Stedfastness

[0:00] Hi there. I just wanted to give a short exhortation on steadfastness from 1 Corinthians 15 verse 58 where it reads,! Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

[0:21] It tells us, be ye steadfast. Instead of steadfastness, we see a whole lot of shifting and accommodating going on, much moving with the times.

[0:33] It seems like our world is unstable, like shifting sands, uncertain. There's a real shift, of course, away from biblical values. Yet these are the foundations that our world so desperately needs.

[0:47] It seems some have lost their moorings. Many are spiritual butterflies, unfaithful, unreliable. Yet we have an anchor as we hold steadfast, hold fast those biblical convictions.

[1:02] With that in us, we can fight the truth decay of the world around us. Our Lord commends the church at Philadelphia that they have kept my word.

[1:13] That's what it says in Revelation 3 verse 8. God's word calls us to a steadfastness of fellowship. As we wage spiritual war, let us resist our adversary, steadfast in the faith, as it reads in 1 Peter 5 verse 9.

[1:32] Be unmovable, it says further. Be unmovable. We're living in a changing world. Australia has moved. It seems like everything's changing. They're changing marriage. Churches are changing.

[1:45] Some would even think that they can change the truth itself and redefine it. Of course we can't. Many people are like the tumbleweed. They will be moved. The church has moved. It's become seeker sensitive. Yet it has lost the sense of God. It's no longer God sensitive.

[2:06] We have need of faithfulness. It took Noah 120 years to build the ark. He wouldn't be moved. Be unmovable like Job. He lost all that he had, except a nagging wife and three self-righteous friends. But he was not moved. Daniel purposed in his heart. He wouldn't be moved.

[2:29] I like Paul's spirit, as it reads in Acts 20 verses 19 through 24. It says he was serving the Lord with all humility of mind and with many tears and temptations. He says, I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you.

[2:45] He says, bonds and afflictions abide me, but none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received with the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

[3:04] We're called to be strong, solid, to be grounded and settled on gospel truth. Be always abounding in the work of the Lord. Instead of the work of the Lord, some are at ease in Zion. They've moved to a spiritual slothfulness, a sloppiness, a slacking.

[3:22] In these compromising times, we desperately must speak truth to a truth-starved culture. We're still tasked with a bold proclamation of truth.

[3:34] Note whose work that it is, the work of the Lord. It is what He gives us to do. God wants His work done His way. He commanded Gideon to whittle down his army of 32,000 to just 300 men.

[3:52] And God used only that 0.8%, less than 1% of the original army, and against 132,000 Amalekites. God's way worked.

[4:02] God's way worked. And we may do much work that we can think is for Him. What matters is that it is work in His will, His work. Our Lord wants us to abound in that.

[4:16] The Word also shows us that it is the abiding that brings the abounding. The abounding comes from the abiding in Christ. He says, Surely there's some labor to do.

[4:32] Labor here signifies intense effort, arduous toil. It carries the idea of fatigue and weariness. Yet it says the labor is not in vain, if it be in the Lord.

[4:45] Not in the energy of man. Friends, God is doing a work. He's doing a work in His church through faithful ministries. He has begun a good work in you. The Word promises us that nothing that we ever do in the Lord's service is worthless or fruitless.

[5:01] It is never wasted. This word labor, it means to toil and to work to the point of exhaustion and fatigue. Surely your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

[5:14] So, saint of God, I would urge you, persist in prayer. Persevere. Quitting is not an option. That labor is in the Lord. And that labor, your labor, that is in the Lord will bear fruit.

[5:28] There will be a harvest. As we read the promises of God, for example, Galatians 6 verse 9, it reads, And let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

[5:43] So be encouraged, dear saint, to that perseverance, that steadfastness, to be unmovable, and always abounding in the work of the Lord.

[5:55] For your labor is not in vain in the Lord. May the Lord bless you and keep you.