Will you endure to the end? A word on endurance and the Christian Faith (Jackie Hill Perry)

((music playing)) ((applause)) how are y'all Jesus great then uh this mic is loud um my name is Jackie and uh the lord loves me and so that's really the only reason why I have anything of value to say or communicate uh I live in Atlanta with my husband of almost 11 years and our four children and our dog who is hyper um to the point that I've been tempted to give him CBD but that's another that's that's another conversation I just don't know what else will work um I'm going to get straight to it um I know I've come to speak into this discussion and this conversation about sexuality and um something that often comes to my mind when requested to have these kinds of conversations is how often we think about the LBGTQ Plus or the gay community as if they are out there um when really we are talking about similar struggles that we all have we all are sexually broken we all have passions and desires within us that are problematic and that need to be submitted to the lordship of Christ and so even in this conversation this initial conversation I'm actually just going to be talking to everybody um because I think a part of compassion comes by way of you realizing how messed up you are too I've been thinking a lot about the idea of endurance and how endurance is the ability to withstand difficulty because when I look back at the friends I've lost to the world and when I consider the friends that I have that are still on the narrow way the main difference I seen between them is their relationship to endurance I have friends that were side by side with me in the faith they read scripture with me they went to church with me they worshiped with me we did events together giving the gospel they were creative they were useful to the mission of God through all kinds of mediums I used to pray with them and talk with them and fast with them but I remember when things started to shift I remember when their sentences is started to sound a little different when the joy of the Lord felt fake when we would talk scripture all of a sudden they seem to be struggling with really fundamental and basic concepts of the faith like taking up your cross daily and at the time I was still a little naive to apostasy and so I thought that there questions were just questions but now I I realize in hindsight that they were actually asking asking the questions because they were starting to drift they were becoming scoffers and it was coming through and how they wrestled and slowly but surely I saw them they stopped abiding they stopped hoping they stopped trusting they stopped dying they stopped crucifying the Flesh and you know one reason why it's because they got tired of running the race they stopped enduring the writer of Hebrew said you have need of endurance James said blessed is the man and woman who remains steadfast under trial for when he has stood the test he will receive the Crown of Life Jesus said the one who perseveres will be saved I've been commissioned to talk about how the next leaders of the church can practically serve those with within the LBGTQ plus community and love those who are contemplating it and when I prayed for what I was supposed to say what I sensed is that I am here to remind you to preach the whole gospel to yourselves first and then to others the whole gospel which includes the exhortation to endure suffering because the gospel is good news about Christ's person his death his resurrection but it is also a summon to join him in his suffering to endure with him so that we may reign with you by the way if you ain't never seen me Teach is going to be a bit loud I'm not mad I'm just passionate and it felt like I need to let you know that it is in the realm of Temptation that is a category of suffering that might be one of our generation's greatest battles because we are really fine with following Christ in so far as following Christ is just attending a Christian College we we are fine with following Christ if following Christ is going to church all the time or or reading the Bible and doing the devotionals and listening to chh it we are fine with that until we realize that following Christ means we must wear a cross on our back until the day we die are you ready to resist the devil until the day you die are you committed to putting to death what is Earthly in you until the day you die are you content with not getting everything you want and scratching every itch and living with unsatisfied desires until the day you die if you are then welcome to Christianity I come with the assumption that some of us not all but some of us already agree with the historical biblical view of sexual ethics that samesex sex is sinful and completely opposed to God's original design as set forward in Genesis 1 and two for our bodies and our sexual expression and for those who would agree we can talk later but right now in this moment I'm not here to change your mind I have one Mission which is to communicate a part of this conversation that I believe is getting missed I have not heard enough people say out loud that when you decide to follow Jesus and to obey the scriptures submitting your passions and desires to the Lord Jesus Christ it means that your life will no longer be a walk in the park I think that's what this generation needs to hear that Christianity is a faith that involves suffering a faith that involves difficulty a faith that is fundamentally about crucifixion that will then result in Resurrection I don't know what we have been teaching people but I don't hear enough about how making the decision to follow Christ and to do what he says means that you are signing up for a hard life I never seen a bumper sticker like that Jesus said it himself hard is the way to life and few will find it meaning following Christ is not going to be easy yes it is joyful yes it is glorious yes it is beautiful but alongside those real realities are great pain even our Lord was a man who was acquainted with grief and a man of Sorrows I can even sense the temptation to feel like that sounds harsh like I'm doing too much like saying Christianity is hard and painful is a terrible Evangelistic strategy and maybe that same thinking is the reason why we have so many churches and institutions and pastors who are unbelievers because we have not told them what following Christ actually means evangelism without truth is a Prosperity Gospel you don't have to preach health and wealth to give people a vision of the faith that is still wrong if your strategy is to say come to Jesus and you will have an abundant life that doesn't cost you everything you are giving people a vision of Christianity that is all butterflies and rainbows and our tears and crosses and we wonder why people are leaving a faith that they never had they didn't know what they were signing up for it's because they didn't know or didn't actually believe that Christianity is a death sentence Jesus said if anyone will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me when when you preach to your friends or when you preach to yourself do you preach it in such a way that you are required to count the cost is your framework of Christianity biblical or just American is it possible that you are confessing the narrow way but expecting to experience the wide one the one that Jesus says is is easy it is preaching the whole Gospel of faith and Obedience of death to self of resurrection power of Christ lordship and human weakness that people including ourselves need to be exhorted in Daily lest like the writer of Hebrew says we are hardened by the deceitfulness of sin how can this generation then of leaders serve those Within These communities this is how we must help people embrace the Christian call to endure a little context for me is I met Christ when I was 19 I was a slave to all kinds of stuff anger weed control Pride Rebellion approval and lesbianism I loved everything God made more than the God who made it my life was a manifestation of Romans 1 which says for although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him because they became FAL in their thinking and their foolish Hearts were darkened therefore God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie this is all of us before Christ comes before Mercy interrupts the darkness and brings light we are all like this we are all enslaved to our lust we are all enslaved to our pride we we are all enslaved to the passions of the body allowing how we feel to dictate what we do allowing our desires to determine our doctrines until Christ comes and gives us a a new heart and a new mind filling us with his spirit so that we can love him more than anything since he is in fact better than everything but on this side of Mercy I have still had to fight for my life just because I've been delivered from Darkness doesn't mean I don't have days where I miss Egypt just because my heart has changed doesn't mean I don't have memories and moments that tempt me to forget my first love just because I know him doesn't always mean I have a affection for him and I am learning that it is that exact war between the Flesh and the spirit that explains why we have need of endurance because I don't know if you noticed but for me the external circumstances and trials of my life are not the main thing I'm really up against it's not only sickness and persecution or difficulty or portrayal that tempts me to walk another way it is me dealing with me that is the greatest challenge I am the hardest Mountain that I have to move I have desires within me that are Waging War against my soul and so do you every single person in here has Desires in their souls that are Waging War you are the hardest person to deal with every single person alive has to run the waste that is set before them if they are in Christ and it is our hearts that make endurance difficult I'm sure that you've noticed that our culture and our society has a lot of arguments that opposes Christian endurance if you are a Christian and you've submitted yourself to the knowledge that the body is not meant meaning its purpose is not for sexual immorality but the body was made created exist for the Lord and the Lord for the body if if you submitted to that reality then then then you know how it feels to come against people who don't believe it if ever you have had the courage to say out loud that you will not dishonor god with your body in a society that is wholly devoted to the exaltation of sexual sin people will look at you like you lost your mind some of you have probably dis discovered even at this school that even in Christian dating there are so-called Christians who are unwilling and even surprised that there are people that actually want to deny themselves coming up against the constant scoffing and the constant antagonism and the constant encouragement to just give in to what your body wants is hard the rulers and authorities because we fight not against flesh and blood but principalities and rulers and authorities in the high place the rulers and authorities in the Heavenly Realms want to desperately convince you that your body actually just belongs to you that your sexual urges cannot be overcome by resurrection power that they must be satisfied for them to leave they will try to tell you even singles that marriage won't be fun if you don't at least try it before you buy it it's Satan it's satanic or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have for God do do you not know that you are not your own do do you not know that you were brought with a price so that you are required to glorify God in your body it is only a devil and people who are submitted to him who would encourage you not to glorify God with everything that you have I think for many of you your heart actually doesn't want to dishonor him I think for many of you you want to be and stay holy you want to think on what is worthy of praise you want to think on what is good and what is right and what is true you don't want to want what you want but it's all the arguments from without and their appeal to the passions within us that wear on us that discourage us that that that that create a weight on us and I understand I get it I I get the struggle of fighting thoughts day after day I understand the wrestle of feeling divided between flesh and spirit I understand what it's like to have dreams that you don't want to have and there are seasons when you resist and fight back and Temptation lifts immediately then there are seasons that feel much like Christ's Temptation in the wilderness where it says the text says he was in the wilderness for 40 days being tempted the Temptation was the whole 40 days it wasn't until after the 40 days that the devil then left him some of us might be in that season where where this constant wrestle with the flesh is causing you to get weary and discouragement discouragement is a dangerous game because if we are not careful to preach the gospel to ourselves we will lose the courage to believe that the blood still works I completely believe weariness discouragement losing hope and confidence in God's ability to keep you is the reason why many people fall away it ain't merely the exegetical arguments they claim to have the heart drove them to see what they saw in the text the real reason is they got tired of trying to love God if you fall away it will be be because you got tired of trying to love him you see it in the parable of the sewer that there are those with heart hearts that are like rocky soil they they received the word with joy they got excited was jumping around doing praise and worship having captions that were super biblical and exegetical and and the thing was that lasted until tribulation came that lasted until difficulty came that lasted until they realized that the narrow road actually was narrow they fell away cuz life got too too hard and do you know what the hardest thing for people born after Adam to do is the hardest thing for people who are born after Adam to do is to deny themselves a self-absorbed life where you do what you want when you want is easy because it's natural self-denial of the body of any sexual sin I love how I'm including all of us in this self-denial requires a miracle you cannot keep dying to your passions if you do not keep abiding in the vine you cannot keep dying to yourself if you refuse to be that dependent maybe the difficulty is God pressing you into dependence maybe the season of life you are in is God showing you that your own efforts your home own human efforts are not good enough to sustain the thirstiness in your soul it is the power of Christ that helps us endure it is the power of Christ that helps us put to death what is Earthly in in us it is the power of Christ that keeps us you know Hebrews is the perfect book for this conversation of endurance because that's kind of what these Christians not even kind of that's what they was going through the the the difficulty of their Christian experience specifically around suffering was tempting them to lay aside their confidence in God to fall away to reject their faith and after laying out the supremacy of Christ the the high high Priestly position of Christ and his ability to sympathize with those who are tempted after all of that we get to this really nice chapter that I think is beautiful about faith and how throughout history there have been men and women who because they loved God and because they trusted God and because they believed God and because they were looking forward to something else Beyond this world they were able to do very hard things there's Noah who built an ark because he feared God there's Sarah who received power to conceive because she believed God there's Abraham who lived in a foreign land because he was looking forward to a city not built by hands but built by God we got Moses who endured the anger of the King by seeing God and I hope you notice that I'm saying or emphasizing his name on purpose because the thing that helped all of them endure is that they looked at god consider Noah who was told by God God was about to destroy everything except his family and that this salvation would come by faith and this faith in God would cause Noah to believe and therefore proceed with building the ark that God told him to build meanwhile he is building his ark to prepare for a flood that ain't nobody ever seen in their life and everybody is having a great time people are eating and drinking and getting married however Noah didn't have the same luxury as the people around him he was too busy trying to save his life you don't think it took faith and endurance to believe that God was telling the truth when it seems like everyone around you doesn't have the same burdens as you you don't think it it takes a different kind of fight when God is telling you to live a certain way and for you to think a certain way and for you to be a certain way when everybody around you seems to just be able to do whatever they want and they don't have the same convictions you don't think he saw the relaxed nature of everyone around him and coveted it amen consider Moses who fled Midian left Egypt twice and the Bible says that the Moses forsook Egypt not fearing the Wrath of the king it's it's costly to forsake the powerful and the luxury that such power affords depending on where you will live it will be convenient for you if you submit to governing Powers with certain legislation regarding marriage gender and sexuality so as to enjoy the comfort of being able to keep your job being able to keep your friendships being able to stay uh uh members in your church simply because you've you've relegated yourself to thinking and belie leaving like the world just so people won't hate you it comes with a cost to forsake the kingdom of this world knowing that there is wrath from people for who those who will dare say that God is actually lord of the body but despite the cost Moses endured his race by seeing God consider Sarah who knew God promised to give her a son from her own womb but I don't think she realized how long that was going to take year after year decade after decade menopause is 30 30 years away she been dried up it's just been done she she had to deal with the reality hear me she had to deal with the reality that she would not and could not conceive apart from God's power and timing therefore her faith in God had to include embracing God's sovereignty over her body and when he would allow her body to function according to its design being a sexual being with his various desires can frustrate the holiest of saints when obedience leaves you with unfulfilled longings year after year decade after decade some of y'all need to come to terms with the fact that maybe God won't want you to be married some some of you need to come to terms with the fact that maybe he may wait make you wait until your 30s and your 40s if you but if you love God more than you love marriage you will endure for some of us celibacy is the call for others marriage is the call but hear me both situations come with the cost because in both cases there will always be unfulfilled desires it ain't like once you get married you don't have to say no to something both context requires self-denial there is a cost for the faithful ones but do you know what makes one embrace it do you know what helped these Saints keep going every single one of them did not allow the cost of their obedience to distract them from the god they were OB obeying Noah obeyed because he feared God Moses endured by seeing the invisible God Abraham looked forward to a city that was built by God Sarah considered the faithfulness of God the energizing force behind your Christian endurance is keeping your eyes on Christ you must look at Christ more than you look at your Temptations you must look at Christ more than you look at the world you must look at Christ more than you look at anything else if you are desperate enough you will even when you consider Christ Temptation in the wilderness did you notice that every test Satan threw at Jesus Christ's response involved God man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God you shall not put the Lord your God to the test Worship the Lord and serve God only God was not an abstraction to Christ or the Saints in Hebrews he was not a character in a book he was not a tool for our exeresis in our papers he was not a sham he was and he is the Lord the Lord the gracious and compassionate God who is slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love this God had their attention and their affections and because of this they were able to stand no wonder why when we get to chapter 12 the writer still centers God he shows us that at the end of the day if you want to run this W race well you have to pay attention to what you're looking at he says therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us looking to Jesus the founder and perfector of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endureth the cross despising the shame and where is he now seated at the right hand of the Throne of God I don't know how any of you in this room have been running I don't know how you have been helping or serving people in how they run but if you're in your preaching and in your practice you focus on anything else but Jesus you are not going to finish you're not going to finish and by finish I mean finishing according to how God defines finishing because there are a lot of people that have stopped running but have embraced a form of godliness where you can't even tell there are so many distractions available to us to keep us from looking at Christ we know the obvious on ones like social media and Netflix I think we have to take that seriously they they have a way of consuming our time and attention robbing us of time that could be spent in prayer time that could be spent in the scriptures time that could be spent in authentic Fellowship they play a part in our lack of biblical literacy and they play a part in our lack of biblical medit ation what if boredom was an opportunity to meditate on his law day and night but we're so distracted another thing that distracts us is Shame Shame serves as a distraction because the sneaky part of Shame is that it tempts you to look at yourself more than the cross you might be thinking that being inordinately introspective about your weaknesses is a way to keep yourself from sin I do it all the time but if you are looking at shame therefore yourself more than you are looking at Christ than you are looking at yourself more than you are looking at Christ and do you know that that ain't never helped not a single soul be more holy the writer of Hebrews tells us where to look he says look to Jesus and when you do you will discover how to endure like him because he is the one who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame meaning The Shame of the Cross meaning the shame of suffering meaning the shame of humiliation that his the potential shame he could have paid attention to did not have his attention he treated shame with contempt and said N I don't got I don't got energy to put my mind on you he did not allow the shame of the Cross to take his Focus or the joy that was set before him and if we are followers of Christ then we must follow him even in this way the only way to run well is to look at Christ often I want to read to you what the writers of Hebrews says when he talks about all the hard stuff people were able to do by looking at Christ for time would tell me of Gideon or F would fail to tell me of Gideon Barack Samson jeffa of David and Samuel and the prophets who through faith conquered kingdoms enforced Justice obtained promises stopped the miles of lions insert your weaknesses here quench the power of fire escaped the edge of the sword were made strong out of weakness became Mighty in war put foreign armies to flight women received back their dead by Resurrection some were tortured refusing to accept release so that they might rise again to a better life others suffered mocking and fogging and chains and imprisonment they were stoned they were saw in two they were killed with the sword they went about in skins of sheeps and goats destitute Afflicted mistreated of whom the world was not worthy you can do hard things if you look to Christ I want I want to close with something that Jesus did that has um ministered to me throughout my life it's in Luke chapter 22 starting at 39 it says and he came out and went as was his custom to the Mount of Olives and the disciples followed him and when he came to the place he said to them pray that you may not enter into temptation and he withdrew for them about a stone's throw and knelt down and prayed saying father if you are willing remove this cup from me it's getting hard dad nevertheless not my will but yours be done and there appeared to him an angel from heaven strengthening him I'll simply say what encourages me about that passage is that Christ knows what it's like to endure Christ knows what it's like to be tempted to want something easier Christ knows what it's like to to petition God to lighten the load to lift the suffering to to somehow by his merciful hand not make the narrow way so narrow but I'm encouraged by the fact that what the lord gave him was not more ease what the lord gave him was more strength God's strength will be made perfect in your weakness God's grace is sufficient for you the the problem is not that God does not have enough resources to sustain you the problem is do you have enough Faith to wait on them we got to get used to waiting we we got to get used to tering we got to get used to sitting at his feet and crying for sustenance crying for Grace crying for strength we got to get used to being honest and my encouragement to that is the reason why you should do that is because he's worthy he's beautiful he's better he's good he's King he's Lord he's friend he's father he's Messiah he's life he's light he is worthy Jesus told the woman at the well in John 4 I have water that is alive so I need y'all to start pressing in I need you to start fighting harder and the way you fight is on your face I'm going to pray that we are willing to hear the word of the Lord and submit our affections to him Lord we thank ((music playing)) you we thank you for your word we thank you for your son we thank you for your Holy Spirit and how he comes and illuminates and convicts and reveals keeps and sustains I pray God that even in this moment that he would pour hope into us that our faith would not fail help us to lay aside every weight in the Sin that's so easily entangled so that we can run the race that is set before us help us to look at Christ more than we look at anything help us to love Christ more than we love anything help us to believe Christ more than we believe anything I pray God that you would help us to put to death our Idols anything in our life that we think is more satisfying than God I pray God that you would begin to bring tension that you would begin to bring disruption that you would begin to create circumstances where you discipline us so that we would be more righteous I pray that we would not resist your hand but that we would surrender to your way I pray God that you would allow ow us the power and the courage to cast our cares I pray that you would give us a vision of Heaven that has everything to do with just knowing you that we would fight to know you that we would fight to love you that we would fight to serve you that we would not be satisfied with a form of godliness and deny its power I pray God that your Holy Spirit would pour into US real resurrection power so that we can can put everything to death that keeps us from loving you I pray for the churches in this community that they would love you I pray for the Pastors in this community that they would love you I pray for the leadership in this school that they would authentically love not just preach about you not just teach about you not just keep have syllabuses about I pray that they would love you with all of their heart with all of their mind and with all of their soul I pray that they would not lean on their own own understanding but that they would lean on you I pray for everyone in the room who was a slave to sexual sin that by faith they would confess that by faith they would repent knowing that you have said you can and will cleanse us from all unrighteousness I pray against the evil evil one in his schemes how even now he's he's making us feel like we shouldn't be honest because what people will say what what do you think about it may we be more concerned with your offense than embarrassment we love you Lord help us love you more in Christ's name amen ((applause))