The Demands of Endurance

I'd like to take you back to the 5th century BC. Athens and Persia were at war with one another.

By 490 BC, the Persians were ready to expand their territory and to move on into Europe.

Though Greece was vastly outnumbered by the Persians, they were ready to do battle and fight the Persians. Greece needed reinforcement from Sparta. It was a time that was very critical, the time was short, and the generals called upon a man by the name of Philippides.

He was a professional runner, and he had to carry a message to Sparta for help, and they needed help rather rapidly. The course to Sparta, by the way, was a rugged mountainous terrain, and it was 140 miles away. Philippides, by the way, ran to Sparta in 36 hours. If you can imagine running such a course. Sparta agreed to help, but because of some of the religious laws, they said they could not participate. They couldn't put anybody in the field until the moon was full. And this, of course, would leave the Athenians by themselves fighting the Persian army. And Philippides ran back to Athens another 140 miles, and with that disappointing news to give to the Greeks. Immediately, the small Athenian army, including Philippides, marched to the plains of Marathon to prepare for the battle. And Philippides was again called upon to run to Athens, which was 26 miles away, to carry the news of the victory of the warning, and also warning about the approaching Persian ships. And despite his fatigue, he decided to do that. He ran to Sparta and back, and he fought, in fact, all morning in heavy armor. And he rose to the challenge, and he pushed himself and passed normal limits of personal human endurance. And he reached Athens, in three hours. He delivered his message, and according to this story, he collapsed and died from sheer exhaustion. I think we can all certainly understand how that might be, that someone putting themselves through such an endurance would come to their demise after such a feat as that. Well, Sparta and the other Greek nations eventually came to the aid of Athens, and eventually they were able to turn back the Persians' attempt to conquer Greece.

And this battle of marathon proved to be a turning point in history. And because of that, without that, the entire continent of Europe would have been overrun by the Persians. Today, in fact, the people that are in Europe would be Muslims, as a matter of fact, rather than what they are today. Modern Europeans-based nations such as the United States and Canada could trace their roots straight back to this particular battle that happened back there during that period of time in the fifth century BC. And our calling, in a way, brethren, turns out, as we understand, to be not a sprint race but a marathon. And I think it's important for us to realize that Jesus Christ taught His disciples privately as they sat on the Mount of Olives. He spoke about events of the end time. And then after He had said all the events that were going to be taking place, He said to His disciples, He says, He that endures to the end the same is going to be saved. And what it will take, brethren, is endurance to the end. It's going to be important for us to be able to endure to the end. And, frankly, nothing is worth anything at all unless sacrifices made, great sacrifices made, and hard work is put into it. And, of course, we have Jesus Christ and the apostles as examples to us about endurance. And God wants us to be willing to endure. And, you know, we need to understand that, in a way, we are at a crossroads as well. You know, for the Battle of Marathon and Philippinus and doing what He did allowed the Greeks to win that war at that time. We are at a crossroads also in this time because what we do will impact the world in the future. And not only the world, but eventually, I believe, it's going to go even until the entire universe is involved in it. And so that this time that we're living in it, again, has somewhat of a parallel to that. Let's go to Hebrews 12, though, here to introduce what we're going to talk about here. I think Philippinus is a good example of someone who gave all that he could give. I think Jesus Christ certainly we could make some comparisons there because Christ gave all He can give in terms of His life so that we would have the opportunity for salvation. But in Hebrews 12, verse 1, it says, Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses.

He talked about the people in Hebrews 11, you might say, who are also runners.

You know, Christ is called a forerunner for us. But here, these that are mentioned here in chapter 11 are runners as well, just like we're runners. And we're running, of course, toward the kingdom of God. And so we have this cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside, he says, every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

And so we are supposed to run the race with endurance, as it says here, that is set before us. And looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and I would say also enduring the pain and the suffering and the difficulties that he went through. And he is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Isn't that what we're looking forward to, brethren, as well as God's people? We want to be in God's kingdom and we want to sit down with Jesus Christ when he takes his throne in the world tomorrow. And we're going to be, of course, kings and priests at that time. And so in a way, we're going to be sitting down in Christ's throne under his authority at that time.

In order to win any race, in order to endure anything, there are certain demands that have to be met. You know, no one can endure anything unless there are certain demands that they fulfill. It's like, for instance, if somebody's going to be a great weightlifter, they have to weightlift. They have to fulfill certain things in order to be a great weightlifter. There are demands that are put upon somebody who is maybe doing something physically challenging like that. Well, there are demands on us if we're going to endure to the end and be saved, as Jesus Christ talked about. So, brethren, what are the demands of endurance? What are those demands that are necessary for us to be there at the end and to endure to the end so that we can be saved, like Jesus Christ said? How can we endure to the end? Well, I think the first thing, brethren, that we need to be aware of in order to endure to the end is we have to have faith and we have to have trust in the head of the church. We have to have faith and trust in the head of the church. You know, in any army, the soldiers must look to the general of that army, who is the commanding officer on the battlefield, brethren. And our commanding officer is Jesus Christ. In 1995, the elders of the church came together in Indianapolis to pick up the pieces of what was formerly our church, our former association, as you know, that rejected the laws of God. And after much prayer, and I would say a lot of fasting as well, leading up to that particular conference in 1995, 150 elders and a multitude of brethren came together, prayed about it, and many were fasting about it at that time as well, and the United Church of God came about as a result of it. And we believe that Jesus Christ was the head of the church, the head of the United Church of God when God raised that church up. And He is the head of the church now, and that fact has not changed. And Christ did not jump ship. Never has jumped shipped, in fact, from God's church, but is right at the helm of that ship as He guides it along.

And it's my aim, brethren, to support the United Church of God. I didn't go to Indianapolis to follow a man, not one solitary man, that I followed to Indianapolis. I didn't go to Indianapolis personally myself to follow a group of men either. But I went there because of Jesus Christ, and my hope was to somehow preserve the Church of God. And I believe, again, Christ is the head of the church, and that hasn't changed. And we still have a mission ahead, and we still have the United Church of God. I'm not going to go to the verse, but you might want to write it down in Colossians 1 and verse 18. You might turn over to Colossians because we'll go to the next verse. But in Colossians 1, 18, it says that He, speaking of Christ, is the head of the body, the church who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. Like I said, He's the forerunner before us. And that in all things He may have the preeminence. And so He is above everyone within the Church of God today. He is the head of the church. But let's go over to Colossians 2, Colossians chapter 2 and verse 18 here. And notice down in verse 18, it says, let no one cheat you of your reward. I have to, again, mention this, brethren, to us here as we mentioned it clear back in 95 when these things were going on back then to not let anyone cheat you out of the reward that is going to be yours in the future. It goes on here, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which He has not seen vainly puffed up by His fleshly mind. And notice in verse 19, not holding fast to the head, and the head, of course, is Jesus Christ, from whom all the body nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments grows with increase that is from God. And so we need to, again, look to the head, holding fast to the head, who is Jesus Christ? And again, that has not changed in the United Church of God. Ephesians 4, Ephesians 4. I remember Mr. Waterhouse going around and talking to the churches, and as you remember, he used to talk a long time.

And Mr. Waterhouse, making a statement from time to time, he says, you suppose God knows what's going on down here in the church? Maybe somebody ought to tell him what's going on. And of course, he was usually chuckle at that, and he would say, no, God knows what's going on. But let's notice here in Ephesians 4 and verse 11, Ephesians 4 and verse 11, and Paul, I think, really wants to make a double statement here by saying here in verse 11, and it says, he, speaking of Jesus Christ, he himself, you know, you don't hear that talk very much, except down south, he himself, but he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. And so the ministry was given by Jesus Christ in the church. And the ministry, brethren, serves at the pleasure of Jesus Christ and not by right.

Not by right. And we need to keep that in mind. You know, some people, of course, think that they are ministers by right, and that is not true. We serve at the pleasure of Jesus Christ. I'm reminded of what old Bill Cosby used to say to his kids. You know, his children, he used to tell them, he says, you know, I brought you into this world and I can take you out.

Well, the same is true with the ministers. God brought us into the ministry and He could take us out because we serve at His pleasure. And if He does not want, you know, a minister where He is, one way or another, He will take him out. And, you know, if a minister sort of jacks himself up, thinking that he deserves to be where he is, you know, any minister needs to realize that simply is not so. We all serve at the pleasure of Jesus Christ. And, you know, again, it's a very important thing for us to get that and to understand it. But Christ is the head of the church. He gave the ministry and He brought us in. He can also take us out. He can use others that, in fact, we don't even know of at this particular time. But let's notice down here in verse 5, I like the way the wording here is on this, talking about the church and how the church is supposed to be growing and developing as a result of the ministry guiding and equipping the people, the saints. It says in verse 15, but speaking, speaking again of what should be done in the church, speaking the truth in love may grow up, grow up in all things into Him who is the head Christ. You know, think about that, brethren, from this standpoint. Have you ever seen a small child with a big head? You ever thought when you look at some little children that, you know, their head is too big for their body? Well, guess what, brethren, that's us.

Because Christ is a pretty big head, isn't He? And it fits on the body, and we are the body.

But one thing that is interesting about a child with a big head, and very often babies, of course, look that way. Their heads are bigger than that fits the body. What happens is that eventually a child's body grows into their head. In other words, their body and their head match after a while.

And, you know, so in a way, that's the way we are, brethren. The body of Christ does not match the grandeur, you might say, of the head that sits upon the body, and that is Jesus Christ. And we have to grow into that head. We have to grow and develop and change and overcome and become mature to become like Jesus Christ so that, you know, when in fact we look at the body, it's balanced. You know, Christ is again yet the head, and yet we're part of that body, and it looks like, again, a normal body, you know, as certainly happens with a child. And so we have to grow in to Jesus Christ, as it were. And like I said, since Christ is the head of the church, brethren, we have to allow Christ to himself correct problems which arise in the ministry and within the church. And he will guide the church, and he will guide the ministry to see that those things that will be corrected.

You know, I think it's frankly foolishness for anyone to think that somehow God has somehow deserted us. You know, if you look, in fact, on some of the internet things and read some people about what they're saying about the United Church of God, they give the impression that somehow God has sort of gone off and left us here alone by ourselves. To me, that's just utter foolishness. And it's absurd, as far as I'm concerned, and it simply is not true. You know, the Apostle Paul admonished us to remember what Christ himself said. Even though Christ, we do not see him saying this in the New Testament, we know it was said in the Old Testament a couple of times. And Paul said that Christ said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Well, either again, Christ is telling us the truth or he is not. And I believe he is telling us the truth, brethren, that he will never leave us or forsake us, that he is with us even during the troubled times and the difficult times that we may be going through from time to time. And frankly, Christ might not be all that pleased with us all the time. You know, it's like when I was growing up, I didn't please my parents all the time, you know, but they didn't pack up and leave. Thankfully, I could always come home from school and they would be there. I think any parent would be the same thing, wouldn't they? You know, just because you have problems with a child and you may not be pleased, you work with that child, you develop that child, and eventually they get over it and they go on and they grow up and you laugh about it when they get older. But, you know, we need to keep a mind again that Jesus Christ again is the head of the church. Let's remember that, brethren. Let's hold up the head of the church and that is Christ. Let's have faith and let's trust in Him.

You know, let's not look to physical human beings and in that sense, the way that we should look to Jesus Christ, but let's look to Christ. Let's have faith in Him and let's have trust in Him that we will get through these things that we're going through right now within the church. And so that's one of the demands if you're going to endure to the end. You know, here in this audience here, we have some that have been in the church maybe 30 years, some that have been around for 40 years or more. I don't know if we have anybody that has been around 50 years or not, but we have people. I know we ask for a show of hands usually at the feast and you have somebody that's, you know, raised their hand and have been around for 50 years or more. I don't think we have anybody 60 years right now, but you know, you don't get to 50 years unless you've got some something there where you're meeting the demands of endurance because you just wouldn't stay around. You wouldn't remain and be there. Another demand of endurance, brethren, is keeping the vision and the commitment.

You know, if I ever go through a trial, I think about that personally myself. What was the vision, the original vision I had when I began to learn about the truth and when I really began to understand that God was going to have me be a part of his family and me have an opportunity for being a king and priest in the kingdom of God and the promise I made to him that I would be able to be a king and priest in the kingdom of God. That's what I remember. Those things when I think about and I get discouraged or something. Keeping the vision, you know, alive inside of you, keeping the commitment that you made and that you don't forget that commitment. Now, one thing I don't want to be is come up to the time of where Christ wants to talk to me about something and he said, why didn't you keep going? Why didn't you keep your commitment?

Now, let's go over to Proverbs chapter 29. Proverbs 29.

Here, of course, Solomon probably should have learned some of his own very wise words that he's recorded for us himself. But in Proverbs 29, verse 18, here it says, Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint, but happy is he who keeps the law.

Where there's no revelation, and if you have a King James version, you know, and most probably do not, but some of you may, but it says vision in the King James version. I like it better. But what it means is when it talks about revelation, where there's no prophetic revelation, there's no prophetic vision. And we in the church, brethren, have a prophetic vision. We have an understanding of future events. We have an understanding of prophecy that tells us that, again, that there's going to come on the horizon, a beast power that's going to emerge. And we talk about it coming up in Europe. And we also know that Christ is going to return. He's going to set up his kingdom, and that we're going to rule with Christ for a thousand years. And we know beyond that. We know about New Jerusalem, you know, clear past, the second resurrection. Now, some people don't have that understanding, brethren, but we have that prophetic understanding within the church of God. There in the New King James version, it says that people without that revelation, they cast off restraint. In the King James, it says, the people perish. And, you know, that's what happens when you cast off restraint. You perish. If we cast off restraint, if we begin to sort of take a cavalier life, look at life and live it that way, then we are going to perish, just like all the rest of the world and society that is out there that we see.

But, brethren, if we can keep this prophetic vision and remember the commitment that we have made, and we can apply these things, and we're going to be there to, you know, see that ribbon that you might say hung across that finish line and be able to cross it and break it and be into the kingdom of God. But we have to keep that vision. You know, sometimes we think it's hard, don't we, in this world? And I'm not going to joke around with that because sometimes it can be mighty hard. Harder for some than it is for others. Some, of course, have fought through years of horrible discomfort because of one ailment or another, one disease maybe that they fought, or maybe they fought through problems on the home front or, you know, problems of financial problems of one kind or another. That's not easy to go through those kinds of things. There's no question about that.

We understand that life is not a bowl of cherries. If it was, you know, then I think probably none of us would be here if it was a bowl of cherries because we'd be out in the world doing the things that people, other people in the world are doing. But, you know, what we go through, the one thing to me that is so encouraging, brethren, is you can look, come to church services, and you can look and there's somebody over here and there's somebody over there, somebody to your right, to your left, ahead of you. They've got their Bible open. They may be looking at the scriptures. They may be writing some things down about what is said in the message and so forth. The one thing is we're not alone. We're not by ourselves. You know, what a horrible thing would it be for you to be the only one that knew the truth on the face of the whole earth. Look around this room and imagine if it was totally empty and you were the only one sitting here. You know, imagine the fact that there was a time when a man was called by the name of Abraham and he was the only person on the face of the earth. And there's a good reason why it's called Faithful Abraham, isn't it? Because he was faithful in a time when nobody was faithful upon this earth. Let's go to Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11, in fact, there's many examples of people that were doing things. You might say alone. But in Hebrews 11 and verse 10, talking about Abraham, how they dwelt on the land of promise and so forth. But in verse 10 it says, For he, speaking of Abraham, waited for this city which has foundations, whose builder and maker of God. You know, when I mention vision, brethren, most of the time we probably think about, don't we, about the world tomorrow, a thousand year reign at price, when we're going to be kings and priests upon the earth. Well, Abraham had his eyes set a thousand years later, at the time after the second resurrection, when the new Jerusalem was going to come down out of heaven. That's what his eyes were fixed on in his life and he was thinking about. And, you know, so he had his mind fixed far beyond what, in fact, we have. Our mind's fixed on a lot of times. Over in verse 16 it says, But now they desire a better that is a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to call, it says, be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. And, brethren, I hope that that city's being prepared for you and me as well. And so he was looking for that city when, again, that was new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven. And, you know, here was a man four thousand years ago who started out, of course, by himself because we have no idea at the beginning, it doesn't seem like that Sarah is necessarily with Abraham and in all these things, but later she is. And later we find that Lot is as well and Lot is considered to be, you know, a righteous man. So you got three people that are on the planet now as opposed to one person. But that was four thousand years ago.

And here we are, 2010, brethren. And we're not by ourselves, but we have all of the brethren here that are here with us to encourage us. And so we need to, again, keep that vision, keep the commitment that you made at the very beginning when you turn your life over to Jesus Christ. And don't let anything get in the way of that great vision that you have.

You know, sometimes within the church you have personal, maybe, problems between members.

And some people, frankly, can let those problems between one another cause them to stumble, can allow yourself to do that. You have to keep that vision. It's what causes us to forgive one another. It's what causes the keep going. And to be a better people than, you know, people that simply give up in the face of a problem that comes along. You know, one thing I pray about every single time when I pray is I ask God to forgive me as I am willing to forgive other people, to be able to wipe the slate clean for other people. Because remember Christ said, if we can't forgive other people, then we're not going to be forgiven. So let's keep that in mind, brethren, that we, again, need to not let relationships cause us to stumble, but to keep that vision and to keep the commitment. In fact, Paul says, pursue peace with all people.

And he said in holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. You know, frankly, if we can't learn how to get along with each other, if we got to live out in the middle of the wilderness in our own little cabin somewhere to survive life, we're in trouble. We really are. When we're called into church, you know, God expects us to learn to interact with one other within the body of Jesus Christ.

Learn to show that love again to people and to learn to have a relationship with other people.

Because remember, it's the peacemakers who are called the sons of God. And so we need to keep that vision and that commitment. But that's a demand of endurance. If we're going to endure to the end, that's what's going to take. I mean, we have to keep that in mind if we expect to be there when, you know, Jesus returns, Jesus Christ returns. Another thing that is important, that is a demand of endurance, brethren, is seeking God's strength when you go through trials. Seeking His strength that He gives to us. Let's go to Romans 5 about that. In Romans chapter 5, and in verses 3 and 4 over here, Paul talks about, you know, here in chapter 5 and verse 3. He says, and not only that, but we also glory in tribulations. And so he's talking about, we should glory in tribulations. Now, I don't know about you, but I never felt like glorying when I went through a trial. And I'd feel too proud of myself. In fact, a lot of times when I was going through a trial or difficulty. But I think part of what Paul means is after the trial is over. You know, once the trial is over, then we can laugh about it, can't we? We can be thankful for that trial that we've gone through and the difficulties. And he says, knowing that tribulation or trial, here he's saying, produces perseverance. You know, in other words, we need trials, brethren, to learn perseverance. Or that's just another word for endurance. You know, sometimes our young people, I think it's important for us to teach them that, look, life is not all going to be peaches and cream for you.

You know, you're going to have to do things in your life that are hard, that are difficult.

And if we don't teach our children, by the way, that that's the way life is. If there are going to be some real tough times where you're going to go through some upheavals, emotional upheavals, in your life, and let them realize that even in spite of those things, you've got to persevere on through. Well, quite frankly, unless our kids have learned that lesson when they go to college, they will never get through college. Unless they know that already. Unless we teach them that. But because trials produce perseverance or endurance, it toughens you up. Makes you tougher.

You know, I have to tell our young people, you're going to have trials. Now, whether your parents tells you or anybody else tells you, there are going to be a lot of great things to happen in your life, good things that are going to just make you the happiest you've ever been in your life. But I can promise you, you're going to have trials. And you know what? It's going to make you into a man or a woman. It's going to make you as a person.

Into the person that you need to become. And thankfully, if you're praying, God will be there with you. Help you learn those lessons that you need to learn to help you become tough. And going on, it says in verse 4, in perseverance, character. In other words, this is real. The character is there. It begins to be built and it is set within us because of the trial. And it says, in character, hope. Now, how does character produce hope?

What does he mean by that? Well, I remember when I was a little boy, we used to go down and go swimming. Every year in the summer, they would send free swimming tickets to families. Otherwise, we couldn't afford to go swimming. You know, we had so many in the family. There were nine children in our family.

Well, they would send these free swimming passes. And I would go swimming with my brothers and sisters down to the Sugar Creek pool. I remember as a little guy, though, we would enjoy going swimming and everything. But there was, you know, at the pool, there was a low dive and then there was a high dive there.

And, you know, it didn't take long before I was able to jump off the low dive. Now, some of you kids probably have gone through this same thing. You know, you're fearful of jumping off of something like that. And this high dive, as far as I was concerned, it was about a thousand feet high, you know, because I was very short, very short. But I remember when I finally decided I needed to go and jump off of that high dive, I got up there and I said, I know what I've got to do.

I've just got to get out there and I can't think about it. And I just got to jump. I just have to jump. And so I did that and jumped off. And of course, it didn't die, as I thought possibly could happen. Die on the way down, probably, more than anything. But what happened after that, and I'm just using this as an example, brethren, to show us how we get hope, is we find out what we can do.

And so, you know, the next time it was, you know, still hard, but not as hard. Pretty soon, you know, you're jumping on the high dive and you're looking down and, you know, with all the little kids and saying, look, I'm brave up here, you know, standing on the high dive. And it gives you hope. It makes you press forward. It makes you do other things that maybe you might be afraid of doing.

And so that's what our lives can be, brethren. If we step out and we do those things that sometimes are challenging to us, that it builds hope. It builds character. And then we have hope. And in addition, it makes us do other things that builds the character even more within us. And so, brethren, we need to again seek God's strength, though, for the trials that come ahead of us. And, you know, if you're faced with this giant trial, I mean, it is so big.

It's right in front of you. You know, the time is not then to shrink, but to begin to pray for God's strength to either go around it, over it, or through it. However, God, you know, is going to help you do it. And, you know, you'll find in your life when you face with those giant trials like that that they really will be great opportunities for building character, building courage, so that you can begin to tackle things that you didn't think that you could ever tackle. But, you know, we have to again, in order to have that strength, we have to ask God for it.

And He will give it to us. And, you know, in 1 Peter 1 and 7, it's one of those old verses that we should be familiar with, but it says, the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried in the fire. And so, brethren, we need that gold that's tried in the fire. You know, in the end, when we go through something like that and we've asked for God's strength, it just produces that character. It produces more strength so that we can tackle something else later. And it produces, again, that character. But that demand, though, is that we have to seek God's strength. King David, I think, is a perfect example of what we want to become, brethren, and what I'm talking about. I'm not going to go to these verses, but you might want to write them down. They're all from the book of Psalms. In Psalm 27, in verse 1, here David says, The Lord is the strength of my life. I don't think he's just saying that in a cavalier manner. He's the strength of my life. I think he really, really meant it. I mean, he had problems as king many times. It was 13 years fighting. The problems were solved, by the way, before he even became king. Think about that. God crowned him king, or anointed him king, I should say. And it was 13 years later he became king, running from Saul. He said, The Lord is the strength of my life. In Psalm 29, verse 11, this is what David said in Psalm 29, verse 11, The Lord will give strength to his people.

You know, he believed in the people of Israel. You know, when you have a leader like David, you really want to follow a man like that. There are very few presidents that we've had, in my opinion, who have put confidence in Americans. We've had a few through the years, but David was one of those leaders that would have put confidence in America if he was ever the president of this country. But he said, The Lord will give strength to his people. In Psalm 22, verse 29, For you, O Lord, David says, do not be far from me. And then he says, O my strength hasten to help me.

So anytime he was going through a trial or difficulty, you know, he wanted God's strength in order to endure it, in order to go through it. And David went through manifold trials in his life.

And I suppose that David could have thrown into the tile. We might not have ever read about David, but he is in the book so that we can read about him and we can learn through David, because he was the kind of man that was a man after God's own heart. And John, Jesus Christ came along. Jesus Christ mentions over here this to us that we might learn. And of course, he taught the disciples these things, how much they grasp at the time it was being taught to them, who knows. But here in John 14 and down in verse 15, he said, If you love me, keep my commandments. And it says, I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper. And if you have a King James, it says Comforter, doesn't it, there? I've got a new King James. That He may abide with you forever.

And so he said, look, if you keep my commandments, if you live by my law, you want to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, he said, I'll pray for a Helper to come for you. Now, the interesting thing about this is we know that the Greek word here for Helper or Comforter is periclitos. We mentioned that from time to time. But interestingly, the root word from the Latin in this verse, this particular word here Helper, the Latin is fortis, F-O-R-T-I-S, and it means brave, courage, strength. No one is having bravery as a result of the Spirit of God working in their lives, or courage or strength. And the disciples, indeed, we're going to have to have some courage, weren't they, to do what God had set before them. And, you know, I would say, woe to the apostles if they had tried to do their work on their own strength, because they would have fallen on their faces. And woe to us, brethren, if we rely on our own strength, because we're going to fall. And again, look around the room, brethren, right here. Why isn't this room packed to the gills? Why don't we have people lined up in the hallways and in the foyer and going clear out to the parkland? Why don't we have that, brethren? It's because there are some people that did not rely upon the strength of God and some people, indeed, that are not with us anymore, because they failed. We cannot fall as Philippides did at marathon after marathon, brethren, we must stand. You know, he had to go through a physical, a course that was physically demanding, and he lost his life. He'll come up in the second resurrection. But, brethren, we, ours is spiritual, and it involves eternal life. That's what's at stake. So, we can't lose at this.

We can't fail as God's people. We must succeed. So, we have to, again, seek God's strength for trials.

Another thing that is important, brethren, and a demand for someone to endure to the end is persevere in tough times. Sometimes you face periods of your life where it just seems like it's one thing after another. Like, I remember my brothers talking to me about different things, where some things it's like when it rains, it pours. Just one problem after another, you just have to persevere. You have to persevere to the end. And I think it's good, and I think a lot of people, probably from the time prior to World War II and the 30s and so forth, were those type of people who just got tough. They could survive any place at any time. I think, unfortunately, we have become too weak as a people because we've been given so much. And I think, unfortunately, we have to be entertained at all times. In fact, today people want to be entertained when they go to church. They've got to have a band strike up, you know, how a lot of the super churches are. They've got bands, and they've got these people that sing on the radio and have music that almost sounds like pop music, which is so-called Christian music. And people want to be entertained. They don't want to put any effort into it. Some people are so lazy that they can't even turn into Bible to read a scripture. They've got to have it flashed up on the screen.

It's amazing to me how sometimes we've gotten so helpless. You know, sometimes I get used to going into some of these restrooms that have these lights that you break, and they come on automatically. I don't know if you've ever done this, but there have been times when I've walked into a restroom to wash my hands, and I just sort of held my hands under there. I said, oh, this is the one you have to actually turn the knobs at. You know, we can really get lazy, don't we, after a while? Amazing in this age how we've got so many of those kinds of amenities that help us in that way. But we need to be tougher. We really do. And it may very well be that we're going to see a little bit of that ourselves before all is said and done.

Who knows whether we're going to go through a depression in the future? As I mentioned to you, last time I was down here, they're talking about, again, a new wave of foreclosures that are going to come through. And as far as I know, it's far worse than the first one that we have. And if that happens, we'll of course have to see what God does and what his intent is. But we may all learn a little bit from the future. I hope not, frankly. I hope we don't have to go through it. But it certainly would be good for us to be toughened up a little bit.

You know, I'm not going to go to this verse, but in Proverbs 24 verse 10, this is what Solomon said.

Solomon said this, and he probably should have learned some of his own wisdom. He says, if you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is weak. Or small, as it says, I think, in the King James. You know, if you faint in the day of adversity. You know, think about this. If you have worked on yourself, you've developed yourself, and you have tried to build character, and if you come up to the time where all of your character is supposed to count and you faint, you know, your strength is small. You know, we need again to toughen up a little bit. People, you know, often brag about how things are tough in the older days. I remember when I was growing up, my father, you know, would talk about his days. He lived in a little town on the Arkansas River called Pawpaw, Oklahoma, which is across the street, or across the river, I should say, from Arkansas. Pawpaw was a place where it was a small community with a school, and so forth. He took me down and showed me the school where he went, and of course the town's gone now. Nobody there, living there, and the school is, the roof is caved in. The trees are growing up from the roof of it. But he told me a number of times when he was growing up that, you know, sometimes in those days, you know, he grew up, he was born back in the early 20s, and he said, he said, you had to go to school, and a lot of times it was not uncommon to see someone go to school wearing toe sacks on their feet because of the wintertime. And I had some people up in Oakland that mentioned about that, you know, as well, that they had different situations that were similar to that, and that they heard their families talking about. But, you know, people brag about how things were tough. You know, we walked to school, and it was 10 miles of school, and it was uphill both ways. You know, you probably heard people talk about that. It's like one person said when they were a kid, they had no food, they had no kerosene for lights, no wood for stove, no job, no money, and then they thought things could get worse, the depression hit.

So people go through some pretty tough times in life. But realize, brethren, that God will never put on you anything you can't handle. You can't handle. There's no temptation taking you, such as common demand. And it talks about there in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 13, that God will make a way of escape out of those trials that you've gone through. Brethren, never say, I can't take any more, because you know what? God may show you you can't. Take a lot more than you think that you can.

But realize this, brethren, that any time you get through trial or difficulty, we can always take it to the very throne of God, and He will hear us. Now, we can't say to God, God, you just don't understand. Or to Jesus Christ, you don't know what it's like to suffer. Yeah, He knows what it's like.

Over in Hebrews chapter 4, let's quickly go over there, Hebrews chapter 4.

In verse 15, here it says, We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin. And it says, Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help. We're going through a trial or difficulty, and notice in a time of need. In a time of need. Sometimes we don't need the help that God has in our lives. And by that, I mean not that God's help is not appreciated when certainly we have need of His help, but I mean it from the standpoint of this brethren.

It's like when our children were very small, we taught all of them boys about how to ride a bike.

But, you know, every time when you start teaching your children about how to ride a bike, first you have to sort of walk along with them, don't you? And you start out with those training wheels, and after they finally are able to do it, eventually no training wheels, just the bike and the boy. And, you know, you start going along with him, and pretty soon you sort of take your hands off, and well, he or she is riding that bike on their own. Well, God does that sometimes with us as well. That He's there with us, but there's a time where He says, okay, you don't need me, you got it. You got what you need. There are times, though, when He doesn't necessarily think that you're ready, and He will keep His hands on you, and He will be with you.

So, perseverance and tough time, very important to keep you tough. Keep you tough. One thing to do, to keep in mind if you're going to endure to the end, brethren, is V-growth-oriented as well. That's a demand of enduring to the end. It's like they used to say, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I think that's really true, and hopefully there's nothing that's going to kill us, but we'll make it stronger. But we need to be growth-oriented, always. I see some that are old-timers in the church, and it's amazing how some of them just keep pushing, keep studying, keep learning, keep growing. If God intended you and I to remain the same, brethren, He would have never called us. He just left us where we were. And from baptism onward, what God wants us to do is grow. And then, you know what He wants us to do, brethren? Grow some more. That's what He wants us to do. You never arrive. You really never arrive. Let's go to John 15, John chapter 15 over here.

John 15, we read this at the Passover time every single year. But here in John 15, in verse 1, Christ says, I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine dresser. How many of you have ever snipped a vine for grapes? Anybody done that? I used to do that myself. You know those little sharp things that you get up under there, and you snip off the good grapes, but you can snip off the bad part of it. Very sharp things. Well, guess what? The Father is the one who's got those in His hands. He's up there looking at that vine who is Jesus Christ. And it says, in every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away. Just like you did when you got up under there and you started snipping things away that were dying, it took Him away. In every branch that bears fruit, He prunes. It says that it may bear more fruit. So like I said, when we grow, God wants us to grow some more. There's more to develop. There's more to change. In verse 8, going on down, by this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit so that you may be not disciples. Here we see that we are not a disciple of Christ unless we are growing, unless we are changing. You know, if we remain the same year after year after year, we're not the disciples of Christ. And of course, let's face it, brethren, that depends on us, doesn't it?

You know, we're not going to grow necessarily by hearing a certain message. We're not going to grow necessarily by even studying the Bible, for that matter. We're not going to grow by studying anything, for that matter, unless we apply it. And that's the only way.

You know, God wants us to put it in us, to inculcate it in us. And none of us are ever going to be finished with that, brethren, until we are changed at the time that Christ comes and this mortal body puts on immortality. And we have grown to the measure and the stature of Jesus Christ. But like I said earlier, Christ is a forerunner, and Christ is ahead of us and will always be ahead of us, running ahead of us. And we're going to be trying to catch our big brother for the rest of eternity, and we never will. We're never going to catch up with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Another demand of endurance, brethren, is to humble yourself and defer to God, to humble yourself. You know, we must not lean on our own understanding if we're going to humble ourselves and defer to God. That's what it says, isn't it, back there in Proverbs 3, where it says, don't lean on your own understanding, but trust in God.

You know, God has taken us through our lives, brethren. He, in fact, sometimes lets us go through some things in our lives to bring us down a few notches and to humble us.

Now, I know nobody here has ever been too cocky. No one here has ever maybe jacked themselves up a little too high. No, I think we all have, haven't we, brethren? We've been up there. God brings us down a few notches. In Deuteronomy 8, Deuteronomy 8, and down in verses 2 and 3, this is what God said to ancient Israel. He said, speaking of Israel, He said, and you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these 40 years. Now we think we got it tough.

Most of us, you know, may have been in the church 40 years, but we haven't been in the wilderness 40 years, have we? It says to humble you. Oh, you mean the very purpose was to humble them so that they could be worked with and to test you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So we humbled you and allowed you to hunger, made them go hungry. Look out, brethren, for the future. We may need to be humble. And said you would manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know that you might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone, but by but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So he did it to humble us, brethren. Do we think it's strange that God actually takes us through experiences to humble us? Well, we shouldn't be. Shouldn't think it's strange.

He wants us, brethren, to learn that we don't live by bread alone. We don't live by the physical sustenance of life, the physical things. We don't live by these things, but we live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And so we have to, again, not lean on our understanding, submit ourselves to God, humble ourselves, and defer to Him. Defer to Him.

I'm not going to go to the verse, but in James 4.10, you might want to write it down. It says, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will keep pushing you down.

Oh, wait a minute. I misquoted that, didn't I? It says, and He will lift you up. He will lift you up.

Have you ever felt like, brethren, you were spinning your wheels in life?

Well, sometimes you actually might be spinning your wheels.

Remember when you were a kid and you were riding a bike, and maybe you sometimes you were sitting on the bike and about ready to start riding, and maybe you had a brother or sister and came and lifted the back of the bike, and the tire just kept going? Here you were, trying to get away from your brother or whatever. That wheel kept on turning. Well, brethren, that's God lifting up the wheel in our lives sometimes, and we're spinning our wheels. And the reason is that God says, nah, son, you've got some things to learn yet before you take off here.

So God lifts it up, and you're spinning your wheels. God's saying, you've got to learn something before I'm going to let this down so you can start going forward. You know, God wants us to learn something, and one thing He certainly wants us to learn is to humble ourselves and defer to Him. You know, in life we do sometimes, we're spinning our wheels, brethren, and maybe the reason we're spinning our wheels is because He's got, again, a hold of that back, and you're not going anywhere, you know, and you're going to stay there until you learn whatever it is you need to learn, and God may have His finger on your head holding you back because you need to learn that before He lets you go forward. You know, God is telling us something if we, again, are not changing, if we're not overcoming. You know, Peter says this in 1 Peter 5 verse 6, he says, therefore humble yourselves unto the mighty hand of God, and God will let the back of the bicycle go. No, it doesn't say that, does it? No, it says, humble yourself unto the mighty hand of God, and He will exalt you in due time. And so, brethren, that's so important. That's a demand of endurance. Want to be around, and however long God is going to keep us here before Christ returns, or till we die, if that's what God's will is too, we've got to have that demand of endurance.

And finally, brethren, here's a demand that is very important, and not, in fact, least of all of them that I've given here in terms of demand, is ask for patience in all things. Ask for patience in all things. You remember when you were little kids and you watched Esip's Fables? How many of you ever saw Esip's Fables cartoons? I did when I was a little kid. I love those cartoons, by the way.

Remember the one about the tortoise and the hare? What did the tortoise do?

You know, the tortoise, you know, just he plodded along, didn't he? He was slow, his seven-year-inch. The hare was fast. He could run around the track, you know, three or four times, you know, by the time the tortoise did. But in the story of the tortoise and the hare, it ends up that the tortoise wins because he plots ahead. He keeps going. He keeps going ahead.

And the lesson, basically, is being patient and applying yourself and moving forward. Just always be moving forward. You know, I remember when I went to college at Northeastern State University. I came from a very small town. I had to go and take some classes in preparation for pre-medicine, as I mentioned to you here before. And I had to take physics, chemistry, and all those things that you have to take as a pre-medicine-type program. But I had never had physics when I went to college. I had never had chemistry. I never had analytic geometry or trigonometry or any of these things. And when I went to Northeastern State University, the one thing I had an advantage of is I had a dogged determination that I was going to succeed. And I promised myself, even if I wasn't the smartest person in that classroom, that I was going to apply myself and I was going to die trying if I was going to make that class.

And I don't want to boast, but when I left Northeastern State University, I didn't have bad grades.

I had very good grades. But it was all not came about as a result of intelligence, but a doggedness.

You know, one thing I think that we need to learn is that. If we, brethren, as God's people, if we apply ourselves and we keep applying ourselves and we don't give up and we have a dogged determination and we've got all the patience in the world. You know, if we can make ourselves, again, have that kind of patience, that we can accomplish anything that is set before us. There's nothing that can be held back. And frankly, brethren, even the kingdom of God, that's a part of it. And of course, we need not just our own physical strength for that, though we need God's Spirit and God's help. But God still wants to have that doggedness to succeed.

I don't think in myself I'm an extraordinary person in that way, but, you know, I'm probably average when it comes to that. But that's one thing that we can all have an advantage over, even if we don't have what we think we need to succeed at something. If we apply ourselves and we have that dogged determinations and that patience, we can succeed at it. Remember, the race is not always won by someone who is fleet of feet, like the hair, but the person who is patient till the end. Jesus said this, a very deep statement to think about. He said to his disciples, he says, in your patience, possession you your souls. You know, if Jesus Christ, if God told you that you hold in your own hands your own salvation, I don't think he could have said it better than that verse we just quoted to you. You hold it in your own hand. God can offer anything to you. He can give you any aid, any help, but in reality, it's what are you going to do with what God has given to you? In your patience, you possess your own souls. Let's go to Isaiah, chapter 40. You know, in God's church anymore, you see a lot of people with gray hair.

And that's good because that shows longevity, doesn't it? It shows that we have people who have built a lot of character, gone through a lot of experiences. We have young people as well in the church. But watch out, young people, because the Bible says something about this over in Isaiah, chapter 40. And be warned about this. Don't rely on your youthfulness.

And we'll begin up here in verse 30. Notice what the prophet Isaiah says. It says, So again, if we rely on our own physical strength, we're going to fall.

When somebody is young, they think they're going to live forever. They really do.

And I was thinking about this yesterday. When I was 17, I started, or 16 probably, when I started studying the Bible and all the rest. It's like I turned around and here is 53 years that passed. It's gone. Those years, which is like that. It's unbelievable.

So don't depend on your youth, because it's fleeting. It goes fast.

And it says, But those who wait on the eternal, it says, those that have patience and God, looking to God, trusting in God, shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles, and they shall run and not be weary. And they shall walk and not faint. And so, you know, that is a promise that God gives to us if we have patience, if we have confidence in Him to the very end. You know, somehow or another, I don't know how He will do it. He will grab us by britches in the back or whatever way He will do it, and He will make us run faster than we ever ran before in our lives. Like I said at the beginning, brethren, we're not running a sprint race. We're running a marathon. And we must meet the needs, the demands of endurance to win the race at the end. We have to have certain qualities that are in our lives. And these qualities are these keys that we've been talking about here, brethren. You know, if we can put these things in our lives and we can set a steady gate, if we can walk methodically, pushing for and looking toward the goal line at the kingdom of God, brethren, we're going to make it.

And realize this, just as back then when the battle of marathon took place, brethren, that that was a game changer for the world. That it impacted Europe and has impacted the peoples of the United States and Canada and Britain. And all of these nations have been impacted by what happened back in the fifth century BC. What we do, brethren, is going to change history for all mankind and ultimately for the universe. Because we'll start here on the earth and we'll go on out probably through the solar system and into this vast universe. It's going to be remarkable.

And we'll be able to look back to this date, 2010, and we'll remember we talked about it today.

So let's remember these demands of endurance and let's endure to the end, because that same person who endures to the end is going to be saved.