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Village SDA Church

Ron Kelly

When Is It Going to Get Easier?: The Road Ahead

May God bless us all with a greater sense of that transcendent encounter with God that we studied in Isaiah.

Christ whose glory fills the skies, may we see it today.

May we be humble before you, sincere and humble so we can hear.

Guide us now as we make this journey so that we can live free, be hopeful and courageous, in Jesus' name, amen.

Last week at first service and second service, I mentioned a book, Heinz Feet on High Places.

I think most of them are gone after the first service.

I've ordered another 100 copies, so in the next Sabbath or 2, hopefully they'll be available for you, our gift to you.

And may God bless you as you make the journey to the high places.

Last week, while I was engaging some of those who watch the service online, there was an encounter I had with someone that I want to follow up with here.

This morning I'm going to talk with you about what to expect in the future.

And in this dialogue, A friend wrote, on another note, a phenomenon I've experienced is that often, seems what Ellen G.

White calls a strange stupor, When we know the signs, we feel the call of God to go deeper, but it's like there's a strange paralysis within me.

I've had to wrestle with God and myself, but it's still present.

I'm not sure if it's a spiritual failure on my part or a spiritual attack or something else.

And I'll add 1 more thing, make a commitment to something God's leading you to Some of the wrestling will go away some of it lingers but carry on in the name of Jesus and The response thank you.

I'm sure you're right about that and this is the phrase.

I really want to emblazon in your mind, I do have something in mind.

For those of you who decide to quit fighting the fight of faith, it's gonna get easier because you're just not gonna engage.

And some may be doing that right now, just not really following the Lord into the personal growth moments and the conflicts with self that mark this life.

Life's a battle and a march, Ellen White says.

And so it's gonna get easy because you're gonna avoid all the growing moments.

The only problem is with that form of getting easy, you're stuck with the end.

And in the end it gets very hard without redemption and salvation.

That moment is terrifying to me to think about on behalf of the ones I love.

Now, I don't plan to be there, you don't have to be there.

It's gonna be a sad thing when whether in the name of God or in the name of hedonism, self-interest, self-pleasure, whatever, people have chosen to not bother going on the journey of growing that's a part of life.

And then there's the other way it gets easier.

And that's the way that I want to talk with you about today because I'd really like for you to choose the other way instead of just saying, well I'm gonna avoid those moments.

And you know as Americans and Westerners we're masters of our own destiny.

And the better educated and well-off you are, the more of those difficult moments you can choose to avoid.

If you're poor or you grew up under hardship, you couldn't avoid a lot of those moments.

But the fact of the matter is, is that there's another way to grow.

And the other way to grow for it to get easier is to face it and to deal with it.

Now, we've just come through 10 months of a pandemic.

And in the midst of those encounters that we've been forced to confront the motivational side of who we are, the decision-making side of who we are, We've had to make some decisions.

Or do I simply hole up and hide and save myself?

1 way is easy in the moment, at least for yourself, and 1 way is harder.

But for any of you that have ever exercised, lifted weights, run a race, you know that it can get easier If you follow the principles of growth, if you have a coach, if you have someone that says in effect, you can do it, and you need to do it, and good job.

This morning, I want to assure you, it is gonna get easier.

The question is, which way is the road you're on taking you and do you wanna be there?

This morning, I'm assuming you all wanna walk the narrow path with Jesus.

Jesus did make some apparently contradictory statements, didn't he?

So we better make sense of them because God doesn't contradict Himself.

So Jesus said, the road is narrow and the way is what?

Whatever version of the Bible you're using.

The road is narrow and the way is difficult, or the way is hard that leads to eternal life.

But he also said, take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for my way is what?

So let's figure it out here this morning before we get going.

The truth of the matter is, is that there's a battle that's going to go on in your life 1 way or the other.

It's either in the now and readiness for what's coming, or it's in the future when you're a victim, when you're subject to the powers of bad choices.

You either have a battle that's going on inside of you in which there is never any peace, or you have circumstances in which the battle is outside of you because the devil's been evicted from the throne room, God's there, and you've got peace within.

Peace within, battle without, or battle within, peace without.

It's important for us to understand that that's how it works, though.

You don't get to choose any other option.

It's either peace within, battle without, or it's battle within, peace without.

Now, lots of people choose battle within, peace without.

They tamp down those convictions, they shove aside those divine promptings, and they walk right on with everybody else so they can maintain peace without.

And they only are at peace when circumstances are right.

God's people, on the other hand, have learned that He's master of circumstance as long as He's master of our heart, and we can have peace within.

This morning, I want to protect your inner journey.

I want the inner person, the inner man to be strengthened, as Paul would write.

So, I want you parents to think about parenting.

I know some people that the journey to adulthood was easy, nothing was hard.

The only problem with that was adulthood was hard.

Then there's the other parents who decided that the journey to adulthood would have to be punctuated with some of those growing moments so that adulthood wouldn't be hard.

I know as a kid, you know, whether it was the taste of soap, or the racetrack, or the switch off the tree, or standing in the corner, or being grounded in my room, or any 1 of the other myriad creative moments of discipline for the eldest of 4 children, namely me, I figured out along the way a couple things.

My mother loved me, and it was easier to get inside the laws of life, at least the laws of the Kelley home.

It made me ready for opportunity when it came my way, not a new learning circle with someone who didn't love and care about me.

And so for all of us that are in the journey of discipling, in which case, that's all of us for someone, somehow, somewhere, or at least the journey of accountability, which is for all of us with somebody, somewhere.

I wanna assure you today, it is going to get easier eventually.

The other thing I want to assure you is in the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 3, it says that there's a time.

It says there's a time to laugh and there's a time to what?

It goes on to tell us there's a season for everything.

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When Is It Going to Get Easier?: The Road Ahead

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