This is the Story of Your Life

Word studies were never my strong suit in elementary school. My vocabulary, I always say, is a little bit limited. But I'd like to share a short history of the word serendipity with you today. That's a fun word to say.

Serendipity. This is from Dr. Oliver Terrell, and it's from January 28, 2015. It says, and this is entitled, The Curious Origins Behind One of Britain's Favorite Words and Its Link to Gothic Fiction. It says, the word serendipity was invented on January 28, 1754. It is one of two literary creations by its inventor, Horace Walpole, that would achieve widespread popularity. Indeed, both inventions are still with us.

When Walpole, son of Britain's first de facto prime minister, Robert Walpole, put down the word serendipity for the first time, he was giving the English language one of its most beloved but bewildering difficult words. His other invention, created ten years after the coining of serendipity, would spawn a whole new genre of fiction. Walpole was a prolific inventor, or at least populizer, of new words.

He's credited by the Oxford English Dictionary with introducing over 200 words into the English language, among them beefy, malaria, nuance, somber, and souvenir. So that's your history lesson for today. But most celebrated word was serendipity, meaning the faculty of making happy and unexpected discoveries by accident. The faculty of making happy and unexpected discoveries by accident. This was coined in a letter in January 28th, 1754, written to another man named Horace, Horace Mann. In the letter, Walpole calls the word very expressive, if he does say so himself. The word serendipity comes from serendip, the old name for Sri Lanka, but Walpole was indebted to a specific work of literature for the creation of the word.

The literary work is the three princes of serendip, one of the earliest detective stories in existence. It tells of how three princes tracked down a missing camel through luck and good fortune. However, that's not the whole truth. The three princes of the story do actually utilize what we would now call forensic deduction, almost like Sherlock Holmes, that method, which ironically is what gets them into trouble.

As they are traveling through the desert, they meet a merchant whose camel has gone missing, having tracked the animal's progress through the land. The princes can describe the merchant's lost camel in such striking detail that he suspects him of having stolen it. Hallowing them before the king, the merchant publicly accuses the prince of theft and the king sentences them to death, unless they can produce the camel and return it to its owner.

Among the details of the camel that the princes had correctly managed to deduce, the princes identified that it was lame and one-leg, blind in one eye, and had a missing tooth. It's not my story. They deduced that these distinguishing features from the patches of grass which the camel had grazed and the imprints it had left on on the ground. I won't ruin the rest of the story in case you would like to read that one day to see how it all concludes. But it says, so despite the common perception of the story, influence no doubt by the popularity of Walpole's coinage inspired by the tale.

I'm about to ruin it for you, so I'm going to skip ahead a little bit. It says in his 1954 letter, Walpole describes the story of the three princes of Serendip as a silly fairy tale going on to say, as their highnesses traveled, they were always making discoveries by accident of things which they were not in quest of. And the last piece of history on the word Serendipity in a 2000, a year 2000 poll, it was voted the UK's favorite word, Serendipity.

Serendipity is a word that is a noun just as it is there, but it can also be an adjective, serendipitously, or that's actually the adverb. Serendipitous is the adjective and serendipitously is the adverb. From the Oxford English Dictionary, another definition for this word is the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way. The occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.

Did we serendipitously discover God's truth? Did we just stumble on God's truth and suddenly he said, uh-oh, I better now call them quickly because they're now understanding more than I thought they would. Is that how is that what God thought? What if you grew up in the church? What if you're a first or second or third generation Christian and you've grown up in the church? Was it just by luck or by chance or by serendipity that you are sitting here today in the Church of God? All around us today we hear the phrases, boy did I sure get lucky that time? Or can you believe how lucky I was to find this or to discover this at the yard sale? We hear phrases like that. We know that time and chance does occur, as Scripture says in Ecclesiastes 9, verse 11. But is this how you and I ended up right here in the Church of God today?

So today let's explore the story of you and I being in the Church of God and how God is involved in our story. It's an amazing story that we each have. You and I have our calling of how God began to work with us. It's a story that continues on to this day as we're all sitting here, continuing to enjoy the blessings of God's calling. If you enjoy putting little subject headings in your notes, we're going to have four different subject headings today. You can put the first one that we'll dive into, the first subject heading as in the beginning...in the beginning...

If the story of our life began with God, because God obviously was aware of all aspects of our life when it started, then we must go back further in time before our story began to understand who God is. So let's jump in our Bible time machines and go back into a time as far into God's Word as we possibly can and examine what John was inspired to write in John 1 and verse 1, the beginning of the book of John. John 1 and verse 1. Our time machine takes us back before this universe even existed right here in John 1, verse 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, and all things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. Verse 10. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, speaking of the Jews at the time when Christ lived, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, these were the Gentiles, these were some of the Pharisees who began to believe and have faith in Jesus Christ, these were some of the Samaritans that we saw as was referenced, the woman by the well. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name. This time machine of Scripture has taken us back to that earliest recorded moment in the history that we have in God's Word. To a time before creation, to a time when we can understand, to some degree, the relationship of God the Father and the Word. The Word, the being that created the fullness of the physical world that you and I exist in today, the Word existed with God from the very beginning. And this understanding of God's existence and His plan for humanity is a mystery, not only to many in our society and at times it's a difficult thing to wrap our minds around. It's kind of like I remember imagining what's it going to be like to live for eternity with God and you start to try to wrap your mind around it and you kind of get that mind explosion. I've often gone back to the beginning and tried to think through what would it how God's existed forever and I have that same mind experience at times. It's that mystery that is hard to wrap our minds around and Paul refers to it as a mystery in Ephesians 3 and verse 8. Ephesians 3 and verse 8.

But it's an amazing mystery and it's amazing understanding that God has opened for us to understand as He has called us and is continuing to work with us today. Ephesians 3 and verse 8. Paul says, To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ, to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Verses 9 through 11 from the New Living Translation reads this way. He says, I was chosen to explain to everyone this mysterious plan that God, the creator of all things, had kept secret from the beginning. God's purpose in all of this was to use the church to display His wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was His eternal plan which He carried out through Christ Jesus, our Lord.

In the very beginning, God had a plan that would unfold as time went on. This include, this plan included mankind being made in God's own image, and this plan involved mankind having the opportunity to be children of God. In the passage we just read Paul saying that the church, that you and me, we would bear witness to God's wisdom in the profound way that living a life as a Christian with God's Holy Spirit would show and display the awesome might and power of God. And that through the church, we would be an example of God's plan being fulfilled today and which will ultimately be fulfilled when God offers eternal life to all who have ever lived. The next subject heading, if you want to put one in your notes, is God's calling. Dot, dot, dot. God's calling.

So how did you and I end up here today? While each of our stories are unique, they all began with God and with His calling. We know from Scripture that it is the Father who calls us to the truth. This is one of those memory verses in John 6 verse 44. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. I think many of us, if we were to be asked when our calling began, it might be hard to put an exact finger on that moment because most likely it started very small. Maybe it was a thought or a belief or a purpose that you were struggling with for why are you alive? What is the purpose for human existence? Maybe that was the beginning of your calling as you started to dive in to look for an answer to that question. Or maybe it was something greater, like maybe you were reading the passages of God's Word and you came across certain scriptures and you went and got advice and said, help me understand this more deeply. What am I missing here? And the answers you got were lacking. I think it's amazing how many times you talked to someone and you, well, what drew you to God? And so many say the Sabbath. That was from my mother. My mother would read the Ten Commandments and she'd get to remember the Sabbath day, keep it holy. And she went to her minister at the time and said, well, is this Saturday or is this Sunday? And he goes, well, it's technically Saturday, but wouldn't we rather give God the first day of the week than the last? That was his answer. Mom didn't like it. And I'm a product of her not liking it today.

She had that question that couldn't be answered by others. And so she kept looking, kept searching. And I think many of you sitting here today, the Sabbath was in a similar way that itch that you couldn't scratch or another itch that you couldn't scratch from mainstream Christianity that led you and that God started to work. For some of us, we can't remember the calling because it was the moment that we were born for me. That moment that life came into my little body, God was already starting to work with me because of the promises that he has in Scripture. So some of us can't remember the initial calling, those of us who've grown up in the church because it was so long ago and we were so little. Turn with me to Acts 2 and verse 38. This is an important passage I'll go to many times as your pastor and ones that we go to many times as a camp director and as through our camp program when we're talking with our teens because we want them to realize and to recognize that God is calling them today. Acts 2 and verse 38. At the end of that powerful sermon on the day of Pentecost, Peter shares this word with those who were in attendance. Acts 2 verse 38, then Peter said to them, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children. That's that promise from God. Promises to you and to your children and to all who are far off as many as the Lord our God will call. We know that our children, because of the faith of parents and of those guardians who overlook their lives, sometimes of grandparents even that are looking after their grandchildren, that God says they will be given a calling. But we know everyone has that opportunity to accept that calling and go forward. But he says the promise is to you and to your children. In a similar passage, there's one that you can put in your notes. 1 Corinthians 7 and verse 14. This is another aspect that we see of our children being called today. 1 Corinthians 7 verse 14 says, For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but now they are holy. Now they are set apart by God. It's an amazing understanding and passage that we see here. That God loves family so much that he starts early, from the early moments in life, to start working with children because they are able to inherit the promises that he wants to give them. So if we recognize that it all begins with a calling, then a new question probably comes to mind. Why are we drawn or called right now?

What is the purpose? For that purpose, let's look at Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 1.

Hebrews 2 and verse 1.

Why are we drawn or called right now? What is this purpose for you and me today? Hebrews 2 and verse 1. He says, The world for he has not put the world to come, of which I speak, in subjection to angels.

But one testified in a certain place, saying, What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you take care of him? You have made him a little lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor and set him over the works of your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he, capital H, put all things in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him. It's kind of a complex way to phrase some of this. And so I'll read it from, well, I'll read it from the New Living Translation, verse 8. Because we have to consider, it says that all things will be put under subjection of men. But if we consider where we're at right now, we are not controlling the universe, are we? We can't just zip around as fast as we want to go, and we can't just make things happen. We can't just fix the problems in this world. So it seems like there's something missing here. From the New Living Translation, verse 8, he says, you gave them authority over all things, and now when it says all things, it means nothing is left out. But we have not yet seen all things put under their authority. We know this is the truth of God's word, that this is the goal, the ultimate goal that you and I have as children of God, to be able to be His children, and to be able to rule over and to have everything under subjection to His children. But yet we're not fully there yet. We're still human, and we're still physical. Going on in verse 9, he says, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for Him, for whom all are all things, and by whom all things are, where are all things, and bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren. Verse 14, Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through the fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

God is desiring to give to you and to me the universe.

That's another one of those little kid moments that your mind explodes. Where does the universe end?

What's out there? How many stars that we can't even count? Mankind physically cannot count the number of stars in the universe. They make guesses.

Maybe it's a good guess, I can't say, but it's a guess. How many stars? And to be able to realize that all of this is what God wants to give us and so much more that we can't even comprehend.

God is desiring to make us his children, and this is why you and I were born. It's just, again, mind-blowing. We have to turn to Romans 8 as we consider our calling. Romans 8 verse 13. As we go through our lives, realizing that life is hard at times, it's heavy at times, there's those joyous moments that we're thankful that we can exhibit and be able to breathe and have life. Times of struggle creep in, and we need this passage here from Romans 8 to be part of that encouragement to continue to go forward because it's unbelievable, again, what God has promised and what God has inspired to be written because of the truth that's behind it. Romans 8 and verse 13, the apostle Paul says, for if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, Father. The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, enjoint heirs with Christ, that's an amazing relationship that God wants us to have, and that's an amazing calling of it. Heirs of God, enjoint heirs of Christ, if indeed we suffer with him that we may also be glorified together. This is that calling of why you and I are here today. God drew us to him. He drew us to his truth. There was that itch that we just, again, couldn't scratch. And through God's calling, he began to open our eyes to things that were invisible to us before. I love those stories of how many people was. You first were called to the truth, and you started sharing it with others, but then realize they can't see it. There's something missing, and then you're confounded by it because you're like, it's right here. It's black and white. We've read this together. And then as time goes on, you realize that the power of God's calling, the opening effect that it has on our minds to understand. And that's a challenge for second and third generations and fourth generations Christians sometimes, because we've known this truth growing up. We know all these things. We've sat through countless holy days, countless Sabbaths, and we sometimes miss that connection of being called by God because it happened when we were infants. But what a blessing that is. I'll never forget one time talking with a member several years ago and saying, and he was new to the church. He was about my age, but new to the church.

And he had zeal. He couldn't put down the Bible. He couldn't put down booklets, and he was on fire. He had that first calling. And I remember telling him I was envious of the zeal that he has because I questioned if I've ever been that zealous as he is. And he says, don't be envious of me because I've lived a life of a lot of mistakes that you don't have to work through in your mind. You don't have to deal with some of the baggage that I've brought along with me to the church as I've now had to start this relationship with God. And then it made me then go back and think, what a blessing to grow up within the church. What a blessing for our children to be able to have this truth in their life, to have this calling from the beginning, to know that we are to be heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. It's an amazing calling that we have received and it's a part of our wonderful story which brings us to the next subject heading.

Our story... Our story. I think we all love a great story from a book, right? There's certain aspects of reading literature and the excitement, the story, the action, the different things that happen that draw us into a good book. You and I have an absolutely amazing, fun, and exciting story that God has started. But like any story we read, there are challenges that the characters in that story face. Frustrations at time and dissatisfaction at times with being a physical human being. So how does your story and my story then fit with this plan that God has for humanity?

I think each of us at times have thought back and thought about what role, if we're going to be children of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ, what is our role going to be? How... How... How... Where would we... Where will we fit within this family structure that God has called us to? We know that God is preparing a place for us to serve, but I also know that I've often wondered, what will I do? How will I be of service to God? It's no secret to most of you here. I love gardening. It's a passion of mine, one that I'm so excited. It comes around every year. When I always joke, when I used to be a kid and you get the toy catalog or the toy catalog would come in the mail and you'd start going through it, mine is now the seed catalog. I get so excited when those show up in the spring and I start looking through all the variety. I've often wondered, will I be given an opportunity to teach others the joy of gardening? The proper way, the way that God intended all the way back to the Garden of Eden, the way that He designed plants to be, and the benefits that there will be for our life, the way that He designed them at times to be companions, to work well together, to keep the bugs and things away.

I think it would be fun for my Mike Phelps earthly mind. But that just scratches the surface. Even if God says yes, that's what you get to do, that just scratches the surface of what God has got planned for me. And so as you think through your lives, as I'm sure you've done before, these things that we can think up with our own human minds, God has so much more in store for each one of us. It's a fun thing to think about and to think about what we can do to serve God. But there's so much that He's already got taken care of and planned.

King David was a child when God began to work with him, and David knew God very well.

And God knew David as well. In Psalm 138 and 139, we see David reflecting on his relationship with God. These verses also give us insight to how God views us and the plan that He has for us, and how God viewed David favorably, and with the excitement for his future, these verses show us that God views us and the plans that He has for us. Let's turn to Psalm 138 and verse 8.

Psalm 138 and verse 8.

I look forward to being able to garden in the kingdom without a budget.

That's my limiting factor. That in time right now, and I think both will be without bounds in the kingdom. I look forward to that. Psalm 138 and verse 8. Notice what David captures here. He says, The Lord will perfect that which concerns me. Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake or abandon the works of your hands. The New Living Translation says, The Lord will work out His plans for my life. Isn't that so encouraging to hear that God will work out His plans for our lives? Many of you sitting here have lived long lives and have had God a large part of that life. Others may be on the front side of your relationship with God. But isn't it something to think that God has a plan for all of us, regardless of the time of His calling, regardless if we're a child or if we're nearing our senior years? But to make the most of life, each of us must include God's plan in our own personal plans. As Psalms 138 verse 8 says, The Lord will work out His plans for my life. I think it's fair for us to ask the question, how will God do this? How are we the works of His hands? Let's turn to Psalm 139.

And we'll read quite a bit from this one as we continue on Psalm 139 in verse 1. For the chief musician of Psalm of David, O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up. You understand my thoughts afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, You knew it altogether. The New Living Translation for verse 4 says, You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. What an amazing insight that God has to our lives. He knows us better than we know ourselves. We've laid out through our lives a track record that God has seen, a track record of making good choices, and sometimes not the right choice. So God knows how we're most likely going to handle our situations going forward. The decisions that will most likely be made by us, He has a very good insight to those things. He understands how we want to follow what we want to do at times. He also knows that we will also at times, more times than not, hopefully submit to Him and let Him be our God and to lead us. But God is using our choices and decisions, both good and bad, to also include in our story that is currently being made. Going on in verse 5, He says, You have hedged me from behind and before. I love this imagery that David paints here. It's as if there's a protection in front of us and behind us wherever we go through life. And we can pray for that protection. We can pray for that hedge to be established even fuller, that God will go before us with His favor, that He will watch our behind and our backside because we can't be aware of everything going on in our lives. It's such an encouraging that this is the way that God looks at us. You have hedged me from behind and before and laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain it. Where can I go from your spirit or where can I flee from your presence? If I send into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell behold, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall fall on me, even the night shall be light about me. Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from you, but the night shines as a day. The darkness and the light are both alike to you. You formed my inward parts. You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from you. When I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth, this was that amazing part again. From the beginning of our stories, God knew who you were. From that moment that life began, God knew existence had come forth in another human being. Before our parents ever knew that we were the next one in line, God knew. And there's that excitement, and God gives us to this as an example in family and what we have in our lives. There's an excitement for our children to be born, or when we have nephews that are having being born, or our siblings are having children. There's an excitement in the family. And one of the things we love to do with the modern technology that we have is get those ultrasounds so that we can see that little baby growing. Is it a boy or is it a girl?

Can we make out their features? Some of these things are amazing now with the 3D and 4D now ultrasounds that exist. Some people even start pulling out baby photos to hold along with these ultrasounds so they can see who does it who does the baby resemble. I remember we did that with Kelsey before she was born, and I remember that ultrasound that we had that there's a technical ultrasound as the baby continues to progress that you sit down with your doctors and they they do an ultrasound where they count the kidneys. They count to make sure there's two. They count the lobes of the heart to make sure that the heart's developing right. They measure the spine and the circumference of the baby's head to see how the baby is growing and progressing so that they can be aware if there's complications. Other than the day she was born, that was the most nervous time for those nine months because that's when maybe they discover that something is wrong. And that was a I was nervous. One of the most nervous times I've been in my life because you just don't know. But what we did know is that if something did come out of that, God was with us because our story was being written. That there was an opportunity to be able to see in to future life and to imagine that God has an opportunity every single time a life comes into existence. He knows that child before anyone else even knows. This is the way that David is describing it and this is the truth of the love and the relationship that God has with all of humanity. Verse 16, David goes on, it says, Your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed, and in your book they all were written. The days fashioned for me when yet there was none of them. How precious also are your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with you. Verse 16 from the New Living says, You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book.

God had a future and a plan. God knew what he wanted with us. He knew who we were. He knew what personalities we were going to have, what traits we were inheriting from our parents. He knew all of these things, and he was aware and he was involved from the beginning of our story.

This is our story that is currently still being written. A powerful and uplifting story, but one that also notes challenges that we experience at times. Which brings me to the fourth subject heading, our challenges... As I mentioned earlier, any good action adventure book has the triumphs, the exciting aspects of the journey. But a good book isn't a good book if there's not challenges or difficulties that arise in the character's life as it goes on. And we don't have to look far to see and to feel the challenges that we or others are facing right now. Over these past months and years, we've supported one another as others have gone through their challenges. We've had to be uplifted ourselves by God when the challenges have hit close to home. We've battled over the years through some very difficult events. I think difficult is an understated word in this example because some of them have been life-changing events. Ones that have been very difficult to go forward in. Some of us are still in the midst of these battles.

As we see, our prayer list continues to hold some very challenging issues that people are going through, and there'll be more that will continue to come. Just because we have been called by God, we have received His Holy Spirit, and we're trying the best we can to live righteously before God. It doesn't mean we're just going to eat ice cream and dance into the kingdom of God.

It's just not promised to us by God in that way. In fact, we know that as Christians, we will endure hardship. We will endure challenges, and we have to battle these life events as we press towards the kingdom of God. We could look at quite a few different chapters to illustrate this aspect, but I'd like to look at Hebrews 10 and verse 32.

Hebrews 10 and verse 32.

Hebrews 10 and verse 32.

But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, meaning being called by God after He started working with us, you endured a great struggle with sufferings, partially while you were made a spectacle, both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated. Remember, we're all family. We go through these challenges together. It may not be affecting us personally, as the writer here shares, but we've become companions of those who are suffering. Verse 34. For you had compassion on me and my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. That calling, that to be heirs of God, to be joint heirs with Jesus Christ, is what he's referencing. That kingdom of God, that promise to be eternal with God. Verse 35. Therefore, do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance. The King James Version says, you have need of patience. The New Living Translation says, patient endurance is what we need. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith, but if anyone draws back, that drawing back means to let down, to withdraw, to be timid, or to shrink. But if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those. I love that statement, that bold statement. We are not of those who draw back to perdition, which is utter destruction or ruin or loss, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul. We are not of those, the writer shares. What an encouraging statement for us to remind ourselves with. We are not of those who quit. We are not of those who abandon our calling because the story got challenging. The Life Application Study Bible for this passage here in Hebrew shares this. The Bible gives us a clear choice between two life directions because life often forks off in two directions. You must take the higher road, even though it looks more difficult and treacherous. That road gets steep in places. The climb takes a toll on your energy. It gets lonely. Not many on it, but more than you imagined, and some because of your example. It gets slippery. Despite its dangers, the higher road is bound for the peak, and you'll make it. God has a lifeline around you. When you are tempted to falter in your faith or to turn back from following Christ, keep focused on what He has done for you and what He offers in the future.

Then, keep climbing. It shares on a different verse. Verse 36 shares this as some insight from the Life Application. It says, For the time being, these believers needed patient endurance, that is, to remain steadfast, to hold firm, because Christ lives in us. We can have that endurance. Jesus predicted that His followers would be severely persecuted by those who hated Him. In the midst of terrible persecution, they could have hope, however, knowing that their salvation was theirs. When you are pressured to give up and turn your back on Christ, remember the benefits of standing firm and continue to live for Christ. I'd substitute, continue to live for God. Because God has done so much in our lives. He's opened our mind to this amazing calling.

He's worked with us, some of us from itty-bitty, some of us from not too many years ago. But the point is, God is working within us. He is writing a story. Often, when I counsel someone for baptism, I say, this is a new direction that your life will go. It's a new volume of your story. The old book, that old volume, is closed. And you start a new volume with God. It's the same story, but it's volume two. It's the new volume. It's the best volume. And that's where you and I are on today. Writing a continuance of our story of life. But a wonderful story because God is with us, and in us, and leading us, unlike anything else that we could ever want or hope for today. The challenges that you and I go through, they are still part of our great story. I know it's hard to comprehend at times because the challenges are so weighty. They're so great. But without these challenges, our story would be missing something. It would be incomplete, and something would be wrong with our story. All of the good aspects and the challenging events of our story display to us and to others what our great and amazing God is doing and creating and changing us into the new person that God knows we can be. This is our story. This is the one that God has called us to live. The word serendipity was created to describe the faculty or phenomenon of making happy and unexpected discoveries by accident. But I think we each know that this does not describe how we have found ourselves sitting right here today in the Church of God. Our story is one that involves a beginning. It involves our calling, which started our story and documents our challenges. Each one of us here today are living our own unique stories. Some of our stories started with God's word and teaching being taught to us from the beginning of our lives. The rest of our stories involved God calling us midway through our life. But regardless of when our calling occurred, God knew each of us that very moment that life began. And as we know, God knew the plans he had for us and what he desired we would become in that very first moment. But more importantly, he knows the plans that he has for our future. And what a glorious future that is to be.

May we each continue to never forget that we were made in the image of God. May we never stop seeking God in his wisdom. And may we never lose our vision on the kingdom of God.

Because as every great story states, the best is yet to come.