Recently I passed by a church sign that displayed, “This Week’s Sermon: I Quit”. While continuing my drive, I contemplated what the major point the sermon would try to convey. Would the pastor provide reasons why Christians quit on God; why Christians stop coming to services; why Christians stop giving of themselves in helping to build the kingdom of God? Or would it be based upon something else?
Throughout the Scriptures you will find individuals who did “quit” on the Lord; some quit temporarily, while others completely walked away. Here are some examples. The apostle Paul spoke of a man named Demas who was a fellowlabourer during their church planting in Philemon 1:24,
“Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellowlabourers.”
However, later on we find that Demas had completely quit on the Lord’s work as recorded in 2 Timothy 4:10,
“For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.”
We find in John 6 that Jesus was teaching His disciples the difference between the manna that God temporarily provided His people in the wilderness, and that Jesus is the “bread of life” that God has eternally provided all of mankind for those who will by faith receive Christ as Savior. Many of the disciples, however, could not understand Jesus’ statements when He spoke about “eating of His flesh, and drinking of His blood”. It was pointed out that the words of Jesus were hard to understand.
John 6:60-61 states,
“Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you?”
Unfortunately, instead of trying to understand the words of Jesus they subsequently, as John 6:66-69 states,
“From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.”
In Matthew 26 we read of the betrayal of Judas and that the men sent by the chief priests and elders came to take Jesus for trial. We also read that all the disciples fled the scene.
Matthew 26:47-56 states,
“And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people. Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast. And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, master; and kissed him. And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? Then came they, and laid hands on Jesus, and took him. And, behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest’s, and smote off his ear. Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be? In that same hour said Jesus to the multitudes, Are ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves for to take me? I sat daily with you teaching in the temple, and ye laid no hold on me. But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled.”
Further reading of the folks listed in the above examples shows that some never came back to the service of the Lord, yet others did return and became greater servants of the Lord. Throughout your service unto the Lord the enemy (Satan) is going to do everything within his power to get you to say, “I Quit!” The causes will vary; it may be the result of not understanding God’s Word, and/or believing that it’s too hard to follow God’s Word; it may be that you tried to serve the Lord in your own strength, instead of the Lord’s, and you became burned out; it may be that some tragedy came into your life and instead of running to the Lord, you ran away from the Lord, even blaming the Lord for the issue. Regardless of the cause, God states in Hebrews 13:5b-6,
”…, for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.”
The bottom line is that we must learn to trust the Lord and His Word, and above all, “Don’t quit!”
