If you would take your Bibles to John 16, we'll get there via the first passage we look at. Pilgrim's Progress. Tonight we're going to finish our... series on parables or allegories in the Bible with a really well-known, maybe the most well-known allegory outside of the Bible. Pilgrim's Progress was written in 1678, so a long time ago, by a man named John Bunyan who was a believer, a Puritan, that was in prison. He actually wrote it while he was in prison. As we look at Pilgrim's Progress, once you get to the end of it, you know that Pilgrim's Progress was not written by a novice Christian. It was not written by somebody who just happened upon the Christian life and thought, this thing is great, I think I'll write a story about it. He spent a lot of time in prison. He had a lot of difficulties. For sake of time, we won't go into a lot of the biography of John Bunyan, but it's an interesting biography. Even if you just read the CliffsNotes like a Wikipedia or something, just read a little bit about John Bunyan. It's very inspirational as far as what we should be as Christians. And so he wrote this, he presented, this allegory was written kind of as a dream, the author's dream of trials and adventures of a man named Christian. So you can guess what Christian represents in the story, right? He represents a Christian and it's kind of an everyman. Everyone can be able to plug into this story and see themselves at some point. and we'll look at some of the ways. So it starts off with this man named Christian. He's got a burden, a weight on his shoulder. Here's by the way, how we'll kind of do this tonight. We're gonna kind of walk through a brief summary. Maybe it's overly simplistic. We don't have enough time to do anything beyond overly simplistic with this story tonight, but we'll look at some of the high points of this story and then correlations from the Bible, correlations of how it relates to the Christian life And I think it's really, hopefully you'll be really encouraged by what we look at tonight. So Christian, he starts off, he's not a Christian. He's an unbeliever. He's got a weight that every unbeliever carries, the weight and burden of sin. And people are saved at different stages of life. I think I've shared this before. that if they saw the statistic right several years ago, that over 90% of people who end up being saved are saved by the age of 16. That says to me that the longer someone goes, their odds really drop as far as their willingness to listen to the scriptures and their willingness to to put aside their education and what they can see out of life themselves. And so anyway, people are saved at different stages of life and the longer someone is an unbeliever, I think the greater this burden will feel to them. When somebody is saved at age of 5 and 6 and 7, I believe that's really possible. But they may not have the same feeling that this Christian, and that so many that are saved as adults, just this really heavy weight, the average five-year-old is not really usually struggling with the burden and the guilt of their sin, and what am I going to do? But it starts off with this question, the question that Christian has is, what shall I do? He's been confronted. Someone has come and told him that his hometown, which is called the City of Destruction, is going to be destroyed, and he is told to leave his hometown and travel. He feels that after reading a book, which is ostensibly the Bible, a man named Evangelist, points him toward a wicked gate, not a wicked gate, but a wicked gate. And he tells him to go off this direction. And so he leaves and he leaves his family behind. And he carries this weight and the burden on his shoulders with the question, what shall I do? And he's really miserable at the beginning of the story. And so he starts off on this journey. And I heard one person say about this, that John Bunyan is saying something about the way that the journey towards salvation starts. Let's say this, salvation happens in a moment, right? Salvation's not a process of somebody growing into something, but there many times is a journey that leads to that moment. And it can be very complicated for a lot of people, a lot of ups and downs. And so he's pointing out that a journey towards salvation often begins with this deep soul-searching problem, this conviction that something is wrong in my life and a willingness to go against the tide, a willingness to do whatever it takes to figure out how do I make this right. There are a lot of unbelievers out there with that question. What do I do? There's something wrong, and I don't even know what it is. By the way, there's a void that's in every unbeliever's life. It's not placed there by the Holy Spirit. The void is there. We're born with a void. The God-shaped void, it's often said, that only God can fill. But the Holy Spirit's part is to make us aware of that void. Many people just drift through life and they think everything is fine. And then you find the unbeliever that is miserable. There's something more and there's something wrong. There's, I don't know what to do. That is from the Holy Spirit. That's not a bad thing. That's a very good thing when somebody has that feeling. Look at John chapter 16 and verse eight. Jesus says that here's something that the Holy Spirit will do when he comes. We're gonna be jumping around a lot tonight. So hope you got your, your sword drill Bible with you tonight. John 16, eight, and then we're going to turn to Acts chapter two. John 16, eight says, and when he has come, he, the Holy Spirit will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. The word reprove means to convict or to convince. The Holy Spirit, when he comes, he will convince people that they are sinful. And we live in a society that wants to lift up self-esteem and wants everyone to feel good about themselves. The Holy Spirit, if you're an unbeliever, does not want you to feel good about yourself. He wants you to feel empty and miserable. That's not a thought from the devil. That's a thought from the Holy Spirit. He will reprove the world of sin and show them their sinfulness. Look at Acts chapter two in verse 36. This is when Peter is speaking on the day of Pentecost, the day that the Holy Spirit was given. And I love the response of these unbelieving Jews. Acts 2 verse 36. And they weren't all Jewish people, by the way. It says there were people from 16 or 17 different language groups from all over there. And they heard them speaking in tongues in their language. So Acts 2.36, Peter preaches, therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now, when they had heard this, they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, What shall we do? What a question. What do we do now? Okay, you got us. We are sinful. Okay, we killed God. We put the savior of the world on the cross and we're guilty. So what do we do? Very different response, by the way, from when Stephen preaches. Same thing, they're cut to the heart, but then they gnash on him with their teeth. They fight against the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Here, they yield to the conviction, and they're left with this question. I don't know what to do. There's no answer here yet, but they're asking, what do we do? And by the way, the gospel doesn't start with the answer. The gospel starts with the problem. It starts by pointing out to people that they're sinful. Never shy away when people say, oh, you're making people feel bad, you're making them feel guilty. You have to start there before people are going to be willing to receive the medicine, the truth. Look at Acts chapter 16 verse 29, another place where Paul and Silas are in prison. Here's another man brought to the end of himself when he hears the truth and when he sees when he sees the holiness of God in Paul and Silas. Acts 16.29 it says, Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? The word save wasn't even in there. They never said, At least, they probably said it earlier, but it wasn't recorded in the scriptures. They just, they sing praises to God, and they're having a great time. They're being persecuted, but they have joy, and then all of a sudden, in the midst of this persecution and praise, a miracle happens. There's a shaking, and then they could have left, but they didn't. They just stay there. And this guy is just overcome by seeing the testimony of Paul and Silas, and he says, What must I do to be saved? And then the famous answer in verse 32, and they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house. I always like the and thy house part of that verse because it means God's not interested. It's not that he's not interested. God's not satisfied just when somebody's saved. He wants their whole house. And it's the same message for the whole house as it is for any individual. Same formula. So the recognition of this void that Christian has, there's a deep emptiness, there's a burden I have, a guilt, a weight, and that recognition comes from the Holy Spirit. Next thing in The story of Pilgrim's Progress is that he leaves, he goes out on this quest, and he falls into the Slough of Despond, this place, kind of a swampy marsh, and he's dragged down by his burden. but he is rescued by a man named Help. So he's walking around, doesn't really know where he's going. He's got his burden, he's got his weight, and he falls into this slew of despond. In the allegory, he's still an unbeliever here. And many unbelievers are discouraged by how bad their sin is, and they get to a point where they feel like, I don't know if there's gonna be any hope for me. I believe maybe God could save people, but I don't think he could save me because of my past, because of what I've done. And the devil really piles on an unbeliever when he's getting close to the gospel, and he tells him how wicked he is. The devil is the accuser of the brethren, he's also the accuser of unbelievers. He wants to pile on someone to the fact that they don't think they can ever be saved, and that forgiveness could never be for them. Whenever this happens, it's always because of a categorization of sin. So many people say, well, I think he could be saved because he did that and that and that, but I have done this, so I don't think I can be saved. And we like, it's not that we like to, but we just naturally categorize sin and say that some are worse than others. Look what it says in James 2 in verse 10, and then we'll turn to Luke 5. James 2, 10, and then Luke 5. James 2.10 is a great verse to share with someone who thinks that he's done some wrong but not as bad as somebody else so he doesn't deserve help. This is a really good verse for that. It says, for whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. This is a good verse that hopefully can help somebody come crashing down and feel really bad. That should be our goal. If there's an unbeliever that's trusting in his righteousness, to let him know that even your white lie, even your small sin, you're guilty of all. So there's no categorization of sin. But the right direction, look at Luke chapter five and verse seven. This is one of the times when Peter Jesus comes upon Peter and he's fishing. He spends all night, doesn't catch anything. Jesus says, oh yeah, you're just right there. Just throw your nets over. And then there's this great catch of fish. Peter perceives that this is, that Jesus is not an ordinary man. So look at Luke five and verse seven. And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. because there was so many fish. And they came and filled both the ships so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. At this moment, when Peter realizes that Jesus, maybe he doesn't know everything about Jesus, he doesn't know yet that he's a son of God, but he perceives that he is of God, and he says, you know what? I am a sinner, and you know what? You just need to leave me. Depart from me, for I am a sinful man. He doesn't at this moment believe, he's a fisherman, you know? He talks like a fisherman, he acts like a fisherman, he is... a sinful man who knows he's a sinful man, and he doesn't believe there's really hope for him. He says, depart from me, for I am a sinful man. There are a lot of unbelievers like this. We should never share the gospel in a way that somebody leaves feeling this way. Share the gospel and let them feel the weight of their sin, but also never leave them feeling like there's no hope. There is hope. And if you ever give someone that bullet, that death bullet of the law, that condemns sin, always follow it immediately with that there's Jesus who follows up the law. It's not, oh, you've done that? Oh, I was going to share the gospel and you've done that? Okay, never mind. I'll see you, well, I'm not even going to see you in heaven. Never leave someone with the lie that they can't be saved. And I think at this moment, Christian's feeling like that. He's in despond, he's in discouragement. But then a man named Help comes along. By the way, you might be that person in someone's life. They're unsaved, they're an unbeliever, they don't think there's any hope, and then you come along and you can be Help, you can be that person to point someone towards truth. Next in the story, Christian meets a man named Mr. Worldly Wise Man, who persuades him to disregard evangelist's advice and instead go to the village of morality and seek out a man named Mr. Legality, or his son, Civility. However, Christian's burden becomes heavier and he stops. So, no, don't, this, Happens many times in an unbeliever's life. They told you just believe and receive and that's it Okay, so you just say this magic formula and all of a sudden all of your sins are gone No, you've got to work for it You have to do something you nothing in this world is free and then people apply that to the gospel and so many people are steered this way you need to go to the village of morality and and work for your salvation. You've got to do something. God helps those that help themselves. I think that's, I don't know where it is, it's got to be somewhere in the Bible. But that's the way of the world. This is man-made religion. There's got to be something. that I can bring to the table, because I don't want to be like a freeloader out there in heaven. I want to at least pull my weight a little bit. So let's look at a couple of really important verses in the gospel. Look at Romans 3.10 and then we'll turn to Romans 10.1. Turning over a new leaf or trying to live a good life is always futile, because if you're going to get to heaven, you have to be righteous. You have to be perfect, and there's nobody righteous. So it's a losing battle from the get-go. It's like, hey, why don't you try to be good to go to heaven? Ready, set, go. You already messed up last year, so you're done, you know? So look at Romans 3 in verse 10, and we'll read through verse 12. It says, as it is written, there is none righteous. No, not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God. So you know, if you have a seeker-friendly church, it's really kind of a waste of time because there are no seekers. God is the seeker. By the way, people can seek as a response. This means that nobody seeks after God first. Nobody just says, hmm, I think I'll seek after God first. If anyone is seeking after God, it's because God is reaching out and wooing them, drawing them, and then they respond to that. But there's nobody that's even good enough to desire God on their own. It says, they are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. So that's a. Throws a poo-poo party on those that want to find the good in, you know, see all those people. Oh, he really, he sees the good in everyone. There is no good in everyone. There's only bad. There's only wickedness. And anything that looks like good is like this next verse. Look at Romans chapter 10 and verse 1. Why is it so bad to try to do good to go to heaven? The reason is because God says, this is how you go to heaven. And whenever you say, no, forget that. I got my own way. Well, that obviously is going to be offensive. That's not how most people see it. They don't see it like I took God's idea and threw it in the trash and I came up with my own idea. But that's how God takes it. And God's the one that matters. So look at Romans 10 verse 1. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. And so, by the way, as Paul is writing this, Israel as a nation is rejecting God, unbelievers, and this status is true to this day. My heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved, for I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth." Anyone that ever believes in Jesus for salvation, they're done trying to work for their salvation. It's the end of the law for righteousness. The only time anyone ever tries to work for their salvation is when they are in ignorance and they reject God's way and they go about to establish their own righteousness in it and as it says in Isaiah 64 6 that those righteousnesses are as filthy rags they never help anyone at all get anyone to heaven they never that all they do is something Usually they help confirm someone in their lost state because they feel like, oh, I'm good enough. Look what I did. So I don't need Jesus. And so it's a really dangerous thing. All this man-made religion, it's of the devil. And it many times confirms people in a state to where they're never going to be saved. Not that they can't, but they often don't because they trust in that self-righteousness, especially if they pass the age of 16, you know, and now they're just really convinced that they're on the right track. Look at Acts chapter 15 and verse 10. It mentions in Pilgrim's Progress that in going to this city of morality, walking around doing all these things, eventually his burden gets heavier and heavier and finally he quits trying that because he's just discouraged. It's not going anywhere. And it never has to try to keep the law for salvation. There's never been a person that was successful at it. Look at Acts 15 verse 10. It says, now therefore, by the way, the context here is that The Judaizers are trying to convince people that they need to keep the Gentiles to keep the law, become Jews and keep the law in order to go to heaven. And it's pointed out that that's dumb. It's always been a losing battle to try that. So verse 10, now therefore, why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear." The best Jews of all time were never able to keep the law. No one ever kept the law. And that's what the Pharisees of Jesus' day were saying, we keep the law. And Jesus says, none of you keeps the law, not one of you. Hold your hand up, who's the best one of you, the greatest law keeper? You don't keep the law, you're a liar. I know what you just did last night, you know? And so there's never been someone, and this is the, there's so many unbelievers walking around with their burden, trying to decide what to do with it, and they come along, someone that says, hey, you gotta go this way. Morality, good life, good works, and they end up miserable. They will never know they're on their way to heaven that way. Next in the story, this man named Evangelist reappears and sets Christian back on the path to the wicked gate that he's been seeking. And the gatekeeper, a man named Goodwill, lets him through and directs him to the house of the interpreter, where he receives instruction on Christian grace, or he, so to speak, preaches the gospel to him and gives him learning. By the way, There is an element, you don't have to be well-learned to go to heaven, but there is an element of learning involved with the gospel. You have to learn the truths of the gospel. You don't get saved out of the blue. Hey, you're bad, look that way. Oh, okay, oh, I'm saved, way. You know, there's a good verse, Romans 10, verse 17, for sake of time, I'll just read it. It says, so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. The truth of God's word, certain specific truths, you know, You're lost, you're not righteous, you're on your way to hell, but Jesus died for your sins. If you call on the name of the Lord, you'll be saved. These specific truths and other verses that point this direction, you have to learn those truths and believe those truths to go to heaven. And so there can be some instruction with an unbeliever. It's a hard line here, because remember what it says in 1 Corinthians 2, that the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit. So it's tough sometimes to teach the truths of the gospel to someone who can't receive spiritual instruction so that he can be saved. And that's where the Holy Spirit can come in and help someone and open their eyes. Salvation is the moment when your eyes open and yet it seems like the Holy Spirit has to open someone's eyes to see that truth so they can believe that. So sometimes it's a little bit complicated and we pray for the Holy Spirit's leading in all of that. But this man named Interpreter gives instruction to Christian on the truth. It's not in, you know, you don't have to be discouraged by your burden. you can't work away your burden by good works and so there's information that comes along the way and then it comes to this moment and so as Christian continues his journey he comes upon a cross and a sepulcher and at that point his burden falls from his shoulders And three shining ones, or angels would be, three shining ones appear and give him a sealed roll or a sealed scroll that he must present when he reaches the celestial gate. And so by the way, sometimes people debate about what the details mean. There's this moment of salvation that happens, his burden falls. By the way, look at Matthew chapter 11 very quickly. The greatest moment in anyone's life is the moment of their salvation, whether they realize it was the greatest moment or not. Sometimes people celebrate more when their team wins the Super Bowl than they did when they were saved. You don't have to celebrate the greatest that you ever have in life in order to be saved. But, you know, sometimes an unbeliever, he doesn't realize all that happened. But if we could take a step back and evaluate everything in all of life and see what just happened at the moment of salvation, man, we would have a week long, we'd have a year long party for the fact that our burden has just been removed and nothing else in the universe could have taken it away, but Jesus did. So look at Matthew 11, verse 28. Verse 28 pictures salvation, 29 and 30 picture the Christian life and discipleship. I think that's an important distinction. So verse 28 says, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. That's really a, you know, there's certain kinds of rest. When it says that Jesus will give us rest, it doesn't mean that we're done and we don't have to work anymore, physically and spiritually. There's still the reality of life, but this rest is a rest from carrying that burden. the burden that Christian had been carrying as an un-Christian, that he had been carrying around his whole life. He didn't know what to do with it. He tried this and that and he was discouraged. And that burden is done. That's where rest is. There's obviously another rest in heaven that we get to someday. But this rest comes at the moment of salvation when the burden falls. So let's go read the other two verses. It says, take my yoke upon you. This is discipleship. You don't have to take on Jesus' yoke to be saved. It's an important distinction. But it says, take my yoke upon you and learn of me. For I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." In salvation, we switch out burdens. We've been carrying the burden of sin, and Jesus says, I'll take that. I'll give you something else to carry, but now you're yoked up with me. Take my yoke on me. And when we're yoked up with Jesus, he's doing all the work. He's doing the heavy lifting and the pulling. And so he has something for us to carry. And it's not easy, but he will help us carry. It is possible. It is impossible to properly carry the yoke, the burden of sin as an unbeliever. The only way you properly carry that all the way is to take it with you to hell and live forever in hell. But Jesus delivers us from that. And he says, I will give you a burden that is easy. that is possible. I don't want the word easy. The rest of what we're going to look at in Puzzle Progress is the furthest thing from easy. So don't let that word easy get you into the wrong attitude of the Christian life. But depending on how people were invested in their journey as an unbeliever, they may feel, they may perceive that weight being gone a lot more, a lot greater than someone who is maybe five years old and receives the truth. You know, someone who's lived a hard life, they've been in the gutter and then they're delivered. You know, that person is gonna potentially be on fire for Jesus. He knows what he's been forgiven of. He's not gonna be, you know, living a self-righteous kind of Christian life because he just is glad that Jesus has saved him. So then Christian continues on his way and he reaches the hill difficulty. First thing after he drops his burden, next step is difficulty. Hey, that's not what I signed up for. The fine print, we don't always know what we signed up for when we got saved, right? I'm not saying that God tries to deceive us, He doesn't try to, he tries to warn us. It's a lot of other snake oil salesmen that try to deceive Christians into thinking the Christian life is gonna be different. Jesus always said it was gonna be hard. So he reaches the hill difficulty. He chooses the straight and narrow path. And partway up, he falls asleep in an arbor, allowing the scroll that these three shining ones that had given him, allowing the scroll to fall from his hands. When he wakes, he proceeds to the top of the hill only to find he must return to the arbor to find his lost scroll. So begs the question, what is this scroll? What is something that he was given by angels? on the day of his salvation that he goes on and he loses and he has to backtrack to find it. And I think the answer is that this scroll represents the, let me make the distinction here whenever we talk about it. It represents the assurance of our salvation, not eternal security. Once saved, always saved. Everyone has eternal security if they're saved. But the assurance of salvation is I'm saved and I know right now that I'm saved. This is possible for every Christian, but it's not a reality for every Christian. You can lose the assurance. You can lose the knowledge that you are saved. And we can do that through the way we live. We can do that through the accusations of the devil. I wanna look at two passages about this. First of all, it's about internal security. We could spend more time here, but look at Ephesians 1 in verse 13, and then we'll turn to 2 Peter 1. Ephesians 1 in verse 13. I like this passage because of what John Bunyan describes, that he was given a scroll that is sealed by these three shining ones and he's supposed to carry this scroll all the way with him and present it at the celestial gate as he goes into heaven. So Ephesians 1 verse 13 says this, in whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation in whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed with that holy spirit of promise which is the earnest the word earnest means kind of a down payment Earnest money, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory When you and I were saved we were immediately Sealed by the Holy Spirit which and the Holy Spirit was given to us the Holy Spirit in your heart is God's guarantee You're gonna make it to heaven It's impossible for a Christian saved, and every Christian has the Holy Spirit. It's not that along the way some get the Holy Spirit later, you don't have to pray through, there's no second blessing, second work of the Holy Spirit. Every Christian has all the Holy Spirit he's gonna get inside of him, and he will have him the rest of his life, and the Holy Spirit inside of us is God's guarantee that we will make it to heaven. Nothing can change that. So, eternal security never changes. But, look at 2 Peter 1 and verse 8. Our assurance often does change and we often call it someone doubting their salvation. Sometimes misinformation causes someone to doubt. Sometimes being in a church where something like the perseverance of the saints is preached, which teaches that once you're saved, you're going to walk with God and you're going to be faithful. And that's just the way it is. You're going to be faithful all the way to the end of your life. And that's not reality. And then when you fall, then you look at that and you're like, oh, maybe I was never saved because I'm supposed to be faithful. And so a lot of people doubt their salvation. Look at second Peter one in verse eight, for sake of time, we're going to read five through seven in just a minute. But right now we're going to read this probably kind of probably doesn't make much sense to do it backwards, but we're going to do it anyway. So look at verse 8. What we're going to read about in just a minute is character qualities that we need to add to our life. And it says, for if these things be in you, that means if you are growing as a Christian and adding the right things and doing the right things, if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore, the rather brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things, you shall never fall." What a wonderful possibility to grab onto there. Would you like to be able to say that in your Christian life? I will never fall. That's possible. It says if you do this, you will never fall. and I think fall primarily here is talking about you're never going to fall in your life to a place where you forget that you were saved. It doesn't say somebody wasn't saved, it says they forgot that they were purged from their old sins. The way you live is vital, not to get to heaven, but it can help you with your assurance of salvation. Because I see growth. I see the Holy Spirit. I know I'm saved. It's not that I'm bragging, like, look how wonderful I am. That's how I know I'm saved. It's not that. But it's just, you know, I can see God growing me. And I know the Holy Spirit's at work in my life. And that helps us to hold on to this scroll, so to speak. But so many times we can fall off the wagon and drop our scroll. And sometimes you don't even know that you lost your scroll because you weren't thinking spiritual thoughts for a while. You're just living up, having a good time and hey, oh wait, am I saved? I don't even know if I'm saved. And sometimes you have to go back, you have to backtrack in your life and grab onto those verses again of eternal security. So Christian goes on later, he arrives at the palace beautiful, where he meets the damsels discretion, prudence, piety, and charity. and they give Christian armor, and he learns that a former neighbor, faithful, is traveling ahead of him. So he goes to this palace, beautiful, and he meets these damsels that give him things, and I think that these things picture different things that we should be adding in the Christian life. The Christian life, we never, doesn't matter if you've been saved for five minutes or five years or 50 years, we never graduate to the point where we don't need to add anymore. God says, I'm complete. I don't need to add anymore. I'm good. I've mentioned this before that once I heard a pastor say, I don't need to add anymore. I don't need to read the Bible anymore in my life. And within a couple of two or three months, he was out of the ministry and in prison for having a relationship with a minor. So we never graduate from needing to read the Bible and grow and add things in our lives. Look at 2 Peter, if you're still in there, in 2 Peter 1, look at verse 5. Here's some of the things that we need to add. And sometimes you go all the way through the list, and then you gotta go back to the beginning and add them all again. You know, because the Christian life sometimes feels like, and I've never done this successfully, but it feels like those guys that are juggling seven balls at once, how do they do that? And if you don't know how to do that well, you're gonna drop one. And sometimes the Christian life for you is like dropping one ball after another. And I got it, yeah, I got this one. Oh wait, oh, you know, and now I'm back to square one. It feels like that sometimes. And so we always need to be adding. So look at 2 Peter 1, verse five. It says, and beside this, Giving all diligence, that maybe is a skipped over phrase in this passage. We need to give 100% diligence in the Christian life. You can't go to sleep like Christian does here in this area. Giving all diligence, add to your faith. So faith, you see early on in the chapter, talks about like precious faith, that's salvation. You believed in the gospel, you have faith, now you're saved. Now you need to add to your faith virtue. and to virtue, knowledge, and to knowledge, temperance. For sake of time, we're not gonna break these down, we'll just read them. And to knowledge, temperance, and to temperance, patience, and to patience, godliness, and to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, charity. And then it goes on, if you do all that, then you're not gonna forget that you were saved. So we need to grow in these character qualities. Look at another list in Galatians 5, another list of things that we need to add to our lives. Galatians 5 and verse 22, and we'll read down through 24. It says, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lust. So we need to continue to be adding these things. A lot of those things have to do with your interpersonal relationships. You notice how many of those words have to do with one-on-one relationships? Love. joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, learning how to respond with gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, learning how to corral those desires for vengeance, temperance, self-control. A lot of the Christian life is adding these things and then Let's look real fast at the passage on armor in Ephesians chapter six and verse 10. We need to learn how to add these things and then use them on a daily basis. This is kind of nuts and bolts of the Christian life, the day ins and day outs, learning how to add something so you know how to fight the devil. Ephesians six and verse 10. It says, finally, my brethren be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might, put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day. and having done all to stand. Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. And so this section of Christian's life, it's kind of like he's going to a charging up station. He's going in, by the way, you're gonna need this and take this and this and don't forget about this. And it's like, oh, what am I gonna need this for? And he goes on to the next step of his journey and he needs the things that he's just been given. So let's look at that. Christian next traverses the Valley of Humiliation, where he does battle with the monster Apollyon, which is a picture of the devil. He then passes through the terrifying valley of the shadow of death. We get now here into what's the real Christian life. The real Christian life is not a bed of roses. The real Christian life is battle and trials, deep. I mean, these are one-on-one battle with the devil. This is serious business. And walking through the valley of the shadow of death, I thought I was gonna die, spiritually or physically. Look at 1 Peter 5 in verse 8. 1 Peter 5.8, and then we'll turn to 2 Corinthians 1. 1 Peter 5.8 says, Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, by the way, we stop right there. Your adversary is always the devil and his minions, his demons. It's never a person. We wrestle, we just read that, we wrestle not against flesh and blood. We need to learn how to see through that person that we think is the enemy and see through them to the spiritual beings that are using them or even sometimes inhabit. I doubt that your spouse is possessed by the devil, just being used by the devil. It's possible, I'm just kidding. It says be sober be vigilant because your adversary adversary the devil as a roaring lion Walketh about seeking whom he may devour whom resist steadfast in the faith Knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. I like that into that second verse, because we fight really hard, but we also need to know that other people are going through the same thing. Never feel like you have the hardest battle possible, you're the only one. The same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. They are also fighting with the devil. It might look different, it might be on a different front, in a different form, but we all fight the devil and his demons. And we need to be aware that they're out to destroy us and devour us. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 1. While you're turning there, I like Psalm 23 verse 4. It says, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. By rod and by staff they comfort me. And I think every Christian may at some point in some way walk through the valley of the shadow of death. you might think you're gonna die. You might think this is it. There's no hope. And then God is with you and he gets you through it. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter one and verse eight. This is the apostle Paul giving a snapshot of his struggles. He says, for we would not, 2 Corinthians 1.8, for we would not brethren have you ignorant of our trouble, which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed. This is the apostle, this is the great apostle Paul who maybe has more faith than every other Christian. I don't know, it's hard to rank him, but he's probably in the top 10 percentile of the Christians on the earth. I don't know how to rank him. But he is a great man of faith, but look what he says. For we would not, brethren, have you be ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life. But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver, in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us." He says, I've seen God deliver in the past, the present, and I believe in the future. Paul got to, he got so low spiritually that he despaired of life. I don't think God's gonna help us. I don't think, and then God did, and that grew his faith. By the way, the way you grow your faith is not to, you know, you go skiing for the first time, where do you start? The muddy slope. I took Melanie, first time ever skiing, to Heavenly in Tahoe. And I was going to take her down the bunny slope. And the bunny slope was closed. That lift was closed. To get to the next easiest hill, you had to go down an intermediate one to get to the easy one. And so I'll let Melanie tell you that story later. Well, she probably tells it wrong. She makes it sound like I'm a bad guy. But anyway. The way that we grow in our faith is not by the bunny slopes. The way that, what really grew Paul was he despaired of life. He was the valley of the shadow of death, but then God delivered him. And now he knows, I know God can deliver me through anything in the future because he did this. And if God just delivered him from, you know, my dog was sick and now my dog is healed, you know, you're not really ready to face the big one yet. But when you face a deep trial and then Jesus delivers you, Now your faith has grown. Now, you know, I can handle it. I didn't think I could handle it, but I can. I can do all things through Christ. And again, it's not us, but it's Jesus. But he grows in his faith. And this is the Christian life. You're gonna go to the valley of humiliation. You're gonna do battle with Apollyon. You're gonna go through the valley of the shadow of death. And then you're gonna do it again. And that's the Christian life. Shortly afterwards, Christian catches up with faithful. The two enter the town of Vanity, home of the ancient Vanity Fair. There's a magazine nowadays. The ancient Vanity Fair, which is set up to ensnare pilgrims en route to the Celestial City. Their strange clothing, faithful and Christian, their strange clothing and lack of interest in the fair's merchandise causes a commotion, and they are arrested. In a reign before Lord Hategood, faithful is condemned to death and executed. and he's immediately taken into the Celestial City. Christian is returned to prison, but he later escapes. So they go to this place, Vanity Fair. He's got a good buddy, a brother in the Lord that he's walking with, and they go to this town, and they're imprisoned because they're misunderstood. By the way, a lot of the Christian life is being misunderstood by unbelievers. Look at 1 Peter 4 and verse 3. 1 Peter 4, 3. and then we'll turn to John 15. First Peter 4.3 says this, for the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revelings, banquetings, and abominable idolatry. So your past life is you were doing whatever, living it up, but now you're saved. And it says this, wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excessive riot, speaking evil of you." Why would you speak evil of someone who's not doing evil? I stopped doing evil, now I want to do good, and they think I'm weird, and they speak evil of me. And they imprison people, and they execute people, because they don't do the same things. Unbelievers love it when believers live like them, because it makes them feel good about where they are. But when you come out, and you're different, and you're a light, it shines light on their darkness, and it makes them feel guilty. They don't like that guilt, and they strike out at the messenger, they strike out at the light. Look at John 15 and verse 18. And then we'll look at a couple of verses in Revelation. John 15 and verse 18. We're probably about 80% done tonight. Just kidding, it's more like 40%, but I didn't want anyone to leave yet. No, it's closer to 80%. It's closer to 80. John 15 verse 18 says this. If the world hate you, You know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love his own. But because you're not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. That's the Christian life. God has called us to be different from the world and so they will hate us. And don't take it personally, it's because they hate Jesus. And because they hate Jesus and you look like Jesus, they will hate you. And it's gonna get worse. They don't stop with just hating you. They wanna finish you. So look at Revelation 2 in verse 10. Revelation 2.10. I don't know if anyone here knows someone personally that's been martyred, killed for the sake of the gospel. I don't personally know someone. I know some people who have been persecuted, put in prison, but I've never met someone personally that then was killed for his faith and martyred. But it happens around the world all the time in large numbers. In the United States, we don't see it that much. But Jesus says it's gonna be par for the course. Par for the Christian life is that there will be martyrdom. Death is what it's at stake for many Christians. So look at Revelation 2.10. It says, fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation 10 days. Be thou faithful unto death. and I will give thee a crown of life." By the way, I believe that the sweetest, the most exalted places in heaven are reserved for the martyrs. I mean, there's several places where you see this in the Bible. It's an extra kind of blessing, an extra kind of reward. Not everyone gets the chance to be a martyr. I don't think it's something that you should like, hey, oh, you forgot to kill me. You know, it's not that we should ask for it. But just know this, that if it comes your way, you do not need to shy away from that because you will never regret that for all of eternity. There is a special place in heaven. Look at Revelation 12 and verse 10. This is one of my really favorite phrases. It's a really convicting phrase, but it's a really awesome phrase at the end. Look at Revelation 12 in verse 10. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now has come salvation and strength in the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ. For the accuser of our brethren, this is the devil, is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death." What an awesome phrase. They loved not their lives all the way to the death. Jesus tells us not to save our lives. If you try to save your life, you'll lose it. But if you're willing to lose your life for my sake and the gospels, the same shall save it. Do you love your life? What's your life? It's your agenda, it's your goals and your dreams and everything you want. And we grab onto that. And it says these Christians were willing to let go of that even unto death. They were willing to live for God faithfully and they were killed for that. And that is God's call for many Christians. Next Christian leaves Vanity, that city, and he's accompanied by a man named Hopeful, who was inspired by Faithful. Christian and Hopeful crossed the plane of ease and resist the temptation of a silver mine. One of the derailments of the Christian life is often the possibility of more, more possessions, more money, more ease. By the way, they go hand in hand. The reason people want more is because they think it'll help them live an easier and better life. And look at Mark chapter four in verse 18. This is in the parable of the soils. One thing that we all need to watch out for in the Christian life You need to resist the temptation, the desire for an easier life, the desire for stuff. Solomon is a good person to look at. He got stuff and stuff and stuff and stuff. And then he was stuffed. No, but he got it all. And he said, it's vanity. It doesn't help me. It didn't satisfy me like I thought it would. And people chase after it because they're deceived. And they think that if they get it, that it'll make their life easier. So look at Mark 14 verse 18. It says, and these are they which are sown among thorns. such as hear the word, so there's salvation, and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. So they got off to a good start, they were on the right path, but then they started desiring what the world has to offer, it glittered, it looked wonderful. We read this this morning so I won't read it all right now but 1st Timothy 6 verses 9 and 10 talks about those that desire to be rich and covetousness and they fall into a snare and they drown. It says it drowns men in destruction and perdition. The love of money is the root of all evil and so it'll lead you astray. And then look at 2nd Timothy 2 and verse 3. 2nd Timothy 2 and verse 3. Here's God's response to so many Christians desiring an easy life. By the way, where do we get an easy life? Heaven. Yep, and not until heaven. And if we have an easy Christian life, we're probably not living the right Christian life. Maybe the devil's got us right where he wants us. Look at 2 Timothy 2 verse 3. It says, thou therefore endure hardness. He doesn't say thou therefore escape hardness. Find a way to circumvent it. He says, thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that woreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who have chosen him to be a soldier. As Christians, we are soldiers and we're called to pull up our bootstraps and go and endure the hardness. Life will be hard. It's not going to be easy. But if you endure, blessed is the man that endureth temptation for he shall receive a crown of life. So then back in Pilgrim's Progress, the path later becomes more difficult. They made it through the plane of ease. The path becomes more difficult, and at Christian's encouragement, the two travelers take an easier route. They've been through an easy route and so there's the temptation to take the next route to avoid difficulty. It's not wrong when God allows you to have an easy phase of your life. But beware, if you have an easy phase, it will set you up to try to avoid difficulty that God wants you to have later. And so they take an easier route through Bypath Meadow. However, when they become lost and are caught in a storm, Christian realizes that he has led them astray. Trying to turn back, they stumble onto the grounds of Doubting Castle, where they are caught, imprisoned, and beaten by the giant despair. And at last, Christian remembers that he has a key called promise, there's the word of God. the promises of God's word. At last he remembers the aids. He has a key called promise, which he and hopeful use to unlock the doors and escape. And so that the path gets a little bit difficult. There's a storm and the storm lands them eventually in despair. This is a story of many Christians. And look, by the way, at Matthew 14 in verse 28, God sends the storms. The storms are by design. The devil wants the storm to lead you to, what's it called, doubting castle, where you doubt God. Is God even here? Does God even love me? Is God's word even real? Is it true? May we never get there, but this is where the devil wants to get us. But if you do get there, that's what God's promises are for, to pull you out of doubt, to pull you out of despair. Matthew 14 verse 28. This is the walking on the water. Two men ever that walked on the water, Jesus and Peter. Pretty good company. We like to We like to look down on Peter, but there was nobody else that was willing to say, I wanna walk on the water. So it was great faith, but his faith was immediately followed by doubt. And this is the Christian life. You'll have ups and downs. Man, I feel strong. Whoa, I just fell. And so beware him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. So look at Matthew 14, 28. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid. And beginning to sink, he cried saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Interesting, Jesus, a little bit of a scold for Peter. He says, Ye of little faith. You had enough faith to get out of the boat and yet little enough faith to doubt. I was right. It says he saw the wind. What do you mean? The wind is invisible, but he could see maybe the clouds and he could see that there was blowing and shaking. He could see Jesus right there. I don't know how much distance. It's maybe 50 feet, 40, 30 feet from Jesus. There's nobody else on the water. It's him and Jesus. And yet he finds a way to look at the storm that's surrounding him. And it's always true for us. We can either look at what God has given us, the truth of God's word, or we can look at everything else around us and take our eyes off Jesus. We immediately fall. We immediately sink. And Jesus says, why did you doubt? He doesn't say, Why did you doubt? Figure it out, learn how to swim. He pulls them up, gets them into the boat. God's not gonna give up on us, but he asks us this question, and this question is good for us. Why did you doubt? Just take a step back sometimes and say, why did I doubt? What was I thinking? Sometimes it's so clear. Of course, why would I ever doubt? And sometimes it's so muddy that you wonder, how can I not doubt? So Jesus asks him, Why did you doubt? We need to learn how to keep our eyes on Jesus and on the path that he set before us and not watch the storms. Don't watch the weather channel too much spiritually, you know. So many Christians are watching the weather channel. Hey, this is going to happen in Christian life. Oh, let me watch. Oh, no, you know, and they get all discouraged. So then, they reach, they make it out of there, they reach the delectable mountains just outside the celestial city, but they make the mistake of following Flatterer, a man named Flatterer, and must be rescued by a shining one. And we need to watch out real fast. Proverbs 29.5 says, a man that flattereth, by the way, we think, oh, flattery. Flattery will get you everywhere. Our sin nature, we love to be pumped up, we love for people to stroke our ego and tell us how wonderful we are. By the way, flattery is not just someone giving you a compliment. Flattery is given from a motive, it's false praise given from the motivations to try to trip you up, to try to set you up, to get you to fall or manipulate you. So it says, Proverbs 29.5, a man that flattereth his neighbor, spreadeth a net for his feet. If someone's giving you flattery, you may not always know the difference between a compliment and flattery. But sometimes you can tell, just the way it comes across. There was that strange woman that flatters with her tongue. If you're not married to someone and they're praising you for how good you look, that's flattering. Get away from that. That's the devil trying to pull you out of God's blessing. They escape, they are rescued by a shining one, and then this gets us to our last section. Before they can enter the Celestial City, they must cross a river as a test of faith. And then after presenting their scrolls, Christian and hopeful are admitted into the Celestial City. Look at Hebrews 11 verse 6 very quickly. It says they'd gone through their whole Christian life, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da, and yet last thing, they still had to have a test of faith. You will never graduate from needing a test of faith. Faith is, the Bible says a lot about faith. It says that love is greater than faith, by the way. Now abide at these three, faith, hope, charity. The greatest of these is charity. So I don't know if we can say that faith is the greatest thing you can ever have in your life, but faith is indispensable. This verse says it's impossible to please God without faith. So look at Hebrews 11, verse six. But without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. James 1, 3 says, knowing this, by the way, turn to 1 Peter 1. We'll look at two more passages and we'll be done this evening. 1 Peter 1, James 1, verse 3 says, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. The trying, the testing, God will test your faith. How does he do it? God tested Abraham's faith by saying, hey, I want you to sacrifice your son. You have one son that's the son of promise and you love him, kill him. And God will often, he may not tell you to kill your child. Sometimes you wonder if that voice is from God or the devil, you know, to kill your child. I'm just kidding. But God will often reach out and say, I want you to be willing to give up this. Can you let go of that? Can you step out? Can you let go of that and not trust in that? Like Dumbo's feather, you know the story of Dumbo? He could fly without the feather, but he thought he needed the feather and he clung to that. And we cling to so many things sometimes that God says, you don't need that. Why don't you give that up? Oh no, no. And sometimes we don't give it up. Sometimes it's taken away from us. And we are so sorry to see it go, but then God shows us, you didn't need that. And it's a growing in our faith. Look at 1 Peter 1 and verse six. It says, wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. Look at that verse. That verse has both the word rejoicing and manifold temptations in the same verse. That doesn't belong together. We don't need to have easy times to rejoice. It says we can rejoice through manifold temptations. Look at the next verse. That the trial of your faith being much more precious than a gold that perisheth, your faith is more valuable than gold. You and I should desire to have strong faith more than we desire to have all the gold in the world. Your faith is more valuable It says that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perish, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. This is something God wants to do. He wants to grow your faith. He wants to try your faith with fire. It's going to get difficult. It's going to get very hard. and then your faith will be tried and it will grow. And then what happens, remember that verse where it says that the word of God is like gold or like silver purified in a furnace seven times. You heat it up, you try it with the fire, you scrape off the dross. Heat it up again, scrape off the dross. Heat it up again, and there's this never-ending process of God trying our faith. As soon as we're, it's like we're on to the next thing. And when you look at all that, and then they finish, and we're not gonna spend time tonight talking about, we could spend more time talking about heaven and the glories and all of that. But I wanna focus just on the Christian life aspect of that. You notice through that story, and this story is not necessarily gospel truth, but it's pretty close to what you see God says the Christian life is like. What was the outstanding feature of the journey of Christian? Is that it was hard. It was long and it was discouraging at times and there is much more mention of the difficulty than there are of the easy joyful times. And that's not to say that the Christian life is just, you know, you're going to live like Eeyore through your Christian life and today's probably going to be bad. Tomorrow's going to be worse, you know, but, but it's just a dose of reality. There's, there is a stealing our minds with this truth. I'm going to finish with this verse. Look at Acts 14 verse 21. Acts 14, 21 and 22. This will be the last passage we look at tonight. It says, And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, They returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and to Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith. Do not give up, continue. And that we must, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God. By the way, it doesn't mean that you have to go through tribulation to get to heaven, but it means that the average, the normal Christian life, the path from here to heaven is going to be through much tribulation. It doesn't say that through much tribulation and yet many joys and good things. It doesn't say that. It says that when you're saved, you should settle in your mind, this is gonna be hard. Heaven is easy. Once I get there, that's the easy part. By the way, We often think, you mean the whole Christian life is hard? Here's the timeline. This is the Christian life, and this is heaven goes on forever. This part is hard for a moment, but it works for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory. We get it flipped around and we think that it's just, oh, for all of eternity, the rest of my life hard, and then at the end it'll be easy. That's the wrong way to look at it, and we talked about this this morning as well. We need to look at eternity and think eternally and just say, it's okay that the Christian life is hard, harder, hardest, really hardest, very difficult, and then it's done, and all of eternity is rest, and joy, and bliss. God wants us, see, whenever we're so discouraged about how hard the Christian life is, it's because we stop looking at the celestial city. We stop thinking about heaven, and the sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us, Romans 8, 18. So know that for the Christian life now, what we should expect, what is par for the course, is much tribulation. Don't quit on God because it's hard and it's not what I thought it should be and God's failed me. This is what God says the Christian life is. But then you just know that once you, and here's the hard thing, is that all of us have seen the Christian life, none of us have seen heaven. That's the problem is that heaven, it's by faith we believe, but it's real and it's true and it's forever. And this is just a drop in the bucket. This is just a moment of time. And if we can just wrap our minds around that, that's how you can go through difficulty with joy. because heaven's waiting for me on the other side. That's how you can get up from that discouragement. That's how you can get up from that fall, from that failure and go on because God didn't quit on me and he's got heaven for me for all of eternity. You and I are Christian and Christians spend more time falling and discouraged than he did in a victorious life. but that's the Christian life. And then if you will be faithful, there will be crowns and rejoicing and rewards for all of eternity. So put your hand to the plow and put your nose to the grindstone and be encouraged that God is with you and he's holding your hand. And it might be difficult, but his burden is easy. He will carry it with you and then it's rest for all of eternity. So it's a really good story. The summary of the Christian life is that it's filled with trials, but it ends with eternal life. And we just need to keep on pushing through because heaven's waiting for us on the other side. Let's pray together.