And Father, that you would not only anoint
us by your Holy Spirit that are gathered
here right now, but Lord, those that are
gathered around their computers, Father, that are with
us on service right now, live in various
parts of the world and across America, we
pray, Father, that there would be no disconnect
from our fellowship, from the corner of the
Holy Spirit, from this sanctuary, Lord, to the
ends of the earth.
We thank you for all that you've provided
for us.
We ask in Jesus' name, and again, all
God's people said, amen.
Grab your Bibles tonight and turn, if you
would, to Matthew chapter 28.
You're probably wearing out that part of your
Bible on Wednesday nights.
Matthew chapter 28, and you're going to place
your finger there, and then you're going to
go to Ephesians chapter 6.
Matthew chapter 28 and Ephesians chapter 6.
Tonight's message is entitled, The Discipline of Determination.
Determination, as we walk through a 31-week
series on discipleship, we are now tonight in
the 17th part of our 31 series of
these teachings regarding the disciplines of life.
In Matthew chapter 28, verse 18, Jesus says,
all authority has been given to me in
heaven and on earth.
Go therefore and make disciples.
That's what's happening here on Wednesday nights, making
disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit, verse 20,
teaching them to observe all things.
That is, be obedient to what Christ has
commanded, that I have commanded you, and behold,
I am with you always, even to the
end of the world.
Now go a little bit to the right,
to the book of Ephesians, and here is
our verse for this evening, Ephesians 6, 13,
and a little bit of verse 14.
Therefore, take up the whole armor of God,
that you may be able to withstand in
the evil day, and having done all to
stand, stand therefore.
What an awesome challenge, and we break it
down regarding the discipline of determination, that you
may be able to withstand, Paul says to
the church at Ephesus, in the evil day.
That word implies that as we get closer
to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the days are going to increase in evil.
Jesus said it.
Jesus said that as the days get further
on or closer to his second coming, the
Bible tells us, Jesus said it, that men's
hearts will begin to fail them for fear
when they see the events of this world
coming upon this world and those who dwell
on it.
Jesus said that because of lawlessness, love would
grow cold.
That word means that there'd be a profound,
dark, sinister callousness on the hearts of people,
where people would be maybe robbed or beat
up or raped or murdered, and people wouldn't
care.
People would pull out their cell phone to
record it rather than get involved and help
someone.
That's the age we're living in today, a
time like this, an evil day.
Are we not in an evil day?
Horrible things.
You can watch murders, actually, on YouTube and
on the internet.
Uncensored there.
We're living in an evil day, and Jesus
said because of callousness, men and women's hearts
will become very, very cold and without compassion.
It is the evil day.
But Paul says to the church in the
last days, in the evil day, to stand.
We are to be standing.
It's clear that in the last days, as
evil advances, the Christian is going to advance
as well.
There's going to be a grand collision between
light and darkness.
Now, I don't know if you have the
liberty to watch this or not.
I don't know if your conscience is OK
with you to do this.
But a Christian man wrote a book about
World War One, how he perceived that book
or how he perceived that war.
And that guy was J.R.R. Tolkien.
He wrote Lord of the Rings.
And that book exposes a profound collision between
light and darkness.
The movie that came out was extremely graphic.
I think it's excellent for those who can
handle it.
It's pretty terrifying because it's so portrays evil
that you can almost feel it.
You know, these orcs and these things represented
the demonic world clashing against the light and
against the kingdom.
And yet we would look at a movie
like that and say, oh, wow, that's boy.
Well, that's evil.
And you walk out of the theater.
Hey, let me tell you something.
The stuff that's outside the theater is worse
than what's on a movie screen.
The Bible tells us that we are in
the evil day and that we are to
stand.
And the great thing is we can stand
because God is good and powerful and we
can be a determined people.
In the book of Philippians, chapter two, verse
12, Philippians to 12, the Bible says, therefore,
my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not
as in my presence only, but now much
more in my absence, work out your own
salvation with fear and trembling.
For it is God who works in you
both to will and to do of his
good pleasure.
Very quickly, you all, you just heard a
moment ago was work out your own salvation.
How am I going to do that?
If you read the next verse, it says,
for it is God who has at work
within you, both to will and to do
of his good pleasure.
That word work out your own salvation means
get determined about your Christianity, get serious about
it, because you and I are living in
an evil day.
And let me tell you right now, you're
not getting serious about Jesus.
You're going to get swept away in the
evil day.
So when it says, work out your own
salvation with fear and trembling, it means to
be gravely serious about your walk, defending your
walk, having a very tender heart towards God.
The opposite of the way the world is
going.
The world is going calloused heart, cold heart,
dark heart.
Your heart is getting more tender, more illuminated,
more loving worlds in collision.
And so we come before God tonight and
we say, Lord, I want to be determined
as a believer.
I want to be serious as a Christian.
I want to walk with you.
We would use the word enthusiasm, enthusiasm.
That word is a compound word.
It means someone who is filled with a
spirit or zeal or a passion for a
cause.
It means to be filled with enthusiasm of
special intercourse with God, says Noah Webster, for
or of revelation from God.
It is to be filled with God to
the point where God's interests consume you.
Yes, your personality is what it is.
God has given you your personality.
Listen, are you guys listening?
Don't let anyone ever try to dictate to
you what your personality should be.
That's like walking up to a Rembrandt and
trying to fix the painting.
It's a Rembrandt for crying out loud.
Don't touch it.
I love Monet.
You know who Monet is?
I'm a sucker for a museum, man.
If they got a Monet, I'm pulling over.
I got to see it.
I've had a chance to see Monet's all
around the world.
Incredible.
I could just stand there and drool looking
at him.
Can you imagine somebody walking up and saying,
I got to fix that?
I don't like the way that.
Yeah, you slap the guy for even getting
near the thing, you know, slap him in
the Lord, that is with your soft, tender,
illuminated heart.
But why?
Because it's it's the expression of the creator.
Your personality is what God has given you.
Don't have somebody tell you, well, I didn't.
You know, you're too serious for me.
You're too funny for me.
You're too in between for me.
Like Goldilocks is trying to pick something out.
Listen, Jesus didn't die for your personality.
He died for your sins and he painted
your existence, your person the way that he
likes.
Listen, for those of you who are insecure,
maybe you've been beaten down, whatever.
I don't know.
Understand this.
Jesus died for your sins.
He loves the person that you are, and
that should cause you to have a sense
of security and excitement, which breeds enthusiasm.
God, thank you for loving me.
Maybe nobody else loves you in the world,
but God loves you.
And that's enough.
In second Corinthians four, verse five, the Bible
says, for we do not preach ourselves, says
Paul, but Christ Jesus and ourselves, your bondservants
for Jesus' sake.
For it is the God who commanded light
to shine out of darkness.
Listen to this, who has shown in our
hearts to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ.
Let me continue on in a second.
Verse seven.
Have you ever seen a reflector when you
shine the flashlight at it or the headlights
on it?
It bounces back at you.
That's exactly what that means.
Verse seven.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels.
That's our flesh, that the excellence of the
power may be of God and not of
us.
The power is of God.
Are you going to make it to heaven?
Yes.
You know why you can be so sure?
Because God will get you there.
You, my friend, determined tonight to exercise determination
in your walk with him.
Yes, he saved you.
But now it's time to get up and
follow him.
Number one, jot it down.
Then the disciplines of determination.
It's this.
There will always be enough reasons to quit.
You see, determination is the opposite of us
giving up.
There will always be enough reasons to quit.
Will you write that down?
Jot that down.
Because listen, sometimes you and I, we discover
that the thing we're working on, the thing
that we're excited about, we either lose interest
in it or we think now we conclude
now that what I'm working on is not
worthy of finishing.
Henry Ford built cars.
And the story goes that when he began
to work on his very first vehicle, his
very first Ford car out in the back
of his garage, he was working on it.
And he was so smart, goofing around that
before, listen, before he finished the first car,
his mind had already gone off on what
the next third, fourth, fifth, sixth generation car
would be like.
You know what that's like, right?
You start something.
You think, well, I can fix that.
I can make it better.
And Henry Ford backed away.
And this is pretty amazing.
As far as I know, he was not
a Christian.
He concluded, wait a minute.
If I just discovered by working on this
first car, what I'm going to do to
the next car, then I'm going to restart
my enthusiasm.
I'm going to get back at working on
the original car until it's done.
Listen, because maybe as I continue, I'm going
to learn more insights and more insights about
the next car.
Think about that as a Christian, I'm going
to get up and I'm going to do
this Christian walk with God.
I'm not going to be a pew potato
anymore.
I'm not going to be a spectator.
I'm going to follow Jesus all the way
to the end.
And so let's go.
And then you might lose interest.
What do you do?
Do you quit?
Listen, there's always, always enough reasons to quit,
but that doesn't make them right.
Organized sports.
I don't know about you.
I think they're great.
If I had a, if I had a
son or while my daughter actually played organized
sports, she wound up going all the way
to Orlando with the, I don't know, they
won the national championship for, you know, cheerleaders
who fly in space and flip and crash
and gymnastics, wild, crazy stuff.
Amazing.
Organized sports is awesome.
You don't know why it causes you to
have a bonding and a camaraderie with a
team.
And even though you don't feel like going
to practice, you got to go.
Even though you don't feel like, uh, running
faster, you've got to, or being stronger.
You got to, whatever it is, it forces
you.
It's a great discipline, but a wonderful thing
about it is this, that it causes you
to reach down inside of you and grab
something that you didn't think was ever there.
Everybody, in my opinion, should play some form
of organized sports, not to get the trophy.
Although let me say this.
If you're going to play organized sports, get
the trophy, win the championship.
I'm serious.
I don't believe in that.
Well, I'm going to be a Christian and
let everybody else win.
No man, do it for the glory of
God, crush all your opponents and get the
prize.
Come on, man, be your best.
And just after you, after you beat the
guy, pray for him, tell him you love
him anyway.
You know, but listen, do your best.
Why?
It's not if you listen, it's not if
you win or you lose, although it does
matter if you win, but here's the thing.
It's the character building that is built up
in you year in and year out and
the commitment and the fact that, you know
what I, man, I was able to go
the hundred yard this fast last year, maybe
this fast this year, whatever it might be.
It's awesome.
Jot this down.
If you would, there's always reasons to quit,
but there will always be listen, there will
always be reasonable reasons to quit.
Well, should I quit?
Of course.
Hey, listen, you want to quit?
You'll think of a thousand reasons and they're
all going to sound great.
Well, I don't know if I'm going to
listen.
It's a tough time right now as a
Christian boy, then, you know, the economy is
bad and you're going to quit Christianity.
So what?
You're a fair weather follower of Jesus.
Is that what it is?
Jesus had those people around him.
He said, listen, you guys are following me
right now, not because you love me, but
because you're hungry because he just got done
feeding five thousand people.
And they said, this is cool.
Travel with him.
Free food.
People do that in Christianity.
There's always reasonable reasons to quit as a
Christian.
You don't have the right to quit as
a Christian.
I don't have a right to make my
own decisions.
Well, then I'm not going to be a
Christian.
Well, that's right.
You're not.
I don't listen.
I'm supposed to be we're supposed to be
slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He calls the shots.
I we together get our marching orders from
this book, the Bible.
And so, listen, Exodus chapter four, verse 10
says, then Moses said to the Lord, oh,
my Lord, I am not eloquent.
Listen, these are reasonable reasons to quit.
I'm not eloquent neither before nor since you
have spoken to your servant.
But I am slow of speech.
Moses stuttered.
And slow of tongue, his tongue was tied.
So the Lord said to him, I love
it.
This is how God talks.
Who made man's mouth or who makes the
mute, the deaf, the seen or the blind
have not I, the Lord now therefore go
and I will be with your mouth and
teach you what to say.
That's God.
Don't you recognize that voice?
Don't you recognize that kind of speech?
That's how he speaks to us.
Lord, I can't go.
God says, I want you to do that.
I can't do it.
Moses, can you imagine Moses?
You know, man, God says, I want you
to go now.
I want you to do this.
I can't.
I stutter.
I stammer.
And God says, who made the mouth?
You did.
Then I'm going to take care.
I'll control your mouth.
You go.
Listen, what God calls you to do, tells
you to do.
Number one, you will be able to have
a bazillion reasonable reasons why you shouldn't do
it.
Listen, everybody will tell you also we'll come
to this in a moment some more, but
people will tell you, friends will tell you,
maybe your husband or your wife will tell
you maybe.
I don't know.
Although you pray that the husband and the
wife will be on the same page, walking
together in unity on something, whatever it is,
there'll be a thousand million or more reasonable
reasons why to quit.
In this Christian life, in this Christian experience,
the days, listen, I have this on a
based on a biblical source.
The days are going to get rougher.
Oh, great.
I've come out here on a Wednesday night
to be encouraged like this.
They're going to get harder.
The Bible says it's going to be more
difficult and harder.
The Bible tells us in Jeremiah one, verse
four, listen to this, a reasonable reason to
quit.
Jeremiah is a young man.
Verse four, chapter one.
Then the word of the Lord came to
me saying, before I formed you in the
womb, I knew you before you were born.
I sanctified you.
Listen to this.
God is saying, go, you go, Jeremiah.
I ordained you a prophet to the nations.
You go, Jeremiah.
And then said, I, Jeremiah speaks.
Oh, Lord, God, behold, I can't speak.
I'm a youth.
I'm just a young punk kid.
And God says, I'm with you, Jeremiah.
Those are reasonable.
I stutter or I'm young.
Those are good arguments.
Everybody in the neighborhood would remind these guys,
Moses and Jeremiah, you shouldn't do this.
Don't you know how young you are?
You look like a fool and who's going
to listen to a kid and Moses.
I can't get three.
I can't understand three words coming out of
your mouth.
That's how God gets the glory.
He loves it.
Listen, I don't know if you've come to
figure this out, have seen this happen in
your life.
I hope so, but there will never be
in our Christian experience.
There will never be enough time.
There will never be enough help.
There will never be enough people alongside you.
There'll never be enough money.
There'll never be enough energy.
There'll never be enough of anything.
You understand that?
That's the way it is.
Well, we can't, you know what?
We can't do it until we have enough.
You know, churches, a lot of churches get
in trouble because they'll have this big thing.
We're going to have a drive.
We're going to have a, we're going to
have a construction drive.
We'll have a thermometer on the stage and
we'll have all the numbers there.
And we want you to pledge pledge.
Well, everybody, people, and they don't look like
an idiot.
So everybody, it's just a pledge.
Yeah.
I'll give a thousand bucks.
And here's what happens with good intentions.
They'll embark upon the promise of a human
rather than the provision of God.
And then they wonder, Oh no, be very,
very careful.
Listen, God will lead.
God will guide.
God will provide.
And here's the thing.
People will come and give reasonable reasons why
you should quit.
What is going on in your life?
Don't quit.
People will sit down.
Maybe it is a husband or a wife
and give reasonable reasons why the marriage should
come to an end.
There are no reasonable reasons why the marriage
should come to an end.
God wants it to fix, to be worked
out, to be healed.
Yeah, but my husband or my wife committed
adultery.
And I, now I, it sounds like this.
Sometimes I get to divorce them.
That's the second option.
The first option is for God to heal
that relationship.
Forgiveness, mercy, grace.
That comes first.
Zechariah 410 says, For who has despised the
day of small things?
God always begins with small things.
And maybe it's a little bit of forgiveness,
or maybe it's a little bit of repentance
or a little bit of mercy.
But listen, there will always be reasonable reasons
why you should quit your commitment to Jesus
Christ.
Don't do it.
Count the cost, my friend, of what you're
fighting for, and then fight for it to
the end.
Just listen.
Count the cost of what you're fighting for.
Is it of eternal value?
Listen, people are so caught up in the
temporalness of things that they'll die on an
anthill for nothing that's going to last.
You want to be fighting for something that
is eternal.
And in all of your life's experience, there'll
be nothing more profound and more rewarding and
more eternal than your Christian commitment.
Don't quit.
I had someone come up to me this
last Sunday and said, You know what?
The older I get, the less friends I
have remaining with me in my Christianity.
Can we all say I know what that's
like?
Very few friends that were walking with Jesus
with Lisa and I 33 years ago are
walking with Jesus now.
It's a heartbreak.
There'll always be reasons to quit.
Secondly, there will always be emotional reasons to
quit.
This is a rip off big time emotions.
Listen to this numbers.
In the book of Numbers.
Chapter 13.
Listen to this.
It says, And the Lord spoke to Moses
saying, Send men to spy out the land
of Canaan, which I'm given to the children
of Israel from each tribe of their fathers.
You shall send a man, everyone a leader
among them.
This is the cream of the crop.
Go up this way into the south and
go to the mountains and see what the
land is like, whether the people who dwell
in it are strong or weak, few or
many.
Then when they came to the valley of
Eshkol there, they cut down a branch with
one cluster of grapes and they carried it
between two of them on a pole.
Then big grapes.
They also brought some of the pomegranates and
figs.
This is from the land of Israel.
Now they departed and came back to Moses
and Aaron and all the congregation, the children
in the wilderness of Peron at Kadesh.
And they brought back word to them, to
all the congregation and showed them the fruit
of the land.
Then they told them and said, we went
to the land where you sent us.
It truly flows with milk and honey, and
this is its fruit.
Nevertheless, the people who dwell in the land
are strong.
The cities are fortified and very large.
Moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there,
you know, Goliath.
Goliath was one of the sons of Anak.
Giants are there.
Then Caleb quieted the people in front of
Moses.
How cool is that?
Caleb just, Hey, listen to this.
And he said, let us go up at
once and take possession for we are well
able to overcome it.
But the men who had gone up with
him said, we are not able to go
up against the people for they are stronger
than we are.
You don't say that before you go to
battle.
Can you imagine?
All right, you guys lock and load.
We're probably going to get blown up.
Let's go.
Not the thing to say.
And they gave the children visual a bad
report of the land, which they had spied
out saying the land through which we have
gone as spies is a land that devours
its inhabitants.
All the people whom we saw in it
are men of great stature.
There we saw the giants, the descendants of
Anak.
And he says we were like grasshoppers in
their sights.
Well, how do they know that?
Oh, my gosh, look, we must look like
grasshoppers to them.
Fear speaking, it's powerful.
You guys, everybody can be ready to go.
And somebody says, I think we're going to
die.
And then that gets in someone's head and
it's bounces around in their emotions will get
you to quit.
Emotions get you to think things yet not
to be thinking.
It goes on to say, and all the
children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron,
and the whole congregation said to the people
said to them, if only we had died
in the land of Egypt, if only we
had died in the wilderness.
But my servant, Caleb, God says, because he
has a different spirit inside of him, he
has followed me fully and I will bring
him into the land.
But all for the rest of these people,
they're going to die.
Where do you want to be in this?
Are you guys with me?
Where do you want to be in this
battle?
We are living it now.
You want?
No, it's never going to work.
Stay home.
I've given you this quote before.
I love it.
Samuel Adams said, let us awaken then and
invent a different spirit that's like Caleb, a
spirit that shall inspire the people with confidence
in themselves and in us, a spirit that
will encourage them to persevere in this glorious
struggle until their rights and liberties shall be
established on a rock.
That word events means to show a clear
manner, to prove beyond any reasonable doubt, to
manifest, to make evident, to be certain, and
to act on your certainties.
Do you believe in the Bible?
Yes.
Then act on it.
That's what the scripture says.
Just do it.
If you're a brand new Christian, I highly
recommend you do what I did when I
got saved.
First book I ever read in the Bible,
I got saved, went home, read the book
of revelation.
That's the way I am.
I want to see how it ends first.
Read the book of revelation.
After that, all the rest of the Bible
was easy to read because why I read
the back of the book first.
I know how it turns out.
So I'm reading, reading.
Oh my goodness.
These guys are attacking those guys and it
looks bad, but I read the end of
the book.
We win.
So I'm just going to keep reading because
I know it turns out.
I read this today.
The certainty inspired Adams who was religious in
nature, that he believed that God had intervened
on behalf of the United States and would
do so as long as the citizens maintain
civic virtue.
We shall never be abandoned by heaven while
we act worthy of its aid and protection.
What a great boldness that is.
Did you know the Bible in the old
Testament, David came out to his troops and
he said, now look, this is, this is
how they talked back then.
All right, you guys, we're going to go
to war in three days.
I don't want anybody messing around with any
girls.
That's what he told them.
Purify yourselves from any women, no messing around,
focus on the fight.
And then that day came and he said,
let's go.
And they went David's mighty men of valor.
There's always reasons to quit.
When you think about there's always reasons, historical
reasons to quit historical reasons.
What I mean by that is this.
If you're a Christian tonight, one of the
things that you and I constantly deal with,
which is a it's a great thing is
suppressing the.
Memory of your past, your BC days, you
know, before Christ's days, BC.
You suppress that every time that comes up
in your mind, no, maybe it's a person's
name, maybe it's a place, I don't know
what it is, but you fight it, you
push that back.
But listen, there's people in your history.
I'm going to say something that's probably going
to upset some people, so I'll say it
really loud.
Historical reasons to quit.
If you're on the Internet chatting with somebody
that used to be somebody from your past.
Man, you are flirting with death.
Are you Christian and you're talking to somebody
who was your old junior high boyfriend or
girlfriend?
You're flirting with death, man.
Are you chatting with somebody who was your
old.
You know, lover in college.
You're flirting with death.
And you look at the statistics that people
who.
Look at that or talk that or do
that and where it goes off to, and
if it never manifests physically, there's an emotional
relationship going on.
It'll kill you.
It'll rip you off.
There will always be historical reasons why you
should quit Christianity.
Satan will see to it.
In 2nd Corinthians 5 verse 16, the Bible
says, therefore, from now on, we regard no
one according to the flesh.
That's powerful.
Even though we have known Christ according to
the flesh, yet now we know him thus
no more or no longer.
Listen, if you listen, if you were once.
And therefore, if in Christ, he says, if
anyone is in Christ, verse 17, he's a
new creation.
All things have passed away.
What?
Behold, all things have become new.
And I thought about that today.
You know what?
Imagine if somebody turned right now.
Imagine we don't know from now on.
He's saying we knew Jesus in this world
once when we met him face to face
in Galilee.
We knew him, but now we don't know
him like that anymore.
What does that mean?
We know him enthroned in heaven above.
And now that we are new creations in
Christ, we're believers.
How do we relate to one another now?
Not according to our historical past.
You and I know each other in this
world, in this plane of being redeemed, walking
with Jesus.
I would be crazy to say, hey, nice
to meet you.
Why?
You know what?
Well, I guess if we're going to be
friends, you should know that I used to
be and that I used to be and
that I used to be.
Christians don't do that.
We don't know anyone after the flesh any
longer.
We only know one another in Christ.
So if you're a former ax murder, don't
tell me about it.
I don't even know that unless you plan
on, you know, backsliding, then I'd like to
know that.
But you don't walk around.
Sometimes I get a little nervous about testimonies.
People parade somebody out in front of the
church.
Tell him your story.
Oh, you know what?
I used to be a this and a
that.
And that's great.
You know, if true, that God delivered that
guy from that thing or that place or
that whatever.
But I got news for you.
Whoever heard him say it.
Hey, did you see that guy the other
night?
He was at the church.
The guy used to be a ax murderer.
Hey, there he is.
He's shopping over there at Walmart.
He's that's the guy.
Hey, see that guy?
He used to be the ax murderer.
Do you know I'm saying it's in the
head.
Hey, what's your name?
You go to Calvary, right?
You're the you're the guy who was ax
murder, right?
Isn't that true?
I don't want to know.
I just want to know you in Jesus.
Now, the Bible says in Philippians 313, Brethren,
I do not count myself as apprehended.
But one thing I do for getting those
things which are behind reaching forward to those
things which are ahead, I press toward the
goal of the prize of the upward call
of God in Christ Jesus.
Number two, point number two, there will always
be days when we want to quit.
There'll always be days in Christianity when your
mind, your emotions, your feelings just want to
quit.
And you need to be determined to press
on the discipline of determination means this because
we think we see something better.
We've got to determine now to arrest that
and put it out of our minds.
There'll be days when I think I'm just
going to quit.
I'm going to take a break from my
Christian commitment.
You can't do that.
Why would you do that?
Well, I think I see something better over
there.
That's called temptation.
Satan will dangle it.
And determination anticipates.
I love this.
Listen, determination right here anticipates a hostile attack
to be determined, anticipates a hostile environment, a
hostile attack.
There's a danger of a lack of determination
when tough times come, when difficult times come,
sick times, perilous times, financial hardship, attack.
Jesus warned that there are a lot of
people who profess to be believers and we
don't know how long, but time goes on,
he said.
And then they will be ridiculed, mocked and
attacked for being a Christian.
And they have a day in their mind
where they say, man, I can't.
I'm not going to take this anymore.
I can't take it anymore.
Everything.
Everyone's coming down on them.
Maybe it's the family.
Oh, you Christian.
Oh, boy.
You know, there goes Holy Joe.
And you start to cave.
Listen, you need to run to Jesus.
Are you there right now?
Run to Jesus.
Don't quit.
Don't give up.
Be determined.
He'll see you through.
Hang on to him.
In First Kings 21, the Bible says, and
it came to pass after these things that
Naboth.
Remember this story?
Naboth, he had a vineyard, beautiful thing, beautiful
vineyard producing great crops.
And Ahab saw it.
And he wanted that vineyard.
He wanted Naboth's vineyard.
I want it.
And he offers Naboth.
Hey, I'll give you, I'll trade you some
land.
I don't want it.
I don't want to trade.
I'll give you some money.
I don't want any money.
This is this land is inheritance of mine.
It's in my family.
And listen to this.
It says in verse four of First Kings
21.
So Ahab went into his house, sullen.
You know what sullen means?
He goes into his house and he's displeased
because of the word of Naboth.
And he says, I will not give you
the inheritance of my father's.
That's what he told me.
And he laid down on his bed and
he turned away his face and he would
eat no food.
This is a, this is the king.
What's the matter?
He won't give me his vineyard.
He winds up killing the guy to get
it.
Unbelievable.
Giving up on following God because you think
you see something better.
Doesn't God want me happy?
No.
Where'd you get that idea from?
Follow Jesus and he'll make you happy.
That's what it says.
God wants you holy, happy.
It says blessed.
That's the word happy.
Blessed are the, yeah.
Blessed are the what?
Blessed are the peacemakers.
Blessed are the pure in heart.
Blessed are the fill in the blank in
obedience to him.
Your life becomes happy, but you don't, you
don't sign up for Jesus.
Okay, man.
Yeah.
I want to be happy.
What do I sign?
Just raise your right hand.
You know, Jesus come into my heart.
Why, why, why are you praying that?
I want to be happy.
Hey, that's a by-product man of coming
to Christ and having your sins forgiven, understanding
he died on the cross for your sins.
If you were the only human to have
ever lived theologically, correct.
Absolutely.
If you were the only, imagine Adam and
Eve got together and they never got together
again after that.
And you're the only one walking around.
He would have died for you.
If you're the only one ever born, that's
how valuable you are, but you have to
come to him.
But we get our eyes off him.
We think, oh, that's better.
It's better.
If I go over there or do this
or whatever, the danger of wanting something that
God doesn't listen, that God doesn't want us
to have the danger of wanting something that
God doesn't want us to have.
Here's the scary part.
Is there something that you're hounding God about?
I want this thing.
I really want it.
I really got to have that.
And you've wrapped it all up and you're
even praying, dear Lord, if you want me
to have that thing, you know, and you
know, down deep inside, it's like, you better
give it to me.
I told you that story years ago.
Maybe it's time to retell it.
That little kid, he goes up to his
mom and he goes, I want a bicycle
for Christmas, please.
And she goes, honey, it's really economically downturn,
you know, healthcare reform and stuff.
It's a bad time.
Bush tax cuts have expired and it's bad
time.
So he asked his mom every day, mom,
can I have a bike for Christmas?
And she got so fed up.
She goes, go ask your dad.
So he goes, dad, can I have a
bike for Christmas?
He says, no, there's no money.
So mom picks junior up from school one
afternoon and he's all bummed out.
And it's a few days away from Christmas.
He's looked all around the garage.
He's looked everywhere.
There's no box that looks remotely like a
bicycle box.
So he's really concerned.
He's really upset.
And so mom stops the car and she
goes, I'll be right back.
Stay here.
I'm going to go get something.
I'll be gone a minute.
And so on the dashboard, there was a
little statue of Mary on the dash.
And so the little kid looks at Mary
on the dash and he has this incredible
idea.
He looks to the right.
He looks to the left, make sure mom's
nowhere around.
He reaches over and snaps Mary off at
the ankles off the dash and puts Mary
in a brown, his lunch bag, rolls it
up, folds his hands and he prays.
And he says, dear God, if you ever
want to see your mother again, you'll get
me a bicycle.
That's great.
Listen, there'll always be days and times when
you want to quit because we don't see
any good coming out of what we're involved
in.
We don't see any good coming out of
the stuff that we're involved in.
So we're thinking, I'm just going to quit.
Listen, Christian, it could be J.
Hudson Taylor.
His ministry was bearing no fruit and he
stayed at it.
And one convert to his ministry later went
on to lead thousands of people to Christ.
Hudson Taylor leads one to Christ.
His convert leads thousands to Christ.
That's believe it or not, in heaven, that
is ministry to his account.
Stay at it.
Well, I don't see any good coming out
of this.
Stay at it.
You're a Christian.
You have no right, no authority to quit.
You're under orders.
You have a master, you have a general,
you have a king.
You can't quit.
Remember when the disciples said, can anything good
come out of Nazareth when they're talking about
Jesus?
Yes.
Can anything good come out of this?
How can something good come out of this?
I just lost my job or my child
is sick.
Watch God.
And listen, let me be brutally honest.
If everything in your evaluation fails, it hasn't
failed from God's evaluation, from his point.
Are we willing to trust him enough?
Tears and all vomiting, gut wrenching, sick to
our stomach over grief.
For that situation, that sickness, child, marriage, whatever
it is where your guts are coming out
in grief and you say, God, you alone
have the words of eternal life.
I have nowhere else to go.
I cry out with Job naked.
I've come and naked.
I go.
Blessed be the name of the Lord, though
he slay me yet.
Shall I trust him?
What are you going to do?
Listen, can you imagine if Christians that are
backslidden tonight woke up and stopped quitting and
decided I'm going back to church to serve
the living God?
Maybe they've been huddling and nursing and burping
and cuddling their little emotions or feelings because
somebody hurt them.
Hey, we all get hurt all the time.
And the more you're out there, the more
that you're going to get hurt.
Listen, you're not doing it for anybody else.
Everybody else is blessed by what you're doing
for the Lord, but you're doing it for
the Lord.
But imagine if you realize if if backslidden
Christians decided to come back to church next
Sunday, we wouldn't be able to have church
here.
There's no church, no church.
Hey, let's think about that for a second.
No church in America would be big enough
to receive all of God's backslidden kids if
they decided to come back home next Sunday.
We'd have to have a service at the
stadium and that wouldn't be enough.
Think about it.
We have to go to Angel Stadium and
there wouldn't be enough.
There's enough people in just a couple of
cities that are around us that are Christians
and because of feelings or whatever, they've allowed
this to be.
A governor of their life, and they've said,
hey, God, I'm not going to follow you
anymore because you got my feelings hurt.
What did he do to you?
A friend of mine up in Sacramento said
ministry would be awesome if it wasn't for
people.
You do it for Jesus.
Psalm 106, 13 says this.
They soon forgot his works.
They did not wait for his counsel, but
lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tested God
in the desert, and he gave them their
request.
He sent leanness into their souls.
That's the danger.
Oh, God, I want this.
I want it.
I got to have it.
I want it.
And God says, OK, you know what?
You're making me sick.
You've been crying about it, crying about it.
You won't get off of it.
You won't listen to me.
You won't obey me.
And God just back.
Listen, God backs away.
He doesn't give it to you.
He backs away and he lets you have
it.
You want it so bad it comes in.
And you think you go, oh, man, all
right.
In a week, a month, six months, a
year goes by.
And there's leanness in your soul now.
You're not quite so hot for Jesus anymore.
Oh, man, I got to have her.
Oh, if I had her.
Oh, she well, she's the best.
She's the brightest.
She's the cutest.
She's the sweetest.
And it's not God's will for you.
And then you have her in six months
later and a year later, you're far from
Jesus.
This happens every day.
There'll be days when we want to quit
because we've seen others who have quit the
arguments this way.
Well, you know what?
This walking with Jesus stuff's tough.
Yes, it is tough.
Let me tell you, I'd rather have it
tough now and easy later than easy now
and tough then.
What do you honestly what do you want
to say, man, I want it easy now.
OK, just don't come crying to us, you
know, in the end.
What am I doing back here in the
back of the line?
I've been here in heaven way back.
I can't say where's Jesus.
I can't see a thing.
You should have thought about that sooner.
We've seen others quit.
David said, you know, why is it King
David?
I love it.
Man, if you're excited, read the book of
Psalms.
If you're apathetic, read the book of Psalms.
And if you're depressed, read the book of
Psalms.
Right.
David goes, you know what?
I've looked around and all the heathen, they're
making all the money, he said.
They got tons of people in their family.
They're all happy and they're just doing great.
And David was whining and complaining, and then
he said, but then I went into the
house of the Lord and I was reminded
of their end.
For some people today, this is heaven for
them.
It's the best they've ever had.
And in hell, they will be crying out
to God and he cannot hear.
They will be weeping, Jesus said, gnashing and
the breaking of teeth in the mouth.
Where you've had pain that bad, you had
to bite a stick, except there's no stick
to bite in hell, apparently they just break
their teeth off with pain and they lament
that they didn't receive him.
Notice in scripture, Luke 15, Luke 16, when
there the scripture shows you a man who
refused and he's in hell and he's blaming
himself and he's saying, I should not have
rejected.
He's not saying, well, you know, no final
points, this point number three, it's always too
soon to quit.
Always.
Because it's not listen, it's not about you
getting what you want.
It's too soon to quit always.
And it's not about you and I getting
what we want.
It's about doing what's right.
We need to do what's right.
In Second Corinthians four, seven, the Bible says,
but we have this treasure, as I mentioned
earlier, earthen vessels, that the excellency and the
power may be of God and not of
us.
Listen to this.
We are hard pressed on every side, yet
not crushed.
We are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted,
but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed,
always caring about in the body, the dying
of the Lord Jesus, that the life of
Jesus also may be manifested in our bodies.
For we who live are always delivered to
death for Jesus's sake, that the life of
Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal
flesh.
So then death is working in us, but
life in you.
He's talking about the love, the commitment of
a bond servant minister, like a parent is
to a child, like a Christian is to
those around them.
This is awesome.
It's too soon to quit.
Because listen, it's not about you knowing what
you know.
It's not about you and I knowing what
we know.
I am going to follow my own counsel.
I'm going to do my own thing.
Information church is powerful.
We've all been taught that.
You get information, you have power.
Well, here's the cool thing.
You have the Lord, don't you?
Let him inform you, and that will be
the ultimate power.
But it's not about what you and I
know.
You and I, we don't know that much.
That's why we are called by the Lord
to consult his book and his spirit and
pray and seek him.
Colossians 1 9 says, For this reason, we
also, since the day we heard of it,
do not cease to pray for you, Paul
says, and to ask that you may be
filled with the knowledge of his will and
all wisdom and spiritual understanding that you may
walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing and
watch this being fruitful in every good work
and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthen
with all might, according to his glorious power
for all patients and long suffering with joy,
giving thanks to the father who has qualified
us to be partakers of the inheritance of
the saints and the lights.
Wow, man, could Paul talk or what?
And then finally, this will end here.
It's always too soon to quit.
Because it's not about you and I having
our own way.
Years ago, you guys, we went to the
ghost town up in Bodie, California.
You ever been there?
You should go.
It's amazing.
In Bodie, California.
It's I mean, people just got up and
walked away.
It was the gold rush days.
And when they ran out of gold, people
just got up and left.
It's still standing there.
It's awesome.
Walk down the streets, you're going to walk
in.
They have books from the from the.
Time.
Eighteen forty nine ledger right there.
Some guy walks in the guy's name's right
there.
They waited out and they made like eight
hundred thousand dollars in one day.
Then the guy was back like three days
and made three hundred thousand bucks.
People were made.
In fact, Bodie once was the richest city
in the world.
Bodie, California, produced more millionaires in like a
nine month period of time than any other
place on Earth.
And who's heard of it now?
It's a ghost town, but there's a story
there where this one guy, this one guy's
digging, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
Ah, this stinks.
And he sells his.
License his claim to some other guy.
And the guy goes, the new guy gets
it.
Hey, thanks.
OK, bing, bing, bong, goldmine, gold vein, two
more dinks away.
And you're like, what?
You've got to be kidding.
And people in the crowd, when they're telling
you, everybody in the crowd goes, what a
fool.
What a fool, what the guy stopped two
dinks short of being a bazillionaire.
But you know what?
What if you and I were there?
Would we keep dinking along?
Huh?
I'm going to quit now.
It's too soon to quit.
You can't quit.
You can't stop.
So here we go.
We wrap this up.
Listen, don't give up on Jesus.
He will not give up on you.
Don't quit.
He'll never quit you.
Jesus said when he was in his moment
of crushing.
In any olive press, Gethsemane, the olive press,
the place of crushing Jesus, his father, if
it's possible, remove this cup from me.
And the Bible says an angel came and
strengthened him.
Jesus said, not my will, but your will
be done.
If the son of God himself said, not
my will, but your will be done, who
are we?
And so I want to just have you
close your Bibles.
I want you to close your eyes.
I want you to bow your head.
I'm going to ask people not to move
right now, please have some respect as we
invite people to make a decision for Jesus
tonight because your life.
It's like a boat at sea without a
rudder, without an anchor.
Christians be praying right now, I'm going to
ask you to make this decision.
I want you to think for a moment,
the ultimate determination.
Is for you to make this final decision
for Jesus tonight.
I want you to know tonight, I want
you to hear clearly that the biblical Jesus,
the Jesus of the Bible is not the
Jesus of the cults.
I'm asking you to come.
The Bible says that he's God who came
from heaven to earth to die on the
cross for you and I.
He's not the Jesus of Buddhism, of Hinduism.
He's not the Jesus of even Judaism.
He's the son of God.
He's not the Jesus of Islam, Jehovah Witnesses.
He's not the Jesus of Hollywood or the
New Age movement.
He's not the Jesus of the Discovery Channel
or the History Channel or the National Geographic.
He's not Time Magazine's definition of Jesus.
For God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten son that whosoever would
believe in him would not perish but have
everlasting life.
And I'm going to ask you tonight while
your heads are bowed and your eyes are
closed.
If tonight you're saying, I want Jesus to
be my Lord and Savior, I make this
determination tonight.
I'm going to become a Christian.
I'm not joining this church.
I'm not joining the club.
I want Jesus Christ as my Lord and
Savior.
I want my sins forgiven.
I want to know that I have eternal
life and I determine tonight to walk with
him from this moment on.
If you're willing to tell him that, will
you raise your hand right now up high
wherever you're at.
God bless you on the aisle.
Anyone else over there to my right?
Anyone else in the back?
To my left?
God bless you.
Over here and you.
God bless you.
Pray this prayer.
If you want Jesus tonight, maybe you didn't
raise your hand but you want him.
Dear Lord, come into my life now and
save me from my sins.
I have offended you, Holy God.
And tonight I receive the offering of Jesus
on the cross as my redemption, as my
sacrifice.
He died in my place.
I'm confessing that tonight.
And I'm coming to you now.
As we sing this song, those of you
who raised your hands, will you be bold
enough to come forward?
I want to meet you right up front
right here.
Don't be shy.
I want to give you a Bible, but
I just want to personally just greet you.
And if you didn't raise your hand and
tonight's the night where you want to stand
for Jesus publicly, you come with these that
will come in a moment.
Stand for Jesus.
He hung on the cross for you and
for some of you tonight, you need to
seal that with a public commitment to Jesus.
So let's remain seated unless you're coming forward.
As Gia leads us in this song, you
raised your hands.
Come on up front here to the foot
of the stage and I'll see you there
in a second.
Come on up.