Overcome And Endure

Overcome and Endure

Pray.

Have you ever felt like quitting? Just giving up. Have you ever spoke to God and said, Lord, this Christian life is too

difficult for me. Your commands are just too hard for me to follow. Being a Christian is simply bringing too much

persecution into my life, I really think I've just about had enough. Lord, I don't know how much more I can endure?

If you're being honest , you're probably shaking your head up and down in the yes formation right now.

If you're saying No, you're probably a very young Christian or a very prideful one.

I recently had a fellow pastor ask me that very question. He said, Do you feel like giving up Yet? To which I

answered, Not really and he smiled and said, You will. He wasn't saying that I would quit, He was saying, I will endure

times in my life, when I will want to simply give up.

I want us to look at Jeremiah this morning. Open your bible's to the book of Jeremiah and turn to chapter

20 and let's read verses 7-8.

Here in our text the prophet and pastor Jeremiah is crying out to God.

He says Lord you tricked me. I didn't stand a chance against you because you are stronger than me. You tricked

me into this Christian life. You never told me it was going to be like this. Every day my life is full of derision, meaning

every day, I am laughed at, and he says I am mocked as well.

He continues to say, I preached the Word of God and as a result, It has been made a reproach to me and

continues to make a mockery of me with the people that I am preaching it to.

Jeremiah is saying to God, I've done what you've asked. I've accepted the fact that Jesus will die for my sins one

day. I've accepted Your Call of being a Preacher to your people. I'm trying to live a righteouss and holy life.

Lord, I'm doing everything humanly possible , trying to live a life that is pleasing to you here on this earth and as

a result, Nobody is accepting my preaching, Nobody is converting to it, and as a result of all my hard work, I am being

scorned and mocked Daily.

Now, I don't know how long Jeremiah had been in the ministry at this point. Could have been a couple of months

maybe a couple of years, I'm sure there are people smarter than myself that could figure that out. But it's really not

relevant to his complaint with God.

Today, this often happens. Real Christian people, that have truly accepted Jesus as Savior become frustrated

and often times feel like quitting. They let the world beat them up to the point of saying "uncle". I give up.

And as a result, many quit attending church, they quit reading their bibles, they quit praying,

they quit telling others about Jesus, They simply shut down.

And it is quite possible , someone here this morning is close to this point of quitting on Jesus.

One red flag in your life is this, Are you currently doing less for The Lord than you were a month ago?

See, often times, we do not quit all together, we shut down in stages.

Maybe you've quit telling others about Jesus because you got mocked one time. Someone made fun of you one

time and you quit.

Maybe you've quit praying like you used to. Maybe God isn't answering your prayers as quickly as you want Him

to, so you've quit praying.

Maybe you've quit reading your Bible. Maybe you weren't getting the results that you were expecting from it.

Or maybe you've quit tithing. I tried it a couple of times and I'm not rich yet, so You quit giving to God.

Maybe you've quit attending certain Church Services. Well, God, I did it for a month, I attended certain services

for a whole month and I didn't see the results, I was looking for, so I'm back to one a week. That is good enough.

Here's what happened to Jeremiah and here's what happens to us today. We lose focus of the big picture.

We lose our focus on Jesus. and we let the world distort our way of thinking.

In Revelation, Jesus wrote 7 letters to 7 different churches. Real physical churches, that really existed in John's

day. But each church represents a different time in our history. But if you read each letter to every church in the

book of Revelation starting in chapter 2, You will find One very major common theme in each letter, which was

addressed to each person in those churches.