Symptoms Of Backsliding (Hix)

1-Pride-Matthew 26:33-35

Some people think they have been a Christian so long that it can’t happen to them!

Some people think that they have so much will power, strength or courage, that they would never deny Jesus or let Jesus down! (Their confidence is not in God but in themselves!)

2-Getting Comfortable Or Sleeping-Matthew 26:40-45

Be Alert-1 Peter 5:8, Mark 13:32-37

What happens to us Christians is we get relaxed, we quit praying for ourselves, for our family, for our friends, until something tragic happens, then we are awake, then we are alert, then we are focused!

3-Reverting To The Flesh-Matthew 26:51

One of the ways we can tell if we are backsliding is that we try to solve problems in the flesh, in other words not allowing God to intervene, (This person was not urged, or compelled by God but acted out of his own accord!)

When we try to do things the way we have always done them, then we are backslidden!

4-Following At A Distance-Matthew 26:58

When we start distancing from God we are backslidden!

You know, when we don’t spend as much time in prayer, or bible study, or we don’t give as much as we once did, then we are backslidden!

When we talk one way in front of our Christians friends and another way in front of our other friends!

When act one way in front of our Christians friends and another way in front of our others friends!

5-Sat With The Servants-Matthew 26:58

He was trying to fit in, trying to blend in, when ever we try to blend into the world, whenever we try to fit into the world, we are backslidden!

We are in the world but we should not be of the world!

We haven’t affected the world because the world has affected us!!!

We haven’t influenced the world because the world has influenced us!!

There should be something different about us!

6-Standing In The Gateway-Matthew 26:71

Peter was halfway in and half way out.

Has your parents ever said to you as you stood in the door way, “Either get in or get out!”

That is the way a lot of people are they want to follow God, but also they want to do what they want to do!

7-Then He Began To Curse And Swear-Matthew 26:74

His continue backslidden ways had lead him to a complete denial that he had known Jesus!

That’s what happens to person who stays backslidden, you can not even see any evidence that they had ever know the Lord or ever followed Him!

One minute he is sitting with the Lord and within a few short hours he is denying he even knew the Lord!

You see how slipper it is, how quickly you go down, when your backslidden!

But it don’t have to be that way, there were 12 disciples who let Jesus down, who fled, who ran, who deserted Him, but only one was not forgiven, not because Jesus deny it, but because maybe Judas thought he had gone to far away from God, for God to ever forgive him….Maybe that’s the way you are today, you think you have done to many bad things in your life, you think you have backslidden to far, but I have great news for you today…Jesus will come to were you are, just like He did for Peter and Thomas and the rest of the disciples!