Mailing Address: PO Box 797 Molalla, OR 97038 Phone: 503-829-5101 Fax: 503-829-9502 Pastor Dale Satrum Life s Choices Choose Endurance As Your Greatest Proof (Part 4) Intro: I really enjoy watching sporting events. There s 2 that fascinate me. The World s Strongest man competition & Iron Man competition. (explain) The Christian life is more like the Iron Man competition. It requires a tremendous amount of stamina and endurance not just brute strength. The Christian life is referred to as a race. Endurance / Stamina over the long haul is what results in life and blessing in God s kingdom. Deut. 30:19-20 I have set before you life and death, blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendents, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days (NASB) We will never experience the life and blessing God is referring to without developing the quality of spiritual endurance. (holding fast to God regardless of the events in my life!) How do I choose endurance? How do I make a conscious choice to hold fast? I. Choose Endurance As Part Of The Christian Life I Peter 4:12 Dear friends, don t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange where happening to you. (NLT) A. We have to reject faulty thinking 1. We have to reject the belief that there is an easy route to take when it comes to the Christian experience. Reject the belief that there is a painless / low impact / non aerobic form of faith. 2. Reject the idea that when endurance is required because of hard times something is wrong with me / or God / or life. That something strange is happening. Isn t the Christian experience supposed to be easy? 3. Because of this wrong expectation, it creates various distorted examples of the Christian life. ** Blue Sky Believers: Only follow Jesus when everything is going great. When the clouds show up, their faith disappears. ** Jesus Jellyfish: These people have no backbone and simply float along with the currents of culture. They don t ever swim against the current. Page 1
** Christian Chameleons: These are the ultimate in concealment (better than mossy oak camo) They simply blend in wherever they re at. **Carnal Complainers: They re never happy / joyful / glass is always halfempty / and they whine about everything! Nothing is good enough. 3. All of these people have never embraced endurance as part of the Christian life. They all want to embrace a version that doesn t require any spiritual pain / sweat or stamina. This thinking we must reject! B. We must choose to think biblically 1. Remember last week I talked about seeing life through the lens of God s word. Here s one of the places we need to do this. We must think correctly about the Christina life. 2. I must embrace the truth that learning to endure / developing spiritual endurance is normal / healthy / good / That it is God s will for my life. If we do not embrace this truth, we will run from developing this quality in our lives rather than growing in it. Prov. 23:7 As he thinks within himself, so is he (NASB) 3. We must mentally embrace the concept of endurance / of holding fast / of not quitting / not throwing in the towel. Why? You can t live beyond how you think. Rom. 5:3 when we run into problems and trials, we know that they are good for us they help us learn to endure (NLT) 4. If we do not embrace developing spiritual endurance, we will run away from it. How else do we learn how to hold fast to God without tough circumstances? There are too many believers who just wilt at the first sign of trouble. 5. This is why so many people never really experience God coming through for them. They never hold fast long enough. They quit too soon! II. Choose Endurance As God s Path For Fulfillment Heb. 10:35-36 Do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord no matter what happens. Remember the great reward it brings you! Patient endurance is what you need now, so you will continue to do God s will. Then you will receive all that He has promised. (NLT) A. Remember that endurance is worth it 1. It s easy to struggle with this one. How many times have you been in the middle of your frustration / pain / confusion and wondered if it s all worth it. We ask these kinds of questions about our jobs / relationships / education / 2. It s easy to ask these questions about obedience to what God has called us to. Is it really worth it God? Living contrary to culture / battling the flesh / resisting the world s influence / trying to make a difference / Sometimes it can get pretty discouraging. Page 2
Last week someone asked me if I ever get discouraged. How many people do you think are really living it really committed? Explain 3. We are commanded to remember that it is! We are told to remember the great reward it brings you! We need to remember all the promises that are given to those who live faithfully in this life. 4. I think one of the struggles is that so many believers just don t know the Word of God enough to know all that God has promised us. If you don t know God s promises, it will hinder your motivation / endurance / If you can t focus on the reward, it s hard to maintain motivation. As a teenager, working long hours in the farms (chickens / moving pipe / hay. 12-14 hr days motivation? Wanted to buy a car reward. Rom. 8:31-32 What can we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since God did not spare even His own Son but gave Him up for us all, won t God, who gave us Christ, also give us everything else? (NLT) God is a giver! He longs to give to us! Reward us! 5. I don t want to throw away experiencing God s blessings in this life or the next because I didn t endure. Lord of the Rings clip: B. Remember you have to endure in order to experience the blessing 1. We only receive all that God has promises if we endure and continue to do God s will. Now, let me clarify some things before you all get discouraged. 2. There is a big difference between enduring till the end of the race and winning the race. We are rewarded for endurance NOT perfection. Endurance means that you refused to quit / throw in the towel / give up. 3. This doesn t mean you don t fail / fall / get discouraged / even get off track once in a while. Endurance simply means you don t quit. You may have stumbled / fallen on your face. Endurance makes you get back up again! Prov. 24:16 For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again (NASB) 4. In the book of Revelation, chapters 2-3, Jesus addresses 7 churches. After pointing out what they need to correct, in each of the seven churches, He says, But to him who overcomes I will (Blessing) Everyone who finishes an iron man competition is a winner for the simple reason they crossed the finish line. They didn t quit. Our times may have been different, but we all endured until the end. 5. We can t lose sight of the fact that we must endure in order to experience all that God has promised. If we throw in the towel, we are throwing away His promises. There are good things that He has promised and they are worth fighting for. III. Choose Endurance With Other People In Order To Finish Page 3
Heb. 10:23-25 Without wavering, let us hold tightly to the hope we say we have, for God can be trusted to keep His promise. Think of ways to encourage one another And let us not neglect our meeting together but encourage and warn each other (NLT) A. Endurance is experienced in the context of community 1. No one should run the race alone! I believe this is one of the biggest reasons for spiritual failure. There are too many lone wolf believers out there trying to live the Christian life in isolation from other Christians. 2. We ve made the Christian life into an individual experience, when in reality, it s more of a team sport! (Eph. 6 armor of God Shield of Faith explain) 3. I always have a fear about going into the summer months (Explain: It s good to take breaks / vacations / but people get isolated and get lost.) When we do not maintain close community we can lose our endurance / stamina. 4. I need to be around other people who are running the same race I m running. We re running to the same finish line; going in the same direction. Spiritual endurance is contagious I always have a better work-out when I m with another person. Some days, I go to the gym and I m the only one downstairs. It kills my motivation. Just having other people lifting and watching them helps me. 5. It works like this spiritually as well. I just cannot isolate myself from the spiritual community of believers if I want to learn to hold fast. B. Endurance is experienced with specific encouragement from others 1. I see many believers make comments like this: Who am I to say anything? What can I do? It s none of my business what they re doing? All of these are not biblically accurate. Remember the biblical lens? 2. We must be intentional and specific in our involvement with each others lives. Being in the same building is simply not enough. Gal. 6:1 if another Christian is over come by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. (NLT) We all require this at times! We all get off track at times! 3. We all have a responsibility to specifically encourage one another to NOT quit! Heb. 10 talks about encouraging / warning / to keep meeting together. All these are pretty specific actions. 4. We are responsible for each other s success! We are responsible for each others endurance. I m not going to let you quit. I m going to keep you moving forward even if I have to drag you there! These are the kinds of friendships we need. Biblical friendships are powerful! 5. Maybe there s someone you haven t seen at church for some time. Maybe it s time for you to give them a phone call / write a card. You might even know Page 4
some people who are off track spiritually. Could you be the one to go and help restore them gently? How can we all help each other to stay on track this summer? IV. Choose Endurance As The Proof Of Your Faith I Peter 1:6-7 though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith may be proved genuine and may result in praise (NIV) Our endurance is proof of the real deal! I Cor. 15:2 By this Gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. (NIV) Our endurance is evidence of God s genuine work of transformation in our lives. A. Endurance is a good spiritual barometer 1. We look at the wrong things when we try to gauge where we re at spiritually. We like to look at all our activities / service - ministry / church attendance / giving / or compare ourselves with others. Instead of looking at our endurance / stamina our consistency over time. 2. It s not that our service / ministry / giving / don t matter spiritually, because they do. It s just that endurance over time is a better indicator of what is really going on spiritually. 3. Anyone can do all these things for awhile. But, can you do them consistently regardless of the events in your life and over the long haul. Can you hold fast despite the ebb and flow of life / the good times and bad / despite the rollercoaster of our emotions / despite other people letting you down? 4. The real proof of our faith is in the walk not the talk. And the most important part of the walk is our consistency over time. B. Endurance is experienced by intensifying relationship not effort We are commanded to hold fast to HIM! Endurance is a relational thing. Is. 40:30-31 Even youths will become exhausted, and young men will give up. But those who wait on the Lord will find new strength. They will fly high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. (NLT) 1. This last principal is for all those who are ready to redouble their efforts. STOP! You ll just double your failure. It doesn t work this way. Don t redouble your efforts at endurance double the closeness with your relationship with God. Hold fast to HIM! 2. The endurance we need for this life doesn t come from us. It comes from God. It comes from intimacy with Him drawing closer to Him spending time with Him / experiencing Him. 3. It s not about our will-power. It s all about His power made real in our lives. The truth is that as much as you are trying to hold on to Him, God is holding Page 5
on to you more. We need to learn how to cling to the One who is already clinging to us. He loves us! 4. The simple truth that God is hanging on to me despite my failures / inconsistencies / my discouragements / despite my fear or sin / just makes me want to hold fast to Him even more to cling to Him even tighter. 5. The greatest motivator to hold fast is my relationship with Him. After 20+ years in ministry, God is the One who has kept me going / kept me sane / kept my marriage / picked me up / given me hope to try again. If we are going to hold fast, the only way is to be holding on to the right thing Him! Don t ever let go. Help is on the way. I Peter 5:10 after you have suffered a little while, He will restore, support, and strengthen you, and He will place you on a firm foundation. (NLT) So, hold fast to Him! Song: Mercy Me: Hold Fast Page 6