As we finish up the book of 1 Corinthians today, been a long journey off and on. I've jumped out of it and I started it in 2019. So it's been a long journey to get through 1 Corinthians, but it's been a good study and a good study for me. And I hope that you've enjoyed the truths that we've learned. We're in verse number 13. We're going to read down through verse number 24, the end of the chapter. The Bible says, Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong, let all your things be done with charity. I beseech you, brethren, you know the house of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints, that ye submit yourselves unto such, and everyone helpeth with us and laboreth. I am glad of the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord. With the church that is in their house, all the brethren greet you. greet one another with a holy kiss. The salutation of me, Paul, with mine own hand. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we love you. Thank you, Lord, for good reports like we heard on Anona. Thank you for saving souls, God, like we heard from Brad. Thank you for providing safety like you did for the college students and Scott and Becca, Lord, others. that are traveling this time of year. Thank you for safety. Thank you, Lord, for the church, and Lord, that it just keeps marching on. And Lord, we thank you for, Lord, you're the head of it. Lord, that means you go before us. And Lord, we're thankful that, Lord, the church gathers again today. And Lord, we thank you for your word. And Lord, we're here to learn your word. So teach us, Lord, in this Sunday school hour, Lord, what we need to learn, what we need to apply, And Lord, we thank You for it in Jesus' name. Amen. The scene is a battlefield. The commander-in-chief is exhorting the troops on the brink of decisive engagement. The lookouts are to keep a sharp lookout. The foe is very crafty and wholly unprincipled. When the assault comes, no ground must be yielded. The enemy will be swift to occupy and exploit any weakness and chase the Christian into retreat. Bravery and courage are the watchwords. They must be men and they must be strong. There's no room for weakness at this stage. It's with this that I've entitled this Sunday School lesson, Battlefield Resources. Battlefield Resources. In our text, in verse number 13, we have four different admonitions that Paul gives to the church. Four different admonitions. One is dealing with watching, with watching. You ever been deer hunting and get tired and doze off a little bit and you wake up and I don't know what I missed? Maybe a deer ran through. Now deer never run through when I'm out there, so I sleep the whole time. In fact, Steve Ebersol told me this morning his son was out hunting the game lands and asked Steve, does your pasture have a tree stand out here? Because there's one labeled Chris Star. Steve said, yeah, don't hunt there. He never sees anything. But you know what? We get droopy sometimes. We get tired. Right? And that happens spiritually. And Paul just wrote into the Corinthian church on a whole bunch of issues all throughout the book. And now he's summarizing with, you better stay alert. There is a real enemy. And that real enemy is out to devour and to destroy, as we know according to 1 Peter 5, we're to watch lest we be blindsided or ambushed by evil and temptation. I think in the context of marriage, I've counseled some folks that their mate left them, or all of a sudden there was a separation, or all of a sudden the D word came up in their marriage, divorce, and oftentimes one of them will say, I never saw this coming. I never saw this coming. This completely knocks me off my feet. Blindsided. Now, there are probably some signs that led up to that. You know, a choice to leave or a choice to divorce doesn't happen one day. Probably some things that led up to that, but they had no clue. They were blind. They were ambushed. Can I encourage you this morning, saints, be diligent to carry out the will of God in your life. If you are to study for the ministry, be diligent to do it and give yourself to it and give yourself wholly to it. If the will of God means for you singing in the choir or working in the sound room or being a deacon or steward or some other ministry, then be diligent in it and be watchful. Understand that whatever you're doing for the Lord, whatever God's put on your heart to do for Him, understand that there is an enemy. And he would love to injure somebody and put them out of commission, so to speak, in the local church or in the ministry or in the thing that they used to do. Be watchful. Be watchful. Be alert. Know that when you wake up, you have to wake up on guard is what Paul was telling the church here. is what the Holy Spirit is telling us this morning. You wake up every day, you can't just go spiritually. You gotta understand, you know what, today I'm gonna wake up and the enemy is gonna probably, and this is not a bad assumption, I'm going to face fiery darts and wiles today. I was talking to a couple people this week talking about fiery darts and wiles. You know, those are things that are aimed at us that when I wake up in the morning, I'm not amped up about. But something enters into my life, a wild or a fiery dart, and all of a sudden I'm amped up about it, and my soul is troubled about it, and I'm distracted, and I'm wounded, and I'm off-center, so to speak, spiritually. Hey, that happens. That happens to you. That happens to me. It happens on a daily basis. We've got to be watchful. Secondly, stand fast in the faith. Second admonition here is we look at Christian admonitions as part of the resources. for the battlefield, stand fast in the faith. I was reading this week and studying for this passage and one of the authors wrote this and it's so true, sound belief is the only key to sanctified behavior. Or if I could put it this way, proper doctrine is the only key to holy living. And people are shifting on what they believe And by extension, they're shifting on how they live their lives. I think it's interesting in the scriptures that Paul writes to a lot of churches about the stand fast. So the churches at Galatia, in Galatians 5.1, he says, stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free. To Philippians, he says, so stand fast in the Lord, to the Philippian church. In 1 Corinthians 15.1, he talks about the gospel wherein ye stand. We are to know what we believe, We are to know why we believe it. And most of all, we are to know whom we have believed. I want you to understand this morning that mature believers don't leave belief open for discussion. They're not constantly evaluating whether or not what they've believed for the last five years, whether or not they ought to change that. No, they're established in truth. They're grounded in truth. They're steadfast in truth. In your life, if you're going to stand fast, you can't give in to the new doctrines of the day, the new philosophies that are out there, the new kind of churches of the day. Stand fast, Paul says. Stand fast in the faith. He says in 1 Corinthians 15, verse number 58, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. I asked myself this question as I studied this phrase this week. Over the years, what has caused Christians, possibly even strong ones, to become shaky, in what they believe, to leave their post, to leave their church, even to leave their faith, to leave their convictions. What has caused that? Because evidently Paul had a very valid concern here as he writes to Corinth, as he writes to the churches of Galatia, as he writes to the church at Philippi when he said, stand fast. Stand fast. When he writes to Timothy, hold fast. This theme is throughout our New Testament. Therefore, Paul had very big concerns. Remember, he wrote to the Church of Galatia and he says, you know, I pray I haven't labored in vain. I pray you don't backtrack. I pray you don't fall apart spiritually. And I come back and find out that I've labored in vain. This is a big, big thing on the apostle Paul's heart. And I believe, because it's recorded so much in Scripture, it's a big thing on the Holy Spirit's heart. Stand fast. So I thought, what has pulled people away over the years? People that were once steadfast? no longer. I thought of a number of things. I thought of people that have got involved in home Bible studies with cults and have gotten confused and their faith is shaken. Listen, brethren, I want you to understand none of us are so strong to mess with poison or error and come out okay. Anybody here can be deceived. He wrote to the Church of Colossae, hey, be aware, be not deceived, don't be spoiled through vain traditions, the commandments of men, and not after Christ. Here are some things that I found. Beware of unconfessed sin that grows and grows until it makes your heart cold and dead and disinterested in Bible truth. And watch this, distant from the brethren and backslidden. You know what one thing has contributed to people not being steadfast? Unconfessed sin. And it grows and it grows and it grows in a heart until they're uncomfortable around the Word, they're uncomfortable around brethren, they're uncomfortable around light in any way, and they begin to drift. And they begin to not be so steadfast as a believer. Be watchful of hurt and bitterness getting in your heart. False doctrine has claimed its thousands, I would say, and Fundamental Baptist Church's bitterness has claimed its 10,000s. Hurt and bitterness. It has taken many a Christian down. Hurt by another brother or even spiritual leader. Take it to the Lord and you have to leave it there. Listen, brethren, all believers get hurt from time to time. There's nobody exempt from that. Nobody exempt from that. people get hurt, how you deal with it is very, very important. Because if bitterness gets in, it will deaden your heart. It will hurt your heart. It will do so much greater damage to you than the one that you are hurt by. And bitterness is so deceitful because it has attached to it, that hurt has attached to it. I have a right to be hurt. Look what, fill in the blank. But I want you to understand, a lot of believers have gone backwards. A lot of believers have lost the position of steadfastness as a result of hurt or bitterness and not being able to deal with it before the Lord. If that is in your heart somewhere, you know what? You need to do surgery. And the surgery is if you have a trespass against a brother or a brother has a trespass against you, it doesn't matter which side it's on, the biblical thing is to come together, humble hearts, gracious, willing to admit you're wrong, asking for forgiveness and clearing that thing biblically. It's not going to clear on its own. Bitterness doesn't clear on its own. You have to clear it out of your heart and extend forgiveness. I just thought, Lord, what has taken people from a steadfast position to not being steadfast? Young men and young ladies finding a mate that would drag you away from a Bible-believing church. That's done it over the years. It's happened. You get interested in somebody, but they didn't grow up the way you believe. They might be a Christian, but they haven't been taught what you've been taught. They haven't learned what you learned from the Bible, and it's a difficult match. And let me tell you this, 99% of the time, The weak always pulls the stronger in that situation. The stronger doesn't pull the weak. The weak pulls the stronger. And it happens. And young people of our church shop in the right places. Shop in the right places. The local church is a great place to shop. What I'm saying is find a mate that believes like you do. That's important. It's not just, wow, they have a lot of money in the bank. Wow, they're good looking. You know what you're gonna find down the road? You're gonna find that unity in what you believe as a married couple will carry you a lot farther than money or looks or anything else. Important that we learn these things. Be steadfast in your ministries in the church and stick with them. Now watch this, leadership changes from time to time. In ministries, in a church, leadership changes. We don't do what we do because we like the leader or don't like the leader or that's not how we operate. We do what we do heartily unto the Lord. I'm not saying that leadership's gonna change here. I don't know of any leadership changes that are getting ready to take place. But I have watched because leaders change. I don't like that ministry anymore. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Don't, be steadfast is what Paul wrote. Now the church at Corinth had this problem. I like Paul. I like Apollos. And Paul says, be steadfast. Do what you do because you love God. because you're serving God. Your ministry may not always be as thrilling as when you started. You know what? I don't know. You may not jump up and down every time you do what you do in the ministry that God's placed you in. But by all means, be steadfast. Others may drop out. But this is battlefield resource time. And it's an admonition from the Spirit of God. If others drop out, you stick with it. You be steadfast. You may get frustrated with the ministry or the leader, but please set an example of steadfastness for others to follow. Be steadfast. I think these things are worth us being mindful of. being reminded of. You don't have to give ground. You can be consistent in your time of worship. Yesterday I had prayer with Russell Cullum in his house. Russell, listening this morning, I know he didn't share it with me and I don't want to embarrass him, but he told me this. He said, Pastor, this morning before you came, he said, it's so hard not seeing my wife. He said, but I knelt down and he said, I counted the blessings over the past 50 years of my marriage. He said, I got up off my knees. And he said, I felt so much better than going into that time. He said, I'm reading through Jeremiah right now. I'm reading through the Bible. I've read through the Bible for the past 16 years. And he said, pastor, I'm getting more out of it than I've ever gotten out of it. I walked away steadfast, steadfast. Nothing's changing. There's a lot of things that have changed in Russell's life, but not his spirituality. If anything, he's drawing closer to the Lord through it, and good example. Be careful of hitting a missing church, and I'm not speaking to the people that have been sick, and please understand my heart this morning, but I'm looking at the overall picture of the spiritual life. I recently heard of someone who grew up in our church, or not in our church, but a church like ours. He started missing church here and there, Of course, when that happens, you know the direction that that's heading. That's heading to start missing church altogether. Stepped out of church altogether and recently started questioning the very existence of God and was in a church like ours. Now watch this. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. you know for you to be in the services is very important because your faith is strengthened. Now you betray that principle and you just start, this thing's kind of, you know, go when I can or whatever. And I want you to know that you can't betray that principle and keep a strong faith. Faith is strengthened by me hearing the word of God. Faith, I am strengthened when I'm in Sunday school class, and when I'm in morning service, and I'm in evening service, and I'm in Wednesday evening service, and I'm in revival services and missions conferences. There is something that's happening internally in me, and that is that my faith is strengthened in God. But you start skipping those things, and you're not so steadfast in your faith as you think you are. And you're more and more vulnerable. The Bible says, and Paul wrote to this church, stand fast in the faith. Third thing is quit you like men. Third admonition this morning. Paul is not contrasting masculinity and femininity here. But he is contrasting somebody who's full grown and a child. Earlier in the text in 1 Corinthians 13, he said, when I became a man, I put away childish things. Don't be somebody that needs nursed all the time. or needs mommy all the time as a Christian. Don't be like a child that's reactionary to when things aren't proper. I was talking to Scott before the service, they flew up with the baby. The baby's never had a pressured flight before, you know? And that baby got on that flight and for a couple hours, guess what? Crying, crying, crying. And we were talking, you don't want the whole plane to be mad at you, so you're trying to get this baby quiet, and your heart's beating, skipping a couple beats a minute, because this baby's causing all this. Well, a baby does that, we expect that from babies. But if an adult was on that plane, oh, this is so miserable! What in the world? What's wrong with you? I mean, I can expect it from the baby, but not. Paul's saying, hey, in battle, don't be like a child. And sometimes there are battles. There's other things I could say here, but I'll move on. Paul said, but none of these things move me. Neither count I my life dear unto myself. Fourthly, be strong and let all things be done with charity. Let all things be done with charity. You know, it's amazing he mentions love three times in this passage. I mean, on one side, battlefield mentality. Be strong. Quit you like men. Be steadfast. On the other side, let all things be done in your church and in your life with charity. Brethren, that's the balance that we want to strike. And that's the balance that God communicated to the church at Corinth. Next week I'll finish up some other thoughts as we finish up this passage of scripture. But I want you to understand that you're in a battle and there are resources. And verse 13's loaded with them, 13 and 14, five of them, one right after another. And be steadfast in the battle, Christian. 2020, we sat around as a family yesterday, and we all talked through 2020, and talked about the Lord, and talked about what God taught us, and talked about what we were thankful for. But many of you have been through battles this year. And I want you to know the resources are there for you. And I also want you to know that when you come through the battle and you're steadfast, I want you to know it puts a kick in the other believer's steps. Man, so-and-so went through this. I was with Russell yesterday, I tell you what, I left that charged. Man, I'm watching a man that is being steadfast, he's being strong in the battle, he's committed to the Lord, he's walking with God. And you can encourage another brother by being unmovable. And a challenge from the word of God this morning. Let's bow. Thank you for joining us by way of the internet today. We're so glad that you were able to be with us and we pray that the service was a blessing to your heart. Even though the sermon is over, our service is not over. At the end of our service, we give an opportunity for people to respond and come to an altar and pray over what God dealt with them about. Sometimes people come to call upon Christ and to be saved. Others come to make a decision for Christ regarding their Christian lives. Others come to call out to the Lord about special needs and situations in their lives. Maybe God has dealt with you today about some specific area of your life. I invite you to make an altar right there in your home, a quiet time before the Lord where you pray to Him and respond to Him about what He has spoken to you about. If you made a decision for the Lord today, we would be glad to hear about that decision and or answer any questions you have today about the message that was preached. You can contact us by way of email at info at mountziononline.org or by way of phone at 717-927-9227. Again, we thank you for joining us today and we look forward to you joining us again for our live stream. weekly on Sundays at 10.45 a.m. and on Sunday evenings at 6.45 p.m. If we can meet a need in your life, please do not hesitate to contact us. Thank you and God bless you.