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Father God, we thank you for the opportunity to congregate today on this beautiful Sunday morning. We thank you for the souls that were won on St. Croix, Lloyd. We thank you for bringing back our fellow brothers and sisters safe, and we please ask you to bring back the remaining people that are left on the island home safe. It's in Jesus' glorious name we pray, amen. Amen. Man, the title of my sermon this morning is Spiritual Endurance. Spiritual Endurance. The Bible reads in verse 3 there, Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entanglement himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. The Bible says endure hardness. We need to do hard things in our life. We need to endure things that are difficult and not just be so weak and soft that if everything isn't just perfect and we're not just totally comfortable that we just sort of fall apart because we're not willing to endure. What does it mean to endure? Well, you know, just looking up endurance in the dictionary, it says the ability or strength to continue especially despite fatigue, stress, or other adverse conditions. So the ability to continue in spite of all the things that are going wrong, in spite of the pain, the fatigue, the tiredness, the stress, you keep going, you keep pushing through. That is called endurance and the Bible says that we need to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. How many times do we tell someone what they need to do or maybe if we have children we tell our children this is what you need to be doing and here's what they'll say, I don't want to, I don't feel like it, I don't want to do that, that's not what I want to do. But let me explain something to you. People that are successful in this world, they do things that they don't want to do every single day of their lives, okay? Successful Christians, pastors, laymen, housewives, mothers, fathers, bosses, employees, everybody who is successful does things every single day that they don't want to do and if you're going to be successful, if you're going to be a great servant of God, you're going to have to do some hard things and stop just taking the path of least resistance in your life and start actually picking things that are more difficult, more challenging, more painful, harder, and gravitate toward those things so that you can be a good soldier of Jesus Christ. I mean the Bible is likening the Christian life to a war and saying that we're all soldiers. You know when I was growing up in Sunday school, we would sing a song called I'm in the Lord's Army. Who knows that song? You know, and you, I may never march in the infantry, ride in the cavalry, shoot the artillery, I may never fly over the enemy, but I'm in the Lord's Army, yes sir! And we would sing that song growing up in Sunday school, but that song rings true. It teaches a valuable lesson. You know, hey, I may not be in the actual army and just to be clear, I've never been in the army. I've never been in any branch of the military, but yet I'm in the Lord's Army. I'm still a soldier because I'm a soldier of Jesus Christ. And so the Bible says endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Obviously if you're going to join the military, one of the first things you have to do is go through some kind of training and usually that basic training or boot camp or whatever is going to be something pretty grueling. If you speak to people who've been through it, they'll talk about all of the deprivations and the hunger and the sleeplessness and the physical exhaustion, the pain, the suffering. I mean this is all just part of preparing them to be in the military. And the Bible is saying, okay, you look at what a soldier does to train for combat or to train for whatever role they're going to play in the military, you also Christian need to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, like a spiritual boot camp of forcing yourself to get up early and read your Bible and pray, deny the flesh, deny appetites. You know, people who go into boot camp and everything, they don't just get to eat whatever they want whenever they want. You know, I talked to a guy who he was overweight when he went in and so just to mess with them psychologically they would put in front of him a great big plate of food and then he would take one bite of it and then they'd take it away like, oh, you've had enough now. But instead of just giving him that one bite, they first put a full plate in front of him and then just take it away from him, right? Why? Because they're teaching him to endure hunger, to endure thirst, to go without things. And guess what? Christian life also involves some sacrifices, pushing ourselves a little bit, doing things that we don't want to do. Every single day do something hard. Do something that you don't want to do. Push yourself a little bit every day and work on those things. You know, do you think that I want to read my Bible all the time every single day? Now I'll say this, usually I do want to read my Bible because I like reading the Bible. I love God's word. But I'll be honest with you, there are some times when I don't feel like reading the Bible. I'd rather do something else. There are times when I don't feel like preaching. I don't feel like coming to church. I don't feel like going soul winning. I'm just a human being. Now typically I love all those things, but there are going to be days when you just don't feel like it. And you have to do it anyway. And don't be this person that only does stuff that you want to do. People who only do the things that they want to do. People who only do the things that they like are people who have no character. They're losers and failures. Okay? People who just do only what they feel like doing. And if they don't feel like going to church, they're not going to go to church. And if they don't feel like soul winning, they're not going to go soul winning. If they don't feel like reading their Bible, they're not going to read their Bible. These people will fail in the Christian life. You've got to be able to endure some hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. The Bible says in verse four, no man that worth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who had chosen him to be a soldier. Part of endurance has to do with having a goal and being motivated and single minded where you really want to achieve that one thing. If you're going to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, then you have to make that the priority in your life. Like the most important thing to me is being a good soldier of Jesus Christ. I guarantee you that whenever a soldier is in boot camp or whatever, he's probably not taking up new hobbies while he's in boot camp. You know, he's probably not like, you know, while I'm here, I think I'm going to start learning a new foreign language or, you know, while I'm here, I think I'm going to take up a new sport and as soon as the training ends each day, you know, I'm going to practice that sport. Pretty much when you're in boot camp, you're going to be pretty single minded on just getting through it and just doing what the program is and that's about it. And you know, the Bible is using the same illustration that we don't want to get too distracted by the non-spiritual things in this world and caught up in everything else that we could be going after in this world to where we forget our main focus should be the things of God and being a good soldier of Jesus Christ. You know, the Bible talks about people who they get too entangled with the affairs of this world and they can't really dedicate themselves to serving God and then they end up not bringing forth fruit. We need to make sure that although there are lots of other things we need to do in our lives, we need to keep the main thing the main thing and be focused on our Christian life as the most important aspect of our life so that we're willing to make sacrifices and endure hardness and do without so that we could succeed at that one thing. I would rather fail in every area of life and succeed spiritually. You know, I'd rather be a physical wreck, a financial wreck, and whatever, but I don't want to be a spiritual wreck. And people who are physically doing great, mentally doing great, emotionally doing great, socially doing great, but their spiritual failures, these are not people to be admired. You know, the number one most important area of our life is our walk with God. So he said, endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warth entanglement himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who had chosen him to be a soldier. Don't get so busy with the things of this world that you don't read your Bible, that you skip praying, that you skip church, then you've got the wrong priorities. Go to 2 Timothy chapter number 4. 2 Timothy chapter number 4, while you're turning there, chapter 2 verse 10 said, therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. Why did Paul say that he's willing to endure things and endure hardness? He's saying I do it for the elect's sakes that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. Look, I'm already saved. I'm going to heaven no matter what. I have eternal life. There's nothing I could ever do to lose my salvation because I was never good enough to get saved in the first place. I'll never be bad enough where he'll take it away from me. It's all by grace through faith. I have everlasting life. I shall not come into condemnation. I'm going to heaven no matter what. So why endure hardness? I'll tell you why. I do it for the other people that I can get saved. If I actually serve God with my life and endure some hardness, I can get some other people saved. It's not about my salvation. My salvation's a done deal. It's already in the bag. It's about getting other people saved, that we endure hardness for them. The Bible says in verse 5, but watch thou in all things, 2 Timothy 4 and 5, endure afflictions. Do the work of an evangelist make full proof of thy ministry. Do the work of an evangelist means what? Evangelist means someone who shares the gospel, right? Because evangelism is giving the gospel, witnessing, spreading the word of God. He's saying do the work of an evangelist. And that's very similar to I endure all things so that these other people can get saved. The idea that we saw in 2 Timothy 2.10. Here he's saying endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist. Because these two things end up going hand in hand. You know, you're going to run into opposition and affliction when you try to do something great for God. When you try to accomplish something and evangelize and preach the word of God, there's going to be opposition. Make full proof of thy ministry. So it says endure afflictions. Another word for afflictions is tribulations. Another word would be temptations, afflictions, tribulations, troubles, persecutions would be another way of putting this. And it's amazing to me today how some Christians think that they're going to live a zealous Christian life today without any persecution. They think that they're just going to serve God and preach the word of God and take a stand for Christ and that nothing bad's going to happen. But the Bible says, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened unto you. You know, don't be surprised and act like, whoa, this is unique. I'm serving God and I'm getting persecuted. I'm preaching the gospel and people are getting upset. I'm being afflicted. I'm going through pain and suffering and trials and tribulations. Folks, don't be surprised by that because all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But you've got to be trained as a good soldier of Jesus Christ where you are ready to endure afflictions. Okay, think about, back to the soldier illustration, enduring hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. What kind of hardness does a soldier have to endure? You know, forget the training. How about when they're actually deployed? How about when they're actually in combat? The type of hardness that they would have to endure is going without food, going without drink, having to push themselves physically. How about just enduring through physical pain? They're going to have pain. They can't just stop in the middle of whatever action they're involved in and just say like, sorry guys, I'm just too hungry. You guys are going to have to go on with it. I'm just too tired. You know, I only like to walk a couple miles each day. Or hey, my pack's too heavy. Can somebody else carry this for me? You think that's going to work? No, they've got to endure hardness. They've got to endure afflictions. They have to be ready for the other guys to shoot back. You know, being a soldier is not about just going in and just attacking people. It's also about getting attacked. You know, a war is not this one way thing where you just go in and slaughter everybody. At least it's not supposed to be that way. You know, hey, let's just go slaughter civilians. No, typically you're going to be fighting against other soldiers. And just like you've trained, well guess what, they've trained too. You're shooting at them and they're shooting back. So when you do spiritual battle and fight against the rulers of the darkness of this world and you're preaching the word of God and you're taking a stand for what's right, of course you have to expect the enemy to strike back. You can't just expect them to just take it lying down. You can't expect the devil to just take it lying down if we start a thriving, soul-winning church and we're winning a bunch of people to Christ. Obviously he's going to fight back, isn't he? So those are the type of afflictions that we have to be ready to endure. And so don't be that guy that just the first little bit of persecution and you're gone. You know, some protesters are outside the church building with signs or something and you just turn your car around and go home because you're too scared to face some bozo holding a cardboard sign about how bad your church is or something. You know, well, you know, I just don't want anybody to find out that, you know, I go to Faithful Word Baptist Church. You know what, why are you being such a baby about it? You know, I don't remember that chapter in Fox's Book of Martyrs about people who got embarrassed in front of their family and friends. You know, there's a whole chapter in Fox's Book of Martyrs just on people getting embarrassed. Just on people having to go through protesters. You know, just people who got cussed at in the parking lot. There's a whole chapter in Fox's Book of Martyrs. No there isn't because people in Fox's Book of Martyrs, they're actually getting tortured and killed for the cause of Christ and put in prison and then we go through the smallest little tiny thing. Or what about that chapter in Fox's Book of Martyrs about people who got sued? And they're so scared of losing all their riches that they have piled up on this earth so they're too scared of getting sued so they had to leave that church. Remember that chapter in Fox's Book of Martyrs? Neither do I because it isn't there because that's a joke compared to the persecutions that people have gone through for the cause of Christ throughout history. You know, look at Hebrews chapter 11 if you would. Flip over to Hebrews chapter 11. What's the sermon about this morning? Spiritual endurance. Having endurance spiritually. What is endurance? The ability or the strength to continue despite fatigue, stress or other adverse conditions. In spite of persecutions, afflictions, tribulations, hardness, hunger, thirst, nakedness, cold, heat, you keep going, you keep pushing through, you endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. That's what the Bible's saying. But people today, the slightest affliction, they don't want to endure it. But what does the Bible say in Hebrews chapter 11 beginning in verse number 35, women received their dead raised to life again and others were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings. What are scourgings? Scourgings are being beaten with a literal whip, bloody stripes on your back as you're beaten with a whip. Scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn asunder. That means sawn in half. We're tempted. We're slain by the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins being destitute, afflicted, tormented but you're worried about your massive wealth, your massive wealth that you've been laying up on this earth getting taken away from you because you get sued or whatever. Now you say, why would you bring that up, Pastor Anderson? You know, have we ever been sued? Our church has never been sued and I encourage anyone who wants to go ahead and sue me to just go ahead and sue me and go ahead and sue me, go ahead and sue Faithful Word Baptist Church because guess what? We don't own anything. I don't have some treasure that you can come take away from me. Our church doesn't have some treasure that you can come take. It's like, come and take it because, you know, it's not even going to be worth your legal fees to sue me or to sue Faithful Word Baptist Church because when you got nothing, you got nothing to lose. You say, whoa, what about your house? Look, the house that I live in legally can't be taken away from me. That my primary, now if I have the summer home and the winter home and this property over here, yeah, then maybe I can get sued and those things can be taken away from me. But guess what? My primary home that I dwell in can't be taken away from me. I can't be put in a debtor's prison. So if somebody sues me for millions of dollars, they can't take my primary dwelling from me and they can't take our first two vehicles from us and we only have one vehicle. So you know, if I get sued, maybe I'll just go buy a second vehicle. Just something else that they can't take away from me. Okay? And you know, they could put a lien on my house and you know what? My house can just have a lien on it until Jesus comes. Because I like my house and I don't mind going to the grave living in that house. But you know, there's some people, they've just got so much money laid up and they've got so many houses and so many vehicles and so much stuff. And look, if you have a bunch of houses and vehicles and stuff, great, amen, enjoy. But you know what? If that stuff is keeping you from serving God because you're afraid of losing it and you've got to be all protective of your stuff, guess what, you're not going to take that stuff with you anyway. And this life is a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away and eventually you're going to lose everything anyway. So why are you trying to hang on to everything so tightly? It's all going to be gone someday. It's all going to burn up someday. It's all going to be gone. And so I've never gone through this. Our church has never gone through this. Our members have never gone through this. But you know what? Other churches have. There are other churches that we've been friends with that have been sued and members have literally quit the church because they're being named in a lawsuit and they quit the church and they go with their tail between their legs because they're a coward. That's why. And you know what? You want me to handle these people with kid gloves who talk all big, they talk all tough and then they get named in a lawsuit and they flee the church. Sorry, but that's an embarrassment in light of what we just read in Hebrews chapter 11. Let's read it again, shall we? Others had trial of cruel mockings, verse 36, and scourgings. Now I don't know about you, but you know, I've had to go to court a few times, but they've never yet scourged me in court. I've never gone to court and been examined by scourging. I've never had my hands tied above my head and just been flogged in court. And you know what? I probably never will because that doesn't happen in America. We're blessed to live in the United States of America and we're so worried about going to court or getting sued or getting protested or getting persecuted or losing a job. But hey, at least we're not getting flogged and going to prison and being stoned and sawn asunder. You know, when you're sawn asunder, I'll feel bad for you. I will cry about it. If you get sawn asunder, I will cry about it, but I'm not necessarily going to cry about you losing your second home. And you know what? Look, I've lost a job because of my preaching and I know a bunch of other people that have lost jobs because of their preaching, other pastors and so forth. But you know, when I look back at it now and I look at my pastor friends who've lost a job because of their preaching, they have a better job now. They have a better job. They like it better. They're making more money. You know, maybe if God allows you to lose something for his sake, he's got something better for you because the Bible says that if we forsake anything for his name and the gospels, he'll give us back in this earth a hundred fold. He'll give us back something better. And so yeah, I've lost my job, but do I, do I, do I just wish I still had that job? Man, I wish I had those, uh, those clients and customers and, and contracts that I lost back in 2009 and 2010 because of my preaching. No, I don't care. It doesn't matter anymore. But you know what does matter are the sermons that I preached. They're still out there doing their work through technology. You know, the, the, the documentary films that I made, the sermons that I preached, the stuff that I put out there, the persecutions matter less and less. And the work that I did for Christ continues forever. So I guarantee you that if you were to talk to these people who've lost a job because of the cause of Christ, none of them would regret it. And they would say, you know, God blessed my latter end more than the first. Like Job ended up with more at the end. They typically end up with more at the end. But even if they didn't, it would still always be worth it to make sacrifices for the cause of Christ. We need to endure some afflictions. We need to have some spiritual endurance. We need to push through. When persecution comes, we push through. When, when, uh, hardness and hardship and financial problems come, we push through. When we, when the newness wears off and the honeymoon's over and it's no longer fun to come to church, it's no longer fun to go soul winning, it's no longer fun to read the Bible, you push through and do it anyway. I can't even count how many times I've seen people come to Faithful Word Baptist Church and they were zealous, they're excited, and the first couple years they're on fire for God and after about two years the honeymoon's over. And it's not that they get into some major sin, it's not that they get upset about anything, it's not that they get disgruntled or, or have any kind of a conflict within the church. I've seen countless people after about two years just slowly fizzle out, just slowly fade away. Because it's not fun anymore, because it, the newness has worn off, right? It's not exciting anymore. And you know, these are the same people that get married and then after two years they're looking for a new spouse because the newness has worn off, because the marriage isn't as exciting anymore, you know. It's not that I don't love my husband anymore, it's just that I'm not in love with him anymore. You stay married until you die! Give me this garbage, I just don't know if we love, if we love, shut up and do it. You're married till death does do part. Love your husband by an act of will if you have to, but you keep loving your husband, you keep being faithful to your husband until the bitter end, you stay with your wife, you love your wife, you stay with her, you support her, you pay her bills, you show her love and affection, you keep yourself only unto her, so long as you both shall live, it doesn't matter what you feel, do it, do it! Hey soldier, go hike up that hill, I don't feel like it. You know, it's not that I don't, it's not that I don't love the army, it's just I just don't know if I'm in love with the army anymore. You think that's gonna work? You signed up, you committed, you have a contract, you gotta keep going, but I'm hungry, do it! I'm thirsty, no, go! And you know what, you think I'm yelling at you, you know, those guys, you think my preaching's hard, you know, you know, I'm not up here just unleashing a string of obscenities on you like these drill instructors do, and you know what, when they unleash all these obscenities on you, these drill instructors, you know what, they make it personal to you. I mean, like I said, I don't have first-hand experience of this, but I've talked to enough people and I understand the fact that, you know, they are probably gonna even make fun of your appearance, they're gonna make fun of your height, they're gonna make fun of your build, they'll probably make fun of your ethnicity, you say, well that's not politically correct, they don't care. Folks, they're not saying things that are politically correct, am I right? Who's been in the military and can kind of vouch for what I'm saying a little bit, yeah. You know, my dad told me a story about how when he was in the military, and you know, when I was a teenager, I had really bad acne when I was a teenager, I had horrible acne, it cleared up when I got older, but when I was a teenager, I had really bad acne. My dad told me, he said, when he was in boot camp, he said back in those days, a lot less people had acne, I don't know if it was just people were eating differently or their lifestyle was different, but he said that when he was growing up, you know, it wasn't as common as it is, as it was when I was growing up, and he told me that this guy came to the boot camp with a bunch of acne, they handed the guy like a metal, like a, what is that thing called in the sink, what do you call that thing, steel wool? Is that what you call it? And they said, go take, they handed him a steel wool, and said, go in the bathroom and scrape that crap, you know, to soften it a little off your face. Okay, now that's not very nice, and look, they call them all kinds of racial slurs, they're throwing racial slurs, and they're even calling them perverted, obscene things. Now look, I'm not condoning this, because I would never do that, I think it'd be wicked and unkind to make fun of someone's acne, to make fun of someone, and make them feel bad about something about their appearance, whether it's height, or their build, or their weight, or hey, I think that that's ungodly to, you know, belittle people and criticize, you know, people's appearance and make them feel bad, because the Bible tells us we should be kind to one another, we should love one another, and all things whatsoever we would that men should do to you, you know, do ye even so to them. So we should follow the golden rule, and we don't want people to say things about our faults and make fun of us that way, so we shouldn't do it to other people. That's not the point. You want me to tell you what the point is? The point is that they have to endure that as a soldier, they don't get to say, excuse me, I'm offended. Now here's the thing. As a soldier of Jesus Christ, guess what we have to endure? People criticizing us. And guess what? People might insult us in very hurtful ways. Maybe they will call us a racial slur, maybe they will call us something about our physical appearance and make fun of our appearance, or they might make fun of mistakes that we made in our life, or drag out things, and just, I don't know, just humiliate us as much as they can. People sometimes try to do that to you. That's the form that persecution sometimes takes. Because what does the Bible say in verse 36? Others had trial of cruel mockings. Cruel mockings. So it's not just the scourging, it's the cruel mocking. Now look, let me ask you this. As a Christian, are you willing to endure cruel mocking for the cause of Christ? Because I guarantee you these guys in boot camp, they don't like being talked to that way. They don't like what the drill instructor said about their mama, or whatever. They don't like all these perverted insults being thrown at them, and all these obscenities being thrown at them, and they don't like being humiliated in front of everyone else. But yet they're willing to endure it. Why? Because they want to be a soldier. They want to be in the military, and they know this is the price you pay to be a soldier. Well let me explain something to you. To be a soldier of Jesus Christ is a price to be paid. Oh, somebody made fun of me. You know, I can't even go to church without, you know, some protester in the parking lot making fun of me, and I don't want to be insulted. They said an obscenity to me. My ears are burning now. Well guess what? That's just sometimes what you have to endure as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. You know, and I've been insulted, and embarrassed, and humiliated. I've had my face photoshopped into some really weird stuff, okay. I've had people edit my videos and make weird compilations out of them. I've had people make fun of anything that was wrong with my physical appearance on any given day. You know, it is what it is. You know, that's a small price to pay to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ. You know, I guarantee you that people who've excelled and succeeded as a soldier throughout history, if you ask them, hey, was boot camp worth it, they'd say, yeah, it was worth it. It was hard. It was painful. I had to endure it, but I'm glad I did, and not only that, it actually made me stronger. It actually made me a better person. It actually made me better at doing my job, and it showed me that I was stronger than I even thought I was. And it was worth it for the prize. Well guess what? As a Christian, you're going to have to endure afflictions, endure hardness, cruel mocking. I'm not saying it's right to mock people and treat them cruelly, but guess what, people are going to mock you and treat you cruelly, and that's what you have to endure as a Christian because when you serve God, you're opening yourself up to persecutions and tribulations, but you know what? It's worth it. You're following the footsteps of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ endured those things. You're going to endure them too. In fact, just flip over the page to Hebrews chapter 12, just right over the page. It says in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1, Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. You know, when I see that phrase run with patience, it sounds like endurance to me. You know, there's two kinds of running. You've got running for speed and running for endurance. You've got the short sprinting type running events, and then you've got the longer marathons and ultra marathons that are really based on endurance, and those require you to run with patience. Run with patience. That sounds like endurance. God wants us to endure hardness. Is it hard to run for a long time? Yeah. Endure hard. Look, if you're going to run with patience, you're enduring some hardness. It's not easy to run for one hour, two hours, three hours, four hours. That's hard. And not only that, but when I see run with patience, I think of a couple different things. Because on the one hand, patience has to do with, you know, enduring and continuing. But also, when we think about being patient, it also means you're willing to wait. You're willing to wait, right? So if I sat outside a waiting room for an appointment, and I had to wait for like two hours, and I just endured it without getting upset, then people would say, thank you for being so patient. You really have a lot of patience, right? Or if I went to sit down to eat, and it just took hours for the food to be prepared, and I just quietly endure, then what am I doing? I'm being patient. So bottles that run with patience, part of that has to do with just continuing, enduring, but part of it also has to do with being willing to wait. And also, what's the opposite of being patient is basically getting bored. You know, because if I'm sitting there outside of that office in the waiting room, and I'm waiting and waiting, and I'm fidgeting, and I'm upset, you know, part of it is that I'm bored. Because isn't it kind of hard to just sit outside in the waiting room, just like with your hands on your knees, just staring straight ahead, just do nothing for three hours while you're waiting? It's boring, right? Well, some people would look at running for five, six, seven hours and say, hey, I bet that starts to get a little boring after a while, right? And guess what? The Christian life sometimes isn't always going to be a barrel of monkeys either. You know, when I'm reading my Bible, a lot of times it's fun, I'm enjoying it, I mean, it's a great book, even just from a worldly perspective, it's just great literature. But sometimes you get into a patch maybe that's not as exciting. You know, it's a little more exciting when you're reading 1 Samuel, a little less exciting to read 1 Chronicles, okay? It's a little bit more exciting to read the Gospel of John, it's a little bit less exciting reading say the first nine chapters of Leviticus. And maybe even the first chapter you're like, oh, this is kind of interesting about these animals, oh, really, the kidney, the liver, the spleen, the fat, the blood, okay, yeah. But you know, after chapter two, chapter three, chapter four, it becomes something that requires patience. Being able to sit down and read your Bible for an hour without fidgeting and getting up and turning on the TV and checking social media and checking Facebook and talking to people, actually just being able to just sit down with your Bible and read it for an hour is an act of endurance. Just like running for an hour is an act of endurance, sitting down and reading the Bible, praying for an extended period of time can be an act of endurance. It requires patience. The opposite of a patient person is somebody who just wants everything now, it's got to be fun now, I've got to enjoy it now, as opposed to the person who's willing to just kind of grind through something for the reward later. Grind through your eight-hour work day because payday's coming versus, no, no, I'm going to call in sick and just party all day because I want to enjoy now. No, no, be patient. Christianity requires patience. You know, soul winning can require patience. Soul winning can require patience. Sometimes you're talking to somebody and, you know, they're a little slow at getting it and you have to keep explaining things and you have to be patient and patiently explain. Or patient, if you knock a bunch of doors and everybody's saying no to you, you have to patiently wait until you get to that 50th door when someone actually wants to hear the Gospel, right? Or maybe patient while you're the silent partner and your partner's giving the Gospel. You know, a lot of people just instantly just bolt and just leave their partner because they're just like, they just don't want to wait. But, you know, we need to be patient and hang with our soul winning partner, you know. I mean, think about when you're in the military, you know, just leave a man in the field, right? And just everybody's just solo, commando. No, no, you know, you stay with your group, I'm assuming, and it's the same thing with soul winning. You run with patience the rays that are set before you, that requires endurance. Christianity requires enduring pain, affliction, hunger, thirst, fear, coldness, heat, embarrassment, mocking, possibly even scourging, losing things, being insulted, being afflicted. Be patient. We know we're going to be in heaven someday, so be patient. You know God's even going to bless you on this earth someday. Be patient. Wait. After you've patiently endured, you'll receive the promise. He says run with patience the rays that are set before us, verse 2, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. He continued, even though he could have made it stop, he continued through the pain, agony, mockeries. He despised the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. And I want you to pay special attention to that last phrase, faint in your minds. Fainting in your mind. What does that mean to faint in your mind? So here's the thing. If we're going to go outside right now and I were to say to you, you know, we're going to run laps around this church building and I want you to run until you can't run anymore. There's no time limit, there's no distance limit. We are just going to run until you can't go any further. Sound fun? No, it doesn't. But let's say we did that. Let's say we just did that right now. No preparation, no training, whatever you're wearing right now, you just maybe loosen your tie, take off the jacket, right? Ladies take off the high heeled shoes or whatever and hey, let's just get out there and let's just run as far as we can until we can't go any further. What do you think is going to be the limiting factor? What's the limiting factor? Is it going to be the feet? Is it going to be the legs? Is it going to be the lungs? Is it going to be your lungs? Is it going to be your heart? Is it going to be your feet? Is it going to be your legs? Is it going to be your arms? Is it going to be your back? No, because I can guarantee you that for virtually every single person in this room, the limiting factor would be your mind, period. And when you ran as far as you thought you could run and said, Pastor Anderson, I am done, I cannot go any further, I cannot take another step, you've probably gone about 40% of what you could actually do physically. Because think about it, what if you're in a life or death situation and I'm not recommending you to just run until you actually collapse, okay? I'm just using an illustration to show you that when you're running the race, when you're running with patients, typically the reason you're going to stop is because of your mind is why you're going to stop. You're going to be like, I'm done enduring this. But if we put someone else's mind in your body, they could run twice as far because they have their mind trained that way. They're ready to endure more pain, they're ready to endure more suffering, they're ready to endure more hardness than you. So again, I'm not recommending you to physically go out there and just drive it until the wheels fall off with your physical body. But what I am saying is that running with patients, enduring the hardships of the Christian life is a battle over your mind and that if you faint, it's because you faint in your mind. And that's why God's saying, look unto Jesus, meditate on Jesus, think about him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and your legs, you know, no, he said, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds. Don't give up on the Christian life. It's not like I just can't take anymore. Yes, you can. You almost always can, no matter what it is. If I told you to hold your breath as long as you can, I just can't do it anymore. You probably could have done it a little more if you really had to. Everything's like this, right? I just can't take this marriage anymore. I've been putting up with this bad marriage for years. I just can't take it anymore. Yes, you can. You're 40% to the failure point in your marriage. Keep pushing, push through, and then you get the second wind. There have been times when I thought I cannot go any further, I'm done, but I pushed through. Next thing you know, I'm like, you know, I think I want to pick up the pace a little bit. I actually feel like going a little faster now. Folks, that's how life is as well. Don't faint in your minds. And remember that God is not going to tempt us above that we're able. God is not going to tempt us above that we're able. So yeah, if you actually ran until you dropped, yeah, there could be a danger of actually doing permanent damage or something or just running until you fall over dead or something. Yeah, that theoretically could happen. But all of us would faint in our minds before that point anyway. But guess what? In the Christian life, there's no danger of you enduring too much. You just didn't know when to quit. You just endured too much. No, because God's only giving you what you can handle. And so you need to push it until the coach, God, up in heaven blows the whistle and says you're done. You just keep going. Because he knows your limits. He knows your strength. He knows your weakness. And if you quit on your marriage, it's because you fainted in your mind. Oh, you can't do one more day in your marriage? I've been doing this for years. I just can't do it anymore. Shut up and do another week of it. You're my husband right here. Put up with his garbage for another six months. And then do another six years. And then pretty soon you'll just be so old that you'll just be like, the finish line's right there. I'm just going to keep going. I can see the finish line. It's stupid to quit now. Well, I'm just burned out on church. Well, why don't you suck it up, you big baby, and come back tonight? And come back Wednesday night. Oh, I'm just so burned out on solar. I'm just tired. Hey, you know what? Do another lap of soul winning. You got a few more miles in you of soul winning. Keep going. Push through. Keep going. Keep going. Don't stop. If you stop, it's because you chose to stop. You fainted in your mind. And that's exactly what this scripture is warning you about when it says, don't be wearied and faint in your mind. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Keep your eyes on the finish line. Keep your eyes on the prize. And just keep pushing and pushing and pushing and just decide, you know what? I'm not going to stop. I don't care how much it hurts. I don't care how much it burns. I don't care what kind of damage I'm doing. I'm just not going to stop. That's the mentality we need to have as a Christian. And you know what? Let me just say this. Even though we live in America where it's easy and soft, guess what? Serving God could eventually cause permanent damage to your physical body because you wouldn't be the first person who got imprisoned or tortured or injured in some way for the cause of Christ. Now, you know, God willing, I hope that never happens to anybody in this room because we're all living in America. We have religious freedom. We live in a wonderful place. But you know, other people in this world, you know, they're living in places where they literally could get, they could lose body parts or, or, you know, get physical damage through torture. Now, one of the worst, I don't want to go too dark this morning, but let's get a little dark. Amen. Uh, you know, Hebrews chapter 11 gets dark. People being saunasundar, tortured, not accepting deliverance. So let's go there. Let me tell you, you know, if, if you study the lives of people who've been tortured, if you read the books, if you, if you look at the mentality that it takes for someone to be able to endure torture without getting into it, the scariest thing about torture is not the physical pain. Obviously physical pain is big, but the scarier thing about torture is always the fact that you want to preserve your body and that you are afraid that fit, that permanent damage is being done to your body. That's scarier because I mean pain is temporary, right? But people are scared of their body being physically, permanently damaged or marred, you know? So like for example, you know, one of my favorite books on this subject is the Gulag Archipelago by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. You know, it was probably the greatest work of nonfiction of the 20th century. But anyway, you know, in the Gulag Archipelago, he talks about, you know, how to endure torture and he says basically you just have to just kiss your body goodbye and just say, you know what? My body's toast. My body's foreign to me. My body is my enemy. Let it be destroyed and it's all about my soul. I've got to endure because it's only what's inside that matters. Go ahead and destroy my body. You have to just kiss it goodbye. Now you know, obviously, like I said, probably the chances are nobody in this room is ever going to have to endure torture like that. And I sure hope that none of us in this room ever have to endure that kind of torture and we probably won't. But anything's possible. But the point is that God has taught us something similar in his word when he tells us that first of all, our body is to be a living sacrifice unto God. You know, we're to be willing to sacrifice our body. And you know, what did Jesus Christ say before he went to the cross? He said, this is my body which is broken for you. This is my body which is broken for you. And so when we think about that, when we think about Jesus enduring the cross, did he go through some permanent damage? I mean, his body was physically being destroyed and broken and ultimately he's killed. You say, well yeah, but he rose again. Well so will you. So will I. So what now? But it says here, and you say, Pastor Anderson, you're getting too extreme. You know, we're living in Phoenix, Arizona, 2022 America. You don't need to prepare us for torture. You know, the sermons, but here, let me explain to you why I just talked about that. I wanted you to think about that for a second, kind of go there mentally. Because of the next verse. Here it says, lest ye be weirded faint in your minds, it says, ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. Here's what the Bible is saying, okay, if you think about Jesus literally being tortured, literally his body broken and destroyed for you, and you think about other people who've been sawn asunder and they went through all these things, now remember, guess what, you've not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. You haven't shed one drop of blood for the cause of Christ. You have not been scourged with a single lash. You have not had a single body part removed for the cause of Jesus Christ. You didn't go through these things. What are you whining about? Persecution. What are you whining about, tribulation? You know, it's funny, this is totally unrelated to this sermon. I wasn't even thinking about this sermon. But I was just talking to my wife, I don't know if it was last night or this morning, I just mentioned to my wife just about how like, man, we've been through so little persecution and like the persecution that we've endured has been so minor and look at these other pastors, they're going through a lot worse persecution than I've ever gone through and you know, God's really blessed us and protected us, because look what this other pastor's going through. Look at this other, and I'm not talking about some pastor in a Muslim country, I'm talking about like our friends. I'm looking at Pastor Jimenez, I'm looking at Pastor Shelley, you know, I'm looking at these guys and I'm thinking like these guys, Pastor Mejia, I'm thinking like these guys are going through worse stuff than I've ever gone through. They're going through some hard things and you know, I was just thinking to myself, man, what we're going through or what we've been through in the past has been pretty light. And you know what the Bible says, our light affliction, that's how it describes the persecutions that we typically go through as Christians, it's light when you compare it to other things. So quit whining about the lawsuit, quit whining about you getting made fun of at school, quit whining about how your parents made you dress like a modest lady and everybody else was in little bun hugger shorts and you just fell out of place. You know, why don't you quit whining about that, because if you want, we can stick you in a sheepskin. We can ship you in a goatskin, we can all go sleep outside for a few weeks and wander in deserts and mountains. The deserts and mountains are right here. We can go out our front door and we can wander in deserts and mountains, we can throw on the goatskin, we can throw on the sheepskin and you know what, you can wander about destitute, tormented and afflicted or you can just shut up and wear a skirt that goes down to your knee, how about that? It's the big deal. It's humiliating. It's not a cruel mocking, it's not a scourging. You know, people in the Bible went through a lot worse, men of God went through a lot worse when they're thrown into, basically like Jeremiah, into the hole of an outhouse sinking down in the mire of a basic latrine or sewer or bathroom, okay, sinking down in that garbage, you know, and you're upset because, you know, your YouTube channel got deleted. You know, my YouTube channel got deleted, I worked hard on that thing. I put a lot of work into that YouTube channel, I had a lot of subscribers and you know, it was just so horrible when I got persecuted so bad because my channel was deleted. We need to add an appendix to Fox's Book of Martyrs about me getting my channel deleted. We're going to need to add a new chapter to Fox's Book of Martyrs about me because sodomites came and protested outside the church because Faithful Word got their bank account shut down a few years ago. You know, we need a new chapter in Fox's Book of Martyrs, right? It's a joke. That's nothing, right? You know what we ought to be doing instead of whining about how bad the persecution supposedly is, why don't we just get on our knees and thank God that we're not going through these horrible things. You know, I'd rather get on my knees today and say, God, thank you that I've never been tortured. Thank you that I don't have to wander about as sheepskin and a goatskin. Thank you that I don't have to sleep in a cave and have no certain dwelling place. Thank you that I didn't spend a night and a day in the deep. Thank you that I didn't get beaten with rods or flogged mercilessly. Thank you that I didn't get crucified upside down somewhere. Thank you that I'm not in prison. Thank you that I'm not in jail. You know what? We should be thankful because God has blessed us and given us peace and prosperity and given us all these blessings and we, you know, we eat when we're hungry. No, because I'm on a diet or, you know. Okay, but you know what? But here's the thing about that though. Other people are really starving. They're really struggling and suffering. You know, I think you can skip that bowl of ice cream, you know, to get, you know, to be a little bit better of a soldier of Jesus Christ. Okay. See how everything's relative though? So with that, I'll close. The title of the sermon is Spiritual Endurance. Be willing to endure some things and you say, well, Pastor Anderson, that all sounds great, but how do I build my spiritual endurance? What's the workout? You know, I know there's a workout I could do to get better at running, but what's the workout for spiritual endurance? Let me give you the workout. Let me give you your workout plan, okay? Every single day, do something that you don't want to do every single day. Did you hear me? Every single day, do something that you don't want to do. Wake up in the morning, read your Bible, pray, and then do something that you don't want to do. Do something hard. And if you do something hard every single day, you know what, pretty soon you're just going to get used to doing hard things. And you're going to get stronger and stronger. Your mind's going to get stronger. Your body's going to get stronger. And you just do the hard thing. Do the hard thing. There's an easy way and a hard way. Do it the hard way. Build some mental toughness and spiritual endurance so that you're ready to endure some hardness. That way when soul winning gets hard or when reading your Bible gets hard, going to church gets hard, you'll do it anyway because you're in the habit of being a hard person and not somebody who's this little twinkie who basically just only does what's comfortable and easy. And folks, let's face it, our society is soft. Our society is soft any way you look at it. They can't take any criticism. They can't be told that they're wrong in any area. If anybody says anything derogatory, they freak out. They need to go to counseling and stuff because somebody just told them something negative. We live in a soft society and not only that, we're soft physically. You know, people can hardly even walk down the street anymore. You know, they can't even walk a half mile or something. We become so weak because we live in a society where we're surrounded by comfort and convenience and everything's easy, everything's handed to us, the climate is always perfect. You know, for us, enduring cold is like our spouse set the thermostat a little different than what we're used to. Enduring the heat is that, you know, mom and dad don't want us to turn down the air conditioner that low of a temperature. It's like, no, there's a real summer out there, folks. But if you're too weak, you're not going to be out there in the summer soul winning. If you're too weak, you're not going to be soul winning in July with us out there. But our society has not only made us soft physically, it makes us soft mentally and spiritually. And so what do we need to do? We need to do some hard things. Quit taking the path of least resistance and do something hard on purpose. So here's the workout, Monday morning, get up, read your Bible, pray and do something that you don't like doing. Think about the things that you know are good for you or that are going to help the cause of Christ or good for your job or good for your family, good for your kids, good for your spouse. Think about the things that you know that they're good things that you should be doing but they're hard or you don't really like to do them and just make a point to do that. And get out of the way early in the day when your willpower is at its highest first thing. And pretty soon you'll build up your muscle of willpower and you'll build your mind to where you will be able to do the hard things. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and thank you that we have Jesus to look unto as the ultimate example of endurance. Lord God, I pray that every single person would take the challenge here and do the hard things, not just take the path of least resistance and only do things that they like or things that they're good at or things that come easy. Help us to work on our weaknesses and do things that are difficult and push ourselves. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Take your slum books, please, and let's go to hymn number 377, 377, Rescue the Perishing, number 377, and let's sing it on that first verse together, number 377. Rescue the perishing, care for the dying, Stash them in pity for sin and the grave. We warn thee, everyone, lift up the fallen, Tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save. Rescue the perishing, care for the dying, Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save. Though they are sighing him still, he is waiting, waiting, but men and their children receive. Wait with them earnestly, clean with them gently, He will forgive if they don't clean but live. Rescue the perishing, care for the dying, Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save. Down in thy human heart, crushed by the tender, Fillings are buried, thy grace can restore. Just by your loving heart, wakened by kindness, Fores that are broken will find way once more. Rescue the perishing, care for the dying, Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save. Rescue the perishing, duty demanding, Strength for thy favor the Lord will provide. Back to the narrow way, patiently win them, Tell them for wonder, a Savior has died. Rescue the perishing, care for the dying, Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save. Amen. Great singing this morning, Lord Smith. Amen.