Hold On! Series

INTRODUCTION

• Have you ever felt like you were just holding on for dear life with your faith? You feel like you have been struggling so much that you are just glad to make it through the day with your faith in tack?

• SLIDE #2 You felt like you were dangling over a cliff

• Last week we looked at those who would try to get us to forsake the truth for something that is not true.

• Each day we have to make decisions concerning our faith, will we stand strong or will we give up ground?

SLIDE #3

• As we try to grow in our faith, it is important for us to realize there are some things we need to hold on to if we are going to have a strong faith. There are going to be some things we need to hold tightly to if we are going to have a real relationship with God.

• For those who have been with Jesus a long time, it does us well to remember these things we must hold on to. When things get tough, what are we anchoring our hopes upon?

• When you get to where life seems to be a struggle, I hope you will focus in on these four areas that will help keep you faithful and strong. Last week we looked at not letting people trick you into quitting your faith, or letting them convince you that what you believe is unbelievable.

• Let us look at 1 John 2:24-29 together this morning.

SLIDE #4

SERMON

I. HOLD ON TO THE TRUTH YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN. VERSE 24

After talking about the antichrists who will try to come in and disrupt your faith, John now starts off in verse 24 with a reminder that they were not a part of those who are a denier of Jesus and with such being the case, their response needs to be different that one who would follow the false teachers.

One of the reasons we need to hold on to the truth we have been give is because: SLIDE #5

1. Salvation is conditional

• This thought seems contrary to what we hear a lot of folks espouse these days concerning the issue of salvation.

• Notice what John encourages us to do. He tells us we must let that abide in us that we heard from the beginning.

• God has always to my knowledge made faithful a condition to be able to enjoy His promises and blessings.

• Once again, I do not know where Christianity ever got the idea that God did not require faithfulness on the part of His children.

• This is one of the things that God the Nation of Israel in trouble with God so many times through out their history.

• There is a BIG little word “IF” in this verse concerning our relationship with Jesus. We cannot believe what EVER we want to be in a good relationship with Him. SLIDE #6

• 2 John 1:9

• Notice he says that “if what your heard…abides in you…you will abide in the Son and Father. SLIDE #7

2. For one to be saved they must abide in the Son and the Father.

• If we do not abide in the Father and Son, we do have a relationship with Him, and without a relationship wit Him, we cannot be saved. SLIDE #8

• Jesus tells us further in John 14:6 that the only way to the Father is through Him. This implies a relationship with Him. SLIDE #9

• In John 10:30 Jesus reminds us that He and the Father are one. SLIDE #10

3. To abide means: to “settle down within”, or to “remain in”.

• If what we heard from the beginning abides in us, we abide in the Father and Son!

• For the Word to abide in us, it takes more than just hearing it, it must be given a vital place in one’s life, it has to have an affect on us, it should make us different.

• This is a process that takes time and effort on our part.

• The next thing we need to do is: SLIDE #11

II. HOLD ON TO THE PROMISE YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN. VERSE 25

• When we are tempted to forsake what we believe, when we are tempted to fall away from what we have in Christ, we need to ask ourselves what has been promised to us.

• If you fall away from God, what assurances or promises can you count on from the place you are going to?

• In the latter part of John 6, Jesus was popular, the disciples seemed to enjoy some notoriety. Then Jesus started to teach some things that were difficult for the followers to handle.