[00:00:00] But you, O man of God, flee unrighteous things, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called, and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
[00:00:20] I urge you in the sight of God, who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus, who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless, until our Lord Jesus Christ's appearing, which he will manifest in his own time.
[00:00:37] He who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen. Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for this opportunity to come together, to hear your word, to receive instruction from you.
[00:01:01] Lord, overshadow me and my role in this situation. Lord, the people need to hear from your word and from you, Holy Spirit, not from me. Lord, prevent anything false, misleading, or just not according to your will from proceeding forth in this broadcast. Lord, let it be you and you alone who is glorified.
[00:01:24] Lord, we give you thanks and praise, Lord, this day for your mercy, your grace, your forgiveness, your salvation. We honor you, Lord, and declare your goodness to this generation. Help us, God. Help us, Lord, to see and to receive from you what we need to see in our own hearts that we need to repent of and be forgiven for.
[00:01:48] Lord, and in the situation around us that we would receive wisdom and faith and knowledge and courage and righteousness that can only come from you, Lord, so that we would be equipped to joyfully address what is around us, Lord, for the sake of your kingdom and for the sake of your glory. Lord, you are holy and true and faithful. Lord, give us faith. Strengthen our faith.
[00:02:18] Help our unbelief. Encourage us, Lord. Encourage us and strengthen us. Equip us, Holy Spirit. Provide for us the resource of spiritual endurance and fortitude and strength. Lord, that we would go with you, that we would pursue you, that we would follow you, that we would surrender all to you, that we would come to your cross receiving the blessings and the benefit of your atonement.
[00:02:45] God, that we would see power in this generation, that we would see your might and your name be demonstrably proven, superior and mighty and powerful in the works that we see all around us. God, let your name be glorified and strengthen us to run the race that you have called us to run. In Jesus' name, amen.
[00:03:11] I was having a conversation with the intrepid commander of the Prepper Broadcasting Network, the infamous James Walton. And he was recounting to me a story about when he ran a marathon and how when he was 18 miles in to the 26.2, he had a moment where he thought, man, wouldn't it just be so much better if I didn't have to do this?
[00:03:41] 18 miles in is a tremendous accomplishment after all. But eight miles left to go when your body's on fumes already and you know what's going to happen. You can't show up in front of your family having dragged yourself across. Well, you might go down. You might get injured. You might leave it all out there on the course. But he said, man, if I could just slow down a little bit, do I really have to be doing this?
[00:04:10] And so he recounted to me how he walked for a little bit and he said, you know, running was painful. After 18 miles in, I've never been in that position myself. But I can certainly understand it would probably be pretty painful. But James said something really powerful. He said, you know what, Stephen? It hurts worse to walk.
[00:04:38] It hurts worse to walk. And in that moment, in that situation, my response was just, well, that'll preach. And so here we are today talking about it, talking about how it hurts worse to walk. In many times in our Christian journeys, we have endeavored to expend ourselves. We have tried. We have worked. We have put forth. We have sought opportunities.
[00:05:07] We have been positive and proactive in expending energy for the sake of the kingdom of God. We have seen the commandments of God. We understand what it is to be running the race, to be fighting the good fight of faith, like Paul says. And we have understood in the scripture, the instruction to continue, to keep on doing the things that we know we're supposed to do.
[00:05:36] And one of the favorite scriptures of this broadcast is from Galatians 6 and verses 9 and 10. And let us not grow weary while doing good. For in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Or if we continue, if we endure, if we stay the course. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.
[00:06:02] That it's a promise from God that is fast and secure. In due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Now, do we take that to mean if we actually do lose heart, if we give up, if we turn back, if we don't finish strong, will we not reap? Well, at the very least we could say that we won't be as fruitful as we otherwise could have been.
[00:06:27] But there are many different times when it is easy to lose heart and to lose strength and to lose focus. Especially when the efforts that we are making to attempt to serve others are not being met with the kind of appreciation that we might want. When they're being met with harsher treatment and being rebuffed. And there are a couple signals that we can take from that.
[00:06:56] First, we could brush it off and say, well, you know, in many places where Jesus came performing miracles, he was rejected. So I guess I'm not terribly surprised. And Jesus teaches on this. If they had hated me, then they're going to hate you.
[00:07:13] But there's also something in those scenarios where maybe there is some signal from the Holy Spirit that if a door is closed, it's closed for a reason because we are not where we're supposed to be. We're supposed to be running the race. But the race has a very specific track. It has a course. And we shouldn't be veering too far from it. We could be running as hard as we can.
[00:07:38] But if we're running the race in the opposite direction or orthogonally, we just took a right turn when we were supposed to go straight. And now we're sprinting as hard as we can. Yeah, we're making progress in an absolute sense. We are still moving, but we're not going where we're supposed to be going. And sometimes when the doors are shut, it should motivate us to press into the Lord and saying, God, am I facing opposition?
[00:08:02] And am I dealing with frustration and a lack of fruitfulness because this is the nature of the battle and I'm dealing with particularly challenging soil in the place that you have called me to? Or is it because I'm over here in a different field or I planted the wrong crops or I'm just in some way out of step, Holy Spirit, with what you are leading me specifically to do in this time?
[00:08:29] So that kind of moment is a moment for searching our hearts and for attempting to receive from the Lord the wisdom that we need to understand which one of those things has happened. And the Holy Spirit will give us guidance for this. He is a comforter who is promised in terms of providing us this wisdom and this knowledge and this discernment and this perspective.
[00:08:51] But in neither case does it mean that we should give up and take a break and take an extended kind of sabbatical. We should regroup. We should re-strategize. We should receive from the Lord what the next steps are. Whether our most recent steps have been tremendously successful or whether they've been met with significant challenges.
[00:09:19] The most important barometer here is whether or not we are in the will of God. And so whether it's the heights of the mountaintop or the lows of the valley or somewhere in between, we need to receive from the Holy Spirit the guidance on what to do next. And so that is the right pronouncement. We should just be regularly seeking God to understand what his will is.
[00:09:42] But in no sense are we ever given an instruction where it's okay to give up. It's okay to back off. It's okay to not stay the course. To not endure. We are always encouraged to press on, to press in, to receive more from God, to have a greater impact, for God to use us more and more. Because his grace never ends. His mercy never ends. His power never ends.
[00:10:11] His forgiveness never ends. His love never ends. His faithfulness never ends. And we are to emulate him. Now, Lord knows that we are weary and we can be physically worn down in seasons. We also know that God gives his beloved rest. From Psalm 127, unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Are we building houses that God has not instructed us to build?
[00:10:40] Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. Are we trying to take things into our own power to protect and to hoard what God has given us? But has God's protection left? Because we're not doing things in the right way? Why are we expending all this effort if God is not in it? Shouldn't we go find what God is in so that our effort can be properly directed? It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows.
[00:11:09] For so he gives his beloved sleep. Brothers and sisters, the Lord knows that as we are endeavoring to follow him and to run the race and to expend ourselves and pour ourselves out for the sake of the gospel and the kingdom and the glory of the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, he knows that we require rest. He is the one who established the Sabbath. He is the one who has created the pattern for us.
[00:11:37] We're resting in the Lord, receiving from him, nourishing. All of these things is what allows us to have our thirst quenched and our hunger filled and our restful eyes recuperated so that we would be equipped to go out and expend ourselves again. We do not have limitless resources inside of ourselves.
[00:12:01] And so when we pour ourselves out, we need to be refilled by the Holy Spirit, by the Word of God. We need more of his resources so that we can go back out. We have a limited storage capacity as a battery here, and we need to be recharged. God isn't saying that we should be running ourselves ragged. There is a time in the process of fighting the good fight and running the race and enduring until the end
[00:12:27] where we need to take a moment, and we see this in Jesus' ministry itself. He wasn't out there amongst the people performing active ministry in that sense every single moment of every single day. He retreated to the wilderness places. He prayed. He received strength. And one of the things that's just so wonderful as a reminder is a quick exercise that we were taught at our church is to engage the Holy Spirit with the acronym FLY.
[00:12:57] Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you, F, lead you, L, and to give you a heart to yield to what the Holy Spirit is doing. So Holy Spirit, fill us. Holy Spirit, lead us. Holy Spirit, help us to yield to you. And that is what gives us the right frame of reference. That is what equips us to fly and to continually pour ourselves out and to engage with the world around us
[00:13:24] and to be enthusiastic and joyful and rejoicing and praying without ceasing and walking with the Lord and having our eyes open to the opportunities that He will provide us to serve others and be ready to seize those opportunities to do good for the people of God and for God's kingdom and for those around us. And so, brothers and sisters, when we find ourselves weary and we need this kind of encouragement, just know this.
[00:13:53] It is not only the right thing to do to run this race and to run it appropriately and fully with all of our effort, even understanding that there are times of rest and recuperation. Remember our friend James Walton. If we decide, all right, well, it might give me some relief to slow down. Remember that it hurts worse to walk.
[00:14:16] If we're dealing with struggles and challenges and obstacles, but first we've gone to the Lord and we know that we're running the race in the right way. We are doing the things that we are called to do that we're supposed to do. If we slow down in those things, it will hurt worse. The pain that we feel, the disjunction that we feel, the separation, the discomfort that we feel will be even more pronounced
[00:14:45] because that's when a whole new series of whispers and fiery darts will come into our mind that we need to overcome. Look, you couldn't make it. Look how far behind you're falling. Shouldn't you strive in your own power to make it up? You're a failure. You'll never amount to anything. All of this negative talk that is an invasion, an intrusive thought, a fiery dart from the enemy that's intended to discourage us.
[00:15:14] If we think that we will be given relief if we slow down our efforts, it is not true, brothers and sisters. We address the initial component of saying it's possible that we were running the race in the wrong direction and that's why we're experiencing fatigue and we need to check with the Holy Spirit. But if we know that we are doing things the right way, if the Lord has confirmed to us that we're planted where we're supposed to be, we are moving ahead the way that we're supposed to,
[00:15:43] and it's either a time of season or a time of planting, before a time of harvest where we see all the results, then we should keep working, keep the faith, keep pressing in, overcome this obstacle. And sometimes it's just a night. Sometimes it's just an hour. Sometimes it's just a week. Sometimes it's just a short period of just general discouragement that can happen for a variety of different reasons.
[00:16:11] And we encourage ourselves in the Lord, we group up, and we keep going. First, we should try and understand why we're experiencing that kind of discouragement. But if it's not something that the Holy Spirit is trying to use to teach us to change our course and to change our trajectory, then we need to pray that God would give us the strength and the faith to power through and to endure a dark night of the soul or two, or even something more mild but longer-lasting,
[00:16:38] this kind of sort of nagging frustration, the thorn in the flesh. Sometimes it just does require saying, I will endure. I will cling to the promises of God, and I will remember that His mercies are new every morning and that joy comes in the morning. And I'll pray that, Lord, when I wake up, help me to have a perfect night's sleep. And when I wake up, help me to have a different attitude, a different outlook. Change the situation, Lord.
[00:17:07] That's certainly a better approach than trying to take things into our own hands. So sometimes it just does require, you know, gritting our teeth and getting through. You know, one more mile. Make it to the next hill. Make it to that next checkpoint. One step at a time. We can do it. Keep on going. That kind of moment-by-moment encouragement. And let us, again, brothers and sisters, not be lulled into the false sense that,
[00:17:32] well, if I slow down, it will provide some kind of relief or benefit or it, you know, won't hurt as much. It won't be as challenging. There won't be as many struggles or pain or strife. More struggles will come in when we slow down our race because then when we go to the Word of God and we see the scriptures about running this race, fighting the good fight, not growing weary and doing well,
[00:17:59] then we will be impressed by a sense of our own shortcomings and our own failures in this regard. And then we can get trapped into trying to make excuses for ourselves, et cetera, et cetera. It's just one of those things that we are not going to be able to avoid without turning away even further, which, of course, doesn't provide the relief because it provides, instead, a distance and a separation from where we are supposed to be in the Lord.
[00:18:28] So when we start walking, so to speak, instead of running, and we read something like what we see in 1 Corinthians 9, starting in verse 24, do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. When we start to walk, we know in our spirits that we are not running in such a way that we are going to obtain the prize, that we are not living up to this analogy, this instruction in scripture.
[00:18:58] And when we recognize that, then the tendency is not to immediately say, Lord, I've fallen short here. Forgive me. Equip me. I need to rely on you for the faith and the strength that I need to keep going. I want to endure. I want to run the race. I want to fight the good fight of faith. But I'm discouraged, Lord. So help me become encouraged in you, in your word, in prayer, in pressing in, and having others pray for me in fellowship to receive that kind of encouragement.
[00:19:27] If I'm going through a heaviness of spirit, instead what will happen is we will be hit with the kind of guilt and the kind of shame that will cause us to withdraw even more in many cases if we don't have things oriented properly. So, you know, run the race in such a way that we may obtain that prize. And in this case, there are instructions for how to do this. Everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things.
[00:19:54] Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. It's why we're running. Therefore, I run thus, not with uncertainty. Thus I fight, not as one who beats the air, but I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others I myself should become disqualified. Particularly if we are in a situation of ministry where we have instructed others and given people counsel in terms of this example. If we start to draw back, if we start to walk instead of run,
[00:20:24] then there's added layers of guilt and shame that come from the accusation internally of our own hypocrisy. Of saying, well, you keep telling all these other people to do these things and look at you not living up to it. And it's this sequence of fiery darts that is painful. It's this separation that is painful. Yes, Jesus in his ministry was tired.
[00:20:53] He was physically spent in his human body by all of the work that he was doing. Endless resources to draw on, to replenish his power. But Jesus also had a human nature that got tired, that needed sleep. It was the separation from God on the cross where he cries out, Lord, Lord, why have you forsaken me?
[00:21:18] It was that that was more wearying and dramatic. And just it's one of those moments that I don't think can fully be put into words. This sort of inexpressible separation that was the result of the wrath that was poured out for the sake of God's justice because of our unrighteousness and our sin that Jesus bore.
[00:21:45] Taking those sins upon himself so that we could be restored to right relationship with God. It's an incredible thing to consider. A monumental miracle and a modality of deliverance that we should express our gratitude and thanks for every single day as we will do throughout all eternity.
[00:22:09] It is the gospel that Jesus died in our place so that we could have eternal life with God. And when we see the magnitude of that separation, it's not as if we go through the exact same thing because nothing is comparable to that. I wouldn't want to make that suggestion. But if we are pressing into God and dealing with troubles, pains as a result of that, obstacles, challenges, all of these things,
[00:22:36] and we're running and we know that we're running in the right way and we're meeting resistance, then it will feel worse if we start to walk, if we start to separate, if we withdraw from what the Holy Spirit would have us to do. And yes, again, there's a time for rest and there's a time for work.
[00:22:59] And we can fall into a problem on either end if we do it to an extreme that is not healthy. And the Holy Spirit knows that we need times of refreshing and times of rest. Keep in mind what Paul says here in 1 Corinthians 9. Everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. There is the right kind of balance. There is the motivation. There is a time to rest.
[00:23:25] But if we are pulling back and withdrawing in a time when we're supposed to be running at full force, we are falling behind and there will be pain that results because of it. It's a tremendous challenge and it's a tremendous encouragement because we're not supposed to grow weary while doing good. And Jesus himself is potentially even more direct in terms of this. So he says in Luke 9, verse 62, Jesus said,
[00:23:52] No one having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. Now, perhaps we would interpret that warning of putting your hand to the plow and then looking back as being a more severe change of heart and change of disposition and demeanor from running the race and then just slowing your pace.
[00:24:17] This idea of looking back as it pertains to just other pictures in Scripture when we think about Sodom and Gomorrah and Lot's wife on their way out of the city, turning back and looking at the city and becoming transformed into a pillar of salt. Like we see there's a significant amount of dramatic impact that comes from this thing.
[00:24:41] And Jesus is reiterating this idea that if we've put our hands to the plow and then look back, we're not fit for the kingdom of God. Again, you wouldn't expect in the full counsel of God this to mean that we can never close our eyes and sleep and rest and recharge and replenish and spend time with the Lord so that we can be filled, so that we can go out to be as effective as possible. That's not what looking back means in this case.
[00:25:11] It's not what walking as opposed to running in the marathon story means that we're referencing. It's something different. But it should showcase to us that this is not just some additional incremental teaching to kind of be shrugged at and to not worry about too much. Jesus takes these things extremely seriously.
[00:25:37] And we know all throughout, including in Proverbs, we see wisdom that is speaking to us about what happens to people when we slow down, when we become sluggards. Here I'm thinking about Proverbs 24, starting in verse 30. I went by the field of the lazy man and by the vineyard of the man devoid of understanding. And there it was, all overgrown with thorns.
[00:26:06] Its surface was covered with nettles. Its stone wall was broken down. When I saw it, I considered it well. I looked on it and received instruction. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. So shall your poverty come like a prowler and your need like an armed man. So once we develop this tendency to walk instead of run, it can move to a tendency to sit instead of walk. And it can have a tendency to move to sleep instead of sit.
[00:26:35] We can become ever more passive and withdrawn in a way that is aggravated by our own awareness of our failure to live up to what we are called to and what we're supposed to be. So if we back off, then our options are to ignore or deny the fact that we've done anything wrong, either by twisting scripture or by ignoring it completely.
[00:27:02] Or to deal with that shame but to deal with it inappropriately, to let it bury ourselves rather than going to the Lord. Or to, you know, casually begin justifying it and doing it more and more and not really paying attention until there's been all sorts of mission creep where we can,
[00:27:22] we have inaction and inertia and nothing short of a powerful move of the Holy Spirit is going to bring us back into a position where we are active. And so it's a challenge. It's a challenge for us. But let these scriptures sit with us and remind us that Jesus said, I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day.
[00:27:49] The night is coming when no man can work. We have to work while we have the opportunity. It doesn't mean that we don't need times of rest and restoration. But the Lord will give us the strength in every season. He will strengthen our faith so that we can believe that he will strengthen us in every season according to his word. We have been called to fight the good fight of faith.
[00:28:19] We have been called to run the race. We have been called to pursue the Lord with the vigor that his love and justice and mercy and perfection call us to. We need to make sure that we are running the race in the correct direction, that we're on course, so to speak. But let us remind ourselves that that kind of running is painful. There are obstacles. There are challenges. There are difficulties. There are trials.
[00:28:46] There is hurt that comes as a result of following the Lord in this way at full speed, so to speak. And there are many times when a voice will come in to tell us, oh, just take a break. Especially after we've done something in service of the Lord and been met with hardship, obstacle, challenge. It's like, wouldn't it be easier if we didn't bother?
[00:29:11] Shouldn't we just not give up, but just hold off for a while? Just take a step back. You deserve it. You have to be well-rested, all of these other things. We have to be very sensitive to the Holy Spirit so that we can know, Holy Spirit, is it a time for me to be refreshed and to be restored?
[00:29:38] Is it a situation where I need to perhaps receive a different heavenly strategy for approaching something? Is there something else that I should be doing? Is there something in my own heart? Search me, Lord. Is there something in my own life that is creating these blockages or these obstacles? Am I outside of God's will in some way?
[00:30:00] But if those checks from the Holy Spirit are past, then don't imagine that it will be less painful and that we will face less obstacles, fewer obstacles, weaker obstacles, if we start to walk instead of run. If we become less fervent and more casual. Maybe there will be some kind of temporary, supposed relief, but not even.
[00:30:30] Not for James. Not for James. As soon as he started to walk, it was more painful. They said, well, might as well run then. Let the Holy Spirit call us to that today. We might as well run. It's what we are called to do. It's what we are instructed to do. It's what we are commanded to do. And brothers and sisters, it hurts worse to walk. Lord, thank you for your mercy. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for your strength. Thank you for equipping us.
[00:31:00] Thank you for encouraging us today. I pray for my brothers and sisters who are pouring themselves out in ministry for their churches, for their communities, for their families. Lord, that you would equip them and give them boldness and strength and courage. Holy Spirit, show them if they are on the wrong path and help them to get back on the right path.
[00:31:21] Help to encourage them that they wouldn't walk, that they would continue to run, continue to endure, keeping their eyes fixed on you. And storing up treasures in heaven and the light and the blessed hope of eternal life. Put it on their heart, the burden that they have a calling that only they can fill. And help them to bring that burden to the cross and to submit it to you, Lord.
[00:31:49] And saying, Lord, it's only by your might and your strength that anything can be accomplished through my life. And I pray that you would pour out your grace and your love and your mercy on them. That they would be equipped to be poured out for others. Lord, all for your glory, Jesus. All for your kingdom. All for the salvation and the discipleship of your people, God. Please, cry out. Cry out with a loud, clear voice through your people and directly. Save souls today, Lord.
[00:32:19] Reach the lost. Those who are hopeless without you. Who are seeking. I pray that you would put people into their paths who can give them the gospel and the good news and be there for them. Lord, use our lives for your glory in every single way. Bless our ministries. Bless our families. Bless the work of our hands in every way, God. Strengthen us. Our strength comes from you. Our lives come from you. Our very breath comes from you.
[00:32:48] And we thank you, God, for equipping us. We give you all the glory for it, Lord. Let your will be done. Thank you for this time. Thank you for my brothers and sisters. Thank you for your love towards us in Jesus. We bless you. We praise you. We thank you. We magnify you. And we give you all the glory. In Jesus' name, amen.
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