The Greatest Hero

(Training message for House Church and individual use: preached 11/8 – 11/14/2020)

Our Top 3 War Movie Recommendations for Veteran’s Day Weekend

Unbroken: Path to Redemption – “Beginning where the hit movie Unbroken concludes, the next [and most important] chapter brings the rest of Louis Zamperini’s inspirational true story [of redemption in Christ] to life.”
Sergeant York – “[The] story of [a Christian] World War I hero who captured [an impregnable] German position single-handedly. The film also portrays York’s earlier life [and conversion to Christ] in the mountains of Tennessee.”
Hacksaw Ridge – “Andrew Garfield stars as [Christian] pacifistic WWII hero Desmond T. Doss, who saved 75 men at the Battle of Okinawa without ever firing a weapon.”

Please click in the comment section, at the top or bottom of your screen, and let us know what you think or if you have a better list of your own.

At the center of every war story, including the three that we have listed, is a hero. One man (or, in some stories, one woman).

So, what or who is a hero? Well, to summarize the world’s opinion, here’s how a local news channel defines it.

“A hero is selfless, a genuinely good person, and someone [who] gets the undivided attention of all of us and causes change. Someone willing to risk their own life to save another.” (Miller, Dave.“Special Report: What makes a Hero?” WalmNews10, A Gray Media Group, Inc. Station, Gray Television, Inc., 28 Feb. 2020, www.walb.com/story/14157521/special-report-what-makes-a-hero/. Accessed 11 Nov. 2020.)

That’s, at least the general definition that they give. They then also include this statement.

“Webster’s [dictionary] defines a hero as a mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent, endowed with great strength or ability.” (Ibid)

So what’s this go to do with being a minister of God? Nothing. Nothing, if by that phrase you mean someone who has, as most have, compromised with what the world expects of a so-called minister of God; or, to be plain, what the God of this World wishes to use as a fake figurehead for him, for the Devil, to have those attached to his kingdom call a minister of God.

What does that mean? Well, let’s flip those two definitions from the world around a bit as we compare them with God’s.

Here then is a summary of what the Bible gives as four major characteristics of a real hero of God.

The world says that a hero is “selfless, a genuinely good person, and someone [who] gets the undivided attention of all of us and causes change”; but the Bible says that…

I. The greatest hero is forsaken by man:

“At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.” (2 Timothy 4:16)

The world says that a hero is “someone willing to risk their own life to save another”; but the Bible says that…

II. The greatest hero is strengthened by God:

“Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.” (2 Timothy 4:17)

The world says that a hero is “a mythological or legendary figure”; but the Bible says that…

III. The greatest hero is speaking for God:

“Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.” (2 Timothy 4:17)

The world says that a hero is “often of divine descent”; but the Bible says that…

IV. The greatest hero is hated for God:

“Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.” (2 Timothy 4:17)

The world says that a hero is “endowed with great strength or ability”; but the Bible says that…

V. The greatest hero stands for God:

“If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” (1 Peter 4:11)

“Therefore I will still contend with you,’ declares the Lord, ‘And I will contend with your sons’ sons.” (Jeremiah 2:9, NASB)

OUTLINE:

The Greatest Hero

(A Message to the Ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ)

I. The greatest hero is forsaken by man.

II. The greatest hero is strengthened by God.

III. The greatest hero is speaking for God.

IV. The greatest hero is hated for God.

V. The greatest hero stands for God.

“Therefore I will still contend with you,’ declares the Lord, ‘And I will contend with your sons’ sons.” (Jeremiah 2:9)

WORSHIP:

C.T. Studd [Here Is Love, Vast as the Ocean]