Steadfast Faith: Resting in God's Presence

1. "And so today's message, we're going to talk about, so over this time, we're going to talk about what it means to be steadfast. And then we're going to talk about three, maybe four, but three for sure different things that are, we need to be steadfast in, in order to persevere through trials, tribulations, and temptations, right? And, and, and it's not always the temptation of the, of the natural sins that we understand when we talk about temptations. We got to understand that suffering and persecution and hardship is a temptation, right? The enemy is placing it on you to tempt you to forsake God, to tempt you to go outside of who God is and add, maybe it's God and something. So even the things we go through are still temptations. The enemy's using it to try to get you to forsake God." [03:24] (46 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "And so when we see this word show up, Joseph uses this word to talk about the sureness of what it is that God is has determined. And so what that means, when we look at what this word means, then, then to be steadfast means to be firm and secure. It means to be established. It means to be sure, right? And so as followers of Christ, it is going to be imperative in our life. It is going to be imperative in our walk that we be people that are firm, established in our faith, secure in our faith, knowing that at any given time, we can be hit with a storm. Knowing that at any given time, we can be tempted. Knowing that at any given time, we can start battling the mind fights that tempt us and cause us to want to shift away from the Lord." [09:53] (48 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "And this is important, because we need to be prepared. We need to be prepared. We need to be prepared. We need to know that ultimately, whatever our mind is made up to do, we will do. I don't care what we say. That's why I always talk about sin. At the end of the day, we sin because we made up our mind that we wanted to. We made up our mind that I don't want to fight no more. We made up our mind that this thing was too hard to resist. We made up our mind that this thing was too hard, and I don't want to feel it no more. We made up our mind, made up our mind that I don't want to feel this grief, so let me turn it." [11:57] (29 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "And so, all he's simply doing is he's tempting the things that are desires of yours in the first place. And what happens when he tempts us so much? Eventually, we go and we give in to it. And what does James say in verse 14? He says, I mean, verse 15. He said, then when lust has conceived or been seized, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it has run its course, brings forth death. What did he say? He says, the devil tempts you. He says, and then when lust, where were the lusts at? Whose lusts were they? So, then when our own lust is seized, meaning we take hold of our lust, we are tempted, and instead of fighting, we seize that thing that is the lust of ours. We do it. The devil don't grab your hand and handcuff you to your sin." [13:26] (51 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "And so David says, well, if a lack of a steadfast spirit created in me unfaithfulness, then Lord, when you created me a new heart, I need you to do something else. Completely transform my spirit, my innermost desires, my inner man, the thing that guides my actions. I need you to completely transform it and make that steadfast. Make my devotion to you steadfast. Make my love for you steadfast. Make my resistance to sin steadfast. I need you to help me. Why? Because I am going to be under temptation again. I am going to go through another storm. I am going to deal with something another day. That means it's not good enough just to get through that one. I need you to continue to make me firm. That's it. And no matter what comes my way, it is you, Lord, that I remain faithful to." [20:00] (49 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "And here's the thing that David understood, and y 'all understand it because I say it all the time. If you've been around here for any amount of time, you've always heard me say this cool little statement that sucks, right? To be a Christian is to be in constant conflict with yourself. To be a Christian is to be in constant conflict with yourself. To be in constant conflict with yourself. Right? And hopefully those of you who were in the peacemaking class yesterday, you apply some of those principles that you have conflict with other people to when you have conflict with yourself because of your desires not matching up with God's desires for you." [21:48] (32 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "And so when we talk about, okay, we're talking about being steadfast, but what does it mean to be steadfast? It means to be a person who is rooted in trusting in the Lord. And here's the thing about steadfast trust. It precedes deliverance while being certain that it will come. What does it mean to be trusting in the Lord? It precedes the deliverance from that thing you're in while being certain that it will come. And that's the thing we struggle with because we got to believe that something is coming that we don't see yet. We got to believe that the Lord will do something that he ain't done yet in our life. And we got to keep trusting him in the midst of it, and it makes it hard. But that's what's going to be required." [48:05] (47 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "And being steadfast gives endurance, gives us the endurance to stay in God instead of turning to other things when it gets hard. David says, I'm in the midst of my threat. This is David. Even at the time that he was on the run from Saul, he had more prestige and popularity than Saul. He could have chose to fight back, and he would have won. But instead of turning to his own abilities, instead of turning to what he believed he had the power to do, he said, No, no, no. I take refuge in you, God. I hide in the shadow or the protection of your wings. And here's the thing that's super dope. He says, I'm going to stay there until, say until, until destruction passes me by." [50:09] (53 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "And so the reason he was able to stay there was because he had a truth and a knowledge of God that he believed that he was capable. He was able and able to keep him. And some of us got to begin to declare that in the midst of our hardships. We got to start declaring that God is powerful above all other things to protect us and to deliver us. And I love what he said. He said, he said, he said, he will accomplish all things for me. And that word accomplish just means put an end to. He will put an end to all things for me. That's his threats. That's his tribulations. That's his trials. In other words, he is confident. That because God is the most high, he will be able to endure his threats. He will send from heaven and save me. He rebukes the one who tramples on me. He trusts in all this, even though he hasn't experienced a deliverance yet." [56:27] (47 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10. "And so if we want to place our trust in God, we have to have a knowledge of God. And so knowledge of God should produce what? Trust in him. And yet the enemy, this is one of the reasons why, how do we get knowledge of God? Self -revelation of who God is disclosed to us. The secret things of the Lord belong to the Lord, but those things which have been revealed are for us that we, they do them. This is the knowledge of God. Cognizant knowledge of God. And yet we let the enemy tell us that it's legalism to stress reading this. All these little weird content creators. Like this is religion and legalism. Sounds like the enemy to me. Sounds like demons to me. Because only one person wants to keep you from the knowledge of God. And it ain't the spirit of God who, gave us the knowledge of God." [01:03:57] (57 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)