Stand Fast In Jesus Christ

In this sermon, the speaker focuses on the importance of attaining unto the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He emphasizes that everything else in life is of no value compared to this goal. The speaker encourages the audience to stand firm in their faith and to have a mindset of rejoicing in the Lord always. He also highlights the need for prayer and supplication, as well as thinking on things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report. The speaker concludes by urging the audience to be doers of the word and to live with a commitment to Christ. If you have your Bibles this morning, would you turn to Philippians chapter 4? Philippians chapter 4, and let's stand for the reading of God's Word. I want to continue on from last Sunday morning and evening, beginning with verse 1 and reading through verse 9. Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved, and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. I beseech Jodius and beseech Sinti, that they be of the same mind in the Lord. And I entreat thee also, true yokefellow, help these women which labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellow laborers whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men, the Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things which you have both learned and received and heard and seen in me, do, and the God of peace shall be with you. And we pray, Father, help us to be doers of the word as well as hearers. Enlighten our minds and our hearts in these moments as we feast upon the table of God's word. Jesus said one place we read in the scripture, Father, that His meat and drink was to do the will of the Father. Now, Lord, Your word is clear, it's not confusing, and as we see it, give us obedient hearts to do it. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Thank you, and you may be seated. In the sermon last Sunday morning and last night, last Sunday night, we concluded that what seemed to be most important in Paul's life was that he attained unto the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Everything else seemed to be of no value. In fact, he said that he reduced everything to the value of dung, refuse, in order that he might gain Christ. We talked about how do you do that? How do you reduce everything down to that level? Your reputation, your intellectual abilities, your possibilities, your potentiality for future. How do you reduce it to that level? We said that Paul got it down to the very level of dung. If you had some in your yard, deposited by your neighbor's dog, and somebody came and got it, you would not raise one finger to defend it. You would not do anything to try to keep it in your yard. That was the level Paul said, I've reduced everything down to that level. His intellectual abilities, his reputation, his family background, his religious heritage, all of those things that we rest upon to give us self-esteem. Paul said, I've reduced it all down to there. In order that I might gain Christ, he said, in order that nothing be of any value, enough value that it would get in my way of attaining unto the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, to a lot of us, and maybe even to modern day Christianity, the resurrection is a give-me. It's something that's out there. It's something that's going to come. We know that one day the trumpet of God shall sound and the eastern sky shall divide and the Lord shall descend and we shall be caught up with the Lord. Those who remain will be caught up with the Lord and the graves will open up and the dead in Christ shall rise. We know that, and that's kind of a give-me. But Paul said in Paul's writings, that was not just an event out here. That was a goal for which he pressed. In chapter 3, he said, I forget everything. I put everything behind me and I forget it. And he said, I press toward the prize. And to Paul, the prize was attaining unto the resurrection of Christ. He wanted to be a part of that resurrection. That was a goal to him. And he said, I'm not going to allow anything to get in my way. Therefore, to keep that from happening, I reduce every temple and everything human upon which I have rested, I'll reduce it down to the very lowest level. I will not raise my hand to defend it, for it may get in my way of attaining unto the resurrection of Jesus. For Paul knew that this eternal life of which he was now a participant in, that with it came this resurrection, and with that came the position of sitting on the throne with Christ and reigning with Him. And Paul said, I will not miss that for anything. And so if you read his writings, you find that he looked neither to the left nor to the right, but his eyes were fastened on Jesus and everything he did, he did with regard and in relation to his relationship to Jesus. With we human beings, a lot of times, that is an afterthought. We make decisions and then we say, how does this relate? Paul said, how does this relate? Then he made his decision. Well, let's look at what it says. There are about seven things in here, quickly, that I want to call your attention to, kind of a Christian job description, if you please, of how we live. We have two responses to every circumstance in life. We have the response that is reactionary or responsey. We can react to a situation or we can respond to a situation. Reaction is generally negative and it generally has negative results. Response is generally positive and has positive response. But I'm the one that decides how I'm going to respond or act in this situation, whether I'm going to react or respond. Response is usually thought. Reaction is usually immediate. Now, Paul says in verse 1 here to these people, the first thing he says, if you really want to live this life for Christ, he says, stand fast. No matter what happens, stand. Plant your feet so securely on something, and to him that something was Jesus Christ, that no matter what's going on in your world, your feet are planted. Your feet are solid. The psalmist said it in Psalm 1. He says the godly man is like a tree, planted by the rivers of water. That word planted suggests permanency. You know, there's a lot of people, you see them one day and they're living for God, and you see them another day and they're not. You see them one day and they're fighting the battles, you see them another day and they've given up. You see them one day and they're sold out, and you see them another day and they're not sure. Paul says, brethren, stand fast. I was watching the thing on CNN News the other night. Do you know what the world has finally discovered about marriage? They've discovered that what's lacking in America today is commitment. They've just now stumbled onto that. They've discovered that. A guy, a psychologist writing a book, he'll make a million dollars on discovering that. Been in this book for a long time. You know, church has been saying that for years, and they told us we were nuts. Now the world has discovered it. Commitment. What makes a marriage last is that you can't stand fast in it. I mean, when Margaret and I got married, they said, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, for better, for worse. Been all those things. It was poor when we started. And in 11 months, it got sickness. Because I ended up in the hospital, flat on my back, and couldn't work for a year. She got those first two things right up front. Stand fast, whatever's happening. Paul said, the first thing out of the hat, if you're going to live for God, is make a decision to plant your feet and stand there. Over in Exodus, the children of Israel were on their way out of Egypt, on their way to the Canaan land. They came up to the Red Sea, and they didn't know what to do. And here they were, depending upon who you're studying, anywhere from 600 to 1,000 to a million of them. And here they were with all their sheep and all their cattle and all their belongings and all their kids, and they were on this streak across the desert, headed for Canaan land. And there was the sea, and they couldn't get across. And here came the armies of Pharaoh to take them back to captivity. And the people began to murmur against Moses, said, you jerk, you should have left us where we were. Leave us in our misery. If we've had it long enough, we're comfortable with it. Moses went to God and said, Lord, what do I do about these people? God said, I'll tell you what you do. You do what I tell you. You stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Now, in our world today, you never accomplish anything by standing still. But in God's world, a lot is accomplished by standing still and by waiting. And so they stood there and waited, and here came the army. And at the last moment, the water divided and across they went, and they saw the salvation of the Lord. Stand fast. Paul said in another place, having done all, stand. When God was talking to Moses, he said two things, fear not and stand still. When Tim was about 10 years old, we went to Yosemite one year, camping. We camped right along the river. We had a little hut type thing right not far from the river. Well, one morning, Tim and I got up, it was daylight. We got up, we decided to walk down the river. We walked down the river and here was a walk across bridge. Oh, that bridge was probably about this wide from here to the pulpit. We got out in the middle of the bridge and we were standing, it was a little bridge kind of went like this, and we were looking up and down the river. Tim leaned over the rail and was looking down into the water like this. So I leaned over the rail looking down into the water. And as I was looking down in the water, I was looking to side to side. And as I looked to this side, here came a bear onto the bridge. My immediate response was to run. But he came onto the bridge in a gallop. And before I could decide what to do, he was probably no more than from here to that wall from us. Tim was still looking into the water. And I remembered that scripture and I said, be not afraid, stand still. That's a joke. I was hanging over that rail and my heart, when I was just bouncing on that rail, my heart was pounding 100 miles an hour. And I said, Tim, don't move. He said, what's the matter? I said, don't move. And he didn't move, and I didn't move. And the bear walked right past us and on across the bridge. Sometimes it pays to be still. Be still. Stand fast, Paul said. Then he went on to say in verse 2, love one another. Why? Now I can follow up each one of these points with this phrase, the Lord is coming. That was Paul's concern. The Lord is coming. He wanted these people to be ready for the Lord's coming. Stand fast, the Lord is coming. Love one another, the Lord is coming. Jesus is coming. That's what's important, Paul said. It's not important what's happening to you. What's important is what's going to happen to you. And what's going to happen to you has such magnitude and such tremendousness that what has already happened to you will be so overshadowed by what's going to happen to you, you won't even remember what happened to you. So he said, love one another. And love one another. Love one another, he said. Whatever you do, love one another. Why? Because they deserve it? No. Why? Because you ought to? Yeah. Why? Because you want to? Not always. Why? Because the Lord is near. Jesus is coming. And you know, I don't know about you, but when Jesus comes, I certainly want my attitude to be one of love toward people, don't you? When Jesus comes, I definitely want to be saying something good about somebody. My mother, the big thing when I was growing up was going to show. We didn't do it. There was a lot of things we didn't do. Most of them were right, probably. But when I got up to be and have a car, my folks couldn't, you know, go everywhere I went. And so my mother, being uneducated but extremely wise, sat me down one day and talked to me. She said, son, now you have a car. You have a job. You have money. You're doing pretty well. You know, I had to be home by 10 o'clock. My dad locked the door at 10 o'clock. It didn't matter who was on the other side. He locked it at 10 o'clock. And you could sleep in the car pretty good. I know. My dad went to bed. He didn't get up until 530 in the morning. And my mother said, now you have wheels. You can go and come pretty much as you please now. And we have to trust you. That's OK, because I felt like I was trustworthy. I obeyed my folks. But you know what? One thing I looked forward to was I knew when I got a car, got some money, I could go to the show and they wouldn't know. My mother was smart enough to know that. Now, back then, the shows were about as bad as a Mickey Mouse cartoon, but we didn't go. But we didn't go. Nazarene didn't go. They still don't go. I think. But anyway, so I could hardly wait till my mother got through with this conversation so I could go be grown up and trustworthy. And and the last thing she said to me was, son, how about the shows? I thought, oh, man, I thought we were going to get through this without that. She said, don't be any place you wouldn't want to be if Jesus were to come. Folks, that's not fair to tell a kid that. That's just flat, not fair. I went a couple of times and, you know, they had you came through the door from the popcorn place and the Coke place and you walk through this little door into where the movie was and there was a curtain over that door. Well, you know, the lady or the guy who had the flashlight that showed you where to go. I don't know if they still do that or not, but they didn't show you where to go. When they would bring somebody through the door, they would open that curtain and the shaft of light would go right down the aisle. I went twice. The shaft of light nearly made a nervous wreck out of me. I mean, every time they opened that thing, I looked to see if it was Jesus coming. I thought I quit going. I couldn't stand the psychological pressure of the thing. Whenever Jesus comes, I want to be doing what's right, don't you? I want to be loving folks, don't you? I want my heart clear when Jesus comes. I mean, when I hear the trumpet, I don't want to say, just a minute. I want it to be all clear between me and the Lord. I got to thinking about Malachi 310. It says, bring all the tithe into the storehouse. And God said, see if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing there's not room for you to convey. I got to thinking, I wonder if that just means money. Could it mean my life? I'm to bring my life as an offering before the Lord. All of the things that happened to me, that's my life. You know, this week, my life has been a sum total of everything that's happened to me. That's my life. And so I bring it to the Lord and I lay it out before Him on the altar. I bring my life as an offering. I bring my heart. I bring my hurts. I bring my disappointments. I bring my successes. I bring my relationships to people, whether they be good or bad. I bring them all and I lay them at the feet of Jesus and I say, here is my life. God says, if I bring my offerings and my tithes and I bring them into the storehouse, He will open the windows of heaven and He will pour out a blessing there's not room for me to convey. And there's an interesting little thing down there. He says, and I will cause the foxes not to destroy the fruit of your vine. And I thought, you know, if I bring my hurts and my heartaches and everything that's going in my life, I bring them and I leave them at the altar and I leave them in the storehouse of God. In the storehouse of God, God will not allow the little foxes of, you know, of doubt and fear and hurt and all of those things that I hold inside of me. He will not allow those things to destroy the fruit of my life. Because I've given them to Him. I said, Lord, here's my successes. I put them in the offering plate. Lord, here's my failures. I put them in the offering plate. Lord, here's my hurts I put them and my disappointments I put them. And I don't know about you, but sometimes I've had to pick up people and put them in the offering plate. And give them to God. Because I didn't know what to do with them. I saw someone on the back of a recreation vehicle the other day said, If something you love wants to be free, turn it loose. And if it doesn't come back, hunt it down and kill it. That's what we do a lot. We let go of things because we know that's what we ought to do. And then if it don't turn out like we want, we go get it. And bring it down and jump on it and step it. I've done that every two. I heard the other day, I'd asked God to forgive me the other day. I heard the other day about a man who was called to a church. A very significant church. And I made the mistake of passing judgment on this man's ministry in a moment of weakness. And when I heard that he had been called to that church, I said, I can't believe it. And as quick as I said that, this little voice in my side of me said, It's none of your business. I said, Lord, you're right. I'm sorry. For my humanity. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Chapter 30, And David was greatly distressed, for the people spake of stoning him. Because the soul of all the people were grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters. But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. And here was David leading this band of men. They decided that he was the leader. And God had sent them out to do these things. And they were following his leadership. And they came back. And their village was destroyed. And their families were gone. And the first thing they wanted to do was kill David. And David was discouraged and distressed. But I want you to know what he did. He encouraged himself in the Lord. Why did he encourage himself in the Lord? There wasn't anything around to encourage him. There wasn't anybody to encourage him. His friends were wanting to kill him. There wasn't anybody there to encourage him. There wasn't anything to encourage him with. His family was gone. His resources were gone. His home was gone. His friends had turned on him. There was nothing to do. So he encouraged himself in God. I think maybe that he might have looked back and said, Lord, I remember when I was out on the mountainside with my father's sheep and the bear came. And you helped me to deliver the sheep from the bear. I remember when I was out there and the lion came. And you helped me to deliver the sheep from the lion. Then I remember when I went up against that Philistine giant who was way bigger than me. And you delivered him into my hands. Lord, I believe if you've done it before, you can do it again. He encouraged himself in the Lord. He encouraged himself in the Lord. Jesus did that in Gethsemane. He was headed to the cross and he said, Father, if it be thy will. And he went back to his disciples and they were all asleep. There was nobody to encourage him. He had to encourage himself in the Lord. Have you ever been there? When there was nothing to encourage you. You couldn't get a positive word from anywhere. You couldn't get any encouragement from anywhere. And there was no place to go but to the Lord for your courage and your encouraging it. Well, friend, if you haven't been there, you will be there. Somewhere along the way. He encouraged himself in the Lord. Then I want you to turn over to Zechariah chapter, no, Habakkuk chapter 3. That's right over toward the end of the New Testament. Here's something I'd never seen before. Habakkuk chapter 3, verse 17. There was great turmoil among the children of Israel. And here was the prophet. Look what he said in verse 17. When he heard what was going to take place, it nearly scared him to death. But in verse 17, he said, chapter 3, Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines. The labor of the foliage shall fail and the field shall yield no meat. The flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herds in the stall. In other words, he said when everything has fallen apart, when the economy is down the tubes and interest is so high that nobody can afford to borrow money and there are no jobs and my business is not making it. When all of this happens, verse 18, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the Lord of my salvation, for the Lord God is my strength. Now folks, here's what this simply saying to us. The world, when the circumstances of life are negative, the world has no place to go. But when the circumstances of life are negative to the Christian, he can be encouraged in the Lord. Every one of us can go back to the days when God has answered prayer, when God has made us victorious, when God has caused us to triumph over what is wrong. We can all go back to those days and we can encourage ourselves in the Lord when nothing around us gives us courage. Then he says be kind and considerate. He says not to worry but to pray. Why? Because the Lord is coming. The Lord is coming. I think Paul was saying, no matter how bad it gets, there is a day of deliverance that's not far. But Jesus is coming. And when Jesus comes, then it's going to all be over. My hurts, my heartaches, my failures, my disappointments, everything is going to be over when Jesus comes. And then he says think straight. What do we think about? You say I don't believe, you know, think positive and be positive. Well, okay. But here it tells us what to think about. Think about those things that are good and honest and worthy of praise. Think on those things. And what you think, you'll eventually speak. And what you speak, you'll eventually be. Think on those things. Why? Because the Lord is near. And the last thing he says is do it. We can talk about it. We can discuss it. We can debate it. We can read about it. We can write about it. But he says until we do it, it's of no value. Until I follow through, then it's empty words. And folks, I just want to say to you this morning that every one of these things that we're talked about is the act of the will of the consecrated heart. There are just times when what's happened in your day or what's happened in your life today, you're just really not all excited about being considerate. I mean, you have been kicked in the teeth all day kicked in the teeth all day. The natural thing is just to go home and kick back. But he says, be kind. There are times in our lives when it seems like we have a right to just get down and wallow in self-pity. We've all been there. I mean, I've got a right. I've got it coming. I have not. This has not been a fair day. The scripture says, Rejoice always. Let me tell you something. There are times when it looks to me like worry is the best thing. I mean, when it's closing in around about you and there doesn't seem to be any way of escape, that's the time to worry. But the admonition isn't always the best thing. The admonition is not to worry, but to pray. Worry is negative. Praying is positive. Worry affects me. Prayer affects me and God. Do it. Do it because the spirit of Christ is in me, and that's the thing Christ wants me to do. Once I have this down in my life, there is victory as I walk with the Lord. There is power to overcome because I'm living as the Lord has set forth in His Word. Will you stand with me, please? Lord Jesus, in this congregation, I'm confident that there are those that there are those who love you, but whose life is not a life of victory, but of defeat. It's not a life of overcoming. It's a life of survival. Not a life that flows like rivers of living water. It's a life that has to be pumped continuously. It's a life that has to be filled with life. But, O Lord, in your Word we read that he that believeth on me as the Scripture saith, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. Lord, we believe that's what it means. We believe that out of every heart that can be the case. But it can only be the case out of the surrendered heart. That is determined to devaluate everything except gaining Christ. It can only happen in that heart that's willing to give up what from a human standpoint seems to be their right. It can only be that in the heart that surrenders not to man, but to God. It can only be that in the heart that's willing to take up the cross. And follow. It can only be that in the heart that's willing to die. Be transformed in newness of life. I pray this morning, O God, that there is one in this room that way. That your Holy Spirit will create in their heart a desire. To be fully surrendered. Totally committed. Sanctified wholly. That their goal with Paul may be that I may gain Christ. I wonder as we wait in these moments, just a few, there's one who would slip to the aisle and come for a closing prayer and say, Preacher, I'm tired of the struggle. I'm looking for that eternal peace in my heart. No matter what takes place in my life, there's peace in my heart. I desire the peace in the midst of the storm. That's the desire of my heart. I want to come. I want to do business with God. I want to make that step today. I believe Jesus lives in my heart. I've confessed my sin. But I am at struggle inside. I am at struggle. I'm not at peace. But I want to be. I want to pray. Anybody like that this morning? You come? While we wait. Are you? You may be here this morning and say, Preacher, I'm not a Christian. I've never bowed my knee. I've never confessed my sins. I'm lost. I'm without Christ. I know I would have died a day that I'd be separated for God. I would not be with Christ. I would not go to heaven. I know that. Because I've never confessed my sins. I would like to come to Christ today. Anybody like that? Just step, come to the aisle. Come and kneel here. God bless these. Hear any other? We wait for you. I need some men who will kneel with this young man. And some ladies who will kneel with these ladies to my right and pray. With them. God bless you. Thank you. Thank you. Father, for the presence of your spirit, which we feel in our heart, we give praise. And we pray now for these who have knelt here, that victory shall be complete. That Satan shall be defeated in every aspect of their lives. And that Christ shall be victorious. And that they shall claim that victory in their own soul. We pray for those who may have needed to respond, but did not feel to do so at this time. O God, may your spirit continue to deal with their hearts, we pray. And pray for your protecting hand to rest upon these people as they go from this place. Keep them safe, O God, from harm of any kind. May your angels hover over this congregation throughout this day. May, O Lord, the spirit of worship pervade our hearts throughout this day. Our minds are turned upon you. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.