Perseverance: The Path to Maturity

PLAY VIDEO - LORD OF THE POTTER

How many of you enjoy a good story?

There was once a man named Chris. He was a struggling salesman trying to make money for his family by selling an expensive piece of equipment to hospitals that only a few of them could afford or wanted. He was married to a wife struggling with severe depression and addiction. Because of this, their relationship eventually ends and Chris finds himself alone with his son, Christopher. He loses his job, is evicted from his appartnemtn, and ends up struggling with homelessness with his son. He ends up in a homeless shelter, but because his financial situation worsens, he gets evicted from there as well and ends up living on the streets with Christopher often going hungry and being forced to sleep in public and often unsafe places. Because of all of this, he never feels like he is good enough.

THE END!

Good story? Why not?

Well it’s not a good story, because if that was the ending, it sucked. OR, because you never got to hear the actual ending.

The truth is, a good story, is one where people not only face difficult moments, they overcome them, often in unexpected ways.

James has been trying to show us in our last two sessions that our stories are made up of trials, refining, and ultimately joy. But one of the things he wants us to see in the verse we are looking at this evening is the fact that we WILL have to persevere, stay steadfast, keep going… This is how life works.

James 1:4a “And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

Tonight we will just be looking at the first half of this scripture “and let steadfastness have its full effect”.

LETS PRAY

Dan Allender in his book “to be told” tells us that “if we don’t like the story, we will most likely not like the author”. When we think of this journey of perseverence, we can think of it this way: God is outworking a story in our lives - it brings Him no joy to see us in pain, but He works in that pain to bring something good. All of that makes up this story, where God can use every piece of it to make something beautiful. At the end, it will be a masterpiece. But right now, it’s like the story I told you at the beginning (that you still don’t know the ending to).

There have been a number of moments in my life, that if it stopped there, my story would be awful:

Fatherlessness

A moment of weakness

Pornography

Heartbreak

Sister

If I didn’t endure in these moments, I would never have been able to see the story God was outworking, and particularly, how He uses these sometimes, awful moments, to bring something good in the lives of myself and the people around me.

Persevering through pain allows us to know that we can go through that pain in the future - the trial won’t seem as big.

Giving in to temptation:

There are many videos I could have shown you but for the sake of time, I want to touch briefly on Gollum from Lord of the Rings.

PLAY VIDEO - SMEAGOL TRANSFORMS INTO GOLLUM

Gollum was originally an ordinary hobbit. The ring pulled him in and tempted him and he gave in to this temptation. Giving in to the temptation over and over led him down a very deep dark space. This giving in led him to a place of knowing the right he should be doing, but the internal evil voice was louder most of the time. From time to time, he would be able to subdue it, but in the moments when he was weak, and there was no one around to help him, he succumbed to it more and more. There were times when he genuinely wanted to help Samwise and Frodo, but ultimately, the desire for pleasure drew him in.

PLAY VIDEO - GOLLUM FALLS INTO MOUNT DOOM

At the end, Gollum gives in once more and ultimately perishes, along with the things that was tempting him.

The same tendency can be true for us.

So how do we persevere?

JESUS:

Hebrews 12:1–3 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.”

Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

Scripture makes it abundantly clear that Jesus is able to understand what we are going through because He himself experienced the same temptation - yet is without sin.

Here are some examples of the things we are told Jesus experienced - hunger, fatigue, rejection, emotional temptation, need for control, question God’s love and care, emotional struggles, He was around women alot more than most men, pain from death and sickness, people who rejected, abandoned, attacked, threatened Him, people who abused Him… Even through these things, He never compromised, never sinned.

The people who were closest to Him were witness to this, and they made it clear that we can trust Him because of that.

If people came to you and told you that you can trust someone because they really understood how they felt, you would feel a lot more comfortable going to them. You know you won’t feel judged, you know you won’t be mocked or made to feel less than. So you go to them. Here, the people closest to Jesus assure us that this is who He is, so we can trust Him and go to Him.

He is able to sympathise with us, and as we have been sharing a lot over the last well, He is CONSTANTLY pursuing us.

Hebrews 12:2 “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

If He had joy enough to die on our behalf - why would He ever abandon us.

The truth is, He never leaves, but we do… He always pursues, but we put up walls. This is a valid pain response to protect us from those who will hurt us, but it is not a valid pain response to those who will help us. He is the ONE that we can fully trust.

Not only are we given Jesus, but we are given our fellow believers to do this journey with.

OTHER BELIEVERS:

Not only do we have Jesus who is fully able to symepthise with us, but Jesus gave us the church. In the very beginning, He said, it is not good for man to be alone. He did not say this because everyone needs a spouse. He said this because He knows that we need people to do this life with.

Let’s take a look at the screen:

PLAY VIDEO - THE TALES THAT REALLY MATTERED

Proverbs 27:17 “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”

Later on, Samwise says to Frodo referring to the ring - “I can’t carry it for you, but I CAN carry you”. God has created fellowship so that in times where the burden is too heavy, that although people can’t carry our specific trial, they can carry us through those trials.

OUR ROLE

Galatians 6:5 “For each will have to bear his own load.”

Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

What is God doing? How do we know? Renewal of the mind? Conformed to God’s patterns - understand the way He works and His heart.

This helps us have hindsight - that is what God was doing then

and foresight - this is who God is, therefore He will do.....

The importance of our eyes. When we are faced with a trial that seems to big to handle, the place where we put our focus will affect how we see things, and how we respond to them. If we fix our eyes on ourselves and the problem, things will seem to big to handle, the finish line will seem to far away and we will be more likely to fail along the way. But if we fix our eyes on Jesus

Hebrews 12:2a “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith...”

the one who knows our problems and is there fore us - and we do it with other people who know the same to be true, we will overcome the trial, without even realising it - THIS IS PERSEVERANCE!

To finish off, we’re going to break away from Lord of the Rings, and look at a scene from a movie called “Facing the Giants”.

This movie looks at a football team and their coach. The team has lost multiple seasons in a row, and the coach is being ridiculed for being awful. Not only that, but his life is falling apart behind the scenes. They are at a Christian school, but don’t fully look to Jesus to help with their problems. There comes a stage where they realise that Jesus is the only way and they make Him central to their lives and their team. Things start turning around and this scene takes place. Take a look at this, but I want you to think about the trials you face in your life and the way that with Jesus and people around you, you can face the trials. You can face the giants. Take a look:

VIDEO - THE DEATH CRAWL

Already written down this trial as a loss?

I can do this if the trial was a little lighter...

Gonna give you my best...

Blindfolded (don’t want you to give up when you can go further)

Forget the 20 - you give me your best

Don’t quit until you’ve got nothing left

YOUR VERY BEST

Don’t quit on me

Keep driving!

YOUR VERY BEST

IT HURTS!

IT’S HEAVY!

GOT NO MORE STRENGTH! I know it hurts - keep going - it’s all heart from here!

It burns - then let it burn - you promised me your best...

DON’T QUIT!

I don’t have any more...

Do you hear the words that are spoken to you in your trial:

SEE ABOVE...

THIS IS PERSERVERENCE

Can you imagine the belief BROCK had after doing that - that which he didn’t believe was possible, he KNEW now was.

God has given us His Son, Jesus who is able to symethise with us, who is able to walk with us, who is able to hold us. And God has given us His people, the church, we are in God’s family, brothers and sisters, spiritual mothers and fathers. And the reason - because we WILL face trials of many kinds, but we will ENDURE through these trials - and in the end, as we will hear tomorrow morning, James 1:4b “...that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

You’ll remember at the beginning, we spoke about this story we are living - that God is at work within our lives - and although we can’t see the ending, we can be assured that in the current space, God is with us and that He is crafting a beautiful story with our lives. This requires us to submit to Him, but also to persevere through trials of many kinds. I don’t know how heavy your trial is tonight. I do know for some of you, it’s hard to see tomorrow because today feels so heavy.

Here’s another quote:

“It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end… because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing… this shadow. Even darkness must pass.” - Samwise

Tonight, we’re gonna have an opportunity to respond. I know many of us are dealing with trials that are way heavier than other people know about. And there have been trials that we have failed in, and it has hurt us badly. But I also know that God has given His Son, and spiritual leaders, who are here for you tonight. So what I am going to ask tonight is this - the band is going to come up and play gently, and in this space, if you want to 1. confess something, 2. ask for help, or 3. receive prayer for continued strength - when the music starts, I am going to make the front 3 rows clear for this ministry moment to be able to happen.

“I came in time, and I have called him back. He is weary now, and grieved, and he has taken a hurt like the Lady Éowyn, daring to smite that deadly thing. But these evils can be amended, so strong and joyful a spirit is in him. His grief he will not forget; but it will not darken his heart, it will teach him wisdom.” - Aragorn

Patience, Prayer, People

Gonna give you my best

“Short cuts make long delays” - Pippin

“Deeds wil not be less valiant because they are unpraised” - Aragorn

“I don't know how to say it, but after last night I feel different. I seem to see ahead, in a kind of way. I know we are going to take a very long road, into darkness; but I know I can't turn back. It isn't right to see Elves now, nor dragons, nor mountains, that I want - I don't rightly know what I want: but I have something to do before the end, and it lies ahead, not in the Shire. I must see it through, sir, if you understand me.” - Samwise