:4 1-ii

3 Romans 12:18 Rick Warren Romans 12. I want to do something a little bit different this week. I want to take a break in the series we've been in, looking at character, and look at what the Bible says about some of the questions about war. Most of us have been glued to the tv or radio this last week as the war broke out in the Gulf. We've been warned that it may be a long war. I'm sure it's raised many questions in your mind as it has in mine to go back and say, "What does the Bible say about war?" I thought the perfect thing to do today would be to spend some time praying for the people in the Gulf. So we want to do that at the end of this service. I want us to look at a few verses and then we'll pray together. We're going to look a; What is the real cause of war? Is it ever right to fight? Will the world ever have permanent peace? Is this the final war? How should we respond during war? Responses: 1. We need to pray. So we're going to do that this morning. 2. We need to trust God. When things are out of our control, we need to trust God. 3. We need to seek peace. The Bible says seek peace. 4. We need to support each other. Looking at the very first verse on your outline, Romans 12:18 "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." Circle "if it is possible". I think the Bible is very practical here. It says "as much as it depends on you... as far as it's possible on your behalf, live at peace with everybody." However, I think this is also implying that sometimes it is impossible to live at peace with someone. Have you ever met somebody that, no matter what you did, you just couldn't get along with them? No matter what you did, they could not be appeased. The Bible says, "If it is possible." If somebody abused my children and abused my wife, I wouldn't have peace with them at all. I don't think God would expect me to have peace with them. We're going to look today at these questions about war. 1. WHAT IS THE REAL CAUSE OF WAR? The Bible says that most wars are caused by two things: selfishness and pride. Selfishness and pride are at the root of most wars. James 4:1-2 (Jerusalem Bible) "Where do these wars and battles between yourselves first start? Isn't it precisely in the desires fighting inside your own selves? You want something and you haven't got it; so you're prepared to kill. You have an ambition you can't satisfy, so you fight to get your way by force." It's selfishness. I think we've got a clear example here in the Gulf. Saddam wanted something that wasn't his. He wanted oil fields in Kuwait so he just took them. They weren't his but he took them anyway.

4 Whenever there is a battle between two nations, a battle between two businesses, a battle between an employer and employee, labor and management, husband and wife, parent and child, whenever there's conflict, somebody (maybe both) is exhibiting selfishness or pride. I want my way. You want your way. We're going to have conflict. I remember reading a story about President Lincoln. He was walking down the street one day with his two boys and they were both crying and frustrated. One man said, "What's wrong with your little boys?" He said, "Nothing, just what's wrong with the world. I have three walnuts and each wants two." I read once where two cities in Italy fought 22 years over an unreturned bucket. It was a 22 year war over an unreturned bucket! The Bible says in Proverbs 13:10 "The effect of pride is fighting." This was the very first verse my wife and I memorized when we got married. "Only by pride comes contention." Pride only causes fighting. When you think of sin, what's the middle letter of "sin"? -- "I". When I'm in charge, when I want my way, when I demand that I be the center of the universe, when I get my way, sin's going to happen. And pride causes a lot of problems. How many times in the last five months had delegations gone to Iraq to say, "Why don't you back down? Why don't you back out?" Sadam has basically said in pride, "I'd rather fight than switch! I'd rather go to war than back down and admit that I was wrong in taking this land." Proverbs 13:10 (New English Bible) "A brainless fool causes strife by his presumption." 2. IS IT EVER RIGHT TO FIGHT? Yes. There are times when it is the lesser of two evils. There are times when it is appropriate and there are times when it is inappropriate. Ecclesiastes 3:8 "There is a time for war and a time for peace." The Bible is very realistic. Sometimes war is the right thing. Sometimes war is the wrong thing. "There is a time for war and there is a time for peace." The Bible is very realistic about this. There are many, many examples in the Bible where God commanded a war, where God said, "Go to war!" When you look at the great heroes of the faith in Hebrews Joshua, David, Gideon, Samson -- these guys were all warriors. When you look at the Bible you find that sometimes war was the right thing to do. When you study the ministry of Jesus you see a number of things. In the first place, He never told a Roman soldier to leave the army. If Jesus had been a total pacifist, He would have said every time He saw a soldier, "Leave your army! Come follow Me." But not once did He ever say it was morally wrong for them to be in the service. In fact, in Matthew 24:6, He said there will always be wars in the world until the Prince of Peace comes back. There will always be wars. 1-2

5 Wasn't Jesus a pacifist? I don't think He was. Twice in the New Testament, He cleansed the temple by force. It says He made a whip and He went in and He cleansed the temple. He didn't politely ask them, "Would you guys, pretty please get out of here?" He forced them out. They were in the wrong place. So He forced them out. One time Jesus told His disciples to sell their coats and buy a sword. Luke 22:36. I want to challenge you to do a study in the Bible of the word "resist". Make a study of all the things that we are to resist in the New Testament, that we're not to simply passively accept evil, but that we are to resist it. And how are we to do that? The Bible says there is a time for war and a time for peace. Then the question becomes, "When's the right time?" How do you know a good war from a bad war? Two or three times the Bible says we ought to fight: 1. In order to preserve freedom. There are many examples in the Bible of this. Once God told Joshua to wipe out the Midianites, they were very oppressive. They were very evil. He was afraid that they would be oppressed by them. They had all kinds of evil practices like throwing babies into the fire. It was a terrible, atrocious culture. In Numbers 32, God gets very upset, in fact He expresses anger, at two tribes in Israel, because they wouldn't go to war. Moses says to these two tribes, "What are you going to do? Just sit here while the rest of your brothers go to war? Aren't you going to participate?" That's different than a lot of people here. You have to decide what's worth dying for. If you don't know what's worth dying for, you don't know what's worth living for. There are some things that are worse than war. Many times in the Old Testament, God told the Israelites to go liberate a certain group of people. 2. In order to defend innocent people. Proverbs 21:15 "When justice is done it brings joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers." Circle "justice". Christians are not just interested in peace. We want peace, but we want peace with justice. Peace at any price is not peace. Peace at any price is appeasement. God says that God is not only a God of peace but He is a God of justice. Things should be done right. That's why the Civil War was fought. Blacks were being treated unjustly. So there had to come force, to force people to treat them justly. Somebody said that all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. We must do justice. John Stewart Mills said, "A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares about more than his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free." 3. In order to stop the spread of evil. The Bible makes very clear that God has authorized the government to enforce the law and punish offenders. Romans 13:4 (Jerusalem Bible and New International Version) "Government is there to serve God for your benefit. If you break the law however, you may well have fear. He does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of justice to bring punishment on the wrongdoers." 1-3

6 Three facts of life: We live in a fallen world. Every person has sinned. And wherever there is sin, people hurt each other. So there must be laws enacted to prevent people from hurting each other. God has authorized law and government as part of life. He started by giving us the Ten Commandments. "You shall do this and you shall not do this..." God has established in a fallen world where people are not perfect that there has to be laws. God has authorized government to enforce those laws, because if there's no enforcement, the laws are worthless. It says if you're doing good you don't have to fear the law, you don't have to fear government. "If you break the law however you may well have fear." Have you ever been driving down the freeway and saw a red light in back of you and all of a sudden you were overcome with fear? Then it went on past you! Why did you get uptight? Because you know you have a guilty conscience. If you never broke the law, you'd never be afraid of law enforcement. The Bible says that God has established government to be the agent of enforcement to maintain the peace, because we live in a world where people will hurt each other. So God says there are laws. For instance, the eighth commandment, "Thou shalt not steal." That means you have a right to private property. So do other people. Most of the world would agree that Saddam decided, "I want that down there in Kuwait so I'm just going to steal it. I'll just take it by force because I want it." So he's broken some international laws. One law that says you don't steal somebody else's country. Good law! The whole world agrees with this except Saddam and a couple of kooks! You don't go in and take over somebody's country by force. We shouldn't do it. They shouldn't do it. So the Bible says there are agents to bring about punishments for wrongdoers. "Doesn't the sixth commandment say, `Thou shalt not kill.'" No it doesn't. It says "Thou shalt not murder." The word is used 47 times in the Bible and it always means murder. Is there a difference between killing and murder? Absolutely. C.S. Lewis said, "All killing is no more murder than all sexual intercourse is adultery." There is a difference. Many times in the Old Testament, God commanded capital punishment for certain kinds of crimes. When is it right? To bring about justice. To preserve freedom. To reduce evil in the world. 3. WILL THE WORLD EVER HAVE PERMANENT PEACE? Yes, someday, but it's not going to happen until Jesus Christ comes back. The Bible says that one day Jesus Christ is going to come back to earth a second time. In fact, the Bible talks more about Jesus' second coming than it does about His first. There are far more verses in the Bible about Jesus' second coming than there are about His first coming at Bethlehem. In John 14, Jesus said it like this, "Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there 1-4

7 you may be also." Jesus said, I'm going back to heaven and if I go, I'm going to prepare a place and I'm coming back. Did He go? Yes he did. Is He coming back? Absolutely. As surely as He said He was going, He's coming back. The Bible says that when He comes back, He will set up a reign of peace on the earth. Isaiah and many other scriptures describe it. This is what it's going to be like: "He (Jesus) will settle disputes among nations. They will hammer their swords into plows and their spears into pruning knives. Nations will never again to go to war, never prepare for battle again." That sounds pretty good to me. This verse is over the United Nations. "They'll hammer their swords into plows and their spears into pruning knives." But they forgot the most important part -- "He will settle the disputes." He -- Jesus! Not the United Nations. We'll never have ultimate peace until the Prince of Peace establishes His reign on the earth. So there is going to be a day of permanent peace someday when Jesus comes back. The question I've probably been asked more than any other one IS THIS THE FINAL WAR? Is this the war that's leading up to the Second Coming of Christ? We don't know. It could be. But we don't know. The Bible makes it very clear that history is moving toward a climax. One day it will be climaxed by a great battle which will involve Israel called the Battle of Armegeddon. It will be fought in the Valley of Megiddo. About four or five years ago, Tom and I went to Israel and stood on the mountain that overlooked that great valley of Megiddo. The Bible says there will be a great war there. Anytime an outbreak occurs in the Middle East, people start asking, "Is this it? Is this the end war?" And the answer is, "We don't know." You need to understand that the Arab-Israeli conflict goes back thousands and thousands of years. It's all Abraham's fault. It is. God told Abraham that he was going to have a son one day that would be a great nation, the nation of Israel. He was going to have the son by Sarah. At 80 years old, Sarah still hadn't had a kid. At 89 she still hadn't had a kid. So Abraham said, "Maybe I'd better take matters into my own hands." He had a child through Sarah's handmaiden. Her baby was Ishmael. God said, "He's not the one I wanted, but I'm going to bless him anyway. He will be a great nation, too." Ishmael is the father of the Arabs. Then later Isaac was born who's the father of the Jewish nation. So Ishmael and Isaac were half-brothers. What we've got going on over there is a family feud. The Bible says that one day there will be a climatic battle, but we don't know if this is it or not. I'm no expert on the Second Coming, but I do know somebody who is so I thought I'd invite Him here today. His name is Jesus. He knows a little bit more than anybody else. Let's look at what He has to say about the end of times. 1-5

8 Luke 21:8-9 "Don't be fooled. Many will come in My name saying, `I am He!' and `The time has come!' But don't follow them. Don't be afraid when you hear of wars and revolutions; such things must happen but they don't mean the end is near. Countries will fight each other and kingdoms will attack one another." First He says, "Don't be fooled..." Circle that. Don't believe everything you hear or read. I used to have a collection of books that proclaimed This was the last war. In the twentieth century, every single war practically that's been fought somebody's written a book on it and said, "This is the end!" There were people who said World War I was the end war. Kaiser was the antichrist. Then they said World War II was the end war and Hitler was the antichrist. On and on. I want to say this: There have been dozens and dozens of books that have set dates and time. Every one of them have been wrong. One hundred percent wrong. Notice it says "...such things must happen..." Underline that. In the last 3,421 years there have only been 268 years that have seen no war. During the last 5,560 years -- recorded history -- there have been 14,531 wars averaging a little over 2.6 wars each year. In the history of 185 generations, only ten of those generations have experienced unbroken peace. So when Jesus said "There's going to be wars and rumors of wars" He knew what He was talking about. We live in a fallen world. Jesus said in Matthew 24:36 "No one knows that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." Look who Jesus said knows about the Second Coming. Any time you read a book on the Second Coming that says "This is when it's going to happen. This is the day," I can guarantee you one thing. They're wrong. Anytime someone picks a date and says, This is it, you can know it won't be on that date. That's one you can mark off. I can have a picnic that day. Why? No one knows! Jesus said, "I don't even know." Jesus said, "The angels don't know, I don't even know the time of the Second Coming. Only the Father." People ask me why I don't preach more on prophecy. I say, Why? Nobody knows I could get up here and make some good guesses but they'd all be speculation. Jesus said, Nobody knows when it's going to happen. Not only did He say nobody knows, He said it's none of your business. Acts 1:7-8 "It's not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority. But you are to be My witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and the uttermost parts of the world." He says it's not for you to know. It's none of your business. Three times in Matthew 25 He says, "Be ready!" He could come at any time but nobody knows the time. Acts 1:7-8 are the last words of Jesus before we went back to heaven. You figure the last words are probably the most important thing He wants to talk about. What do the disciples come and ask Him about. They ask Him about the Second Coming. When are You coming back? In Acts 1:6 they say, "Lord, when are You going to restore Your kingdom to Israel? When are you coming back?" Jesus turns around and says, "It's none of your business. Now go out and start sharing the faith." 1-6

9 Isn't it interesting how they asked a question about prophecy and He turns the question to evangelism? They want to talk about when He's coming back. He wants to talk about winning the world. That's the priority of Jesus' heart. That's why He talked more about winning the world because that's what Jesus is interested in. He wants everybody to know Him. In fact, in Matthew 24:14 it says "And the good news shall be preached to all the world to every nation for a witness and then the end shall come." One of the signs Jesus gave was the Good News is going to be 1-7

10 shared with all nations. All peoples. Every people, every tribe will have a chance to hear the gospel before He comes back. Why hasn't Christ come back yet? Because He's waiting until everybody He wants to have heard the gospel has heard it. Once everybody He wants to have heard it has heard it, He's coming back. So if you want the Lord to come back soon, it's simple. Get out and start sharing your faith. Every time you tell somebody about Christ you're shortening the time. Every time you share the gospel with somebody it means it's getting shorter. He says, "It's not for you to know. Nobody knows. You just concentrate not on when am I coming back, but you concentrate on sharing the good news with people who are here so I can come back." How should we respond during war? What's the Christian response? Four things: 1. Pray. 1 Timothy 2:1-2 "First of all pray for kings and all others who are in authority, that we may live a quiet and peaceful life." The first things you're to pray for are our leaders. They make the decisions. Pray for the president, pray for the generals, pray for the congress, pray for leaders. Notice the benefit of praying for your leaders: You'll end up living quiet and peaceful lives. We're to pray for leaders. We ought to pray for our soldiers, the men and women who are over there. The Bible says we also ought to pray for our enemies. Matthew 5:44. We need to pray for our enemies. "Pray for those who hurt you and despitefully use you and persecute you." We ought to pray that they will have a change of heart. 2. Trust God. Trust God in all situations. The Bible says "The Lord is my light and salvation. Whom shall I fear? Though an army besiege me and war break out against me, even then I will be confident." While we pray for our soldiers, we also accept the fact in reality when war happens, there are casualties. There will be people who lose their lives. So we're to pray and trust God realizing that God can be counted on, that God is in control, that God knows what He's doing, and that God will carry you through whatever situation you face. We have many families in our church whose husbands, fathers, brothers, sons are in the Gulf right now. Many were here at the base and are now in the Gulf. I want to say to those of you who have relatives there, God is with you. He will help you face whatever the future brings. So we pray and we trust God. 3. Seek peace. What does it mean to seek peace? "Turn from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it." Seek peace means do whatever you can to bring about peace. I think that's what it means. I think it not only means peace between nations but I think it means peace everywhere else. You need to seek peace in your family. You need to seek peace with your husband/your wife. You need to seek peace with your children. You need to seek peace with people you are estranged from at work. That's the mark of a Christian. "Blessed are the peacemakers, they shall be called the sons of God." 1-8

11 Whether you feel that the world has waited long enough or not before they started into war I think we'd all agree that during the last five months, there have been a lot of attempts to make peace and they saw war only as the last resort. Over thirty different national delegations went to Iraq and said, "This is wrong. Get out." We sent our Secretary of State, Gorbachev called, the U.N. Secretary General went, one delegation after another, seeking peace. It was the right thing to do. Not just jump into war but seek peace. William Temple: "We Christians in war are called to the hardest task of all -- to fight without hatred, to resist without bitterness and in the end if God so grants it, triumph without vindictiveness." We seek peace. 4. We need to support each other. The Bible says "Carry each other's burdens and fulfill the law of Christ." In a crisis time like this, I think this is when the church really shows itself as a family. We are to be a family, an extended family, where we are an extended network of support for those lives that are influenced and affected by this war. We need to support the soldiers. One of the things that was mentioned earlier -- if you've got old tapes, Saddleback tapes, bring them to the office. We're going to send them over there. Right now my tapes are being played each week on one of the carriers in the Gulf. We're going to be sending more. Anybody who wants a copy of this tape, we'll send it to them in the Gulf. We need to support our soldiers. We need to support the families of our soldiers and have a prayer chain and be an encouragement to them. If you're not in a small group, I encourage you -- get in a small group. You need one especially in a time of international crisis like this. I ask all of our groups this week to pray specifically for peace in the Gulf and that God's will be done. Our eyes are focused on a war in the liberation of Kuwait right now. But there's another war going on. It's been raging a long time. There is another rescue operation going on. In fact, it's far more important than the one that's going on in the Gulf. The Bible says that there is a war going on for the souls of men between God and Satan. The most used analogy for a Christian in the New Testament is a soldier -- fight the good fight, put on the whole armor of God, fight, strive, conquer, overcome, victory. Those are war terms that the Bible uses to represent the Christian life. The devil is trying to pull people away from God. It is our job as agents of God to go out and reach them with His love. If you've never opened your life to Christ the Bible says you're in a war with God. What you need to do is make peace with God. If you don't have peace with God, you're not going to have peace with other people. The Bible says that Jesus came to earth -- Hebrew 2:14-15 "Jesus came so that through His death He might destroy the devil who has the power of death and so set free those who were slaves all their lives because of fear of death." He wants to set you free from the fear of death. He wants to give you real freedom. Galatians 1:4 "Jesus died for our sins just as God our Father planned and rescued us." That's what salvation is all about. Jesus said, "If the Son sets you free then you're really free." Free to a 1-9

12 new purpose in life, a new meaning in life. Free to significance, free to break bad habits and begin new ones. God wants to rescue you. You need to take sides -- today, if you haven't. Say, "I'm on God's side and I want to go with Him." Prayer: If you've never said Yes to Jesus Christ, the Bible says that you're in a war with God. You need to make your peace with Him today. You need to ask Christ to come into your life and forgive you and make you a new person. Would you say in your heart, if you haven't, "Jesus Christ, I want peace with You. I don't want to be at war with God. I want to go Your way. Come in and save me and be my Savior. Rescue me from wasting my life." Many of you have already made that decision. You're Christians. You'd say, "God, I need to be a soldier for You. I realize that there are people all around me that are dying who've never heard the Good News. Help me to share it with them, to not hoard it but to share it with others." Lord, we do pray for peace in the Gulf. We pray that the war may be over quickly. We pray for strength and wisdom for our leaders. Help them to lead with compassion, integrity, sincerity, and wisdom. We pray for our enemies, that they may change their mind and that peace may come quickly. We pray for the families in our church and all over who are being affected by those who are in the war right now. We ask Your protection and grace and blessing on them. Help us as a church family to reach out to this community and to the base and to all who need encouragement and support during this time. In Jesus' name. Amen. 1-10