hitting the wall. It is the worst part of running a marathon. It is when the pain and the exhaustion

and the muscle cramps are screaming at you. It's the time when you both mentally and physically

want to quit at the worst way.

And when the runners hit the wall, they have only two choices.

Either they surrender to their temptation and quit.

Or they keep on running through the wall.

In the last message, we saw that the first evidence of faith is the ability to have joy in the midst of the trials of life.

Because those who persevere running through the wall in the midst of the trials of life. Because those who persevere running through the wall in the marathon of faith

will experience growth and vigor like they have never experienced before.

I don't have to tell you that every one of you, every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, face crucial decisions every single

day, many decisions. Why? Because every day, the enemy of your soul has pointed at you an unseen

weapon, pointed at your heart, and pointed at your mind. Every day, he is tempting

believers to quit and drop out of the marathon of faith. Every one of us knows that temptation.

From our very early experiences, even in our childhood, on a regular basis.

What is that temptation?

Listen very carefully.

The greatest temptation of all is whether we acknowledge our sin and confess it or deny it and rationalize it.

You know, when kids mess up, and I made that mistake many times as a father,

things got going right, and I run up the stairs, and you go in there, and they're all playing together, and you say, who did this? Big mistake. I mean, fingers go everywhere except the

self. He did it, she did it, the devil did it. I mean,

just anybody except self. I'd always love to tell the story where the kid was always eating

cookies before dinner time, and his mother kept telling him not to do it, not to do it, but he kept

...