Five F's to Avoid

Satan loves to get us down and discouraged, or if nothing else, at least to distract us.  Satan is the Master Deceiver:  He is the Father of Lies.  Why?--because he knows the end of the story!  His end is in "the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever." (Rev. 20:10) --And because he knows his end, he wants to take as many as he can with him!  But if we know Christ as our personal Saviour, the most he can do is get us down, or discouraged, or distract us.  And why does he want to do that?--so that we aren't of any use to Christ.  (not a good place to be in--don't go there!)  So today I want to talk about the five F's to avoid!

1. Fear

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound   mind.  (2 Tim. 1:7)  Those are key components to the workings of Christ.  We need to stand upon them.  Don't allow Satan to distract you with fear…fear of

         (a) change

         (b) being found out

         (c)  death

2. Failure

Luke 16:9 says, "when ye fail," not "if."  Failure is part of life.  Failure is part of learning.  So if you've failed at something, get up, dust yourself off, and get goin' again!  Proverbs 24: 16 says, "For a just man faileth seven times, and riseth up again; but the wicked shall fall into mischief."  My second point is this, failure is an event, not a person. Just because you might have failed at something, doesn't make you a failure.  Look beyond it!  Christ sees so much more!

3. Feelings

vs. The Word of God

I don't know why it is (particularly as women), we tend to live our lives by our feelings; but that is just wrong.  Feelings just tend to bring us down and depressed and discouraged (funny how a lot of the devil's tactics begin with the letter "d"!).  No, we as Christians need to live our lives by the Word of God!  It is there that we find power and strength and encouragement.  Don't forget, the Word of God plays a major part in the Armor of God that God tells us to put on every day--and every part of every day!  It is powerful!  Meditate upon it, memorize it!

Let's think of a train for a moment:

Fact

Faith

Feeling

"Fact" is what we get from God's Word.  God's Word is true and it is powerful.  Next comes "Faith."  Don't forget, "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of truth." (Rom. 10:17).  Then lastly, is feeling.  God will give us the right kind of feelings (faith, of course, confidence, courage, love, joy, peace, etc., as we put God first and depend upon Him.  But the key here is putting God and His Word at the front of the train.  Anytime we get that train turned around, we're in for disaster!

4. Futile

--thinking our service to Christ doesn't count or doesn't matter--you would be so wrong!

1 Corinthians 15:58 says, "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain the Lord."  God is the reason for it all!  He is what we should be laboring for!

5. No Future

There is life after whatever it is you're going through.  Don't allow the difficult times to make you bitter; they were provided in your life to make you better.  Question is--which one will you choose?  God isn't finished with you yet--ya know how I know?--because you're still here! 

• Check your report card!  Are you focusing on some F's today?  Ok--it's time to take your eyes off what's getting you down--it's time to focus on the Lord.  God can still raise those grades!  He can and He will--if you will just trust Him!

It’s time to focus on the Lord!

   Merle

This was taken from a sermon preached by Pastor Mike Ray at our church, Lighthouse Baptist Church in Pleasanton, CA, on October 13, 2008.  Mike Ray is Pastor of Hopewell Baptist Church in Napa, CA.  If you're ever in either Pleasanton or Napa, CA, be sure to stop in.  Both churches are just wonderful and you wouldn't want to miss either pastor preaching.