Persevere! - 01 Introduction

Highlights:

Time mark: 1:10

Perseverance is a crucial subject in the Bible especially as it relates to our faith, and our salvation.

True saving faith perseveres. That means that it endures that means that it keeps on going. We're going to have challenges in our lives. We're going to have a lot of things that are going to happen, but perseverance, our faith, it perseveres and it keeps us connected with our Heavenly Father. It keeps us holding onto God's unchanging hand.

Perseverance is something that we have to make sure that we have as believers. A lack of persevering faith indicates nothing less than the lack of conversion to Christ.

Time mark: 2:33

A lot of people are saved, they accepted Christ, but they don't have that perseverance, faith, that persevering faith, that faith that's going to carry them to the end.

They pick up their faith one day, they put it down the next day. Some people just totally walk away because they heard another way of doctrine, and so they said, "You know what, I'm gonna go with that."

But it is important as believers, that we hold on to our faith, and that our faith, our persevering faith, has more to do with us than just simply saying, "Lord come into my life", or "Jesus save me". Because that perseverance shows the dedication, it shows the discipline, and it shows the ongoing connection and relationship that you have created, and that you have wanted and warranted with your heavenly Father.

Time mark: 3:34

1 John 2:19

They went out from us, but they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

Time mark: 4:50

This is how you know, that you know, that you know, who your friends are, who your true brothers and sisters are in Christ, because they're going to persevere with you.

We get into things and we may not agree on everything, but who's gonna persevere to say, "Okay, I may not agree with them but I identify with the Christ on the inside of them. They identify with the Christ on the inside of me, therefore, we're gonna keep on walking together, this walk of faith, we're gonna keep on, we're gonna keep on praying for one another, we're gonna keep on looking out for one another, we're gonna keep on encouraging one another."

Time mark: 10:49

With anything that you do, whatever you assign your life to, you need to make sure that you are truly committing, you are truly committed, you're selling out. Meaning that you have made up your mind that this is the path I'm going to take and I will stick to it.

Determine the path you're going to take and stick to it.

A fish out of water, flip, flip, flip, flip, flip, flip, and that's what people look like who do not make up a conscious decision to follow a path and be committed and dedicated to it.

Half the time people that do that it's because they are rebellious, and they are not disciplined. A rebellious person feels like they can do whatever they want. They don't want any type of guidelines. They don't want any type of directive being placed on their life. They just want to be like a loose cannon, and you know what? As a vessel of God, we can't be loose cannons. We can't be renegade pastors and renegade evangelists. God has order he does things in decent order.

Time mark: 14:56

Matthew 27:5

Throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself.

Judas Iscariot, he caused himself to fall by the wayside. All that time he spent with Jesus, he was fortunate. He walked with Jesus. He talk with Jesus. They slept under the same roof when it was time for them to take lodging. While they were on His crusade road, on the boat with Him, walked the streets with Him.

Saw Jesus perform signs, wonders, and miracles. And what did he do for a bag of silver? For a bag of silver he denied Christ, through all of that to the side.

He fell away. He fell away. He drifted away from Jesus, and then felt so bad about it, what did he do? He hung himself.

Time mark: 15:51 and 19:39

Ministry is work. Many don't want to bear the hardships when they come and they abandon those who are enduring hardship for the sake of Christ.

2 Timothy 1:15-18

"You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes."

"May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me. May the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day! You know very well in how many ways he helped me in Ephesus."

These passages do not imply that a true believer's faith will never falter or fail, but that a person who possesses truly saving faith will never fully or finally fall away because God will sustain their faith.

Time mark: 26:35

Hebrews 7:25

Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.