Lord, you are holy, you are righteous. Lord, you’re so good. Father, would you help us see you for who you are. Holy, righteous, good, loving. And Lord, would we just be in awe of your presence. That we get to come to you to call you Father. That you care for us, that you know us by name. That you work in our lives. Lord, we are so grateful. I pray in Jesus name, amen. You can be seated.

I think for about 25 years now, I’ve known Jonathan Autry. We’ve been friends for some of that time. Just kidding. We’ve been friends for all of that time. I took my first mission trip to the Dominican Republic. I was 14 years old and we connected then and we’ve stayed friends ever since. The things that God has been doing in my family, my family’s lives in ministry, God has been doing in yours and brought us on a journey. It’s been cool at a distance to kind of take that journey together. And it’s been really neat seeing what God is doing.

And we just came back from seeing you on a missions trip. We got to be with you, your wife, Janine. Janine, I won’t ask you to come up here. Your daughter Addie, your daughter Maya, and we love your family, even JJ. Amen. And if you don’t know JJ, you’ll understand why I said it that way. JJ’s awesome.

But I’m so thrilled that we got to spend a little bit of time with you and your ministry. Got to do the VBS, got to do some other things. And it was really awesome just to see God work. And I’m not gonna say all of it. I know you wanna talk a little bit about that, but to see God work and to how he moved in that way. And we got to stop at a couple of churches and see churches that God is using your ministry to plant. And if you don’t know this, Jonathan and his dad over the last 20 years. 35. Over the last 35 years, have planted 63 churches. And it’s incredible, yeah. And it’s incredible.

Now, if you know me, I’m that kind of person that comes in with a big bold idea, not knowing how it’s gonna work, not having any details. And I just say, hey, we should do this. And you can ask Pastor Corey, he has to deal with that on a regular basis. But when I was down in the Dominican, I just kind of felt led to say to you, hey bro, we should go from 63 to 100. And I said in 12 years this morning, talking with Jonathan and Jonathan said, I believe we’re set up to see it done in 10 years. And so I’m praying to see you plant another load of churches and just see the Dominican Republic get reached. And so please talk about the trip that we just did, but also a little bit about how you’re training national pastors in your college to continue to plant churches and all God’s doing in your life. Love you bro, preach to us. Amen, definitely.

Well, good morning, Northwest. It’s a privilege always to be here with you all. I’m accompanied by my wife and children, as Pastor said, and that’s always a big deal for me. They really weren’t supposed to be here with me. And the day I was booking my flight, my wife’s like, can we just all go? We need some time as a family. I was like, yeah, let’s go. But we’re so thankful for the group that came and visited us and helped minister with us. It was an amazing time.

Our ministry has been going through a lot lately. There’s a lot of growth, a lot of great things happening. And your church came at a very good time for us. We got a shot in the arm that we desperately needed. Here’s the church, by the way, Eden that you guys last year gave towards it’s in its final stages. They’re meeting, they’re bursting at the seams. Can’t wait to get up into the upper level of that building where they’ll have space to grow to 250. Right now they’re running a strong 80, but there’s no place for them to sit. They’re standing up. Their pastor, Rafael Espinal, is doing an amazing job. And you guys helped us do a youth conference. And actually, Pastor Espinal’s sons, he has three sons, they all served on the worship team, along with my children, some of our youth, to lead worship for our youth conference, where he had over 350 kids coming every night. And your pastor brought some amazing messages. The team did a wonderful job just keeping everything clean, feeding the kids and everything. It was a lot, it was a lot. We had a lot more kids than we expected. And so many decisions for Christ. It was definitely a highlight for us this summer and our team. So thank you, thank you, thank you for your faithfulness coming and just ministering to us and alongside of us.

As Pastor said, with my wife, my daughter, Mariah, we’re here also on a dual trip. She’s going to be looking at a local college. And hopefully, the Lord will let her see what she wants to see and make a decision as to where she wants to go to college. I’m also accompanied by my middle daughter, Adeline. And then JJ, if you see some random child you’ve never seen, it looks nothing like me rolling around, because you just bought some Heelys on your property. That’s my son. He’s something else.

It’s times, and this point of the year is a highlight for me, because it means kids go back to school, particularly my son, JJ. So it’s a great time for me to see him go off to school. And you guys just be praying for us. As we continue to minister in the Dominican Republic, our heartbeat is to raise up national leadership. Our heartbeat is to raise up pastors and help them aid them any way we can so that they can go out and they can reach their communities. They can go to the places God has called them. They already speak the language. They already know the culture. We just have to train them up so that they can go do what God’s called them to do.

And I have a message I want to share with you this morning entitled, Keep on Running. Keep on running. Not going to lie, your pastor threw me a curve ball this week. I thought I was going to be preaching on Psalms. I had all my messages ready to go. And he says, hey, we’re going to take a break from Psalms. We’re done with that. So figure stuff out, Jonathan. No, and I had a great time on the plane. I think God knows why he does what he does. And immediately, for some reason, I just had peace to go to a part of scripture that I hope is an encouragement to you.

Ministry is tough. I’m not here to complain. I’m not here to paint a sad story just to encourage you to empathy, encourage you to encourage others, encourage you to participation, or just plainly to encourage you to keep doing whatever it is that you’re already doing. Ministry can be lonely, humbling, repetitive, and the list goes on. Point is, following Jesus was never going to be easy. He never promised us that. Whoever told you following Jesus and serving would be easy. It was just a desperate children’s pastor who needed more volunteers. And I have a special heart for all of you volunteers that serve in children’s ministry. It is so needed, and it’s one of the places where we just need people to love on kids, show them the love of Christ, and show JJ that there is hope for a future.

Paul understood and lived these sacrifices. He lived the sacrifices. He lived the struggles, and he lived the stabs of ministry. I call them the stabs of ministry. He did it far more than anyone I’ve ever heard of. This guy was all in. Besides our Savior Jesus Christ, I can’t think of anyone that I look up towards more than Apostle Paul. I mean, not only was he just a phenomenal man, but he was a missionary. So as a missionary, I identify with Paul. I look at what he did and how he did things. And so many times in ministry when I feel down or when I feel like I’m just not being effective, or I feel like just the world is caving in, I look towards Paul, I see how he dealt with what he dealt with, and I try to imitate who he was.

And you know, Paul was a somebody. There’s about three different scriptures in the Bible where Paul kind of gives credentials as to who he was. And he was somebody of great importance. In Philippians 3, verses 4 through 7, he says, “Although I have reasons for confidence in the flesh, if anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more.” It’s kind of a bold statement from Paul to say that. He had reasons to say that. And if you go in and see the context of why he’s saying this, the way he’s saying it, you’ll understand that he wasn’t being prideful at all. Verse 5 says, “Circumcised the eighth day of the nation of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews regarding the law of a Pharisee, regarding zeal, persecuting the church, regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless. But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ.”

I want to kind of like break this down and explain what he’s saying here. If anyone thinks he has credentials, let me share mine. Let me tell you who I am. Let me tell you where I come from. I was circumcised according to Abraham, symbolizing the covenant between God and the Jews. I know and enforce the laws. I was the symbol of the law. Anything worth mentioning, though, I would lose for the sake of Christ. It means none of this is important because at the end of the day, the only thing that is important is Jesus Christ. Anything I am, anything I’m able to do, I would just give it up if it’s for the cause of Christ.

Showing up means being selfless. When you hear selfless, we might immediately think of the word selfish. I think that’s where my mind goes to. I want to help you out into understanding a little bit more what selfless might mean for us as Christians. It means putting all the stuff behind you, putting all the stuff behind you. I got a lot of stuff in my life. I would love for people to think that, oh, the missionary Jonathan Autry, he’s just-- oh, we’re in the Dominican Republic just doing great things for God’s kingdom. He doesn’t have a concern. He’s just all in, sold out for the kingdom. I mean, I would love nothing more than that in my heart of hearts. But I deal with stuff just like everyone else. I have to kill the flesh on a daily basis. I have to put God first on a daily basis. This idea of being selfish or selfless is something that I’m still trying to learn. Put all the stuff behind me and put all God’s stuff in front of me. It’s all simply not as important as Him. That’s what Paul was saying here.

2 Corinthians chapter 11 is probably a part of scripture that I have gone to most in life because I know that I have gone through a lot of things. I’ve gone through a lot of struggles. I’m very open about things that I have to deal with or things that I go through, especially with my congregation. It’s not because, again, I’m trying to paint a sad story. I want people to know I’m no different than you. I have anxiety, tremendous anxiety. You want to see me be anxious? Tell me what time my flight is tomorrow and you’ll see an anxious man come out. I don’t know why I’m so anxious about flying, making sure that nothing’s left behind, making sure I have all of our documents in order, making sure we make it to the airport on time. We were at the airport the other day for me and my family four hours before our flight because my kids are technically illegal in the Dominican Republic. My wife and I, we got all our paperwork, but we didn’t do any paperwork for the kids. But the thing is, it’s not considered illegal in the Dominican Republic as long as you pay the fee when you leave. So after a year and however many months it’s been that my kids have been there, I have to go to this special counter, pay the fee. Like, hey, thank you for saying so long. You can leave now.

But 2 Corinthians chapter 11 is just inspiring to me as someone in ministry and as a missionary. I hope it’s an encouragement to you as well. 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verses 21 to 28. I’m gonna read a couple of verses and we’ll just go little by little and walk through it, okay?

Verse 21 says, “I say this to our shame, we have been too weak for that. But in whatever anyone dares to boast, I am talking foolishly as I also dare.” When you read this verse, it’s kinda hard to pick up on what Paul is doing. And this is another reason why I love Paul. Paul was a very sarcastic person. You just read Galatians, Ephesians. You read how he talked sometimes and you’re like, how was he able to talk to fellow believers like that? As a pastor, if I ever talked to my congregation like that, half of them won’t come back next Sunday. But that’s just how Paul was. In true Paul fashion, he was very sarcastic and he was very direct.

In verses 22 and verses 23, he shares some light credentials about himself, not to boast, but to let people know that he belonged where he belonged. He was what many considered a somebody. But in verse 23, Paul starts to lay out a different type of resume, an amazing resume that few of us will ever comprehend.

Now the title of the message again is, Keep On Running. One of my favorite pastors, a man that I just admire so much and I look to so much. Whenever I am discouraged, whenever I’m walking through something that I feel is just a little too heavy for me to bear, I’ll text him. Learn something from my generation. We ask permission before we call. Hey, are you available? Yeah, can I call you? Yes, calling you. And his advice, I don’t know why I keep calling him because his advice is always the same. He says, Jonathan, you just gotta keep showing up. You gotta keep showing up. You just gotta keep going. You just gotta be there tomorrow when the office hours are open. You just gotta keep showing up. You gotta keep on running. I’m like, man, that doesn’t really help me in this stage or where I’m going through. I need something more than that. And again, this is kind of where I end up.

2 Corinthians 11, verse 23. Are they servants of Christ? I’m talking like a madman. I’m a better one. Again, pretty bold statement from Paul. With far more labors, many more imprisonments, far worse beatings, many times near death. And chapter 11, and in the verses we’re gonna read, the resume that Paul brings before the church is everything that he had suffered for the cause of Christ.

And when I say keep on running, keep on showing up, I understand that hurt is a real thing. I would never put someone’s hurt off to the side. But this is so encouraging to me when I see all the hurt that Paul went through for the cause of Christ. We’re so quick today as a Christian generation, we’re so quick to let everyone know how hurt we are. You could say, amen, it’s okay. We’re so quick to victimize ourselves. We’re so quick to say how things aren’t fair. And then I just read Paul’s resume of scars. And I’m like, why am I complaining? Why would I even open my mouth to some of the things that I talk about?

He says here, I have worked so hard. I’m sure a lot of us today could say I’ve worked really hard too. My dad’s been at this far longer than I have. And I have been a part of those 63 churches. I’ve been a part of growing that leadership and training that leadership. And when someone says, wow, there’s been 63 churches started in the Dominican Republic and you’ve had a part in that, my heart is humbled and I feel so proud of what God’s done. And I could say we’ve worked really hard, but I would never, ever, ever put myself on that level of where Paul’s talking from, speaking from. And I’ve had it easy when I compare myself to him. Some people are against comparison. I’m not, I think it sets a standard for me. It sets something for me to look towards. It sets something for me to try to aspire to. It allows me space to grow and know where I wanna go. When your pastor challenges us with 100 churches, I’m like, I don’t see that happening anytime soon. I do tell him, I think we could do it in 10 years, but there’s gonna be a lot of stuff that has to go behind that for us to be successful. And believe me, you, one of those things for it to be successful on that list is not Jonathan Autry.

Again, going back to Paul, he says, I’ve worked so hard. I’m sure many of us have also. I’ve been through so much pain. I know you have too. I’ve been through it. I’ve been in jail quite a bit. I can thank the Lord this morning. I haven’t been to jail yet. Now some of you might have, and some of you could probably give an amazing testimony of how your life was turned around after certain things happened and you ended up in jail. But let me remind you something. Paul wasn’t in jail because he sold something he wasn’t supposed to sell. Paul wasn’t in jail because he went into someone’s house who he wasn’t invited to. By the way, that almost happened to us the other night. Got to our Airbnb and I’m knocking on this person’s door and trying to get the code in at 3.30 in the morning and the ring thing just kept going on and on. Come to find out our Airbnb was behind the house. That was an interesting morning for that family when they saw this random just coming up trying to get into their house. He had been in jail for the right reasons because of his faith, because he was trying to do something for the kingdom I would never compare why my hardships have led me down hardships because my hardships have never been because of ministry, because of Christ.

He says here, “I’ve nearly been killed on several occasions.” I live in the Dominican Republic. I’ve probably been in some really dangerous places. I’m kind of calloused to the dangerous places. When someone tells me, oh, you don’t want to be here, you don’t want to be there. I’m like, oh, that’s nothing. I don’t see the danger. I don’t feel the danger. I kind of feel it now because I have a wife and kids. But Paul had been in real danger. People tried to murder him, kill him. We don’t understand that.

It says verse 24, “Five times I received the 40 lashes minus one from the Jews.” Now, whether that was because it was almost a death sentence or because something 40 lashes was the maximum punishment and no one wanted to accidentally serve 41 lashes, that’s why they would do 39, just in case one slid in there that they forgot to count. I don’t know the reasons. I honestly don’t. Regardless of that, Paul suffered this five times. Not once, not twice. He didn’t strike out at three times. He suffered this five times. No one’s ever whipped me, not even once. And I could almost guarantee you this morning, if that was a threat to serve God, I would probably think twice about what I was doing as a profession. I’m just being transparent with you this morning. Paul was all in. It’s like he was a glutton for pain. It’s like he just, he’s like, “Bring it on. I’m gonna keep showing up. I’m gonna keep running the race.”

Verse 25, “Three times I was beaten with rods.” I have almost been beaten with rods by my wife. Once I received a stoning, I mean, you understand that the intention of a stoning is to kill the person. Three times Paul was drug out to the middle of the town or city and nearly beat to death with sticks. One time they even stoned him with the intention of killing him. Then it says three times he was shipwrecked. This is definitely something I couldn’t do. I don’t do boats. I don’t like to go out to the deep sea. If that’s you, that’s great. I’m not an adrenaline junkie. I don’t need that. Going out and the boat going down is like one of the worst fears I could ever have. I attribute that to my dad making me watch Jaws when I was only like six or seven. So just to me to think that he had been shipwrecked three times, that’s one more time than Gilligan. That was over some people’s heads, I get it. Once he even spent close to 24 hours in the middle of the sea.

Verse 26, “On frequent journeys, I faced dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, dangers amongst false brethren, toil and hardship, many sleepless nights, hunger and thirst, often without food, cold and without clothing.”

Verse 27, I kind of have this idea of mission groups and mission teams when they come. There are certain things that I try to do for you, certain things that I feel needs to be a part of your experience so that you will come back, okay? I try to feed you well because if you’re fed, I feel that you will be more productive for me, okay? It’s kind of selfish, right? I also wanna make sure that you have a good, clean bed with air conditioning, because again, if you sleep well, I’m gonna get more out of you the next day. And I try my best not to put you in danger. So I feel if I can do those three things, you might come back and you might serve and you might encourage us some more and you might help us see some kids, teenagers and adults get saved. But it seems like Paul was looking for opportunities not to sleep at night, not know where he was gonna go, not know what he was gonna eat. I mean, this was just daily life for Paul.

Again, 63 churches, we started two Christian schools in the last three years. I’m pastoring three congregations right now. And my dad will say, “You gotta slow down, son.” I mean, I can’t slow down. Look what Paul was doing. I haven’t even come close to measuring up in any way, shape or form to Paul. And he’s the guy I’m looking towards. He’s the one I wanna be like. I gotta keep showing up. I gotta keep running the race. There’s too much that has to be done. I’ve traveled so much. Ohio, my son, he loves Ohio because he learned that if he just randomly in any public space says OH, people respond to him. So he’s like, he’s going through Walmart, going down the aisles on his Heelys, rolling down just every time he sees three or four people, OH, and he’ll get a laugh out of it.

I think two or three times I drove from Florida to Ohio on Deputation. I don’t know why. Just kinda seemed, no, one time it was from Virginia and then another time it was from Florida. That’s a long haul. Now, when I was on Deputation, that’s when we raised funds so that we could be missionaries. I had some rules for my family. When we stop, we all use a bathroom, we all eat and we fill up with gas. That’s the only reason we stop for those three things. Nothing less than that. Because I’m doing all the driving. So those are the rules. 24, 26 hour hauls, no stopping. Hotel, I couldn’t afford 120 bucks for a night at a hotel. I’m driving through to where I can go stay for free. That was my mentality. We were struggling. Again, I say that out loud, but it’s nothing like what Paul struggled with. And I don’t even know when I was in danger. I don’t even know when I was nodding off or sleepy. I don’t know all the dangers. I don’t know all the times that God’s angels were around us protecting us. But I can understand where Paul’s coming from when he says that he did all this for the cause of Christ.

He says he was cold without proper clothing. We’re cold this morning. You guys aren’t, but me and my family are cold. I told Anthony, I’m like, it’s cold this morning. I need a jacket. He’s like, I’m sweating. Did you guys know there’s a big old huge fan up here? Think your pastor had that installed when he came here.

Verse 28, not to mention other things. There is the daily pressure on me. My concern for all the churches. That’s an amazing man right there. It’s like, you know, all that stuff, pretty hard. All that stuff, kind of uncomfortable. A lot of pain, a lot of sacrifice, a lot of stabs. But you know what, at the end of the day, what really gets to me is, I’m just really concerned about all you guys and all the churches and all the things that God’s done and making sure that you guys can keep it together and you could stop quarreling amongst yourselves. I’m just concerned. I want you to be successful. I want to see you guys start other churches.

Man, Paul, I understand, because this morning I’m texting like four or five of my local pastors. Like, how do you feel this morning? Guys ready for church? Got your sermon ready? Concern for the churches. Telling my church secretary, I’m like, hey, you guys got everything under control for the service this morning? Did my dad get there on time? I almost got here late this morning.

Not to mention other things. There’s the daily pressure on me, my concern for all the churches. And moreover, the weight of the church, the weight of you all, the daily pressure of each one of you. Paul didn’t say it to make them feel bad. It’s just while everyone else was wooing the church with all the amazing and exciting things that they were boasting about, Paul was only explaining and showing the battle scars he had accumulated. We talk about the crowns. When we get to heaven, the crowns, I’m gonna throw at his feet, and trust me, I wanna throw crowns. But you know what I want? I wanna also be able to say, here Lord, look, these are our battle scars. This is what I went through not because I needed to show you a battle scar, but because I was willing to do whatever I could do. To serve you.

Derek Redmond, don’t know if you’ve heard of him, a British sprinter who was able to hold some national records in his time, was no stranger to pain and loss. In 1988, his Olympic dreams were crushed when he had his Achilles injury, just moments before competing. But after a few surgeries and a lot of pain and a lot of work, Derek made it to the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, only to have his dreams shattered again after pulling his hamstring mid-race. He was on the ground in pain for minutes, seemed like a really long time. But for some reason, Derek decided to get up. And in agonizing pain, he got up in front of hundreds tens of thousands of spectators and continued on. As he limped towards the finish line, a random man made his way out running towards the track. He was running so fast that the security guards couldn’t keep him from reaching Derek. This man put his arm around Derek, held him, cried with him, and continued to help him towards the finish line. We don’t know the name of this man, I don’t know the name of this man this morning, but I do know one thing, that man was his father. It was his father who came to his help and helped him finish the race. He got to keep on running.

Pain is part of the process. You’re gonna face it. It’s not always gonna be easy, but you gotta keep getting up and you gotta keep going. And when you feel like you can’t go anymore, guess what? Your heavenly father’s gonna come down, he’s gonna take you in his arms, he’s gonna help you finish the race. You gotta keep showing up. You gotta keep running. I don’t know what you’re going through this morning, I don’t know what kind of pain, church pain, co-volunteer pain you’re going through. I don’t know why you’re offended. I don’t know what’s keeping you from living out the potential or the calling that God has on your life. But I would tell you this morning as a missionary that doesn’t know you, keep on showing up, keep on running.

Lord, we thank you so much for this morning. We thank you for the faithfulness of Paul, that through great adversities, he was faithful. Through great adversities, he kept showing up, he kept running the race. Lord, may our battle scars, may those things that have caused us pain be a testament to your faithfulness. May we get up, may we continue the race, may we understand that you are greater than anything that we’ve ever faced. You’re greater than anything we’ll ever face. May we approach those things that you’ve put in front of us, those trials, tribulations, those ministry opportunities with courage, with selflessness, knowing Lord that we might not be strong enough, but you are, and that we could do all things through you because you are the one that strengthens us. All these things we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.