October 14, 2001

Endurance

Hebrews 10:36

It's been a week now since the United States began to settle accounts with the Taliban and the terrorists last Sunday. Have any of you noticed how frequently it has been mentioned that this will probably be a long, drawn out conflict? I have seen that mentioned a number of times. You want to know why that is? The government wants people to start thinking in terms of being patient. They don't want any impatience. Because time is on the side of the enemy.

Back when our country was at war in Vietnam, the main reason that the Viet Cong succeeded is because we got impatient. We got tired of foolin' with it. The TV kept showing pictures of Americans protesting the war, demonstrations, a lot of our people were getting hurt and killed, eventually our people lost the will to hang in there until we won.

About ten years ago the Soviet Union gave up trying to deal with Afghanistan for the same reason, difficulties on the battlefield, protests and discouragement on the home front.

Now Uncle Sam is going to take his turn with the Afghanis. And already mobs around the world are burning the American flag, some of our bleeding heart politicians and peaceniks are getting vocal, if this thing drags on for six months or a year, the patriotic enthusiasm will start to fade, and the negative voices will get louder and louder.

There is no way the terrorists can beat us; what worries me is that because of the way this country works politically and socially, they might be able to outlast us. See, we think war is abnormal. They don't.
Even though we are right and they are wrong, and evil, and comparatively weak against our power, the real battle is the battle of the will. It is not a question of who is the stronger, it is a question of endurance. The one who wins is the one who keeps fighting the longest.

If you have your Bibles with you today, and I hope you do, turn to Hebrews 10:32 " Call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions;" Verse 36:
"For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise."
The author of Hebrews was writing to people that were uncertain. They were Jews that had received Christ, and things were not going well. They had turned away from a religion with a lot of cultural traditions, they had alienated their families, and they got a lot of ridicule and animosity because of it. It was not an easy thing, it was very difficult for them.

They had given up their external religious traditions, at that time the temple in Jerusalem was still there, but they were no longer welcome, and they were being tempted to compromise. Some of them were tempted to go back to practicing what they had before, and the Epistle to the Hebrews was written to make them realize there is no going back. So those particular Hebrew Christians back then had to endure a pretty rough situation, one that had very little hope of improvement.

Since the terrorist attack last month, I have begun to discover how very many Christians all over the world are being persecuted and afflicted for their faith, and we Christians in America are the exception to the rule. They have to endure a lot more for the faith than we do. That might change, it might not.

If our Christian situation does change, if persecution comes, then we need to know how to think and how to act. If it does not change, we still need to know how to think and act. How often have you had some comparatively small affliction, some little offense come your way because you believed in Jesus, and you were surprised? It just blew you out of the water? Compared to the rest of the world, we have it easy. This country is the exception to what is normal.

Most of us don't have a clue what it would be like to be despised and hated for our faith, or even more important, we haven't thought about how God can use tribulation and affliction to make us more like Jesus.

That's why I'm teaching this. We need to be more like Jesus, and God uses tribulation and affliction as His belt sanders and polishing wheels to grind us into the shape He wants us. So we need to know how to act when it happens. What is patience? What does it mean to endure afflictions?

I want you to notice those two words: one in verse 32 and the other in verse 36: "Call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions;
And in verse 36: "For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise." The word in the Greek for endured in verse 32 is the same word that is also translated patience in verse 36. It's the same word. Endurance and patience are two sides of the same coin. Now turn to Luke 2, and verse 42:
"And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast.
Luk 2:43 And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it."
The Greek word that is translated patience and endurance in Hebrews, is translated as tarried behind here in Luke. Same word.

This is a remarkable thing, there is more here than meets the eye. This is not just a word, this is a concept. We have to grasp that, or we miss out on this whole thing. God gives us a wonderful illustration of what it is, in describing an Old Testament hero.

Turn now to 2nd Samuel 23, and then I promise I won't send you off flipping through the Bible for at least another five minutes. 2 Samuel 23 is a list of David's mighty men, his greatest warriors.
Verse 11: "And after him was Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite. And the Philistines were gathered together into a troop, where was a piece of ground full of lentiles: and the people fled from the Philistines. 2Sa 23:12 But he stood in the midst of the ground, and defended it, and slew the Philistines: and the LORD wrought a great victory."
That is what it means to tarry behind, to endure, to have Godly patience. Picture yourself in Shammah's position. There was a large force of the enemy coming at him, and everyone else had fled. The other soldiers had run away. Maybe some of them had told him that it was hopeless, and he ought to run away also.

Maybe some of them told him - Hey man, it's just a bean field- is that worth dying for? Run for your life. Maybe he thought about that. All his friends and companions were gone, all the people in the villages around were gone, and only he remained behind, he was the only one to endure.

Probably pretty lonely, standing there in the bean field, patiently waiting for the attack to begin. You wonder why he stayed behind. Maybe David had given him that bean field to take care of, to be responsible for. Maybe David had told him that they needed the beans, and he wanted Shammah to defend them, so he stayed. Not only did he stay, he stayed right in the middle of it, right in the midst of the ground, he defended it, he destroyed his enemies, and the Lord wrought a great victory through his endurance.

What kind of a bean field has the Lord given to you? Your home? Are you the only follower of Jesus in your house? Then you are living in your bean field. Question: are you defending it? Is the Lord getting a great victory through you? Maybe your bean field is where you work, where you go to school, your neighborhood, God has put you there, and you feel pretty much alone.

The strife with the Philistines takes many forms, maybe you are tempted to leave where you are, and go someplace nicer. Maybe in your home situation, or your work situation, your bean field doesn't look all that good, you would like God to find you a nicer, better bean field to defend. Do you ever look at your spouse, or your job, or your neighborhood, or your kids, or your church, and think: "I want a better bean field!" "Lord, I could defend my bean field better if it was a better bean field!"

No you couldn't. If you won't defend the bean field the Lord has already entrusted you with, why would you think He'll give you a better one? You need to endure where you are at, patiently remain behind where He has already put you, before you are worthy of getting something better. You see, that Greek word for endure also has the idea of bravery, courage, what used to be called "manliness." The idea that it was manly and honorable to prove yourself in the struggle, that bravery counts for something, that you get persecuted, beat up, tempted to go the other way, and you still persevere.

That there are ideals worth fighting and dying for, and that the person who upholds them has done something honorable, and is worthy of respect. That there is a cause worth defending, and even if everybody else runs away, it is still worth staying behind, and letting the Lord use you to bring about a great victory. That's what Christian patience is. A patience that endures affliction and remains, it doesn't run off. It doesn't quit the fight.

God calls Himself the "God of all patience" in Romans 15, verse 5. It's that same Greek word. That means He is also the God of all endurance. That means He never gives up, and He never gives out. He never quits. And if He has given you something to do that is in His will, why would you ever quit? Why would you ever want to quit? Because it's hard? He is the God of all endurance. If he has given us clear instructions to do something, or stay somewhere, then He will strengthen us, and give us the ability to do what He wants done, for as long as He wants us there.

At that point the big question becomes; will we endure? Will we be patient under fire? Will we remain behind when everybody else runs off?

We are fortunate in this country, it is unusual that some one has to endure their church being burned down. It is rare that some one is beaten or attacked because they are a follower of Jesus Christ. It is very unusual in this country for a person to be killed because they are a Christian. So we need to practice our endurance in different ways. We get to learn patience under less trying circumstances.

How do you respond when something goes sour in a relationship? You have a relationship with a relative, a parent, a child, a spouse, a co-worker, a brother or sister in the church, and something goes sour. Somebody attacks you. You get hurt. Will you leave? Or will you remain behind? Will you endure?
You can see other fields where the beans are a lot more plentiful than where you are, but will you stay in your own little bean field and fight for what's right, try to fix things up, try to be a healer? Will you patiently endure affliction? Will you be Christ like and forgive those that don't have a clue, forgive the one that is vindictive, mocking, cursing, hating? Will you remain and endure, because that's your bean field, and if God put you there, then it must be worth keeping? What will you do?

There is a familiar verse in Romans 5, we all know it, "tribulation worketh patience." Let's think about this word tribulation for a minute. Since this is a martial arts school building, does every body in here know what nunchaku are? Two wooden rods connected by a flexible cord between them? When the ancient Romans threshed their wheat, they used a device a lot like nunchaku, it was two pieces of wood connected by a rope, and that was what you flailed the wheat with. It was called a tribulum. You would hold one of the sticks and swing the other end over your head and thrash it into the wheat as hard as you could. That would dislodge the wheat, and then the wind would blow the straw and the chaff away, and the grains of wheat would be left. The wheat endured tribulation. It got "tribulated," tribulation was necessary to remove the straw and the chaff, and what remained was the good stuff, the fruit that remained.

All of us have a bunch of chaff and straw, wood hay and stubble in our lives, and tribulation is what removes it, gives the wind a chance to blow it away, and allow the good stuff to be what remains. All of us probably go through seasons of more or less tribulation, and while it's not any fun, it's necessary if we want to get rid of the straw, and the chaff and the fluff from our lives.

Of course, we always have the option of getting flailed by the tribulum, and getting our chaff and straw knocked loose, -that's good- and then we immediately turn around and start trying to stick all that junk back where it was, go back to being just like we were, and profit nothing from our tribulation; anybody here ever do that? God didn't make us robots, we are allowed to be stupid, and then He has to take us back to the threshing floor and knock the chaff off us again. Depending on how clueless we are, this cycle can repeat itself many times.

So when you go through threshing, and tribulation, -not if, when- get before God and make it a profitable experience. Don't go back to the same old chaff and straw. Let it go.

And when you do go through tribulation, don't wimp out. Turn to the book of James, chapter 1. When James writes his epistle, he cuts right to the chase, he gets right to the point in verse 2. He says: "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers -various- temptations;" This word temptations here means a test, a trial, something like a chemist would do in a laboratory. When a miner digs up silver, he sends it off to be assayed, to find out if it is actually worth anything; he tests it. James tells us that the reason that we go through trials is to test us and see what kind of stuff it is that we are made of. Are we real silver, or just shiny on the outside, is our Christlikeness only skin deep?

God wants us to be the real thing, verse three says: "Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
Jam 1:4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting -or lacking- nothing."
We go through testings, tribulations, sessions where we need to endure and be patient, so that we won't stay the same our whole lives. No matter where you started, or how far along you are, God is not finished with you yet. Your personal urban renewal is going to last a while. That's good. When I see Jesus, I want to be as pleasing to Him as possible. I'm sure you feel the same way about yourself.

Something I have said before, and it needs to be said often, is that Christians live simultaneously in two situations. As Christians, we have a certain standing before God. That standing is in Christ. That is our legal status, that is how God sees us. In Christ.

If we have truly trusted in Christ for salvation, God sees us as being perfect in the same way that Christ is perfect. He sees us as being holy in the same way that Christ is holy. God sees us in the perfections of His Son, and that perfection cannot be improved on. You cannot improve on perfection, Jesus Christ is perfect, and true Christians are in Christ. That is our standing before God. Praise God!

Our state is a different matter. Just like Jesus had to wash Peter's feet, some times we get our feet dirty. Sometimes we get our minds dirty, or our hands dirty, or our mouths dirty, whatever. Sometimes we need cleaning up a little bit, sometimes we need cleaning up a lot. Our state can vary, but it does not affect our standing before God. Because we are in Christ, and Christ does not change.

Our standing does not change, our state can change from day to day. God's intention is that it will be an improving curve. It's supposed to go up. It's supposed to get better. That is what tribulation is for. It's supposed to knock the trash loose and separate the wheat from the chaff.

Turn to Colossians 1, verse 10: "That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
Col 1:11 Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience" - there's that word again, being patient, enduring, remaining behind - "unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;"

God does not want us to say the same, He wants us to change. "That we might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing." God wants our state to match our standing. We are in the Lord, it is proper that we walk worthy of where He has put us, Who it is we are in.

"Being fruitful in every good work." Everybody produces fruit of some description. Evil people produce evil fruit, we see this on the news every day. Christians that have allowed their state to go downhill can produce rotten fruit. But our state is supposed to agree with our standing and we are supposed to produce good fruit, fruit that is worthy of the Lord. We are to increase in the knowledge of God, and as we do that, He strengthens us in all might- Wow! Isn't that great? "In all might!" Is that a good deal or what?

God strengthens us with ALL might, according to His glorious power - man, it just keeps getting better and better- and look what it is for: "Unto all patience and long suffering." Oh. Humm... Does that mean that he doesn't give me this power so that I can be Macho Man, or conquer the world, or build a bigger and better Crystal Cathedral right here in Blountville? No; He gives us all that power so that we can endure. So that we can be patient when tribulation comes. So that we can remain when everyone else runs away.

Notice how long He gives us this power: long suffering. God does not give us this power just for an overnight attack and a morning victory, He gives it to us for a long, drawn out campaign.
Long suffering: suffering for a long time. Tribulation for a long time. Patience for a long time. Remaining where He wants us for a long time.
But notice: He is not talking in terms of toughing it out. Because the last part of the verse tells us how we are to do it: "with joy." That changes everything. I like that. That makes it all worthwhile. Joy is good.
That is the sort of strength He gives us. That is kind of power He has for us in any situation. Not just to be able to endure, but to endure with joy.

Moody Aviation over in Elizabethton trains missionary pilots to fly and work on their own airplanes. The students repair and overhaul their training airplanes themselves to learn how to do the work, and it is interesting how a newly rebuilt airplane always flies better. When they take an airplane apart, they always find that no matter how clean you keep it, how good a care you take of it, airplanes tend to collect dirt back in their hidden corners. They collect crud and stuff in places you cannot see, and cruddy stuff weighs the airplane down. After you clean the crud out and put the airplane back together, it is lighter and it will go higher.

That's why God sends tribulation to us. He doesn't want us weighed down and dragging along with a bunch of crud that we don't even know is back in our corners. He wants us light and He wants us to fly high. Our problem is, we don't usually enjoy getting rid of the crud. When you go over to Moody Aviation one week, here is this nice shiny airplane sitting on the ramp, you go back next week, and it is a pile of parts. Somebody has taken off the wings and the tail, the interior is gone, parts are missing everywhere, somebody has drilled out a bunch of rivets, and the whole thing has been dunked and bathed in paint stripper. Then all the parts get tested, poked, prodded, and scrutinized to make sure they are acceptable.

Did you ever have days like that? Yesterday you looked pretty good; today you're just a pile of parts, and none of the parts look good. And what's worse, nobody will leave your pile of parts alone; you keep getting poked and prodded and scrutinized and tested. ARRGGHHH! It's tribulation and you are having to endure it, you are supposed to be patient, you know you need to remain right where you are, and YOU DON'T LIKE IT! ARRGGHHH! WHERE"S MY JOY? I WANT MY JOY AND I WANT IT NOW!

Patience. Stay put.

Go back in six weeks and that airplane will look better than the day it did when it rolled out of the factory. It survived it's period of tribulation and came out better than it was before. It will look better, run quieter, fly sweeter, and go higher than it has in years. The same thing is true of you and me. We need to have endurance and patience because the trials and testings that God sends to us are designed to clean us up, make us run better, and take us higher than we have been before.

Our country has come to a time of testing, a time that will require patience and endurance, a time when it will be necessary to stay and fight, even if everyone else gives us and runs away. It is possible or even probable that we as Christians may experience a time of testing like many of our brothers and sisters around the world are enduring. I pray that God will spare us, but since it is becoming more and more obvious that these are the end times, things will probably start to happen fairly quickly, and life will surely become much more interesting.

I want to close today by reading a quote by a Christian named Bob Moorehead. It is in your bulletin beside the prayer list, and that's why they weren't handed out earlier, I wanted to save this for now.

My Commitment as a Christian
I'm part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have Holy Spirit power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I'm a disciple of His. I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away or be still.

I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits or popularity. I don't have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on His presence, walk by patience, lift by prayer, and labor by power.

My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions few, my Guide reliable, my mission clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded, or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.
I won't give up, shut up, let up until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, preached up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus. And when He comes for His own, He will have no problem recognizing me- my banner will be clear.

Amen. That is my prayer for every one of us here today.