WEARING A SADDLE OF QUITTING?
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr.
Kyfingers@aol.com
TEXT:
Colossians 4:17 Archippus, "Take heed to your ministry .... that you finish it
Proverbs 24 :10 IF THOU FAINT IN THE DAY OF ADVERSITY, YOUR STRENGTH IS SMALL.
2 Cor. 4: 16 For which cause we faint not; though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed daily.
I ponder us allowing Satan to limit what we are doing?
Take the saddle off your back, quit giving the enemy a free ride?
Under your feet is where he belongs, not on your back. Control your emotions, or they will control you?
Control your tongue, or it will play games with your emotions?
Who was Archippus?
What was Archippus’ work?
The old preacher pens the words to Archippus,
remember: what you calling is, and make sure to finish what God has directed you to do.
Many know how to start, few learn to finish with zeal.
Are you one that finishes with the same excitement you started, or do you get luke warm?
Is the pastor waiting on you?
God looks not for perfection, but willingness and effort.
You can if you want to --- ? Do you want to --- ?
God will pull you through if you can stand the pull. Your excuses are useless.
Dead fish can swim down stream, fight the current my friend. God honors effort.
Ponder some of the men God chose to be His men?
Why expect perfection, this becomes a saddle that limits how we see others, and how we see ourselves?
Moses killed a man, stuttered, and in anger hit the rock.
Joshua had to follow in Moses’ shoes.
Jacob was a cheater, known as the subplanter.
Gideon offered excuses.
David had a sexual affair and Saul’s armor didn’t fit.
John Mark was rejected by Paul.
Timothy was a young kid minister without experience.
James and John were known for temper and lack of mercy.
James, Jesus brother, did not accept Jesus until after the cross.
Hosea’s wife, had a bad name, she was a lady given to sexual lust.
Amos was not polished, the only training was in the school of tree pruning.
Jacob was a liar and deceiver.
Solomon lived without balance, his excessiveness is well know, he was a man of wisdom and of foolishness.
Daniel was a slave in captivity.
Jesus owned no property, and had no throne, and he was from a no where town.
Abraham lied and had a dysfunctional family, besides this he was old.
Sarah laughed at God’s plan and then lied about laughing.
Eli’s son’s were dishonest and used their office of service for self benefit.
Saul was rebellious and impatient.
David had better looking brothers.
Peter was a big mouth and even rebuked Jesus.
Lazarus was dead and stinking.
Seems God sees beyond failure.
Balaam was willing to sell his ministry for fame.
John was self-righteous.
Esther was a beauty queen.
Naomi was a widow.
Paul was a murderer, so was Moses.
Jonah was reluctant, he ran from God, and he had a temper problem.
Mephibosheth was crippled.
Seems God sees beyond failure and disappointments.
Miriam was bitter, she was a gossip and sowed discord against the man of God.
Thomas will forever be known as the doubter.
Seems God sees beyond failure and disappointments, if yoy refuse to quit.
Jeremiah was a bullfrog (just kidding); he was depressed and suicidal.
Elijah was burned out, he ran for his life then prayed to die?
John the Baptist a poor dresser, very honest, and told the truth,
like it or not, he got out of jail head first?
Seems God sees beyond failure and disappointments, if you refuse to quit.
Martha was a worrywart.
Mary may have been lazy.
Samson had long hair.
Noah built an altar and got drunk.
Did I mention that Moses had a short fuse?
So did Peter, Paul - well, lots of folks did.
Seems God sees beyond failure and disappointments, if you refuse to quit.
God used all these less than perfect people.
People must not give the enemy a saddle to wear.
So you failed? So? Try again!
So your friend is less than ideal? Jesus uses people.
Seems God sees beyond failure and disappointments, if you refuse to quit.
But God doesn’t require people to be perfect and fit into religious molds.
He doesn’t see people as most people see people.
He looks beyond ---
God is not the Big Daddy in the sky?
God doesn’t measure by budget and look at profits, gains or looks.
God has no favorites, and gender gaps mean nothing to him. God does not look on the outside.
His ways are not limited by what man expects and demands.
God has grace and mercy. God does not hold past mistakes as a hammer to knock you down.
God listens to us, he is not deaf. God loves to hear from people. Prayer is a key.
You cannot buy God. You cannot bribe God. God loves you, His gifts are free.
Many try to earn God’s blessings. We tend to forget grace, unmerited favor, and we look to works?
We want to be a "STAR!"
Have you learned you cannot please people? The more you do the more they demand?
Our enemy says, You are nothing. You are trash, you are junk, you will never be worth anything!
Jesus says, " I love you so much. God does not make junk. I am what gives you value, the great I AM."
Seems God sees beyond failure and disappointments, if you refuse to quit.
Our enemy deals in vomit, he throws up your past.
He never looks forward, he always looks back and sees our failures and stupidity.
Jesus says, I see what you can be! I have a plan.
Seems God sees beyond failure and disappointments, if you refuse to quit.
If the enemy reminds you of your past, you must remind him of his future!
God looks back only to see the cross on the hill.
Our enemy has been described as alive and well. This is a distortion.
He has never been alive and well since Calvary. He has a terminal disease called sin and rebellion.
His days are numbered, he can do nothing worth while.
God doesn’t calculate what you did in ’68, ’78, ’88, or ’98.
It’s not even a matter of the record, if it is under Jesus’ blood.
God will not look under the blood. What is under the blood is forgiven and forgotten.
When it is over our heads, IT IS UNDER THE FEET OF JESUS.
Seems God sees beyond failure and disappointments, if yoy refuse to quit.
Sure, there are lots of reasons why God shouldn’t have called us.
But if we are totally committed and in love with Him, if we hunger for Him more than our next breath,
He’ll use us in spite of who we are, where we are, where we’ve been, or what we look like!
I pray that as Christians, we will step out of our limitations into the limitless nature of who God is, the GREAT I AM.
Not the great I was! He is the great I AM!
Good intentions never move mountains, bulldozers do!
Many wear saddles for the enemy. Any one can see the mountains.
We need not mountain spotters, but those that can see beyond, and grow visions of God’s plan to bring deliverance.
Can we afford to quit? What does quitting tell others?
Proverbs 24 :10 IF THOU FAINT IN THE DAY OF ADVERSITY, YOUR STRENGTH IS SMALL.
Obstacles and problems and limitations are but doorways to God’s plan.
God’s plan is limited where apathy and laziness abound. Get up and TRY.
When our passion for God and our passion to communicate to Him takes priority,
then will it make of our limitations and problems and obstacles as nothing. We will not want to quit.
I ponder what we could do if we wanted --- ?
TRIUMPH is just TRY --- with a little UMPH behind it.
I ponder today how easy it is to quit and not finish anything.
I think the Holy Spirit calls us today to QUIT QUITTING!!! If you are going to quit anything, quit quitting.
Someone hurts us, so we want to quit. The enemy comes against us, we desire to quit.
Why does not the spirit man say, ... I am more determined to finish this task.
While Paul knew how to finish....(2Tim.4:7),
Paul felt it necessary to teach those coming up under his ministry that they must be finishers.
Read Colossians 4:17, where the old preacher addresses the youthful Archippus, by saying,
"Take heed to your ministry .... that you finish it."
Many ministries have done well, have received much applause, and accomplished much, but they never finish, because they quit.
We let some emotions dictate, then we want a release from our obligation ... so we can go to higher level.
Not learn from this? We call this stepping stones or stumbling blocks?
Could the same block be a stumbling block to one and a stepping stone to another?
Some years ago, a pastor on the computer told me he was ready for bigger churches .....
I call this "SOME WHERE OVER THE RAINBOW SYNDROME"
"Greener grass?"
May I ask you is quitting a form of defeat?
Are we giving up spiritually and mentally. We are not victims, we are victors?
Another pastor recently was broken hearted because men had not picked up his vision of prayer, and was ready to quit?
Did Jesus quit when his elite slept through prayer meeting?
No, Jesus said sleep on ..... for He had heard the voice of the Father.
If you hear the Father’s voice you can’t quit.
Your ministry can never be a success without training a successor!
May I also say: to quit in difficulty establishes a "QUITTER SPIRIT?"
A quitting spirit can become a generational curse? True or False?
Real ministry does not run from problems and giants.
While every body talked about how big Goliath was, and caused a whole army to be paralyzed,
one little boy stood and declared. I CAN.
While everyone was quitting and crying in their tents, the boy had a plan.
1 Sam. 17:28 (LB) David’s older brother says, Why aren’t you taking care of sheep you cocky brat, did you come to see battle?
Well, Eliab, if he came to see battle why are you hiding and talking negative in your tent.
See Eliab had heard 80 messages of doom and gloom and his spirit man absorbed a Quitting Spirit.
You better be careful what you listen to, you will talk yourself into the "CRYING TENT"
and only come out long enough to get some negative ammunition to return and cry some more.
I warn you now ...... Come out of that TENT in Jesus name.
RUN AT THAT GIANT, and let God loose.
1Sam17:16, we have too many listening to the 80 negative messages and
desiring to stay in the Crying Tent and say ---- "I QUIT, THAT IS MY ONLY CHOICE."
You have another choice. TRY!
Don’t faint, don’t quit, get out of the tents of depression and despair, God’s plan exceeds in praise and hope.
If you stay in that tent you will quit.
Those in the Quitting Tent ask, vs 25, ....."Have you seen that giant?"
Hear a quitters story.
Two big, fat frogs were resting on a farmers porch and accidentally fell into a churn.
They kicked and swam in the milk in the churn. One frog kept saying, "KNEE DEEP, KNEE DEEP!"
The other frog said, "You are crazy, it is not knee deep, I am drowning!
We are both going to drown in this churn. Can’t you see it is hopeless in here."
So after a while the hopeless frog gave up and sunk to the bottom of the churn, a few bubbles
went to the top and the frog gave up the ghost. (hehe)
The other frog kept kicking and kicking and kicking until the milk became butter in the churn and then ....
He jumped out of the churn, he went over to his girlfrogs pad and lived happily ever after.
Eph. 3:13 Wherefore I desire that you faint not ---
The room at the foot of the cross is not for quitters. God’s plan is not always easy.
Faint not. Fret not. Fear not. Forget not. Faint not.
2 Cor. 4: 16 For which cause we faint not; though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed daily.
I ponder why are we allowing Satan to limit what we are doing?
Take the saddle off your back, quit giving the enemy a free ride?
Take the quitting saddle off.
Psalms 119: 165 Great peace have they which love Thy law, and NOTHING SHALL OFFEND THEM.
One pens it this way, there is no stumbling block to those that stay focused on HOPE.
We are totally dependent on God.
An independent spirit, that says: I don’t need you, is a spirit from the enemy’s camp.
Discouragement is straight from the enemy. We are so blessed, how can we be depressed?
Grow up, shake it off, focus on HOPE. Grow new hope.
I heard of a church named Little Hope Church. Someone needs to rename that church.
HOW THE ENEMY IS OUT TO STEAL OUR LAUGHTER, then in disgust, we will throw up our hands and quit.
How our enemy would love to isolate us from the church and God’s people?
Sometimes real people have real pain and failure, and our efforts seem aimless.
We often only see the picture of today, a few see the picture of yesterday.
But God wants us to see there is a Bigger Picture, even when we don’t understand.
Where is your vision? What affects your vision? Answer me?
I have a theory, I call the banana theory ...
when the banana is pulled off the bunch, it is getting ready to be skinned.
I love the story of Paul; and the ship wreck in Acts 27, they sounded out ... there was a promise ...
all that stayed with the ship will be saved and live.
By faith the preacher ate in front of the doubters ... after eating the food,
Paul proclaimed. .. All will make it that stay with the ship.
Keep dreaming!
How can you keep dreaming if there is no JOY.
Our enemy is out to steal your laughter, from your home first and then from your ministry, then the church will grow stagnate.
I love this poem, May it minister to you. Writer unknown.
DON’T QUIT
WHEN THINGS GO WRONG, AS THEY SOMETIMES WILL;
WHEN THE ROAD YOU ARE TRUDGING SEEMS ALL UPHILL;
WHEN THE FUNDS ARE LOW, AND THE DEBTS ARE HIGH;
AND YOU WANT TO SMILE, BUT YOU HAVE TO SIGH;
WHEN CARE IS PRESSING YOU DOWN A BIT;
REST IF YOU MUST, BUT DON’T YOU QUIT!
LIFE IS STRANGE WITH ITS TWIST AND TURNS,
AS EVERY ONE OF US SOMETIMES LEARNS.
AND MANY A FAILURE TURNS ABOUT,
WHEN HE MIGHT HAVE WON HAD HE JUST STUCK IT OUT;
DON’T GIVE UP THOUGH THE PACE SEEMS SLOW.
YOU MAY SUCCEED WITH JUST ONE MORE BLOW.
SUCCESS IS FAILURE TURNED INSIDE OUT,
THE SILVER LINING OF THE CLOUDS OF DOUBT.
AND YOU NEVER CAN TELL HOW CLOSE YOU ARE,
IT MAY BE NEAR, WHEN IT SEEMED SO FAR;
SO STICK TO THE FIGHT WHEN YOU ARE HARDEST HIT,
IT IS WHEN THINGS SEEM WORSE,
THAT YOU MUST NOT QUIT!!!!
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
I want to tell you friend that we are too close to HOME to look back now.
We have crossed hot deserts, we have known pain and hurt.
You must know hurt takes two:
an enemy to cause the hurt and a friend to carry the message to you.
Refuse to let obstacles hinder you, God is training you for battles ahead.
Our pillows are stained with tears, but God has a plan.
The sandpaper you thought was destroying you, will polish you to reflect the image of God.
You have felt so empty, and so alone. The crowd smothers you in loneliness.
And the enemy tells you better folks than you have tried and failed.
Your best effort has failed, and frustration pushes nearer to the edge of the cliff.
Your words of love have been misunderstood and twisted, and your dream and vision dims slowly
until we wonder, "WHAT IS THE USE?"
You have offered words of wisdom, and those that need it the most mock you to your back.
But, your real pain comes when you see suffering, that if heeded your words, could have been avoided.
And you see pain that was self inflicted, as failure torments the best of your friends.
While the two men walked with Jesus they never knew it was Jesus, because their heads were hanging in disappointment,
the picture they had envisioned had failed, their JOY was gone, as they walked with the Master, they failed to see,
it was the Divine Son that walked with them.
So GET THAT HEAD UP, AND REFOCUS THOSE EYES ON THE CROSS. JESUS WALKS WITH YOU.
Stand on Romans 8:28.
Faint not. Fret not. Fear not. Forget not. Faint not.
2 Cor. 4: 16 For which cause we faint not; though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed daily.
Take off the quitting saddle.
You don’t have to quit to wear a quitter’s saddle, you can carry hidden in your hear the saddle. You can desire to quit, and carry a quitter’s spirit, and press on, we need love and zeal.
And don’t quit. It is always to soon to quit!
His servant,
Wade Martin Hughes, Sr.
Kyfingers@aol.com
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