Steadfast and Immovable
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Not long ago I was watching a video online about how to survive stampeding crowd. Let’s say you’re on the riverfront for thunder over Louisville, and something goes down that causes everyone to run or press in one direction. These can be very dangerous scenarios. if you fall down, you are likely to trampled. Even if you aren’t knocked down, it people have been known to suffocate because the were pressed in so tightly by the crowd that they were not able to breathe. How do you guard again this? How do you survive?
The video went through several key tactics. First, try take a wider stance with your feet to lower your center of gravity and make it more difficult to knock you down.
Second, bring your hands up into a fighting position. This will protect your cage and give you a little more space to breathe.
Third, crowds like this often have surges where there are brief but sudden waves of pressing that can often create small gaps in the crowd. When these occur, attempt to zig zag your way through those gaps as quickly as possible so as to make it out of the crowd as fast as you can.
If you do happen to be knocked down, getting into the fetal position on your side with you hand on your head will help protect your head and, again, that rib cage, hopefully allow you to breathe and remain conscious until you can safely get up, which you should do at the earliest possible second.
The key thing to remember is that you want remain upright and protect the most important thing you need for survival: your breathing.
This is an apt metaphor for the spiritual life. If we want to remain steadfast and stable, then there are certain things we would do well to observe in order to protect our spiritual lives and ensure that when everything is chaos around us, we can keep our heads and maintain steady footing.
Various biblical writers used the language of stability, steadfastness, unshaken, etc when seeking to communicate the importance of the truth they were communicating. They would warn about things that cause us to be tossed around or lose our stability in life and commend us to certain knowledge and practices that would increase our stability and strength.
For example, Peter wrote
Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble;
In chapter two he warns about false teachers
They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children!
And finally in chapter three his final exhortation he writes
You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
Paul in Eph 4 spoke of the way that we can easily be manipulated by the world and the solution to that problem
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,
to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
God gave leaders to the church in order to teach the church and so equip the church for warfare and service. The goal of this is building up the body to reach maturity in Christ, and the result of that maturity is no longer being tossed around by human deceitfulness. We’ve been equipped for the battle.
As Paul teaches the church in Corinth about the reality of the resurrection and of things to come, he ends chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians with these words
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
That word steadfast, speaks of a persevering spirit, endurance and fortitude in the face of adversity.
Paul commended the Colossians for their stability in Col 2:5
For even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ.
In that text Paul urges the church press on and be firmly rooted in Christ and built up in Christ, firmly established in the faith.
Likewise he thought highly of the Thessalonians for a similar virtue as we have seen in our wendnesday night study
remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul tells Timothy
You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus,
And finally, we have the iconic text from Eph 6 on the armor of God
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
Verse 13 says having done everything, to stand, verse 14 says stand firm therefore.
Be strong. Be strengthened. Be steadfast. Be stable. Be firmly rooted. Be built up.
Themes and language that runs throughout all of the NT epistles as the various writers seek to encourage and equip the church.
Last week I took us through a survey of various places the Scripture speak of the nature, power, effect, and results that the Word of God brings upon those who give themselves to regular study of its pages.
If you didn’t pick up a reading plan last week, there are still print outs available on the back table.
Last week I spoke of personal engagement in the Scriptures as the number one factor that will determine your personal spiritual health as an individual in the year 2024.
You want to build stability and strength into your life. This is how. This is where it begins!
An embrace of the Gospel of Christ, that you have no means of salvation outside of the person and work of Christ, that is the base. That is the foundation. Personal engagement in the word of God flows from that and reinforces the truth that the Spirit is building within you.
But what flows from there? What’s next? How do we continue to build and grow in the faith?
Our leadership team has spent several hours discussing the future of Pillar Fellowship, particularly for 2024.
What do we hope to accomplish. What goals can we set and steps to take those goals.
One of the fruits of that discussion is this emphasis on the concept of building stability and strength within the lives and households of those who call Pillar Fellowship their home.
What can we do to reach out to an unstable world around us and proclaim the Gospel in the hopes that the Sprit of God would be at work causing the seed to sprout and bring forth fruit and stability in their lives?
As I have been reflecting on these themes and kicking around ideas with Jim, Phil, and Henry, it really struck me that all of our founding documents, our name, our purpose statement, our core values, and our church covenant all serve to direct to toward these concepts of strength and stability.
Take the name of our church, for starters.
Pillar Fellowship.
What does a pillar do and represent? It communicates strength and longevity. It stands and supports. Strength. Stability. Longevity.
Pillar Fellowship
It’s been said that a fellowship can described as a bunch of fellows in the same ship. We work together toward a common goal, a common objective. We support one another, and we help one another as we go through this life together.
Of course, the name is drawn from a biblical text
I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.
We are a household. Brothers and sister. Family.
We serve a living God who has spoken, who works, who gives life.
We are Pillar. All the things I’ve already said.
We are a buttress, as the ESV says. Speaks of a fortifying structure that provides defensive support. The enemy seeks to attack the truth and we are called to defend it.
Our name is about strength, stability, and mutual support.
Our Purpose Statement Lends itself to this concept.
These banners are not intended to be mere artwork. They are to be ever present reminders about what our mission is.
We exist to glorify God by proclaiming Christ that every individual in our reach might hear, believe, and follow Him. Matt 28:18-20; Acts 1:8; Rom 10:9-15; 1 Cor 2:2, 10:31; 2 Cor 2:17; Col 1:28-29
We exist to glorify God, as he alone is worthy of glory and there is no higher aim. As the classic catechism states, the chief end of man is to.....glorify God and enjoy him forever.
How do we do that?
By proclaiming Christ. It starts with the Gospel. It starts with everything Christ has commanded as it says in the great commission.
What’s the end goal?
Everyone in our reach might hear the Gospel so that they might believe the Gospel and that they might then, in turn, follow after him. Begin to order their lives after what God has said is good and rightly, and thus they will be strengthened and stabilized.
In this pursuit, our core values have been articulated in such a way as to help keep us on task, they are to be the guardrails of the ministry of this church.
1. Sound Bible Teaching. We practice expository preaching and teaching with practical application of the whole counsel of the Word of God. Ezra 7:10; Neh 8:8; John 17:17; Acts 2:42; 1 Tim 4:13; 2 Tim 4:2; 2 Pet 1:19-21
First and foremost, everything begins with this. This is how we know what the Gospel is, this is how we know what false doctrine is, this is how we know what sound doctrine is, is by giving ourselves to this book.
This is why our habit is to preach sequentially through books of the Bible, this is why our bible study on Wednesday has us moving inductively through books of the Bible.
We don’t want to miss anything that God has said. We want to take in every inspired word. and we want to live in light of it.
This book is where the journey to strength and stability begins! If anything is out of step with this book, it will only lead to instability and harm, so we need to make sure we really know what God has and hasn’t said.
This is the primary means of growth and stability before the Lord.
2. Theo-Centric Worship. We worship and exalt the Triune God to bring Him glory, not only in music and corporate gatherings, but in all of life. Deut 6:5; Matt 22:36-40; John 4:23; 1 Cor 10:31; Eph 5:18-20; Col 3:15-17
Life is to be about worship. All of life. Not just times of singing together on Sunday mornings. But all of life. Worship through your work. Through your school. Through your chores. Through your parenting.
And our job as a church is to direct one another to lift our eyes to the Lord, from whom comes the strength and stability that we seek. We worship the one who is worthy of our worship.
3. Fervent Prayer. We engage in regular, fervent prayer because it is commanded, effective, loving, and edifying. Luke 18:1; Phil 4:6; Col 4:2; 1 Thess 5:17; 1 Tim 2:1, 8; Heb 4:17; James 4:3, 5:16; 1 Peter 3:12
This is a correction or perhaps a move made to bring about more balance when we shifted our Sunday School hour from one of teaching and instruction to one of prayer.
We are seeking the face of the one who can answer our prayers, the one who is able to bring about stability in our lives.
We are commanded to pray and promised that when we pray, God will answer in accordance with His will.
Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Our Father who are in heaven, hallowed by thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgiven our tresspasses as we forgive those who tresspass against us. Deliver us from evil, for thine is power and glory for ever and ever amen.
4. Life-on-Life Discipleship. We help one another follow Jesus. Matt 10:25, 28:18-20; Luke 6:40; Titus 2:1-15. We intentionally invest in developing leaders for the home and church. 1 Cor 11:3; Eph 4:11-16; Eph 5:22-33, 6:4; Col 3:19, 21; 1 Tim 3:1-13; 2 Tim 2:2; Tit 1:5-9; 1 Pet 3:7
Building strength and stability is a cooperative effort. Investing in the lives of one another has to be part of our lives as co-laborers in the Gospel. If we truly want every individual within our reach to hear, believe, and then follow, we must work arm in arm with one another to accomplish that task.
Discipleship helps build strength and stability in one another.
5. Gospel-Driven Outreach. We serve and reach out to our community with the gospel; we support and send church planters globally. Matt 28:18-20; Acts 1:8; Rom 10:9-15; 1 Cor 15:3-5
When we’ve been shown grace and mercy, when we’ve seen God at work strengthening and building us, should we not want to see that be extended to others beyond us? So we reach out with the Gospel. We serve. By God’s grace one day we will support and send out church planters around the world with this same mission.
6. Christian Fellowship. We gather to encourage, edify, and exhort one another that we might not lose heart. Prov 27:17; Ecc 4:9-11; John 13:34; Rom 1:11-12; Gal 6:1-2; 1 Thess 5:11, 14; Heb 10:24-25; James 5:16
There is some relationship to Discipleship in this core value. But this value articulates part of why we gather together. Why don’t we just go off and read our Bibles on our own? If personal Bible engagement is the single greatest determiner of my strength, maturity, and stability, why do I need to fellowship?
Again, building strength is a cooperative effort. Through Christian fellowship we hold one another accountable, we challenge each other, we encourage each other. Scripture tells us the that we will be attacked, and those most susceptible are those who are alone and isolated.
If we do not treat Sunday mornings as just a time to come and put on fake smiles and pretend like everything is okay, but treat it as an opportunity to challenge and be challenged, to encourage and be encouraged, there will be strength and stability build.
And then the last Core value.
7. Others-Oriented Service. We selflessly serve others, both in the church and community, as an expression of the Love of Christ. Prov 19:17; Rom 12:10, 13; Phil 2:1-5; Gal 5:13, 6:9-10; Heb 13:16; 1 Pet 4:8-10
If you were to go back and look up the contexts for many of the passages that I covered in the first portion of this message, you would find that many of those passages are in the context of Christian fellowship or contain words about service for others.
Something amazing happens in us when we give of ourselves for others. It is a blessing to them for sure, but there is something built within us as well. God has designed the world this way. We can only be self-fulled when we are willing to spend and be spent for others, as Paul says.
Those are our core values. Those are the things we have decided are important to us. And those are the things that God has said in His word will lead to your strengthening in the faith and stability in life.
As a church body, we don’t do all these things perfectly. I think there are some things we do really well. I think we can stand to see some development in others. I don’t say that as an indictment upon any one. We are developing church plant. We are toddlers figuring out how to walk.
By God’s grace we will see growth in these areas and see strength and stability built up in each of our hearts and lives.
This concept of strength, stability, and steadfastness. This is going to be something that, by God’s grace and should the Lord tarry, we will lean into more as the year unfolds.
I want to see your strengthened in your faith. I want to see stability in your lives. These are the components that will take you there.
I want to see the same things built within the lives of the next household that our church has the opportunity to reach and minister.
Every house, every building, every structure begins with a foundation. We have a sure foundation in Jesus Christ, we have the foundation of the apostles and prophets. We have the sure Word of God.
Upon that foundation we want to see things built that will glorify our grand architect. We are His workmanship created in Christ for good works.
As we give ourselves to these core values, to our purpose statement, to living up to the name of our church, we will be building upon the foundation good and necessary things that will construct a stable and secure building.
I hope and pray that God builds and strengthes us. Individually. Corporately. I hope and pray that God adds to our number. Not because numbers are everything. But because Christ is everything and we want more people to hear, believe, and follow. We want more people to strengthened.
As so I want to close with this text. A text that calls us to look to the one who is able to accomplish all these things.
A Song of Ascents.
I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?
My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.
Let’s Pray