Ep. 063 Winners Embrace Hardship

Welcome to the Potter's House Salmon Arm Podcast.

We are a Bible -believing church located in beautiful

British Columbia, Canada. We are proudly part

of the Christian Fellowship Ministries with 3

,000 churches around the world. We are a church

focused on world evangelism, discipleship, and

church planting. Here we will share recent sermons

from PHSA Church and other sermons from throughout

our fellowship. I'm Pastor David Bickford and

I will be your host for this podcast. I thank

you for listening today and we hope these messages

are a blessing to you and bring you closer to

God. Hello and welcome back to the Salmon Arm

Potter's House podcast. I'm again Pastor David

Bickford, the pastor here in town. We're a small

little work for... Jesus Christ, we're just trying

to build something here in this outstanding community

of Salmon Arm. And today's message I have entitled,

Winners Embrace Hardship, Trading Eternity for

Comfort. So the idea here is that we oftentimes

in life are going to be struggling with the hardships

that we come across. Every single one of us is

going to deal with these hardships. And we have

to learn how to overcome those hardships if we're

ever going to be successful in our lives. But

also, as believers, we need to embrace the hardships

we come across for the sake of the gospel. So

life begins when you're being shaken. Father

Alfred Delp was a prisoner of the Nazis during

World War II. He was charged with treason for

true Christian preaching. From his jail cell,

he wrote about the meaning of Advent, the coming

of Christ. And he writes, Advent is a time for

rousing. Human beings are shaken to the very

depths so that they may wake up to the truth

themselves. The primary condition for a fruitful

and rewarding Advent is renunciation or surrender,

a shattering awakening that is necessary, preliminary.

Life begins only when the whole framework is

shaken. In our society today, we are dealing

with a shaking that is occurring throughout the

entire world. At the time of this recording,

it's being shown that the leading candidate for

president of France has been tried and charged,

and now she's looking at facing a two -year prison

cycle and not being allowed to run in the election.

And it's interesting because we dealt with something

like that in the United States fairly recently.

And we see the machinations of society that are

trying to take away our viewpoints or make us

invalidated. And they're using every legal means

possible. Because this is the problem when your

countries get too big or too corrupt and they

start adding laws upon laws upon laws. There's

a term within the governments that they believe

that they don't need to make you a criminal because

they've already done that with all the laws they

have. They just have to charge you so that they

can put that stigma upon you. But I want us to

remember, as we work through this scripture that

we're going to use, which is Romans 8, 31 -39,

and we look at this text today about embracing

hardship, is that if we remember all of the...

The disciples became criminals in their own time.

Jesus Christ was tried and executed by the authorities

at the time. So these are hardships that we all

have to be willing to endure because society

is consistently wanted to close the mouths of

those who preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and

close the mouths of the preach freedom to the

people. And we're seeing that in our world today.

In a lot of Western European countries, you are

being told that you are no longer allowed your

voice or even your opinion online because you

will be not only chastened by society, but you

will be potentially imprisoned for speaking out

against what the powers that be deem approved.

Let's look at our text in Romans 8, 31 through

39, God's everlasting love. What then shall we

say to these things? If God is for us, who can

be against us? He who did not spare his own son,

but gave him up for all of us, how will he not

also with him graciously give us all things?

Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?

It is God who justifies, who is to condemn. Christ

Jesus is the one who died and more than that,

who was raised. who is the right hand of God,

who indeed is interceding for us, who shall separate

us from the love of Christ, shall tribulation

or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness

or danger or sword. As it is written, for your

sake we are being killed all the day long. We

are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No,

in all these things we are more than conquerors,

for though... For through him who loved us, for

I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels

nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to

come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor

anything else in all creation will be able to

separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus,

our Lord. Let's pray. Dear Lord God, I pray that

this message will infect people's hearts with

your wisdom, with your power, Lord God. You tell

us in the word of God that your word will never

go and return void, but it'll always impact people's

lives. And we need that impact now more than

ever. As a church, we've cried out for revival,

revival, but we don't need revival. We need an

awakening to happen in our societies again. We

need people to be shaken so that they turn to

Christ and instead of looking down at their own

body, they are looking up to you for salvation.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Lou Holtz said,

winners embrace the hard work. They love the

discipline of it. The trade -off they're making

to win. Losers, on the other hand, see it as

a punishment. And that's the difference. And

we want to be winners today for Christ's sake.

And so with that, we have to be able to embrace

the hardship that comes. I found this article

from a guy that I follow quite a bit. His name's

Andy Frisella. I think I probably had to sanitize

this a bit. He's got a bit of a harshness to

his approach. But that's what makes him who he

is in a lot of ways. But he wrote, Winners Embrace

Hardship. And it says, success is hard. Winning

is hard. Achieving your biggest goals in life

is hard. It is not the norm. It is not for everyone.

You won't accidentally win. It's going to be

the hardest thing you've ever done in your life.

And it never ends. Trust me on this. Train yourself

to love the hard. And doing all the hard stuff

is exactly what will help you develop the skills

you need to win in the long term. Grit, resilience,

persistence, fortitude, mental toughness, that's

what wins. Let everyone else cheat themselves

out of their own future. Let everyone else try

to work their way around the discomfort and the

struggle. Let everyone else quit. They are trading

comfort later for comfort now. They just won't

realize it until it's too late. Don't put yourself

in the same situation. Train yourself to love

the hard. All winners do. Our Savior Jesus Christ,

He loves the hard. He didn't have to come to

earth. He's God incarnate. He has all power.

But He chose the hard thing, which was to come

to earth in human form and to willingly go to

the cross for our sins so that we would have

a path back to the Father. And through Him we

have all victory. But then we also now as servants

of the all high, we have a choice. Which brings

me to my first point, which is the mystery of

hardship. And when I want to look at this is

I want to think about, you know, you guys probably

know this person, Tom Brady, a former NFL quarterback.

But what you might not know is that he was a

third string college quarterback. How is it that

he ended up in the Hall of Fame for the NFL?

He was a sixth -round draft pick, number 199.

And a remark about him in this article I found

that talks about how he was finally picked to

be an NFL quarterback, and they said he had a

poor build, he was skinny, and he lacks a great

physical stature or strength. His mobility and

ability to avoid the rush was in question. He

doesn't really have a strong arm. He can't drive

the ball downfield. He doesn't really throw a

super tight spiral. He's a system type player

who can't get exposed if forced to ad lib and

he gets knocked down easily. These are not things

you think of when you think of a... a football

player who's destined for greatness. In fact,

this is not what you'd think of anybody who's

going to make it even into college football,

let alone the great heights that he achieved.

But this is the call. This is the challenge that

we see from Abraham in Genesis 12, one through

three. It says, now the Lord said to Abraham,

Go from your country and your kindred and your

father's house to the land that I will show you.

And I will make of you a great nation and I will

bless you and make your name great so that you

will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless

you and him who dishonors you, I will curse and

in you all the families of the earth shall be

blessed. So by faith, God challenges Abram to

leave everything he knows and to venture out

by faith. This is a monumental challenge. Why

would he be willing to do this? He's called to

live in hope. Abraham made a decision to live

by faith and to place his hopes in the Lord.

This choice is the cornerstone of all the beliefs

of Christianity. Abraham is the father of our

faith, and through this, he decides to act. You

will be blessed and protected, he's told. This

was not a choice that came from blind faith.

It was a decision born out of a relationship

that he cultivated with God. Abram had a relationship

with God, and through that, there was a foundational

trust. When God tells Abram that he will be blessed,

he's also confirming that he will be protected.

Abram's faith came from his closeness and his

knowledge of our Heavenly Father. But this didn't

mean that he'd be without hardship. In Genesis

12, 10, we see Abram and Sarai entering into

Egypt. Now there was a famine in the land, so

Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for

the famine was severe in the land. Just so we're

not confusing it, this means we've never experienced

famine in our land the way that they talk about

in biblical times or the way that some of our

African believers have to deal with in real life.

Famines have happened in our lifetime, but not

to the extent that you read about in the Bible.

When there is literally no food and your only

option is to chance a long, arduous journey into

a foreign country in the hopes that they will

give you asylum or amnesty to be able to survive

the famine. This is something very different.

This is a different kind of hardship than what

we can really conceptualize in our place and

time today. But what is hardship? Here's the

mystery. The famine was grievous in the land.

Abraham was in the land in which God had called

him to and where God had promised to bless him.

But now he's struck with famine. This is the

mystery that shows how blind we are and how...

shallow and selfish we are about the thoughts

of God's holy religion. Hardship, difficulty,

and even famine are accepted readily enough by

man whose aims are to be reached by such endurance.

The difficulty is that there was a purpose to

the famine. Maybe not one that's explained to

your understanding or to the extent that you'd

like to see, but every endeavor worth doing requires

sacrifice. And we see early on in the Bible that

this is a reality. It's a part of life and part

of God's plan. We read about Noah's Ark. We know

that as a result of the curse, man is called

to toil in the soil and that women are to endure

additional hardship and childbearing and motherhood.

What we do not like to think about is how this

fits into what God's plan is for our life or

God's will. Last Sunday, I preached about greed

and I preached about looking at greed as a picture

of your will. When you decide to do things according

to your will outside of the will of God, you

are making a greedy, self -indulgent choice.

And you're ignoring what the will is or what

God's will is for your life. Because growth is

the purpose. The athlete in his training, the

soldier in his calling, the man of science in

his search for truth, the student in his work,

sturdy self -denial as a condition of success.

What science and art and love of travel can stimulate

other men to endure cannot this be the same for

our God. The vision he has called us to requires

a challenge and endurance, and we have to learn

to accept it and rejoice in it as well. Hardship

and discipline are a blessing because of God.

He said, I will bless you and you shall be a

blessing. And because here, as everything else,

hardship and stern discipline have their place

and their work to do. What was God doing in the

background to potentially preserve the greater

nation of Egypt and all the people who he wanted

to save and salvage in that land because of Abram

coming to town? God said it and he knows how

to keep his own promises. But he often uses other

things or other ways or other people to fulfill

those promises. And oftentimes we don't like

his methodology, but that doesn't change his

will. Think of a boat captain and about his experience.

You ask him and he's, you know, like, what kind

of experience do you have? He's, sir, do you

know what to do in a storm? No, says the captain,

I do not. I'm thankful to say that I've always

been kept in the harbor in very smooth waters.

What about a doctor? Would you go to a doctor?

Do you know what to do in case of fever or serious

accident? No, he replies, I do not. I have happily

never been permitted to deal with anything worse

than an occasional cold or headache. We would,

of course, prefer another captain or another

doctor. We would also wonder how they came about

their titles. How do you come about the title

of doctor if you don't know how to mend the broken?

How do you come to the title of captain if you've

never fared the seas? If you've never had to

battle through the storms? Because faith needs

to be undeterred during hardship. Abraham gained

wisdom and discernment during his affliction.

And like all the afflictions he suffered in Egypt

or throughout his sojourning, from affliction

to affliction, to trial to trial, God allows

us to learn and to grow. God is there to protect

our soul even in the darkest times. Oftentimes

that's the protection we most need, but the protection

we least want. Because when you're going through

hardship, you want to whine, you want to complain.

Because we see a picture of this in the Bible

in the book of Job. What a tremendous character

Job had. But even over time, after all his friends

were picking on him, even after his wife was

telling him to curse God and die, it took a lot,

but eventually he was worn down where he complained.

And lucky for us and for the story of Job, he

was able to rebound from that when confronted

by the power of our God. But that doesn't change

the fact that during those hard, dark times,

We can struggle, but we need to maintain our

faith. As Christians, we have to turn to God

for our security and our sustenance. The way

that we can do this, the way we can enable this

or help this in our lives is we can focus on

our mental toughness. We can strive to have faith

like Abraham. But it doesn't get built overnight.

It's a process that can seem very tiring and

tedious, but it is critically necessary. Unfortunately,

some of us, myself included, are slower learners

than others. So that means you might end up going

through more trials, more hardship because of

your own poor choices. Every great MVP like Tom

Brady had a lot to learning to do. So we jump

back into his story. We read this excerpt from

the article. It says, we all have experiences

that we dream about, that we look forward to.

And when we get them, they don't always go our

way. I learned it as a freshman on the football

field just outside of this gym, and again I learned

it as a second -year player who finally got a

chance to play in college. Unfortunately, I learned

it three weeks ago as I lost to the Giants in

the Super Bowl XLVI, but I've always been blessed

with the support of my family and friends, and

also with coaches who committed their best to

me with each opportunity, came an understanding

of the things that it takes to be successful,

and often this happens. through trial and error,

and sometimes through outright failure because

Lord knows I made plenty of mistakes. So whether

I was learning through the watching as I did

my freshman year at Sarah or playing and making

mistakes over the course of my career, I continued

to learn to embrace every hardship and to seize

every opportunity on and off the field. The owner

of my current team, Robert Kraft, has told me

time and time again, every bump is a bounce.

So what I've learned very quickly as a professional

was that your job is always on the line. I am

in what you've done for me lately type of business,

because in all business, there are disclosures.

And investments, it says, past performance doesn't

guarantee future result. And that pretty much

sums up the NFL. What I really like about this

excerpt from Tom Brady himself is it's the recognition

that the work never ends. The challenges will

never stop coming. There will always be new challenges,

and you have to be mentally tough enough to continue

to run the race. In Romans 5, 1 through 5, it

says, Therefore, since we have been justified

by faith, we have peace with God through our

Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, we also obtained

access by faith into this grace in which we stand,

and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not

only that, but we rejoice in our suffering, knowing

that suffering produces endurance and endurance

produces character and character produces hope.

And hope does not put us to shame because God

loves or God's love has been poured out into

our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been

given to us. So part of mental toughness is your

ability to be resilient. The ability of a person

to adjust to recover readily from illness and

adversity or major life changes is a critical

component of your mental toughness. In 2 Samuel

24, 10 -14, we read about the Lord's judgment

of David's sin. But David's heart struck him

after he had numbered the people, and David said

to the Lord, I have sinned greatly in what I

have done, but now, O Lord, please take away

the iniquity of your servant, for I have done

very foolishly. And when David arose in the morning

and the word of the Lord came to the prophet

Gad, David's seer saying, go and say to David,

thus says the Lord, three things I offer you.

Choose one of them that I may do it. So Gad came

to David and told him and said to him, shall

three years of famine come to you in your land?

Or will you flee three months before your foes

while they pursue you? Or shall there be three

days of pestilence in your land? Now consider

and decide. What answer I shall return to him

who sent me. Then David said to Gad, I am in

great distress. Let us fall into the hand of

the Lord for his mercy is great. But let me not

fall into the hand of man. So King David had

succumbed to sin of the census in this picture

of scripture or portion of scripture. He had

failed and now he sat in judgment. He had to

acknowledge that it was appropriate for him to

be called out. He had to cry out and ask for

God in repentance. And because he did so, and

because of the righteousness of God, he was given

a choice. So there had to be discipline done

for what he had done was outside of the will

of God. And as a leader, there was going to be

repercussions for that onto the people. Just

like any government that we elect or any government

you sit under today. there is a punishment that

does tend to fall on the people for the choices

that our leaders make. And this is just the way

things end up going in our society and our lives.

But that doesn't mean that God isn't acting without

grace in this situation. For the wages of sin

are death, but God is a God of mercy. And so

he gave David the choice. So then we get to persistence,

the act of persisting. is to continue steadfastly

or firmly in some state, purpose, course of action,

especially in spite of opposition. It's very

similar to the word perseverance. In James 1

.25, but the one who looks into the perfect law,

the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no

hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will

be blessed in his doing. So we see this with

the continuation of the story with King David.

He had to persevere through the discipline. Eventually

that discipline was shortened on the people of

Israel because of the consistent prayers of King

David. But we have to persist in our faith if

we're going to be able to cultivate that mental

toughness that we need to serve rightly before

God. Israel waited for generations for the fulfillment

of the promises that many believers never lived

to see. The book of Hebrews in the New Testament

touches on this quite a bit, that they had to

believe before Christ came. The promise to Abraham

sustained hope for centuries before Canaan was

possessed. The lessons of the wilderness journey,

when the waning of the initial zeal prevented

the people from entering the promised land. These

are things that can't be forgotten. They had

to persist even when it was no longer comfortable

to persist. Prophets in the Old Testament constantly

looked beyond failure and tragedy, off to the

distant horizon, and they nourished the people

of Israel and Judea with faith of the coming

Messiah. In the New Testament, everything is

urging us to similar perseverance. Among several

Greek expressions, the usual word is proskaterio,

has a root meaning to attend continually. It

hears steadfastly and is variously translated

devoted, continued, constant, or to be steadfast.

These ideas are throughout the Old Testament

and the New Testament about the importance of

putting your head down and continuing forward

in the path that God has chosen for you. This

persistent patience is called for in prayer in

Luke. 18 and Colossians 4. Later on, it's talked

about in well -doing in Romans 2, 7 and Galatians

6, 9. It goes throughout the entire thread of

the New Testament. In being zealous to confirm

our call and election in 2 Peter 1, 10 is an

interesting piece of scripture that highlights.

That if you're to be called to the will of God

for your life, you need to be zealously moving

forward, even during the difficult times. You

have to preserve, even in the face of failure.

And you have to keep in mind that there are possibilities

of discomfort. There are possibilities of even

being killed for your beliefs, but you have to

be able to persevere. persevere and persist in

that. Because as Jesus said, he who endures to

the end will be saved in Matthew 10, 22. Such

extraordinary emphasis cannot be accidental.

The pressures of the pagan society we live in,

the dangers of persecution, the emotional reaction

after the wonderful initial experience, the apparent

implication of instant salvation, made it an

imperative for Christians to understand that

by their endurance they would inherit salvation.

This idea that you're going to give your life

to Jesus, which is great, it's going to save

your soul, but that doesn't mean that you're

going to be without struggles and trials, tribulation,

persecution, all of these things that Jesus himself

had to go through, you will likely have to go

through as well. And that's why you need to foster

mental toughness and fortitude. mental and emotional

strength, and facing difficulty, adversity, danger,

or temptation, and you need to do it courageously.

The scripture never implies that perseverance

depends entirely upon our effort, though. This

is what sets us apart from what I read from Andy

Frisella, is the fact that we do not reside only

on our own strength, for if we did, we would

fail. In the Old Testament, the redeeming purpose

of God is unswerving. God's covenant stands,

though it needs to be renewed, as it says in

Jeremiah 31. But we need to reside. We need to

abide and we need to cling to our Savior, Jesus

Christ. The scripture makes it very clear that

we will see trials in our life. These are not

meant to discourage us, but rather to enable

us for greater purpose. When Joseph was sold

into slavery by his brothers, that was a pretty

big trial in his life, a pretty hard reality.

for him to face. He was imprisoned and he suffered

permanent damage due to the chains that he was

shackled in. The trial was God's way of hardening

Joseph for greater use. As we know, Joseph would

go on to be the savior for his family as he had

rose to the second highest ruler of Egypt under

the Pharaoh. But he would not have been able

to achieve such great heights had he not been

for the hardship that he went through and the

faith that he maintained prior to that. Moses

spent decades in the desert so that he would

become the leader he needed to be. And then we

get upset when we don't get a promotion within

a year or two years of our current vocation.

And if we don't get what we want, we're out of

here. Or if you're in a marriage and you're not

fighting. To keep that and protect it, you'll

say, oh, well, we just, we fell out of love or

whatever kind of craziness you want to attest

to. There are challenges in life that need to

be fought through because in regards to the marriage

one, not to overemphasize it, but I saw a really

simple illustration. A Christian marriage is

like a triangle with Christ at the top and the

husband and wife on either side. The closer you

get to Christ, the closer you get together in

your marriage. The farther away from Christ,

the farther away you are in your marriage. It's

just an interesting picture. It's not in my notes,

but it's something to think about if you're struggling

in that area. Finally, we see our Lord and Savior,

Jesus Christ, suffer the greatest of trials in

order to redeem us back to the Father. And this

is where I come to my third and my final point.

God is for us. In Tom Brady's story, he continues

on and says, there are always going to be younger

and hungrier athletes competing to take your

spot. I got my opportunity when it came. Our

starter, Drew Bledsoe, got injured on my second

year. All the practice meetings and time spent

on the field and in this gym and in the classroom

prepared me to take advantage of the opportunity.

So Romans 5, 6, it says, for while we were still

weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.

For one will scarcely die for a righteous person,

though perhaps for a good person one would dare

even to die. But God shows his love for us in

that while we were still sinners, Christ died

for us. Since therefore we have not been justified

by his blood, much more shall we be saved by

him from the wrath of God. I want to touch on

this real quick. Again, this is not in the notes

either. It's a podcast. If you do what I do,

you can listen to this at 1 .75 speed to kind

of speed up the process. My family doesn't know

how I can do that. It sounds really crazy, but

I do. I listen to all of the podcasts and everything

I listen to at 1 .75 speed. But what I was going

to say with this is that, and this is going to

be quite inflammatory to some of you, but the

picture of Christ dying for those who are sinners

is the picture of Christ dying for someone like

Putin. The picture of Christ dying for someone

like Trump. The picture of Christ dying for someone

like Trudeau. The picture of Christ dying for

whoever it is you hate. Whoever it is you hate

is who Jesus Christ died for so that they might

be saved. I'm not saying they are, not saying

they will be, but so they might be saved if they

turn to him. So let that sink in because I know

that'll affect a lot of people. But Jesus Christ

died for the exact person that you say you hate.

And he died for you as well. So that you might

be saved. Because our God is a God incarnate.

Luke 1, 31 -33 says, And behold, you will conceive

in your womb and bear a son. You shall call his

name Jesus. He will be great and will be called

the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will

give him. the throne of his father David, and

he will reign over the house of Jacob forever.

Of his kingdom, there will be no end. He was

born in lowly stature, our Lord. In Luke 2, we

read the story of him being born in the manger.

And eventually, though, our Savior, Jesus Christ,

died on the cross in Luke 23, verse 33 -34. And

Luke 23:33–34

when they came to the place that is called the

skull, There they crucified him and the criminals

on his right and on his left. And Jesus said,

Father, forgive them, for they know not what

they do. And they cast lots and divided his garment.

So again, with a point or a purpose to be inflammatory,

Jesus Christ didn't just die for you, but he

died for all the people you hate. And that's

something you have to remedy in your own soul.

When you're saying, I hate this leader, I hate

that leader, that person's beyond salvation.

Just remember, that's exactly who Jesus came

to die for. When he was eating meals with the

unclean Jewish people, the tax collectors, the

harlots, all this kind of stuff. That is literally

who he came to save. Just as he came to save

you. In Luke 24, 6 -7. He is not here, but he

is risen. Remember how he told you while he was

still in Galilee that the Son of Man must deliver

into the hands of the sinful men and be crucified

and on the third day rise. So C .S. Lewis wrote,

So today, let us embrace hardship just as Jesus

did. And certainly, we can embrace hardship for

him. If I could have every head bowed, every

eye closed, wherever you're listening to this

message, as long as it's safe to do so, I just

want you to take a second to reflect on the message.

Winners embrace hardship. We are victors in Christ

Jesus, but maybe you're not right with Jesus

right now. Maybe you've never given your life

to him. Maybe it sounds crazy. Maybe you're full

of that hate that I touched on where you think,

well, I'm a good person, but all these other

people are so horrible they should die. There's

a lot of that's in our society today. I disagree

with this person. They should die. But Jesus

Christ came for that person you disagree with.

He came to set you free just as much as he came

to set them free. So if you're not right today

and you want to get your heart right, you can

signify that uplifted hand. Wherever you are,

God can see that. If you did raise your hand,

I want you to, and you meant it, God can see

your heart, even though I can't. You can repeat

after me, dear Lord God, I know that I'm a sinner,

but I know that you sent your son, Jesus Christ,

and that he died for my sins. I repent of my

sins. I turn away from them and I accept you

as my Lord and my Savior. In Jesus' name, amen.

That simple prayer is what we colloquially call

a sinner's prayer. And it's just the simple reflection

that you know you need a Savior. So I want to

thank you if you prayed that prayer. Reach out

to me if you did. I'd like to pray for you. I'd

like to thank you for listening. I'd like you

guys to save, share, subscribe to this podcast.

So we can get this message out to more people

because the reality is we are living in a very

hateful world today. That simple disagreements

are causing people to wish death on even their

closest relatives. We need Jesus, but we also

need to ourselves be mentally tough. And we need

to be winners that embrace hardship for our Savior's

sake. So with that, thank you for listening again.

I'll let you guys go. I'm just going to close

in quick prayer. Dear Lord God, I thank you for

your word, your message, and everything that

you do for us. And I pray that you'd help us

to persevere through the hardship, but to embrace

that hardship as a joy because of what you did

for us on Calvary. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Thank you. you for listening to the phsa potter's

house salmon arm podcast be sure to follow us

on instagram at potter's house underscore salmon

arm to keep up to date on what we are doing join

the conversation and discover how jesus christ

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