{"id":873,"date":"2024-02-22T20:18:59","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T20:18:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chuckhilltoday.com\/?page_id=873"},"modified":"2025-12-15T21:04:46","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T21:04:46","slug":"a-faith-that-endures","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/chuckhilltoday.com\/index.php\/a-faith-that-endures\/","title":{"rendered":"A FAITH THAT ENDURES"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A FAITH THAT ENDURES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philippians 1:6 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

INTRODUCTION:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good morning. I hope you\u2019re all doing well. As usual, it\u2019s great to see you here today! Thanks for making this worship service a part of your weekly schedule. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week a few of us were able to take in a baseball game at the Furman<\/strong> field<\/strong> after church. It was a beautiful day, I wish more of you would have been able to join us. But we watched as the teams battled back and forth, until finally \u2014 the Furman<\/strong> Paladins<\/strong> put the NC<\/strong> Aggies<\/strong> away. It was a great game.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, it got me thinking \u2014 in baseball, when the guy who throws out the first pitch is also the guy who throws out the last pitch, it’s called a complete game<\/strong>.\u00a0One<\/strong> pitcher<\/strong> from beginning to end. Now, that didn\u2019t happen last week. They went through a few pitchers during the game. In fact, its pretty rare for a pitcher to pitch a complete game.\u00a0One of the best at this in our day was a Philadelphia pitcher <\/strong>who retired from MLB<\/strong> in 2013<\/strong>, his name was Roy Halladay. <\/strong>This guy was amazing. He actually pitched 67<\/strong> complete<\/strong> games<\/strong> throughout his lengthy career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, a hundred years ago this was a little more common. But today \u2014 it just seems to be much more rare. During the early days of the 1900’s<\/strong>, there was another guy<\/strong> that was a lot like Halladay<\/strong>. He seemed to finish what he started. He pitched for the Chicago Cubs \u2014 between 1901-1906. And during that time, he did the unthinkable. He actually pitched 187 consecutive complete games.<\/strong> His name was Jack Taylor.<\/strong> And here\u2019s the thing…in that day, when a manager<\/strong> handed the ball<\/strong> to a pitcher, the expectation was, \u201cYou\u2019re going to start the game; you\u2019re going to finish the game.”<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This days, the game has changed a lot. And so, very few who start the game ever finish it!\u00a0It\u2019s pretty common for ball clubs today to pay pitchers $20 million dollars<\/strong> or<\/strong> more a year<\/strong>, and never expect any of them to finish!\u00a0Finishing is a rarity in baseball today! <\/strong>In fact, if a pitcher goes six innings\u2026(not nine, not eight, not even seven), just six innings\u2026and only gives up three earned runs or less, then he gets credit for something called a quality start.<\/em><\/strong>Isn’t that incredible?\u00a0You don’t have to finish. Just give us a quality start,<\/strong> and then we’ll bring in a relief pitcher from the bullpen to relieve you so that you don’t have to finish the game!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I served on staff at Woodland Church <\/strong>in Brownstown, MI<\/strong> (a suburb of Detroit<\/strong>), we had a pretty large pastoral staff \u2014 and all us would sit together just off the right side of the platform (at the front). And somehow, that area became affectionately known as the \u201cBullpen\u201d<\/strong>. Now, I\u2019m not sure who started it…or why it seem to stick. But, it did!\u00a0But here\u2019s the thing — I used to wonder,<\/strong>\u00a0 if one of us were preaching and we were really struggling\u2026and things just weren\u2019t going very well, would it have been appropriate for one of the other pastors to step up, put the arm around the guy preaching and say,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You know son, I’m sorry. You just don’t have it today, so I\u2019m going to bring in a RELIEF PREACHER<\/strong> to finish this message.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Could you imagine? I\u2019m sure there were times I could have really used that kind of support! Hopefully that\u2019s not something that we need around here. But think about it.\u00a0Wouldn\u2019t it be nice to have that kind of support in other areas of our lives?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n