Be Unmoveable

[0:00] It's as if we're about to enter Earth's darkest hour. The Bible tells us that things are! going to ramp up and the climax of all human history. The Bible tells us what's going to! There's some big things on the horizon. And I'm sure that for we that believe, our faith is going to face some testing times. It's like there's some storms ahead. Stormy times.

[0:31] Chaos. And while I was preparing this message, I was shut away in my study and it's a bit of a kind of insulated, basically a sachet that's got insulation. And Julie rushed in, she burst in and she told me, there's a storm. There's stormy weather. And she was afraid of these trees were shaking around. We've got some big gum trees and she was worried about storm damage. And our house was then threatened with some flood waters. We've got an area that can be prone to some flooding. And I've been unaware of all of this, that this goings on because my study room is quite insulated. A storm can be raging and we might even not be aware of that rising threat of danger that we might be in. And it seems to me like the stormy winds that are unsettling and disturbing many in these days that we live. Now forgive me, some of these elements might be a bit alike to what I was saying this morning, but there's a bit of an overlap here. It seems like some are not conscious, they're not aware of the mounting dangers of the days we're living in. And people without a strong foundation are being rocked to the core with what's happening. It's like some people are really getting stressed out. And as I've talked this morning, turning to drugs or even prescribed drugs just to handle the mental pressure of what's happening. People losing jobs, panicking, fearful, what's going to happen next? What's the next stage? And people are getting moved by this. There's a moving going on there. Many are shifting their position. They're moved by fear and moving away from the truth some people. And some are taking the easier path of accommodating and not holding their ground.

[2:25] When some of the shifting culture is impacting, which we talked about today. They're being moved away.

[2:37] Many are adopting the spirit of the age. There's this tendency to moral relativism where values are getting warped. And I was talking to someone just tonight, how they're worried about saving animals, but they're killing the unborn in the wombs of men and women, in the wombs of human beings. So that's another crazy thing I heard. There's a term for it now, not pregnant mothers, but people that are birthing. Because men can have babies now apparently. This is the warped world we're living in. But it's this relativism.

[3:23] And it's getting away from what the Bible teaches. And it's been said that people these days, that all values are variable and changeable. Nothing's settled. You can't have an absolute truth. It's all variable now and changeable. Yet God's people are called to be unmovable. That's what it says in the Word of God.

[3:43] That's what we read here in 1 Corinthians 15, 58. What God wants us to be. And I know I've preached on this verse before, but I'm majoring on this word unmovable. God wants us to be unmovable. It says this, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15, 58, therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, a lot of sin. You're always abounding in the work of the Lord. For as much as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. Of course, Paul knew what he was talking about. The Apostle Paul, where did he write many of his letters from? He was in prison. He was at times in prison for his faith and in times of great hardship in a jail cell chained to a roman soldier this is the reality for Paul he knew what he was talking about about a need for being unmovable and it seems like there's a lot of shifting going on a mind shift a shift away from biblical values where biblical values don't count for anything anymore people don't care about that but our Lord says we ought to be a people steadfast anchored with need of stability you know God's word still says what it says and God's word is still God's word this is still the standard this is still the measure of truth and we know as God's people this is the absolute truth it's not a changeable variable thing it's rock solid steadfast it does not move with the times and it seems like in these days many aren't moved by these contrary winds of doctrine there's just so many different views and viewpoints and opinions and ideas people are getting blown off course by these kind of winds that come as we talked about a storm and in Ephesus 4 Paul tells us this about these winds of false doctrine he says that we ought to not henceforth be no more children but we henceforth be no more children you know immature childish tossed around tossed to and fro it says by every wind of doctrine by the slight of men by this kind of you know this cunning calling of men this slight of men and the cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive he says watch out there's some people gonna be this con artist out there and they're gonna try to trick you and deceive you he says don't be tossed around by this this contrary doctrines he says rather we ought to be coming in the unity of the faith and of the of the knowledge of the son of god we ought to be growing it says unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of christ paul says there's these winds of doctrine these cyclones these typhoons that are just blowing people around as they would blow around a tree and blow it over you know i've got a tree in my backyard that was totally uprooted and it just blew over with the wind because for one thing it had termites in it and but it was weak and the roots weren't strong and it fell over by the wind and friends the storm's coming there's a storm warning and the storm's on the home front aren't we we see homes getting buffeted by these contrary winds the devil doesn't want strong families he wants to break homes apart the storms on the national front in our nation and even for the church it seems like some churches they've lost their savor they're not making an impact it's all wishy-washy and downplayed

[7:47] and weak and weakened it's not the saltiness the savor anymore they're not making an impact it's lacking it's and it's as if in some quarters the church has lost its will to fight evil it's kind of wimp down and not facing evil just going along with it friends we're meant to be unmovable this this is the the word i'm wanting to emphasize tonight that we as a congregation that preachers and churches we ought to be unmovable not to lose our moorings but to keep strong to keep our direction to not turn our away our ears from the word of god but to take heed of it of godly and scriptural counsel and teaching the warning sound the warning trumpet is sounding and people have become spiritually dead it's like they don't want to hear it blah blah blah they don't hear it when it starts to hit a nerve or starts to get a bit hmm i might have to change some things if i actually believe this book and what it's urging me to we ought to be strong and settled and strongly grounded founded anchored there's an old song the old um i guess it was a negro song or a negro spiritual song and a popularized song and it goes like this i shall not i shall not be moved he remembers those words like that it's you know this it's the scriptural basis for those words in that song as we see for example there's a couple of psalms here where the psalmist confesses the same he says psalm 16 verse 8 he says i set the lord always before me because he is at my right hand i shall not be moved and in psalm 62 verse 6 he only is my rock and my salvation he is my defense i shall not be moved can you say that tonight i shall not be moved i shall not be moved it's a scriptural confession isn't it we need to stick by our guns we need to have a stick to it i shall not be moved there is much to be done and yet there's this spirit of complacency and apathy a spiritual slothfulness we need to be made of other stuff brothers and sisters to not be like the world that just caves in and goes with any new fan thing we ought to be a people filled with another spirit the spirit of god as it says of caleb at the time joshua and caleb they were the two who stood in faith seeing the land knowing those giants knowing those challenges but knowing that god was bigger than the giants and seeing the blessing of god that awaited the people of israel the children of israel these two caleb and joshua they stood as two against the ten of the twelve the ten others that went and saw the land they said look we're just like grasshoppers in their sight we don't stand a chance we're done we're not even going it's not even worth taking a risk it's too we're going to be totally lost and and we're just not going to be able to win but caleb and joshua they said no we're going to take this land and it says our lord says my servant caleb he had another spirit with him he had followed me fully and him will i bring into the land friends joshua and caleb they had the spirit of god and they were ones who were unmovable unmovable the others were moved they were moved by fear they were moved by lack of faith but caleb had another spirit we need to be like caleb amen we need to be like caleb and

[11:50] have another spirit to ask god to refresh our godly zeal to give us scriptural direction to be a people who will exercise discernment when the majority might say it's hard and we're not going to make it we can say no we believe god we can't believe god and go with god and so now more than ever we ought to be a people who have another spirit another spirit and that strength of of unmovable an unmovable spirit to be unmovable and so think of it for yourself as we face challenges ahead we will face some giants and we will have some storms we're going to face evil and opposition and it seems like there's this as i talked a little this morning this kind of anti-christ! mentality that we're in we're on the outer as god's people we are the ones that don't fit we're non-conformists and it's like this this emerging rule over us based on godless philosophies it's kind of overtaking every sphere and i don't mean to over run what i talked about earlier today but who knows what lies ahead for us if we're going to be unmovable if we're not going to be moved by what the world wants a move to go in the world's way of thinking who knows what awaits us could it be prison camps lie ahead who knows i mean you might say this guy's really going uh um extreme but i'm just saying who knows who knows if they say christianity is illegal and friends in some countries it is it is it's just not not something out of the realm of possibility and whatever the scale of storm whatever scale it is on the rig to scale as it were we're called not to be moved away we need to be like a tree that's strong and anchored grounded we need to anchor ourselves in the gospel truth paul writes along this line in colossians 1 verse 23 it tells how the colossians how if you continue in the faith grounded and settled and be not moved away we should not be moved away from the hope of the gospel he says which you have heard and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven whereof i call and made a minister holt tells the colossians he says your faith should be grounded it should be settled and you should not be moved away from the hope of the gospel we should not be moved from that whatever happens be not moved i shall not be moved seems like there's a whole lot of instability that's marking our world shifting sands and the media is constantly playing these things these political forces are constantly veering ever more leftwards and it looks like the darkness just keeps getting darker doesn't it nothing is settled now what we would know as even just intelligent people is what was right and wrong 10 years ago and everybody knew it now it's out the window isn't it it's like there's a new thinking just taken over and it seems like the foundations of decent society are crumbling they're not settled and there's new gods now people virtually worship science they think science is the god and and they say things like the science is settled so they say but really it's not because they keep changing

[15:50] uh what they think is uh the scientific view i mean even the very basics of biology now uh are denied by the intellectuals of our day uh such a an obvious truth that there's male and female they deny that and they say the science is settled goodness now the majority are falling for a whole lot of lies it's like there's this golden image set up uh and people are bowing down to it and we see just three men who would not bow down back in daniel's day we see yeah as uh their um babylonian names shadrach meshach and abednego they stood they did not bow down they were unmovable amen and and yet uh this was the law of the day this was the um this was the direction from the government of the day that everyone had to bow down when the king's rock band played then you had to bow down and go with the the tune and just go with the the majority with the crowd and the majority did bow down the crowd are compromising in in a way if the crowd's doing it it's probably wrong some people are getting moved and they're moving in a in the wrong direction that i saw a little um summary of some people that a preacher put people we don't need in the church we don't need sleeping jonahs you know while so so souls are in danger of perishing we don't want to be jonah sleeping in the bottom of the boat going the wrong direction we don't want to be like jonah we don't want to be like samson who was powerless when the battle came we don't want to be like aiken who tried to hide his sin and uh just try to hide from god his sin we don't want to be like david when he was seeking lustfully for that which was someone else's someone else's wife we don't want to be like herod who was a people pleaser it just went with what the crowd wanted as some politicians would be there's people we don't need to be like them we don't want to be like like them in that way rather let's be like people like nehemiah nehemiah he was willing to step out of the comfort zone in nehemiah's uh book we read how he was the cupbearer to the king he was in a pretty plush uh place uh everything was pretty comfortable for him but when he heard about jerusalem he was moved by god to take action the bible says he that has ears to hear let him hear the word of the lord should be our our direction it should be our guide for life it is it says the maker's instructions and we have a perfect bible we can be sure of what he says in these words that he's given to us and we ought to be daring to speak the truth of god to be champions of the truth willing to speak it even though we be hated and rejected and persecuted we must we must we must speak the truth to a truth-starved culture even though we might be totally in the minority and totally outnumbered we should be the crying need of the church is to be strong to be not moved away from the truth because our world desperately needs the truth satan would love to immobilize you and discourage you to demoralize christians to shut the church down and it's like it's not anymore business as usual you know we know things have changed the world has forever changed and it's continuing to change there's a whole lot of shifting moving going on but we should be rock solid we shouldn't be moved by that and believers i reckon the suffering ahead

[19:55] hardship persecution it's already often the norm if we're living in another country that would be normal and so if it does face us the bible tells us be unmovable be unmovable don't let the don't let anything stop you from standing for christ press on as paul did he said i press on towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of god in christ jesus god is your strength joseph faced repeated temptation in his time as he was working in his master's house and the master went away and the master's wife made moves against him but he resolved to be unmovable he resolved not to fall for temptation he resolved to stand firm and it's the same today the seductive spirits that would move us away from god we ought to be unmovable we need to stand firm and see the salvation of god we need to be as eliazor of whom it speaks in 2 samuel 23 and he was one of david's three mighty men a hero of david in the small army of david this man eliazor was a man and it says of him that he that he smote the philistines and he was fighting with the philistines until his hand was weary and his hand clave unto the sword it's like his hand it was grasping the sword so firmly that it kind of froze on the sword he wouldn't let it go we need to cling to the sword the bible speaks about the bible being the sword of the spirit the word of god we need to lay hold of it and cling to it hold it fast to not be unmovable in the fight to do not be moved today do not be moved another example is um in psalm 55 22 and i often quote this one i usually tend to quote the first part of the verse where it says cast thy burden upon the lord and he shall sustain thee but it says more than that it says he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved i don't always catch that last bit of the verse god will help us we cast our burden upon him he's going to sustain us he's going to help you he's going to get you through this and it says he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved god doesn't want us to be moved to be shifting with the shifting sands to be kind of tossed about and and blown around with every wind but to be strong and solid and and faithful god is calling us to to battle he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved that verse is telling us to pray through when the storm comes cast thy burden upon the lord and whatever your burden is you've got things you're worried about family financial needs situations of life hurts need of healing whatever it be that's burdening you down he says cast thy burden upon the lord friends do that today pray through he will never suffer the righteous to be moved on the contrary the godless are called uh people that are living in slippery places slippery places i know when it rains at my place and there's some muddy places at my place and there's slippery places you can go uh for a skid down a slope where the mud is getting all wet and the picture here is of the those who do not know the stadia that they're living in slippery places they haven't got a foot hole they're just slip sliding uh in this quagmire this muddy messy place where they've got no sure footing that's a picture of those that do not have the grounding that

[23:58] you can know that that assurance that short place that you can know and for the lost there's no sure footing they're just in these slippery places they will be swept away you know friends the pretend christians will be like the tumbleweed when the wind comes they're just going to be like tumbleweed blown around blown down the street you know see the old western movies the tumbleweed and you see that the wind just blows them away they've got no anchor they've got no footing they're not grounded they will be moved but we that trust the lord if we just need his word today he says be unmovable friends be unmovable whatever faces you if there is some real crackdown on christianity what are you going to do are you going to be like the tumbleweed just blows along and just uh you're a pretender or are you going to be steadfast unmovable god will help you to be such we are under an assault the cultural marxists that govern and and manage the media and the messaging that we're all given every day you know someone was saying before about even the adverts you just can't switch off they're just bombarding you constantly the social justice warriors those who want to try to cancel the culture they can't erase the truth that god is they can't erase that they can't erase the fact that god is they might try to cancel god but they can't one day they're going to have to face him god can't be erased they can do what they will but they're not going to stop what god is going to do and so friends today will we be steadfast unmovable peter was one who was acquitted we've seen him he weakened in the face of test in matthew 26 we read that as it was the time where our lord was um getting uh arrested and questioned and the the trumped up trials were happening and peter was there in the courtyard warming himself with the fire it was a cold night and he was gathered there with the crowd and they said you're one of them you're you're one of his you're a galilean i can hear that the sound of your voice you belong to him you are with them you are one of his and he began to curse and to swear i know not the man and immediately the cock crew and peter remembered the word of jesus our lord had said you'll hear the the cock crow you'll hear the rooster do the cock-a-doodle-doo and then you'll know and he said no i'm never going to deny you but jesus said you will and then peter remembered the words of jesus and he went out and wept bitterly he wasn't one of the unmovable was he he was moved and yet later we see a different peter after pentecost in acts 4 verses 19 through 20 as as he was summoned before the council of his day you know the religious authorities he was breaking all the rules he was uh causing his ruckus preaching christ crucified and peter and john were summoned to answer to the charges excuse me in acts 4 verses 19 through 20 peter and john said whether it be right in the sight of god to hearken unto you more than unto

[28:06] god judge ye for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard they said we've got to speak it because god's told us to speak it we're going to share it because we've seen it we know it's true we're going to speak the things we've seen and heard so it's a different peter here isn't it we can take heart can't we we might feel at times we're like peter rubbing our hands around the fire and saying i don't know the man or we can be like the peter after pentecost that says we cannot but speak the things we've seen and heard even if it's costing us our comforts and even if it means to be for his name and like paul too he had the same spirit he had another spirit it says of him in acts 20 verse 22 he says i go bound in the spirit unto jerusalem not knowing the things that shall be fool me save that the holy ghost witness that that in every city that bonds and afflictions abide me he says that he knew what he was lying ahead of him and as agabus um prophesied and demonstrated that he would be going to danger jerusalem was a danger zone for paul but he said none of these things move me he said i'm not going to be moved by that he says none of these things move me neither count on my life dear unto myself so that i might finish my course with joy and the ministry which i've received of the lord jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of god paul says i know i'm going to jerusalem i know that i'm going to face bonds and affliction but i'm going to go i'm not going to be moved by those things job was another one who was unmovable we see of job he lost everything it's like someone put it job lost all that he had except a nagging wife and three self-righteous friends he lost everything else he lost everything that he had but god still get left him with his nagging wife and and his three self-righteous friends that that were no comfort at all but it says that job he was not moved amen you might feel a bit like job everything goes wrong you've lost everything but job was not moved he kept strong he had some testings he he had some human reactions but job was unmovable wasn't he what does it say in the word the trying of your faith makes you give up is that what it says the trying of your faith makes you give up no it says the trying of your faith worketh patience it helps you to get stronger it makes you persevere it gives you a strength friends testings will come but do not be moved it's like paul talks about a time of the believers of the day he says we're troubled on every side now just becoming just because you become a christian doesn't mean you're never going to get trouble anymore paul says you're going to get trouble on every side you know north south east and west we're troubled but we're not distressed he says we're perplexed you know there's all this going on it's crazy but we're not in despair he says we're persecuted but god's not left us we're not forsaken he says we're cast down but we're not destroyed we're still alive he says we're not going to be moved by these things just because things are hard for you doesn't mean you pack your bags and throw in the towel and leave your baton ball and walk off the pitch and you know give up it's human nature to give up isn't it but you've got another spirit haven't you if you're a saved one today you have another spirit like

[32:12] caleb and you can believe god yes god will help me through this i'm going to be troubled but i'm not distressed i'm going to be perplexed but i'm not in despair i'm going to be persecuted but i'm not forsaken i'm going to be cast down but i'm not destroyed god's with me believe him him daniel was another one who purposed in his heart he wouldn't be moved there's a lot of temptation for daniel in the book we see that he was given these things that could have led him to adopt the culture of babylon he says no i'm going to purpose in my heart not to defile myself i'm going to i'm going to be unmovable and he stood fast and so should we think of these things on there's many verses and thoughts in scripture that echo this thing it's right through the word how we should be unmovable hebrews 6 19 tells of an anchor of the soul it's the hope that we have that that christian hope that we have it's an anchor holds us steady and firm when we're out there on the on the deep and the waves are crashing and and the um the boat's rocking we've got an anchor that's going to hold us safe we're surely anchored we're steadfast it's sure this anchor this hope this this blessed assurance that we have it anchors us holds us steady and we can be unwavering and pray through in faith here's another source of that stability is prayer when we're on that as jay's pictures of this this boat rocking on the seas on the high seas he says that we won't be as those that would waver like a wave of the sea that's driven with the wind and tossed we can ask in faith not wavering we can have an assurance when we pray that god will hear our prayer prayer and we can have that that um that strength to be unmovable in our prayer in our prayer time to hold on to god to have our anchor in our faith in him and you might feel sometimes through life when when we encounter these situations of life you might feel like well it seems pretty hopeless you know the vast majority of people don't care about god they don't care about the bible and we as as a christian you know i know what it's like in a workplace you're totally outnumbered it's like nobody cares about god and if you were to dare to to say something as a christian they're just going to mock you and laugh at you and scorn and just reject the truth and you might feel yeah i'm like that i'm i'm just totally outnumbered and who am i and really who are we just there's not too many solid strong churches we're just like a remnant there's just so few of us and how can we how can we make an impact on our world but really that's how god works he uses the few it's how he gets the work done so that he gets the glory so though we'd be few in number though there's relatively few of us yet god with us makes the difference we read that our lord tells us it's not by might not by human strength and might not by human power but by the spirit of god that we have victory that's how he gets the glory we see that for example with gideon you know gideon had this this army that he went out to war to fight the amalekites and there was 32 000 of them and god said there's too many god said to gideon whittled down the army and in various ways he

[36:18] whittled it down from 32 000 to just 300. mind you they're up against 132 000 amalekites 300 132 the odds were against them and it's interesting god used only 0.8 percent of gideon's original army now it could be uh how do we how do we contemplate that in the in this setting here today but only not even one percent god used the one percent of the army to bring himself the glory and to get the victory maybe you might feel even in a church setting you think well i'm fired up but it seems nobody else is you know you get that sense where uh i feel like i'm outnumbered um everyone's bound to me to bail but and there's a sense where god can use the minority god can use the minority for his glory and it's the pattern through scripture there's always a righteous remnant the ones who will be unmovable the real christians may be very few and just because you're seated here um i can't assume that you're a christian necessarily you know just as a church attendant god is calling out a people for his name and i urge you to be one of those people even if you feel like well if i really stand for christ my family's going to think i've lost the plot and i've just gone and joined some crazy outfit and uh i'm going to be ridiculed and uh you know they're going to think well if i've become a strong christian they're going to think i've just become a fanatic but god is calling the few he's calling you to be one of those few the few who will hear and say i'm going to be one of those i'm going to be like caleb i'm going to have another spirit you know let the majority be in unbelief that i'm going to believe god i'm going to stand for god i'm going to be unmovable yeah we can all expect to face trouble you know i'm saying all these things and you might say yeah i'd like to be such a one but get ready for trouble it's going to take some battles to get the victory it's going to take some struggle to get that overcoming and you that would say i'll respond i'll say count me in it's going to be hard you know there's a saying don't give up on the brink of a miracle sometimes it's we've got to go through to the very tough time of testing to believe god even when it seems impossible as we see many miracles in the bible as such paul says that afflictions and persecutions are coming it's interesting when he writes this just we're getting near the end here 2 timothy 3 he says all who will live godly in christ jesus shall suffer persecution he says evil men and seducers are going to wax worse and worse he's saying there's going to be a lot of people telling lies they're going to get worse and worse deceiving and being deceived and he says this but continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and have been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned and of course he goes on to speak about the word of god he says continue in it he says keep on keeping on continuing the faith that you have in in his word he says continue in that and the context is a persecution we're to continue in the things which you've learned and been assured

[40:22] of the word of god and it's in the context of persecution what i'm saying is don't let anything stop you don't let anything stop you and in a way as we see in that first part if you're not getting persecuted possibly something is wrong it's actually might be something is wrong if if you are to live godly in christ jesus you shall suffer persecution that's the norm that's normal and he says don't let that stop you let it encourage you now if you're getting persecuted for your faith it actually means god is working in you i can think back as a youngster at school in in year 12 there was a a mormon classmate and uh you know and he was pretty zealous he was all preparing for his mission field in the local school here and he had the training manual and he was going off to some island in the pacific and he was training for his mission and you know that spoke to me that if he's going to train for his false god for his false mission what should i be doing and uh i started to speak up for god i started to stand up for christ and likewise um with some other classmates and one of them saw me giving out tracks in the town center and it's like yeah we're not going to be ashamed of who we stand up for even though we're going to get mocked and ridiculed for it even though people won't understand even though it's going to mean testing and persecution and trials and tribulations friends don't quit it's the message tonight don't quit there's some labor to do paul says continue and he says be steadfast unmovable always abound me in the work of the lord for as much as you know your labor is not in vain in the lord there's a call here to work labor it means to toil and work to the point of exhaustion and fatigue that's the sense of the word underlying the word translated labor here to toil to the point of exhaustion and fatigue another some people have been working six days and you know working hard to support their family and that's a good thing to do isn't it have work ethic and uh what about laboring for god you think about how can i make my life count that i'm doing something that's got value with god paul says be steadfast he says don't slack don't stop don't quit hold on what if everyone was a quitter nothing would get done amen nothing think if columbus had turned back no one would have blamed him you know he didn't know whether he's going to get land and no one would have remembered him either but he kept going and he struck land and it's been said the margin between success and failure is often determined by one's decision not to quit not to quit and i know there's times testing times in ministry too we're marking 22 years next sunday as a church and there's times i've had the fleeting uh thought to quit uh you know this it's human isn't it to quit to toss it in oh it's too hard you know give it up uh give it over let somebody else do it but the bible says don't quit it says keep on be steadfast unmovable always abounding in the work of the lord our lord jesus didn't quit on the cross did he he didn't give up on you he went to the full extremity of the suffering of the cross for you and may god give us the passion to go and keep on

[44:26] going i know there's some tough things even being a bus driver you know there's tough things there's tough ministries and it's hard working imagine with children with youth it's tough things it's not going to be easy it's not going to be comfortable and we can all find an excuse not to do something god says be steadfast unmovable he says make make a decision take some action quitting is not an option it's just not an option persevere persist in prayer paul says don't be weary in well-doing he says in due season you'll reap if you faint not and there's a picture in james of the farmer being patient there's a crop just got to keep trusting it's going to grow what your plants it will reap a harvest so friends tonight press on regardless whatever it is that's going on for you if god's put something on your heart to do if god's given you something to give him glory if god's given you something that you're moved to do then do it and do it with all your might and know that whatever faces you whatever testing times come the test will bring strength the test will bring maturity james says this my brethren count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations he says when you face these trials and tests these temptations when everything gets thrown at you he says you can have joy still you can still have joy you can count it the joy he says knowing this that the trying of your faith work at patience that testing of your faith is going to make your faith stronger it's going to make you more faithful it's going to make your faith shine that perseverance will come let patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect and entire wanting nothing i could sum it all up tonight in two words you could say well why didn't you just say that then two words you know to take home write this one down two words don't quit don't quit don't quit you can make it you can make it god will give you the heart and the help to labor on and the harvest is around the corner don't give up on the brink of a miracle amen yeah you shall ring if you faint not let's pray dear lord we thank you that you give us grace so much grace that we should be even saved even hearing this lord the challenge is to each one help us lord to respond with count me in i want to be in that number i want to be steadfast unmovable i want to be such and lord help us not to quit when when we might face as peter and paul as james and john as as so many believers in recent days we might face trial and temptation help us not to be deterred but to be resolved that we will not quit and it's not by our own strength or our own human energy or power but it's by your spirit you'll give us that another spirit like you gave to

[48:26] caleb that we will see with eyes of faith and believe you pray for our families we pray for everyone here present whatever their need is that will persevere in prayer that prayer will will be our anchor of faith that hope that hope that we have that persevering prayer and that we'll see lord even if we've been like peter when the cock crew and and he realized his shame that he'd failed yet lord you made him the peter of pentecost a new man spirit-filled spirit empowered and spirit led to do your work lord to be such a people is our prayer tonight that we would be unmovable lord not that we can claim any credit for that because it's all your doing you are our resource lord you are our strength and we thank you for these things in your precious name lord jesus we pray amen you