Pastor delivered a Sermon: Hold Fast! The initial test is 1 Thessalonians 5.
A time of rapture will come in the future. No one knows when. It is not necessarily a delay by God because God has a Plan.
“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”
1 Thessalonians 5:11.
In the meantime we build each other up, we rejoice and give praise.
“19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not treat prophecies with contempt 21 but test them all; hold on to what is good, 22 reject every kind of evil. 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22.
We must be grounded and HOLD FAST. Refrain from even the appearance of evil.
Don’t trust all you hear on social media. Make sure what you hear and apply has Biblical truth. Don’t hold onto things of this world.
Pastor did a mini (Family Feud type) survey: What are things people try to hold onto:
Money Youthfulness
Relationships Status
Traditions Health
Job Bladder
None of the answers were God.
What are you holding on to?
The world has an entitlement mentality. They are holding on to hurts and claiming rights that are not truly rights (someone else is to blame, someone else should pay for my expenses, someone else should pay my debt etc).
Too many people are holding onto things that are not essentials.
We need to hold fast to what is good - valuable and virtuous
What the world thinks is valued: their opinions, their feelings, their rights. Sometimes this is totally different than what God holds as valuable and righteous.
Isaiah 5:20 “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,”
What is good? – GOD is good! The scripture is good.
1. Hold Onto the Word of the Lord
2 Timothy 1:13-14 Hold fast to sound words.
13 What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. 14 Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
The Word is light and health to us! Proverbs 4:20-22.
Delight in the word of the Lord! Psalm 1:1-3.
Are we people of the Word? If not, you are not healthy and will not be producing good fruit.
Deuteronomy 8:3.
3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
Health and Life come from the spiritual food of the Lord.Friends can give you advise
Lawyers can give counsel.
Doctors can give diagnosis and treatment.
But only God and God’s word can give you true life and health.
God’s Word is never wrong and never off target, It is perfect
Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
Psalm 119:105 The word is a lamp to my feet and light to my path.
Psalm 107:20 He sent His Word to heal them…
2. Hold onto Salvation!
You have a living inheritance in eternal life! 1 Peter 1:3-5.
If you walk away from God, where else are you going to turn?
Hold fast to your profession of faith, without wavering. “23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.” Hebrews 10:23.
Endure to the End – The Son of God will set you free! 1 Timothy 6:12.
Stay with your relationship with the Lord. He is your salvation, your provider, your hope, your healer, your firm foundation, …
Don’t give up now! Hold fast. 1 Corinthians 9:24-27.
Hold fast to your Hope. Hebrews 3:1-6.
I was looking for a good song video this morning.
This was not on my list but I was led to it! He Always Provides.
2 Timothy 1:13-14 NIV
13 What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. 14 Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
Oh Lord. I am grieved by the evil in our world. And you must be ever more greatly grieved. Help me to Hold Fast to You and Your Word. Help me to share Your love and Your word with a world that needs Your light!
Too much of this is apparent in our world today:
