SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm signed up to Suffer, just in case you were wondering, on November 22nd of this year, I'm signed up for the Philadelphia Marathon.
SPEAKER_00: That's 26.2 miles.
SPEAKER_00: In case you didn't know that, I tell you that because I was in a grocery store one time and a lady uh saw my shirt and she said, Oh, you run marathons?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: She says, Oh, I run marathons too.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Oh, what marathons have you run?
SPEAKER_00: She said, Well, I ran uh this turkey trot the other day.
SPEAKER_00: Just want to let you know, 5K is not a marathon, but 26.2 miles of suffering.
SPEAKER_00: I've run 10 marathons.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, this will be my 11th marathon.
SPEAKER_00: And besides the distance, there has been one common in all save one, and that is the suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Running a marathon is a hard thing.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing to know about the suffering of a marathon.
SPEAKER_00: You don't just pay to suffer on that day.
SPEAKER_00: You actually pay to suffer for like three months ahead of that.
SPEAKER_00: Through all the training.
SPEAKER_00: You suffer many days, sometimes weeks, sometimes months.
SPEAKER_00: You train through uh extreme heat, you train through cold, you train through wind, you train through through rain, you you train through cramps in your in your legs and headaches when you forgot to hydrate properly, the nagging injuries.
SPEAKER_00: You suffer for three months before you get to suffer for the 26.2 miles.
SPEAKER_00: Running a marathon is a hard thing, which is why less than 1% of the population of the United States has run a marathon in their lives, because most people don't want to pay to suffer.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone?
SPEAKER_00: Isn't it make you excited to want to suffer?
SPEAKER_00: Rich is back there, he's raising his hand.
SPEAKER_00: In my very first marathon in Columbus, Ohio, 19 years ago today, or not 19 years ago today, 19 years ago in October, but 19 years ago, I got to mile.
SPEAKER_00: My dad, before I ran the race, warned me, said, Chad, the first 20 miles are easy.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone can do that.
SPEAKER_00: He says it's the last 6.2 miles that make the difference.
SPEAKER_00: And I got to mile 20 and I was feeling strong and I was feeling good, and and and I was cruising through mile 20, approaching mile 21, and I was I was thinking to myself, my dad's rule, I am the exception to my dad's rule.
SPEAKER_00: And at about mile 21, just a little past the mile 21 marker, all of a sudden, my stomach, my belly screamed out to me in an audible noise if you don't stop, I will make you sorry.
SPEAKER_00: And I came to a total stop, and I turned to two nice people sitting in their front yard cheering on the runners there in Columbus, Ohio.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, with only the panic of a potty trained child, I need a bathroom.
SPEAKER_00: And these two, this couple with a smile on their face said, Oh sure, come on in.
SPEAKER_00: Midwesterners are amazing.
SPEAKER_00: Only in the Midwest.
SPEAKER_00: Eight minutes later, I was back on the road.
SPEAKER_00: And I was feeling better.
SPEAKER_00: But a few miles later, a couple miles later, the dehydration kicked in and my legs stopped moving.
SPEAKER_00: And as I was tipping over, I'm sure Merle that I thought, is this the dumbest decision I ever made?
SPEAKER_00: Even worse, maybe than driving down I-95 South.
SPEAKER_00: Somehow I got going again, and I remember coming upon the 26-mile marker and making a right-hand turn, and now looking down this straight hill, down a slight slope, and seeing the finish shoot, and seeing the finish line, and tears began to come down my face.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure part of it was relief.
SPEAKER_00: But the major feeling I remember is the absolute and utter joy.
SPEAKER_00: And that moment right there has brought me back nine other times, now almost ten times, to suffer again.
SPEAKER_00: Why do we do hard things?
SPEAKER_00: Why did this church do the very hard thing of becoming a lone constituent church?
SPEAKER_00: It was at the time the only church that had a full 12-grade school.
SPEAKER_00: There was a lone constituent church in the North American Division.
SPEAKER_00: There are others since then, but we were the first.
SPEAKER_00: Why did this church, which was close to a thousand members smaller at that time, choose to invest such a significant amount of money to build that building that is there on 198 that opened 15 years ago today?
SPEAKER_00: Why does this church, through tithes and offerings, continue to do the hard thing of supporting that school by over$1.2 million a year?
SPEAKER_00: Why do we do this hard thing?
SPEAKER_00: Well, let me show you.
SPEAKER_00: Since 2011, students from this school have made decisions to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Parents connected to those students at this school have made a decision to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Why do we do this?
SPEAKER_00: Because of the finish line.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't include the kids that have been baptized at New Hope and at Brinklow and at and at Beltsville and at other churches in the area.
SPEAKER_00: That is why we do hard things.
SPEAKER_00: Not only is it the kids, but I think of the families.
SPEAKER_00: I think of Kondwani, one of our deacons, and his wife, Linda Malinke, who through their connection of their kids of the school were baptized here.
SPEAKER_00: I think of Matthew and Talia, who through their connections of their kids of the school were baptized here as well.
SPEAKER_00: The hard thing, that school, the struggle, the money, the frustrations at time, why do this hard thing?
SPEAKER_00: 222.
SPEAKER_00: Why do we do hard things?
SPEAKER_00: Paul puts our reason into a theological phrasing.
SPEAKER_00: In 2 Timothy chapter 2, if you want to open your Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 8, uh I'll have it on the screen though as well.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says this.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is saying, this thing I'm doing, this preaching of this gospel, this is a hard thing, and I am suffering as a result of it.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm bound with chains as a criminal.
SPEAKER_00: This is a hard thing that I am doing.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Yet this, but the word of God is not bound.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
SPEAKER_00: Why do hard things that others may obtain salvation?
SPEAKER_00: That's why we do hard things.
SPEAKER_00: That is our mission.
SPEAKER_00: Paul was willing to go even further than this.
SPEAKER_00: Paul was even willing to go further and saying, I'll be bound in chains as a criminal, or I'll suffer all kinds of abuses from others.
SPEAKER_00: Paul was even willing to say, I'm willing to suffer to the point that I lose my own salvation if others can be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, he didn't have that happen, but look at what he says in Romans 9 and verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: He said, For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen, according to the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: What he was willing to do so that others could be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Church, we have some hard things ahead of us.
SPEAKER_00: Question may come up: why are we building the church building?
SPEAKER_00: Are we building the church building simply to have more space for us?
SPEAKER_00: Are we building a church building simply to have our big, beautiful organ back?
SPEAKER_00: Building that church is going to be, it already is, for those of you that are not aware, it already is a hard thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to take financial sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to take uh compromise and openness to the fact that others have ideas that we don't agree with, or vice versa.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to take patience.
SPEAKER_00: Does anyone else here think that patience is a hard thing?
SPEAKER_00: It's a hard thing to build a church.
SPEAKER_00: But why should we do it?
SPEAKER_00: Paul said, I endure everything, that they also may attain the salvation that is in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Just as we built the school for the purpose of making a space for kids to learn about Jesus and to accept Jesus and have salvation, we build church so that the community around us can hear about Jesus and can have salvation.
SPEAKER_00: That's the reason, folks.
SPEAKER_00: There's no point in going through the hard things that we're gonna have to go through, to make the financial sacrifices that we're gonna have to make, to make the to have what we like and maybe not in that building.
SPEAKER_00: There's no point in going through this simply for the sake of an organ or to have more space.
SPEAKER_00: It has to be something bigger, and that bigger thing is the salvation of others.
SPEAKER_00: This coming fall and throughout 2027, and I I say that we should even say beyond that, we are going to embark on something that I think is even harder than building a church, and that is being the church.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's even harder than building a church.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what Ellen White wrote in Acts of the Apostles in the very first sentence there.
SPEAKER_00: She said, the church is Christ's appointed agency for the salvation of men.
SPEAKER_00: Period.
SPEAKER_00: Full stop.
SPEAKER_00: The church is Christ's appointed agency for the salvation of men.
SPEAKER_00: The hard thing that we collectively and individually are going to tackle together in the year ahead is obeying this commission.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' great commission at the very end of his ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Here's my commission for you.
SPEAKER_00: All you who are followers of me, Jesus said.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone who says, raises their hand and said, I'm a follower of Jesus, I'm a Christian, then Jesus says, Your commission is to go and make disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Dallas Willard, though, says in his book, The Great Omission, he states that the great omission of the Great Commission is the disobedience of the church in actually making disciples.
SPEAKER_00: In actually making disciples.
SPEAKER_00: The singular job description of a disciple is to make other disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Dallas Willard said this.
SPEAKER_00: And we must allow all else to fall away if it will.
SPEAKER_00: The General Conference, our world church, our global church, is taking up a tough task, a big initiative to accomplish this.
SPEAKER_00: Trying to galvanize the entire church to do the thing which is the one job description that we have as a church.
SPEAKER_00: And that is to be witnesses for the good news of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This initiative that the global church is taking on is called One Voice 27, Mission for All.
SPEAKER_00: The point of this initiative, just to simplify it down as best as I can, is this disciples witnessing to others that others might become disciples.
SPEAKER_00: That's the purpose of the One Voice 27 initiative.
SPEAKER_00: Disciples, if you're a follower of Jesus, you should be a disciple.
SPEAKER_00: Disciples witnessing to others that they may also be disciples of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It shouldn't be a hard thing, but it is a hard thing to convince Christians to stand up and raise their hand and say, I'm in.
SPEAKER_00: I'm willing to go and make disciples.
SPEAKER_00: I'm willing to speak with one voice, all participate in inviting the whole world to meet Jesus, the one who makes all things new, as Eric's prayed in his prayer.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't think this is a hard thing, then then search your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Search your calendar right now.
SPEAKER_00: What intentional actions did we take in the last week to make someone else a disciple of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: What conversations did we participate in to lead someone a step closer to Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: If you don't think it's hard things, think about what it is even just to disciple our own kids and the things that we know that maybe there's some things in our home that are that are contrary to being disciples of Jesus, and yet we have a hard time saying no to our kids in that.
SPEAKER_00: Think about the difficulty is, students, to go to your classmates and to stand up for what you believe and to think about the potential ridicule and maybe even loss of friendship that you have in those moments.
SPEAKER_00: What about to your colleagues?
SPEAKER_00: What about to your neighbors?
SPEAKER_00: I was thinking about this the other day because I went to a neighbor's first communion.
SPEAKER_00: One of our neighbors invited us to uh their daughter's first communion.
SPEAKER_00: So I went to her first communion afterwards.
SPEAKER_00: They were having this get together, and they wanted, uh, they invited our family.
SPEAKER_00: All my family was out of town.
SPEAKER_00: I was the only one, and Christina said, I said, I'll go to the first communion.
SPEAKER_00: She goes, You need to go to the get together afterwards too.
SPEAKER_00: And just going across the street and walking into someone's house, and just I've knocked on hundreds, maybe even thousands of doors.
SPEAKER_00: But man, there is nothing tougher sometimes than just knocking on a neighbor's door.
SPEAKER_00: Am I right?
SPEAKER_00: How many of us are willing to say, I'm willing to stand up and to be someone that will knock on someone else's door?
SPEAKER_00: To be one voice for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It is a hard thing.
SPEAKER_00: And it is made harder because it is made harder because all that God creates and all that God directs and all that God empowers are always opposed by the devil and others that are working with the devil, including sometimes people that are quote unquote believers.
SPEAKER_00: Think about the story in Numbers chapter 13.
SPEAKER_00: Merle referenced this in her reading in Numbers chapter 13, verse 1, where it talks about Caleb and Joshua.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says, The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, everyone, everyone a chief among them.
SPEAKER_00: So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Peran according to the command of the Lord, all of them men who were heads of the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: So then, so they went up and spied out the land.
SPEAKER_00: Now the setting here is that God wants them to go in and get a preview of the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: The land that God has promised.
SPEAKER_00: He said, This is where I'm taking you.
SPEAKER_00: You've been in slavery, you're now in this time of wandering and wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: I now want to take you into that promised land, that land that is a symbol of my commitment to you, that land that is a symbol of your salvation, a land that is your protection as well.
SPEAKER_00: So they went, and at the end of the forty days, they returned from spying out the land, and they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran and Kadesh.
SPEAKER_00: They brought back to them word of all the congreg, they brought back to them word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land.
SPEAKER_00: And they told him, We came to the land to which you sent us.
SPEAKER_00: It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, they went into this land and they said, Man, it is everything that God said it was.
SPEAKER_00: It's amazing.
SPEAKER_00: It's flowing with milk and honey.
SPEAKER_00: I don't drink milk anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's you two.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you don't like milk.
SPEAKER_00: So whatever your thing is, it's flowing with pizza.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever, whatever your thing is, it's flowing with that wonderful thing.
SPEAKER_00: And this is its fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Now, fruit I can get behind.
SPEAKER_00: I can get into that.
SPEAKER_00: I was in our garden yesterday evening with Christine, and we were picking our some of our berries.
SPEAKER_00: Half the berries end up in the bowl, half the berries end up in my belly.
SPEAKER_00: But it is good.
SPEAKER_00: I can get behind that.
SPEAKER_00: But whatever it is, they went in there and they see this and they say, Man, it is all that God said it is.
SPEAKER_00: It's a land flowing with milk and honey, and here's its fruit.
SPEAKER_00: It is amazing.
SPEAKER_00: But going in there is going to be a hard thing.
SPEAKER_00: They said, however, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large.
SPEAKER_00: And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there.
SPEAKER_00: The Amalachites dwell in the land of the Negev, the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country, and the Canaites dwell by the sea and along the Jordan.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, yeah, it is a good land.
SPEAKER_00: It is a good place.
SPEAKER_00: It has an abundance of things.
SPEAKER_00: It would be awesome to be there.
SPEAKER_00: But to do so is going to be a hard thing.
SPEAKER_00: So let's back away.
SPEAKER_00: But the Bible tells us there was a Caleb amongst them.
SPEAKER_00: His name was Caleb.
SPEAKER_00: Caleb quiet the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome.
SPEAKER_00: And you'd love for that moment to be like this galvanizing moment where Caleb says that, and all the other people say, Yeah, we're with you.
SPEAKER_00: And the guys who are the naysayers say, Okay, I guess we'll go there.
SPEAKER_00: You know, every preacher wants that.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to give that rah-rah speech, and everybody like charges out the doors and is excited about it.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not what happens.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible tells us the men who had gone up with him doubled down.
SPEAKER_00: And they said, We're not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.
SPEAKER_00: So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land they had spied out, saying, The land through which we have gone to spy it out is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height.
SPEAKER_00: And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim, and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and we seemed also to them like grasshoppers.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that all the congregation raised a loud cry and wept.
SPEAKER_00: And all the people of Israel complained and grumbled against Moses and Aaron.
SPEAKER_00: This land literally represents their salvation.
SPEAKER_00: It's God's directive.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to go into this land.
SPEAKER_00: And the people say, But it's a hard thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's a hard thing.
SPEAKER_00: Not all of them.
SPEAKER_00: There was Caleb and Joshua, the Bible tells us, the son of Nun, Joshua and Caleb, the son of Jepunah, who are among those who had spied out the land.
SPEAKER_00: They tore their clothes and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, The land which we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land.
SPEAKER_00: The other said it's a bad report, it was a bad land, after they didn't like what they heard.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's an exceedingly good land.
SPEAKER_00: If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey.
SPEAKER_00: Only do not rebel against the Lord and do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us.
SPEAKER_00: Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us.
SPEAKER_00: Do not fear them.
SPEAKER_00: Again, another moment where you wish that, like all the people said, Okay, let's do it.
SPEAKER_00: And yet what happens?
SPEAKER_00: Caleb and Joshua and Aaron and Moses, they get outvoted, I guess.
SPEAKER_00: And they go back.
SPEAKER_00: Into the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: They don't go into the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: And all those people who said this is too hard of a thing died in that wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: Because this was too hard of a thing.
SPEAKER_00: It literally was their salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, we are the spies on the edge of the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: Only our commission is not just to get ourselves into the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: Our commission is to bring people with us.
SPEAKER_00: And our commission is a hard thing.
SPEAKER_00: It is a hard thing to say to someone, come with me and meet the one who makes all things new.
SPEAKER_00: This can be a hard thing.
SPEAKER_00: But why do we do it?
SPEAKER_00: Because we must.
SPEAKER_00: And we've done hard things in the past.
SPEAKER_00: Today is a reminder of that.
SPEAKER_00: That this church took up the task and completed that task 15 years ago to build our school.
SPEAKER_00: Was that hard thing worth it?
SPEAKER_00: I'd say for 222 kids, amen, it was worth it.
SPEAKER_00: And more than that.
SPEAKER_00: And it is still worth it today.
SPEAKER_00: It's absolutely still worth it.
SPEAKER_00: We've done hard things.
SPEAKER_00: We've endured hard things.
SPEAKER_00: We do this so that others might have salvation.
SPEAKER_00: We have hard things ahead of us.
SPEAKER_00: We are going to build a beautiful church, a city on a hill.
SPEAKER_00: It literally will sit on a hill as you drive up New Hampshire there.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to be beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not for us.
SPEAKER_00: It's a light so that all may see and give glory to the God of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: We are going to join One Voice 27.
SPEAKER_00: It is our commission to go to be disciples who go and witness to the world to make other disciples.
SPEAKER_00: It will take us out of our comfort zones.
SPEAKER_00: It may bring us into, and I want to use this word loosely because I don't mean it how some people are having to suffer persecution in this world, but it will bring aspects of persecution.
SPEAKER_00: It'll be bring conflict.
SPEAKER_00: It'll be, it'll bring opposition.
SPEAKER_00: Just on that note, if I could say this to some of you right now, I want to say this.
SPEAKER_00: I thought of this this morning as I was spending some time in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are suffering through some things right now in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Financial, health, emotional things.
SPEAKER_00: The way you suffer through those things, I want you to know that hard thing in your life that you're suffering through right now, the way you suffer through that can be a testimony that can lead someone to salvation.
SPEAKER_00: I think of in the book of Colossians, chapter one, where Paul talks about his suffering and how his suffering, all the toil is worth it because as others see his suffering, some are coming to know Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Because they're observing how you're suffering and how your faith is remaining strong.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to encourage you in that.
SPEAKER_00: Landon had to see a specialist in Delaware just this last week.
SPEAKER_00: We understand some of those challenges, but but we believe the words of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And I hope that if you're suffering through something, you will believe the words of Jesus as well.
SPEAKER_00: An enemy has done this.
SPEAKER_00: But God can use what the enemy intends for evil to do good.
SPEAKER_00: And as someone sees how you suffer in faith, God can use that to save somebody.
SPEAKER_00: To save somebody.
SPEAKER_00: We did that so that we would give kids an opportunity to say yes to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna build a church, a beautiful church.
SPEAKER_00: We're doing that because we want it to be a tool that can be used to help people have the opportunity to say yes to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We individually and collectively as a church need to be willing to be disciple makers, even though it's a hard thing to give people the opportunity to say yes to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And how are we gonna do this hard thing?
SPEAKER_00: I don't have good words, but Jesus' words are the best.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said after he gave us that hard commission go make disciples.
SPEAKER_00: How are we gonna do this, Lord?
SPEAKER_00: He said very clearly to them, Behold, I am with you always.
SPEAKER_00: To the end of the age.
SPEAKER_00: You're going through hard things in your life.
SPEAKER_00: How, Lord, can this be used to share Jesus with others?
SPEAKER_00: Behold, Jesus says, I am with you even to the end of the age.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, thank you for that promise.
SPEAKER_00: May we do hard things because we believe this promise.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.