On May 14, 1804, Captain Meriwether Lewis and Second Lieutenant William Clark set off from Camp Dubois, Illinois, with 45 other men to find the most accessible path to the Pacific Ocean. This expedition was the vision of the current president, Thomas Jefferson, shortly after the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. As they started up the Missouri River, they expected western America to be similar to eastern America. Their canoes would be sufficient transportation to reach the Pacific Ocean as they would look for a river to lead them west to the ocean. However, instead of finding a downstream path to the ocean, they found “the most terrible mountains [they] ever beheld.” Their expectations were completely wrong as there was no Northwest Passage, no river, no water route. The temptation of turning around was in their minds. But instead, they endured the obstacles ahead of them. Being faithful in their journey for 862 days, they completed their expedition to the Pacific Ocean and back.
We have heard it said, “Life is a bowl of cherries” (song by Ray Henderson). We have heard it said, “Life is like a box of chocolates” (Forrest Gump). Maybe we need to say that sometimes life is like the terrible mountains we were not expecting. How do we journey forward when our expectations are wrong, and life is more challenging than expected? Yesterday at Wednesday’s Men’s Connect Group, we read from Romans 15. What encouragement did it bring as we read together:
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope. (Romans 15:4 ESV)
Let’s break this passage down as we look at Paul's message.
Scripture leads to Encouragement.
Where does our Encouragement come from? Paul writes in Romans that our encouragement comes “through the encouragement of the Scriptures.” When was the last time you have been discouraged? Did you go to the Word of God? Remember Joshua in the Old Testament? There he is, leading the Israelite people. Most likely, there were more than one million of them. Their fearless leader, Moses, is dead, and they still haven’t reached the promised land. God was about to call them into the promised land where there were men the size of giants (Num 13:32-33). Yet the word of God was, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed [discouraged], for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Jos 1:9).
You can be discouraged or encouraged, but you cannot be both. We can choose to believe the many promises of God and cherish them in our hearts, or we can ignore them. However, there is something significant that comes when we stay encouraged.
Encouragement Leads to Hope and Endurance
Encouragement gives us hope to believe in better things for our future. It’s “through the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope” (Rm 15:4b). The word hope in Greek is Elpidzo, which doesn’t just speak of an irrelevant hope but of the expectation of good things. Remember, we serve the God of Hope (Rm 15:13), we love with hope (1 Cor 13:7), we have been born again into a living hope (1 Pet 1:3) and we wait patiently for the return of Jesus with hope (Titus 2:13). How did Lewis and Clark have the strength to endure and push through those ‘terrible’ mountains to get to the pacific? Through holding onto hope. As believers, we have more than just getting to our earthly destination. We have hope of eternal life (Titus 1:2)! When that hope is living in us through the encouragement of the Word, we will keep enduring, no matter the ‘terrible’ mountains we face.
Enduring together
The true story of Lewis and Clark is interesting, not only because they both played such an essential role in the expedition, but because they journeyed with and were strengthened by 45 other souls. When will we realize that if we are going to endure in our faith, we must endure TOGETHER?
Romans 15:4, as we read above, is in the context of other instructions. Paul continues to write in verse 5-7.
May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. (Romans 15:6-7)
Our God is the God of hope, endurance, and encouragement! YES! But we must stay encouraged in harmony with one another! We must worship God together with one voice. And we must keep welcoming one another as Christ welcomes us!
Can we recognize that our culture has a technology problem? This problem isn’t just with young people, but with adults of all ages. TVs, smartphones, tablets, iPads, laptops, smart watches, you name it. We are bombarded with screens of entertainment twenty-four-seven. We think we don’t need anyone when we have screens to entertain us.
Yet, God’s Word reminds us over and over that we need each other! God called us to do life together, to worship together, to welcome others together, to encourage and read scriptures together, and to hold onto hope together. This is why being part of a small group and building relationships within the body of Christ is so important. Having a small gathering of people who you can know and love is part of being a Christian, and it's how we grow and walk in discipleship.
I Don’t Want to be A Burden!
When it comes to opening up with other people, some feel, “I don’t want to be a burden to someone else.” Or maybe one would say, “I don’t want to deal with other people’s problems.” Here again, we look to the context of Romans 15, as the first verse exhorts us:
We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. (Rm 15:1-2)
How can we build up our ‘neighbors’ and those who are weak if we never meet together? How will we find the encouragement and hope we need in the scriptures if we won’t be vulnerable and share our shortcomings with others who are stronger? The fear of being a burden to someone is a lie from the enemy to keep one away from the encouragement they need to endure. The enemy wants you to give up, throw in the towel, and turn back.
Romans 15 gave us a different word for us today that the world throws us mountains sometimes when we were expecting gentle streams. Through God’s word…Together, WE can endure through any obstacle ahead of us as we hold onto hope and await the coming of our glorious king Jesus.
1Tod Bolsinger, Canoeing the Mountains: Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory, (Downers Grove,
IL: IVP Academic, 2018), 27
2Patrick Gass, journal entry; cited in Stephen E. Ambrose, Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson and the Opening of the American West, Kindle ed. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2013), loc. 5988.
3Bolsinger, Canoeing the Mountains, 27
4Rick Renner, Sparkling Gems From the Greek 1, (Tulsa, OK: Harrison House Publishers, 2003), 685
