Rev. Colin Meneely_'Never Giving Up'_Sun 12 Apr 26

The Bible reading this morning is 2 Chronicles 15 v 1-7

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Gonna read a passage of scripture to you this morning from the word of God. And we're gonna turn to two Chronicles at chapter 15. Two chronicles in the Old Testament. Chapter 15. We're gonna be reading about one of the great kings of Israel, Esa. Now there are many, many kings in Israel and in Judah. Some were good, some were terrible, some were in between. But Esa was one of the good kings of Israel. And we're going to read a little bit about him in 2 Chronicles chapter 15, verses 1 to 7. The Spirit of God came to Azariah, son of Obad. He went out to meet Asa and said to him, Listen to me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin, these two of the tribes of Israel. The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you. But if you forsake him, he will forsake you. For a long time Israel was without the true God, without a priest to teach and without the law. But in their distress they turned to the Lord, the God of Israel and sought him, and he was found by them. In those days it was not safe to travel about, for all the inhabitants of the lands were in great turmoil. One nation was being crushed by another, and one city by another, because God was troubling them with every kind of distress. But as for you, be strong, do not give up, for your work will be rewarded. May Gl God bless his word to us this morning. In nineteen forty, may nineteen forty, our one of our late great prime ministers, Winston Churchill, stood up to address the nation. Well the actually the he got up at ten to four in the afternoon in the House of Commons and he sat down forty one minutes later. I'm not going to quote it to you, but you can read about it. What a wonderful speech, forty-one minutes, that dressed the nation and inspired them. Some years after the war, a few years after the war, Churchill was invited to speak at the prize day at his old school, charter house. And he accepted it. And so the day came, and Churchill arrived at his old school. By the way, I think he was a bit of a failure at school. He didn't do so well. But they invited him back. He was a great war leader, well, well known. So the day came and he went into the great assembly building. All the pupils were there, all the staff were there. It seemed to be the whole place was full of people. And the principal stood up quite nervously and introduced the honored guest, Sir Winston Churchill to address the school. So Churchill, after the announcements, moved forward to a lecture in something like this and he stood for a moment and shuffled what looked like a piece of paper. And then he said this never give up and he sat down. That was the speech. The man who stood for forty one minutes in the House of Commons, addressing the Empire four or five words, it was over in a flash. I suppose only Churchill could get away with something like that. Never give up. That's the theme for this morning and again this evening as we gather together around the Lord's Word. I want to speak about never giving up never giving in. And I want to look at various aspects of a Christian life and work and witness and service that we're all involved in to one degree or another, and there's a possibility that for some or maybe all of us, in some or all of these things we're going to look at today, there's the temptation I'm going to give up. I've had enough of this. I'm not getting anywhere in this matter, or with this person, or with this problem, or with this situation. I'm just going to give up. And today I want to say, as Churchill said, never, never give up. So what are we thinking about? First of all, never give up praying. Never give up praying. In Luke chapter eighteen, our Lord teaches a parable on prayer. It's a sort of unusual parable, and you wonder what's this got to do with prayer? It's the woman who comes the imp the widow who comes in the middle of the night and bangs on the j on the judge's door looking for justice. And she was annoying him, and she was disturbing his peace. And she kept coming to do this. And at the end of this parable of this woman and this judge, he's angry, she's angry too, she's angry with him, she's angry with what's happening, he's angry with her. Jesus said never give up praying. Never give up praying. Strange parable to do with prayer, but the point is never give up. And if you were to look at that parable in Luke chapter eighteen, there's a few things that we can say about this in relation to prayer and not giving up. We see her persistence. Luke eighteen tells us she kept coming to him. It wasn't just I'll just go the once. No. She kept coming, pestering this judge, annoying him, disturbing him. She was persistent. We also see that she was purposeful in her coming. She said in the parable to the judge, grant me justice. We're not exactly sure what the aspect of justice she was looking for, but she felt there was a grave injustice that needed to be addressed. And who better to address an injustice but a judge? And she said grant me justice. So her persistence had a purpose. It was purposeful. And the third thing that in this little wonderful parable is that she prevailed. The parable said Jesus said, I will see, says the judge, I will see that she gets justice. That's the judge. He didn't send her packing. He didn't say if you keep doing this, I'm gonna throw you into jail. No. He said, I will see that she gets justice. Persistence? Purposeful prevailing. And Jesus uses this parable to say never give up praying. Never give up praying. Be persistent. Be purposeful and prevail. Now I'm sure some of you, or maybe most of you, would have been a bit like me. In nineteen seventy-eight I give my heart to the Lord. I became a Christian. And I remember the next day, or perhaps that same day, I knew I was taught to pray for those who I knew who were not yet saved. And I did that. One of those I prayed for was my own brother-in-law. I started praying in nineteen seventy-eight for my brother-in-law to get saved. I prayed in nineteen seventy-eight, nineteen seventy-nine, nineteen eighty, all the way through for forty-two years. From nineteen seventy eight. I should maybe direct my prayer energies to someone else or something else. But somehow or other God kept it before me, and I kept praying and praying. And one day in Christmas twenty twenty I sat down with my brother in law in a local cafe over a cup of coffee. By the time the coffee was over, he had received Christ as his Savior and Lord. A year or so after that, my wife and I had the privilege of going to his baptismal service. And yet for him, I was so tempted to stop praying. Jesus said, Never, never give up praying. I wondered this morning, can you identify with that illustration, that story? Maybe you're saying, Cole, I I'm praying for a brother-in-law too, for 20 years, or a sister-in-law, or a son or a daughter, or whatever it might be. And do you know what? Times I just think I'm gonna give up. Don't give up. Don't give up. Keep praying. Now, to balance this story out, my brother-in-law obviously is married to my sister. And I started praying for her from 1978. She hasn't yet come to know the Lord. But I'm gonna keep praying. I'm gonna keep believing, I'm gonna keep persisting, I'm gonna be purposeful, and I'm going to prevail by the grace of God. Never give up praying. Number two. Never give up laboring for the Lord. If you've got your Bible, you might want to turn with me to this passage. It's Galatians chapter six and verse nine. It's a it's a passage I'm sure reasonably well known to you. Galatians six and verse nine. Now in this letter, Paul is addressing many issues, many problems and difficulties, but he's also talking about the Lord's work and how sometimes it can be difficult. Verse nine Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. If we do not give up. Previous verse, don't be deceived, God cannot be mocked, a man reaps what he sows, and etc, etc. The idea is laboring, how we labor, where we labor, where we sow our seed, where we hope to reap. And he's saying, Don't give up. Don't give up in your labors for the Lord. Now our labors for the Lord can be many and varied, public and private, known and unknown. God sees it all. God sees it all. God knows it all about our labors. Others might not, but he does. Never give up. The Bible is littered with individuals who had that spirit of never giving up Jeremiah, or sorry, Nehemiah, building the walls around Jerusalem, tempted to give up, threatened to give up, bullied to give up. Yet he didn't give up. Joshua walking around the walls of Jericho seven times, wasn't it? I wonder after two or three did he think this is stupid? Why am I doing this? Might have been tempted to give up. Maybe after six he might have thought this is it. I'm gonna give up. There's some other way. No. Seven times didn't give up, and the walls came down. What about Moses leading the children of Israel? Several million of them out of Egypt. Read about it. The wilderness years, the difficulties, the hardships, the moaning, the complaining, the backbiting, all of those things. And Moses was tempted more than once to give up. But he didn't. He didn't.

SPEAKER_00 16:16

His aim and the goal was for the promised land. What about people outside of the Bible?

SPEAKER_01 16:28

Maybe you're doing some ministry in the church. And when I say ministry, I'm not just talking about the minister. The minister is not the only one who ministers. Jim is not the only one who ministers in this church. I used to say to my churches before I retired, listen, if you love the Lord, if you're filled with his spirit, he has a ministry for you. It might well be the ordained ministry, it might well be a missionary overseas, but often most of us are serving in the church, doing things, all kinds of things. Greeting at the door, leading a Bible study, teaching a Sunday school, a BB captain, a GB officer, making the tea, tidying up, putting the tables up and the chairs up and putting them again. All of those things, giving out leaflets, tracts, and invitations. All ministry. And sometimes we're tempted to give I'm gonna give up. I've been doing this for years. And either, these are the things that I hear over the years, either no one says thank you, no one shows any gratitude, or I'm not seeing any fruit for my labors. I'm gonna give up. Don't give up. Don't give up. Never give up. God can sustain you and encourage you and help you. And if the rewards are not in this life, they will certainly be in the next life. What about church? I can safely say I only know by first name Morrison Sandra. I'm sorry, I don't know any other names. So I know very little about the church. I know Jim, of course. But maybe you're saying I'm gonna give up in this church. I'm gonna go to a bigger church. I'm gonna go where the crowds are. Don't give up. Don't give up on your church where God has placed you, where God wants you to be. Whatever's happened. Unless God makes it very, very clear that he can use you in a better place in a better way, don't give up. And in your labors for the Lord, never give up on people. People over thirty years ago. More than actually friend of my mother's called me and said, Colin, would you do something for me? Would you please go and visit my nephew John? I said, Certainly, what's the issue? Well she told me the issue. Young man, very talented builder. Have you ever down in Castle Court Belfast? John helped build that. But John was an alcoholic. When he was sober, he was such a lovely person. But when he wasn't, he was different. So I started visiting and praying with John. Not just in his house, but in various hospitals and institutions where he would have to be committed to deal with his alcoholism. This went on for several years, and I thought I'm getting nowhere. This is a I'm I have a church, I have other people I could be, you know, visiting and praying with. But no. God prevailed upon me to not give up on John. Not just because he is my friend's nephew, but there was something, keep at this, don't give up with him. So I stuck at it as much as I could, praying, visiting, encouraging, giving literature. One day my phone rang. And it was John. He said, Colin, I've two things to tell you. Number one, I've given my life to the Lord. Listen to this now. Number two, I'm doing missionary work. I said, What? Yep. He named the mission organization. He named them. And I won't today because of the nature of their work, but he was going in and out of European countries taking the Gospel literature, Bibles and tracts and things like that with great danger. I said, John, you must come to one of my churches. And he came and he talked about his the role. And I looked at it and I thought, is this the same person that I sat in Purdy's burn with and other places? It was. I was tempted to give up on him. Well it didn't. It wasn't me, it was God that did it. But you get the point. Someone was there. Never give up on people when you're laboring for the Lord. And thirdly, finally this morning, never give up pursuing holiness. Never give up pursuing holiness. Now I read to you this morning from two Chronicles fifteen, and I drew attention to verse seven addressed to Esa the king. Never give up. Never give up was the word to Asa. Never give up what? His pursuit of holiness. If you were to know the history of Esa and Israel at this time and the words of the prophet to him, Israel had lost their way. They had gone into idolatry. They had remained, they became unfaithful to the Lord. They became, as Hosea would have called, a harlot. And the country was surrounded by idolatry and things that were displeasing to the Lord. But when Asa became king, he came as a reforming king. He came to clean things up, to get rid of all the unholy things, and bring back the things that were holy unto the Lord and unto his people. And if you read 2 Chronicles 15, the whole chapter, and I encourage you to do it, you will notice that three things he does in that chapter about holiness. Number one, he renounces unholiness. Number two, he removes things that were unholy to the Lord. And number three, he restored things that were holy unto the Lord. Renouncing, removing, and restoring in his pursuit of holiness. And you're saying, what has Asa and Israel got to do with me? I think everything. God has not only saved us, but he has called us to be a holy people. Holiness unto the Lord, as the old hymn says, is our watchword and song. Holiness unto the Lord now and forever. We are to be a holy people. And we can take the principles of Asa and apply them to our own lives. Renouncing, as Christians, we need to renounce the things in our thoughts and in our actions and in our associations which we know are unholy. And not only renounce them, but remove them through confession unto the Lord to remove those things that we know to be unholy in our lives and to restore the spirit of holiness within us. Many years ago Jerry Bridges wrote a book called The Pursuit of Holiness. How right he was. It's a pursuit, it's not a one-off event. It's a continual discipline of mind and heart and spirit and action, a spirit that wants to be holy and pursuing holiness for the rest of our days. And God said to Asa as he says to me and to you this morning in this matter of pursuing holiness, never give up. Never give up. Charles Wesley wrote a hymn. I guarantee you at some wedding or other this was part of it. Love divine we had at our wedding. It's a great hymn, but it's not a wedding hymn. It's a holiness hymn. It's a hymn about the Christian pursuing holiness. Listen to this. Come almighty to deliver. Let us all thy life let us all thy life receive, suddenly return and never, never more thy temples leave, thee we would be always blessing, serve thee as our host above, pray and praise thee without ceasing, glory in thy perfect love. Finish then finish then thy new creation. Pure and spotless let us be, let us see thy great salvation perfectly restored in thee, change from glory into glory. Listen to the next line. Till in heaven we take our place. See that? Change from glory into glory till in heaven we take our place. In other words, the glory unto glory, the holiness unto holiness happens in this life. It happens in this life. We are pursuing this until what? We cast our crimes before thee, lost in wonder, love and praise. What a hymn. It's a hymn to pursue holiness until he comes or calls. Never give up. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you this morning for your precious word. We thank you for the never give ups in it. Implicit and often explicit. Lord help us. Please help us to never give up praying. To never give up laboring for the Lord. Whatever else is happening around us. And to never give up on our pursuit for holiness. We thank you that we're not left to struggle on our own to do this. We have the encouragement of the Father to do it, the example of the Lord Jesus to do it, and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to do it. So help us. We'll give you all the praise and all the glory for Jesus' sake.

SPEAKER_00 31:27

Amen.