Last weekend, my friend Pat McCurdy went to visit some of our mutual friends. One of those friends is a woman who keeps a small herd of goats on her little place in the woods. Pat spent a few minutes there befriending goats and helping out a bit. But hilariously, just as Pat turned his face directly into the face of one particular goat at his shoulder, that bloomin' goat chose that very moment to sloppy sneeze into Pat’s face! How about that? How funny is that? My friend Pat innocently goes to visit friends, helps out a little and he's rewarded with a face full of goat snot. Now that just isn’t right, is it Pat? That ain't the way things are supposed to go! (Sure is funny though!)Isn't that sort of how things go sometimes? How do we overcome when life is constantly blowing snot in our faces? As the Apostle John shared his great revelation of the end, eight times he said “those who overcome” will receive good stuff from God. And in his first letter, 1 John 5:4-5, he said “everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only [those] who believe Jesus is the Son of God.”
How do we overcome the world? How do we persevere when all the world around us gets so very nasty, mean and gross? I’ll tell you exactly how – keep coming back to God. We keep embracing what we know to be true about Jesus. We keep on trusting God loves us and has a glorious plan for our lives that wonderfully transcends the momentary difficulties we face.
This is not just church talk. This is the very foundation of our peace – the driving force behind our ability to persevere and overcome the world around us. Listen to the Apostle Paul in Romans 8:18-39:
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died--more than that, who was raised to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
What a wonderfully vivid description of the overcoming, persevering life of the believer! There are countless ways we could pick this passage apart, but there are four truths I believe Almighty God would have us park and meditate on this morning. We overcome, we persevere only to the degree we embrace four realities of the Christian life.
Eyes On The Prize
And the first of those realities is that we overcome, we persevere in life to the degree we are able to keep our eyes on the prize. To the degree we are able to say, along with the Apostle, that “our present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory one day revealed.” We persevere when we take the long view of all things. We have our eyes on the prize.
Were you aware traffic in Seoul, South Korea is about to get just a tiny bit worse? Can you imagine stuffing even one more car into that mess? Well, it’s all a moot point now because just this week a 68-year old woman named Cha Sa-Soon finally passed her driver’s test on her 950th attempt. Yup, you heard me – 950 attempts! She has been taking the test almost every day since April 2005! And do you know why she has been so freakishly persistent? She needs a driver’s license for her little vegetable selling business. She’s got her eyes on the prize.
That’s the kind of people we’re supposed to be – a people for whom the prize we’re looking forward to is absolutely worth whatever difficulty we must endure to enjoy it.
Groaning Together
The second persevering reality we embrace is discussed by the Apostle in verses 19-25. We understand we are all, creation included, groaning together as in the pains of childbirth. We understand, better than anyone, that the whole creation is enduring something difficult. While the birth pangs will still hurt us as they do anyone, while we will still absolutely suffer, we aren’t surprised by it all. We groan together. We are prepared. We were told us these things would happen. We can persevere because we know these things must happen. This thing isn’t just about us! God isn’t singling us out for punishment or pain. God is moving all of history where all of history must go. The whole earth has been subjected to what we’re enduring.
Comforted and Called
But we are not left alone in all this. We have not been left as orphans. In verses 26-30 of this passage, the Apostle reminds us that we have a Comforter and a calling. We are not alone here and we are not without purpose. This is the third enormous reality enabling us to persevere and overcome. We have the Holy Spirit helping us in our weakness. We have the Holy Spirit helping us form the very words of the prayers empowering us. We have One who knows the mind of God guiding us into the wisdom and power of God. And not only do we have a Comforter – we have a Comforter constantly reminding us of our calling – God’s great purposes in all this. God’s hand is in all this. We persevere because we know we can trust God to properly comfort and make good use of us in all the difficulty and birth pangs gripping us.
We are comforted and we are called. Because of this, we persevere and overcome.
Convinced and Connected
But the fourth and final reality is the most powerful. Paul says we are able to persevere and overcome to the degree we keep our eyes on the prize, to the degree we remember we are all in this thing groaning together, to the degree we allow the Spirit to comfort and remind us of God’s calling. And as we do all these things and move deeper into God, we will persevere and overcome as we become increasingly convinced of our connections to God. At a certain point, we will begin to embrace all the glorious things the Apostle enjoys at the end of this passage.
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Thirty five years ago, Michele Squires had her 1965 Volkswagon van stolen after she left it in a repair shop to get a bed installed in the back. Miraculously, on October 19th of this year, customs agents discovered the same van in a shipping container headed for the Netherlands. In pristine condition, the van could now be worth more than $25,000. Michele wants it back. She has always wanted it back. She may have some hassles to overcome with the insurance company, but she wants her van back because she loves that old van. It doesn’t matter that 35 years have gone by; she’s still attached to the old thing. “It was great in the snow. It had a lousy heater, but I kind of fell in love with it.” She’s just connected to the thing.
We persevere and overcome simply because we’re convincingly connected to God. We become persistent in prayer, enduring in trial, encouraging in suffering and joyously victorious in all sorts of situations because we are unshakably convinced of our connection to Almighty God. We become the sort of people who persistently forgive not seven, but seventy seven times. We keep on offering love even when love is rejected. We don’t give up when others do. We’re connected! We don’t let failure take our eyes off the prize – we’ll stand at the DMV as long as we must in order to accomplish what we believe Almighty God calls us to accomplish. We eventually become just like that persistent widow who keeps coming back to God in prayer because we are utterly convinced God will answer our prayers. We persistently knock at the door because we are utterly convinced of our connection to the One just beyond the door.
I wonder if any of us fully realize how badly our Heavenly Father wants us to get in the big game and win. Our coach is not some crabby guy who doesn’t particularly like us much and won’t put us in the game. Our coach is that father who loves us, the father cheering for us and taking our picture, the father who gets angry when we are mistreated – who can’t even talk about our victories without tearing up. That is the One who holds us firmly in His hands. Our is the One who will never to let us go. That is the One who gave up everything to joyously bring home what was stolen and repair what was broken. Once we become convinced of our connections to this powerfully dear One who loves us, we will persevere. We will overcome.
As an Army guy, I don’t know hardly anything about Navy ships. But nonetheless, I now have a favorite one. This is the USS New York, christened just a few days ago, setting sail on November 12th. It isn’t particularly glamorous or sophisticated, its mission is mostly simple Marine troop transport, but it was at least partially built from the wreckage of the World Trade Center. And it was constructed near New Orleans by people in the midst of dealing with the horrible destruction of Hurricane Katrina. I love that! Oh boy, I love that a lot!This hulking warship is a metaphor for everything we want to become as Christians. I believe Almighty God is calling each one of us to become exactly this kind of powerful people - persistently able to take the awful wreckage left behind by the devil and rebuild it into something strong and overcoming. Though the towers will always fall and the storms will rage around us, we’re called to become people able to pick up the pieces and soldier on because we are convinced of our connections to the One who loves us.
May we persevere!
May we overcome all we are called to overcome – all that simply must be overcome!
By the power and presence of the Holy Spirit working within us, may we never take our eyes from the prize! May we endure all the groaning birth pangs of the end by the comforting power of the Holy Spirit and the sure conviction of our calling! And may we become so joyously and increasingly convinced of our connection to the King, quitting won’t even occur to us!
Amen.
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