Endurance until the End

Good morning everybody. It's a blessing to be here. Thank God for this weather. Who knows how much we can take. It's just so dry and it gives us rain. I just want to say I get really nervous when I do this. So I mean it's probably pretty obvious but they say it helps to let people know if you feel nervous. So I feel nervous. Well, don't feel nervous. Let me be nervous. But now that I'm saying it, I feel a little better. Is there any prayer requests this morning? I know there's a Delmo. Okay. How do you say his name? Okay, maybe we... Is that it? Okay. I've always been a little reluctant to do this because it's like... And then it starts adding up and then it's like, okay, how am I going to remember all this? Hold on. Casey, Aaron's wife. And then who was after that? Harvey. Yes, we've got to get Harvey. Okay, sorry brother. Tanya? Alright, let's stand for prayer. Okay, Leroy's back. Oh Father, we just thank you so much that we can come and we can worship you and we can pray together and we can gather and be edified together. We thank you for this opportunity and we thank you for this place to do so. We pray for our friends and our family, Lord, that are out there maybe still struggling with different trials and different things of coming to the faith. We just want to ask that you would continue to work in their hearts, Lord. I want to lift up a prayer for Corey and John James, that you would help them, Lord, not to feel alone, not to be discouraged. We pray for Adelmo that you'd help him to be healed and that everything would be fine with his recovery. We pray for Tyler Fox and all the things that he needs to work out in his situation if it's going to work out for him to come here. We pray for Harvey. Please bless him, Lord. Please be with him. Comfort him. We pray for Daniel's translator that you would be with him and you'd bless him in all his needs. We pray for Aaron Whitley's wife that you'd help her, Lord, to see the error of her ways and just the heaviness of her decisions, Lord, and we just pray that you'd break her heart and you'd help her to repent, Lord, and bring her back. We pray for the man who brought the goods to Walter Brubaker's house, his wife, or the woman that was with him. We pray that you'd bless her, Lord, and you'd help her to see the truth, and we pray for Brother Leroy's back, that you'd help him to be healed, Father, and to get well soon. We thank you for all these things that you do for us, Lord, and we thank you that we can come before you and ask for you to help us. You're such a merciful and gracious Father. Thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. So, I wanted to share a few testimonies. This first testimony I'm going to share, it's kind of an older one, so it's possible some of you have heard it before because it was kind of popular, but it has been about 20 years, so it's possible you haven't heard of it, but it just really blessed me when I first read it, just some of the similarities to Christianity. I was able to really draw strength from this testimony, and I just hope that it'll encourage you, and I just really hope that I can articulate it in a way where it's clear. But I wrote it down so that way I could just read it, and I wouldn't...I think it'd be easier that way possibly, hopefully. So I'm just going to do that, and this is probably one of my favorite testimonies out of all. And then I have a new testimony. This testimony is about 20 years old, but I have a new testimony that's my new favorite testimony. It's on my list of great testimonies, and it's about a week old, and so I'd like to share that after this one. Okay, so we all know that the Bible speaks a lot about mountains and storms. So my first testimony is about just that, a mountain and a storm. Okay, now there are a lot of similarities between the two, mountains and storms, and following Jesus. One that really stands out to me is the need to endure. So when you're climbing a mountain, you really need to pace yourself. They say one of the biggest mountains in the world, Mount Everest, there's a saying, and the saying is, the hardest part is not making it to the top, but it's making it back down to the bottom, because that takes endurance. So these guys, they get up there, they can make it up, but they have to set a time for themselves. If they're not to the top of this mountain by this certain time, they have to turn around, because you won't make it back down. The Bible speaks about endurance. It's very important that we must endure to the end to be saved. Unfortunately, many men and women have rushed to the top of the mountain, only to realize they don't have enough strength, and they're burnt out. They don't have enough strength to make it back down to the bottom. Now I can't help to think of the parable of the sower, when I think of this testimony, how Jesus says in Matthew 13, some fell among stony places where they had not much earth. And forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth. And when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away. Now Jesus goes on to explain that parable. He says, But he that received the seed into stony places, the same as he, that heareth the word, and anointing with joy, receiveth it, or immediately, with joy, receiveth it. And yet hath he no root in himself, but endureth for a while. For when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. Now I would liken Christianity to this mountain that we're climbing. And when you get to the top of this mountain, this mountain of truth, it's just absolutely gorgeous. It's just glorious. You're up there. You're above the clouds. The mountains are capped with snow. It's just awe-inspiring. When you come to this realization of the truth, it's just awe-inspiring. It's just really a blessing to take all that in. And then it just hits you like a ton of bricks. The truth. It's not this new, beautiful thing. It just becomes this reality. And that reality is that we must completely and utterly die to ourselves. And we must be born again. And we must lose our lives. And we must become new creatures and walk in newness of life until the end, hence to the bottom of the mountain. Now, so this is a testimony of a mountain climber and a team of mountain climbers who went up to this Mount Everest. A team of mountain climbers who went up to Mount Everest to climb this mountain. But first I wanted to share a little side note to that, which is it's kind of an interesting fact about Mount Everest. The people who originally set out to climb Mount Everest, they actually didn't make it. It was the people who they had hired to carry the stuff at Mount Everest. They had these guys, they call them Sherpas, they're the locals, and they carry stuff up. Let's see, I'm getting off track here. Let me just read this. The first two climbers ever to summit Mount Everest weren't even there to set records. They were hired to carry the stuff up the mountain for the real mountain climbers. But because they went up and down the mountain so many times, their body acclimated to the elevation. Now, they didn't even know at the time that you had to acclimate your body. They just thought you could climb a mountain. But people weren't able to climb this mountain. It was so high and people would get sick. So these guys were just bringing stuff up and down, up and down, up and down. They were the servants, the hired help. And because they were doing that, they were acclimating their body. So apparently, if you don't acclimate your body and you just try to climb straight to the top of this mountain, what will happen is your brain will swell. The fluids in your brain will swell and you could die. It's called cerebral edema. So you have to acclimate to this. I thought about the relationship to knowledge there too. You can't just get it. You can't just go straight forward and get it. You get puffed up. It's a continual up and down process. Okay, back to the testimony. So in the late 90s, a group of climbers set out to climb Mount Everest. Long story short, six people tragically died. And one man was severely injured. And that's the man I wanted to focus on. His name was Beck Weathers. Now fast forward a bit here. This man, Beck Weathers, loses his eyesight on the climb up due to some complications from a previous surgery he had in his eyes. Possibly the altitude got to him. Whatever happened, he couldn't see anymore. So the guides asked him to just sit and wait at this one spot until they came back down. And it's interesting because the guide said, he said, wait for Mike. When Mike comes back, then you can go. And so he was really faithful. This group of climbers came down before Mike and said, come on, Beck, you can come with us. We'll take you. And he said, no. No, I've got to wait for Mike. I promise that. I'll wait for Mike. So he stayed there and he waited for Mike. And then eventually, after a couple of hours just sitting there, Beck Weathers, he finally meets up with Mike and some of the other members. And they start hiking down this mountain. And then they get caught in this massive storm. Now, I mean, a storm is bad enough, but they're like in the highest place of the world. And it's just pretty much a death sentence. So Beck is coming down the mountain. He's with maybe five other people. And two of them, at this point, when they get caught in the storm, they can't move. They're so exhausted. They had spent so much energy just getting to the top. They didn't have enough to make it back down. So what they decided to do was send two of the strongest men out of that group to go get help. And so they just set out in this blinding storm to get help. And they finally reach base camp. And then they send others back for Beck and the three climbers that are with him. When help arrives, Beck and another climber, a woman, a Japanese woman, she was going to be the oldest woman to ever summit Mount Everest, they just look hopeless. They're just, you know, pretty much, they're just out of it. They're just, they said that Beck Weathers had an inch of ice on his face. So they didn't think there was much hope for them, so they just left him there. And they took the other two. Okay, so fast forward to the morning time. And Beck and the other woman have been out in the elements all night. Now, they've been out all night in unbearable conditions. And I think they said that the wind chill factor had reached 100 below, if that's possible. So these people are just in the snow all night, through the storm, 100 below conditions. I think the lady was probably frozen, solid, and Beck was just covered in ice. I think his hand was out. But all of a sudden, Beck Weathers comes to. He realizes. He testified that he felt warm all over. And he just woke up, and he was on this mountain. And he realized, he thought to himself, he said, Beck, if you don't get yourself out of here, nobody's going to get you out of here. And he realized at that moment, it was up to him. He couldn't get help from anybody else. And that is the part of the testimony that has probably been so encouraging to me over the years, is because when times get hard, and you go through all these different situations with all these different people, our Christianity, it really depends on our heart and our desire. We can't blame anybody else. If something's not going right, it's a grief, and you've got to bear it, and you've got to endure it, and you've got to just keep going. It makes me think of that scripture, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. So that really encouraged me. He just got up, and he actually, as bad off as he was, he wobbled and made his way back to the base camp. He found his way back to the base camp, and he comes stumbling into the base camp. His hand is frozen in the air, and they were just like, like, this guy's a walking zombie. He just looked really bad. They didn't think he was going to make it for very long. Surely he was going to die soon. So what we need to do is just put him in a tent and cover him, and he'll just die there. Because there didn't seem like there was going to be much hope. And so while he's in that tent, I think it took a day or two. I'm not sure of the exact time frame, but it took some time for him to get down, for them to transport him down and all that. So while he was waiting there, they put him in this tent, and they covered him with a sleeping bag, and the conditions were so bad, and people had been so wracked from this storm, that everybody was just focusing on themselves, and didn't have a whole lot of energy or time for other people. And so, at one point, Beck, the doors of the tent flew open, his sleeping bag flew off him, and he's screaming for help for a few hours possibly. And finally, one of the guys says, you know, I'm just going to go check on Beck. He's probably dead, but I'm just going to go check on him. And he goes, and he sees Beck. He's got all the stuff off him. The wind's just blowing, and he's like, Beck says, what do I have to do to get some help around here? And the guy was just like, oh. So anyways, he went through all these things. He's still alive, Lord willing, he made it. He lost his right hand, all the fingers on his left hand, and his nose, due to frostbite. But one thing that really blesses me too, and the miraculous thing about this, is he's not offended at anybody. He's just thankful to be alive. He doesn't blame anybody. I mean, he's openly testifies about these things, like, how he could have just, it could have been all these other people's fault that they weren't there for him. They didn't help him. Whatever. He doesn't look at it like that. He's just thankful to be alive. And I thought, that's such a good testimony. You know, testimony for me. Okay, so that was my first testimony. My second testimony is about the baby that we just had. I'm going to read a verse here from Ecclesiastes 7, 14. Now, I don't claim to fully understand this verse, but recently, it did make me consider how that after adversity comes, or when prosperity comes after adversity, it seems all that much more prosperous when you can compare the two. So you all know that last year, my wife, she miscarried at 15 weeks. And I know that's really hard, and I know that brothers and sisters have gone through that, and we wept with you, and we sympathized with you, and that's a hard thing. But I just want to encourage you that God is merciful, and He hears us. Those things don't go unnoticed. And though we have trials and struggles, we can call upon Him for mercy, and we can call upon Him for help. And He's faithful. So last year, October 12th, we were in the emergency room in Monette, um, sorry, just making sure that everything was okay, and it was, everything was okay, but we were just being precautionary there. And then, last week, when we had our baby, our new baby, she was born on October 12th. Exactly one year after we were in the ER room. Isn't that amazing? God can just do that, like He could, He can have you go through this hard thing, and then He could, like, there's a reason for it. He can go through this adversity, and then He can bring you this prosperity to show you that He loves you and He cares. Maybe I'll just close with a verse. Psalm 147, 11. The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him, and those that hope in His mercy. Thank you. God bless you. Feel free to share, correct, or comment. Amen. Praise the Lord for the prosperity a year after. You know, the Scriptures mention our life as a Christian, as a race, a fight. Perhaps there's other analogies, and we start out as a babe, and mature, maybe mature, and one of the songs we sang, I guess, this morning was, we should wear a crown. And when? Well, when the race is over, until our last breath. And if we get that crown, then we'd cast it down at His feet, and say, the Lord be magnified. It was all Him. The Lord be magnified. Amen. Yeah, thanks for sharing, brother. I know there's something special about things that happen in your, just in your own life that you can you know, directly, seemingly directly connect with the hand of God, like working. And they're special. Anyway, just the concept, I just thought of different verses, I think that kind of concept about how we go through hard times and find joy on the other side, like it's all through Scripture. There's a verse I can't quite quote, but it has to do with how a woman, like she dreads the hour of of labor, and yet when it's all over, she forgets all of that for the joy that she's brought a child to the world. Sorrow or weeping is for a night, but joy comes in the morning. He that sows in tears will reap in joy. Anyway, just thank you for sharing those things. God bless you. Thank you for the two testimonies. I really appreciated the second one. The first one kind of left me thinking a little bit, I guess I could think more about where I was at when I first started seeking answers and where I would be today, and how the faithfulness of God really was the only thing that was kind of keeping me going in the beginning. I would think the part about the people in the first testimony not being very, not trying to help the man that is pretty much close to death would be an encouragement to us all to try to remember our neighbors and our lives, through our struggles and even through our good times. But I know there's passages like in Job that Job listed specifically that friends are terrible consolers. Sometimes they might not do the right thing, but I hope that if anybody here was actually going through a struggle or a need that we would be considering each other unlike people in the world caught up in their own business. But God is faithful and I'm grateful for Him, grateful for everybody here. I'm thankful to have brothers and sisters in the faith. God bless you all. God bless you all. God bless you all. And when the battle's over We shall wear a crown in the new Jerusalem Wear a crown Wear a crown Wear a bright and shiny crown And when the battle's over We shall wear a crown in the new Jerusalem From the sky He carried to the stars On cloudy days of ease While others fought to win the prize And sailed through bloody seas And when the battle's over We shall wear a crown We shall wear a crown We shall wear a crown When the battle's over We shall wear a crown In the new Jerusalem Wear a crown Wear a crown Wear a bright and shiny crown And when the battle's over We shall wear a crown in the new Jerusalem Are there no foes for We to face the final step of love Is this the world of friendship raised to help me unto God And when the battle's over We shall wear a crown Yes, we shall wear a crown Yes, we shall wear a crown And when the battle's over We shall wear a crown in the new Jerusalem Wear a bright and shiny crown And when the battle's over We shall wear a crown in the new Jerusalem Sure I must fight If I would reign in peace My herd is poor I'll bear the toll Endure the pain supported by thy word And when the battle's over We shall wear a crown Yes, we shall wear a crown Yes, we shall wear a crown And when the battle's over We shall wear a crown in the new Jerusalem Wear a crown Wear a crown Wear a bright and shiny crown And when the battle's over We shall wear a crown in the new Jerusalem But Jesus bared the cross alone And all the world grew free Though there's a cross for every one And there's a cross for me His throne on earth with griefs and cares he wept His bosom weighed How low it fell the crown he wears and reigns in endless day The cross the grave The cross, how dead it fell from the cross set free And then, O all, thy crown to wear for theirs the cross for me Day by day and with each passing moment strength I find to meet my trial's tears Trusting in my Father's wise bestowment I've no cause for worry or for fear He who's far is finding of no measure Gives unto each day what he thinks best Loving me is part of pain and pleasure Mingling full with peace and rest Every day the Lord himself is near me With a special mercy for each hour All my cares he would bear and cheer me He whose name is counselor and father The protection of his child and treasure Is a charge that on him shall be laid As my gaze thy strength shall be in measure There's the flesh to be retained I'll be there in every tribulation So to trust thy promises, O Lord That I lose not this sweet consolation Offer me within my holy word Help me, Lord, when so I struggle needing air to take as from a father's hand One by one the days of moments fleeting Till I reach the promised land Amen Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace Whose mind is stayed on thee Carmel, now I say unto you Marble, now that I say unto you Marble, now that I say unto you He must be born again Though your sins have started thee Though your sins have started thee Though your sins have started thee They shall be white as snow If the Son shall make you free If the Son shall make you free If the Son shall make you free He shall be free He shall be free They that wait upon the Lord They that wait They that wait They shall renew their strength