FAITH FOR THE DISTANCE
I Corinthians 15: 50 – 58

A business man was coming out of church one day, and the preacher was standing at the door as he always did to shake hands. He grabbed the business man by the hand and pulled him aside. The minister said to him, “You need to join the Army of the Lord!”
To which the business man replied, “I’m already in the army of the Lord.”
The Minister questioned, “How come I don’t see you except for a few Sundays a year?”
And with a totally straight face, the Business man whispered back, “I’m in the Secret Service.”
Life is a marathon, not a sprint, so the saying goes. The same is true of the Christian faith. Finishing well, not just starting with a flurry, should be every believer’s goal.
Writer Eugene Peterson explains the problem we face with this principle,
“Our attention spans have been conditioned by thirty-second commercials. Our sense of reality has been flattened by thirty-page abridgments. It is not difficult in such a world to get a person interested in the message of the gospel; it is terrifically difficult to sustain the interest.”
It is just this quality of finishing well, persevering until the very end, that marks great lives and strong faiths.
It was perseverance as much as genius that made some of the great heroes of all time what they were. Thomas Edison didn’t just sit down one day and decide to invent the incandescent light bulb. He sent messengers around the world searching for just the right fiber for the filament. But even that wasn’t enough. Edison tried over 18,000 combinations and experiments, each one failing, before he finally succeeded. A starter and not a finisher? What if he had given up after just 17,000 attempts?
Reportedly Jonas Salk, one of the great medical heroes of the twentieth century, worked sixteen hours a day, seven days a week, for three years before he finally developed the polio vaccine. What if Salk had been a sprinter but not a marathon man?

On a less serious note, but equally impressive, is the record of one of baseballs greatest legends. Do you know who holds the major league record for the most career strikeouts at 1300? Probably not. But if I told you the same player also held the record for the most homeruns for most of baseball history, you would guess his name immediately. Indeed, Babe Ruth hit 714 homeruns but struck out nearly twice as often. If quitting at the first sign of failure or difficulty had been in his nature, Ruth’s name would have never made the record books in either category.
One of my favorite all time stories deals with perseverance, sort of. Perhaps you read it in Reader’s Digest several years ago. There was an accident in a West Texas oil field. An explosion set an oilrig on fire. The flames were burning in controllably. Smoke clouded the horizon for miles.
All efforts to extinguish the inferno proved futile. The local riggers did their best. Texaco sent in a crew. All to no avail. A call went out to Red Adair and his oil fire experts in Houston. Within twenty-four hours a crew of dozens and trailers loaded with millions of dollars worth of the world’s best fire fighting equipment arrived.
After several tries, the Houston crew, exhausted and soot covered, reported to the site office set up about a half mile from the blaze. “It’s no use,” they told the company reps. “That fire is so hot no one can get within a hundred yards of it and live. We’ll just have to let it burn down some and then try again.”
At millions of dollars a day of lost revenues, the company wasn’t ready to take no for an answer. Surely there was someone who wouldn’t give up so easily. They called a press conference and announced to the watching world that a check of $100,000 plus expenses would be waiting for any fire company that could extinguish the oil well blaze.
About 50 miles away in a little dusty cow town, a volunteer fire department consisting of four weather-beaten old Texans and a rusty pumper just happened to have the TV on. As they watched the news conference, the old cowboys looked at one another and looked back at the TV and then back at one another. “Ain’t no fire around these parts we haven’t been able to put out. What do you say, we give it a try?”
Quickly they loaded up their equipment and headed down the country road toward their meeting with destiny and riches. They revved the old diesel to the max and roared in the direction of the well.
The volunteer captain wrestled the steering wheel of the old pumper around the final turn toward the fire as two of the old cowboys turned firefighters held on for dear life to the rear of the truck with one hand and their ten-gallon hats with other. Rusty fenders clattered and pistons knocked as the truck roared past the property sign. It gained speed as it approached the site office at the half-mile marker and blew right by Adair and Company’s staging area. The engine kept rolling and finally came to a grinding halt not fifty yards from the fire.
The old fire fighters immediately dismounted as if thrown from a bucking bronco. They each grabbed a fire hoses, turned the water on one another until they were thoroughly doused and then aimed the hoses at the flames. In less than fifteen minutes, the fire was out!
The company reps were delighted. The experts were dumb-founded and the news media went wild. Once everything was safe, a crowd immediately surrounded the new heroes. The questions flew—How did you do it? Why did you try it? Have you ever done it before? Finally, one of the reporters asked, “What’s a volunteer fire department like yours going to do with $100,000?” Without batting an eye, one old fire fighter shot back, “The first thing, we are going to do is get the brakes fixed on that truck!”
Perseverance springs from many motives. In the Christian life, it flows from our absolute confidence in the faithfulness of our God and the certainty of the Gospel.
Consider one verse of Scripture that makes this point:
1 Cor. 15:58 says, “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain“
Let’s break this verse down and learn its lessons about faith for the distance. It logically divides into three sections. Let’s start with the middle and work out:
The Call to Faith for the Distance—“ my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord”
Near the end of his life Sir Winston Churchill was invited back to speak at the preparatory school that he had attended as a young man. He had not been a good student. In fact, he finished in the lower third of his class.
Most of his teachers had predicted that young Winston would never amount to much. But despite his less than stellar beginning, he did graduate from the prep school and later the university.
As you know, Churchill went on to become a decorated military leader and a notable artist and author. He became best known for his two separate terms as Prime Minister of England during some of the darkest days of World War II. By the time he was invited back to his school, he was a world famous leader and public speaker.
The school’s leaders obviously didn’t say much about Churchill’s student record. They were then more than happy to claim him as an exemplary alumnus. The head master primed the students for his assembly, “In a few days our Prime Minister will be here. He is one of the world’s greatest orators. Listen carefully and take plenty of notes.”
The morning arrived and the 5 foot 5 inch, 230-pound leader was enthusiastically presented. Churchill graciously acknowledged his introduction and then said, “Young gentlemen, never give up! Never! Never! Never! NEVER!” And with that he sat down. This was the sum total of his speech.
In effect, this is the message of our text. “Don’t be swayed. Don’t be shaken. Don’t stop believing. Don’t stop serving. Never, never, give up!”
There are three imperatives in this call to long distance faith. The word “stand firm,” describes something or someone that is settled or firmly seated. It brings to mind a solid foundation of a building, or the deep roots of a tall tree.
****(Illustration of CAMPING in a TENT in FLORIDA during our 1st year of marriage when we came back from a day of fun at Cypress Gardens to find our TENT missing from our campsite!)****
More than once, I have seen mobile homes completely blown to bits by a tornado or tipped of its supports by a strong wind. To prevent that unwanted fate, a house trailer had to be anchored with straps or cables to a footing or sometimes posts sunk deep in the ground. Only then did it stand firm.
This is a good illustration of the second word, as well. “Let nothing move you.” It could describe a trailer so solidly anchored that it stays put in the fiercest wind. It also describes a life built so solidly on Christ that nothing this world can toss at it can shake it or move it off course.
Remember Jesus’ parable of the wise and foolish builders and the different outcomes of their efforts. This is the picture of a rock solid life.
The third phrase “always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord” is perhaps the most challenging. This describes service that overflows, effort without limits. It is one thing to stay the course or stand your ground. It is a lot harder to do it with enthusiasm and energy. Our temptation in the midst of adversity is not so much to quit, as it is to hold back.
How many times have you been tempted to just go through the motions? You are not ready to give up, but you no longer feel like putting yourself out? Maybe you are under appreciated? Maybe you just don’t feel like your accomplishing anything? Maybe it is the friction and conflicts or people problems that deflate your joy in service? It’s not always easy to “give yourself fully to the work of the Lord.”
Perhaps a part of our solution is to focus on that last part – “the work of the Lord.” If we do what we do—whether living right, praying hard, teaching truthfully, or serving humbly—to please others or even to help others, it can become very easy to throttle back in tough times. But if we are working for the Lord, then applause, recognition, or even results from people become secondary.
“Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain“
Let’s backup and consider the beginning of the verse. The first word of the text spotlights the cause or the motivation of this call to persevering faith.
The Cause of Faith for the Distance—“Therefore”
A therefore always signals a conclusion. When you see a “therefore” in the Bible, you need to stop and ask, “What’s it there for?” In this case, it is the final point of one of the longest chapters in the entire Bible. We often call it the “Resurrection Chapter” because it’s focus from verse 1 to the end is on the reasonableness and power of Christ’s physical resurrection.
The “therefore” of our verse points back to the contents of the entire chapter. The argument divides into three sections. Vs 1-28 of 1 Corinthians points back to the history that our faith is grounded upon. The Gospel rests not on our accomplishments or efforts but upon what Jesus did once and for all. Verses 1-4 are worth remembering. —
We can read in 1 Cor 15:1-4.
1Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. 3For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
We keep on keeping on because our faith is grounded in reality. Christ is alive. Death could not hold him. The tomb is empty!
If the first section of the chapter spotlights the past, the second section (vs. 29-34) speaks to the present.
Why do we live the way we do? What motivates us to swim against the immoral currents of our day? One thing--our confidence that there is more to life than now! The resurrection of Christ past and the prospects of our resurrection future change how we look at life! Verse 34 provides the only reasonable response to the resurrection “Come back to your senses as you ought and stop sinning.”
The final section of the chapter (vs. 35-56) is about the future. Paul describes our future resurrection body. With a resounding shout of triumph, he calls believers to stay the course because of what’s ahead. “For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed” (vs. 52).
Do you get it? When you do, it changes everything. “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord.” We are in this for the distance. We do not give up. We will not settle for some half-hearted, going through the motions faith.
Never forget, the Gospel is not about me. It’s about Jesus! It’s not about my experiences, but his. It is not about my works, but his work. My faith is focused on what he did not what I do or experience. Once I loose sight of that, I easily turn the gospel into a charade, a shallow imitation of the reality. It may have all the trappings of the real thing, but it doesn’t save, it doesn’t keep, it’s doesn’t keep me going when the going gets tough. The Gospel of Jesus does!
Why? What accounts for the tenacity of followers of Jesus? The answer comes in the final part of the verse. He ties it altogether in a final triumphant conclusion—
The Conclusion of Faith for the Distance—“because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”
Paul pulls no punches. The Christian life involves work. Faith calls for effort. Our works does not save us, but we are saved to work for Christ. As the Apostle states in Ephesians 2:8-10, “For it is by grace you have been saved, though faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” And then he adds lest we think faith offers an excuse for a useless, do-nothing life, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

What keeps us going for the distance? Why do we not quit when we encounter a rough spot in the road of life? Why do we refuse to take the path of least resistance? One very big reason---we know that it is worth it. Our work is not useless. Our work has a purpose. It is not in vain, pointless. Galatians 6:9 echoes this same appeal: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
What keeps our work from being useless? Two things:
First, there is a promise of personal reward. “Be faithful unto death and I will give you a crown of life” (Revelation 2:10), the Master tells us. None of us, not even the most diligent, self-sacrificing laborer for the Lord will ever give more than he receives. As Jesus told his disciples who were concerned about the high price of faithfulness, “And everyone who has left houses or brother or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life” (Matthew 19:29).
Our greatest reward will not be crowns, or mansions, a street made of gold, or even kingdoms to rule. The highest achievement will be to simply hear “well done, my good and faithful servant.” Our labor is not in vain.
But there is another sense in which the promise holds true. Our labor is not in vain because our God is capable of using even our small and meager efforts like seeds for a harvest of potential results. We know that even though we may not see the harvest it will come.
In fact, our efforts may sometimes not at all be like a gardener or farmer who works for produce a few months down the line. We may be more like a Johnny Appleseed who plants orchards and groves for another generation to harvest and enjoy.
8Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain“ (1 Cor. 15:58).

Based on Sermon
by Roger Thomas