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Introduction:
In Matthew 7:13-14, Jesus told us to avoid the wide and easy way
because it only leads to death. Instead, He wants us to walk the
narrow, strait and difficult way. It is the only way to life. The
pathway to Christ’s eternal kingdom is not a cake-walk,
following our own path of least resistance. No, we must follow in
Christ’s footsteps. That means we must choose to do hard things.
This past week, I was blessed to read a book by Alex and Brett
Harris by this same title, Do Hard Things. It would be
impressive if it had been by adults for adults. It is even more
impressive because it is by teens for teens. It promotes a
rebellion against our culture’s low expectations for teenagers.
Within that message, however, they provided some great insight for
us all. The book hearkened back to exactly what Jesus said in Matthew 7:13-14. We’re Christians. We don’t take the easy path.
We take the hard path because that is the path Jesus took. I
especially appreciated their breakdown of the “Five Kinds of
Hard” and wanted to share that with you. We are starting a new
year this week. I want you to face this new year with a new
paradigm. A model that says we’ll face up to the challenges of
the hard things. We will no longer accept mediocrity, even when
others accept it and call it excellent. We are going to do hard
things and walk Christ’s hard road. Discussion: I.
Hard Thing #1: Do things outside your comfort zone. A.
We start here because this is the gateway to all the other
hard things. The path of least resistance means we only do what we
find easy and natural. When we are asked to step outside our own
comfort zone, we balk. We fear stepping outside our comfort zone
because we fear failure. We fear rejection. We fear the laughter
of others. B.
Think of Moses in Exodus
3:11; 4:10. God had called him to do one of the greatest works
of all time, lead Israel out of Egyptian bondage. Moses’ first
response was, “Who am I to do this?” He continued to balk at
this and finally said, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent…but I
am slow of speech and tongue” (ESV). God was asking him to step
outside of his comfort zone. C.
Think of Gideon in Judges
6:15. When the angel of the Lord called him to go against the
Midianites, his response was, “Please, Lord, how can I save
Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the
least in my father’s house” (ESV). God was calling him to step
up and lead. Gideon wasn’t comfortable with that. He had to step
outside his comfort zone. D.
Think of Peter in Acts
10:9-16. God called Peter to eat what had previously been
unclean. This vision had been given to encourage Peter to go to
the Gentiles. But Peter responded, “By no means, Lord; for I
have never eaten anything that is common or unclean” (ESV). He
would never go into the house of a Gentile either. Let’s not
miss the significance of this. Do you think Peter was comfortable
in Cornelius’ house? No. God had called him out of his comfort
zone. E.
We are Christians. God has called us away from the easy
path of least resistance that leads to death and destruction. He
has called us to walk a higher road. He has called us to walk the
hard road. He has called us to do hard things. He has called us to
step outside our comfort zones. This will mean working on
weaknesses. It also means taking our strengths to new levels in
areas we were afraid to go. Are you uncomfortable inviting people
to our assemblies? Do it anyway. Are you uncomfortable having
brethren in your home? Do it anyway. Are you uncomfortable praying
with others? Do it anyway. Are you uncomfortable holding yourself
accountable to others? Do it anyway. F.
Here is the crux of the matter. If you only ever do what
comes easy, you will never grow. The parable of the talents in Matthew
25:14-30 makes it clear; the one talent man was not
comfortable because he considered his abilities so small. The
others used what they were given and they stretched themselves and
grew. The one talent man stayed where he was comfortable and God
judged him. As Christians and as a congregation, let’s do the
hard thing. Let’s stretch outside our comfort zone and grow. II.
Hard thing #2: Do things that go beyond what is expected or
required. A.
Sadly, I fear there are many people and churches just like
Sardis in Revelation 3:1.
“I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but
you are dead” (ESV). Perhaps this was a reputation based on past
work they were no longer doing. On the other hand, perhaps they
were judged by faulty standards. Let’s face it, our world is
satisfied with mediocrity. Many times it is even satisfied with
below mediocrity. So low are our world’s expectations if someone
is just slightly more than mediocre they are praised as excellent.
Too many of us find our natural ability exceeds what others expect
and we become satisfied with simply doing what comes naturally. We
need to remember we are called to a higher calling. We are not
sinners because we are worse than others around us. We are sinners
because we have fallen short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23). Therefore, we are not holy simply because we are in
the upper half of the bell curve among people. We are holy when we
are like God (I Peter 1:16).
B.
Sadly, too often, we are busy looking for minimum
requirements. What is the least I can do to get into heaven? It
doesn’t work that way. We cannot earn our way into heaven,
therefore we cannot expect to cross some minimum requirement line
to get it. We gain heaven by Christ’s grace. But Christ’s
grace leads us on a path of growth. If we are not growing, we are
not on Christ’s path of grace. Think of Philemon as our example.
In Philemon 21, Paul
said he knew Philemon would do even more than he asked. That is
the Christian’s mindset who does hard things. He/she goes beyond
what is expected or required. C.
I don’t want to minimize what Jesus said in Matthew
5:38-42 to the modern concept of simply going the second mile.
However, the heart of Jesus’ statement is that His people who
walk the difficult road go beyond what is expected and required.
If a Roman soldier pressed them into service, they were only
legally bound to go one mile, but the Christian would go two. If
sued for their tunic, they would go above and beyond and give
their cloak as well. D.
This is hard because it is simply so much easier to do just
enough to have a good reputation. If we are satisfied with the
praises of men, that will be our only reward (Matthew
6:2, 5, 16). We are not seeking to please men, but God. With
that in mind, we need to push and challenge ourselves to go way
beyond what men expect or require. Are you leading singing? Men
are happy if you just fill the slot. When is God happy? How much
prep time do you put in. How much planning and forethought. Are
you presenting a lesson? Maybe a sermon, a Bible class, an
invitation or a talk before the Lord’s Supper? Are you able to
put together something folks will like with just a few minutes
prep? Does that really glorify God? Children, are you obeying your
parents when they say clean your room or clean the kitchen? Will
they be satisfied if you just get most of the dishes in the
dishwasher and leave the rest in the sink? Why not go all the way
and wash the rest by hand? To be prepared for our Bible classes,
you only have to do a minimal amount of work on lessons. Do you
reckon that alone glorifies God in your life? E.
We are Christians. God has called us away from the easy
path of least resistance that leads to death and destruction. He
has called us to walk a higher road. He has called us to walk the
hard road. He has called us to do hard things. He has called us to
go beyond what people expect and require. That means working when
others are resting. That means pushing when others have given up.
That means persevering when others oppose. F.
Here is the crux of the matter. We bear the name of Christ
and our work reflects on Him. Do we want the world to see just
good enough? Or do we want them to see excellence? Let’s face
it, Jesus wasn’t required to die for us. God wasn’t required
to sacrifice His Son for us. God did that out of love. He excelled
for us. Can we excel for Him? III.
Hard Thing #3: Do things that are too big to accomplish
alone. A.
In one sense, we can accomplish nothing on our own. We
live, move and exist only by God’s strength and power (Acts
17:25, 28). However, when I speak of this hard thing, I’m
not talking about our reliance on God. I’m talking about our
need to work together with each other. The reality is, there is
not much worth accomplishing that can be accomplished by a single
person. I believe that is at least one reason God grouped us in
congregations. B.
Consider Ephesians
4:15-16. This body is supposed to grow by what every working
part supplies. Let me just get personal with us as a congregation
here. For five years now we have been bumping along at about this
same size. I say it is time we step up to the plate, do the hard
things and start getting the gospel out to Middle Tennessee. That
is going to take people inviting. That is going to take people
recommending. That is going to take people making guests feel at
home. That is going to take people studying with others. That is
going to take people having group home studies every week. That is
going to take people mentoring leaders within our midst. That is
going to take people shepherding folks at every level of spiritual
growth. Let’s face it. It’s easy to stay where we are right
now. If we are going to get beyond this and glorify God with our
work, we have to pull together and do the hard things.
Evangelizing Middle Tennessee is too big a task for one person or
one small group. We need to work together. We can do this. C.
Think about Barnabas in Acts
11:22-26. He got to Antioch and realized the task was too big
for him. He brought Saul/Paul to work with him. Look at the work
you can do, whether it is teaching classes, serving widows,
visiting the sick, going into prisons, taking the gospel to the
poor and homeless, knocking doors, lifting up the weak. Tap
somebody on the shoulder to do that work with you. Yes, it’s
hard work. But nothing worth doing is worth doing alone. D.
We are Christians. God has called us away from the easy
path of least resistance that leads to death and destruction. He
has called us to walk a higher road. He has called us to walk the
hard road. He has called us to do hard things. He has called us to
do things too big for us. Yes, we rely on God’s strength. But
God often provides His strength through other people. E.
Here is the crux of the matter. Jesus, the one person in
world history who actually had the intrinsic power to do
everything all on His own, didn’t. Instead, He gathered a team
of men to work together. If Jesus did that, how much more should
we? IV.
Hard Thing #4: Do things that don’t earn an immediate
payoff. A.
When we hear about evangelizing Middle Tennessee or other
big hard things, our blood gets flowing, our hearts start pumping,
we get excited. That would be awesome. However, before we are able
to accomplish big things, we have to work on small things that
don’t seem to get us anywhere in the moment—daily Bible
reading and study, memorizing scripture, daily prayer,
hospitality, attending the assemblies and classes, sending
encouraging notes to our brothers and sisters, visiting the sick
and shut-in, inviting neighbors and co-workers to our assemblies,
etc. If we missed one day of any of these things, would it really
be that big of a deal? I studied my Bible this week, but didn’t
get that much out of it. I like this sermon, but this sermon alone
probably can’t accomplish much. We can put off all these things
and not seem to see much of a difference. These are small things
and taken at a level of individual occurrence they don’t seem to
amount to much. However, put them together on a repeated basis and
they pack a wallop. B.
Think about it this way. I can skip a meal and it won’t
hurt me at all. I could probably skip meals for an entire day and
it wouldn’t hurt me at all. I’d feel hungry, but I wouldn’t
be physically hurt. But what if that added up to a week or a
month. That could kill me. The same is true in the spiritual
realm; we just don’t see it as starkly. The problem with these
small things is they are habits. We either develop the habit to do
them or we develop the habit not to. Each day we don’t read our
Bibles makes it easier not to do so the next. Each assembly and
class we miss (even if we are missing legitimately) makes it
easier to miss the next. I don’t know what it is about these
things. They are really the easiest things in the world to do. God
is not asking us to climb Mt. Everest every day or even every
week. He has simply provided us with small actions that over the
long haul produce amazing results. Yet, they seems to be some of
the hardest things to actually keep up with over time. I think
that is because Satan is actively working to get us to stop. C.
We need to remember the passages that encourage us to do
these small hard works. Acts
17:11 encourages us in daily study of the Word. I
Thessalonians 5:17 encourages us to pray without ceasing. Hebrews
10:25 encourages us to be faithful to congregational
assemblies. Romans 12:13
encourages us to hospitality. The list could go on and on. D.
We are Christians. God has called us away from the easy
path of least resistance that leads to death and destruction. He
has called us to walk a higher road. He has called us to walk the
hard road. He has called us to do hard things. He has called us to
do small hard things that don’t seem to have an immediate
payoff. But trust me on this one, when we do these small things
repeatedly over time, they provide huge dividends in our spiritual
lives and in our congregations. E.
Here is the crux of the matter. God has not called us only
to do big things. The same Jesus who died on the cross, spent
nights in prayer with no one watching. The same Jesus who taught
thousands, spent regular time alone with just 12 men. Jesus did
huge things. He also did small things that paid off big in the
end. If we shoot for the big things but bypass these small ones,
we’ll never succeed. These are the building blocks for the big
hard work God has for us. V.
Hard Thing #5: Do things that go against the grain of
cultural norm. A.
Once again, we look to one of the seven churches of Asia. I
fear there are too many Christians and too many congregations like
the seventh church of Asia, Laodicea in Revelation
3:14-22. Their lukewarm nature did not indicate they were only
halfway on fire for the Lord. It indicated they had been too
influenced by their surroundings. Like hot coffee cools down and
ice water warms up to meet the temperature of the air around it,
the Laodiceans had let their culture impact them too much. Instead
of standing out, they fit in. B.
Look across the religious landscape as each and every
religious group on the spectrum moves closer and closer to the
world because they fear being called judgmental, narrow, picky.
The groups on the left are beginning to accept even the continued
practice of homosexuality, fornication and abortion as acceptable.
Joel Osteen, fearing being seen as judgmental, intimated it was
possible someone could be saved outside of Christ on national
television. C.
This one is last because it is the culmination of the
others. If we do the others, by default we will be going against
the grain of the cultural norm. The point is we have to be ready
for the rest of our culture to be upset at us. Think of the
apostles in Acts 5:29, 41.
They knew they had to obey God rather than men. When the men beat
them for it, they went away rejoicing. They were prepared for
cultural backlash. We must be as well. Perhaps we will be laughed
at, looked down upon, ostracized. We will be out of the loop on
many things our culture is in on. We’ll look behind the times,
prudish, Victorian. D.
The world will not understand why we choose to read our
Bibles and pray when we could be watching television. The world
will not understand why we insist on missing their drinking
parties but keep inviting them to our prayer services. The world
will not understand why we would choose to miss or be late to a
family function, entertainment, recreation or sporting event in
order to assemble with the saints, go to a Bible class or have a
Bible study. The world will not understand why we will not laugh
at their jokes or be entertained by their sins. Not only will they
not understand us for it, they will hate us for it (John
15:18-20; 3:19-21). E.
Here is what will hurt the most, however. We can often take
it when folks in the world mistreat us. However, the real hurt
will come when Laodicean type Christians, folks who are supposed
to be on our side, begin to mistreat us because our doing hard
things is a light that shines on their mediocrity. I don’t mean
this in a judgmental, we’re better than anybody sense. I’m
just letting you know that some of the hardest part of this will
not come from our worldly culture, but from the religious culture
and even from other Christians. When you step up to the plate to
do the hard things and walk the narrow and difficult path of Jesus
Christ, other Christians who want to keep one foot on the broad
path will be among the first to give you a hard time. If the
Alexander of II Timothy
4:14 is the same one as I
Timothy 1:20, we see an example of this very thing—the
unfaithful Christian causing harm to the faithful. We must be
ready for this and stand up to it with gentleness as Paul
encouraged in II Timothy
2:24-26. F.
We are Christians. God has called us away from the easy
path of least resistance that leads to death and destruction. He
has called us to walk a higher road. He has called us to walk the
hard road. He has called us to do hard things. He has called us to
go against the grain of cultural norms. No matter the
consequences, we must add steadfastness, endurance and
perseverance to our faith, virtue, knowledge and self-control (II
Peter 1:5-8). G.
Here is the crux of the matter. If our Lord and Savior was
willing to steadfastly endure persecution and suffering in order
to save us, how much more ought we be ready to steadfastly endure
our culture’s hatred and oppression to glorify Him? No, it’s
not an easy thing. It is, however, the right thing. Let’s stand
together and strive together against those who would oppose Christ
and His will (Philippians
1:27-30) and rejoice when we are allowed to suffer for Jesus. Conclusion: Do hard things. That is going to become a motto for me. I want to encourage you in this Matthew 7:13-14 paradigm as well. We are Christians. God has called us away from the easy path of least resistance that leads to death and destruction. He has called us to walk a higher road. He has called us to walk the hard road. He has called us to do hard things. Let’s do them together.
Glory
to God in the church by Christ Jesus
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