Developing Long Haul Christianity

Rom. 15:4-13

Intro

ADVENT CANDLE: This is our second week in Advent.

The Second Candle (The Candle of the Way)

The second candle shows that Christ is the Way. We are lost in sin and Christ is the Light sent into
the world to show us the way out of darkness.
Suggested Verses to Read at the Lighting of the Second Candle
Leading Us to the Kingdom of Heaven: “In those days, John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness
of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come now.” Matthew 3: 1-2

Jesus’ Proclamation of His Purpose: “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No
one comes to the Father except through Me.’” John 14: 6

Read more at Suite101: The Meaning of Advent: The Symbolism of the Candles and Sabbath
Celebrations http://www.suite101.com/content/the-meaning-of-advent-a34662#ixzz17EhEdGXd

Last week as we began Advent we talked about HOPE. We talked about DARING to hope. We
want to DARE to bring HOPE to this world. It’s not just about speaking “truth to power,” but about
each one of us hearing the voice of the Spirit and bringing HOPE into our world day by day.

This morning we’ve heard from Karrie and the needs that are right here in our community.
Homeless teens in Anoka County. They need HOPE. There are some practical things we can do to
help bring them some HOPE in this winter season. Please join us in this effort!

In this Advent Season we need the reminder that we are bringing HOPE and LIGHT into this
world. Jesus is the LIGHT. We celebrate that. He is the LIGHT in the midst of darkness. When he
touches us, we are carrying that light into a dark world. Jesus is it! We bring that light to people all
around us.

One of the keys to this is to realize it’s about being in this walk with Christ for the LONG
HAUL. We do this until he comes again!

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Long Haul Christianity Pastor Dan Thompson
Advent 2010 Columbia Heights Assembly of God
 Of course, the question becomes, WHEN is Jesus coming again?

Fortunately, we now have the answer! May 21, 2011.

A website called “We Can Know” has been gracious enough to let us know that Jesus is indeed
coming again. Date and all. Pack your bags.

There is a tendency to focus on blasting out of here. If we do that, there is a danger we forget
to prepare ourselves to live as LIGHT in the darkness. We tend to not care about the darkness
because we’re going to be out of here anyway!

But if Jesus does NOT come on May 21, 2011, what then?

The apostles and the Early Church had every reason to believe Jesus would be back in their
lifetime. They had an expectation that Jesus would indeed be back before they all died. It was a
reasonable assumption based on several things they heard him say.

Then… he didn’t come back in their lifetime. Christians had to realize there is something else to
walking with Christ. It’s not about the short term. How do we live for the LONG HAUL?

How do we live for something beyond just short-term answers?

Paul gives us some key thoughts in this passage in Romans.

1. Endurance
2. Encouragement
3. Hope

Living in HOPE is not about the HYPE. It is about confident expectation.

Jesus COULD come on May 21, 2011. SOMEONE is probably going to be right about a date at
some point in time! It’s just luck!

Yet, if Jesus doesn’t come back on that date… can you live on? Can you live with HOPE?

Jesus may not come back on May 21, 2011. I will live on. As a believer in Jesus Christ as the
Light of this world, I will keep daring to bring HOPE to those who need it.

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Long Haul Christianity Pastor Dan Thompson
Advent 2010 Columbia Heights Assembly of God
 Hope isn’t hype. It’s quiet confidence that Jesus will be back when he’s ready. Until then, I live
with the power of the Spirit in this world.

We Do This Together!

But I don’t do this alone. We do it together as the Body of Christ. We need each other in this
world! A few coming together bring great light into the darkness!

To make it for the long haul, we need each other! Encouraging one another. Calling on each other
to HOPE.

One of the great stories of the 20th Century about enduring together comes from an Antarctic
exploration where the ship was named Endurance.

Sir Ernest Shackleton was leading an expedition across Antarctica. It was a day when the
exploration of the South Pole was the buzz. Shackleton wanted to lead a team from one side of the
continent to the other. The Endurance would drop the team off at one end of the continent. The
team would make their way across the continent, and then another ship would pick them up.

The expedition began in fall of 1914. The ship was caught in an early ice formation so the team
spent months trapped in ice on the ship. Shackleton was hoping for a thaw in the spring that would
set the ship free and they could continue on their journey. Instead, the ice thickened up, crushing
the ship. Shackleton then led his crew in forming their own rescue. They stayed on ice floats, used a
boat from the Endurance to get across the sea to an island, had a handful of brave men who made
the journey across the mountains of the island to a whaling village, then made another treacherous
journey around the island by boat to rescue the ones left with the small boat. It took over a year
for them to get out of their predicament.

Shackleton didn’t lose anyone. He kept them all moving toward the goal of rescue. They did
everything TOGETHER.

We need each other. The Church is vital in this treacherous journey through life. It is where we
find HOPE together. It is where we find strength. It is where we find the power of the Spirit.

Paul talks about having one mine and one voice that we may glorify the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ (v. 6).

One voice: Proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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Long Haul Christianity Pastor Dan Thompson
Advent 2010 Columbia Heights Assembly of God
 One voice: lifted up in HOPE.

SING: “Be Glorified” or “Jesus… There’s Just Something About That Name”

Friends, living in hope is living with the expectation that Jesus is indeed coming again! But we
don’t set dates. We challenge each other and ENCOURAGE each other so we make it to the end!

We Persist

We don’t give up! It’s not a matter of just holding on until the rescue boat comes. It is living in
POWER until Christ returns.

We understand that life isn’t always easy. But God teaches us in every circumstance.

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Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces
perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame,
because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given
to us. (Rom. 5:3-5)

We understand as long-haul Christians that tough times come. If Jesus comes in 2011, GREAT!
If Jesus doesn’t come in 2011, we’ll still be at the tasks he has assigned us!

We’ve learned that suffering has a purpose. We learn to persevere. We learn to walk with
character. All of it produces HOPE. Hope does not disappoint!

In the endurance, in the persistence, we find Christ.

Hear these words from Paul:

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. (Rom. 12:12)

Faithful in prayer. Another translation puts it “persisting in prayer.”

The word here means to STAY AT IT. Give it “unremitting care.” You are not giving up.

Persist in prayer. When things don’t look good. Persist.

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Long Haul Christianity Pastor Dan Thompson
Advent 2010 Columbia Heights Assembly of God
 Friends, some of the toughest things to do in our culture is to STAY AT THINGS. We have a
tendency to let go. We forget. It’s easy to do.

We need the persistence in prayer!

We need to persist in prayer for healing. Persist in prayer for strength. Persist in prayer for
answers. STAY AT IT.

It doesn’t mean keeping some fever pitch adrenaline rush emotion going all the time. It simply
means keep at it. Don’t forget. Don’t forget to remind God! There are times when the emotion
DOES get a little greater. But there are times when we come before the Lord and lay a simple
reminder before him.

We must persist.

Michele Krueger, a pastor’s wife we’ve been praying for over the last few months, still needs our
prayers! She had a setback this week in a procedure and really what is needed is a healing miracle
from the Lord. She has brain cancer and all that is left for the doctors is to try to attack it with
chemo and radiation. Please keep her in prayer!

Other needs we need to keep at in our lives. Miracles. Finances. Jobs.

I want us to stand and find a prayer partner right now. I don’t want us to slip away from this
moment TALKING about prayer without praying!

Examples of Persistence

Paul talks about everything being written to teach us. What has gone before is an example for
us to keep on persisting! What has gone on before calls us to ENDURE… to HOPE.

I think of incredible examples in my own life. There are stories I latch onto. They give me
HOPE. They are examples of persistence.

One of the great examples for me right now is Louis Walton. He’s pastored Trinity Tabernacle
in north Minneapolis for 40 years. His consistent saying is, “We’re still here.”

I think of the Church in China. Radical believers who are asking God for ENDURANCE. They
want to be trained and feel that what happens to them in any type of persecution only makes them

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Long Haul Christianity Pastor Dan Thompson
Advent 2010 Columbia Heights Assembly of God
STRONGER. Many Chinese believers feel that their capacity to endure is what God is building in
them to reach the hardest parts of the world.

They know persecution. If they then go into another part of the world where Christianity is
forbidden, they know how to persist. Americans? Maybe not so much!

They train for being in prison as believers! They train to memorize the Word in case they don’t
get a hard copy of Scripture!

Persistence. Incredible stories of persistence! Examples given to us so we have hope!

I think of a man I never met. His daughter was a spiritual grandmother to me. She has since
gone on to be with the Lord as well.

Her dad, Brother Shelton, was a mighty man of prayer. He knew what it was to persist.
Pastoring in a small town in western Kansas in the Depression, there was a family who had a new
baby. The baby was suffering with fever. Hospitals were too far away and money was scarce.

Brother Shelton drove out to their farm and prayed. He took the baby in his arms and paced in
the farmyard all night long, crying out for God to break that fever. He would pace between the barn
and the house quoting Scripture, reminding God of the healing promises of the Word.

By morning that fever broke. The baby grew up to become a minister and district leader in the
Assemblies of God.

Faith. You don’t give up!

You get like a bulldog on something, latch your jaws on, and DON’T GIVE UP!

I think of Dave Roever. He was a young soldier in the Vietnam War serving Jesus when his
platoon was bent on NOT serving Jesus! In fact, they were bent on Dave not serving Jesus!

He kept on. He prayed. He read his Bible. He witnessed. He loved his platoon even when they
didn’t return that love.

One day they were out on boat patrol and they were hit by an ambush. Dave picked up a
phosphorous grenade, pulled the pin, and prepared to throw it. As the grenade was by his ear in his
hand, a sniper bullet hit the grenade causing it to explode. The burning chemicals hit Dave’s body.
His skin went one direction into the river and his body went another.

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Long Haul Christianity Pastor Dan Thompson
Advent 2010 Columbia Heights Assembly of God
 Still alive, he came up out of the water and shouted, “I still believe in you, Jesus!”

One of his platoon dropped to his knees right then and gave his life to Christ.

Dave persisted. He stayed at it through painful surgeries. He stayed at it and is faithfully

preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Friends, live in HOPE!

Live with endurance and encouragement!

Live for the long haul!

Don’t live from one emotional victory to the next. Live with your eyes fixed on Jesus. Live with
your faith anchored in the fellowship of believers and Christ. We hope TOGETHER!

We need a fresh infusion of ENDURANCE in our lives! We live until he comes again. We don’t
lose hope!

Communion

We come to the table of the Lord and we long for the day we will take this with him.

It may be soon. It may not. We live with expectation. We live with HOPE.

Today, we need to come with the attitude of HOPE. We need to come to this table with resolve.

“Lord, you endured for ME. Help me to endure for YOU. Help me to persist. Help me to endure.
Help me to live in HOPE!”

You may want to spend some time around this altar after you have taken the elements and pray.
Pray for needs in your own life. Pray for needs in our community. Pray for the Spirit to lead you in
mission. Maybe there is something the Lord wants to do through you to reach homeless teens in
Anoka County. Maybe there is something else the Spirit wants to talk to you about.

You may need prayer. We have intercessors here who would love to pray with you. Seek them
out after you have partaken of the table.

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Long Haul Christianity Pastor Dan Thompson
Advent 2010 Columbia Heights Assembly of God
 We come to this table and remember the words of Christ:

For the bread: "Take, eat: this is My Body, which is broken for you for the remission of sins."
For the wine: "Drink of it, all of you: this is My Blood of the New Testament, which is shed for you
and for many, for the remission of sins."

Friends, let us come with longing. We long for the day to see him.

We long to be found faithful until that day!

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Long Haul Christianity Pastor Dan Thompson
Advent 2010 Columbia Heights Assembly of God