“Endurance”
April 27, 2008
Romans 5:1-5
Objective
Statement: Every person can
persevere in the “Hard Knock Life” by understanding that God works through
different seasons in our lives.
Open: Men Wanted: For hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of
complete darkness, constant danger, safe return
doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success.
This advertisement is said to have been run in the
London Times by Sir Ernest Shackleton to recruit members for the
crew of his Antarctic exploring expeditions.
Shackleton is best known for leading
the unsuccessful Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition,
often known as the "Endurance Expedition", between 1914
and 1916. 5,000 applications came in for
an eventual crew of 56.
Although Shackleton failed to achieve his goal of crossing the Antarctic
continent on foot, he demonstrated the qualities of leadership for which he is best remembered when the expedition ship Endurance
became trapped in the ice and was destroyed. Shackleton led his men to refuge
on Elephant Island before heading across
800 miles (1,300 km) of the Southern
Ocean to South Georgia, in an open boat with five other
men. Upon reaching the remote island, Shackleton and two others crossed severe,
mountainous terrain to reach a whaling station, from which he was able
eventually to rescue his men on
The idea of endurance comes up in the text we’re currently studying for our
series of messages entitled, “The Hard Knock Life”
Romans 5:1-5 Therefore,
since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. 2Through him we have also obtained access
by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope
of the glory of God. 3More than
that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces
hope, 5and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s
love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given
to us.
“This
is God’s word and we believe it.”
In
this passage, Paul is listing the benefits of justification through faith –
being made right in our relationship with God by trusting in the work of Jesus
on the cross for us.
Benefits: Peace with God, Gracious Standing, Hope in
the Glory of God, and the possibility of rejoicing when we suffer.
One of
the biggest reasons we can rejoice in the midst of sufferings is that God uses
difficult situations to begin a process in our lives:
-
We
rejoice in sufferings,
-
Knowing
that suffering produces endurance
-
Endurance
produces character
-
Character
produces hope.
We can
rejoice in sufferings because we know that God is up to something – He’s
forming our character.
We can
rejoice in sufferings as we learn that difficult situations can be “blessings”
because God has a different economy of what is good for us.
We can
rejoice in sufferings when God opens the eyes of our hearts to tune into a
different channel, to see the difficult situations we face through the lens of
eternal priorities, not just temporary ones.
Today
we’re looking squarely at the idea that Suffering Produces Endurance.
What does it mean “To Endure”?
To
endure means more than to just “take a beating and put up with it until it’s
over.”
“To
endure” means more than to just tolerate something.
Eg:
Dr. Thompson in
Endurance
means that we are able to persist
in a situation, knowing that there is a glorious
end in sight.
I know
a little bit about endurance, in that endurance athletics is one of my
hobbies. (Sick, I know!)
Eg:
Hebrew 12:1-3 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of
witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily
entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our
faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame,
and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider
him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow
weary and lose heart.
In
this Hebrews passage, the word “perseverance” is used. It’s actually the same word used in Romans 5:3
that is translated “endurance”.
The
word in the original Greek is upomonh –
hupomone, which can be translated:
1) Steadfastness,
constancy, endurance
2)
A patient, steadfast waiting for
3) A
patient enduring, sustaining, perseverance
As one
who has been involved in athletics over the years, I’d be more inclined to look
at hupomone from the endurance perspective.
But this
last week I was reminded of a different perspective on the word hupomone, that shows up in a multitude of places in the scriptures –
that of patience.
James 5:7,8 Be patient,
therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the
farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until
it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient.
This idea of patience in the scriptures comes hand-in-hand
with a major paradigm
in the Bible:
Patience in
the midst of …. SEASONS
I’d like to share some ideas from a message given by Pete
Scazzero, of New Life Fellowship in
Although he really wouldn’t like those who quote him to give
him credit, I want to be honest in my scholarship and give credit where credit
is due.
---------------------------
People use different metaphors or lens to look at life:
- Lottery –
“Lady luck” / beating the odds
- Path - Journey of discovery
- Competition
- “Dog-eat-dog world”
“Seasons” is a dominant biblical metaphor.
So much of scripture is about nature, farming and
agriculture.
Ecclesiastes 3
1 Chronicles 12:32
... men of Issachar, who understood the times (seasons) and what
Psalm 31:15 My times (seasons) are in your hand.
“Seasons” is a very grown-up / mature
way of looking at life.
If you
look at life through the metaphor of seasons,
you won’t get as angry at people, mad at God or disappointed in yourself.
“Seasons” embraces the richness of life
– gains, losses, births, deaths, tribulations, trials and suffering.
This
biblical metaphor of nature is very different from the manufacturing / business
metaphor that we commonly use:
-
We
don’t grow a life, we make a life, we make friends, we make a
living, we make
time.
-
We
look at people as liabilities or assets – “Human Resources”
-
“Dis-functional”
– was a term used for machinery, now we use it to describe people… “They don’t
work.”
-
People
are problems to be solved.
“Seasons” is a metaphor that takes
serious the fact that God is growing us over time – through times of scarcity
and through times of abundance.
It
takes time and seasons for God to
mature the seeds that God has placed within us.
Transformation
and change is hard. “Seasons”
is a rich image that helps us understand this.
The
image of seasons runs head long into
our image of life that we can make, manage and control.
The
image of seasons helps us understand
that much of life is out of our control.
The Different Seasons:
1)
Fall – a time of preparation for
the hardest time of the year.
a.
Trees
lose their leaves
b.
Animals
store up fat
-
A time of decline, and decay, a time of slow loss.
-
In this time of dying, there are also many seeds being scattered.
Eg:
In
2)
Winter – a time of death, harshness,
hibernation.
-
But also a time of gifts – a time of clarity – leaves are gone.
-
Things are not dead, just underground, preparing for spring.
-
Winter clears the landscape, sometimes very brutally.
-
It’s not a time when God is absent or silent.
Hosea – “God
will come to us like the winter rains.”
3) Spring
– speaks of fullness, and fruitfulness
and growth.
Animals
begin to come out, plants begin to sprout, flowers
begin to bloom.
4)
Summer – a time of abundance and
plenty. Vegetables ripen, ears of corn
fill out, the trees are full of leaves.
-
Promises come to fulfillment in the summer.
-
It’s hard to remember what was going on in winter.
Look
at Jesus’ life:
Spring
– beginning of his ministry, calling of disciples
Summer
– time of teaching, healing, performing of miracles
Fall
– Pharisees start to get after him
Winter
– Betrayal and death
Spring
– New Life of Resurrection!
We
have a false assumption in American culture that all of life should be spring
or summer – that if we face disappointment or loss, something’s wrong with us
or wrong with God.
How do we react to loss?
-
Job
-
Relationship
-
Ministry
-
Money
We
often get depressed, instead of looking at things as an autumn, when seeds are
being scattered and God has new possibilities for us.
Eg:
Poster at
Depression
is a gift. Something you were living is
over, but God will bring something new.
We
like to skip fall and winter.
But
look at Jesus! What if he had skipped
fall and winter?
There
wouldn’t have been new life for us!!
He
embraced fall and winter.
Luke 9:51 As the time
approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for
We
love spring! We love it when things are
green and growing.
Revival
in the name of a church should make us nervous – it can’t all be spring! True revival / complete revival won’t come
until heaven.
There
are autumns and winters. There are
deaths!
We try
to force spring and summer. But when we
force growth, it’s like wearing shorts in the winter or taking steroids to try
to make the growth happen unnaturally.
We
like to run from winter, because it looks like we’re dead.
We’re
not dead, there’s a lot of stuff going on inside of us.
Spring
and summer is when we bear external fruit – when we grow outwardly.
Fall
and winter are when we bear internal fruit – when God is doing stuff with us on
the inside.
We
face the seasons corporately and individually.
As
individuals, when we come to Christ, it’s spring and
summer – we’re growing and things are exciting.
But then
we face fall and winter in 2-5 years later and we get disillusioned.
Many
people don’t realize there are seasons individually or corporately and they get
dis-illusioned, they get angry, they get bitter and they quit!
They
quit God, they quit the church. But
they’re not quitting the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of the Bible
-- they’re quitting the god they’ve made in their own imagination, the American
God who is always faster, quicker, bigger…
Deep,
serious growth recognizes the seasons.
We
can’t always be growing, gaining, winning.
That’s
why we need friends, who we can ask, “What season
do you think I’m in?”
Could our difficult times be a winter?
Are we faced with suffering?
Have we sustained losses?
Maybe
we need someone to encourage us to be
faithful, to endure, to persevere, to be patient.
Be
faithful! Don’t quit! Stick with God! Don’t throw God out the window! Don’t quit the Body of Christ!
Remember
that life is made of seasons –
including winter.
God is
sowing seeds deep within you and he’ll open some other doors.
Hosea 2:15 “I can make the
Eg:
Parenting has seasons. It’s hard for moms with little kids.
Eg:
Financial seasons. There are times of plenty and times of want. Recessions are a natural economic cycle.
Eg:
Educational seasons. (One of Billy Graham’s deep regrets that he
didn’t study more.) There are times when
we’re preparing.
Eg:
Marriage has seasons
– ebbs and flows. (Kelly and I now have
Fridays together.)
Eg:
Involvement with people
– Heavy / minimal involvement
Eg:
In the
midst of our autumns and winters, we need to have a sense of expectancy.
Look
at the model Jesus gave us:
Hebrew 12:2 Let us fix our
eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set
before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right
hand of the throne of God. 3Consider him who endured
such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose
heart.
As
Jesus looked down the barrel of his autumn and winter, he had a sense of
expectancy that God was going to bring life out of his death.
He had
a great sense of expectancy -- that God was going to
bring the resurrection of spring out of his suffering.
We
need to have a mature view of life like Jesus did.
It’s
not all spring. It’s not all
summer. Or fall or winter…
We
need to embrace the seasons. Very little
in life is permanent. Very few things
can we hold onto, we’ll lose them all in the end and most of them along the
way.
That’s
why the only thing we should cling to is Him.
Nothing
is permanent – except God. And that’s
why worship is so important. It reminds
us that God is eternal, unchanging and in chargeof who’s in charge – and always
will be.
We
worship Him in fall, winter, spring and summer.
He is
permanent, while everything else fades.
Close: What season are you in right now? Discern
it.
Now
look at your story and look at the story of Jesus:
-
Summer
– life and ministry
-
Fall
– suffering
-
Winter
– death
-
Spring
– resurrection
Where does your story fit in with His story?
Maybe
you’re not following Jesus yet and God is trying to take you into winter to
make you realize that you need a savior.
Your
life is going nowhere without God. God
takes us into winter so that we can realize that we need his resurrection life.
Where are you right now?
-
Spring?
-
Summer?
-
Fall?
-
Winter?
Does your theology allow for a winter?
If we
think that everything is always spring, we’ll be producing plastic
flowers – it will be artificial.
Embrace the seasons.
Closing Prayer
What is God doing in our life right now?
Spring – new things happening –
embrace it! Celebrate! Sing!
Summer – times of abundance – share
it!
Fall – maybe a time of transition –
get ready, let God stir in you.
Winter – maybe a time of suffering, loss,
death – hang in there, persist, endure, persevere, be patient!
God please teach the lesson of the seasons. Help us to remember that you are permanent,
but the seasons will change.
In Jesus’ Name, Amen
Response Song - “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”
Benediction Hosea 6:3 Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on
to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to
us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.