Never the Same: Wk#2 Standing Firm in Truth

Never the Same: Wk#2 Standing Firm in Truth

Today we are into our 2nd week of a series called "Never the Same”.‌

Four guiding principles that if embraced will guarantee, your life will never be the same!

W‌e are unpacking as a church what we call Our Compass Culture. Why a Compass?

Because we are called to guide people on an adventure to more in life through Jesus.

I want you to experience the more that God has for your life and I don’t want you to get off trail. Why because I want you to say in 2023 that my life will never be the same.

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Nothing is Impossible with God: Adventures in Faith .

If God did it in His Word He can do it in your House!

2020 Free! Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty! FREEDOM!

Last week I said that we live in a disorienting world that makes it easy to get off the path to the life God desires for us. What’s right is viewed as wrong. Up/Down North/South

‌Standing firm in Truth: Adventures in God’s Word

Praying in Wrightville PA as a 19 year old assistant pastor.

1 Timothy 4:12 (NKJV)

12 Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. 13 Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. 14 Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. 15 Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all. 16 Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.

Standing firm in truth begins by having a desire to know the Word of God.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NKJV)

16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Theopneustos : God Breathed

Life; Jesus is the Word; The Hebrew four letters that spell the unpronounceable name of God;

Yud, Hey, Vav, Hey

Despite the spelling, most often pronounced “Adonai.” (LORD)

The Word is profitable for doctrine—that’s what is right; for reproof—that’s what is not right; for correction—that’s how to get right; and for instruction in righteousness—that’s how to stay right. Warren W. Wiersbe

Righteousness is not Subjective

‌Standing firm in Truth

The changing world:

-Truth is relative....

-The pragmitization of truth (If it works for you it must be truth and who is anyone to tell you anything different.)

Trans: This will set you at odds with the standards of the world.

John 17:13-19 (ESV) 13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

Those who claim to be sanctified, while they have no desire to search the Scriptures or to wrestle with God in prayer for a clearer understanding of Bible truth, know not what true sanctification is. Ellen Gould White

Standing firm in truth will set you at odds (the world) but also with the demands of your flesh.

Seeing that God uses His Word of Truth as a key means to bring sanctification it makes sense that the enemy would love for you to not know God’s Word and to doubt his Word

When we begin to doubt Scriptures as being the Word of God a curious, even dangerous, inversion takes place: We begin to judge the Word instead of letting the Word judge us.

We determine what the Word is teaching instead of permitting it to determine what he should believe.

The person that stops standing firm in truth begins to edit, amend, strike out, and add at their pleasure what best fits their desired interpretation of God’s Word.

When we do this we take the posture of sitting above the Word instead of kneeling before God and becoming submitted to the Word!

Examples:

The Christian who fails to allow God’s Word to be the truth he submits his life to is like a man who chops down a tree but still lingers in the orchard hoping for fruit that will never come.

Psalm 1:1-4 (ESV) 1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2  but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3  He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. 4  The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

‌Standing firm in Truth

We stand firm in truth when we line our speech up with the Word of God.

Romans 10:8 (ESV) “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim).

Speak life not death, Hope not despair, Building up not tearing down.

Holy lips not hellish lips, Speech that is pure, not putrid.

This isn’t willing your lips to speak right. This is all about lining up your heart to live right and you can’t do that if you don’t start to desire to know the Word of God.

When we hold God’s Word in our heart our speech will begin to line up with His Word.

Matt 12:34 (ESV) “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks”

We stand firm in truth when we line our lives up with the Word of God.

Before the Word of God can mean anything inside of me there must be obedience to the Word. Truth will not give itself to a rebel. Truth will not impart life to a man who will not obey the light! A. W. Tozer

John 14:22-24 (ESV) 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.

D‌on’t tell me you love Jesus but you don’t love His Word.

I love Amie, I just can’t stand anything half the things she says to me.

I love Amie I just won’t do half the things she asks of me.

A relationship marked by a love that is partially withheld will never create the fruitfulness described in Psalms 1

The tree of that relationship will not grow, it’s leaves will wither and it’s fruit will not manifest.

The deepest question any of us face is whether we do or do not love the Lord with all of our spirit, mind and body.

We have to ask ourselves: "Do I love the Lord, or not?"

Jesus told His disciples that love and obedience were organically united, that the keeping of His sayings would prove that we love Him. This is the true test of love.

Our Lord invites us to Stand firm in the truth.

Colossians 1:10 (NKJV) so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

Modern Christianity is satisfied living tragically below the standard of obedience to the Word of God.

Worldliness is an accepted part of our way of life.

The religious mood of the church is:

Social instead of Spiritual. Casual/Committed. Preference & personality driven instead of Presence Driven. Without obedience to His Word we can’t expect a manifestation of His Presence & Power.

But we can be a people who choose to remedy this by choosing to Stand Firm in Truth.

1. By having a desire to know the Word of God.

2. By lining our speech up with the Word of God. (Both in Faith & Purity)

3. By lining our lives up with the Word of God.

If we do this we can expect to see the fruit of true love that brings for the manifestation of Jesus & all He desires for our lives and through our lives.

Preach/Pray for Repentance