1. You’re a soldier now

2. Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. (4) No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. 2 Tim 2:3-4

3.  Suffering is part of the deal. A soldier on active duty expects hardship.  Soldiers are also required to perform their duties with total commitment, not being entangled or involved in civilian affairs.

4. 1.Life before the Service YOU WERE A SLAVE TO SIN. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, (2) in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. (3) Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. Eph 2:1-3

5. 1.Life before the Service YOU WERE A SLAVE TO SIN.  We were the walking dead, living for the world, which is ruled by Satan.  We were casualties in a war, and captives of the enemy, and we didn’t even know it.  We lived our lives for our pleasures and our indulgences.

6. 1.Life before the Service BUT GOD… But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, (5) even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)Eph 2:1-3

7. 1.Life before the Service BUT GOD…  God did this. God saved us from ourselves.  God had no reason to free us from slavery and death, except His great love for us.  He is our commander and chief now. We live for His glory and for His will.

8. 2.Now you are enlisted, your life is not your own, and you have a purpose. YOU HAVE BEEN PURCHASED. AND YOU HAVE A DUTY TO FULFILL. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; (9) not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. (10) For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.Eph 2:8-10

9. 2.Now you are enlisted, your life is not your own, and you have a purpose. YOU DON’T GET TO DECIDE HOW YOU LIVE YOUR LIFE ANYMORE.

10. 2.Now you are enlisted, your life is not your own, and you have a purpose. DUTIES OF A SOLDIER:  Communicate with our Lord and commander  Love others as you would love yourself  Spread the good news  Stand firm in the truth  Be disciplined

11. 3.Fight like you’re dead already. THE BEST SOLDIER FIGHTS KNOWING THAT HIS LIFE IS ALREADY OVER.

12. 3.Fight like you’re dead already. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? (2) May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? (3) Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? (4) Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might

13. 3.Fight like you’re dead already. walk in newness of life. (5) For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, (6) knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; (7) for he who has died is freed from sin. (8) Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall

14. 3.Fight like you’re dead already. also live with Him, (9) knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. (10) For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. (11) Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Rom 6:1-11

15. 3.Fight like you’re dead already. THE BEST SOLDIER FIGHTS KNOWING THAT HIS LIFE IS ALREADY OVER.  Its time to put down the kid gloves, put the toys away, grow up, and fight like your life depends on it!  Your old self was crucified with Christ. You are no longer a slave to sin.  If you are already dead, you have nothing to fear.

16. 3.Fight like you’re dead already. WE HAVE ALREADY OVERWHELMINGLY CONQUERED THROUGH CHRIST.

17. 3.Fight like you’re dead already. CONDUCT YOURSELVES IN A MANNER WORTHY OF THE GOSPEL, DO NOT BE ALARMED BY YOUR OPPONENTS. (PHIL 1:27 & 28).

18. 4.CONCLUSION:. YOU WERE BORN FOR THIS.  There are only two paths in this world.  We need to start living like what we are, soldiers and servants of Christ. This has to start today.