Endurance

Common English Bible Chapter 5

5 Therefore, since we have been made righteous through his faithfulness, we have peace with our God through Jesus Christ. 2 We have access by faith into this grace in which we stand through him, and we boast in the hope of God’s glory. 3 But not only that! We even take pride in our problems, because we know that trouble produces endurance, 4 endurance produces character, and character produces hope. 5 This hope doesn’t put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Introduction- Pap @ The Pool

When I was a kid, I went to swim lessons at some local pool.

And truth be told, they were kind of brutal about it!

They used to take kids like me who were afraid of going underwater, and essentially dunk us until we got ok with it.

So…I didn’t love it very much!

One day my parents couldn’t take me, so my grandfather took me instead.

Parents would drop us off outside the locker room, and then they’d watch from the stands.

So I figured that once pap dropped me off at the locker room, I could just hide in there until everything was over, and get out of a swim lesson that day.

But, pap was no dummy. He caught on as soon as the swim lesson got started.

So he came and he found me in the locker room.

He wasn’t mad, or angry, or yelling, or anything like that.

But I remember distinctly that he put his arm around me and said “No one ever got anywhere by running away from what’s hard.”

That line rings true in my head every time I come across this passage from Romans.

In fact, this is one of my very favorite passages in all of scripture.

And looking back over my notes, I don’t think I’ve ever actually preached on this one before.

So I’m excited to dive in to this one with you all this morning!

Bible Breakdown

Therefore- The Right place to start

A pastor from the church I grew up at used to say all the time “When you come across the word “Therefore,” you should ask yourself what it’s there for.”

In esense, this word connects everything that is about to follow with what it is that’s come before.

So when we see this word “therefore,” we need to read the verse that comes right before it:

Romans 4:25 “He was handed over because of our mistakes, and he was raised to meet the requirements of righteousness for us.”

Essentially, this is the gospel message.

Because we are sinful, because we make mistakes, Jesus Christ becomes righteousness for us through his life, death, and resurrection.

Therefore...

Christ is the faithful one

The translation I’m reading from today (and most days) is the Common English Bible, and I think they get verse one exactly right.

This verse in Greek can be read one of two ways:

Since we have been righteous through faith in him,

Or since we have been made righteous through his faithfulness.

Both are exceptionally accurate in the Greek.

And for my money, option two is the better choice.

We are made right because of Christ’s faithfulness on earth.

We are made right because of Christ’s faithfulness to go to the cross.

We are made right because of Christ’s faithfulness in rising from the dead.

To be sure, we have faith in that same Christ.

But that same Christ has a lot of faith in us.

Grace is where this story has to start

Whichever translation you go with, we have to start at the point of God’s grace and forgiveness.

You and I don’t deserve a blessed thing.

We are sinners, through and through.

Broken humans who when we’re given 100 choices will get it wrong 105 different ways.

And yet, God still loves us.

God loves us enough to send Christ.

God loves us enough to redeem us through Christ’s faithfulness.

God loves us enough to walk with us through the Holy Spirit.

God in three persons loves us more than we can comprehend.

The kinds of Christianity that I have come to know as toxic and broken are the kinds that will start this story anywhere else BUT God’s grace.

When Christianity begins with judgement, it is harsh.

When Christianity begins with condemnation, it is (literally) hopeless.

When Christianity begins with our failed and flawed efforts, it is depressing.

Only when we lean in to the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, his grace, his redemption, his forgiveness, do we find ourselves getting somewhere.

I don’t say this enough, but no matter what you’ve done, no matter what is lurking in the back corners of your past, Jesus Christ loves you, and longs to set you free.

Take Pride

This text also tells us something that is so antithetical to our culture’s values it almost sounds funny.

Paul says “We even take pride in our problems”

What?

We so often run from our problems

How many of us have hidden in the locker room to avoid swim lessons?

How many of us don’t pick up the phone when we see *that* number on the caller ID?

How many of us haven’t had a conversation with a family member or loved one because of the pain that lives in the past?

How many of us exert untold energy and resources doing everything we can to run away from our problems?

What Paul wants to offer us here is not a solution to our problems.

There’s no way that he could possibly imagine all the problems of the 21st century life.

But what he does want to do is offer us a different mindset, a different way of thinking about our problems.

And he sets it up in this train of thinking, each with words that are worth looking in to.

The train

Problems/Suffering

The Greek word at play here is thilipsis

Broadly speaking this is any kind of suffering or affliction.

And the universal nature of this is worth mentioning.

Some people try to deal with their problems by either pretending they’re not there

Or even comparing themselves to someone else who has more problems.

“Things might be bad, but at least I’m not as bad as Sally down the road!”

Thilipsis is all inclusive.

It includes opening that bill you’re not sure how you’re going to pay and it also includes the paper cut the envelope gave you.

What I think is so vitally important for us to remember is that Paul starts here.

The line isn’t “You’re blessed when everything is going well, and we’ll figure out suffering and problems later.”

Paul starts with the iron clad conviction that if you are alive, and if you are living for Christ, suffering and problems are inheriently part of the program.

Things will be difficult.

Things will be hard.

Things won’t go your way.

There will be pain.

There will be heartache.

And far from being depressing or pessimistic, I’ve come to understand that this is the most clear eyed way to look at life.

When we know suffering and problems are part of the program, it more quickly allows us to dive in to the second part of Paul’s train.

Endurance

Last weekend I did the Bike MS Escape to the Lake Ride.

It was 77 miles of riding, alone, into a headwind.

And since I’ve finished, when people ask about the ride they usually ask a similar question:

How could you possibly ride that far?

And I’m flattered, but there’s actually an answer to that question.

Before I rode those 77 miles, I have ridden 625 this year.

Before those 77 miles, I had 625 miles of leg cramps.

Before those 77 miles, I had 625 miles of headwinds.

Before those 77 miles, I had 625 miles of climbing and descending.

In other words, I suffered a lot before I was able to produce any kind of endurance.

The Greek word for endurance here is actually really interesting.

Hypomone- Which comes from combining the words “Meno” which means to remain, and Hypo which means extreme.

Endurance is the ability to remain when things get hard or extreme.

When you’ve been through suffering and difficulty and problems, they give you the ability to stay when things get tough.

When you know what problems look like, you can stay in the fight when your family dynamic is hard.

When you how what suffering is, you can stay in a hard personal conversation to help someone out.

When you know what pain is, then you have the ability to endure.

Character

If problems are about reality, and endurance is about what you are able to do with it, character is who you become as a result.

The Greek word here is dokime, which comes from a root word that means to test or examine.

A person of character in other words is a person who has been tested.

So if endurance is the ability to stay in a tough fight, character is the desire to do it for the right reasons.

If endurance is the ability to stick with that hard personal conversation, character is the desire to do so to help someone.

If endurance is the ability to push through pain, character is the realization that it’s not for you alone.

Two observations here:

The first is that character is the first piece of this train that hangs around beyond the suffering in the moment.

If you are a person of character, you carry that character with you when things are tough as well as when times are easy.

The second observation is that we as a culture are substantially lacking in people of character.

I’ve bemoaned before one of my biggest pet peeves is when you stand in the line at Chipotle behind someone who is rude.

Instead of “May I please have chicken or beans or rice or whatever,” folks will stand in front of minimal wage teenagers and bark out “Give me chicken or beans or rice or whatever” and have the audacity to get mad if the line isn’t moving fast enough.

It turns out, you can reverse engineer this.

Why do we have so many folks in this country who are substantially lacking in character?

Because they have run away from their problems.

Because some people lack the endurance that this provides.

Because some people live lives of unbelievable privilege.

And, let’s put a really fine point on it, because some people imagine that the life of a Christian is one that is meant to be smooth sailing and free of conflict or hardship.

We have to embrace our problems not because we just love pain, but because we know that the pain is leading us somewhere.

But, Paul says, character is not enough.

Hope

The Greek word just to wrap things up is elpis

My friend Marko actually gave the definition of hope that I keep repeating, but I think it’s worth holding on to tightly:

Hope is the faithful confidence that God is authoring a story that moves us from vision to action.

Hope, in essence, is the belief that things can get better, and that we have a role to play in that.

Hope is believing that you will not always be right where you are.

Hope is never content with good enough.

Hope is the faithful confidence that Jesus meant what he asked us to pray for, his Kingdom Come, his Will be Done, on EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.

And it’s also worth noting here what hope isn’t.

Hope isn’t just plucky optimism.

Hope isn’t just a sunny disposition.

Hope isn’t the often toxic positivity that some Christians are associated with.

Hope can live while things are horrible.

Hope is, according to Paul, our end goal.

Hope does not disappoint us, because it’s God’s hope.

Hope does not disappoint us, because it’s God’s story to tell.

We have a role to play, to be sure.

But it’s not on our shoulders alone.

Hope does not disappoint us because as long as there is breath in our lungs, the story keeps going and it won’t stay here.

Not Prescriptive, but Descriptive

Some people have abused this scripture a little bit in assuming that it’s laying out the steps we ought to take.

Some folks have gone out looking for suffering because of this verse.

They create problems for themselves or for others because they have this twisted view that if you just get on this train, then you’ll be on the right path.

And that’s just not what Paul is saying here.

Paul would never ever say go looking for trouble.

Instead Paul would say start with the peace of Christ, and know that trouble will find its way to you eventually.

This verse is not arguing that we go looking for trouble to turn it in to something.

This verse is saying that trouble ought never, ever be wasted by us.

Application

Don’t Run From Suffering

We have to be clear here: I don’t mean to seek suffering out.

If you’re having a tremendous season of life right now where nothing’s wrong or out of place, I am legitimately and totally happy for you!

What I’m referring to here is the “hide in the locker room” kind of running from suffering that so many of us are used to.

I’ll give you an example that comes up for me time and time again.

Suppose you’re at work, and you come across a conversation where one of your coworkers is belittling or even bullying another.

It totally happens, right?

You have a choice in that moment:

You can express your displeasure, call out the evil of what it means to have such a conversation with another human being, and try to show grace to your co-workers.

Or you can just kind of keep your head down, because if you get involved you’re probably going to be the one who gets called in to HR next and it’s just going to be a whole big thing and...

Option two is running away from problems.

We are given this train of understanding so that we can stand in God’s grace, and do something with it!

Accept the Difficult Stuff of Life

There’s a story I’m fond of telling:

A zen monk lived in a village high atop a mountain a long time ago.

One day a boy celebrated his 17th birthday, and the town all came together and gave him a horse.

The townspeople came to the monk and said to him “Isn’t this great? Our boy has his very own horse!”

And the monk said “We’ll see.”

A few months later the boy fell off the horse, and shattered his leg.

The townspeople came to the monk and said to him “Isn’t this awful? Our boy is hurt and it’s just so terrible!”

And the monk said “We’ll see.”

A few months after that, the country found itself in a war.

All the boys of fighting age were drafted, but the town’s boy was left at home because of his leg.

The townspeople came to the monk and said to him “Isn’t this great! Our boy has been saved, and can stay here with us!”

And the monk said...

Whether times are good, or times are bad, I think how we respond to what’s right in front of us tells us so so much.

If you are in a moment of incredible blessing, don’t spend it waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Enjoy where you are.

And if you are in a season of difficulty or problems, don’t fight them.

Instead, let your problems lead to endurance, your endurance lead to character, and your character move you to the story and action of God that we call hope.

Welcome where God has put you, not to stay there, but to prepare you for where God wants to take you.

Live in the Grace of God

I always get a little nervous in sermons like this.

I feel like sermons where we just notice how God works in the world and take wonder in it are easy.

But when we come to a place where we have to change who we are, or our mindset around a particular set of circumstances, that feels harder.

What if I don’t always welcome my problems and my suffering?

What if I have a whole ton of problems and I have absolutely no endurance?

What if I’ve been at this for a long time and hope just isn’t there?

That’s all possible.

Which is why Paul starts where he does, and why I think it’s important to end here.

You have been made righteous through Christ’s faithfulness.

God’s love is not contingent on you getting this right.

Christ’s grace is not built upon our ability to play error free ball.

The Spirit will not put us to shame.

And for as much as Paul tells us this is how we will make sense of our sufferings and our problems, we’re going to get it wrong aren’t we?

That’s ok.

In those moments, you have to do what I did way back in swim lessons.

Pap drove me to my lesson just a week later, and armed with fresh resolve, I got in the water.

And sometimes, doing that is all you need.