The enemy is going about like a roaring lion. It’s time for God’s people to resist, steadfast in the faith... How can we differentiate between a genuine conviction to leave a church and a temptation to leave due to discomfort or difficulty?

<p>The enemy is going about like a roaring lion. It’s time for God’s people to resist, steadfast in the faith... How can we differentiate between a genuine conviction to leave a church and a temptation to leave due to discomfort or difficulty?</p>

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FAST Missions

Daniel Vis

Steadfast in the Faith

Father in heaven, we are excited about things happening and we have things to look forward to.

Many blessings, just as Cameron prayed, we have so many blessings, they by far outweigh the negatives in our lives.

But sometimes we do have difficult situations and tough situations.

I pray that you would be with us as we talk about this delicate and sensitive topic.

Please, give us the Holy Spirit, we pray in Jesus' name.

So this morning, if you have your Bibles, turn with me.

Thank you, by the way, Faith, for reading our scripture this morning.

I wanna just remind you again what the Bible says on this.

Verse 8 and 9, the Bible says, verse 8, Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour.

What we're seeing right now in 2025 is nothing new.

It's been happening from the very beginning of the Christian church.

The enemy has been constantly working to try and distract people and deter people out of the path.

And he's been causing problems for the Christian church from the very beginning.

It's nothing new what we're seeing today.

Some people are going to lose their way, they're going to go astray, they're going to be ensnared by the devil, and he's going to destroy their spiritual experience.

John wrote about this as well in 1 John 2, verse 19.

We're going to cover a lot of verses today.

He said, if they had been of us, they would have no doubt continued with us.

But they went out, that they might be made manifest, that they were not of us.

People that we thought were our brothers and sisters, and they were right there by our side, Sabbath after Sabbath, sometimes they go out and we lose them and they're gone and it's over.

He said in the latter times especially, that is in our day, some would depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.

The enemy is working even more powerfully today than he was in New Testament times to deceive people.

And you can count on his deceptions being powerful, and they're going to work in some cases.

We are aware that the enemy sometimes succeeds, right?

Fortunately, if we can go back to our scripture reading here in 1 Peter 5, it continues with the next verse, it says, Be sober, be diligent, because your adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour, whom we are to resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world." So yes, we need to be sober, we need to be vigilant, no doubt about that, but We also need to come together as a church and resist steadfast in the faith.

The same thing that we're seeing here is happening all around the world.

This is happening in many places, many parts of the world.

And We need to press together as a church and resist steadfast in the faith.

We need to be alert, but we need to resist.

We can't afford to give an inch to the enemy.

I want to share with you today some principles that can help us resist steadfast in the faith.

What are the Bible principles we need to understand in order to do that as a church?

Sadly, I've seen this happen many times in my life over the years, this issue or that issue, they go down 1 rabbit hole or off on some other tangent or whatever.

There's so many different things the enemy, he's got like, he's got a deception for every single person.

And if you haven't found yours yet, he's got 1 for you.

I've seen it so many times and for whatever reason I don't know exactly But it seems like I've always been in a situation where I usually am the 1 that's called to confront these things and address These things and respond to these things and I've had to reason with people over and over and over.

It doesn't matter what topic it is, they all follow the same exact pattern.

What I'm making is that there's nothing new under the sun.

What we're seeing today has happened many times before and it's gonna happen again.

And what I've noticed again is that when people go down this road, they follow a specific path.

There are certain steps that they go down, and everyone that has gone off on 1 of these tangents has followed the exact same pathway, and that pathway is warned against in Scripture.

And the reason that we make this mistake is because we don't understand the counsel of God.

We don't know what He says to do about how we approach these new topics, these new insights, these new, quote, discoveries.

And so we go down a pathway that's dangerous, and before we know it, it's too late, and We are lost.

The Bible says, Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

But if you look at this verse carefully and you kind of see how it's wrapped up, it's kind of like a sandwich.

Verse 14 says, of these things put them in remembrance Charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit But to the subverting of the hearers and others be careful what you study Don't study the wrong things because it can subvert your whole house The word there is the word catastrophe.

It can bring a catastrophe to your life if you're not careful what you study and how you study.

Look at the verses right after, verse 16.

But shun provain and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness.

Their word will eat as does a canker." And that word means, is literally the word gangrene.

It's going to be like gangrene in your life if you're not careful what you study.

And I mentioned some specific people in their day that did something very similar.

They have crazy ideas about the resurrection, their faith was overthrown, and they were overthrowing the faith of others.

It was a serious problem then, it's a serious problem today.

Don't go listening to people that are talking foolishness or speaking things that are crazy and out of harmony with the Bible, be careful about that, because all it does is multiplies ungodliness.

It spreads it like a cancer, like a gangrene.

And it will spread until there's no remedy for it.

It can overthrow the faith of many people, not just 1 or 2, but it can spread.

This is a real thing and the Bible is warning.

What I'm saying here is we have 1 verse that says to study and we have 4 or 5 verses that says be careful how you study.

And I found this pattern through the New Testament over and over and over again, probably by a ratio of 4 or 5 to 1, for every command that says we need to study the Bible, there's at least 4 or 5 verses that say, be careful how you study.

Watch out for, I just made a list of some of these, fables and genealogies, vain babbling, doting questions, stripes of words, foolish, unlearned questions, Jewish fables, commandments of men, contention, strivings about the law, those speaking perverse things, damnable heresies, pernicious ways, I mean, verse after verse after verse, philosophy, vain deceit, theories about the worship of angels, about the resurrection like we see here, about will worship, about observing days and months and weeks and years, False theories about the resurrection, about the judgment, false theories.

I mean the Bible is talking about all kinds of false theories that were circulating around in Paul's day.

In fact, if you start looking for it, it makes it sound like the New Testament was a hotbed of confusion.

Every imaginable wind of doctrine was blowing around, all the way from the Pharisees and the legal legalists and the Judaizers, all the way over to the Gnostics and the Libertines, and saying, hey, you don't have to do anything.

I mean, you have a broad spectrum of ideas in the New Testament church, and the New Testament had to deal with these things.

So how do we deal with these things today?

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Steadfast in the Faith

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