The Power of Perseverance

Runners call it "the wall." For guest speaker, Pastor Justin, it hits around mile 20. And if you've walked with Jesus for any length of time, you've hit your own version of it too.

In this message, Pastor Justin gets honest about a truth nobody tells you when you first come to faith: following Jesus is a full surrender, and it's going to be hard. Digging into Paul's race-worn words in 2 Timothy and James' call to let endurance grow, he unpacks why some folks stay the course while others turn back — and three hard-won lessons on attitude, eliminating options, and simply showing up, even when motivation never comes.

If you're in a season where quitting sounds easier than pressing on, this one's for you. Saddle up — perseverance isn't a sprint, it's the long ride home.

Visit us at Generations Cowboy Church for more info about our church or find ways you can support what God is doing at GCC!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:26

And today I get the honor of introducing my brother to come up and preach today. I love this moment. I need people to understand something. There's a sacred space in church that's probably the hardest for me to let go of. And it's this stage. Because between worship and whoever comes up here to preach, there is a spiritual influence that those people are given that get on stage. And so I don't take that lightly when I give that stuff away because I understand I'm giving away influence. And I want to make sure the heart and the character is there as we give people that kind of influence. And so for me, my brother is somebody that, man, I've 43 years of life. You're 43, right? Woo! Okay, all right. I'm 46. I'm trying to make sure, man. I mean, this is a guy that we have fought together. We have fought against each other. We have fought a few times for each other. I may have gotten thrown out of a softball game once for him. Um, you're welcome. And so uh it's just what you do. But what I love about my brother, what I love about Kelly is the heart that they just have for Jesus that is modeled in their entire life. Uh, they pastor a church in Bolivar, Missouri. Uh, they have somebody coming in today to preach for them so that they could be here with us. It's his first opportunity to be a part of what God is doing. And I'm just so excited that you get an opportunity to experience the better mock that has more hair and is a little bit taller. Um, and uh, could we give a big round of applause and welcome, my brother?

SPEAKER_01 1:57

Love you. Come on. What an incredible thing that God is doing at Generation Cowboy Church. I mean, look around. Yeah, I'm serious. It's July 12th. Most people are on vacation or they're taking summer off, and this room is full. Yeah, that's incredible. Yes, God, there is incredible momentum. You know, one of the things that we try the hardest as leaders is to create is momentum. It's really hard to create, it's really easy to lose. And you have that here. Don't ever take for granted what God is doing here in Hallsville. He is, He is moving in incredible ways. And so I would just encourage, I wasn't paid to say anything this morning. I just want to say that up front. Okay. I told him, I'm like, I'm gonna make you look real good today, so that they want you back up here next week. I I wouldn't, I'm just gonna encourage you. And it and we're, you know, we're three years into our into our church in Bolivar. I I want to encourage you, if you're not on board in some form or whether that's that's uh financially or serving, whatever it is, I would just encourage you to get on board. Uh, because this is this is not normal this fast, what God is doing in this community. And so you're on an incredible journey. And man, I feel the spirit of the Lord here this morning in this place. I hear it in you as people are walking in here. Um, and just just the natural, genuine heart of this house is incredible. So I applaud you for what you're doing. And I have to do this, man. I I have to, man, I gotta honor, I gotta honor your pastors um for just I know what it takes to uh sacrifice and to give up. And you know those things too. And man, the sacrifice that these two have given up to move here and to give up their homes, to give up their friends, to come here because they feel like God, this is what God wants them to do. And they're doing an incredible job. We spent the night with them last night and they invited us into their home. They fed us. And last night, he's hooking up the trailer and they're getting everything ready for you guys this morning. And so the work that goes into this, can you give a big hand to your pastors this morning? They're doing an incredible job. It's 1032. He told me I have one hour up here. Is that okay? Will you give me one hour? No, okay. Well, hopefully, you're gonna have to figure out my sense of humor a little bit here. Let's let's pray before we jump in. Lord, we you're here, Lord. We we feel you in this place. And so, Lord, we just ask for you this morning to just give us a heart to receive, give us ears to hear, just give us a mind to understand your word, what you're doing. God, more importantly, I just ask that you would disrupt our thinking and just disrupt our thoughts. Maybe if there's an area that we've just clung to and we're just hanging on to, God, just help us to think different. Let us just be challenged this morning by by your word. Change us, God. Change our hearts, change our lives. You you've put this day together. You knew July 12, 2026, from the foundation of the world. You knew who would be here this morning. You have orchestrated every person in these seeds this morning. And so, Lord, if you've done that, you have a plan and you have a heart and you have a word for us this morning. And so, Lord, just give us give us a heart to receive and ears to hear what you're saying this morning. And we all say a big amen. If you're taking notes uh this morning, I I have titled this, The 20th Mile, The Power of Perseverance. One of the things that uh as I was preparing for this message, one of the things I am just very passionate about is the power of persevering, of enduring, of pushing through. And so, what I'm gonna encourage you this morning, I think this is gonna cover hopefully a broad area of topics. It's geared towards our spiritual walk and our Christian walk. And so that will be number one in what we're talking about. But I also think there's just the power of perseverance. Maybe you're in here this morning and it's for your marriage. Maybe you're struggling in your marriage and you need to hear and to and to have and develop the power of perseverance in your life. Maybe it's in the stage of the church. Whatever it is this morning, it's gonna be all encompassing. And so uh one of the things I wish somebody would have told me at an earlier age, maybe an earlier walk in my in my Christian walk, was this is gonna be hard. I was all for in God, and maybe I just wasn't ready to receive when they were speaking these things. Read your Bible, go to church, be faithful, jump into community, give, serve. I heard all of those things. But what I wish, and maybe I'm gonna convey to you this morning, in whatever walk of life that you're in, I just want to say this morning that you will have times of difficulty. You will have struggles, you will have trials, and there will be a point in your life, probably many points, many moments in your life where you will want to quit. Believe it or not, even the position that we have, there are weeks that I say, can we do something else? Can we just go do something else? This is a lot. And so I just want to be an encouragement to you this morning. And so I want to take the definition of perseverance, and I want us I want to read it to you this morning. If we were to define perseverance, this is how we would define it. Perseverance is the continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition. There's a couple words in there I want to look at. It's the continued effort. Listen, God is going to do his part. His word tells us that he is working in us to help us to finish. But here's what I've learned: you play a part in this. You have a part. We can't blame God for our circumstances and our situations. He's doing his part, we're doing our part. Despite, there's another word we can look at. This is a mindset that nothing is going to get in the way or nothing is going to stop us from finishing. And probably the most important word here is the word something. Perseverance is the continued effort to do or achieve something. Something is the object of our effort. We all have an object of our effort. And here's what I here's what I want to say real quick and just back up. Because sometimes I can just get up here and make a mess, and then he has to clean it up later. I'm not saying effort as far as salvation goes, okay? You cannot earn your salvation. I don't care. You can have your best day, it's not good enough. You can do all the things right, it is not good enough. It is only through Jesus Christ and his grace in our lives that we are made new and we we will spend eternity in heaven. It it that is it. So it's not an effort and we're trying to strive or to persevere. You can you can have that and we should possess those things, but it's only Jesus that gets us into heaven. But we all have an object of our perseverance for the Christian or the believer. I really hope that it's Jesus. But sometimes we can possess worldly objects and we're persevering and we're working and we're doing all these things really for nothing. So the power of perseverance. Perseverance requires proper perspective. We must possess two proper perspectives for perseverance. That's a mouthful. The first one, I think, is the most important perspective that we have to come, that we have to possess when it comes to perseverance. And I want to read a passage here. If you have your Bibles this morning, you can turn to 2 Timothy 4, 7 through 8. And it's Paul. He says, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. And now the prize awaits me, the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me, but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing. Paul lived, this is the most important perspective that we have when it comes to perseverance. Paul lived with the perspective of eternity. I have fought the good fight. If you read anything about the Apostle Paul, you know that dude went through it. Stoning, flogging, shipwrecked, bitten by a viper. You just name all of the all of the physical things. I can't imagine the emotional turmoil that this guy went, all the years he spent in prison. But his eyes were on the prize, on the finish line. He finished the race. Paul finished what he started. Proper perspective, number one, is an eternal perspective that we live for eternity. Nothing else, no thing or no other object matters. The second one is this James chapter one, two through four reads this. Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind, everybody say when, I'm an involved kind of pastor, okay? When, when troubles come of any kind, when they come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when, there's that word again, when your faith is tested, your endurance, or you can interchange that word with perseverance, has a chance to go. This is incredible. It has a chance to grow. So let it grow. For when your endurance or perseverance is fully developed, you will be mature and complete, needing nothing. The second perspective that we must possess when it comes to perseverance is that it is producing in us. Your faith is tested. You will be tested. And if you feel like maybe you're in this life and you're not getting tested, ask God to test you, right? Man, I just I struggle with being patient. Have you ever done this? Lord, make me patient. Listen, I'll tell you a story about patience. I was in Columbia's brief story. I didn't know if I was gonna be able to preach this morning. Because I'm on 63 trying to merge on the I-70 West. And I I struggled. My faith was being tested in many ways, right? I was not patient. I messed up. I had to, God, obviously, forgive me for that. I'm sorry. But we are being tested, and it is producing in us perseverance. I love that. I love some of these phrases that it has a chance to grow in us. Did you know that perseverance has no chance to grow in you apart from trials or tests? Scripture tells us it has no chance to grow. James, I think, has the formula here. He says, so just let it grow, man. Just let it grow. It's like he had the formula for us that when troubles come, we consider it an opportunity. Our faith is being tested, so we just let it grow and let it mature in us. Here's a very encouraging sentence that I'm about to give you. Life, if you haven't already discovered this, okay, you can read it on the screen. Life is full, I bet say full. Life is full of difficulties, delays, and discouragements. Isn't that good news? Praise God. Pray. And so you can either you can either face these things with God and let it produce something in you so that you can mature and be complete, or you can do like I did yesterday at 63 and 70, and and and just apart from God, and it produced nothing in me except for I never want to get back on that again in my life. The good news is this, and I I've served the Lord for over 20 years. Grew up in church, got away, got back. The Christian walk following Jesus is it's worth it. I do it a thousand times over. I would never make a different choice in my life, ever. Wouldn't make a difference. I've had the most abundant and incredible life I've ever had. I mean, I I am blessed. We don't have a lot of stuff, not a not a lot of financial blessings. That's not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is the blessing of the Lord in our life. But I've also learned that life is full of difficulties, display, delays, and discouragement. I want to help us this morning. And one of the questions I asked myself with this is, and maybe you've asked yourself this too, why do some people, why do some people persevere and some don't? We know some, and you probably know some in your life that have quit the faith. We look in scripture of those who have turned back. They could not handle the things that Jesus was saying. Eat my flesh, drink my blood. No thanks. Some of the things that Jesus requires, the teachings that Jesus requires us, requires us to have an open heart. And so we know people, now they've got a name for it, people who are deconstructing, they're turning away from the faith, or they're uh construing maybe the faith and they're making it fit into what they want to do and how they want to live. We all know people who have done that. Here's what I want to just maybe if I could make a side note here. I think, I don't think this is a huge revelation, but I think I found the answer of why some persevere and some quit. One of my favorite passages is in Matthew 13, 18, 23, and it reads this Are you still with me? I still got 15 minutes. Are you still with me? Jesus says this, therefore, hear the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and he snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. Yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. But this is a big transition, but he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. I I just want to I just want to remind us this morning, listen seed is being sown all the time in your life. This morning, seed is being sown through worship, through conversations, through the word you either receive it or you choke it out. It's your choice what we do with it. You either allow it to produce something in you and maybe disrupt your thinking, or you uh push it to the side. You know this. There's so many things that are choking the seed in our life. There's the tribulations and the persecutions, there's the cares of this world, there's the deceitfulness of riches. But here's the here's the key. Don't hear anything else I say this morning. Here's the key to perseverance. It's a teachable heart. It's a teachable heart, not a proud heart, but it's a heart just like this morning. They say that is fully surrendered. I might not understand, I might not agree, but I'm gonna allow that word to sink down deep into my heart, and it's gonna begin to produce something in me. This is the point maybe where I want to invite you in on some practical ways that we can that perseverance can be produced in our lives. So three lessons. This is three lessons I've learned when it comes to perseverance. Are you are you with me? Okay, three lessons. These might be a little bit different than your than than three points that that maybe you've heard. Here's the first one that I've learned when it comes to perseverance in me. This is a big one. Number one's a big one. Attitude matters. I'm gonna step. We call ourselves a church of no toes. I'm gonna step on some toes. Attitude matters. James says, consider it an opportunity for great joy. Did you know joy is a choice? You choose to be joyful. You will not always be happy. You hang around me long enough, you're gonna know I'm not always happy. But I am always full of joy and purpose. It's because I have a mission and I have to choose to be joyful. We can't control the trials, but we can control our attitudes. You are in charge of your attitude. Seeds are being sown, and the right attitude is the water that makes the seed mature. Let me just tell you a little bit about this when it comes to me. And I really feel like as I'm talking to you, all five fingers are pointing back to me when it comes to this. Because I feel like I've grown at least a little bit in this. Sometimes I can just have a bad attitude. I know you wouldn't guess that about me at all, would you? I can just have I can have a bad attitude. And there's a point in my life when maybe I was a young believer, or even maybe a few weeks ago or a few years ago, where I would have a bad attitude. This is what would happen. Maybe you can relate. Something would happen in the day. Maybe I'd get cut off in traffic or something at work or I'd have a conversation, and that I would let that one thing absolutely wreck my day. It absolutely stole the joy in my life. You aren't like that, are you? You guys, you're on it. I I have to choose to have joy. It's a choice that we make. Negativity would creep into my life, and everything, every trial, every trouble that I would have, it would paralyze my growth. And nothing inside of me was growing because my attitude would choke it out. I didn't make this quote, but I wish I would have. But here's a couple quotes that I found that I think are really good. God chooses what we go through, we choose how we go through it. You know, we don't pick every trial or every trouble. Now, do we make stupid choices? Absolutely. But we don't choose everything that we go through, but we can choose how we go through it. We do have control over that. We can choose to have a good attitude and can choose to be full of joy. Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters. When faced with a trial, testing of your faith, it's producing something in you. The greatest day, here's another one. The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take responsibility for our attitudes. That's the day we truly grow up. Stop blaming others for your circumstances. It's nobody else's fault, but your fault. Take responsibility for your attitude and choose a better attitude. Choose to be joyful. Second point is this. Second one is this. Eliminate options. 21st century is on option overload. Option overload. I was watching a commercial not too long ago. It was the Burger King commercial. I love a good Whopper every once in a while with some onion rings and some onion ring sauce. And I was listening to this commercial. How many of you can tell me what Burger King's motto is? Who said that? Have it your way. I can eat that Whopper however I want to eat that Whopper. I got all the options in the world. I can eat that flame-grilled burger with ketchup, mayonnaise, pickles, lettuce, maybe a little onion. But what has happened, that has creeped over into our Christian walk. And what we what that possesses in us is the attitude of entitlement. And we can just have it any way we want. This is what this is what the culture in the world is telling us. If you don't want to go to church, don't go. Go sit at home and watch it. I'm not telling you to do this, okay? Four weeks, yeah, four weeks to see if you want this church. Don't make this week count. Okay, start next week. Start the following week. Five weeks total. This is what they're telling us. If you don't want to go, just don't just stay home. If you don't want to pray, just don't pray. You had a long day. If you don't want to be in community, you had a long week, you had a busy Saturday. All these things that are happening in our lives, just don't do it, don't do it. They hurt you. Don't don't don't forgive them. Don't embrace the trials and the troubles of this world. Just isolate yourself. Just avoid people at all cost. Just have it your way. But the problem with that is too many options can make us uncomfortable. And here is what I have learned: comfort will kill perseverance. Absolutely kill it. It will choke it out in your life. You will not grow, you will not produce anything because you have chosen to be on option overload. Philippians 3:13 through 14 says this. Dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it. This is Paul again. He's writing this letter in prison. He says, I'm going to focus on one thing. I'm forgetting the past and I'm looking forward to what lies ahead. I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. One thing mindset. I'm pressing on to one thing, Christ Jesus. It's he's eliminated the options in his life. Joshua 24, 15 says this, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. I'm preaching to the choir this morning. There's one option in our household. If you live in our household, we we will go to church. You can have your opinions all they want. I don't care. Your opinions do not matter to me. So that is what we're doing. Parents, I'm not trying to be mean, and I know this maybe is a little different. There's one mentality. As for me and my house, we're gonna serve the Lord. And I'm gonna put me and my house in the best opportunity. They're gonna make their decisions as they grow up. But I can tell you one thing on Sunday mornings, we're in church, and that's it. That's the only option that we have, is that option. Because I know what can happen with a community of believers. Last one is this keep showing up. Keep showing up. This has been absolutely huge in our lives. We tell this to our church on Sunday mornings, every Sunday morning, weather permitting, government permitting, whatever's whatever's going on in this world, those doors are gonna be open. And we just chose in our life, whatever it is, whatever it looks like, we're just gonna continue to show up. There's a a quote by uh John Maxwell, he's kind of a famous guru leadership guy, that says this. He says, The idea of motivation is a trap. The idea of motivation is a trap. I want to encourage you this morning in this area. Don't wait to get motivated. Motivation is not like lightning, it's not gonna pop you. And once you get popped by lightning, you're gonna be motivated. You you know this, right? That that is fleeting. Well, man, I just don't feel like going to church this morning. I just don't feel like reading my Bible. I just don't feel like being in, I don't feel like going with the party with the pastors. I just don't feel like doing any of those things. Listen, that's that's a trap. It's what we've been told all these years. Just just if I hear the right word or somebody crosses my path and they're gonna point me in the right direction, I'm just gonna be motivated to do this. You hang around long enough in this life, you will lose motivation. Motivation happens when you do the thing, and then you get motivated to do the thing. Come on, do the thing, and then once you do the thing, keep doing the thing, and you won't have to worry about motivation because you'll be doing the thing, you'll develop in your life habits, keystone habits. Can I just be honest with you? I don't love every day waking up and reading my Bible. There's days I'd like to sleep in and do something else, but it's built into my DNA now because it's a habit in my life that I've chosen to do every single day. And it feeds me and it nourishes me and it fills me. And now that I've done it and I've I'm keeping, I'm I'm showing up to this one thing, I enjoy doing those things. Here's some motivation for you. If you need a couple of scriptures to remind us, we sang this song, we're getting ready to sing it. Romans 8 34 says, Who then will condemn us? No one. For Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he's sitting in the place of honor at God's right hand, pleading for us. Here's some motivation. Jesus is pleading for you. Revelation 12, 11 says, You will, and they overcame by the blood of the Lamb and the word of your testimony. Keep showing up. We will overcome, you will persevere to the end. Not by your efforts, only through the blood of Jesus. The twentieth mile. The power of perseverance. I've never ran a marathon. I enjoy running, I enjoy those type of things. The twentieth mile of a marathon, for all you marathon runners, marathons twenty-six miles. That's that's a lot of miles. When a runner is running this race, you know they don't want to quit at mile one, they don't even want to quit at mile five. I would think they would want to quit about mile twenty five. But they say it's the twentieth mile, it's the point where you hit a wall. I've heard horror stories about the wall. Where your body begins to shut down, your mind begins to break down, and all you want to do is go home. But it's only those who persevere through that 20th mile that win the race. Here's what I want to encourage you this morning. Some of you this morning, you might be in the 20th mile. In your walk in your spiritual walk, maybe it's financially, maybe it's in your marriage. I have no idea where it is in your life. But I want to encourage you this morning, push through the 20th mile. Persevere. Your body, you have trained yourself in a way to push through to the very end. The power of perseverance. Embrace the trials, embrace the delays, embrace the discouragements, because they're producing in us the power of perseverance. I'm gonna ask our prayer team to come this morning. They're gonna lead us in a worship song as we close. I'm gonna ask you to stand. We want to give you the opportunity to respond. Maybe if that's you this morning, in whatever area that is in your life. I encourage you as they're leading this song, come forward, come forward. James tells us that we find freedom, we find freedom in relationships. Your freedom could be right here. Who cares? Who's watching? Who freaking cares? What you have this morning is an opportunity to be set free. And so if that's you, man, maybe I man, I don't know if you're here this morning, and I know I've said this a lot. Man, maybe you're struggling in your marriage. Maybe you're just, there's just some things, there's some trials, there's some just some things that are happening in your marriage, and you just need somebody to pray for you this morning. I encourage you to come forward. Can we pray this morning? Lord, God, give us the heart to respond. Give us a teachable heart this morning, that your Holy Spirit, even at this moment, would begin to speak to us. Give us strength, Lord. It's not easy. It's not easy to walk out and to step out and to walk down and to receive prayer. Well, Lord, I believe that the people up here on this prayer team have the right words that you have spoken into their hearts. That these people will receive healing. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.