Steps of a Disciple: Endurance

Sermon Series
"Steps of a Disciple: Endurance"
Jeremiah 29: 1, 4-7; 2 Timothy 2: 1-13 by Rev. Carson Overstreet
Van Wyck Presbyterian Church
October 9, 2016


These are the words of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders among the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. - Jeremiah 29: 1, 4-7

You then, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus; and what you have heard from me through many witnesses entrust to faithful people who will be able to teach others as well.

Share in suffering like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving in the army gets entangled in everyday affairs; the soldier’s aim is to please the enlisting officer. And in the case of an athlete, no one is crowned without competing according to the rules. It is the farmer who does the work who ought to have the first share of the crops.

Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in all things.

Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David—that is my gospel, for which I suffer hardship, even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But the word of God is not chained.

Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, so that they may also obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. The saying is sure:

If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
if we endure, we will also reign with him;
if we deny him, he will also deny us;
if we are faithless, he remains faithful—
for he cannot deny himself. - 2 Timothy 2: 1-13

He was reflecting back upon his life. Paul’s life had significantly changed since his first letter to young Timothy. He had become imprisoned. There was a lot of time to think in that small space confined by bars and chains. Paul knew about hardships. There was a day he inflicted great hardship upon the early Christians known as the followers of The Way. It still amazes me how God worked through this Jewish Pharisee, a zealous interpreter of God’s Law, to become the biggest proponent of the gospel of Jesus Christ. God turned Paul around 180 degrees to preach, teach, and live out the gift of grace in powerful ways that impact us today.

But this calling upon Paul’s life was not easy by any means. He continued to endure hardships and sufferings. He was stoned in the street. He was imprisoned many times. His life was threatened. He lived through a treacherous shipwreck. He also stood in solidarity with his church plants who were experiencing hard times, conflict, and even persecution. Through all of his life experiences and through all he endured, Paul was empowered to speak a word of hope into the hard and gritty places of life.

To the church in Corinth he shared, “No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful – he will not let you be tested beyond your strength but with the testing God will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it” (1 Cor 10:13).

To the Apostle Peter – the one who not only denied Christ on that Good Friday but was redeemed to be the rock of the early church – Paul shared, “Support your faith with goodness, knowledge, self-control, endurance, godliness, and mutual affection with love” (2 Peter 1:6).

And to the church in Rome, whom he did not meet face to face, Paul assured them saying, “Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:3

Paul, the patriarch of the apostles, reflects upon the hardships he has shared throughout his ministry and he considers passing along a good word of encouragement to young Timothy. You see, Paul is shaping Timothy to go in the bold assurance of faith to continue his ministry. And Paul knows the secret to endurance.

To endure we must be strong in the grace of Jesus Christ (2 Tim 2:1). This is not an inner strength from pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. This is a passive strength we receive by fully relying on God’s grace. Nothing more fully reveals this than Christ’s own vulnerability and faithful obedience to God. We see the power of God’s grace pour out from the cross and empty tomb. It is a strength that girds us with the assurance that nothing, no hardship, and not even death itself can ever separate us from the love of God in Christ our Lord.

Paul knows that enduring through any kind of trial in life requires hard work. It takes a lot of physical, emotional, and spiritual stamina to not become completely paralyzed by the chaos that presses in on us. It takes stamina of faith to keep our eyes lifted up beyond our circumstances towards the hope that God promises. Remember that hope does not disappoint because God promises to guide our every step by the Spirit so that we may overcome.

As Paul sits alone in that prison cell he is reminded of the strength that comes through communal support. We share in sufferings as co-sufferers for we know Christ lived in solidarity with our human brokenness. And so the body of Christ continues to live in solidarity with those who are suffering. We are called to bear up one another with mutual affection in love. We are not meant to navigate our hardships alone, for we are tethered by relationships with God and one another. That tether is our lifeline.

Amanda Lindhout has one of the most compelling stories of endurance I have ever come by. She first shared her story in her memoir, “A House in the Sky,” and now she speaks across the world to share her story of endurance, forgiveness, and hope.

Amanda grew up in a broken home in Alberta, Canada. She and her brother would go dumpster diving for treasures others threw away. They would also gather up empty glass bottles to collect the deposits for money. It was on Amanda’s regular trips to the local Thrift Store that she came across National Geographic magazines for twenty-five cents apiece. A whole new world opened up to her between the cover’s yellow lines. Amanda’s plan was to move on to a better life where relationships were not bruised by alcohol and abuse and neighborhood kids didn’t call her dirty or poor. She endured a lot in her childhood and youth and her maturity envisioned a better life.

At the age of nineteen Amanda found a job waiting tables at an upscale restaurant. She saved all her tip money for months on end. And then multiple times a year she would break her rhythm of working to buy plane tickets to travel the world. For nearly seven years she traveled to forty-seven countries. Amanda said this felt called to go and see the world. Each trip was like a revelation. She says it was better than a classroom and church. Over the course of her travels she became a journalist and did free-lance photography.

But her endurance for adventure completely changed gears when she entered Somalia, the most dangerous country in the world.

Amanda and her travel colleague were kidnapped and held in captivity for 460 days. The conditions of their imprisonment were extreme. Not only did Amanda struggle to physically and emotionally deal with the isolation, confinement, starvation, and violence, but she also spiritually struggled with the “life she had led which brought her there.”[1]

What helped Amanda endure was the house in the sky. Day by day she envisioned walking into a doorway of protection, and then stairs which led to rooms. The rooms were filled with the good memories of her life, family, and travels. The house in the sky soon became full of simple gifts of gratitude. The house in the sky was Amanda’s lifeline that empowered her to endure the darkest days of her life by looking towards hope and even forgiving her captors.

She says, “Now I pray many times in a day, and for me now my prayers are very, very different. They’re more like a statement of gratitude for everything that I have, for my freedom now, for the ability to experience the beauty of the world again. I’m really profoundly grateful for that, and I think it’s really important to express that.”

Part of discovering our capacity to endure is not having the option to quit but choosing to take the next step forward. It is making a decision to live every day. We may wish many times over that we never had to know just how strong we are, but life does not work that way. Faith does not work that way in which we are shielded from tests and trials. Each of us will face hard things in life. Sometimes we choose the challenges to endure – like an organized race, a triathlon, or a century bike ride. It can be fun to see what we are made of. It is important to consider what makes us feel fully alive even as the chaos ensues around us.

But life can certainly be like a roller coaster that we did not willingly agree to ride on. Life unfolds in such a way that many times we cannot anticipate what lies ahead. On our best days you and I might seem perfectly fine and pulled together on the outside, but on the inside we are crumbling as we quietly search for the strength to move forward through our circumstances.

Discovering this virtue of endurance is relying on God’s grace as we bear up in God’s strength. Endurance requires us to lean into a deeper trust of God, engage the struggle to reach towards the promise of God’s hope, and to hold onto our lifeline of relationships. Even in the midst of our trials, sufferings, and doubts this gift of faith gives us the sure footing and traction to take the next step and rise above our circumstances. We rise because of who God is and God’s steadfast love and promised presence are bigger than anything we are trying to endure.

A few weeks ago I came across a devotional reading that will not leave me. You and I are all quietly searching for the strength to overcome some obstacle, some mountain.

Relax in [God’s] everlasting arms. Your weakness is an opportunity to grow strong in awareness of [God’s] Almighty presence. When your energy fails you – when you think you cannot endure one minute longer – do not look inward and lament the lack you find there. Look to [God and God’s] sufficiency.[2]

The secret to discovering endurance is not looking inward to what we lack but looking upward to be made strong in the grace of Jesus Christ. Strength is looking into Christ’s own vulnerability for he was willing to live and to die in solidarity with our sufferings so that we might know God’s resurrection power. That is our gospel.

May you and I take the next step of a disciple to discover endurance and to be built up in God's strength.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sources Referenced:

[1] Amanda Lindhout, “A House in the Sky” (New York: Scribner, 2013), p. 340.
[2] Sarah Young, “Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence” (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2004), p. 282.