"THE HONOR OF WANTING TO QUIT"

"THE HONOR OF WANTING TO QUIT"

But if I say I'll never mention the LORD or speak in His name, His word burns in my heart like a fire. It's like a fire in my bones! I am worn out trying to hold it in! I can't do it!

INTRODUCTION

Jeremiah chapter 20 and verse 9. Jeremiah is speaking. If you read before and after this he is discouraged, he is lamenting, he is down in the dumps, he wants to quit. He feels like everybody in this building has felt.

Take your Bibles and turn with me to Jeremiah chapter 20. Stick with me because I really have got something from God, something I think you have never heard before in your life. Jeremiah chapter 20 and verse 9. Jeremiah is speaking. If you read before and after this he is discouraged, he is lamenting, he is down in the dumps, he wants to quit. He feels like everybody in this building has felt.

Tonight, I'm going to preach a message that will help you. I want to speak to you on the most unusual subject you have ever heard, it is entitled "The Honor of Wanting to Quit."

Last week was one of the greatest days in my life. I will always remember as long as I live the service last week. Folks when you rolled in that beautiful little vehicle and gave it to your pastor, that was what I was trying to keep you from doing, if you do not know it, Amen. I warned you not to do it, I begged you not to do it. I had promises, but our staff is not a promise keeper. How many of you realize that?

That will never happen again, I have requested that it never happen again. I am so thankful, I am grateful, friends. I love you. It is much easier for me to give a gift to Brother Booher and give a gift to another than to receive it myself. I want to thank you, but I want to tell you what I thank you more for, I want to thank you for the love you showed when I got that. It was as if you got it yourself.

If you had not acted that way I would have been sad. That was a vehicle for you to show your love, the love is what mattered to me. Although I am still grateful for that and I value it, it was your love that turned me on more than anything last week.

I'm going to repeat that, you heard me right. Some of you say "What, 'The Honor of Wanting to Quit?'"

Some people can look at a pastor like he is pastoring a wonderful church like this, truly a great church under God, and you say, "That man, that evangelist, is a superhuman." Or, "That pastor has to be a spiritual giant." Sometimes people get a false conception of that individual. Today I have come to shut out any false conceptions that you might have. I have come to tell you how human the pastor is.

Someone said, "You get the privilege of running around with a lot of great men of God." Yes. I'm not a great man of God - I do not need to tell you that, you know it - but I get to hobnob with some of them. I think the reason why is God wanted me to come back and tell you how the great men are. Someone said, "They must encourage you. Their greatness must bless you and inspire you." I say, "No, it's their humanity that inspires me. It is their failure that I see that inspires me to know that if God can use them, He can use you."

Today I'm going to preach a message that will help you. I want to speak to you on the most unusual subject you have ever heard, it is entitled "The Honor of Wanting to Quit." I'm going to repeat that, you heard me right. Some of you say "What, 'The Honor of Wanting to Quit?'"

Let me start my message off today by making mention of those who wanted to quit. It is like the Hall of Fame in the Bible. It is like the Hall of Fame in history, when you talk about the people that wanted to quit.

Jeremiah, in our text, wanted to quit. As a matter of fact he went to the woods, he wanted to get a little cabin. He wanted to quit the ministry, just get a fishing hole and a window that he could throw the line out and just fish all day long.

The truth is that he did that for a while, but the Bible said that the word of God burned in his bones like a fire. He said, "I cannot constrain myself."

Abraham, the friend of God, the man that walked with God, Abraham wanted to quit. Depression came, recession came, he wanted to go to Egypt and scrap it all, and he did.

Peter, who walked on water, wanted to quit. When Jesus was crucified Peter was mourning at the fire. He denied the faith, he denied the Lord, he denied his church, and even cursed God. He had a desire to quit.

Thomas, who later died as a martyr wanted to quit. "He could not believe," he said. And yes, he saw the scars in the hands of Jesus Christ.

The disciples, the twelve that were chosen to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world, the Bible said at Calvary they forsook him, and they fled. Jesus said to them, "Will you also go away?"

Noah wanted to quit. Moses wanted to quit. Daniel wanted to quit. Time and time again the great Charles Hadden Spurgeon, who built one of the greatest churches and was the prince of all preachers, wanted to quit.

Martin Luther had a vision of the reality of God, and the grace of God. He fell upon his knees of St. Peter's Cathedral and said, "I will not recant, I will not renounce what I believe."

Yet in discouragement, in despair, he had severe seizures of depression, it made him want to quit.

John the Baptist, the Bible said of him,

"I tell you the truth, of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John the Baptist.

"There is no greater man born of woman than John the Baptist," only Jesus.

John the Baptist wanted to quit and even sent a runner to be sure that Jesus was the Son of God, while he was in prison. He doubted his salvation.

Winston Churchill had serious bouts of depression, and again and again when you read his life story, he wanted to quit.

In fact all great men that I have ever known, and I have known many of these wonderful men, have told me there were times that they have considered quitting.

Even my Mentor Pastor Tommy Barnett has wanted to quit. He said that when he left the church in Kansas City, the church that his dad pastored, It was a great church. There was singing and worship and big things and faith was released, souls were getting saved.

has wanted to quit. When I left the church in Kansas City, pastored by my dad... It was a great church, much like this. There was singing and worship and big things and faith was released, souls were getting saved.

He said I went to Davenport, Iowa with 76 of the meanest Christians you have ever seen in your life. I wanted to quit. He said I called my dad up and said, "Dad I must be out of God's will.

People are not being saved like they used to. I want to come home." He said, "Son if you're going to quit and go home, it will be like crawling out of the city in the sewer." I decided that I did not want to do that, so I didn't quit.

Yes, I have wanted to quit and so have you. So has anybody that has ever done anything for God.

Tonight, I want to make four statements about it.

1. Wanting to quit is a sign of success, because successful people are the only ones who can quit.

So it's a good sign to want to quit, it means that you have something to quit.

Sometimes we get discouraged and we quit. Now I do not think that we should, but I have more respect for people who have tried than the folks that never do. I am saying that wanting to quit is a sign of success.

Think about this have you ever drove thru some housing project, that had been closed down due to the low income in that area. And you look out you might see a few houses that are half way done. Even some of the foundations had never been built upon and they were beginning to crumble.

And then, in the middle of it, there was a house that had been erected but had been burned. You could see the charred remains.

I have decided that I would rather be the house that burned then the house that was never built.

You see one had served its purpose for a while at least. The other had never fulfilled the purpose for which it was created.

I have more respect for the person who falls, then the person who never even tried to fly.

I have more respect for the person who falls, then the person who never even tried to fly. I am a little tired of these folks who stay on the ground all the time slaughtering the folks who have risen and they have fallen. Now I am not for rising and falling, but I am also not for not rising in the first place. I am saying to you this morning that wanting to quit is a sign of success.

I am a little tired of these folks who stay on the ground all the time slaughtering the folks who have risen and they have fallen.

All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised.

For God had something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without us.

In this 11 chapter we are told about the triumphs and trials of faith of the hero of our faith.

But the end of this chapter there in verses 39-40 the author draw a conclusion that there were better things to follow, and that they didn’t received all that God had promised.

We see that thru their faith, testing, trials, and failures, understand this thru them not quitting and starting the work of God, they did receive blessing from God but it leave us with a idea that it was not finished.

But if you look at verse 40, the perfection or in King James version it say, made perfect. This is use in the idea of completeness.

It is as it saying if these saints of old would have never started then we the New Testament believers of today could not complete something to perfection because other failed to step out.

You see, no part of the true Christian community can be complete without all the others. We build upon each other. So we must start and let God be the rewarder.

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Why I read this verse is the bottom part of it: He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.

Because the only way that we can fail is that we don’t get started.

If you look at the Word of God then this is what you must see: In is not done yet.

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

This is what i want you to understand, although these saints of old and you and I may not receive all that God has promised in this life, we will see the completion of that promise.

The cloud of witnesses, (talk about it)

What I am saying to you, is that if we quit not and just finish and it may not be finish line we want and the reward we were expecting but if we just do then we will see the perfection of it. But if we don’t start then we will never have a reasons to quit and that wanting to quit is a sign of success.

Now I am not for rising and falling, but I am also not for not rising in the first place. I am saying to you this morning that wanting to quit is a sign of success.

2. The more you have to quit the more you want to quit.

I'm going to try that again. The more you have to quit the more you want to quit. The higher you go, the more frightening it becomes, and the more you want to quit.

The greater a church gets, because it has more power to influence, but if it fails, it can do a lot of harm.

When God raises up a great man of God, with him comes responsibility,

When God raises up a great man of God, with him comes responsibility,

of him which is given much is required.

When a mighty oak tree or a might redwood falls it takes with it far more than when a little sapling falls.

I'll guarantee you that I want to quit many times. Now don't get your hopes up, I'm not quitting. Why? I have more to quit.

I thought that you needed this sermon on not giving up. It is easy to serve God when there is a climate of revival and we all shout and we all worship God. Anyone can have a big time on a big day, but life is not full of just big days. Come on and say a good "Amen".

This morning I thought that you needed this sermon on not giving up. We have got new converts in this church, we have got new Christians in this church. It is easy to serve God when there is a climate of revival and we all shout and we all worship God. Anyone can have a big time on a big day, but life is not full of just big days. Come on and say a good "Amen".

I'm saying to you that the higher you rise the more frightening it becomes. The higher that you rise the colder it becomes, the lonelier it becomes, the more dangerous it becomes, the riskier it becomes. Therefore the more you have to quit, the more you want to quit.

Now if you don't say give more, then we will have more to give. It is my job to oversee these pastors and the Lord knows that is the most stressful job in the entire world. It is my job to pastor many of the pastors that call me their pastor in the nation. I get a phone call probably ever day from some pastor in some kind of trouble, calling, asking for help.

And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.

For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?

I'm saying to you that the higher you rise the more frightening it becomes. The higher that you rise the colder it becomes, the lonelier it becomes, the more dangerous it becomes, the riskier it becomes. Therefore the more you have to quit, the more you want to quit.

3. You can enjoy the luxury of wanting to quit, if you know that you're not going to quit.

Statement number one is wanting to quit is a sign of success. Statement number two is the more you have to quit the more you want to quit. Number three -- I have been waiting the whole sermon to get to this. I wanted to get to it first, I'm kind of like Rich, he has got me on that roll right now.

I'm going to repeat that again, you can enjoy the luxury of wanting to quit if you're not going to quit.

Number three, you can enjoy the luxury of wanting to quit, if you know that you're not going to quit. I'm going to repeat that again, you can enjoy the luxury of wanting to quit if you're not going to quit.

I will never forget Dash couple of summer ago, Connie and I were in the pool and he was trying to learn to swim and he had got to point where he was getting better and he was going under water a lot and He told us I will never quit.

When they got to Lynn Lane, she has been my secretary for about 20 years now. Can you imagine the same secretary for 20 years? We ought to put it this way, can you imagine having Pastor Barnett for your boss for 20 years?

I taught my girls to never quit: (talk about it)

I may be a want-to-quitter, but I am not a quitter. I can be a want-to-quitter if I know I am not a quitter because I can enjoy the luxury of wanting to quit if I know that I'm not going to quit.

You say, Pastor, how do you know that you are not going to quit?" I will tell you how, because I have never quit. How you know a fellow is going to pay his bills is because he has paid his bills past. If he has done it in the past they pretty well know he is going to do it in the future, some are payers and some are non-payers.

You say, "Brother Barnett, how do you know that you are not going to quit?" I will tell you how, because I have never quit. How you know a fellow is going to pay his bills is if he has paid his bills. If he has done it in the past they pretty well know he is going to do it in the future, some are payers and some are non-payers. Consequently if I have never quit, and I know my record, therefore it doesn't have to worry me if I want to quit. So I can say to myself, "I'd just like to quit," without worrying because I'm not going to quit.

If I have never quit, and I know my record, then it doesn't worry me if I want to quit. So I can say to myself, "I'd just like to quit," but I don’t worry because I'm not going to quit.

Do you know why I'm preaching this message? Because a lot of you have said, "I just want to quit." You feel like a quitter because you said that. There is nothing wrong with saying it, but don't you be a quitter.

We've raised a generation of quitters. Little Johnny comes home with a bad grade on report card and his momma says, "Little Johnny is not very smart, but he sure is a sweet little boy."

We take him out and buy him an ice cream bar because he quit.Or we blame the teachers.

Little Johnny strikes out playing little league ball, he wants to quit, and we let him quit. We blame the coaches.

Churches all over the country, they quit, they say, "It is not the day of revival," and they start hyping the future revival that is going to come because they're saying, "God's not real and we're going to quit."

I mean I have wanted to quit all my life. I have coaches do everything you could image from running me tell I could stand to making fun of me.

I didn't quit, why? Because I am not a quitter. I wanted to quit and kill the coach. I'm not a quitter, I'm a killer. Someone said, "Did you ever feel like divorcing your wife?" Never, I felt like killing her a few times, but never divorce her, Amen.

I wanted to quit when I was pastoring a small church out in Western Oklahoma, I want to quit when i went to ET, I want to quit almost every monday morning here but I am not a quitter.

There was time when somebody got mad at me at the church for some reason, I wanted to quit.

I wanted to quit when I saw the first church that I pastored. I wanted to quit when they threatened our lives when we fought the massage parlors in Davenport. I wanted to quit when the Moslems got after me and warned me they would kill me if I didn't quit taking up for Israel.

I wanted to quit when the Republic and the Wall Street Journal blasted me. Do you realize that was right during the singing Christmas tree? The day it came out I had to walk out here before this audience and give the altar call and receive an offering. I wanted to run off to Mexico and never come back. I knew I wasn't going to quit because I am not a quitter, therefore I can have the luxury of wanting to quit.

Why don't you quit?" I'm going to tell you why. I have in my mind cut the word "quit" out of my dictionary. It does not belong in there for a child of the Living God.

There was somebody who had gotten mad at me at the church for some reason, I wanted to quit. Every Monday morning when the alarm goes off at 5:30 for prayer meeting, I want to quit. "Why don't you quit?" I'm going to tell you why. I am literally... You can check any dictionary I own, I have cut the word "quit" out of the dictionary. It does not belong in there for a child of the Living God. Come on, give the Lord a good clap offering out there today.

I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:

I said again you can enjoy the luxury of wanting to quit if you know you are not going to quit.

4. Quitting is really changing.

You can't quit, all you can do is change. Actually changing often times is Satan's camouflage for quitting.

Consequently if I am not going to quit then I'm not going to change. If I am not going to change, what am I going to do to keep me from changing?

1. Burn every bridge behind you so you can't go back.

2. Don't tell anybody you want to quit.

We pray, "Oh God, give us a new building." We fast and we pray and we ask God for the miracle, for the money. Finally we get in and we say, "Oh God, you've got us into this mess and we've got this big building and now I want you to fill it." Then God fills it and we pray, "Oh God, we need another building out here so we can have two services on Sunday morning. God give us the money." Every miracle necessitates another miracle. How many realize that I couldn't go back if I wanted to?

You can tell them afterwards, but not when you want to. I can tell you how I felt in the past, .

Number two, don't tell anybody you want to quit. You can tell them afterwards, but not when you want to. I can tell you how I felt in the past, come on say a good "Amen". Number three, don't expose yourself to what you don't want to be.

3. Don't expose yourself to what you don't want to be.

Abraham went with the wrong crowd and it affected him. Peter went with the wrong crowd and he denied the Lord. Naomi went with the wrong crowd, it affected her.

Listen closely, 10 years from now you will be what you are now plus what you read and who you meet. Don't expose yourself to what you do not want to be. That is why television is ruining our lives, come on say a good "Amen". We are exposing ourselves to what we don't want to be.

I'm just going to say this while I'm right out here, you can hang around Moab so long until you look like Moab. You can watch Moab on television until... That is what I'm going to say, that I believe, and I'm not going to point it out, but if you are such an imbecile that you don't get this, you are pretty dumb. I'll just say it. If I was a boy I wouldn't want to wear anything that looks like a girl or girl's wear.

Jehoshophat went with the wrong crowd, it affected him. Balaam went with the wrong crowd, lost his kids. It will affect you and change you. It will change you into quitting.

"Well Pastor, we have to dress like them to win them." Oh pooff. Come out from among them, be separate. You don't have to look like a gang member to win a gang member, you don't have to dress like a nudist to win a nudist. If that philosophy is true then why don't you dress like the nudists when you go to the nudist colony?

I'm tired of so many churches having the rock and roll for their orchestras. If we don't watch it we are going to have rock and roll churches all over America. Come on, say a good "Amen" out there. Why do we dance to the tune of the world? Come out and be separate people, let's not be like Moab. Come on and say a good "Amen" out there.

Abraham went with the wrong crowd and it affected him. Peter went with the wrong crowd and he denied the Lord. Naomi went with the wrong crowd, it affected her. Jehoshophat went with the wrong crowd, it affected him. Balaam went with the wrong crowd, lost his kids. It will affect you and change you. It will change you into quitting.

4. Lock yourself in so you can not quit.

Lock yourself in the Word of God and everything you need is right there in that Word. All the instruction you need is right here, it's infallible, it's true, and it doesn't change.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

We went shopping. Why? I told her that my mind was made up, we're going fishing. She told me her heart was fixed. There is a difference. David's heart was fixed and so is mine. Lock yourself in. You stay in church.

Let me tell you some reasons why you can't quit, just briefly. Number one, God said that he that putteth his hand to the plow and looks back is not worthy of the kingdom. The Bible said that once you have been called to the ministry you can never recant because it said that the calling of God is without repentance. You may not have a church, but you still have got to carry out the calling of God, whether you be a layman or not.

The second reason you can't quit is because we hold the future of this nation in our hands. I want my grandchildren to be able to grow up and play baseball like I was able to play baseball. I want them to enjoy America, a free America, like we were able to. I don't want them to fear -- not driving down the streets to be shot at and killed. I want them to have the freedom and safety. We can't quit because we hold in our hands somewhat of this church and somewhat of the other churches in America.

We can't quit because of our children. I've got two boys preaching today, a wonderful girl and her husband who love the Lord. Folks, I don't believe they would be serving God if I would have quit.

We can't quit because there is a lost city that needs us. Oh, listen to me. We are the salt of the earth. We are the light of the earth. Oh, listen to me. We talk like, the position God has given us, and it is wonderful, but we could lose it over night. The only reason God has blessed us is we have been faithful. When we are discouraged we keep going as a church, when we fail we get back up. A just man falls seven times, but he gets up.

You see the winners are those who persevere, but they do not quit. I always write on the staff report that my staff hands in to me every week, at the bottom are these words, "Great men are ordinary men that just wouldn't quit." Give the Lord a good clap offering.

It's 12:15 just like I said. Look this way and I close my sermon, it's closed. This church is full of new converts, you have come into this revival, you have come in the last few weeks, you have been on a high. Let me tell you something, after Pentecost Peter and John went to the temple to pray. You cannot build the Christian experience upon the ecstatic day of Pentecost and just revivals alone, the devil is going to come to you and you are going to get discouraged.

Let me tell you, you take this stand, "There is no alternative, there is no decision to make. I have decided upon Jesus, I have made up my mind. My heart is fixed come hell or high water. If all my kids die with cancer, God is still alive and real. If every preacher in America runs off and commits adultery, God is still alive and I'm not going to turn back. If people treat me like dirt I am not going to turn back."

Get some guts, I didn't intend to say that word, Amen, intestinal fortitude. Get some grit in your craw. Get steel for a backbone.

Let me just tell you, you are going to have troubles because the only thing that will make you a great person and a great Christian is trouble. Trouble will make you great if you will respond to it accordingly. Why don't you be like old Job who said, "Though God slay me, I'm going to trust Him"?

Then I want to talk to married couples as we close. I want every married couple to say, "Divorce will never come from our lips, it is not in our vocabulary. We will go home and cut it out of the dictionary, it is not even an option." Before you came to Jesus it was a different thing, but now you're God's child and it is not God's place, we're going to make this thing work. We have no option. Sometimes you'll love her, other times you're going to not love her.

I'm talking to every Christian in this building. We wouldn't have this church and this wonderful move of God and this place God has given us if some Christians weren't faithful. You're going to get mad at Brother Barnett, some of them got mad at me when I preached this way this morning - sometimes I get mad at you - but I will make a deal with you, I won't quit you if you won't quit me.

We've got to learn the preacher is going to have good moments and bad moments. He is going to be on top side and sometimes there are going to be those moments when he feels like quitting. That is when you need to rise up, that is when you need to accept his authority. The Bible clearly states that the man of God must be followed, and people who do not will be held responsible for it.

Last but not least I want every young person in this building, I want every Master's Commission kid sitting over here saying, "I'm not going to quit. I'm going to make this year great. I'm not going to turn to the left or the right, I'm going to make it as a child of God." I want every young person in this building to say, "I don't care what they say at school, let them do it. I'm God's property."

I would like to ask every new Christian that has been saved or come back to God in the last six months who will say, "Preacher this morning I would like to make a decision to follow Jesus, and I'd like to make a decision that I'm not going to quit. I'd like to make a commitment that by the help and grace of God...."

"But Pastor, I have so many temptations." Everybody has got temptations. "I get so many...." Oh poohey, you little pitiful thing. You ought to be burned to the stake like the Christians were. I'm looking for some people who will stand up and say, "Let the world come, let the druggies come out and offer me it, but I'm not going to turn back."

I want every new Christian in the last six months that has been saved who will say, "Pastor, by the help and grace of God" - because His grace will help you - I want you to stand up...