Charles Stanley - The Courage to Keep Going
How do you respond when you find yourself dealing with situations that are very painful? In fact, you get rejected. Somebody walks out on you. You feel they were dishonest with you. They didn't tell you the truth. You feel lonely. You feel hurt. Very discouraged. When you think about all the things that happen to people and the reactions we have, how do you feel? Do you want to say do you know what? I don't have to put up with this anymore. And you just decide I'm going to walk away. I quit. I give up. I don't have to do this. I don't have to stay here. How do you really and truly feel? Because you see, as a follower of Jesus Christ, giving up is not who we are. Surrendering is not who we are. Throwing in the towel, we say that's not who we are.
As the follower of Jesus Christ we have the right to expect the best from him. He has the right to expect the best from us. When I think about giving up, it doesn't fit who we are. And if you're in the process right now, giving up on your marriage, giving up on your job, giving up on your children, giving up on your financial situation. Whatever the situation may be, before you give up, you stop and ask yourself the question, does this fit who I am as a follower of Jesus? And this message is all about, listen, it's all about keeping on keeping on. And that is to have the courage to keep on keeping on. If you will listen carefully and apply these points I'll layout before you, you don't have to give up and quit. There is an answer and a solution to what God wants to do in your life at this point no matter what it is.
So I want you to turn, if you will, to 2 Timothy 4 and Paul is writing to the young pastor Timothy and giving him wonderful advice. He's coming to the end of his life now. In fact, Paul dies around 67 A. D.. He's killed by Nero the Emperor. And it's interesting the very next year Nero committed suicide. So he's encouraging Timothy at this point. Beginning at chapter four verse one. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word. Be ready, listen, be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But wanting to have their ears tickled, they'll accumulate teachers according to their own desires and turn away their ears from the truth and will turn to myth. But you be sober in all things, endure hardship.
Do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering. And the time of my departure has come. I have fought a good fight. I've finished the course. I have kept the faith. In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteous, which the Lord the righteous judge will award to me on that day, not only to me, but to all who love his appearing. This is his challenge to young Timothy. He's a young pastor. Now we find him listening to the apostle Paul give him a warning and challenge and a word of encouragement no matter what you go through, you don't give up and you don't quit.
I think about all the characters of the New Testament, for example, no one fits the qualification of someone who never quits like the apostle Paul. When you think about his life and think about how he lived it out, here's someone who stayed with the challenge no matter what happened. And you may be one of those persons today who wants to quit. And you think you have a pretty good reason to quit. You have a good reason to walk out. You may legitimately think I don't have to do this. I don't have to stay here. I think many pastors I've talked with over the years who said, this is what's going no one my church. I decided I don't have to put up with this. I don't have to keep doing this. I don't have to live like this. I don't like to have my family treated this way. I don't have to do it.
When they ask me what I think, here's what I tell them. Yes, you do. You have to do what you're doing until God tells you to do something else. And Paul is encouraging Timothy. He said, look, there's going to come a day they'll not believe what you're saying. They want someone to tickle their ears to make them feel good. You stay steady, steady, calm in the situation. You keep doing what God's called you to do. And then he talks about his own life. Because of what he's been through in life. Now, when I think about what Paul suffered in life, you have to ask the question, what motivated him to keep on keeping on when everything in him would have said quit. But there's something that Paul knew, something that he did that every single one of us need to understand in our life, we're all going to be tested or have been tested once or many times to just say, I don't have to put up with this. I quit. I give up. I walk away.
Now the tragedy is, many people use that same phrase when they walk away from their marriage, from their children. Or into the college education say, do you know what? I quit. Into some particular job they like because they think it's a little too difficult or doesn't suit them. Quitters, there's plenty of quitters. Yet quitters don't get anywhere in life. People who give up don't get anywhere in life. I want us to look at the reasons, the motivations Paul had to keep going when the going got very rough. And we'll talk about some of those issues. So the first one I want us to notice here is this. One of the things that kept Paul from giving up and kept him keeping on keeping on was the awareness that God was with him. And I think in the second Corinthian letter and 11th chapter, this is a very challenging chapter to me when I think about what Paul went through, what he suffered. And yet he never gave up no matter what he experienced in life. If you look at the 11th chapter. This is a familiar chapter for many Christians but many people it will not be.
But Paul says, for example, he was arguing and they were criticizing him for who he was. He said in verse 22, "Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. I speak as if insane. I more. In far more laborers, far more imprisonments. Beaten times, listen, without number. Often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews 39 lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and day I have spent in the deep. I've been on frequent journeys dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from countrymen, dangers from the gentiles, dangers in the wilderness, dangers from the sea, dangers from false brethren. I've been in labor and hardship many sleepless night and hunger and thirst and exposure. There is the daily pressure on me for concern for all the churches."
If you and I have been through what he had been through, I wonder how many of us would have survived that. What made him survive that? He had a lot of reasons to give up and quit but didn't, why? Because of his awareness Almighty God was with him. When I think about the things, so many things the apostle Paul said about God's presence with him, he said, for example, in acts 23, going through a difficult time. He said, the Lord stood by him. He knew the Lord was with him. The Lord stood by him. He said to him on other occasions, don't be afraid. I'm with you. And so, all through Paul's epistles we are continually reminded that God's with us.
Now if I should ask you if you believe God's with you, you would probably say yes. Do you claim that when times are tough? Do you remind yourself no matter what is going on, who is treating me this way, Almighty God is with me. He said I'll never leave you nor forsake you. Either I have to believe God will do what he said he would do or I don't. If I begin to question him, I'll begin to consider giving up in some situations. If I believe what he says is true and he's true to his word, I'll not give up no matter what's going on. And oftentimes we give up, watch this. Oftentimes people give up right before victory is about to break loose. Right before opportunity stares them in the face, they're willing to give up. People are willing to give up right before there can be reconciliation. Right before things can change, they want to give up. That's why it's dangerous to ever give up. When we give up in a situation we're giving up on God. He said I'll never leave you nor forsake you.
As long as you and I are walking in his will and his way it doesn't matter how tough it gets, if we don't give up, we'll be rewarded. He said shipwrecked all these times, a day and a night in the sea and over and over and over again the Jews tried their be best to kill him. They tried to trap him. They tried to kill him. They did everything imaginable to try to get rid of him. Yet you find him in jail rejoicing in the Lord, praising God for what he's doing in his life. Do you know why? Because Paul never felt, listen, he never felt rejected by Jesus. Or that Jesus Christ was absent in any situation he was in. The awareness of his presence will take you through things nothing else will.
A second thing is this. The experience of God's strength within him. Whenever you feel weak. You see, when we feel weak and worn and then these things hit us we're more prone to give into them and give up. He talked about the strength that was in him. When you think about all these experiences he survived, he had to understand and experience the strength of Almighty God. Three ship wrecks. Beaten all of these many times. Jailed. In other words, he was a frequent visitor to the jail. So all these things he is experiencing. How did he experience it? He had strength. He was not necessarily a strong man physically, probably a short fella and the evidence is his eyesight wasn't all that good. But he had strength. What was the strength? The same strength you and I have to go through any situation we face in life. And that is the strength of Almighty God.
Most of us know the verse when Paul said in Philippians, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Listen. He was aware of God's presence and being aware of God's presence he was aware of the strength that God released in him in that awareness of his presence. No matter what you're going through, what you're facing, you have the strength of God within you. Because you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you. And that's what Jesus promised his disciples. He knew they were going to be tempted, he knew they would go through times that would seem impossible. He said the Holy Spirit will be in you, with you, upon you. And he'll empower you, strengthen you to do whatever the father called you to do. Every single one of us has within us adequate strength to do the will of God.
You may say, I don't feel I do. You may not feel like it. The truth is, are you claiming it? You can have spiritual gifts, spiritual blessings and if you don't claim them you don't understand them and if you don't understand them, you can't experience them. One of the things that kept the apostle Paul from giving up, keep on keeping on, was he experienced the strength of Almighty God in his life. When he stood in councils and they criticized him and wanted to crucify him, if possible, everything he did, he never gave up. He never quit. Did that mean he always just stood like a man? I'm sure there were times when he was frightened for the moment. This is why the Lord would say to him, here I am beside you. I'm going to be with you in this no matter what you're going through.
And so, when I think about his prayer, for example, for the Ephesians, he was encouraging them to pray for the strength that God, third chapter, the strength God would give them for what he called them to do. Then when he talks about putting on the spiritual armor, how does he start that in the sixth chapter of Ephesians? Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Then he tells us even before he gets the armor, which he talks about the helmet of salvation to protect our mind. Breastplate of righteousness to protect our emotions and girdle of truth to always stand in the truth. He talks about the sandals of salvation, always ready to go. He talks about the sword of the spirit, the Word of God. Above all else, the shield of faith. He starts out saying, be strong in the Lord and the power of his might.
That's what you and I should start every day with. The awareness God is with us today and we have the strength of God to face anything and everything and anybody and everybody no matter what the situation is, because, listen, it isn't our strength. It's his strength. To go on your strength or my strength some days we wouldn't get up. But it is the strength of the Lord. Watch this. It is the divine energy of God. It's the power of Almighty God within us. And that doesn't mean you won't have difficult situations and circumstances, but he'll enable us to live through it no matter what. And so what kept him from giving up when he had so many reasons to give up was his awareness of God's presence. You and I need the same. When likewise, the same thing with him, and that is, we have the right to experience the strength of God. You have the Holy Spirit living within you. That is you have God living inside.
Watch this. He's not going to call you, watch this carefully. He's not going to call you to do anything, face anything, experience anything without him giving you the strength to do it. He says, he causes all things to work together for good to those that love him, those called according to his purpose. Sometimes he allows us to get in situations we think, o God, I don't know I can handle this. Why does he allow some of those things? It gives him the opportunity to show us how real he is. How faithful he is. How powerful he is. How adequate you and I are when we put our trust in him. That's what Paul is saying here in these passages.
Then, of course, somebody says, well now, how am I going have that kind of courage? Well, two things. I say it every single Sunday on purpose. If you're going to have courage in your life, and you're going to understand that God's working in your life, you've got to be in the word. This is the mind of God. This is heart of God. This is Spirit of God. Here's where we find all the gifts of God. What God is up to in their life. If I neglect the Word of God and neglect spending time with him, I'm not going to be strong. It's the Word of God. Because as I read what he says, when I read, listen, going through some difficult time and thinking, God, forget it. I come to this verse, he says, God causes all these things to work together for good because I've called you, then I don't have to give up. Why? I know that whatever I'm facing, as tough as it is. My God because he's always truthful will turn it for my good. There's some things I can't figure out how God turns for good but he does.
Listen. He never said, "understand me". He said, "trust me. Just trust me". And that is the key. And the apostle Paul certainly knew what he was doing in his relationship to God. He didn't give up. He didn't quit. He kept moving along trusting him. Then of course the assurance of his will for us. There's nothing that's more reassuring keep us from giving up than knowing we're in the will of God. That doesn't mean we need to be preaching the gospel somewhere, whatever God's will is at this point in your life, you don't give up, you don't quit. For example, he knew where he was when he faced all these situations. He said the father sent me to preach the gospel. Not necessarily to baptize but to preach the gospel. He said in the 13th chapter of acts, in the 47th verse, he says, assuring us that he knows what God has called him to do.
He says, for example, that God said to him, I've placed you as a light to the gentiles that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. Paul knew exactly where he was in life once he was saved. He knew exactly what God was up to. I've called you to preach the gospel. I've made you a light to the gentiles. First of all, the gospel is only be preached to the Jews. Because of the way they treated him. Because they rejected him. He just brushed it off of his clothes and said I'm going to the gentiles because that's exactly what God intended for him to do. So the issue is this. If I'm going to be able to keep on keeping on, I've got to know that I'm doing what God says do, how God says do it. When God says do it. Where he says do it. I don't even have to understand why. It's always good to understand why. Most of the time we will.
If you want to have the strength that you don't give up and you don't quit. And remember what I said, how many times people give up and quit right before the blessing. Right before God opens the door, they walk away from the opportunity. Right before God settles and issue in a marriage oftentimes somebody walks away. So that gives up all possibility of renewing that marriage. You just go through illustration after illustration. You don't give up because you may give up at the very time when the best that you're looking for is there waiting for you. And the apostle Paul knew that. He understood, he was in the will of the father. For example, wherever he went, God was there guiding him and leading him. He was on the second missionary journey. He was about to go east and preach the gospel and the Spirit of God said no, I want you to go west.
If he had gone east you and I would not be where we are today. But the Spirit of God spoke to him. And then likewise, when the Lord spoke to him, made it very clear where he was, he gave us the same promises. Listen. Paul didn't have a single promise we don't have. Remember this. Paul didn't have the New Testament. He had the Old Testament. And then he had the sayings of Jesus but he didn't have it down like you and I have it on the printed page. And so, when I come to this question of what is God up to, here's a verse I always come back to in Psalm 32:8 I'll teach you in the way you should go. I will guide you with my eye upon you. He didn't say I'll make it easy. He said I'll teach you in the way you should go. You don't have to quit and give up. I'll show you that.
Proverbs 3:5 and 6 trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not to your understanding. You may not understand it. In all your ways acknowledge him. I'll direct your path. We don't have to give up and quit and wonder what to do. God's already assured us of his guidance and direction. Then the overflowing joy that fills us, for example. And the apostle Paul is such a beautiful example of that. Because the book of Philippians, for example, is all ability joy. And here he is in jail. Doesn't have very long to live. And what is he talking about? He's talking about joy. He starts off talking about where he is and what's happening in jail. And he says, I want you to know brethren, my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel and somehow that true? Because all the guards that came in to guard him, he just shared the gospel with them. One after the other.
So he said before long, the whole praetorian guard knew he was there and heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. And you find, you find this sense of joy throughout Paul's writings. And he said, rejoice and again I say rejoice. He comes to the fourth chapter and he's still rejoicing and he's still in prison. Why? Because he knew the father was with him. He knew he was doing the father's will. And he knew that he was following God's plan and purpose for his life. Had it been tough? By the time he got to this place, he would have a thousands reasons to give up and quit. Wouldn't think of quitting. Why? For the simple reason he knew he was doing what the father called him to do.
So I would simply ask you this. Do you, do you rejoice? You say what do you mean? I said do you have any happy moments when things are tough? Can you just say thank you, Jesus, praise you, Lord, I just want to bless your holy name? Can you rejoice in the Lord when things are tough? Or do you say, God, why do you allow this to happen to me? Father, why don't you answer my prayer? In other words, you and I can argue with God. Someone says God must get angry. No, he doesn't. He realizes we're human and we make mistakes, and he realizes, there's a lot of things we don't understand. But I'm over here. And I'm wondering why things are the way they're over here. And God's over here. Look. When you get over here you'll be so glad you didn't jump off the table. Here you are. I've been waiting for you. Because I have the best for you. Listen to this. God has the best for his children. Anything less than that, anything less than that is not of God.
Now, that doesn't mean there won't be difficulty, hardship, trial for us just like there was for the apostle Paul. But he's going to turn it for our good if we respond in the proper fashion. So this is why he could rejoice. Even in jail, even in his message, even when he's close to death and knows he is and he's talking about rejoicing in the Lord. Then, of course, the life-changing lessons God teaches us. You think about how much truth you know. You know if you just come to church Sunday after Sunday after Sunday and you take notes week after week after week. And the first service two people came down the aisle and one of them said I've been watching "In touch" for 24 years another said 27 years and taking notes. I think about how much truth I know they've heard. If they've listened they've heard truth after truth after truth after truth after truth after truth after truth after truth.
That's why I say to you, write it down, write it down, write it down. But the apostle Paul, he was an awesome student of the Word of God. On one occasion it says he hadn't been saved very long. Instead of going to Jerusalem and talking to the apostles he went to Arabia to get by himself so God could teach him the truth. When you think for a moment if we didn't have the epistles of Paul what would we know about sanctification, salvation, substitutionary death of Jesus, the atoning death of Jesus, what would we know about declared righteous before Almighty God? All the doctrinal things we believe. We wouldn't know it if the apostle Paul had not lived it, did not give up. Kept going and kept learning and learning and learning and teaching in those days.
And so much of what he's written to us, he wrote from a jail cell. I mean, when I think about having been through all that, instead of sitting in a jail moping about how difficult things are, of times followers supposedly his followers would be outside the jail criticizing him. When he's in the jail doing what the will of God was for his life. And so, you can have a morbid moping attitude. Or you can rejoice in the Lord always no matter what's going on. Let me ask you a question. Have you been in trouble and God said, do it yourself? Has he ever said, I'm leaving you? I'll let you handle it. You take care of it. I'm finished with your moping and groping and groaning and wondering where I am. No. He just let's us mope and groan and whatever it might be, when we're serious enough to get right with him, what does he do? He always comes through. We understand. The old song says, we understand it better by and by. God loves you. He wants the best for you.
And when I think about why people give up, they give up because they don't know him. They give up because they don't believe him. They don't trust him. They feel hopeless instead of thinking my hope is in Christ and Christ alone. My hope is built on nothing less but Jesus Christ and his righteousness. You know, when people say, well things are just not going my way, ask yourself this question. If things aren't going your way, before you give up and quit, ask yourself this question, I wonder if things are going God's way and I'm out of his will, I don't understand it. He's up to something I'm not aware of. It just may be what you're going through that's difficult and tough and you want to quit and give up is the very thing God is using to draw him to yourself, cause you to cling to him, open your eyes, help you to see who he is and what he's up to in your life and teach you to apply the truth. All of us know more truth than we probably apply.
So I would ask you this. When you take notes, for example, on Sunday morning and you go put those notes somewhere, I hope you put them all in the same place, but do you ever pull them out during the week? Do you ever hear anything, I know you do, do you ever hear anything on Sunday during the week you think, o God, I needed that? Where are your notes? Are you fumbling around trying to figure out where they are? The apostle Paul, listen, he loved what God taught him. So in jail, instead of moping around and having a pity party, what is he doing? He's thinking about you and me. He doesn't know 2000 years later we'll see it and hear it. What is God doing? God is leading him to write down what God is teaching him and what he's experiencing in a cold Roman jail cell. He could just be complaining. Listen. He didn't give up. He didn't quit. He didn't have words to say about all the rest of them.
Listen. He applied what he knew where he was, what he had to apply in order that those who followed him would know the truth. I see about apostle Paul, hallelujah, praise God. That he didn't give up and quit. And that he wrote it down so you and I have it to live by. Then, of course, the fruit his truth has produced through him. He said, for example, on his missionary journeys the churches were growing, one thing, the churches were growing and they were increasing in membership all the time. And if you think about it, he wrote these epistles to churches, to Corinth, to Philippi, Galatians, to the Romans and so forth. And if you turn to the book of Corinthians and read that book, that was, no pastor would want to be the pastor of First Baptist Church of Corinth or any Corinthian church. That was a terrible crowd and they were guilty of everything you could think of.
Read Corinthians and it was about him correcting this sin and that sin and the other. Did he give up? No. Think about this. When he would establish a church and leave a few people and come back third missionary journeys, sometimes when he came back, they were in a mess. They had let false teachers come in. They didn't know what they believed sometimes. They fuss and fight just like people do today. A some point you would think Paul would say, enough of this. Three missionary journeys and y'all are still acting like this. And yet, the gospel survived. And 2000 years later, we're worship the Lord Jesus Christ and sending missionaries all over the world, preaching and teaching the Word of God and our names are written in the lamb's book of life and you and I are eternally secure because of the gospel.
So we're encouraged by what he wrote and what he suffered. Then, for example, the reward he's promised us. One of the reasons we should never give up to think what about God's provided for us. Remember what we read this in passage a few moments ago in Timothy. He said to Timothy, in the future there's laid up for me the crown of righteous which the Lord the righteous judge will award to me on that day. And not only to me, but to all who love his appearing. Paul knew he had an awesome reward coming. And you say, I don't think I have any. Let me ask you a question. You raise your children to be godly? Big reward. Love your husband or wife? Reward. You do your best? Reward. Do your best in school? Reward. Share your faith? Reward. Stand up for the truth? Reward. We could go on and on and on.
There's a thousands ways God can reward his children. There's not a single legitimate reason for a child of God to give up and quit and throw in the towel. Listen. You have God on your side. He's not only on your side. He's living within you. He promised to be there. He promised to be with you always. He promised to enable you, help you, strengthen you, encourage you in every circumstance in life. So when people say, well, you know, if you just understood what I was going through. Maybe I do. Maybe I don't. I know somebody who does and that's God. God understood whatever you're going through before you ever started going through it. And listen, he's ready and willing to equip you. So that you won't give up right before the best happens in your life.
And the reason I repeat that is because I've seen that so many times and so many different ways in people's lives and I've seen it in my own life. O God. Right before I think God, I can't handle anymore of this, the Lord opens an awesome door and I thank him and thank him and thank him that he never let me give up an quit. He never intended for us to do that. I'm saying to you, God is saying to you, whatever you're facing in life at this moment no matter how difficult it is, how tough it is, how discouraging it is, and all the reasons and the evidence you have for walking away and all the proof that you have that things are wrong. Remember there's a God in heaven. And if you're saved he's living within you. And that God will take you through whatever you're facing in life no matter what. You don't, listen, watch this. You say I'm giving up. I'm giving up on my job. I'm giving up on this. No. You're giving up on God.
As a follower of Jesus when you give up, you're giving up on him. Your boss or your marriage, somebody else can't do for you. You're giving up on God. You don't give up on the supreme, listen, the supreme power in the whole universe you don't give up on. The one who loved you enough to give his son to die on the cross, you don't give up on him. Remember who you're giving up on. When you do, you won't give up. Well, I think also, the vision of the cross always before us. That's what Paul said. The vision of the cross always before him. He makes an awesome statement in this six chapter of Galatians. When you listen to what he says here and you look at the life he lived, and here's what he says.
He says in the 14th verse, may it never be that I would boast except for that one thing. He says, except in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. He said, the cross has made it possible for me to survive any and everything. Because it's at the cross, the atoning death of Jesus Christ purchased our salvation. At the cross the atoning death of Jesus Christ purchased everything we have. It's the atoning death of Jesus Christ the shedding of his blood that makes our forgiveness a living reality. Jesus didn't give up. He didn't quit. Though he must have in the flesh at times been discouraged but not in the spirit. Do you know why? He and the Father were absolutely one and he knew that nothing could conquer him. Because he was God in the human flesh. You don't give up. You don't quit.
Around us today there's lots of people who want to give up. There's lots of people who want to quit. They can give you some rather shall we say, good reasons from their perspective why they should walk away from a situation or why they should quit. Not in God's viewpoint. He has the best for us. He's willing to give us the best. But he doesn't bless quitters, it won't happen. Christ sacrificed his life for our salvation. And when I look at the scriptures and see what Jesus did, he didn't give up. I can't give up. The apostle Paul didn't give up. We can't give up. And here's the issue. He will reward us for not giving up.
The reward may not come until glory or you may be rewarded today or tomorrow or next week or next month or next year. He doesn't overlook our obedience, our faithfulness, our loyalty, our devotion and to our keep on keeping on. Then, of course, naturally our love and devotion to Jesus Christ. That should keep us keeping on no matter what. And Paul said in a beautiful way in Philippians, for me to live is for Christ to live, for me to die is my gain. Think about that. Isn't that what you and I want for our life? That we want to live the kind of life that when people meet us, it won't take them long to hear Jesus in our voice. It won't take them long to see Christ in our actions. It won't take them long to feel the love you and I feel for them.
He said, for to me to live is Christ. That was his whole perception. For to me to live is Christ. And he says, now to die, I gain by that. But for me to live is for Christ to live. If I ask you, do you love God, naturally you would say you do. Do you love him enough to serve him? Oh, yes. Do you love him enough to suffer for him? Well it depends on what that is. No. If we love him, we won't give up. We won't quit when the going gets rough. When the suffering gets hard and the pain becomes intense, we don't give up. We won't quit. We keep going because Jesus kept going, the apostle Paul kept going and the teaching of scripture is that you and I keep going likewise. And Paul talks about, he talks about God being rich in mercy and grace and love towards us. And he is.
And so many of God's people oftentimes they want to give up and quit. I'm saying to you, don't give up and quit. Ask God to give you wisdom and give you strength to keep going. And I can think of some people in my own mind and heart that have been through very, very difficult times and I wondered how they made it through. Because they trusted God. Because they believed the things we talk about here. Maybe didn't think about them in that way. But if you had asked them. Do you think God is with you? Yes. Do you believe he's listening to your prayers? Yes. Are you reading the Word of God? Yes. You could go right down the line. And all the things we've said they would have said yes to and yet nobody ever laid it out as a principle. Laid it out in an outline for them.
So let me ask you a question. Today, what are you tempted to give up on? What are you tempted to walk away from? Are you willing to say to him, Lord, I'm hanging in here no matter what? I know if I'm in here, you're in here with me. By my side. To see me through. Once in a while I'll put something on the Meg Screen because I want you the see it with your eyes. I could say it, but look at this for a moment. Here's reasons why people give up and the way they give up. Listen. Because when they face situations, they face them fearfully. Afraid. Hopelessly, they don't see their way clear. Because they're looking through the eyes of fear. Rebelliously, they don't like it. They don't want it that way.
And so what happens? Fearfully, hopelessly, rebelliously, or you can look at the situations courageously. And the next simple phrase I have up there is this. We make the choice. We make the choice of how we live through the difficult times in life. And it's my prayer whoever you are, if you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, I can tell you, you are not going to make it. You may say, I have so much money. You can lose it. I have great health. You can lose that. I have a great family. You can lose that. You can lose anything and everything. Listen. But if you're saved by the grace of God, you can't lose that. You can't lose your salvation. You can't lose your relationship to Almighty God.
And God's called us to trust him as our Savior in Jesus Christ. Lay our life before him and allow him to live his life through us and to demonstrate to the world that Jesus Christ is who he says he is. He will do what he says he'll do. And he's more than capable of fulfilling that promise. I would plead with you, don't walk away. Don't quit. Don't give up. Don't throw in the towel as people say. But just tell the Lord, "Lord, I'm going to trust you to see me through this. I don't know how. But I'm going to trust you, because you said, you will never leave me nor forsake me. And God, I believe you always tell the truth".
Father, how grateful we are that you have placed within us your very self in the person of the Holy Spirit. To equip us. To do anything and everything you would have us to do in such a way. We don't have to quit and give up. We want to keep on keeping on because that is the image that Jesus leaves us. And the image of the apostle Paul. And multitudes of saints who have gone before us. So I pray for any and every person here this morning who is feeling tempted to give up. Who is feeling tempted to quit. Who is feeling tempted to walk out. To walk away. To lay it down. To lay it aside. To turn around. That you would remind them, there is many reasons not to. There are many reasons to stay steady and calm as Paul would say to Timothy. And to keep moving on and trusting you moment by moment. And you said, you will cause all the things that may tempt us and try to us quit to turn out for our good if we'll trust you. We just want to say thank you for that in Jesus' name, amen.