If you’ve ever played football, you might be familiar with the coaching term, “ball key”. Ball key is a signal from the coach to stand firm and to focus on the ball and the movement of the ball until the ball is snapped. It is a call to attention from the coach to the team, to stand firm. This applies to the church as well.
The mission of the team is to advance the ball down the field towards the goal. The mission of the church is to love him, love others, and proclaim the gospel to the ends of the earth. Paul’s command today is on time to stand firm. Let’s stand together and stand firm on his word.
We can stand firm in unity with joy so that the gentleness of Christ can be seen through us all.
Stand firm in the Lord.
The idea of standing firm means to stand your ground, to not move, to be immovable, to be firmly committed to one’s conviction and belief.
We need a firm stance on what we believe about Jesus and the gospel and start there. You’ve heard it said that if you don’t stand for something, you’re going to fall for anything. Stand firm that Jesus is Lord. Stand firm that Jesus paid the price for your sins. Stand firm that Jesus actually died on the cross.
Stand firm that he was buried. And yes, three days later, it wasn’t a figment of their imagination. He bodily resurrected from the dead. Let that inform every other decision that you think you need to stand firm on.
There are some things you need to be flexible on, like those matters of opinion and preference. Not everything is a fighting matter. Not everything is a die-for issue. But when it comes to the Lord, we need to be immovable. We need to be unwavering. We need to be faithfully committed to the Lord and the priorities of the Gospel.
We also need to stand firm by taking action in those things that are near and dear to God’s heart. Sometimes your faith must go beyond your phone and in public. People need to see your faith in how you act, what you say and what you believe. It should be evident by how you live and the words that you let escape.
Matthew 10:32-33
32 “Everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. 33 But everyone who denies me here on earth, I will also deny before my Father in heaven.
There are many applications in our call to stand firm, but we are in giving towards the pregnancy care center because God cares about life. This isn’t just one of those Baptist beliefs.
God says in Jeremiah 1:5, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.
We say life begins with conception, but God says life begins when I say it does. Psalm 139 echoes God’s desire for life. God cares for life and I believe we should care for life. We should be a voice for the voiceless, especially when it comes to the unborn.
This year alone, the World Health Organization says around the planet there have been almost 26 million abortions. With this issue, we need to stand firm.
Stand Firm in Harmony
How can we say that we stand firm on what we believe about Jesus if we’re not standing together? To every one of you that’s a member of this church, you’re a part of this team. Every team member matters. Every team member has a role. We must be playing the game as a team together. Unity matters for all teams.
We cannot allow disunity to grow in our heart and distract us from the mission. One chink in God’s armor and any particular church can leave a body part exposed, and an arrow of dissension can come in and hit any church body at any time and affect the mission. Be careful. Disunity is harmful.
If there’s a sin in the church that can cause a big problem, even if it’s one person. So go to them if they’re in sin. Love them enough to say, I love you, brother or sister – please stop breaking God’s heart and that action. If one on one doesn’t work, take a buddy with you. If that doesn’t work, get the whole church involved.
Stand firm with joy.
You can choose joy in any and every life circumstance. Sometimes it’s easy to stand firm in what I believe, sometimes it’s easy for me to stand against what breaks God’s heart, but it’s very difficult for me to stand firm with joy.
Joy is attractive. When you see it, you know it. Joy has this idea of being upbeat, positive, encouraging, even smiling. Standing firm in joy is the idea of resisting the negativity and the worry that comes from the world. It’s easy to get caught up in the negativity in our society.
If you’re going to stand against something, if you’re going to be immovable in something outside of Christ, be immovable in your joyful attitude. Rejoicing is always a choice because Christ has always given you the ability to have joy and hope in any and every situation, despite the circumstances.
The people that I respect and admire the most in this world that are believers. They’re the people that choose joy in all life circumstances.
When we choose joy, we can share the gentleness of Christ with others. The definition of gentleness is facing persecution or hardship for others without retaliation. Jesus is the one that faced the hardship of what he endured on the cross through the beatings, the crown of thorns, the crucifixion, all of that.
If you’ve never trusted in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I pray that the gentleness of Jesus is what would draw you into Him today. That you believe that he took your place on that cross and live that perfect life on your behalf? You believe that he rose from the dead and that he bore your sin without retaliation? So that you could repent and believe and trust in him today. If you’ve never made that decision, make it today.
