"Belief That Endures!"

 Intro.

At the church where I attended as a teenager, there was this lady who had two little boys who also attended; for the purposes of this recollection, we will call her Sherry.  This lady attended very faithfully.  Many of her brothers and sisters, also her mother, attended the church as well; this family was very strong in the church.  There were a few people in the family who did not attend, and one of these was Sherry=s husband, we’ll call him Terry.  Terry was one of these good old boys who just didn=t come to church and really didn=t see much use in it.  Sherry would talk of how she prayed that he would come to know Christ and she worked at it, but usually she was doing good if she could get him there for Christmas.  Time went on, the church went through some hard times and split, and Sherry continued to come very faithfully; she even got more involved after the split, Terry still didn=t come.  Sherry=s brother-in-law, who was a pastor, became the pastor of the church, and Terry still did not come.  Time went on and the church would not leave the split behind, so we later went to another church.

 

At that church, things began to happen.  The church began to grow, during which time I was able to find healing, but that isn=t the point of this story.  As the church was growing, one Sunday, Sherry=s sister showed up for worship; a few weeks later, Sherry and her boys showed up for worship.  They began to attend and eventually joined at that church too.  Sherry also needed to find a place where she could pick up and go on and leave the dissension behind; a place where her boys could grow in Christ in a positive environment.  One Sunday we arrived at church to find out that the thing we had hoped for and prayed for had happened.  Terry had come under conviction and had called our pastor to his house and had made a profession of faith.  Terry became very active in church.  He was a go-getter for God!  He brought others of his family members to Christ, one was an alcoholic brother-in-law!  A couple years later, Terry accepted the call into the ministry.  For a while, he later became the pastor of the church where I attended as a teenager.  He tried to help that church have a new start.  What if Sherry had given up?  What if she had quit praying for him?  What if she had quit coming to church, to be with him?  The story might have had a much different ending.

 

Trans:

This is much like our scripture for today.  Let=s look

today at some people who had to wait a while with belief and

endurance before victory finally came.

 

 

Prayer

Joshua 6:6-16&20

 

I.          Notice the people had a "Belief that Endured."

 

A.        They marched around the city six times and nothing happened.  Not even one stone fell!

 

B.        What if they'd given up?

1.         What if they'd said, "This won't work!  I don't see any results!"

2.         Remember these are the ancestors of those who had said, "We can't                                    conquer Canaan!"

 

C.        What had happened to them?  What had happened to their old attitude?

1.         Revival!  They had their belief in God revived! 

2.         They had their belief in what God could do through them revived!

3.         Could this be one of the greatest needs of the Christian Church

            today?

 

D.        Theirs was a belief that wouldn't give up, and victory came!

 

II.        We need a "Belief that Endures!"

 

A.        Victories don't always come to us when we want them to!

1.         It may be a loved one who we want to come to Christ.

2.         Maybe it's church growth in attendance.

3.         Or maybe it's our own personal growth as a Christian.  We find that                                    we try and try, only to fail again!

 

B.        The lesson here is to not give up; this could be the sixth time around

            Jericho so to speak, and it could happen any time!

1.         If we don't stop believing in what God can do through us and in the                                    world we live in!

2.         If we don't give up & quit!

 

C.        Let's not let Satan stamp out our belief with time!

 

III.       Could it be that one of Satan's greatest tools against the church and individual

            Christians is unbelief, resulting from discouragement?

 

A.        Look at the world around us:

1.         Christians who don't believe their life matters!

2.         Christians who don't believe they can make any difference!  Things                                    are just going to go this way, and I can't stop it is the general

            feeling!

 

B.        If Satan can discourage us thus killing our belief, he has us!

 

C.        A lot of times I have noticed he does it with time!

1.         Time when things we wish and pray for don't happen!

2.         Time that he can work on our minds!

3.         We need endurance to keep believing!

 

IV.       But it doesn't have to be this way.

 

A.        God is greater than Satan!

 

B.        God hasn't changed!  God hasn't moved!

 

C.        If we believe with endurance, we can have victory today!

1.         We will start seeing our loved ones come to Christ!

2.         We will continue to see our church grow!

3.         We will have personal victories over our old selves!

 

D.        When we believe, we are more prone to let God use us to do the things

            that need to be done so these things can happen!

 

Conclusion:

A.        Do we believe in Christ?

 

B.        Do we believe in the difference Christ can make through us?

 

C.        Do we have belief that endures no matter what happens or how long it

            takes?

 

D.        God is still the same today as he was back then!  We can see some things

            happen today, if we believe and will let God use us to make the difference!

 

E.         As we encounter Christ at the table today, ask God to rekindle your belief!

 

Prayer of Confession

Service of Communion