Chris McCurley: It is wonderful to be here to worship God with you together this morning. This past week I had the blessing and the privilege of spending a lot of time with our youth group. We went on a trip to Florida, and I want to inform you in case you were not aware, maybe you have forgotten, we have some incredible young people here at this congregation. We are extremely blessed, and so I'm thankful to the parents and all of you who helped work with them because they are truly amazing. And I was just so impressed by the way that they interacted with everyone that they came in contact with. This week I would like to ask you to please pray for us throughout the week as we will be at Camp Leatherwood and just pray that the blessings that we can have at camp and that we can have a successful week. Whenever I was younger and ⁓ growing up, I was had the blessing and the privilege of growing up on a family farm. Can you click to the next slide, please? I had the blessing of growing up on a family farm and I really had a lot of great experiences and I will talk about a few different stories from my life on the farm in this lesson, but one of the things that I did not enjoy was fencing. It was one of the most difficult things that we had to do, and for some reason it seemed like we always chose the hottest day of the year to do it on. Fencing was difficult because you would have to Do so many steps. Most of the time there was some type of old fence or tree line or something that you would have to clear out before you could even start putting the new fence in. Then you would have to put in the post, and whether that was driving in T-post or digging a hole or whatever other thing that you had to do to get the post in the ground. Then you had to come back with either wood slats or some other type of wire to put up the fence. You see, fencing was difficult and it was something that we had to persevere through. It was something that we had to continue doing. You see, perseverance is the idea of continuing in a course of action even in the face of difficulty. This morning, what I want to encourage us all as Christians to do, what we will get to by the end of the lesson, what I want to continue to remind us all the way throughout it is that as Christians we should persevere. We should continue in the course of action even in the face of difficulty. The Bible encourages perseverance, and in Matthew chapter 10, Jesus talks about the idea of perseverance. He says, But the one who endures to the end will be saved. The one who endures to the end, to continue in that course of action, to continue to persevere. Throughout whatever trials, whatever struggles, whatever difficulties that we face in this life, Jesus says that the one who endures to the end will be saved. When I think about perseverance, one of the first characters in the Bible that comes to my mind is Paul. Paul is someone who persevered through many different trials, and in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, Paul talks about the trials and the difficulties that. He faced and he went through in his life. He said, Five times I received at the hands of the Jew forty lashes, last one. He talks about how he was beaten with rods, he was stoned, he was shipwrecked, he had so many dangers, and how he faced so many different trials, yet he persevered. He continued in the course of action, even in his face of difficulty. Didn't matter what he was going through, what struggles he faced, Paul continued to fight for the cause of the gospel. In Philippians chapter 3, Paul writes and says, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. No matter what Paul was dealing with in his life, no matter what trials he was facing, no matter what things he was dealing with, Paul said, I press on. As Christians, that should be our goal. It should be our aim to continue to press on, to continue to persevere for the gospel. Paul was a hero of the faith because he persevered. We have a a lot of members of our youth group who enjoy running. I ⁓ cannot really relate to that. I had to run a lot in high school because of different sports, but I never really enjoyed it. I always kind of just did it to get in shape to eventually go play the sport. I wanted to be quicker than somebody else on the basketball court, and that was about the only motivation I had to run. And still now I try to run every now and then, but I don't really enjoy it. Something that I have to persevere through. It's every step you take, you're just continuing in that face of difficulty. You're continuing to go on to that next step. And the Bible often talks about running the race and Paul even writes about how running the race is like our Christian walk, our life here on this earth. Each step you've got to continue to go forward, to press on, even in the face of difficulty. Think about marathon runners and how they continue for such a long amount of time to run, to take the next step forward. Hebrews chapter 12 says, Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Thinking back to Paul and how he was a persecutor of the church, how he then changed and went through many different trials and difficulties, but yet still endured for the cause of Christ. He said he pressed on. And then as we get to the end of his life in 2 Timothy chapter 4, Paul was able to look back and able to analyze his life and how he had pressed on in the faith, and he said, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. As Christians, I hope that it is all of our goal, it is our aim that at the end of our life we are able to look back, the trials, tribulations, the things that we've been through, and we can say, just like Paul, I have fought that good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith, I have continued to persevere through all the trials and tribulations. We can say it's pretty easy. We can just be like Paul. I mean, he was someone who didn't have it all together, but then he he found his life and he continued to persevere. He faced all the difficulties and he did all this amazing stuff for Christ. He wrote all the gospels, he planted so many different churches, he wrote so many books, encouraged so many Christians. But then it can be difficult because we think I'm not Paul. I can't be like him. Paul is a special individu individual. I can't do what he did. And so this morning I want to look at one of the things that Paul writes to one of the churches. In First Corinthians chapter fifteen, verse fifty eight, Paul is finishing right towards the end of this book where he has really condemned the church at Corinth. He has told them a lot of things that they are doing wrong, a lot of things that they need to do better, and has really challenged them in a lot of ways. And now at the end of his book, it seems like he's kind of wrapping everything up. He's going to try to leave them with one more thing that they need to remember to do. And Paul says, Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. Paul says that they should be steadfast, immovable, and abound in the work. the Lord. And so those are the three things that I want to look at this morning. The first thing that Paul says is that we should be steadfast as Christians. The idea of being steadfast is not turning aside. The definition is to be firmly fixed in place or not subject to change. Something that is steadfast is something that does not move. Something that is going to be in the same spot. It's not going to Change. I mentioned I was going to tell a couple stories from my time on the farm, and one of those stories was that we have had chickens throughout. And chickens, as you probably know, are pretty much a prey to about every type of animal. ⁓ Chickens are going to get eaten by raccoons and by possums and by coyotes and whatever else can get to a chicken is probably going to be able to ⁓ kill them. And so throughout our time on the farm, we've had times where we've been successful with chickens, which is right now I believe, but in the past we've struggled at times. And so we had a chicken coop that we built and we made it pretty good, but we were struggling that some type of animal, we believe a raccoon, was getting in there at night and was killing our chickens. And so my dad finally decided he had had enough with it. And so we dug underneath the chicken coop and we dug down deep and We put some really strong chicken wire in and put it in concrete and put dirt back on top of it and we said, All right, we are going to make this steadfast. There is no way that any type of animal can get in here. And it worked. We went way over the top, but it worked. You see that idea of steadfastness, being so firmly grounded, put in concrete, if you will, it's not going to move, is the idea that we should be as Christians. We need to be so firmly fixed in our faith and steadfast that no matter what trials and tribulations we face, we are steadfast. We are continuing to persevere in our faith. The question though arises is: how do you know if something is steadfast? A straw house can look steadfast. It looks pretty good. And maybe if there's no storms or anything that comes up on this house, The house may stand for a very long time, but we know if something is steadfast when it is put to the test. When a storm arises, when the tornado comes, is that house still going to be standing? James writes in James chapter one, verses two through four, he says, Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect that you may per be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. James goes on in verse twelve, and he writes and says, Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him. James says that we can know when our steadfast when our faith is tested. That we can be proved steadfast through trials. Nobody enjoys going through trials. Nobody enjoys the difficulties. There's been times in my life when we've had family issues and health problems, of difficulties at school. Maybe you've faced difficulties at work, difficulties just personally in your own life. You don't enjoy those times of going through trial. But James says it is those times when we are being tested, when we are going through trials, that we are proved steadfast. It is during the the difficult times when we can be tested and we can find out whether we are steadfast. And so when trials come, we must remain steadfast. The second point, though, that Paul writes about and I want to look at this morning is that we should be immovable. We should be immovable. And this is very similar to steadfast, s a lot of the same ideas, but I would like to look at it from a little bit different perspective, and that is that steadfast was not turning aside, but immovable is not being turned aside. Not being turned aside. And so it's very similar, but the definition is that just being incapable of being moved. This is my last story from my life on the farm this morning. But we have had pigs throughout our time on the farm, and pigs are pretty simple animals. They pretty much just want to eat food and sleep and then wake up and eat food and sleep and pretty much keep doing that all the time. And so I would oftentimes have the task of taking care of our pigs, and like again, it was pretty simple. Most every day I would just go out there at some point, dump a bunch of food in, they would come up and eat it, and then I wouldn't really see them again until the next day. Most of our time with the pigs was really. easy. However, we would often have to load them up to take them, whether that was to the slaughterhouse or take them anywhere else, loading them up was very difficult. ⁓ We didn't have the best setup and that was cost us a lot of time, but we would try to set a trailer up and somehow get them into the trailer. And a pig, since they are so low to the ground, is very difficult to move. We would try to hit it, we would try to kick it, we would try to do whatever to get this dude to just hop on the trailer and move. And yet for us, it was immovable. We could not move it. One time we even had to get our tractor out and like hook it up to the tractor somehow and almost like fly it into the trailer because it was so immovable. This idea of being immovable, again, is what we should be as Christians. No matter what other people are telling us in our lives, no matter what other influences, no matter what culture tells us that we should do, we need to be immovable. We need to be fixed on our paths. The devil is going to try to take us away, try to bring influences into our life that are going to try to bring us away from Christ. Yet we need to be immovable. In Deuteronomy chapter thirty, here Moses is talking to the people of Israel in his several speeches, and he says in verses seventeen and eighteen, But if your heart turns away and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over to the Jordan to enter and possess. He says, He's talking about These children of Israel that were once a part of God's family, they were once faithful. And he says, If you turn away, if you go back, if you are drawn away by these other people, if you move away from God, Moses says, You shall surely perish. In 2 Peter chapter 2, Peter writes a similar thing, and it says, For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome. The last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. You see, Peter says that it would have been better for someone to not even know Christ in the first place, to not even follow him, and then to turn back from it. It's important that we as Christians, we as people who follow Christ, we can't be movable. We should not allow the influence ⁓ the influences of this life to take us away from Him. In Matthew chapter seven, Jesus talks about how our foundation is extremely important. He says, Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And everyone who doesn't do these things is like the man who built his house on the sand. You see, our foundation is important. When we were building our house, we had a spot picked out that we were going to place it and we were going to have it there closer to the pond. And as we began digging into the foundation, We were told that there were rocks and uneven ground that we would not be able to build our house on. So we had to move it to stable ground. For all important buildings, it's important that their foundation is firm. Their foundation is strong. It's what causes us to be immovable. Our foundation as Christians needs to be in Christ. Needs to be on the rock. That is God. And so we always need to focus and pay attention to where we are putting our faith, where we are putting our time. Because if our foundation is strong in Him, we won't be movable. We won't be likely to turn away from Him, to turn back away from God. See, our foundation needs to be on Christ. The final point, though, that I want to make this morning is that we should abound in God's work. We should continue to move forward. Both of these previous ideas of being steadfast and being immovable are great, but there's one thing that they have in common, and that is that you are staying still. You are not moving forward. And so the idea of abounding that Paul is telling these Christians, I think, is the most important thing for us to do as Christians, because we are not called to stay still as Christians. We are called to abound. We are called to work. We are called to go forward in his kingdom. All throughout the Bible God calls people to action. He calls Abraham to action in Genesis thirteen, seventeen, when he says, Arise. Elijah is called to arise in first Kings chapter seventeen, verse nine. Joshua is told that Moses is dead, so he must arise and lead the people. And Jonah was called to arise and go and preach to the people of Nineveh. We as Christians today are called to arise by Christ in the Great Commission. In Matthew chapter 28, he says, Go therefore. You see, we are called to do something as Christians. We are not only just called to arise, but we are called to abound. And so we are called to do his good work. In Galatians chapter six, verses nine and ten. Paul writes here again, he says, encouraging the church, and let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, especially to those who are of the household of faith. He says, Let us do good to everyone. Let us not grow weary of doing good. And then in Colossians chapter three, verses verse twenty-three, he says, Whatever you do, work heartily. As for the Lord and not for men. You see, we are called to continue to work for the Lord. We are called to abound in his work. And so what does it look like for us to abound in his work? I think Jesus tells us in Matthew chapter twenty-five, verses thirty-five through forty, where he says, For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me, and then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you doing all these things? And in verse forty we see that Jesus says, Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. We as Christians are called to do good. We are called to abound in his work. We are called to go forth and live for him. During the American Civil War, General George B. McClellan was appointed to lead the Union Army after a series of discouraging defeats. He was a very incredibly gifted general and he was really great at organizing the army. He trained the soldiers, he improved their disciplines, and he built one of the strongest armies the country had ever seen at the time. His soldiers loved him. But McClellan became known for something else. He constantly believed that the enemy was larger than they actually were, and because of this, he delayed action. He wanted just one more preparation, one more plan, one more advantage. And so President Lincoln grew increasingly frustrated because although the army looked great, it wasn't moving. And so Lincoln famously was quoted as saying, if General McClellan does not want to use the army, I would like to borrow them for a time. The point that Lincoln was making was not that preparation was bad. It was that the army was made for more than preparation. The army was made to move. The army was made to attack. And so sometimes I believe we can spiritually become like McClellan. We can sit back, we can focus on being steadfast, we can focus on being immovable, and we prepare so much. We attend church, we study, we make plans, we talk about serving, and yet we stay in the preparation stage. We wait until we feel ready. But Christ says, and Paul calls us here, that we must arise. We must go. We must teach. We must abound in the work of the Lord. And so preparation is very important. It's something that we all must do as Christians. But preparation without obedience is an unfinished faith. And so we as Christians are called to abound in God's work. As we wrap up the lesson this morning, there's one more important point, and I think the most encouraging part of this passage that Paul writes to us is. That's the end it's at the end of verse fifty-eight. Paul says, Be steadfast, immovable, abound in the work of the Lord, and he finishes by saying, Knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. Knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. What a powerful and encouraging statement that Paul gives to these Christians in Corinth and still is true for us today. The world is rough. All these good deeds that we do, oftentimes we never get to see the results of. We face trials, we remain steadfast. We have people try to draw us away and we stay immovable. We do all of these good works for God and we abound in His work. We ask God, God, why am I not seeing the results? Why are things not happening in my life that I am wanting to happen? Why am I not seeing these results? And Paul says, you can know that your labor is not in vain. You see, you may feel worn out. You may feel tired of being steadfast and immovable. You may feel tired of continuing to abound in the work of the Lord. But I want to remind you that the Christian life is not a sprint, but it's a marathon. I want to encourage you to continue to persevere, to continue to look toward heaven, to continue to be steadfast and movable. and abound in his work. In Barcelona, Spain, there is one of the most famous church buildings in the world. It's called the Sagrada Familia, and it made some headlines this year as it just finished construction back in February. Construction, however, for this incredible building began back in 1882, and years later an architect named Antoni Gaudi Took over the project and eventually dedicated the rest of his life to it. He poured decades of work into the project. He designed it. He continued to revise it. He oversaw the construction. He took it as his personal responsibility. It was his life's dedication. And there was one thing, though, that he knew: he would never see the finished product. He eventually died in 1926, but when he died, only a small portion of the building was complete. Construction continued though, and workers kept going, and so many men and women dedicated their lives to the construction of this building to never see the final result. And it may seem crazy to us to think, can you imagine dedicating your whole life to a project that you never get to see the finished result of? As Christians, though, I believe that's what we are called to do. We are called to dedicate our lives to something that we will never see the finished result of until we get to heaven one day. On this earth, we aren't going to see the finished result. We may not see all the things that God has in store here on this earth, but I want to remind you, as Paul did in this passage, that in heaven, we will be able to see the finished work. All the things that we dedicate our lives to here on this earth, continuing to persevere, continuing to be steadfast, continue to be immovable, continue abounding in his work, Paul says, We can know that our labor is not in vain. And so I want to encourage you, continue to persevere. This morning, if you have a need for the Lord's invitation, if you'd like to put Christ on in baptism, if you'd just like the prayers of the church. We'll have that opportunity now. Please come as together we stand and as we sing.