How To Keep Going When You Feel Like Giving Up
OKAY…
I want to start off with 2 passages of Scripture that have been some of my favorites for years.
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
- Galatians 6:9
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. – 1 Corinthians 15:58
QUESTION…
Have you ever felt like giving up?
Have you ever felt like quitting?
Have you ever felt like throwing up your hands and tossing in the towel and saying;
“I can’t do this anymore, I’m done, I quit – it’s over –
no mas, no more…?
LIKE - you’re working on…
A project, a relationship, a ministry – you’re working on a life… AND – you’ve had just about all that you can take.
I MEAN - you’re making little if any progress, you’re spinning your wheels, you’re not getting anywhere… You’re tired, worn out, weary and frustrated…
NOW - I don’t know about you BUT – I’ve been there and done that.. and have a closet full of t-shirts.
THIS MORNING – as we continue our message series, ‘Such Things Were Written’ and the theme verse for this series is…
‘Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us. They give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God’s promises. – Romans 15:4
NOW – so far in this series we have found hope, encouragement and were taught solid truths of God as we looked at…
• The story of Ruth and Naomi -who taught us that even when things are not looking so good at the 6 foot level, that God is still at work causing all things….
• Last week David showed us that when our confidence is anchored in the might and power of God, and our focus is on His honor and glory that we can defeat the against that are standing in the way of us living the life God created us to live.
THIS MORNING – we are going to be looking at yet another Old Testament guy, Jeremiah…
The prophet not the bullfrog…
A guy who keep going even when he felt like giving up.
NOW - Jeremiah has been one of my mentors, a person that I have both looked up to and have often felt a kindred spirit with for years. He’s one of my heroes.
I MEAN – many times during the last 20+ years (when life was kind of tough, and I felt like why bother, I might us well just tap out)…
I would grab; my pen, my bible, my journal…and crack open words written by this prophet of God over 2,500 years ago. AND – each time God has used Jeremiah to speak straight to my heart.
NOW - my goal this morning is two-fold…
FIRST & FOREMOST - to lift up our awesome and mighty God… AND SECOND – it is my hope that something I share today (a word, a thought, a phrase… whatever) will help someone out there who feels like quitting.
NOW – before I talk about Jeremiahs reasons for quitting.
I think it would be a good idea for me to kind of summarize a little OT history.
SO THAT – we will all understand the historical context that Jeremiah is writing from…
In Genesis 12, God calls on Abraham to leave his country and follow Him, and become the Father of a new nation…
Abraham does that…
AND - he has a son named Isaac, and Isaac has a son named Jacob…
AND THEY ALL - lived in tents for a couple hundred years waiting to get this new land..
NOW - during the times of Jacob there is a famine in the land which caused Jacob to take his family to live in Egypt.
Which worked out well, because God had providentially placed Joseph one of Jacob’s sons as second in charge of all of Egypt.
SO - God’s people live in Egypt – and they do pretty God for awhile… BUT - after a brief period of time (a Pharaoh comes onto the scene who does not know Joseph) and he makes the Hebrews slaves…
AND – they would be slaves for 400 years.
Until Moses comes along and through the power of God deliverers the people from slavery.
AFTER – Israel leaves Egypt, after they walk through the parted waters of the Red Sea.
THEY – camp on the east side of the Jordan River.
NOW - God wants the people to go into the promise and take possession of it…
BUT – there is a glitch to this plan… the people who live there are huge, the cities well fortified and the people heavy armed…
B/L– God’s people chicken out, because they have no faith in God… AND – this lack of faith causes them to wander in the desert for 40 years.
40 years later they get another chance…
AND – before they go into the land Moses says to them
"Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between prosperity and disaster, between life and death. I have commanded you today to love the LORD your God and to keep his commands, laws, and regulations by walking in his ways.
If you do this, you will live and become a great nation, and the LORD your God will bless you and the land you are about to enter and occupy.
But if your heart turns away and you refuse to listen, and if you are drawn away to serve and worship other gods, then I warn you now that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live a long, good life in the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy.
"Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make.
Oh, that you would choose life, that you and your descendants might live! Choose to love the LORD your God and to obey him and commit yourself to him, for he is your life. Then you will live long in the land the LORD swore to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." - Dt 30:15-20
AFTER – this Joshua takes the baton of leadership from Moses, and crosses the Jordan and in 27 years conquers the promise land…
SO – now God’s people are finally living in the land God promised to Abraham 600 years earlier.
Eventually in this land they get a king…
His name is Saul, Saul starts out good and ends up really bad… And the next king is David.
After being king for 40 years David dies and his son Solomon takes the throne…
Where David fought and won many battles for the Lord… Solomon builds the Temple of the Lord.
When Solomon dies his son Rehoboam becomes the new king… AND – this is where things for God’s people start to go downhill fast.
YOU SEE - right after he became king a bunch of people came to Jerusalem from the north (they were led by a guy named Jeroboam) – and these people come to the new king and tell him… “dude we need a tax cut… your dad’s tax rates are killing us…”
Rehoboam gets some bad advice and basically tells them – to stop their whining and get ready because the tax rates are going up.”
WELL – this ticks off the people from the north so they start their own nation and a civil between the north (Israel) and the south (Judah) begins….
Brother fighting brother… NEVER – a good thing.
AND – since the people in the north no longer have the Temple… they turn away from God… and start to worship foreign gods. God removes his protection and the Assyrian empire in 722 BC comes in and destroys the northern kingdom (wipes them out, it’s pretty ugly)…
THEN - they try to take out the southern kingdom (Judah) as well… BUT – just as they surround the city… God sends an angel to rescue them….
OKAY SO – the northern kingdom is gone because of turning away from God…
QUESTION – what do you think that the southern kingdom (Judah) learned from this?
NOW – you would hope they learned that it’s not a good idea to turn away from God and worship idols….
BUT – they didn’t…
INSTEAD – they to choose to serve and worship other gods
UNDERSTAND – it was during this time, a time when God’s people are doing really bad, living totally against God that Jeremiah is born and had his ministry… (and by the way, his dad was a priest so Jeremiah was a PK – he grew in a town 3 miles north of Jerusalem.).
AND MGCC – it was a tough ministry and Jeremiah had many reasons to quit – many reasons to give up and throw in the towel… LET ME – quickly share a few with you…
I. Reasons For Giving Up
The first reason would be…
A) The People
QUESTION – have people ever made you want to give up?
AGAIN – you would have hoped that they Southern Kingdom (Judah) would have learned from watching what happened to her sister kingdom in the north…that, that it’s not a good idea to turn away from God and worship idols,
BUT – they didn’t…
CHECKOUT – what God says to Judah;
Her sister, the kingdom of Judah, saw what happened, but she wasn't worried in the least, and I watched her become unfaithful like her sister.
The kingdom of Judah wasn't sorry for being a prostitute, and she didn't care that she had made both herself and the land unclean by worshiping idols of stone and wood.
And worst of all, the people of Judah pretended to come back to me. Even the people of Israel were honest enough not to pretend. – Jeremiah 3:8-10 (CEV)
UNDERSTAND – these guys didn’t learn a thing…
INSTEAD – they too worshipped false idols and committed immorality on every hill in Jerusalem, they even sacrifice their own sons and daughters to the flames of their pagan idols…
And worst of all, the people of Judah pretended to come back to me. Even the people of Israel were honest enough not to pretend. - Jeremiah 3:10,11
Wow – do you see the picture Jeremiah is painting?
The people of Judah pretended to come back to God.
They came to the services, sang the songs, lifted their hands – they even filled in Jeremiah’s sermon outlines… BUT – it wasn’t real… they worshipped with their lips but their hearts was far from God.
Do you really think you can steal, murder, commit adultery, lie, and worship Baal and all those other new gods of yours, 1and then come here and stand before me in my Temple and chant, "We are safe!"--only to go right back to all those evils again?
Do you think this Temple, which honors my name, is a den of thieves? I see all the evil going on there, says the LORD. – Jeremiah 7:9-11 (NLT)
YEAH - people made Jeremiah want to give up.
AGAIN – have people ever made you want to give up?
AND – to be honest, many times, more times than I can possibly count… as pastor (for the last 28 years and 8 months), people have made me feel like giving up.
ANOTHER REASON – Jeremiah had for wanting to throw in the towel was…
B) The Ministry God Had Called Him To
UNDERSTAND - Jeremiah had a tough ministry – to preach a difficult message that no one wanted to hear it.
AND – what was ‘the message…”’
THAT GOD - was angry at the nation and His justice was about to be unleashed on them for their sins…
The LORD, the God of their ancestors, repeatedly sent his prophets to warn them, for he had compassion on his people and his Temple. But the people mocked these messengers of God and despised their words.
They scoffed at the prophets until the LORD’s anger could no longer be restrained and nothing could be done. So the LORD brought the king of Babylon against them. – 2 Chronicles 36:15-17
YOU SEE – the only thing left for Judah to do, their only hope to surrender to their enemy the Babylonians.
IF - they did things would go ‘reasonably’ well…
BUT IF THEY - refused to surrender, then things would be terrible…
They city & temple would be burned to the ground… and tens of thousands of people would die from the sword and from famine.
YEAH – Jeremiah preached a 40+ year sermon series called, ‘Captivity and Death.’
AND – as you might have guessed, this message wore Jeremiah out… Listen to these words from Jeremiah 23:9
My heart is broken… and I tremble uncontrollably. I stagger like a drunkard, like someone overcome by wine, because of the holy words the LORD has spoken against them. – Jeremiah 23:9
YEAH – the ministry, the task, the road God called him to walk down, being the prophet of (doom & gloom) and of (death and destruction) was enough to make Jeremiah want to quit.
QUESTION – has the task, the ministry, the road God has called you to walk down ever make you feel like giving up?
NEXT – comes…
C) The Rejection and Futility
UNDERSTAND Jeremiah preached his heart out for 40+ ears and no one ever listened (he made no impact, he changed no lives, … CHECKOUT – this passage…. Jeremiah is talking to God’s people;
This is what the LORD says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, 'We will not walk in it…We will not listen.'
- Jeremiah 6:16,17
CIRCLE - 'We will not walk in it… 'We will not listen.'
AND – because of that refusal they would never find rest for their souls.
AND – not only did the people reject him…
BUT – God rejected his prayers…
YOU SEE – Jeremiah loved his people, he didn’t want to see them suffer..
SO – he constantly prayed for them…
AND – more than once God has to tell Jeremiah…
Pray no more for these people, Jeremiah. Do not weep or pray for them, for I will not listen to them when they cry out to me in distress. - Jeremiah 11:14
UNDERSTAND - rejection and futility is enough to make even the strongest person want to give up…
Can I get a witness?
AND – then there was the loneliness…
D) The Loneliness
LISTEN - if ever a man needed a sympathetic spouse. This prophet surely did.
YET – God ordered Jeremiah not to marry (16:2).
YOU SEE – his lifestyle must match his message.
AND FOR – Jeremiah to marry and have children would be inconsistent with his announcement that Jerusalem would soon be destroyed by the Babylonians…
AND – for that very same reason, Jeremiah was not even allowed to attend parties or social gathering, because there was nothing to celebrate…
OKAY – so, do you see the picture?
FOR – 40+ years Jeremiah was all alone preaching a message no one wanted to hear to a people who would not listen…
QUESTION – has feeling all alone, feeling like you are the only one who cares and who is trying ever made you feel like giving up?
E) The Hardships
AND IF – all that wasn’t bad enough (let’s throw some abuse and hardships into this boiling pot of discouragement) …
Here are just a few examples…
• Men from his hometown plotted against him… (11:9ff)
• He was put on trail for his life (26:11)
• His first draft of God’s word was burned by the king (36:23)
• He was flogged and put in public stocks for people to mock (20:1)
• He was attacked by the false prophets who spoke another message (28:1-17)
• He was arrested and accused of treason (37:11)
• He was dragged from his prison cell lowered by ropes into an empty well in the prison yard… there was no water in it – but there was a thick layer of mud and Jeremiah sunk down deep into it (38:6)
NOW - I don’t know about you…
BUT – I think Jeremiah had a lot of reasons for giving up, for throwing in the towel…
Some of the very same reasons that often come against us….
people, the tough task/ministry we were called to, futility and rejection, loneliness and hardships…
Did you know how Jeremiah is often referred to by biblical
Scholars, as the weeping prophet…
LISTEN – to these words from a tired and worn out man of God…
Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night
- Jeremiah 9:1
YES – Jeremiah had many reasons for quitting…
AND…
II. Sometimes Jeremiah Wanted To Quit
NOT – all the time…
BUT - there were moments when he had enough. Moments – when he cried out to God…in great frustration and said ‘I can’t take it anymore…’ Have you ever had any of those moments?
Jeremiah did… (let me share just a few…
“LORD, you know what’s happening to me. Please step in and help me… Please give me time; don’t let me die young. It’s for your sake that I am suffering.
When I discovered your words, I devoured them. They are my joy and my heart’s delight for I bear your name, O LORD God of Heaven’s Armies. I never joined the people in their merry feasts. I sat alone because your hand was on me. I was filled with indignation at their sins.
Why then does my suffering continue? Why is my wound so incurable? Your help seems as uncertain as a seasonal brook, like a spring that has gone dry.” - Jeremiah 15:15-18
WOE… That’s some serious stuff… Can you feel his pain? Jeremiah is hurting big time.
AND – you know what I love most about Jeremiah,
IT’S THAT - he puts it all out on the table (the good, bad and ugly). HE – doesn’t come to God pretending…
“GOD – you led me down this road, I’m always alone, and it seems like you are never there for me…
Your help seems as uncertain as a seasonal brook,
like a spring that has gone dry.
NOW – that was not true, but that was how Jeremiah felt.
ONE MORE…. ‘I feel like quitting’ moment from chapter 20;
I curse the day I was born! May no one celebrate the day of my birth. I curse the messenger who told my father,
“Good news—you have a son!”
Let him be destroyed like the cities of old that the LORD overthrew without mercy. Terrify him all day long with battle shouts, because he did not kill me at birth.
Oh, that I had died in my mother’s womb, that her body had been my grave! Why was I ever born? My entire life has been filled with trouble, sorrow, and shame. - Jeremiah 20:14-19
UNDERSTAND – those are not the words of a man all pumped up and ready to charge a hill or land on the beach…
RATHER – they are words of a man ready to cash in his chips and go home….
YEAH – the towel is in his hand… his arm is drawn back and he’s ready to throw it…
Rejection, hostility, pain, suffering, futility, loneliness and an unpopular message for 40+ years…
Jeremiah had so many reasons to give up
YET – Jeremiah hangs tough for all of those years…
SURE – he had made moments when he felt like quitting… BUT – he never did…
III. Why Jeremiah Did not Give Up
YOU KNOW – as I thought about my man Jeremiah and how he hung in there. I asked myself over and over again… How did he do it?
How was Jeremiah able to hang in there and not give up? What kept him going?
AND – I think I found at least part of the answer….
AND IN – our time remaining I want to talk about 3 keys, 3 things that you and I (like Jeremiah) must have if we are going to keep going when we feel like giving up
A) Jeremiah Had A Purpose To Live For…
In the Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren writes…
Nothing matters more than knowing God’s purposes for your life, and nothing can compensate for not knowing them – not success, wealth, fame or pleasure. Without a purpose, life is motion without meaning, activity without direction and events without reason. Without a purpose life is trivial, petty and pointless… When Life has meaning you can bear almost anything - without meaning, nothing is bearable.
AND LISTEN – Jeremiah’s life had meaning and purpose and we see this in the very first chapter of his book…
The LORD gave me a message. He said, 5"I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my spokesman to the world."
"O Sovereign LORD," I said, "I can't speak for you! I'm too young!" "Don't say that," the LORD replied, "for you must go wherever I send you and say whatever I tell you.
- Jeremiah 1:4-7
Jeremiah, I am the one who created you.
I know you in your mother’s womb
Therefore I know who you are and what you should do.
So don’t say… ‘I can’t…’
YES - Jeremiah knew his purpose – to speak the words of God…. AND LISTEN – that purpose helped him to keep going even when he felt like giving up…
CHECKOUT – these words…
I am always taking about the message I received from the Lord, but this only brings me insults. The people make fun of me all day long. Sometimes I say to myself, ‘I will forget the Lord. I will not speak anymore in his name.’
But then his message becomes like a burning fire inside me, deep within my bones. I get tired of holding it inside of me and finally, I cannot hold it in. – Jer 20:7-9 (NCV)
YES – knowing that God had a purpose for his life… burned like a fire in Jeremiah’s bones… and empowered him to not give up. NEXT …
B) Jeremiah Had A Hope To Anchor To…
LET – me share one of my favorite stories that illustrate the power of hope…
A number of years ago researchers performed an experiment to see the effect hope has on those undergoing hardship.
Two sets of laboratory rats were placed in separate tubs of water. The researchers left one set in the water and found that within an hour they had all drowned. The other rats were periodically lifted out of the water and then returned.
When that happened, the second set of rats swam for over 24 hours. Why? Not because they were given a rest, but because they suddenly had hope! YOU SEE - those animals believed that if they could stay afloat just a little longer, someone would reach down and rescue them.
UNDERSTAND - Jeremiah had hope because like our little ‘just keep swimming’ rodent friends he was confident that someone (that God) would one day come and rescue him…
AND LISTEN - not only did Jeremiah speak the following words from God, he believed them… and it gave him (even in the face of rejection, futility, people and hardships)
an unsinkable hope.
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future… - Jeremiah 29:11
Jeremiah knew that battles, war, death, famine, sin & destruction were NOT God’s ultimate plan for his people…
YOU SEE – even in the midst of their sin, idolatry and rebellion… God’s plan for His people was still to prosper them (not harm them) and to give them a hope and a future.
AND CHECKOUT – this verse… I have no doubt that this gave Jeremiah hope.
I will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the LORD, - Jeremiah 29:14
UNDERSTAND MGCC…
God does not punish us or allow bad things to happen to us in order to PAY us back, but to BRING us back!
YOU SEE – God’s passion, His goal, His desire has remained unchanged since man’s fall in the garden…. To do whatever it takes to bring us back to Himself!
AND BECAUSE…
• Jeremiah had this hope. A hope anchored to the plan and purposes of God.
• Jeremiah knew that God’s desire was not to pay His people back, but to win them back…
He was able to write these words as he left Jerusalem… with the city and the temple in rubble burning in his rearview mirror.
The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words. I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss.
Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.
I say to myself, “The LORD is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!” The LORD is good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him. So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the LORD. - Lamentations 3:19-26
C) Jeremiah Had A ‘Mighty’ God To Trust In…
"O Sovereign LORD! You have made the heavens and earth by your great power. Nothing is too hard for you!...
O great and powerful God, whose name is the LORD Almighty, great are your purposes and mighty are your deeds
You performed miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt and have continued them to this day, both in Israel and among all mankind, and have gained the renown that is still yours. - Jeremiah 32:17-20
GOD…
EVERYTHING - you ever wanted to do – you did (you made the heavens & earth…you delivered your people…
AND EVERYTHING - you ever said would happen – has or will happened… Nothing is too hard for you!
I put my trust ‘completely’ in you and you alone..
FOR – you are worthy of my trust.
This is what the LORD says: “Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the LORD.
They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future. They will live in the barren wilderness, in an uninhabited salty land.
“But blessed are those who trust in the LORD and have made the LORD their hope and confidence.
They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit. – Jeremiah 17:5-8
A purpose to live for - A hope to anchor to - A mighty God to trust in… Are what kept Jeremiah going when he wanted to give up…. AND B/S… we as Jesus followers have those exact same three things…
We have a purpose to live for
For we are God’s masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. – Ephesians 2:10
MGCC – I stand before you this morning August 2, 2020 and proclaim to you on the authority of the Word of God that you have a purpose to live for!
• To know God, To bring Him pleasure, honor and glory
• To be a part of His family
• To become like Christ and reflect him to this world
• To do what God has uniquely shaped and prepared for you to do… To help re-direct the eternity of men and woman, and lead people to the fullness of life!
AND – we have a…
A hope to anchor to
We have run to God for safety. Now his promises should greatly encourage us to take hold of the hope that is right in front of us.
This hope is like a firm and steady anchor for our souls. In fact, hope reaches behind the curtain and into the most holy place. Jesus has gone there ahead of us, and he is our high priest forever… - Heb 6:18-20
YEAH… I love it!!!! Jesus has gone ahead of us + we are going there too!!!… LISTEN - one day he will come and rescue us and take us home – so “just keep swimming…”
YES ONE DAY - the heavens will be ripped open and the new heaven (our perfect eternal home) will come down from the sky.
• And He will wipe every tear from our eyes
• There will be no more pain or sorrow, sin and hatred
• Where will see Him as He really is
And the one sitting on the throne said, "Look, I am making all things new!" And then he said to me, "Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true." - Rev 21:5
AND – we have…
A mighty God to trust in
Paul in was is in prison he was there for preaching the gospel…
AND - he knew that at any moment the guards would come and lead him down a dark narrow corridor to his death at the edge of an axe…
So he pens some final words to his good friend Timothy… Paul is letting Timothy know that he has no regrets… he says;
I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.
- 2 Tim 1:12
AND – he wrote in Ephesians 3:20,21…
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
B/S…
• a purpose to live for,
• a hope to anchor to
• and a mighty God to trust in…
ARE - the keys to you and I hanging in there when we feel like giving up.
BUT – how and where do we not only get but maintain those things…?
Through a relationship with Christ, accept no substitute.
By seeking God as Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 29:13,14 with all our heart…
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the LORD…"
- Jeremiah 29:13,14
