“Perseverance—God does His best work over time as you stick with it.”
Passage: 2 Timothy 4: 1-8
Speaker: Bob Kadlecik
Bridgewater Montrose’s Podcast
Your Story: Week 3
I don't know how many of you know Jessica. She comes here. Yeah. Yeah. Nowhere and love her. Yeah. Just an amazing woman and what God has done in her life, what God wants to do in all of our lives. This series, Your Story, is one that each of us, five campus pastors at Bridgewater going around and sharing the same story, our story with all the different locations. So if you've been coming the last three weeks, you wouldn't know this, but my name is Pastor Bob and I'm usually here. I've had some people introduce themselves to me as if I was a stranger, thank you. And it's good to be back. So this is like home. It's not like home. This actually is home and I appreciate all of you and going to just share a little bit about how God has worked in my life. And starting with that, I asked this question, what's the difference between the ordinary and the extraordinary? What separates the mediocre from the amazing? So the Olympics are all these amazing athletes. And I was struck by this guy, Yusef Deikich, because he doesn't look like an amazing athlete. He's 51 years old, which would make him one of the oldest men in the Olympic village. And he's in the sport of pistol sharpshooting. I don't even know what it's called. But most of the contestants, they have these special high-tech glasses and all this stuff. And he seems to be, there's all these memes about him being a hit man for the Turkish mob. And they're like, we got one more job for you to do. I told you, I was retired. No, it's in Paris. I told you, it's the Olympics, okay. But you know, just hand in his pocket 'cause I'm up bullseye, all right, next, you know. In the silver medal, what's the difference between Yusef and us? Yeah, well, yeah, not practice because I could practice a whole lot and I still wouldn't do that, right? In fact, there's a whole list of things, not skill. I played soccer with a man who could have played professionally and was actually invited to his country's World Cup prep team to get ready for the World Cup. But he was not great. Do you know why? He was lazy, wonderful man, like sweet and all that. But it's not skill. There's all sorts of skilled and potential people who never become great. It's not intelligence. It's not strength. It's not time because I wanted so bad to be a professional basketball player when I was in high school. I put the time in all five foot seven of me and it just wasn't enough, you know? Not perfection. Nobody's perfect. But what separates the extraordinary from the ordinary? It's consistency. Probably all of us or most of us, if given enough chances, could hit a bull's eye. But to hit it consistently over and over and over again, that's really difficult. Another way of looking at this is you could give me, if you gave me a $5,000 investment, I could guarantee you or almost guarantee you that I could take that $5,000 and make it a million dollars. Wouldn't that be pretty cool? And not only could I do that, but I could do that. I could make it a million with a mediocre investment. If I did better than mediocre, you would earn even more than a million dollars. You know what the only thing I would need is? Besides your $5,000, I would need 70 years. And so if I did that for myself at 123, how old will you be in 70 years, Terry? 146, and you would have an amazing investment return on that, you know? We live in a microwave society, but the truth is greatness, and we call it consistency in sports, but in life it's called perseverance. To persevere, to do the right thing. So many of us, we do the right thing over and over and over again, and nothing seems to happen. It's nothing. It's nothing. It's nothing. And then all of a sudden everything happens at once. And so that's what I want to talk about today, is perseverance. In fact, you think about marriage. How many of you have been married for at least a year? You were married at least a year at some point in your life. Okay, now how many of you were married, and you know, are married or were married? Married or spouses died or something, but for at least 30 years, the same person, 30 years? Awesome. You know how I go to these other campuses, and there's lots of young people, and there's hardly anybody raising their hands. Becky and I celebrated 30 years of marriage just this last summer. How many of you were married or are married for at least 50 years? Raise your hand. Awesome. Yeah. Awesome. You know, in Tunkanik, there was just one, and there was just a handful in Conklin as well, but that's amazing, right? If you say, you know, I've been married for a whole year, well, that's good. That's great. That's a good start. But if you say, I've been married for 50 years, I guarantee you, there were highs, and there were lows, and there are all sorts of stuff in between, but that perseverance and sticking with it and not quitting is one of the most valuable traits that you could possibly have. And so if you want to go somewhere you've never been, you need to ask someone who's been there for directions, right? If you want to climb Mount Everest, don't ask me. I wouldn't even know. I think it's in Nepal. I don't know what airport you go in. I don't know how much it costs. I don't know how long it takes. I don't know what kind of regimen you should have ahead of time, particularly for the elevation problems and elevation sickness. Like I don't know anything about that. You want to climb Mount Everest, talk to somebody who's been there, who's been to the summit, right? And if you want to have a life of perseverance, you need to talk to somebody who's lived it. And so you can talk to me in about 30 years, or we can go to God's word, and incidentally, this is a good thing. When I do pre-Marriage Counseling, sometimes I give them a sheet of paper and say I want you to talk to somebody who's been married over 25 years and has a marriage that you respect and admire, and ask them these questions about basically how did they get there. But in life, here's a person that can talk about persevering. It's the apostle Paul. He wrote 13 books of the Bible, and this was the last one that he wrote. He wrote it months, possibly even weeks before he was beheaded. He's on death row, and he says this, "As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near. He's at the end. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have remained faithful. I have read this, and heard people read it at funerals. I've seen it inscribed on tombstones. This is what I want in my life to be able to say I have finished, doesn't matter how you start. I mean, it matters how you start, but what really matters is how you finish, and I want to finish well. The great thing about all of us here is we can all finish well, no matter what's been in the past. He goes on to say, "And now the prize awaits me. This is the result of finishing well. The crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge will give me on the day of his return." Is that a literal crown or figurative? I could care less. Right? It's not about the crown. It's the Lord who will praise me, who will praise Paul, and the prize is not just for me, but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing. And so this is where we want to go. How do we get there? Well, the apostle Paul is writing this to his spiritual child in the faith, Timothy, and he writes at the beginning of this chapter what you have to do to finish like Paul finished. And here's how he starts the verse. He says, "I solemnly the chapter. I solemnly urge you in the presence of God in Christ Jesus, who will someday judge the living and the dead." That's how he closes. He says, "The judge is going to reward me." He says, "I urge you in the presence of the God who will judge the living and the dead when he comes to set up his kingdom." Here's the first thing we need to do if we want to finish well, if we want to persevere, is we need to live like God is the judge. And there's two aspects to this. Number one, if you live like God is the judge and you fear God, you won't fear anything else. You won't fear what other people will think of you. We live in a society crippled by fear. Just think about what's going to happen Tuesday. Most people in this country, this has been proven over and over by surveys. It's in a huge majority of Americans on Tuesday will vote for the person they don't fear as much, right? We're not voting for someone as much as we're voting against someone we're afraid of, right? And not only is that fear on a national level, it's on a local level and we have all these fears over what people think of us and what I look like and failing and all these different things and we're crippled by fear. But if you fear God and if you live like he's the judge, you will still feel emotional fear but you will have the courage and a mental mindset to say it doesn't matter if my family disapproves of me. It doesn't matter if my husband or wife doesn't like me. It doesn't, what matters is God's the judge, I'm living for him, I'm doing the right thing. I'm not going to quit, I'm going to follow him. Live like God is the judge. The second thing about this is just really kind of counterintuitive for most of us is the fact when we think about living like God is the judge, we usually think of the don'ts. Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not bear false witness or lie. You know, don't be greedy, don't hurt other people, don't gossip behind their backs. Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't. Like live like God is the judge, don't. But the next verse, he's saying live like God is the judge, do, do something. Like if God is the judge then we need to be about his kingdom and we need to, now he's talking to Timothy who I would relate to this, Timothy's a preacher so am I preach the word of God be prepared whether the time is favorable or not, patiently correct, rebuke and encourage your people with good teaching, you're probably not a preacher most of you. And but basically what he's saying to Timothy is he's saying do what God made you to do. Whether it's coaching, I coach junior high soccer and I have an impact on those kids lives in doing that. Maybe you can be a coach. Do what God made, maybe you're what God made you to do and we are so thankful for this is making desserts and food for other people. You know, praise God, you can, you can test out your gift on me if you would like some day. I would be okay with that. But whatever God has made you to do, maybe it's writing encouraging notes. There's some ladies in our church and they get on the phone in the morning, they call different people and ask them how they're doing and they pray for them and do what God made you to do. And that's how you live like God is the judge. So I wanted to, suppose this is your story, a couple of things about this. You got these puzzle pieces on your seat when you came in. Your story is like a puzzle piece because it fits with someone else's. And with other people, it doesn't fit. You know, so my story, you might relate to it and be like, man, that is exactly like, like what my life experience has been. And then others of you are going to be like, no, I don't relate to that at all. So your story fits with somebody else's story. And we want you to have, these are actually refrigerator magnets. You can put this on the refrigerator and just use it as a reminder. You know what? Tell your story. Take some time to figure out and be able to concisely share your story with someone else. I was in my mid-30s before I ever found out how my mom and dad accepted Christ as their forgiven leader and followed him. I had no idea. If they would have passed away when I was younger, I'd have no idea that at one point their lives were very different than their lives that they live right now. And so share your story. This is why when people get baptized, we tell them, write out your story. We want you to share that because this is such an important thing for all of us to do. Nobody can argue with your story, right? They can argue with the Word of God. They can argue with what you might say is true. They can argue about who Jesus was or any of this, but they can't argue with your story. So share it. Now, the thing about our stories, I wish I had a different story. Do any of you argue that way? I won't ask for a raise of hands, but I wish, I wish my story, I would rather my story be about killing somebody as long as it wasn't you. I would rather my story be about being a cocaine addict, honestly. But that's not my story. My story is when I was 12 years old and then it accelerated when I was 13 and I was full blown into it by the time I was 14, was I was addicted, incredibly addicted to sexual desire and sin, in particular, masturbation. And it caught me when I was a kid and I thought maybe when I get older, I'll be strong enough to stop this. Maybe when I become an adult, I won't be doing this anymore and that didn't happen. Maybe when I get married, I won't do this anymore, I'll have victory and I won't be an addict and that didn't happen either. And I tried everything except one thing, I tried everything I could to stop. At one point, and I've shared some of this with you before, at one point I thought I'm going to show myself, I'm a teenager, this is before cutting, this is before the internet, I'm a teenager, I'm going to show myself. The next time I do that, the next time I act out, I'm going to just scratch off a piece of my skin. And just so you know, if you do that until it bleeds, it's worse than a brush burn. I mean, it is just the thickest gap. So I did that and then a few days later, I did it again and so I'm like, all right, I got to show myself, I mean business, I got to show myself that I can't do this. And so I scratched off another piece of my skin and then I did it again. And so I started working on the other arm and then I did it again. I'm not the sharpest bulb in the box, it's the brightest bulb in the box, but whatever. But I learned early on, even as a teenager, this is not working. In fact, it wasn't until I was a grown man that I came across this verse and I said, that's exactly right. It's Kalish Clashins 223. These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily harm. But they provide no help in conquering a person's evil desires. And that was my program. And in college, I tried everything, I tried like, I will read the crucifixion of Jesus. Surely that will stop me and it didn't. When I was in college, I thought, I'm going to starve myself. That's how I'll teach myself to have self-discipline and to beat my own desires. And so I said, next time I do this, I'm going to not eat for 24 hours. So I went 24 hours. And then a few days went by and then I did it again. So I'm not going to eat for 24 hours, so I did that. And I did it during the 24-hour fast. So I'm like, well, I got to make it 48 now. And then I did it during the 48-hour fast. And I was running three miles every morning and had a two-hour soccer practice every afternoon. That was, let me just tell you, that was the stupidest thing I ever tried. Because I was constantly hungry. And every time I thought about why I was hungry, I thought about the sin. And it was like dangling it in front of me constantly. And I'm telling you, if you hurting yourself is not going to help you. And this is more common among girls, but guys as well, whatever you're wrestling with, it may be a completely different problem than I have, but I'm telling you, hurting yourself is not the solution. God's Word says it has no help to you in conquering whatever it is you're trying to conquer. And I did say at the beginning, there was one thing I was unwilling to do. In fact, I would rather have died literally than have this one thing, do this one thing. And that was let anybody else know, that anyone know that I wasn't perfect, that I was out of control, that I hated myself, and that I couldn't fix me. I mean, I had it all together, I was studying to be a pastor, how can you tell anybody? And then God took it out of my hands and my wife caught me, and it devastated her. And it hurt her so bad. I always knew in my mind how evil and wrong what I was doing was, but I didn't feel it. You know, I used to think that women were super emotional, and men are like, "Let's sew." I'm telling you, men, we are just as emotionally crazy as women, and emotionally driven, and I needed to see, I needed to feel how painful my sin was to the people around me, and the one I loved the most. And I don't want to even talk about it now, but I feel like I need to talk about it because nobody talks about it, nobody. And we need to. And because the only way out of my sin, and I want to tell you now, for decades, I have been free, right, in the beginning. It was like, you know, this sexual sin was like freedom, right? That was the hook, "Oh, you can do what you want. Oh, it'll be fun. It'll feel good. It's freedom." And then I bit the hook, and I couldn't get it out, and it was slavery. And now I am free from being a slave to sin. Why? Because I needed somebody else. I reached out, and somebody else helped me. This is why we have the church. You cannot follow Jesus Christ by yourself. You just can't. You will not do it. And we talked about this, you know, directions series that we had a little while back. What has your attention determines your direction? And so if you're trying to drive straight, but you're looking to the left over at the deer, you're going to naturally steer toward what has your attention. And so what many people think is, "Okay, so I'm not going to look to the left. I'm not going to look to the right. I'm just going to close my eyes." And what, no, that's worse, right? Like you can't do that. You have to. Here's the thing. And this is going back to this verse here. It's not enough to hate your sin. You have to love something else more. And for many people, I've talked to a lot of addicts, and I had a child. And because I love my child more, I was able to give up whatever that was. Or I got married, and I loved my wife or my husband more, and I was able to give it up. Or maybe I had this goal, but I'm telling you, what happens if you live for your child? And your child doesn't want to speak to you again. What happens if you live for your spouse and your spouse dies? There is nothing. What you need to love more than your sin, more than your own desires is God. And to say there's nothing I won't, I love God except when He wanted me to tell somebody that I needed help. I didn't love Him that much. We need to love Him with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, all our strength, and to put Him first, and to love something more than your sin and your desires. The only thing He's saying, man, you want to finish well. Not only do you need to live like God will judge you, but you need to live like God's Word is true. A time is coming, He says, the very next verse, "When people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching." Do you think that time has come yet? Yeah, I think that's arrived, Paul, you know, you're living that. What a prophecy fulfilled. They will follow their own desires and look for teachers who will tell them whatever they're itching years want to hear. You can find whatever you want to hear on the internet said incredibly eloquently with a video background and a music score. Like, I mean, whatever you want, they will reject the truth and chase after myths. If you would have told me 20 years ago, 30 years ago, "Hey, most people in the United States are going to believe this," I'd be like, "Pfft, no way." Like, that's a myth. That's totally not true. You know, a lot of people are going to believe this, "No way, you're crazy. That's ridiculous, but this is where we're at." Rejecting the truth, chasing after myths, and here's the key. They will follow their own desires. If you like everything that's in the Bible and your desires and what you think is best, always aligns with what God's Word says. One of two things is happening. Number one, you don't know the Bible very well. Or number two, you're twisting it to make it say what you want. Because the Bible doesn't line up with all my desires. And the older I get, the more wise I think I'd become, in my hindsight, I'm like, "Man, I'm really glad. I'm really glad I didn't get those desires. I'm really glad it didn't work out the way I wanted it to work out." But ultimately, if you're struggling with, "This is my desires," but this seems to be what the Bible teaches, you know what weighs right and true. Live like God's Word is true, and then finally, live out the ministry, God has given you. And that's how he closes, you know, before he gets to man, I have fought the good fight. He says, "You should keep a clear mind." These are his last commands to Timothy. Keep a clear mind. He's saying, "Keep watch." It's like a watchman on the wall, just be alert. Just because I have had victory, complete victory over this area of sin in my life for decades does not mean that I'm like, "I made it. I can let my guard down. I don't have to worry." No, keep a clear mind. Keep watch in every situation. Don't be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Sometimes our fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself, right? But if I do that, then I'll be lonely. But if I do that, then I won't, whatever you're fearing, just take one day at a time. Work at telling others the good news and fully carry out the ministry God has given you. The good news is you can be forgiven. The good news is I have been forgiven and more than forgiven, I've been set free. And that is something that can happen with you as well. And that's the good news. The bad news is you're a slave, and you need to surrender your life to God. But that's ultimately the great news. And I want to tell a story about this nurse. Her name is Nancy Haines. Nancy Haines went to nursing school in 1965 when they wore those little hats. So in 1965, she went to nursing school. Her stepdad, her father was an alcoholic. Her stepdad told her, "When you go to a new town, go to church. Once, get the big guy on your side." It's kind of like a lucky rabbit's foot. So she was in a new city, Johnson City, New York. And so she decided to do that and go to church once. And one of her classmates was inviting her to church that was right across the street from their dorm. It was the closest church. It was 100 feet. So she went to that church with this classmate of hers. She was 17 years old, started going to the church, and turned 18 in September. But like the church, started going every week. And at this church, they would give an invitation at the end of the service. And if you wanted to make Jesus your forgiver and leader, you'd come forward and you would pray with the pastor or whoever was up front. And so there was a Sunday in December that she decided, "You know what? I've known." She had no problem knowing she needed forgiveness. Her problem was, "Would God forgive me? Would He love someone like me? My dad didn't really love me. All sorts of baggage and stuff. Could God love me?" And that one Sunday morning finally, she just broke and she said, "I need, I need Jesus." And she thought, "When they give that invitation at the end of the service, I'm going to go forward." And that was the first Sunday, possibly in years at that church, that they did not give an invitation. And she went back to her dorm room and cried and said, "God must not want me." And then her classmate knocked on her door that evening, "Nancy, it's time to go to church." She's like, "It's 5.30. We went to church this morning. No, there's night church." "What?" "Night church? I've never heard of that. Yeah. Night church. We're going to go to night church. I don't want to go to church." And she didn't tell her friend this, but she's like, "I don't want to go to church because God doesn't want me." He doesn't love me, but this woman persisted and said, "No, you've got to go. You've got to come with me. Please. I don't want to go alone. Come on, come on." And so she went where there that night and they gave an invitation that night and she went forward and she just balled and prayed with Pastor Larry Roland to give her life to Jesus Christ. Three years later, she was teaching Sunday school in that same church. In fact, she knew nothing about the Bible and they were like, "That's okay. Here's the curriculum. Just stay one week ahead of the kids." She said, "It's an incredible discipleship tool. Found out Abraham was actually not Abraham Lincoln. The Abraham and the Bible, a totally different guy, you know, and told these stories to the kids with excitement because it was the first time she'd heard them herself. And that was 1968 and in 1970, she had a little baby boy, Bobby Cadlesic. And my mom, Nancy, has been at that church every week since 1965. And she has taught kids Sunday school. She taught kids Sunday school for 64 years. And the only reason she stopped teaching the little fours and five-year-olds was because she was needed to translate for the death in the service. She still teaches in Awana and she still teaches in VBS every Sunday. And I remember her coming home from working all night as a nurse in the cardiac unit in Wilson Hospital and getting us ready and getting us out there to go to church and then having lunch, coming home and having lunch together, and then her collapsing in exhaustion because she'd been up for like 24 hours straight, consistency, perseverance. You know, it's so often nothing happens, nothing happens, nothing happens, and then everything happens all at once. Bridgewater Church is a 216-year-old overnight success. You know, a hundred years ago, there was like 150, 180 people in the church. You know, 30 years ago, 180 people in the church, but being taught, God's Word, persevering, praying for revival, and then 20 years ago, 150 people in the church actually went down, went in the wrong direction. And now there's about 2,000 people that come to our six locations and then even more people watching online, and there's people out, and I just got, you know, on Halloween, I got a text, amazing Halloween here in Montrose. We had over 1,000 kids out, beautiful weather, like it was awesome, but I got this text, "Happy Halloween from God for sake and Hancock." And I showed their little, you know, with their giving away candy at somebody's house and promoting the church and inviting these kids to church, and I just Hancock is, you know, they're just awesome. But you know, nothing, nothing, nothing, and I just want to encourage you in your life, first of all, keep fighting sin. Nothing's changed. Nothing's changed. I keep trying. It's not working. Reach out to somebody else. You got to gang up on your sin. You cannot, you cannot fight yourself and win. You're evenly matched. You'll never, you need, you need reinforcements. You need to call in the cavalry. You need help. Get that help and keep fighting your sin, and then the other thing, don't give up on other people in your life. You say, "Man, I have tried with my uncle. You don't know how I was in Conklin' last Sunday, and I met Uncle Pat, and Tara McPherson has been inviting him to church for years, and he's in a, I call it a gang. He says, "It's not a gang." The Punisher's bike club, you know, and the chaplain of his club is a Bridgewater pastor just recognized, I've been inviting him. And then the worship leader in Conklin was on the volunteer fire force with him at one point in the past, and so he knew him, and man, you know, and I said, "Uncle Pat, can I tell Tara, you're in church? Have you told her?" No, I haven't told her. She's been inviting you for years. You've been coming for over a month. You haven't told her, like, but you know what, don't give up. God will work. It'll be nothing, nothing, nothing, and then everything all at once. Moses spent the first 40 years of his life thinking he was something, royalty in the most powerful nation on earth, then he spent the next 40 years of his life thinking he was a nobody in a desert wilderness watching sheep, and then he spent the last 40 years of his life seeing what God can do with a nobody. Here's what perseverance looks like in your life. It's doing mediocre, ordinary, mundane acts of service. Behind the scenes, nobody sees, nobody watches, nobody cares about, but just being consistent over and over consistently obeying God and doing what God wants you to do. Don't quit. Keep going. God won't quit on you. Heavenly Father, I just thank you for gathering us here, Lord, in this time, in our nation, Lord, we know the solution to almost everything that's wrong in America, and it's not going to happen on Tuesday. God, it's going to happen today in our hearts. It's going to happen every day as we leave here, as we follow you, as we put you first. God, help us to be persistent, to persevere in our spiritual walk in life, to not give up, to not quit, to just follow you with all our heart until we see you face to face. And you say, "Well done." In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Amen. Would you stand as you're able, and if you feel glad to answer God, whatever he is, calling