If You Faint | Yesterday Was Easy - Episode 03

There are two passages of scripture upon which this show stands. They are Proverbs 24 .10

and 1 Corinthians 16 .13. In this third edition, I will be discussing the former, and in the fourth, the latter.

Welcome to Yesterday Was Easy. Proverbs 24 .11

-12 has played such an important role for us here at In Abortion Now, as God clearly commands us to rescue those being taken away to death, and to hold back those stumbling away to the slaughter.

But it is no coincidence that right before that, God tells us in verse 10 that if we faint in the day of adversity, our strength is small.

This is what I want to focus on today. A biblical man is one who does not faint in the day of adversity.

A godly man is one whose strength is great. And I'm not necessarily referring to one's physical strength, but his ability to stand in the storm, his fortitude.

There's another military saying that I'd like to introduce to you here. It's embrace the suck.

A simple translation is this, it's a bad situation, but deal with it. The day of adversity in Proverbs 24 is the suck.

When you're in the middle of a battle, or a trial, or a tragedy, you're in the suck.

Strong men do not run away, they do not faint, they do not collapse in the corner and suck their thumbs.

Instead, they make themselves resolute. They ground themselves in this biblical principle. They set their faces like flint, as Isaiah 50 describes

Christ for us. They embrace the suck. Jesus exemplified this for us.

He literally carried the weight of all the sins of all his people for all time on his shoulders as he hung on a cross and died the most cruel death possible for us.

If you're a Christian, he died for you and for me. This is the suckiest of sucks, and he did so willingly.

He embraced it. He did not faint. His strength was indeed not small, but great.

Greater than any strength we could ever summon from the innermost part of our beings. I want to quickly look further into Isaiah 50.

This is a prophecy of Christ, and it's describing the suck that he would go through some 700 years later.

Verses 5 -8 say, There is so much that could be said here, but for now,

I want to highlight a few things. As we know, Christ was the only perfect man that ever lived.

Yes, he lived perfectly, without sin, but he also lived perfectly as a man.

He is our ultimate example of what it means to be a biblical man. I will be weaving this concept throughout this series, so be watching for it.

But for now, in this passage, while facing down the suck, we see that he didn't turn backward.

He faced forward. He hid not his face, but looked into the eyes of his accusers. He set his face like flint.

He became resolute. He knew what he needed to do, and took full responsibility. Instead of hiding from contention, he asked for contenders to stand with him, toe to toe.

Instead of shying away from his adversaries, he called them to himself. Not only did he embrace the suck, but he did so while looking at square in the face.

Matthew Henry, in his commentary on this passage, said that Christ went on with his work as mediator, with unshaken constancy, and undaunted resolution.

He did not fail, nor was discouraged, and here he challenges all his opposers. I think this perfectly defines what it means to set your face like flint.

Why flint? What does that mean exactly? I'm glad you asked. Flint is a very hard rock used figuratively in scripture to express the toughness of something, like the firmness of a horse hoof in Isaiah 5, or the difficultness of a seemingly impossible task in Deuteronomy 8 and Psalm 114, or the rigidness of unalterable resoluteness in Ezekiel 3.

Therefore, you must have unshaken constancy. No matter the depth of the suck, no matter the strength of the wind, no matter the amount of arrows flying at your face, your feet remain firmly planted.

You cannot be shaken. Your strength is constant. And second, you have an undaunted resolution.

Merriam -Webster defines undaunted as courageously resolute, especially in the face of danger or difficulty.

I love this. When facing the suck, you are courageous. You are resolved to boldness.

You are steady like an anchor. You are not a coward. Just like Christ, you look directly into the eyes of the face of danger.

Like a mighty oak of Bishan, you can withstand the storm. One of my favorite movies that serves as a kick in my rear end to be a better man is

True Grit. Both versions, both John Wayne and Jeff Bridges, inspire me in their renditions of Rooster Cogburn.

This is not an approval of Rooster's morality, but it is an endorsement of his resoluteness.

It is an endorsement of his ability to do what it takes to get done what needs to get done.

I am particularly inspired by the end of the film. When you're trying to rescue the girl, and you literally ride your pony to death, you don't quit.

You don't set up camp and sleep the night away. You pull out your revolver, put your pony down, pick up the girl, and carry her to safety through the snowy night.

That is literally surviving the storm. That is setting your face like flint. That is embracing the suck.

William Arthur Ward, long -time contributor to the Reader's Digest, once said this,

Adversity causes some men to break, others to break records. Adversity doesn't just breed character, adversity makes men.

Adversity reveals the courageous and exposes the cowardly. Adversity discovers the resolute and uncovers the reluctant.

When the going gets tough, don't break. When you're standing waist -deep in the suck, don't back down.

Don't run away and retreat. Stand strong, remain resolute, break records.

Yesterday was easy, do not faint. Stay hard. This episode is brought to you by Hold the

Line Training Systems. Train today to serve others tomorrow. You can go to HTLTrainingSystems .com

and put APOLOGYOF5 in the coupon code to receive 5 % off your monthly subscription. Do something hard today.