'It All Feels Useless!' Don't Give Up, Look Up!

A man that I really admire, he's on the foreign mission field. He was back in the United States and he was preaching on the spiritual warfare. And he said this, he said, you get out there on the foreign mission field and here's the devil and he's whispering in your ear, look, there's no fruit. You're useless. The people don't want you here. You need to give this up, go home and sell shoes. But I'll tell you this, the same thing can happen to the mother who's trying to homeschool her children. It's not just out on the foreign mission field. It's look at this, look at all your efforts. Your children aren't learning. You're spanking them. There's no fruit there. This just seems like it's going nowhere. The neighbors are probably going to call that, you know, child protective services on you. I mean, you're pouring it, you know, teacher, you can't do half as well as out there in the public school system. You're just, you hardly know that math yourself. Look at this, the house is a mess. You can't hardly, you can't hardly take care of the children and teach them, let alone keep your house in order. The whole thing's just a failure. I mean, look at that and see what the devil can do is get us to the place where we feel like the whole thing is just in vain. The whole thing is so, you're a single, you're trying to be pure and you can feel like, wow, I just don't feel like I'm getting any victory in this. I feel like I'm in the same place that I was a year ago or five years ago or 20 years ago. You can just feel like all you're working for sanctification. It's like, I'm trying to work. I want purest thoughts. I want a life devoted to Christ. I want that. I want to pray like I ought to. I want to, I want these things. And here's the devil, he's upon you and he's screaming and he's saying, look, this whole thing is impossible. Nothing works. These difficulties aren't worth it. It hasn't, Christianity just promised you so much and what, ah, look, what has it really delivered? Sanctification. Seriously. Sanctification. Where are you at? Look at the thoughts you had run through your head just this morning. Sanctification. Sanctification. Where has all this really gotten you to? And you get a poor brother, poor sister, and they can feel so wounded and they can feel that everything is uphill, the, the striving, the struggling, I mean, you can start feeling like what's the use and what's the point of it all? I think it just seems like, it seems like nothing's changing. It seems like I'm right at the same place. I mean, the Bible says, the Bible says resist the devil and he'll flee from you. But I feel like the devil is just as entrenched and standing as strong as ever. I'm the one that feels like I'm going to give way. I'm the one that feels like I'm going to depart and, and run. It feels like he's stronger. It's right here that scripture says, Christian, on with the helmet of salvation. Your redemption is at hand. Lift your head and look. And you see, got to look at the hope of glory. You've got to look up at the reality that there is an eternal weight of glory, that all these coming ages, there really is God there to show kindness and mercy and just lavish it upon us. There is the joy of the master. This is there. There is a full salvation. You're going to be like him. This, this look up. You see, scripture tells us, Christian, don't get weary. Don't let that happen. Don't become weary in doing good. Why? Because you are going to reap if you keep going. This excerpt comes from the full sermon, Taking the Helmet of Salvation, Our Hope, in which Tim considers how the hope of final salvation helps us in the present, in our battle with the kingdom of darkness.