“A
Plan to Stay” By Chris Ulrich December 6th,
2009 Pastor Thomas has told us many times: “Get saved, stay saved, and see others saved.” This is one of the more well-known landmarks we have in the church and in Christianity in general. Today I’m going to be focusing on the staying saved portion of this statement.
This
message had three parts:
What keeps us?
What hinders us?
How do we know where we are at? What keeps us? Thankfulness,
forgiveness, and endurance. Colossians
3:14-16
Let the peace of God rule
in your hearts and be ye thankful
So
what do we need to do in order to remain in the faith?
Well, one part of our plan starts with being
thankful and it’s a lot like that verse that says, Rejoice
in the Lord always and again I say, rejoice.
Only it says, “Be thankful in the Lord always
and again I say, be thankful.” I
remember the still small voice of God speaking to me on one particular
occasion. It wasn’t
any grand profound
booming declaration from above but it had my attention, that’s for sure. These were the words, “If
you remain
thankful, you’ll never go wrong.”
That
was in 1994 which I wouldn’t say is a long time ago but it certainly
wasn’t
yesterday. And I’m
thankful to still be
here. The point
here, though, is that
this being thankful is something that applies to all of us. I’m convinced it will keep
all of us if we
want to be kept. Matthew
6:9-15
And forgive us our
debts, as we forgive our debtors There’s
also a
lot to be said about being forgiving if our plan is to stay in the
faith. Our General
Pastor in the church, Pastor
Paine, shared a few years back about a couple who’d been married for
fifty
years and when the gentleman was asked what was the key to their
success as a
couple his response was simple yet poignant, “Forgive
fast.” I’m
not saying it’s always easy and more than likely it’s going to be
difficult
more often than not. But
we need to be
able to dig deep to find that extra measure and ultimately realize that
it’s
for the good of our own soul more than anything. Matthew
24:12-13
He that endureth to the
end, the same shall be saved. To me there’s an entire sermon in this verse but that’s not going to be my sole focus this morning. But it’s definitely a component. What does it mean to endure? Well, it’s pretty simple and it’s not as though its definition is of any private interpretation. We have to keep ourselves in Christ and continue to plan every day to serve God. We have the choice of whether or not to serve God, but we have to be aware of the consequences if we choose to walk away. We also have to realize that we can’t force anybody else to live this life either. Everybody will be judged only according to the things they’ve done individually. What
hinders
us? Complacency, Lust of the Flesh, Disobedience Revelation
3:14-19
Because thou art lukewarm
I will spue thee out of my mouth God spoke to John the apostle and said He would rather that people were hot or cold, because, if we’re lukewarm, He will spew us out of His mouth. Being complacent in Christ is the most dangerous condition to be in because we’re in between carnality and spirituality. But there are always warning signs that God will give us whenever we need correction. It’s not like He finalizes our judgment without warning us. God’s will is that nobody perishes but that all would be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. It’s important for us to know that God cares for us greatly and that He will guide us and direct us in all things. Luke
21:34-36
Take heed to
yourselves lest your hearts be overcharged with the cares of this life The opposite of what was shared in the first part of this message is going to be what hinders us most. Being unthankful, unforgiving, unholy, and all other manner of sin that is listed in Galatians 5 will keep us from running the race. But the truth is that it pays to know that in our flesh dwells no good thing. That’s why we have to yield ourselves to the leading of the Holy Ghost in order to overcome the lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. Psalms
106:13-15
And God gave them
their request, but sent leanness into their soul What’s
interesting about this passage is that it’s God word to Galatians
5:7-9
Ye did run well, who did hinder you
that you should
not obey the truth? And what’s interesting about this passage is that it’s God word to us in this modern time, not the church down the street, or the Muslims, or the Buddhists, or the Atheists or whoever else we can think of. This message is to us in 2009 and soon to be 2010. How do
we
know where we’re at? We need to know where we stand with God otherwise our emotions could dictate wrong information. Life is enough of an emotional roller coaster ride that we can’t let the highs and lows of everyday life adversely affect us. Trying the spirits is important discernment that we need to understand. 1
John 4:1-3
Try the
spirits So is knowing the voice of God. John
10:27-29
My sheep hear my voice So is having a made-up mind to take hold of eternal life and know that we have to make the choice as individuals and that’s where the expression, “I’m not going to go to hell for anyone” comes from. Don’t make the mistake of compromising the message to accommodate others. It’s not being selfish, it’s called deliverance. I want to put some emphasis on that again. We’re not doing anybody else any favors by compromising the gospel for them. So what kind of plan do we have? Is it a plan to get saved, stay saved, and see others saved? Or is there something else that we think is more important? Oh, there is plenty in life that’s important, make no mistake. But remember, God gave us this life in the first place and so there is no second place. If we trust in the Lord with all our heart, take one day at a time, and make sure that our plan is to do the will of God for however long it takes we will never go wrong. Sermon notes by Pete Shepherd |
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