Rick Warren - How to Strengthen Your Faith, Even When You're Exhausted

You can't be looking at the fact that you haven't

had a job in a year or that your marriage

is falling apart. You cannot simply look at the situation.

You've got to look at the savior. You can't look

at the, as a victim, you've got to look at

the victor. You can't look at the problem. You've got

to look at the problem solver. You must keep your

eye on Jesus. One of the important lessons of life

is just three words. It's always something. You just need

to know that. It's always something. You're either coming out

of a problem or you're in the middle of a

big problem or you're getting ready to go into the

next one. Because life is simply a series of problems,

one after another. And because of that, you often get tired,

you get fatigued, and you feel like giving up. And

that's what we're gonna look at this weekend. Now this

letter is old, but it's just as true today as

it was when I got it. Dear Pastor Rick, If

I could sum up my life in a single word,

it would be the word conflict. It seems I have

to fight for everything. Everything's a battle, a battle with

my kids, a battle with my husband, a battle with

my job. Even my walk with the Lord is a battle.

And we struggle in our home. We struggle with our money.

We struggle with our intimate life. We struggle even just

to understand each other. Plus I got all my internal battles,

all my internal fears and the wars going on inside me.

I can't seem to stick with stuff even when I

know it's the right thing to do. Why is life

so tough? Will the battle ever end? I hope so

because sometimes I just feel like walking away from it all.

It's a good question. Why is life so tough? Because

it is. It is tough. You see, we're not in

paradise anymore. John Milton wrote a poem about that, Paradise Lost.

When Adam and Eve decided to disobey God, to rebel,

when Adam and Eve decided, you know what, God, we

think we know what will make us happier than you do.

More than you do. And so we're gonna make our

plan for our life, rather than your plan, sin entered

the world and we lost paradise. And everything was broken

by sin in the world. We've talked about this many times.

We live in a fallen world. Nothing works perfectly on

this planet. That's why we pray, thy will be done

on earth as it is in heaven. Because God's will

is done perfectly in heaven. It is never done perfectly

on earth. Everything is broken. The weather is broken. That's

why we have all of these cataclysmic freak accidents and

tornadoes and hurricanes and stuff like, because the weather is broken.

The economy is broken. Your body is broken. It doesn't

work right. It's not a perfect body. It has problems

with it. Every relationship is broken. Nobody has a perfect marriage.

Nobody has perfect children. Nobody has perfect parents. Every family

is broken. Nothing on this planet works perfectly except God's word,

his truth. Now, that's enough to discourage you. But in

addition to that, there is a cosmic battle going on

in your life. It is an unseen war. There are

forces that are meant to destroy your soul. The Bible

calls these three enemies of your soul, the world, the flesh,

and the devil. The first is the battle going on

inside you. And that's the biggest one of all. It's

the war inside you, because when you're at war with God,

you're at war with yourself. And the war inside you

is you have an old nature, a sinful nature that

doesn't always want to do the right things. Do you

ever do things that you know aren't good for you

but you do them anyway? Yes. Have you ever done

things that were self-defeating that still you went ahead and

did it? Yes. Have you ever made bad decisions? Yes.

Have you ever done the thing that made the problem

worse rather than better? Yes. Are there habits in your

life that you cannot seem to break free from? Yes,

that's the battle within. The Bible calls it your flesh.

It calls it your old nature. It wants to do

the wrong thing. It's like, don't touch the hot stove

or don't touch the wet paint. What do you want

to do? Touch it. Just to see what it's like.

And that is the battle within. Then there's the battle

around you, and that is the world, that is our culture.

Everything in our culture tears you down. It doesn't build

you up. The culture says, if you're not the most

beautiful or the most talented or the most perfect or

the smartest person, you ain't worth squat. And if you're

not the valedictorian, you're just an also-ran, and really, your

life doesn't matter. And we glorify and idolize the top

and forget 99.9999 of everybody else. And the world wants

to pull you down and you have peer pressure at work,

at school, from friends, from relatives, to pull you in

all kinds of directions that many times you don't even

wanna go those directions. And that's the battle around you.

And then there's the battle against you. Satan is real.

There is a real devil. Now he is not equal

to God. He was created by God and he rebelled.

And God is in control. But Satan wants to destroy

your life. Now, Satan cannot hurt God. So the best

way he can think of is to hurt God's children.

And he wants to destroy your life. He wants to

mess it up. He wants, he is committed to your

failure in life. Now, you don't have to be afraid

of Satan. If you know the right tools, you know

the right defense, you know the right ammo to use.

And that's why this summer we're gonna start a major

series that I'm calling The Invisible War. It's an encouraging

series that you really need this because everything is a

battle and you need to know how to overcome the

battles of life. Now the people in the Bible who

won their battles, who finished the race well, who finished

well in life are called God's Hall of Fame. And

God's Hall of Fame is found in one chapter of

the Bible. The book of Hebrews chapter 11. If you

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

have your message notes, go ahead and take it out.

In Hebrews chapter 11, it talks about all these great

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

men and great women who made it through the battles

of life. They fought the war and they won. They

were victorious. They succeeded with their lives. Now it's a

list of people that you've heard of many, many times.

People like Noah and Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses is mentioned,

Joshua is mentioned. The Bible talks about David and Gideon

and Samson and all of the prophets. And it just,

there's a list in Hebrews 11 of the people who

won the battles in their life. But at the end

of Hebrews 11, at the beginning of chapter 12, it

gives a passage for your encouragement. And it says, you know,

just because you're living a life of faith doesn't mean

you're gonna have a happy ending in every area of life.

Just because you are doing the right thing and God

is pleased with you, you're still gonna have some suffering.

You're still gonna have some pain. You're still gonna feel

like giving up. And it starts by talking about a

group of other people who didn't see their prayers answered,

who saw the promises that God had made to them

delayed or unrealized, and who experienced great pain. In verse

35 of Hebrews 11, it says this, but others, talking

besides the Abraham and Joseph and Moses, all these people,

but others trusted God and they were tortured. preferring rather

to die than to turn from God and be free.

Did you know that more people died this last year?

14 million people were killed because of their faith in

Jesus Christ around the world. People don't talk about that much.

More people have died for their faith in the last

100 years than all previous 2000 years combined. So torture

is still going on of Christians today all around the world.

It says, preferring to die rather than turn from God

and be free. They placed their hope in the resurrection

to a better life. They weren't just living for here

and now. And then it goes on and tells us

some of the things that people of faith have had

to go through. Some were mocked and their backs were

cut open with whips. Others were chained in dungeons and

some died by stoning and some were sawed in half

and others were killed by the sword. Some went about

in skins of sheep and goats, hungry and oppressed and mistreated.

They were too good for this world. I want God

to be able to say that about you, that you

were too good for this world. They wandered over deserts

and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground.

And all of these people we've mentioned, they received God's approval.

God was pleased with them because of their faith. Yet

none of them received all that God had promised. For

God had far better things in mind. God had far

better things in mind. For us, that's us he's talking

to right now, that would also benefit them. For they

can't receive the prize at the end of the race

until we finish the race. Whoa, now this is a

heavy passage. I could spend the entire morning just on this,

but I wanna get to the practical section in the

next few verses. But I do wanna point out three

important things that this passage teaches us. First, it teaches

us that faith does not spare me from pain. The

health and wealth gospel that says if I just have

enough faith, I'll never be sick. If I just have

enough faith, I'll never have any debt. If I just

have enough faith, I'll never have any problems. is a

total bogus lie. The Bible does not teach that. The

Bible teaches that some of the greatest tests of faith

are when you are sick, when you are in debt,

when you are in pain. That's when it's hard to

trust God. It's easy to trust God when everything's going

your way. The second thing it teaches is that some

of God's promises will be fulfilled in eternity. Now we

think all of God's promises have to be fulfilled here

and now, because you're only thinking about the 80 or

90 or 100 years you're gonna live on this planet.

But you were made to last forever. And God has

all of eternity to fulfill his promises to you. And

some of the promises that God has made in his word,

he is going to fulfill them to you and to

everyone else in all of eternity. He's got all of

eternity to do it. He doesn't have to fulfill them

all right now before you die. The third thing that

we see from this passage is that we are runners

in a far bigger, grand, historical relay race. Notice he

says they can't receive the prize at the end of

the race until we finish the race. Now imagine this.

Your life is just one cog in a giant wheel.

God has a plan to create a family that's going

to live with him forever. And he's been building this

family for thousands of years. And the previous generation ran

with the baton and handed it off to our generation.

And now we are running with the baton the race

that God has for us and we will hand it

off to the next generation. And they will run the

race God has for them until they hand it off

to the next generation until God's timing is finished for

history on this planet. Now, how absurd would it be

if you're at the Olympics and you're watching the 800

meter relay And the guy who finishes the first 200

meters stops and says, may I have my gold medal now?

And you say, time out, the race isn't finished. Well,

I finished my part. Well, yes, you may have finished

your part, but you're part of a relay. And you

don't get the reward until everybody finishes. And then when

you win at the end, your team wins, then you

get the gold. Some of the rewards that God has

planned for you, you're not going to get in this lifetime.

They're going to come when the race is finished. And

it says that the people who were before us, these

Abrahams and Moses and Davids and Josephs and Joshua's and

all these people, they can't receive the prize at the

end of the race until we finish the race. So

how do we make sure that we finish the race.

More specifically, how do we make sure you finish the

race God has planned for you so that you get

the reward? That you don't give up 50 yards in

because life isn't a 50-yard dash, it's a marathon. How

do you make it to the end where God says,

good job, that's my boy. Good job, that's my girl. Well,

in the next passage, Hebrews chapter 12, it gives us

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

six powerful keys to handling discouragement. What to do when

you feel like giving up. Let's read it. It says

in verse one, therefore, since we are surrounded now, remember,

I always tell you, whenever you see a therefore in

the Bible, you want to find out what it's? Therefore, right. Therefore.

In light of what I've just said about Abraham and

Moses and David and Joshua and Noah and all of

these great people of the Bible, therefore, because of all

these people, since we are surrounded by such a huge

crowd of witnesses, these people are witnessing what's going on,

to the life of faith, the one that we're living,

let us strip off every weight that slows us down

especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress, and

let us run with endurance the race that God has

set before us. Now we do this by keeping our

eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start

to finish. He was willing to die a shameful death

on the cross because of the joy he knew would

be his Afterwards, he's looking past the cross to the

joy in heaven. Now he's seated in the place of

highest honor besides God's throne in heaven. Now think about

all he, Jesus, endured when sinful people did such terrible

things to him so you don't become weary and give up.

When you feel like giving up, think about what he endured.

After all, you have not yet given your lives in

your struggle against sin. He says, I don't see you

being a martyr. You haven't shed any blood for the faith.

Now this is a very powerful passage with six key

truths on what to do when you feel like giving up.

I don't know what's been discouraging you. Maybe something, maybe

you're out of work. Maybe something in a marriage or

with your kids or a health issue. But whatever it is,

you picked a good Sunday to come to church because

we're gonna look at these very helpful steps. Now let's

get right into it. Number one, the first thing God

teaches us in Hebrews 12 is that when I feel

like giving up, I need to remember heaven is watching me.

Remember that heaven is watching me. Now I don't want

to spend a whole lot of time on this, but

you have an audience in heaven watching your life, not

just God. Now we know that God is watching your life.

We know the Bible says in Job 31.4, he sees

everything I do and every step I take. God has

never missed anything in your life. God saw you being

formed in your mother's womb. He saw you take your

first breath. He saw you take your first step. He

has seen everything and heard every thought you've ever had.

He knows the good and the bad and the ugly

and he still loves you. The Bible says he has

every hair on your head counted. The Bible says the

eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the

whole earth, that in him, before him, all things are

naked and unseen. And the Bible tells us that God

is aware of everything in your life, so obviously God's watching,

but more than that, Verse one says this, therefore, in

light of Abraham, Moses, all these guys, since we are

surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the

life of faith. Now that's a pretty heavy thought to

think of the fact that Abraham may be watching your

life and Moses may be watching your life or Joshua

may be watching your life. and seeing how you're doing

in your battles. And I'm sure Noah's going, you think

you had a tough one? I had to build an ark.

And Moses going, you think what you're going through right

now is tough? I had to lead a million complaining

spiritual babies out of slavery. And Abraham said, you think

you're going through stuff? I had to leave my home

at age 80 and pack up my entire family and

move to a country I had never seen and been

to and start over at 80. You think you're going

through a tough time? This is the cloud of witnesses.

But they're not there to judge you. They're there to

encourage you. They want you to succeed. They want you

to win. You have an audience. What am I saying?

Nothing you do in your life is really private. Nothing

you do in your life is personal. Nothing you do

in your life is a secret. Heaven is watching. Since

we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses

to this life of faith, we need to not give

up because we know people who've already been there, done that,

gone through it, and some of them much, much worse

than things we've gone through, and they made it, and

they're pulling for us. The Bible tells us that in heaven,

Jesus is praying for you. Did you know that? Jesus

is praying for you to make it. Now, number two.

The second thing we need to do when we feel

like giving up is we need to eliminate what doesn't matter.

If I'm gonna make it to the end of the race,

I need to take off any extra clothing, any extra

heavy things, any responsibilities that are holding me back and

eliminate what doesn't matter. Now, the Bible says in the

second part of verse one, because we're surrounded by this

crowd of witnesses, let us strip off every weight that

slows us down and especially the sin that so easily

hinders our progress. Now circle weight and circle sin, because

these are the two things that hold you back, sins

and weights. These are the two things that discourage you,

sins and weights. These are the two things that keep

you from completing the race, sins and weights. Now, what's

a weight? A weight obviously is not a sin because

it's different. A weight could be a good thing. A

weight is anything that slows me down. You might write

that down. A weight is anything in my life that

slows me down in God's race for me. It can

be a good thing. It could be a relationship. It

could be a job. It could be an activity. It

could be a sport that you're spending too much time

with and it's slowing you down from what you were

put on this planet to do. It's a good thing.

Have you realized, have you learned that some things are

not necessarily wrong, they're just not necessary? Have you learned

that you don't have time to do every good thing

in life? That just because it's a good thing doesn't

mean you should do it? It's like money, just because

you can afford it doesn't mean you should buy it.

You need to learn the discipline of saying no. That's

a strong thing for growing up spiritually. That just because

I can afford it doesn't mean I'm gonna buy it.

And just because it's a good thing doesn't mean I

should do it. You can drown in good things. You

can be overwhelmed by good things. You can get discouraged

by too many things in your life that are a

good thing to do, but you're trying to do too much.

If you are burning the candle at both ends, you're

not as bright as you think you are. and you've

filled your schedule and you've packed it, would you agree

it's easier to fill a schedule than to fulfill it?

How many would agree with that? Yeah. And so you

must learn to say no to good things. Some things

aren't bad, they're just, you can't do every good thing.

You might write this down. To grow, I must say no.

To grow... I must say no. You've gotta learn the

two letters in the middle of the alphabet, N-O. And

that's gonna free up a lot of time. You've gotta

lay aside the weights, the things that hold you back. Now,

a weight could be a memory. Some of you are

stuck in the past, and it's either a positive memory,

and you don't wanna get out of it, or it's

a negative memory, and you wanna hold onto it. And

you can't get on with your life, because you're stuck

in the past. That's a weight. A memory. A tradition

can be a weight. We've always done it this way

in our family. But families change. And so you may

have to do it in a new way. A tradition

can be a weight. It's not a bad thing. It's

just a tradition. An unrealistic expectation can be a weight.

What you're expecting of yourself is totally unrealistic. Or maybe

it's an unrealistic expectation put on you by your parents.

or by your partner, or by peers, or by professionals,

and the people around you, and you're living for the

approval of other people. Peer pressure, you need to declutter

your life. You need to lay aside every weight. When

something is not going right, when you start to get discouraged,

when you feel like you've stopped making progress, it's time

for a little personal evaluation. And you do a little

spring cleaning and you clean out the clutter spiritually in

your life or whatever you need to do. Now you

know that insanity is doing the same thing over and

over and over and expecting different results. That's the definition

of insanity. Doing the same thing over and over and

expecting it to be different. Now it says you also

want to lay aside the sins. Now what's a sin?

A sin is knowing what to do and not doing it.

You may write that down. A sin is knowing what

to do and not doing it. It's not like you

don't know what to do. You know the right things

to do in your life. You just don't do it.

You know what the Bible says about money. You know

what the Bible says about time. You know what this

Bible says about eating and sex and every other thing

in your life. You just don't do it. And as

a result, we get further and further in trouble. Then

number three, I must run God's race for me, not

other people's race for me. I must run God's race

for me, not others' race. You see, God loves you

and everybody else has a wonderful plan for your life.

And they would love for you to run their race.

The only thing is God doesn't give you energy to

run other people's races. He only gives you the energy

to do what he put you on earth to do. Now,

the third part of verse one says this. Let us

strip off every weight and all the things that hinder us,

the sin, and let us run with endurance the race

that God has set before us. Circle the phrase God

has set before. God hasn't promised to bless your plan

for your life. He's promised to bless his plan for

your life, what he put you on this planet to do. Now,

let me just tell you, if you try to run

somebody else's race, you're going to fail. You're going to lose.

You're not going to make it to the finish line.

You're going to tire and give up. Because God doesn't

give you the strength to run other people's race. You

are to run the race God meant for you to run.

And you've got to stop caring so much about the

approval of others and living for their approval. And you've

got to be who God made you to be. You say, well, Rick,

that's great. How do I know the race that's my race?

How do I know the one that I'm supposed to run?

It's real simple. Look at your shape. Look at your shape.

Spiritual gifts, S, H, your heart, A, your abilities, P,

your personality, E, your experiences, good, bad, and ugly. God

doesn't expect rabbits to fly. And God doesn't expect eagles

to swim. And God doesn't expect fish to run. They're

shaped to do what they are meant to do. And

you're shaped to do what you're meant to do. And

when people try to get you to run your race,

it's like a fish trying to fly. It isn't gonna work.

And you're gonna get discouraged. And you're gonna get tired.

Number four, I must focus on Jesus, not my circumstances.

If I'm gonna make it to the end of the race,

if I want to... Make it to the end. I

want to be all that God wants me to be,

and I don't want to get discouraged, give up in

the middle of the race. I need to focus on Jesus,

not my circumstances. We are to run with endurance the

race God set before us. And how do we run it?

It says, next verse, we do this by keeping our

eyes on Jesus, not the road, on Jesus, not the crowd,

on Jesus. On Jesus, not the critics, on Jesus, in

whom our faith depends from start to finish. You know,

when they're teaching a dog at obedience school, they'll put

a dog at one end of the room and they'll

put the master at the other end of the room.

And between the puppy and the master, they put a

bowl of food. And if the pup, and then the

master is to call the puppy. If the puppy spies

the food, he's a goner. He's going straight to the

food because he's distracted by it. He's tempted. And so

in obedience school, they teach dog to keep their eyes

on the master. That's what you gotta do. You can't

be looking at your bank book balance. You can't be

looking at the fact that you haven't had a job

in a year or that your marriage is falling apart.

You cannot simply look at the situation. You've got to

look at the savior. You can't look at the, as

a victim, you've got to look at the victor. You

can't look at the problem. You've got to look at

the problem solver. You must keep your eye on Jesus.

You say, Rick, you don't know what I'm going through.

What I'm going through right now is unendurable. Friend, the

only way you will be able to endure the unendurable

is to keep your eye on the invisible. If you

look at, Corrie Ten Boom said it like this. Corrie

and her sister Betsy were incarcerated in Auschwitz because they

were Christians in Holland. and she wrote a book about this,

The Hiding Place, and they hid Jews in their home

to protect the Jews during World War II from the Nazis.

And one day they found the Jews and they not

only took the people they were hiding, but they took

Corrie and her entire family and took them to Auschwitz too.

Betsy died there in the death camp. Corrie later wrote,

if you look at the world, you'll be distressed. If

you look within, you'll be depressed. If you look at Christ,

you'll be at rest. It all depends on what you've

got your eyes on. It's all a matter of perspective.

You can only do the impossible if you see the invisible.

We keep our eyes on Jesus. What does that mean?

It means I remember God's goodness to me in the past.

I remember God's closeness to me in the present. I

remember God's promise of power for me in the future.

And I get my mind off my discouraging circumstances. I

can either worry or I can worship. I can panic

or I can pray. One of my favorite verses is

Jonah 2.7. You know the story of Jonah. God said, Jonah,

I want you to go to Nineveh. which was over

in Syria, and he said, I want you to preach there.

And Jonah didn't want to do that, because he hated it.

He was racially prejudiced against them. So he gets on

board a boat going as far the opposite direction, east

as possible. He goes to a seaport on the coast

of Spain. And you know the story that God planned

a little Mediterranean cruise for Jonah. The sailors throw him overboard,

and it says a great fish swallows him up. Now,

by the way, it doesn't say in the Bible whale.

It does not use that term. It says a great fish.

If God wanted to create a one-in-a-lifetime fish with an

apartment building in it, God could do that. I don't

have a problem with a God who, if he can

create the universe, he can create anything he wants. Really,

if you believe God can create a universe, you don't

have a problem God creating anything he wants to create

for as long as he wants to create it. But

while Jonah is at the bottom of the ocean and

he's helpless and he's hopeless, in Jonah chapter two, he

repents and he cries out to God. And in Jonah 2.7,

he says this. When I had lost all hope, I

once again turned my thoughts to the Lord. That's a

verse to memorize. Jonah 2.7. When I had lost all hope,

I once again turned my thoughts to to the Lord. Now,

the fifth point is one that Rob perfectly models, and

it's this. If I want to overcome my discouragement, I

must minimize the pain and maximize the profit. I must

minimize the pain and maximize the profit, the future reward,

the benefit of keeping on keeping on. Everything that's worth

doing has some pain to it. Getting in shape has

some pain to it. Getting in spiritual shape has some

pain to it. Getting out of debt has some pain

to it. Getting an education has some pain to it.

Anything worthwhile has some temporary pain in order for there

to be long-term benefit, reward, or payoff. The Bible says

this about Jesus dying on the cross. Verse two, the

second part. He was willing to die a shameful death

on the cross because of the joy he knew would

be his afterwards. Circle the word afterward. He's looking past

the pain to the payoff. And what would that payoff be?

Your salvation. You could have your sins forgiven. I could

have my sins forgiven. We could go to heaven because

of what Jesus would do on the cross for us.

He knew he could handle the death because of the

joy that would be his afterwards. And now he is

seated in the place of highest joy and highest honor

besides God's throne in heaven. You minimize the pain. In fact,

write this down. You want to play it down and

pray it up. The pain, you play it down and

you pray it up. You say, this is not that

big a deal. People have gone through worse problems than

I'm going through right now. I could give you, let

me just take you on a trip around the world.

Most people would love to have your problems. So play

it down. It's not that big a deal. It's not

the end of the world. I'm still alive. My mind

still is here. I'm still free. Play it down and

pray it up. Let me give you a biblical example

of this. In the book of 2 Corinthians, in chapter 11,

Paul lists all the pain he went through in order

to do his race, to follow the plan God has

for his life. And it's not a happy list. Listen

to this, 2 Corinthians 11. Paul says, I've worked hard.

I've been put in jail more often. I've been whipped

times without number. I've faced death again and again and again.

Five times I was given 39 lashes. Imagine that, if

you've been whipped 39 times and five, five times 39

would be the number of lash marks on your back.

Can you imagine the scars on his back? Five times

I was given 39 lashes. Three times I was beaten

with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked.

Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift

at sea. I've traveled many weary miles. I've faced dangers

from flooded rivers and from robbers, and I've faced dangers

for my own people as well as the Gentiles. I've

faced dangers in the cities and in the deserts and

on stormy seas. I've faced dangers from men who claim

to be Christians but aren't. I've lived with weariness. I've

lived with pain, and I've lived with sleepless nights. I've

often been hungry and thirsty and gone without food, and

I've often shivered without cold, without enough clothing to keep

me warm. Paul said, I went through all of this

in order to be a missionary to the entire Roman Empire. Now,

that's what he went through. Then you go back in

the same book, and in chapter four, you can read,

this is what he says about it, his perspective on it.

In light of all this, we do not lose heart.

We don't give up. Though outwardly we're wasting away, yet

inwardly we're being renewed day by day. For our light

and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory

that outweighs them all. Now he calls all that he

went through light and momentary troubles. Would you call that

light and momentary troubles? Yes. I'd call that life a disaster.

If I'd been in prison that many times, been beaten

that many times, whipped that many times, shipwrecked, cold, thirsty, hungry, robbed,

beaten up, bruised, stoned. And he goes, now, these light

and momentary afflictions. What? That is a matter of perspective.

He said, this stuff is small potatoes compared to the

reward I'm gonna get in heaven. Play it down and

pray it up. Minimize the pain of doing the right thing. Yes,

staying in that marriage and getting counseling will cause you

some pain. But it's much more rewarding to resolve a

relationship than to dissolve a relationship. Stay in it. Don't

give up. And he says, I'm gonna have these rewards forever.

You maximize the reward. What's the reward? Oh, just eternal life.

And by the way, how long does that one last? Forever.

And what's it worth? Priceless. Priceless, and nobody can take

it away from you once you've got it. Your salvation.

Your salvation. So in light of this, let's all read

Galatians 6 verse nine together, and let's read it slowly aloud.

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at

the proper time we will reap a harvest if we

do not give up. Now, circle the phrase proper time.

God says we will reap a harvest at the proper

time if we do not give up. But what I've

learned is that the proper time is not my time.

Because my time is I always want the harvest now, today, instantly.

I want a microwave harvest. The law of the harvest

is real simple. You plant in one season and you

eat the fruit in another season. You do not plant

one day and then eat the fruit the very next day.

That has never happened. You plant one day and then

you go through the seasons. Winter, spring, summer, or fall,

all you gotta do is call. He'll be there. Now,

you plant in one season, you reap in another. If

you plant good things in your life, you will reap

the harvest from that good works later on, but not instantly.

If you start planting the seeds of a daily quiet time,

you're going to reap the benefit of it in your life,

but it's gonna be in another season. If you start

tithing your income, you're going to reap the benefit from it,

but it's gonna be in another season. If you start

disciplining the way you eat, you're gonna reap the benefit

from it in another season. If you do anything good,

you share the good news with a friend at work,

you're gonna reap the benefit from it for eternity. Now

some of you are not in the planting season. You're

in summer and the heat's on. And you're burning up.

And you're thinking, I'm dying. I wanna give up. And

some of you have gotten into the fall and you're

in the fall season, and all the leaves have fallen off,

and you look pretty barren. And you go, nothing's going

on in my life right now. I feel dead inside.

And some of you, even though it's summer, you're in

a spiritual winter. And in the spiritual winter, it's frozen,

and it's cold, and it's gloomy, and it's stormy, and

it's windy, and there's nothing, no fruit on your branches.

But you're putting down roots. You can't see it, but

you're putting down roots. Hang on. Spring's coming again. In 1981,

I was depressed the entire year. I was overwhelmed with

the responsibilities of this church. It was the second year

of Saddleback. I was still quite young. And I just thought,

I'm not confident enough to handle this. And really, it

scared me. And I was overwhelmed by the responsibility of

this church. And for an entire year, I went through

a period of depression and God had to teach me

some things in that darkness that would prepare me to

handle enormous amounts of stress later on. You don't just

get this overnight. And God had to take me through

a year, the dark year, in order to prepare me

for other good, better years. And I remember on Saturday,

each Saturday, I'd like to drive down to Laguna Beach.

And I would sit at the beach, kind of calming

my mind and clearing my mind and getting ready for

the message on Sunday. And I would just watch the ocean.

And one of the great truths that I learned that

year was this. The tide goes out, but it always

comes back in. The tide goes out, but it always

comes back in. And when the tide goes out, the

beach is ugly. And you can see driftwood and exposed

rocks and junk and all kinds of things. It doesn't

look that very good, but it's coming back in. The

tide may be out in your life right now, You

may have been out of work for a long, long time.

Are you going to trust God? You say, you know,

I've been waiting so long. I've been waiting to get married.

I've been waiting to have a baby. I've been waiting

to feel better. I've been waiting. I've been waiting on

and on and on and on. The tide goes out,

but it always comes back in. Will you trust God?

This is the sixth thing you need to do. and

that is remember what Jesus did for me. Remember the

suffering he went through when I'm suffering. Remember what he endured,

not for his own sake, but what he endured for

my sake. on the cross, and he says when you

are enduring a tough time, you need to think about

the attacks and the criticisms Jesus experienced. Think about the

abuse and the cruelty Jesus went through. Think about the

meanness and the torture and the painful death he went through,

not for his benefit, but for you. Verses three and four.

Think about all he endured when sinful people did such

terrible things to him. That's what you think about what

he endured so that you don't become weary and give up.

After all, you have not yet given your lives in

your struggle against sin. You need to think about what

Jesus has done for you when you're going through a

tough time. Now, I don't know what you're going through,

but I do know this. It's a test of faith.

It's a test of faith. It's a test of faith. God,

as I said, it's easy to trust God when things

are going great. It's when life doesn't go great that

faith is proven. And so my question is, will you endure?

Will you finish the race? Will you finish well? My

question is this, what have you started that you need

to finish? What is it that you've started that you

need to finish and not give up in the middle

of it? You know, a year before Paul wrote the

book to the Corinthian church, the Corinthian church did basically

like a decade of destiny offering where they did an offering.

They said, we're going to take up an offering for

the church at Jerusalem. Now, in those days, no church

was going through good times. It was all tough times.

But they said, we're going to take up an offering

to help the church at Jerusalem. And a year later,

they had made the commitment, but they still hadn't given it.

And Paul wrote this to them. 2 Corinthians 8, finish

what you started a year ago. What did you start

a year ago? For you were first to begin doing

something about it, now you should carry this project to

completion just as enthusiastically as you began it. Give whatever

you can according to what you have. So I ask

you again, what commitments have you made that you need

to complete? I don't know. I really don't know what

it is in your life that you need to finish

what you start, but God does. So I want us

to bow our heads right now. And with your head bowed,

I want you to ask God what you need to complete. Say, God,

I don't want to be a loser. I don't want

to be a quitter. I don't want to stop in

the middle of the race. I want to finish what

what I started. And if he tells you something or

tells you a couple of things, I want you to

write it down on your outline right now. Because if

you don't write it down, you'll forget it. And even

after we've talked about it, you won't do anything. Write

down one or two things that you need to finish,

that you made a commitment to do that you haven't

been faithful in doing. Now follow me in this prayer.

Dear God, help me to remember that heaven is watching me,

that there is a crowd of witnesses observing my life.

Help me to declutter my life, to eliminate what doesn't matter,

to focus on what matters most. Help me to lay

aside the weights and the sins that are slowing me down,

holding me back, and causing me to want to feel

like giving up. I want to run your race for me,

not somebody else's race. I want to be exactly what

you intend for me to be, not what other people

expect me to be. Help me to focus, Jesus, on you,

not my problems, not my debts, not my circumstances, not

my pain, Help me to focus on you, Jesus, keeping

our eyes on him whom our faith depends from start

to finish. I want to minimize the pain and maximize

the profit. Help me to play it down and pray

it up. To not become weary in doing good, but

to wait for the right season when I see the harvest. Jesus,

most of all, I want to thank you for what

you've did for me, how you suffered and what you

endured so that I could be forgiven and I could

be saved and I could go to heaven and I

could be in your family. If you've never invited Jesus

Christ into your life, say, Jesus Christ, come into my

life right now. I want to love you and trust

you and serve you. I want to get to know

you from this day forward. In your name I pray, amen. Amen.