Perseverance: Finishing What We Start
- Interviews -
Anybody here serve in the military? Did you want to quit after the first week of basic training?
At what time in your life were you most tempted to call it quits?
As a Pastor, one cause of sadness is the failure rate among those who began with Christ and quit somewhere along the way. From time to time, I take a look at lists of persons I’ve baptized, or outdated church directories. Some names bring on a flood of positive emotion as I remember the person that way and the person that has emerged with a maturing love of Christ and His work. Other names bring tears to my eyes as I remember the once fervent love for Jesus that has faded, the once vibrant testimony before friends and family that has grown still. In almost every circumstance, those who have fallen away did not abruptly denounce their faith or reject Christ.... they just drifted .... slowly, slowly away from God.
Our text today once again is 2 Peter 1:1-11. In your Pew Bible it can be found on page 1893.
READ
This morning we are looking at PERSEVERANCE. Other translations use the words - patience, endurance, and steadfastness. In the first language of the New Testament, Greek, the word is - hupomone, a compound word that literally means “to stand under.” It calls to mind a person with a heavy load on his back refusing to crumble, but rather staying on his feet!
Every one of us in this room probably can point to some time in life when we nearly caved in, when the weight of sorrow, the burden of responsibility, or the sense of futility feels like it is unbearable. We groan - “I cannot do this another day!” Peter says that the complete Christian has a resource in Christ that allows him to push past such moments, drawing on the strength God provides to keep standing!
Remember, I spoke of those who gave up, who turned away from Christ?
Perhaps they did not understand that mature disciples cannot reach that place without sustained effort and disciplined pursuit of Christ! When we commit ourselves to Christ and His cause of love and justice for all, we set ourselves against the natural way. Jesus said that His way is narrow, not broad. He said that we would carry a Cross before we wore a Crown!
Borrowing the image of the Olympic athlete, Paul says:
“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” (1 Cor. 9:24-27 NIV)
How do we develop perseverance? What choices can we make so that we will stay steadfastly on course with Christ?
1. Keep passion alive. Don’t let go of that first love.
Faith usually dies so gradually that the process is all but imperceptible. There is no crisis decision to abandon God. There is no moment of moral collapse resulting in scandalous behavior. Instead, there is a gradual shift of affection, more and more engagement with things once rejected because of love for Christ. As love for the present world - it’s money, it’s rewards, it’s entertainment, its values increases, love for godly things fades.
Ill- I love Bev and I work diligently at keeping our love as intense as it was 36 years ago when we first met!
I still say tender things to her. I still enjoy holding her hand. I still buy her flowers. I guard my eyes and my heart, instantly rejecting temptation when it comes knocking!
I believe that the Christian must be vigilant in much the same way about their love of Christ. There are practical choices to be made.
∙ Those who made worship a first priority every Lord's Day decide to take the day for golf, or for family visits, or for puttering around the house. Not bad things, not evil things these distractions aren’t seen as any danger. But they erode commitment to a critical part of spiritual health.
∙ Those who once were vigilant in practice of daily spiritual disciplines put them off to every other day, then to a couple of times per week, and then to whenever they remember. One day they realize that they have not opened their Bible, meditated, or even meaningfully prayed for months.
Hebrews 2:1 warns us that “We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.”
When Jesus spoke to the church in the city of Ephesus it was not their gross sin that broke His heart. Listen to His complaint against them.
"You have patiently suffered for me without quitting. “But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches." (Revelation 2:3-5, NLT)
2. Deal quickly with DISAPPOINTMENT.
Most people come to faith in Christ expecting that He will eliminate all their problems, fill each day with sunshine, and instantly set them free from the things that they do not like about themselves.
When they discover that discipleship is hard work and involves serious change, they often grow disappointed. Such a reaction is nothing new.
Jesus preached about cost of in following Him and explained that His mission was spiritual one rather than a political one. Many of those who followed him were disappointed. John 6:66-69 says
From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. "You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."
The best way to deal with disappointment is to admit that it exists! Spiritually that can be very hard to do. How does one say out loud, “This life with Jesus was not what I thought it would be.”? But, the very act of saying it, allows us then to deal with it, to evaluate our expectations, and to discover that just about everyone else experiences similar emotions at one time or another!
3. Stop looking for a constant rush of excitement! Find joy in the everyday life.
Are you an activity addict?
Do you always have to be where the action is?
That may be exciting, but it will also cause you to be unstable and probably unreliable. Life cannot always be grand and exciting. There are many days that are lived as unremarkable days. However, there is a splendor in the ordinary.
Some of us expect that serving Christ will mean one action moment after the other.
We wonder why our walk with Christ isn’t as exciting as the we read about in that best-selling book. Don’t forget that the author whose experience seems so spectacular is relating the high points of a life-time in 200 pages or less.
We hear someone bring a report of their moment of triumph, without realizing that they invested months and months in the mundane to see happen.
We crave the spectacular miracle moments that we see in the book of Acts.
I love the miracle moments, too. Just remember this, the book of Acts is a very short record about the experience of the disciples over a 30 year period of time. The ordinary days and moments aren't written up there.
*ill.- Years ago I met the Rev. Jim Chase while serving a church in Massachusetts. Jim was an old minister who served the people of the region for 40+ years. Everybody knew Jim. He had buried their parents, conducted their weddings, and dedicated their kids. He had stood at their bedside when they were in the hospital and counseled them while standing in the aisle at the grocery store.
Jim was widely respected, enough that when the hospital put a new wing on, they named it for him.
When you meet Jim you were not dazzled by a sparkling intellect or a smooth and charismatic personality. He was rumbled, his tie often stained, and his shapeless suit years out of date.
What you met was a steady servant who resisted chasing excitement to serve people faithfully!
Don't let the routine kill your spirit, but be careful of losing your effectiveness for Christ, by chasing the excitement of the new. Know what God's will is and commit to living it out contentedly in the ordinary place.
At the very end of his life, Paul reminded young Pastor Timothy that godliness with contentment is great gain.”
We must take the long view of serving Christ. We must grasp that His reward is for finishing the race, not for grand beginnings. His reward is for faithfulness, not headlines!
Finally, commit to the WORK of being a disciple.
Some fail for no better reason than they were just plain lazy.
Proverbs 24:30-34
I went past the field of the sluggard, past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgment;
thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins.
I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw:
A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—
and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.
Is your life filled with thorns and weeds? Are the walls, the boundaries of integrity and fidelity, broken down in ruins? Are you lazy?
Remember this:
destiny is created a day at a time! Today's choice becomes the foundation for tomorrow. Just a few choices that are not really all that complicated can make such a great difference in the quality of our lives. Before you say, “I cannot,” think carefully if, in fact, what you really are saying is “I will not.”
In closing, let me re-direct your attention to our text for this message....
Peter 1:8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In spite of God’s great work for us and in us, we can live ineffective and unproductive lives. Surely you could not desire that. God's wants you and me to stick with it, to endure, to remain steadfast.
We are to be both becomers and producers! We become like Christ in our character so that we can produce the work of Christ in this world. Will you give yourself to that work? Will you persevere?
My Dad, who is now in Heaven, often reminded people that “God’s payday is not always Friday!” God will reward the faithful. There is a pay-out, but not always on our timetable. Keep your eyes on the prize.
2 Timothy 4:7-9
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day -- and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
Amen.
