Keys to Perseverance

James 1:25 ESV

25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

Introduction:

I’d like to begin our lesson by looking at the story of Joseph, someone who exemplifies perseverance.

Genesis 41:37–46 ESV

37 This proposal pleased Pharaoh and all his servants. 38 And Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find a man like this, in whom is the Spirit of God?” 39 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are. 40 You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command. Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you.” 41 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.” 42 Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his hand and put it on Joseph’s hand, and clothed him in garments of fine linen and put a gold chain about his neck. 43 And he made him ride in his second chariot. And they called out before him, “Bow the knee!” Thus he set him over all the land of Egypt. 44 Moreover, Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh, and without your consent no one shall lift up hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.” 45 And Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zaphenath-paneah. And he gave him in marriage Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On. So Joseph went out over the land of Egypt. 46 Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went through all the land of Egypt.

The sweet smell of success – everybody loves success.

And in this passage of Scripture we see Joseph, at the pinnacle of his success, standing before the king of Egypt, and the king handing him complete authority.

By most people’s standards, that’s success.

But I bet there were people who didn’t know his background who thought, “Yeah, well that’s okay for you, mate.

Life has been handed to you on a silver platter.”

But Joseph wasn’t always a successful man.

At the age of 17, ten of Joseph’s brothers ganged up on him, faked his death, and sold him into slavery.

His new owners took him to Egypt, and sold him to a man named Potiphar.

He proved to be so trustworthy that his master entrusted the entire handling of his affairs to Joseph.

And then the trouble began. Potiphar’s wife, who no doubt was used to getting her own way, took a fancy to the young Hebrew slave. Day after day, she pressured him to sleep with her. Finally, when he continually refused to sleep with her, she accused him of attempted rape, and Joseph was thrown in jail.

Betrayed by his own brothers, enslaved, wrongfully accused, jailed, Joseph didn’t get it easy.

I think that many of us can relate to facing difficulties in life.

Today, we continue our series on Perseverance in support of our 2022 theme “Renewed Faith.”

It’s a quality that Joseph had. And it’s most definitely a quality that Jesus personified.

That quality is perseverance – the ability to hang in there, to stick with it, to keep on going.

Following are five things to note about “Persevering.”

1. Persevering People experience failure just like everyone else

1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV

13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

Sin and striving are common for man.

Joseph went though it.

Persevering people try, and fail, and sometimes it’s their own fault, sometimes it isn’t.

But they get over it.

They are not some super-breed of human who go from success to success.

The thing is, we all make mistakes, we all have down times, we all fail sometimes. Nobody is fail-proof.

Failure may not necessarily say anything about you personally.

It might say something about others

ILLUS – Did you know that Charlie Chaplin once entered a Charlie Chaplin look-alike competition? He came third.

When experiencing failure it may have less to do with you than with the way others perceive you.

But even if your failure was your fault, that’s not the end of the world.

Some of the greatest people in the Bible had monumental failures –for instance:

ILLUS – Moses once committed murder. King David committed adultery and then tried to cover it up by committing murder. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob establish a family tradition of lying and deception. In Jesus’ hour of need, Peter denied even knowing Him.

Yet, all of these men went on to be greatly used by God – despite their failure

2. Persevering People choose not to live in the past

Philippians 3:12–14 ESV

12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

There’s a wonderful function on a computer – CTRL Z.

For those who aren’t computer literate, it’s an undo function.

So you’re typing away, and you look at the screen, and you realize that your hands have been on the wrong row of keys. (anybody ever done that?)

So you’re faced with all this gobbledygook. No problemo.

CTRL Z saves the day. And it’s just like you never made a mistake in the first place. On your IPhone if you’re typing all you have to do is shake your phone, and whamo Undo.

But life doesn’t come with a CTRL Z function.

ILLUS – You’re in a conversation, and some angry words escape. And you think: Quick! CTRL Z! Whew, that was close. But you can’t; what’s said is said, and what’s done is done.

But that doesn’t mean we have to be pulled down by our past mistakes for the rest of our lives.

Unless we choose to live in the past.

Here are four things we can experience that tell us we might be living in the past: anger, resentment, regret, guilt.

And you know what?

God has an answer for every one of those.

But we have to allow Him to be Lord of our Life,

and we have to choose not to live in the past.

Paul was able to forget the things which were in the past, because he had already brought those things to the Lord.

3. Persevering People decide to keep moving on

ILLUS – One of the worst train disasters in history happened in Spain in 1944. It was a long passenger train with an engine on each end. It was on its way through a tunnel when the front engine stalled, so the engineer in the rear engine started up and started to back out of the tunnel. Meanwhile, the front engineer got the front engine going again. With no way to contact each other, both engines continued to pull in opposite directions. Full-speed ahead in both directions means you are stationary, and over 500 people died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

All those people died for one reason alone: the train stopped moving.

And the train stopped moving for one reason alone too: there was one too many drivers.

In the passage we read just before, Paul said, “…reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

We have to keep moving forward, and the only way we can do that is to decide who is going to be in charge.

Will it be us, or will it be Jesus?

If it’s going to be us, we’ll keep going backwards.

If we want to try both us and Jesus (that’s two drivers pulling in different directions), we’ll stand still on the spot.

The only way to move forward is to put the Lord in charge, and to keep Him there.

4. Persevering People take one day at a time

Matthew 6:30–34 ESV

30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

In Acts 14:19-22 Paul persevered one day at a time...

Acts 14:19–22 ESV

19 But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. 20 But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe. 21 When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, 22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.

I’m reminded of Damala Moses who reported to us many years ago that after the dogs were sent to chase them out of town for preaching the Gospel

They would return the next day…to preach again

they took it day by day...

I think there is a lesson in this for us with our relationships as well

You tried to make things right today and it didn’t work out. Perhaps you even made them worse.

tomorrow is another day

Here’s a really profound truth; it may sound really simple, maybe even a little stupid.

You can’t live tomorrow today.

That’s like forgetting where you are today, and saying you want what is over there, in tomorrow.

We’re stuck in this 24-hour slot, subject to time.

And there’s absolutely nothing we can do about it, but that’s not for want of trying, is it?

We worry, we fret, we get fearful about what might happen tomorrow.

And all the while, today – the day we’re in – may be a wonderful day, but we can’t enjoy it, because we’re trying to live tomorrow.

ILLUS – A little bit like Adam and Eve, in the garden of Eden. They’ve got everything they want there. Everything is perfect. And there’s only one thing God has told them they can’t do: eat the fruit of the tree that’s in the middle of the garden. And there’s Adam and Eve, everything is wonderful. But instead of enjoying what they’ve got, they’re just thinking, “I want what’s over there.”

Let’s not fall into the same trap – worrying about tomorrow so much that we can’t enjoy today.

One day at a time.

Living tomorrow today is an impossible task.

If we focus on today, we can trust God for tomorrow.

5. Persevering people know that God’s strength is available to them

John 15:5 ESV

5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

ILLUS – One day a tiny boy was playing and digging in his sandpit when he discovered a large rock. He carefully dug around it, and with a huge effort, rolled it to the edge of his sandpit. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get the rock over the little wall. He struggled and struggled to lift it over, but it just rolled back and onto his fingers. Finally, he burst into tears. All this time, his father had been watching from the window, and suddenly he appeared next to his little boy. “Son”, he said, “why didn’t you use all the strength you had available?” “I did, Daddy. I used every bit of strength I had.” “No you didn’t, son. You didn’t use all your strength. You didn’t ask me.” Then his father bent down and lifted the rock over the wall.

I can’t do much without God’s help.

ILLUS – The glove is a great clothing accessory, and it can do lots of things when I’m wearing it. But take my hand out and it can do nothing. You and I are like that glove; we need the hand of God to be able to do anything worthwhile.

If we open ourselves up to God’s strength, we can do any task He has set before us. Phil 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Philippians 4:13 ESV

13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

DON’T YOU QUIT:

When things go wrong as they sometimes will,

When the road you’re trudging seems uphill,

When the funds are low and the debts are high,

And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,

When cares are pressing you down a bit,

Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.

Life is strange with its twists and turns

As all of us sometime must learn.

And many a failure turns about,

When we might have won had we stuck it out.

Don’t give up, though the pace seems slow,

You may succeed with another blow.

Success is failure turned inside out,

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt.

And you never can tell how close you are,

It may be near when it seems so far.

So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit.

It’s when things get worse that you must not quit. T.L. Osborn

Conclusion:

5 keys of Perseverance

Persevering People experience failure just like everyone else

Persevering People choose not to live in the past

Persevering People decide to keep moving on

Persevering People take one day at a time

Persevering People know that God’s strength is available to them

Invitation: