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Welcome to the Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast. We are a Bible-Believing Church located

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in beautiful British Columbia, Canada. We are proudly part of the Christian Fellowship

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Ministries with 3,000 churches around the world. We are a church focused on world evangelism,

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discipleship and church planting. Here we will share recent sermons from P.H.S.A. Church

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and other sermons from throughout our fellowship. I am Pastor David Bigford and I will be your

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host for this podcast. I thank you for listening today and we hope these messages are a blessing

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to you and bring you closer to God. Hello and welcome back to the P.H.S.A. Potter's

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House Salmon Arm podcast. My name is David Bigford. I am the host here on this podcast

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and I am also the pastor pioneering this work for God with my wife Sarah and our wonderful

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kids. I just want to point out the obvious fact that it is election week in the United

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States this week. We just recently had elections up here. Make sure you get out and vote. Vote

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according to the word of God and your conscience. I don't want to belabor the point. I think

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that it is important that we all participate in the election cycle. We don't really have

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any room to complain if we don't vote, but vote according to the word of God. I think

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you know what I mean when I say that because the word of God makes it very clear on what

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we should be supporting with our vote and with our time. Put Jesus first in everything

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that you do, including when you go to vote this week if you are in the States or any

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time that you do go into to do that. Today's message I put together is called Five Kinds

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of Hard, the Myth of the Easy Way. We are living in some pretty dangerous times. As

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I mentioned, there is a vote going on in the United States right now and with that there

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is a lot of turmoil. There are a lot of hard things going on, a lot of dangerous kind of

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situations that are occurring. So we live in these dangerous times, times that can be

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filled with chaos and confusion. A great deal of this is caused by our society's decision

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to leave behind our Christian foundations. Whether it be the common law of England or

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the state and federal constitutions of the United States and abroad, the success of the

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West is largely due to a pursuit of Christian faith. In the past we pushed ourselves harder

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to be better. We did hard things from an early age. Life is not meant to be something that

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is static or comfortable. Life is meant to be hard, it is meant to be challenging. The

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challenges that we face are meant to draw us closer to God. We are called to pursue

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Christ and run our race. We don't really get an option with this. The Bible makes it very

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clear that we are supposed to heed the great commission to go out and preach the gospel

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of Jesus Christ to every creature and to run our race as an example of what it is to be

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a Christian to be Christ-like. So I have to ask the question then with that, have you

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ever run a race? I was never a very fast runner, but I did run cross country in high school

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and I can tell you it is not fun. The starting shot goes off and everybody takes off from

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that starting line, but not everybody finishes or not everybody finishes in a good time.

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Sometimes you even have to take a step back and realize that some people are just there

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as spectators, not even attempting to run. So as you think about that, let's look at

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our text this morning which is 1 Timothy 4 verses 12-13 and it says, Let no one despise

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you for your youth, but set the believers as an example in speech, in conduct, in love,

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in faith, in purity until I come. Devote yourself to the public reading of scripture, the exhortation

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and to teaching. So clearly this was meant from Paul to Timothy, but we get a bonus text

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this morning of 1 Samuel 17, 31-37 that says, When the words that David spoke were heard,

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they repeated them before Saul and he sent for him. And David said to Saul, Let no man's

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heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with the Philistines. And Saul

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said to David, You are not able to go against the Philistines to fight with him, for you

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are but a youth. And he has been a man of war from his youth. But David said to Saul,

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Your servant used to keep the sheep for his father. And when there came a lion or there

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came a bear and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and I struck him and delivered

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it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him

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and killed him. Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised

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Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.

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And David said, The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw

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of the bear will deliver me from the hand of the Philistine. And Saul said to David,

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Go and the Lord be with you. So what is the main thought of this message this morning,

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evening, whenever you're listening? What's the main thrust of this? Well, the main thrust

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of this message is twofold. We all need to do the hard things if we're ever going to

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grow and be strengthened. And the second thing is, is we can't let our age, whether you're

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young or whether you're seasoned, stop you. We can all do amazing things if we reside

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in the Lord. And so with that, I was reading a book called Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett

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Harris. And these were teenagers when they wrote this book. And I think it's a pretty,

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a pretty awesome book for any teenager to read. In fact, this reminds me that I want

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my son, I've been telling my son, I want him to read this book. And so I'll make a point

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of getting him that book today. I have it on my bookshelf for him to be able to read.

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And in that book, there's the story of George, David and Clara. So we're going to go through

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this, these stories that I pulled from this book a little bit, because I think it's, it's

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important for us to get some understanding about what I mean by doing hard things. And

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then also what I mean about not allowing our age to hinder us. So George was born in Northern

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Virginia in 1732 to a middle-class family. When he was 11 years old, he lost his father,

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even though his peers never considered him very bright. He applied himself to his studies

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and mastered geometry, trigonometry and surveying. You could think of that as algebra and calculus.

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By the time he was 16, he had done this. But at 17 years old, George had the chance to

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put aside or put his studies to use at his first job. So talk about a job. The job that

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George landed was to be the official surveyor of Cole Pepper County, Virginia. This wasn't

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a boy's job and it certainly wasn't office work. For the next three years, George endured

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the hardships of frontier life as he measured and recorded previously unmapped territories.

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His measuring tools were heavy logs and chains. And George was a man at the ripe old, ripe

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young age of 17. So then we come and take a look at David.

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David was born in 1801 near the city of Knoxville, Tennessee, where his father was serving in

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the state militia. At 10 years old, David began a career at sea serving as a naval cadet

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on the warship Essex. At 11, he saw his first battle. At the young age of 12, David was

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given the command of a ship that had been captured in battle and was dispatched with

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a crew to take the vessel and its men back to the United States. On the journey home,

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the captured British captain took issue with being ordered around by a 12 year old and

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announced that he was going below to get his pistols. Out of respect for his position,

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he had been allowed to keep them. David then promptly sent him a word that if he stepped

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foot on deck with his pistols, he would be shot and thrown overboard. The captain decided

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to stay below.

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Finally we come to Clara. Clara was born in Oxford, Massachusetts on Christmas Day 1821.

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She was the baby of the family with 10 years separating her and the next youngest. She

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was a timid child so terrified of strangers that she was hardly able to speak. Then something

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happened that would change her life forever. When she was 11 years old, her older brother

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David fell from the roof of a barn and was seriously injured. Young Clara was frantic

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and begged to help care for him. Once in the sick room, Clara surprised everyone by demonstrating

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all the qualities of an experienced nurse. She learned better than anyone how to make

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her brother comfortable. Little by little the doctor allowed her to take over all of

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his care. And with his complete recovery lasting two years, a year later at the age of 14,

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Clara became the nurse for her father's hired men, who had come down with smallpox

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and then to more patients as the epidemic spread throughout Massachusetts than the surrounding

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areas that she lived. Still shy and tibbid, her desire to serve others drove her to overcome

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her fears. By age 17, she was a successful school teacher with over 40 students, some

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nearly as old as she. This brings me to my first point, which is

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things outside your comfort zone. In Joshua 24, 14-15, we read a portion of scripture

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that talks about choosing whom you will serve. So in 14 it says, Now therefore fear the Lord

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and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served

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beyond the river in Egypt and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the

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Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the

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region beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for

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me in my house, we will serve the Lord. This is the first portion that we need to

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look at is making a decision on what we're going to do. If you're a Christian, that means

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that you're supposed to be moving towards Christlikeness. That's what Christian means,

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Christlikeness. To be like Christ. You can't pretend to be like Christ if you're not moving

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to be more like Christ. You have to make a decision on who you're going to serve. This

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can include other things though. It can include, you know, you're stretching yourself for the

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purpose of God, learning new skills, something like public speaking, or maybe expanding on

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an old one. You need to make sure that you're going to be able to grow in your relationship

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with God. And part of that, a huge part of that is doing things outside of your comfort

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zone. These actions challenge us though because they are unfamiliar or scary. But as we do

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them, they usually become some of our greatest memories. So there's another thing that I

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found here called making our beds in other feats of valor. And this is from the book,

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Do Hard Things that I had mentioned earlier. So this is a little bit outdated. So keep

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that in mind. I'm reading from the book here, but it says, recently we decided to do a Google

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word or to Google the words teens and expectations and see what came up. The results were far

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more entertaining than we would ever have imagined. Most web browsers have a built in

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Google search box. And as you type in your search terms, it gives you suggested searches

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based on terms that are used most often. Here are some of the suggestions it gave us as

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we tried to Google teens and expectations. Teens and then it would say drugs or alcohol

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or smoking, drinking, marijuana, cell phones. So when you think about this, even Google

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has extremely low expectations for teens. Anyway, we did our search, the top result

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about teens, drugs and alcohol abuse. Another was for an article called a parent's guide

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to surviving the teen years. But the one that really jumped out at us was the article about

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teaching teens responsibility by setting expectations. So the two brothers who wrote that book are

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making a really important point here. If you set the bar so low that it's not even a difficult

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thing for you to jump over, you can just walk right over it. Then you're setting yourself

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up for failure and you're not going to grow. You're not going to be successful. And if

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you put this in terms of like what I was talking about with the Christian life, you're not

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going to even grow in your Christianity and your faith or your Christ likeness because

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you've set your standards so low. And Isaiah 41 10, fear not for I'm with you. Be not dismayed

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for I'm your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous

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hand. We, we tend to fear what we don't know, but as we do it, we tend to, we've, it becomes

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known and we tend to become comfortable with it. So if you consistently overload yourself,

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just a little bit, what I mean by overload, that's just like an exercising term. When

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you're lifting weights, you want, you want consistent muscle overload as you continue

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to train because that's what causes you to be stronger and stronger. If you train with

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the exact same weight for the exact same amount of reps for the rest of your life, you might

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get some tone, but you're not going to actually gain any additional strength because you haven't

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overloaded yourself. You haven't challenged yourself. You haven't gotten out of that comfort

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zone. That soreness you feel after exercising will, will fade away if you never increase

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your weight to your repetition. We need to focus on increasing our weights and our repetitions.

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We need to do that in our own lives, like our personal lives, our professional lives

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and our, in our, in our relationship with Jesus Christ. And we can't allow for low standards

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to be something that just holds you back because nobody expects you to do it. So therefore

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you just say, I'm not going to do it. You need to be able to push yourself to grow.

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And this brings me to my next point is things that go beyond what is expected or required.

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This is doing more than the minimum. Instead of skating by with a C average in school,

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it's striving for that A. Basically strive for the A. You might, and even if you miss

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the A, you might hit the B. But if you shoot for the C, you might only get the D. This

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is something we deal with my son a little bit because he's, he's quite bright, but

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he doesn't have the same ambition level that his sister has. So my, my daughter has always

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struggled with school, but she had so much drive that she was able to do it and graduate.

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And she got a lot more B's than she got anything else. And so we're very proud of her on that

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because then we know how hard it was. Whereas with my son, we, we, we battle with this and

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you know, on the opposite spectrum where it's like, he'll get a C easy because he doesn't

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have to try, but it's like, how much more could you do if you actually strove for that

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A. So instead of the do not, a do no harm policy, you begin to live by this policy of

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do good policy or the just enough policy. These actions can be very detrimental to you

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in the long run by doing the hard things. You are strengthening yourself. You're building

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muscle, but when you don't, when these actions are, are, you know, only good enough, then

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you are falling short of what your potential is. No one else is going to make you do more

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than what's required, but there's always, there's always a better feeling of accomplishment

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when you go beyond what is easy and then you receive a reward for doing something that

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was unexpected for doing something that was beyond the normal level. And so let's look

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at the genius of hard things. If we, as we go back and remember George, David and Clara,

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we left George as the official surveyor of Culpepper County at age 17. David was in charge

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of a prize ship at age 12, calmly keeping it in a really captain under control. Clara

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was nursing smallpox patients and overseeing a classroom of students at 17. Each of them

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had clearly used their teen years to train and to prepare themselves to launch into a

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much higher level of adulthood. How did it serve them? In Luke 17, five through six,

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it says, the apostle said to the Lord, increase our faith. And the Lord said, if you had faith

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like the grain of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and

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planted in the sea and it would obey you. So the reality is that as we exercise in faith,

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we will see tremendous things start to happen in our lives. And this brings me to my final

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point. It's a bit of a short message today is things that are too big to be accomplished

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alone. These are important things for us to remember too. In Judges 7-7, we see the dwindling

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down of 22,000 down to 300. And the Lord said to Gideon, with 300 men who lapped up, I will

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save you and give the Midianites into your hands and let all those others go, every man

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to his own home. These are the harder projects that require organization or rallying people

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together. We're a pioneer work and it's a struggle. It's a hard thing at times to corral

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people or get people to be involved or get people to come out to church. But it's still

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a huge reward when you see someone give their life to Jesus Christ or if you see a visitor

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or something like that. But we can't do it on our own. We have to depend on other people.

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We have to depend on support from our mother church or from other churches in our fellowship.

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These are the kind of projects that really get you excited. This can be like a big cause

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like fighting for, you know, curing cancer or any kind of cause or, you know, missionary

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works where you maybe you set some money aside and you try to fund, you know, ask other people

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to donate for a church building project. These are big, audacious causes. These are hard

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things that you can't accomplish on your own, but God can use them in your life to cause

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you to grow. This could be like a passion project that God has placed on your heart.

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We have to be able to share our passion with others and recruit them to work alongside

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us. So after three years of surveying in Virginia, the governor appointed George to the state

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militia as a major, which is a very high rank. Then when word came that the French were entering

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Ohio, the Ohio territory, George was ordered to lead a midwinter expectation over hundreds

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of miles to assess the fuller strength and to warn them to leave, which he was, he was

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able to successfully do. By age 22, George had been promoted to lieutenant colonel and

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by age 23, he was commander in chief of the entire Virginia militia. You might've heard

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about what he did later on in life because after 20 years, George became the commander

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in chief of the continental army in the revolutionary war, eventually becoming the first president

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of the United States, George Washington. George Washington's tale of success didn't, didn't

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start with him being president or with him being a general. It started with him being

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a young adolescent who was persevering through the hard times, even after losing his father

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and being able to go out and at a very young age, start to work towards a larger goal.

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This is important to remember that things that, you know, we don't, don't always pay

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off immediately. In James 2 17 through 18, so also faith by itself, if it does not have

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works is dead, but someone will say, you have faith and I have works, show me your faith

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apart from your works that I will show you my faith by my works. These are tasks like

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fighting sin, working out, doing schoolwork or obeying your parents, daily exercise, the

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hard drudgery of life. Teddy Roosevelt went from being a wimp to a world changer. As a

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young child, he suffered from severe asthma and was considered too frail to go to school.

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And as teenage years, his father took him aside and challenged him to hard drudgery.

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And that's a quote from his father, hard drudgery of building a strong body. He spent the rest

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of his youth spending hours a day lifting weights, hammering, punching bags, straining

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at the pull-up bar. Theodore Roosevelt said, I wish to preach not a doctrine of ignoble

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ease, but the doctrine of a strenuous life, a life of effort, of labor and strife to preach

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that the highest form of success, which comes nothing to a man who desires mere easy peace,

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but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship or from bitter toil and who

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out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph. These things are hard because you don't see

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much progress from day to day. You may even seem happier if you didn't have to do them.

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You don't get praise or recognition for doing these things, but over time you are building

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godly character. So we go back to our story and we continue on with David. His full name

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was David Barragut, the US Navy's very first Admiral and a hero during the Civil War. His

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courage in the face of heavy enemy fire and the Battle of Mobile Bay won him lasting fame,

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but it was far from his first act of bravery. He had been preparing for that moment ever

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since his childhood days as a cadet on the Essex. Finally, things that challenge the

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cultural norms. Act 7 we see the speech that is given by Stephen or Stefan. You could read

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the whole story, but it's an amazing tale. And in verse 59 it says, and as they were

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stoning Stephen, he called out, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And falling to his knees,

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he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. And when he had

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said this, he fell asleep. These choices are the hardest of all the choices for us to make.

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This would be choosing to dress modestly or honorably. This was to say no to premarital

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sex holding unpopular opinions or positions like against homosexuality or abortion or

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the maybe the most contentious these days, which is sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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In the beginning I talked about how there's an election that's going on in the States.

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And I mentioned, you know, you have to go according to the word of God, make your voice

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heard and choose and be vocal about who you choose in a kind Christian manner. Just simply

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saying that I follow the word of God. And because of that reason, I have to align myself

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with the one that aligns themselves most closely with the word of God. These are the hard decisions

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that you just you have to make in today's age. No matter how old you get, these are

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the hardest of decisions. These are hard because these things can cost you popularity. They

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can cost you friendship. And some countries, they can even cost you your life. To accomplish

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things in this category, we have to care more about pleasing God than the people around

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us. Clara is best known as the founder of the American Red Cross, Clara Barton. Her

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desire to serve others started when she was 11 years old, caring for her brother, David.

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And it only grew from there to the sick in her village to the children at the school

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where she taught to the thousands of wounded men in the Civil War and later millions through

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the American Red Cross. There's a reason we still know the names and stories of men and

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women like George Washington, Dave Farragut and Clara Barton. They invested their teen

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years in their teen years in a way that shaped them into the history makers they later became.

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So as we close, these stories are meant to encourage us to get into the race, not only

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to be at the starting line, but to do the big, hard things in our lives. We are not

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called to get comfortable and rest on our laurels. Teddy Roosevelt went on to be an

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extremely successful in his life, in all of his endeavors. He led Americans into the 20th

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century. He was a cowboy, a New York police commissioner, a military hero and the governor

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of New York. He was the first president to fly on a plane, submerge in a submarine, have

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a telephone in his home and own a car. He was the first president to leave American

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soil while in office and the first American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for almost

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single-handedly negotiating a peaceful end to the Russian-Japanese War. There is so much

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work to be done. God wants us to partner with him. He's not asking us to help him because

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he needs it, but because through our service we are with him. We grow closer to God when

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we serve his purpose. When we serve despite it being uncomfortable, we glorify God. When

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we serve him by striving to do our best, it blesses him and shows him honor. When we partner

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together in fellowship to do the big things, he blesses us. And the big things can happen

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in his name. And when we battle in the quiet places, we trust him to help us as we contend

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for our own sanctification. When we choose to obey because it shows our example to the

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world, God is glorified. Lastly, when we are willing to stand for God's values and God's

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cultural norms in the face of persecution and ridicule, God has made king in our lives

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and the Savior truly does live in us and we in him. If I could have every head bowed,

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every eye closed wherever you are, as long as you're safe, we just want to bring this

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to an end. Something we do every time, every podcast, every service I preach is we give

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an invitation. It's a very simple thing. If this message has impacted you and you know

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your heart is not right with God, but you want to get right, I just want you to signify

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that with an uplifted hand. And if you did that, if you rose your hand, I want you now

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to repeat after me, Dear Lord God, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that you sent

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your son Jesus Christ and he died for my sins. I repent of my sin. I turn away from it and

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I accept you Lord Jesus as my Lord and Savior. In Jesus name and everybody said, Amen. A

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simple prayer. If you'd said it and you meant it, I'm sure you can feel a difference. A

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weight being lifted off your shoulders. And it's a powerful thing. Your name is written

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in the Lamb's Book of Life, but there are there are next steps, not for salvation, but

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for sanctification. And that's simply come to church. Come and visit us here in Sam and

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are right above the Bank of Montreal downtown. Not hard to find, but also get a get the get

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a Bible. If you need one, reach out, download the you version app, which I use. It's very,

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very useful. Get in the word and pray cry out, talk to your God. Talk to your God. I

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want to thank you for listening to me in this message. I want to thank you for listening

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this podcast. I hope that it has impacted you and I'd like you to like it, share it,

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subscribe, all that kind of stuff, whether you're we're on Apple and Spotify and I heart,

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you name it. I want to thank you again for listening. I thank you for listening to that

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P. H. S. A. Potter's House salmon arm podcast. Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Potter's

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House underscore salmon arm to keep up to date on what we're doing. Join the conversation

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and discover how Jesus Christ can revolutionize your life.