Dr. Arthur G. Ferry, Jr., Pastor
You become exhausted with trying. At some point in our lives, we all fit that way. You become exhausted from trying to reach goals that ellude you. You become too weary to care & you reach a point where quitting looks good. It looks real good. There is a word that thunders throughout the Bible & that word is endure. Endure! Endure! Press on! Endure! Don't quit! Keep trying!
I want you to understand something....that every person in this room has a problem. There is not one person in this room that is problem free. And we all suffer from the common disease that we think our problem is the worse problem until we find out about somebody elses problem.
Perhaps you have been struggling to make your dream come true & you're tired & exhausted & you reached the point where your frustrations have compounded & quitting looks good. I want to say to you this day, don't do it. And I want you to press on with new faith & new confidence.
Read with me please Matthew 24:13; "But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved."
I want you to hear the word tonight, endure.
Father, in the blessed name of the Lord Jesus, thank you for those who are here tonight & may the Holy Spirit help us to receive this word, endure till the end, that we may have heaven's best.
That our lives may be transformed, that our fondest dreams may be realized & that we can stand in the winner's circle with the Lord Jesus Christ & by His infinite grace...in Jesus name we pray...& all God's children said ...Amen.
What is endurance? Endurance is the determination to stay with it longer than your competition...just a little bit longer than the problem itself.
You do not have to be the best to succeed. You do not have to be the biggest to win. All you have to do to prevail in any crisis is just refuse to quit. No one is ever defeated until they accept defeat inwardly & in their heart. I want you to hear this....You're not thru in your life, not spiritually, not professionally or any other way until God says you're thru. And if you want quit, God won't quit & He will give you absolute victory.
One day a little bull dog came down the alley, snorting & shuffling & growling & he looked at those 2 bird dogs on the other side of that chain link fence & he crawled under the fence, & Dr. Criswell's friend said,"I knew there was going to be a big fight."
He said his first thought was to take those bird dogs into the basement so they wouldn't hurt that little bull dog, but decided to let nature take its course because he wouldn't be there every day.
He said those 3 dogs went together in the wildest fight you ever saw. After about 5 minutes that little bull dog squeezed under the fence & went home. The rest of the day he licked his wounds & laid in the sun & the next day at the same time the littled bull dog came back down the alley snorting & pawing the ground, he squeezed under the fence & went after those bird dogs one more time. And around & around they went, biting & scratching, & hair flying. Once again he got the stuffings whipped out of him. Went under the fence & home to lick his wounds & lay in the sun.
The 3rd day, down the alley he came, snorting & pawing the ground, under the fence he comes, he fought those bird dogs one more time & one more time he got whipped.
Under the fence he went, home to lick his wounds & lay in the sun. That man said, every day, same time, same station that little bull dog came down the alley pawing & snorting, under the fence he came & went to war with those 2 bird dogs.
He never missed a day. Same time, same place, same results. But he said a strange thing happened, after 2 weeks of that, that those bird dogs when they heard him coming down the alley, snorting & pawing the ground would run into the basement & start whining and hiding.
He wasn't the biggest & he wasn't the best, but he was the winner. He said that he would prance in the backyard with his head up & he was just pawing the ground, looking over he shoulder at those 2 dogs because he had whipped them. It took him a while, but he whipped them.
That's what endurance is. You may not be the best, you may not be the biggest, but if you'll stay at it long enough, you'll get to where God wants you to go. It is enduring that mounts the victory.
History & the Bible are filled with men who tried & tried again. Who failed & then tried. Moses tried to deliver Israel when he was the crowned prince by killing the Egyptian. He failed, he fled to the backside of the wilderness for 40 years. Then in the burning bush God said it is time for you to try again. I want you to go back to where you failed.
I want you to go back to where you are not loved & not appreciated & right there I want to show you how powerful My success can be thru you. And Moses went & you know the story. Because he went back & tried again he experienced heaven's best answer.
Samson, who experienced awsome defeat at the hands of Delilah. In his last days tried again & won more victories for God then he did in all his other days.
God tried in the Book of Genesis with Adam & Eve, He tried thru the prophets, He tried thru the kings. And finally He sent His only begotten Son into the world.
You cannot reach the winner's circle unless you are ready to try again. Satan is terrified of God's children who are willing to try again. He is not terrified of anybody who mounts his pity pot & starts saying, "I'm in the circumstances I'm in because of this or that or somebody else. He is not afraid of a pity-pot mentality.
The cross is a battle ground, He engaged the forces of hell & He came forth a champion. Jesus said, "there is a joy in enduring."
There is a joy in beating the problem. There is a joy in putting your hand in the hand of God & walking thru the valley of the shadow of death. When Jesus came forth from the grave He didn't say, RUN I never knew it was going to be like this. He said, "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world" "Be of Good Cheer, Be of Good Cheer."
"BE of good cheer, for I am the Lord thy God, cheer up for I am He that was dead & now I am alive and I give to you eternal life." And that's enough to make you want to endure till the end. Paul said in 2 Tim. 2:3, "Therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." Do what, endure.
The Bible says, "Fight the good fight of faith." There comes a time in your life that if you're going to get where you've got to go, you've got to get tired of coming in 2nd.
James 5:11 says, "Behold I count them happy which endure." If you are going to survive, you are going to have to decide you are going to.
Never give in. Never surrender to a lesser goal. Never surrender to a lesser dream. Never give in to a lesser vision.
Every race is not won in the first lap. It is not how fast you start, or even how fast you run, it is how well you endure. Not every ball game is won in the 9th inning, or the 4th quarter.
There is no future in any job, the future belongs to the man who holds the job. Don't worry about the job you don't like, someone else will soon have it. The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without it. Don't fall into the trap of always starting & never finishing.
I've known people whose lives were one beginning after another. They never finish, they are always beginning. They are thrilled about a new start. Let me tell you something. Any time you ever start something, regardless of what it is, you are going to cry over it & struggle with it before it produces anything of any benefit. Nothing of any value comes to you for nothing.
Look at Joseph when he shared his dream with his brothers, when God show him the other 11 brothers bowing down to him. They did not say, "Oh, what a spirit filled brother we have." They threw him into a well & started to plot to kill him. The point is, if you think people are going to get excited about your dream, forget it. We need dreams from God. You need a dream, I need a dream.
Christianity is not ducking out on life. Christianity is not ducking out on responsibility. Christianity is putting your hand in God's hand & climbing the highest hill & whipping the biggest giant with God's help & doing it with joy, that is unspeakable & full of glory. That's Christianity. If your heart is breaking, just don't give up. Don't give in to your emotions. Don't give in to the herd instinct around you saying, "You'll never get there."
My father use to say if he could find 10 people in a row that said it couldn't be done, he was on to something. There is a lot of truth in that. Some of you here today are seriously considering running away from reality. Running away from life. Running from responsibility. Running from a dream. Runing from your marriage, family relationships, from a career, from educational persuits, & you say, "I can't do it."
Jesus said to the Father, "Not my will, but Thine be done." When His followers laid Jesus in the tomb it look like the darkest day in history. But THERE HAS TO BE A CRUCIFIXION BEFORE THERE CAN BE A RESURRECTION. You are the sons & daughters of the King. I want you to hear this. You are the sons & daughters of the King of the universe, Jesus Christ. And He has said that if you will not surrender, I will not. "Greater is He that is in you then he that is in the world."
