Good evening, everybody. Sorry about that. I should have thought that one through and had it done before I got up here. If you would, pray with me. I desire your prayers. I want you to pray for me, not just with me, but pray for me that I get through this and would follow the Spirit and follow what He would have me to do. Good Lord, I come to you this evening, and I want to thank you for another opportunity to spread your gospel. I want to thank you for choosing me to do so. I'm not sure why you have done so, but good Lord, I'm thankful that you have. I'd ask that you'd be with me. guide my mind and my heart to do Your will and everything that I do, especially tonight. And good Lord, if there's people here that don't know You, I'd ask that You would work through me to where I might do something or say something before it's ever lasting too late for that individual or those individuals that they might come to know You. Good Lord, I ask this through Jesus' name. Amen. Alright. Has anybody Has anyone in here ever heard of Dick and Rick Hoyt? A.K.A. Team Hoyt. Anybody ever heard of them? No? Well, I'll tell you a little story about Dick and Rick Hoyt. Dick and Rick Hoyt, it's a father and a son, and they've become world-renowned across the world for running marathons and doing triathlons. And now everybody calls him Team Hoyt. And the unique thing about Dick and Rick Hoyt is that Rick is the son. He was 44. I'm assuming he's probably in his upper 40s now. And his dad's in his upper 60s. Rick, the son, has cerebral palsy. He's bound to a wheelchair, can't speak. Does that sound familiar to any of y'all? Y'all seen the YouTube videos of it? And you know what? I've seen that years ago and that's always stuck with me. And what we'll be talking about tonight is that running this race is not a sprint. It's a marathon. It's a marathon. So I got to thinking, and I was thinking about this message, and God gave me this message a while back, and I've been working on it, thinking about it, and seeking His guidance and how to do this. And, you know, today I was thinking when we got home, me and Anna and Cass went to eat after church, and then we went home, and I watched that video. And the one thing that Dick, the dad, said was that he wasn't a runner. He wasn't a runner before he started. And he'd done that, for his son. He'd done it completely for his son. It wasn't because he was not trying to get into shape. He was a former military guy. It wasn't for the exercise. It wasn't to see if he could win an Ironman. It was not for any self-satisfaction. The sole reason that Dick done this for Rick, his son, was because whenever he took his son running into these triathlons and put him on a boat and pulled him through water and then put him on a bicycle and rode him to the end of these races is because whenever he got done, his son felt alive. He felt like he was part of something that he never could be. And without his dad, he could not do so. With that said... They started with a 5K, and for you that don't know this, a 5K is 3.3 miles, is that correct? You know that, right? 3.3 miles. 3.3 miles is a 5K, so they started that and finished that, and now they're actually doing, and as far as my knowledge, they're still doing these triathlons. So they're doing 26 miles, they're swimming two and a half miles, and he puts his son on a boat, on a raft, and ties a rope around him and pulls him two and a half miles while he swims. then sets him on a bicycle, and I don't even know how many miles that is. So the point of it is this, is that he started small, but his dad, seeing that it was going to be a marathon, and he had to train all the time. Now, obviously you can see the parallel between that with Jesus and us. We're going to be going over to Job. And we're going to talk about Job a little bit. And what I love about Job, what I love about Job is that he knew that it was a marathon. He knew it was a marathon from the beginning. He knew it wasn't a sprint, because if he'd have been sprinting, he would have gave up from the very beginning. So, you all probably already got over here, ain't you? Let me get there, and then we'll move on. We're going to go to Job chapter 2 to start off with. And you're going to be going all the way to the back, verse 13. 2 and 13 is where we're going. Now, before we get into Job, I want to say something. My purpose of this message is to explain to you that it is a marathon and it's not a sprint. But my goal is to try to get you in shape, if you will, to try to get you in shape for this marathon. Now, the great thing is, and we'll talk about that here in just a little bit, but the great thing is that it's not going to be hard to get ready for. And that's the beauty of the whole thing. So now we're going to go into Job. Whenever I was praying for this message, I thought, I'm not going to... Some people think of the biblical stories as being a little bit elementary, because if you go over a story that everybody's heard, you think, well, everybody knows that. And I'll be honest with you, I've been sitting in church before and people be like, well, you know about this, and I'm like, I should, but I don't. I don't know that. And it makes me feel horrible. So I want to go over not all of Job. I want to explain a little bit about Job. Even if you've never heard it a million times, but I want you to know about Job. Now Job was a rich man, obviously, and most people know that. But Job was a very rich man, and basically the devil went to God, and God gave him permission to vex Job. In a nutshell, that's what happened, okay? Now, the first thing that Satan done to Job was he pulled all his livestock. Now, if I get any of this wrong, gentlemen, you let me know, okay? But he took the livestock away. And then, whenever it gets down to it, the bad part about it was that They started coming in and telling Job, Job, all your cattle's gone. Job, all your sheep's gone. And then the third person comes in and he says, Job, the house where your children were have fallen and killed your children. And straightway, not after a while, not after he went to see his children, Job straightway shaved his head, put a robe on, and bowed and worshipped God. and said, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Now, I don't know about you all, but if somebody came and said, hey, Cash is gone, he's dead, I don't know if I could do that. I just don't. Well, let's be honest, I couldn't. That's just the honest truth about it. So all this stuff's happened to Job, and then he won't curse God, so then Satan goes back and God says, well, Let me do a little bit more to him." And God says, okay, that's fine. So he comes back to him and then he starts vexing his body from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet with sores. And it says that he had boils and his skin was so bad that Job took a piece from a pot of potted clay, a piece of clay that had been broke off and it was sharp. If you ever see a piece of clay that has been baked and it actually gets sheared off, it's very, very sharp. I mean, it'll cut you to pieces. And it said that Job was in such agony that he would actually take a piece of that clay that was sharp and scrape his own skin to try to get relief from that. So Job was in terrible agony. And then we're going to come over here in Job 2, verse 13. That's where we're going to pick up. All the time knowing that it was a marathon. And 2 and 13 says, So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him, for they saw that his grief was very great. Now, they, okay, there was three men that come to Job and says everyone from their place, and those men were Eliphaz, the Temanite, and Biladad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Namathite. I think that's how you say that. For they have made an appointment together to come mourn with him and comfort him." Now these three men, they get together and they know what Job's going through, and whenever they come together, they decide, hey, we're going to go and try to comfort our friend Job, and we're going to do the best we can with him. I hear people going to the hospitals and stuff all the time, and I know that there's a lot of people in here visit the sick, and you're doing the same thing that these men done for Joe. I'm sorry, I've lost my place. I apologize. How you doing, brother? Good to see y'all. We're talking about Job. I haven't ruined anybody's train of thought, right? So these three friends, they come, and they want to help Job. They want to talk to him. They want to help him. They want to see what they can help with his afflictions. Whenever you're running a marathon of any type, now we're talking about a spiritual marathon is what we're talking about, not a physical marathon. But when you're talking about that, sometimes you need some help from other people. And these three men have come to do that. Now, things get so rough with Job that he literally wants to die. He wants to give things up. Correct? Amen with that? Yeah, he wants to give things up. He's beat down, and over in Job 14, starting verse 7 or verse 5, he says, "...seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass. Turn from him that he may rest till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day, for there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will be sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stalk thereof die in the ground, yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant. But man dieth, and wasteth away, yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? As the waters fell from the sea, and the flood decayeth and dryeth up, So man lieth down, and riseth not, till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. Oh, that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be passed, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me." Right there, Job is saying, just let me go to rest, let me pass away from this, and let the grave hide me, and whenever the time come, oh Lord, please remember me. So things are getting pretty rough. Things are getting real bad for Job here. And just like Job, now, I don't know of anybody. I don't know of anybody that has got this rough, got this bad in life physically, and lost as much stuff as Job had. I don't know anybody to that point. But things, I know a lot of people, and we hear them in here all the time. We hear people that are always asking for prayer and for their loved ones and for their selves that things are rough and your wife's sick or your family's sick or your kid's sick and things can get rough. And we need to pray about that. We need to pray about that, but we need to pray about other things as well for other people and for ourselves and get through those things. The difference between what Job was going through, and somebody in this life that is going through something that is not even that bad, is that Job, through it all, had hope. He had hope. No matter what happened to him, the devil could not do enough to Job for him to lose his hope. Because he knew that the devil couldn't do anything to make him curse him at all. So, Job had the hope. He always had the hope and he continued the hope. Now what's happening here in Job, these three men, they come back, they come down here to Job and they're wanting to help him. So after the seven days and seven nights that Job and the three gentlemen sat there without speaking a word, finally the silence is broke. And they take turns talking to Job. And finally, it's Eliphaz's time, and he starts talking to Job. And he pours out his heart and tries to do everything that he can for Job. And then in the end, Eliphaz wasn't helping him at all. He wasn't encouraging him, he was hurting him. And I know that there's been times in my life that whenever I'm helping somebody through something, that I'm doing my very best. I mean, I'm doing my very best right now to get you all to understand what's going through my head, and it just seems like everything can't come together right now, but there's been times that you try to help somebody, and then at the end of the day, you've done nothing but hurt them. You've done nothing but hurt them. You've said the wrong thing. Maybe they're too sensitive. Maybe you're too sensitive. Maybe it's too hard on them. Maybe you think it should have been tough love, and they didn't need tough love. Some things, you don't need to say anything at all. Garrett, I remember not too long ago, you went to talk to a gentleman, and you didn't talk about God at all. And at the end of it, all the man wanted to talk about was how they talked about church. Is that correct? And they didn't have anything to talk about church at all, but that's what the man got out of it. Matter of fact, whenever I was out, the best times was when people would just come and would talk to me. Garrett would come by and still get pizza from me and wouldn't say nothing to me. But I knew that he didn't hate me, I knew that he still loved me, and that mattered to me. So, Eliphaz, whenever he gets done talking, When Eliphaz gets done talking, Eliphaz is trying to put Job in his place and say, hey, let's come together here and let's come out of this. And then Job answered, he said in chapter 16 verse 1, then Job answered and said, I have heard many such things, miserable comforters are ye all. Then three gentlemen was trying to comfort him, and they were just making him miserable. He said, miserable comforters are you all. Shall vain words have an end, or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest? I also could speak as you do. if your soul were in my soul steed." What he's saying there is you don't know what I'm going through. You don't know. And I tell you, you don't know what a man goes through until you've been through his shoes. I despise when somebody says, hey, I understand what you're going through, and they don't have a clue. You don't have a clue what they're going through. Absolutely do not. There's a difference between empathy and sympathy. We need to have empathy on everybody and understand that they can go through things that we have not. We have not. We could possibly go through that just as easy as that person could, but we need to have empathy on them people. Sympathy comes whenever you understand what they've went through and you can sympathize with that. So that's whenever you come in and you can really help somebody. Whenever you can sympathize just like myself. I want people I want people to start this race every day I want people to start and start their Christian journey every day and I want to be able to tell them whenever they come to me and say hey I was in church one time and that this and this and this and this and that happened I can say hey, I Understand where you're coming from. I understand how you feel and I don't blame you one bit But let me tell you something. There's something better. There is something better about Jesus to stick with than to leave it behind. And I can tell you that. And if they look at me and say, well, this happened and this person done that, I don't care. I do not care. Jesus is better than anything, anything that you can possibly whatsoever go through or anybody can do to you. And I'll guarantee if you take a stop, stop and take a good hard look at yourself, you're half the problem anyway. I was. I was three quarters of it. I was three quarters of the problem. Now, what was done to me in church was wrong. And I ain't going to back off of that for not a second. It was wrong. I was done wrong. But three quarters of it, that the reason I quit going to church was my fault. Right here. Nobody else's. It was mine. 98% of it was my fault. 2% of it wasn't. And I ain't backing off of it. Yeah. Thank you. I want you to understand something, and I may be going off track, and I hope that I'm doing you a little bit of good here. But I want you to understand something. This life, the Christian life, is absolutely a marathon. It's not a sprint. But here's the thing. Whenever you've got people, when you've got people that'll help you, that'll stand by your side and say, hey, I love you, it's worth going through. that it makes a world, an absolute world, a difference. It really does. Now, me wanting to be that friend for any lost soul that's out there right now, and also for the church members, the people that are Christians, there are certain times that you've got to say, hey, it's worth fighting for, it's worth sticking in there for, and it's worth picking up your cross every single day and working through it. Now we're going to go to 2 Timothy. And as we're going there, we were back here getting ready to go to church, getting ready to start church, just go to chapter 1. And Ray came back here, he said, Benji, you read much of Timothy? I said, we're getting ready to read some more tonight. Now we're going to go through some, it's going to be a little different scripture reading, okay? It's important. I've got this new business. I've got this new business and I've got a technician and I'm thankful for him because I tell you, they're hard to come by. Amen, Jerry? They're hard to come by and we were talking, I'm just getting to know this guy. His name's Derek, and so far I like him real well. He's knowledgeable. He's doing a good job. And we haven't talked a whole lot about Christianity or anything, but we started talking the other day. We was in cross lanes. We was leaving cross lanes. And we started talking about going to church, and he said, now I'm not a hardcore believer that you have to go to church to be saved. And I thought, Benji Queen a year ago? What are you doing here? And I told him, I said, yeah, you're right. You're right. Can you be saved without going to church? Yeah. Yeah, you can. But I had the opportunity to explain to him why it was important. Why it was important to come to church. Because whenever you come to church, the marathon gets easier. The marathon gets easier. Because it's not easy. Now, we're going to start in 2 Timothy, and here's what I'm going to tell you, and we're going to go through this. We're going to go to one other spot, and then I'm going to ask you to start thinking about, if you're not in this race, I want you to start. This is the start line, and then I'll explain to you how to get through the marathon. I want you to start thinking about that. If you don't know Him, I want you to start thinking about that. But in the meantime, for the Christians, the ones that are in His grace already and have already been saved, I charge you to be steadfast and to work at it diligently each and every single day. So we're going to start off in 2 Timothy. And this is going to be a little fast-paced. But I'm going to tell you where I'm at. You try to stay with me, okay? Second epistle of Paul, the apostle of Timothy. Timothy was Paul's son, and he's writing to Timothy to tell him how he should do with his ministry. So starting in verse 12, 1 and 12, "...for the witch..." Is everybody there? Amen. Okay, 1 and 12, "...for the witch cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed, for I know for whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." Verse 13, hold fast. Hold fast. Down in 16, and I want you to remember 16, we're coming back to it. The Lord give me mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus, for he oft refreshed me. Stop right there. I want you to remember, oft refreshed me. Now over in chapter 2 verse 3, Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, Verse 10, Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. Verse 15, Study to show thyself approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth. Chapter 3, verse 10, But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience. Read that again. But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, which persecutions I endured. But out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Chapter 4, verse 2, preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, or exhort with all longsuffering in doctrine. Number... verse 4, chapter 4, verse 4, second line down, endure afflictions. Verse 6, for I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand. Number 7, I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Who's heard that verse? And man, how beautiful is it? I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Verse 9, Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me. Verse 17, Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me and strengthened me. Number 18, Lord shall deliver me, will preserve me. Paul was big on sticking it to the end. He was big on getting down the nitty-gritty, sticking with it through thick and thin, through persecution. And you know what? Paul is the same person as Saul. And I'm sure that there are some people in here that don't know that. I'm sure there is. When you hear about Saul in the Bible, that's Paul. And Saul was a horrible human being. Horrible human being. He actually would seek out Christians and saw the same man that is Paul, and he turned his life over, and then whenever he's seen what he had done, if God can forgive that, man, He can forgive me. I ain't killed nobody. I ain't killed nobody at all. I've about killed my wife a few times. And I don't mean physically. Mentally, I've about killed her. If He can forgive Saul and turn him into what Paul was, He can forgive you of anything that you have done or have not done. Some people forget that it's not all about just what you have done in the past. Sometimes it's about what you have not done. I mean, I've heard testimonies in here. Mike, how old were you the first time that God called you? How old are you now? Forty years. Forty years to sit and suffer and turn away from Him is a long time. Amen, Mike? It's not all about what you have done, it's about what you've not done. Every single time that you feel that Spirit drawing you, into this race, into the start line, and whatever that may be, every single time you turn that away, it's something that you have not done that has separated you from Christ, just the same as something you could do in sin that will separate you from Christ just as easy. We're going to concentrate on what you're not doing here in just a second. At altar call, you're going to have a choice. And you don't have to wait till altar call. Hey, if you need to come right now, That's up to you, but every single time you hear Him call and you don't answer, that's something you're not doing and that will separate you from Christ just as much as sin will any day of the week. Now, let's go back to 2 Timothy 1, verse 16. Remember where I said, refresh me, I said we're going to go back to that. Now this goes back to everybody needs a helping hand from time to time. Everybody does. And for that person here on this earth, once Jesus had went back and Saul was Paul at this point, It was Onesiphorus, I think is how you say that. Onesiphorus was that person for Paul, and it said, The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus, for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my shame. But when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently and found me. Onesiphorus, I don't know if I've ever heard anybody preach about him, ever in my life. But you know what? He was important. It was important in the kingdom of God because the work that Paul was doing, he helped him along that marathon. He helped him along the way to whenever he needed help, that he would refresh Paul. He would give him food, I would imagine. He would give him a place to rest his head to where he could move forward another day and do the work of Jesus Christ. So it's important that we build each other up and we help each other. I've never seen a person come to this altar or any altar I've ever been to or ever been saved and another Christian not being happy about it. We are here. And I'm speaking for everybody because it's the truth. We are here to refresh each other, and we're here that if you want to give your life over to the Lord, over to Jesus Christ, you want to accept His salvation and start this race with us, we are not going to leave you in the cold. We are here to refresh you Sunday morning, Sunday nights, Wednesday nights, and every single time that you want to call one of us, anybody in this ministry, that is part of our duty. as part of our duty, that if somebody is hurting and needs help and needs to be refreshed, I want to be your Onesiphorus. I want to be your Onesiphorus. I mean, maybe that's a weird way of putting it, but that's part of being a minister. I mean, we want to be your Onesiphorus. So, Casey, will you come on up? I just want you to play for me here in just a minute. I don't know if this message has went anywhere whatsoever. I don't know. I'm just doing the very best that I possibly can and trying to be obedient to Jesus. I'm doing my very best, I promise. But every single person Every single person gets tired and they're ready to do something else and fill a void that really at the end of the day all it is is Jesus. That's all it is. You just need Jesus and you're not going to fill it with anything but Jesus. I've got the last little bit of Scripture here. It's in Psalm chapter 6. Absolutely some of the most beautiful words I've ever heard on paper in my life. It's from David, starting in verse 1, going through 6. David said, O Lord, rebuke me not in Thine anger, neither chasten me in Thy hot displeasure. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak." David. For I am weak, O Lord, heal me, for my bones are vexed. My soul is also sore vexed. Man, I'd rather my bones be sore vexed any day than my soul. For my bones are vexed, my soul is also sore vexed, but thou, O Lord, how long? Return, O Lord, deliver my soul, O save me for thy mercy's sake. For in death there is no remembrance of thee, in the grave who shall give thee thanks? Verse 6, I am weary with my groaning. All the night make I my bed to swim. I water my couch with tears. There's been times that I couldn't sleep at night. searching for anything and everything that I could and lay plum wide awake and absolutely couldn't do anything but toss and turn because there was that void that I didn't have the peace that Jesus Christ can give you to let you go off to sleep. And David, the man that he was, said that he would make his bed to water because he would sit and cry at night. If you're here and you do not know Jesus Christ as a personal relationship, I want you to know that there is a start line and there is a finish line in this race. The start line begins when you choose to start the race. It can be right here. If you're lucky and you live to see it, it can be next week, but there is absolutely no guarantee of when you get to start the race. The finish line, the finish line of this marathon is not up to you. This is not an earthly marathon. You are not going to train to get to the finish line a little quicker. Jesus Christ and God in heaven will decide when this finish line is up. Your days are numbered. Your months are numbered. He knows everything about you. And whenever it comes time for your days to be over, whether this world be over or not, your race, your marathon is over. Now, me personally, I'm not interested in finishing first. I just want to finish. I just want to finish. That's it. And if I can finish, because Lord knows I've messed it up. I've messed it up more than I could possibly ever imagine. But at the end of the race, At the end of the race, if I can just finish and I can hear them words that, hey, come on in. What else matters? There's nothing else matters. So as Casey plays, I'm going to be your biggest cheerleader. I'm absolutely going to be your biggest cheerleader. Go ahead, Casey. Go ahead and stand. And I want you to know something. that the race begins where you want it to begin. Tonight could be the start of your race. Tonight could be the end of your marathon, and you don't know. You absolutely don't know. So just like somebody Just like somebody that is running a physical race and you've got to pull them and say, hey, come on, I want you to make another few steps. We can make this just a little bit quicker. We can get to that finish line just a little bit quicker. If Jesus is working with your heart, and you know it, if you've never felt it in your life, you know what it is. You absolutely know. Mine, whenever Jesus is working with me, you know what Jesus does with me whenever We've talked about it. When Jesus works with me, my legs go numb on me. They go numb. I can't even feel them. I've heard other people say their back hurts. I've heard other people say their hair stands up on their arms. And if you're feeling that right now and you're wanting to hold back, I want to urge you that, hey, you can take another step. You can take one more step. You can make it move. You can make it to the start line. And then from there on, I promise you, I promise you that I'll do my very, very best to get you through this marathon and move on with it. There's a start line waiting on you. If I can get you to the start line, if you know you're lost, the start line's now.