Restoring Grace 5

Hello Everyone,

What should I do when I sin? One word: Return! Come back to Christ.

Jeremiah 15:19 "If you return to Me, I will restore you so you can continue to serve Me."

No matter what you've done God says in Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

Isaiah 54:7, "With great compassion I will take you back."

There's a happy ending to the story of Peter's denial. If ever there was a sin you'd think was unforgivable, it's denying Jesus three times.

But Jesus knew Peter would deny Him and even knew he would come back to Him. In fact, before it even happened,

Jesus said to Peter in the upper room, "Satan has desired to sift you but I have prayed for you and when you have returned, strengthen the brothers."

 Jesus is in heaven right now and "He liveth to make intercession for the saints."

Psalm 51 David prayed after he committed adultery. He said, "Restore to me again the joy of Your salvation."

Let me ask some hard hitting questions.

Was there ever a time in your life when you were closer to Christ than you are right now? If so, what happened?

A career? A relationship? A hobby? Television?

Has your relationship to Christ gone stale? Are you just heartlessly going through the motions? Has duty replaced delight?

Have you stopped caring about the salvation of those people around you? When was the last time you shared a positive word about Christ?

Have you been ashamed of your relationship to Christ? What is it that you know God wants you to do that you've been putting off and procrastinating?

Being baptized? Joining the family here at Freedom Center?

What is it that you used to do but you slacked off on?

Reading your Bible? Tithing? Giving?

It's just possible that that's why you lost your joy.

Return to Christ! Find your first love!

Greater Things Are Still To Come! 

Restoring Grace 4

Hello Everyone,

Lastly CONVENIENCE is another way that some fall away.

We want to have faith but we want to have a comfortable faith. We want it to fit our schedule. Sure I want to follow Christ as long as it doesn't cramp my style.

Look what happened to Peter. It says he followed Jesus from a distance. "Then he sat with the guards and warmed himself at the fire." This is an amazing scene to me.

Jesus is about to be executed and Peter is partying with the enemy. He's sitting there in the crowd wanting to be one of the gang, warming his arms by the fire.

The very men who were going to torture and execute Christ, Peter is sitting around a campfire with hanging out, wanting to be comfortable.

If you try to enjoy the world's campfire, you're going to get burned. You're not in the same kingdom, the same world, the same lifestyle any more.

Over the years I've seen it all. I've watched a lot of people flame out, a lot of people sidelined. People who were supposedly strong Christians and today they can't be found anywhere.

I've noticed a pattern when people fall away from Christ. It is the same pattern. I've seen it over and over again.

It always starts like this:

When a person's real active in a church and they start falling away the first thing they stop is their giving.

Jesus said your giving indicates your heart. He said where your treasure is your heart will be. It's a thermometer. It’s a good EKG of your heart. How's your giving?

It says I'm getting into the world's way.

The second thing that stops is PRAYER.

The third thing is they stop ATTENDING.

What should I do when I sin? One word: Return! Come back to Christ.

Greater Things Are Still To Come! 

Restoring Grace 3

Hello Everyone,

The third cause of falling away from Christ is FEAR OF DISAPPROVAL.

We're worried about what other people will think. We're afraid they'll reject us; they won't accept us that they'll make fun of us or ridicule us.

This is what happened to Peter. After Jesus was arrested it says in Mark 15:54 "Peter followed Him at a distance."

Get the picture. Jesus has been arrested and Peter decided he would follow Him at a distance.

Do you ever try to follow Jesus at a distance? "I'm a follower of Christ but let's not get fanatical about it! Let's not get radical.

One of the signs that you can know that you're slipping away from Christ is you start to become ashamed of Him.

You want to follow Him at a distance. You're ashamed maybe to put your Bible on your desk at work. You're ashamed to pray over a meal in a restaurant in public or at school.

We've let the media so pound us down nobody wants to stand up. Nobody wants to speak up.

Proverbs 29:25 "Fearing people is a dangerous trap."

Mark 8:38 Jesus said, "If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words I will be ashamed of him before the holy angels and My father in heaven."

Jesus said, "If you're ashamed of Me here on earth, I will be ashamed of you in heaven."

That's powerful stuff. There are no secret agents in God's army.

Revelation 21:8 lists cowardice in the same category as murder and adultery. That's how serious it is to be embarrassed.

And when you're worried about the disapproval of others you're on the slippery slope of falling away.

Greater Things Are Still To Come! 

Restoring Grace 2

Hello Everyone,

This is the first reason people backslide -- OVER CONFIDENCE.

We begin to think we can handle everything on our own. We begin to think we are so strong we could never fail. We begin to say, "That would never happen to me!"

Anytime you hear about somebody else's stumbling and you say, "That could never happen to me" you're setting yourself up for a fall.

1 Corinthians 10:12 says: ^“So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!”  It's a trap!

Proverbs 16:18 says:  Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.

The way you spell ego -- EGO stands for Edging God Out.

When I get overconfident, I let ego into my life, I'm edging God out and I'm already backing away and heading down the slippery slope of falling away from Christ.

The second cause of falling away is LAZINESS.

We see this too in the story of Peter's denial. We get lethargic and slack off.

All these good habits we used to do like praying every day, reading the Bible every day, being in a small group we start saying, "Maybe I don't have time for that right now."

When you do, it ought to be a warning light. Because in the next scene we see this happening to Peter he just got tired.

Jesus took Peter, James and John -- three of the disciples -- into the Garden and said, "I want you guys to stay here and pray with Me for a while." This was the night

He knew He was going to be arrested and the next day He would be executed, crucified.

He said, "Can you guys just be with Me -- watch and pray."

He goes off and prays a little bit and comes back and they're asleep.

He goes off and comes back again and they've fallen asleep again.

Peter's problem was he just kept falling asleep. Jesus says in v. 37 "Couldn't you stay awake with Me for one hour?"

There's a principle here. When you get tired, you're setting yourself up for major temptation.

It's more difficult to do the right thing than it is to do the wrong thing.

If you really want to do the right thing in life, it takes energy, it takes effort, and it takes a lot of stamina.

Because you're trying to do the right thing all the time, you're going to get tired -- emotionally, physically, spiritually, in every area of your life.

If you don't know how to recharge yourself emotionally, if you don't know how to recharge yourself spiritually or physically, then fatigue is going to set in.

And fatigue should always be a warning light that something's going wrong, something's out of order. When you're tired, that's when you're most vulnerable to temptation.

Fatigue lowers your defenses and it makes you vulnerable.

Matthew 6:41 Jesus said, "Watch and pray so you won't fall into temptation." We've got to keep our guard up because when we start letting it down in laziness, we're starting on the slippery slope to falling away.

Be Careful!

Greater Things Are Still To Come!