Endurance Is A Team Effort

Isaiah 40 and the God Who Gives Strength

The Old Testament reading this morning is in Isaiah chapter 40, starting in verse 25. Please stand. To whom, then, will you compare me, that I should be like him, says the Holy One? Lift up your eyes on high and see who created these.

He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, not one is missing. Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel? My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God.

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and him who has no might, he increases strength.

Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted. But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary.

They shall walk and not faint.

Hebrews 10:19-25 and the Call to Meet Together

Today's New Testament reading is Hebrews chapter 10, verses 19 through 25, and that's on page 1007 in the Pew Bibles. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

You may be seated.

Hebrews 12:4-13 and the Discipline of the Lord

Take your Bibles and turn with me to Hebrews chapter 12. You follow as I read verses 4 through 13. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your.

Blood.

And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by.

Him.

For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure, for God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them.

Shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time, as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.

For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.

Father, we come to this point of our worship, having praised you, having given of our resources to you, having read scripture together. We now come to this part of the service where we worship you by listening to you.

So would you please help us, not just to hear this, but to think about it, to meditate on it, and to make it part of our lives. Lord, help us to change for your glory. Help us now to hear so that we can change, and we'll thank you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

The Marathon Illustration and the Need for Encouragement

It's the day of the marathon. You've been training for three years for this day. You've anticipated it all that time. You get up in the morning as you start preparing for the race to go out the door. Your wife says, well, honey, have a good day.

I really hope you do well. You say, wait a minute, aren't you going to be there? She says, well, the girls and I thought maybe we'd do some shopping today. Well, your heart's a little low, and as you walk out the door, the phone rings.

So you come back in, you answer it. It's your coach. He's the guy that's been working with this. He's your mentor. He's your bosom buddy. And he calls as you say, hey, how are you doing? He says, well, do good, good.

I hope you have a good run today. And you say, wait a minute, aren't you going to be there? He says, you know, I had planned on it, but they're opening that new gym, and I thought I'd go to the opening, so I won't be there.

Your heart's a little lower. You show up at the starting line, and no one else is there. You're lining up, and the starter walks up with the starting pistol, and he says, well, let's get this thing going.

He pulls the trigger, and off you go. And as you start, you notice there aren't any spectators. Not even your friends have shown up to cheer you on. Now, take that imaginary situation and ask yourself, how long do you think you'd run?

Think you'd run the whole course with no one to cheer you on, no one to encourage you?

None of that.

Of course, you wouldn't run very long. You can't do something like that without encouragement. Well, that's what verses 12 and 13 are all about this morning. That's our text for this morning, the necessity of encouraging one another to endure.

Again, this book is all about endurance. As we've come to this book, we've seen all the way through that the case is being built, that you hold steadfast to your faith in Jesus, that you do not let go, that you remain loyal to Jesus no matter what.

And this whole book has been pushing us in that direction, showing us the superiority of Christ. Don't abandon him, because he's superior to anything out there. Don't abandon him, because if you do, you won't reach glory.

And we've seen just recently in these last two chapters that the necessity or the way that perseverance is built in us, we've seen that what God has said to help us to endure. He says, first of all, recount the endurance of the Old Testament who endured by faith, imitate their faith.

Fix your attention on Jesus, who because of the promise of joy and authority on the other side of the cross, he remains steadfast. Embrace a different, more encouraging perspective. If you're going to endure, you have to embrace this perspective, that the hardship and difficulties, even the persecution that's happening to you, comes from the hand of a loving father as discipline.

And it's intended to move you towards the goal of the peaceful fruit of righteousness. So you need to embrace that encouraging perspective. And now he gives us one more. He says, therefore, with all this in mind, you have a responsibility.

Let's look at our two verses for this morning, verses 12 and 13. Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.

Therefore, he says, you have the responsibility to encourage one another to endure. You must encourage one another to endure. God's people are obligated to help each other endure the discipline that they experience.

All of us are runners on the track. We're all in the race. We're all called to persevere. We are to endure. But instead of competing with one another, we're all on the same team. Now, some of you have competed in distance events.

All of us have seen them. And you know how it goes. As some of the weaker runners start staggering and getting wobbly, the leaders look over their shoulder behind them and they kind of slow down and they start encouraging them to do better.

And then, you know, if they don't, they stop and they go back and encourage them and take them by the arms and help them, right? He said, I've never seen a distance run like that. No, you haven't, because they're all competing against one another, right?

Look, I'll never forget my daughter Lydia, who's the runner in our family, running at sectionals, right? And I'm watching her run and she's kind of looking over her shoulder and kind of slowing down. And at the end of the race, I said, honey, you run better than that.

What happened?

Well, you know, the girl behind me, she was struggling. I just kind of felt bad for her.

I said, look, feel bad for her after the race, right? After the race, right? It doesn't matter what she's doing.

Do your job.

Well, we all know that that's not how race, you don't stop and help the people behind you. But see, that's exactly what God is telling us to do. That's exactly what we must do. As we run the race, we run together.

We're not competing against each other, but we're helping one another in the race. That's the way we run this race. It's not that you win. See, the goal is not winning. The goal is everybody finishes.

That's the goal. All of us will finish. And for all of us to finish well, all of us have to help one another in the race. So he says, therefore, with all this in mind, all this idea of God bringing hardship and discipline, therefore, we must help one another.

How do you help one another? He gives us two ways. The first, verse 12, we need to strengthen one another to endure. And then verse 13, we have to make it easier for one another to endure. Strengthen one another and make it easier for one another.

So verse 12, you have the responsibility to strengthen one another in the race. Okay, therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees. Okay, strengthen your hands and your weak knees.

The text literally says, strengthen the drooping hands and the weak knees. Now, it could be understood to mean that you should encourage others whose hands are drooping and whose knees are weak. But it also could be read to say you yourself need to strengthen, need to help strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees.

I think it's general enough to mean both. It means, look, you be after strengthening your wobbly knees and strengthening your drooping hands. You have that responsibility. But you also have the responsibility of helping those others whose hands are drooping, whose knees are weak.

Now, our pastor draws for us a vivid picture here. He's talking about someone who's wobbling and their hands are just hanging, right? Now, I don't know if any of you have run distance. I've tried. You know, distance for me is running to the mailbox at the end of our driveway.

And my knees get weak and my hands start to droop. Regardless of how long, you've all seen it. You've all seen it happen. In fact, you may have experienced that. How did you feel and how did you look after running a distance?

Okay, how did you feel? I mean, you probably felt totally exhausted and your hands hung by your side and your knees were a bit wobbly. That's the picture our writer is drawing for us is of someone who is so exhausted that his hands are dropping.

He can't even lift up his hands and he's starting to go down. His knees are starting to wobble and to buckle. Now look, at times, as you go through the hardship of God's discipline, you get discouraged and you find it hard to keep going.

You find you get discouraged. And we're not inclined at that point to make the necessary effort. When your hands are drooping and you're starting to buckle, at that point, you're not inclined to keep going, right?

You're just not inclined. And so we have the responsibility to strengthen ourselves and to help others when enduring discipline seems nearly impossible, all right? So let's get the picture now. The persecution's coming on, it's hot and heavy.

You're tempted to abandon Jesus. He points you to the Old Testament and says, look at those folks, right? He says, look at Jesus. He went through the same thing. He endured the shame of the cross, right?

And by the way, remember, this is God loving you and disciplining you so that you have the peaceful fruit of righteousness. But some days, you're not gonna have the inclination to go on. And thus, you have the responsibility of helping others as they endure the discipline of the Lord.

Sometimes the discipline of the Lord seems more than we can bear. And we need others to come alongside, and that's what he's telling us here. Well, the question is, how can we do that for ourselves? And how can we do that for others, right?

How can we do that? Well, the first answer is really quite simple, and we all know it. Instinctively, we know God's word. God's word is the first place we need to go. If we're gonna strengthen drooping hands and weak knees, we need to go first of all to the scripture.

God's word is living and active. It is the meeting place between you and God. You wanna meet God, go to the word of God. You wanna hear God speak, don't wait for a vision. Don't wait for anything, like don't wait for an impression.

If you want to hear God, go to God's word. This is living and active. Some people have really given me grief about that. They've given me grief about that. Say, oh, your Christianity is so dry, right?

No impressions, don't look for impressions, don't look for visions, oh my goodness, what a boring, horrible, dry Christianity you have. And I reply with, no, the word of God is living and active. Open the word and you read it, and you'll say, wow, God is talking to me here.

And you've all experienced that. We go to God's word. It is the living God who meets you in the word. It is the living God who speaks to you. It's the living God who comforts you and encourages you. It shows you example of God's people who've gone through the same thing, right?

You go to the word of God. He's told us that in chapter 11 already. Look at the heroes of the faith. You're not the first nor the last to endure hardship. I remember what comes to my mind is Romans 15, chapter 15, verse four.

For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the scriptures and the encouragement they provide, we might have hope. The scripture will strengthen you.

The scripture will help your weak knees. By the way, you've got to come to the word of God saying, Lord, this is your word. Speak to me, help me. See what I need to change. Where can I gain encouragement?

It is, the word of God is so vast and so detailed, it is sufficient for the task of encouraging you and strengthening you and equipping you. Our problem is not that God isn't speaking to us. Our problem is we don't go where he's speaking to us enough.

Here's another way we are strengthened and we can help one another. What did we just hear a few minutes ago from Hebrews chapter 10? We went over that several weeks ago. Hebrews chapter 10, let's look at it.

10 verses 24 and 25 very clearly. And let us consider how to, well, let's start back in verse 22. Let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith. With our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water, let us hold fast a confession of our hope without wavering for he who promises faithful.

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

What is he telling us there? He's telling us you need to be vitally involved in the worship and the fellowship of the saints. Do not neglect the assembling of the people of God. Don't neglect it. Don't be gone from this.

Make only the most trying circumstances keep you from the assembly of the people of God.

Why?

Because the day is drawing near and you need one another in order to make it. And this is built for that. The worship, the hearing the word of God, the strengthening grace that comes from the word of God as it's preached to you.

I hope, and it's not because of my cleverness, not because of my ability, but I hope that the spirit of God in all the years you've been here has taken the word of God and applied it to you where you say, wow, I needed to hear that.

That's gonna help me, right? That's gonna help me. You make worship a top priority. You make fellowship a top priority. And when you are together, go about the business of encouraging one another, okay?

You know what, too often people say, man, I'm really struggling with this. And you've kind of been through the same thing, but you say to yourself, well, what have I got to say? Well, nothing, frankly, but God taught you a few things.

Why don't you use that, okay? God's used his word in your life. Why don't you use that? You know what, one of the most favorite things I like to talk about is fear and worry, okay? That's one of the most favorite things I love to talk about.

When I go out and lecture for ACBC at the training events, I love it when I get the assignment of fear and worry. Actually, I just did a podcast this last week on fear and worry for ACBC. I love talking about that.

You know why? Because there was a time in my life, most of you weren't even here then.

Some of you were.

My first year in ministry was hard, was bad. And it was bad because I was eaten up with anxiety. I couldn't enjoy anything. I was so worried all the time. And God taught me some things. A year later, I'll tell you when he taught me these things about what to do with fear and worry.

And man, when someone talks about fear and worry, I'm all over that.

Why?

Because God taught me a lot about that in those years. And you've gone through some things, and God has taught you, and you can encourage one another. Look at Hebrews 13, seven. Let's jump ahead a little bit.

We'll come to that in a few weeks. Hebrews 13, seven. Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. How can we be strengthened?

By modeling the truth for others and choosing for ourselves models to imitate. Now be careful of the idea that says, keep your eyes on Jesus. Don't ever look at any human being because he or she will inevitably disappoint you.

That is an unbiblical idea. Right here, you've seen it, right? Imitate their faith. Look at those people, see the outcome of their life, and imitate their faith. God calls us to do that. We must look to others so we can see the truth of God incarnated.

By the way, that's how you make disciples. What did Jesus do? He taught, right? And he walked with his disciples, okay? Discipleship. Here's the simplest definition for discipleship. Show and tell. There it is, show and tell.

You teach and you show. You see people incarnate the word of God. In fact, the Apostle Paul himself said four times in the New Testament, whatever you have learned, or this is Philippians 4 .9. This is one of those times.

Another one is 1 Corinthians 4 .14. The other two, I can't recall right now. But four times in the New Testament, he says something like this. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put it into practice and the God of peace will be with you.

Put it into practice. Look at what I've done, put it into practice. And so one of the ways that we're strengthened is finding people who are incarnating the word of God and you can learn from them as you watch them, as you watch the outcome of their life of faith.

You're strengthened by that, right? By the way, if you be a model and when someone's struggling, you can say, this is what happened to me and this is what God taught me and this is what I do as a result, right?

Again, I know I've said this so many times, but it's the best example I can think of. I read the Bible and it says, husbands love your wife like Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, right?

That's good. And I can read the Bible and I learn that and I say, that's good. But I saw a man live that out in front of me for the first 21 years of my life, right? I saw a man who lived that, my father.

And I can say now, I can look at him and I say, that's how you love someone like Christ loved the church. He incarnated that truth. And I learned a lot from watching him. So one of the ways you're strengthened is find people who are living the truth out and imitate them, talk to them.

Here's one more. I've only got four for you. How else are we strengthened? Turn back to Hebrews chapter three. Again, a book about endurance. How do we endure? Hebrews chapter three, verse 12. Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, all right? What do we have here? Encourage one another on an informal daily basis.

We're involved in one another's lives. You have good friends in this congregation. When you see them being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, they're getting involved in a sin. Sin always deceives us.

Sin then leads through that deception to a hard heart. And when you see that, you need to step in. You need to exhort. You need to do that. Now, again, you know, I think I've said this for the last, you know, 37 years, but I'll say it again.

Some of you may say, oh, well, I'm just not the confrontive type.

Too bad.

Is that what you're gonna tell Jesus, right? Well, you know, Jesus, I know, I was the only one who knew my friend was getting in trouble. I'm the only one who knew, but you know, Jesus, that's just not my personality.

He's gonna say, okay, fine. You know, I get it. You don't have to obey me if your personality just doesn't fit. You think that's what he's gonna say? No way, no way. You're not the confrontive type, good.

Then be very gentle and say, I'm seeing an issue here, right? So we need to exhort one another, that informal, close fellowship that leads us to help folks. Remember, your sins are like a sign on your back, pinned to your back.

You don't see it, but it's obvious to everybody else. So when someone does come, thank them for it. So if you want to endure, if you'd not lose heart, then devote yourself to strengthening one another.

Making Straight Paths and Removing Stumbling Blocks

Verse 13, you have the responsibility to make it easier for one another to endure. Make straight and smooth paths for those Christians who appear weaker. Have you ever seen officials sweep in the track?

You ever seen them as they just try to clean the track off? Some of them, they do that every once in a while. And you've also probably seen runners fussing about the track. Well, why is that? Because if there's something on that track, they can twist their ankle.

They're done. They can't finish the race. You don't want competitors who can't finish the race, and prevent them from finishing the race. And so God says, look, do whatever's necessary to help your brothers, especially the weaker ones, to finish the race.

Make straight paths. Make them smooth. Make them easy. You have to help to prevent and to heal injuries so that everyone finishes. How do we do that? How do we do that? Well, let's just drop down. We'll get to it next week, no doubt.

Verse 15, see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it, many become defiled. Okay? See to it that you don't miss the grace of God, and you become bitter, because bitterness will defile many people around you, all right?

You know that bitterness is a weapon that we use. We get bitter against people, and you think you can be bitter by yourself. I'll be bitter, and no one else knows about it. Never works that way. When you get bitter, and you may not say anything to anyone else why you're bitter, but you get bitter, guess what?

People all around you will be defiled. You're like a tree that drips poison on people who are all around you. So, how do we make it easy for people? Well, as it says in verse 15, don't fail to obtain the grace of God so that the root of bitterness grows up, right?

Fight bitterness. Fight bitterness. It's never, bitterness is never something that you hold in your heart all by yourself. It will inevitably defile other people. How do we do it? How do we make smooth paths?

Again, strive to model God's word in your life. You strive to be a model. You strive to live out the word of God. That will make it easier for others, all right? Make sure you're a servant and not a stumbling block.

Make sure you're a servant and not a stumbling block. Well, what am I talking about here? Look back at Romans 15. Now, Romans 14 is all about disputable matters, matters that Christians will divide upon that the Bible says doesn't really have a hard and fast law about whether you're gonna eat meat or not, whether you're gonna do this or you do that, and other people choose to do not what you do.

And so, he says, look, be willing to give up. Be willing, for the weaker brother who's gotta have more rules, don't you just flaunt your liberty in front of him. You be willing to give that up because when you don't give it up, what happens is you become a stumbling block.

They fall into sin because they're not as mature as you. And here's what he says as he concludes that whole discussion. 15 verse one, we who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.

Let each of us please his neighbor for his good to build him up, for Christ did not please himself. Christ did not please himself. Be like Jesus, be a servant, not a stumbling block. Don't insist on doing it your way all the time, all right?

Be a servant, not a stumbling block. Another way of looking at it, okay, look at Ephesians five for a moment. Ephesians five, verse 21. Well, I'll start in verse 20. Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

You know what tears apart people in ministries in a church? When a group of people get together and a few of them say, it's gotta be this way. And there's this big argument. You gotta do it this way. And others are saying, well, maybe not.

Maybe, no, it's gotta be this way. This is a good idea. Instead of saying, well, let's just submit to one another. I don't have to have my way, right? Be submissive. Submit to one another. Make that a habit.

Submit to one another, all right? That will produce or that will make it easier for people to endure. It's the way of Christ. It is the way of Jesus. Jesus did not insist on his way. Philippians chapter two, he came from the highest point to the lowest point, died on a cross.

Why? To put our interests above his own. We are saved because Jesus did not insist that I am not gonna hide the glory I have in my deity. I can't give that up. Instead, he clothed that deity in human form and became a servant and died.

That's why we're sitting here. That's what we need to be doing if we're going to endure. Here's the last thing I'm gonna point out. Look at verse one of the same chapter right here. Hebrews 12. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that's set before us.

When you see someone getting entangled in something so that they can't serve well or they're involved in sin, then you need to move in to help. Here's the point. God wants you to do everything you can so that everyone endures.

Everyone makes it to the finish line. That's what he calls us to do. So if we're gonna make it to glory, we have to endure. We have to persevere. Our writer's made that clear. In order to accomplish that, we need a perseverance fueled by faith, a perseverance built by looking to Jesus, a perseverance strengthened by the encouraging perspective that God is working in the difficulties.

But we will only persevere as we are encouraged by others. That's the last bit that he wants us to see when it comes to perseverance, right? A perseverance built by faith, a perseverance that continues to look at Jesus, a perseverance that comes about by the perspective that God is working for my good in the hardship, and lastly, that we encourage one another.

All those things together work for endurance. And that's what we have to be doing. You cannot endure alone. Endurance is a team effort. And when you see someone struggling, you need to help. When someone talks about their struggles, you need to help.

Prayer for Perseverance and Mutual Encouragement

We're gonna make it together. Father, we're so thankful for your word. We're so thankful that it, Lord, it's so detailed. It tells us everything we need to know. Father, as we've just spent these last several weeks on learning about perseverance and how we have to persevere, I pray, Father, that you would help us to see that the perseverance that we need is not something that we just work up by our own willpower.

It's fueled by faith. It's built on seeing Jesus. Father, we will endure when we remember that you have a good purpose in it. And finally, Father, we can endure when we encourage one another. Help us to remember these things.

Lord, if the way gets darker, if the way gets harder for us, I pray that by your spirit, you would help us to recall these things so that we together can endure. Help us to that end, we pray. I pray your spirit would bring these things to mind and we will thank you.

In Jesus' name, amen.