Be The Church: Be A Steadfast Church

I love history and one of my favorite characters in history is Sir Winston Churchill. In his speech at Harrow School in 1941, he uttered these inspiring words: “Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.” – Winston Churchill, Harrow School, 1941.

I love this speech because it reminds me of the battle that we as Christ followers face on a daily basis.  Our culture is constantly trying to get us to give in, to quit: to compromise our morals, to cool our passion, or change our beliefs. And it’s taking a toll. And sometimes I feel like shouting, “Never give in!”  And the reason I feel this way is some of the reasons people give for walking away from the Church today. Some who walk away do so today because they’ve decided the world offers them far more benefits than they believe they are receiving from the church.  Others walk away simply because they believe God hasn’t given them the life they’d hoped for.  And still others walk away because life’s adversities have beat them down, defeated them and they feel God and/or the Church has let them down.

But what keeps you from walking away?  What helps you stay the course when life doesn’t go your way? What keeps you in the game when your prayers go unanswered, or when God’s people fail you?  What keeps you faithful others find it easy to bail on God’s Church? Well, that’s what were going to look at today from Romans 12:12, as we continue to dig into what it means to Be the Church, as we continue to discover what God is looking for in His Church.

You see, when God established His Church, He knew we would face difficulties that would discourage us, adversities that would seek to derail us, and people who would disappoint us.  And God knew there would be times we would struggle with our commitment to His family, the Church.  But God never promised that following Him would be easy.  So like Churchill, He would have us never give in to anything, great or small, large or petty – but that we would stand firm with God’s people no matter what.  As we come to God’s Word today, that’s what God is looking for in His Church. God wants us to be a Steadfast Church! To be a people who stand firm in the battles of life with an unwavering devotion to Him and to one another.  So today as we look into Romans 12:12, God reveals for us three attitudes we can cultivate that will help us Be a Steadfast Church. Three mindsets that will help us weather the storms of life and stay the course together.  Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

Be Joyful In Hope!   One of the ways our world tempts us to walk away from God’s People is to erode our hope that’s found in Christ.  So we are constantly being tempted to put our hopes in what the world puts its hope in.  But herein lies the problem. The World Offers Us False Hopes:

One of these is The false hope of wisdom: The world seeks to persuade us into believing that the way we can solve our problems in life is by relying on our own wisdom.  We do this all the time.  As soon as adversity comes, we immediately start thinking of ways to fix the situation.  This is especially tempting to us as guys.  It’s like we are wired to fix problems.  We love a challenge.  So that’s what we do, we try to figure out how to fix things out of our own wisdom: whether it’s with our work, or our marriage or our children, or our finances. We try one thing, then another.  And we think we are right.  But often our wisdom backfires.  Listen to how God’s word describes this flaw: Do you see a man wise in his own eyes?  There is more hope for a fool than for him.  Proverbs 26:12

You see, our problem with relying on our own wisdom is that we become unteachable.  And that leads to pride.  And when your pride doesn’t work to fix the difficulty you’re facing, what happens?  You get frustrated, maybe angry and even discouraged.  If you can’t remedy your situation you can even lose hope. This is what happened with my brother-in-law.  He prided himself on his wisdom.  Whenever he had a problem, he would drive to his favorite park and mull over the situation until he could fix it.  And since he was basically a genius, he figured out how to fix just about anything.  That is until his pride caught up with him.  As a relator, he’d gotten himself into a pickle by influencing clients to take out Federal HUD Loans to invest in real estate with him.  This ended up getting him convicted on 12 counts of Federal Mail Fraud.  So once that verdict came in, he drove to his favorite park to try to find a way out like he’d always done before.  But this time seeing no solution, he lost hope and took his own life. In doing so, he gave up on my sister and their three children.  What a tragedy.  His wisdom failed him. And Proverbs was right: There is more hope for a fool than for him.

But that’s not the only false hope our world offers.  The other one is this: The False Hope of Wealth.  How does that work?  I think you know.  We believe if we can build up enough wealth we can secure our lives against life’s difficulties.  And having a lot of money can be helpful.  But wealth is something that can easily slip through our fingers.  As God’s Word warns us:  Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant not to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 1 Timothy 6:17

God tells us that He is the only source of true hope.  But it’s even better than that.  For God’s Word tells us that God Gave Us A Living Hope Listen how Peter explains it:  In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.  1 Peter 1:3-5

The good news today is this: True hope, lasting hope, living hope is found in Jesus! The very fact that Jesus Christ did not stay in the tomb and is alive today is the living hope you can count on.  This is the hope of our salvation that was secured by Jesus. This is the joyful hope David announced when he spoke of Jesus:  “‘I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest in hope, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, you will not let your holy one see decay.” Acts 2:25-27

The good news of our hope is this:  Because Jesus lives, we will live.  No matter what you may face in the present, God has secured a future for you with Jesus.  We do not have to worry like the rest of the world for one day we will see Jesus face to face. God will be with us. And ‘He will wipe every tear from our eyes. And there will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things will pass away.”  This is God’s promise.  For our hope is in a person who defeated sin and death. Now there is nothing that can separate you from Jesus.  Do you have this hope?  If not, then trust in Jesus, for the world’s hopes will fail you, but Jesus never will. So be joyful in hope.  That’s our first and most important attitude that can help us stay the course in the difficulties of life.  Now here’s the next one:

Be Patient in Affliction This is not a passive putting up with things, but an active, steadfast endurance.  It’s a persevering attitude that hangs tough no matter how tough life gets.  But to cultivate this persevering attitude, we need to understand How God uses affliction:  the Bible describes for us three ways God uses affliction in our lives:

1) To draw us to Himself   But those who suffer He delivers in their suffering; He speaks to them in their affliction. “He is wooing you from the jaws of distress to a spacious place free from restriction, to the comfort of your table laden with choice food.” Job 36:15-16

2) To test us and refine us   See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield my glory to another. Isaiah 48:10-11

3) To strengthen our character  Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and  complete, not lacking anything. James 1:2-4

John Eldredge tells the story of a Scottish discuss thrower from the 19^th century.  He lived in days before professional trainers and developed his skills alone in the highlands.  He made his own discus from the description he read in a book.  What he didn’t know was that the competition discuss was made of wood with an outer rim of iron.  The discus he made was of pure iron, four times heavier than the ones used by his would be challengers.  This committed Scotsman trained day after day, laboring under the burden of extra weight.  He marked the record distance and kept working until he could throw it that far.  Of course, when he arrived at the competition, he was handed the official wooden discus.  He threw it like a tea saucer.  He set new records and for many years, none of his competitors could touch him.  As Eldredge reflected on this story, he said, “so that’s how you do it, you train under a great burden.”

And that’s how God uses affliction in our lives.  It’s hard.  Sometimes it hurts.  It’s not easy.  Sometimes we cry.  And sometimes we get angry at the burden.  But take heart.  For God allows these afflictions to draw us to himself, to refine us and to strengthen us.  Why? Because He is forming Christ in us.  He allows afflictions in our lives to help us love like Jesus, even when life is hard. So be patient in affliction and you will not just be steadfast in your faith, you will become more and more like Jesus.  That’s the second mindset God wants to develop in us.  But sometimes that one is the hardest one, so He gives us one more mindset to help us, and that is this:

Be Devoted to Prayer  God wants you to be a tenacious, persistent battler in prayer.  That’s the idea behind being devoted.  The Word Paul uses here literally means be strong toward something, it also carries the ideas of being steadfast and unwavering – resolute!

Charles Spurgeon gives a picture of what it means to be devoted in this way.  He describes this word by a metaphor taken from hunting dogs, which will never give up the game till they have it.  A hunting dog when in pursuit of its victim works itself into full motion, using every limb and muscle to follow as fast as possible.  If you catch a glimpse of it you will see that it throws itself forward with intense eagerness, the whole body and soul of the dog is in motion towards one object; no portion of him lingers, not so much as a glance is given to anything else, the whole creature is instant after the game which it pursues, urgently pressing, to overtake the prey…  This is the way in which we are to pray.

This then is a tenacious, bulldog like determination where you are resolved to hammer away at the difficulty you are facing on your knees.  This is an unwavering posture of prayer that never gives in! And this is the very same attitude of prevailing prayer that characterized the first Christians: They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Acts 2:42

Isn’t it ironic that we spend most of our energy fretting or talking about the difficulties of life, rather than using those energies to wrestle with God in prayer?  I think those first Christians understood something we need to relearn.  They knew God was wiser then them, more powerful than them, was always for them, and had given them access to His presence with prayer.  So they were tenacious prayer warriors.  They believed the Scripture: “Cast all your cares on Him, for He cares for you” So they were devoted to prayer.

If we can have this same tenacious persistence in prayer whenever trouble comes our way; when the first person we turn to – to unload our burdens on is God; if we can maintain this posture of prayer…

Then God will give us the patience to endure our afflictions…   He will help us remain joyful in hope… And He will sustain our faith, so we will never give in.

That’s what all these mindsets are all about – Our Faith!  For when we call on Him to work on our behalf, we exercise the faith we need to endure and never give in.  

So, be joyful in hope, patient in affliction and devoted to prayer.  This is our calling to be a steadfast church together.

Perhaps there are some of you who came here today who have felt like walking away from God, you’ve felt like quitting, not just on God’s people, but even on life.  Life’s battles have worn you out.  Your wisdom has failed you.  Your wealth has failed you.  Friends have failed you.  Maybe you even feel that God has failed you.

If that’s you, then perhaps God is calling you to rekindle your hope in Jesus – to take your eyes off your struggles and give them to Jesus.  Cast all your cares on Him, for He cares for you.