Stand Firm In Faith Series

STAND FIRM - 1

May 19, 2019

I’m at a point in life where I really don’t like to go camping. No offense to you campers! I really prefer to be in a nice comfortable bed, with good showers, a breakfast buffet, a pool and a hot tub. I’m not asking for much, but that’s kind of my starting point.

There’s a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, I prefer comfort vs. expense. I’ll pay the extra money to have a good night sleep in a secured room, which locks, as opposed to someone just walking into my tent.

The 2nd reason I prefer a room vs. a tent, is that I don’t want to face the elements. I can’t think of nothing more fun than to endure a sleepless night of wind and rain and cold in a tent. I’m joking!! If I can avoid it, I will.

Have you ever seen people who have endured a night of wind and rain and cold in a tent? That next morning they don’t look too well. They turn into angry cats!

You see, this applies to more than camping and my comfort. Ultimately, it’s about the foundation. There’s not much of a foundation in a tent, or even a camper, but in a cabin or a hotel, you have a firm foundation. You know you’re pretty secure, you’re in an immovable object. You trust you can stand firm.

Well, for the next 4 weeks we’re going to be talking about what it means to stand firm in our faith. That we can be immovable when whatever hits us in life. That’s because we have a confident faith in Jesus. It’s because we really believe in His promises. We trust that what He said is really, really true, and it’s not just something we’re kind of hoping for.

Because of this, you can face any storm in life. Whether it’s financial, physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, or relational. So, the point of the next few weeks is to help each of us build a better foundation so that when the storms of life hit us, we can withstand them, standing firm, safe and secure in Christ.

A few weeks ago, we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus. Now, we’ve moved beyond that. We’ve put away our Easter decorations, the bunnies and the Easter eggs, and now we’re getting ready for Christmas! It seems that way. I think Christmas decorations will be out soon.

In reality, we tend to forget and move on from these great days too quickly. And not only do we move on, we get stuck because we don’t always hold onto the power of these great days. Life has a way of overcoming us and we get sucked in. We end up in those tents filling up with water. Our foundations get shaken and we struggle to stay above the knee deep water.

Maybe you’ve been rocked by finances, maybe it’s your marriage or your career that’s suffering, maybe it’s something really personal, or maybe it’s something physical or emotional that’s making you struggle, maybe it’s a failure, a lack of success, maybe it’s an illness or a death. Whatever it is, you’re just trying to survive through the storm, but folks . . . I don’t want any of us just to survive, I want us to thrive . . . to thrive through the power and glory of Christ.

One of the things I really want to do throughout the year, is to occasionally bring us back to the resurrection. So, that’s the basis of this series. As we use the resurrection to move us forward in our faith relationship with Jesus, so we thrive in the midst of the storms. We need to hold onto the promises of Jesus.

Do any of you worry? That’s kind of a silly question . . . we all worry. We worry about ourselves, our families, our friends, even the world. And too often we get stuck worrying. So, let’s look at some promises from God.

The promise that God will give you peace when you are worried.

Imagine what the disciples were feeling on that first Easter. They were not only worried, they were scared. They didn’t know who would be next. Jesus, their leader was dead. They didn’t know how they would overcome that. For now, they were anxious and afraid. John tells us –

19 On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for FEAR of the Jews,

Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “PEACE BE WITH YOU.”

20 When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.