Let us read from 1 Corinthians chapter 9, from verse 24 to 27. Let's see, the Word of God is found 1 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 24. Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown. But we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus, not with uncertainty. Thus I fight, not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body, I bring it into subjection. Lest when I've preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. So a successful athlete needs training. And athletes are used here as an example, as a metaphor for being a good disciple of our Lord Jesus. You cannot be a successful athlete without discipline and motivation. There must be a lot of motivation to get up early in the morning, to train, to push yourself when your muscles ache, to focus, to press towards a goal, to keep on persevering, to have persistence. You need stamina. And so an athlete needs to build up their oxygen levels. Initially, you can't run around the block without getting out of breath and stopping. And I remember on the first day in the army seeing people stopping and literally vomiting. They had never run so fast or they'd never pushed themselves so much. And people would literally be breaking down, leaning over, and just pouring out vomit, just the body could not cope. They'd been stretched now beyond what they were used to. But in a matter of weeks, those same people would be running kilometers without even stopping. So there's nothing like perseverance, but you need a lot of motivation. And, okay, in the army there's some corporals there chasing you to make you do what you wouldn't do otherwise, but if you're not being pushed like that or by a personal trainer, you've got to have some inward discipline and focus, which is why it's normally good to be part of a running group. Now, as Christians, we are called to be long-distance marathon, mountain marathon runners, I'd say. Not just short-distance sprinters. Discipleship is not a short-distance sprint. Some people come like a flash in the pan. You suddenly see some new converts in a church and they're so excited and enthusiastic for a few weeks and then you don't see them again. Now that's a flash in the pan. You can't just be a sprinter. God's calling us to be a long-distance runner. Not just a long-distance runner, but a long-distance mountain marathon runner. Because the race doesn't end at the end of our life we've got to pass the baton on to someone else to take it on further and so it's really a marathon race and it's a mountain marathon race and it's a long race no short distance sprint this and just as an athlete needs to build up his muscles and his aerobic fitness and develop the strength and the stamina for the endurance needed. We need to stretch our faith. We need to stretch our devotion, our obedience, and our skills. As a new Christian, you struggle to sometimes read a whole chapter of the Bible. And then it takes time. First time I had to give a testimonial message, I think I struggled to fill one minute. I mean, 60 seconds is a long time when you're a brand new Christian. Just like running around the block is just too much for a person who's just on his first time doing any kind of outdoor running. And we've seen it. We had one of Earl Bethlen's secretaries come here, and the first day she couldn't run around the Common, she said, I've never run anywhere in my whole life. She struggled to walk around the Common. But by the end of the three weeks, she was running around the Common without stopping. And she finished the Table Mountain hike, even though she complained, I've burned more calories than I'm worth. But she went on to do half marathons in Arizona. She went on to be a missionary to India, and she's got five children and a missionary in the field. So that's a success story. Pushed someone to achieve what they thought was not possible, and they kept going. And that's the same thing with our devotions. And, you know, you sometimes look and you see how great comfort witnesses on the streets. Maybe look at how small Paul does, and you think, You know, I wish I could do it. Well, you can't just wish it. They learned by long, hard training and perseverance. They didn't succeed in doing it just the first time. Ray Comfort's had to work hard. He's had to study to craft these answers, these questions, and how to respond to the atheists and the people he meets in the streets. And we won't find anything of value that can be achieved easily. And just like with physical fitness, you've got to stretch yourself. I mean, many people couldn't possibly have the mental stamina to do the kind of Bible studies and sermons and so on that you can see some people do. But it's the same thing as physical marathons. You build it up step by step. And if you look at some of these old sermons, some of these great Puritan classic sermons that are being reprinted by Plan of Truth, You couldn't preach some of those sermons to congregations today. The people just don't know enough of the Bible to understand it. You can see these hour-long sermons of Puritans given to uneducated congregations, and you couldn't give it to a theological college today. They refer to obscure characters in the Old Testament that the average theologian today doesn't remember, and yet the congregation is so well taught that you can get Jonathan Edwards or these different key people that you read about in the Puritan novels, they could give sermons so intricate, theologically intricate, philosophically intricate, historically intricate, which require people really concentrating, and these sermons worked. They had better educated congregations than we have today in our colleges. So evidently you can see there's a lack of stamina and lack of stretching of minds and muscles today. We read in Philippians 2 verse 16, holding fast the word of life so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I've not run in vain or labored in vain. When you see somebody winning something of great import, whether it's at the Olympics or ice skating, whether it's in marathons or so on, you know that they've trained a lot. When you see somebody able to write a very effective book or deliver a great presentation, you can be sure a lot of work went into it. Somebody asked RC Sproul, how long does it take you to prepare your sermon? He said, well, referring to the one I've just given, 45 years. Now, that's true, because it's 45 years of study that he'd done by then that was put behind each sermon he was giving. It's not just, you know, how many days, how many hours did you spend this week in preparing for the sermon? A lot of the studies went in years of studies. The books read. When other people were loafing and goofing off at the beach, he was studying, reading, thinking, wrestling, grappling. And so you don't just get effective results through short-term efforts. It takes perseverance. Successful sportsmen must focus on measurable goals. and incentives. They've got to make the team. They've got to score the goal, win the game, achieve the grade, accomplish the standards required. There's medals and trophies to be won, which are incentives. You can see some of the medals that are put up are for runners, ice skating, running, long walks, paddling, some of the skiing trophies in there. I mean, those things represent a lot of work, a lot of sacrifice, a lot of hard effort. My daughter, Danielle, has got a whole lot from ice skating. She had to learn to get up at five in the morning to get through to Grand Theft, which is the only place that had the Olympic ice skating rink in this country. And ice skating in this country is not a high priority, therefore, The people who want to train professionally had to come really early before the sun rose because the paying people would be coming when they opened officially and then the professional skaters wouldn't have the rink to themselves. So to prepare for Worlds and to achieve national colours in ice skating, she had to get up really early every day and she had to train very hard. A ballet was part of it, to be good at synchronized ice skating you need ballet, gymnastics, all sorts of other things. But that was years of training, an amount of time seeing her coming back, bruises, massive bruises, trying to land an axel or double axel and things like this. And obviously you fall a lot. You can't achieve at ice skating without falling on the ice. And the ice is fairly unforgiving and there's a lot of bruises. And so it is with anything of achievements. You know, seeing your sons struggling to get their brown and black belts and so on in karate, lots of bruises, lots of black eyes, lots of injuries along the way, and lots of, you know, want to give up and not going any further, or the coach shouted at me, and you've got to explain, if the coach is rebuking you, listen, the coach wants you to succeed. The coach is only giving you constructive criticism because he wants you to win. And so you've got to take that. Now, we read in 2 Timothy 3 verse 5, also, if anyone competes in athletics, he competes according to the rules. There are rules in athletics. We've had people running around the common, they take a shortcut trying to go halfway across the common instead of going around, and yes, they make better time, but they're disqualified because You've got to meet the rules of, if you're going around the common, you're not going to cut across it. That's cheating. And so it doesn't matter if you cross the finish line first. If you cheated, you're disqualified. You don't get the trophy. Or you shouldn't. Or as we now learn, those people who pretended to be women, men who tried to win in women's sports, they've had to give the trophies and medals back now, because now we're back to just two genders and enough of this nonsense. Well, the army, they continually remind us, winners never quit, quitters never win. In fact, I picked this rock up, because I think it's such an important message, we've got it in a boardroom. Saw this up on billboards in army, winners never quit, quitters never win. That's an important message. And so, We were taught over and over, never give up, never give in, strive for victory, and victory loves preparation. And the army disciplined us and forced us to do without, and this is a good analogy for the South York too, because our Lord says we should be as a good soldier of our Lord Jesus Christ. Obstacles are not there to stop you. They build obstacle courses to be overcome. The purpose of an obstacle course is not to stop you. Don't run up there and, oh, there's a big ditch. Oh, there's a big mud puddle. And that's a big wall. It's only there to be overcome. It's not meant to stop you. It's not even meant to slow you down. In fact, after a while, with practice, we could overcome these obstacles super fast, literally running through the obstacle course. And that's what obstacles in life are meant to be too. God throws obstacles in our path, not to stop us or slow us down, but just for us to overcome them. That's all. We were deprived of sleep, we were deprived of food, we were pushed to the limit to remind us, you don't give up, you don't make excuses. Some people make excuses, others make a plan. We can be those who make an excuse, we can be those who make a plan, but again, we strive for resolution, for victory. And so a lot of selection for sports teams and in the army is aimed at weeding out the weak to get to those who won't make it, either if they're physically weak, emotionally weak, or if they are mentally weak. And so there'd often be deliberate attempts to discourage candidates to give up. And they didn't want you to give up. They wanted to see if you had what it took to endure and adapt, to persevere and to overcome. So we had this time when they took us far out from the camp and bed for trucks with a canvas down, and then, this is when it's still dark, dumped you in the middle of nowhere, gave you a compass map, find your way back to base. And you're doodling gone, who knows how many hills away from base now. And you just had to find your way back. And on the way, We passed, there's a corporal with a point camouflaged up that you'd find, but he's got a brifless, he's got a cooler box, he's got ice, chinkling, cokes and so on. Do you want any of this? You can have it, just hand in your tag. Basically give up. So they'd be kind of mean, they're tempting you to give up. And yes, you could give up. And a truck will come and pick you up and take you back, but then you're off, you're out. And that's the kind of thing, you know, return to units kind of idea, RTU. But the scripture says, you must therefore endure hardship as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 2 Timothy 2 verse 3. There are many times in the field. There's no food. You've got a minister after no sleep. You've had a night of the rooster crowing and you've had bongo drums and discos going nearby and your mind is absolutely frazzled. You're frustrated, you're irritated, you don't feel very Christian, let alone ready to minister to anyone. And yet you've gotten an opportunity to minister now. And that's a time not to give up or to lose your temper. That's a time to persevere. And so why do so many people give up? Well, we're living in an age of wits, wimps, and weeds. It's a lack of discipline, a neglect of training, failure to heed counsel, failure to listen to instructions and rebukes from the coach. It's self-indulgence. It's so easy to get what we want. We live in comfortable homes. We travel in comfortable cars. go to comfortable shopping malls, air-conditioned shopping malls, we go to comfortable churches, listen to comfortable messages, and no wonder so many people don't want to get out of their comfort zone. But we need to be ready and willing to get out of our comfort zone because comfort weakens us, but hardship strengthens us. And those who are easily distracted or easily discouraged, easily defeated and derailed, are double-minded, they're half-hearted, they will fail. There are many quitters and losers and excuse makers and failures. You see, I don't know if Trump refers to some of these people as losers. Well, I think that's sometimes the best term for it. So many people are too weak, too tired. They are wimps, weeds, wits, spineless, jellyfish, even jellyfish, many you could call them, filleted of spine, cowards and compromisers. They will fail. They will give up. But the Apostle Paul writes in Philippians 3.14, I press towards a goal for the prize of the upper pool of God in Christ Jesus. And so we need to define the words. If we to persevere, in Webster's dictionary, endurance is defined as continuance, lasting, appearing, or suffering. continuing under pain or duress, without sinking, without yielding to pressure. And I think there's many times on a hike that you want to give up. Lungs are hurting, muscles are hurting, feet are hurting, legs are hurting, everything's hurting. Maybe your ribs are hurting too. And at that point, you just got to endure. You just keep going. To endure is to last, to continue, to remain, to abide, without breaking, to sustain. Steadfast, in Webster's dictionary, is defined as fixed, firm, constant, resolute, not fickle or wavering. I think we live in a society that's awfully fickle, and we mustn't waver. Steadfastness is defined as firmness of mind or purpose, fixedness in principle, constancy, resolution, as the steadfastness of faith. He adhered to his opinions with steadfastness, undeviating. And the Bible commands us, Matthew 10, 22, he who endures to the end will be saved. John 6, 27, our Lord said, do not labor for the food which perishes, labor for the food which endures to everlasting life. What endures forever? 1 Peter 1, 25 says, but the word of the Lord endures forever. So winners, Winners study the Word and winners submit to the Word of God and to the God of the Word. As Christians we call to persevere in spite of sickness, in spite of disappointments, in spite of opposition, in spite of danger, in spite of difficulty, in spite of discouragement. And in the face of criticism, we must keep on keeping on persevering with all endurance and steadfastness. Ephesians 4 verse 14 declares that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro, carried about at every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men, by the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but speaking the truth in love. that we may grow up in all things unto him who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by every joint supplies according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. So this reminds us, if you abide in me, and my word abides in you, Abide in Christ is the theme of one of Andrew Murray's books, and Jesus is the vine, we are the branches. You abide in Christ, walk with Christ, you can endure against all odds. So in the scriptures, we read of the failures that we are never to forget. The failures who deserted the faith. Esau sold his heritage for a mess of pottage. Judas, I mean, what a cursed name. Who would ever want to name their child Judas? Judas, the traitor. the treasurer became a traitor, the apostle who became an apostate, the traitor who betrayed Christ. You read of Demas, who forsook the way for the world. But Hebrews 10, 39 says, but we are not of those who draw back to perdition. We are those who believe to the saving of the soul. In John 5, 11, indeed, we count them blessed who endure. You've heard of the perseverance of Job. You have seen the end intended by the Lord. Our Lord is very compassionate and merciful. And in Hebrews 6 verse 11, And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those whose faith and perseverance inherit the promises. Perseverance of the saints is an important doctrine of scripture, that only those who persevere to the end will be saved. We need to persevere, and we need to be copying, imitating those who, through faith, persevered and inherited the promises. And there's a great cloud of witnesses, a lot of examples of excellence in the scripture and in church history. So we read of the overcomers who persevered and pressed on to victory, Hebrews 11. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. And so Hebrews 10, Hebrews 11 tells us Noah, a lot of hard work to persevere to build up a massive, massive ship that had to endure a storm and have enough supplies for thousands of animals and eight people for a year. Phenomenal, what a hard job, what a big project, what a lot of planning and hard work. Noah, he's a hero of the faith. Abraham, he left his home country, went to a place that God guided him to. Joseph, betrayed by his own brothers. Imagine, thrown down a pit, sold to slaves, wrongly accused, years in prison. And yet Joseph persevered until God raised him up to be governor of Egypt. You read of David, who defeated Goliath, and Daniel, who could stand steadfast in the lion's den. And then New Testament, Peter, Paul, And in the early church, polycorp, perpetuer, the reformers like Martin Luther, William Carey, the father of modern missions, Robert Moffat, David Livingston, Mary Schleser, C.T. Studd, Andrew Murray, Richard Wilmbright, there's so many who through faith persevered, examples of excellence. They should inspire us to not be like the Esau's and the Judas's and the Demas's, but rather to be like the Paul's and the Perpetua's and the Polycarp's of history. We must not be like the faithless generation who are condemned to wander in the wilderness. We need to be like the Joshua generation and like Caleb who could say, give me that mountain. Even in his 80s, he didn't want the soft job in the valley. He chose the hardest job in the mountain. And so the Joshua generation, they went in, they possessed the land. They conquered, they overcame in faith and obedience. And they could say like the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 4, 7, I've seen this on many a grave, especially at battle sites like East Lawana. I fought the good fight. I finished the race. I've kept the faith. That's a great epitaph on anyone's tomb. And that's a good goal for anyone's life. But the scripture says, if you're not under authority, you have no authority. Acts 2.42, and they continued, the disciples continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the break of bread and in prayers. We need commitment. That's not very popular today. Commitment, community, accountability, and the fellowship of those that God has called us to. And so we're told in Hebrews 13 verse 17, obey those who rule over you, be submissive, for they watch over your souls as those who must give an account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you. And it's true, any leader, has stresses and strains and burdens and prayers that the average person is not aware of. And they can sometimes do their duties with grief because We can be so unresponsive, and we can be so bad attitude, undermining things. One doesn't want to get like those American kids who the TV teaches you how to roll your eyes and disrespect the parents. I mean, the amount of expressions that can be done, especially by young people, you can't even begin to compete with it. But they've mastered and perfected the way of showing contempt to their mothers and fathers in what they say. Yet the Bible says that the scornful eye, the eye that mocks its mother, will be plucked out by the eagles. And that's what Mel Gibson depicted in the film The Passion of the Christ, where the mocking thief on the cross is mocking Christ, and then a crow lands on his shoulder and pecks out his eyeball. disgusting picture and thought, but so biblical. That's exactly what God thinks of the disrespectful eye, the contempt that one can show for authority, for people who have to give an account of our souls to the Lord. And they're doing their work sometimes with grief, not with joy, which we make it hard for them. We need to keep our eyes fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 12 verse 2, So, when we find things too much, and life isn't fair, and people are backstabbing and disrespectful and undermining and so on. Well, the Lord's our example. He suffered for us and left us an example. Now, we can find a lot of things to complain about with Christians around us, church leaders, church people, but we won't find anything wrong with the Lord Jesus. And we're not called to follow people. We're not called to follow the pastor. Every single person is going to fail and fall and let us down and disappoint us. But nobody can ever say that the Lord let them down, ever. And the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. Our highest priority is to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbors and ourselves. That is the golden rule. Here I've got a ruler with the golden rule on. And from Bill Bethlen, I mean, that's such a good idea. The golden rule, love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love your neighbors as yourself. That is the rule. That's the gold standard of our behavior. What really matters? God matters. His kingdom matters. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Love God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, and with all of your strength. And that's why if we want a disciplined devotion life, we start by having a disciplined physical life. getting up, rolling onto the floor, doing some push-ups and press-ups first thing in the morning. You don't feel like doing anything, you just feel like staying in bed. But when you discipline your body, it's easier to discipline your mind. Then you can get into devotions, then you can, your soul can follow. Discipline your body, let your mind follow, get your mind disciplined, and from that can flow everything else. It's very hard to discipline your soul, but you can discipline your body and your mind. And that's where it starts. And so just as a good athlete trains his body, so we've got to stretch our minds and muscles as well. And Christianity is not a short distance sprint, it's a long distance marathon. It's a mountain marathon. And I praise God for the good mentors I had along the way. My first pastor, Reverend Doc Watson, He was at one time missionary of Scripture Union, and it used to be called CCSM. And I forget what the CCSM stand stood for, because they started to call it Come Single, Soon Married. Which is not a bad thing necessarily, because you want Christian young people to get married, find the right person early. But CCSM, another BI Bible Institute, was once nicknamed Bridal Institute, because people go there and end up being married. Well, it worked for my daughter too. She went to Arizona Christian University and ended up finding her life partner there. And surely it's better to find your life partner at a Bible college, at a mission, at a mission course, at a Sunday school event, rather than in bars or chat rooms or something. So, I mean, it's just frightening to think how people make those decisions now often. You know, you don't want Google choosing who you're going to marry. It's rather, you're gonna meet like-minded people in a place which has got high Christian standards. We've had a lot of marriages come out of our Great Commission forces and Biblical Worship Summits, and a lot of them have endured. So, praise God for good mentors, like Doc Watson, and then Hospital Christian Fellowship, Francis Grimm. He was quite strict, but he was good because he prepared me for the army. By the time I went to army, I only feared God and Francis Grimm, and I didn't fear the, peer pressure of the army or the corporals or sergeants, which was a good thing, or wouldn't have been able to build up our Bible study and prayer fellowship or organize the evangelistic crusades that we did if I didn't have a greater fear of God than I had of the authorities all around me, who could crush you to dust when you broke the rules. And I did break the rules and I did get crushed. But by God's grace, I feared him more than I feared them. And in theological college, people like Dr. Fritz Hauss, absolutely invaluable, Erlo Stegen, so important to have mentors in our life who guide us. And God's also trained and discipled me through many assignments and exams and practicals, Baptist Theological College, in the fire brigade, and through a lot of sleep deprivation, and Parenthood, that's a discipleship school too. Martin Luther said he learned more in one year of marriage than 10 years in the monastery. And Parenthood is the true school of discipleship, he said. and that there's no love so selfish, unselfish in the world as that of a good parent. And so, parenthood really teaches you a lot. Mission is leadership, and mostly I think I've learned from the persecuted church. It's so good to learn what really matters from those who are willing to die for Christ. Who cares about the opinions of people who are more concerned about being deplatformed or being unliked or getting a negative reaction from someone or thumbs down? People are willing to die for Christ. Christians in Eastern Europe, behind Iron Curtain, those are the kind of Christians who should inspire us. You've probably seen a picture of the evangelist in Nuba Mountains, had his feet chopped off, but he continued to preach the gospel, walking on his knees or riding on a donkey. Now, someone who cannot even allow the inconvenience of not having feet to get in the way of evangelism, that's an inspiration. Galatians 6 verse 9 says, let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. And it's so important that we don't lose heart, we don't faint. We can endure far more than we think we can. We can accomplish far more than we ever imagined. We need our minds and our muscles to be stretched. The amount of times I heard in the army, it can't mean any corporal. But it's not true. You can do more. you know, holding up a concrete block above your head, push-ups with big rocks and press-ups and things like this. No, well, it's amazing what you can do, and you can keep going much longer than you think you can. And we need an understanding of Scripture to be deepened and our vision to be strengthened as well. I mean, at first, it's like we are panning in the shallows of the water for gold dust. But after a while, you can learn how to dig deep into the earth, going miles down to dig out the reefs of gold, like they do in Joburg. So, we mustn't be satisfied with just a bit of gold dust on the surface, you know, dipping into promised verses. We need to get into real Bible study. Our understanding of scripture needs to be deepened. Our vision of the world needs to be widened. The Lord said, look at the fields which are ripe unto harvest. And we must keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from beginning to end. People will let us down, but we need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. And that's why in the Great Commission course, we emphasize physical endurance, mental focus, emotional intensity. Along with academic assignments and practical assignments, you need spiritual energy. Because missions is not just a lot of physical exertion. There's a lot of spiritual battle, too. And you've still got paperwork to do, and you still have ministry and sermon preparation to do, even while not getting much sleep. And many people say, well, when is it time for study? Or when is it time for the signs? Many times you don't have time. You've got to carve more time out of what you would have spent sleeping or something, or even eating. And it's difficult to be able to balance all these things in one week's period or so, but that's what we've often got to do on mission trips. Philippians 1, 27 says, only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ. so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. Wholehearted work in difficult situations is much of what is required in Christian discipleship and missionary service. But all too many people today are physically lazy, mentally lazy, spiritually lazy. They don't want to think, they don't want to work, they don't want to pray. Many people are so lazy and we need to stretch minds and muscles. I was told that one of the jobs of a missionary is to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. Francis Grimm used to also emphasize, a missionary must be ready to preach, pray, or die at a moment's notice. And that's a serious thing. You do have to be ready to preach, pray, or die at a moment's notice. You never know when you're going to be called on to minister, and none of us know when the Lord has booked the appointment, when we need to die and go and face Him and give an account of our lives. So ready to preach, pray, or die. There need to be many hikes and mountain climbs in a mission, of course, because we need to weed out those who are not serious and who are not strong and who are not resolute. Hebrews 12, 27 says, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. I think you can change the site, that the people who cannot be shaken may remain. And we need to be those who cannot be shaken. Mountain climbing is a great analogy for spiritual perseverance and persistence. You need that in spiritual work. Nobody attains the summit of a mountain in one step or one leap. When you look out the window at the peak of Devil's Peak in Tate Mountain today, you've got smoke rising from it because of the flames. Well, we know it takes thousands of steps. How many steps according to your watch? Forty. 40,000 steps for Table Mountain Hike. So the route we took starting in Hafei, up 40,000 steps. So that's like a life of deception. It's not just one choice, like in some simplified track where you come across a signpost and it says, left you go to hell, right you go to heaven, and you take one right choice. I choose this day to follow Christ. It's more like thousands of choices. And C.T. Studd, no, well, C.S. Lewis. C.S. Lewis said that the Christian life is not one choice but thousands of choices. Every choice I make makes me more a creature of hell on the broad road to destruction or more a creature of heaven on the narrow way to life. And it's every single decision I make, and there's going to be thousands of decisions before I get to the end, are going to solidify me down the broad road or up the narrow road. And so that's an important step. So our Christian discipleship is achieved one step at a time, one choice at a time. And it takes thousands of steps. It takes regular direction finding, consulting the map, consulting the compass, following the guide. It takes physical strain. It takes pain. It takes a determination not to give up, not to turn back. And how many times you might be tempted, this is too much, this is too steep, I can't take anymore, I want to turn back, it's too hot, my muscles are aching too much. And there's a temptation to give up and to turn back. But we can't do it, not on a hike and not in the spiritual pilgrimage of life either. To keep on keeping on even when you want to give up and go back. It doesn't matter how steep, it doesn't matter how narrow, it doesn't matter how harsh the climb, how precipitous the pathway may sometimes seem to be. We need to trust the guide and we need to persevere to the summit. 2 Timothy 3 verse 14. But you must continue the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from the first whom you have learned them from. The cost of discipleship increases the further you go down the road. And as the cost increases, the numbers decrease. And you can see this in the Bible, it's not surprising. At the first church picnic, over 5,000 turned up. Free food, you'll get better tenancy. First church sermon, the sermon amounts, hundreds of people turned up. For the Pentecost prayer meeting, when the Lord commanded his people to pray day and night the first year until a powerful above fell down upon them, there were 120 at the first church prayer meeting, the Pentecost prayer meeting, in the upper room, which we believe was where John Mark's family lived. When it came to the first midweek outreach, the first door-to-door street evangelism, there were 70 went up. in the first Middle East outreach, into the highways and hedges, into the byways, two by two, to compel them to come in. When it came to daily discipleship, the Lord wanted men to follow and be with him every day. There were 12 men, about four women, who followed the Lord everywhere. 1 Corinthians 13, seven says, love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. So how far will you go for Christ? Of those 12 men committed following Christ, one betrayed him, Judas, one denied him, Peter, one doubted him, Thomas, and they all forsook him. Only John of the male disciples went all the way to the cross and stood with the woman. All the woman disciples were standing at the foot of the cross, but only one of the men, and that was John, And it was a frightening thing to do, because there was every chance they could be arrested and executed, as Jesus was being, for identifying with them at that moment. And yet, John stood at the foot of the cross when Jesus was dying a disgraceful criminal's death. As the cost of the subject increases, the numbers decrease. And we shouldn't be surprised. Yes, there will be thousands at the Gospel Spouse Bill at Grand West. There'll be, if you're lucky, 100 at the Life Channel March for Life. We shouldn't be too surprised. You have a prayer meeting, you're going to get less. You want an outreach, you're going to get less, and so on. As the cost of the subs increases, the numbers decrease. Acts 20 verse 24, but none of these things move me. Nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I might finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. Now in this mission, we have some tremendous examples of spiritual stamina. We've got memorials around us in these display cases, reminding us of some of that. Some pictures on the walls, too. The name of the upper room is the Bathman Memorial Hall, remembering Bill Bathman, who devoted 67 years to missions, mainly to the Persecute Church, restricted accessaries, mostly behind the Iron Curtain. He ministered in 114 countries of the world. Even when he is 88 years old, He was able to be banned from the pulpit because he had the audacity to call for an altar call. He is speaking to respectable church people. He preached at them like they were sinners who needed to repent. And the pastor banned him from it. And I thought, how wonderful that even at 88 years old, he can still preach in such a way as to get banned from the pulpit. And that's an achievement of Bill Bethlen. And Bill Bethlen really persevered. And I saw ministering behind the Iron Curtain. back when Ein Kirchen was still up. And you couldn't believe the rapt attention and the love and devotion of these thousands of Romanians packed into the Second Baptist Church, what's now called Emmanuel Church, in downtown Oradea in Romania. They knew when no one else cared or dared, Bill Bethlehem was there for them. He came through. He came through in the darkest days. He was even going into Czechoslovakia during the Prague Spring when the Russians were invading. When everyone was fleeing out of Czechoslovakia, there were only two people going in, Brother Andrew and Bill Bethel, and they met in Wenceslas Square, handing out the Russian New Testaments, the same kind of Russian New Testaments you can see in the cabinet there from Slavic Gospel Association. handing out the Russian New Testaments to the invading communist troops, climbing up on the T-62s and giving them bibles. And probably the only smiles that those Russians got on the whole time there, they got so much hostility from the Czechs and Slovakians whose country they were invading, but Will Baffin and Brother Andrew were shoulder to shoulder, evangelizing the Russians. Now, that's an example of excellence. You can think of Dr. Fritz Hauss, member of the Board of Frontline Fellowship. He served as a missionary in Africa for over 60 years. You can find a lot of churches from the Eastern Cape through to Cape Town planted by Fritz Hauss. His name's on many a foundation stone, cornerstone, many of these churches. Fritz Hauss was a member of the Africa Corps. He fought on the Eastern Front in Operation Barbarossa. He fought in North Africa under Urban Rommel. Urban Rommel attended his Bible study and prayer fellowship. He had Bible study and prayer fellowships throughout the army. He won many of his enemies to the Lord when he ended up in a prison camp. So much so that years later he was invited to come to a reunion of that unit of his enemies, and they embraced him. He had been evangelizing, many of them had come to the Lord too. So they invited him. You just think of the excellent example of Reverend Erlo Stegen. 70 years of ministry, preaching since he was 16. Phenomenal. Reaching Zulu people, built up the most blessed mission station in Africa, certainly the biggest and the most successful. When I said to Bill Bethlen, am I overstating it to call it the most successful? He said, Peter, upgrade that to the world. There's not a mission station in the world that can compare with Kwasi Wanchi mission. And I think that's true, actually. I've studied Operation World many a time, spoken to many great missionaries like George Fervor, Patrick Johnson. They don't have any work to compare with Kwasi Wanchi either. And they know more about missions worldwide than anyone. We need to be those who, like James 511 says, we count them blessed who endure. And we know so many people have given up. I know when I was a new Christian, the amount of times we were at a conference or convention, when they asked people to stand up and make commitments and missions for life, a lot of people stood up. And most of them I never saw again, or I didn't see in missions. And there's a very small group of us that from the 70s made that commitment and have endured in missions now over 40 years later. Many who've left, abandoned, stumbled, fallen in one way or the other over the years and given up or turned back. Just like you read in Pilgrim's Progress of pliable and worldly wise men and ignorance and these ones who turn back and try to come in by some other ways and so on. There's very few like faithful and hopeful. and pilgrim who endure. We need to be those who press on to the very end. And we need to free ourselves from our short-term mentality, the self-centered, instant, disposable, materialistic, throwaway culture. Living in an age where people just, and you just walk around the streets, and there's styrofoam cups, and there's styrofoam Buc-ee's, and Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald's, disposable, this and the other, straws, and that you can just see people have this disposable, throwaway culture. just get this drink and at the end of it they throw this cup away. I mean, shameful, disgusting. You do a beach cleanup and you can't believe how many bags you can fill up of just the junk lying on the local beach or in a local park. So we're in a society where people are very short-term, self-centered, instant gratification, materialistic, throwaway. But God is calling us to long-distance mountain marathons. We need spiritual stamina. We need perseverance. We must discipline our body, our mind, and our spirit. And we need to be pressing onwards to the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Holding fast the word of life, so that I might rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain. Philippians 2.16. James 1.12, we read, blessed is the man who endures, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him. There's a crown. I'm sure at least Nick here knows what it is, to persevere over, what is it, 89 kilometers in the Commonwealth of Wellington? 89 kilometers, that's a lot of persevering. From Durban to Peter Marysburg, that's uphill. And that Comrades Marathon Medal is probably one of the most precious things you own. There will be a crown of life for those who love the Lord, who persevere to the end. Galatians 5.1, stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free. Do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. You can't imagine any runner wanting to run with a backpack. Although I have seen someone do it. There was the Wildfire Volunteer Services ran a marathon, not in their boots, mind you, they did have running shoes, but in their firefighting gear and with their water backpack. Now, that was a fundraising campaign for the volunteer wildfire fighters in Cape Town, Maryland. I think it was two oceans. Now, that's not normal. Most people, when they're running long distance, you get to the all-white. you strip down to the bare minimum, and you've got the lightest... Nobody wants to run in boots. You run in the lightest running shoes. And in the army, we trained running in boots every morning, 2.4 kilometers. Boots, webbing, rifle, and... bush hat and so on, but your water bottles had to be filled on your webbing. Sometimes they'd tell us you could leave your rifle and boots behind, put on tackies and shorts and t-shirt. That was extraordinary. Then you felt like you were flying, because you'd run with weight training. But normally, nobody wants to run a race if you want to win. wearing heavy gear. And you certainly don't want to run with barbed wire and razor wire around your ankles or balls and chains. And so you lay aside those chains and those weights. And so the scriptures that we should lay aside those weights, do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. The Lord has set us free. Why would I want to run the race of first years in discipleship, carrying drunkenness, drug addiction, alcoholism, or any of these other burdens? Why would you want to have that? It's like putting rocks in your backpack. And what 2 Timothy 4 verse 8, we read, finally there's laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day. And not to me only, but also to those who have loved his appearing. And so those who are looking forward to Christ's return, those who are looking forward to the day when God either comes or calls us, there's a crown of righteousness laid up for those who love His appearing. We need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. We need to be disciplining our bodies, minds, and souls. The best way to discipline your body is physical exercise. The best way to discipline your mind is reading. Reading is gym for the mind. We need to be those who are having a disciplined body and mind so that we can have a disciplined soul. Otherwise, we cannot love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.