Running with Perseverance

Well, you folks can sing. I don't know if anyone's ever told you all that, but y'all are one of the best singing churches I think I've ever heard. Now, I know you've got good amplification in here, but I do want to exhort you for how well you sing, how loudly you sing, and I know that has something to do with your worship leader. And Jared, you gonna come for the sermon, brother? I'm just kidding. I'm like, "I listened to you sing." No, I'm just kidding. No, I just wanted to say, "Wow, brother, I was sitting over there lost in worship, and then I heard somebody break out of harmonica. You can play anything." That's really good, man.

I just wanted to thank you for that. May I ask, are there any of you here tonight who were not here this morning? Let me see your hand real quick. Here tonight wasn't here this morning? All right. Well, it is so good to see you and to meet you tonight. I hope I get to meet you in person afterward. There's something that I would like to do. My wife wrote a note to you guys. It says, "Dear Grace Life Church of Brookhaven, thank you. Doesn't seem like an adequate expression for the generous gift card, but I do want you to know I'm sincerely grateful. It is an honor for Jason and I both for him to be with you all this week.

I will be praying for you daily and look forward to hearing wonderful things. Thanks to you all, Nancy Johns. Your leadership so graciously gave a gift to her on your behalf." We were deeply moved and we're deeply thankful and she wanted me to read that to you. Well, Brother Chris and I, again, we've been planning this for quite some time and we talked and prayed for weeks about maybe what the theme would be for this week and what God might lead us to preach on and study. One night I was thinking and praying about you guys and I thought, "Man, they are doing so well." As far as what I know about your church, you're on the right track.

You have the proper foundation. I feel like you're doing all the right things with conversion. You've got expositional preaching, faithful gospel, proclamation, small groups, church discipline, your church polity strong. Man, you've got so many good things going. I was like, "All they need to do is just keep doing what they're doing." As I thought about that, I texted Brother Chris and I said, "Man, what if we go on perseverance?" Because let me tell you something, in light of all the things that are going well and how God is blessing your church, the work is not done. The work is never done.

There are battles still, and hear me well, there are battles still to be fought with sin, flesh, and the devil. We have a very real enemy who is crafty, who is, as the Bible says, a roaring lion walking about, seeking whom he made to bow, waiting for that right time to attack the right person or the right people to hinder God's work. You're still going to have to fight that battle. There is much prayer yet to be offered. There are new disciples to be made, further growth and maturity among the faithful. How about this? There's a world still to be reached.

There's a kingdom to grow, and there is much more glory to be given to God through this church in the nations and among the nations. Now the Apostle Paul said even concerning himself that he was concerned that after he had ran that he might be disqualified. We're talking about the Apostle Paul. He was doing the right things. He was headed the right direction, and he was concerned if at any time he let his guard down that he could get disqualified or knocked out of the race.

I want you to know, and several of you got to hear the testimony of our church over the past 10 years and God reforming it to biblical church health, and I want you to know this, that I have leaders and I have people who were a part of that process and who were at the true church conference who were gone. People who were core, people who were leaders, people who saw God at work, people who saw promises answered, and they're no longer with us. They didn't persevere. I'm telling you from personal experience. People that you're thinking about right now, it couldn't be them, yeah, the people that I thought it couldn't be.

That's who some of them have been. And so my heart's desire and prayer for you tonight, every single one of you. Like listen, I'm not just speaking to some vague group. I'm not just speaking to Brother Chris and his wife or some of the leaders. I'm speaking to every one of you from young people to a guest to core members. Listen, I want to see every one of you finish the race. I want you to finish, well, dear goodness, it doesn't do us any good to start and then fall by the wayside. I want to preach tonight on the subject of running with perseverance. Take your Bibles and turn with me to Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1, running with perseverance.

Now there's debate over who wrote the book of Hebrews. I believe the Apostle Paul wrote the book of Hebrews and so you're just going to hear me instead of saying the author of Hebrews most of them are just going to say the Apostle Paul. So Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1 and verse 2, "Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us." "And let us run," there it is, "and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, before the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Now before I jump into this text, let's talk about the context of this text.

What's going on that the Apostle Paul is addressing here in its proper context? The Apostle Paul has just completed a list of witnesses in Hebrews chapter 11. You saw it where it said, "A great cloud of witnesses." Now let me just, in case you've got the wrong interpretation about that, that's not a group of people in the stands of heaven looking down and cheering us on. Now I'm not going to say that's totally out of the question, I just don't think that's what it's saying here in the text.

What I think it's saying is a group of people, and just to name some of them, Abel and Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Gideon, Samson, and a host of unnamed saints who were not perfect people, and they did not have it easy, but they persevered and won the prize, and their lives are testifying to us. These were people who had failures in their faith. These are people who went through really difficult times, who experienced great loss, but they kept running no matter what they faced, no matter what they endured, and they're saying to you, they're screaming to you, their lives are proclaiming to you, "Just keep going.

It will be worth it all." And I don't know if you're facing it now, I don't know if you have faced it, I do know that you're going to face it. Trouble. Job said it this way, "Man born of woman." So if your mama is a woman, Job said, "Man born of woman is few of days in full of trouble." You are going to experience, as a believer, spiritual warfare. You are going to experience trials. You are going to experience death. You are going to experience sorrow. You are going to experience persecution. You are going to experience temptation, and these lives are testifying to us, whatever you do, don't give up. It will be worth it all in the end.

And you know right now, if we stop, many of you could probably think of someone who's heard exhortations just like that, and where are they tonight? They're on the sidelines. Or maybe even worse, like Demas, they've left the church and they've left Jesus having loved this present world. And so, after Paul gives the exhortation about this cloud of witnesses, he goes into, "Now let me give you the instruction on how to run the race and how to finish the race." That's pretty good teaching by the Apostle Paul, alright? Here's a visible illustration all of these lives. Now let me give you hard, concrete instruction for you to follow.

If you want to finish well, let me just do this. If you want to finish well, would you say amen tonight? If you want to finish well, persevere. See this church grow to the glory of God until you die or Jesus comes back. I want to give you three things to help you do that. Number one, if we are to finish the race, we must run without hindrance, Paul says. Look at verse number one, "Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us," here it is, "lay aside every weight." You say, "Pastor Jason, what in the world is a weight?" Well, before I answer that, picture this, I love how Paul uses word pictures.

He's talking about running and he talks about weights. Now I don't know if you've ever done it or if you've ever seen it, but I have seen people who put leg weights on or ankle weights on when they run. I have also seen people harness a sled behind them and run with a weighted sled behind them. I have even seen, especially like professional athletes, harness one of those umbrella things and it's closed and then they get up to a certain speed and it opens and they got to try to maintain that speed with that parachute umbrella-like thing. Let me tell you what I've never seen.

I've never seen one of those guys go out on the football field when it's game time and strap one of those things on and try to run with it. I've never seen a triac athlete who's trying to finish the race tie a sled behind him and compete. You know what Paul's saying here? Many of God's people who are in his race do that very thing. They strap weight to themselves and then try to run for Jesus. Paul gives us two hindrances here and the first one that he says that hinders us in our race is "lay aside the weights." Weights are this. Things that aren't inherently wrong or sinful, but they hinder you in your race.

Things that aren't inherently wrong or sinful. Paul speaks about this in his own life in 1 Corinthians 6, verse 12. He says this, "All things are lawful for me." And what he's saying here, there's a lot of things that I have freedom in my conscience to do. It's not a sin. Then he says this, "But all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any." So there are some good things out there. Paul says that he could do, but they're not really helpful so he doesn't do them. And for sure if he feels like he's beginning to be dominated or mastered by them, he's done with it. He puts it off.

Paul says that's what you have to do to run well. We're talking about things that are, listen to me, not a bad thing, but a good thing becomes a bad thing when it becomes a God thing in your life. And Paul says you have to lay it aside when it begins to have more power and dominate you more than God. This can be social media. I might as well just go ahead and get really personal and make sure that you don't miss what I'm saying here. Listen, if we have hours to spend on social media, and I'm not against social media, I've got social media.

But when we can spend hours on social media and do not have time for quiet time, do not have time for personal devotion or personal worship, or hey, just loving Jesus, just reading His Word and spending time in prayer, you know what that's called? That's called a weight. A good thing has become a bad thing because it's become a bigger than God thing in our life. And you may have to consider laying that aside or at least putting it in its proper place in your life. And all the parents said, amen. This can be social life, friendships, hanging out, social activities, hobbies, work, boyfriend, girlfriend.

Listen, I'm not picking on any of you young people. It's just something we have to touch. And we may have some adults in here who date. I don't know. But I do want to tell you this. You got to hear my salvation testimony this morning. I was dating someone. Do you remember me saying that when I went to that revival, I went with my girlfriend and it was actually her home church? Well, as the Lord converted me and began to work in me, He was not doing that same work in her. And we've been together a while. And you know, well, maybe you know what it's like.

And you try to make it work and you try to make it work and you pray and you compromise and you do everything except what you know you need to do. And there did come a time in order for me to run the race that God had called me to and to run it well, I had to let that relationship go. Was she a professing believer? Yes. So in a sense, not sinful, but not best, not good, a weight that I had to let go. There are, this is something we face a lot. When I say weights, I want you to know what I'm talking about. I said something about social life and social activity. You know something we're facing in the church today?

That people recreate so much and socialize so much that they can't commit to the church. They don't have an area in the church where they serve. When we've clearly seen from the scriptures that if someone's been born again, they've been given a spiritual gift by the Spirit of God, what a blessing, and place them in the body of Christ. And Ephesians 4 says when every part of the body does its individual part, the entire body is built up and they can't do it. They're not there. They're not supplying their part. They're not walking in obedience. And you want to know why?

They can't commit to it because they're going somewhere every other weekend. My meddling, listen, my goal is not to come down on you. My goal is to love the Lord Jesus and His church. And I'm telling you, if you've got something that's a good thing but has become a bad thing because you can't commit to the local church, which is the only thing God Almighty's committed to, hey, that's not going to work and that's going to get you out of the race. So let us lay aside every weight. You may be here tonight and you're like, "I don't know if I have a weight. I'm just not sure. I know how you can know." You ready?

Ask your spouse because your spouse knows. And they're also willing to tell you the truth. Young people, ask your parents. They love you enough to say, "Yes, I do think that this is out of balance. I do think this is a weight." And all we're saying is, "We want you to run for what matters most." So ask them. If you're a church member, ask your pastor. It might be the best thing that ever happened to you. Number two, Paul doesn't stop it saying, "Lay aside the weights." He said there are two hindrances. Then he says, "Lay aside the sin that ensnares.

Lay aside the sin that ensnares." There were people reading this letter that so treasured some sins, some things that they were willing to turn on Christ. They were willing to fall away, to go back. You may remember this language from Hebrews chapter 10, "To forsake the assembling of themselves together." Because of some treasured, besetting, habitual sin. And Paul is saying, "If there's anything in your life like that, it could snare you." We see Samson. We see David in that Hebrews 11. These were guys, listen, who besetting sins almost knocked them out of the race. Cost them their testimony. Cost them great hurt and great consequences.

Praise God for His grace. Praise God for their faith to believe that God is a covenant God and His steadfast love endures forever and they stayed in the race. But man, what if they'd have gotten rid of that besetting sin from the beginning? Because it was always their besetting sin. Both Samson and David had a best friend. He was my youth pastor and first staff member at First Baptist Church of Lake Butler. He and I and our families grew very close. He went on to pastor another church in Jacksonville. And I was there to preach his installation service. Truly one of the most gifted guys I've ever met.

And I know a lot of, I'm just saying, I know a lot of gifted guys in ministry. And he's right there at the top. Strong, reformed, Christian, get the church right. Love the Lord, love people, brother. But he began to drink in moderation. And my point in this illustration isn't about alcohol or is it okay to drink in moderation in the Bible? In his theology and in his conscience, it was okay to drink in moderation. But then every night coping with the pressures of life, he began to drink up to a fifth of vodka a night. And then it wasn't enough. And then he turned to drugs. And then he turned to cocaine. And then he turned to heroin.

This is my former youth pastor. This is one of my best friends in the world. He moved back out to Lake Butler after he obviously was disqualified from ministry and we were caring for him. And he'll never forget the day that his wife knocked on my door almost in the fetal position and said, "Brian's dead." And he'd overdosed. And you know what? That's how he ended his race. When Paul says, "Lay aside the sin that so easily ensnares you." And if you've got anything like that tonight, I'm almost thankful that I'm here in this God-ordained moment to say, "Chuck it!" Whatever you have to do, get to someone tonight and say, "I want to finish well.

I want to glorify Jesus and this is going to be the end of me and have someone help you. You will need help." And don't wait too late. Dear Lord, I hope you will contact a pastor, a leader, a small group leader, a Christian friend. Whatever you do, lay aside the sin that so easily besets you. And you know what? It may not be alcohol and drugs. It could be jealousy. It could be bitterness. It could be unforgiveness. It could be covetousness and greed. But it snares your heart and keeps you from being the Christian that God's called you to be. And you don't want to end that way, do you?

You don't want that to be your life and testimony and how you finish the race. So there's number one, Paul says, "Lay aside the weights, lay aside the sin." Number two, Paul says, "If we were to finish the race, we must run with..." There'll be three sub-points here. Passion, perseverance, and precision. All right, let's see it in the text, okay? "Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us and..." Underline this, "Let us walk." It didn't say that, did it? Didn't even say jog.

The imperative here by the apostle is, "Let us run." I know it sounds pretty simple, but I'm still going to give you the Greek definition of that. It means to put forth energy, effort to pick up the pace. And to be honest, so many of you are doing well at running, but to be honest, in so many churches, there needs to be a good exhortation of stop being nominal. Our God deserves more. Run. Put forth effort. Put forth energy. Titus chapter 2 verse 14 says that Jesus gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people. Here it is, zealous for good works. He died on a cross.

The Spirit regenerated those people, gave them faith, put them in the church, and God said for them to be zealous for Him, to run, to put forth effort and energy. Romans 12, 11 would describe it as not lagging in diligence, but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. What do you talk about revival? Man, what if we had some folks that had just kind of got stagnant? What if we had some folks that had just kind of turned this thing into a casual stroll through life?

And God, God gets you tonight and puts fire back in you, and you start serving Him zealously and redeeming the time, and you have a smile on your face and a joy in your heart that now I'm running the way I know God wants me to run. What's the greatest commandment? I know you guys know it, I'll leave it as a rhetorical question. Love the Lord your God with some... Let's try it again. Love the Lord your God with half. Listen to me, this is as fundamental as it gets. Everybody knows this. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, all your mind. Now you may be sitting here saying, "Nobody does that.

There's nobody in this building doing that." And you're right, but we can doggone sure strive for it. I hope you all are okay with some of my euphemisms and just old South Georgia, North Florida, y'all and doggones. We have the Spirit of God. We may not do it perfectly. We can do it better than we did last week. Do it better than we did last month, running to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. Now there's something that I want you to notice. I've been talking to you individually, but this is actually a corporate command. Did you catch that? Let us run.

That means there's a group of us who are running together and we're all supposed to help each other run. Now I'm going to, this is big. This might be my favorite part of the sermon. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 20, 23 says, y'all listen close on this, says, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. That means don't run off the road. Stay in the road. Stay on the path. For He who promised is faithful. God will give you the prize and the reward. So here's what you do. Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some, but what's this?

Exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. Consider one another to stir up. You know what that word means? It means to provoke. It means to agitate. People in your church just got permission to aggravate you. If they look around and we're all running and you're wanting to stop running or you see something over here on the side that you want to chase after or they see a weight laid on your shoulders, they are called, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, we are called.

Every single one of us who named the name of Christ and covenant together, we are called to consider one another, to stir one up to love and good works and so much more as we see the end of the race coming. We are supposed to go up to people and say, you can run better. That's called accountability. This will help you run better. Hey, do not get upset with someone in the church if they check into how you're running. We're supposed to do that. Listen to this. Hebrews 10.23 says, no, no, no, sorry, wrong verse. Proverbs 18.1 says, a man who isolates himself seeks his own desire. He rages against all wise judgment. A man who isolates himself.

When you see someone in the church pulling away and they don't want small group people calling them and they don't want the pastor saying anything and they don't want their spouse to say anything or however it looks, they're isolating themselves. The Bible says that guy is wanting his own way and he's raging against all wise judgment. He has been solicited and he wants to run off the road and God's people are called to go after him and do whatever it takes to bring him back. Paul says, run with passion, everybody. Run, now secondly, run with perseverance.

After he says, let us lay aside the weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, he says, let us run with endurance. Try not to spend too much time here. Paul is saying, you're going to start off good. And the Lord did that for me. I don't know what it was like. Like I said, once I was converted man, I was like floating on air. You know, and God gives you that space a lot of times where it's just joyful and he takes care of his little baby, his new creature in Christ. But life gets real and life gets real quick.

These people were losing their houses, they were losing their jobs, they were losing their lives, they were losing their families. They were facing all types of trials and Paul was saying, don't turn back on him. He will be faithful. You guys got to encourage one another. Don't let anything creep in that's going to pull you back. Listen, you're going to have to run through difficulty.

So it might be the difficulty of striving to build a healthy local church or it might be the difficulty of a rebellious child or it might be the difficulty of a broken marriage, it might be the difficulty of broken dreams, it might be the difficulty of being hurt in church. I mean there are thousand difficulties that you have experienced and will experience, maybe a miscarriage or the death of a loved one, a tragic accident. There's going to be so many things and you're just going to get off the road and go where? And go where? There's nowhere else that offers a hope or reward or a prize.

You may be sitting here, well if you're saying that if I follow Christ and run in this race it's going to be difficult, then I don't want to do that. That's not what I want my life to be. Hey, life's going to be difficult either way. I would counsel you, don't live a difficult life and then suffer in hell for eternity. At least in this race you suffer like everyone else but you don't suffer without hope and you don't suffer without help. You've got one whose presence, whose own dear presence, whoa, that was the song tonight, to cheer and to guide.

And then at the end no matter how bad it gets you get to inherit the new heaven and new earth and reign with Jesus. That's why Paul said, "I reckon that the sufferings this world," Romans 8, "are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed." So run with perseverance and then run with precision. Run with precision. There he says, "Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." Paul's race was different than our race. Paul was called to be the apostle to the Gentiles. James was called to be the pastor in Jerusalem. John the pastor in Ephesus. Everybody's race a little bit different.

Can I talk about your races real quick? Me and John, let me tell you what your race looks like for the most part right now. To be a spirit-filled follower of Jesus and worshipper of Jesus Christ. Number one as you wake up and strap your gospel shoes on, spirit-filled follower and worshipper of Jesus. To love your wife as Christ loved the church, to train your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord to pass your faith along to them and it will fill your role in the local church. Boom. That is your race, brother. Do it well for the glory of God.

Ma'am, and I'll be speaking to wives and moms here, you also are to be a spirit-filled follower and worshipper of Jesus first and foremost because everything else falls out of that. You won't do the other things well if you don't do that well. Then being a helper comparable to your husband, raising image bearers and doing your part in the church. I really want to take just a moment here, running with precision. God created women to be a helper comparable. It's not good for man to be alone. Amen. Hallelujah. That's right. I put a North Carolina slant on now and hallelujah. It's not good for man to be alone.

God brought every animal before Adam and he named every one of them and then the Bible says this and there still was not found a helper comparable for him. There's no thing on earth that can fill this void. So God made a one of a kind creation, a woman. And when God brought her to Adam, I don't know if you know this or not, that was the first song in the Bible. "This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh for this call shall every man leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife," meaning every go to get in on this. That's what Adam is saying.

And there are women all across our world who are offended at being a wife and a mom and are offended at being a helper comparable to take the vision that God has given the husband, which he will give an answer for, man for what it's worth. You will not have to answer for that headship. Give the vision that God has given to the man and take it and say, "How can I help you accomplish this?" And we won't get into the details of that tonight, but let me say, do not be offended by that. Embrace that in that God Almighty created you and you alone. No one else on earth can do what you do. No one else on earth can be what a wife is.

No one else on earth can be what a mom is. And so if you're at home and you feel like all you're doing is helping your husband and doing this little side job and taking care of kids and running into practice, you're doing what you were created for. You are running your race and you do what you can at the church for the glory of God. That's your race and I'd be proud of it.

Young men, your race right now is to become a godly man so that when you meet a woman that a Christian father has been leading to know the Lord and to be the person God's called her to be, you can say, "I have trained myself to now take her and lead her spiritually and love her as Christ has loved the church." Am I really saying that to adolescents? To 16, 17, 18 year old boys? Oh yeah, that's awesome. I'd love to see young men grow up and say, "I know Jesus and he answers my prayer and I love his church and I'm running for him.

Would you like to join me in the race that I'm in that will lead to life and blessing?" I'm going to tell you, a guy shows up at my -- I got two daughters -- shows up at my house like that. That's going to be good news. And I'm just saying that's your race, young man, and developing whether it's going to college or not going to college or trade. This is why I would say do well in school because it's not about if you just get by. It's not about if you get your diploma. It's about the glory of God. It's about I want a good education and I want to do it for the glory of God.

I want to honor my parents and I want to be trained in something so that I can go out and make a living so I can provide for my wife and family and everything else that I said that's going to be a part of your race. And then young ladies, be striving as well under the tutelage, under the instruction of your mother and older women in the church to become spirit-filled, godly woman who when you come along you are a blessing to your husband. You're just what God designed you to be and you're playing that irreplaceable role of raising image bearers to fill the earth with his glory and serving in the local church. Hallelujah.

If we had a world full of people like that, that's the race. That's precision. I need to close. Number three, and we're done. If we are to finish the race, we must one, run without hindrance. Two, we must run with passion, perseverance, and precision. And three, we must run with focus. Verse number two, Paul says, "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith." So if you want to know how to do this race of faith, we have one who's gone before us.

Listen, he gives all of those people in chapter 11, but then he's like, "Let me just give you the true and faithful witness, the greatest of all witnesses." Let's look at Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. "How did he run his race, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is sat down at the right hand of God?" How did Jesus run his race? The joy set before him. And here was the joy. There is a kingdom coming where I will reign over all heaven and earth, and I have laid down and laying down my life for a bride who is going to enjoy it with me. Read John 17.

Oh my goodness, where he's praying for the bride. Father, I desire that those whom you have given me will be with me where I am and that they will see my glory, the glory that you gave me from before the foundation of the world. He is looking and he knows that he's going through the cross and everything that happened in his life. He's looking beyond that and he's looking at the marriage supper of the Lamb with he and his bride together in heaven and earth forever. That's how he endured. He ran with focus. How do you run with focus? By looking at Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith.

We'll take a little liberty in the application and we'll say it this way. Number one, I want you to look down through the corridor of time, it's important that a man wants to die. We're all going to die. What if when you get to heaven, your wife's there or your husband and you get to heaven and your children are there? Yep, the ones that you told no, the ones that you may go to church, go to youth camp and VBS and all of those things. But man, you heard, I can't take credit for it, just for preaching sake, but you heard this message tonight and you said, "I am going to run with perseverance.

I'm going to run my race to the glory of God with everything I've got to the end by the grace of God." And you get there and your daughter or your son comes up and gives you the biggest heavenly hug you can imagine says, "Thank you! Thank you! This is beyond glorious! Thank you for running, thank you for not giving up, thank you dad, thank you husband, thank you wife." And there's just a family hug. I don't know how it all is in heaven, but I know that we know each other and I know that there will be glory and celebration. Man, everybody needs to be thinking about right now, father, son, mom, wife, daughter.

Let's all finish the race together. And let's do it right here at Grace Life Brookhaven. Jesus looked forward to a joy and I want to challenge you to look forward to that joy, but I also want to challenge you. I'll say a lot more about this Wednesday night. The Bible says that this world is under a curse. So if you think the Grand Canyon is something or Niagara Falls or a sunset, this is what it looks like broken. The joy set before you is no more sorrow, no more pain, no more death, no more curse. The Bible says creation is groaning for the redemption of the sons of men when the earth itself will be redeemed and clothed again.

And the Bible says that Christ himself will gird himself and serve us. We're going to be in the presence of God Almighty. This thing we call the Lord's Supper where we by faith come and feast before him and remember his death and that he's coming, we'll get to have that meal in his presence. And brother, there won't be any of you having any regrets at that moment that you went with Jesus, that you ran with perseverance. Let me pray. Holy Spirit, for Christ's sake, for your name's sake, do exceeding abundantly above all I can ask or think. In Christ Jesus and in your church, for ages to come. Amen.