The message that I want to preach to you this morning and
our text is actually going to come from Second Timothy chapter
3. But I want to start with the
book of Job this morning because Job's story really is a great
reminder to us. And most of you know the story
of Job. But I just want to point a
couple things out here to you this morning.
And and then we'll move over to Second Timothy chapter 3.
But Job chapter 1 and verse #1 The Bible says there was a man
in the land of Oz whose name was Job.
And that man was perfect and upright and one that feared God
and eschewed evil. Now here's a here's a man that
the Bible calls perfect. Now, it doesn't mean that he was
sinless. It means that he was mature.
That word perfect means mature. He's a man of integrity.
He feared God, the Bible says, and and he hated evil.
That's a, that that means that God was was going to give him an
easy life, no difficulties in in any of his life, right?
He's a, he's a perfect man. He's mature.
He loves the Lord with all of his heart.
He he, he loves righteousness. He hates evil.
Life is going to be perfect for Job.
Of course, we know that's not the way the story goes.
Job in verse #9 The Bible says Satan answered the Lord and
said, Doth Job fear God for naughty?
Has not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and
about all that he hath on every side?
Thou has blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is
increased in the land, but put forth thine hand now, and touch
all that he hath, and he'll curse thee to thy face.
And of course you know the rest of the story.
I believe Job lost not only all of his his cattle and all of his
possessions, but he lost all ten of his children.
They were in the house together and the Bible says that Job
prayed every morning for his children and he sacrificed every
morning for his children. I believe that Job's children
were not being judged by God because they were not living for
him. I believe his children live for
the Lord. They were all together in one
house, which what a great unity that is as a family right here.
They've got their own families and now they're all together in
one place. You don't see that happen very
often, but happened with Job's family and they were all
together and a servant came running and said all ten of your
kids are gone. Could you imagine what must have
gone through Job's mind that to to hear them come and say, not
only have you lost all of your cattle?
Yeah, you can replace cattle. Not only have you lost all of
your sheep, you can replace sheep.
Not not only have you lost all of your camels, you can replace
camels, but now you've lost all of your children too.
Can't replace kids. I suppose you could have more,
but you can't replace kids. And Job lost all ten of them at
the same time. You think that God was letting
Job walk on a have a cakewalk in his life because he loved him
and he served him. Hey, Satan was after Job more
than probably just about anybody else, because Job lived for the
Lord and Job served the Lord. And Job was perfect and upright.
He eschewed evil. But yet Job faced difficulties.
Job faced heartaches. Job faced trials.
Let's turn over to second Timothy chapter 12.
I want you to understand this. This morning, God's blessing our
church and this it's an exciting time to be a part of it.
I can't explain it other than that we plant, we water and God
gives the increase. We're seeing souls saved.
We're seeing big crowds for for church on Sunday morning.
I believe that a lot of you are seeing good spiritual growth in
your life. It's exciting.
We have 6 people that were that are waiting to be baptized and
we're going to do that in a couple weeks.
People are getting saved. God is blessing.
And it's exciting to be a part of that.
The ministries that we've been trying to get off the ground are
finally getting off the ground and, and, and being launched and
it, and people are a part of them.
And it's an exciting thing. And I feel like God's getting
ready to do big things for our church.
And I think many Christians, good Christians, get the
illusion that once they really sell out for Christ, God's going
to dump so many blessings on life that it's just going to be
a cakewalk if I really decide to live for the Lord.
Now look, there's a lot of blessings that that come from
living for the Lord. You really sell out for Christ.
You surrender your life to Christ.
It life may not be easy, but it's going to be good.
You'll have that peace, you'll have that joy, you'll have that
satisfaction that only Jesus Christ can.
Bring and I'm not trying to discourage you this morning.
In fact, I hope this message will be an encouragement to you
this morning. There's no life like a life that
is lived for Jesus Christ. And there's no greater blessing
than knowing that you're living for God to the best of your
ability and that you're relying on His help to help you live for
Him the way that He wants you to live for Him and to have the
relationship with Him that He wants to have with you.
There's no greater blessing in life.
There's no greater joy in life than being in that position
spiritually. But I want you to understand
that just because you sell out for Christ does not mean that
life is going to be a bed of roses.
In fact, quite the opposite can be true.
The Bible says in Second Timothy chapter 3 and verse #12 Yeah.
And all that live godly in Christ Jesus might shall suffer
persecution. All that will live godly in
Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
But I want to take our text. This morning from verse number
one of Second Timothy chapter 3, this know also that in the last
days perilous times shall come. He talks about a lot of other
things that happened. Men shall be lovers of their own
selves, covetous boasters, proud blasphemers, disobedient to
parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection.
Truce Breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce despisers of
those that are good traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of
pleasures more than lovers of God having a form of godliness
by denying the power thereof. And he says from such turn away
if we're not seeing all of this. Today in our world, I don't
know. I don't know what we're seeing.
This is everything. And he says this.
Know also that in the last days these things are going to
happen. But before he gives a list of
all of those things that give us an indication that the end is
close, he says this. Know also that in the last days,
perilous times shall come, Perilous times shall come,
dangerous times shall come. And is a fact.
Of the Christian. Life that you will face, trials
you will run up against difficulties.
It's what you do with those difficulties that that will
determine the course of your Christian life.
After those trials come. Many of you are going through
trials right now. I've talked to some of you.
I've prayed with you. You're going through.
Difficulties. You have things in life that
just don't that just aren't going the way that you thought
life should go. Things just aren't happening the
way that you think life should happen as a Christian thing.
The the, the way that things should happen if you're really
living for Christ. And listen, sometimes God allows
those things in our life because we're not living for Christ the
way that we should. And he's trying to get us into
that path that he wants us to be on.
He wants us to sell out for Christ.
He wants us to fully surrender to him.
He wants us to live our lives as a living sacrifice.
I forget who it was. It said something, I think they
said it at camp this week. The problem with the living
sacrifice is it keeps trying to crawl off the altar.
And that's what happens. I, I believe it was Charles
Spurgeon that said that the problem with the living
sacrifice is a sacrifice keeps trying to crawl off the altar.
And we do that so many times. We have to constantly go back.
And it's a, it's a daily thing where where Paul said, I die
daily because we should be a living sacrifice.
And sometimes God allows the trials and the difficulties in
the hurt and the heartache and the and, and the pain to come
into our lives because he has to chastise us sometimes because we
need that to get us back to where he wants us to be.
But sometimes. And and and and.
And only you and God know. But sometimes, if you are right
with God and sometimes when you are living for Him, and
sometimes when you are doing the things that He wants you to do,
trials are still going to come. Difficulties are still going to
happen. You're still going to run into
things that you say, God, why? Why are you allowing this to
happen? If you're in a trial right now,
then you understand. If you're not, then just wait
because you will be going through one.
We're all either coming out of a trial, we're in the middle of a
trial, or we're getting ready to go into one.
That's just the way life works. Maybe it's not even a trial, so
to speak, but maybe a spiritual opposition to you trying to sell
out for Christ. I don't know what's on the
horizon for us as Christians and it may be out and out
persecution, or it may just be that that we face the trials of
life. I've said it many times.
I mean, obviously I think we have a little bit of a reprieve
right now and we're seeing some some good strides and some good
progress in the other direction for the cause of Christ.
But I believe in our lifetime we will see Christians persecuted
for the cause of Christ. Those who stand up and those who
continue to preach the word of God as we're given it in the
word of God are going to face persecution.
The Bible is going to be considered a hate book.
It's going to be considered hate speech.
And if we preach it, we're going to be considered a criminals for
preaching it. I believe it's going to happen
in our lifetime. The Bible says it this.
Know also that in the last days, perilous times shall come.
It's not just it's happening in all the other parts of the world
right now. We're just blessed that it's not
happening right here. But I believe that it's coming.
It's coming, but. It happens to everybody.
It may be that we face that persecution out and out.
It might just be that you're facing some kind of spiritual
opposition this morning. But that's what I want to talk
to you about for a little bit. The title of the message is
simply this. Perilous times will come.
Perilous times will come, and. What I want to preach.
To you about this morning is what do you do when you face
those trials? What do you do when you face
those trials? Let's pray and we'll look at a
few other passages along with this one this morning.
Father, again, we thank you so much for your goodness to us.
We thank you for the opportunity we have to be in your house
today. God, I pray that that this is a
help to somebody. I believe this is a message that
you laid in my heart and you know our hearts more than
anybody else. You know exactly what we need
even before we know that we need it.
So God, I pray that you would just help this message to be a
help and a blessing. How would it be an encouragement
to us to just continue living for you no matter what happens
in our lives? Well, thank you for it in Jesus
name, Amen. First thing I want to say this
morning, perilous times will come, but the first thing is
this, don't let it define you. Don't let it define you.
So many Christians allow the trials that they go through to
define what the rest of their Christian life is going to look
like. How many, how many times have
you ever sat back and thought about it and say, boy he was?
He was very useful in God's service until his mom died.
He did a lot for the Lord. She was on fire for God until
she got sick. He was a great soul in her until
his. His life didn't go the way he
planned and he blamed God for it.
He was on fire until fill in the blank happened and he just never
got. He's just never been the same
since then. He's never really got back on on
fire for the Lord. Those people have let that
define the rest of their life. You hit a trial.
Trials are going to come. Perilous times will come, but
don't let it define the rest of your spiritual life.
That's exactly what the devil is aiming to do.
It can be very easy for a trial or a difficulty to to or a set
back to define the rest of our lives.
That's the express purpose that Satan had in coming after Job.
He was trying to derail Job's life.
He was trying to show God that Job is not going to live for
you. Job is not going to follow you
if he doesn't have your blessings, if he doesn't have
the money and the wealth and the family and all of these things.
Take those things away from him and watch Job curse you.
He was trying to. He was trying to bring a trial
into Job's life that would derail his Christian life.
And Job did not let that trial define the rest of his life.
He was unsuccessful. The devil was unsuccessful.
But with so many Christians, he succeed and succeeds in doing
just that. We allow the trial that comes
into our life to define the rest of our lives.
And let me tell you, you're living for the Christ.
And the hardest, hardest times of your life ought to be times
of rejoicing. And I know that doesn't sound
like it sounds like a like, like an oxymoron or a contradiction.
Sometimes the hard times are brought on by our stubbornness
and our disobedience to the word of God.
And God has to chastise us as his children.
And it's not fun going through that.
But you know that God loves you. If God chastises you, then you
know that you're his child. If God is willing to chastise
you, then it means he's not done with you yet, means he hasn't
written you off and said, hey, this is a lost cause.
There's no point in even chastising him when those trials
come, man, that's a it's an exciting thing to know that God
still wants to work in my life. But if you're giving your all
and living for God, rejoice. Somebody said if the devil never
bothers you, he's already got you think it was Vance Havner
that said if you never run into the devil, you're going the
wrong direction because he ain't going the same direction we're
going. If you never run into him,
you're going the wrong direction.
Could it be that so many believers face no persecution?
They face no affliction, they face no opposition because
they're moving in the wrong direction?
Boy, if you face a trial, if you face some opposition, it's
something to get excited about. It means you're going in the
right direction. The enemy has them right where
he wants them. On the other hand, if you're
fighting the devil, it's proof that you have to be standing on
the right side of the battlefield.
By the way, when I write Devil in my notes.
I make it really small and I don't capitalize it.
I'm trying to give him the least amount of respect as I can
possibly give him. You can't see my notes, but I,
it just reminded me when I saw that it's, it's tiny.
I capitalize everything has something to do with God, right?
And you and you should, I mean, it's a rule of English anyway.
I taught English for too long to not capitalize those words, but
you should be capitalizing names.
And I just don't capitalize it. I'm not giving him that respect.
He didn't deserve it. I can see it.
It's tiny, but I can see it. But I tell you, forward, forward
motion always produces friction. And anything that God ordains,
Satan is going to oppose. Obedient servants of Jesus
Christ are always going to face. Opposition from the enemy.
Paul said it this way in First Corinthians chapter 16 and verse
9. For a great door and effectual
is opened unto me and there are many adversaries.
God opens the door and you'll walk through it.
And there's a lot of people on the other side of that door
trying to stop you from going through the door that God
opened. And most people say, well, God
closed the door. I guess that's just not the
direction that God wants me to go.
And sometimes God does close the door, but most of the time we're
closing the door ourselves because we're afraid of what's
on the other side of that door. We get a little bit of that
opposition and we say, well, that must be God.
Let's just close the door and back out.
No, you, you going forward for the Lord, you're going to face
opposition. You're going to face these
adversaries. Hey, it's, it's, it's an
exciting thing. In fact, turn over to James
chapter 1. Keep your finger in Second
Timothy. We're coming back to that.
If Satan is fighting, then that means God is working.
Satan only fights when God is working.
Satan only fights when we are going in God's direction.
James chapter 1 and verse #2 goes right along with exactly
what I said when, when you're going through those times of
hardship, it ought to be a time of rejoicing.
James says that very plainly in chapter 1 of verse #2 My
brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse
temptations. Count it all joy when you fall
into many different types of temptations.
Knowing this, that the trying of your faith work is patience.
But let patience have her perfect work, that she may be
perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
Too many Christians have faced a trial that they let knock them
out of the race. They let it derail them.
They let it define them. You're not defined by how big
the trial or how difficult the journey.
You are defined by the God you serve and the way you rest in
Him. Perilous times will come.
Don't let it define you #2 I want to say this.
Don't let it sideline you. Simply put, I mean this.
Don't quit. Don't quit.
I laugh. I and actually I just saw last
week, I use this illustration, if you will, but I was telling
them that I taught English for for probably 10 years and you
know the, the students had to do book reports and always as part
of the book report. It was, it was typically it was
a was a biography. It was either a Christian
biography. Many times it was, it didn't
have to be a Christian biography, but many times it
was. But as part of that book report,
they were supposed to give a lesson that they learned from
the book. What's what's the lesson that
you learned from the book? And everybody always said the
lesson that I, and I'll tell you, it's, it's the ones who
looked at the back, read the summary, wrote their book report
and then this is their, this is their lesson learned.
Don't quit. Don't quit everybody, one after
another. The lesson that I learned from
this book is don't quit. When things get difficult, don't
quit. The next person gets up.
The lesson that I learned from this book that I didn't read was
don't quit. Don't quit.
Lesson that I learned from the summary on the back of the book
is don't quit. Finally, I got to the point I
said, all right, you cannot use Don't Quit as the lesson that
you learned from the book, because obviously they're not
going to write a book about somebody who quit.
Right, the guy that is trying to invent flying cars that ran into
all the problems and quit, they never wrote a book about it.
Right. Obviously the reason they're
writing a book about this person is because they didn't quit.
They didn't stop in the middle of that, in the middle of
adversity. But I'm going to use that as my
lesson right now. Don't quit.
Life is difficult.
You're going to face opposition. Perilous times will come.
Don't quit. You know it's coming.
Prepare yourself for it. Be ready for it.
You're going to face opposition. Just don't quit in the middle of
that opposition. The reason that people are
remembered from history is because they didn't quit.
Times got tough, things got hard, trials piled up,
tribulations overran them, but they didn't let them.
Let that stop them. Especially those who are the the
Christian biographies that I mentioned who went on and did
great things for the cause of Christ.
Yes, there's opposition. Yes, there's things that the
devil is going to put in front of you to try to make you stop,
but just don't quit. Make up your mind before you
start. I'm not going to quit.
Our God is bigger than any problem.
He's bigger than any trial. Whether you can see the trial or
whether you can't see the trial, He's bigger than any of those
things. Don't let it sideline you.
Don't let it keep you from living for God.
Don't let it be an excuse for backsliding.
Don't let it be an excuse to keep you from witnessing.
Don't let it keep you from being at church and being involved in
the ministries. So many Christians go through a
trial and they use that as an excuse to drop everything that
they've ever done for Christ. They say, well, it's been rough.
When everything gets back on track and I start feeling up to
it, then I'll get involved again.
All right? But I've got news for you.
Most Christians never get back on track because we're never
going to have it all together. We're never going to feel like,
OK, finally everything is good again.
There's always going to be something that the devil is
going to try to use to sideline you.
Most Christians never get back on track.
They never get back into the ministries.
They never get back into church. They never go all out for the
Lord again because they let that trial sideline them.
And the devil wins. Most people who say that that
they're going to get back in the race never get back in the race
and sure the sideline is is safe from struggle.
I'd, I'd rather be in the game and trying to help the team win
and struggling than than to be sipping water and have splinters
in my backside from being on the sideline.
And it's not better on the side. Oh, maybe it's a little bit
easier, but how much, how much joy comes into victory when
you've just been sitting on the sideline the whole time?
There's joy in serving Jesus. Don't quit.
Get in the game. The Bible says in Isaiah chapter
41 and verse #10 fear thou not, for I am with thee.
Be not dismayed, for I am thy God.
I will strengthen thee. Yeah, I will help thee.
Hey, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness,
for I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto
thee, fear not, I will help thee.
Don't let that trial sideline you.
There have been plenty of quitters.
In fact, we have a couple examples right here in our text
passage. Turn over to Second Timothy
chapter 4 Second Timothy chapter 4 and there's a lot of reasons
why people. Quit.
There's a lot of reasons why people stop living for the Lord.
There's a lot of reasons why they just back off and get
sidelined and this morning we're talking particularly about those
who go through trials and those who go through difficulties.
But in Second Timothy chapter 4 verse #10 the Bible says, For
demons hath forsaken me having. Loved this present world and is
departed. To Thessalonica, Dimas gave up
when the worldly pleasures overwhelmed him.
John Mark had given up on the stress of the work was too great
in Acts chapter 15. Thank the Lord for what we see
in Second Timothy chapter 4 and verse #11 Only Luke is with me.
Take Mark and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me
for the ministry. He didn't let that sideline him.
Oh Demas, he did. He got he got distracted by the
things of the world and and Paul had to say I.
I hate to mention this, but but Demas has forsaken me have and
loved this present world. By the way, you notice that the
Apostle Paul is not afraid to call out people by name and he
was under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit when he wrote these
books, right? It's not Paul saying I'm going
to get back at Demas. Oh, God told him to write that
and he did. And here 2000 years later, you
know what, the one thing we know about Demas, he forsook him
because he loved the present world.
Hey, all the things that Demas did in his life, he probably had
a lot of good things that he did.
He, he was living for the Lord, obviously, right?
Because you can't forsake something that you never
started. He loved the Lord, he lived for
the Lord. He did things for the Lord.
But the one thing we remember about Demas is that he quit.
He quit. Things got difficult, the
pleasures of the world overtook him and he quit.
Same thing happened to John Mark.
But you know what? John Mark didn't let it sideline
him. He got back in the game.
Oh, he might have sidelined him for a while.
He quit. He went back home, but he didn't
stop. He didn't let it sideline him.
He didn't quit. And Paul said, hey, take Mark
and bring him. He's profitable to me for the
ministry. I need to take the mindset of
the Apostle Paul, verse #16 of Second Timothy, chapter 4.
At my first answer, no man stood with me, but all men forsook me.
I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.
Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me and strengthened me,
that by me the preaching might be fully known, that all the
Gentiles might hear, and I was delivered out of the mouth of
the lion. And the Lord shall deliver me
from every evil work, and will preserve me.
Unto his heavenly Kingdom, to whom be glory forever and ever.
Amen. He said, hey, I don't care who's
with me. I don't care if I'm all alone.
I have a job to do and I have a Savior that's with me to give me
strength. And God plus nothing is a
majority. We always say me plus God equals
the majority. No God plus nothing equals the
majority. He doesn't even need you.
He'll take us along with Him if we want to join Him.
But God plus nothing is a majority.
Edgar Guest is probably one of my favorite poets, and he wrote
some tremendous poems. But one of my favorites of his.
Maybe you've read before. Maybe you've even partially
memorized it before. It's called Don't quit.
It says this when things go wrong, as they sometimes will.
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill.
When the funds are low and the debts are high and you want to
smile but you have to sigh. When care is pressing you down a
bit. Rest if you must.
But don't you quit. Life is strange with its twists
and turns, and every one of us sometimes learns, and many a
fellow turns about when he might have won had he stuck it out.
Don't give up. Though the pace seems slow, you
may succeed with another blow. Often the goal is nearer than it
seems to a faint and faltering man.
Often the struggler has given up when he might have captured the
Victor's cup, and he learned too late, when the night came down,
how close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out the silver tint of the
clouds of doubt, and you never can tell how close you are.
It may be near when it seems so far, So stick to the fight when
your hardest hit. It's when things seem worse that
you must not quit this. Know also that in the last days
perilous times shall come. Don't let it define you, don't
let it sideline you. And I want to say this, lastly,
let it refine you. Turn over, if you will, to job
23. This is exactly what we see
happening for job. He went through what for most of
us would make up our worst nightmares.
Could you imagine the things that job went through?
Most people can't even imagine it, let alone live through it.
He suffered tremendous physical loss, but look what Job was able
to comfort himself with as he battled those difficulties.
Verse #10 of Job 23 that he knoweth the way that I take.
When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
Here's what I know. You're going to go through the
fire. If you live godly, you will
suffer persecution. Life lived for Christ is not
going to be easy, especially as we move closer to the appearing
of Jesus Christ. But can I give you 3 things
quickly as we close for when you're going through the fire #1
is this. Seek to understand why, but know
that you may never know why. Nothing wrong with asking that
question. Nothing wrong with asking why.
But just know that you may never know the answer to that question
and be OK with it because God may not give you the reason.
I still don't know and I still don't understand why my mom
passed away at the age of 55 with cancer.
I don't know why. I have nine brothers and
sisters, we're all getting married and having kids and my
mom loved all of them and love being around them. 55 years old,
passed away. I don't understand it.
I don't know why. I still don't know why that
makes sense to me. I still don't understand why.
My father-in-law, who was a pastor, faithful pastor of the
same church, one of the best men I've ever met, 45 years, he
pastored the church, getting into the age where he had a lot
of wisdom, a lot of opportunities to to, to really
give that wisdom to a younger generation.
Got Parkinson's 72 and died at 76.
I don't understand it. I don't know why and it's a
question I'll probably be asking for the rest of my life and I
just may not have. I may never get the answer.
I don't know why God allows those things to happen.
Nothing wrong with asking why, but sometimes God gives a reason
and it becomes clear why we face what we face and those are
always helpful. But sometimes God marks across
our days. We'll explain later and one day
I'll find out. One day I'll know the answer to
that question, but it may not be till I'm gone and I have to be
OK with that. I have to be able to continue
going on for the Lord when I can't answer the question why?
We just have to trust that He knows what's best and that He's
only going to give us what is best.
So seek to understand why, but know that you may never know
why. Second thing I'll say is this.
Turn over to James chapter 1. Allow that trial to do its work.
God put that trial in your life
for a reason. You may not understand the
reason why exactly, but you know that the reason why God allows
you to go through that is so that He, as He tries you, can
purify you and you can come out on the other side as gold.
Allow that trial to do its work. James chapter one verse #4 But
let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and
entire, wanting nothing. They seek to understand why, but
know that you may never know. Allow God and allow that trial
to do its work #3 know that you'll come out better and
stronger if your trust is in the Lord.
You'll come out better and stronger if your trust is in the
Lord. Just because you go through a
trial doesn't mean that you're going to come out stronger on
the other side. That's I think that's the same
mindset that people have that just because you die, you're
going to go to heaven, right? You die, you go to the funeral,
He's in a better place. Just because you died doesn't
mean you went to heaven. You got to know Christ as your
savior if you want to go to heaven.
And just because you go through a trial does not mean you're
going to come out stronger on the other side.
You'll come out stronger on the other side if your faith and
your trust is in Jesus Christ through that trial and if you
allow Him to do that work. Through the trial.
Then you'll come out stronger on the other side, but your trust
and your faith has to be in him. Anger and bitterness and
resentment all can result from a trial.
And many times that's what happens with Christians that go
through difficulties. You don't come out better on the
other side. You come out bitter on the other
side. And that's the choice that we
all have to make. Are we going to allow that trial
to make us better or we going to allow that trial to make us
bitter? Most people don't come out on
the right side, but you put your faith in your trust and your
hope in Jesus Christ and you go through that trial.
You will come out stronger on the other side or resigned to
the fact that God's in control, that He's never going to toy
with my life. And we can understand that our
trial was for our own good and for his glory back in May of
2001, Eric Wyanmeyer, if you recognize that name, maybe you
don't. He accomplished something that
only about 150 people a year accomplished, and that is that
he made it to the top of Mount Everest.
But the thing that made his accomplishment much more special
was that he did it blind. He was the only person to ever
climb Mount Everest blind. He did it by grabbing onto the
pack of the guy in front of him and having a little direction
from the guy behind him, helping him get up the top of the
mountain. And a book was written about
him. It was an it was actually he
wrote, It's an autobiography was called Touch the Top of the
World, A blind man's journey to climb farther than the eye can
see. And I'll tell you, many times we
face a choice in our lives. We allow the obstacle to stop
us. Eric Weinmeyer actually became
blind at the age of 13 because he developed a retinal problem.
He was fine, everything was good till he was 13 years old, and
then he lost his sight completely.
I know you think about that man, how difficult that would be to
know what things look like. But to not be able to ever see
him again. I don't know what would be
worse, to be born blind and never have an idea, or to see it
all and then never see it again. I don't know what would be
worse, but he went blind at 13. He could have let it stop him.
He could have let that be the excuse that he used for all the
reasons why he couldn't accomplish anything.
But here this man was did something that very, very few
people in the world ever do, let alone doing it completely blind.
And I suppose that's where a lot of us are in our Christian
lives. Trials are going to come,
difficulties are going to happen.
Things are not going to be easy, and we have a choice.
Are we going to let that be the excuse?
Are we going to let that be? What what what defines the rest
of our Christian life? Well, he served God until what
if That was the story of Job? Job served God.
He was perfect and upright. He eschewed evil.
Until Satan came to him one day. Now we don't find that in Job's
story, do we? Job was perfect and upright, and
he eschewed evil until evil came, until all these
difficulties and trials came and he kept living in for the Lord.
He didn't let that trial define him.
Don't let that trial sideline you.
Don't let it. Don't let that be what makes you
quit on God. Oh, I I thought that living for
the Lord was going to come with benefits.
I thought that living for the Lord would.
God was going to take care of me.
And sure enough, I, I knew this was going to happen.
He let me down and now look, my life is in shambles now.
Look, everything's so difficult now.
Look, I can't do this anymore and I can't do that anymore.
And I just can't go on living for the Lord because of all
these things that happened to me.
Now you can let it sideline you if you want, but don't.
That's your choice. That's the opportunity that we
have this morning. Instead of focus on what you
can't do for God anymore because of the trial and difficulty, why
don't you focus on what you can do for God?
I'm a short I'll start serving God when all this is over.
That may never come. This Know also that in the last
days, perilous times shall come. Don't let it define you.
Don't let it sideline you. Let it refine you.
Let that trial do what God designed that trial to do and
allow him to do it, and then keep at it until He comes to
take you home. Hey, I don't know when Christ is
coming back, but I think it's going to be soon.
Wouldn't it be great for him to come back when we're in the
middle of standing up after we got knocked down and we're in
the middle of going forward for him, even in the middle of
difficulty, That's how I want him to find me.
Hey, we all go through difficult times.
Every single person, the person that you look at and you say
wow. What a what?
A hero of the faith, man. If I could only be like him.
If my faith was only as strong as him.
You know what I can promise you? He's going through difficulties
too. He's going through difficulties
too. He just didn't let it define the
rest of his life. He didn't let it sideline him.
He let it refine him and he went on for the Lord.
And that's what every single one of us in this auditorium this
morning can do. We can keep going for the Lord.
We just have to make the decision.
It's worth it. It's worth it.
And I want to make my life count for Jesus.
Won't you? Let's pray.
Father, again, we thank you so much for your goodness to us and
for the opportunity you've given us to take a few minutes and
look at this passage this morning.
We know that perilous times are going to come if we're
Christians, and perilous times are going to come.
God, may you help us to prepare for it.
I know some that are in the middle of trials right now.
May you help them through it. May you help us to come out on
the other side stronger. Those who are are going to be
facing difficulties. And you know, that might be the
reason why you laid it on my heart to preach this message
this morning. Maybe somebody in this room this
morning is getting ready to go into something very, very
difficult. I don't know.
But God, may you help us, May you help us to come out on the
other side as gold refined for your service.
God, may you give us the courage to continue going forward for
you may give us the strength to continue going forward for you.
And may we come out on the other side of the trial stronger
because we put our faith in our trust in our hope in you.
By that you'd use the message in our hearts this morning.
Thank you again for all you do for us in Jesus name, Amen.
If you would stand at your seat through the heads bowed and your
eyes closed, piano's going to play this morning.
And as she does, God spoken to your heart.
You come. The altar is a place to start.
God spoke to your heart about something.
You need to make a decision to change something or to do
something different or to allow something that needs to be
changed in your life to change. This is not the end.
This is just the beginning. This is telling God, hey, I'm
going to deal with this. I'm going to get this right.
I'm going to do whatever it is that you want me to do.
But it's an important step. It's not easy stepping out of
your seat and coming forward, but once you do, you're telling
God, hey, I'm serious about this.
You spoke to my heart and I'm responding to the message.
I want you to do that this morning if God spoke to your
heart. The we love you so much for your
goodness to us and and I know how difficult it's been for both
Bill and Miss Diana and a lot of.
The. Amen.
Well, thank you for being here this morning.
And I, I trust that it's a help to you.
And maybe you don't need it today, but you'll need it
tomorrow. And we all go through
difficulties, We all go through hardships.
And what are you going to do with it?
That's, that's, that's what our that's what our choice is.
That's what our decision is. Couple things.
Number one, we're having a meeting right after church here
with all of those who are planning to go to the family
camp out. I'm going to give you some
information and, and just go over a couple things with you.
And then also tonight, 6:00, it's a service that you're not
going to want to miss. I think it'll be an
encouragement to you and especially an encouragement to
our young people as well. And you won't want to you won't
want to miss tonight. So plan to be here at 6:00 for
that. All right, Brother Brian's going
to close us in prayer. Let's pray.
Father, I thank you for this day you've given us.
Thank you for the good week that we had.
Thank you for the week of camp that our young people were able
to go to and and hear some good preaching and, and make
decisions to surrender their lives to you.
And, and I got to just thank you for that opportunity.
I do thank you, God for allowing each one of us to come to you
and, and salvation and, and God just the awesome privilege it is
to be your children. And God, I pray that we would
live worthy of that name that that we've been given of
Christians and to be your sons and daughters.
God, I do thank you for the message we heard this morning.
And God, I just pray for those in our church that are going
through difficulties right now that I, I can't help but
thinking what David said. Even though I walked through the
valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil because you're
with us. Father, I think there are some
in here this morning that feel that.
I pray that you'd be close to Father.
I pray that you'd help us as we help to bear their burdens.
That you'd. Father, I pray that you, you'd
give us wisdom in that, but also that God, you just help us to be
exactly what this church needs them to be, needs us to be.
And what you've called us here to this place for, I just thank
you for this church. Thank you for calling each one
of us here. Thank you for what it is to me
and my family and God, I pray that you'd help us as we leave
here this afternoon that you'd give us a give us safety on the
way home, but bring us back here.
And I pray that you'd meet with us in the service tonight.
And I do again pray for those that are going through the
difficult times right now. I pray that you just really draw
them close to you and whatever goal you have in in their trials
that you would accomplish that and that you would be glorified
in it. Pray that you give us a good day
in Jesus name I pray Amen. Let's close with our.