Life of Paul Part 14 - In Jesus Name, We Press On

When it comes to the issue of pressing on, when it comes to the issue of never quitting and never giving up, one of the most gripping examples that I've ever witnessed in my lifetime happened in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.

You may remember the incident. There was a young man from Great Britain there named Derek Redmond. And Derek Redmond was running in the finals of the 400 meters and about halfway around the track he tore his hamstring. And while the rest of the runners just kept on going, of course, and ran around and they crossed the finish line, all the medals were settled, Derek Redmond on the backside of the track continued to hobble towards the finish line, hopping on his one good leg.

And when he rounded the last curve, if you remember, his father, who was in the stands, leaped out of the stands, ran down onto the track and supported his son as the two of them hobbled their way all the way to the finish line and across. It was one of the most incredible scenes in modern sports history. By that time, the stands were all cheering.

Everybody was standing and clapping and applauding. Unbelievable moment. Well, we want to talk a little bit today about the same kind of grit and tenacity that Derek Redmond demonstrated. Except we want to talk about it not in terms of a literal race in the Olympics, but in terms of our Christian lives and how we continue to press on and go forward even through tough times like Derek Redmond did.

Because we're going to look today at the apostle Paul's life and we're going to watch him display this very same quality. And, you know, it occurred to me as I was thinking this week that so many times we're just like Derek Redmond, where something has happened to us and we're just hobbling. You know, there was a survey done by Gallup just this past week about the events of September 11th. And what he found is that over 50 percent of Americans are still struggling to get back to normal. Thirty percent of Americans say they're still depressed. Thirty five percent of Americans say that they're still losing sleep over it.

And 15 percent of Americans said that they will never in their lifetime, they believe, get over the events of two weeks ago. Now, even if that's not what you're dealing with, even if that's not what's hobbled you, you know, many of us here are dealing with cancer and chemotherapy and wondering where we're going to get the strength to keep on pressing on. Some of us are caring for people who are going through this. Some of us here have chronic illness and we're struggling to know how to keep going when every single day is exactly like the day before. And some of us are caring for people who are struggling with these kind of issues. Some of us here have lost our jobs and we're struggling to decide. We're having trouble finding a new job, wondering if we're ever going to find a job, trying to figure out how we go on from day to day. Some of us here are lonely. We really want, we want a relationship and we can't seem to find one. And some of us here have had a relationship and it's all fallen apart and we're, we've lost contact with children that we love and we're struggling to know how to go on.

Some of us here are having financial troubles with the markets and we don't even want to wake up and even see what's going to happen today in the markets. Well, I don't know what your issue is, but friend, let me just say if you're confused about why God is letting all this happen to you and you're struggling to find the strength to press on, you have come to the right place today because this is what we're going to talk about. And we're going to try to get a strategy that's going to help you as a follower of Christ by looking at the Apostle Paul. So let's dig in together a little bit of background because a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, we were studying Paul. Do you all remember that?

So we're going to go back now, but let's review a little bit for those of you who are new with us. The Apostle Paul, remember, did not begin as the Apostle Paul. He began as a Jewish rabbi, as a Pharisee.

In fact, he was one of the most highly educated men in Israel in his day, having studied at the feet of the eminent Rabbi Gamaliel in Jerusalem. Rabbi Paul was also a ruthless persecutor of the early church. And one day he was on his way to Damascus to go find some Christians there and arrest them, bring them back to Jerusalem and put them in jail like he'd done so many others. While he was on the road to Damascus, the living, risen, resurrected Jesus knocked him down on the road, appeared to him, spoke to him, and suddenly Paul realized that everything these Christians had been telling him, the ones he'd been arresting, everything they'd been telling him about Jesus as the Messiah was really true. Lying there on the dust, he accepted Christ as his personal Messiah. And about 10 or 12 years later, he and his friend Barnabas set off to do itinerant preaching. They first went to Cyprus, and then they went up into the underbelly of what we know today as Turkey. And this began what we call today Paul's first missionary journey. Now that's where we pick up the story.

He's gone to the city of Antioch in central Turkey, and he's preached in the synagogue, and that's where we pick up the story. So let's look. Chapter 13, verse 42.

Join me as we look. And as Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue, the people invited them to speak further about these things the next Sabbath. So when the congregation was dismissed, many of the Jewish people and devout converts to Judaism that were there followed Paul and Barnabas, and Paul and Barnabas talked to them and urged them to continue in the grace of God. You see what's happening here is they left the synagogue. The Jewish people said, Hey, y'all come back next week and we'd like to hear some more about this.

But there were a few people there who were ready to make a decision right then. And Paul and Barnabas urged them, the Bible says, to continue in the grace of God, meaning that they urged them not to return to trying to work their way to heaven with religious activity, keeping the Ten Commandments, trying to be a good person, but rather that they enjoy the undeserved mercy of God that had been given to them when they trusted Jesus and what He did for them on the cross. Now, if you're here and you've never trusted Christ in a real and personal way, may I say to you that you've probably been taught that the way to get to heaven was the same way these people in Paul's day had been taught, and that is you do religious works, you come to church, you try to keep the Ten Commandments, you try to be a nice person. Paul's whole sermon here in Acts 13 is aimed at saying that won't work. That's not how people get eternal life. People get eternal life as a free gift from God when they put their faith and trust in Jesus. And so if you're here today, we want you to experience that same kind of freedom that suddenly these people in Acts 13 experience, free from that treadmill of performance, free from having to do all that religious work, just free to enjoy God's goodness and God's undeserved kindness to you when He gives you eternal life in response to your trusting Jesus.

We hope you'll do that. God wants to set you free. Well, let's get back and see what happened the next Sabbath, verse 44. And the next Sabbath, almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.

Isn't that wonderful? Almost the whole city showed up at the synagogue. Say, how did that happen, Lon? Well, I think it's because Paul and Barnabas didn't spend the week sitting on the porch sipping mint juleps. I think they were out in the streets, out saying to people, hey, bring your friends, bring your neighbors, bring your enemies. We don't care because at the synagogue, we got something great happening next week.

And the city showed up. All these gentiles showed up at the synagogue. You say, well, those Jewish people who were there must have been thrilled.

Not exactly. Verse 45. Then the Jews saw the crowds of gentiles and they were filled with jealousy and they talked abusively against what Paul was trying to say. You say, well, I don't understand. Why weren't they excited?

What's the hubbub all about? Well, you got to understand the Jewish people in this synagogue believe that the Messiah was their personal property. The Messiah was their unique personal entitlement. And they didn't take too kindly to all these gentiles showing up wanting to get in on their thing. And so the Bible says they got jealous. They got jaundiced. They began to get very territorial and very defensive and they opposed Paul and they tried to stop him from preaching the message of Jesus to these gentiles. But they didn't stop there. Verse 50 says they incited the God fearing women of high standing in the town and the leading men of the city and they stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and they ran them out of the city. They expelled them from the city. Now, you know, if the apostle Paul had been a normal person, he probably would have said, you know what?

This is crazy. I mean, why am I out here doing this? Why am I out here getting tarred and feathered and run out of town like this? I think I'll just go back to where I came from where everybody liked me. Well, but friends, the apostle Paul was not a normal person.

Thank God for that, because look what he did. Verse 51 says that the apostle Paul and Barnabas shook off the dust from their feet in protest against these folks who ran them out of town and they went on to Iconium. Now, let me show you a map to give you an idea what's going on here. Paul and Barnabas are here in Antioch up in southern Turkey and they got ran out of town. So what they did is they went right to the next little city, the city of Iconium, and they go there and they begin preaching there in Iconium.

Well, what happens in Iconium? Chapter 14, verse 5. And there in Iconium there was a plot among some of the people to abuse and stone the apostle Paul. So Paul found out about it and what did he do? Go home?

No. He went on to the cities of Lystra and Derbe where he continued to preach the good news. Back to our map. They've gone now from Antioch where they started to Iconium. They get run out of Iconium so they go on to Lystra and on to Derbe and continue to preach. Well, what happened in Lystra and Derbe? Acts chapter 14, verse 19.

Some Jewish people from Antioch and from Iconium, they followed them to Lystra and they won the crowds over so the crowd stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city thinking he was dead. Now, you know, in our culture today, you and I don't see a lot of dead people. I mean, that stuff happens in hospitals. I bet you a lot of us here have never even been near a dead person.

But in these days it was different. These people knew what dead people looked like. So if they dragged Paul out the city and threw him in the ditch considering him to be dead, you can believe the apostle Paul was not doing real well at that moment.

They thought he was dead. But the Bible goes on to say that when the disciples had gathered around him, Paul got up and went back into the city. You mean the very same city where they just schwacked him? Yep, that city. He said, well, then he went home, right?

Nope. The next day, Acts chapter 14, verse 20. The next day, Paul went back to Derbe where he preached the good news and won a large number of people to the Lord. And then he returned to Lystra. You mean where he'd been stoned?

Yeah. And then he went back to Iconium where they had wanted to stone him. And then he went back to Antioch where the people ran him out of town and had been following him around trying to get him killed. And Paul didn't slink into these towns and hide out. Verse 22 of chapter 14 says he went into town, strengthening the believers there and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. Let's watch what he did.

Back to our map. After starting in Antioch and going to Iconium and then to Lystra and then to Derbe, Paul turned around and went back exactly the same to all these cities where all these people wanted to kill him. Hey, you know what I love about the apostle Paul? In his vocabulary, the word give up simply didn't exist.

It wasn't in his vocabulary. Now that's as far as we want to go right now in our passage because we have an extremely important question we need to answer. And I know it's been a while and some of you may have forgotten our question. So those of us who know it, let's help everybody remember it. Ready? Deep breath.

One, two, three. Ah, that feels good, doesn't it? Yeah.

You say, Lon, so what? I mean, I love Paul. He's got a great attitude. God bless him.

But big whoop. What difference does all that make to my life? Well, let's see if we can bring all this into the 21st century.

All right. Here in this passage, friends, we see the apostle Paul display the kind of grit, the kind of tenacity that characterize his entire Christian life. The apostle Paul only knew one direction, folks, and that was forward.

Watch what he says. Philippians three. He says in verse 13, brothers, I do not consider myself to have reached perfection, but this one thing I do. I'm very focused, Paul said, forgetting the things that lie behind, I press on. That's my focus. I go forward so that I may win the prize that God has for me in heaven.

And then he says in verse 15, look, all of us who are mature believers should have this same view of things, forgetting what lies behind, pressing forward and follow my example. You say, well, now, Lon, you know what? This isn't easy. I mean, you named all those things at the beginning of the message. Chemotherapy, broken relationships, losing a job, the stock market, chronic illness. You named all those things. And when you're dealing with those things and when you're exhausted and when you're discouraged and when you're rung out and when you begin to lose hope, when you give it everything you got and everything you got is just not good enough, you know what?

It's not easy to get up and press on. Well, you're right. You're absolutely right. And believe me how well I know. Many of you know I have a nine-year-old little girl named Jill. Jill's had probably 4,000 grand mal seizures in her nine years.

That's probably conservative. As a result, she has serious brain injury. She is severely retarded. As part of this, the damage that was done, Jill lost the ability to speak and even at one point lost the ability to walk or even sit up. We used to have to tie her with a rope in a chair in the kitchen to feed her because she couldn't sit up. But you know, through all the nine years and how bad it's been, I'll never forget what was probably the lowest point for Brenda and me.

Brenda and I had been through more than a year of crisis with Jill when she was about two or three. She would have seizures and she'd stop breathing. And I would have to give her CPR while we waited for the rescue squad to show up. The rescue squad would come. They would transport her to Fairfax Hospital. They'd put her in pediatric ICU. We'd be there two days, three days, four days, tag-teaming each other, spending the night there. Finally, they'd let her come home.

She'd do it again. The next day, the next week, we'd be back in the hospital for two or three days, and this went on week after week after week. We never slept through the night. She'd have seizures at 2 a.m., 3 a.m., 4 a.m. We forgot what REM sleep was even like. But one night, we only live a few minutes from the hospital.

She had a seizure like this. I decided not to wait for the rescue squad. We put her in the car. We ran to the emergency room. They took Jill out of our arms. They ran her back in this room.

They had an Ambu bag there, you know, the little blue bag they use when you stop breathing. They shut the shutters in this room so we couldn't see and pushed us out of the door. There was about five of them in there working on her. Said, y'all stand in the hallway. Close the door. And at 3 o'clock in the morning there, Brenda and I are standing in this hallway at the emergency room of Fairfax Hospital.

All alone, there's not another human being in sight. Our little girl's in this room. We have no idea if she's going to live, if she's going to die. And I got to tell you, friends, we were exhausted. And we were just completely worn down. And as we stood there, we felt hopeless. We felt depleted. You know, we couldn't understand why God was letting this happen to us. And we just had nothing left to give. We were like, we were just numb. And standing out there in that hallway in the middle of the night, I remember putting my arm around my wife and thinking to myself, Lord, I don't know how we're going to go on. I mean, I just don't think we can go on like this, God.

What are we going to do? I'll never forget God saying to me, Hey, Lon, if the Apostle Paul can do it, you can do it. So I dedicated myself to coming home after that and saying, I'm going to look in the Bible. I'm going to study and find out how did the Apostle Paul do it? I mean, he writes and says, follow my example to press on. How did he do it?

I'm going to learn what it is he did so I can copy it. And I found four things. Let me say to you, I don't want to give you the impression that Brenda and I breezed through these last nine years. We haven't. Even with these four things, we haven't breezed through these last nine years.

We've been on the ropes numerous times. But I will say to you, because we've done these four things by God's grace, we're still standing today, nine years later. And I don't care what you're dealing with, my friend. You may not have a disabled child. But if you're dealing with difficult, difficult things, I'm here to tell you, if you will do these four things, you can stand too. Might not be easy, but you can, because it worked for us.

It'll work for you. This is Paul's example. So let's follow it. What did we learn? What are these four things?

Here we go. Number one, what did Paul do? Number one, Paul saturated his heart and his mind with the word of God. 2 Timothy 3, verse 10 says, Timothy, you know about my way of life. What kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, in Iconium, in Lystra, the persecutions I endured? Hey, folks, we just read about them, right?

We know what happened to him. He says, Timothy, I'll tell you something else. Things are going to get tough for you. But Timothy, look at verse 14. You press on. Man, I love that. You press on, Timothy.

And how do you do it? Look, press on in what you have learned and what you know to be true, namely the Holy Scriptures, which, as Paul goes on to say, God gave us, verse 17, so that we as believers can be thoroughly equipped for every eventuality. What was it that enabled the Apostle Paul to press on like he did in his life, friend? The answer is the Apostle Paul was a man of the word.

The Apostle Paul was a person who saturated and soaked his heart and his mind in the word of God. And Brenda and I had to learn that the only way to keep from caving in when everything around us looked bleak was to be people who immersed ourselves in the word of God. There is a strength that comes when we are filling our heart and mind with this book that you simply cannot find anywhere else. If you can immerse yourself in the Washington Post, and I'm here to tell you, it is not going to give you the strength to go on.

You can immerse yourself in Time magazine and Sports Illustrated. You're not going to find the strength to go on. But when we immerse ourselves in the word of God, there is strength that comes into our lives. Number two, Paul, secondly, was able to press on because he relied on God's strength, not his own. He wrote 2 Corinthians 12, verse 9, God said to me, Paul writes, My God's strength is best displayed in your weakness, Paul. Paul's point here is that God has supernatural strength, my friends, that he's anxious to give us if we're just willing to humble ourselves and ask him for it instead of always depending on our own strength. That's why Paul goes on to say, That's why I delight in weaknesses, for when I am weak, then's when I am truly strong. You say that makes no sense at all.

Yes, it does. What Paul's saying is when I'm weak, when I'm out of resources, when I'm willing to admit that to God and ask for his help, that's when I really become strong because that's when God infuses my life with supernatural strength that I don't have on my own, that's when I become strong. Brendan and I learned that there's great power in simply getting on your face before God and saying, God, we can't do it. We can't do it. Lord, we're out and we need supernatural strength from you. You say, Well, how does God give that friend?

I don't have the slightest clue. And frankly, I don't care as long as he gives it. I don't care how he gives it. And I can't put it in a test tube for you and I can't decline it on a piece of paper for you. But all I can tell you is if you're a follower of Jesus Christ and you get on your face before God and you humble yourself and you say, God, I can't I need your strength.

And I'm here to tell you, you'll get it. Number three, Paul walked by faith is what I learned. And he believed God's promise in Romans 8 28. You say, Well, Lord, of course he believed Romans 8 28. He wrote it. Well, I know.

I know. But he wrote it because he believed it. And what does Romans 8 28 say? It says all things work together for good to those who love God. Friends, this is the lens through which the apostle Paul viewed every single circumstance in his life. The lens of faith in Romans 28, no matter how confusing things might have looked to him, no matter how bleak the circumstances might be, Paul didn't look at the circumstance. He looked beyond it to the promise of God and said, Hey, I don't care how bad it is now. I've got God's promise that he's got good plan. And if I trust him, he's going to turn it into good.

That's how he could take the stuff he took. My wife had a prayer that I she would often tell me about in the days of Jill, and she still praise it. Her prayer is very simply, Lord, please don't let all this pain get wasted.

Please turn it into something good, like only you can. And every time she'd tell me that, I'd go, Amen. Amen. That kind of prayer is a prayer that's clinging to the promise of Romans 8 28. And, you know, in the early years with my daughter, I could not even think about how God could turn something this awful into anything good.

Couldn't even imagine how it could happen. But now nine years later, you know, we're beginning to see God do that. We have access ministry in this church. We ministered over 400 children with special needs every single month in this church and their families. Now, friends, that this would never be happening in this church if it wasn't for God sending Jill into my life. And I'll tell you why.

I'm ashamed to admit it. But I would have been too insensitive, too hard hearted and too completely stupid to realize what these families were dealing with. But, man, when God sent me Jill, suddenly I understood. We have churches that come from all over America to learn how to do what we're doing here in access so they can go back and copy it in their churches. We've just filed with Fairfax County to build a center for special needs children just to the west of this property where we can do overnight respite care, where we can do therapy that's cheaper than people can get out in the world system in a distinctively Christian atmosphere where we can pray with these children and pray with their parents. Where we can do early intervention services and support groups for parents in a distinctively Christ-centered environment.

There would be no such center happening if it weren't for Jill in my life. Jim Dobson has called me a number of times saying, would you come on the air when we talk about this so we can galvanize churches across America to copy this center. And we've said we'll love to do that. Let us get it built first so we got something to show people. We'd love to do that.

Johnny Erickson-Tada is moving her east coast headquarters into that center so we can partner with her. None of this would have happened without my daughter. And I believe that I'm a better man today because God sent my daughter into my life. I believe I'm a better pastor than I ever would have been.

My marriage is better than it ever would have been. God has taken me some places I don't think God could have ever taken me without Jill. You know, I've got to tell you, frankly, it's a little overwhelming to see how God has kept His promise in Romans 8.28 to us beyond anything I ever dreamed. But you see, friends, that's the way God is.

When He promises you something, you can take it to the bank. And I don't care what it is you're dealing with. I don't care how bad it looks. I don't care how impossible it seems good could ever come from it. The good news is you're not God. The good news is you're not supposed to be able to understand it all. But the good news is there is a God, and He's got it all worked out if you'll just trust Him. So you can keep going because God is going to turn it into good if you let Him. Number four, and finally, is that Paul was able to keep going because his focus was on eternity, not on this life. 2 Corinthians 4.17, for our light and momentary troubles, Paul writes, are achieving for us an eternal reward that far outweighs them all. So, he says, we fix our eyes not on what we can see, but on what we cannot see. For what we can see is only temporary, but what can't be seen is eternal. And the result of this, therefore, Paul says, we do not lose heart. When our eyes are on eternity, we don't lose heart in this life. And Brenda and I had to learn to keep our eyes on eternity, where one day Jill would be healed and whole, where one day God would reward us for our faithfulness, where one day all the pain and the heartache would just be a distant memory. It's amazing what you can deal with when your eyes are on eternity. Now let me repeat. Brenda and I have not breathed through the last nine years.

Please don't think that. But we're still standing. And the reason we're still standing is because we learned to do these four things. And friend, it'll work for you too. Paul said, follow my example.

This is his example. So I want you to write these things on your desk, write them on your refrigerator, write them on the mirror in your bathroom, write them on the palm of your hand. I don't care. You'll do these things.

I don't care what you're dealing with. You can find the strength to keep going too. I want to close with a song that's meant a lot to my wife and me in the last few weeks. It's a song by Selah.

And it's a very simple song. It kind of sums up everything that I've been talking about today. It simply says when the mountain is high and the valley is deep and I'm completely strung out, I'm giving it my best shot and that's not good enough and all my resources are gone. In Jesus' name, I find the strength to keep going.

So check out this song. I hope it'll be an encouragement to you. When the valley is deep When the mountain is steep When the body is weary When we stumble and fall When the choices are hard When we're battered and scarred When we've spent our resources When we've given our all In Jesus' name, we press on In Jesus' name, we press on Dear Lord, with the prize Clear before our eyes We find the strength to press on I wonder if you'd stand with me and let's sing this wonderful chorus together. Join us and let's let the Lord encourage our hearts.

Dear Lord, with the prize Clear before our eyes We find the strength to press on In Jesus' name, we press on In Jesus' name, we press on Dear Lord, with the prize Clear before our eyes We find the strength to press on To press on Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, we're just human beings. Lord, you know our frame as the Bible says, we're just dust. And we get tired. We get worn down. Lord, we get weary. We lose hope. We get discouraged. And sometimes we're not sure we can go on, Lord, or how to do it. So thank you for talking to us today.

Thank you for meeting us right where we live. And teaching us to follow Paul's example. Teaching us what that really means in easy steps. Father, my prayer is that we would take these four things and build them into our lives. So that we could, as Paul said, forget what lies behind and press on. Lord Jesus, give us the strength we need. We ask these things in Jesus' name. And God's people said, Amen.