Keep the Faith (Matthew 24:9-13)
Gary McManus, 07/10/2022Part of the Jesus Came to Restore series, preached at a Sunday Morning service
July 10, 2022 Matthew 24:9-13
Fear; American Christians are afraid.
The Bible does not directly address
THOSE fears. God DOES care. (1 Peter 5:7)
The Bible directly addresses the fear of
people turning away from God.
(Joshua 22:16, Isaiah 59:13, Jeremiah 50:6, Hosea 11:7)
Why? Because, the Bible states, without a relationship
with the Lord God. . .you got nuthin’:
--no resources
--no recourse
--no road
--no way to get where you need to go or
--no way to know where you need to go.
“Lost sheep” – 9 times in the Bible but
TWICE in Matthew: Matthew 15:24, Matthew 10:6.
But don’t call anyone a “lost sheep.” Jesus never did.
The shepherd cares for the sheep.
No shepherd? You won’t last long.
God Himself stated that from early on, He was concerned that his children would turn away and forget God (Deuteronomy 4:23, Deuteronomy 8:11, Deuteronomy 8:14, Deuteronomy 8:19)
You may not be losing your faith or in danger of losing your faith. But some American Christians are.
In the last five years there have been some high profile Christians who lost faith. . .
Jon Steingard then explained “it didn’t happen overnight.” Lost faith is usually a process, not a date on the calendar.
Notice how the Bible describes it. . .
Old Testament: impatience (Exodus 32:1) or because
God’s people’s hearts and stomachs were full and content
(Deuteronomy 8).
---The New Testament talks of several ways the faithful
FALL AWAY: because they fear for their lives
(Revelation 2:10), because of suffering (Revelation 2:13),
or having become weak in faith (Revelation 3:2, Philippians 3:8)
See also Philippians 3:18-19, 1 Timothy 1:19-20.
Former Pastors who no longer consider themselves Christians? Was their Christianity too small?
Was their trust in their own thinking too strong or too important? Did they have an image of God and God wasn’t fulfilling that image when God said that we shouldn’t make an image of God
—even in our own minds?(Exodus 20:3-5)
“Google” “losing my faith in God”: 38 million pages.
“Google” “losing my faith in the Christian God”:
70 million pages.
“Google” “losing my faith in Christianity”: 9 million pages. The pollsters say it IS true.
But why do we take today’s thinking so seriously?
What if you change your mind later?
The question of faith has been a life or death question.
What we believe DOES matter to our God. Our Lord wants you to have faith in him. (John 14:1) See also John 14:27.
Jesus did not sugar coat our mission. God is fully aware of our situation and Jesus said it would get worse. That God knows provides a measure of comfort. Still, things would get bad
. . .falling away. . .betrayal. . .hating each other within the church, church leaders/prophets LEADING the faithful astray. It is GOING TO HAPPEN.
At the end of Matthews’ Gospel, ”I am with you. . .” (Matthew 28:13).
“I will neither leave you or forsake you.” (Deuteronomy 31:6, John 14:18,
Hebrews 13:5)
”Love endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7)
”Perfect love casts OUT fear.” (1 John 4:18)
Be perfected in love which we have from God FIRST. . . .(1 John 4:10) Amen.
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