Person of Endurance in Culture of Quitting 013
Becoming A Person of Endurance in a Culture of Quitting
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Restoring the Savor of Our Salt Series Message # 13
I want to keep working today on our series of messages on Restoring the Savor of our Salt. This is the 13th message in the series and we’ll soon be wrapping up.
I’d like to begin by reading Hebrews 11, verses 24-27. If you’ve been with us for a number of weeks, you know we’ve been talking about the fact that all of us are being molded by someone. We are either being molded by the Word of God, or we are being molded by the culture around us. We’ve been discussing the fact that being molded by the culture is very easy. I just let myself drift wherever the current of the culture is going, and there is next to nothing to it. But being molded by the Word of God is a more difficult thing. It requires that I invest energy. It requires that I be intentionally working to cause this Book to act on me.
We are either molded by the culture or by the Word of God. Hebrews chapter 11. I want to begin reading there are verse 24. We’re going to be thinking today about the life of this man named Moses, and talking about one very distinct feature of his life. Hebrews 11, verse 24: “By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; 25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; 26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt [by the way, I won’t be mentioning it in the message, but verse 26 is an extremely interesting verse. It says that Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt. Yet, Christ had not come to earth. Moses had incredible vision for the Saviour that God was sending. It is a remarkable statement to say that Moses was embracing the reproach of Christ]: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. 27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.”
In 1883 a fisherman named Howard Blackburn left his home in Gloucester, Massachusetts, went out in a large fishing boat to fish off of Newfoundland. He let himself over the edge of his large boat in a little fishing dory with a friend of his, another fisherman. And they left their large boat to begin fishing. An incredible storm blew in. It drove them away from their boat, drove them out to sea. They were hopelessly lost at sea. It was blowing and raining and freezing cold. Ice was freezing on their boat. They took turns rowing the keep the bow of the boat into the oncoming waves. If they ever let the boat get crossways with the waves, they were going to go under. So one of them had to row at all times. They rowed for an extended period of time, and just when things could hardly get any worse, Howard Blackburn’s partner died in the boat. So Howard got to the oars and he sat down and put his hands on the oars and he began to row, keeping the bow of the boat into the waves so it wouldn’t capsize. He rowed for so long and the mist came on him for so long and it froze for so long that it froze his hands to the oars. He could not have let go if wanted to. Howard Blackburn rowed for four solid days, day and night, while the storm raged around him. And at the end of four days, the storm subsided a little bit. Remarkably, in the middle of the north Atlantic, a fishing boat found him, sent someone into his boat, recovered the body of his friend, chipped the ice off of his hands, removed him from the oars and brought him onto their boat. Almost four months later he walked back into Gloucester, Massachusetts. He had been given up for dead. He is a hero in that town to this day, even though he died, obviously, over eighty years ago.
Howard Blackburn survived because he had something that Americans have largely lost. He had endurance. Howard Blackburn was a person with the will to keep going, even in the face of adversity, even in the face of exhaustion, even when there was next to no chance for preserving his own life. He had the will somewhere, somehow, to just keep going.
For Americans, endurance is not our strong suit. For Americans, we are people who are very apt to give up in the face of adversity. We didn’t use to be that way, perhaps, but I believe now we are and we see it individually and we see it nationally. We are people who are apt to give up when something is no longer fun. We are apt to quit when something gets hard. We are very apt to stop when it feels boring. We are people who are not very good at delaying our rewards. And therefore, we have lost this blessing called endurance.
I think we used to have it. If you look at the War for Independence, if you look at conquering of the West, if you look at the War Between the States, the first World War, the Great Depression, the Second World War—you look at all these things that America has endured—we are people who started with incredible endurance. I don’t think it is any longer a major value to us. There are not that many people any more who say it is important to keep going in this thing. There are more people who are apt to say, I’m going to forget it. Let’s try something else. Who wants to continue with this kind of a struggle.
I want to ask you to think today about this issue of endurance, and about the question of how do I become a person who continues in the face of difficulty, adversity, hardship, and boredom?
I want to make one little disclaimer here. There are some things in our lives that we should quit. There are certain things we should forget and abandon. Obviously, sinful things, or those things that are unimportant, other things that used to be important but no longer are important.
So, what I want to talk about today with endurance always relates to the good and the important things. There are some things in your life that you should just abandon ship on. But the other things in your life, the ones that you know God wants you to continue in, God is calling each of us to be people of endurance. And I want to ask you to think today about the question, How do we gain endurance? What is the key to endurance? How do I make myself keep going when I would rather quit?
I don’t know exactly where Howard Blackburn got the endurance to row for four solid days. Perhaps just the raw will to stay alive.
But I want to look with you today at the life of a man named Moses who found endurance in the face of a difficult situation, to go on for four decades! Between leaving Egypt and his death before he is not allowed to enter the Promised Land, he continued, he endured for four decades. How did he get it? How did he get there? I believe the passage before us gives us two powerful clues to the issue of endurance.
We’ll be looking first at Hebrews 11:24-26. I want to read it for you again, just to reinforce it in our minds. “By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; 25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; 26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.”
Look at the first choice that Moses made. By faith the choice was to stop striving for reputation as one of the worthies and the lovelies. Moses decided to quit. Now Moses was living as royalty in Egypt. In fact, many scholars speculate that as the adopted son of the daughter of the Pharaoh, he would be the next pharaoh. Moses was in line to be the next pharaoh. He had a reputation. He had a station. But they were not important to him—being somebody was not valuable to him. He turned away from it.
I suspect there are many, many people in our nation who want to be the next president, or the next actor, or the next sports star. They are just striving, they are driven to say I want to be somebody.
For Moses, as he evaluated his life and the things that were ahead of him, he gave it up. He was at the top of the heap and he said, it is no longer important to be somebody. He turned away. Part of his endurance, I think, was that he understood the relative importance or unimportance of being somebody. He understood the bankruptcy of striving for station and position and elevating himself above other people.
The second choice that he made, verse 25a, not only was he willing to give up his reputation and his station, but secondly, by faith to identify with God’s people even if it means hardship and persecution.
He was willing to identify with the people of Israel. Now the people of Israel at that time were slaves. They were living in Egypt, they had been in Egypt almost 400 years. They were living as slaves. They were mistreated, they were expected to work incredible hours. They had very few materials to build the bricks they were expected to build. Life for them was raw misery. Moses was going to be the next pharaoh, and in the face of those two options, he decided he would rather be identified with the people of God. He would rather suffer hardship with the people of God than become the next pharaoh.
I think the application for us is the question, Am I a person who has the willingness to identify with God and to identify with His people, even in the face of hardship? Am I a person who in my setting wherever I am is willing to be known as a Christian? Am I a person who in my work setting is willing to identify with the other believers at work? Am I a person who is willing to be known as a believer in Jesus Christ? Is it important to me to be identified with God and the people of God, or would I just as soon avoid the hardship?
I suspect the hardship for us is far less than the hardship for Moses was, but Moses said, I want to be identified with the people of God.
Here is the basic principle behind why he did that. Verse 25b. He did that because sin delivers pleasures but they are all temporary. The message of verse 25b is, there is pleasure in sin, but it is very short-lived. There is some pleasure in sinful indulgences. There is no doubt about that. If you want to be immoral, there is some pleasure to be found there. If you want to become addicted to alcohol or drugs or gambling, there is some measure of pleasure in that. If you want to attack any of the filthy things that God turns you away from, there is some pleasure in it. And there is incredible indictment against sin, but the indictment he makes right here is, it is only temporary. It’s so short! It doesn’t last very long. You can invest it in, but the return is virtually nil.
If you went down to your local Buick dealer, you drove a brand new maroon Buick—a gorgeous car costing about $35,000 and had all the bells and whistles on it. It was the most beautiful car you have ever driven, leather interior. And you decide I am just going to bite the bullet and buy this car. And you are ready to sign the paperwork and the salesman says to you, Listen, there is one more thing you should know about this car. In one week, in seven days, this car will magically turn into a huge dead horse. Now let me ask you a question—would you give $35,000 for a gorgeous car that was going to last seven days? And at the end of seven days you were going to have 3,500 pounds of rotting horse meat in your garage?
I don’t think I’d invest $35,000 in that kind of a deal. But I do think that there have been many times in my life where I have made very similar investments. Where I have said to myself, I will invest in this and it will be pleasurable, but it will last only for a moment. There a million indictments that God brings against sin in the Word of God, figuratively speaking, but the main one He wants us to think about here is, the pleasures of sin are short. If you are going to invest there, you need to know the return is very, very short.
Here are the reasons Moses was willing to make these choices. The first reason comes from the very beginning of verse 26. The number one reason for his choices was that being reproached for Christ’s sake was more valuable to him than the entire gross national product of Egypt. It was more valuable to him that he would look foolish for Christ’s sake and that he would be identified with the people of God than to have everything Egypt had to offer, which was considerable.
Maybe you’ve seen a game show where the host is standing on the stage and says, do you want door A or door B? God said to Moses, do you want door A, which is to be the next king of Egypt, or do you want door B, which is to be identified with the people of God and suffer incredible hardship and experience incredible discouragement? And Moses said, I know what is behind both of these doors, and I want to be identified with the people of God.
Moses was a person who understood the value of identifying with God’s people and of experiencing reproach for Christ’s sake. He was willing to sacrifice what was behind the other door for being a part of that kind of a blessing.
The question for us is, do you want door A which is whatever you get for being a follower of Jesus Christ, or do you want door B, which is pursuing whatever the world has to offer?
God is calling us to make a choice as Moses made that choice.
Here is the second reason he chose as he did. Verse 26b. Moses chose that way because he had a continual focus on eternal rewards. He understood there were some windfall profits that were coming later. The text says he was looking to the reward. He was a person who understood that eternal rewards don’t come right now, but they have incredible value.
I think part of our struggle as believers in America today is that we are people who, like our culture, want the reward now. I have known so many people over the years who have said to themselves, I don’t care if it violates my conscience; if I can have it now, I’ll do it. I don’t care if it harms someone around me; if I can have it now, I’ll do it. I don’t care if it jeopardizes my family; if I can have it now, I’ll do it.
Moses was a person who was willing to delay his reward.
In Anchorage, Alaska some years ago they used to give each resident about $1,000 a year off the oil royalties. And there sprang up in Anchorage these stores that were called Dividend Check Early Refund Stores. Here was the deal: in about October you are going to be getting $1,000 from the State of Alaska. But if you will come here in July, we will give you $600 cash and we will take your $1,000 check in October. We’ll give you 60% on that check.
As you look at that, you probably think, bad deal. I’m not going to do that. That’s deep interest. But people were lining up out the door and down the street to trade in their $1,000 check for $600 cash today. I want whatever I can get NOW!
A whole industry just like that has arisen over tax refunds every year. They offer you the refund money in just a day or two instead of your having to wait two or three weeks, and they take a huge, huge percentage of your refund in exchange for giving you part of it right away.
Moses would not have been in those lines! Moses was a person who was willing to wait for his rewards. And I think there is a huge issue in our lives. And the question is, am I a person who is willing to wait for my reward. The rewards that are coming later are remarkable. They are windfall profits. You will not believe it!
Moses was willing to wait for those things. One of the keys to his endurance was that he was rejecting the immediate tidbits that the world had to offer, and he was waiting for the windfall rewards.
Here is a second key to his endurance. It comes out of verse 27. Hebrews 11:27 says, “By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.”
The third choice he made was by faith to leave the godless places in his life. I think God is calling us to leave the godless places and the godless habits and the godless attitudes and the godless thoughts in our lives.
About four hundred years before this, God had taken the children of Israel down the Egypt. It was not a godless place for them at that point. He preserved the lives of the entire nation of Israel by bringing them to Egypt. It was not a wrong thing for them to do. But now it had become a place that God wanted to move the out of, it had become a godless place for them, and they, if they wanted to follow God, needed to get out of there.
There are things in our own lives which are or become godless places for us. There are things in our own lives that God wants us to leave. It may be a sinful habit; it may be a fearful spirit; a critical attitude; a lustful thought life; a self-absorbing budget. It may be a certain lifestyle that is discouraging my family. It has become for me a godless place, and God is asking me to leave.
The question that I need to ask, on the basis of Moses’ choice, is to say, Do I have any godless places in my life that God is calling me to walk away from? To just set down, turn my back on, and flat walk away from?
He was willing to walk away from the godless place where he was living.
Choice number four, middle of verse 27. By faith, he did not fear the wrath of the culture, nor the wrath of his peers who were leaving those godless things behind.
I think this is a terrific issue in our lives—the question, Am I fearing God, or am I fearing the people who are going to react to my choices?
You see, Pharaoh had tremendous power and Moses was at tremendous risk because of what he was doing. Here is what Moses said to Pharaoh, in essence. He walked in to Pharaoh and said, Listen, you’ve got a bunch of slaves here called the Israelites, maybe one or two million people. They are working for you for nothing, you are abusing them. They have no power. They are the major labor force in your whole construction industry, and I am going to be taking them with me and we are leaving.
The Pharaoh, I would think, would not be too happy about that! He had one to two million free laborers, and they were leaving Egypt. Moses was at incredible risk, but he was not afraid of the king’s wrath. He went to the king and said, I’m leaving with your workers. The pharaoh had vested interests here. The pharaoh stood to lose.
When you leave something in your life, those people with vested interests in what you are leaving, they stand to lose and it makes them angry. You may have something in your life that you need to leave and it is going to cost somebody some money. They are probably going to be angry. You may have something in your life you need to leave and it is going to cost somebody a friendship, and it may make them angry. Maybe it is going to cost them some power and prestige, and it will probably make them angry. Maybe it will cost them some guilt, and they will be upset with you about that.
One of the key issues in our lives is to say to myself, Am I motivated by the fear of people who stand to lose when I change my lifestyle, or am I motivated by the fear of God?
Matthew 10:28, “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
In other words, God is the one who deserves to be feared. God is the one who deserves to control our lives. If you have a piece of obedience in your life that you are not doing because you are afraid of someone, turn away from it right now. Say to yourself, I am going to be a person who fears God. I am not going to fear man. I will turn away from that.
Here is the second reason that Moses was willing to make these choices. End of verse 27. He made these choices because, by faith, he was able to see Jesus Christ as his constant companion in the wilderness of this world. Verse 27c. “By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.”
The paraphrase is, Jesus Christ is the constant companion in the wilderness of this world. He is a constant companion to us in the wilderness of living in a sinful place.
Here are the kinds of things that He did for Moses and that He does for us. Number one, He is our protector. He protected Moses from the foreign and hostile kings for forty years. Number two, He is our provider. He provided for Moses. He provides for us. Number three, He is our guide. He led Moses. He leads us. Number four, He is our rewarder. He rewarded Moses for Moses’ choices, and He will reward us. And finally, number five, He is our friend. He is our companion. He is someone to give us courage in the midst of wilderness experiences.
Moses could not physically see Jesus Christ traveling with Him. But Moses had spiritual eyes that understood God is present with me. I am not alone here. This is an ugly mess in many, many ways, but I am not alone here. God Himself is traveling with me in whatever the struggle.
One of the main reasons to endure even in the midst of very, very bitter circumstances, is because of the reality of Jesus Christ as a constant wilderness companion. You never go in the wilderness alone. If you are in a wilderness right now, you are not there alone. Jesus Christ is habitually with us as a companion in those situations. And we need to spiritualize to say, this is a mess, but God is right here with me. I am not in this mess alone.
Here is the bottom line. If I want to be a person with long haul endurance in Godly choices, I need two things. I need to be like Moses, number one, in that I value eternal rewards above temporary pleasures. And that I say to myself, I am willing to wait for eternal rewards. And number two, if I want to be a person of endurance, I need to make the choice to see Jesus Christ as my wilderness companion. To say to myself, this is a bitter mess. I am not going to pretend otherwise, but the Lord Jesus is right here with me. I am not walking through this mess alone.
You may have things in your life in which you know God wants you to keep on keeping on, and in which you are tempted to quit. Perhaps you have a marriage in which you are saying, I’ve just had enough. Perhaps you have been fighting with your debt, and you’re saying, it’s not worth it, I am just going to give in. Maybe you’ve been parenting a difficult child and you are thinking to yourself, what’s the use? Maybe you are in a situation where you have been praying for someone’s salvation for two decades, and you are thinking, this is a waste of my time. Maybe you’ve been slogging through school for a long time, and you’re just not there, and you are thinking, I have a decent job offer—forget it. Maybe you are in a situation where you are looking for a job and you are tired of it, or you are trying to get in physical shape and you are done fiddling with it. Maybe you’ve been witnessing to a co-worker and you’re just fed up with it. Maybe you’ve been helping a friend and they are just not responding. You may have some situation in your life where you want to quit. You know God wants you to keep on. God is calling you to endurance, to say, I will be a person who perseveres, because number one, I am looking for eternal rewards. And number two, Jesus is in this with me. I am not alone in whatever this mess is.
A missionary organization required its missions candidates to take a battery of tests. And afterward they were brought in to be interviewed about those tests. The man who was interviewing one particular missionary candidate couple was about a sixty year old man who had been a missionary to the Philippines for about thirty years. He was now a counselor for the mission, and when this couple came in to see him, there was one very important feature about this man’s life that you should know. He had advanced MS. He came to work in a motorized wheelchair. As he sat across from this couple, even though his mind was sharp and he could speak fairly well, his body just would not help him at all. At one point in their interview, this man was trying to turn over a piece of paper. He was trying to reach for this piece of paper, trying to get a hold of it, trying to turn it over. They watched him for almost a minute as he tried to turn the paper over, and they were embarrassed. The husband of the couple thought, maybe if I turn it over for him, he will be offended. He didn’t know what to do. Finally, the husband asked, Sir, may I turn that over? And he said, please. He reached out and turned it over. And he said, thank you. And they went on with the interview. Here was a man who had endurance. His body was not helping him any more. He came to work in a motorized wheelchair, but he came to work every day. He just kept doing what God had put before him to do.
I believe God is calling for us to be people who say to ourselves, Number one, I will wait for my rewards. Number two, I know I am not in this alone. So I am going to keep doing what God has called me to do. I will be a person of endurance, even though I live in a culture of quitting.
—PRAYER—