When You Feel Like Giving Up

I want to talk to those of you today who feel like quitting. Maybe you feel like throwing in the towel. It could be your marriage. You've tried and you've tried and you've tried, and you don't feel like there's any way to get it back to the place where it should be.

It might be you feel like putting on a dream you thought one day you could and you would, and now you think there's just no way. Maybe it's on a ministry that you felt like God wanted you to do, but no matter how hard you try, it just doesn't come through.

It could be on your kids. You don't want to throw them away, but you prayed and you prayed and you prayed, and you just don't see any way that they're going to come back to Jesus and live in a way that's honorable to Him.

It could be an addiction that you've tried to overcome, and you've prayed and you've fought and you've dedicated and rededicated and tried and tried again, but you can't seem to put it behind you.

It could be your prayer for someone else to come to faith in Jesus, and the harder you pray, the further they seem to get from God.

Some of you, it might just be life. You've done everything you can to hang in there, and it feels like life is just too much. This is a message for someone who's tried and prayed and believed and feel like you've got nothing left.

It's my prayer for you that God's word would speak to you today from Hebrews chapter 10, verses 35 through 37. When the author to the Hebrews said this: "So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded." You need to what? Let's say it aloud. You need to persevere. Our virtue for today is the virtue of perseverance. You need to persevere. You need to keep going. You need to keep trusting. You need to keep believing. You need to hang in there. You need to persevere so that when you've done the will of God, you'll receive what He has promised. "For in just a little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay."

"In just a little while." How many of you notice that God is rarely early, but He's never late? In just a little while, He will come. You need to persevere.

The title for today's message is "When You Feel Like Giving Up." Father, we ask that Your word would speak life and faith that we could persevere by Your power, so that when we've done the will of God, we will receive what You have promised. We pray this in Jesus' name, and everybody said, Amen. Amen. Who's ready for some good news today? If you're ready, say, "I'm ready." Are you ready? You can type that in a chat: "I'm ready."

I do want to share some good news to those of you who know that God has more for you and you're tired of settling for less. I'll give you a resource from Angela Duckworth. She's someone who studied at Harvard and Oxford, and she went and did research and asked the question: "Why do successful people succeed?" And she and her team went and researched three different categories to find out why people succeeded. They went first to a famous military academy. Then they went to some very challenging schools. And then they went and studied world-class spelling bee champions.

And they wanted to find out of those cadets who went to the military school, which ones succeeded and which ones dropped out first and why. And when they went to the inner-city schools, they wanted to find out which teachers were successful and went the distance, and which ones caved in and quit before the end of the semester. And they went to look at fifth-grade brilliant little kids that spell words with 72 letters and wanted to find out why, when they were equally talented, some would rise to the top and some would cave under the pressure. Why are some people successful and others aren't?

And what they discovered was this: that it wasn't what they expected. It wasn't the IQ, it wasn't the intelligent quotient, but instead, it was actually the AQ, the adversity quotient. It wasn't in just how smart they were, but it was how much they could overcome. Not IQ, but AQ.

And Angela wrote a very helpful book called "Grit." And in the book, she has a quote that I like. She said this: "What is grit? Grit is passion and perseverance for long-term goals." I like this. It's both passion, meaning I'm excited about it, but it's not just passion, it's perseverance. And it's not just perseverance for a short season, but it's perseverance for long-term goals. We're not talking about perseverance like just for a semester or for a few weeks. We're talking about like raising a child with special needs. We're talking about serving Jesus when you have a chronic illness. We're talking about showing back up when it's easier to walk away. We're talking about the virtue of perseverance.

And today, I want to show you a very powerful story that I believe could give many of you the faith to go on when it would be easier to quit. We're going to look today in the Old Testament, interestingly enough. We're going to look at the sixth book of the Bible. We're going to look at the sixth chapter of the sixth book in the Bible. And I'm going to quote a very good friend of mine, Pastor Steven Furtick, who preached a message here six years ago. Actually, it was seven. If it had been six, that would have been six-six-six, which would have made us the antichrist, which many people say that we are. But it was 667.

And I'm going to share with you his title. His title was "Don't Stop on Six." "Don't Stop on Six." Which is a good thing to always do, except for when it comes to having children, because we actually have six kids. For those of you who are a little bit older than I am, how many of you remember the show "Eight Is Enough"? Anybody remember that show? "Eight Is Enough." Yeah. Six is enough. I mean, like, two is enough. Something like a cat's enough. Yes, it is. But whatever. And so the title is "Don't Stop on Six."

Now, some of you say, you know, like, "Hey, you copied that title or some ideas from Steven Furtick." I just want to tell you right now, yes, I did. I give him credit. I asked for permission. And for the record, he probably owes me one or two, okay? So, full credit to where some of these ideas came from. But let me give you the context, and then we're going to look at the sixth chapter of the sixth book of the Bible.

God had promised His people Jericho. This is the context. But they had yet to take hold of the promise. And if you look at Joshua chapter 6, verse 1, we're going to look at a big portion of scripture that tells us this: "Now the gates of Jericho were tightly shut because the people were afraid of the Israelites." So you've got Jericho, you've got these big walls, and no one was allowed to go out or in.

But the Lord said to Joshua, "This is what God said: 'I have given you Jericho, its king and all its strong warriors. You and your fighting men should march around the town once a day for six days. This is your assignment.'" Scripture goes on to say this: "Seven priests will walk ahead of the ark, each carrying a ram's horn. Blow on the seventh day, you to march around the town seven times with the priests blowing the horn. When you hear the priests give one long blast of the ram's horns, have all the people shout." Let's practice that. All of our churches, have all the people shout. Very good. Those of you online, just type in, "I'm shouting!" and give me some exclamation points. "And all the people would shout as loud as they can, and the walls of the town were collapsed, and the people can charge straight into the town."

The assignment was simple: walk around the walls one time a day. On the seventh day, walk around seven times, shout, blow your horns, and the walls will come tumbling down. Why do we give up when God has promised us so much? Why do we find it hard to keep going and often lose our trust in the promises of God?

I want to show you two reasons that are very, very common, and you might see yourself in these reasons that I see myself. Why do we give up? The first reason is, number one, is because our perspective is often limited. Our perspective is often limited. For example, let's talk about Jericho for a moment. Jericho's not a very big city. In fact, you could march around it in about an hour or so. So the problem wasn't that the city was big, the problem is that the walls were high.

If you can imagine, the Israelites were so close to the promise, it was just on the other side of the walls, but the walls were so high, the promise seemed impossible to obtain. Maybe some of you can relate. There are those of you like, "You know what it is that you want. You've got a dream, you got a vision, you got a place that you'd like to be. You know what you want to have, but all you can see in your life is walls, obstacles, problems." "I know this is where I want to be. In fact, I believe that's where God wants me to be, but you all you can see is that which is keeping you from the promise."

Maybe for you, it's like you want to get out of debt, and you got a vision to get out of debt, and you believe you're going to get out of debt. And you get so into it, you get Dave Ramsey's face tattooed on your arm, you know, "We're going to be gazelle intense, debt-free." And the moment you declare it, three things break, and you just see the walls. You think, "We're going to be a family that honors Jesus." And so we're going to go to church, and each other family, we're going to church, and then they're running late, and you cuss at them all the way there to church. That didn't go well. We're not serving Jesus good here, are we?

You're going to try to mend a broken relationship with a family member, and you take them out to dinner. Mistake number one: doing it in a public place, and it breaks down into a shouting match. You had great intentions, and they called security on you at Applebee's or whatever it is. The problem is, we have a very limited perspective.

And here's what's interesting. If you remember our text in verse 1, it's fascinating. Verse 1 says, "Jericho was securely barred." Remember that? It said no one can go in and no one could go out. But then in verse 2, it said God says, "I have given you Jericho." Verse 1 says you can't go in, verse 2 says I've already given it to you. God says, "Why did He do that?" Because God is the only one who can speak in the past tense before a present reality. In other words, He's the only one who can tell you what is when what isn't yet.

I wonder if some of you might be in a situation like that in your own life, where what He says about you is different than what you see about you. What He says about you is different than what you feel about you. Even now. In other words, God might say that you're healed, and yet you feel broken. God might say that you're blessed, but but you feel like He's forgotten you. God might say that you're an overcomer by the blood of the Lamb and by the words of your testimony, but you feel like you're overcome every single day, like life is just too much. Why is it? Because our perspective is often very, very limited.

It's like the Israelites. If you notice, they don't know the end of the story. God told Joshua, but Joshua didn't tell them. He just said, "Go march around the walls. Get up on Monday and march on Monday. Get up on Tuesday, march on Tuesday. Get up on Wednesday, march on Wednesday." And if you don't know what happened, I'll give you a spoiler alert. If you don't want to know the end of the movie, put your fingers in your ears. Because on the seventh day, they marched seven times around, and the walls came tumbling down.

If you didn't grow up in Sunday school, you don't even know there's a kids' song about this story. And if you know it, you just may want to sing it. It goes like this: "Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, Jericho, Jericho. Joshua fought the battle of, and the walls came tumbling down." Now with hand signals. Just not really. Don't do that. Does anybody remember that song? Type in the chat if you remember that song. I, I remember that song.

Let me tell you what. Joshua would have hated that song. That's a stupid song. That's the dumbest song ever written. He would have despised that song. You know why? Number one, because it is stupid. Number two, because there's so much more to the story than what that little song says. This wasn't just like a seven-day joy hike, taking a little canteen and walking around. "Look, a butterfly!" This was not that. This was more than 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, wondering, "Where are You, God? And we're ready, and You promised, and You haven't, and we believe You will, and we're showing back up, and we're hanging in there. We don't want to give up, and we don't see You, but we're sowing back up, and we're still believing. And when we don't have faith, we're trying to have some faith." It's not just... Wallace can't even tell. He's like, "This was our life for years, hanging on."

Let's make it modern day. It kind of be like, let's just say Josh was jacked up, messed up, addicted to methamphetamines, porn addict. And he like went for help and went into rehab and backslid and got clean and fell off the wagon again. And with the seven-step program and declared he was fine, and he wasn't fine. He prayed and he fasted, and everybody was going to give up. And finally, he found victory. Finally, he found freedom. And so they wrote a song about it: "Joshua was addicted to drugs and porn, drugs and porn, drugs and porn. Josh was addicted to drugs and porn. Then he prayed, and now he's fine." Stupid song. That's a stupid song. That's the dumbest song ever because there's so much more to it.

And this is a problem. So often, when you look on at others, you see their success and you see their victory lap, and you don't know the price they paid, and you don't know the pain they endured, and you don't know the story behind the story, before the story that no one told. The story of showing back up and continuing to persevere. You can't even imagine the private battles and the personal sacrifices of someone who continues to believe God, even when they don't see the promise which He assures will come true. It's perseverance. It's the price. It's the private cost.

Why do we give up so often? Our perspective is limited. And secondly, our progress isn't always obvious. Our progress isn't always obvious. In fact, I'll show you this in scripture again. We'll look at a big portion of scripture. The Bible says this: "Joshua commanded the army, 'Do not give a war cry and do not raise your voices. Now once you get there, you can shout, but at first, just shut up.'" That's what he says. "Don't say a thing. Don't say a word. Don't even say like, 'Hey, what's up, buddy? How's it going?' 'Oh, fine. You look so fly.' Don't say a word until the day I tell you to shout, then shout. Don't say a word until the day I tell you shout, then shout."

So he had the ark of the Lord carried around the city, circling at once. And scripture says, "Then the army returned to the camp and spent the night there." So on the second day, they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. And they did this stupid assignment for six days. Can you imagine their frustration? You're not just doing something that seems pointless, like walking around the stupid city, tooting the horns. This was decades of waiting, decades of trusting. These are warriors. They've been trained for battle, and they are ready for war. And all they got to do was take a morning stroll, walk around the block. That'd be embarrassing into the day, you know, sitting there playing spades. You know, their wife texts, "Hey, warrior, my brave hunk of a..." "You know what? Can't wait for you to come home and show me your warrior medals." "And, mm-hmm, what'd you do today, big boy? Did you kill some bad guys?" "Well, we're just warming up, stretching. We're just stretching the muscles, you know. And but the battle's coming. It's coming."

And they walked around one day, and they walked around the next. They didn't see nothing. No progress. No evidence that God was with them. Would have been cool if God had made it like a video game, you know, how when you get to the new level, you get the new level music? Like, end of the day, you know? Or, or, you know, like, "A seventh of the wall falls down." Like, you know, and now there's six sevens left. Just keep on going, right? That'd be cool. No, no, no new level music. Because we can handle the process as long as we see progress, right? Come on, somebody. You can fight for your marriage as long as you believe there's hope. You can keep paying down your debt as long as you believe one day you can actually pay something off. You can, you can eat good if you think you're going to look good on the beach. Like, "I'll be snorting the hummus if they'll give me an ab, right?" You know, take that thing down. It's like, you just, you, if you, if you believe, if you see some progress, right? You can endure the pain. But they're just walking out there and not seeing any progress at all.

And then what does Joshua do? "Hey boys, you're not even allowed to talk. Don't raise your voices. Don't say a word." Why do you think Joshua kept them from talking? I can't be sure, but maybe it's because he knows that sometimes our mouth can be our worst enemy. Can you imagine if they were allowed to talk? Like, "Hey, bro, this is stupid. Yo, bro, Joshua's lost his dang mind. You're going to put up with this every day? I ain't doing this thing every day. It's stupid. 40 years we've been serving God, ain't nothing happening. I don't know where He is. I don't know what He's doing, but my feet hurt, and this is stupid. I came out here to fight. I'm not doing this stuff. I don't know if you're going to do this, but this is the dumbest thing I've ever seen. Where's God? He didn't come. If He hadn't come to us by now, He's not coming through at all. Things are bad, they're going to get worse."

That's why sometimes you just got to tell yourself to shut up and keep doing what God told you to do. Sometimes you got to just preach yourself, "Shut your trap and keep on marching. Shut up and keep trusting. Shut up, keep praying. Shut up, keep on loving someone who seems unlovable. Shut up and keep on forgiving. Shut up and show back up when everybody else runs off." Sometimes you just got to talk to yourself and say, "Flesh, I don't believe you. I'm choosing faith. Circumstances, I don't believe you right now. I'm choosing God. I'm not walking by sight, I'm walking by faith. Shut up, feelings. I'm trusting God."

What's interesting again is if you note, God told Joshua the process would take seven days. But Joshua didn't tell the people. Like, for all they know, like they're in a marching band. "Here we go again, right?" And this is frustrating when there's no end in sight, when you're doing the right thing and it doesn't seem to make a difference. It is so much easier to honor God. It's so much easier to do what's right. It's so much easier to stay the course when you feel like it's working and when it pays off. You could stay pure in your singleness if you not knew God was sending you a hottie with a body in six months. Like, "Oh yeah, I'll serve You, God. Just send me my man, right?" You could do that if you knew someone was coming. You could deal with your spouse's depression if you knew God would heal the depression by Christmas. In other words, you can take the pain when you know God is still working, when there's a payoff.

Where is God in times like that? Where is He when you don't see Him? Maybe, maybe God's just like building their faith. He's teaching them to depend on Him even when they don't see the results. He's building their faith. What I've discovered is this: that God often does something in you before He does something for you. That's my story.

In the last year, marching around the walls and not seeing them come down, and I don't know how transparent to be with you. I never kind of know how much people can handle. But, um, I know for most of you, last year was probably, if not the toughest year of your life, one of them. For most of you, especially for those of you who are in any form of leadership. And I'll tell you right now, it was a tough, tough, tough year because no matter how much we prayed and how hard we tried to get things right, just impossible to get everything right. And the personal toll that it took on me was probably way more significant than I realized.

And midway through, I've been in ministry now for 30 years, 25 years leading Life Church. I have never once ever looked over the side and thought, "Maybe I should do something else? Maybe this is too much?" But midway through last year, I just started wondering, "Do I still have what it takes? Am I still the person? Does God still want me doing this? Could somebody else do it better? Because I don't think I'm doing very good." And I kind of looked at the towel and thought, for the first time, maybe it's time to throw it in.

Maybe it's time to throw it in. I couldn't hear from God. Like, I'm like, "God, give me something. Give me anything." There's the longest time where I just couldn't hear anything. Like, "Give me a word. Give me something." I'm reading the book, I can't hear anything. And I heard one word. Not even like the word. And God just told me the word: "Steady." It's like, "Okay." I can do steady. And it wasn't even the assignment. It was just the fact that I recognized He's still with me. And He kind of brought me back to center.

What I realized is that whenever you're tempted to quit, it's always good to remember why you started. And I remember, I didn't go into this for easy, and I didn't go in there to be popular and go and to be liked. I went in it because people are lost and dying and need help and salvation, and His name is Jesus, and it's about Him, and it's not about me. And so in some very low moments, I mean, wrecked with private depression and just hurting, I looked at the towel in the same way you might look at the towel. And you can throw it in, or you can pick it up and wipe the sweat off your face and keep on marching and trusting God.

I want to talk to someone who's been faithful for a long time. You've been trusting God. You've been praying. You've been believing, and you're still not seeing the promise. And I want to tell you, you may be closer than you think. You may be closer than you think.

I'm reminded of Florence Chadwick, amazing woman, the first woman to swim the English Channel both ways, an incredible accomplishment. And in 1952, Chadwick decided to attempt a 26-mile swim between the California coastline and the Catalina Island. And 15 hours into this grueling swim, a very heavy fog settled in, and she lost her bearing, and she couldn't see. And confused, exhausted, discouraged, she wanted to get in the boat. They said, "Keep swimming. Keep swimming. Keep swimming. Keep swimming." And she couldn't take it anymore, and she threw in the towel and she quit. And it wasn't until she got into the boat and could hear everybody there, she realized that the shore was less than a half mile away.

I don't know who this is for, but you may be closer than you think. You may be closer than you think. Our key text: "You need to persevere. You need to persevere so that when you've done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised." You've been walking, maybe for a long time, just like we've been doing for some girls in my life who need healing. "Jesus, heal, please heal. I'm begging You to heal." I'm coming back and believe. I'm like the persistent widow on Luke 18. I've done a lap, and I'm still praying. And I'm doing another lap, and I don't see a thing, and I'm still praying. And God, I'm trying to hang on. I'm like Habakkuk, "Where are You, God? Do You not hear me cry? Why do You let the innocent suffer? I don't understand." God, I don't see You. I'm running around the third lap, and I'm continuing to go. And God, I don't see anything. All I see is the walls. All I see is the obstacles. God, I don't see. I don't feel You. I don't feel like I haven't heard from You. And I'm on four, and I'm continuing to trust God. And now I'm discouraged. And now I'm wondering, "Do I need to quit? Did I have it wrong? Is He really there?" And I'm continuing to trust Him, and I don't feel like it right now. And now I'm kind of ticked off, and I don't even know if He's real at this point. But somehow, I get back up and I go around. And as I keep on going, at one point, before I know it, I'm actually on lap number six, and I may be one lap away from the promise.

And you may be closer than you think. And that's why I came to tell somebody, "Don't you quit on six." Don't you quit on six. Don't you quit on six, or quit on five, or quit on four, or quit on three, or quit on two, or quit on one, or quit on God. Don't you quit on your marriage. Don't quit believing for your children. Don't, don't walk away from your ministry. Don't abandon the church. Don't abandon God. Don't quit on six. You may be so much closer than you think.

You can throw in the towel, or you can pick it back up and you can wipe the sweat off your brow, and you can keep on walking, and you can keep on trusting, and you can tell your feelings to shut up because you don't follow your feelings, but you have faith. You may be closer than you think you are. Whenever you feel like you're ready to quit, just remember why you started.

And I love what the Apostle Paul said in Galatians 6:9. He said, "Let us not become weary in doing good. Let us not go weary in the march. Don't let us go weary in the faith. Don't let us go weary in praying and believing and trusting and hanging on when everybody else lets go. And we just keep on trusting God, walking by faith and not by sight. Do not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time you will reap a harvest if you do not give up."

This is for somebody. Don't quit on six. Don't quit on God. He hears the cries of your hearts. He is with you, and He is always good. What do we do? A true virtue. The virtue of perseverance. Let us persevere so that you will experience the blessings of God. I don't know who this is for, but the devil wants you to throw in a towel. Jesus took the towel and washed some feet. You can take your towel, you can wipe off the sweat, you can serve some people, and you can stay in the game. And a promise is true. God's word is true. You will reap a harvest, but you don't give up.

So Father, we pray today in the name that is above every name, that for those who feel ready to quit, that by Your power and by Your Spirit, You would keep us running our race, eyes focused on Jesus, doing what You called us to do. As you're praying today, without looking around, I want to talk to anyone who might feel some discouragement, maybe some doubt. You've been hanging on to a dream, a prayer, trying to have faith for a long time, and you haven't seen the promise fulfilled. If that's you today, and you need God's help to persevere, would you just lift up your hands right now? Just lift them up. You can type in the chat online: "God help me persevere. God help me persevere."

And Father, today, I just ask that it would not be by our might, nor by our power, but it will be by Your be by Your Spirit that You carry us. God, not by our own, our own effort. I know we run out of it. And not even by our own faith, but by the faith that You give to us. Just help us keep walking and keep trusting and keep believing because Your word is true, Your promises never fail. So God, by the power of Your Spirit, for someone in some area that You've called them to experience Your goodness, Your promise, give them the faith to persevere. Give them the faith to persevere. And God, we believe they'll reap a harvest. They'll see the blessing if they keep trusting You and don't give up.

As you keep praying today, what's really special for me to think about is, um, the fact that God hasn't given up on some of you. God didn't give up on me when year after year I turned away from His goodness. God didn't give up on me when I continued to do things against His will that broke His heart. God continued to pursue me. There's some of you right now, you recognize that, maybe God's tried to reach out at different points in your life, and, uh, He's doing it right now. What is it? It's His love. It's His, it's His loving-kindness. It's His goodness that He's reaching out to you. It's not an anger. He's not mad at you. He loves you. And He showed you how much He loved you when He became like us. When God became flesh. When you look at Jesus, the Son of God, man, you want to talk about love. Jesus loved the unlovable. He touched those that religion rejected. He reached out to the lowest of low. He reached out to the most broken, and He loved them where they were, and He invited them, "Hey, just leave your old life and come follow Me."

And Jesus, in His love for us, He did something for us that we couldn't do for ourselves. He died in our place as the perfect sacrifice for the forgiveness of all of our sins. And what does He do? He just very asks us. He doesn't say, "You gotta be perfect. You gotta join a church and do all these things." He just says, "Hey, leave your old life and just follow Me. Just be My disciple. Just follow Me." And when you follow Jesus, He forgives your sins. He makes you brand new. He gives you spiritual blessings and direction. And life may not always go the way you want it, but He's working in all things, in all things, even the bad things, to bring about good because you love Him and are called according to His purpose.

Today, at all of our churches, there are those of you, you recognize, "I'm not in a relationship with God. I don't know Him personally." Maybe you feel guilty for something that you've done. God is patient with you. He loves you, and He's reaching out to you. And I'm going to invite you just to say yes to His invitation. Just let go of whatever is old. Let go of whatever has been hurting you. Wouldn't let go of whatever's been separating from God, and just say, "I want to follow Jesus. I want to give Him my life."

When you do, when you cry out to Him, He hears your prayer. He forgives every sin, and He makes you brand new. You're not watching by accident. You're here because God loves you today. Those of you online, to all of our churches, who say, "I need His grace. I need His grace. I need His grace. I'm letting go of my old life today. I give my life to Jesus." That's your prayer. Just lift your hands high right now. All of our churches say, "Yes, I'm giving my life to Christ." As we see tons of people today at our churches and online. Those of you online, just, just type in the chat, "I'm giving my life to Jesus." Just type that in right now. And we would be honored, wherever you are, to pray with you. More importantly, God hears your prayer. Just pray this aloud if you're comfortable: "Heavenly Father, I give You my life. Jesus, forgive my sins. Save me. I surrender my whole life to You. Fill me with Your Spirit so I could know You and so I could follow You. Direct my steps. My life is not my own. I give it all to You. Thank You for new life. You have mine in Jesus' name, I pray." Because somebody worship big today. Celebrate. Welcome those born into the dog's family.