We are so thankful to have Brother Judson. Brother Judson, come on up here. As he said, we have known each other for quite a few years. He's known me longer because he's older. Thank you. But he comes from a good lineage. Let me tell you, his parents pastored in Brazil. His dad there in Manaus for I don't know how many years and then Brother John A. started so many works in Brazil and their paths crossed with Brother Craig Lowe and Brother Draper and quite a few other missionaries and so he goes, comes from a good lineage and you know what he's doing, continuing doing a good work in Brazil and we're very very thankful for him and they're up in the Chicago area right now so continue to pray while they're in the states and let's just have a word of prayer before you cut loose brother Father we thank you for Brother Judson and we just pray your hand upon him and Lord as he speaks and proclaims your truth today may the truth be found lodging in our hearts and that we might glorify you in it. We do ask your protective hand upon him. We do thank you for raising him back up and giving him strength and Lord, we ask that you continue to give him stamina for all he's been through, for his family that you protect them when they're apart and when they're together and when they're traveling and for Laura for healing and Lord to be able to adapt and to learn again. We just Pray your hand upon this family that they would continue to magnify your name. We're so thankful for them. We ask that you do a work now which only you get the glory for, for Christ's sake. Amen. What a delight to be here with you this morning. Thank you for coming and I am truly blessed. I have dear friends that are here that I asked to to be with us here this morning and even family was able to make it. So I am tremendously blessed that you were able to come and I'm so delighted that my kids were also able to to join me with this trip. Sometimes traveling you know can really toll make a toll on you but As we were getting ready to come, I had to drop off my youngest daughter at the YMCA. She's going to basketball camp. And Friday was going to be her last day, so we dropped her off. But my tank was low, and I had a six-hour drive ahead of me. So I told Benjamin, we're going to stop at the BP gas station before we head out. And he's like, BP gas station? Why BP gas station? Oh, it's the one down in the corner. You see it right there. And it says TRIO. And so I'm like, that's the BP gas station. So we go down, we drop off Melissa, and we go to the light. And I look over to the sign. And sure enough, it's the BP gas station. And it says TRIO. And then I thought for a moment, you know what? The BP gas station no longer has BP on it. It's just the logo. And, of course, he wouldn't have known what the BP gas station was because it was just the logo. There was no BP on there, which stands for British Petroleum. And TRIO was the name of the convenience store inside. And, you know, there's been a lot of marketing strategies lately where companies have begun to drop their names and only use their logos to identify themselves. And it's working, isn't it? I mean, it worked on me. I knew that that was a BP gas station simply because it's like a flowery looking type thing. It's got green and some yellow and some white tones. And it's worked. It's working. And so, and what happens today a lot of times is that, and I was talking to Dr. Mark Miller just about this moment ago, that the enemy uses different strategies against God's people. And we have to be attentive to those. Because see, in Brazil, we do see a lot of demonic activity, as in, I've seen demon-possessed people before. But that doesn't happen much here in America, does it? It doesn't. But are demons not present in North America? He doesn't ever so subtle. And we don't even notice how subtle it is. We're persuaded by this demonic oppression. And we're easily persuaded because we're not attentive to notice that things are being tweaked, things are changing. And we identify things and we just kind of go with the flow and we're following along and we're not doing an analytical thinking of God's word in contrast to the things that are happening around us. you know, it feels right, so we kind of go right along with the flow and nothing ever changes. And the word that we're going to be reading from today is Philippians chapter 3, and I'd like for you to turn over there. And one of the issues that Paul addresses in this particular letter and in this particular chapter to the Philippians is that there had been some people that were introducing a different gospel. They were introducing things that you had to do. It wasn't just Jesus. It wasn't just surrendering. There were some things that needed to be done. The circumcision, they were preaching the gospel of the circumcision. They had to be circumcised. And Paul comes along and says, no, no, no, no. It's not about circumcision, because we are the circumcised. Those who have been born again in Christ, we are the circumcised in Christ. But if there's anything to boast, I am the man to be able to boast, because you know who I am? I am Paul. And he lays out his credentials, and he says, this is who I am. But I throw that all away, because it counts as garbage. In the same text, he says that to live is Christ. So he does all things for the purpose that God has laid on his heart, his mission at hand. But you see, the strategy of somebody coming in to, for instance, this church, and if somebody were to come in, Brother Steve, and say, you need to be circumcised to be saved, well, clearly, we would go, get out of here, you're crazy, right? We would reject that automatically. So Satan's not gonna work that way. He's gonna use, a religious belief system, and there are a lot of them out there. And so oftentimes, we have been persuaded by them just as easily as BP changing their identity. Because imaging has a lot to do with communication that Satan uses to persuade us to steer away from God's plan for our life. He's not gonna come in with heretical theology. But it is heretical theology. The point, anything that steers us away from Christ himself, whether it be works or through being woke, being cool, being accepted, Aren't we steering away? Isn't that exactly what Paul ultimately is addressing here? And we're going to read the text here as well. This is precisely what Paul warns the Philippians. He says, hey, don't get sidelined. Don't get sidetracked. Stay focused. Persevere. And so the title of my message this morning is Perseverance Revolution. Because in our Christianity, for this generation, for this country, for this globe, for this time, for this season, for this era, we need a revolution. Not a war like in Ukraine, but a spiritual revolution. Because demonic oppression is real, and he will manifest himself in the ways that we don't identify as being demonic oppression, but he is coming. And he's probably right at your hand. How many times have you shared something in confidence to a friend? And then you go look at your Facebook timeline, and something pertaining to what you told your friend shows up. I was at the gym the other day. Benjamin and I, we were working out. And I said, man, I just can't put that much weight on, because my shoulder, it hurts. Guess what showed up on my timeline? Locations where I could have surgery done on my shoulder. And so Satan is mining information. And these tools, these technologies, and by no means there's pros and cons to them, but he's using them to persuade us ever so subtly. And we're following like blind sheep. And we're in a daze and we're just following along. And we're coming to the edge of the precipice and we're not even noticing that we're on the edge of falling because we're not paying attention. We're not staying alert. And because we're not alert, we're not persevering. And we need this perseverance revolution to just stir up our hearts. And this is what Paul calls out to the Philippians. It was an issue back then, obviously on a different topic to be addressed. But in our day, what is drawing us away from Christ? And this is what we need to be careful because otherwise we will be entrapped. How many times have we been baited Have you ever been baited in a conversation before? I hate being baited. Have you ever been to one of those, you've been in Florida before, free tickets, discounted tickets for Orlando, Magic Kingdom, or whatever it is that you wanna go to, Disney World, and then you go in and you have to listen to the whole spiel, and if you buy this and you buy that, you feel baited. But if you've never been to one of those before, man, don't you feel deceived. But you see, Satan doesn't want us to feel deceived. He wants us to feel happy about our decisions. So he's going to intertwine the evil untruth with truth, and he's going to persuade us that it's okay. And we keep striving away, and we lose track of where we're going. And so many sport athletes, they care about their image, their brand. You know, we get basketball players. This is basketball country, right? And we look up to them for heroes, and teenagers looked up, what shoes are they wearing? Or what clothes are they using? And so, I'm gonna jump down to Philippians chapter 13, and we'll just head right into the text there. And we're gonna start, I said Philippians chapter 13, didn't I? Man, I'm adding some chapters there, aren't I? It's chapter three, and we'll start at verse seven. And I have the verse up here on the screen, if you'd like to follow. But in your copy in front of you, please read along. But whatever were gains to me, now I consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage that I may gain Christ. and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ. Righteousness comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ, yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings. become like him in his death, and so somehow attaining to the resurrection from the dead. A couple of years ago, the Lord really convicted me that in my mission to share the gospel, I wasn't doing it sufficiently. because the gospel needs to be ever present in my heart. We've been instructed that God talk needs to be everywhere in our home. And it needs to be spoken of everywhere we walk, we're talking with our kids and engaging and we're talking. But I thought, you know what, I need to include the gospel. And what is the gospel? It's that Jesus came to this earth, being God, took the nature of a man. He lived among us with no sin. He died on the cross to pay for our consequence was to death, and he paid that for us, substitutional atonement. Three days he remained buried to say, he's dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead. Because after three days, if you've ever been around the body, it reeks a putrid smell because it's decomposing. So he's dead. And everybody who's been around knows he's dead for three days. But then he resurrects, right? And then later on, he ascends into heaven. So why aren't we speaking that at home? Why aren't we preaching that to ourselves? Because if the conviction that we need to have comes from the full knowledge of the gospel message in our hearts, it needs to be so intertwined with our soul that we can't live and breathe without Him. And our children need to know that as well. So I decided that it was my duty that every time that I prayed with my kids, whether it be for breakfast, for lunch, or even just in passing, just dropping them off at school, what is always a must in my proclamation as I pray, thank you for dying on the cross and the forgiveness of my sins, for having resurrected and given me hope for the future. And you know what I've noticed? It's made a difference in the lives of my children. Because the gospel is ever present. And we need to think strategically because the war that we cannot see is at hand. And we're not doing so well because everything is so subtle. We think everything is fine. But how many people in Lexington today are within a body of believers, a local church, worshiping the one true God? Would you say 90% of the people in Lexington are doing so this morning? We have a duty, and we've been charged as stewards of the Lord, and He has said, go, but we're not going, we're staying. So we need to think more strategic. We need a perseverance revolution. And this is where I want to start. I'm going to have to keep typing my passwords, getting into my tablet every time. Excuse me just a second. Otherwise, I'll lose my notes. There's an image that I want you to see. And I'm going to tell you a story of the preacher who arrived into heaven. A preacher dreamed he had died and was standing in front of the gates of heaven as it will happen in such make-believe dreams. He came face-to-face with the Apostle Peter, who was holding a big book and was ready to decide if this man, a preacher, was going to be allowed into heaven or not. Saint Peter looked at him and gave him a surprise announcement. You're going to need 1,000 points to get inside. Well, said the preacher. He was very proud of the fact of what he was getting ready to announce. I was a minister of the gospel for 47 years. Peter said, well, that's nice. That's one point. That's all I get? What do you mean one point? That was 47 years of my life and one point only? That's correct, said Peter. The minister was concerned at the scoring system. They didn't seem to be very fair. He tried to think of other things he had done in life. Well, I visited the homeless shelters every chance I got. Excellent. One more point. I developed a number of recovery programs. I took part in many civic groups in our city. I loved people. I helped people. I embraced people. I went to them. I helped them in their need. Excellent. One more point. That's three points. What? I worked with the youth. Surely you know how hard it is to work with teenagers. I mean, I worked with them throughout all my life. Excellent. One more point. What? That's impossible. There's no way, that's not fair, it's inadequate. Except for the grace of God, I can't make it, I don't have a chance. He said, that's your thousand points. And that's, often times we go throughout life, of things to do for God. We don't really think of it as, you know, trying to get to heaven through the things that we do. But deep down inside, we kind of feel guilty, because we're not really, I should do so much more at the church. My time is limited because of my work, and we kind of rationalize everything, and we just don't engage. And so we do these things, not as an attempt for salvation, per se, but we do kind of feel like we need to. But see, that's the wrong understanding. That's where Satan has already gotten us. We don't do ministry as a sideline item. We do ministry as the main item. See, if you're an Uber driver, you drive for the glory of God. If you're a nurse, you nurse people for the glory of God. If you're a mother and you have two, four children, you care for them for the glory of God. Every step of the way. Well, I just don't have time to go on a mission trip. You know, I need to serve God more perfectly. I want to go. I mean, it's good to go, but what about the mission field that you have at hand? Why are you not persevering? What has kept you from doing what God has called you to do? We've been sidelined, and we don't even know it. We've been persuaded and we can't even contest it because we're not thinking analytically. We're not contrasting the circumstances in our life and around us in light of what God has called us to do. And we're losing ground. Now, ultimately, we know that God wins this war. But why are we fumbling around? Why? Why? I mean, why is prayer no longer in school? And why are we having so many issues in our schools and in our families? Why are so many families divided? Why all this is happening? Because we haven't been consistent in our stewardship before the Lord. Verse 10, let's read this. I want to know Christ, yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so somehow attain the resurrection from the dead. So what is the significance of Christ in our life? See, if you don't know Christ, you don't know Christ. But if you want to know Christ, you need to study. You need to read God's word, because that's where you're going to find him. I once met a man and said, well, what is your devotional life like? Well, I watch Christian movies, and I read some publications. Those are good things, but the ultimate source is scripture itself. If you're not reading from the source, you're not being satisfied. The source of energy is not coming through. You're always running low if not dead already. And so we need to understand the value, the significance of Christ. So consider the value of Christ. Verses seven and eight, they address this. What was profit is now loss, Paul says. What was treasure is now trash. What was great is now garbage. What do you treasure? What is your dream car? Are you working for your dream car? Are you working for your dream home? Are you working? I mean, where is your investment at? I remember receiving my first ping pong paddle, and it was an old one, so I sanded it down, and I went through a whole deal of getting it ready, and I became, a semi-professional table tennis player. So I got in, I mean, the Japanese guys that play, that was me at one point. I can't quite play the same speed now, but that was me. My sport was table tennis. And so the very first paddle, man, the person who gave it to, I love that person so dearly. So I sanded that paddle down. I invested time in preparing and nurturing that paddle. And I varnished it, I sanded it, and I varnished it again. That thing was smooth. And then I went on a search for the perfect rubber. And of course, if you don't know the jargon, you've got to have the perfect rubber. It has to be approved by the ATTF. And it has the density of the sponge and the thickness of the sponge. It all has to do with how you play. And then, of course, you have the red side, and then you have the black side. And then depending on how your style of playing, you're going to be using the backhand or the forehand. And then you've got to choose which one you're going to go for. And so I went through and studied which one I wanted. And so I purchased my rubber. And they're not cheap. And I put one rubber on one side, put another rubber on the other side. And I was the only one who was allowed to use that paddle. And I remember being at school one day, and I lost a match. And man, was I upset. So I set the paddle down. And my friend, Eduardo, it was his turn to play after me. So he grabbed my paddle. I said, don't you ever dare. And I knocked him off his feet. And I looked at him. Don't you ever touch my ping pong paddle again. I was about 13 years old. But why did I do that? Because my investment was in that ping pong paddle. I had invested my time, my commitment, my desire was all there. How dare he touch something that was so precious to me? But is that how we speak of Jesus? Now, how dare they touch Jesus? It's not our approach. We want them to come to Jesus. But the point is, is that we need to be so passionate about Jesus, so passionate about his worth, and that he is our prime time. He is our thought. He is our ultimate way of life. He is who we need to be speaking of. He is our passion. He is our driving force. so that we don't get steered away. And we need to understand the significance of the power of God, of Christ in our life. So consider that everything that at one point was good is really ultimate garbage. It's worth really nothing. And then in verse nine, he talks about the righteousness, a righteousness which can be imparted. You see, whenever Christ died, he imparted his righteousness into us. We've been given his righteousness. We've been made righteous. There's nothing we can do to become righteous. It has been inserted into us. And so whenever God looks upon us, he doesn't see the sin, he sees the righteousness of Christ in us. has been imparted, a righteousness whose foundation is faith. We must trust. Why do we trust someone? Because they've been worthy of trust. So if somebody always fails you at your workplace, if they're always attempting to backstab you, you're not gonna place any trust in them at all. But if somebody is always, they help you, they assist you, they help you get promoted, the last time you got promoted, it wasn't all because of you, it was because your friend helped you. You trust this man with your life. And when was the last time that Christ betrayed you? When was the last time that God betrayed you? But whenever a crisis comes up, what do we do? We question God as though he was untrustworthy. Because we don't really know him enough to know how trustworthy he is. So we treat him like he isn't. Consider the power of Christ. Really, to know Christ, you must understand his resurrection. You see, if he hadn't resurrected, What hope would we have? I'm going to pay for your sins, and then he dies for our sins, and it's paid for. What evidence do we have that it's paid for? He says he is competent, he has the power to pay for the penalty of sin, What evidence is there that he has that competency, that he has that power? He resurrected, that's how. That's the power. And you know what he did? He not only resurrected, he said, I'm gonna seal you with my spirit. And the temple is not this place, it's not buildings, the temple is what? It's you and I, wherever we go, that's where the gospel is. and we walk and stride and we interact with people and people need to see that there is something different, there's a glow that's different about us. But how do we do that if we've lost focus? And we're looking at these branding images that are keeping us away, that are keeping us away from Christ and we forget to talk about Christ. And we forget about the gospel, and it's just kind of a sideline thing. Oh yeah, when was that missions trip again was gonna happen? Oh, it already happened. I didn't realize it. Yeah, I guess it's, and then we kind of feel guilty again. Why? Because we've been sidetracked. The power of Christ, we need to consider it fully. But do we? That same power is at work in you today. But are you using that power? Are we abiding in Christ like we should? Are we persevering like we should? It continues, the suffering Christ, consider the suffering of Christ. In suffering, Christ abides with us. In suffering, Christ teaches us. In suffering, Christ blesses us. You see, as human beings, whenever we feel the agony, there's something that's pressuring us. What is our coping strategy? We think of something else, right? Whenever we think of just something that just is a burden to us and we feel heavy laden and our heart is hurting, we watch a movie. Why? To distract us so that we don't have to think on the thing that's bothering us. So it kind of helps us to cope. Well, that day on the cross, Jesus was there, not thinking about, you know, I wish I had some cookies that my mother Mary had made. I remember when I was 12 years old, those were delicious. Why did I stay at, why did they leave me behind? And what about my friend that I used to play ball with? That wasn't what was going through his mind whenever he was on the cross. He wasn't attempting to distract himself from the suffering. He embraced the suffering, the full-fledged suffering of sin. He didn't try to sidetrack himself to cope with all this pressure. That's why in the Garden of Gethsemane, he prays, Lord, could I not have to go through this? Because he knows what is about to happen. And he knows that during that time, the presence of God is not gonna be with him. So for the first time in all eternity, Jesus is not in the presence of God because sin is on Jesus. And Jesus is suffering the full-fledged force of evil, of sin. It was mine and yours, ours, for us to pay, but he chose to pay for us. So we must consider, I mean, how important is that to us on our day-to-day basis? Do we think of that as often as we should so that we may live Like he's asked us to? He doesn't force us to live within his will. He beckons us. He draws us to him. But are we attempting to be Jonah? Are we sidetracked and don't even know it? I would say we are. Oftentimes we do get sidelined. We do get sidetracked by these wolves among us. They're in our homes, they're in our hands, and we allow them to, and we think they're great. You see, the power for conversion is Christ's resurrection power. Christ calls us to live at his spiritual height, not at Oprah Winfrey's spiritual height, not at some other spiritual guru spiritual height. but we need to live at a new spiritual height, the spiritual height that he has called us to. And I wanna show you this image. These are the Mohawk. Indians. They were native to the New York and in that whole region and into Canada. But they are most famous for their iron work activities back in the day. You've seen this picture before, haven't you? These are Mohawk Indians. And they are credited to having done the majority of work in New York City because, I mean, look at how casual they are. This is lunch, and they're sitting on a beam. Look how high they are in New York. Fearless. And why? Why do they do so much? A significant number of skyscrapers in New York City were built by them. They are famed for their cat-like ability, often called Mohawk Skywalkers. They had an uncanny ability to walk fearlessly on iron beams and at great heights, they built the bridge that spans the St. Lawrence River, they riveted the Empire State Building, they riveted the Rockefeller Center, and some people are uncomfortable in such great heights, but the Mohawk Indians, they seemed right at home, as you can see in this picture. In the same way, spiritual heights can make people uncomfortable, because the implications of that, it may cause on their image branding. So if you speak about Christ, if you dwell in the spiritual realm, if you're thinking about God all the time, and it's a constant flow, I mean, if you're thinking like the world thinks, that'll hurt your image, right? But if you're more concerned about your image than you are about Christ, you won't be able to walk in the spiritual height that he's called us to. We cannot live in the lowlands of life, pressured by those around us to conform to lower heights. Christ keeps calling us to higher place, to a higher place. We are not citizens of this world. We are citizens of the place up high. Heaven, my dear friends, is our home. We are citizens of heaven. So how should we greet each other? Farewell, citizens of heaven. because that's who we are, we're just passing through. Heaven is our home. Our life on earth needs to be maximized for Christ's cause. So live focused, live fervently. Time on earth is just a passing moment when compared to the eternity in heaven. Persevere in Christ while on this earth. You know, if you think about eternity, we don't quite get the full scope of how eternal God is. He's always been, always has been, and always will be. We do have a starting point. So in our life, our starting point is right at the tip of this string. And our life, in comparison to the rest of eternity, represents this little portion. the length of my finger. You may live to be 96, 97 years old, but then the rest of eternity, and we're also focused on that half an inch of the passing of time within eternity, and we forget and lose sight that there's much more to this life And of course, I'll eventually get to the end of the string. But you see, in heaven, we will never reach an end to it because it's eternal. And we have been called as citizens of heaven to live the life in this place because our ultimate destination is heaven. But we're concerned. Of course, I'm not gonna dig through all the way to the other end. But we're concerned with that half inch of the rest of our lives. And Paul says, I forfeit all that for the cause of Christ. And he calls us to do just that. He speaks to the Philippians to do just that. Verse 12. Not that I have already obtained all of this or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do, forgetting what is behind me, straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us then who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained. and we have attained everything in Christ. And he's calling us to live up to that. And in this life, some of the benefits of persevering in Christ is that it adds proper perspective to life. You make different decisions. Whenever you think that a month down the road you could be dead, you live differently. But if you don't think you're gonna die anytime soon, you live just in the old way. But you think with the perspective of the end is at hand, and people, the end is at hand. So persevering adds perspective to life. Persevering brings fellowship out of suffering. Perseverance in Christ leads to victorious living in his will. So we need to understand his will to persevere, and it brings a victorious life, not through external prosperity, but through prosperity in Christ himself. And in verse 17, join together in following my example, Paul says. Brothers and sisters, and just as you, Have us as a model. Keep your eyes on those who live as we do. For as I have often told you before, and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction. Their God is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their glory is in their shame. Where is your glory? In Christ or in your shame? Their mind is set on earthly things. So I'm a practical guy. I'm always thinking, how do I translate this so that I can apply this to my day-to-day living? And as I've pondered and prayed, I came up with a list of 16 ideas, 16 tips. The first one is don't look back. You remember what happened with that one lady who did look back and turn into a statue of salt, Wandswap? Develop good habits and routines. Now, habits and routines, they don't change our heart. It's our heart that needs to establish those habits and routines. But if we don't have good habits and good routines, they will steer us off track. So develop good habits and routines. Focus intently on what is ahead. Discipline yourself. Self-evaluate periodically. When was the last time that you made an earnest self-assessment of where you are in your walk with Christ? And how often do you do that? Once every five years? Hello? It needs to be at least, I mean, you need to decide that for yourself between you and God, but shouldn't it be at least once a day? Maybe even more times a day? Follow the Holy Spirit's leadership. Listen to wise spiritual people for instruction. Do you have a mentor? Are you mentoring somebody? Do you have somebody who you can call on for advice whenever you're struggling? And we all struggle. People face depression. People face hardship. And we need people to call on to comfort us and to guide us, to give us instruction from God's word. You need to work hard. You can't just sit on your couch and expect God to do the work for you. I mean, he clearly can, but he wants you, he's called you to go and make disciples. He's called you to be at hand. He's called you to show and point people to his glory. Consider suffering and setbacks as learning opportunities. We learn the most whenever we are vulnerable. So whenever you feel like you're vulnerable, maximize the opportunity to learn as most as you can. Because it's during those times that you will learn the most. So learn. Value personal integrity over public opinion. Give your best and don't compare yourself to others. Prioritize spiritual leadership over personal image branding. Encourage others around you to also persist. Simply don't give up. Trust in the Lord without wavering. Paul talks about this earlier. Action chapter four, he talks about that as well. Always remember, in this war, Jesus wins. But our citizenship, he says in verse 20, our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that we will be like his glorious body for the rest of eternity. So what we need to do is to persevere. And it needs to be a revolution amongst us that we persevere in Christ. Because our task is to run this race, and it's only a fragment of eternity. And we're just passing through. And I'm going to close with this story. There's an image of Dak Axel that I would like for you to see. I relate to this. I used crutches for two years, was in half-body cast for six months. I'm not going to tell you that story now, but I understand this boy's predicament. I particularly like the story of Dak Axle. In October 1984, they held an annual marathon in Richmond, Virginia. Some 831 runners started the race, a race that would cover a torturous 26.2 miles. In about three hours, the winner had crossed the finish line, and only a handful of people knew 10-year-old Dak Axel was still running. What Dak was doing, however, wasn't really running. It was more like a fast shuffle. Dak was born with a spinal endophytia, and doctors were sure he would never walk, if he lived at all. But Dak learned how to walk with heavy leg braces and crutches. He developed a love for running, and he aimed for the toughest race of all. So as he swung those leg braces down the road of this marathon, More and more people heard that he was still running, even though it had already finished. Twice near the end, he had to stop to clean the blood and change the gloves and the bandages, rewrap the gauze around his forearms. But each time he got up to race again. Finally, he came to the finish line. It took DAC 11 hours and 10 minutes to get there. And the race had officially ended an hour and a half earlier. The organizers, those who had finished the race earlier, had all packed their stuff, their equipment, and gone home. But as DAC neared the finish line, word spread like wildfire. Officials found the finish line and put it back up again, and more than 1,000 people returned to cheer wildly as DAC pressed on. And many wept when he finally finished his marathon. More than half the runners with good legs could not finish the race. But Dak became the biggest winner of the day simply because he pressed on toward the goal. It doesn't matter that this time, that his time was slow. It mattered only that he finished. I beg you, let's finish well, because we're just passing through. Let's have a perseverance revolution in this life. Let's pray. Lord, we love you desperately. May we ever be so bold as Paul to claim out to you, to fully understand and to consider Christ the way Christ needs to be considered, and that we may live accordingly, not because of who we are, but because of who Christ is in us. And he has made us co-heirs, children of God. We don't deserve it. There's nothing we could ever have done or do that would grant us this grace, but you have nonetheless chosen us and we are grateful. So allow us to persevere, allow us to proceed and not give up. Thank you for Christ having died on the cross to pay for our sins. It is finished, he declared. And three days later, he rose again because death had no power over him. And he promised us a place with him. So we have hope for the future that we didn't have before. So allow us to point others to find the same hope that we have that our life may glow and overflow Jesus everywhere we go. And in Jesus' name I pray, amen. What a challenging message we have heard for believers and even unbelievers. We're going to give a hymn of invitation, and we ask that you simply respond as the Lord so leads you. If you're not persevering as you ought, as has been presented, we pray you make things right with Christ. If you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray that you respond by faith and trusting in Him.