Ep. 016 Hitting the Wall

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 P.H.S.A. Church and other sermons from

throughout our fellowship. I am 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 podcast again. My name is David Bickford. I'm the pastor

here at the Potter's House Church in Salmon Arm, British Columbia. This message I've put together

today is called Hitting the Wall, Trained Fuel and Pace. Even though I know you guys are going to

be listening to this on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, this is not specifically a Christmas message.

These again are sermons that I've put together that I've already preached in the church in times

past. This one was from back in March. Even so, we want to make sure that we pay attention and

give reverence to the time of the season, the reason why we slow down and we worship God and

the birth of Jesus Christ during this period of time. With that, we can be blessed. I'm just

going to go ahead and jump in and move on. The text that we're going to be working from today is

Acts 14, 1-7 and then verses 19-23 as well. Our lives are often spent chasing a dream or a goal.

Sometimes we are motivated and disciplined in seeing our dreams and goals come to reality.

We work tirelessly and excitedly full of energy and zeal during these initial starting phases,

these periods of time. Other times, the work can grind us down and we become tired and depressed.

How we behave in those times is how we will decide whether we're going to grow or will we

slowly begin to decay. There's always an idea of either you're moving forward in growth or

as you slow down and become idle or lethargy sets in, you just begin to become less and less

as you decay. I've seen this in my own life many, many times. It seems that I can keep energy and

excitement for about three months on a project. That's my typical growth cycle. I can maintain

all the needed energy and zeal for a given task for about that three-month window. Then I always

seem to hit a wall. Sometimes it's only a small wall and I'm able to quickly jump over it or

get right back on track. Other times, it feels like an insurmountable obstacle and I can get

overwhelmed and find myself wanting to quit. I'm sure we've all dealt with this, but this is just

me being honest and trying to be real here is the fact that we all have these feelings

and we all deal with this battle of how do I continue on? How do I keep moving forward

when I don't feel like moving forward? Maybe my intrigue by this or my interest in

growth and moving forward and moving past hitting a wall, maybe that's why I have such a love for

endurance sports like long-distance hiking and stories of explorers and settlers.

Which brings me to a quick story or my intro is we're going to look at David Goggins. David Goggins

is just an amazing creature as far as what he's able to accomplish with his

mental strength and his physical strength. David started running in 2005 and at the time,

he weighed 280 pounds. He first thought about running a distance longer than a marathon,

even though he'd never run a marathon before, once when he lost some friends in the military.

He's a military Navy SEAL. He was committed to raising money for charity, to helping families

like that of his friends that had passed away. We'll look at that in a little bit more detail

as we continue on. He decided he wanted to run the bad water, ultra marathon, if you will,

to achieve that fundraising goal. He was told he would have to do 100 mile or first

because the bad water, I can't remember exactly how long it is. I think it's over 150 or something,

or I don't remember. It's not important. Even so, in order to qualify to run the bad water,

because that's running through the Death Valley, California, he had to prove his capability and do

this 100 mile or first. So he went and did that just four days later. And keep in mind, at this

point, he had yet to run a marathon and he had started out in a race to run a hundred miles.

Yes, he was a Navy SEAL, but it's a different skill set to run a marathon. And it's even a

different skill set beyond that to run an ultra marathon. Regardless, he finished that first

hundred miles in just under 19 hours in 2005, but he suffered kidney failure and broke several bones

in his feet. Just a few weeks later, he ran his first marathon at a time of 308. Most runners who

run a hundred miler would not be able to do any type of speed work for a while. But David crushed

his first marathon at a time of 308, shortly after running his first hundred miler. From that point,

he began to run many endurance events, ultra marathons, triathlons. He does this even though

he says he hates to run, hates to bike, hates to swim. He does all of this to raise money for

charities that are near his heart. A few years ago, he described his daily journey as rising

very early in the morning to run 15 miles, bike 25 miles to work, run another five to eight miles

during lunch, and then bike 25 miles home. Sometimes he would run a few more miles after that

before doing his weight workouts. And all the while, this is when he was an active duty Navy Seal.

So that's the craziest part of this is he's doing all this extra stuff on top of what his normal

workload would be as a Navy Seal. That brings me back to the reason why he started running and

doing all these events is because of some of his fellow Navy Seals that had died in Afghanistan,

and he wanted to do something to help their families and honor their memory. So he began

running for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation. The foundation says they believe

he has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the families of those fallen soldiers.

So even though his pain and all of this punishment that he's put his body through,

he's raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for those that are what he considers part of his

larger extended Navy Seal family. And above that, his Special Operations family.

So let's look at our text, Acts 14 verses one through seven, and then we'll jump down

in verses 19 through 23. So this is about Paul and Barnabas at Iconium. Now at Iconium, they

entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both

Jews and Greeks believed, but the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds

against the brothers. So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore

witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hand.

But the people of the city were divided, some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles.

When an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews with their rulers to mistreat them and stone them,

they learned of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Iconia and to the surrounding country.

And they continued to preach the gospel. So now we jump down to verse 19, but the Jews came from

Antioch and Iconium and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out

of the city, supposing that he was dead. But when the disciples gathered around him, he rose up and

entered the city. And on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe, where they had preached

the gospel to that city and had made many disciples. They returned to Lystra and Iconium

and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples and encouraging them to continue the

faith and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. And when they had

appointed the elders for them in every church with prayer and fasting, they committed them to the

Lord and whom they had believed. This brings me to my first point, which is better training.

Prepare for the job ahead. Back when I was a hydraulics mechanic, I overhauled hydraulic

actuators. This would normally take me about 45 minutes, but when it was a sub-safe actuator,

it would take a week. Sub-safe just simply means that it's an extra criteria to make something

safe for installation into a submarine. So you've got a big old sub going under the water. They want

to make sure everything's going to go right because this is a critical component towards

them being able to submerge and resurface. The reason why this added time to the overhaul of

an actuator is because of all the planning. These critical components had to be done perfectly

right every time. We had to track everything. We had to have a plan written out and we had to get

everyone involved and onto the same page. So better training starts with better planning,

but not at the sake of action. The work still has to get done. Throughout the scripture,

we see men of faith like Apostle Paul, guys like David Goggins might be known as pretty hardcore

and tough guy these days, but he doesn't have anything on our Apostle Paul and many of the

other heroes of the faith. What we can learn from Paul as well as David Goggins is that we could see

that we have a part to play in mental toughness. When I hit a wall and when I'm exhausted or I feel

like a failure, we can look at men like this and we can see how they continue to get up.

That we need to also pull ourselves up. We have to continue to get up. David Goggins gets up every

day and suits up for his brothers in arms, the lost and their kids. He desperately wants to give

every day something back to his community. And even though this is an earthly goal,

it's noble, but it's still a very earthly goal. It is enough for him to go run on broken legs

and finish his races. He trains every day to be better prepared for the task at hand.

What should we do then like the Apostle Paul? We have something even more important to get up

that should be getting us up every morning. Our work is to pick up the mantle of the Apostles,

to pick up where our leaders of the faith have left off. We have a duty to fulfill this great

commission that we received from Christ. In Colossians 3.2 it says,

set your mind on the things that are above and not on the things that of the earth.

But pastor, we are not all called to plant churches, to be evangelists, to operate a public ministry.

I fully understand that we all have different callings within the body of Christ, but the

reality is the same, that we are all called to prepare for the work that Christ has, or Christ

does have for us to do. In Colossians 3.23-24, whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord

and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as a reward.

You are serving the Lord Christ. The reality is that you are serving the Lord Christ.

The reality is that we are all in an endurance race. We should all want to finish, but in order

to keep running this race, we need to train better. David Goggins was already in fantastic

shape, and in a Navy Seal he ran his first 100 mile race. Even with all of David Goggins' training,

he still ended up breaking himself and tearing himself up. We should look at this as proof that

even the best of us have work to do, and even the worst of us can get better.

Clearly this is going to be the most obvious statement made, but you need to follow your

training plan. You need to have consistently, you know, you need to be consistently building

yourself for the race. When I hit a wall and I hit them all the time, I try to find ways to get up

off the floor, regroup and get moving again. I might be moving slowly at first, but there's

a natural medicine in moving forward. In relation to our great calling, it is important to remember

2 Timothy 3, 6, all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof,

for correction, and for the training in the righteous, and for training in righteousness.

The Word of God is the plan. It is written out and details our actions, and it tells us how we

should fuel ourselves for this mission. This brings me to my next point, which is better fueling.

Matthew 4, 4 says, but he answered, it is written, man shall not lack the strength of the strength of

it is written, man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes out from the mouth of

God. I was looking at a, uh, a running blog when thinking about better fueling. And I came across

this article that, you know, that talks about better fueling in this, in this way.

If you've done your base building correctly, you've helped teach your body how to use

little more fat than carbs for fuel, which means you won't need quite as much fuel on race day.

But as you increase intensity, your body is going to start burning more carbs and looking for quick,

easy sources of energy. You don't need to be taking in hundreds of calories per hour, but you do need

to be giving your body some fuel. Eat a solid breakfast a few hours before the race to ensure

your glycogen stores are topped off. And you've got enough not to feel hungry. Starting line fueling

with pre-workout or caffeine shot block or whole food options at five, 12, 18, and 23 mile increments.

This extra shows us, and you might be thinking like, what does that have to do with anything?

But this, this chunk of this article shows us how athletes have to really think and prepare

for marathon race. How even during the race, they, they must take care to fuel their bodies

if they hope to complete the race. As we strive to serve God, we must also take heed to feed

ourselves through the word and the scripture and cultivating our prayer line. Sometimes we neglect

both our spiritual and physical nutrition. Let's look at this next part of David Goggins story.

A few years ago, his hard training began to actually hurt more than normal. And he went to

his doctor and found that he had a hole in his heart from birth. The hole was the size of a poker

chip. It took a couple of surgeries to fix his heart. Believe it or not, he had run dozens of

races and ultra marathons, went through hell week, Navy seal training and other events with this

hole in his heart. That takes some kind of incredible willpower to push through that pain

that he must have endured. Not that I'm suggesting anyone pushes through that much pain, but

fortunately they were able to repair his heart and he was back running after many months of recovery.

This draws a picture that we often, you know, oftentimes we'll neglect the issues of the heart.

We will push ourselves to the brink with the wrong kind of work. And this can lead us to ignore the

core issues that are causing us to hit a wall. As we grow in any endeavor, we must understand that

it is a building process and we have to allow God the time to work on our hearts and prepare us for

the work that he has for us. First Corinthians 3, 2 again says, I fed you with milk, not solid food,

for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not ready. The apostle Paul was dealing with

new believers constantly as he built churches throughout his travels. He had to learn to

teach and train people at the level that they were at. And we have to understand that in order to

endure for the whole race, we need to conserve our energy and patiently wait on the Lord.

Matthew 11, 28 through 30 says, come to me, all who labor are heavy laden and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly at heart and you will find rest

for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. And this brings me to my final

point, better pacing and every kind of endurance race, the professionals will tell you that you

have to, you have to pace yourself. There's an absolute need to pace yourself. When I was in high

school, I ran cross country. I wasn't particularly good. In fact, I was downright mediocre,

but regardless, I learned a lot from the experience that cross country is a team sport and it's scored

as a team. The cumulative score of the entire team, team's finishes would be added up

in the team with the most points would win the meat. This meant that finishing as strong as you

could as an individual could still have a huge impact on the team's success.

I remember one race out in California desert town of Boron. It was a really hot, really dry day.

It was one of my slowest runs that entire season. The town is a Borax mining town and it had a

certain smell to it, like rotten eggs. So as I was slogging through this horrible run, I remember

passing a few other runners as we grint, you know, our group went up this grueling hill.

It was a sandy hill too. So you imagine running up a sandy hill in the heat of the California

desert. As we approached the finish line, I had to do everything to maintain my slim lead and the

hopes to gain a couple extra points. I was far from first place in this race, but as one of the

anchors on my team, I was still able to come in just ahead of enough runners to help us win this

meat. My contribution was not amazing, but I finished strong. My only strength in running is

a determination to keep going. And in our texts, we see Paul do the same thing as I do.

In our texts, we see Paul do the same thing. In verses five through seven, we see Paul and Barnabas

catching wind of a plot to stone them. Paul was determined to continue on in his race. And in verse

19, we saw that he was stoned and left for dead. But in verse 20, we saw that he got up. The very

next day he was out there preaching again. Paul understood that the outcome today did not have to

determine his success tomorrow. He was focused on his heavenly success and he left the outcome in

God's hands. This is how he came, or this is how we can pace ourselves. We focus on the actions

that will help us be successful, but the outcome is left to God. As a fellowship, we're called to

world evangelism. We can focus on sharing the gospel and witnessing to everyone. We give our

time to the things of God. We support the things of God with our finances, but the results are in

our hands. We are running a marathon, but unlike David Goggins, running an ultra marathon, an

Ironman, or any other endurance challenge, we do not know how long this race will last. That is why

we rest in the Lord. That is why we give ourselves, or we give up our burdens to Christ.

That is the only way we will be able to continue to fight the good fight and run the race till the

end. That is why we need to be in control of the good fight and run the race until the end.

So that is the reason you need to be in control of the good fight and run the race until the end.

Better pacing. You've heard it said that you need to stay in control during this. This is another

excerpt that I'm pulling from that article about marathon running training. When I talked about

as your heart rate shoots way up

and it expends too much energy.

We need to first make the first miles your slowest miles.

Likely won't happen,

but thinking that way will help you hold back.

Try not to spend a ton of energy dodging other runners.

Settle into your goals and pace quickly

rather than aiming to negative splits.

Don't try to pick up the pace until you pass mile 21,

still feeling strong.

These ideas of better pacing

can be all extrapolated into the spiritual.

When you're starting out,

don't try to get saved one day and go to seminary the next.

It'll bog you down.

That's in fact one of the reasons why as a fellowship

we don't send people to seminary

is we do in-house discipleship.

Is because oftentimes you'll go and you can lose the fire.

But first, just make those first miles,

those first days or months or weeks, months with Christ,

just to get used to it.

You can dig into the word of God, sure that's all good,

but just you do it with an understanding

that you have to grow.

Don't try to like outpace others

or do more than everybody else that you're around.

You're gonna wear yourself out.

Settle in.

And focus in on Christ.

And here's David Goggins' 10 rules for success,

but I'm gonna put a biblical twist on these as well.

So he says, number one, go towards the truth.

Don't run away from the truth, don't forget who you are.

The world needs unique people.

And as David says, the only way I became successful

was going towards the truth.

As painful and as brutal as it is, it changed me.

It allowed me to become in my own world

who I am today.

John 14, 16 says, Jesus said to him,

I am the way, the truth, and the light.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

David Goggins' number two says, have a cookie jar.

Believe in your accomplishments and your failures.

Put them in a cookie jar.

When you feel everything isn't going well,

reach into the cookie jar and remember who you are.

This speaks to me of strengthening your prayer life,

keeping a list of needs and answered prayers.

Number three, get out of your routine.

If you live in a comfort zone,

it becomes your everyday norm.

It stops you from gaining new experiences,

knowledge and development.

Witness and strive to serve in new ways

for the purpose of Christ.

That's how I've pulled this one in.

Number four, thicken your skin.

Don't tap around the truth,

trying to find the right words.

Tighten up, it's okay.

No matter what they call you, it's okay.

They don't own you, only you own your life.

So the way I look at this one is we need to

expect persecution for Christ's sake

and understand that he who is with us is greater.

In 2 Kings 6, 16, he said, do not be afraid

for those who are with us are more

than those who are with them.

Number five is breaking through walls.

Every wall has a door.

Just reach for the key in your pocket

and don't be scared of what is on the other side.

Number six is ask yourself what if.

What if I can be that person I want to be?

What if I can pull off a miracle?

What if I hadn't tried?

What if I can be that guy because you can?

Number seven, be driven.

You gotta believe you're the hardest guy in the world.

You did it.

Drive will take you places unfathomable to ordinary men.

Number eight is accept your journey.

Don't be afraid to take your journey.

Don't take the easier path.

Accept it because after suffering,

you'll have it your way.

Number nine is give back.

Pass your message to kids and people around you,

people who are in need,

people who lack motivation and drive.

And number 10 is test your limits.

Train until you feel uncomfortable.

You wake up from a run and it's just raining cats and dogs.

No excuses, go out.

Don't set the bar high.

Don't strive to be excellent.

Just to give it your all.

And then you can sum up the rest of these,

all of this stuff that David Goggins has talked 10

and into a very understandable way

is that we're doing all of this unto the Lord.

Don't beat yourself up on the results.

Just go out and give your best.

Even if you're super tired and worn out,

just go out and give your best.

If all you can muster is five minutes of something,

go out and give it and give it your all.

Because we are running a race,

just like the apostle Paul talks about.

He ran his race.

And we're doing this for the Lord.

So don't let, you know, when you hit the wall,

don't let that be the end.

You know, hit the wall, fall down, brush yourself up,

reevaluate and continue on.

Look for that door, as David Goggins said.

Look for way around the wall.

Just keep moving forward.

Doesn't matter how fast, just keep moving forward.

So that's, as we close, you can,

if I could have every head bowed, every eye closed,

if you're driving, obviously no.

Keep your eyes open and drive.

This message is really one that's for me,

just as much as I hope it's for somebody else out there.

Because I believe that as a driven individual

and driven individuals in life,

you know, we all tend to hit the wall.

And sometimes that can put us flat on our butt

where we're just like, man, I don't know what to do.

But we have to be able to pick ourselves up

and continue moving forward, just like David Goggins did.

And like he does, but even more so,

like our apostle Paul does.

Like all the leaders of the faith do.

All those people we can read about,

like King David in the Bible, they hit walls,

they fell down, they screwed up, but they turned to God,

they repented and they got back up

and they continued forward.

When you're exhausted, when you're tired,

brush yourself up and start moving forward.

If this message did touch your heart

and you've hit a wall, you're depressed,

you're being really hard on yourself,

and maybe you know that you're not right with God,

but you wanna be, then I want you to,

you know, signify that with an uplifted hand.

You know, I can't see it, but God can.

This is about you, it's not about me.

And if you did that, if you raised your hand,

then I want you to pray a prayer, a prayer with me.

Just repeat, dear Lord God, I know that I'm a sinner.

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

and that he died on the cross for me.

I repent of my sins, I turn away from my sins,

and I accept Jesus as my savior.

I ask him to enter my heart and be my Lord,

and I thank you for the grace,

for salvation through grace,

and I give you all the praise and glory in Jesus' name, amen.

It's a simple prayer, we just call that the sinner.

There's no real set standard to it

other than the admission that you're a sinner,

because we're all falling short of the glory of God.

The acceptance of Jesus as your savior,

and just, that's it, receiving of salvation through grace.

He has his handout for you.

And if you pray that prayer and he meant it,

and he absolutely meant it, then you've reached up,

you've reached up and he's grabbed you

out of the murky water,

and he's lifted you up into the boat of salvation.

So I want to, again, as we close,

thank everybody listening today,

and I can't wait for you to come back next time,

and I hope you have a tremendous Christmas.

And just remember the reason that we celebrate Christmas

is that we're giving reverence to the gift

that was given to mankind when Jesus Christ came to earth

in human flesh as a servant.

And it starts the race towards Easter

when we again look at the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made

when he hung on the cross and the ultimate victory

when he rose from the grave.

So remember that, that we're worshiping the fact that

Jesus, God in flesh, came to earth,

but it starts the revelation that he also,

as a servant, went to the cross and died for your sins,

my sins, our sins.

For those who will turn to him in repentance

and acceptance of his grace can be saved.

So with that, I want to again wish you

just a Merry Christmas.

Thank you for listening.

I can't wait for you to come back next time.