Taking A Stand

Taking a Stand

1. Welcome to FLC!

a. Acts 17:26-27 - “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the

whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they

should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find

him, though he is not far from each one of us.”

b. Your faith is about to be tested in ways you never imagined.

i. Up or down, survive or thrive?

ii. But you donʼt have to fall.

1. Romans 14:4 promises that God can keep you from falling.

c. G.K. Chesterton described the opposition you will face this way, “You are free in our time

to say that God doesnʼt exist. You are free to say that He exists and is evil. You may talk of

God as a mystification or metaphor. But if you speak of God as a thing like a tiger as a reason

for changing oneʼs conduct, then the modern world will stop you if it can. We are long past

talking about whether an unbeliever should be punished for being irreverent; it is now thought

irreverent to be a believer.

i. Professors will try to destroy your faith.

ii. Friends will try to manipulate you to be who you are not and do what you donʼt want to do.

iii. The pressures of life will try to distract you from the God you love.

iv.Fear, passivity, laziness and comfort zones will try to keep you from the life God has for

you.

d. Taking a stand in those situations will be hard but...

e. 2 Cor.4:17-18 reminds us that they are “light and momentary troubles” that “are achieving

for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” And encourages us to “fix our eyes not

on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is

eternal.”

f. Heb.12:1-2 tells us “since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw

off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with

perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and

perfecter of our faith.”

g. If you will follow Him and take a stand for your beliefs you will flourish and grow here.

2. Taking a stand means supporting and demonstrating your core beliefs in your identity, speech

and actions even when those beliefs are opposed by the mainstream.

a. Neda Soltan, protesting the injustice of the Iranian elections earlier this year, was shot in the

chest, dying almost instantly. Caspian Makan, Nedaʼs fiance, later told the BBC that “Neda

had said that even if she lost her life and got a bullet in her heart, she would carry on.”

Coincidentally her name, Neda, means “voice” in Persian” and the stand she took for her

beliefs made her the continuing voice for the Iranian democracy movement.

b. Tank Man is the name he is remembered by and his identity remains a secret to this day. On

June 3rd, 1989, in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China, anywhere from 200 to over 2,000

Chinese college students were massacred for taking a stand for there freedom. Two days

later, as tanks were pouring into the city to secure it from further protests, Tank Man put

everything on the line, standing in the path of the oncoming tanks, halting their approach. The

stand he took for his beliefs continues to inspire millions around the globe.

3. Taking a stand for your beliefs means publicly defining yourself as a follower of Christ.

a. All this comes out of love.

i. What do you love, what are you passionate about?

ii. What if I didnʼt wear this ring or talk about Erin and Eliana?

1. I love them and am excited to publicly define myself as their husband and father.

2. Mt.12:34 - “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”

iii. When I truly love God people around me wonʼt be able to miss it!

b. Taking a stand for God requires taking a risk and risks can be dangerous.

c. Tony Campolo described that danger, writing, “So many people tiptoe through life, so

carefully, to arrive, safely, at death.”

d. The Persian King Xerxes put it in perspective reminding us that, “Only by great risks can

great results be achieved.”

e. I want to encourage you to take risks by taking a stand for God here at FLC.

i. Get yourself into a situation where if God doesnʼt show up youʼre in trouble.

1. Remember David defeated Goliath, against all the odds.

f. 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 tells us how to do that, saying, “Be on your guard; stand firm in the