The outcome of repentance is not a restored status quo, getting back to “normal,” getting back to where we were before we sinned, evading the consequences of sin. The outcome of true repentance is new obedience, unprecedented obedience, perhaps unheard-of obedience. Newness of life.
Ray Ortlund

Solid Settled Sound Stable S

Solid Settled Sound Stable S SOLID, SETTLED, SOUND, STABLE SAINTS B5-05-5P 1 Cor. 15:58

INTRODUCTION:

  1. Tongue-twister. Try it!
  2. Tell someone near you that you are a solid, settled…
  3. Webster defines the word “steadfast” as the quality of being firm, fixed, settled, or established. Constant, not changing, fickle, or wavering
  4. God can use Christians with such a trait
  5. ELECTRIC LIGHT RELIGION
  6. Turn it on – turn it off
  7. Hot or cold depending upon the desires of others
  8. Goes off just when it is needed most!

II. GOD IS LOOKING FOR STEADFASTNESS

  1. Gal. 5:1, “Stand fast therefore…
  2. Ep. 4:11-15 tells us that the ministry gifts are given…. “for the perfecting of the saints….that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine”
  3. 1 Pet. 5:8-9,”Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour; Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world”

III. WE HAVE MANY EXAMPLES

  1. DANIEL refused to stop praying for 30 days (Dan. 6:10)
    1. “Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed…
    2. “His windows being open in his chamber…
    3. “He kneeled upon his knees three times a day, & prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did aforetime”
  2. The THREE HEBREW BOYS would not bow down (Dan. 3:17-18)
    1. “If it be so [If He wills it so], our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace,
    2. “And he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.”
    3. “But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image”
  3. JOB continued to serve God in distress (Job 23:8-12)
    1. “I cannot perceive him” (v. 8)
    2. “But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.”
    3. “My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined.”
  4. PAUL would not stop (Acts 20:22-25)
    1. “And now…I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem (v. 22)
    2. “Bonds and afflictions abide me” (v. 23)
    3. “But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy” (v. 24)
    4. V. 25, “[ye] shall see my face no more”
  5. Luke 9:51, “And it came to pass, when the time was come that

    [Jesus] should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem”

    

ALTAR CALL: (text)

  1. We should be “unmoveable”
  2. We should be “abounding in the work”
  3. We should be “in the work of the Lord”
  4. We should know that our labor “is not in vain in the Lord”

Rev. 3:11, “Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.”



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