John 20:24,Stops We Need to Make, by John.

Stops we need to make.
John 20:24-29

1. Brother Red... was an evangelistic song leader in Arkansas and Missouri for many, many years.
2. We had two wonderful revivals with him, and I believe he was mainly responsible for the success of them.
3. He always had a children's choir that fired everyone up.
4. He had several little songs he used with them. One was "Stop and let me tell you what the Lord has done for me!" He had a wooden poster with "Stop" on one side and "Go" on the other. It clued the children in to what was coming next.
5. In the NIV, Jesus told Thomas, "Stop doubting and believe."
6. There are several stops we need to make.

I. Obviously, the first is to stop and listen to Jesus!

1. In Psalm 46:10, God said, "Be still, and know that I am God." "Be still" is another way to say stop what you are doing!
2. In our busy lives too often we will not take time to just stop, turn to God, and find out what we need, and what we need to be doing.
3. When we truly stop trying everything else in the world, then we are open to the voice of God's spirit and the good news about Jesus.
4. He's always willing to save us if we stop long enough to turn to Him. Jeremiah 29:13,14 says, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord."

II. The second occasion where we need to stop is doubting!

1. Thomas doubted, and as far as I can tell, doubting is not a sin, but it is a lack of sufficient faith to please the Lord.
2. We can't stop doubting by simply saying, "I'm not going to doubt anymore!"
3. Thomas realized that, and he simply wanted for himself what the other disciples had already experienced. Remember in v. 20, Jesus showed them His hands and his side.
4. We will almost certainly never have the opportunity Thomas had, but there is a way to stop doubting.
(1) First, commit yourself to prayer.
(2) Second, read the Scripture in prayer.
(3) Third, learn to expect God to reveal Himself and his intention for your life to you.
5. Somewhere in that process, your doubts will just evaporate.
6. You doubt that? Well, remember the moment you trusted Jesus, God's Holy Spirit sealed you to the day of redemption (Ephesians 4:30), and He will constantly teach you about God if you let Him! He probably won't do a lot against your will!
7. That means open yourself up to God. Ask Him to come into your heart and life. Ask Him to reveal Himself to you!

III. The third occasion is to stop sinning.

1. We just cannot belong to Jesus and live a life of sin!
(1) Jeremiah said, "Be sure your sins will find you out!"
2. These two ways of living are diametrically opposite to each other.
3. Jesus told His listeners in Matthew 6:24, "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. (The Greek "mammonas" means money, but it has the extra meaning of greed!)
4. Greed is one of our great sins, but it personifies all sin!
5. We need to stop sinning so that we will be ready to know and serve the Lord!

IV. The fourth is Stop trying to do the Lord's work.

1. What I mean is, the Lord has given us work to do, and we should do it, but we should not try to do what He has kept for Himself to do.
2. We are to tell people about Jesus, and live a life that lost people can't find fault with without lying!
3. We need to stop trying to prove God to other people.
4. We need to stop trying to force anyone into a specific mold or form of living that we think is right.
5. Instead, we need to set them an example. If it is God's way for them, they will follow our example, but we cannot save anyone! Only God can do that! That's the work He set out for Himself!

Conclusion:

1. We are celebrating Easter because Jesus rose from the dead to give us new spiritual life.
2. We have that life as a gift of God the moment we commit our lives to Jesus.
3. We are always in danger of losing our personal relationship with God because the world around us, our own desires, and our tendency to go our own way gets us in trouble.
4. We begin to doubt. That makes it easy to fall into all sorts of sins. The old saying is, "God Word will keep you from sin, or sins will keep you from God's Word." Psalm 119:11 says, "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you."
5. When Jesus arose from the dead, He appeared three times to His disciples, and they still didn't have their lives tuned to God, but God did everything for them that needed to be done.
6. God has not changed. What He did for them, He will do for you!
7. Give yourself wholeheartedly to God, and you will be success now and all the way through eternity!

Emmanuel 4/8/2007