Faith - When You Feel Like Giving Up

Just look down if you would in your Scriptures and see illustration after illustration. The faith of Abraham and Sarah, the faith of Isaac and Jacob, the faith of Moses the deliverer, verse 29. The faith of Rahab, verse 32. What more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel, and the prophets who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, received promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and scourging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with a sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, ill treated, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering over deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. All these, though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us, they should not be made perfect. It's no secret to anyone here this morning that ours is a win, win, win culture. Foge Fazio is in the bottom of the pile this morning because he is facing what happens to a coach who's having a lose, lose, losing season and a winning culture. Have you heard Lee Iacocca's new line? We at Chrysler aren't worried about being the biggest. We're going to be the best. After all, what else is there? You see, win, win, win. That's why I was kind of taken back when I received the USA Today newspaper and read a very interesting article by Deborah Sue Moffatt, who was a 1983 Miss America, in which he said, the title of the article is I Learned the Most from Losing. And this little article is very fascinating. And she describes how she really had no aspirations at all and beauty pageants and was just kind of moving along, pursuing her education and working in a bakery, and someone said, why don't you try this? And so on and so on. And she lost pageant after pageant and then would win one. I was runner up five times in the Miss Texas pageant. I never won, but I accumulated enough scholarship as the runner up to go on and finish school. Then she finally moved out to California. I guess the standards were lower out there, and she became Miss California. It was her 16th pageant, and by that time, she says, I had developed some talent. I expect you would Going on to win Miss America meant the world to me. But everything I am. Listen to this. Everything I am, so far as character, as a person is concerned, I learn from losing. That's something. I learned how to discipline my life. I learned about leadership. I learned how to deal with pressure. Character is what will really help my career in the future. We have been looking over the last several Sundays at what it means to grow, what it means to fight the good fight of faith. We've talked about moving, remember last week from reality, where we are today to where God would have us to be. The ideal is portrayed in the scripture. And we said along the way that we would encounter what conflict. Remember that? And we talked at length about the need to persevere in those times of conflict, the need to stand firm and not to do what, shrink back, that is to say, to fall back to where we were. We talked about how to win that fight of faith. That beloved will be encountered by any one of us who want to walk uprightly in Christ Jesus. No growth happens in the Christian life unchecked by the enemy. If that's been true in your life, would you just put up your hand? No growth happens unnoticed or unchecked by the enemy. You never find yourself moving on in the things of God without Satan coming alongside and trying to somehow discourage you or diminish your faith. And it's a necessary and important reminder to us this morning church that we've got to fight that good fight. Spiritual things tend to be those which we grasp last in our lives. We're much more physically oriented, touch and sense and feel than we are spiritually minded. And I think the Lord Jesus today would want to share a word with us by his spirit that has to do with the times that you just can't seem to win. The times when that. If you put that up again one more time, please. When you find yourself in that conflict and for some reason you're not getting through, you're not seeing victory and you're not sure what to do. Sometimes that conflict area can be long. There are people here today who have been praying for a spouse for 15 years. There are people here today who have grown children who have strayed far from God and you've been believing God for their lives for years, seeing nothing happen. There are people here today who have been working for the same boss who's basically a tyrant over your life. And for years you've been praying, asking God to relieve that situation, and nothing seems to have happened. Sometimes that conflict is not only long, but it's intense and it's extremely difficult to persevere. There's a couple that's living up in Grove City that I personally know, related to someone here in the fellowship who two years ago sold everything they had believing God to prepare them to go to the mission field. And for two years they've been waiting, doing everything they knew to do, calling, visiting, going around to raise the support necessary. It just seemed like the door of heaven was shut and nothing was happening. Intense conflict and church. What do you do when you find yourself in those conflict zones and you find that you're not winning? We don't always pass the tests of faith. Sometimes we fail. Now, this morning, as I just share briefly on the subject of what to do when you can hold on no longer, I risk a couple of things. The first thing I risk is opening the door of escape to those who would rather never fight the good fight of faith. I know that what you hear today may forever be in your mind an excuse to never stand firm when the enemy is challenging you. But I need to risk that. Number two, I also run the risk of letting those who just tend to be lazy tend to be apathetic and indifferent about their walk just to indulge that place of the flesh. And number three, I risk being misunderstood as a person who doesn't really care whether you make it from reality to God's ideal. But I believe, church, that today the Lord would speak to some of you. And I'm going to risk those three things in order to encourage those who find themselves in the conflict of faith not able to hold on. Let me begin. First of all, if we could have that other outline up, please, gals, I want to talk about the first point, which is the truth about those mighty men of faith that we just read about in Hebrews chapter 11. By the way, let me just ask, am I talking to anybody here today that have I described anyone in some area in your life? The truth about the mighty men of Faith in Hebrews 11? First thing you need to see there is that these men of faith were common, albeit exceptional, because of God, but common men in the flesh, ordinary folks. I was kind of tickled last Tuesday or Wednesday when John Chancellor on the NBC News was describing the in his mind upset defeat of Elliot Richardson in Massachusetts primary for senator. He was upset and Chancellor read a long list of his achievements under Secretary of State this, Harvard that, just an enormously impressive resume and he was defeated by. There was some sort of implied put down conservative fundamentalist guy up in Massachusetts and Chancellor was saying, if this happens in Massachusetts, what's the United States coming? And just saying that here was a man with all these reasons to be elected, and he lost. And a common, ordinary businessman, so to speak, had defeated this great giant. Well, in the hall of fame of faith, which Hebrews is often called, we're dealing with very common people. Abel was a shepherd. Look at verse four. You need to turn back to Genesis if you wanted to see who he was and what he did, but don't do that. Now, Enoch we know little about, except that he was a preacher. That's a man of low estate, all right? Noah doesn't give us any background about his life. All that we know that Noah did was what, built an ark. So let's call him a builder. Take David later on in the Scriptures, what was David's occupation? Shepherd. Over in verse 28 and 29, in Hebrews 11, we talk about Rahab. What was her occupation? She was a prostitute. So we have to say that God wasn't real selective in the kinds of people that he chose to be his mighty men and women of faith. Second thing I want you to understand is that all of these men and women of faith that are described here had sides of their character which were dark. There was weaknesses in each one of them. Do you recall what happened to Noah after the flood, after that great victory in obedience and building that ark and going through all the mocking and all that? What happened to Noah? He got drunk. I thought about that, you know, after being in that ark for a year with those animals. Maybe God indulged him once, I don't know. But he got drunk and really shame was brought upon his family and so on. There was curses that were passed down. Remember that? Which affected all of his progeny? What happened to King David? We know of his sin, don't we? Overt gross sin. The Bible says God said of David, he was a man after my own heart. How about Samuel, who's mentioned here in Hebrews 11? What was his fault? He put up with disobedient, rebellious children and profaned his worship in the temple. What about Jacob, who is mentioned here? We have a little ring here, guys. What about Jacob? He was a chiseler. Remember that? Lied Sometimes. All of these Old Testament saints were just like you and me. There were parts of them that just weren't pleasing to God yet. And somehow, Church, I want you to see that God used them anyhow. And so before you disqualify yourself as being a person of faith, not even willing to try to hold on. See, first of all. See first of all, that God used ordinary people. And secondly, he used people who often failed. Now third, these great men of faith were also men who failed, sometimes at the very point of testing. Consider Abraham. Now look at Hebrews 11. Beginning in verse 8, the writer gives Abraham 14 verses, 14 verses of recognition for his faith. You know what it doesn't mention there that Abraham, 20 years into receiving the promise of his descendancy, what did he do? He couldn't hold on any longer. So what did he do? He went out and manufactured his own answer, so to speak. And he hooked up with his wife's servant Hagar, and said, well, since my wife's not getting us anywhere, how about you, Hagar? And Sarah, mighty woman of faith, said, hey, that's a good idea. Let her do it. And so between them they both conferred and said, this is the way to go. And they entered into a common sin. They failed the test of faith. And what was the result? Ishmael. Ishmael was the product of Abraham and Sarah taking a situation that God had promised into their own hands to bring it to pass. Has that ever happened to you? Have you ever known that God was leading you in a direction and you didn't see it happen? And so you decided after whatever it is, it might be a week of waiting, it might be 10 years, that you were going to take the situation into your own hands and you were going to force God's hand. So if your husband didn't respond after the first five years of praying, you're going to start putting those promises right in his sandwich. How many of you know what I mean? There are times when God just doesn't seem to give what he said he was going to give. And we begin to force it. We begin to push it. We begin to make it happen the way that we feel it should have happened all along. Well, God, it doesn't seem like you're going to do it, so maybe this is the way. Now, you know what the balance here is? Sometimes God is requiring of you an act of faith. Never be so passive as to not offer something to the Lord. But Church, so many times we get out there and we simply do what we feel is the best alternative, given the fact that God didn't do what he said he would. Maybe you have your own illustrations. I certainly have mine. Moses did the same thing. What did Moses do? God had promised him he'd be a deliverer. And what did he do? He killed the Egyptian as the beginning point of his exercise of authority. Forty years later, God was able to use him. What about Saul? King Saul? Remember, God had promised him that he would reign. Instead of waiting on the priest to come and make the sacrifice in 1st Samuel, Saul went ahead and did it. That was the beginning of the downfall of his reign. What about Peter? No, Lord, you can't go that way to the cross. Get thee behind me, Satan. You see church so often. God wants to move us his way. And we fight because we think that we know exactly what it is that God wants to do. I want to tell you something. We have experienced that very same thing in my mind, comparatively less important area of facility right here at North Way. There have been times when we could have forced the hand of God. And there are many ministries that I could name and maybe you know, that really have gotten out and produced a bunch of Ishmael's because they couldn't wait on the Lord to bring about what he said he wanted to do. And sometimes in these occasions of struggle, there's another ingredient when you're one of these men of faith that happens to you and that is that you feel like you have to give up. You just can't hold on any longer. You just can't battle it anymore. You know that principalities and powers are being addressed Thursday night at our teaching time. We had a wonderful time that night of sensing the Lord giving us faith to address this area of spiritual conflict. Many of you here now were not there Thursday night to understand some of these principles and you need to because it's going to affect how you grow. But one of the things that happens to us is we begin to get into spiritual conflict and we don't know how to hold on. Over the last year, I've read three or four books by Paul Yonggi Cho and I've referred to him from time to time. On Sunday, he's the pastor of the 350,000 member church in Korea. The reason why I've been fascinated in reading his material is here is a person who had really nothing at all. He was a Buddhist by background, very sickly, no real strength of education. But God has used this man all around the world. And no matter what you say about Korea and the culture and all those people in his church all around the world, he's starting churches and seeing things happen. And so I'm studying him in his life and trying to say, Lord, what principles in his life are worth emulating? But one of the things that he says was when he got to the point in his life where he could no Longer, hold on. And he had committed himself and his church to a five million dollar piece of property right in the center of Seoul, Korea, Yeouida Island. I've never been there, but maybe some of you have. $5 million. And they got out there and there was this giant depression in 1973, 74, related to the oil embargo, you remember that. And everything just kind of shut down economically. And there he was, he had nothing. He committed himself to the mayor of the city of Seoul, $5 million. His church. I forget how many he had at that point, but they weren't able to respond. He sold his home, did everything. He moved into an unfinished apartment and an unfinished building. They had no electricity, no fuel, very little food. And reading his story, he recounts how at that point in his life he wanted to die. Because not only had he himself failed God, but he believed that he'd come to the point where he had led his people and to seeing that God wasn't the God who would supply. And it's really a touching story how he just got to the very end of himself and said, God, I want to die. I want to die tonight. It's the only way out. And in his destitution, when he could no longer hold on, the Holy Spirit touched him and. And the people began to rise up and God did a miracle and supplied their needs. Have you ever been there when you just feel like, I can't wait another week. God, I can't believe for this physical problem another day. I can't hold on for my spouse any longer. My job is so bad I can't take it. Let me tell you, number two, the truth about God in these times of testing. Although God may seem to be very, very far. When you're at the end of your rope, so to speak of faith, can I assure you this morning that he hasn't moved one inch from your heart? That he's closer at those times than any other, that he is so near to you at the times when you feel that nothing's happening. That the very breath that you breathe is not as close to you as the heart of God. In that moment, remember when Abraham, having received Isaac through Sarah, was about to slay him on the altar. Remember that story, a tremendous promise there of God saying that through this man Isaac, I'm going to make you a great nation, more than the stars of the heavens. And God had told him to slay his son as an offering, a sacrifice. And so Abraham had obeyed right up to the point where he had raised the dagger and at that moment, an angel of the Lord said, stop, stop. To me, that figures, that pictures for us. How close God is that? At any moment when the test is completed, God's right there to say, now, now I can do it. Now I can move. Now I can supply. Now I can be what you need me to be. Because you've shown that you'll risk it all, you'll give it all. This is the story of so many men and women of faith that God is there. But he needs to let you get to the point where you have nothing else, not even your own hope left, but only Him. God understands your weakness, beloved. He knows your weakness. He knows what it's like when you feel inside that you're failing him. I believe that that confession in your heart that God, I can't hold on God, I'm about to go under. I believe that that's the time that the grace of God is released to you. Have you ever experienced that? It's at that time that grace comes. Grace is attracted to that call of need. In my life. Do you ever wonder why Jesus made a point of appearing to Peter even though Peter had more than any other disciple, made a fool of his own confession of faith? Why did Jesus significantly go out of his way to find Peter and appear to him? John 21? Do you have any idea? I think it's because he was drawn to that man and his failure. He loved Peter even in his failure and weakness. The third thing about God in these situations is I believe that he's wonderfully patient with our failures. Even more listen, even more so than with those who don't try at all. God is more patient with those who try and fail than he is with those who don't try at all. The parable of the talents tells us very clearly that the servant with whom the Master was least pleased was the one who did what took their talent and buried. Wasn't the one who had five and made five, or the one who had two and made two. It was the one who had won and buried it. That's the one that he was displeased with. The prodigal son. I've had the same feeling. The faithful son. He didn't seem to get any commendation in the sense of, I don't believe God was displeased with him, but I believe that when the other son wasn't able to enter into the joy, it just revealed that his heart had grown hard against his Master. You see, Hebrews 11:6 says, without faith, it's impossible to Please. God and I believe church that the reason why God is so attracted to people who risk is because his nature is to risk. God's nature is to extend Himself. The Incarnation is a statement from God that He wants to get out there and risk and suffer for the sake of love. And that's why he's so attracted to those who will do it. The truth about God in those situations is that he is there, that he does understand, and that he's wonderfully patient with you even when you fail. Third thing I want to say this morning is I want to talk about the truth. About holding on when you think you can't. These times will come. Let me read something to you about such a situation. Most of you know that David Wilkerson has had a profound impact on the face of evangelism, particularly in our country. And his story the Cross and the Switchblade has been read. How many of you have read Cross and the Switchblade, seen the movie? Remember, David Wilkerson was here in North Hills and 1978. I wouldn't be surprised if there's someone here who met the Lord that night. And he's a man that God has used in a lot of different ways, most significantly as of late in the whole realm of dealing with the drug hardened, seamy side of life type people out in the cities of this country. And it just seems that the more David Wilkerson gets in touch with God, the more affliction and pressure and tribulation and attack he comes under. His wife has a very severe case of cancer and has had it for a long time, in and out of the hospital, very near death, and then miraculously recovers this kind of thing over and over again. His ministry comes under attack and then he's into a leveling period. He says here in one of his newsletters he said, I dare you to show me a single Christian who is wholly devoted to the Lord, who has an easy trouble free life. Show me a spirit led, God filled, anointed servant of the Lord and I'll show you one who is chaste, chastened, often baffled and familiar to deep waters and fiery furnaces. And that's true because it's out there that we come to know what God is like. Tell me your Christian life allows for no distress or hard times. And I'll have to believe that God has no great purpose for your life. The converse of that is true. We've already said that God has great purpose for your life. And you're going to come to know that through Affliction and times of testing of faith when you don't think you can hold on. What do you do in those times? Let me give you four things in conclusion. The first thing learn to be totally honest with God. Would you please say these words? God hates phonies. He does. I mean, the first thing is. When we come on with this mask of piety or this spiritual. Well, I'm just sort of believing God even though it's miserable all around me. We're like a four year old who dresses up and puts on mommy's lipstick and one of her old hats and a shawl and comes in and says, mommy, guess who I am. It's so clear to us and it's so clear to God. He doesn't say, wow, you're really convincing me there. Psalm 44. I just want to look here just to see an illustration of the point I want to make. Have you ever read through the Old Testament and seen the headings in the book of Psalms called the Complaints? Ever see that? The Complaints of David? I thought some of you read that. You've seen that, haven't you, where it says that David made a complaint before the Lord. Now it wasn't the murmuring, grumbling kind of complaints that we're often guilty of, but it's interesting that it is called. Literary terminology is a complaint. It is an expression of. Of honest frustration with God. Look at Psalm 44, verse 17. All this has come upon us. Though we've not forgotten thee, Lord, or been false to thy covenant. Our heart has not turned back. Nor have our steps departed from Thy way. That thou shouldst have broken us in the place of jackals or covered us with deep darkness if we'd forgotten the name of our God or spread forth our hands. See, he's defending himself to a strange God. Would not God discover this, for he knows the secrets of the heart. Nay, for Thy sake we're slain all the day long and accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Listen to him now. Rouse thyself. Why sleepest thou, O Lord? What does the Bible say about God in sleep? Did David know that? Did he? Certainly he knew that. So what's he saying here? I'm frustrated, God. It seems to me like you're sleeping up there and I'm about to go under. Don't cast us off forever. Why do you hide your face? Did you forget our affliction and our oppression? For our soul is bowed down to the dust and our body cleaves to the ground. Rise up and come to our help. Deliver us for the sake of thy steadfast love. Church. This is a complaint. This is a picture of David honestly talking to God. Do you ever do that? Or do you. Sometimes when you're finding yourself not hearing from God, you say, o Lord, here I am again, your faithful servant, rejoicing that I haven't heard a thing from you in three months. Now, I'm not making a plea here for the kind of arrogance of the 80s, you know, and chumminess with God to the point of being flippant. I'm not saying that. You're seeing a man's heart, and God expects, and I believe God wants to know what you feel in your heart so he can speak to you. The second thing is come back to your relationship with him. Remember your relationship with him above whatever it is that's out there in the realm of faith. Remember most of all that you're a child of God. You know something, when you are about to be with Jesus, that is the thing that will mean everything to you. It won't be how many people you led to the Lord or how good your children ended up being when they grew up. It will be your relationship with God. How many of you have read the book called and Committed by David Watson? Some of the brothers I know have just a handful. David Watson wrote a very. A number of very practical and stirring books about Christian walk and discipleship. He was a pastor in England, and then he came and taught over at Fuller Seminary. And I heard last year when I was at Fuller, in fact, he was to teach one of the classes when I was out there finishing up my coursework and he had been diagnosed as having cancer. And I remember that John Wimber flew over to pray with them, took a team over. I don't know if I remember sharing that with you. And he recovered. And then About a year, 15 months later, had a relapse and he died. But before he died and in that time of remission, he says this. My illness has changed my priorities. Being actively involved in Christian work. I had come to the stage, which many have also come to, of loving God's work more than God himself. And I might say sometimes we love our great acts of faith and our great words of this and that more than God himself. This illness has changed my priorities and that the one thing I want now is more and more of the Lord. I want to spend more time with him. I want to listen to him more than anything. And church. When you find yourself in a place where you can't seem to get the answer to whatever it is. You can't hold on any longer. Just go back to God. Just love Jesus, worship him, draw on his life. The third thing I want to suggest that you do is allow others to help bear the load. Let me be very careful in what I say here. I don't mean that you should go to 45 other Christians and say, I'm struggling. Would you pray for me? You know why I think what happens then? I think you dissipate. God's working in your heart. I think God wants to do something with you. And you go out and you know, too many words can ruin a good work of God. Too much talking is destructive. But find one or two that you can say honestly to. I'm struggling. I don't think I can hold on. Would you just bear me up and hold me up in prayer? Finally, would you turn with me to 1st Samuel 30 and we'll conclude with this. 1st Samuel 30. Again we have David, man of faith. First Samuel 30 is an interesting story. I want to conclude with this. This is well into the reign of David over Israel, full of struggles and battles. He goes out in the previous chapter, and he defeated some enemies, the Amalekites and so on, and had had some victories. But while he's gone away, his family and his belongings and everything and those of all of his army are at the city of Ziklag. And you'll see it there in 1st Samuel 30. And when he returns from some of these conquests, he recognizes from a distance that the other Amalekites had raided the city. And verse one there says they burned it with fire. Verse two Taken captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great, they killed no one, but carried them off and went their way. And when David and his men came to the city, they found it burned with fire, and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. And get the picture of these men, these men of war, men of faith, coming back from a battle, and they come to their city and it's smoking, leveled by fire, and not one living human being is left. All small and great were taken. Can you imagine that? Verse 4. And then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep. There are people here today who have wept till you have no more strength to weep. And your affliction and your test of faith, you've cried out and cried out and cried out. Verse 6. And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him. Not only was all this happening because of his enemies. But now his friends were going to stone him. It's your fault, David. They were bitter in their soul, it says. But really, they were bitter because their sons and daughters were gone. And look what it says. The end of verse six. But David strengthened himself in the Lord, his God. That word in the Hebrew is the word hazak, which means to strengthen or encourage or to build up or to prevail with, or to be tied to. David encouraged himself, and the Lord is God. I love that. You see, it's a picture of David. Nowhere to go, no place to go. I just see him turning around and drawing up in a little ball before his God, being comforted. And then God imparts life and strength in church. The fourth thing. Just put those up again, please. When you feel the test of faith is too much, encourage yourself in the Lord. Strengthen yourself in the Lord. He has not failed you. He will not forsake you. Let's pray together, Lord, right now you know the condition of our hearts and the tests of faith that we are enduring. Lord, you know that many here want to go on in the victories that yout have already won at Calvary, for them and for us. But, Lord, there are numbers here today who feel they cannot go on, who feel the affliction is too great, the temptations and the trials too hard. Father. And I thank you, Lord, that you invite us to come and to rest in you, to be encouraged in our soul with you. And even as David, Lord, to be comforted and strengthened again so that we might hold on, Lord, until youl come and deliver. We give you blessing and praise. Hallelujah.