Women's Fall Gathering

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Let's pray, ladies.

Lord, you say in your word that there is coming a day where every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that you are Lord.

Every believer in you will kneel and confess that.

Every atheist will kneel down and confess that.

Every Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, agnostic.

Because in that moment it will be so clear what you've been saying all along.

God, between now and then, when everything will be set right by you, there is a battle raging on.

There are days that it encroaches into our souls in ways that we are so discouraged and weary.

And we are looking around for a little glimpse that you really are going to do what you said you would.

God, in those moments, when there is no evidence that's visible that you are alive and well, when our limited minds can't see it, Lord, I pray that you will breathe your breath into our souls and fan into a flame the faith that is in us.

And remind us that what is coming is better than we could possibly imagine.

God, like you said in your word, we have need of perseverance.

So Lord, I pray through your word tonight that you will show us.

You will show us what it looks like to have perseverance, what it takes to have perseverance, because there has never been a time that perseverance isn't more needed.

God, I pray that you would illuminate your word.

We are dependent on you.

I am dependent on you to be clear.

Everyone in this room is dependent on you to hear clearly.

So, Lord, we lay ourselves at your feet and we thank you that you are a God who came to set us free.

You came looking for us.

And you always find who you're looking for.

In your name we pray, Jesus.

Amen.

All right, you can be seated.

If you are around my age, you know what it means to be to illuminate.

Do you need these things?

Well if you enjoyed that worship, we're gonna do some more when I'm done.

Would that be all right with y'all?

Yeah.

Well, I don't I don't know if you've noticed.

If you watch the news, or if you read the news, if there's any of you out there anymore who do that, this world has gone slap crazy mad.

Uh and here's the thing is Jesus said it was gonna happen.

And as Christians, he also said that there's a way through.

And uh like I said in my prayer, this is this is a marathon, and we have need of perseverance.

I don't know about you, but I I mean I I get tired, I get weary, I keep thinking, is is his power still effective?

Does he still change lives like permanently?

Like for good.

And in in my family, nights like tonight where we just need to sit down with a word and open it up, we we call it a front-end alignment.

So I want to bring to you um a front-end alignment.

So if you have uh your Bible with you, we're gonna be in Hebrews, that light little um letter.

Hebrews specifically chapter 12, a very uh familiar passage.

If you do not have your Bible, there are Pew Bibles, and we are gonna be on page 1008.

Chapter 12 in Hebrews.

I'm gonna read the whole chapter.

I know that's not seeker friendly, but I'm reading the whole entire chapter.

All right, uh the pages have stopped turning.

Are you there?

All right, have you got your phone?

All right.

Hebrews 12, verse 1.

Hebrews 12:1

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted.

In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

Sisters, it can get worse.

That's what that says right there.

Verse 5.

And you, have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.

For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.

It is for discipline that you have to endure.

God is treating you as sons.

For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them.

Shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live?

For they disciplined us for a short time, as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.

Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled, that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.

For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

Verse 18.

For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them.

For they could not endure the order that was given.

If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.

Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I tremble with fear.

But you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels and festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

See that you do not refuse him who is speaking.

For if they did not escape when they refused him, who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.

At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.

This phrase, yet once more, indicates the removal of things that are shaken, that is, things that have been made, in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.

Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

Well, this is the word of the Lord for the people of God.

Thanks be to God.

That's it, yes.

I always love that part when someone's reading on Sunday mornings.

Well, let's unpack this.

There's so many ways you could go with this passage, so many ways.

But this is the way that I feel like we're supposed to go tonight.

So come along.

We're gonna talk about perseverance.

That's where I feel like we we need to be encouraged to persevere.

Um God said it was gonna be like this.

It shouldn't shock us.

We we constantly are surprised, I think.

I find myself surprised and keep wondering how much worse it could get.

And the Lord says in his word in 1 Peter, why are you surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come upon you as if some strange thing were happening?

I just feel like he says, Marcy, why are you surprised at the fact because I'm always surprised.

So we wanted, I want to tonight talk about perseverance.

First, I want to talk about the who of perseverance.

We're gonna talk about who, how, and why.

So we're gonna first talk about the who of perseverance in verse one through three.

There are three who's that I want us to focus on.

I feel like a Dr.

Seuss story all of a sudden.

Um the first who I want us to look at is that cloud of witnesses that he talks about in verse one, the cloud of witnesses.

You'll notice in the very first, we're gonna do a little Bible study tonight, but in the very first word of the chapter, it says therefore.

Now, this is really deep stuff right here, but anytime you see the word therefore, you need to ask, what the therefore is therefore.

That will change your approach to the word of God because it always means to look at what came before, that what I'm about to say is referencing what came before.

So this therefore is referring to chapter 11 and the cloud of witnesses.

He spells it out.

Um, I've heard a lot of things said about what this cloud of witnesses is, but this is what I believe it is.

They are not spectators of us.

They're not, I've heard it taught before that they're leaning over heaven and they're and they're cheering us on.

They're not spectators of us.

It's we that are supposed to look to them as encouragement.

They're not leaning over heaven.

I can guarantee you that we are not their focus where they are right now.

We are to look to them for encouragement.

They persevered in faith and they had a lot less light to run by than we do.

This is our I really encourage you to read chapter 11 sometime.

That's our spiritual stock.

It's our it's our lineage.

These are some bloody, gritty, persevering people.

Um, they did not shrink back when it would have made complete sense to everyone around them to do so.

And what they all have in common, according to chapter 11, is faith.

Faith that God would do what he said he would do even if they didn't live to see it.

Now we are a people that needs evidence.

We like empirical evidence, but these people were so sure of how it was gonna turn out.

They were so sure of it, even though they all died before it happened, that they knew they could live like it was gonna happen, as if they had seen it with their own eyes.

There's a big term called eschatology.

That's our understanding of the end times.

And what I want to say to you tonight that is if you do not have a robust, beefy eschatology or understanding of how God is gonna end this all, then you are gonna live such a discouraged, defeated existence because it it is all gonna look like it's going to heck before it gets better.

And if we as believers are responding to every crisis and world event the way the rest of the world does, then how are we different?

How are we set apart?

What difference?

This will sound familiar, what difference does our faith make?

The cloud of witnesses.

Just a few of the people in there are Noah.

I know you know the story of Noah, but just could you remember that they had never heard of rain when he built an ark in the middle of land?

Can you imagine the ridicule that that man who heard from the Lord build a boat in the middle of land because something's gonna start falling from the sky?

That took faith.

Abraham, he was told to pick up everything and move to a place that God would tell them once they started moving.

Now, the equivalent of that would be like if you saw someone in your neighborhood and there was a moving truck out front and you walked over to it and said, Oh man, Bob, I'm sorry to see you're moving.

Where are you headed?

I don't know.

God just said, pack it up and move, and I'll tell you when you turn the key in the ignition.

You would walk home and go, honey, we need to pray, we need to pray for Bob.

But the list goes on.

They could act in faith because they trusted God who they could not see even more than they trusted what they could see with their eyes.

My fear is that we are demanding from Christianity and from God what He never promised.

Some of us are sorely disappointed in God because somewhere along the line you started believing something that wasn't true about God.

Like, like every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before, or that when you come to be become a Christian, that all of all of your ailments will be healed and all your relationships will be fixed, and all of that is not promised in the Bible.

In fact, what Jesus said before he left was in this world you will have yes.

That was a promise, just like he's gonna end things well.

That's a promise too.

We must listen to this cloud of witnesses in Hebrews 11.

They are they are shouting from history that something better is coming, that persevering in faith matters.

We ground our faith in history by looking back at them, and we know that there are people who lived faith long before us, who looked beyond us to what is still to come, and lived in a way that shouted to everyone around them, This is real, and I'm willing to stake my life on it.

So the first who that we need to think about in perseverance is that cloud of witnesses.

The second one is ourselves.

We need to look in the mirror.

We need to be clear about what is hindering us.

Um we're still in the very first, see, we're in the very first verse.

We hadn't gotten very far.

The very first verse says, Let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, so that we can run with endurance the race that is set before us.

Now that phrase says, Let us, let us lay aside every weight.

We are not passive participants in our sanctification, in our becoming like Jesus.

Um, what I mean by that, the verse does not say, let God take off the weight.

It says, let us take off the weight that easily entangles us.

This is not talking about salvation.

Um, this is talking about sanctification.

See, God at salvation took off the penalty for our sin.

He removed the power of sin.

Um, it is our responsibility then to participate with God in becoming like Jesus by laying aside every weight.

So let's look at that word weight.

That word weight means whatever is impeding us or burdening us.

We could stop right here because we are loaded with impediments and burdens.

Fun fact um, in the first century, in the Greek games, the runners in competition ran naked.

Now I don't want you to think about that for very long because that is very disturbing.

I mean, we just saw the Olympics.

Can you just imagine what an event that would have been?

The idea was that they were getting rid of every single thing that would slow them down or hinder them.

Think about the Olympic swimmers.

We had this conversation in my house, why some of them, you know, the men were had no underarm hair, no arm hair, no head hair, nothing.

They were completely um bereft of anything that would slow them down.

And they wore, I remember Sophie just like, why do they have to wear those swimsuits?

Like, I think that's a great question, Sophie.

But it could be worse, according to the first century runners.

Um but it's so that they could go as fast as possible.

Um, and here's the thing about that weight, the weight that hinders us, it's not the same for everybody.

What hinders me may not hinder you.

What hinders you may not hinder her.

We all have different hindrances.

Um, I think if you're wondering, well, how do I know what hinders me?

I mean, a few things pop to my mind, but how do I know what is kind of hindering me in this race?

My encouragement is if you want to know what hinders you, fast from it.

And I would also add, and please do not announce it on Facebook, that you're fasting from it.

I see that a lot.

Fasting from Facebook.

Well, okay, thank you.

Um fasting always reveals what controls us.

And if you um would like to know more about fasting, there are some great books that could spell it out better than I ever could.

One, a great one is Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster.

If you want to know what hinders you, fast from it.

But the verse goes on to say: not just laying aside the weight that hinders us, but to lay aside the sin which clings so closely to us.

Sin are things that are essentially wrong.

Our culture tries to diminish the wrongness of sin.

I love what uh Jason Reifler says.

He said, People are really good at coming up with reasons to believe what they already believe.

We look for ways to normalize our preferences.

We look for ways to get friends to agree with us.

We find memes that'll lighten it and make it not so serious, or we look for ways to be validated, to be understood in our choices that are just at the end of the day, sin.

We get weary of waiting.

On God and trusting Him, like Neil talked about this morning, and we take responsibility for ourselves.

God, I can see you're busy.

I'll handle this one.

How's that working for you?

We try to convince ourselves that our situation really is unique.

That God understands why I need to live with my boyfriend until we're getting married.

Or God understands why I needed to kind of stretch the truth a little bit in this situation.

We all think that our situation is the exception to the rule.

But I'm just telling you that you are damning yourself.

That is sin.

We are so damningly self-centered and adolescent in our faith.

We really do want what we want when we want it.

If you've been around a toddler and I would say a 12-year-old, my child's 13, so I'm not putting her in that category.

If you've seen them in their unfiltered enthusiasm about wanting what they want, then that is how God sees us.

We want what we want.

And for some of us, it is time to grow up in our faith, to die to more of our flesh and our selfish ways.

Because sin clings tightly, it entangles, it skillfully surrounds us, and it destroys.

That is the one goal of it.

Sin also makes itself so much a part of our identity that we no longer see it or are put off by it.

It attaches itself like a magnet to us.

That is what it does.

And our souls are reeling, we have faded into the culture.

The salt really has lost its saltiness.

We really have.

Just actually obeying him.

Just doing what he says.

It's a conversation I have in my um home with my children all the time.

Just you don't have to question, just do what I say.

Try him.

Try simply doing what he says.

Try not having to know why.

Just do what he says.

So we looked back at the cloud of witnesses.

We've looked at ourselves in the mirror.

Wasn't that pleasant and enjoyable?

And the third who that we need for perseverance is Jesus.

Verse 2, we've moved on, says, look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.

Verse 3 says, consider him who endured from sinners such hostility so that you may not grow weary.

Now I'm not super smart, but if I'm looking to Jesus, I can't look at other things, right?

I mean, unless your eyes go different ways.

And I don't know if you can look, I don't think you can focus on two different things at one time.

Focusing and fixing our eyes on Jesus.

For a culture that is obsessed with ourselves, this is tough stuff to focus on Jesus and not ourselves.

But Jesus was fixed on the joy that was coming, and that is the ultimate and delayed gratification.

That is not something that our American culture enjoys, is delayed gratification.

We want to see a little something, something right now to get us through.

Love in 2 Corinthians 4, it talks about keeping our struggle in perspective, and it says that whatever you're experiencing now really is compared to the weight of glory that's coming for you, is a light and momentary affliction.

It doesn't feel like that, does it?

I mean, it's for some of us who are hemorrhaging right now with prodigals or with physical ailments or with a spouse that just is not getting it.

We are struggling.

This does not feel light or momentary, but from the perspective of the eternal weight of glory, it is.

What is at the end of the race is not the only motivation, but it is sufficient motivation.

It is sufficient.

We can have joy now just at the thought of what is to come.

That's faith.

That is the whole point of faith.

So we looked at the cloud of witnesses, ourselves, and Jesus.

Those are our focus when we're wanting to kind of grow in perseverance.

The second thing I want us to look at is how.

How do we learn to persevere?

The first thing is to keep our struggle in perspective.

Verse 4 says, in your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

No, I haven't.

I have not.

In Hebrews 11, where when we talked about that cloud of witnesses, a lot of the commentators that I read, um, when they are given the list of what some of these people have been through, one of the verses says, Um, women received back their dead by resurrection.

No, Jesus was not the only person to be resurrected.

Some were tortured, refusing to accept release so that they might rise again to a better life.

So most commentators believe that those that refused to accept release was referring to the Maccabean Revolt, which is a really interesting thing.

It was about 190 years before Jesus was resurrected.

So all of these Jewish readers would have been very familiar with the Maccabean Revolt.

It's what Hanukkah commemorates, just in case you're wondering.

You can pull that out in December.

Hey, that Hanukkah candle is the Maccabean Revolt.

There was a mother in the Maccabean Revolt who had seven sons.

All seven of them refused to turn their affection away from God and to sacrifice the idols.

These sons endured being stretched on a frame and beaten to death.

They endured this torture sooner than transgressed the law of God, is what it said.

In this story, one brother after another declares his readiness to accept torture and death because of the hope of the resurrection.

Now, 190 years before the resurrection was a long time ago.

And we're not there yet.

The resurrection of our bodies.

So one of the sons, when he was about to be killed, said to the king, This is brave, you accursed wretch, you dismiss us from this present life, but the king of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life because we have died for his laws.

Another holds out his limbs to be mutilated and said, I got these from heaven, and because of his laws I disdain them, and from him I hope to get them back again.

Another one who was about to die said, One cannot but choose to die at the hands of men and to cherish the hope that God gives of being raised again by him.

Their mother was enlisted to beg them to turn away from God.

I couldn't you just for a second put yourself in that position.

Have you ever, are you, are you kind of one of these people that think through different scenarios?

When Neil was traveling all the time, I when it was just me and the kids and he was gone out of town, I'd always think through, okay, if someone breaks in this door, I'll do this.

If someone breaks in that window, I'll do this.

If fire breaks out, I'll do this.

And he's like, You really think all those things?

I said, I think women do that.

Do y'all do that?

Okay, we all do that.

Most of us, some of us.

All right.

Well, this just so just put yourself in this in this mother's position where some of her sons have been killed, the rest of them are about to be killed, and they're coming to her saying, Talk your kids out of this because we're about to kill them.

That's that's a good little what would you do in this scenario.

This is what she said.

Accept death.

She said this to her sons.

Accept death, so that in God's mercy I may get you back again with your brothers.

That's what she said.

Now, here's what I'm not saying.

When that woman saw all seven of her sons killed, she didn't, she didn't feel no grief.

It didn't hurt less because she believed they would be resurrected at the end.

It doesn't mean that she didn't wish to God that it could go a different way.

It just meant that she knew this wasn't it.

And this wasn't the end, and God's purposes were bigger than hers, and her preferences for having grandkids one day from those sons.

That'd have been a lot of grandkids, by the way.

So we gain perseverance by keeping our struggle in perspective.

The second way that we gain perseverance is by being willing to be disciplined.

Anytime you see something, here's another one, the therefore, therefore, that's one.

Number two, anytime you see something repeated in scripture, there is a specific reason.

It is important.

The word discipline is repeated nine times between verses four and eleven.

I think we're supposed to pay attention to it.

So first we need to look at the way God disciplines us.

God disciplines us.

This is whatever happens to train, correct, cultivate, educate us so that we develop and mature.

I love what Arthur Pink says.

You need to form the habit of heeding his taps, and you will be much less likely to receive his raps.

Listen to God's taps, or you'll receive his raps.

A few quick things about God's discipline, because I want you to be clear about what his discipline is.

First, his discipline is an expression of his love for you.

It is an expression of his love for you.

John 15 says, Those whom I love, I prune.

If you've pruned something lately, it's not a pleasant experience for the branch.

So, secondly, discipline is a reminder to us that we are his.

If you are willfully sinning and you have not been disciplined by God, I would strongly consider what's going on.

God disciplines his children.

Discipline is also evangelistic by nature because it is a reminder to the world that you're his.

It's not just a reminder to you, it's a reminder to the world.

You ever see a kid, and when our kids were young enough to go into the play area at Chick-fil-A and they're not, I'm now the shortest one in my family, so the little sign at Chick-fil-A is now way below all my children.

But do you ever see kids acting up in there and you're like looking around going, where is your mother?

Do you ever do that?

You're like, clearly, she does not give you the consequences of your behavior like I would.

Let me speak to this.

When someone is not being disciplined, we wonder about the watchfulness of that parent, don't we?

You know, if you work in the nursery over there, you're like, I wonder, I'm gonna look and see who her parent is when she comes.

I want to see whose parents belong to this kid who didn't hear one word I said this morning.

You all think that.

Our being disciplined is a signal of God's love and affection to the world.

It says to the world, she belongs to somebody.

Next, discipline is not meant to be pleasant.

It is not meant to be pleasant.

Every day with Jesus is not always sweeter than the day before.

Um, verse 11 in Hebrews 12 says, for the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

This is painful, difficult stuff.

I remember when Madison was a little girl.

Madison is my oldest, she's almost 19.

And as was his custom, Neil was out of town when she got sick.

She got she got pink eye.

And I don't know if you've ever tried to put drops, those drops from hell in your child's eyeballs while they're kicking and screaming, not wanting the eye drops in their eyes.

So it is, it I mean, I don't know how we didn't get turned into CPS.

I mean, I was like draped across her, holding one arm with my arm, the other arm with this arm.

I'm laying across her body while her legs are kicking the heck out of me.

I'm holding her eye open with this arm while it's holding it down and she's doing this, and I'm like trying to keep her in.

I'm like, I'm trying to make the pink eye goop go away.

Discipline is not pleasant stuff.

Stop fighting him on this.

It's not supposed to feel good.

I love what C.S.

Lewis says.

Listen to this, and I'll repeat it.

He says that discipline plants the flag of truth within the fortress of a rebel soul.

It plants the flag of truth into the fortress of a rebel soul.

Any of you have rebel souls in your life right now?

That is something you can praise, that God would discipline them.

That is mercy.

That is mercy.

Could we ever get to the point that we can honestly say with a psalmist in one Psalm 119, it is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.

It is good for me that I was afflicted.

That is not the American culture.

We pay billions of money to be rescued from our affliction.

I just wonder what in God's voice we are missing by resisting affliction.

The next thing about discipline is it is how sin loses its power in our lives.

You remember earlier when I said that sin clings tightly and it sticks to us like a magnet?

Well, I got my nerd on and I looked to see how a magnet is demagnetized.

Sherry Elder.

You can hold me accountable if this is wrong.

But I looked it up, I Googled it, and I'm sure it's true.

I don't know what the third way means.

We'll get Sherry to teach us that later.

She's a very smart scientist.

The first way that a magnet is demagnetized is by striking it with a hammer.

That's what it said.

Strike it with a hammer.

The second way that you demagnetize a magnet is to set, to subject the magnet to a flame.

The third way is to expose the magnet to an AC generator, and I was like, that doesn't, that doesn't compute.

I don't know what that means.

I'm sure it's great though.

Um the way that we demagnetize sin in our life is to be disciplined.

Strike with a hammer, subject to a flame.

That's discipline.

So God disciplines us as his children.

That is one form of discipline.

The second form of discipline is us disciplining ourselves.

We have got to do whatever it takes to be healthy and to mature in Christ.

I love what Hebrews 12:12 says.

Hebrews 12:12

It says, therefore, lift your drooping hands.

Are your hands droopy, a little bit droopy?

Strengthen your weak knees.

Make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame in you may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.

Do what you've got to do to move toward healing and obedience.

Now, I strongly believe that some of us have come to a stronghold of sin in our lives because we have endured an early injustice in our lives.

You know it just in this simple example, someone who was violated sexually as a child, I can say this in this room, we're all adults, um, they are more likely to be promiscuous, right?

That is not an excuse for promiscuity.

It is an understanding of it, it's an explanation of it.

But this verse is not excusing that.

So don't hear me say that.

If you have a stronghold of sin in your life, do what you've got to do to get healthy.

If that means counseling, get it.

If that means finding some more mature believers in your life to sit down with you on a consistent basis and walk you through God's word, do it.

You have to participate in being disciplined by God.

You have to participate in that.

I love what Oswald Chambers says.

He says the initiative against despair is to rise and do the next thing.

Rise and do the next thing.

So, what is the next thing that you need to do to strengthen yourself, to get the help you need, to be held accountable?

What is the next thing you need to do?

So we looked at who we need to focus on in perseverance.

We need to focus on the cloud of witnesses.

Because you know what?

Before Christianity was today, it was historical.

So we need to look back and to see our brothers and sisters and let them remind us that this is worth it.

We need to look at ourselves, we need to look at Jesus.

The second thing is how the perseverance comes is through discipline.

God's discipline of us and our participation by being disciplined, by choosing things to discipline ourselves and to move toward healing.

The third thing I want to talk about tonight, are y'all still with me?

I use Neil's question.

I always like it when he says that.

I'm like, yeah, we're still with you.

We're still with you.

All right, the why of perseverance.

I think sometimes it's easy to just kind of get in that mindset where we think, can't I just ride this thing out?

If he's gonna make it all okay at the end, I'm just gonna ride this out.

I have screwed this up so badly that there's no point.

That is a lie.

That is a lie from hell, and it's not the truth.

So, what is our motivation to per to persevere?

Well, it is who and what is coming.

Who and what is coming.

Because when the shaking of this world comes, you want to be on the side of the unshakable kingdom.

You do.

It's all gonna go, it's gonna go down.

Every when it says at the end of the verse, everything that can be seen, everything that can be seen will be shaken.

That's anything that we can see is gonna be shaken.

The only thing that's gonna remain is what can't be seen.

God, God is gonna shake this world.

He is the God of the unshakable kingdom, he is a consuming fire.

What is gonna happen?

It's all gonna get shaken.

Who is the consuming fire?

If you've ever seen a house fire, you get consuming fire.

I think, and I think Neil's talked about this from the platform, but two or three Christmases ago, thank you.

Two or three Christmases ago, our neighbor's house burned on Christmas.

It was horrible.

I woke up because I heard a I guess I heard an explosion.

And our bedroom window faces their house.

So I was facing the other way.

I heard something, I roll over, and the whole window is a glow.

It was terrifying.

So I jump up, Neil is snoring, sound asleep.

So I'm gonna go check this thing out and sure make all the difference in the world.

But I run to my back door from my back door.

This is a house that if if my if the back of my house is facing this way, you go down the street and then you go that way, it was a house caddy cornered.

I could feel the the house, the heat of the house from inside my house.

It was so hot.

And that entire two story house was completely consumed in 30 minutes.

Completely.

They all made it out.

I just want you to know.

The only thing that I thought this was so amazing, but the only thing that was still there when that house burned down was first of all, they had a cross in the backyard.

Who knew?

And it was standing, even though the fences around their house were smoking, that the trees were all burned down, the blinds in the house on either side of them were melted, but there was a cross standing in the backyard, and the foundation of that house did not burn up.

Now that's a duh.

You're like, duh, it's cement.

There's a foundation that you're encouraged to stand on too that won't be consumed in the end.

This idea of God as a consuming fire is not a popular notion in our society of wink, wink, God, God's my BFF, he's the big man upstairs.

That is not a popular notion anymore.

You don't hear a lot of sermons on hell anymore, do you?

But he is a consuming fire and he is due our reverence.

You cannot come to a consuming fire and not be impacted.

If you are coming to church and you're still stuck in a habitual sin, hear my heart in this.

There is a chance that you are not worshiping God when you come, but you might be worshiping worship.

You might be worshiping the pastor's preaching style or how you feel when you hear him.

Um, worshiping God forces a crisis in us.

We can't come before God's presence and leave unchanged.

It's not in his nature.

He has not changed.

Part of what you signed on for in becoming a follower of Jesus is to obey the consuming fire, who is determined to burn off everything in us that does not look like him.

And that is mercy.

He wants to set us free.

Appreciating God, appreciating good preaching or teaching is not the same as worshiping God.

We have substituted, I'm afraid, appreciation for transformation in defining what it means to follow Jesus.

It's easy to mistake the great feeling we have when we hear someone with charisma and humor and gravitas preach the word of God.

We may even believe that every word is true.

But if that is where it stops for us, it is likely that our faith will not withstand the shaking.

Worshiping God forces and requires transformation.

The whole truth of the gospel includes transformation.

If you are not being transformed, if you can look back over the last 10, 15, 20 years and there is not a discernible difference in who you are and your power over sin, then I just I'm begging you to reflect on why.

I'm not trying to tell you why that is.

I don't know why.

But there's a reason.

Know this.

Here's the good news, because that was kind of heavy.

I get it.

The gospel that requires transformation also has within it the power to transform us, to change us, so that we live in this world that has lost its moorings, and yet we can have joy and peace and reverence for a good God who does what he says he's gonna do and he finishes what he starts.

I want to end with this quote.

It says, uh, faith in God carries with it no guarantee of comfort in this world, but it does carry with it great reward in the only world that ultimately matters.

And my encouragement to all of us, myself included, is that it is worth it to persevere.

There is a way to persevere, and we will all be better for it.

We need to remind each other to persevere.

I'm so glad that you express your prayer requests on Facebook, but you have got to take it a step further and reach out to someone and say, I need help.

I need you to hold me accountable.

I am weary, my knees are weak, my hands are drooping, I am tired.

The battle has gotten to me.

We have got to help each other.

So in a minute, what we're gonna do in just a minute is we're gonna spend a little time praying.

You're gonna pray on your own.

I'm gonna put you together.

Um, well, you're gonna put yourself together, but we're gonna pray together for just a little bit.

I don't some of you just went, uh crud, I didn't sign on for that.

I know, because if I said we were coming together and pray, half of you would not have come.

I know that.

Um you are not gonna have to pray out loud if you're not comfortable to, but we have got to encourage one another to persevere.

Before we get to that, let's pray.

God, your power to change us has not diminished.

If we are your children, you have rescued us out of the kingdom of darkness, and you have thrown us on the back of your horse and charged into the kingdom of light.

That is who you are, it's what you do.

God, I pray that you would give us the courage to figure out how to live, how to live with good news.

We can be such eeyors like the rest of the world and shout out that it's always hurricane weather.

Lord, this is good news.

That you are dead set determined to make us like you.

That's what sets us free.

So, Lord, give us the courage to do the next thing, to move toward practically obeying you.

I would love to see what happened if we did that.

I would love it, Holy Spirit, in that moment when we have that familiar temptation to talk about somebody, or to resent someone, or to speak unkindly to someone, or to flirt with someone that is not our husband, that in that moment you would remind us that that's not worth it.

That's not going to give you what you think it will.

I've come to set you free.

I've come to give you everything you need to persevere to the end.

If if you uh as you're focused on Jesus, if there's a a name of Jesus, a name of God, or an attribute of God, or or just an aspect of God that you've really focused on tonight, if you would just just call it out.

I mean, it doesn't matter if you're speaking over somebody, just let's let's pray our worship out loud and speak out names of Jesus, of God that have encouraged us tonight.

I want us to shift our focus from upward to inward.

Like we talked about tonight.

Um, I want us to spend a little time just focusing on that weight and that sin inside of us.

So if if you you don't have to move, but if you would like to come to the altar, um we're we all have sin in our lives that we struggle with, so you're not gonna stand out, but that just you can come to the altar, you can kneel where you are, you can just bow your head.

Um I want you to um just focus inwardly for a moment.

Let the consuming fire of God just kind of illuminate your soul to yourself.

I want you to think about a weight.

Remember, we talked about that weight is something that hinders us.

It's not necessarily good or bad, but it's holding us back.

What is hindering you?

What have you outgrown in your life that is holding you back from obeying?

What about what about the sin in your life?

Remember, we talked about the sin that clings so closely.

Confession is a powerful thing.

Is there is there someone maybe that you're not at peace with?

Um Hebrews 12 talks about a root of bitterness.

I didn't I didn't touch on this tonight, but that root of bitterness, it refers to a sin that is tolerated.

When it is tolerated, it contaminates the whole community.

A root is hidden and then it bears fruit.

Is there sin in your life?

Any kind of unholy way of talking or living?

Is there sexual sin in your life?

I want you to ponder that while Lindsay leads us.

Um, you don't have to sing along, you can just let her sing over you.

As you uh pondered that uh weight and sin, um I would ask you to think of someone that you can talk to about it, that you can be held accountable to.

Um awareness of something is not liberation from it.

We all know that.

So I would ask you to ponder going another step with that.

So we've we've focused our prayers upward and inward, and now I want us to focus it outward.

What I want you to do, um, and you can spread out if you want to.

This is not gonna be long.

So we we have dessert to eat.

So um, but if you'll get in groups of maybe two or three, if there's someone you came with, that's fine.

If you don't have to move, if you'd like to move, you can spread out.

Um, we're gonna just spend a little bit of time praying together.

Do not feel pressure to pray out loud, but I just want you to get into groups of two or three.

So here's what I want you to pray together about.

And you you again, you can say it out loud, you don't have to, but what is one area in your life in which you are needing encouragement?

Just speak your need briefly, and then as a group, you can just start praying.

You don't have to go into detail, you don't have to say anything, but where are you needing encouragement?

As you're finishing up praying, I would each of you was given a small tea light candle when you came in.

What I would like you to do in in um just as a visible reminder to pray for that person, I want you to um just as you're as you think of that name, come to the tables that are up here, bring your light.

There's there are matches, you're gonna light your match to that candle and then light your um candle, and it's gonna be a reminder that these prayers, as as clearly as we see these lights, God hears these prayers as clearly.

So Lindsay's gonna lead us in a song while you come forward and light those candles, and then we'll um finish in some worship.

You keep coming if you want to bring your lights forward.

I'm gonna pray and then um I want to just give you an idea of what we're about to do as we close out.

Um I'm gonna pray, and then Lindsay's gonna, I think you're not done, are you?

You can okay, okay.

After she she's gonna she's gonna lead us in some more worship, and then we're gonna go back to the fellowship hall.

If you're not from this church, you're gonna go out these doors and go down this hallway, and there are luscious desserts, homemade desserts, that are awaiting us.

Um, the only people that need to be mindful of the time are any that have kids in childcare, but you you have until 8 45 to pick them up, just a heads up.

So be mindful of that.

The rest of us can eat desserts until they're gone.

Amen.

So feel free to keep coming with your lights, but let me pray, and then Lindsay is gonna finish us out with some worship.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, remind us with these tiny little tea lights that promise to last four to six hours and they never do.

That the more we become like you, the more we become like you, the more we join our lives in prayers together, the more holes we punch in the darkness of this world.

God, you are a consuming fire.

And may these lights remind us that it is a gift when you bring refining fire to our lives.

May we receive that refinement with gratitude and not resentment.

Let everything that does not belong in us be burned away, shaken from our grip, so that what remains, well, it's all we ever had.

And it's all we need.

Because you're enough.

Lord, we love you.

And we're gonna, just like your disciples did in days of old, we're gonna end this night singing worship to you.

So we're gonna do that, and we hope you we hope you enjoy it, Lord.

In your name we pray.

Amen.