In Job chapter 10 we find kind of a morbid chapter, really Job is just at a low point
here and if you know the story of the book of Job you remember that he's lost everything.
I mean he was a very wealthy man, he had lots of cattle, lots of servants and employees
working for him, he had children, he had a wife, he had everything going for him.
And of course Satan went to God and said unto God that the only reason that Job was serving
him is just because God did everything for him and that he would start to lose some of
the things that he had that Job would even curse God to his face.
And so of course God allows Satan to attack Job and he takes away everything that he has,
his children die and his employees are killed and he loses all of his wealth and then as
if that were not enough to lose all of his money, you have to put yourself in this position,
he's lost all of his money, all of his children have been killed.
And then the devil still pushes it even further with God and ends up smiting Job with a horrible
disease that made him itch all over his body, have boils and sores springing up all over
his body where Job literally got to the point where he takes a potsherd like a broken piece
of pottery and he's just scraping himself with it because of the inflammation and itching
and burning of all these sores and scabs all over his body.
So don't be too hard on Job here when you read Job chapter 10, you can see why he's
so upset.
I mean he's in a lot of physical pain and then his three friends have been talking to
him for the past few chapters telling him it's all his fault and it's because he's not
right with God and because they were kind of like a prosperity preaching, name it, claim
it, type it, telling you hey if you serve God everything is going to go great and if
this bad stuff is happening to you, well you must be doing something wrong.
Of course that wasn't the case, Job was the greatest man on the earth at that time, the
Bible says he was the most righteous guy around.
And so everything is going horribly, I was thinking about this because I got some poison
oak a few weeks ago and man it itches so bad, I've never gotten poison oak in my whole life
and I grew up in California and I've been exposed to it and I've never been allergic
to it until now because I guess if you get exposed to it enough of it you get it anyway.
And so I got poison oak and it just itches and burns and it will wake you up in the middle
of the night and you're itching and burning from it.
But that's nothing compared, I mean he had this all over his whole body, I mean can you
imagine just your whole body covered in poison oak and it's not going away and you're trying
to scrape it and do everything with it and so he's in a lot of horrible pain and suffering
here and he says in verse 1 of chapter 10, my soul is weary of my life.
He's basically saying I'm sick of being alive and he explains throughout the chapter how
he just literally wishes that he were dead, this is a low point, he doesn't even want
to be alive, he wishes he would just die and he's even calling out to God saying why are
you doing this to me, what have I done, you know that I'm not wicked, you know that I've
done the right things, why am I going through this?
And you find a lot of people in the Bible who got to this point in their life besides
Job, other people got to this point in their life, turn if you would to 1 Kings chapter
19, 1 Kings chapter 19, just go back a few pages in your Bible to the left and while
you're turning there, let me remind you, I preached on this last week but Moses came
to a point where he pretty much said the same thing in Numbers 11.15 when Moses said to
God and if thou dealest with me, saying hey if this is the way things are going to go
for me in life, kill me I pray thee out of hand if I have found favor in thy sight and
let me not see my wretchedness, so even a great man like Moses got to the point where
he was so upset he wished that he was dead and he wished that God would just kill him.
Look at 1 Kings chapter 19 verse 4, this is Elijah, great man of God, Elijah says in verse
4, but he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under
a juniper tree and he requested for himself that he might die and said it is enough now
oh Lord, take away my life for I am not better than my father, this is after Elijah had seen
the great victory where he went up on Mount Carmel and he had to challenge on the face
off with the prophets of Baal and if you remember God set fire from heaven and consumed the
birth sacrifice and then Elijah took all the prophets of Baal and the prophets of the groves
and the children of Israel killed all 850 of them and they all realized that the Lord
was the true God and everything was great but then after that Jezebel the queen said
that she is going to kill him and she sends people out to hunt him and to arrest him and
have him killed because of what he had done and it gets to the point where he just can't
take it anymore and he sits down under this juniper tree in verse 4 and he just wishes
that he were dead and then you remember he goes and just goes and runs off and goes in
the cave and he's just telling God that I'm the only one left who's serving God and there's
nobody else left that even believes right and then God explained to him hey there's
7,000 other people out there that haven't bowed in need of Baal, you're not the only
one. In Jonah, and of course Jonah was a great man of God, you know the story of Jonah obviously
shows us him in disobedience but Jonah was a preacher that God used and there are other
mentions of Jonah in the Bible of him being a great man and so forth but in Jonah chapter
4 and really he accomplished a lot I mean he got a lot of people saved if you think
about it in the end and God chose him out of every preacher to go preach to Nineveh
and it says in Jonah 4-8 you don't have to turn there and it came to pass when the sun
did rise that God prepared a vehement east wind and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah
that he fainted and wished in himself to die and said it is better for me to die than
to live. So what I'm trying to show you is that even great men of God in the Bible and
great people in the Bible got to points in their life where they were really frustrated
or weary of life or sorrowful or in heaviness and despair and they went through a phase
where they even wished that they were dead, that things were going so bad. Even the Lord
Jesus Christ the Bible talks about him being sorrowful. The Bible says in Isaiah 53-3 he
is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we get
as though our face is from him, he was despised and we esteemed him not. Jesus Christ told
his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane in Matthew 26-38 then say at the end of them
my soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death. Tear ye here and watch with me. And
the Bible says in Hebrews 5 about Jesus Christ that he offered up prayer and supplication
to God with strong crying and tears. And the Bible says that he was praying to the Father
and drops of sweat like drops of blood were falling off his brow as he pleaded with the
Father saying if it be possible let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not my will but
thine will be done. And so we see that going through times of weariness, frustration, heaviness,
sorrow, weary of your life, it is a part of life. It's something that everybody is going
to go through at some time in their life. It's something that great men throughout the
Bible they went through low points where things are going bad. You know life is not always
going to be a bed of roses and you're not always going to be happy all the time and
smiling every day. And our society tells us we should be happy all the time. I mean it's
strange because I've even talked to people who had something happen like they had a child
die. Now look if your child dies you're going to be sad, you're going to be mourning, you're
going to be in heaviness, you're going to be down about that. And literally just after
a week or something of their child dying they're being told oh you're going through depression,
you need to take these pills, you need to take these drugs. But look it's normal. And
they think oh yeah you need to take a drug or something because you need to feel good
all the time and you need to be happy all the time. Look if your child dies you're not
going to be happy. If your wife died or your husband died you're not going to be happy.
You're going to be down, you're going to be sorrowful. And in the Bible when people died
they would mourn for 30 days or 40 days and they went through times of grieving and sorrow.
And you'll see great men in the Bible crying, sad, down, in heaviness, going through pain
and suffering. They're not just always happy all the time. They're not just always joyful
all the time. Now look I'm not saying we should go through life long and down because the
Bible tells us over and over again that we need to rejoice in the Lord. He tells us that
the joy of the Lord is our strength. He tells us to rejoice with joy unspeakable and full
of glory. I'm not saying just go through life depressed every day. I'm not saying just go
through life down and complaining and sad. But what I am saying is that you're going
to go through periods in your life where you are sad. I'm not saying you should always
be that way. But there are going to be times when things get bad in your life. I mean when
you're covered in sores head to toe, when you're itching and burning and in pain and
your 10 children have died and your wife has told you curse God and die. I mean your wife
is telling you die. That's not a time to be happy and rejoicing. When your three close
friends are turned against you and turned away from you, when you've lost all your money
and you went from being very wealthy to having nothing and sitting down in the ashes and
dirt not knowing what you're going to do to feed yourself, you're going to be down. You're
going to be sad. You're going to be weary of life. And that's where Jill was. That's
where Elijah was at a point. That's where Jonah was. That's where Moses was. Everybody
is going to go through a period like that trying difficult times, even the Lord Jesus
Christ himself. If you would have been faced with what he was faced with, no matter who
you are, you would have been in heaviness. You would have been sorrowful. He was the
perfect man. He was God in the flesh. But even he being a human being, because he was
God in the flesh, he was God as a human being, he was in heaviness. He was sorrowful. He
was sad about that. Now I'm not saying you should stay down, but look at Isaiah chapter
40. I'm not saying it's good to be sorrowful, it's good to be down. But what I am saying
is this, things are going to happen in your life where you will get to that point. And
life is not always going to be going great. You know, a lot of people, they get saved,
or maybe they just start going to a great, maybe they've been saved, but they start going
to a church where they're actually learning the Bible, or they're actually doing some
soul winning. They're actually going out and getting people saved. And you know, at first
they're really excited about it. And they're fired up. And I've seen this over the past
five and a half years that I've pastored over and over again, where people come and they
get excited, they're all pumped up, and they love the preaching, and then they just discover
reading the Bible. And they're reading the Bible cover to cover. And they're running
into all these great stories, and wow, I've never even heard this before, this is so interesting,
I love reading the Bible. And they get excited about it, and things are going good. But you
know, after a while, the newness wears off sometimes. And after a while, they're not
as excited anymore about it. Because it just becomes the normal, you know, they just go
to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, and it becomes routine, and they're
not as excited about it anymore. They've gone through the Bible cover to cover a couple
times, and they start to lose interest in it, and they start to fade. And you know,
that's what really separates the men from the boys, and that's what really separates
those who are going to serve God for a lifetime, and the Roman candle Christian who just, you
know, springs up, boom, you know, wow, it's so exciting, and they just fade away. Never
to be seen again. We've got a lot of people here that were really excited, and really
fired up, and I thank God for what they did for God, and I thank God for their soul winning,
and for their zeal and excitement. But it didn't last. Why did it not last? Because
there came a point when they began to get weary of it. They began, the Bible doesn't
use the word tired of it, but it used the word weary of it. You know, they just got
weary of it. They just got more out of it. You know, because it was exciting and fun
at first, but it got to where it began to be difficult, and maybe they had people criticizing
them, maybe they were getting attacked by family members, maybe they just went through
a physical illness. Because you know, a physical illness can really take the wind out of your
sails sometimes. I can remember times when I've been sick, and you know, when you get
sick for a couple days, it's not so bad, but when you're sick for a week, or when you're
sick for two weeks, you know, you can begin to be down and depressed about it, and just
feeling like this is messing up my life, it's messing up my finances, you know. Being
sick is no fun, and I mean, it can really get you down. But there are two kinds of people
in the world. There are the people who gut it out and keep going, and just push through
that hard time, and push through that time when they're weary and down and sad and sick
of it, and they just push through it and just keep going, and then eventually, the Bible
says they'll renew their strength. And then there are the ones who when tribulation or
anguish comes, or when persecution comes, or when sadness and sorrow comes, or when
financial trouble and sickness comes, they quit. They just give up, quit church, quit
serving God, and just get down about it, and they don't keep going. Look at Isaiah chapter
number 40, verse 28. The Bible reads, Isaiah 40, 28, Hast thou not heard that the everlasting
God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary.
So God never gets tired. Of course, when He was on the earth, the Lord Jesus Christ got
tired because of the fact that He basically took upon Himself the form of a man. But God
in heaven, the Father, He never gets tired. He never gets weary. He's God. He has no weakness
in Him. He has no faintness whatsoever. It says there's no searching of His understanding.
Verse 29, He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might, He increaseth
strength. Even the youths, even the young people, shall faint and be weary, and the
young men shall utterly fall. Now, have you noticed that young people just have a lot
of energy, the younger they are? Now, especially little kids, and sometimes I can just picture
in my house, me and my wife are just so tired, you know, after a long, hard day, and we're
just kind of sitting back and just, oh, man, put your feet up, and the kids are just running
around. And you're just, where do they get all this energy? And sometimes it seems like
maybe they're just draining it from you. They have some supernatural power to just,
like, you know, they just put their hand on you and just drain all the energy out of your
body, through their body. And they're just, like, running around, they're wild. You know,
it's funny, because we went on this backpacking trip a couple weeks ago. It was the one where
I got a little poison dope, it's all around, and it just burns so much. But we were on
this backpacking trip, and I remember we were talking about different past backpacking trips
and everything, and we were talking about different people who could hand, because it's
this really hard hike that we went on. It's really hard. Is it hard? It's very hard. It's
really hard. And it's funny, because we were talking about different people, just how hard
it was for them, or if they got out really fast, if it was good, you know, or if they
had difficulty. We were just kind of talking about, and we were talking about, and my brother
said, you know, he said, you know, this guy was tired, and he was having trouble getting
out on the last day. But he said, this other guy we brought with us, he was 19, and he
wasn't really in super good shape or anything, but he just had youth on his side. So he just
kind of just hiked out, and it was no problem for him, because he's 19, you know. And there's
just some, when you're younger, you just have that innate, this energy, you just, you're
19. This time we had Trent, 20. He just went out, no problem. And so, you know, the older
that you get, you know, you begin to faint and have a little bit less energy than you
used to have in your younger days. Now, I still like to consider myself a very young
person, because I'm only 30 years old, so I should be in my prime, okay. And so I was
right there with Trent, by the way. But anyway, what I'm saying is, that young people, innately,
have a lot of energy. Kids have a lot of energy, teenagers have tons of energy, and even young
adults have a lot of energy. And then the older you get, your energy's going to fade.
It's just the way life is. It's the way God created us. You're going to fade away in your
energy. And God's saying here, there comes a point where even the youths faint. Because
he's saying, look, youths have more energy, but even the youths faint. Even they run out
of energy. Even they're going to get tired and weary and unable to go. He says in verse
30, even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But,
he says in verse 31, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall
mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and
not faint. So the Bible is saying here that if you wait on the Lord, you can keep going
without fainting. You can keep going through his strength. Even when the strength of youth
fails, even when no one else could physically do it, you can keep going. Now, if you've
ever done any running or any other kind of exercise or activity, whether it be swimming
or bicycling, you've heard of getting a second wind, right? Who knows what I'm talking about?
Now, the second wind is when you start out exercising, let's say you're jumping rope
or running or bicycling or swimming or whatever it is. You know, you start out, and of course
you've got a lot of energy when you first start. But then as you start going, you start
getting tired, right? As you keep on doing that activity, you begin to get more and more
tired, and you get to a point where you're really tired and you want to quit, but you
have to just keep going. You know, and people have different terms for this. Somebody called,
I think somebody that was a runner was saying it was like you hit this wall. You know, you
got to just keep going. And anybody who's done that kind of exercise knows that you
get to a point where you're really tired, and it's even sometimes fairly early on, and
you want to quit, but if you keep going, then your body will kick into gear and you'll get
the second wind and you'll renew your strength and you can keep going. And I think that's
how it is. I think that's what God's showing us here that he'll do for us spiritually.
He'll give us that second wind. You know, you start out serving God, you're excited
about it, you've got a lot of energy, things are going good, and then you get to a hard
time. You get to a difficult time where it's easy to quit. And believe me, a lot of people
quit. There are people who used to be here at this church and they were coming here three
times a week and they were going soul-winning and they were excited about it, and now you
see them just pop in every once in a while. You know, or now you see them just starting
to fade, or maybe they're not even going to church anywhere, or maybe they're just backing
off on serving God because they come to difficult times and they quit. You know, if you like,
if I said, hey, let's go running together, and we start running and we're running and
you know, we get five minutes into it and you're like, I'm tired, I got to quit. Whereas
if we said, hey, yo, keep going, push yourself, keep going, and then you'd feel the second
wind kick in and then you can keep going and then you can run further. But a lot of people
quit before they get to that point where they renew their strength. They quit right before
that second wind is coming and they're never going to get past being able to run for five
minutes or being able to swim for five minutes or whatever it is because they never pushed
themselves and you've got to go through some pain in order to break through that barrier.
That's what God's saying here. There are going to be times when you run out of strength.
He says when even the youth shall faint and be weary, you're going to be tired, you're
going to get sick of it, you're going to be worn out, you're going to say, I can't take
it anymore, I can't go any further, I just can't run any harder. And I'm talking about
spiritually in your Christian life serving God and you're just sick of it, you just can't
go anymore, you're just wore out. And at that point is when many will faint and fall and
be weary, others will just keep going and just push themselves. And then the second
wind will pick in and God promises us that they will renew their strength. He says in
verse 31 halfway through, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and
not be weary. He's saying they're going to run without getting tired. And they shall
walk and not faint. Now look, you're not always going to be running in your life. You're not
always going to be running full speed ahead. You're going to come to times in your life
when things get hard. You know, I remember I was running with my brother and we were
running and running and running and running and we get to these really big steep hills
that are by his house. And we get to those steep hills and you know when you first get
to the bottom of that hill you're still running. But I mean when you start getting up that
hill you start ugh, you know, because you get tired fast running straight up a hill.
And then you, but you know what, you just switch to walking and you just keep going.
And I remember my brother told me, he said, well my goal is just to run as far up the
hill as I could. He said run as far as you can up the hill and then just keep walking
and just get to the top of the hill without stopping. And that's how it is in our life.
We run when we can run. And run full speed ahead. Sometimes you get into a rough patch.
You get into an uphill battle. A lot of people will stop or they'll turn backward. The Bible
says no run! And be not weary. But hey, if you can't run, walk and not faint. And instead
of just quitting, instead of turning back, instead of throwing in the towel, you know
you might have to slow down a little bit but keep going. Don't quit. And keep walking and
not fainting. Keep moving forward. You know I like the story in the Bible of Gideon in
the book of Judges. And I'm not going to tell the whole story for the sake of time but of
course after Gideon has miraculously defeated the enemy and just with 300 troops he's got
them running away from him. And then all the men of Israel come out and help him. And he's
pursuing after the Midianites. The Bible says, and it talks about how they literally chased
after them all night. And I mean these troops are marching all night long. They're tired.
They're worn out. And it says in verse 4 of Judges 8, don't have to turn that. It says
that Gideon came to Jordan and passed over. He and the 300 men that were with him. So
he's got his original 300 guys. It says faint yet pursuing them. They were faint. They were
tired. They were weary. They were barely hanging on. But they kept going, all 300 of them.
They kept moving. They kept going forward. That's how our life is going to be sometimes.
I wish I could tell you that you know as long as you obey God's rules and follow His ways
and come to church and serve God, things are going to go well for you. But they're
not always going to go well for you. A lot of times you're going to be like Job or Elijah
or Moses or Jonah and go through hard times. And these guys were doing something really
hard and they were fainting. They were tired. They were weary. But they didn't stop. They
kept going. Are you going to stop when the hard times come in your life? When you're
tired? When you're weary? I mean look, are you just going to quit and throw in the towel
because it got too hard? Or are you going to gut it out and get that second win? Proverbs
24 10 says, If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. God is telling us that
our strength spiritually is measured by the hard times, not the good times. He said, If
thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. Your strength is measured by adversity,
by hard times. That's when you're really going to prove that you're in it for the long haul,
when things go wrong. I've seen a lot of people in my life serve God and do a good
job with it. But it was just for a short time. And they just don't accomplish much. Because
serving God takes a lifetime. And it takes decades, not just months or years. It's decades!
And they would do a great thing for God, but just for a few months and then fizzle out.
They didn't have endurance. They didn't have the stamina, spiritually, to keep going. And
God uses the illustration a lot in the Bible of sports. And he talks about running a race
or competing to win a crown and so forth. And if you think about it, it's like the old
story of the tortoise and the hare. When you don't have endurance, when you're not in it
for the long haul, you're not going to win the race. You can't win. I mean, you might
be able to start out at the beginning of that soccer game or basketball game or a boxing
match or whatever. And man, you're doing great! But then after 30 seconds into it, you're
not going to win. You're going to lose. And Christianity is not a sprint. Your life is
not a sprint. Your life is 70 years or thereabouts. It's not a sprint. This isn't the 100-yard
dash. It's a marathon. It's a double marathon. It's a triathlon. It's a big endurance feat.
And so you've got to be in it with that kind of a mentality, saying, hey, maybe this week
I'm not doing so good. Maybe this month is a bad month for me. Maybe I'm going out soloing
and nobody's getting saved and maybe everything's going bad at work and my family's going bad,
my finances are going bad. But you've got to gut it out, get that second win, stay with
it and be in it for the long haul. Think about it in the terms of decades and not in the
term of minutes or days. I can't believe it. I've been serving God for eight weeks. I've
been soloing for 11 weeks. Why hasn't God done anything for me? I've been serving God
for 13 weeks and God's not blessing me. It's not going to happen that fast. It's a long
haul. The Bible says, let us now be weary in well-doing for in due season we shall reap
if we faint not. You're not going to plant a seed and then reap tomorrow. Otherwise everybody
would have a garden. I mean, if that's how gardening would work, I would be into gardening.
I'm not into gardening at all. But if that's how gardening worked, man, I would garden.
Because I'd say to myself, okay, I've got three days. Let's do this. I'll plant the
seeds, water it, pull the weeds, harvest it three days later. That would work good
for me. But my life is hectic and I'm constantly traveling and busy and working and just up
to my eyeballs and work. And so if I planted a garden, I'd stay with it for a few days
and then I'd get distracted and I'd be out of town and I'd be busy. And pretty soon in
Arizona you have to water stuff every day. If you don't water it for one day, it's all
going to die. It all withers and dries up really fast. And so if gardening was an overnight
thing, man, I'd be doing it and everybody would be doing it. But gardening is a commitment
where it's a day after day, over and over, and that's what God is relating our life to.
He says, let's not be weary of what we're doing. For in due season we shall reap if
we faint not. You water the plants every day for months and months and months and months
and then you reap them. And some trees you plant and you have to wait years before they
produce any fruit. And so God says, don't get tired or weary in well-doing. For in due
season we shall reap if we faint not. He tells us again in 2 Thessalonians 3.13, but ye brethren,
be not weary in well-doing. He said in 2 Corinthians 4.1, therefore seeing we have this ministry,
as we have received mercy, we faint not. He said, we're going to keep on going. We're
going to keep on pushing ourselves. He said in Hebrews 12.3, for consider him an endured
such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be weary to faint in your minds. There
is a tendency for us to faint and be weary of life and to get tired and want to quit.
The Bible says in Revelation 2.3, this is where he's speaking to the church at Ephesus,
and he's talking about some of the good things that they've done. And he says that
they have borne and had patience, and he said, for my name's sake, has labored, and
has not fainted. He said, you didn't faint. You kept going. You stayed in the battle.
Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 4, if you would, 2 Corinthians chapter 4. And let's face it,
there are going to be times in your life when you're reading the Bible more than others.
There are going to be times in your life where you're memorizing the Bible more than others.
There are going to be times in your life where you're doing more soul winning than
other times in your life. There are going to be times in your life when you're praying
more than other times. There are going to be times in your life when you're getting
more accomplished and when you have more energy and when you're really thriving spiritually.
But when you're on the down time, when things are going bad, you just have to be sure that
you don't quit. You may have to slow down your pace a little bit, but you don't want
to slow down too much or stop. You want to just keep going and keep going. You know,
sometimes you get so busy that maybe it's hard for you to get out of soul winning as
much as you'd like to go. But you know what? You need to just make sure that you get out
of soul winning. Even if you can't go several times a week or if you can't go as many hours
as you wanted to go, at least get out there and do some soul winning every single week.
And I remember, I've been through periods where I was working literally 100 hours a
week and where I had these big jobs and stuff bearing down on me. And I remember I would
just sit out Sunday afternoon, because literally Monday through Saturday I was just working
like a mad person for a while. And I got to a point where it was like, you know what?
On Sunday afternoon, and this is where the Sunday soul winning time even originated from,
is because back in those days, now these days I have more time to go different times during
the week. But back in those days, I was so busy and so gone during the week, Monday through
Saturday, that Sunday was the one day I knew I'd be here. Because of course I'm here for
Sunday morning and Sunday night. And so I had to just set that aside and say, you know
what? I'm going to go soul winning every single Sunday because I know I'm going to be there
and no matter how busy I am during the week and no matter how much else there is to do
with my job, you know what? I can just be there and just at least just get out there
on Sunday afternoon and just set that time aside and do soul winning. And it wasn't easy
because preaching on Sunday morning and then going soul winning on Sunday afternoon and
then preaching again on Sunday night, I was tired. But I was like, you know what? I have
to do just this minimal. If this is all I can do, if I can just go on Sunday, that's
when I'm going to go because I don't want to just not go soul winning because I'm so
busy. Because this is why I'm on this earth. This is why God has me here is to pastor and
to win souls to Christ and to go out and preach the gospel to the lost. I don't want to get
so busy to where I'm not doing the thing that's really the thing that has eternal value in
my life. The thing that's actually going to bring rewards for eternity and the thing
that actually is the main reason why I'm here. I can't quit doing that even for a week or
two. And you say, well Pastor Anderson, if you're working a hundred hours a week, you
could go a few weeks, you know, you can go a month without soul winning. It'll be a no
because here's the problem. You get out of the habit of soul winning. You know what I
mean? You get out of the swing of it. And you know, you can say to yourself, well I'm
really busy right now so I'm going to take a few months off of soul winning and just
kind of catch up on the stuff. But you know what? When you do that, a lot of times you
just don't get back into that swing of things. Because you get out of the habit, you get
out of the swing of it, you get out of the routine. And I've seen people do the same
thing with church. You know, they'll be real consistent with church. They're coming Sunday
morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. They're coming really consistently and then they'll
just get out of the swing of things and start missing services and then pretty soon they're
just missing all the time. Because they're out of that habit of coming to church continually
and faithfully. And so what I'm saying is, you know, there could be a time that you have
to slow down a little bit, but you've got to keep going. You've got to keep pushing
yourself. You've got to get out there and go soul winning. And even if everything's
falling apart, man, you can stop everything for a couple hours and do some soul winning.
And you know, if it's an emergency today, it'll be an emergency tomorrow. You know,
and just make it a priority. Same thing with Bible reading. You can say the same thing.
Oh man, I'm so busy. It's getting so crazy. And look, I think you should read the Bible
a lot. I think you should do a lot of reading. I think you should really sit down and do
some serious reading and measure your Bible reading in hours, not minutes. But here's
the thing. Maybe you are really busy and things are going back. You know, at least pick up
the Bible and read a few chapters. Even if you can't do a major long Bible reading,
at least pick it up and do a few chapters. And at least stay with it. And don't just
quit. Don't just stop. Don't just turn it off. Maybe you're tired. But maybe you can't
run full speed at a sprint. But maybe you just can do a light jog. Or maybe just walk
and get your second wind. And keep going. And keep pushing yourself. And not be a quitter.
Because it's easy to quit. And if it weren't easy to quit, there wouldn't be so many people
doing it. And we need to be the ones that are still left standing. And go all the way
to the finish line. I think I had you turn to 2 Corinthians 4. Look at verse 16. It says,
For which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is
renewed day by day. So the Bible says, even though our outward man, the physical body,
is perishing, is dying. I mean, we're so physically tired, we feel like we're going to die. But
he says, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is
but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. What
light affliction is he talking about? Well, he's talking about being thrown in jail. He's
talking about being hungry and not having enough food to eat. He's talking about traveling
long distances. And he's talking about working long hours. Making tents. Trying to make tents
and preach the word of God at the same time and juggle that. He's talking about being
beaten. He's talking about being shipwrecked. He's talking about suffering a betrayal of
his fellow workers in the ministry. People turning on him. People turning their back
on him and betraying him and attacking him. And he's saying, you know, if you look at
it with eternity in view, it's a light affliction. He's not saying light affliction because he
wasn't going through anything. Because if you go earlier in the chapter, he talks about
some of the stuff he's going through. Beatings, prison. I mean, stuff that's worse than what
we're going through. And he said, you know what, when you really look at it though, it's
a light affliction. And he said, really it's just for a moment. You know, when you put
it in the span of eternity, it's such a short time. Our life is but a vapor that appears
for a little time and then vanishes away. Keep going. Push yourself all the way to the
end and don't quit because the race is not that long. I mean, it's a short time in the
scheme of things. And he says in verse 18, while we look not at the things which are
seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal,
but the things which are not seen are eternal. And you know, sometimes we just, all we can
see is what's right around us. All we can see is this week. I lost my job. And look,
we've all been through times where it seems like the world is coming down around us. And
we look at it, and if we look at it just right what's around us with our eyes, it's like,
hey, my job is falling apart. My finances are falling apart. My marriage is falling
apart. My house is falling apart. And man, my house is falling apart sometimes. You know,
when you live in an old house, it's like if the plumbing's not breaking, it's the water
heater. And if it's not the water heater, it's the electrical. If it's not the electrical,
it's this and that. And you know, you might just look at that and just say, man, I just
can't take this anymore. Everything's falling apart in my life. And everything's spinning
out of control. But you've got to stop and take a breath and look at the eternal and
say, hey, wait a minute. I'm getting people saved. So what am I? You know, everything's
going crazy. Hey, this is just a rough time. Things will get better. The Bible says, weeping
may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning. And he's telling us that, you
know, just hang in there, back up and look at it and say, look, I'm winning souls to
Christ. I'm serving God. I'm living the life that God wants me to live. This is a rough
patch. I just need to just keep pushing it and just make it through. And I remember in
the early days of starting this church, man, there were some times when I was down. And
starting a church is not easy to do. Otherwise, everybody would be doing it. Okay. And you
know, I'm talking to Brother Jimenez. And you know, he's over a year into it now. His
church has been around for over a year now. And the church is really growing and thriving.
And even just today, I heard another great report about how things are going. And things
are going great. But you know what? It's not always great when you're starting a church.
And he's gone through times too that were rough times and difficult times. And I remember
in those early days, just being down and just looking at, you know, it seems like the church
is growing. And then everybody's quitting. And everybody's failing. And nobody wants
to go soul winning. And in those early days, it was hard to just stay with it. And just
to keep going. And sometimes I wasn't running. Sometimes I was just walking. But I just kept
going. And I remember times I was down. And I remember praying. I literally remember praying
like Samson on a Sunday morning. Where Samson prayed and said, God, would you just strengthen
me one last time? You remember that? Because he was going to knock down the building. And
I remember just literally looking at it and saying, you know what, God? Just strengthen
me this one last time. Just get me through one more Sunday. Help me to preach one more
time. And just get through this one more service. And, you know, I feel overwhelmed. I feel
like, you know, I can't go anymore. I feel like I'm just weary and cannot continue. But
God, strengthen me one more time. One more service. And let me just preach one more time
like Samson. And then let me die. But you know what? You don't die, dude. You just keep
going. You know, you do one more. And then you do one more. And then pretty soon things
are going good again. But you've got to push yourself. Don't be a quitter. Don't be the
one, oh, I used to go soul. I used to go to church. I used to read the Bible. I used to
do all that. And now you're all washed up. Hey, stay with it. Don't quit. Things will
get better. Get through the hard time. And maybe right now you're not going through a
hard time. Maybe you don't need this sermon. But you're going to need this sermon someday.
I promise you that. If you don't need it today, you need it yesterday. If you don't need it
today, you'll need it tomorrow. And maybe you need it today. And if that's you, I'm
glad I preached it then. Because hopefully you can put this into practice and just hang
in there and get through it. But let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father,
we thank you so much for bringing us here today. And we thank you for a church where
we have such good friends and people that we love and people that love us that can encourage
us and motivate us. So that when times are tough, we don't have to be like Job with a
bunch of friends that are making things worse. We can actually have friends that can encourage
us and help us out. And Father, I just pray that you'd help every single person who's
here to be in it for the long haul, to gut it out, and to renew their strength, to rise
up with wings as eagles, and to run and not be weary, to walk and not faint. In Jesus'
name I pray, amen.