When We Make it Through the Winter

Good to be with all of you. There's an American poet who just happens to be a very good country singer. His name is Merle Haggard.

Merle Haggard had a song called, If We Make It Through December, and I'd like to read the first stanza to you. He said, If we can make it through December, everything's going to be all right. I know it's the coldest time of winter, and I shiver when I see the falling snow. We make it through December. Well, we've made it through December. We're into February, but we haven't made it quite yet through winter. At this time of year, midwinter is a time that we, I find, need to dig a little bit deeper into our well of spiritual tactics to make it through the long, cold period that we are in. Perhaps we haven't had quite as much winter here in Cincinnati as we normally do. As Mr. Myers mentioned, some congregations are canceled out because of much more severe weather elsewhere. We welcome them to be with us here this afternoon as well. But winter's not over yet. It's not just necessarily the cold or the snow or whatever it might be. It's the darkness. It's the shorter days. It's winter, right? It's not spring. And at least it may be just my particular way of thinking about it, but the midwinter comes and we need to dig a little deeper to get through. We're halfway between the holy days, the last holy day of the fall, the eighth day of the feast of the feast, and the previous fall. And we haven't yet come to Passover in the Days of Unleavened Bread. We're looking a few more weeks out to that. And so I will at least adapt Mr. Haggard's tune to we can make it through the winter. Jude, the book of Jude, has a statement toward the end of it in verse 24 that I think fits and helps and is one that some of us call to mind at a time like this. Jude, verse 24, it says, It is certainly at a time like this we want to, as I say, make it through. We want to get on with the business of life. We want to get to spring. We don't want to be stumbling. We want to continue to stand. And so today I'd like to talk about two keys that I think can help keep us anchored in God, in the one who was able to keep us from stumbling and falling spiritually, and focus on just two simple keys that we all know and can appreciate and perhaps need to look at just a little more closely here today. It's been a tough year in terms of, as we look back at least to last March with the beginning of the pandemic that swept the world. We've had that. We've thought we were going to be shut down for two or three weeks, and that turned into two or three months. And we still have the lingering impact of it. And while much seems the same in our world, when we really think it through, those who are discerning really know that much has changed. And I don't think that we've seen all of the changes that the last 11 months at least have triggered in our world.

And whatever it will be, whatever it will bring, it will be more than just a seasonal winter. It'll be a bit more testing. And it will take perseverance, perseverance for every one of us to endure to the end, to stand straight, and to not stumble, and to be brought blameless before God in His glory, as Jude calls. To get to that point, to have that, we'll have to have what some call grit. You know what grit is? Not grits. I love grits, but grit. A determination.

Something way down deep. The British call it a stiff upper lip.

Three of the wisest words and piece of advice that I ever had, just three words from a very good friend of mine a few years ago, was to suck it up. At times you come to up against that rock face and you have to have that stiff upper lip, that grit. It's a deep determination to face whatever is there and to persevere. It's called stick-to-ativeness. First time I ever ran across that term stick-to-ativeness, some of you will remember. I read about it in a booklet called The Seven Laws of Success written by Herbert Armstrong. Law number six was the law of perseverance to be successful. And in that brief explanation, he used that term stick-to-ativeness. And in my young mind, I thought, wow, that says a lot to be able to stick to something. It's what it takes to endure to the end. The Finnish people, those from Finland, have a term for this.

And I want to introduce you to it if you haven't heard it before. It's called sisu. Sisu. S-I-S-U. Very simple word. Sisu. And it's uniquely Finnish to the people of Finland. I want to give proper attribution to my very good friend, fellow minister in the United, Mr. Rainer Saloma, our pastor up in Calgary, Alberta. Mr. Saloma sent me an article a few weeks ago about this term and about this concept called sisu, and as it is, uniquely Finnish. Now, those of you that know Mr. Saloma, you know that he is Finnish.

He is of Finnish ancestry. Grew up in Canada, but his family immigrated there from Finland years ago. In fact, whenever I see Mr. Saloma, I always say, how's my favorite Finn doing? He's also the only Finn that I know, but he is my favorite Finn. And we indeed have a good relationship there. But he sent me this article a few weeks ago to tell me a little bit about the Finnish culture.

The concept of sisu among the Finns has no direct translation into other languages, but what it does is it expresses an extreme ability to persevere, that stick-to-it-iveness, to maintain your dignity in the face of adversity. It is something that they coined many, many years ago in order to express this unique aspect of Finnish culture. As one writer says from Finland, sisu will get you through granite. It will get you through granite, a lot of granite in Finland.

And if you've ever set a glass on a granite tabletop, you know that if you set it too hard, it's going to crack. It's going to break because granite is hard. Sisu will help you, in a sense, get through granite. But it means a perseverance. In 1940, the New York Times ran an article about this. They said, sisu, a word that explains Finland. And perhaps one incident from a story from Finnish history will help to explain exactly what this means.

And it goes back to 1939. In late 1939, World War I had started. World War II, I'm sorry, had started. And the Finns, way up north, found themselves suddenly invaded by the Soviet Union. The massive weight and power of the Soviet Union suddenly, without warning, came crashing across the Finnish border. Planes and tanks and men. They reigned over 300 bombs down on the city of Helsinki in one day to begin all of this, crushing buildings and killing many people. They invaded with over 900,000 soldiers, over 3,000 tanks.

The Finns had about 300,000 soldiers. The Finns were outmanned three to one in this war. They only had two or three hundred tanks. Soviets had many more than that. Many, many more thousands of planes. And all they could do was dig in. The Finns were not one to just give up. But their backs were against the wall of granted, if you will. And in that late winter, early winter of 1939, the Soviet invasion seemed to be inevitable to crush Finland. But they fought them to a standstill.

It's an incredible story. They call it the Winter War of 1939 to 1940. Mr. Saloma was telling him that his mother and father were involved in that during that very period of time. And it was a hard winter. Temperatures got to 40 below. 40 below. I don't even want to begin to think about 40 below. It does make that refrigerator that opens up to be quite warm. When you think about 40 below, my app said maybe minus one next weekend.

I'll take minus one over 40 below any day. But that's what they had to fight within. And they didn't have all the technical gear that we have today to keep them warm. But they dug in. They resisted.

And by March of 1940, just a few months later, they were able to negotiate a settlement with the Soviet Union and to maintain their integrity and somewhat of their independence. In other words, they were not completely overwhelmed. Sisu. Sisu got them to that point where they were confronted with such adversity that they finally endured.

And so thinking about that from that particular example is something that can help us, I think, appreciate, at least from a physical sense, something that we all need to learn ourselves. Because every one of us face our moments when our physical and mental resources feel tapped out, about to come to an end.

I mentioned the term, suck it up, that I had given to me at one time. It was a point where I thought my life was up against the wall. And I did what a lot of us do. I started whining. I whined to the wrong person that day. Actually, I whined to the right person that day because he gave me the right advice. And I said, okay. And I went and did what I had to do.

We all have to dig deep to find those resources. There will always be moments when we are hammered with failure, with setbacks, and we have to make a decision. We have to dig deep and find something to keep moving, to keep going. There might be times when we have started a project and it doesn't work out the way we thought it would. When we might have started a business and there's no one to look to for guidance. And that's when you need see-suit.

That's when you have to find the resources within yourself. When you're running on empty and you can't see straight, maybe it's because of the family struggle. Someone gave a sermon at the AM congregation a few weeks back that struck me. And talking about how his family was getting through working from home, children not in school, everybody kind of trying to make shift out of their home and the conditions that he described of where his office was in his bedroom, where the children were located, where his wife's office was, and all of it. Painted this picture of adaptation, challenges, sometimes struggle. And I could just imagine, although he didn't bring it out in his message that morning, frustrations, sharp words, wondering how are we going to get through this and what's happening and where will all this end. And you have children to take care of. You have a business to try to keep going as the last year has done. But you have to find the inner strength to adapt with the changing circumstances that are not always comfortable. That's when you have to have Sisu. That's when you have to dig deep. A more mundane example might be for some, not me anymore, but some who in the gym step under the bar and determine thinking that they're going to squat or lift a larger weight than they've ever done before. And you come to that moment and you've got to, anyone who's been there, you know you've got to get your mind right to do it. Or you will, it just won't happen that day.

You've got to dig in and you've got to get your mental frame of mind set. That's also called Sisu. Those days are past for me. I don't worry about that. But for some of you, I recognize that can be an example that can help. But when your world gets so stressful, you don't think anyone cares about you, that's Sisu. When you come to that final exam, when you come to that board exam, that you must pass or you're not going to work in the medical field or in the legal field, and you've got to pass this board exam, that's where you have to have Sisu. That's where you have to dig deep. When the debt seems so unpayable, don't depend on President Biden, you have to dig to yourself. You've got to pay it off. You have to meet that obligation. Those are matters and moments when we need Sisu. And so how do we develop that?

How do we develop our spiritual Sisu? I'd like to take us to the book of Hebrews and find these two points that I mentioned can help us, only two for today. There are many, many more, but the book of Hebrews, from my point of view, is a book that helps us to develop this spiritual Sisu. We're all spiritual friends, if you will, and the book of Hebrews offers so many vignettes, stories, admonitions, instruction, ways for us to develop this perseverance, this stick-to-itiveness, this resilience. If you look in chapter 2, just beginning right there, and in verse 1 of chapter 2, just to note a few places here, Hebrews 2 and verse 1, says, "'Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.'" One of the reasons for the book of Hebrews is to keep disciples, Christians, from drifting away, from stumbling, from giving up. After many, many years of being in the faith—this book was written several years into the story of the church—and you read the underlying tone of people who are fatigued, people who are up against it in some ways and need to be anchored properly and righted and kept oriented in the right way, lest they drift away. In verse 18, just to skip to the end of the chapter, after it says a great deal about Christ, "'For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to aid those who are tempted.'" God is able to help all who are tempted, and Christ has been tempted. And of course, that goes on in the book to be brought out and to be developed in even more ways. It moves right on into chapter 3. Therefore, the therefore phrase that we know that there's more to come, there's more to consider, "'Holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our confession Jesus Christ, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses was faithful in his house. For this one has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, and as much as he who built the house has more honor than the house.'" Verse 7, therefore again, as the Holy Spirit says today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.

We don't need a heart that has been hardened by trial, experience, drifted towards cynicism. Don't let your heart get hardened by the things that life can throw us, and all that might be there. Don't harden your hearts, as this quote from the Psalm brings out.

As in the rebellion in the day of the trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested me and tried me and saw my works 40 years, therefore I was angry with that generation and said, they always go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways. And so I swore in my wrath, they should not enter my rest. As you know the story of the Israelites, they actually came right up to the border of the land, and they didn't have that extra push in faith to enter into the land. They didn't have, we could say, Sisu at that moment, and they doubted because of the report that the spies brought back. And so an entire generation had to pass from the scene because their hearts got hardened. And Hebrews again is written with a group of people in mind who have endured for a period of time and come almost close enough, almost to the end of the goal, the achievement of the purpose. Sometimes I think, and I find our comments as I talk with people assessing the events of the last year, I am amazed with, unprompted, how many times in recent conversations I've heard many people really feel that we are living in end, last days, end times events right now. And these were people who in a sense didn't always talk that way. But it has awakened many of us to realize that we could be seeing the trailing edge of these events that we have read about so long. And we don't want to let our hearts get hardened.

We want to enter into that rest. And so these thoughts continue forward. In verse 14, we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. That stick-to-itiveness, confidence in our calling, confidence in our faith, confidence in the Word of God, confidence in all aspects of what is there to accomplish that. Now, in chapter 4, we come to that first point that I want to make. Chapter 4 has contained within its first few verses teaching about the all-important Sabbath day. Verse 1 says, Therefore, since a promise remains of entering his rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. Again, getting so close, but coming up short. For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them. But the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. It is that faith that is the key difference for us to have and then to exercise that faith. For we who have believed do enter that rest as He has said. So I swore in my wrath they shall not enter that rest, though the works were finished from the foundation of the world. In verse 6, since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience. Again, He designates a certain day, saying in David, today after such a long time as it has been said, today if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts. For if Joshua had given them rest, then he would not afterward have spoken of another day. And so the writer here brings it around to that entering into the rest of the Promised Land is and was a type of the very day on which we are meeting here today God's Holy Sabbath, the fourth commandment. There remains in verse 9, and for all of us who have studied this and we know what verse 9 means in its fullest translation and correct translation, there remains, therefore, a rest or a keeping of the Sabbath for the people of God. Sabbath is that point one of that anchor, that ability to be anchored in a relationship with God, firm, steadfast, unwavering, resilient, because we are anchored as close as we can be in a relationship with God. And if you just look at what verse 9 tells us, and again, we don't have to always get into the deep doctrinal explanation, but Hebrews 4 and 9 is obviously a scripture that shows us that the Sabbath day is still a rest, to be kept, a spiritual, as well as a physical rest. It really brings us all down to always a question.

Every seventh day, every week as we come to the Sabbath and even before we come to the Sabbath, where we turn our attention to God, where we renew our relationship, where we pause from our work, from our physical labor. And we take that physical rest, which is all important as well, where we turn our mind away from whatever it is that through the week is busy and occupies us.

We turn, even as some do, and I know some do, they literally turn off even all their technology, to have even a technology rest. It's not a bad idea to at least ratchet it down, perhaps, but to enter into a rest so that our mind is turned and focused on God because that's where we meet God on His terms on the Sabbath day. That's where we go out, in a sense, to meet God and go face to face with Him as we turn away from all of our other works and we shut it down.

I was listening to a very good sermon about that topic this week. It was given by one of our elders, and there are many fine sermons that we could all find given in the church in any given time to periodically remind us about the need to just examine ourselves regarding the Sabbath.

I've been keeping the Sabbath for something like 58 years, it seems like, from my youngest years.

I find that I have to fine-tune my keeping of it and watch that I don't abuse it or miss the point of it, whatever it might be. I've given the sermons and I've preached about it and taught about it from a doctrinal, from a practical, from a homiletical point of view to help people to understand all about that. But at its purest, it is where we meet God on this day. And the rest we take is a rest that helps us to be fueled and fortified, and that resilience sharpened for what we need the remainder of the days of the week. And so it's good to always ask ourselves if we are using the Sabbath as God intends and to let God and ask God even to teach us on that, no matter how long we've been keeping the Sabbath. It's our fortress of solitude. It's where we fellowship with God in His holy place. And it is, if you will, that anchor that we must keep fine-tuned. In our relationship with God. Now, let's turn over to Hebrews chapter 10 to look for that second anchor that I want to talk about here this afternoon.

Hebrews chapter 10, and I'm skipping over obviously quite a bit of other material that could be covered, but in chapter 10, beginning in verse 19 begins another part of this theme of Hebrews of holding fast, digging deep. Again, it's another therefore statement in verse 19 of Hebrews 10. Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, and while we don't have a temple with a holy of holies or even a holy place for us to literally look at or think about entering, and as we know, Christ has entered the holy place for us once with His sacrifice. And we know that that all was a physical type of that heavenly holy of holies, and yet we need something to put our mind around. God's given us again that Sabbath, the Sabbath, the Sabbath day, to enter into that rest, to experience that relationship. Verse 20, by a new and living way, which He consecrated for us through the veil that is in His flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for He who promised is faithful. Again, this theme of holding fast, holding on, sisu, if you will, keeping it together. Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much more as you see the day approaching. That's the second anchor.

This is the second one right here. Do not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.

So important. Here we are together, aren't we? Those of us that are here and through technology, many more can. But with what we have gone through this past year, where we were not together for such a long period of time, and we had the video hookups, Zoom, and everything else, and still going on in some ways, although I think some of our brethren in California are beginning to fall out. I got an email from Rob and Weber before coming to church here this afternoon that finally they will be able in some of their congregations now to begin to meet in person where they haven't even been able to do that because of the guidelines out there in the state of California. That seems now to have been lifted and hope and pray that that will be off there. But you know what it was like back last spring and through summer months.

You don't really fully grasp it sometimes until you walk into this room here, as I did once or twice to give a sermon, and nobody's here. You have one person leading songs, one person back at the table doing the technical stuff, and usually the way it was, the person back at the table had to come up and give an opening or closing prayer, maybe even both of them on certain occasions, because there just wasn't anyone else here. And it's an empty room, and you're speaking to a camera, and you have to imagine all these attentive, sharp, alert people through that camera, all dressed up in their ties, fully aware of what's going on. I know what it's like, but that's what a speaker has to do. And you missed people. You missed even those elbows. Instead of elbowing each other this way, we got to at least tap our elbows and have that contact, and all of that was missed. And we've had this back, but we went through a different feast of tabernacles last year, and we want to maintain this. We need one another. That's the bottom line. What this instruction is saying is, don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together. Now, I've preached it. You've heard it preached. You've thought about it, and don't forsake it. Why? Because we need each other. We need each other to encourage one another, to sisu. I thought I was a little I thought I was made for shutdown about a year ago.

But may I realize, hey, I need some people to talk to.

And I hope you felt the same way. If you thought that that's great, I can stay home. I can do. I did finally begin to understand the stay-at-home church crowd through those weeks and weeks there. At least I got it to a degree, but I don't think it's the answer. I don't think it's the solution. We need one another. We need to look into each other's eyes. We need to see the expressions, the smiles. We need to see all the reactions of the full humanity of each other, because we are created in the image of God. And when we have to hide that, even today with the mask, and I get it, I'm not commenting on any of our mass deals. So please, no emails to me.

And if you're at home for a legitimate reason, pre-existing condition, age, or whatever, I fully understand that. So I'm not preaching to you. And again, please, no emails. I get enough emails as it is with my weekly job. I'm not trying to create another one here. So I get it. But I want us all to think about it. We're in the midst of something much, much bigger than we realize. If we're just thinking that this is all going to pass, and it's all going to be over with, no, no.

We're having to hide from one another, hide ourselves from one another in one sense. A lot of that's gone, but because of the masks and the mandates and all of that, we still are dealing with something that is bigger than just a piece of cloth across her face. I came out here to help with the food, not this past week, but the week before to help distribute it out there in the parking lot. Somebody walked up, and they obviously knew me. And I was looking at them, and I kind of went like this. They had a mask across. They had their hat pulled down over, and they may have had sunglasses on. And they knew me. They started talking to me, and I'm looking, and I just had to ask. I said, who am I talking to? It was Gary Evans. I know Gary Evans like a brother, and he's talking to me, and I didn't know it because he was covered up. I felt awful. We're still friends. But have you had—tell me, some of you, nod your head that you've had that experience in kind of looking at people. That's not good. We're hiding the very image of God that we're created in. This is a spin-off. This is a very important effect of what has taken place, because we're being told here we need one another to get through, to endure, to not stumble. We need one another to encourage to sisu, to dig deep. The word sisu means to—they think that some of the earlier definitions of it—it's explaining something that's so deep down into the inner intestines of the person that you dig that deep for, as you say, gut it out. That's kind of where that phrase connects with it. Failure is not your identity. Perseverance is.

Giving up is not your identity. It's staying with it. It's sisu.

We need to be anchored in God, and we must be anchored in one another.

And these are two anchors that the book of Hebrews is telling us about here. We must use the Sabbath to meet with God, and use the Sabbath to meet with each other. That's at the heart of the two great commandments—to love God and to love our fellow man.

I did a BT Daily recently, and I titled it, Something Awful Has Been Unleashed. I've never had as much response positively as I have on any other BT Daily that I've done.

And it's talking about spiritual forces that seek to destroy and reset the America that we know. And if that happens, it'll reset the world that we know as well for our lifetimes. And I do believe that we are seeing prophetic foundations being laid down, and what we've seen and heard from Scripture take shape before our eyes. And as we deal with that, we're going to need this quality of sisu—the stick-to-itiveness, this perseverance, this patient endurance—to get to the end, because it is those who endure to the end who will be saved. We can make it through the winter.

There's another verse in that song that says, everything's going to be all right.

We can make it through the winter. God will keep us from stumbling. He will keep us standing. Let's make sure that we stay anchored in God and stay anchored in each other. Sisu.