Lifelong Commitments

I remember during college days I did something rather crazy for me because I wasn't really a runner, but they needed some runners to do the steeple chase or the steeple race. And I wasn't a runner by nature. I hadn't prepared, but they needed someone else to be able to do it. And so I kind of foolishly agreed. Now, the steeple chase is about the toughest race that you can go through because it's basically a mile, it's four laps around the track, but you have eight different hurdles to go through and two water jumps that you have to do that also has a hurdle over it. And so I thought, well, I better train. And so I started early in the morning and running up and down the hills of Pasadena before going for breakfast. But I really didn't know too much what I was doing. So I was in fairly good shape because I've always loved basketball. That's what I can really do well. But this steeple chase was more of adventure. And so sure enough, the day came when we had the track and field meet. And so I had, I took off on the race and started going up the barriers and jumping and the first lap was pretty good. The second one pretty good boy. And the third one, I started getting tired. I started feeling my legs getting very heavy and I was breathing hard. And I remember in the fourth lap, I was just barely getting over. And I remember I splashed into the water one time. I didn't even have the strength to jump over it. But I came in fourth place. Now there were only four runners at the time. But you know what I remember the most? Is that although I wanted to quit so bad, I didn't. I just said I'm gonna weather this through. And I remember I came through and and a couple of people congratulated me because of the effort, not because of any proficiency I really had. But you learn about not giving up in life. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might. That's Ecclesiastes 9-10. That's one of the mottos for life. Whatever you do, give it your best. You might not be the best at it, but you give it your best. And it reminds me of what the Apostle Paul mentioned. He was a fellow that gave up on things. He was a tremendous prevailor of all the different trials. He had to go through life and he gave us a wonderful example. Notice what it says in Hebrews chapter 12, because here we actually have what is an endurance race being described. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1. It says, Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, because he had just described in Hebrews 11 all of these heroes and heroines of the faith.

And so it was like a cloud, this great multitude of people that did cross the finish line, the spiritual race. And he says, Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us. And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Now, of course, he's talking about a long-distance race. A short one, you don't need that much endurance. You just need to be fast. But endurance, and we're going to talk about that term, means that you have to patiently pace yourself and be able to finish the race and not exhaust yourself and quit. And then he goes on to say, 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 has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. So, in that world, the Greek-Roman world, they had Olympic contests in Greece, but around that whole area, they had different athletic races. And there was one in particular called Dolycus, D-O-L-I-C-U-S, C-H-U-S, Dolycus, which was a long-distance race of two and a half miles.

The word race that is used here for competitive race is a gon, A-G-O-N, and it's where we get our word agony. Because when you go through some of these competitive track meets, or whatever you're doing, you're going to suffer. You're going to go through agony, physical exhaustion, and pain. And so the term tells you about something that you're going to go through, you have to endure. Notice what the Good News Bible mentions in Hebrews 12, when it says in Hebrews 12, 1-2. I thought it has a very good description. It says, as for us, we have this large crowd of witnesses around us. So then let us rid ourselves of everything that gets in the way, and of the sin which holds us onto us so tightly. And let us run with determination, the race that lies before us, with determination. And we need to have determination in this life. In a sense, you train people, and that's why in school, they have athletic contests. It's not just to play around, it's to build determination, build that capacity, because you can apply those principles in life as you have to face job challenges, family challenges, economic challenges, all of these things that if you learn, and I mentioned this to our grandkids yesterday, I taught them a little card trick. And I was so proud the two of them were able to apply that card trick to me. They had learned it. And there's a principle, success leads to more success. Small successes lead to bigger successes.

Failure tends to lead to more failure. The more you give up on things, the easier it is to just give up and quit trying. And so it's just a mentality, a champion's mentality is, I'm going to win, I'm going to persevere, I'm going to have determination. Even if I don't win all the time, my mentality is not to give up. And this is what Paul is talking about, Jesus Christ. It says again in chapter 12, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. He ran the race, and he didn't slip up once. He crossed the line triumphantly. He says, who for the joy that was set before him. There wasn't anything joyful about his sacrifice. The joy was what it was going to produce. The opportunity for us one day to be in the kingdom and in the family of God. The sacrifice he did because he wants us there. He was willing to sacrifice himself, and he just saw that future. I'm doing this for every human being that one day will accept that salvation. That was the joy that he could see through his sacrifice. And he says, and he endured. The term endure is the same one as it says here, let us run the race with endurance. One is a noun, and the other one is a verb. The term is hypomone, H-U-P-O-M-O-N-E. And it means to persevere endurance as to things or circumstance, to bear up to things or circumstances. This is in contrast to macrothemia, which is long suffering or endurance toward people. So hypomone has to do with having perseverance and enduring things or circumstances. And macrothemia is generally, because it can be a broad term, but it can be more specific about putting up with people and having perseverance and endurance with people. The Bible talks about being long suffering, being patient with people, because people can be a trial to you. And so also to have that determination to not give up and not to fly off the handle and just lose your patience. So there are these two terms that are used. In Christ it mentions here that he endured the cross. That's hypomone. That was a thing, a challenge that he had to face and endure and prevail and persevere. So it goes on to say hypomone is associated with hope and refers to that quality of character which does not allow one to surrender to circumstances or succumb under trial. That's from the word study dictionary, the definition. So this leads me to the main point today which has to do with lifelong commitments. Do we develop lifelong commitments? Or are we the ones that break off whatever we commit very easily?

Making lasting covenants, which is a type of a commitment, is one of the keys to a fulfilled life, to a life where you are pleasing God. It's sad to see that these lifelong commitments that used to be part of society, where people's word was enough to be able to purchase a car or to purchase a house of people that need 100 pages long, maybe 50, 60 years ago, you could count on a person's word and it was just a short little contract. But nowadays, people break their commitments. They break their contracts. Their word is not worth anything. And that's part of the signs of the times, what we are living at a time that is unparalleled, that has never been repeated quite unless you compare it to Noah's day, when the crisis came to the point where God had to intervene and also during Lot's day where God had to, he was forced to intervene. Well, God is going to be forced to intervene as well.

We see this principle of lifelong commitments. One of the pillars of society, we see it in marriage. We see it in family life. We see it in church life. We see it in friendships.

If you have lifelong commitments that will lead to stability, to peace, to contentment, to perseverance, and many times to success, you are able to outlast the circumstances. You're not going to let the circumstances defeat you.

And so giving up when things get hard is not what we have been called to do. Paul again mentions this point in Hebrews chapter 10, because he was concerned about some of the brethren wanting to give up when the going was rough. They were going to face more persecution. And he wanted to say, brethren, we are tried and tested, and this is what we have prepared for, and we have to overcome. We have to prevail. Notice what it says in Hebrews chapter 10, in verse 35.

He basically pleads with them, saying, Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward, and confidence in that commitment that you had done, not casting it away. For you have need of endurance, hupomone again, that term, perseverance, of holding up under pressure and stress, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise, the greatest of all promises, being able to be in God's kingdom when Jesus Christ returns. Whether we are alive or dead really doesn't make that much of a difference, because the next moment after a person dies, they're going to be in the kingdom of God. They're going to be there with Jesus Christ. The next instant when a person fades away, last thought they have, the next thought in a resurrected body is already rising in the air with a spirit body going to meet Jesus Christ in the air, so you can come down and meet them and meet all the saints in the kingdom. Moses is going to be there. Abraham, David, and we're going to feel very little in comparison to many of them, but it's a big family.

That's what we're looking for. That's why he says we must persevere to receive the promise.

Now, sometimes in life there are circumstances that lead to having to start all over. So, a hupamone doesn't mean that you prevail every time, but you have that spirit. You're not going to let it get you down. You're going to get up again, go at it, do your part, continue serving and doing the will of God. Now, one of the situations we have where there are second chances and God gives us second chances and even more, as long as we are there persevering. It's interesting, just a side note, since I enjoyed basketball so much, my body now, I just now I do tennis, which is a lot easier on the body, but during the basketball time, of course, one of the great players of all time was Michael Jordan.

But when they asked Michael Jordan about his career, and they said, well, you were such a great scorer and shooter, do you remember that? And he says, I remember all the times I missed. I remember because that's what he was bothered about. So those type of winners, they're not thinking about all the times they scored. They're thinking about, well, I could have shot this better.

I could have done it better. They're perfectionists in that way. And yet, all of these people, nobody bats a thousand, hits all the hoops. And we have second chances, and God allows us to get up and learn the lessons of life, to never give up. You have the example of David. Now, he was a man that was fully given to God, and he made mistakes, serious mistakes and sins.

But you know what? He never gave up. It was just that spirit of saying, Father, I'm messed up, but give me another chance. I'll do it better, and I will continue serving you. I will continue overcoming and learning from my mistakes. And certainly he did. Notice in 1 Corinthians 7, where sometimes we do have this opportunity for a second chance, because you can't control other people, what they do. Sometimes you're faithful, others are not. Finally, they just ruin it to the point where, here's a situation. 1 Corinthians 7 verse 12, talking about marriage. So Paul here is talking about what is a person that is married to someone who is not of the faith.

It says in verse 12, but to the rest I, not the Lord, say, because this was a new situation, Jesus Christ had not addressed it directly. He left the principles, but here Paul is being inspired to add this. It says, if any brother has a wife who does not believe, she's not a believer, she doesn't have the same faith, and she is willing to live with him, let him not divorce her.

So he says, be a good husband, be a good wife to the person. If they still want to continue with the marriage and love you, and there are good marriages in that way, and because they're not of the faith doesn't mean you have a right to divorce them. He says, and a woman who has a husband who does not believe, if he is not willing to live, I'm sorry, if he is willing to live with her, let her not divorce him.

So either way, you are to be a good example, maintain that marriage. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband. And sometimes, because the good example, the person who was unconverted actually comes into the church as a result of the good example. I've seen it many times. And also, how about the children? What if you broke up the marriage, and here the children are going to be completely disoriented? It says otherwise your children would be unclean, which means that if the marriage broke up, maybe the children went with the unbelieving person, and they would be part of the world.

They wouldn't have the opportunity to be exposed to the church and to grow spiritually. He says, but now they are holy, because at least one of the parents is in the church. And many times that's the way the children are able to come in through that one parent. One case was Timothy. Remember, his father was a Greek unbeliever, his mother was a believer, and so was his grandmother. And through the influence of the grandmother and mother, Timothy was able not only to become a full-fledged member of the church, but actually became a minister, a pastor, and one of Paul's right-hand men.

But what happens if the unbeliever doesn't want to live with a person because of the faith or whatever reason? It says, but if the unbeliever departs, so this person doesn't want to live with the believer. Paul says, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage, which means here that you're submitted and you are in this bond with that other person in such cases. But God has called us to peace. So he says, in these circumstances, you can redo your life. You can be able to be free to marry. And with this corollary in verse 39, it says, a wife is bound by law as long as her husband lives, but if her husband dies, she is at liberty to be married to whom she wishes only in the Lord, which means to a converted person. So again, a person that the unbeliever departs and they don't want to live with you, you are not bound there forever to be abused and with a person that abandons you and you are separated and also isolated for life. No? It says, God has called us to peace.

You have an opportunity if that is the case. Some people do take it, others don't. They'd rather just stay as they are. There's no obligation to do so, but the option is there.

Now another circumstance we have was what God did with ancient Israel. Ancient Israel finally was filled with false religions and they had false gods, and God warned them through His prophets that He wasn't going to put up with that. But they continued on, getting worse and worse until it says there in Jeremiah, the first three chapters, that He divorced Israel because God was not going to soil Himself. He did not want to have the same name to the people that were full of idols and wrong actions. Now there is a rejoiner, which means there is a qualifier here because God being eternal, He can eventually bring Israel back, which He will do in the future. But for the time being, now He has separated Himself, and that's why now He's using the church and not just ancient Israel as the leading example for the world. So, to put it clearly, enduring what the word hupomone is in the Greek is an example of having spiritual and emotional maturity, being able to endure, to be long-suffering, to being unselfish.

This is something that God looks at as part of the character development He wants in us.

Now let's look at a couple of biblical examples. Let's look at Abraham and talk about a lasting commitment that Abraham made with God. Let's go to Genesis chapter 18.

God mentions here something special about Abraham's character. Abraham's character was going to be solid, committed. He didn't have to worry about Abraham going back and going after false gods, false religions. Notice in Genesis 18 in verse 17, it says, And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing? Since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.

Why was God so sure? Next verse. For I have known him in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him.

So this is part of why God could trust Abraham, because he knew it wasn't just going to be Abraham following God's way of life. He says he's going to instruct. He's going to guide. His children are going to follow God's way because of Abraham's faithfulness.

And so it was that you have Isaac, and then you have Jacob, which is used of the description, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, three generations.

And again, none of them were perfect, but they had hupomony. They had perseverance.

They were not quitters. They were going to continue on, whatever the circumstances.

Notice in Hebrews chapter 6, here's an example again of Abraham's endurance. Hebrews chapter 6, verse 13.

Remember, sometimes you use the term macrothemia, which has to do more with people, but it's a general term of endurance as well. It says, verse 13, for when God made a promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself, saying, surely, blessing, I will bless you, and multiplying, I will multiply you. And so after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

And Abraham certainly was one that was tested in so many ways. There were three main trials. That Abraham went through in his life. The first one was leaving his home in Ur, where he was a wealthy businessman, and he was already rich. Everything settled. God said, Abraham, I need you to go where I will show you, and you have to trust me, and just be ready. Pack your things, and I will tell you where to go. And Abraham did so. He had chosen God. He had made a long-lasting commitment with God, and God knew Abraham was that way. And so Abraham had to do that 1,000 mile journey from Ur all the way to Canaan. And there he was. And guess what? He never received that land that God had promised him, because God said, I will give it to you, but it'll go through first. It'll go through your descendants. But this is something that I am establishing a covenant. And so Abraham was there. He gave everything up and went to Canaan.

The second great trial had to do with his son Isaac. He had to wait 25 years when they were already aged, where Sarah's womb had already been gone. As she'd gone through the menopause, she'd gone through all of the symptoms of her womb could no longer give. God healed. And she had, after 25 years of waiting, had Isaac. And so that was a big test for Abraham as well. And the third great test was to then, when Isaac was of age, God said, go up to the mountain. And I'm asking you to sacrifice him.

And Abraham went up, and his knife was coming down when God stopped him. That Abraham was going to follow through. He was going to persevere in whatever trial God was going to put him through. He was going to be faithful. And that's why he's the father of the faithful.

We have another example in Job. Certainly Job was one of the men most tested.

Nobody would want to go through that. In James chapter 5, yet here we have the term, hupomone, for James, for what James writes about Job.

James 5 verse 7. It says, therefore, be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.

See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. The term here, again, going through, it's either hupomone or makothumia. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. My brethren, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience.

Indeed, we count them blessed who endure, who go through and determine the end of the Lord. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord, that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.

So we see the lasting commitment. Job was going to follow God no matter what. Now, again, sometimes he had human emotions. He felt discouraged. Sometimes he was depressed, but he never gave up. He always is going to follow God no matter what. Even his wife said, you should just give up on God. You should just curse, give up. And Job didn't and rebuked her, and he continued relying on God. And of course, we already read about Christ using the term enduring, the cross, hupomone. It's the verb form, which is hupomeno, but it means enduring, holding fast. Christ also brought out that we need to have that endurance.

Luke chapter 9, Luke chapter 9 and verse 61. It says, and another also said, Lord, I will follow you, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house. Usually these farewells lasted quite a long time. It wasn't just saying, I'm leaving. No, let me go, and we'll have all of these farewell parties, and let's get together. Usually that's the way in Jewish life. And by the time he finished all of that, Jesus Christ was going to be somewhere else. But Jesus said to him, No one having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God, a person who's still thinking about the past and thinking about the other way of life. He is not worthy of following God.

Once you put your hand to the plow, you've got to go and you have to plow that field. You have to commit to it. Plowing is not easy, but if you give up halfway, all the rows are going to be skewed. You're not going to have that plowing the field. It takes patience, it takes endurance to do something like that. And so once we put our hand to the plow, it's a lifelong commitment. And the Bible says, don't commit yourself if you're not ready, because God does hold us responsible for the commitment that we made, the baptismal commitment. Notice in Luke chapter 14, in verse 25, there were a lot of people that were following Christ.

He was a great speaker, very inspiring. He did miracles. You were able to eat plenty without having to pay for your food. You got to see miracles and healings. So sure, people wanted to be around him. So he turned around and said to them, if anyone comes to me and does not hate, the term here means love less, as in Matthew 10, 37, and does not love less his father, mother, and wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also he cannot be my disciple, and whoever does not bear his cross, which are the sufferings of following God's way of life and come after me cannot be my disciple, for which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it. Lest after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying this man began to build and was not able to finish. Interestingly, this week, I try to keep up with the archaeological news, especially in Israel, and sure enough, they found in the border between the Philistines, which were on the coast, and the mountain area, which was part of Judah, right there on the borderline, they found the foundations of a tower. This was one of these towers that they would have guards to be able to make sure if there was an invading force, and they found the foundations, and some of those rocks on the foundation were over a ton of weight. So these towers were not just some flimsy things that you just put up, and it didn't cost much. Now, you really had to count the cost, and these would be used to send smoke signals during the day. That's the way they communicated. They didn't have telegraph, but smoke signals was a way that they would have it there on these areas where you could see it. And just like the Indians here in the West, use smoke signals, and the Israelites would use fire signals at night. We even have in the Bible where it tells us about the fire signals going on in these watch towers. So it says here that before we begin, make sure we count the cost that we're going to make a lifelong commitment, because it's not going to be easy. Nobody said it would be.

And so here are five terms I want to share with you that are so important in our endurance race, because that's what it is. It's a lifelong endurance race. And here are five elements. The first one I covered is perseverance. To learn to persevere, to not give up.

Are you a person that gives up after the second try or third try? We have to learn. Sometimes you have to take a break, think things through, but don't let things get the best of you. Try to see how to overcome them, because if you have that mentality of overcoming, it becomes easier to do so. So perseverance is part of that race. The second one is overcoming. The Greek term nikau from Nike. The shoe is actually talking about the conquering god of the Greeks. They use them for different, with the wings on top. They use them for cars. If you ever go to Mexico City, they have this huge column, and on top they have Nike there as the wings of victory, usually celebrating some battle. We saw him in Berlin also. Another big towering monument, and Nike up there, the wing. Well, here the term just means overcoming, being victorious, triumphing over things. But you know what? Life cannot just be persevering and overcoming. It also needs to have peace, internal peace. There's the term Irene. In Greek, irinae, we have an Irene in the congregation. That means peace in Greek. Because on the outside, we're overcoming, we're persevering, but on the inside, there has to be peace. It can't be all of this upsetting, unsettling spirit all the time. No, we need peace. We also need joy from the term kara, c-h-a-r-a, from the term kara, c-h-a-r-a, and it's related to karis, which is grace.

So it means cheerfulness. It means having a positive spirit inside.

God does not want unhappy Christians. Oh, just kind of enduring. Yeah, I'm here because I'm enduring, but boy, I'm not having a good time. I was just reading Mr. Armstrong's classic article, This is the Abundant Life. This is abundant living, and it's really worthwhile to read it. But he talks about how people think Christians, they're not happy people, and they don't have fun in all of this. And he says, it's absolutely a lie. It's a tannic lie. We should have the most enjoyable life, filled with joy, happiness, peace, and also serving others. And this is the best of lives. We just saw the video there of the ABC. You didn't see a bunch of morose guys walking around with dark tunics on themselves and looking like they just ate some lemons and just all this bitterness. No, they're enjoying. That's the way we went when we went to Ambassador College. It was fun. It was good, clean, fun, and living. And we've tried to project that through all our lives. We're going to the youth camp. It's going to be a joyful, fun-filled, but also learning, building godly character. It's a mixture that works great, especially when we can have it in our own families, where you look and you see joy and you see peace. But you also see people that have learned to overcome and to persevere in life. And, of course, the final word, love, agape. Love is sacrificially serving others, giving up of oneself to serve and to better the other person's condition.

So it's never been easy. Charles Dickens once wrote A Tale of Two Cities, and he started out probably the most famous introduction to any book or novel. It says, it was the best of times. It was the worst of times because they were in the midst of the French Revolution at the time. And we can say the same thing. This is the best of times, and it's the worst of times. Why? Because you have so much wonderful opportunities people did not have before to learn, to grow, to see things that are inspiring. And we've never seen a world where you can go and you can just look at all of these inspiring stories. Maybe YouTube, many other ways. You look at the National Geographic channels, and you learn history channels. All of these things that were not available when we were kids. You only had one place to go, the library. And that was pretty tough. You only got one book every two weeks or so. You couldn't check out any more.

Books were expensive. Nowadays, someone was telling me, yes, it was my daughter, that they got a pass for the library for the six-year-old and the eight-year-old. And after the first time they check out a book, it says that the following time you can check out 50 books if you need to. Up to 50 books. I mean, that's crazy. But I guess the libraries want you to still read, which is the greatest thing. Just as we eat food for our stomachs, we should feed our minds by reading books. That is the food for our minds to develop them, to grow, and vocabulary, thoughts, ideas, apply them to God's word.

I'd like to end with a story that is a true story, and it has to do with the Bible as well. I was just going over this the other day about the Philadelphia church mentioned in Revelation 3.

And we believe it describes a lot of what the church is going through. Of course, we cannot be absolute about that, but certainly a lot of the evidence, looking at all the different churches throughout time, talks about God protecting that church in particular of the hour of trial that will go through and around the entire world. And we haven't seen that happen yet, so these other churches didn't go through that. Certainly the Philadelphia church didn't go through a time that they would be immersed in a world upheaval in those days in the first century.

And I'd like to tell you this story. Many of you already know it. It certainly inspired me through life. The word Philadelphia that was first used in that city, which is mentioned here in Revelation 3, is part of Turkey, close to the coastline. And it's a tale of two brothers. One of them was the king of Pergamos at that time, or Pergamum. His name was Uminis II. And he had a younger brother who was Attalus II, because they had used the names in the past. Actually, my name is Mario Sagli III. So I'm the third generation. I beat Mario Sagli III, because some fathers and grandfathers want to continue with the names. Now, Attalus was so faithful to his older brother. Here, the older brother was king, and Attalus was a prince. But this man was fully committed. He had a lifelong commitment to supporting his brother through thick and thin. When the kingdom was invaded, who did Uminis send? He sent his brother, Attalus, as the general. And in several battles, Attalus won them and did it in his brother's name. Then he became the ambassador when this Pergamos empire had an alliance with the Roman empire. And so they became united as such. And Uminis sent his brother, Attalus, to Rome as a new ambassador, because he could think of no one he could trust more, and that would be faithful. Well, during that time in Rome, the Romans all of a sudden weren't too happy with the way Uminis was governing the country. In the Romans, they were very practical people. They were patient, up to a point, but boy, once you cross them, they got rid of you pretty fast. And so they had seen Uminis, such a faithful man, ambassador to them, that some Roman senator said, let's get Attalus to be the new king. He knows our ways better. Let's get rid of Uminis. And so what did they do? They offered Attalus, because they were in the driver's seat. They could actually unseat Uminis. And he said, here we have this opportunity. We want you to be the new king. And Uminis said, no, I will be faithful to my brother to the death.

And guess what? It's part of Roman history. They were so impressed. Somebody could not be bribed or bought. And so Uminis was so proud of his brother. And what happened later? When the king visited Rome on his way back, he was assaulted, and his troops were killed. And so Uminis, who was, or Attalus, who was back in that area of Pergamum, he heard his brother had been killed.

And so after a couple of days, nobody knew anything. Everybody had been wiped out. And so he said, well, I guess I'll have to assume the throne. And he married his brother's wife, who was the queen. But about three months later, somehow, the king had survived. Pretty beaten up and everything, but he was able to make it back. And he showed up. And what did his brother do?

His brother embraced him. He said, here's your crown. Here's your wife. I'm annulling the marriage, and now I am under you again. So Uminis was so impressed that he founded the city of Philadelphia, which means the city of brotherly love, dedicated to his brother, Attalus, because of that faithfulness that Attalus had shown to Uminis. It was founded in 189 AD. And so here we are in a church that is described more and more like that Philadelphia church, and where brotherly love should prevail, faithfulness should prevail, lifelong commitments. Now, we're a small church, and we've been tested in different ways. Doctrinally, we've been tested also about church government and also whether we're going to be able to keep the way we're doing things. I've had a chance to live in Latin America for 23 years, and I was able to visit many of the old churches before even the worldwide days, and what we would call the Sardis era, the previous era. And I've been able to visit groups throughout Latin America and Mexico, Chile, Argentina. I met brethren from Peru that were part of this church. It was called Israelite Church of the New Covenant. Others were called Church of God Seventh Day, whatever it is. But one thing that stands out when they talk to us is, you know, we can't ever get our act together. We don't have the proper governing system where we can all be together and join together, pool our resources, to do a greater work. What do they do?

Basically, all their congregations, it's the pastor or the person in charge who runs the show, doesn't have supervision over him. They handle the money locally. They have their little work. Some of them will go out in the streets and preach or have little tracks or pamphlets, but everybody is separate. They're very loosely affiliated. They can't ever get their act together. And they look at us, and you know, we're all like one spiritual army. Wherever we're at, the funds are pooled together so we can get a church and a work done. That the church can be united, and whether it's in Africa, whether it's in the Middle East, whether it's in Asia or Latin America, we're all together. We have the home office. We have the president that is chosen by the Council of Elders. We have regional pastors. We have senior pastors. We have elders, and we have deacons and all of them. And guess what? If anybody needs to go somewhere else, they are willing to help out in other parts. Why? Because we pool together our resources. And even if it's a small church, as it says in boxing terms, it hits and packs a punch above their own weight.

They do so many other things. For instance, being able to be at 14th as far as religious organizations, we're number 14 on the internet. Why? Because we pooled all our resources, and we're able to focus them to get the gospel out, print magazines, go on the internet, and feed the flock. We have ministers and pastors. Why? Because everything is pooled together. I get something, but guess what? The minister over in Chile, he's being supported by the general work. He doesn't have to worry about eking out a living with few poor brethren trying to survive. So that is a strength that we have in United, which we should not forget. Just like in the Philadelphia Church, we still have that spirit of unity, of working, of going through those powerful doors that God has opened us. And we're still taking advantage of it. We're still doing it. Why? Because even if it's a small group, we are all of one mind, one spirit. Things are taught the same way. We don't have, like in the Israelite Church of God, which my wife was a part of for like three years, and she'd say one would preach, and then the other one would come up and say, well, it's not exactly as a brother says here. I'm going to give you my take on it. And so it was a mixture. And they contradicted each other because there was no order. There was no harmony. Whereas I was just in Germany, and here we are. We're teaching the same thing. The German brethren listened to the same thing as they would here when we go to Latin America. So don't underestimate what we are doing. It's a small church, but we are fully committed to carrying out what God has told us to go through those doors and get the gospel out while there's still time. So remember these five words, the perseverance, overcoming, and then inside, having peace, joy, and love. Those are winning combinations.

We are running an endurance race. We are headed toward God's kingdom, and we need with patience and perseverance to prevail, to stay with it, to have a long-standing commitment with God, lifelong commitment, and then will come the great promise He has for all of us.