SPEAKER_00: Well good morning.
SPEAKER_00: Happy Mother's Day.
SPEAKER_00: Moms?
SPEAKER_00: It's a special day.
SPEAKER_00: I am so grateful first and foremost for my wife Shannon, who is an awesome mom.
SPEAKER_00: And uh now we get to see my daughters and daughters-in-law uh be part of the mom journey.
SPEAKER_00: And it's uh wonderful city.
SPEAKER_00: I'm particularly grateful to them because they keep adding grandbabies.
SPEAKER_00: Keep on coming, ladies.
SPEAKER_00: Keep on doing it.
SPEAKER_00: It hit me that uh this month will uh mark the fifth year anniversary of my mom's passing.
SPEAKER_00: Um and I have I miss her.
SPEAKER_00: I miss talking to her.
SPEAKER_00: I miss being able to call her and just share thoughts and ideas and how things are going and her with her wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Uh she would give me these wise sayings that she would say in her French accent.
SPEAKER_00: Uh my mom was born and raised in a little island called Mauritius, which is off the southern uh the coast of southern Africa.
unknown: Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00: It was a colony.
SPEAKER_00: Once first it was Dutch, and then it was French, and then it was British.
SPEAKER_00: So my mom was raised speaking French and Creole, but then her education system was all in English.
SPEAKER_00: So that was uh was an interesting combination.
SPEAKER_00: But so she had this French accent, and she would come up with these sayings.
SPEAKER_00: I think I've shared over the years some of the sayings.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the one that everyone remembers is the one that she learned from her Irish nun school teacher, right?
SPEAKER_00: Love everybody, trust a few, paddle your own canoe.
SPEAKER_00: That works, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: One that I uh I remember she saying that I know was original to her.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I've shared this with you before on the power of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: She used to say, if you're going to pray for a bike, you might as well pray for a red one.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And uh I've shared that over the years, and I've heard in the language, particularly the language of Mount Carmel, people talking about their red bike prayers.
SPEAKER_00: Pretty cool.
SPEAKER_00: Another one she used to say is if there are swallows in your garden, it must be a happy place.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm not sure where that one came from.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I guess she's saying that if you have birds flying around, of course, you know, if they're buzzards, it might not be a happy place, but uh but it is birds flying around your yard, it's a happy place.
SPEAKER_00: One that she got for, I believe, from my grandfather, uh, one that I know I've used over the years in counseling as I've talked to people in the midst of crisis, in the midst of difficulties, in the midst of the storms of life, uh, a saying she used to say is when the storm is raging, the ships stay in the harbor.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought that was a as a powerful bit of advice that during the midst of crisis, in the midst of difficult times, don't make major life-changing decisions because of the storm.
SPEAKER_00: Sit still and let things uh settle down and get your bearings so that you can make wise decisions.
SPEAKER_00: One last one, and and this might take a bit of work for us to get, but she used to say, Don't lose the horse for a nail.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, What?
SPEAKER_00: Don't lose so I had to do a little digging on what that meant.
SPEAKER_00: So those of you that are familiar, horses wear horseshoes, and those horseshoes would be attached by these little nails.
SPEAKER_00: And she would make the saying, don't lose the horse for a nail.
SPEAKER_00: If you notice there's a small nail out of the horseshoe, it doesn't mean that the horse is lost.
SPEAKER_00: And it was a great advice.
SPEAKER_00: Don't let the little things, the little irritations, the the little things that that will inevitably come in life, don't let the little things uh cause you to lose it all.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a bit of advice that talks to about keeping things in perspective, keeping the main things, the main things when you face difficulties in life that are inevitably temporary small irritations.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I think this is where the shirt uh is getting to.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Craig and Danette, for this gift.
SPEAKER_00: It was given to me.
SPEAKER_00: They said, I know you like shirts, but marriage is hard, right?
SPEAKER_00: But what's it say, but worth it?
SPEAKER_00: What's this talking about?
SPEAKER_00: Marriage is hard, it takes hard work, but it's worth it.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, in marriage, you'll face difficult times, you'll face trials, but don't lose the horse for a nail.
SPEAKER_00: Don't lose the hole when you go through seasons of trial.
SPEAKER_00: Stay the course, endure, remain committed to doing what you're called to do, honoring God.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we're gonna be talking about today.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be talking about this morning resilience, patience, endurance, perseverance.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, we're we're we're focusing this series, Bloom, on 2 Peter chapter 1, where 2 Peter chapter 1, where Peter says, look, God's divine power, the resources of God in your life by his Holy Spirit, gives his children everything they need for a for life and godliness.
SPEAKER_00: And that includes the ability to stay the course during tough times.
SPEAKER_00: You read scripture, what you find is that Jesus guaranteed, uh Joe just made reference to this uh just a few seconds, a few moments ago, Jesus guaranteed that if you follow him, it would not be easy.
SPEAKER_00: You will face difficulties, heartaches, difficult suffering.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the way he said it was quite shocking to his first audience when he said it.
SPEAKER_00: He said, if you want to follow me, you've got to take up your what?
SPEAKER_00: Can anyone tell me?
SPEAKER_00: Take up your what?
SPEAKER_00: Take up your cross and follow me.
SPEAKER_00: And what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: Well, today we we've kind of lost the impact of that statement.
SPEAKER_00: Take up your cross.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what's a cross?
SPEAKER_00: The cross is an instrument of execution.
SPEAKER_00: At the time Jesus said it was in the first century, and the Romans would use crucifixion as a means of execution, it was a a way to bring about a humiliating, painful, terrible death to anyone who would go up against them.
SPEAKER_00: So when Jesus says, If you're gonna follow me, you're gonna have to be willing to die.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have to be willing to die to self in order to follow me.
SPEAKER_00: Now, it goes a little deeper than that because Jesus said this primarily to a Jewish audience, and the Judish audience, when he first said it, were individuals that grew up learning the law of God, learning from the text of Hebrews, uh the Hebrew text of Deuteronomy, where Moses said, Cursed is anyone who's hung on a tree, cursed is anyone before God who dies on a tree.
SPEAKER_00: It's because of this, is that the that the leaders, the religious leaders, told the Roman authorities, told Pilate, hey, we need you to get the bodies down, Jesus and the others, we need you to get it down off the cross before the beginning of Passover because it's an abomination to God.
SPEAKER_00: It's a great offense to see people hanging on a tree.
SPEAKER_00: And what Jesus was saying is not only you have to be willing to die for yourself, but you have to be willing in following him to be cursed, to be considered a curse.
SPEAKER_00: Take up the cross, follow me.
SPEAKER_00: It means that the world will persecute you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said it.
SPEAKER_00: If they crucified me, what do you think they're gonna do to you?
SPEAKER_00: And we find in the narrative scripture this message that says, those who who choose to follow God in the world that now is under the under the control, the jurisdiction of the enemy will face opposition by the unseen powers of the enemy, Satan, his demons, the power structures of the world under their control.
SPEAKER_00: You choose to follow God, you're going to face difficulty which will require this characteristic of perseverance to get you through.
SPEAKER_00: About 25 years ago, my family and I were going through very, very tough times.
SPEAKER_00: Very tough times.
SPEAKER_00: We come through a season of extreme difficulty, and we're at the point where we're just exhausted, spent, and I was like ready to be done.
SPEAKER_00: Shannon and I would have conversations where we would start dreaming about hey, what would happen if we just packed up and left and went to Texas?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know why we chose Texas, but Texas seemed to be like the furthest place we could get from this place that we would think we'd like to live.
SPEAKER_00: So we would have these let's get to Texas conversations.
SPEAKER_00: I went to get counsel during this season from one of my former college Bible college professors.
SPEAKER_00: At the time, he was the president of the Bible College, Cincinnati Bible College and Seminary.
SPEAKER_00: It was called back in the day.
SPEAKER_00: This was before it became CCU, Cincinnati Christian University.
SPEAKER_00: This man's name was David Faust.
SPEAKER_00: And what I did was I kind of went to him, Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Faust, and I shared with him our situation, and I kind of poured out my heart about where we were and what we were considering and just the situation.
SPEAKER_00: And Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Faust listened, and then he he said, you know, this reminds me of a story that's contained in the book of Exodus.
SPEAKER_00: You know, remember when when Moses led the people of Israel as they followed God to the promised land?
SPEAKER_00: Remember when they came, they came out of Egypt, and as they were going along, they were pursued by by Pharaoh's army, and they came to the Red Sea, and they were like trapped.
SPEAKER_00: They had the sea on one side, and Pharaoh's armies coming at him, another, and God intervened, and he he he kind of got between the people and and Pharaoh's army, and then he performed a miracle.
SPEAKER_00: What did he do?
SPEAKER_00: He he opened up the Red Sea for a dry path for the people to go across.
SPEAKER_00: And then we're told that what happened next, once the people were on the other side of the Red Sea, uh God made it open so that the Egyptians could see what was happening, and the Egyptian army pursued the Israelites, and as they were trying to cross over to get to the Israelites, God closed up the oceans and they were washed away, and the people of Israel were delivered.
SPEAKER_00: And in Exodus chapter 15, verse 22, this is what it says Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went into the desert of Shur.
SPEAKER_00: For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 23.
SPEAKER_00: Then they came to Marah.
SPEAKER_00: Now the word Mara means bitterness.
SPEAKER_00: It's important that you remember this.
SPEAKER_00: Then they came to Mara, and you get the sense that they came to a place where there was water.
SPEAKER_00: Number of years ago, when I was in student ministry, one of the things that I did, being the crazy man that I was, is I took a bunch of high schoolers on a wilderness trip, and we went and we hiked the Appalachian Trail in West Virginia.
SPEAKER_00: And it was in the summertime, it was hot, and we were following this guide who was familiar with the trail and knew where the springs of water were along the way, different stages where he knew where the springs of water were.
SPEAKER_00: Well, so he thought.
SPEAKER_00: So as we were going along, I'm with all these kids, and these kids were carrying their backpacks, and it's a tough trail, and it's getting hard, and we come to a place where there's supposed to be water and there's no water.
SPEAKER_00: And you thought you would have thought the world was coming to an end.
SPEAKER_00: These, you know, these are all suburban kids that don't know anything about the wilderness and oh no, we're gonna die.
SPEAKER_00: And there are the drama and everything else.
SPEAKER_00: So, well, we've got to push on.
SPEAKER_00: We've got to push on to the next one, which is only about an hour or two hour hike from here.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it wasn't very far.
SPEAKER_00: Plus, I had plenty of water on the side.
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't a mean youth minister I had there, but I didn't let them know that.
SPEAKER_00: So we we we kept moving, and of course, then it's like people like and they were dragging, and you thought they were gonna die, and you saw some heroic things.
SPEAKER_00: Some of the guys that wanted to score points with the girls were like, I'll take it back back, you know, I'll do heroes.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and so we came to this spot where there was water, and the water was there, it was this little spring, and I was amazed at the transformation of these kids.
SPEAKER_00: All of a sudden, they had energy, all of a sudden they were happy.
SPEAKER_00: All of a sudden they were sprinting down the hill.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, water, water, and they went to the water and they drank and they were very happy.
SPEAKER_00: Well, imagine that that moment.
SPEAKER_00: So the people of Israel, three days, they have no water, they come tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Their expectation is that they found water to drink.
SPEAKER_00: There's there's an expectation of, oh, yes, finally, God has led us to a place where we go, and they run down to the water, and instead of being able to drink the water, they taste it and they're like, oh, this is disgusting.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it says has happened.
SPEAKER_00: And I just I tell you that story because I want you to kind of see the highs and lows of this emotion here.
SPEAKER_00: It says, When they came to Mara, they could not drink its water because it was bitter.
SPEAKER_00: That's why the place is called Marah.
SPEAKER_00: It's like it's called Marah, people, because it's bitter water.
SPEAKER_00: Duh.
SPEAKER_00: So don't drink the water there.
SPEAKER_00: So the people grumbled against Moses, verse 24, saying, What are we to drink?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the path of obedience, sometimes the path of faith goes through Mara.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the way of following God and commitments you make that you know honor Him, whether it be in relationships, whether it be in work and career, whether it be in your walk of faith, you go through bitter seasons.
SPEAKER_00: One of my mentors used to say, you're either coming out of a challenge in the middle of a challenge or going into a challenge.
SPEAKER_00: And the walk of faith with Jesus is going to take you through Mara, bitter waters.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you are in a season of Mara now.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's a season of Mara with your marriage.
SPEAKER_00: Things are going sour in your marriage and it's difficult days.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's in your parenting.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's with your health.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's with your career path or your financials or your relationships with friends.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's personal where you're going through a season of morrow where you're dealing with depression and and anxiety and difficulties.
SPEAKER_00: And in all of this, you're you're trying to honor God.
SPEAKER_00: You're not trying to do things on your own.
SPEAKER_00: You're praying hard.
SPEAKER_00: You're trying to live by faith.
SPEAKER_00: You're you're trying to be virtuous, you're trying to grow in your knowledge of God's word so that you might live out God's word.
SPEAKER_00: You're trying to have self-control, but you're in a season of Mara.
SPEAKER_00: It's difficulty.
SPEAKER_00: You're facing opposition, you're facing difficulties that just discourage you and just make you want to say, uh, God, where are you?
SPEAKER_00: You know, I don't know of any mom who does not carry some pain or bitterness or burden for being a mom.
SPEAKER_00: I I I know there are moms here who are moms, women who dread Mother's Day.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because their relationship with their mom is Mara.
SPEAKER_00: Or their experience of motherhood is Mara.
SPEAKER_00: They can't have kids, or their kids are breaking their heart by the decisions that they're making in life.
SPEAKER_00: And even even moms that quote unquote have lots to give thanks for.
SPEAKER_00: They have great kids and they have have a great family situation.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know any mom that doesn't carry a burden of guilt, feeling like they didn't do enough, aren't doing enough, regretting decisions or words or actions that they've made that they believe may have hurt their kids in some way, that are not burdened, dealing with bitterness or a burden or a Mara because of the worry of for their kids.
SPEAKER_00: And and in motherhood, following God brings them to those places we call Mara.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in the story, what we're told is that the people lost their minds when they got to Mara.
SPEAKER_00: They had this high expectation that God provided water for them.
SPEAKER_00: They tasted it, it was bitter, and they began to grumble.
SPEAKER_00: They grumbled against Moses when in fact they were grumbling against God.
SPEAKER_00: I have I have family in England that have a beautiful word for this.
SPEAKER_00: You may have heard this before.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you have heard the word whinging?
SPEAKER_00: They were whinging.
SPEAKER_00: It's a combination of whining and complaining.
SPEAKER_00: It's just a beautiful word.
SPEAKER_00: It's one of those words that actually the sound of it captures the emotion.
SPEAKER_00: Whinging.
SPEAKER_00: The people began to whinge.
SPEAKER_00: Oh no, why be brought us out here?
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna die.
SPEAKER_00: Now, mind you, it's only three days since God delivered them from the army of Pharaoh with this unbelievable miracle of parting the Red Sea.
SPEAKER_00: Only three days.
SPEAKER_00: And I got to think, wow, isn't that just like us?
SPEAKER_00: We so quick forget God's goodness and power that whenever we come up against a trial or suffering or hardship, we forget how God has delivered us in the past because of the of the difficulties of the present.
SPEAKER_00: And so God directed Moses and he said, Look, these people, okay, do this.
SPEAKER_00: He get a piece of wood, throw it into the into the water, and it says that miraculously the water turned sweet, and they were able to drink, and God provided for them in the bitterness.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the lesson that Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Faust wanted me to know.
SPEAKER_00: He said, It's interesting.
SPEAKER_00: You read this, you focus on the miracle, but you you many times miss over verse 27.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 27 says this.
SPEAKER_00: Then they came to Elam, where there were 12 springs and 27 palm trees, and they camped there near the water.
SPEAKER_00: God had always been leading them to Elam.
SPEAKER_00: An oasis of 12 springs.
SPEAKER_00: That's an oasis for each of the 12 tribes.
SPEAKER_00: Not just one water source for 12 tribes to share, but one water source for each tribe.
SPEAKER_00: And 70 palm trees.
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about a place of recovery, provision, and blessing.
SPEAKER_00: Now, based on the traditional Exodus drought calculations, the distance between Marah to Elim is approximately five to twelve miles.
SPEAKER_00: What's clear is that the distance between Mara and Elim was considered to be a short journey, less than a day's walk.
SPEAKER_00: And this is where my friend challenged me.
SPEAKER_00: He said, in your season of Marah, in this difficult times that you're facing, in this time where you want to give up, where you begin to whinge against God because things are getting bitter and difficulty.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you need to think about that that if you're following God, you need to trust in God, stay faithful, because God is leading you to Elam.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you just need to persevere.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm glad I was able to heed his wise counsel and able to see God's divine power provide what was needed so that we would stay the course and be obedient.
SPEAKER_00: Because if that happened, didn't we hadn't done that, who knows?
SPEAKER_00: We probably would have been in Texas and not here.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the gift of perseverance.
SPEAKER_00: Perseverance is the way that God brings to life the godliness, life brings to life and godliness into the life of the Jesus follower.
SPEAKER_00: And so let's get into our text, 2 Peter 1.
SPEAKER_00: For this very reason, remember, make every effort to add to your faith goodness and to goodness knowledge, and to knowledge self-control, and to self-control.
SPEAKER_00: Here's our word, perseverance.
SPEAKER_00: Perseverance.
SPEAKER_00: Bible word for perseverance, New Testament Greek word, hupomone.
SPEAKER_00: Hupomane.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, I said we don't know exactly how it's pronounced.
SPEAKER_00: We can pronounce it however we want, whatever it looks like, because it's a dead language, but we we don't know how to say it, but we do know what it means.
SPEAKER_00: Hupomane is one word that that's a word that's made up of two concepts, two words that make one meaning.
SPEAKER_00: Huppo means under.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, the Greek word is upo, it's a U P O using, you know, but it's got a little funny thing over it, which makes it an H sound.
SPEAKER_00: Those of you that are nerds like that kind of stuff, so I'm telling you there.
SPEAKER_00: Hupo means under.
SPEAKER_00: Money means to stay, to remain.
SPEAKER_00: You could say stand in place, put them together what you have.
SPEAKER_00: It says remain under.
SPEAKER_00: It's the gift of remaining under.
SPEAKER_00: Remaining under what?
SPEAKER_00: Remaining under the pressure.
SPEAKER_00: Remaining under the challenges, under the difficulties.
SPEAKER_00: It's you could say it's suffering in the course of doing what's right.
SPEAKER_00: It's suffering in the task.
SPEAKER_00: It's suffering in the journey.
SPEAKER_00: It's suffering in the battle.
SPEAKER_00: I like how one person put it.
SPEAKER_00: He said, think of a beast of burden remaining steadily under control, the ox, yoked to a plow, breaking the stiff soil of its owner's field.
SPEAKER_00: No matter whether the plow runs into rocks, stumps, or heavy sod, the patient beast just pushes on steadily.
SPEAKER_00: Regardless of summer sun, the anoints of flies or chilling winds, the strong beast goes on breaking the ground for his master.
SPEAKER_00: Hupamani.
SPEAKER_00: Hupamani is Atlas.
SPEAKER_00: How many are familiar with the Greek mythological figure of Atlas, the one that's holding up the world on his shoulders?
SPEAKER_00: That's Hupamani.
SPEAKER_00: He stands under the weight, he endures the burden.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't drop it.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't let go.
SPEAKER_00: He holds on steadily.
SPEAKER_00: Now I would define hoopamani as as this.
SPEAKER_00: I would say it is staying the right course under pressure.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm staying the right course because many times I think that we believe that if we just keep busy, that's hoopamone.
SPEAKER_00: If we just keep working, that's hoopamani.
SPEAKER_00: But being busy, constantly on the go, doing things that are not necessarily fruitful is not perseverance.
SPEAKER_00: The mouse running the little tread thing is busy, but he's going nowhere.
SPEAKER_00: And he's putting in the effort, yes, and and and he's and he's given all he can and he's and he's sticking with it, but he's going nowhere.
SPEAKER_00: Being busy in things that are not worth suffering for is not perseverance.
SPEAKER_00: That's just being foolish.
SPEAKER_00: So perseverance is to be be committed to fulfill the calling that God has placed on your life.
SPEAKER_00: It's being committed to living God's word with the resources that God provides and not letting go in that.
SPEAKER_00: Now remember, perseverance is part of this list that Peter has laid out these days.
SPEAKER_00: Look, as a child of God, you've got divine power provided for everything you need to live a life, to live life and have godliness.
SPEAKER_00: And so you do your part.
SPEAKER_00: You start with faith.
SPEAKER_00: You start with believing that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_00: And then you make every add every effort to add to your faith goodness.
SPEAKER_00: You start to try to live consistently by your faith.
SPEAKER_00: And to your goodness you add knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: You learn scripture so you can live scripture.
SPEAKER_00: And you add to your knowledge self-control.
SPEAKER_00: You live scripture so that you might submit yourself to the lordship of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You walk by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Remember what we said self-control is?
SPEAKER_00: It's control, it's the self under the control of the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_00: And when you choose to love Jesus by obeying his commandments for living, you add self-control.
SPEAKER_00: And what do you're to add self-control?
SPEAKER_00: Perseverance.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because when you stand up for Jesus, you stand out for trouble.
SPEAKER_00: And you'll go through seasons of trial.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to come to the well of Mara more than one time in your life journey.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, you trust that God has Elam.
SPEAKER_00: Elam in store for you.
SPEAKER_00: The oasis of 12 sweet water wells and 70 palm trees.
SPEAKER_00: All you need to do is trust Him and keep moving in obedience.
SPEAKER_00: Stay the course.
SPEAKER_00: The right course under pressure.
SPEAKER_00: And you suffer because you know in perseverance, this is how God's divine power activates transformation in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Contemporary leader of Peter in the early church, his name was James, he wrote these words regarding perseverance, whoopomani.
SPEAKER_00: This is what he said.
SPEAKER_00: Consider it all joy.
SPEAKER_00: I'm reading for the New American Standard Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
SPEAKER_00: The testing of your faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its perfect result, so you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing.
SPEAKER_00: The reason why I chose N-A-S-B is because I love that word perfect and complete lack in nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Consider it all joy that you suffer because it produces endurance.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because you like pain, because you like to suffer?
SPEAKER_00: No, because of what it does in you, what God does in you through it.
SPEAKER_00: Perfect and complete lacking in nothing.
SPEAKER_00: That word is a word that's another favorite of mine, it's called teleos, which means you you become mature in who you are.
SPEAKER_00: It means you're able to be at full capacity, full competency, the best you can be to face the challenges and opportunities of life.
SPEAKER_00: In this way, I would think of perseverance as an athlete.
SPEAKER_00: What is perseverance?
SPEAKER_00: It's the pain that comes from training.
SPEAKER_00: Read a book by a preacher named Joey Martin called Stand Firm, Act Like Men.
SPEAKER_00: Joey Martin was a football player, an athlete.
SPEAKER_00: He was a gym rat, big, big man.
SPEAKER_00: He said he volunteered to work with his son's high school football on their training.
SPEAKER_00: So he went into the gym one early one morning and he was going there to help the athletes train, and he noticed that all of them were just standing around talking.
SPEAKER_00: They weren't getting to work.
SPEAKER_00: And he watched and he watched and he watched until he couldn't watch anymore.
SPEAKER_00: And being a pretty outspoken person, he blurted out for everyone to hear.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody wants to be strong, but no one wants to be sore.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody wants to be strong.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone wants the blessings of God in their life.
SPEAKER_00: They want the transformation that occurs by accessing the divine power that God provides.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone wants to see the the gifts of the Spirit in their life.
SPEAKER_00: They want God's blessing.
SPEAKER_00: They want to be able to be made into mature and strong in the faith.
SPEAKER_00: But nobody wants to be sore.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody wants to endure through perseverance.
SPEAKER_00: But perseverance is the way in which God works, even though it's soul, to make you strong.
SPEAKER_00: It's the way God activates his divine power in you.
SPEAKER_00: So the question for all to consider, and I'm going to ask that you would ask this question of yourself, ask your question of the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_00: In your walk of faith, where do you need to persevere?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you need to persevere in not being a person that lashes back at the person who offends you.
SPEAKER_00: I can think of maybe some of you that are behind the wheel in a car and someone cuts you off.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm saying, and you want to tell them they're number one, but maybe you need to persevere, not lashing back.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you need to persevere in accepting delay or disappointment, graciously, trusting in the Lord, waiting for his answer.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you need to take a deep breath and offer a prayer for a generous willingness to understand and be patient with difficult people or disturbing events that enter into your life.
SPEAKER_00: As a man or a woman, husband or wife, father or mother, maybe you need to remain steadfast in your commitment under the strain of the complexities of those commitments and all the pressures that it brings.
SPEAKER_00: You need to remain under the strain by pressing on doing what honors God.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe perseverance means being willing to ask God in prayer for what you need and then to wait on God, being alert and watchful for the time to act.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe perseverance means accepting a difficult situation without giving God a deadline to remove it.
SPEAKER_00: Where in your life do you need to have that calm endurance based on trusting God who leads you through the bitterness of Mara to the blessing of Elam?
SPEAKER_00: So, since this is Mother's Day, I think I want to end with a story of a mom who persevered in her faith.
SPEAKER_00: Susanna Wesley.
SPEAKER_00: She's been called the mother of Methodism because she raised both John and Charles Wesley, who were the individuals that founded the Methodist movement.
SPEAKER_00: Susanna, according to history, had 17 children, although some say she had 19.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, it's a lot of kids.
SPEAKER_00: But her journey as a mom was not easy.
SPEAKER_00: Like many mothers of her time, she lost babies.
SPEAKER_00: Nine of her babies died as infants.
SPEAKER_00: Moms, can you imagine dealing with losing nine children?
SPEAKER_00: Talk about coming to the well of Mara.
SPEAKER_00: Nine times going through bitter seasons.
SPEAKER_00: Yet the testament of her life was that she was a remarkable woman of faith, embodied perseverance.
SPEAKER_00: She was highly educated, home educated, deeply pious, strong-willed, a strong-willed figure, implemented religious, rigorous religious instruction, daily schedules for her children, which profoundly shaped their spiritual lives and influenced the development of Methodism.
SPEAKER_00: Every one of her living children went into ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Either they became ministers or the girls married ministers.
SPEAKER_00: She once wrote in a letter these words.
SPEAKER_00: She said, I look upon every soul under my charge, referring to her children.
SPEAKER_00: I look upon every soul under my charge as a talent committed to me under a trust.
SPEAKER_00: She was a pastor's wife, raised her many children in a small home.
SPEAKER_00: So solitude was hard to come by.
SPEAKER_00: And like all mothers, all mothers of today, the demands on her were huge, and she yet continued to make every effort to add to her faith goodness, to her goodness, knowledge, to her knowledge, self-control, to her self-control, perseverance.
SPEAKER_00: And how did she do that?
SPEAKER_00: She did that through being committed to the practices, making every effort that connected her with God.
SPEAKER_00: Whether it be the study of the word, whether it be service, whether it be open up in her kitchen to provide services, to reach out to her neighbors.
SPEAKER_00: One of the things that Joanna uh Susanna Wesley was well known for was that in order to have time with God in prayer, she would pray in a rocking chair that was located in the middle of the room.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, you've got to imagine the room, people all over the place, and so she had a signal.
SPEAKER_00: When she threw her blanket over herself, or she threw her her apron over her head, the kids knew that this was her time to leave her alone because she was praying to God.
SPEAKER_00: For when she threw a blanket over herself, it turned into her tent of meeting with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And she persevered in that, and look at the legacy that she left behind through her perseverance.
SPEAKER_00: And so let me ask you again in your walk of faith, where do you need to persevere?
SPEAKER_00: If you would, before we close with prayer, if you would grab your communion cups, and if you could get uh the top open and pull out the uh little piece of bread, and then open below it the cup so that you can drink the juice.
SPEAKER_00: What we what we know is that communion is a time where we remember the body of Jesus, the life that Jesus gave for the payment that was due for our sins.
SPEAKER_00: And we drink of the cup and we remember the blood shed on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And in all of this, what we what we're recognize, what we remember is that God has made a way for us to be right with Him.
SPEAKER_00: So that we might live with Him by His Spirit, but also we might learn to live in community with others.
SPEAKER_00: We might love others, our neighbors as ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: See, the way of the Lord is with.
SPEAKER_00: It means with.
SPEAKER_00: And the idea is that human performance and anything that we do is far better when we do it together.
SPEAKER_00: But doing it together requires work.
SPEAKER_00: Doing it together requires positioning our lives in ways in which we are connected, where we are looking out for one another, where we're sharing the gifts God's given us to bless those around us.
SPEAKER_00: That's the way of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what God has called us to do.
SPEAKER_00: And so what I'm gonna do, we're gonna take communion with each other, and then we're gonna close in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Let's take the bread.
SPEAKER_00: Let's drink up the cup.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna close in prayer, and I'm gonna ask that, and I believe this is important, uh, our posture, uh, what we do with our uh our bodies is really important, particularly in worship.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna ask if uh you would consider in this prayer time the question, where do you need to persevere?
SPEAKER_00: Where do you need to persevere?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna ask that we pray that you would pray with your hands like this open and ask God to give you the resources you need to persevere in that area of your life where perhaps you're dealing with Mara bitterness that you might be whinging a bit to God.
SPEAKER_00: You might be wanting to give up, you might be wanting to forsake your commitment to do what you promised.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Put your hands up if you want to receive a blessing.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we we uh come to you with our hands up and open.
SPEAKER_00: That means we we let go.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to let go of those things that we try to control, let go of those things that that maybe uh we had expectations that were not grounded in in reality.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, uh many here may be going through seasons of bitterness.
SPEAKER_00: We might be at the well of Mara where we are disappointed.
SPEAKER_00: We thought it would be good, we thought it would be it would be a blessing, we thought it would be easy, we thought it would be uh fruitful, and yet now we discover it's bitter.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we just pray that you would give us the gift by your spirit of perseverance to to recognize that you bring us through Marah and you're leading us to Elam, to to the oasis of blessing, but we need to stay the course.
SPEAKER_00: We need to keep going, we need to remain faithful and not remain faithful uh in doing things that you know that may not be useful, but to remain faithful in doing things that honor you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh this is not taking a posture of saying, oh, I'm just gonna take my beating and I'm gonna be a doormat and I'm not gonna stand for the truth.
SPEAKER_00: No, this is a commitment to be obedient to you, to live by your word, to put to practice those things that we've already been uh made aware of from Peter, to live by faith, to add to our faith goodness, to our goodness.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to add knowledge to our knowledge self-control.
SPEAKER_00: And now we ask for perseverance.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray a blessing on all the moms here, all the moms that carry burdens and carry difficulties.
SPEAKER_00: Pray a blessing on them.
SPEAKER_00: Help them to persevere, help them to have a long view of the work that they're doing in motherhood.
SPEAKER_00: Help them to recognize that that this is a with thing.
SPEAKER_00: You are with them in this.
SPEAKER_00: They are not alone.
SPEAKER_00: Not only do you provide uh your divine resources for them, but you provide community.
SPEAKER_00: You provide family, you provide uh folks within the church context.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible clearly says, old women, be available to the younger women.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: So that you might give them wisdom and encouragement to help them during the difficult seasons of motherhood.
SPEAKER_00: Pray that we might see this in this community of faith here at Mount Carmel in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: We have guys available to pray with you in person if you like.
SPEAKER_00: If you have a gift to share with us, remember God's plan is to resource his work, his church, through the generosity of his people.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you are generous, you are doing you're doing God's work, and we couldn't do what we do without you.
SPEAKER_00: So thank you.
SPEAKER_00: God bless.