Unwavering Conviction
5/25/08
(The following was used with
a PowerPoint presentation, the asterisks indicate slide changes.)
*Unwavering Conviction
*It’s easy to stand firm when
the ground is not shaking!
Read Mat. 24:1-14
Pray
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How strong are your
convictions?
Convictions can be easily
swayed by the opinion or reaction of others.
*Pr. 29:25 Fear of man
will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe.
Suppose your own son is
miraculously healed but you still will not give Jesus the glory because you are
afraid you will be thrown out of the church!
*Jo. 19:18 The Jews still did not believe that he had
been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents. 19“Is
this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it
that now he can see?” 20“We know he is our son,” the parents
answered, “and we know he was born blind. 21But how he can see now,
or who opened his eyes, we don’t
*know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.”
22 His parents said this
because they were afraid of the Jews, for already the Jews had decided
that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the
synagogue. 23That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
Having fear of what man
thinks can be overwhelming to many people!
*Jo. 12:42 Yet at the same time many even among the
leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the
synagogue; 43 for they loved praise from men more than
praise from God.
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Convictions are not tested on
the good days. Convictions are tested
when the pressure is on.
That is why Jesus made this
statement…
*Lk. 18:6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the
unjust judge says. 7And will not God bring about justice for his
chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8I
tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
*(Blank)
King David did not try to
impress anyone. What he did he did from
his heart, from his own genuine convictions.
His relationship was real; he didn’t care what others thought.
*David was a nonconformist,
he did the unexpected; he was uncompromising.
We can learn some powerful
examples of uncompromising conviction from David’s life.
*Having an unwavering
conviction stands against vicious criticism.
*1 Sam. 17:28 When Eliab, David’s oldest brother,
heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, “Why
have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the
desert? I know how conceited you are
and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.”
29“Now
what have I done?”
*said David. “Can’t I even speak?” 30He
then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men
answered him as before. 31What David said was overheard and reported
to Saul, and Saul sent for him.
32David
said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart
on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”
*Having an unwavering
conviction stands for what is right even against enormous pressure and good
reason to do otherwise.
*1 Sam. 24:1 After Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines,
he was told, “David is in the Desert of En Gedi.” 2So Saul took
three thousand chosen men from all Israel and set out to look for David and his
men near the Crags of the Wild Goats.
3He came
to the sheep pens along the way; a cave was there, and Saul went in to relieve
himself. David and his
*men were far back in the cave. 4The men
said, “This is the day the LORD spoke
of when he said to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hands for you
to deal with as you wish.’” Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner
of Saul’s robe.
5Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having
cut off a corner of his robe. 6 He said to his men,
*“The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my master,
the LORD’S anointed, or lift my hand against him; for he is the anointed of the
LORD.” 7 With these words David rebuked his men and did not allow
them to attack Saul. And Saul left the cave and went his way.
*David continues to hold to
his convictions even when Abishai risks his life for David.
*1 Sam. 26:6 David then asked Ahimelech the Hittite
and Abishai son of Zeruiah, Joab’s brother, “Who will go down into the camp
with me to Saul?”
“I’ll go with you,” said Abishai.
7So David
and Abishai went to the army by night, and there was Saul, lying asleep inside
the camp with his spear stuck in the ground near his
*head. Abner and the soldiers were lying around him.
8Abishai
said to David, “Today God has
delivered your enemy into your hands. Now let me pin him to the ground with one
thrust of my spear; I won’t strike him twice.”
9But David
said to Abishai, “Don’t destroy him! Who can lay a hand on the LORD’S anointed
and be guiltless?
*10As surely as the LORD lives,” he said,
“the LORD himself will strike him; either his time will come and he will die,
or he will go into battle and perish. 11But the LORD forbid that I
should lay a hand on the LORD’S anointed. Now get the spear and water jug that
are near his head, and let’s go.”
*Having an unwavering
conviction stands against rejection and antagonism from those you least expect.
*1 Sam. 30:3 When David and his men came to Ziklag,
they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken
captive. 4So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength
left to weep. 5David’s two wives had been captured—Ahinoam of
Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel.
*6 David
was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him;
each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the LORD his God.
*David’s conviction of
worship was not hindered by what people thought.
*2 Sam. 6:12 …David went down and brought up the ark
of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing. 13When
those who were carrying the ark of the LORD had taken six steps, he sacrificed
a bull and a fattened calf. 14 David,
wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might, 15while
he and the entire house of Israel brought
*up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of
trumpets.
16As the
ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched
from a window. And when she saw King
David leaping and dancing before the LORD, she despised him in her heart.
17They
brought the ark of the LORD and set it in its place inside the tent
*that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed
burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the LORD. 18After he
had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he
blessed the people in the name of the LORD Almighty. 19Then he gave
a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the
whole crowd of Israelites, both
*men and women. And all the people went to their
homes.
20When
David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to
meet him and said, “How the king of
Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave
girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!”
21David
said to Michal,
*“It was
before the LORD, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from
his house when he appointed me ruler over the LORD’S people Israel—I will celebrate before the LORD.
22 I will become even more
undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by
these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.”
23And Michal daughter of Saul had no children to the day
of her death.
*How strong are your
convictions?
*1
Cor. 16:13 (Message Bible) Keep your eyes open, hold tight to your convictions, give it all you’ve got, be
resolute, and love without stopping.
Your convictions will only be
as deep as your roots.
*Mat. 13:18 “Listen
then to what the parable of the sower means: 19When anyone hears the
message about the kingdom and does
not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown
in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. 20The one who
received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and
at once receives it with joy.
*21 But
since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes
because of the word, he quickly falls away. 22The one who
received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but
the worries of this life and the
deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. 23 But
the one who received the seed that fell on
*good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop,
yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”