Highlights From Sept 6th…
Looking back over the past few years, are there things that you regret having quit? How easy is it to get excited over something new, start it…spend time and money for it…then QUIT! I know of young people today that have tried everything in the book, only to quit. I can tell you about a couple of young girls that started with ballet, went to gymnastics, to karate, then to guitar lessons. Before it was over, Mom and Dad had bought a tu-tu…a leotard…a gi…and a guitar! And neither one was cheap!
All of us in some way, can relate to the experience of getting tired, discouraged, or just plain bored, and not finished something that we started. It might be something that we felt very passionate about at one time, We may have put forth a lot of initial effort and/or expense, but we still didn’t see it through.
One problem is it seems that we live in a society that almost applauds quitting. Our culture seems to have geared itself up to expect people NOT to follow through. Many people would rather BAILOUT THAN BLAST THROUGH…Leave than Last…Throw in the Towel than Stay in the Game. We want month-to-month apartment leases; escape clauses in contracts, prenuptial agreements in marriage, and the list goes on!
Maybe you walked out on a parent…or family member. Had a family member walk out on you?
Maybe you quit a job…work got too hard!
Changed Majors!
Maybe you walked out on God!
Then we took a look at what endurance really is.
We described endurance as stampeding through those stopping points of life. It’s painstakingly whacking down the walls that block us from achievements. It’s getting the job done! We even imagined the Incredible Hulk!
Then we looked at the life of a guy from the Bible who really modeled endurance. His endurance is so well known, you could say he is the ‘poster child’ for endurance. Who is he? His name was Noah. He’s the guy that built the really big boat right in the middle of the desert without a cloud in the sky.
Genesis 6:5-9 tells us that the earth was full of evil and corruption. Wickedness covered the earth. We also see the God was sorry that He created the earth. Then in verse 8, we see something special…we see that “…Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”
In verse 9, we saw a possible cause to this effect of God’s favor. It says that “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among (or as compared to) the people of his time, and he walked with God.”
One of the things bound to happen to us when we walk with God is that He will speak to us, maybe not audible, but we will clearly know His direction for our lives.
How do we know His voice? Go read John 10:1-4. That will tell you how we know His voice. Go ahead…go read it.
Has God ever asked something of you that seemed totally ridiculous from your perspective or that was so far outside your experience that it made no sense?
We need to get a grip here. We’re not talking about your basic fishing boat. Not even a ski boat for that matter. I’m talking about one HUGE VESSEL! If it wasn’t enough that the idea of building a boat blew Noah’s mind, the size specifications for the boat did! This boat was massive! God asked him to build a boat 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. So not only was Noah’s faith blown out of the water, but the job was a nightmare! Certainly larger than anything he had ever undertaken in his life! And to build it smack in the middle of the desert. NO WAY…Right? Remember verse 22?
We’ve been talking about ‘staying in the game’, NOT QUITTING. What would you have done…how would you have reacted if God had told you to do that?
But this gets even better! Not only was the size of the boat unheard of, but Noah was 500 years old when he was commanded by God to start this project! Then, it took him 120 years to complete it. Now that’s endurance by anybody’s definition.
I don’t know about you, but after 80 or 90 years, I’d have been complaining: “God, come on! I’ve been watching the Weather Channel…and I STILL don’t see any clouds! What’s the deal! Fox News and Shepard Smith have been out here with their trucks and satellites for years now and the whole country things I’ve lost my mind!’
But…again, verse 22…Noah didn’t give up.
So there it was…120 years later…this ginormous vessel sitting in the middle of the desert…without a cloud anywhere to be found.
Then, from the 4 corners of the world, the animals started arriving at the boat. And the Bible says that Noah, his family and all of the animals finally walked into the finished boat. The Bible says that God closed and sealed the door…and 7 days later, the rain began to fall!
Noah…stayed in the game!
You might be thinking, “yeah, that’s great for Noah, but how do I do that?”
Well, since you’ve got your Bible handy, drop on over to Hebrews 12:1-2
“Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles us!”
WHAT A GREAT PICTURE!
Imagine the runners in the Olympic games…lined up at the starting blocks…everyone is ready, when one of the runners appear in a very unique uniform. There he is in long sweat pants, combat boots, a sweater, gloves, hat, and a wool overcoat. Not the likeliest of athletes, huh?
Our enemy, satan, is constantly trying to get us to cross over that line that lies between trying to endure in God’s power and trying to endure on our own. Jesus could never have endured all the way to the cross without His intimate, constant connection to the Father.
Christ-followers are able to experience that kind of connection to God through the Holy Spirit. We may not hear the Father as well as Jesus did, but we can hear Him much better than we do now.
Finishing the race…Because He finished strong…so can we.
