Alright, open your Bible this evening and let's open over to the book of Hebrews. I'll read you my last text and then we'll go back and work that way again. I've been teaching the college and career and Brother Raines told me Sunday morning they were going to have a skit about my involvement with college and career this next Sunday. And so that could well be why she's gone into labor early, the Lord does hear and answer prayer. And so we shall see. Hebrews 12. And I'm just going to read a few verses here. And then we'll, like I said, skip and come right back to this place to show you tonight what I would like to spend some time with. Hebrews 12, verse 1, Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin." I want to speak to you tonight about the things that will make you faint in the Scripture. Is this not on? Does it need to be turned on? or just banged against the pulpit. It says name. Does it want to know my name? Should I turn it off and then turn it back on? Somebody said no. Oh, I don't know what I'm doing here. The bottom one. Okay. Hold on just a second. You guys take a nap. Now it says 655500. Okay. That somebody's, yeah, somebody's texting me. Wait a minute. Tara has gone into labor. Okay. No. Okay. Made in America. All right. We'll use this one here and we'll continue. Speak to you tonight about the things that make us or can make us faint. I don't know whether you've ever fainted or not or passed out. I'm sure if you've been in the military you have seen someone faint or pass out, whether it was you or not. would require probably an examination of your nose to see if it was you, to simply would notice that when you passed out on the parade ground, your nose was the first thing that interrupted your fall as it met the concrete. I remember my father was military and we would occasionally go to some of the big things that were going on, change of command ceremonies and such like that. And my brother and I, just little towhead fellows, and we'd go stand and watch. It was a big deal to us. I don't remember what the occasion was, nor do I remember the date, but I remember being at one point where there were a huge number of soldiers out on a parade ground. I don't remember exactly what was going on. I just remember it was really hot. And they had come, you know, parading in and marching and saluting and all that kind of stuff. And then they'd stood in their various sections or squadrons or whatever it was. And somebody got up and began to speak in waxed eloquent, if you know what I mean. And I remember watching because, you know, the soldiers all standing at ease, which meant they had their hands here and they were just standing. But even at that, after about 25 or 30 minutes in the hot sun, you begin to watch this movement, you know. And you can always pick them because everybody else stood deathly still, you know, and stood like a soldier, you know, but one guy would start to, you know, he'd begin to move around and he was really fortunate if he fell backward. because the guy behind him, I guess, knew he was coming and he would grab him and kind of lower him to the ground. But those who fell forward, the guy in front of you did not know you were coming and so when you fell forward you simply pushed him out of the way as you made your way to the concrete. I remember before it was over there were several ambulances, must have been four or five, that pulled up out here to the edge of the parade ground, and even at that, they weren't allowed to come and get these guys. They were just laid there. That's what being a soldier is all about. But when the thing was over, they had a number of guys. They were putting into the ambulances and fixing up bloodied noses and foreheads and things of that nature. It's a horrible thing to faint. And in reality, if you think about it, and I know this may sound humorous, but I want you to get my point. It is not the fainting that causes us injury. It is the result of the fainting. Okay? I have two sermons I preach, one here about fainting, and I have another one about slipping. The Bible talks about, thou hast set them in slippery places. How many of you have ever slipped? It's not the slipping that hurts you. Okay? It's the result of the slipping that causes you great grief, you know. Somebody said, you know, I was driving my car and I hit the ice and it was a terrible thing. Well, hitting the ice was not the problem. It was the result of hitting the ice. The fact that your car went off in the ditch or into the other lane or who knows, into somebody's living room, whatever the case may have been. The consequence of slipping. was deadly or dangerous or awful. And the consequence of fainting can be dangerous and deadly and awful if we're not careful. And the scripture here says, Consider him that endured such contradictions of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. If you've been a Christian very long, if you have been involved in a church or in a ministry or whether it be teaching Sunday school, whatever it might be, you probably know somebody that was there and they're not there anymore. And you might know something that they said as far as the excuse that they use why they're not doing anything anymore for the Lord or why they're sometimes not even in church. They might give you, but sometimes if you're like most Christians you sit back and you wonder what happens to these people? You see somebody who seems like they're just going all out for the Lord and they've got that look on their face that says they love the Lord and then all at once they're just not there any longer. And that's kind of a sad scenario. Some of you have been here for a long time. And you with me could probably name names of people that at one time we would have probably said, you know what, they're in. They're in tight. They're not going anywhere. And they're not here. And it's not like they've gone on to serve the Lord or gone on to the mission field or gone on to preach the Gospel or gone on to Bible college. They're not doing anything anymore. You say, what happened to them? I think it was the result of fainting very often times. The result of this fainting that Paul talks about here to the Hebrews and warns them. You know, if somebody warns you that something might happen and it still happens, whose fault is it? It's yours then. Somebody said, well, this guy passed out because it was really hot. No, maybe not. If someone warned you that it was really hot and told you to stay out of the sun, and you didn't listen, and you faint, and as a result of your fainting, you're seriously injured, whose fault is the injury? Okay? And so we need to understand that when the Scripture says, hey, you can faint, be careful, don't faint, we ought to pay some attention. And I want us to look at several things tonight that in reality, as our walk with the Lord is concerned, can cause us to faint. And I'll bet at some point in your Christian life, if you've been saved any length of time, you have experienced this feeling. You say, well, I don't know what fainting is, and neither do most of us because it's just a feeling. We know what the calamity is that comes at the end of the fainting. How many of you have ever fainted before? Some of you are looking at me like you're about to do it right now. When you faint, to faint simply means basically to lose touch with reality. Folks say you get lightheaded, but I know some people that are lightheaded even when they're in touch with reality. And so I don't know if that's a good definition or not. Some people just live with their heads in the clouds and they're pretty much lightheaded all the time. But to lose touch with reality. And sometimes it can come on in physical conditions for a number of reasons. Sometimes, you know, if you stand up too fast. Sometimes if you don't eat. Sometimes if you eat too much sugar. You know, there's a number of reasons that can cause people to pass out. But if you've ever been there, it's just almost that momentary losing the grasp on reality. And there it goes. There usually are no warnings. I mean it just begins to happen and in a matter of seconds you're flat on your face or doing something else rather absurd. But no warning in that sense that I feel it coming on. It's just there. And very often I think as a Christian it's possible for us to come to a place in our Christian life where we're just out of it. We don't really even know what happened. We're not even aware of the fact, we're not aware of the fact that we're getting closer and closer to that point. It would be nice if there were a light that went off that said you're 10 minutes away from passing out. Because then you could sit down or get a glass of water or fix whatever it was that had put you in that place. But when we talk about people passing out, there rarely is any warning. that there's going to be any passing out. I know some people that have lost their ability to drive, their right to drive, because they have passed out on several occasions. And again, you say, why do they pass out? Sometimes the doctors can. Sometimes they can't discern why that condition takes place. But one thing you know automatically is whether you can explain it or not, you don't want people driving when they can pass out. You want to get them off of the road for their safety as well as the safety of others. And the Scripture here said you've got to be weary, you've got to be careful, excuse me, lest you be wearied and faint in your mind. It's possible as a Christian to have all our ducks in a row to know the Scriptures, to know the doctrines, to know the do's and the don'ts and just lose touch with reality. How many of you have ever known a Christian that did something very stupid and out of character? And you said, what in the world possessed that person? Why would they do something like that? And very often, I think, a case might be that, you know what, you get lightheaded. You just lose touch with reality. And what we saw was not something that was wretched that took place at that moment, but the consequence of something that happened here and here and here and here. I've said over the years, I don't really believe that we fall into sin. You know, it's always the excuse when some calamity occurs. We say, well, you know, pray for so and so they fell into sin. And I understand what we mean by that. And it's simply a suggestion that we pray that God will restore somebody. But I don't know that we fall into sin. I'll be honest with you. Most of the sin I get in, I walk into with both feet, both eyes open. I don't know exactly what I'm doing. I didn't fall into anything. As a matter of fact, most of the sin in my life happens to be sin where I'll be reading and God says, don't do that. Or I'll hear some preacher and that preacher will say, don't do that. Or I'll hear some Christians talking and they'll say, well, that's a terrible thing to do that. And then I persist and go on beyond it and get in a mess. That's what I believe happens in our lives is we fail to take the warning signs. And as a result, lives are messed up, Christian testimonies are lost, and devastating things can happen. If we would learn to look and to understand some of the things that signal the outcome that's about to take place, we might catch something beforehand. So Paul warns these folks in Hebrews to be careful, to be cautious, to be on guard. Why? You can faint. In your mind, you can lose touch and in a moment, devastating consequences can take place. If you ever have something happen because you weren't paying attention. Okay? We have so much going on in our country today with cell phones and all the other junk going on in automobiles. It is a terrible, terrible thing we're involved in. And I'll be honest with you, I think it's going to take a whole lot sterner measures than what they're dealing with now. You need to look at the statistics of people, teenagers in particular, that have been killed texting while they're driving. I'll be honest with you, if I were president, governor, or whoever had the right to decide, if you got caught in an infraction texting, you wouldn't drive again for 10 years. You say, well, I think it ought not to be quite that. Okay, we break your leg, you can't drive for five years. You realize it took my mom 18 years and she wore out switch after switch and belt after belt to get me to not do things I wasn't supposed to do She didn't just say now don't do that anymore. It's okay mom. Sure. No, I Had to be convinced and I'll be honest with you we're looking at a world that's not being convinced of a whole lot of things anymore I'll do what I want to do. And so I want us to look tonight at just several of these things that can lead us to that place that the Scripture refers to as fainting. Losing touch with your Christian reality, with who your Savior is, with what your intentions are, what they ought to be, with what your direction should be. And all at once, devastating things can be the result of that. Turn in your Bibles to Luke 18. Luke 18. Luke 18, verse 1, Jesus Christ, the Bible says, and He spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray... What's the next three words? Four words. And not to faint. In other words, Jesus said to His disciples here and gives them this parable, but the purpose of the parable was to instruct them because He had a concern. What was His concern for them? that they should pray, but why? Because they might faint if they didn't. So ultimately, he was concerned that they might find themselves in that place where they would lose touch with reality, that they would grow light-headed and unable to focus, and in that inter-moment of time, a devastating thing could take place. You realize there have been people who have fallen to their death because they fainted. There have been people who are working in the heights on buildings and sometimes on mountains and things of that nature, and they got lightheaded for whatever reason, but in that moment, listen, getting lightheaded didn't kill them. But getting lightheaded caused them to be out of control so that something else took their life. People die in car accidents, I just mentioned, because they faint, they pass out. Listen, passing out doesn't kill you in a car. It's what happens as a consequence of your fainting in that automobile that causes your demise. And the Lord said here to His disciples something because of the fact He was concerned about the prospect that they might faint. Meaning what? They might lose control. They might lose touch with reality. They might have a mental lapse for a moment. But as a result of that, something devastating could take place in their life. You say, well, I just don't believe God would ever let that happen. Before you finish that statement, you ought to look around at how many Christians that used to be where you are tonight, and they're no longer there because something devastating got hold of their life. The first thing I want you to notice is that an inactive or a non-functioning prayer life can put us in that position. I know preacher preaches all time, you ought to pray, you ought to pray, you ought to pray, you ought to pray, you ought to pray, you ought to pray, you ought to pray, you ought to pray, you say, oh I do pray, God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food, you know, and now I lay me down to sleep, I got some good prayers, you know, I pray them all the time. That's not what is meant by the word prayer in your Bible. The word prayer is a word that signifies communion between you and heaven. The idea is not that I just need to mouth some words so that I can get to sleep. The idea is that I need to establish a connection with heaven so that heaven hears from me and I'm confident of that and so that I hear back from heaven. How many of you have ever been trying to explain something to a three or four year old and they're looking around and what do you do in that case? Other than smack them, we're not going there because that's just not politically correct. You know, you grab that little rascal by the chin and you say, are you listening? What did I just say? You know what you're trying to make sure of? You're trying to make sure that the connection has been established. Why? Because what you're trying to communicate is important. What you're trying to communicate needs to be understood and heard by the one you're speaking. And you're not confident that they're even hearing it. So if it is vital, it's not a thing where you say, you're not listening, I'll come back later. Go ahead and stick the bobby pin or whatever it is in the electric outlet and I'll talk to you about it later. No. If it is vital and important, you know what we do? We turn up the intensity a little bit. We might shake them and say, listen to me. You've got to hear this. Pay attention. And really, to be honest with you, I think very often our communication with heaven is non-existent. I think it actually is. And now I lay me down to sleep. I pray, Lord, my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray, Lord, my soul to take. You can say that in your sleep and not have anything cross through your conscious mind at all. There's no communication taking place there. Now, let me say this. You could say those words and actually have communication with heaven. See what I'm saying? But what is important is the connection, the communication between me and heaven. May I say to you that very often, Christians may mouth words, they may get on their knees, they may go through the motions, they may say they're praying, but in reality, nothing's going on. They don't pay attention and they don't take their prayer life seriously. And as a result, at some point in their Christian experience, even though they may be going through the motions, Even though they may be mouthing the words, at some point, they hit that devastating moment when they lose touch with reality. And all at once, there's a devastating result. And very quickly then, they get up and you know who they blame? The preacher or God. I told the Lord I was praying about that. Were you? Were you? Or were you just going through motions? Or were you just mouthing words? The Lord here said to His disciples, and notice He gives them an illustration. And the illustration that He gives them is of a woman who comes to an individual who could meet her need, and the individual doesn't pay any attention to her. And so she does what? She keeps coming. She keeps coming. And she keeps coming. And she keeps coming. And she keeps coming. Why? She wants to make sure that he gets the what. the message. She wants to make sure that she gets the answer. And so she is persistent in her prayer life. I'll be honest with you, I could probably ask most, what have you prayed about? What did you pray about last week? And you wouldn't even remember. Because we pray it for an hour or so, or ten minutes, or we mention it in a prayer request. For most people, to be honest with you, I'm convinced they bring it to church on Wednesday night, put it on a piece of paper, so everybody else can pray about it. And that kind of alleviates my responsibility. Men's Prayer on Saturday mornings, we have a prayer list that we pray. And we've been in prayer on a number of times. And as I prayed, I said, Lord, I don't even know who these people are. I don't know who they are. I know it's a name and I know there's a prayer request here. Usually somebody needs to be saved. And Lord, I'm asking you to save this person. I don't know who they are. I don't know where they live. I don't even know who they're related to. Wouldn't it be a shame if I were there praying for them and you were the one that ought to be praying and you're not even praying for them? Sometimes people think, well, if the preacher prays about it, boy, you're in then. You're in like Flint because the preacher's praying. Listen, it's your prayer request. It's your burden. It is hard for me to be burdened like you're burdened. You know, somebody comes and says, you know, we're really struggling, you know, we can't pay the light bill. And, well, OK. You say, don't you have any sympathy? I might have sympathy, but it's hard for me to identify. And you say, why? Because I can pay my light bill. Am I making any sense? I'm not saying I'm not concerned. I'm just saying I'm not as worried about it as you are. It's hard for me to be as worried about it as you are. You come and you call and say, you know, pray for me. I don't have anything to eat in the house. Well, boy, I appreciate that. I'll give you a can of tuna fish if you come by. But, you know, if I'm going to pray about it, understand this, I just had a steak dinner. I mean, you understand it's going to affect the way I pray. You know, Lord, Got heartburn. Lord, I can't believe I ate the whole thing. That type deal. You know, but bless so and so, they don't have any food. You understand I'm not being comical. I'm just saying that's reality. It is hard for me to be impressed with the same burden that you're impressed with when you're involved in the situation. You need to learn to pray about your own matters. And I'm not saying don't ask other people to pray, but I am saying this, if you're going to put that on somebody else and expect or anticipate their involvement in your life, don't you faint. Don't you faint in your prayer life. He said men ought always to pray and not to faint. The scriptural mandate is pray without ceasing. What in the world does that mean? Does that mean I get down on my knees and 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? No, it just means this. I am constantly in touch. The connection is there. You know what your prayer life needs to be? It needs to be a situation where you make contact with heaven and keep the switchboard open. When you get ready to say amen, you just say, Lord, listen, I'll just hang on here. I might need something else to talk to you about, so I'll just keep the line open. Pray without ceasing. And very often I find that because we don't pray, because our prayer life is haphazard, because we don't put any effort into our prayer life, because we expect convenience to be the foundation of our prayer life, Because we pray until we grow tired or until our thoughts are hazy. We pray until we run out of things about self. And so we mention a few names and we finally... Do you ever notice as you pray longer and longer, the less specific your prayer life becomes? You know, you finally get down to that moment and you say, Lord, just bless all the missionaries. Why? Because I'm too tired to call them all by name. I've got this list here, but Lord, I'm just worn out. My knees hurt. I'm aching. My back aches. And Lord, You know who they are as well as I do. So You bless them all. You say, what is that? That's losing focus on what we're doing. It is easy for us to faint because our prayer life is not what it ought to be. So the Lord says, listen, I want to talk to you guys. Call the disciples aside. I'm going to tell you a story, and I want you to get something out of this story. Really? What do you want us to get, Lord? I want you to get the necessity of a consistent prayer life. Well, Lord, I mean, what's so important about that? I don't want you to faint. Why? Because if you faint, there could be some devastating results. Do you understand people have been injured in ways because they fainted they never recovered from? They have died. They have been injured in such a way as when they finally recovered consciousness, something devastating had happened. They had fallen into a plate glass window and they had lost a limb or an extremity. They may be in a hospital for a number of things change as a result of fainting. And the Lord said, I don't want you to faint. Well, how do I keep from fainting, Lord? That's just kind of something that hits you, isn't it? Well, no, one of the things that helped, you just had a consistent prayer life. That'll help keep you from fainting. Turn your Bible to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Sometimes we faint, and I've seen people leave the church and leave the service of the Lord because they prayed and they didn't get the answer they wanted. See, this prayer thing is not a game. It's not like, here's my list, Lord, and you take care of it, and I'll get back with you later. There's some agonizing in prayer. Paul talked about praying with tears on a number of occasions. There is that sincerity that's involved. What do you mean? I mean this, very often before somebody faints, you'll find that they weren't praying the way they ought to have been praying. And they fainted and they're out. He says in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 1, therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not. Notice that's not a period there, but it goes on, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully. I'll tell you something else that will cause you to faint, and that's simply living a life without any integrity to it. The Bible says the way of the transgressor is hard. Christianity is not a badge that you put on. It's not a lapel pin that you stick in your lapel, and it's not standing in front of the church on Sunday morning and waving so everybody sees you going. It's not telling everybody you go to church. It is an action that takes place in life. Paul said this. He said, we've been given a ministry. There's a responsibility that we've been given, and therefore, as we've received mercy, we faint not, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty." Can I tell you what will cause you to faint? Unconfessed sin. Covered up sin in your life. Hypocrisy. Hypocrisy. I would not, and again, don't want you to show your hands, but I would almost venture to say that if you know somebody that used to be a strong servant of the Lord and for some reason they're not in church tonight, I would almost bet if you know more than two or three of those, one of them, at least one of them was a hypocrite. You found out something was going on before they ever walked out the door of the church and you didn't know about it. They had hidden it or covered it up for a long time. You say, wow, they just looked like they were doing so good. Looks can be deceiving. You say, well, you know, I'll tell you what the devil tells you. The devil tells you because nobody knows you're going to get away with it. Boy, the Spirit of God comes and says this needs to be taken care of. This needs to be cleaned up. This needs to be put away. This needs to be stopped. This needs to be started. He impresses upon us the need to bring our life into conformity with what the Lord would have. And He gives us those warnings. And very often, we don't pay any attention. We don't pay any attention. And as a result of that, when calamity doesn't come, We think, well, no harm, no foul. Must not be that bad. And we think, you know what? I got away. I'll tell you what's liable to happen. You're going to pass out. You're going to faint one of these days at the worst possible time. Did you ever notice there's no dignity in passing out or fainting? It's kind of like, you know, a sack of potatoes. There you are, you know. You don't have time to adjust your hat Take your glasses off, you know. I mean, there you are. And what you see is what you get. And the truth of the matter is, if we're not careful, something that can cause us to faint is that while we may have the outward appearance, we have not renounced the hidden things of dishonesty. Be careful little eyes what you see little hands what you do little feet where you go Because the Father above is looking down love what you're doing will show up eventually It'll show up eventually You say well, what should I listen when God reveals it to you make it right get it dig it out If it's a root of bitterness dig it out Make sure that thing's put behind you. That it's over with. That it's finished. That it's aside. That you say, why? Because you think you're getting away with it. But one of these days, when you least expect it, you're going to lose all touch with reality and down you. And boy, it's devastating. The result of passing out, of fainting is devastating. It is that renouncing the hidden things of dishonesty. So I believe sometimes we put ourselves in a position where we're prone to fainting because our prayer life is not what it ought to be. But I also believe sometimes we're prone to fainting because we don't cleanse our life the way God would have us to cleanse it. We carry about that hidden sin. When's the last time you said, God, show me those hidden sins? Listen to what David said, search me. Oh God, try me. See if there be some wicked way. David said, there might be something I've hidden so well, I forgot where it is. The older you get, the better you get at that. I can play hide and seek and forget what I'm playing. But it's possible that we could hide those sins so well that we might forget they're there and it would be good in your prayer life to say, Lord, show me those hidden sins. so I can renounce them. They need to be put aside. Look down at v. 16. In the same chapter, 2 Corinthians 4, v. 15 says, "...for all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God, for the which cause we faint not." But though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day." Can I say to you the reason some Christians pass out and faint in their Christian life is because they don't know what it is to have a day by day renewal. A day by day renewal. What does that mean? I mean, sometimes the only time you get spiritually minded is when it's church night. Or on Sunday, well, we're going to go to the Lord's Day. What you mean by that is every other day is mine. And so I'll give this one to the Lord. And I can go through that. I can do that. Boy, I can do that. I can tune it up and I can sing the songs and praise and talk the talk. But see, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, they're mine. They're mine. There's an ominous absence of anything along the lines of spirituality. And the sad thing about that is that It'll cause you to faint. That day-by-day renewing. I've had people say, you know, what do you mean? Read the Bible every day? You read the Bible every day? Why? For the same reason you eat three times a day. You say, well, you know, you need to eat. Well, some of us don't. Some of us could survive well into three, four days without eating. If we had water, we'd be all right. Some could go longer than that. But the truth of the matter is, you know why we eat three times a day? Because we recognize you have to take in sustenance. And you've got to take in sustenance or you're going to die or you're going to grow faint. And I'm going to tell you something right now. You need to be involved in the thing. You need to have your spiritual routine. Okay? You need to have a spiritual routine that you go through every day of your life. You say, come on preacher, you know I read the Bible when I need to. Well, then you won't pass out unless you need to. You know what he said here? He said we faint not. Why? Because our inward man is renewed day by day. It's amazing how much concern we have for the outward man. We bathe that dirty dog and wash him and put him in clean clothes and make him smell good, you know, and powder him and all that kind of stuff so he doesn't offend anybody out there. And we make sure that both his socks are the same color, you know, and that he's got on something that looks halfway decent. We make sure, you know, we make all kind of concern for the outward man and we want to spend three minutes on the inward man and think he's going to do fine. May I submit to you that if you spent as much time on the inward man as you spend on the outward man, you'd have to deal with a whole lot less problems than you do in the course of a lifetime. And you wouldn't be nearly as prone to that scary thought of just passing out and fainting at an unexpected moment and an inopportune time. Paul said we faint not. Why? Because our inward man is renewed day by day. You want to find yourself in one of those bad, bad situations, maybe reaping the consequences of losing touch with, then don't do these things. You want to keep that head square and focused and where it ought to be and then make sure these things are part of your life. Galatians 6. Galatians 6. You know these verses that we're going to look at. Galatians 6, verse number 7, Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. But he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap..." What are the next four words? "...if we faint not." You understand it's possible for us not to enjoy the bounty and blessings of God in our life because we faint? Here he talks about our fainting. And in the context, the fainting comes about as a result of an inconsistent approach to others in my Christian life. He's talking about reaping what we sow and sowing what we inevitably will reap. And he goes on there and says, let us not be weary in well-doing. That's what's going on between me and other people. We very often become egocentric. And that's a nice word, and what that simply means is that you're the center of everything. Ego is me. I, egocentric. I'm the one in the middle. Everything is all about me. If I'm the center, it's all about me. And when we get egocentric, we begin to focus on self and we begin to worry about self and how other people are treating me. And I wonder if they like me and I wonder why they don't like me. And I'll bet they don't like me because they're not very nice people. And because they're not nice people, I bet a lot of people don't like them, so I don't like them either. And we get caught up in all that junk. And well, you know, the preacher didn't shake my hand tonight, you know, and he was talking to some people, but he could have stopped and shook my hand. I just don't understand that. That's twice in two months that he hasn't shaken my hand. It just doesn't seem right. You know, he cares about these other people more than he cares about me. And me, me, me, me. Can I tell you what happens when you begin to say me too much? You're going to pass out. You're going to listen, saying me too much like sniffing glue. You said you sniff glue? Not in the way you think. I used to be a model airplanes, model cars. My mom didn't like the smell of the glue so what she always said was, go in your room and shut the door. And I don't know how many but I know of at least one beautiful model that was ruined because my forehead came in contact with it because I was in a tight confined area trying to put that thing together. Listen, when me, when I become the focal point of everything, when it's all about me and my feelings and what's going to happen, you're going to pass out pretty quick here. I'll just let you know. He said, let us not be weary in well-doing. And then he goes on to say, let's do good things. Good things. Good things. The Bible said concerning Jesus Christ, He went about doing good. What good did He do for Himself? When the Bible said he went about doing good, you know what he's talking about? He's talking about everybody else that he came in contact with. You know what you ought to have as part of your spiritual routine on a daily basis? Lord, I'm going to do something good for somebody today. I'm going to do something good for somebody today. You say, well, what is that? I mean, it doesn't have to be complex. Think of the guy that came up with the little red dish that sits right there by the cash register at the In-N-Out Mart. And it says, if you need a penny, take it. You know what that guy's concern was? The concern was how many times he'd been there and he needed a penny, he didn't have one. And you know what he did? He thought about somebody else in the same situation. Some of you are just looking amazed. Wouldn't it be sad to get to heaven and find out that guy gets more rewards than you do for a penny? When's the last time you consciously set out in the course of the day to be a blessing to somebody somewhere through the course of the day? Let me ask you how you'd feel if you could tonight be honest and say there hasn't been a day gone by in the last two weeks I haven't been a blessing to somebody every day. Hello? You say, well, I'm busy. You know, that's a good time to be a blessing somebody else. That makes it more of a blessing. You say, well, I just don't understand. Let me tell you why it's good to be a blessing, because you're supposed to be a blessing and it'll keep you from fainting. I think that ego, that me is a toxin. And when that toxin builds up inside of me, it causes me to pass out. I need to have some way to get rid of that toxin that's within me, that poison. And I'll tell you the best way to do that is to get rid of me and do something for somebody else. I know you don't get a lot of good response like that because people think, ah, I'll just go ahead and preach on something else. You don't preach on what I have to do. Just tell me some of that Bible stuff and let me go. You tell me stuff that will make me feel bad tomorrow when I get behind a guy that needs a penny. Be a blessing. Be a blessing. You say, why? It will keep you from fainting. Let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. Look at the next verse. As we therefore have opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially them who are of the household of faith. You ought to find something good to do for anybody, for everybody. You ought to find a way to be a blessing every day of your life. You say, why? It will keep you from fainting, passing out, losing contact. out of touch with reality and having a consequence that you might not want to have to bear in your life. Come to Ephesians chapter 3. Ephesians chapter 3. He says in verse number 10 in the book of Ephesians, the third chapter, to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers and heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him. Wherefore, I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you which is for your glory." Now, look at me, because I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, uh-huh, yeah, I know, we pass out because it gets tough. No. That's not what he's talking about. Paul's not talking about the Ephesians having troubles in trials. Notice what he said here, that you faint not at my tribulations. You know what would cause you to faint every once in a while? Is getting focused on other people too much. You say, wait a minute, you just told me not to focus on myself. I know I did. But the alternative to that is not focusing exclusively on other people either. A fellow said one time joy is spelled J-O-Y. That's Jesus, others, and then you. J-O-Y. And very often when we want to get, you know, we say, well, I don't want to focus on myself, you know. We immediately focus on everybody else and we still forget the Lord Jesus Christ. It's easy to get lost in philanthropy and helping people out, you know, and being just a wonderful person and stopping to help everybody in need and still not have that relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ that we need. And sometimes the thought that I have when I say, you know, I've just concentrated too much on me and I need to get me out of the way, is I turn to other people. And that's well and that's good, but don't focus exclusively on other people. You say, why? Because you'll start to help out some good Christian, some fellow there that needs some help, and you'll help them out. And all at once you know what will happen. You'll watch them go through some troubles and trials and temptations. You know what you'll say? You'll say, why would God do that to them? just as angry as if God had done it to you. I've seen Christians and known Christians and been there myself when I would look to heaven and say, God, why did you do that to me? I didn't deserve that. I didn't. Lord, why are you picking on me? Did you ever pray that way? Did you ever get angry at God? Well, I'll tell you what, you get mingling with other people's lives too much. And you'll see one of them suffer, and you'll get justice, and you'll say, God, why did you do that to them? That's a good Christian. That's somebody that loves you. It's discouraging to see a good Christian suffer. You know what Paul's doing when he writes to the Ephesians? He's suffering. He's enduring difficulties. He's paying a price. Remember in Acts chapter 20, he stopped there on the shore and knelt down and prayed with the Ephesian elders. And you know what he said? He said, I'm going down to Jerusalem. And he said, the Holy Spirit testifies that there's trouble, there's trouble, there's trouble. And you know what? There was trouble. You wonder how many of the Ephesians saw that and said, I wonder why in the world God would do that to the Apostle Paul. Banished our churches all over Europe, Asia Minor. People brought to Christ, got saved. Why in the world would God let such a thing happen? How many of you understand it's a hard thing when you focus on... I said the other day in my prayer life, Lord, why would you take John Wheat? Why John Wheat? Why Jim White? Why Jim White? You know, I look at guys like that that have been a blessing to me, to this ministry, to Christians all over the world, and I think, God, I know eight or ten guys. If you'd let me make out the list. What are you saying? I'm saying this, you focus too much on somebody else and get your eyes off the Lord and you can get just as faint at somebody else's tribulations as you can your own. You know what Paul said? He said, don't look at us and faint. Don't look at our tribulations and faint. Sometimes if we're not careful, we look at other people and we see the hardships and the difficulties they deal with and we question God in that respect too. What are you saying? I'm saying you begin to look at yourself too much and you become the center of attention in everything that goes on and you're going to faint. And if you look out there too much, you're going to faint. I tell everybody, I've probably said this a dozen times, but I tell people when they're going to join the church, I just want you to know I will disappoint you somewhere in the first month, two weeks, twenty minutes. See, why would you say that? Because I don't want them to put me on a pedestal and then quit serving God because I get knocked off the pedestal. Number one, do us both a favor. Don't put me on a pedestal. I don't want to fall, period. But number two, don't put me up there and then when I fall, you use that for an excuse to quit. Keep your eyes on the Lord. You understand how many times we've looked at this, don't faint, don't faint, don't faint, that somebody's trying to get a message through. That we're in a position in the Christian walk and in the Christian life where we could easily faint, meaning to lose touch with reality, to lose control and in a moment suffer serious consequences. I can't tell you how many times I've seen Christians that were there yesterday and today they're gone. You think, wow, how did that happen that fast? I mean, they were in church. Well, that's what happens when you faint. You hit the floor. Now go back where we started, to Hebrews. Hebrews 12. I'll read the three verses again that we started with. "...Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, And let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him. that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds." Can I say the reason we faint oftentimes is we fail to follow the example that Christ has set for us. Being Christ-like is not just having Him totally in control of my life. We don't become a robot, you know, where Christ, you know, It tells us which way to turn and what to do and all of those kind of things. Being Christ-like is the ability to contemplate, to comprehend, to anticipate what He would have, where He would have, how He would have, and doing it in that way. And if I do it with any measure of success, at some point it can become part of who I am. part of who I am. Think about this, and I'm not trying to blow your horn tonight and make you feel wonderful, but some of you, you didn't have to think a lot about coming to church on Wednesday night. You just said, well, time to get ready to go to church. You didn't think about all the other things that needed to be done or that you could have gotten done if you stayed home. There was a day when if somebody had asked you to go to church on Wednesday night, you'd have a thousand things to say about it. Well, then what changed? You understand you have become more Christ-like. And again, I'm not trying to blow the horn and make you a hero. I'm just saying, isn't it wonderful that we now do with routine and regularity some things that we would never have done before because we love the Lord Jesus Christ? There are certain parts in our life that have seemingly disappeared and other things that have become part of our reality now that we would never have anticipated that would have been. You say, why? Because we have followed Christ for such a long period of time that now we've got we've got the routine down. And I'm not saying in every area, because there's enough areas where we mess up to bring us back to reality. But aren't you glad you don't struggle with everything in the Christian life anymore? I mean, some of you have honestly read through, you know, 1 Chronicles four or five times. Having started eight or nine and stopping right in the middle saying, who in the world wrote this? It gives me no spiritual joy at all to read that so and so begets so and so and lived years and had sons and daughters. Who cares? But now, you know what? You've gone there enough that you read through there. You still don't understand why you're reading it, but you read it. You get up on Sunday morning and you go to church. You go to Sunday school. Some of you. Some of you, that's still a big step. But you'll become more Christ-like as time goes on. You say, are you calling me? Take it for what it is. I think Christ would be in Sunday school. How many of you think so? You think Christ would just sleep in on Sunday morning because He's been out late with the disciples on Saturday night? fellowship and having a little pizza, you know. I mean, you believe Christ would have been in church on Sunday school. Matter of fact, he'd have come ready if they asked him to speak, he'd have been ready to speak. Several occasions, they just called him from the floor and said, would you? And he did. Wow, how would you like that if we had Sunday school where everybody came just in case the preacher called on you, you had to be ready to teach something. Scripture does say be instant, in season and out of season. What a thought. And some of you, in time, you'll become a little more Christ-like and you'll see the importance of Sunday school. But honestly, some don't even think about it. That's just what we do. You say, well, why? Because it's just habit. See, we've been doing it so long now that it's just habit. Wouldn't know what to do if we didn't. You say, well, I thought being Christ-like was kind of like having a halo. No, sometimes it's just adapting to the routine that Christ has set forth. And the problem here that caused people to faint in their minds is that they failed to consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself. He says in verse 4, you have not resisted unto blood striving against sin. What does that mean? You want to keep yourself from fainting, just realize you haven't arrived yet. You haven't arrived yet. One of the quickest ways to get knocked out in the ring, they tell me, I would not know by personal experience, nor am I planning on finding out, but one of the quickest ways to get knocked out in the ring when you're boxing is to assume that your opponent is weakened or hurt or tired. That's one of the hardest things to contemplate because it's easy to pretend. And there have been a number of boxers who have been shocked after they woke up to find out he wasn't as tired as I thought he was, was he? He had pretended or feigned. It's a common thing to pretend like you're hurt. Because then your opponent lowers his guard. And you know what Paul said there? He says, listen, you haven't resisted unto blood yet. You haven't endured what He endured. You haven't been through what He's been through. And so don't you sit back and say, well, you know, I'm Christ-like. You're not there yet. You need to keep considering Him and what He did. Why? Because the opposition is tough. The opposition is tough. I'll just be honest and I'm sure most of you know this. If you have, I'm not talking about this wild fanatical, you know, swing from the top of the building down to the street corner and preach for 20 minutes and then swing back up to the top. I'm not talking about that kind of stuff. You just, if you have a consistent Christian walk where you work, people are going to pick on you. They're going to go after you. I'm not talking about if you carry a Bible, you know, the size of a briefcase and if you have 5,000 tracts, you know, and all of them, you have them indexed Catholic and, you know. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about this. If you just go to work and you don't tell the dirty jokes and you don't hang the filth in your locker, And you don't hang around with the guys that are just as obnoxious as the day is long. And maybe at a lunch break or maybe at a break time, you sit down and open a New Testament, read a little bit of the scripture. And maybe when somebody comes to you and they got a problem, you give them a gospel track. I'm not talking about somebody that's just a zealot. I'm talking about somebody that's just pretty much a normal person. They're going to hate you. They're going to hate you guys. They're going to come after you. I mean, you walk into a place with a Chick track and a New Testament, they're going to call you a preacher. Jesus, man. Somebody got religion. You say, they never did that to me. I'll tell you about your testimony, won't I? I'm just telling you, you'll be a witness for the Lord and you're going to endure some contradiction. They're going to judge you so harshly, they'll let everybody else in the place. I mean, if a guy gets stoned on dope and breaks 25 machines, they'll say, boy, he needs to go to rehab. But if you as a Christian make an error somewhere and somebody stubs their toe, they'll want you fired. These stinking Christians, you know, see, that's what I tell you. That's the way it is. They don't judge you by the same standards if you're a Christian. And I'll be honest with you, that's rough. unless you consider Him that endured such contradiction to sinners and realize you haven't gone that far yet. What will keep you from fainting? Realizing I haven't arrived yet. I haven't arrived yet. I'm not in a place where I can ease up and let up because I'm following Him and He's still way out there in front. I need to just close the distance a little more today. I need to be a little closer today than I was yesterday to Him. It occurs a number of times in the Scripture. There is a concern that you find in reading the Scripture that God used the men who gave us the Scripture to warn us that there are certain things in our life or the lack of certain things in our life that can bring us to a place where we faint. And fainting by itself is not devastating. If you have to faint, you want to faint when you wake up in the morning with your head still on the pillow. No consequences, right? But you understand that's not what the devil is going to let happen. The devil is going to get you in a place where everybody can see, where the consequences will be catastrophic. And so he can use you or your downfall to affect or afflict hundreds of other people. And so the Lord took the disciples away one day and He said, listen, you guys need to pray all the time so you don't faint. Paul said over there, we're renewed day by day. Why? Because we don't want to faint. The passage said here, just remember, you haven't endured the contradiction of sinners Christ. Why? Because once you think you do, once you think you've arrived, you're going to faint. And you better be careful because it's not the fainting That'll destroy you. But it's the consequences that come about as a result of your fainting that can not only decimate your testimony or destroy your walk with the Lord, but somebody else's as well. Somebody else's as well. I've been around people two or three times when they would say, I feel a little faint. And everybody would focus on them. Why? To make sure that they were put in a place where they wouldn't hurt themselves if they did pass out. Somebody would come to their assistance quickly. Why? Well, just at that mention that I'm feeling a little faint. Because we understood that if they didn't have some assistance, something terrible could happen in very quick and short order. So people rushed to assist them, got them a chair, made sure they sat down, got them some water, helped them as much as they could so they wouldn't faint. And the scripture says here, don't faint, don't faint, don't faint. Why? Because it's easy to faint. You don't get a whole lot of warning. And when it starts to take place, there's not a whole lot you can do to prevent it. But the Lord gave us several places in the Scripture. He said, do this lest you faint, lest you faint, lest you faint. And He warned us. We can't stop the fainting, but we can take the necessary steps to ensure that the fainting doesn't take place or come to the place where we can't stop it. And so let me encourage you tonight with the Scriptural admonition Do some of these things that can keep you from fainting. Because far too many Christians come along and do great and they're just going wonderfully along the path for the Lord and then in a minute you say, we're in the world? What happened? Boy, I don't want anybody to say that about me. I don't want anybody to say that about us. I want them to say, boy, just keep on going. It's not about having superior strength. It's just taking the necessary precautions. Father, we thank You tonight for the goodness of the Lord. For a book that again, Lord, just tells us everything we need to know. Lord, it doesn't matter what our condition is or where our walk may take us or what obstacles or conditions we're dealing with. There's something in this book to help us. And Lord, we're thankful for that. You talked about the unsearchable riches of Christ. And Lord, I believe that certainly is applicable to the Word of God. And I thank You for those times and those places where the needs of the day or of the moment or of the decision or of the life were met in the Scripture. Those Scriptures were written hundreds and thousands of years ago and You put them there to help me. in my need. Now, Lord, help us to pay heed tonight to what You've told us. That, Lord, we would indeed be cautious that we not put ourselves in that place of fainting that we might be strong. Not because we're better than others, but because we simply took the necessary precautions and steps. Now, bless us tonight. Dismiss us with Your blessings. Get us safely to our homes. And, Lord, these folks and us as a church this week to be a witness and to be a help and to be kind and Lord to do all those things that we've mentioned tonight and to put those into our daily routine as a believer. And say these are just the things I do every day because I'm a Christian. And then get busy with that. Bless us and dismiss us now. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. You are dismissed. Lord bless you tonight.