How to be Steadfast in the Lord - Part 2 Dr. Pradeep Stephen
Praise the Lord and thank you for joining us on the God of Wonders Radio Broadcast tonight "How to be steadfast in the Lord - Part 2."
If the Spirit of God is showing you that certain things will take you away from the right course, it will cause you to lose your steadfastness, you must be very keen on obeying Him rather than man, to be a God pleaser and not a man pleaser. Doesn't matter if it's your own children, do not be a man pleaser but be a God pleaser. Once you please God, then you can build up your fellow man, your family, for edification for good. So, these are the steps down to backsliding or losing my steadfastness with the Lord. The glorious thing is we don't have to backslide. You may have seen many people backslide; you may have seen many people compromise; indeed, it is true! When we look at the cross-section of Christianity in the church there is tremendous compromise across the board, across the world; people don't value holiness anymore. Holiness is a secondary or tertiary concept. The first thing is you must feel good, you must feel that you're important and that people notice you. This is nothing different from the world. If I have that worldliness in me, I have compromised. I need to get back and say, "Lord, forgive me for becoming what I used to be; what I should have left, Lord I'm back in the same place. You came, You gave me tremendous worth, You gave me Your own life, Your own blood, I'm worth something much more than I could have ever dreamed. Why do I need the world's approval? Lord, help me not to drift away from you."
So if these are the steps to downward spiral of backsliding and losing the steadfastness, how do I maintain my steadfastness? And that is the title of the message and the topic, how to remain steadfast in the Lord or how to be steadfast in the Lord? The Lord is coming for a bride who will be steadfast in the truth, who will be steadfast in holiness, steadfast and not compromising with the world. The opposite of all this is, first of all, to be careful; it is very important that we guard against any tendencies to backslide in our Christian walk.
The first step is to be careful, give carefulness, and be very careful about the things of God. What things of God? The essentials: We can call the essentials, namely prayer, the reading of the Word, holy fellowship, obedience, and a life of praise. These are indispensable and absolutely required for us to be steadfast in the Lord to go forward, without backsliding or losing ground. Why should we lose ground? If you recall in the Old Testament, the Lord said to the Israelites, you have spent enough time here in this mountain, it's time for you to move forward. By the time Joshua took over in the book of Joshua and Moses had gone on, the Lord said to Joshua, there remains yet much land to be possessed. Whose fault is that that it wasn't possessed? Was it God's? Certainly not! God said," I wanted you to possess it but you are off from my time schedule here, you are off from my calendar. I wanted you to do this, that, and other thing to gain victory in my kingdom, But you stayed behind, you began to go backward. We don't need to be like that. All these things are written not to emulate but to be an example for us so that we don't go in the wrong way and lose the benefits of God by compromising. The Israelites compromised a great deal. God had to continually warn them. In fact, in I Corinthians and II Corinthians there is mention of Israel about how they had the word but they didn't mix it with faith. They didn't believe. They didn't go forward. They started neglecting certain things. They neglected the law. God purposely and specifically told them, Joshua 1:8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that you observe to do according to all that is in them: then you make your way prosperous and then you have good success.
So the success God wanting to give us is based directly on His word. So the first thing to avoid backsliding in my life and your life is to give attendance to the reading of the Word of God. That's the very basic thing. Someone may think, why do you mention that? That is already understood. You're a Christian, you read the Word of God. It's not so simple because many people neglect that very thing. They minimize it or they do away with it altogether. They begin to feed on the diet of listening to others who read the Word for them. When you have the Word of God, a copy of the Word of God, it is your high privilege toread that book day in and day out, to not only become familiar with the ways of God but to actively incorporate that Word into your life so that it can minister to you - mix it with faith, so it can produce good fruit. So, first thing is to give attendance to reading of the Word of God. In I Timothy 4:13 it says this "till I come give attendance to reading to exhortation to doctrine." Now, how can I get a spiritual exhortation in doctrine if I don't have the reading of the Word of God? I need the Word of God to show me the difference between God's voice and the other voices. So, first thing to guard myself from backsliding, against you from backsliding is to give a careful attention to the reading of the Word of God. How much do you read every day and how often do you read? There is a gentleman that got saved about a year and a half now and he was completely in the world, that's all he knew. When He got saved, no one had to tell him, but he got himself a Bible and though he worked long hours every day and came home to a family that needed his attention with small children, he would not neglect the reading of the Word of God. He was absolutely exhausted, working some 12 or 14 hours, coming home. The food is not ready, nothing cooked, he had to cook sometimes, the children are crying, they want his attention, noise everywhere and he has to get up again early in the morning. You know what he did? He found himself a little haven, as it were, in the restroom. In his own house, in that place he opened the Word of God and made sure that he read the Word of God every day. Within 8 or 9 months, he completed the whole Bible. It wasn't a race but, his heart's desire was, "I must know God!", and so he read the Word every day. And so if he can do that and he came from a background where he didn't like to read at all - He didn't do well in school; He was amidst a culture that was basically accustomed to the street life; they were not at all involved in reading books or education for that matter - but look at the desire and the steadfastness because he was careful to read the Word of God. You and I must do that. Otherwise, we will begin to become complacent. So, the first thing is give carefulness, the attendance to the reading of the Word of God.
The second thing is give attendance, be careful to pray. Do not neglect prayer. God says to us in Colossians 4:2: continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving. Again someone might say, this is basic, of course we will pray - but how much do you pray? How often do you pray? How well do you pray? Do you pray with faith? Is your prayer regular? Is your prayer regular before the Lord? Do you have a constant communication that you will not forfeit regardless of the pressures of the world or the pressures on your physical body from being at work or doing things during the day to give that carefulness? This is the deciding factor. We can go through a laundry list as it were of what to do and what not to do. But the essential thing here is the word carefulness, be careful, guard it, prioritize it, value it above everything else, value what the reading of the Word of God, have a staple diet in the Word of God. Like that person that got saved I just mentioned a few moments ago, be in this book even if you are down and out and tired. He found a way to read because he had the will to read. So, next thing is the prayer, regular prayer.
The third thing is holy fellowship. It says in Hebrew 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting or encouraging one another, and so much more as you see the day approaching. What day? The day of the Lord. The judgment day. The end. As we have a view as a Christian far from being complacent but being careful to the things of God as we give attendance to the Word of God to reading it, to prayer, regular prayer both with faith not just a routine without faith but with faith and fervency. Third, don't neglect but be careful to have that holy fellowship. Holy fellowship is having fellowship not only with God but also with those who are like minded. Those who are determined to get the crown from the Lord, at all costs, who are determined to obey the voice of the Lord, who are determined to stand alone if it were against all of the distractions in the world, against all of the ridicule and the persecution and the isolation that very often comes when we walk in the right way. Those who have the like-mindedness gather together, and there is a holy fellowship. Find those people. Ask God to show you those people. As I said, the majority they are more interested in how to have one foot with God in His kingdom and one foot in the world. To find that compromise, it seems the right thing to be, that practical thing to do, but it is actually the deadly thing to do, it's the wrong thing to do. So when you find people who want to go with Jesus Christ all the way and please Him, who enlisted them as soldiers in His kingdom, the high privilege. When you come together and you don’t forsake that assembling but rather you encourage each other as you see the day approaching.
The fourth thing to avoid backsliding is after reading, praying, maintaining holy fellowship, very essential to build our inner man and maintain our walk, the fourth thing is obedience, again someone might say, well that is so simple, that is understood, but again most people do not obey God. They may obey in some things but they don't obey in all things. God wants a whole hearted obedience. In Titus 3:8 the apostle speaks of maintaining good works. When I obey Jesus Christ and I'm in the vine, the fruit will flow, they will come out, it'll be produced, and the fruit will be the light that will come out from me and then into the world and the people see the good works and then glorify my Father, which is in heaven. So the obedience is as it says in Titus 3:8 This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. Do you have that in your life? Good works that issue forth from a living faith, it says these things are good and profitable unto men. We are not speaking of simply charity without the genuine faith, we are speaking of those who have been grafted into the vine Jesus Christ and have His life flowing through them and they produce the good fruit, which becomes that charitable work. They know who they are in Christ and they rely upon Him to produce the good works and those good works will last.
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