The God That Stands

Good morning. Welcome. Glad you are here

Pray

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This mornings message I hope inspires and motivates, convicts and grows, encourages and edifies all in one sitting.

The church as gotten soft.

The church has gotten comfortable with being comfortable.

The church has gotten weak.

The church has gotten submissive to the world not Jesus.

The church has grown to accept sin as doctrine

The church is not standing.

Well actually the church is standing, standing on sin and sand not Jesus and the solid rock

It is common place to have Christians whose lives look like, sound like, and are as the world’s. Opposite of Christ by the way.

I love each of you sitting here this morning and those joining us online. Again I pray this message meets you where you are and moves you to start to head to where God wants you to be

It won’t happen overnight but before you leave here this morning you can be fully committed to taking a stand and being fully committed to Jesus to walk the path He has for you to walk regardless of your feelings,

regardless of your family's feelings,

regardless of your situation

regardless of your circumstances

Stand.

Put your foot down because you serve the God who put His foot down

How did God put His foot down....look no further than the cross.

God in the flesh,

conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born to a virgin,

rejected and beaten by the people He came to save.

Turning religion on its head

Making everything about relationship not religion

Taking things from physical to spiritual

Tearing the wall down between God and man

Tearing the wall down between Jew and Gentile

Making God available to All who believe

God put His foot down

God also puts His foot down in regards to sin

All have sinned

The wages of sin is death

God hates sin

God cannot stand sin

If you don’t hate sin and cannot stand sin you are wrong

Yes we will sin

Yes we will fall

But today the church and Christians have gotten comfortable with sin

I John 1:9 says if you confess you will be forgiven

so very true but so many use that as a get out of jail free card.

But beyond that many refuse to confess,

Many refuse to humble themselves and admit their faults confess their sin

Search the Psalms and look at how David reacted to his sin and the sin of others

If God put His foot down to send Jesus to die for sin you must also die to sin when saved by Jesus

You all, everyone in this room and online including myself struggle with sins we are comfortable with

Sins that we say

I know it is wrong but do it

or think it

or say it

or believe it anyway

Jesus died for that sin you must die to that sin

Put your foot down because God already put His foot down

Church this is life and death eternally

You must be on the right side of this thing if you truly are a Christian

I am not saying if you struggle you are not a Christian

I am not saying that if you have not died to sin that you are not a Christian....you are wrong and I am wrong when we choose to sin but that doesn’t mean not saved

We have been sold a rotten bill of goods and that is this:

Because we will sin, God says so, then it is okay if we sin

NO!!!!!!!!!!

That is destroying the church

That is destroying your relationship with Jesus

That is destroying your marriages

That is destroying your relationship with your kids

That is destroying your chance to witness to the lost God puts in your path

Church we will move heaven and earth for our kids to participate in travel sports or 4H or some other activity but blame the church for them not going to church camp or growing in Christ

Shame on you!

You are teaching your kids that travel sports and other activities are your god and an idol to you

no wonder they want nothing to do with church

Where you spend your time is where you heart is.

Some of you are sacrificing your families eternal well-being on the altar of work

You consistently choose work over family and for sure choose work over Jesus

Some of you are sacrificing your families eternal well-being on the altar of the lake or some other hobby.

Can’t be committed to church but can’t miss a lake weekend or a round of golf or a time to fish or flea market or whatever it is

God took a stand so you could have eternal life, you must take a stand and put your foot down because of eternal life!

Church God preached this sermon to me as I wrote it and I know how heavy this can be.....embrace Him.....

embrace the work of conviction in your life....

embrace the love of the Father who wants what is best for you not just what is good......

a Father who longs for a personal relationship with you.....

a Father who longs to be number 1 in your life

He gave everything so you can have everything.......

This world is evil and hurtful and wants to kill you....steal from you....destroy you.....Jesus wants to give you life and life abundantly

Time and time again you choose the world......put your foot down....take a stand.

Ephesians 6:10-18

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“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;”

This is the basis for what God wants to bring to you this morning.

I want you to get many things today but one of the most important is your job is to put on the armor and stand.

You only gain access to the armor through accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and only able to put it on and stand through the power of the Holy Spirit.

You can put your foot down and try to stand on your own and you will be destroyed. You are no match for the enemy without Jesus and Holy Spirit

Vs 10 tells us that. Be strong in the Lord

Be Strong comes from a Greek verb meaning to empower, enable, strength

The Lord empowers you

The Lord enables you

The Lord gives you strength

The Lord allows you to be strong and to put your foot down and stand.

No matter the circumstances

No matter you emotions or feelings

if you are a christian you are empowered by God to defeat those things in your life

it may not feel like it in a physical, worldly sense

It may not look like it in a physical, worldly sense

But spiritually you are stronger than anything you face because of God.

This is foolishness to the lost because they do not have the Holy Spirit

I want to look at 2 scriptures here

John 14:26

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“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”

Luke 12:12

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“For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.”

Holy Spirit teaches you all things.

Holy Spirit brings to remembrance the scriptures when you need them

The Holy Spirit is the comforter

Some of you refuse to put your foot down and stand for God because of discomfort.

I am not saying the Holy Spirit takes away difficult and painful situations and circumstances in fact I am promising you those will increase as you stand but what I am saying is that through the Holy Spirit you will have comfort in the midst of those things

The Holy Spirit also gives you words to say when you need them

This terrifies many of you

You want to know ahead of time what to say but that is not what Jesus says

When you need them they will be there through the Holy Spirit

Trust

Put your foot down

Stand and know that you will receive exactly what you need when you need it

Be strong in the Lord!

I highly encourage you to spend this week digging into the armor of God.

I am not going to focus on the armor this morning. I wanted you to hear it read out of the word of God but I want to focus on what to do once it is on.

Stand

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Notice it is not you doing anything but putting on the armor of God and standing.

It doesn’t say put on armor and fight or defeat or go to war with the devil

He is already defeated!

He fights

He attacks

You put on the armor of God and stand.

This is not the only place in scripture we see this

I want to quickly look at two passages in I Corinthians

I Corinthians 15:1-2

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“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.”

I Corinthians 16:13

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“Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.”

Both of these pointing to the same thing....stand...

If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior you are going to go to heaven when you die…

the devil may kill your physical body but he cannot touch you spiritually.....

that is what you stand in and upon

Now why do you have to stand?

Because you will wrestle against things more powerful than you that is why you must stand in God with His armor upon you and His Spirit within you

back to Ephesians

You will wrestle with things

First notice in vs 12 you DO NOT wrestle against flesh and blood

Your fight is never with humans or physical

NEVER

We don’t wrestle against people

Do you set boundaries against dangerous people YES but you do not wrestle against them

I have been asked if a gay couple came into this congregation what would you do.

I would welcome them and love them because Jesus died for them just as He died for me

I would speak the truth of the gospel and scriptures to them

I would have boundaries however

I would not allow them to be in a leadership position in the church

They would not lead worship

They would not bring a communion meditation

They would not bring a message or testimony until Jesus was their Lord and Savior and they were walking in the Spirit instead of the flesh.

The devil has sold

and the world has bought a lie

Love = acceptance

Disagreement = hate

That is not truth

God loves you so much He sent Jesus to die for you

God refuses to accept your sin. Period End of Story

If God could accept sin Jesus wouldn’t have had to die

You and I get caught up in the wrong things

We want to fight people when as a Christian who is spiritual you should see the problem is not the person but the power behind the person

Let’s look at what you and I are to put our foot down or wrestle against

Principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places

People say the world is powered by many things

Money

Sex

Drugs

Worldly power or influence

pleasure

The list is limitless

Those things are not what powers the world

Humans have never and will never have any power on their own

We are created beings totally dependent upon something greater

Flesh and blood are no match for spiritual

There is truly only one true force in this world and it is God

He has allowed satan to be the power of this world,

the prince of the world until time for all to repent and come to salvation has elapsed.

When the time comes God will destroy all who are against Him including satan

God has true power and control

satan has the illusion of power and control and people believe the lie and are going to hell

That is what we wrestle against the power behind the person not the person themselves

This is why you must put your foot down and stand against all evil.........toe crush alert…just saying

Look at secular music

There are countless artist who openly display and worship satan in their concerts

Sam Smith is one of those but there are many others

How do they do this

upside down crosses on stage or in costumes

dressing as the devil or having background dancers dress as devil or demons

lyrics against God and Jesus and honoring satan.

This is nothing new by the way....ACDC worshiped satan in many of their songs

I strongly encourage you to do some digging on who or what you are listening too

Stand.

Refuse to allow evil in your homes and hearts

put your foot down!

Putting your foot down and standing will never be comfortable

It will almost always cost you something

It will hardly ever be at a convenient time in your life

I want to look at an Old Testament passage that shows a true example of taking a stand and putting a foot down in a real tangible way

Daniel 3:13-18

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13 Then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. Then they brought these men before the king. 14 Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up? 15 Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands? 16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. 17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. 18 But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

You and I have never experienced true human captivity

We have never had a foreign army conquer our land and take us hostages and force us to live under their rule

We experienced that spiritually…born sinners…lived in captivity to sin and death but were delivered from that by God through Jesus

Imagine for a moment what that would be like

Land taken by force

Government rules everything

Religion dictated by someone else

Comply or die

This would require you to stand for Jesus

To truly trust God

These three young men did just that.

They choose to trust God and comply with God rather than with man and therefore faced physical death

Stand

Put your foot down regardless of the cost

These young men were slaves

Captives

But had worked themselves, through the blessing of God, into a good place

a comfortable place many would say

They were in great standing with the king

It would have been so very easy for them to give in and conform and pretend to serve other gods

to bow to the golden image and live and probably gain earthly rewards for doing so....money....life of ease…fame throughout the land

So many “Christians”, yes I used quotes, sell their souls for money and power and fame

They sell out.....

trade temporary earthly accolades for eternal damnation and separation from God

Not these three

They were willing to die a horrible death instead of serve and worship other gods

Stand.

Put your foot down

They said we may die but we will never serve another god or bow to a golden image!

Church you must stand in your own life!

You all struggle with stronghold sins…things like

porn

alcohol

drugs

theft etc etc etc

others struggle with

thoughts

time to study God’s Word

desire to study God’s word

still others struggle with putting doctrine ahead of relationship with Jesus

being so tied to tradition and the way they think things should be that they are like the religious leaders of Jesus’ day and miss Him completely

Most if not all struggle to live by God’s ways

Christians you are to live and love as Christ lives and loves

You are called to lay down your lives

You are called to preach the gospel

You are called to stand

Talk about God and Jesus in every conversation

Some struggle with others......living among the lost

When the lost behave like they are lost you get angry and mad at them,

You think horrible things

You say horrible things

You post horrible things on social media

Stand....pray for them

Put your foot down and realize Jesus died for them

Pray that their eyes be opened by the Holy Spirit to their condition and need for Jesus!

You and I as Christians are foreigners on this earth.

We do not belong to the earth but to Jesus

Heaven is our home

My job and YOUR job here on this earth is to stand

Put your foot down on the Word of God

To speak truth in love and grace and mercy

To love as Jesus loved

To lay down your life for those around you

To take Jesus to the world

To make disciples

To make a disciple you must be a disciple

Put your foot down and make Jesus your number one priority in life

Make being with God’s people in His house a top priority in your life

Make studying God’s Word more important to you than the air you breathe and the food you eat

Live in this world as Jesus lived in this world

Love others as Jesus loves you

PUT YOUR FOOT DOWN!

STOP OBS

Invitation video

For me to remember

IN the black screen transition before the stand say

If you need Jesus come. If you are not standing on God come give that to Him

Maybe you just need to worship....feel free to do that during this time as well!

STAND! PUT YOUR FOOT DOWN!