INTRODUCTION
• LONE SURVIVOR CLIP-Wingclips.com
• SLIDE #1
• That was actual clips of Navy Seals in training from the movie Lone Survivor.
• Have you ever felt like you were just holding on for dear life with your faith?
• SLIDE #2
• You feel like you have been struggling so much that you are just glad to make it through the day with your faith in one piece?
• 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?
• 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.
• These are things that will help to keep you grounded and plugged into Jesus.
• 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.
• DO you want to dangle precariously from the rope each time a crisis comes, or do you want to maintain a firm grip on your faith?
• 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, this week let us examine what we need to hold on to.
• SLIDE #3
• 1 John 2:24 (HCSB) What you have heard from the beginning must remain in you. If what you have heard from the beginning remains in you, then you will remain in the Son and in the Father.
• SLIDE #4
SERMON
I. Hold on to the truth you have been given.
• After talking about the antichrists who will try to come in and disrupt your faith, John now starts verse 24 with a reminder that his readers were not a part of those who were deniers of Jesus.
• 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
• 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 that we heard from the beginning must remain or abide in us.
• God has always to my knowledge made being faithful a condition to be able to enjoy His promises and blessings.
• Once again, I do not know where Christians 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 the verse concerning our relationship with Jesus. We cannot believe what EVER we want to be in a good relationship with Him.
• SLIDE #5
• 2 John 9 (HCSB) Anyone who does not remain in Christ’s teaching but goes beyond it, does not have God. The one who remains in that teaching, this one has both the Father and the Son.
• Notice that in 2 John, he spells it out, if we do not remain in Christ’s teachings we do not have God.
• For one to be saved, one must remain in the Son and the Father!
• If we do not remain in the Father and the Son, we do not have a relationship with Him, and without a relationship with Him, we cannot be saved.
• This is part of what Jesus meant in John 14:6 (WAY, TRUTH, LIFE). The only way to the Father is through Jesus. This implies an active relationship with Him.
• In John 10:30, Jesus says He and the Father are ONE.
• TO REMAIN means to SETTLE DOWN WITHIN.
• If what we heard from the beginning remains in us, we then have relationship with Jesus as well as the Father.
• For the Word to remain 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 effect on us, it should make us different.
• Let’s turn to verse 25.
• SLIDE #6
• 1 John 2:25 (HCSB) And this is the promise that He Himself made to us: eternal life.
• SLIDE #7
II. Hold on to the promise you have been given.
• 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.
• In verse 66, we are told that many of His disciples quit following Him.
• Jesus turned to Peter in verse 67 and asked Peter if He was going to leave also.
• In verse 68 we have Peter’s response.
• SLIDE #8
• John 6:68 (HCSB) Simon Peter answered, “Lord, who will we go to? You have the words of eternal life.
• We have been promised eternal life!
• We possess that gift now, we collect later!
• SLIDE #9
• John 6:47 (HCSB) “I assure you: Anyone who believes has eternal life.
• Eternal life is something that Christians possess now, but there will be more to come after Jesus returns. Eternal means “everlasting”, it will never end!
• Jesus has made a promise to you, you can count on this promise, can you rely on the promise of a liar? Can you rely on any promise made by someone who is trying to deceive you?
• What have other religious leaders accomplished to show they can back their promise? Jesus rose from the dead!
• Eternal life is conditioned on holding fast to that which we have heard from the beginning.
• If we are not in fellowship with God, how can we claim any part of an inheritance from Him?
• SLIDE #10
• 1 John 5:11–12 (HCSB) And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. The one who has the Son has life. The one who doesn’t have the Son of God does not have life.
• This is a plain as it gets, we need to hold on to Jesus and we need to develop a relationship with Him.
• Let’s look at verses 26-27
• SLIDE #11
• 1 John 2:26–27 (HCSB) — 26 I have written these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. 27 The anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you don’t need anyone to teach you. Instead, His anointing teaches you about all things and is true and is not a lie; just as He has taught you, remain in Him.
• SLIDE #12
III. Hold on to the anointing you have been given.
• Verse 26 John tells us he has written this whole letter because of those who are trying to deceive us.
• To deceive means to: “to cause one to go astray. The tense of the verb tells us that this was an action attempted on the readers but that had not yet taken place. This shows the continuing purpose of those who are trying to lead us away from God.
• We need to hold on to the anointing we have been given!
• The gift of the Holy Spirit we have been given will help protect our hearts.
• I am equating the anointing mentioned here with the gift of the Holy Spirit that all who are immersed into Christ receive.
• Verse 27 tells us we do not need anyone to teach us. This does not mean we do not need human teachers and that the Holy Spirit will miraculously teach us all we need to know.
• What John is telling us we do not need teachers who will teach falsehoods concerning Jesus.
• The context of the teaching deals with the matters at hand, how to tell truth from what is false.
• The Spirit will reveal to us what is true and what is not. For that to happen, we need to know the truth. The Spirit will call to mind what we have learned from the word.
• The Spirit will bring comfort!
• SLIDE #13
• Acts 9:31 (HCSB) So the church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace, being built up and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the encouragement of the Holy Spirit, and it increased in numbers.
• Without going into a whole sermon on the Holy Spirit, we see from the Acts passage that the Spirit will bring comfort to us. The false teachers cannot do that because God is the God of all comfort! 2 Corinthians 1:3.
• The Spirit will help us in our prayers.- Romans 6:26.
• Let us examine verses 28-29
• SLIDE #14
• 1 John 2:28–29 (HCSB) — 28 So now, little children, remain in Him, so that when He appears we may have boldness and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. 29 If you know that He is righteous, you know this as well: Everyone who does what is right has been born of Him.
• SLIDE #15
IV. Hold on to the heritage you have been given.
• We do not want to hide in shame when He returns.
• Do you remember when you did something that was wrong when you were a child and having your mother tell you, WAIT UNTIL YOUR FATHER OR MOTHER HEARS ABOUT THIS.”
• When I got in trouble, I did not look forward to my father coming home to hear about the evil I had perpetrated against humanity.
• My father could probably tell when I got in trouble because I was not running to the door to greet him when he got home.
• IF we do not hold on to the great heritage we have been given by God through the blood of Jesus, the time of His coming will not be an occasion we look forward to, we will hide in shame because of our unfaithfulness.
• This is not what God wants us to do, He wants us to be able to great Him with enthusiasm!
• Verse 27 speaks of us having confidence when He comes back.
• The word “confidence” was a word used to denote the freedom of speech that one enjoyed in the assemblies of the Greek democratic city-states. This freedom to speak was only given to those who were full citizens.
• The word denotes a fearlessness on are part at the coming of our Lord!
• Practicing righteousness shows we are born of Him.
• If we are born of Him, our lives will reflect that fact.
• IF we practice righteousness, it shows we too are born of Him since our god is righteous.
• In this verse John is not telling us HOW to be born of God, it tell us what one who is a part of God’s family does in practice.
• The fruit does not produce the tree, the tree produces the fruit. Practicing righteousness does not save us; it is a fruit we produce because we are saved! See John 15:1-5.
• Many people feel like they can work their way to God, you cannot. Salvation is a gift, it is a gift that God gives to us, but the gift is conditional, faithfulness is a condition of salvation!
CONCLUSION
• Living out our faith is not always easy to do, it requires us to make some difficult choices at times.
• At times the choices we have to make may not make much sense in the short-term to us, we may not understand what God is doing with us, we may not understand why we are facing a trial we are facing or why we have lost a loved one or why our spouse has not been faithful to us.
• We need to understand that God can take the worst of situations and make it good.
• The answer to the problem we are facing is not to run from God, it is to run to Him!
• Hold on to what you have been given; remember what God has done and has promised to do and you will be able to endure.
• Hold on to the promises of God. If you decide to stray away from God, what do you have to hold on to?
