Man, I appreciate a lot of the folks up here doing the music. You know, I can't help but get in, think about how good God is. See Brother Mike up here during the choir, just a big smile on his face. And Sister Janie's on the organ, and she's working out that arthritis, but yet she's here every morning, amen, playing the organ for us. Man, God's good, isn't He? Amen. I know we got a lot of folks probably not here this morning, but let's remember them this afternoon in prayer just for their safety. Appreciate you being here this morning. I want to talk to you about something that is kind of a burden in the Christian life, but it's a reality. And if you'll take your Bible to two places, if you'll take it to Hebrews 12 and 1 Samuel 29. Hebrews 12, I want to show you a New Testament spiritual truth, and then we're going to apply it in 1 Samuel 29 and Hebrews 12. We're going to look at this morning about becoming weary in well-doing, and how not to faint." A lot of Christians, we start off, man, we're excited about getting saved. I remember when my life changed, man, I knocked on all my neighbors' doors. I talked to everybody at work. Half my friends blocked me on their phone, amen, because I was just very excited and zealous for the Lord, right? And I witnessed everything that moved. Prayer was just on fire. You'd open the Bible and it was like the Lord was speaking directly to you. And then over time, as I grew as a Christian, I found out that not everything is field goals and whatever you call it when you score in football, but a lot of it is between, in the middle 50, or it's day-to-day, grudging it out. It's day-to-day, fighting it out. And you can sometimes, as a Christian, get weary in well-doing. You can sometimes get weary in the things that brings you joy, brings the Lord joy, and it's just a reality of the Christian walk. In Hebrews 12, the Bible says, Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about, was so great a cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does 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." There's that weariness. Paul talks about it in Galatians. He says, be not weary in well-doing. He says, lest ye be wearied. And then he goes beyond weary. And sometimes it's wearisome to come to church or it's wearisome to serve the Lord. And it goes into something beyond just being wearied and he says, lest you be wearied and what? Faint in your minds. Faint in your minds. And you have not resisted unto the blood, striving against sin. Faint in your minds. To faint is to be out of commission. It's to be no longer conscious. And spiritually, we know that this is talking about more than just physical. In the book of Isaiah 40, of which Sister Hosanna printed from on your bulletin this morning, it talks about you shall walk and not faint. And in that same passage, it talks about the young men shall be weary. You see, young men physically shouldn't be weary. It's a spiritual thing. It's going out of commission. It's stopping serving the Lord. How many of us, we've seen someone, they get saved, they get discipled, but then they start to get weary in the Christian life. and they might have spiritual gifts and talents and they're leading people to Christ, or they're teaching in a Sunday school, or the Lord's moving in their family and God's moving and doing things. But then a few years later, you ask about how's sister so-and-so, how's brother so-and-so, and they're not going to church anymore. And they don't want anything to do with God. What happened was it grew to a point where the things that they were serving and doing, they got weary in, and then eventually, they fainted. The Bible puts it into the terms of a race here in Hebrews chapter 12. He says, let us run patiently the race that is set before you. And it can go weary. I remember running in the back hills of Idaho, and I was on this team, and we have to run and run and run for the coach. And our coach was this guy who had like a Boston Marathon record, literally. And so he loved to run, and we'd be running back there as a team without the coach, and you know what we would do? We'd see if he could see us, and then we'd stop, and, you know, everyone would kind of hide in the bushes, and we'd wait it out, and then we'd run back, and we'd pretend that we had been running all that time, right? And we got away with it. But, you know, in the Christian life, we get wearied, right? We get wearied of running. I don't know if you've ever ran, but it gets boring, amen? I mean, you get tired and your body starts to say, hey, just stop. Hey, you know, you can just rest. You need rest. Your feet, those shoes are too small. It's too hot out here, especially in Texas, amen? Whoo, that heat. Right? Your body wants you to quit. But also in the Christian life, we can start to get weary in well-doing. So how do we prevent that? How do we avoid You know, it's always sad to see someone grow weary, but it's even sadder to see them faint. And it's a lot of times in doing right. You know, we get sometimes weary of being married. And there's people that they know it's right and they want to live the Christian life, but you know what? They faint. They decide they don't want to be married anymore. They decide that living for the Lord is not all it's cracked up to be. They're going to go see what it is like on the other side. They grow unsatisfied. And they stop having a desire to serve the Lord. They watch others serving the Lord and service to God becomes a burden rather than a blessing. And they start to see temptation as a way to satisfy and reward their desires rather than battle it out for the Lord. I've seen others, they have this fight with temptation as we all do, this fight with this sin in their life. That's why in Hebrews 12 He says, "...lay aside the sin which so easily besets you." Because we all have a sin, amen? We all have that sin that easily besets us and we have to fight with it. Paul said, I die Daily. If the greatest Christian on earth fought it every day, you and I, we have a fight every day, and I've seen Christians, they get tired of that same sin, that same thing, so you know what they do? They start, rather than accommodating their life to God, they start wanting God to accommodate to their life. Well, let me go find a church that will be more accommodating to this sin. Well, let me go find a church where I'm not going to get preached against and my sin's okay and I'm accepted. And what they're doing is they're just getting tired of the fight. And I understand. Trust me, I grow weary too. We all do. We all grow weary. And in 1 Samuel 29, David, had gone out to fight with the Philistines. And David was trying to do right. He was anointed king, but yet he was in this wilderness. He was anointed king, yet he had this band of army and King Saul, the wicked king, the king whom 1 Samuel 28 had consorted with a witch, was sitting in the palace. Have you ever been there where you become weary because you're serving the Lord, and you're serving the Lord and doing right, and it seems like every time you just get it in the neck? I remember one pastor, he said, you know, don't worry. Every good thing doesn't go unpunished. Amen. Sometimes you do good and it feels like you just get punished. And then there's the wicked. Driving in their Porsches, right? And their Lamborghinis with their mansions. You have these wicked men with their yachts. And here Saul is, a wicked king in the palace. And David's out here with a handful of men and an army out in these caves in these desert places. Sometimes, I've seen, we've gotten tired of, why are the wicked blessed? In Psalm 73, this man named Asaph, he's like, Lord, my foot almost stumbled. I almost lost my faith. Why? Because he sees the wicked prospering. And I am afflicted, he says, and I am plagued. And I'm serving You, Lord, and I'm doing right. And that's where David was at the end of 1 Samuel 29. He's retreating back to his home city. They didn't go out to battle. They got rejected. And I'm sure he's starting to think, man, is it even worth it? Here I am with the promises of God, but what do I have to show for it? Have you ever been there where you're like, yeah, I'm a Christian Lord, I have Your Word, I have Your promises, but Lord, I'm tired. And Lord, I have bills to pay. And Lord, I'm sick. And Lord, why are all these problems? And we get weary. Right? You invite someone to church, amen? And you're there five minutes after the service. You're like, oh, they'll be right here. They're probably just driving up right now. And then ten minutes and then fifteen minutes into the service, you're calling them. They're not answering. Amen? You witness to people. Right? Oh, no thank you. Oh, that's just your religion. Or, oh, I have my own way. Witness and witness and witness. It can grow weary. Amen? You serve in the church, and you don't get much fruit, and you serve, and you don't see the Lord doing much, and it can get weary. We can become weary in well-doing. So, David is here. Verse 11, 1 Samuel 29, So David and his men rose up early to depart in the morning to return to the land of the Philistines. Amen. Who likes to get up at the crack of dawn, right? Or before the sun rises? Your flesh hates it, amen? My flesh hates getting up early to pray. My flesh hates going without a meal. My flesh hates making sure I'm there every Sunday morning, every Wednesday night, all the time at church. My flesh grows weary. It hates it. You know what my flesh tells me when the Lord convicts me to witness to somebody? Oh, this is not the right time. You can talk to Him later. Why? My flesh grows weary. Here David is getting up early in the morning. to go all the way back for a long trip after being rejected by the army he wanted to go fight with. He is weary. Chapter 30, verse 1, And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, this is where their camp was, Ziklag, that the Amalekites had invaded the south. And Ziklag was smitten and burned it with fire. and had taken the women captives that were there. And they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away and went on their way. So David and his men came to the city, and behold, it was burned with fire. And their wives and their sons and their daughters were taken captives. Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept until they had no more power to weep." They were already weary. They had already gone all this way out to do something that they thought was right, and they just come home, and now the home is burned to the ground. My mom told me about, there was this lady getting on this flight just this past week, and they were bringing their young son's ashes on the flight to go and spread his ashes in Alaska. And they were getting on this flight very solemn, when her husband got a call. that their house had just burned down. And so he had to leave and go attend to the emergency of their house being burnt down, and the mom decided to go on still to spread her son's ashes in Alaska. And isn't it like that? When it rains, it pours. Here you are trying to serve the Lord, trying to do right. David gets back just to see things are worse. He weeps until he has no more power to weep. I don't know if you've been there. It's late at night, and you're praying and you're begging God for something until you just don't know what to pray anymore. You don't know what to ask or beg for God anymore. Verse 6, And David was greatly distressed. And here he is, he's about at the fainting point. And we can grow from the weary to the faint. where we're there, just about to quit. But it gets worse. David was greatly distressed, verse 6, for the people, these are his brothers in arms, the people he's mentored, the people he's trained, the people he's fought alongside with, his brothers in arms, it says, for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters. Now at this point, David had every reason to quit. At this point, David had every reason to say, God, You've forsaken me. God, I've done right. I've obeyed You. I've followed You. And look what You've given me. But what he did next is what we're going to look at on when we're weary in well-doing. When we're feeling faint in the faith. We can take these same steps that will illustrate Hebrews 12 to continue. Let's look at what he did. It says in verse 6, But David encouraged himself in the Lord. David encouraged himself in the Lord. You know, when Jesus was on that cross, we're given some insight into what His mindset was. In the book of Hebrews chapter 12, it says that He endured the cross for the joy that was set before Him. You know what Jesus did is I think the same thing David did here. He encouraged himself in the Lord. I think David went back in his mind to that day when he was a young boy and heard the bleeding and the cry of the sheep. And he looked, and there was a bear. And I'm sure fear gripped him, but he got a stone and a sling and killed that bear. And he thought, God, You gave me that sheep. And I think David went back to that day, here all these men are coming, and they want to stone him right now. And I think he sees those stones they're picking up, and his mind goes back to when he picked up a stone in a little brook. And he picked out another stone and another stone, and he thought, Lord, would You please send this stone to kill this giant? And I think as they grabbed those stones here in this story to stone David and to kill him, he thought, God, I should have never lived facing Goliath. But I remember you got in that stone, Lord. And I thought I had missed, but it went straight into his head, and he fell that day, and I cut off his head. And God, you brought a great victory with just a little stone. What are these stones, God, that they're coming to stone me with?" I think David remembered when he was just a shepherd, sleeping out in the wilderness, and now he had an army, and just how the Lord had blessed and the Lord had given victory. And he thought, you know, God's going to give me victory in this time. I'm going to encourage myself in the Lord. I think Jesus Christ probably did something similar because in Hebrews 12 it says He endured the cross, despising the shame for the joy that was set before Him. You know what Christ did that day? Is He saw the joy. I think He saw brother Malachi. And I think He saw Brother Mike Zamora singing up here for him. I think he saw Sister Kathy and her life changed, and playing the violin, and her family hearing the witness, and one of her nephews going and being a missionary to Indonesia, and I think he said, it's worth it. I think Jesus Christ, when He was on that cross, and He had to pull Himself up just to breathe, and they said the nails went through the medial nerves of His arms and it shot pain every time He had to pull Him up. I think He thought of every life He was about to change. I think He saw Brother Govino being just five minutes away from an old-fashioned preacher, never hearing the Gospel, getting saved, giving to the Lord and keeping a church alive at a critical time when it would have been shut down. And he said it's worth it. I think he saw the lives, your and my sin and what it could do and it gave him joy that he would have fellowship with us and the price for sin with his blood would be paid. And you know what? We are to learn from David and learn from our Lord when we're weary. when we're faint to encourage in ourself in the Lord, we have to remember to focus on Him. You know, I think that there's a lot of good programs out there that will help people with addictions or problems or whatever you want to call them, but I think too many of them focus on the problems and not the Savior. You know, I'm no longer a fornicator or a drunk, I am a new Christian, a new creature in Christ. I don't have to look at my old life and say, you know, I'm recovering this. No. The Bible says if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are. Hallelujah! Old things have become new. The reason that's important is because in Hebrews 12 it says that we are to look upon who? Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. You know, I think David, when he was there, was saying, Lord, You got me into this. Amen. You made me king. You made me captain of this band. You gave me the wives. You gave me the children. God, You're the author of it all. You'll be the finisher. Isn't it a blessing to know that it's not your and my strength to finish our faith? It's not something you and I have to struggle and do. The Bible says He, just like He saved us, the Author, will finish it. I'm not counting on this body to finish my faith. And if you're here and you're sick and you're diagnosed with this and that, guess what? This old body? You don't have to depend on this to finish your faith. I don't have to depend on brothers or sisters. I only have to depend on Him. I don't have to depend on my ability. Thank God, because I would lose my salvation. I'd lose my faith every day. I don't have to depend on my past, which is very sinful. I don't have to depend on those things. The Bible says looking unto Jesus. It's time we stop looking at our problems. I realize we have to address those, but it's time we start looking unto Jesus when we're getting faint. Not thinking, man, how am I going to do this? How am I going to do this? But looking unto Jesus, because He's the author and the finisher. He's going to finish it for us. I think David, when they were starting to stone him, said, Lord, You're going to finish this. You're going to finish this. I remember being in Montana up there to try and bring some guys closer to the Lord. I brought a group of guys with me to this pastor's school, and I gave some money to the conference, and it was most of the money I had at the time, and then my muffler went bad. I was being an idiot. I'll admit it. I was driving my little Hyundai up in the mountain roads, and all these rocks were hitting this little car, and boom, the muffler fell off. And the Lord probably looked down and thought, man, what an idiot. And then all the country boys drove past me and they're lifted four by four trucks. And they're probably thinking, man, what an idiot. And so here I am driving into the pastors or the church conference and you can hear without the muffler. And it wasn't because I wanted to be loud and praise God. It's because I had knocked my muffler off. And probably the church and the pastor were thinking, man, what an idiot. But I'll never forget. I'll never forget. I took my car. I found out a place. I didn't tell anybody. I found out a place to get my little car fixed. I took it there, and I said, yeah, can you look at it? I knocked my muffler off, and he said, okay, give us a few hours. I went and spent some fellowship with those Christians there, and came back, had someone drop me off, and I said, I'm here to pick up my car. They said, great, it's all fixed. And we had to do this and put this muffler on. And I don't know how you messed it up, but we had to even place this too. I thought, oh, praise the Lord. So it's going to be a little more. I'm like, okay, how much is it? And they told me, I'm like, okay. And he said, so it's going to be another hour. I'm like, okay. So I came back and it was done. I was like, okay. And I picked up the keys and I said, sir, where's the bill? And he said, what bill? I said, sir, you just told me it was going to be all this money and I'm ready to pay. And he said, Elder, you're already paid for. And I almost got into an argument with the guy. I was like, no, it is not paid for. But he said, no, someone came by and they left you this note. And they had paid for those repairs. And they gave me a little extra. They said, go buy some ice cream. But what they did not know, what they failed to know was the amount I had pledged to give to the Lord and gave was that same amount they had paid to pay for my car. You see, I could have been focused on, and I probably was more than I like to admit, on my problems. But you know what the Lord says? Don't focus on the problems. Focus on Me. Don't focus on the hurt. Focus on Me. I know it hurts. He was on that cross. He knows pain. He knows shame too. He was naked up there. He knows it's shameful serving Him sometimes. He knows it can be hard. He knows it gets weary doing the right thing day after day. He knows it's weary to deal with people like me, amen, that are idiots. But He says just focus on Me. looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And you know what? It will give you joy. You know, my wife and I, we have a precious little daughter. Many of you have prayed for her. But you know what makes my little girl just the more precious? It's some of the realities we almost face in losing her. You know, and I just have seen God. He didn't have to give me her. And you know what, next to you there's some people God didn't have to give you. Amen? There's some things sometimes we get so focused on what we don't have, or what the problem is, we forget what God has done for us. Like the person most likely sitting next to you. Or the fact that we're here walking and breathing, we're in a safe church. Why? Because we start focusing down here instead of looking unto Jesus. Because we understand He's the author. Yeah, I'm blood-bought. I'm going to heaven. But sometimes we forget He's the finisher of our faith. So David encouraged himself in the Lord. I believe he looked unto the Lord. That's what he says. He encouraged himself to the Lord. The Lord did the same thing. And we're encouraged to look unto Jesus. If you're weary, if you're faint, that's the first thing. And then in v. 7, David said to Abithiar the priest, Ahimelech's son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to David. And David inquired at the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue, for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all." You know what changed? In 1 Samuel 29, David didn't ask the Lord if he should go fight this battle. David did inquire at the Lord, but now God had gotten his attention, and he inquired at the Lord. You know, a lot of times, You know, in Hebrews 12, it's interesting, in that same passage, talking about looking unto Jesus is also chastening. Sometimes God allows these things in our life, the pain, because, number one, we're not looking unto Jesus, but, number two, we're not even inquiring at Him. You know what brings weariness in my life more than anything? And I'm probably saying, you're probably like me, is works with how a walk with the Lord always brings weariness. Works, serving God, being busy about ministry, or being busy in general, whether it's your job, raising your children, it can get weary, amen? But when you couple that with your not walking with the Lord, that's a recipe for weariness. David had experienced that in the last chapter. And he said, you know what? Before I do anything, I'm going to inquire at the Lord. Because he discovered it was more important, whatever happened, that he spent time with Jesus Christ. He spent time with his Lord. You know, a lot of times people grow weary. And we think we're doing it for this person, or that person, or to do this, or become better, and it's not even something God has called us to do. Americans, amen? We are horrible at this. We get to, you know, we've got this sports program, and we have to be at this function, and work is having this, and I need to put these extra hours in, and we get so busy. But yet, our walk suffers, amen? And what does that bring? Weariness. David was about to do a great work. He was about to pursue an army with an army of far less men. It's not that David was lazy, but you know what he stopped and did first? God. Which way would you have me to go? Do you want me to even pursue? You know, that's humble. When your wife, amen, and your children are just taken captive, the first thing I probably would not have done is say, God, do you want me to go and get this guy? No, I would have just been like, okay, let's go. Grab all the guns. That's probably what I would have done. But what did David do? He stopped and he inquired. God, what wouldst thou have me to do? You know, a lot of times in the Christian life, we get so excited and we get overzealous, and I've been there, that we're doing this and we're doing that and we're doing this, and we get weary. Why? Because we never stopped and first asked God, where do you want me to direct my service for you? And then there's others, they never even stopped at all to even ask to serve. But David stopped. He inquired. He encouraged himself. He inquired. And then let's finish this story about how he didn't faint in the day of adversity. Look at v. 10, "...but David pursued, and he and four hundred men, for two hundred abode behind which were so faint that they could not go over the brook Basor." So he's really going with few men. He's really down. But remember this, the Bible says, Decrease. Right? So that He might increase. I must decrease, but He must increase. But you know a lot of times we switch it around. We're like, Lord, give me Your power. Lord, answer my prayers. Lord, move in my family. Right? We want the increase, but we forget what has to come first. The decrease. Verse 11, and they found an Egyptian in the field. and brought him to David, and gave him bread, and he did eat, and they made him drink water. And they gave him a piece of a cake of figs, two clusters of raisins. And when he had eaten, his spirit came again to him, for he had eaten no bread nor drunk any water three days and three nights." Now at this point, I think David, if he were me, which he wasn't, praise God, would have been a little bit frustrated. Lord, I've inquired, I'm doing what You want, and you give me an Egyptian who's about to die? Have you ever been there where you finally surrender to the Lord, you finally submit to the Lord, and you're expecting that steak dinner, and you open up the banquet, and it's a little piece of green beans? And you're like, Lord, this is not the victory I had thought. You know why this is important? This is showing us that it's important when you're weary, when you're about to faint, you need to be patient in God's plan. This Egyptian was no accident. No, sir. God had providentially allowed this man to be abandoned by the very people David was pursuing. And do you recognize that if you're chasing someone in a desert, You have a wild goose chase. It's not like he had GPS signal that could navigate him, right? And yet we still don't make it to church sometimes because I get lost. You missed the turn, right? No, he didn't have that. If he makes a wrong turn in the desert, it's days, weeks, he might never find the captives of his family, or the captors. But what God does is an Egyptian. Now, at first it doesn't look that nice. And sometimes in your and my life, We surrender to God and surrender to His will, and guess what? The problems don't magically go away. But you know what He does? He starts giving you a little bit of, here's some providence. Here's an answer to prayer here. We have to be willing to be patient in God's plan. Because this Egyptian, they fed him, and David asked, Who's art thou? Verse 13, to whom belongest thou and whence art thou? And he said, I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite, and my master left me, because three days gone I fell sick. We made an invasion upon the south of Cherethites, and I can just see David's ears prick up. Whoa, you guys made an invasion? With belongest to Judah? And here, I think this Egyptian has no clue who he's talking to, right? And upon the South Kaeli burned Ziklag with fire. And David says, Canst thou bring me down to this company? He said, Swear unto me by God that thou wilt neither kill me nor deliver me into the hands of my Master, and I will bring thee down to this company. You see, God used that Egyptian to give them a victory. In verse 16, And when he had brought him down, behold, they were spread abroad upon all the earth, eating and drinking and dancing, because of all the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines and out of the land of Judah. And listen, that is where the wicked are right now. You might look out and see the wicked dancing and enjoying, but one day, the Lord as David in verse 17 is going to smite them from the twilight. The Bible says in Psalm 73, I envied the wicked because I saw them prosper, but then I went into the temple, into the sanctuary of God, and I understood their end. You recognize that the best a lost man has in this life is right now. This is the best He'll ever have. For you and I, the Christian, this life is the worst we'll ever have. I understand we grow weary because we're serving the Lord, and then we look and He has this house, and He has this, and they don't have cancer, and they don't have all this divorce, and they don't have this. Why me, God? I'm serving You. But guess what? It's not the end. Amen? Look at verse 17, And David smote them from twilight, even unto the evening of the next day. And there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men, which rode upon camels and fled. And David recovered all that the Amalites had carried away. And David rescued his two wives. And there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spawn nor anything. that they had taken to them. David recovered all. And David took all the flocks and the herds which they draved before those other cattle and said, this is David's spoil." I want to take you in finishing back to Hebrews 12, and we'll be done. If you'll turn back to Hebrews 12, we saw that you have to encourage yourself in the Lord. You have to focus looking unto Jesus, right? Not on the problems, not those who have hurt me, not my body, not my past, but unto Jesus. Because He's the author and He's the finisher. He's going to finish it. Then also, we have to be patient with God's plan. David inquired and then was just given an Egyptian, but God was orchestrating it. Look at Hebrews 12. Remember, we had read these verses. And remember how it starts off? It says, "...wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of..." Who? Do you know who those witnesses are? The context is growing weary and well-doing, right? The context is not fainting in the day of adversity. Look at the previous chapter. You don't have to turn the page probably, but the last few verses, it talks about all these heroes of the faith that wrought these great victories. Look at verse 37. Or verse 36, And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, and moreover of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted, were slain with the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not what? worthy. They wandered in deserts and in mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the what? God, having provided something better for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." You know, David received that day a promise on this earth. He recovered all. But you know who those witnesses are in Hebrews 12.1 that are there, that are compassing us about, saying, don't be faint, don't worry? Those are a lot of the witnesses that did not receive the promise on this earth, in this life. There's a man named Karid. He was born in Yemen. He was born into a very strict Muslim family. His father was a very strict teacher. at the local mosque. He shares in his testimony how the first time he started questioning the Muslim faith was on 9-11, 2001, when he saw that 3,000 people were killed in the name of jihad and Allah. And he said he would be sitting at the cafe, and Muslims were cheering and excited, and he thought, what kind of monster am I? Then, one night, he heard on the radio a verse from the Bible, talking about how God said, come unto me all that you are weary and heavy laden. And he started questioning things. Eventually, he found someone with a Bible and he asked some questions, and then they told him about a radio station that he could listen to at night. So he'd go up on his roof, because in Yemen he could be killed if he was preaching Christ or anyone thought he was a Christian. So he went up to his roof at night and he'd listen and listen and listen to the Bible teaching, and he got saved. And it started to change his life and change his heart. He started treating his wife different and his children different. And he started to go to these Bible studies at night. Then one day, his wife confronted him. Because he would slip away at night, she thought, do you have another wife? And she was upset, right? He said, no, no. And he didn't know what to do. But he told her about how he'd gotten saved and how the Lord had changed his life. And that's why he was treating her different. And she got saved. And her name was Serene. So Kareed and Serene, they didn't exactly know what to do, but they kept their faith secret for a couple years. Then they both got, he wanted to get baptized, so they went and got baptized. And his wife that same day said, I want to get baptized too. So they both got baptized, but that was a very big step. And they started getting persecuted because all the Muslims in Yemen, where he lived, started saying, you know, he's infidel and he got beat up one time. They threw a rock and hit him and they beat him up, left him to die and threatened to kill him. And it got worse and worse and worse. They were always attacking him or his family and children until one day, His wife was in the kitchen, and he heard screams. And he ran into the kitchen, and his wife was on fire. His children were screaming, and they did the best to put out the fire, but his wife had second, third-degree burns all over her body. And what had happened is someone had put a booby trap in her kitchen to where she turned something on, and it blew up in front of her. So they took her to the hospital. But in Yemen, again, the culture is so Muslim that as soon as they found out they were Christians and what had happened, the doctor and the nurse no longer wanted to take care of them. And the doctor said, you're a Christian, you're going to have to pay for your own medicine. So he would have to go to the pharmacy and pay for his own medicines that his wife needed while she was at the hospital. And they would send an imam in, a Muslim teacher, to try and convert them back. And then the doctor ordered some medicine, a high dosage of potassium. And the pharmacist called the doctor, and Kareem said the doctor and the pharmacist argued because the pharmacist was like, what are you using this for? How is this going to be given? And eventually the doctor won. And his wife was injected with high dosage potassium, and she died the next day. And most likely, unless it was an error, the doctor purposely murdered his wife with that drug. But he said before she died, his wife had said, you know, I forgive those men that hurt us. I forgive those men that beat you up. I forgive those men that burned me. And those were some of the last words. You see, Sarim, she didn't receive the promise in this life. She didn't receive the promise that the Lord would finish her faith, but she will in the next. The Bible says that there's a crown of glory to those that lay down their life for His sake. And that man, he sought asylum in another country and he still preaches Christ. And you know what? He was able to forgive that doctor and those men. How? Because they took the eternal look. They recognize that, yeah, the world's not worthy. And if we don't receive our promise here, we might get weary in well-doing. We have a great cloud of witnesses. You know what? Serene is up there in heaven now. And one day we're going to possibly meet her. And you know what I think? Man, how ashamed would I be if I go up to Serene and I said, yeah, I quit. And she said, you quit? What'd they do? They burned me. They beat my husband up. What'd you do? What'd they do to you that made you quit?" And I said, well, you know, they were talking bad about me in church. Or, well, you know, I just got tired of seeing all the wicked get blessed with this, and this job, and this house, and I just, you know, I felt like I deserved more. Or, I got tired of my marriage. Or, I got tired of raising my children for the Lord. It was just too much work. Or, I got tired of witnessing. And then I got out of church, and you know what? It's just too much. Do you recognize how embarrassing and ashamed I would be next to her? But at the same point, there are witnesses. There are witnesses to inspire us that it's worth it. If they can do that for Jesus Christ, and not grow weary, not grow faint. Even our Lord and Savior can go what He did, enduring the cross, and not grow weary, and not grow faint. So can we. If you're honest today, we grow weary. It's a reality. I don't know what you've grown weary in. But this week the Lord had to show me something I was starting to grow weary in, I didn't want to do anymore. And God pricked my heart, and it was like, you know what, God? You're right. You know, I've done it and done it, and I've just kind of gotten away from it, because it's just, I just got tired, Lord. There's no excuse. And you know what the Lord did? He answered a prayer that my wife and I had had, because when I went away for a few weeks, praise the Lord, the military never paid me. Right? So I was out that morning, and we had some bills. But I surrendered, and I think the Lord was just trying to teach me a lesson. There's a guy back in the church, and the Lord's like, well, why don't you go witness to him? And I had grown weary in witnessing. I said, okay, Lord. So I went out, gave him a tract, talked to him about the Lord. He said, I'm so glad you came. My life's falling apart. And I got to witness to that guy, gave him a tract. got his ride out of here because his truck had broken down. And I just thought, Lord, I'm sorry. I need to do this more. And I went in, and there was a check for the amount I lost by not getting paid by the military. And I called my wife, and she just started crying. She said, you know, I've been doubting God. I've been growing, and you know, a little bit frustrated. You know, this is just what God needed to show me that I don't need to worry. I don't need to be fretting. And you know, these truths are practical. They're not just thousand years ago with David. We need to look unto Him because He's the author and the finisher. And we need to be willing to take the long look that, yeah, you might not get a victory, a promise in this life, but that's because the world's not worthy. And guess what? Serene's up there. Others are up there, and the promises are real on the other side. That's eternity on the other side. Brother Josh, I'll have you come and play something, but this is the most critical time of our service. And I don't know what you've grown weary in, but are you willing to be honest? You know, sometimes you're doing something and maybe you haven't even quit it, but you've grown weary in it. I'm not asking you to do something that I tell you to do. I'm not up here saying, you've got to read the Bible more, you've got to pray more, you've got to witness more, you've got to spend more time with your children, raising them in the Lord. I am not going to stand up here and tell you what it is, but I'm going to ask you, Are you willing to sit down and say, God, You and I both know what I've grown weary in. And Lord, I'm tired. And I don't want to faint. I see other people fainting. I don't want that to be me. I want to endure like You did, Lord. I need to look on You. Will You be willing to be honest this morning with the Lord? and just come to Him and inquire at Him like David did. And say, God, what do You want me to do? What is it that You want me to do? I'm tired, God, and I recognize I shouldn't be weary, but I am. And I don't want to faint, God. I don't want to quit. I want to receive that promise. The Bible says, that you will reap if you faint not. There's a promise both in this life and the life to come, brother. For those who reap are those who faint not. Let's spend some time with the Lord and explore how we can look unto Him.