How To Keep Going When You Feel Quitting Series

How To Keep Going,

When You Feel Like Quitting

Faith Factor – part four

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Gal 6:9

QUESTION – how you ever felt like giving up? Have you ever felt like quitting, like throwing up your hands and tossing in the towel and saying; “I can’t do this anymore, I’m done, I quit – it’s over…?

You’re working ON; a project, a relationship, a ministry – on a life… AND – you’ve had just about all that you can take. You’re making little if any progress, you’re spinning your wheels, you’re not getting anywhere… You’re tired, worn out, weary and frustrated… (I don’t know about you BUT – I’ve been there and done that.. a lot).

THIS MORNING – as we continue our message series, ‘The Faith Factor’ – we are going to be looking at yet another Old Testament guy, Jeremiah… The prophet not the bullfrog…

NOW - Jeremiah has been one of my mentors, a person that I have both looked up to and have often felt a kindred spirit with for years. He’s one of my heroes. I MEAN – 4 or 5 times during the last 10 years (when life was kind of tough); I would grab; my pen, my bible, my journal…and crack open words written by this prophet of God over 2,500 years ago. AND – each time God has used Jeremiah to speak straight to my heart.

YOU KNOW – a certain kind of bonding takes place when you go through tough times together… GUYS – who spent some time together in a fox hole are usually friends for life… Jeremiah and I have had quite a few foxhole moments together over the years. I can’t wait to invite Him over, throw some steaks on the grill and chill out with him in heaven…

My goal this morning is two-fold… to lift up God and to give some honor to a dude named Jeremiah (who certainly deserves it). AND – it is my prayer that some thing I share today will help someone out there who feels like quitting.

The first point in your outline is;

Jeremiah Had Many Reasons For Quitting

NOW – before I talk about Jeremiahs reasons for quitting. I think it would be a good idea for me to kind of summarize a little OT history. SO THAT – we will all understand the historical context that Jeremiah is writing from…

Last week we talked about Abraham and how God called him to leave his country and follow Him, and become the Father of a new nation…

Abraham does that… AND - he has a son named Isaac and Isaac has a son named Jacob (remember they all lived in tents for a couple hundred years waiting to get this new land..

During the times of Jacob there is a famine in the land which caused Jacob to take his family to live in Egypt. One of his sons Joseph is second in charge of all of Egypt.

SO - God’s people live in Egypt – and they do pretty God for awhile… BUT - after a brief period of time (a Pharaoh comes onto the scene who does not know Joseph) and he makes the Hebrews slaves… AND – the would be slaves for 400 years. Until Moses (who we talked about 2 weeks ago…remember; be yourself - decide what really matters)… comes along and through the power of God deliverers the people from slavery.

AFTER – Israel leaves Egypt, after they walk through the parted waters of the Red Sea. THEY – camp on the east side of the Jordan River. NOW - God wants the people to go into the promise and take possession of it… BUT – there is a glitch to this plan… the people who live there are huge, the cities well fortified and the people heavy armed… BOTTOM-Line – God’s people chicken out because they have no faith in God… AND – this lack of faith causes them to wander in the desert for 40 years.

40 years later they get another dry… AND – before they go into the land Moses says to them (day 14 summer of one devos…)

"Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between prosperity and disaster, between life and death. I have commanded you today to love the LORD your God and to keep his commands, laws, and regulations by walking in his ways. If you do this, you will live and become a great nation, and the LORD your God will bless you and the land you are about to enter and occupy. But if your heart turns away and you refuse to listen, and if you are drawn away to serve and worship other gods, then I warn you now that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live a long, good life in the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy. "Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, that you and your descendants might live! Choose to love the LORD your God and to obey him and commit yourself to him, for he is your life. Then you will live long in the land the LORD swore to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." Dt 30:15-20