Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Enduring the Cross Pt.1

Amen! Let's turn back to 2 Timothy. We want to continue looking at the signs of the times, the age that we're living in, and just preparing ourselves for the soon coming of the Lord. He's coming soon. Amen?

You know, you don't hear a lot about that anymore. So much of the teaching now is on quality of life and self-image, and all of these things that you hear being taught in the churches today, and political positions and preserving our nation. But we have a blessed hope, praise God! Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us, and He said, " . . . I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" (John 14:3). Can you say "Praise God" for that? And 1 John 3:3 says that every man that has that hope will purify himself even as He is pure.

Are you becoming more heavenly-minded? You know, we get so distracted by all of the things that are around us (the cares of this life, the cares of this world). The Word says when you get caught up in all those cares, they begin to enter in and choke the Word of God out of our lives. Have you been distracted lately, or is your gaze strong and steady into the heavens? " . . . Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus . . . shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven" (Acts 1:11). Amen? Let's keep looking up. The Lord is coming, praise God. Keep our eyes focused. He's coming in the clouds, the Scripture says. The trumpet of God will sound, the dead in Christ will rise, and those of us that remain will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Any moment! [Pastor snapped his fingers.] The imminent return-it can happen at any moment! [Pastor snapped his fingers again.]

Are we stressing out, borrowing from tomorrow, and we don't even have any guarantee it's going to be here? How many of you have been distracted by tomorrow-distracted in your worship by tomorrow-and we don't know but that Jesus will come tonight-amen? And look at all the time you've wasted; look at the glory you've robbed from Him, when He's due His worship as we've gathered here. " . . . Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof" (Matthew 6:34). Don't take any thought about tomorrow! We've got this moment to worship Him-amen?-to be caught up in His glory, to prepare ourselves for His soon coming. And if we can walk through every moment of every day like that, it's going to continue to prepare us for His coming.

We've been talking about the age that we're living in, and Thessalonians talks about the fact that there's that spirit of lawlessness that we're contending with constantly-this age of rebellion. It's always been here, from Father Adam and Mother Eve, where men have loved themselves, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God-worship of the creature, Romans 1, more than the Creator. So we're constantly contending with these things and being vexed-all of the idols that are surrounding us, that are vying for our attention.

So the Lord speaks and says in 2 Timothy 1:1 that " . . . in the last days perilous times shall come." We're in those days. Perilous times are here. We're thinking of perilous times being, "Oh, what's going to happen when the economy collapses?"-and it's going to. It can't continue this way, and so it's going to happen. The Scripture speaks of it, because Antichrist is going to come into power by solving all of the economic problems of the world. There are going to be problems. Can I share something with you? All that work that you're doing and all that worry about your investments-you can't save enough. Amen? You are not going to put enough away for the rainy day that's coming. Now, wisdom tells us to prepare and to try to save, but don't trust in uncertain riches. Amen? Our trust is in God; our hope is in that transformation, as He takes us in His presence.

We're already living in perilous times, because the peril is the peril not of your physical well-being but for your souls. Every person in this room tonight, your soul is in peril. Satan is going about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Amen? We haven't made it yet! Are we putting on, daily, the whole armor of God? Are we a people that can truly say we're not ignorant of his devices-we can see these wiles of the devil, we can see him seducing us with cares and fears and distractions, wanting more than we have (discontentment), and all of these things that are contending for your souls?

"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be [lovers of pleasure] lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents [we've been talking about that a little bit], unthankful [my goodness, are we living in that day], unholy" (2 Timothy 3:1-2). Now, when we talk about unholy, we're not talking about immoral, because holiness literally means to be separated exclusively for God. We need to answer the question tonight: are we a holy people? Are we for God, or are we living for ourselves, we're living for the devil, we're living for the moment? "Unholiness" lives for the moment; holy people live for eternity.

So as we look at these different things that depict and describe the age prior to the Lord's coming, it says they will be a people "Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent [that just means people without self-control], fierce [savage people; my Lord, we're living in a dog-eat-dog world-savage, fierce], [how about this one?] despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady [headstrong], highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God." Now, in the midst of all of this, we read this and we say, "My goodness! Look at this-how vile and nasty this is!" These are the church people! That's what it says. These are the church people. "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away." This is what the churches are full of, not the world. "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power"-what power? The power to be holy, the power to be "other than" or to live different from the world.

That's what we want to talk about in the next few sessions. How can we live different than the world? How can we, as a church, truly be unique, separate? " . . . come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you," 2 Corinthians 6:17 tells us. How are we going to do that? The Scripture tells us very clearly, and it's something that, in the natural, every one of us wants to shy away from, but it's a daily cross. Amen? So we're going to talk about enduring the cross a little bit.

Are you experiencing the cross at all in your life? If not, then we need to be very concerned, because the cross is something that you're to be embracing and pursuing. Now, if you're not pursuing it, it will be brought to you through chastisement, but one way or the other, here's the good news: you're going to die! If we're going to survive this age, we need to be aware of the need to die daily to self, and all of these aspects are attributes of selfness that we just spoke toward here in 2 Timothy 3-self-absorbed, constantly. Are we a people with our hearts and our treasures in Heaven? Are we a people that have the mind of Christ and are pursuing only the will of the Father? Those are the things we want to address and ask in these next couple of sessions.

So let's turn over to the book of Philippians. In the epistle to the Philippians, Paul writing, in Chapter 2, he says in verse 3, "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves." The only way we're ever going to get free from self-worship (from selfness, selfishness), pride, boasting, haughty, heady-all of those things that were spoken of in Timothy-is to purposely pursue the role of servant, the choosing to make others more important than ourselves. Now, that's totally contrary to the natural man; it's not in our members. It can only be cultivated in our spirit-man, because in our flesh dwells no good thing. It's unnatural; we're all selfish naturally.

The only way we can really begin to understand whether or not we're seeing ourselves as we truly are, is whether we can identify-and I don't mean in a way that's kind of trite-but do you believe, like the Apostle Paul, "I'm the chief of sinners"? Paul wasn't bragging about how vile his life was. I hear some people give their testimonies, and they almost boast in how bad they were. You all know what I'm talking about? But all sin is equal in the eyes of God. It's not how vile the acts we committed were; it's realizing the vileness of what the power of sin is and how it breaks the heart of God, how it absolutely defiled the holiness of the spotless Lamb of God as He was made sin with our sin, the Scripture says, that we might be made righteous with His righteousness. We're a people that are totally depraved. We've talked about it so many times, but it's just not in our churches anymore. We're so affected by secular humanism that the church has really begun to believe that man is basically good. We are not! Man is absolutely, totally depraved! There's no good thing in us!

What are you doing to contend with that sin that's in your members? What are you doing to prepare yourself to habitually put it down and put it under, to daily take up that cross, to crucify the flesh, to walk as Jesus walked? He said one of the things you have to do is to immediately let nothing be done through competition, through strife or vainglory. You see, one of the things we really contend with is that haughtiness, that vaunting of ourselves, the wanting to be ahead of others, and he says we need to learn Christ and esteem those that are around us better than ourselves, and "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." You say, "I can't do this! It's not in me." It's not in your flesh; it's not in your natural man, but greater is He that is in you than he that's in the world. Amen? The life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God, and so it's not whether we are able to do it; it's whether we die to self and let Jesus live through us. That's the key. You can't do it, but He can live it through you when you choose to die to yourself.

So we're going to be talking about that choice to die; that choosing to take the cross, to embrace it; that choosing to be less, to esteem others better than ourselves-to "Look not every man on his own things, but . . . on the things of others." "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (verse 5). Are you looking for opportunities to prefer others, to esteem others, to see others prosper and to go ahead, to let your life be the contribution to them becoming better? This is the mind that was in Christ Jesus-"[He, verse 7, Who]. . . made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant . . . " Now, this sounds foreign to us; it's not natural, and you say, "How can I do this?" You can't! That's what we want to show you. This is what we're expected to do, but we can't do it. But Jesus can live it through us. What we can do is choose to die, to embrace that cross, to endure that cross. So we need, if we're going to accomplish this, to change our perspective of what the cross is. See, many of us look at the cross as something that is offensive, and we're going to see that though it is offensive to the natural perspective, it's to be embraced. It's to be something that is sought after, to be esteemed, in the spirit realm. So we're going to look at this paradoxical truth.

Listen to what it says as it goes on. Jesus-this mind of humility, this mind of serving, this mind of preferring others, this One Who sought us before we sought Him, this One who sought us that we might be enabled to seek Him, " . . . made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, [verse 8-here's what we want to look at] he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. [Now, here's where we get in trouble. Look at the next verse.] Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him . . . " So, many of us say, "OK, I'm going to endure the cross to be exalted." Wrong motive. You are not embracing the cross if you're looking for the benefit of exaltation after having embraced it! Amen? You've still got the wrong focus. The exaltation is the consequence of the pure motive-of the treasure, the fruit, of obedience.

Obedience carries with it sufficient benefit: the joy of obedience, the assurance of sonship through obedience. Get these in your notes, because we're going to be referring to them in Hebrews 12 in just a moment. The joy of obedience, the assurance of sonship through obedience-obedience brings faith, strength, sanctification. The choice to obey-now, listen to what I'm talking about (obedience) as it pertains to you and me-the choice to go against self, natural self. The volition part of our being (choice), going against the natural grain (the natural man, the natural tendencies). In other words, whatever my flesh habitually wants to do, I choose to do the opposite, because it's always wrong.

So when we begin to see these principles, there are ways of being able to recognize whether we're walking in the spirit or not, because if you walk in the spirit, you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. These two are contrary, the one to the other. (Galatians 5:16-17) There's total opposition at all times. So we're going through just one day; we're only going to talk about twenty-four hours. We try to plan on, "Man! How am I going to do this forever?" You don't have to do it forever; you just have to do it right now. It's a moment-by-moment choice. Amen? It's overwhelming if you think about doing this for the next ten years, but as you choose to do it for the moment-"I choose today, I choose at this moment, to let the mind of Christ be in me, to humble myself, to be obedient unto the death of the cross." All the cross is, is crucifixion of self-will, as it pertains to you and me. " . . . take up [your] cross [daily], and follow me" (Matthew 16:24). It's a day-by-day choice; it's a moment-by-moment choice. So we see, then, there's the humbling of self. " . . . he humbled himself [verse 8], and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

Turn over to Hebrews, Chapter 12, for just a second, and let's begin to go down through this passage. We're going to take a little bit of time here. As you're finding Hebrews 12, look over at Luke 9 for just a second. Now, I want to relate these things in some practical ways so that we're not just dealing with theology. We've been talking quite a bit lately about order-children obeying their parents; wives submitting to their husbands; husbands assuming the headship under the head, Jesus, "for the head of the man is Christ" (1 Corinthians 11:3)-and seeing that divine order begin to function in our lives, in this community of believers, because around us we're surrounded by lawlessness. Every man doing what's right in his own eyes-there is no order; there is no respect of authority-every man is equal in his own eyes. That's totally unbiblical. So when we begin to see what our specific and individual responsibilities are and how we can fit into the Body of Christ as it pleases Him, the Scripture says, it's going to be done through this preference of others; it's going to be done through the choice to humble ourselves.

Jesus says in verse 23-look, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself . . . " Christianity is not about self-worth; it's not about what's being emphasized through all of Christendom today (personal worth, self-worth, all of these different aspects). It's about self-denial. It's not about finding how valuable we are, but how vile we are. It's finding our worth in Jesus' finished work. So we deny ourselves, the Scripture says, and we take up our cross daily and follow Him. One of the things that is a false doctrine in Charismatic circles-I use the term "Charismatic," actually some of the old-time Pentecostal circles-was what was called entire sanctification, or a work of grace, that once and for all I have this great experience with God, and God strikes me and smites me and I fall to the ground under the power and I have a vision and my fingers tingle and my hair stands up and I speak in tongues and I get up and I'm holy. And once for all, entire sanctification. Wouldn't it be nice if it happened that way? Some go so far as to say you never sin again. I've talked to some of these preachers, and I've said, "You mean to tell me since that day of sanctification in your life you've never sinned?" And they've said, "Nope, never have." And I said, "You just sinned, because you're lying right now."

Most of us, even though we don't have that theology, are looking for that experience. Aren't you? You know it's not real, you know it's not theologically correct, but you're hoping for it! "If I could just have an encounter with God, if I could just have that experience, if I-" It doesn't work that way. You know how it works? Just the drudgery of every day choosing to die; that's how you stay sanctified. Amen? "Well, what's so exciting about that?" Nothing! "What's so supernatural about that?" It's Jesus in you doing it; that's what's supernatural. Amen? It's the humbling of ourselves and acknowledging His lordship that is supernatural, because it is not natural in us.

" . . . let him deny himself, and take up his cross [say it] daily . . . " Some people say, "Well, you know, in the other parallel manuscripts the term ‘daily' isn't there, and some of the ancient-" Most of you have never really studied that out. It's not that important anyway, but that's not the issue. The issue is the word "daily" clearly describes biblical sanctification. Sanctification is not a once-for-all work but a momentary process. "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it . . . " What does that mean? Whoever retains his life, the control of his life. "You're not your own [the Scripture says]. You're bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your bodies and your minds" (1 Corinthians 6:20). You're not your own. "Amen. Oh, yeah, praise God." We have the right theology. How many choices did you make today outside of His lordship? Now, I don't mean you need to stop and take fifteen minutes to pray about every decision you make, but how conscious are you of making your decisions in the presence of God, for the glory of God, by the wisdom of God? Or how much confidence do you have in your own ability to choose, in your own perception of what right is? How quick are you to step back and say, "What is the biblical principle for this moment?" Not what do I emotionally feel like, what my lust wants to do, what my anger wants to do, what my experience tells me to do, but what does the wisdom of God say to do at this moment? What biblical principle is dictating this moment's choice?

"For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it." So when we're talking about enduring the cross or embracing the cross, we're talking about that awareness of continual lack of confidence in our ability but absolute confidence in His lordship and His wisdom and His presence, and if God is for us-say it-nobody can be against us. Are you living there? "Well, I've got to watch out for myself. I'm afraid that somebody will take advantage of me." You know, dead people don't worry about that. I've given you the example of that before. We're so worried about what people think, and that they're going to take advantage. I want to tell you something. If you can see yourself totally dead, see yourself laid out there in the casket, and see those people that you're in competition with come up and give you one of those "Nanny nanny boo boos"-how about just walking up and messing up your hair? Some of you get mad thinking about being dead and somebody doing that to you! "Man, that would tick me off if somebody did that to me." How about just coming up and slapping you around? Your wife, "Take that, you no good . . . " You say, "I'd come back from the dead."

How much of that is in you? What about the capacity to die? What about being in that place where you don't have to justify yourself, you don't have to promote yourself, you're not worried about what anybody thinks or what anybody else is going to do; you're only looking to please God; you're wanting Him to live His life through you? Oh, beloved, that's the joy of the Lord that brings us strength-that joy of obedience, that joy that's held before us, that joy that we see in the eternal realm that the cross brings, of momentary obedience. There is no greater joy than being momentarily obedient! I am never happier, more content, and stronger in faith than when I've chosen to obey God. Amen? Momentarily, every moment, I'm in right standing. I'm living in holiness; my life is in divine order.

So we're seeing that He's speaking to us here, and He's trying to tell us, "Look, if you're going to keep your life, you're going to lose it." Now, what advantage is there to you, verse 25 says, to keep your life and to be something in this world, to have reached those temporal goals of self-preservation, self-exaltation, and experience damnation? Now, I said I wanted to put these things into some practical realms. Some of you have been struggling, as I've said-a few of the families among us. I've talked to some, and you're having to deal with rebellious children. Some are having to choose to bring severe consequences to their children's disobedience, and it grieves your heart. It causes conflict, but beloved, this is not about their momentary comfort. This is not about society's perspective of whether you're a good parent or not, judging you by a secular humanistic perspective. This is not about decisions that may affect your children's education, as I was talking to a family just Monday night about that. It's about their eternal souls. Amen? And I want to tell you something: man's methods, man's wisdom, will kill them. God's method will bring life, because if you lose your life, you'll take it up again. Amen? If you'll die to everything that "natural" is dictating to you, God will preserve you and bring you life in the last day.

"For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words . . . " Now, listen to what He says-to be ashamed of Him. He's not talking here about the fact that somebody comes up, like [they did to] Peter, and says, "Aren't you one of these?" "No, I don't know the man," as Peter denied Jesus. And the young lady comes up and says, "You're one of them, aren't you?" And he swears and says, "I don't know the man!" That's not what He's talking about here. "For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words . . . " What's the context? The rejection of the cross. To be confident in yourself is to be ashamed of Jesus; to promote yourself is to deny Jesus. To embrace the secular is to despise the glory and the wisdom of God.

"For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels." You see, some of us would be horrified about the thought of verbally doing what Peter did, and yet we're denying Him constantly. We deny His lordship when we promote ourselves, when we vaunt ourselves-the vainglory, the self-promotion, the vanity of mind, of headiness, of high-mindedness, all of those traits. Now, remember Timothy was talking about Christians in the context of that passage. How would you evaluate yourself tonight? How free are you from the power that's in your members? We all have sin in our members, every one of us. In our natural man-"in me, that is, in my flesh [Paul said], dwells no good thing"-so in our members we all have sin. Every one of us, every one of us, is prideful, selfish. Those are the root problems that we have, and then all of the other actions, thoughts, are the consequences of that root sin of selfness, of pride, selfishness. All of the choices that we make to promote self, to bring self-ease and comfort and deny Him, are consequences of that.

Every one of us, the same. None of us here have an advantage over the other. Some of us here seem to think, I have it worse because I was brought up this way, I was abused, I was brought up in an alcoholic's house, my parents were drug addicts, or I was abused as a child (I was beaten; I was sexually abused), I was- We all have our stories, don't we? We're all on a level playing field here, because one choice to make Jesus Lord causes His power and presence to become preeminent over all of those things that we've experienced-because "old things [what?] are passed away, and all things become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17). But you see, many of us choose not to let things become new. We want to hold on to the horror stories. We want to hold on to the excuses-"Well, I'm like this, and I can't make the decision to obey because-" I want to tell you something. You are not a victim; you're a rebel! All humans are rebels toward God. No victims. Rebels. We live in a society where everybody is victimized; everybody is a victim, and it's just tragic. Nobody wants to take responsibility for their decisions, their actions, and the reality of this is, you're the man. Amen?

So as we look at these things in our lives, every man sins when he's drawn away of his own lust, and enticed (James 1:14). And when sin is embraced-when the choice to conceive, or to become one with it, or to do it [is made]-it brings forth death. So how do we choose-and here's the thing that I want you to see. Most of us would think, Well, how do we choose to do right? It's not about choosing to do right, because you may not know at this moment what is right. It's about choosing who is lord. Amen? My choices are all about letting Jesus be the object of my worship, the source of my wisdom and strength-a denial of self, a lack of confidence, presenting our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable unto God which is our reasonable service, not being conformed to secular humanism, to the flesh, but transformed by the renewing of our minds to prove the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. Don't let any man think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but think soberly and discreetly, he tells us in those passages (Romans 12).

What are we doing to embrace, or to endure, the cross? Or, as Hebrews 12 says, to endure the chastening? How many of you, when you're being chastened of the Lord-and I want you to see in just a moment-in the study you're going to see chastening isn't just a trial; chastening isn't just God's momentary pressure on you. Chastening is the continual experience of the cross, the daily cross. When you're dying to self, when you're embracing that cross, this is a chastening taking place, a correction of our lives, a restructuring, a reordering. Endure the chastisement, or chastening, of the Lord. Do you know what that word "endure" means? It doesn't mean to just stand up under it, grit your teeth, and wait for it to get over. You're not going to like this. It means "to delight in."

Now, Paul goes on to say not the pain, because there's pain that's experienced many times. He's saying delight in what's going to come out of it. Amen? Do you understand what's going on? It's for your good! God is trying to deliver you from yourself, and you know what? There doesn't need to be a devil. You're enough to kill yourself! So here we are, God constantly wanting to deliver us from self, and He says delight in it, delight in every circumstance that allows you to embrace His lordship, to have more confidence in His presence, to trust in His provision as God preserves us. Aren't you glad that daily He's preserving you? Not only physically where He's given His angels charge over you, but He's preserving you from this overconfidence. He's preserving you through chastening to keep you humble. It's all happening to us.

I was telling somebody just as we came in, I was thanking God for our guardian angels this weekend. We came within seconds of being killed Sunday coming home. The Lord has given His angels charge over us. I'm thanking God we didn't have angels like that one in that commercial. The Lord preserved us, and in the process of all of this though, there's still a death to self going on as God is preserving you and there are things that are going on and the awareness. I looked at the incident that we were in, and most of the time, [given] my own personal makeup, this thing would have really ticked me off, [this thing] that we experienced. But when I realized what could have happened, I was really appreciative for what did happen.

We were coming up the road; I was passing an 18-wheeler-ah, for all you teenagers, don't listen to this part of it-I was passing this 18-wheeler. We were going about 75 miles an hour, passing him in the rig-82 feet long, probably, who knows, 50,000 pounds of weight or more-and the tongue on our trailer collapsed. The trucker began to freak, because I'm right beside him, and he sees this in his mirrors. I can't see it; he's at an angle, because I'm coming on him. He can see what's happening, and I can't see it. So he's freaking [out] and trying to get our attention, and I'm going by and just kind of, "Yeah, hi." But we dropped back, and he said, "Man, you've got sparks flying! You've got something-you're dragging something!" We were dragging our trailer! I got off the side of the road. I'm not going to get into the whole story, but this thing was within seconds of completely-if one end had broken off on this thing, it would have probably flipped the whole rig off, and there was about a 150-foot drop off to the right. If it had happened right next to the truck, it would have put us right on top of him or whatever. If it had broken completely clean, it could have killed a bunch of people. It could have killed us. So I'm looking at this thing, and I'm thinking, "Father, thank You just for preserving our lives and putting things in perspective."

We could have lost the stuff, but stuff is stuff. But it's good stuff and it's not insured. You're talking about a quarter of a million dollars just gone! And being a man-a quarter of a million dollars, you know? Reminds me of that movie, Surviving Christmas. This guy is going to hire this family, and the wife is upset. She says, "You mean you just rented us out as a family?" I can't remember how much money it was. She said, "You rented us out for [I'll just say] $200,000?" He said, "Yeah." "Without consulting me?" "Yeah." "Well, how would you like it if I did that?" "Would we get a quarter of a million dollars?" It's all about the bottom line, you know?

But in this process you're learning; Father is speaking to you. What is valuable; how do you respond to these things? We got an opportunity to minister to a bunch of people through it; we were handing out tracts to people. The first guy that came was a state patrolman. He said, "Can I see your inspection sticker on the trailer?" I said, "It doesn't have one." "Really?" "Yeah." "How come?" "Didn't do it." "Well, you're sure fortunate." We got talking-doing all the stuff and got talking to him. Let me see if I can shorten this, because this is worth hearing. We went down off the-they finally-Redneck heaven. These guys that showed up to get us off the road, it was hilarious! It was Bubbafied in every way.

So they're hauling us off the thing. We get down there. Well, the guy with no teeth and the guy with three teeth, they were working on this thing. And we get down off the road, and this lady comes walking across the street and Greer's standing there. She walks up and says, "You all got race cars in that there trailer?" Greer said, "Yeah, we do." She said, "I knew it! I knew it! I told my husband, ‘There's race cars in that there trailer,' and I bet him a hundred dollars! Now, we're over here in this Wendy's for our two-year anniversary [this is at 11 o'clock at night], and I told him there's a race car in that trailer. We bet a hundred. Can you sign a piece of paper that says there's race cars in there?" She said, "No, I can give you some pictures." She says, "Oh! You're my hero!" She says, "You know what I'm going to do with that hundred dollars? I'm going to buy a frame and put this race car right up on our dresser with our race cars." I thought, OK! But at least I know where to take Greer for our five-year anniversary, so you learn things out of all these experiences.

They welded this thing together, this concoction, to get us home; it was hilarious. This old boy is standing there, and he's like [Pastor pretends like he is spitting out chewing tobacco], "Told you it weren't gonna be purty, but I believe if you ease her on up the road, you'll be able to get home." He said, "You know what, I believe we're going to be on Foxworthy's next CD. You know you're a Redneck if you put a tongue on your trailer out in front of the Wal-Mart." And we were out in front of a Wal-Mart, man-parked down there. And I'm going, "Lord, what are you trying to teach me? Speak, Lord. Your servant hears."

But you know, in these particular times, really, you do-you step back and say, "Father, am I missing something here?" Now, we know that accidents just happen. I didn't build a faulty trailer; somebody else did, so it's not my fault. "And what am I doing stuck here in the Twilight Zone?" It was a great opportunity to just stop and step back and meditate and say, "Lord, just let me hear what you have to say to me. Work in me." I've got a lot of areas that I need work in, in my life. Patience is usually real high on the list.

The day before, I tried to come home. We were going to be home Sunday for church. We headed home Saturday afternoon. Left at 4 o'clock to get home; I could have been home by 11:30 that night, been here and been ready for church. That was our plan, and we were heading up the road, and we got a flat tire on the inside of one of the duals. You can't change those things-a big truck tire. So we have to call a trucker out. So we're sitting there for four hours alongside-we're in this parking lot-abandoned Food Lion or something. So we're standing there, and this driver comes through and he runs over a tree! The guy tore down a thirty-foot tree. It was eighteen inches in diameter, and he drives into this tree! I'm watching this, and then the cop tells him to park over by us. I thought, Yeah, right! So we finally get this thing; we're sitting there, and now it's like-I don't know what time it finally was, and if we drove straight through, I wouldn't have been home until 3:30 or something in the morning. So we decided to stay there and go to chapel and get the books and everything out as we were planning on.

Now, let me tell you this. The books didn't get to the chaplain because I lost the second round and got angry. Not angry that I lost; angry at how I lost. I don't mind losing; I hate doing stupid things. But it seems the more I'm around, the more stupid things happen. I was really angry at myself. I was dealing with it pretty good after the first thirty minutes, and so now I'm getting a little bit of my composure and I'm thinking, "Really, we need to not stay for chapel. We need to get back to church because there's no sense in us being gone now. We're not winning here. The opportunity didn't seem to present itself, so we'll take care of it somewhere else down the road." So we tried to go away-flat tire, go back, and as we go to the service that morning, the lady, the chaplain's wife says, "Oh, praise God! I was just praying and saying, ‘Lord, if we could somehow get materials that would help these people grow in their Christian lives,' and that's exactly what we need!" OK? Selfishness, self-will, pride-I was going to go home. Flat tire-we go back. Amen? Hallelujah!

The steps of the good man are ordered of the Lord. God is blessing; we're right on course. Coming home-trailer collapses. Now, wait a minute. I was just good- Do any of you think this way? Does anybody think this way? I don't. "You just whipped me, You just spanked me back there over my pride and my anger and these different things, and"-I'm going to study anger some more, because I was really mad. I thought, It's all about pride and different things. I thought, Why would something like that get you so upset? And why aren't we more angry at sin? Amen? That's another story.

Anyway, so now we're sitting there, and I'm going, "Lord, You just whipped me. What's the deal? Are You trying to teach me something? What's going on here?" Basically, what the Lord told me is part of what I'm sharing with you this evening: "Are you enjoying this yet? Are you delighting in this? Are you understanding that what's being worked in you? [All of these temporary circumstances are working eternal good. Amen?] It's working something in you." "What?" "You don't need to understand what." It is working a peaceable fruit of righteousness. Amen? You don't have to understand it. God's not going to tell you even why you're in the circumstances you're in. By faith, we need to embrace it as being good for us, of building the Christlikeness in us, the humility in us, that will ultimately bring Him the glory that's supposed to come.

Hebrews 12; let's pick it up there as we get ready to close this evening. "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us" (verse 1). The patience that it's talking about here is the patience of enduring chastisement, testing, proving. Now, he's saying [to] consider the great cloud of witnesses that are around you, those that have gone through the proving of God and have known His goodness, His faithfulness, His compassion, His tenderness, His wisdom. You see, we don't have the capability right now of 20/20 hindsight vision, but we do in the lives of others.

Here's the question I want to ask as we close tonight: what have you learned from other people's experiences and testimonies? Do you have to experience it? What have you learned about the goodness of God, the biblical wisdom and power of God, through this great cloud of witnesses? Do you have the assurance that He's no respecter of persons, that what He did for them He's going to do for you, praise God? Because he's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Amen? Look around! Look in the Scriptures (look at the life of Abraham, look at the life of Daniel, look at the life of Joseph, look at the life of David), and learn what God is saying to us. And ultimately, verse 2, "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross . . . " The eternal good-endured the cross.

You see, as we embrace this cross of personal death, humility, preferring others, choosing the order that God's put us in-in the divine order (husbands, wives, children)-of choosing God over children. In an era when children are being idolized and worshipped, to put the right order back in your house and say, "As for me and my house, we're serving God." To believe that the Word will not return void, but it will accomplish that where He sent it; that as you train them up in the way they should go-and that doesn't mean just taking them to Sunday School and telling a few stories. It means to let them see the lordship of Jesus, the fact that you will choose Jesus over them, over your wife, because He is Lord and He is the head of His church, and it's by Him that we live and move and have our being.

I heard a testimony just-and I'll close with this-about C. T. Studd, English preacher, revivalist, great man of God. God called him. He came from a very wealthy family, and God had called him to Africa. So he was getting ready to go, and God convicted him and said, "C. T., are you going to be able to trust Me with all of this wealth here at home?"-because he came from a very wealthy family. And his response was, "Yes, Lord, I believe that I'll be able to trust You and not trust in these riches." The Lord said, "Well, then live by My grace and by faith." As he was getting ready to go, he said, "You know, Lord, you know my heart but I don't know. So I'm going to prove by choice to myself what I believe is in my heart." And he got rid of all of his finances, except he kept back a little bit for his wife, to take care of her as he was going to Africa. He gave his wife a little quote. I can't remember exactly what it was, but it was something along this [line]. He said every morning he wanted her to rise up and say something-he gave her this to say every morning-something similar to this; don't hold me to it. But she would get up every morning and say, "Jesus to me is greater than C. T." He told her, "Say that every day, so you're not trusting in me; you're trusting in Jesus." He had his wife say that every morning-"Jesus to me is greater than C. T."-C. T. Studd.

So she began to grow personally. She came to him and she said, "This isn't fair." He said, "What do you mean? What are you talking about?" She said, "You got to give all your money away, and I have to have all this stuck over here for me. I don't want to trust in this. I want to trust in Jesus. I want to give this money away." He said, "OK." Talk about a testimony, talk about a great cloud of witnesses, talk about this aspect of being able to train them up in the way that they should go. It's not about words. It's about actions. It's about choices. It's about attitudes. You can check into the life of C. T. Studd, just a great man of God, and the consequences. But this is just showing some practical things. You see, we can talk about it all we want; we can think that our hearts are right all we want, but faith without works is dead. What are you doing by works to embrace the cross? What's changed in your life? What choices have been made against self that would show that we're living free from this world of self-serving, vaunting, creature worship, instead of Creator worship? Those are the things that we want to look at as we go on in this study. Be reading Chapter 12. Get ready for Sunday morning, and we'll pick some more up on Sunday.

Father, we thank You for Your Word this evening. As You preserve us in this hour, perilous times, it will only be as we embrace the cross. It's the choice against self. It's the everyday Gethsemane-not my will, but Thy will be done. Where's the joy? Let us see the joy that's set before us as we endure the chastisement, as we delight in it, as we realize it's not about this momentary displeasure. It seems grievous for the moment, but it's working a peaceable fruit of righteousness. Enduring the cross, delighting in the cross, standing up under the pressure of the cross, standing under the stigma of the cross, to a self-exalting world. What they see as weakness, Father, You see as strength. Be exalted, we ask, in our lives. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Let's stand before the Lord. As Gary plays for us for a moment, some of you that have made some difficult decisions lately, are you delighting? Are you saying, "This is good. Not what I'm experiencing in my emotions right now, but God is now working, the supernatural. Because I obeyed, because I went contrary to what I wanted to do, God is working for His own glory. Good is going to come out of this. If I was left to do it my way, I'd compromise again. I'd make it easier again. I would find some way to excuse myself, excuse those that are around me, but I want to see the glory of God come in and purge away all self and all sin and all self-glory and boast in Jesus." To become as pure as we can become, as free from the world as we can become, not imbibe and embrace as much of the world as we can get away with and hope to get to Heaven. If you keep your life, you're going to lose it. Oh, Lord, be glorified as we embrace Your cross and delight in it. Let's sing it, "Turn your eyes . . . "

Hallelujah! Father, give us the eternal perspective. Help us to look into the heavens and have treasures that are "other than" all that natural man pursues. We have a different value system. Every conflict we have with the secular is a conflict of who we will acknowledge as Lord. And like Daniel and the three Hebrew children, our God will deliver us, but even if He doesn't, we will not bow to your ways, period! This is about who is God, and it is Jesus Who is Lord. I will not bow to the world's system, to the spirit of the world. I choose against self to acknowledge Jesus as Lord. Be glorified in it we ask, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Turn to somebody next to you and say, "Delight in the cross." Amen. Go in peace; God's love go with you.

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