Run With Endurance, Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. Let us run with endurance, the race set before us.

What's this pandemic? It's the race set before us. I just want it to be over. I just want it to be done. You said, no, you run with endurance. You just keep running. Well, I don't know when the race is going to be over.

God says, but I do. I'm asking you to run with endurance. That's hard.

That's hard. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world.

About a week ago, I received an email from a friend who had been in our church for a number of years, and then he moved away. And so he sent this email and it's designed to give us perspective about what we're all going through. He said. Let me offer you a small amount of perspective. I want you to imagine that you were born in 1900. When your 14th birthday, World War One breaks out and it ends on your 18th birthday. 22 million people perish in that war. Later in the year, the Spanish flu epidemic hits the planet and runs until your 20th birthday.

50 million people die from it. When your 29th birthday, the Great Depression begins, unemployment reaches over 25 percent, the world GDP drops 27 percent, and that runs until you're 33 years old and the country nearly collapses along with the world economy. When you're 39. World War Two starts. You aren't even over the hill yet.

And you can't quite catch your breath. And on your 41st birthday, the United States is fully pulled into World War Two. Between your 39th and 45th birthday, 75 million people on earth die. Smallpox was an epidemic until you were in your 40s. It killed over 300 million people in your lifetime. At 50, the Korean War starts. Five million more perish. From your birth until you're 55, you are dealt with the fear of polio epidemics each summer.

Your experienced friends and family contracted polio and everyone knew someone who had been either paralyzed or died. At 55, the Vietnam War begins. Doesn't end for 20 years.

Four million people perish in that conflict. During the Cold War, you lived each day with the fear of a nuclear annihilation. And on your 62nd birthday, you have the Cuban Missile Crisis, the tipping point of the Cold War. Life on our planet as we know it almost ended. And when you turn 75, the Vietnam War finally ends. That's for everybody who was born in 1900 and who lived to be 75. How did they endure all that?

He said, you see, perspective is an amazing art. Let's try to keep things in perspective. Your parents and your grandparents were called to endure all of the above and you are called to stay home and sit on your couch. Let's put this in perspective.

We need that. It doesn't matter when you live on earth. It doesn't matter since the time of Adam and Eve. Life has always been and will always be very difficult. That's why the Bible tells us as believers that life is a race and that we need to run it with endurance. It also says life's a boxing match and we need to fight to the very end and that we are to toil and labor throughout our entire life. Three words that I find in the New Testament for all of us to understand and apply to our lives as we go through this pandemic.

Endurance, perseverance, and patience. Open your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 10, Hebrews chapter 10, verse 36. The context is that the writer is addressing Jewish believers who have been gone through at least 20 or 25 years of tremendous persecution and they're tired, they're worn out from that persecution. And so he tells them in verse 36 of chapter 10 for you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. What you wanted them to say and what you hope God would say to us, what you need is deliverance and I'll do that for you. You don't get that.

You get what you need is endurance. Remember, he says in chapter 11, verse one, faith is the assurance of things hoped for in the conviction of things not seen, the assurance of things hoped for. It's always something future. And his whole point is, that's the perspective of our faith. We're always looking to the future.

We have a certainty, a hope for the future. Meanwhile, endure. Well, for how long?

I mean, this has gone on for months now. Well, when you go to Genesis, you get to the chapter 11 of Hebrews, he goes through the Hall of Fame of faith and Enoch walked with God apparently almost every day for 365 years. That's a long time. And God took him up. Noah, just imagine his life, was building an ark for 100 years on dry land. Now, how would you do with that?

How would you do that? 100 years. Not 100 hours or 100 days or 100 weeks, 100 years, and he was delivered with his family. Abraham endured because God told him to leave his home. And Abraham said, go where he said, I'm not going to tell you, just go. Just imagine what that would be like. And then God promised him that he's going to finally have an heir.

He's already 75. And by the way, after he told him it, he said, you have to endure for the next 25 years before you get the boy. God's nation, Israel, was put into slavery in Egypt for 400 years. They lived as slaves. They were God's people living as slaves. God told Moses that he'd have to endure 40 years as an Egyptian prince and then 40 more as a shepherd in the land of Midian before he could lead people. 40 more years he had to endure. And then when you get to the end of the chapter, he talks about all the people that endured all their life. Some of them were sawn in two with wooden saws, some of them lived in caves and they never got anything except when they went to be with the Lord. That's what the Hall of Fame of Faith is all about. Their faith allowed them to endure. So when you get to Chapter 12, the writer of Hebrews says, therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles us. And let us run with endurance the race set before us. That's as clear as it can be. Let us run with endurance the race set before us.

What's this pandemic? It's the race set before us. I just want it to be over. I just want to be done. He said, no, you run with endurance. You just keep running. Well, I don't know when the race is going to be over. God says, but I do. I'm asking you to run with endurance. That's hard.

That's hard. Dr. Hendricks, who is a mentor of mine at Dallas Seminary, used to say that our seminary had plenty of guys that he called shooting stars. Boy, they just come out of there.

They shine brightly and then they fizzle and hit the ground. I remember once and when we're going to graduate, he was looking at our whole class at a breakfast and he said, gentlemen, I'm not impressed. He said, I'd like to know where you'll all be 40 years from now. Then I'll be impressed.

What's he saying? Well, you endure. And by the way, when you are in the ministry and understand the ministry, it's amazing how many people have three year ministries, five year ministry, six year ministry, seven year ministries, and they're done. They didn't endure. Says you have to endure. Notice, he said, this is how we do it, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him, he endured the cross. You want to know what it's like to endure?

I don't even know what it's like and neither do you. For the joy set before him, that just hope that's a people to spend eternity with him, you and me. He endured the cross. I don't think any of us can even imagine that.

I don't think our imagination would take us to the point of what it means to bear the sins of the world and have it be the judge of a holy God pours wrath out on you. And the reason he endured it and remember, he said, no one takes my life. I give it. He does it by choice. But he said, it's for the joy that set before me as I look at my hope to the future.

That's what I do. He said. Endure. The words give us insight. The main word used for endurance in the New Testament is who? Monet.

Who? Monet means to line yourself up under. It's a military term. You line yourself up under.

If I'm a corporal and you're a captain, I line myself up under you. I obey you. I endure this. That's what he says. Who?

Monet. It's used forty nine times in the New Testament. It's very important to God. He keeps telling us this over and over again that you need to endure. Boy, you need to persevere, you need to keep going, keeping on. The other word is macro thematic.

And it's even worse. It implies to endure with patience. Is that how you endure? With patience?

No. What do we think endurance means? You've got to grind or you've got to grin and bear it. That's endurance.

God says, no, that's not that. I want you to endure with patience. You be patient about this. You feel very patient these days. You feel patient. Look, let this go on, Lord.

I'm good. See, I have my hopes in you. He said, no, you need to endure with patience. It really requires our faith to be in action here. I want to go to Romans Chapter five. Romans Chapter five. Paul's makes a great statement here, he says in verse one, therefore, having been justified by faith.

Oh, that's a great thing. That's how we're all declared righteous by God, by our faith. Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we also have obtained an introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we exalt in hope of the glory of God.

That's our standing as believers. Let's just two great verses. And then he says, and not only this, but we exalt in our tribulation. Some translations say we consider it all joy. That's what James wrote. Remember in James one, consider it all joy, my brother, when you encounter various trials. He says we exalt in our tribulation.

Why? Because tribulation brings about perseverance, hupomone, endurance. You see, sometimes. You can choose to endure. Or sometimes the circumstances make you endure. You say what I mean, if you've ever been ahead surgery.

What are your choices? You're going to take this. You see, you're going to have to. And he says, yeah, we exalt in tribulations. They force us to endure. You're starting to get this idea that God seems to think that endurance is good. Through tribulation, you'd be right. That's exactly what God is saying.

As James said, consider it all joy. Notice what happens. He says not only this, we exalt in our tribulations knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance, perseverance brings about what? Proven character.

What's he mean? Enduring tribulation changes you. Enduring tribulation and trials change you.

That's how your and my character is shaped. What is it we will endure? He said we get proven character and that brings about hope. And he said hope doesn't disappoint because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Notice that connection. Enduring, change, character, hope. He said that's the way this works.

That's an amazing thing. Why I say that is this, and I want you to think about this. How you go through these days right now may be the most maturing time in your life as a Christian.

Your opportunity to spiritually mature during this may be the greatest time in your life to mature as a believer. You need to think about that instead of we want to whine and complain about it. And we want solutions right away.

And they're always temporal. It's always the government needs to do something and medical doctors need to do something. That's what we need. But maybe what we really need is spiritual. We may need to grow. And this, as we endure it, will make us grow.

That's what it says. Notice in 5 he says that endurance is connected to hope. There's a direct connection between what you endure and how you hope. Our hope allows us to endure.

See, that's the whole point. Verses like all things work together for the good are designed to give you and me hope. Paul said into the Philippians, I run to secretive contentment.

You see, what do you mean? I've learned to be content in a palace or in a prison. I've learned to be content with much or nothing. I've learned to be content when I'm healthy or I'm not healthy. I've learned to be content in any and every circumstance.

Why? I have hope. See, I have hope. When you have that in your life, the maturity level you have, you and I become impervilous to the trials and tribulations of life.

Just imagine that you're to a point spiritually in your life and when a trial comes up, you view it as an opportunity. Oh, great Lord, this will give me a chance to really mature. It's hard for us to think that way. What do we want? Lord, make it go away. Make it go away. That's what I want.

I just want it to go away. That's not enduring. The question is, do I have the strength to do this?

You see, I think for all of us, what we keep thinking is that all sounds good. But I know me, I don't have the strength for this. I don't. And I want to tell you, of course not. Neither do I. Neither does anybody. That's not the way this works. You see, it's not a matter how do I muster up enough strength to be able to endure this.

It's not the way it works. Go with me to Ephesians chapter 3. Ephesians chapter 3.

Verse 14, the apostle Paul says, For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. He says that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with the power through his spirit in the inner man. What's he telling you? Who's going to strengthen you?

It's God. He says, yeah, and I'm praying you understand this, Paul said. I would pray you'd get this. I would pray that you would understand that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory. How many riches are in the glory of God?

Infinite. He says, remember, this comes from the infinite glories and power of God to you and me, to be strengthened with power. Denimous power. It's a great word. We love this word, power. We get the word dynamite. That's what we call dynamite. Dynamite has a lot of power, doesn't it?

You see an explosion like the one we saw last week in Beirut. Oh, look at that power. That's a grain of sand on all the oceans compared to the power of God. And God says, that's a power I have for you. I just don't feel very strong.

I don't know if I'll hold up. He says, no, I give you the power. Think about how the power of God has worked in your life. The power of God is what saved you. Romans 1 16, I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes. How are you saved?

By the power of God. The power of God empowers us to witness. Jesus said, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses. Where do I get the power to witness to other people?

He said, well, I give it to you. I was saved by the power of God. I witnessed by the power of God. He said, the power of God makes us overflow with joy and peace.

Romans 15 13. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Where do I get my joy from? The Holy Spirit.

Where do I get my hope from? Holy Spirit. God said, that's my power. I'll give you that power. The power of God gives us confidence for everything that comes to our life.

He said to Timothy, for the Spirit of God does not make us timid. He gives us power and love and self-discipline. The power of God provides everything we need.

I love what Peter wrote. His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Key phrase, everything you need. Everything you need. Who knows everything you need? God. Who gives you the power for everything you need? God. Sadly, what's the only thing that can stop this? You.

You. You don't believe it. No, you'll say you believe it because I read the scripture to you. That's not believing. Remember, Tony Evans said, believing is acting on the fact that you believe God is telling the truth. You have to act upon what God says. You have to act like he's telling you the truth here. That's what gives us the power.

You see, when you read these verses, you come to this conclusion. You never can say, you know, I can't do this. I can't.

Look, let's get this straight. Every good thing spiritual in your life, you can't do any of it. You can't do any of it. You can't get saved except for God.

You can't grow except for God. You can't serve except for God. You can't. You can't. You can't, but he can. That's the Christian life. But more importantly, it's not only you can, he can, but he will.

That's what he's saying. And I will do this. I will give you my power to go through something like this. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com. That's oneplace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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