https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Put-Forth-the-Effort.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n\tby Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n\t
Text: Luke 13:23-30<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nI. If I asked you to name a famous inventor, the name of Thomas Edison would quickly\narise.\n
A. Mr. Edison had a strong influence in our society.<\/p>\n
1. He invented the light bulbs which light our auditorium.<\/p>\n
2. He invented the method of distributing electricity to homes<\/p>\n 3. For you music loving teens, he invented a way of recording sound so that\nit could be played back at later times.\n
4. He even invented motion pictures.<\/p>\n B. What was the key to his success, he stated, “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99%\nperspiration.”\n
1. In other words, his success came about by persistent effort<\/p>\n 2. When he worked, he literally forgot everything else. He would forget to\neat or sleep. He was oblivious to the passage of time.\n
II. Why is it that so few reach heaven? That is the question Jesus was asked in Luke 13:23.<\/p>\n
A. The answer is that many desire heaven, but few put in the effort to seek it.<\/p>\n
B. It is the same answer to the question of faith. A living faith works – James 2:14-26<\/p>\n
1. Do you really have faith? How then do you show your faith?<\/p>\n
2. What are you doing?<\/p>\n
C. When someone misses services at the least reason, where is the effort?<\/p>\n
D. Or the times we gather here to study<\/p>\n
1. When people don’t come, what does that say about your faith?<\/p>\n 2. When people don’t study in advance, what does that say about your\ninterest?\n
3. Would you expect someone else to reach heaven with a similar attitude?<\/p>\n E. Suppose someone in a competition went to the meetings but was often late and\nnever practiced. Would you expect that person to win? – I Corinthians 9:24-27\n
1. Brethren we have many in danger of being disqualified<\/p>\n 2. Just how badly do you want to reach heaven? I am afraid many don’t really\ncare. They expect it to be easily gained.\n
F. Notice Paul’s request of Timothy – I Timothy 4:12-16<\/p>\n
1. Timothy was a preacher, yet he was not to allow his youth to be an excuse.<\/p>\n
2. He was to be diligent in these things.<\/p>\n
a. It literally means to keep on practicing <\/p>\n
3. He was to give himself wholly to these things.<\/p>\n a. A. T. Robinson says this phrase is equivalent to being up to your\nears in these things.\n
b. Adam Clarke states it is being fully absorbed in these matters.<\/p>\n
4. To what extent? <\/p>\n
a. So that others can see your progress – Matthew 5:16<\/p>\n
b. It is sad to see far to many digressing instead of progressing.<\/p>\n
G. Christ died for people zealous to do his will – Titus 2:14<\/p>\n 1. Ephesians 2:10 – We are the product of God’s effort. We were created as\nChristians for the purpose of doing good works.\n
2. Not wimps who looking for the easy way into heaven<\/p>\n
III. Such sustained effort means we must persevere<\/p>\n
A. Galatians 6:9 – We can only gain our objective of heaven if we do not grow weary.<\/p>\n
B. We must be careful to maintain our good works – Titus 3:8<\/p>\n
C. Part of the problem, I suspect, is that we don’t reach our goal in this life<\/p>\n
1. It is so easy to let life distract us, to get caught up in daily activity<\/p>\n
2. Satan lures us with sin, taking our eyes off the goal.<\/p>\n
3. Consider those who have blazed the trail – Hebrews 11:8-16<\/p>\n
D. Heaven is only reached if we hold on until the end – Colossians 1:21-23<\/p>\n
E. We must remember the warning of Ezekiel – Ezekiel 18:24-26<\/p>\n 1. It is not a game where if we have more positive points than negative then\nwe win.\n
2. It does not matter what we were but what we are.<\/p>\n
IV. The reason brethren gather is to help each of us persevere – Hebrews 10:23-25<\/p>\n
A. The flowers in our gardens look so beautiful, but what happens when they are cut?<\/p>\n B. When brethren don’t study, don’t attend studies, don’t attend worship, they have\ncut themselves off from the very things that nourishes them.\n
C. Hebrews 10:37-39<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Luke 13:23-30 I. If I asked you to name a famous inventor, the name of Thomas Edison would quickly arise. A. Mr. Edison had a strong influence in our society. 1. He invented the light bulbs which light our auditorium. 2. He invented the method of distributing electricity to homes 3. For you music…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[119,32],"tags":[384,498,635],"class_list":["post-47657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio","category-sermon","tag-diligence","tag-effort","tag-zeal"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":31586,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/put-forth-the-effort\/","url_meta":{"origin":47657,"position":0},"title":"Put Forth the Effort (Campbell)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 3, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bart Campbell Sentry Magazine, June 2000 Thomas Edison has been considered by some to be the \"King of Inventors.\" He once made this statement. \"Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.\" Edison was responsible for the inventions of the incandescent lightbulb, the gramophone, and moving pictures. But Thomas Edison\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Thomas-Edison-217x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14080,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/it-takes-effort\/","url_meta":{"origin":47657,"position":1},"title":"It Takes Effort","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 1, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Text: II Thessalonians 3:6-11 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0How many of us truly enjoy working? \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I, like many of us, dream of times when we can take a moment off and do nothing in particular \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Yet, I don\u2019t like to be idle for long. It grates on my nerves. II.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the beginning \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Man\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":60087,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-hound-of-heaven\/","url_meta":{"origin":47657,"position":2},"title":"The Hound of Heaven","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 26, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Rick Lanning Do you remember this quote? \"No one is good but God.\" Most readers will immediately think of Jesus' reply to the rich young ruler who had run to the Lord, fell on his knees, and asked, \"Good teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15768,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-god-create-the-earth-in-one-literal-week\/","url_meta":{"origin":47657,"position":3},"title":"Did God Create the Earth in One Literal Week?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 18, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by David Dann via The Gospel Anchor, May 17, 2000 On the first page of the Bible, we read, \"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/seven-300x300.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":44664,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-we-praise-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":47657,"position":4},"title":"How do we praise God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 11, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Mr. Hamilton, I hear a lot of people talking about what they do to praise God, so my question is: How do we praise the Father according to His word? Thank you. Answer: In the Old Testament, one common word that is translated as \"praise\" is tehillah, which literally\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7634,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-parable-of-the-unjust-steward\/","url_meta":{"origin":47657,"position":5},"title":"The Parable of the Unjust Steward","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 11, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Luke 16:1-13 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Many find this parable confusing because of the praise of the lord in verse 8. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0How is it that an unfaithful steward, about to be relieved of his position, gains praise from his employer when he ends his career stealing more from him? II.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47657\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}