Abide in Christ: Worship, Confidence, and Courage

Again, brother, sister, that should light a fire in your soul, that this is as close to hell as you will ever be. If you are not a believer, it should scare the hell out of you because this is as close to heaven as you get. We have a confidence that we don't shrink back, but we press forward when life gets hard. We dig in. We don't dip our toe in and then and then walk back out. We say, no. We're gonna roll up our sleeves. We're gonna fight and figure this out together because we are confident that the one that we worship is worthy of our worship. [00:26:08] (38 seconds)  #PressForwardInFaith

Here's what that means. And this should if you are a follower of Jesus, this should be one of your favorite truths in the bible. Because salvation isn't yours to earn, it's not yours to lose. You received it from him. That means, brother, sister, you did not out sin him this week. You might be believing that deceit right now, but let the word of God, he anointed you, you received it from him, you abide not because of you, but because of him. I would ruin my abiding like that, but Jesus keeps me. I can't lose it. [00:17:07] (36 seconds)  #SavedNotEarned

And I think back then, much as in today give me grace, I'm sorry, but I'm just gonna say it the way that's in my brain, we suck at abiding. We just are the worst at it. The word means remain, draw close, stay committed, And we are terrible at that. Work gets hard, you quit. Marriage gets hard, you give up. Kids get hard, you check out. Church gets uncomfortable, you just quit and you go find a new one. It's gonna tell you what you wanna hear. We are terrible at abiding. [00:23:24] (35 seconds)  #WeStruggleToAbide

Maybe it's been so hard because they don't know him. And what you're inviting them into is a spiritual battle. And the struggle isn't, again, your neighbor, your coworker, your friend, your family member, the struggle is they don't know him. And there are those out the enemy wants to deceive. Why do you think you started praying for this person and they quit your job and you haven't seen them in in a month? Because there's a spiritual battle at play. And God wants to push back darkness and he wants to use us. And so we don't shrink back. We press forward. We stay anchored. We stay rooted. [00:37:38] (43 seconds)  #SpiritualWarfare

I think some of us can be deceived to think, well, I can walk in and out of my relationship with Jesus. I can dip my toe in the pool on Sunday morning, and then I'll walk right back out to whatever I feel like doing the rest of the week. That's not abiding. And John over and over is calling us to abide, to remain, to stay near, to draw close. And I think the question he would want us to wrestle with is, if you are walking in and out of your relationship with the Lord, you might not be a believer. [00:24:34] (36 seconds)  #AbideConsistently

But our battle isn't against flesh and blood. Ephesians six tells us that. Our battle isn't against each other. It's not your your co where you live, work, shop, eat, play. Your battle isn't your coworker. Your battle isn't your bank account. It's not your spouse. It's not your kids. He told us, in fact, that our battle is a spiritual one. It is this antichrist, he who denies the father and the son. [00:02:55] (28 seconds)  #NotAgainstFleshAndBlood

So I wanna ask you the same question we started with. Where are you holding back? Where are you afraid to look weird? To really put your faith on display. Where maybe are you not abiding? Where are you not drawing close? Where are you not confident in your relationship with the Lord? Where are you trying to step in the world and step into worship? And as the Lord may be calling you today to surrender. My prayer is that believing in him, following him wouldn't feel weird. It'd feel worshipful. [00:38:36] (52 seconds)  #SurrenderWithoutFear

They have no confidence because of their sin and their separation from God to be in his presence nor at this point should they because their best efforts are not sufficient. Hear this, your best efforts are not sufficient. You need Christ. You need his work on your behalf. And when he's done that and accomplished that in you, when you have been anointed by his spirit, when he has brought you out and saved you and drawn you into relationship with him, now you get to have confidence. You get to draw near. You get to press in in worship. [00:28:05] (40 seconds)  #ConfidenceInChrist