Don’t give up!

 

My Sermon today entitled Don’t give Up, is for those who feel weary in following Jesus; for although this ought not to be so, many have failed to understand just how the Christian Pathway is mapped and how it is maintained, and therefore they often feel like giving up and giving in to the pressures and problems they face along the way. Many forget that as Christians, they are at war with Evil, and that this battle between the Spirit and the Flesh will go on until the flesh is left behind at death. While it is wonderful to know that many have truly FOUND the Christian pathway, and many have faithfully FOLLOWED that path, it is heartbreaking and disappointing to see some unable to FINISH the course?

 

God wants us to endure our hardships as good soldiers of the cross, and not to give in or fall down at the first hurdle or obstacle in our way. Yet some have argued with God and cried to Him “Give me one good reason not to give up!” This is the deep cry in the hearts of many Christians today. They don’t need an extensive list of reasons—even one would suffice. If you have that cry in your heart, I believe it’s an honest cry, and I believe also the Lord has an answer for you.

 

The Psalmist writes;

“Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped… Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning” (Psalms 73:1-2; 13-14).

At the point of giving up, the Psalmist says, “God, I know You are good to Your people. I know You bless those who serve you with clean hands and a pure heart. But as for me, I am ready to give up. I have tried to avoid evil and keep myself focused on the works of eternity. I have walked a narrow path when others,

even those who claim to belong to Christ, seem to walk a much broader path. But to what end? What influence has my life

had on the ungodly? How have I affected this world,

or even my own family?”

 

The psalmist continues, “For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no bands in

their death: but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men” (Psalms 73:3-5). In other words he was saying, “The ungodly seem to be enjoying pleasures that I have deprived myself of. They claim to be free, strong and happy, which is more than I can say about myself at the moment.”

 

Have you ever reached a place as a Christian where the unsaved and ungodly look better off than you? You may desire to be a testimony in the workplace, while everyone around you seems to be at liberty to utter any vile thing they want. They speak with scorn about what you dearly hold as truth. They do everything that you would like to do in your flesh, and you would like to fight back but you feel the restraining hand of God telling you not to respond in kind.

 

The Psalmist seems to ask, “What’s the point”?
“Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning. If I say, I will speak thus; behold,

I should offend against the generation of thy children.

When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me”

(Psalms 73:13-16).

 

You attend church on Sunday, and then go to work on Monday to scornful people. They laugh about how simple and narrow your beliefs are, while there is such a broad, wonderful world out there. Perhaps you wonder, “Is it even worth it? My life doesn’t appear to be making a difference, so what is the point of living a

life separated unto God?   Why can’t I just numb my mind and watch meaningless television and even more meaningless soaps, every night like everybody else? Why must my walk be so strict?”   Such thinking is not new, and sometimes these thoughts begin to plague your mind after you have walked

with God for a long time.

 

You notice the young believers lifting their hands and hearts in worship, radiant and glowing for God, and you think, “Oh, if they only knew what’s ahead of them. If they only knew how tough it’s going to get. But I dare not speak of it and offend this simple faith that they seem to have.” So you live with inner turmoil and pain.

 

Maybe the Psalmist had an understand of what lay ahead of them.? He says …
“Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood their end. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castest them down into destruction” (Psalms 73:17-18). You came into the presence of God and suddenly you see something that is not visible to the natural eye.   You begin to understand what lies in store for the ungodly—that there is an end to all things, and it is coming soon. You realize that the lost have no idea what they are headed for—that they are sliding into a place of destruction. It’s as if the rain has caused the steep hill where they’re walking to suddenly become slippery clay. And try as they may, they will not be able to escape the judgment that is coming.

Few believe in judgement today, and even fewer believe in God!

Many have invented their own religion, including only the things that they approve of and like, it is a religion of self, self seeking, self pleasing and unfortunately in most cases self destructive.

 

Even in some of our Churches, the Divine Authority of

Holy Scripture has been for the most part replaced with a liberalistic and modernistic thinking of the human kind, they have replaced the truth about God with a lie, and worship and serve the creature rather that the Creator. (Rom 1:25 )   The Bible speaks of Hell, but the Church (nowadays) and the World do not, so few believe in it.

 

Dear friends, don’t ever lose sight of the fact that there is a

heaven and a hell. The Bible describes hell as a place of torment where there is never ending fire, gnashing of teeth, everlasting darkness, and endless hopelessness. It is the complete absence of God! Only the Holy Spirit can give us even a glimpse of what it is like to be apart from God for eternity. Remember that in this world, even the ungodly are surrounded by the presence of God. The heavens declare His glory, and the Holy Spirit is always whispering, even to the worst of sinners. This is why Paul said that every person of every tribe and nation will stand before God one day without excuse.

 

“How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors” (Psalms 73:19). What emptiness is coming their way, and how suddenly it will happen!   Isaiah could say: “The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness has surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” (Isaiah 33:14).

 

Dr. Karl Oppenheimer, who helped create the atomic bomb eventually used in World War II, was gravely afraid at the bomb’s first testing. As a Physicist, he knew that it had the potential to set the earth’s atmosphere on fire. And if it did, it would create an irreversible chain of flames that could engulf much more than intended.

 

The nuclear devices we have developed today are hundreds of

times more powerful than that atomic bomb!   Isaiah, the Prophet, as well as Peter the apostle, both said that the heavens are going to be set on fire. We look at our generation and see people grasping for nuclear weaponry for the sole purpose of destruction. What terror is coming in a moment of time? Do you realize that we all are living on borrowed time right now?   In light of this, there is a reason not to give up, no matter what lies ahead.

 

In Luke 16, Jesus told a story: (here it is) “There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: and moreover the dogs came and licked his sores” (Luke 16:19–21) Sometimes you may feel like Lazarus—poor and struggling, disciplined and kept on this narrow path. You are unable to enjoy any of the things others do; in fact, you’re the victim of their verbal abuse and who knows what they plot against you?

We read on…

“And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.

But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivest thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they

pass to us, that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment” (Luke 16:22-28).

On the other side of time, in eternity (which has only a milli-second between them), the rich man was in torment, and suddenly he needed the very person he had regarded as insignificant and unworthy of his attention.

 

God had placed Lazarus before him and if he had listened to what God was trying to tell him through Lazarus, heaven instead of hell could have been his destiny. It’s amazing that the rich man now knew that it was this suffering man Lazarus who

had the word that his family needed to hear.
I sometimes wonder how many millions of people will cry out in that place of separation from God, “Oh, God, send somebody to my family! Send that suffering man! Send somebody who represents the cross of Jesus Christ, somebody who is willing to endure the narrow place for the sake of others. Send somebody who understands that God so loved the world that He became a man, suffered, and went to the cross, so that they don’t have

to come to this place of eternal torment!”

 

If you were in hell this very moment, who would you want to speak to your family? Would you want that liberated tele-evangelist with his new positive view of how you can have both God and the world at the same time? Personally, I would prefer to have that grandmother who walks with God and has trusted Him for her provision and strength. I would prefer the single Mum who faithfully gets her four children to church every

Sunday morning.   I would be looking for somebody who knows suffering and can bring the reality of Christ to others. Somebody who is willing to be given for other people—who can stand in the midst of their pain and testify, “It’s been worth it all!”

 

This is why we endure and must not give up.
Paul says in Philippians 1:29, “For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake.” Why must we travel the narrow path? It’s only for one reason—that the glory of God may be revealed through us!

 

The glory means the full weight of God—the keeping and sustaining power of God. Something of God that is deeper than anything this world has to offer.   How else does God speak to

this generation?   How else does He reveal His cross if it is not through the lives of His people?   Aren’t you thankful that Jesus didn’t come to the earth and just talk about the cross?   He didn’t open the Bible and talk about what it looks like, how it feels, and then suddenly vanish and go back to heaven.

 

I am profoundly thankful today that He went to the cross!

The cry in the heart of this generation is, “Don’t tell me about Jesus—show me Jesus! Too many people merely talk about

Him, but I want to see the One who went to the cross.”

That is why we suffer, why we are called to walk a narrower road than others. This is why we turn our face to the other side when it gets slapped. We have been left on earth for the sake of other people. Our names are already in the Lamb’s Book of Life and we have our home in heaven, but this whole Christian life is not about us, it is about Jesus.

 

Therefore we endure, and should be praying “Oh, God, forgive us for how foolish we’ve been!   Judgment is coming, and You have called us to be a testimony of Your mercy to the ungodly. Thank You one more time for bringing everything into focus, for letting us see the reason why our life is so narrow while others seem to be able to walk another way“. The Psalmist could say …

“Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory” (Psalms 73:24).

 

Our prayer today should be, “Guide us with Your counsel—let us not live according to our own way of thinking anymore!” What an atrocious theological trap has been laid for this generation—the belief (the lie) that knowing God means that everything must be going well.   We all should have a big promotion and a beautiful house as evidence that God is with us. But that’s a total nonsense. The gospel we preach must be able to be preached in the prison cell, in China, in Iraq, in Vietnam. We have to be able to go all over the world. If we have to modify what we preach, then it isn’t the gospel.

 

We must always remember the reason why we are here, a remaining or surviving witness today, and why God has not yet translated us to the Glory? We are to be visible demonstrations of the keeping power of Almighty God even through our suffering and struggles. When you study the theology of Paul, you will see that this was the very cornerstone of everything he preached, and it was the basis of all his revelation of Christ. Because he embraced suffering, he was given a vision of the keeping power of God, which became the catalyst for many to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
You may have been thinking in your heart lately, “Give me a reason not to give up!” Well, how about your son or daughter? How about your grandson, your wife, the children across the hall, or across the street? How about the rich and wealthy man who thinks his money is going to get him into heaven? How

about the religious who just goes to church but does not live for God? I want you to think of a reason, because the reason could be just one person. That’s all it takes—one person, one reason why you will be given the grace to walk this path and

finish this race.

 

I know that as you think about it, the Lord will put before you at least one reason. Your family does not need to go to hell; your co-workers do not need to die in their sin. If you are willing to embrace the pathway that God has for you, you will be able to walk with your hands in the air and your heart aflame again. Your Prayer will be, “Lord Jesus: let Your glory be seen in me.

As I go through all my challenges, let my life be a testimony to others. When I open my mouth, let me speak of Your

Faithfulness Lord.”   Do you believe now that living for God is worth it, in spite of your hardship—in spite of the ridicule, the heartache, the discipline, the narrowness of it? Do you believe that the salvation of the lost makes living for God worth it all?

It is a very narrow life, but it is a very fulfilling life, resulting

in an eternal reward. You only go through difficult times for

a short season of time, but in the end you will be in eternity rejoicing, counting it all worth it, and saying

Thank you Jesus!

 

NOW THIS FINAL WORD

 

I recently read about an old man, walking the beach at dawn, who noticed a young man ahead of him picking up starfish and flinging them into the sea. Catching up with the youth, he asked what he was doing. The answer was that the stranded starfish would die if left out in the morning sun.

‘But the beach goes on for miles and miles, and there are millions of starfish,’ countered the man. ‘How can your effort make any difference?’

The young man looked at the starfish in his hand before throwing it safety into the waves.

‘It makes a difference to this one,‘ he said.”

 

Your life, your work, your walk or your words, may make no difference at all to the masses, but if YOU make a difference for just one today, and maybe another one tomorrow, between this and heaven, you could have made a difference to a multitude,

so … DONT GIVE UP.   Amen