Joshua Boyd: So we're with my messages, we're on this series called A Journey of Faith.
Joshua Boyd: And you know, we are we're we're learning about what this walk of, not just walk of being a Christian is, because there's so many people that are Christians who left their faith at the door of salvation.
Joshua Boyd: They walked through that door, they believed God for their salvation, and they never really believe God again.
Joshua Boyd: They never really put their faith into exercise, exercise their faith again.
Joshua Boyd: We don't want to be those.
Joshua Boyd: We want to be those that are constantly exercising, using our faith to believe God, to receive from God, and to get the things that He's He has ready for us.
Joshua Boyd: But, you know, a journey isn't a journey unless we start, and that's what we talked about last time.
Joshua Boyd: Um it begins with believing.
Joshua Boyd: And believing was turning on that switch, believing was starting the car with the good news of salvation.
Joshua Boyd: We learned that we that when we first heard that good news of salvation, we had to we had to turn the switch on to believe it.
Joshua Boyd: But then faith is that accelerator.
Joshua Boyd: Faith is that let me get this car out of park, out of my driveway, and let me get going on this faith this life of faith.
Joshua Boyd: Too many people have started the car and sit in the driveway, and they're just waiting for heaven.
Joshua Boyd: They're waiting for that, Lord, take me to heaven, get me out of this place.
Joshua Boyd: They just sit in the car and don't go anywhere with their journey of faith.
Joshua Boyd: Step after step in our journey is only progressed by believing the word and acting on it in faith, keeping our conscience clear and our obedience on the ready.
Joshua Boyd: But that takes work, as we heard last time.
Joshua Boyd: In fact, the verse we ended on last time is the verse I'll start with this one.
Joshua Boyd: Hebrews 4.11, let us labor, therefore, to enter into the rest that God has for us, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
Joshua Boyd: So there's kind of a contrast here that if we're not really working or laboring to enter into the rest that God has called for us, that land, that promised land, that that area of faith that we're believing for, it could fall, we could start falling off into the example of unbelief that the children of Israel did.
Joshua Boyd: It's not, you know, I use the example of the car.
Joshua Boyd: It's not really, well, it kind of is.
Joshua Boyd: I can sit in my car, I can start the car, I can sit in my car all day long, I've got the air conditioning running or the heat, whatever the day is.
Joshua Boyd: Uh and I have the music going, I'm not going anywhere, but you know, I'm in, I'm I'm comfortable, I'm I'm okay, I'm doing good, I'm not out on the elements.
Joshua Boyd: And then I run out of gas.
Joshua Boyd: What am I going to do now?
Joshua Boyd: And that's that's us falling off that example of unbelief.
Joshua Boyd: If we just sit there and don't do anything, it's really entropy takes over.
Joshua Boyd: And it's really, we start, we're not really just maintaining, we're just really kind of going down after a while.
Joshua Boyd: But for most of us, that initial journey didn't take that long.
Joshua Boyd: In other words, and you may remember it, you may, it may have been so long ago you don't remember the details, but when you first got saved, you heard the good news.
Joshua Boyd: You may have been in a church service, you may have been somewhere, and you heard the good news of salvation, and then you believed.
Joshua Boyd: And that point from hearing the good news to believing to calling on the name of the Lord could have been minutes, could have been an hour, could have been not that long.
Joshua Boyd: Now, maybe you heard it once and didn't act on it and didn't do anything, and then you took a second or third time for it to really go, you know what?
Joshua Boyd: I do believe that.
Joshua Boyd: So maybe it was a period of time.
Joshua Boyd: But that first journey didn't take that long.
Joshua Boyd: So Christians tend to start thinking, hmm, okay, good, all my prayers are going to be answered just like just that quick or just that long.
Joshua Boyd: But journeys are not called journeys because they're short.
Joshua Boyd: They're called journeys because there's duration involved in the journey.
Joshua Boyd: You know, much like the children of Israel leaving Egypt in one day, that was their salvation moment.
Joshua Boyd: They God called them out of Egypt and they packed up their stuff and they left Egypt in one day.
Joshua Boyd: That's an example, a type and shadow that God put in the Bible of us getting saved, called out of the world.
Joshua Boyd: So they did that in one day.
Joshua Boyd: The Bible says there is no feeble among them.
Joshua Boyd: 400 years of enslavement, and all of a sudden they're leaving, no matter what the age, the Bible says there wasn't one feeble or sick among them of the millions of people that were leaving that day.
Joshua Boyd: And they left in one day, they got saved, and then all of a sudden they start running into other areas of the journey, and they're like, hmm, this isn't really all I thought it would be.
Joshua Boyd: I thought, you know, we're we're excited to get saved, we're excited to get out of the world, but I didn't think there'd be other problems here.
Joshua Boyd: I mean, there's we're we still need something.
Joshua Boyd: We need water, we need food, we need, we're, we need, we're, we, we run into this Red Sea, we gotta get across this, there's an army coming.
Joshua Boyd: They started running into other parts of their journey that they weren't ready for.
Joshua Boyd: And they didn't think that there would be more to come once they got out of Egypt.
Joshua Boyd: Specifically, leaving Egypt wasn't their final destination.
Joshua Boyd: They had just started their journey, not finished it.
Joshua Boyd: So salvation for us as a Christian isn't the end of our walk.
Joshua Boyd: Salvation is the beginning.
Joshua Boyd: It is the open is the how we step into this life of faith, how we start our journey.
Joshua Boyd: Don't let that be you, though.
Joshua Boyd: Don't let that be your kids.
Joshua Boyd: We'll teach our kids to, yes, you need to be saved, yes, you need to be born again.
Joshua Boyd: But just like Jesus commanded us before he went to heaven, he said, go and make disciples.
Joshua Boyd: He didn't say go and get people saved.
Joshua Boyd: Go and make disciples.
Joshua Boyd: Making disciples is a process, it takes time.
Joshua Boyd: And it also means you have to be a disciple to make a disciple.
Joshua Boyd: You can't make what you're not.
Joshua Boyd: So for us to be able to make a disciple, it means there's gonna be this element that we don't like to talk about, time.
Joshua Boyd: It's gonna take time, which means it's gonna take effort, it's gonna take labor, it's gonna take work on our part to make us a disciple, and then to make disciples of others.
Joshua Boyd: Yes, parents, we're commanded to you know, basically make our kids disciples.
Joshua Boyd: Doesn't say it like that, but that's pretty much our job is to train up a child in the way they should go so that when they're old they won't depart from it.
Joshua Boyd: But we're making those disciples in our in our kids, but also with the people that we that that we are influenced to meet.
Joshua Boyd: It doesn't mean everybody you meet, but it means that there's people in your life that there's an opportunity for you to share the word consistently and to live a life that shows the example of God to a person.
Joshua Boyd: But that's part of our journey.
Joshua Boyd: The labor of entering into the rest of the rest that God has for us is the rest of the journey.
Joshua Boyd: For the children of Israel, you know, we know it took them 40 years, partly because of their own unbelief and their own disobedience, but God still had a destination for them, the promised land.
Joshua Boyd: And it they it took them a while to get there, it took them a whole lot more effort to get there, but they got there.
Joshua Boyd: The ones, the ones that trusted God and the ones that did believe.
Joshua Boyd: So this is for us, the Christian Christian life, it's a marathon.
Joshua Boyd: It's not a sprint, it's not um, it's not always gonna be quick, it's a long-distance drive, it's a post-uh graduate education, it doesn't happen quick.
Joshua Boyd: You know, everything is there's a duration to it.
Joshua Boyd: But there's a reward at the end.
Joshua Boyd: It's not just heaven.
Joshua Boyd: You know, there's a reward that we get in heaven based on the work that we do here.
Joshua Boyd: And there's too many Christians, and I've I've talked to some that are just happy they're saved, and they've said that.
Joshua Boyd: I'm just happy I'm saved, I'm going to heaven, that's it.
Joshua Boyd: That's all I'm gonna do.
Joshua Boyd: Basically, I've got my high school diploma, I'm not doing anything, any other education.
Joshua Boyd: I'm gonna, I'm not doing, I'm done with this, you know, basically life of faith.
Joshua Boyd: I believe God enough to know that I'm going to heaven when I die.
Joshua Boyd: And they will.
Joshua Boyd: But in heaven, there are still a reward for what we do here on earth.
Joshua Boyd: And the only place we get to increase that reward is here on earth by what we do.
Joshua Boyd: There's not, there's no uh extra graduate levels in heaven.
Joshua Boyd: We'll all be learning more and more, but the reward that we're gonna get in heaven is all based on what we get here on this earth, or what we do on this earth.
Joshua Boyd: The journey of faith brings the end result of our prayers, our petitions.
Joshua Boyd: The Lord says He's given us all things to enjoy.
Joshua Boyd: He wants you saved, he wants your needs met, your desires met, he wants you healthy and strong, he wants your children saved and protected.
Joshua Boyd: Those are things that we can start seeing on the journey of faith.
Joshua Boyd: But this journey is a journey.
Joshua Boyd: And how many have been in a car with your kids and said, Are we there yet?
Joshua Boyd: I had my daughter say it as soon as we backed out of the driveway.
Joshua Boyd: I'm like, we just backed out of the driveway.
Joshua Boyd: We got a three-hour drive in front of us.
Joshua Boyd: So let's at least uh give me a few more minutes.
Joshua Boyd: Let's at least get on the interstate before we say, Are we there yet?
Joshua Boyd: I don't know if she was joking or just wanted to play with me, but literally, we had I haven't even put it back in drive yet.
Joshua Boyd: We're still in reverse.
Joshua Boyd: Are we at grandma's yet?
unknown: No.
Joshua Boyd: Doesn't look like it.
Joshua Boyd: But this is where it gets, this is where the labor can get tiresome.
Joshua Boyd: So let's not get tired of doing what is good.
Joshua Boyd: At just the right time, we'll reap a harvest of blessing if we don't give up.
Joshua Boyd: Galatians 6.9.
Joshua Boyd: Because it's this getting tired of doing what's good, because you're constantly going against the flow, you're constantly going against the enemy who's trying to stop you, you're constantly going against your flesh, which wants to just kind of sit back and let what be, what will be, will be.
Joshua Boyd: But your spirit knows if I don't get tired of doing what's good, I am gonna get the harvest that I'm asking God for.
Joshua Boyd: I am gonna reap it.
Joshua Boyd: But it's it that's where that's where our part comes in.
Joshua Boyd: Don't give up.
Joshua Boyd: Keep the faith.
Joshua Boyd: God's part, there's a lot of verses we can use for this, but this is the one I landed on.
Joshua Boyd: Philippians 1.6.
Joshua Boyd: And I'm certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Jesus Christ, Christ Jesus returns.
Joshua Boyd: Philippians 1.6.
Joshua Boyd: He's the one who begins the work.
Joshua Boyd: He's the one who has that outcome that he wants for us.
Joshua Boyd: And he's gonna keep working on it, but we have to agree with it.
Joshua Boyd: We have to go with him.
Joshua Boyd: We can't work against him, or we can't do nothing and just say, okay, God, work in me.
Joshua Boyd: There's gonna be some effort on our part, too.
Joshua Boyd: Just like saying, if I just enroll in a college, okay, I'm enrolled, okay, do your work in me, college.
Joshua Boyd: They're gonna go, uh, no, there's some there's some homework, there's some uh lab work, there's some things you gotta do.
Joshua Boyd: We'll work with you.
Joshua Boyd: But to get this degree, uh, you're gonna be doing some work too.
Joshua Boyd: So I think too many Christians have tried to go, tried to just float on the lazy river of life.
Joshua Boyd: The problem is the lazy river usually goes the wrong way.
Joshua Boyd: It's floating against the against the path that God wants for us.
Joshua Boyd: Many there be that take the big, wide road, but few take the narrow road, the narrow gate, because that's the road that has a little more challenges on it.
Joshua Boyd: And it just requires an effort that goes against the world.
Joshua Boyd: That's the road, though, that has the life and the peace on it.
Joshua Boyd: That's the road that has the blessing and the and the desires of our heart.
Joshua Boyd: But the other wide road is the one that looks easier and and and more comfortable, at least to our flesh.
Joshua Boyd: But in the end, it's not the one, it's not the we'll we know that's not the right road.
Joshua Boyd: Revelation 22, 13.
Joshua Boyd: God says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.
Joshua Boyd: I love the way this says it multiple times because to God, he's at the beginning, he's at the end.
Joshua Boyd: Now we saw in Philippians that he'll he'll he'll he'll keep performing that work in the middle, but God is really all about the beginning and the end.
Joshua Boyd: He's about, let's get this thing started.
Joshua Boyd: And once I say it started, to God, it's done.
Joshua Boyd: This is a done deal.
Joshua Boyd: Once God said that the children of Israel were gonna go to Israel, he's like, in God's mind, it's done.
Joshua Boyd: When God said, let there be light, there was light.
Joshua Boyd: When he says something, his word is his promise.
Joshua Boyd: It's gonna get done.
Joshua Boyd: He's the beginning and he's the end.
Joshua Boyd: Now sometimes we we have to start, this is the the middle of that is the journey.
Joshua Boyd: We have the start, we have the end, we have the we have the promise of salvation, we've all accepted that.
Joshua Boyd: We have the promise of heaven, we're still working toward that, and we're in this life of life in the middle.
Joshua Boyd: But God is already already there.
Joshua Boyd: He was there at the beginning, he's there at the end, he never changes.
Joshua Boyd: Romans 4.21.
Joshua Boyd: And being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
Joshua Boyd: That's talking about Abraham.
Joshua Boyd: In other words, as soon as Abraham heard the promise of God, he was like, okay, it's done.
Joshua Boyd: That's gonna happen.
Joshua Boyd: Now, there were there was a duration though between that, between the promise and the performing of that promise.
Joshua Boyd: Now, we've been hearing in our in Faith Alive, in Sundays and our Bible studies on Wednesday nights, we've been hearing so many good testimonies here lately.
Joshua Boyd: And I even said that Wednesday nights.
Joshua Boyd: Like, it's so pleasing to hear that because one, it's it's showing that we're making it to the end of these little journeys.
Joshua Boyd: We're making it to the we're we're seeing the results of God working in us and the answers to prayer.
Joshua Boyd: You know, from Denmark to Gabby to you know Angela's uh grants and and so many things we've heard about recently.
Joshua Boyd: Um keep them coming.
Joshua Boyd: Keep them coming.
Joshua Boyd: All of us want the testimony, but many times we get mired in the test part of the testimony.
Joshua Boyd: You know, I was curious what the what the original word in the in the Greek for testimony was, and I had if I had looked it up before, I completely forgot.
Joshua Boyd: The word for testimony is martyria, martyr.
Joshua Boyd: In fact, the word martyr simply means witness.
Joshua Boyd: It doesn't mean somebody who died who gave their life for God.
Joshua Boyd: The word martyr simply means witness.
Joshua Boyd: So testimony is coming from the same word.
Joshua Boyd: In other words, we're laying our will down, we're laying our flesh down to be a witness for God's purpose and what God wants for us.
Joshua Boyd: So if we want a testimony, when we all do, if I said, who wants a testimony?
Joshua Boyd: Who can give a testimony?
Joshua Boyd: We have to go through the test of the testimony.
Joshua Boyd: And that's the journey.
Joshua Boyd: That's the life of faith.
Joshua Boyd: That's the journey of faith, is us going through that test.
Joshua Boyd: It's not God testing us because he's curious what's going to be the outcome.
Joshua Boyd: It's just the test itself making sure that we have that we're staying on the walk of faith.
Joshua Boyd: God knows what the outcome is supposed to be.
Joshua Boyd: He knows the children of Israel are going to get to the promised land, but there's a whole bunch of them who failed the test.
Joshua Boyd: The children of Israel got to the promised land.
Joshua Boyd: God's word came true, but not everybody in that got to receive that.
Joshua Boyd: So for us, when we're trusting God for something, when we're believing God for something, the test is us keeping our mind, keeping our eyes on Him, keeping our eyes off the things that we're seeing, off the things of the world, off the things of the natural.
Joshua Boyd: We look at not at the things that are seen, but we look at we look at the things that are not seen, not the things that are seen.
Joshua Boyd: That's our test, is like, okay, where am I looking?
Joshua Boyd: Where am I looking?
Joshua Boyd: I gotta keep looking at on what God has promised.
Joshua Boyd: That's the are we there yet?
Joshua Boyd: Are we there yet?
Joshua Boyd: Lord, I've been praying for this.
Joshua Boyd: Lord, I'm I'm I'm I'm trusting you, but it's been X number of months, it's been X number of years, it's been, you know, we've been believing you for a church building, Lord, and and you know, it's been over a year now, and we're in the test.
Joshua Boyd: We're in the middle of our testimony.
Joshua Boyd: And when I that that phrase came into my mind this week, and it's like, we're in the middle of our testimony.
Joshua Boyd: In other words, we've done the right things to be obedient, to start the car and to go on the journey.
Joshua Boyd: We've started our journey, and we know God is good.
Joshua Boyd: We know God has a promise at the end, we know our answers to prayers will come.
Joshua Boyd: But we can't give it yet.
Joshua Boyd: We're in the middle of our testimony.
Joshua Boyd: We're looking for, we're looking forward to.
Joshua Boyd: I can't wait to give the testimony of this healing, of this provision, of whatever this is I'm looking for.
Joshua Boyd: But we have to be fully persuaded at the beginning and all the way through it, that what God has promised, He's able also to perform.
Joshua Boyd: Even while we're in the middle of the test.
Joshua Boyd: You know, think about your students who are taking a test right in the middle, they're like, I'm not, I can't, I can't do this test.
Joshua Boyd: I can't do it, I'm gonna send, I'm gonna stop, I'm gonna do it.
Joshua Boyd: And they're you know, a page or however many, how long from the end of the of the test, that they don't complete it.
Joshua Boyd: An incompletion is a fail.
Joshua Boyd: And there's too many times where we are walking and waiting for the promise of God, and we're right in the middle of the test itself, and we only have a few more questions left, and we're like, I don't know, I don't know about this.
Joshua Boyd: And our the devils are right in there going, Yeah, you know, it's been it's been 10 months, you know.
Joshua Boyd: You never thought it'd take this long, did you?
Joshua Boyd: Never thought it would be, you know, well, maybe, maybe this, maybe that, and and start all these other thoughts start coming.
Joshua Boyd: That's the test.
Joshua Boyd: And that's where we have to state going, nope, I'm gonna keep on, I'm gonna keep move, I'm gonna keep doing this, I'm gonna keep doing this test.
unknown: I'm gonna
Joshua Boyd: Keep making it through.
Joshua Boyd: Believers, even those who have been walking in this life of faith for years, want the miracle events in our lives.
Joshua Boyd: You know, Jesus, we have 5,000 men to feed.
Joshua Boyd: Right now, they're gonna be hungry.
Joshua Boyd: We got what are we gonna do?
Joshua Boyd: And she's like, Well, we got, oh, we got five right here.
Joshua Boyd: Break, bless, give out, we're done.
Joshua Boyd: You know, we want those quick ones.
Joshua Boyd: We want those, uh, that took, you know, what, an hour?
Joshua Boyd: You know, when you think about timing, it's like from the time that they realize that everybody's hungry, we need to go get we need to get some food.
Joshua Boyd: Oh, we got it right here.
Joshua Boyd: Okay, bless it, break it, pass it out, eat, everybody's full, we're done.
Joshua Boyd: Okay, maybe two hours.
Joshua Boyd: I don't know.
Joshua Boyd: You know, don't know how long it takes to give out the 5,000 plus people.
Joshua Boyd: But you're still looking at just a couple of hours.
Joshua Boyd: So we we're all we all love those, oh, a quick, a quick answer to prayer.
Joshua Boyd: A quick, here's the problem, here's the need, and less than a day later, we're done.
Joshua Boyd: Good.
Joshua Boyd: Hey, that's that's the kind of miracle I want.
Joshua Boyd: And we kind of start to look at that as for everything that we're praying for.
Joshua Boyd: I mean, that's not a journey.
Joshua Boyd: That's just that was just an event, basically, for the for the disciples and the people there.
Joshua Boyd: There was no journey in that one.
Joshua Boyd: How about Joseph in the Old Testament?
Joshua Boyd: It's one of the few stories in the Bible where it gives his age in different parts of the story.
Joshua Boyd: We won't go back and read it, but it's 22 years.
Joshua Boyd: From the time he had his dream when he was 17 to the time he was 39, and it said Joseph remembered his dream.
Joshua Boyd: 22 years.
Joshua Boyd: That's a journey.
Joshua Boyd: That's a journey of he knew that at some point some people were gonna bow down to him, that he was gonna be in a spot of leadership.
Joshua Boyd: He didn't know everything that was gonna go about that, but he knew there's some destiny for me.
Joshua Boyd: God's given this to me twice now, and I know there's a plan for my life, I know that God has good things for me, I know that the, I don't know how this is gonna happen.
Joshua Boyd: And 22 years when God says that Joseph remembered his dream.
Joshua Boyd: And it was even after he'd gotten to be second in command.
Joshua Boyd: So even being second in command, it was still a few years later that the Bible says he remembered his dream.
Joshua Boyd: So he was still on that journey, he was still walking that.
Joshua Boyd: You know, we look at the life of Paul.
Joshua Boyd: Paul was converted on the road to Damascus, but it says in Galatians he spent 13 years in the desert after that moment, after he met with the leaders of the church.
Joshua Boyd: He went out into the desert, and many believe that's where he got the revelation for most of what he wrote to the churches in the letters.
Joshua Boyd: But we look at it in the Bible, especially when you read through the Bible, it's so funny because I've been reading through a lot of the Old Testament this year, you know, and they'll, you know, one verse to the next verse, you know it's like 12 years, you know, so many years, because it'll say, you know, and especially in the life of the kings, that this king was king for two months, and this king was king for ten years, and nothing happened, so they just said that king gets two verses.
Joshua Boyd: Like, okay, he lived, he died 10 years, okay, we're now on the next king.
Joshua Boyd: You know, so we can't, we we read through the Bible and we have, we don't really get a good concept of the duration that it took.
Joshua Boyd: We just go, oh, look at Paul.
Joshua Boyd: He went on the road to Damascus, he met with the disciples, and all of a sudden, boom, he's preaching.
Joshua Boyd: But when you start looking at the whole story, the whole timeline, you realize, oh, he lived a normal life like the rest of us did, where things didn't happen overnight immediately, every, you know, day by day, everything was happening.
Joshua Boyd: It's just condensed down into the words of the chapters of the Bible.
Joshua Boyd: They were people just like us, they had the same kind of journeys we do.
Joshua Boyd: So we're many of us are in the middle of our testimony for different things.
Joshua Boyd: You know, Israel, going back to them, because I'm gonna read some verses on them, they vision visibly saw the acts of God, you know, in delivering opening up the Red Sea and giving them miracles of water and food and stopping the armies of Egypt, but yet they kept the next time it came up, the next test that came, they failed it again.
Joshua Boyd: They failed and failed over and over again.
Joshua Boyd: How much more when we don't see those visual things like that, we don't see a big pillar of cloud and fire following us every day and every night, we still have to trust God.
Joshua Boyd: We still have to believe on the things that we can't see with our physical eyes.
Joshua Boyd: You know, in the analogy of our car and our journey, the children of Israel turned off the car right in the middle of the interstate.
Joshua Boyd: And that doesn't usually have very good, very good results.
Joshua Boyd: You know, they you know they started the car, they they believed in salvation, they they got going on the journey of faith, and then are like, eh, let's turn this thing off.
Joshua Boyd: It's not working for us.
Joshua Boyd: And they started complaining, they started grumbling, and all the things that we we see with Hebrews 3.
Joshua Boyd: And who it was who rebelled against God, even though they heard his voice, wasn't it the people Moses led out of Egypt?
Joshua Boyd: Hebrews 3 16.
Joshua Boyd: And who made God angry for forty years?
Joshua Boyd: Wasn't it the people who sinned whose corpses lay in the wilderness?
Joshua Boyd: And to whom was God speaking when he took an oath, saying that they would never enter into his rest?
Joshua Boyd: It wasn't it the people who disobeyed him.
Joshua Boyd: So we see that because of their unbelief, they were not able to enter into his rest.
Joshua Boyd: It wasn't God's will for them to not enter into the kingdom, into the promised land.
Joshua Boyd: But those who didn't did it because they turned the car off.
Joshua Boyd: They stopped believing.
Joshua Boyd: They didn't even just say, okay, I believe God for salvation in heaven.
Joshua Boyd: They just said, nope, we're not we're not even gonna believe God anymore.
Joshua Boyd: We're not even gonna trust him.
Joshua Boyd: It was their fault, not God's.
Joshua Boyd: They were in the middle of what would be their testimony, and yet they failed it.
Joshua Boyd: They failed the test.
Joshua Boyd: Now, how does this all come together with with some of the things we're talking about?
Joshua Boyd: We've all been on road trips, all of us, I think.
Joshua Boyd: Um, road trips can be good if you plan them right, if you you know take the time.
Joshua Boyd: But what to me, one of my favorite parts about a road trip is the stops.
Joshua Boyd: Well, the getting there, yes.
Joshua Boyd: Um especially when you know you're gonna have a long trip ahead of you.
Joshua Boyd: It's like, okay, this is let's plan for this.
Joshua Boyd: Let's let's let's get some places that we know we're gonna stop, let's get recharged, refreshed, let's let's make sure that we're just not completely worn out by the time we get there.
Joshua Boyd: Not just the driver, but all everybody in the car too.
Joshua Boyd: So to me, that's part of the fun about a road trip is kind of planning, okay, where are we gonna stop?
Joshua Boyd: Let's have something good to eat.
Joshua Boyd: Let's, you know, if we have kids, let's go ahead and make sure the kids can run around for a little bit, get out of their cars, car seats, and kind of get some get some exercise going, um, you know, find a playground if they're whatever.
Joshua Boyd: In this life of faith, what this means, this journey of faith, these are the little answers to prayer that we get.
Joshua Boyd: These are the testimonies that we're hearing.
Joshua Boyd: These are the kind of things that keep us charged for the longer journey.
Joshua Boyd: And that's why I love hearing them, because they when we start hearing of an answer to prayer that's similar to what I need or you need, we're like, oh, okay, this is charging me up.
Joshua Boyd: Because I'm still waiting for mine.
Joshua Boyd: I'm still in the midst of my testimony, but I just heard a testimony about the same thing or about how good God is or about something that's happening, that's gonna get help me get toward the end.
Joshua Boyd: That's gonna help me stay charged toward the end.
Joshua Boyd: That's where the excitement comes, that's where the joy comes.
Joshua Boyd: These are the kind of things that propel us.
Joshua Boyd: You know, back when I was in college, um I enjoyed college.
Joshua Boyd: I did pretty good at it, I say, because I did really good in high school, but by the time I got to college, I ended up taking, I changed my major twice, ended up taking six years to get my four-year degree.
Joshua Boyd: And by the time the sixth year was around, I was just done.
Joshua Boyd: I was like, get me out of here.
Joshua Boyd: I'm ready to start doing something besides going to school all the time.
Joshua Boyd: Um and so it was January of the year I was to graduate, and I was just like, Lord, I just I want to get I'm ready to be done.
Joshua Boyd: So I prayed, and I was like, there were three things I had on my list.
Joshua Boyd: I had, you know, I want to graduate, um, I want to, you know, get into a good job and career because I was working part-time, not making much money.
Joshua Boyd: Um, and you know, I want to get married, what, 23, 24 years old.
Joshua Boyd: And within a few months, I graduated and got the job teaching software that ended up propelling my career into being a software instructor and even getting me into the company I've been with now for 17 years.
Joshua Boyd: Um those two answers to prayer happened very quick, five months.
Joshua Boyd: And it was like, okay, Lord, this is good.
Joshua Boyd: It took another 14 years to get married.
Joshua Boyd: But those two answers to prayers of a of something that was had come in a group of prayers, it's like, Lord, I know you've you've done, you've answered these two, I know you're gonna answer that third one.
Joshua Boyd: But I had to keep walking on that journey for that answer to the prayer for that third one.
Joshua Boyd: But it was because God answered the two other two, it's like, Lord, I know you're faithful, I know you're gonna do it because I've seen you do it.
Joshua Boyd: So when we're in the middle of our testimony, think back to the last time.
Joshua Boyd: Think back to the last testimony you had.
Joshua Boyd: Think back or just talk to somebody who's in a similar situation or who's been through a similar situation.
Joshua Boyd: Because it's those kind of things that we can encourage each other with.
Joshua Boyd: In fact, the when I start looking at this in the Bible, the Bible is full of these kinds of scriptures that say, do just that.
Joshua Boyd: In Romans 15, you'll see a lot of these are toward the end of Paul's letters.
Joshua Boyd: Such things were written in the scriptures long ago to teach us, and the scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God's promises to be filled.
Joshua Boyd: So even Paul saying, Yeah, there's going to be some lighting.
Joshua Boyd: There's going to be there's going to be part of the journey that we're waiting for.
Joshua Boyd: Verse 5, may God, who gives the patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other as is fitting for the followers of Christ Jesus.
Joshua Boyd: Then all of you can join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Joshua Boyd: So he's saying that, hey, these scriptures are given to us for an encouragement.
Joshua Boyd: Make sure you're staying in the Word.
Joshua Boyd: Make sure you're looking at the life of the people who made it.
Joshua Boyd: Don't dwell on the ones who didn't, dwell on the ones who did as an encouragement for yourself.
Joshua Boyd: Then we can all start encouraging each other.
Joshua Boyd: So when you need encouragement, when you're in the middle of your testimony, don't dwell on the negative thoughts.
Joshua Boyd: Don't let that loop start happening in your mind because it'll start to get you off of that.
Joshua Boyd: Instead, and I like this, go to your find a faith buddy.
Joshua Boyd: Should be your spouse, but it could be a fellow, you know, a friend, another female friend if you're a woman, another male friend if you're a male, and say, you know what, I just need some encouragement right now.
Joshua Boyd: And then we, as the people who are who are asked to encourage, we should jump right in and say, hey, let me tell you what the Lord has done.
Joshua Boyd: Let me tell you what the Lord's gonna do.
Joshua Boyd: Let me tell, and just jump right in rather than, well, tell me how you're feeling.
Joshua Boyd: No, we don't need to be, we don't need to be dwelling on how we're feeling, because we all know that we can that'll pull us both down if we start dwelling too much on that.
Joshua Boyd: We need to start jumping right into, let me tell you what God can do.
Joshua Boyd: Let me remind you of the victories we've had.
Joshua Boyd: Let me tell you about the time when God answered my prayer, when God answered your prayer the last time.
Joshua Boyd: You know, Paul Paul again told the churches to do this in 1 Corinthians 16.
Joshua Boyd: He actually tells us, I like the way it starts here, be on guard.
Joshua Boyd: Stand firm in the faith, be courageous, be strong.
Joshua Boyd: These are very simple commands, but these are the kind of things that help us stay on the journey and stay in the middle of our testimony longer.
Joshua Boyd: Because it takes effort to do that.
Joshua Boyd: And do everything with love, verse 14.
Joshua Boyd: He says, And you know that Stephanus and his household were the first of the harvest of believers in Greece, and they are spending their lives in service to God's people.
Joshua Boyd: I urge you, dear brothers and sisters, to submit to them and others like them who serve with each, who serve with such devotion.
Joshua Boyd: And I am very glad that Stephanus, Fortunus, and Achaeus have come here.
Joshua Boyd: They have been providing you the help you weren't here to give me.
Joshua Boyd: They have been a wonderful encouragement to me.
Joshua Boyd: So even Paul needed encouragement, as they have been to you.
Joshua Boyd: You must show your appreciation to all who serve so well.
Joshua Boyd: So Paul's saying, hey, this Stephanus, he was the very first fruit.
Joshua Boyd: He was the first one that heard our message and received salvation, and now he's actually going around helping the other churches and helping us where there's been a need for help.
Joshua Boyd: He's that's encouraging me, and he's encouraging you.
Joshua Boyd: So Paul's encouraging the church of Corinth, which is in Greece, to say, Hey, be like Stephanus, encourage others, be encouraging to those who are around you.
Joshua Boyd: And that's the one, you know, again, he started with be on guard, be courageous, be strong, and be like this other person who is being an encourager himself.
Joshua Boyd: I'll read one more example.
Joshua Boyd: This one's a little bit longer, but it kind of gives a really good story of this.
Joshua Boyd: 1 Thessalonians 3 1.
Joshua Boyd: Finally, when we could stand it no longer, we decided to stay alone in Athens, and we sent Timothy to visit you.
Joshua Boyd: He is our brother and God's co-worker in proclaiming the good news of Christ.
Joshua Boyd: We sent him to strengthen you, to encourage you in your faith, and to keep you from being shaken by the troubles you were going through.
Joshua Boyd: But you know that we are destined for such troubles.
Joshua Boyd: Even while we were with you, we warned you that troubles would soon come, and they did, as you well know.
Joshua Boyd: That is why, when I could bear it no longer, I sent Timothy to find out whether your faith was still strong.
Joshua Boyd: I was afraid that the tempter had gotten the best of you and that our work had been useless.
Joshua Boyd: But now Timothy has just returned, bringing us the good news about your faith and love.
Joshua Boyd: He reports that you always remember our visit with joy and that you want to see us as much as we want to see you.
Joshua Boyd: So we have been greatly encouraged in the midst of our troubles and suffering, dear brothers and sisters, because you have remained strong in your faith.
Joshua Boyd: It gives us new life to know that you are standing firm in the Lord.
Joshua Boyd: How we thank God for you because of you we have great joy as we enter God's presence.
Joshua Boyd: Night and day we pray earnestly for you, asking God to let us see you again to fill the gaps in your faith.
Joshua Boyd: So here is Paul who sent his son in the faith, Timothy, who was a pastor, to go check on the church, because they didn't have Facebook, they didn't have phones, they couldn't text, they were hundreds of miles or thousands of miles away, days or weeks by travel.
Joshua Boyd: So they couldn't just run, check on them, and hear back.
Joshua Boyd: So all Paul knew was well, I started this church, haven't heard back from in a while, have no idea where they are.
Joshua Boyd: Because historically they're in a pagan environment and we're surrounded by pagan shrines and pagan worshipers.
Joshua Boyd: Where is this, is this light still going, or has this light been snuffed out?
Joshua Boyd: And when Timothy came back, it encouraged Paul to say, no, they're still going.
Joshua Boyd: They had not failed the test yet.
Joshua Boyd: They were still on their journey of faith, which encouraged Paul on his journey of faith.
Joshua Boyd: Even we think of these people as, you know, we put them on a pedestal because of what we see in the Bible, but Paul was a person just like us.
Joshua Boyd: He was tested just like us in his persecution and in the thoughts that came to his mind.
Joshua Boyd: So he tells them, though, he ends up saying, night and day, we pray earnestly for you, asking God to let us see you again to fill the gaps in your faith.
Joshua Boyd: We all have run into these gaps.
Joshua Boyd: We've all been in a spot where, yeah, I'm I had this miracle last year, or we had this great testimony, but man, I'm this one prayer, we've been believing God for two years now, or five years now, or ten months now, and it just seems like it's you know, there's no sign of it coming to pass.
Joshua Boyd: There, there's, you know, if you've ever done any kind of home work, home project work, you know, when you're doing, when you're working with your walls and wood and stuff, you're gonna you start to see gaps.
Joshua Boyd: You know, I remember when we we first walked through our house and we bought it what five years ago now, um, you know, you see all the pretty stuff.
Joshua Boyd: It had just recently been redone, oh, it's got great new tile, the floors are done, it's nicely painted, and then you move in, you start going, wow, there's a you know, it's a gap there.
Joshua Boyd: You start looking at all the different, you start to see all the little the nuances.
Joshua Boyd: You know, one of the best things, what's what's one of the best things that we can use to fill a gap in a wall or in a in wood?
Joshua Boyd: I mean, we use caulk.
Joshua Boyd: We just caulk it up.
Joshua Boyd: Um, you know, if we got a gap, got a hole, and let's start caulking it up.
Joshua Boyd: So as we're walking along our life of faith, you know, one of the things we can do with each other is we can we can build it, be a faith gap filler for each other.
Joshua Boyd: We can start to go, hey, takia's walking through a situation right now, and maybe there's a gap in her faith because of the devil trying to get up, you know, to lie to her.
Joshua Boyd: Let's surround her.
Joshua Boyd: Let's fill in the gap of faith.
Joshua Boyd: Let's encourage, let's be an encourager, let's pray for her, let's strengthen her.
Joshua Boyd: Because the next time she may be the one with the caught gun, and she may go, here, I'm gonna help fill in your gap.
Joshua Boyd: I'm gonna walk with you, I'm gonna walk right beside you and help fill in that gap.
Joshua Boyd: So as we start walking this life of faith, this is why the the test.
Joshua Boyd: Testimonies to me were so powerful to keep hearing them over and over again because those testimonies are also a gap filler.
Joshua Boyd: They help us go, oh, that gap's filled now because I'm hearing about what God's doing in others.
Joshua Boyd: I'm hearing that God is faithful.
Joshua Boyd: I mean, we know it, but to hear it from each other, that's when we start really realizing, oh, that's going to fill in my gap.
Joshua Boyd: So remember 1 Thessalonians 3.10.
Joshua Boyd: This is our gap filler verse.
Joshua Boyd: And it's our encouragement to be the encourager for each other.
Joshua Boyd: Amen?
Joshua Boyd: So as we're on this journey of faith, when you find yourself in the middle of your testimony, when you find yourself between the A and the Z, between the seed and the harvest, between the promise and the provision.
Joshua Boyd: Instead of focusing on your own troubles, let's all be ready to be the encourager for others.
Joshua Boyd: Bring your faith caught gun to fill the gaps with each other's faith, and next time you might be the one who is able to give the encouragement.
Joshua Boyd: Amen.