You're very welcome to today's Triumph Church podcast.
We pray that you enjoy the message we're.
Going to begin this morning's message in Hebrews chapter 10
and verse 38. If you want to turn with me
there in your Bibles, Hebrews 1038 says now the just shall
live by faith. But if anyone draws back, my
soul has no pleasure in him. I've been praying for a while
now about 2026, and what I'm sharing with you this morning is
what the Lord has placed upon my heart for Triumph Church.
And for each of you. This morning's teaching is about
refusing to draw back. Each year many of us make New
Year's resolutions, and that's good.
Many of those are noble. But nothing compares with our
pursuit of drawing ever closer to God.
This needs to be our first priority.
There's nothing in your life more important than this.
Your husband isn't as important. Your wife isn't as important.
Your boyfriend or your girlfriend isn't as important to
your friends, even your job, your aunties, your uncles, your
grandparents. Nothing in your life is more
important than your pursuit of drawing closer to God.
And this is something that begins from the the moment that
you become born again, the moment you you ask Jesus to be
the the Lord and Savior of your life.
That's the beginning point, but it's a pursuit that happens in
your life until you leave this natural life and go on to
eternity with with God in in heaven.
But there's nothing more important than your pursuit of
God and listen that the devil will try to keep you from this.
His motives, we read in John 1010, are to steal, to kill, and
to cause destruction, right. And what is the purpose of
these? What is the purpose of his
coming in to try to steal, to try to to kill your hopes and
your your dreams and to cause destruction and chaos in your
life? What is the purpose of these?
His hope is that you'll continue in the same pattern of Adam and
Eve, which was to draw back from God.
Their natural tendency once they, they fell into the enemy's
trap was to draw back from God. And the devil's hope is that
when he comes into our life and tries to steal, to kill and, and
cause destruction in our lives, that will fall back and will
will fall into that same tendency.
And all of us are human, right? All of us have that tendency
from Adam and Eve to draw back from God.
But this is the polar opposite of what we really need.
And the enemy is counting on that tendency to draw back.
But if we want to see God move in our lives, then we really
need to do then. Then what we really need to do
is to deny that tendency and instead draw nearer to God.
Let's look at what what James chapter 4 and verse 7 and 8 says
for a moment because this gives us some great keys in how we can
overcome that tendency to draw back.
James chapter 4 and verses 7 and 8 says in verse 7, therefore
submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you.
And then verse 8 draw near to God and he will draw near to
you. There are a few great takeaways
here. The first is submitting to God.
This requires our humbling ourselves and listen our our
greatest enemy isn't actually the devil.
We'd like to blame everything on him, of course, but our greatest
enemy isn't the devil. Our greatest enemy is our pride.
Our pride is what keeps us from drawing close to God.
Our pride is what causes us to draw away from him.
And the second is resisting the devil.
But listen, you cannot do this on your own.
You do not have the strength, you do not have the power, you
do not have the capacity on your own to resist the devil.
Listen to what Paul says in Philippians chapter 4 and verse
13. He says that I can do all things
through Christ who strengthens me.
Who is it that strengthens you? It's God.
It's through Christ. Through Christ you are
strengthened. And listen, the 3rd, and this
ties directly into the second, is that strength only comes when
you do what James says in chapter 4 and verse 8 that we
just read, that you must draw close to God.
Our strength is through Christ. So when we draw close to God, he
draws near to us. That place of drawing close to
Him is where we're able to resist the devil.
That is where we're strengthened.
That is where we're empowered. close to God is our place of
strength. It's our fortress.
Read Psalm 91 from this perspective.
And This is why in in Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 38, we're
encouraged not to draw back, because when we draw back, we're
actually stepping away from God, away from that position of of
refuge and strength and towards the enemy.
And I shouldn't have to state how serious that is.
You draw away from God, you're taking a step toward the enemy.
Hebrews 1038 speaks just as loudly to us today and is truly
just as relevant as it ever has been.
The book of Hebrews was written to Jewish believers who had
placed their faith in Jesus, but we're now under intense pressure
to draw back. Following Christ had cost them
socially. Following Christ had cost them
economically and relationally, right.
Some of us may may be able to relate to this and they were
being tempted to draw back because following him had become
difficult and had become inconvenient.
It had become unpopular. That's not so much different
than it is from today, is it? But the immediate danger they
faced was not the difficulties on the outside, but it was the
the quiet withdrawal. They were still believers, but
they were drawing back from gathering.
They were drawing back from their commitment and public
identification with Christ. And listen, this isn't so far
away from Jesus actually walking this earth, Jesus actually
performing miracles and signs and wonders.
This wasn't so far from the apostles still working after
Jesus had ascended to heaven, after their going around doing
the works of Jesus, right? And This is why in Hebrews
chapter 10, it directly addresses the necessity of
assembling together and perseverance and endurance,
because even at that point you had people that were were
drawing away from Christ, drawing away from from their
faith in him. So I want to examine a few
points this this morning and it's all going to center around
Hebrews chapter 10, verse 38. That's going to be our our key
Scripture here and we'll refer back to it several times.
But the the first point we're going to look at is faith is
meant as a way of life, not an occasional choice.
The second is drawing back, begins with distance.
And the third is God takes pleasure and forward moving
faith. So let's begin with our first
point. Faith is a way of life, not an
occasional choice. Let's look again at Hebrews 1038
and at the beginning it says now the just shall live by faith.
That word live here matters. Faith is not something the the
righteous visit, it's how they function.
It's not a convenient or occasional choice, but a fixed
and immovable conviction. Our faith shouldn't be reserved
for crisis moments or spiritual highs, but it's the daily rhythm
of trusting God and ordering our lives centered around him.
Our faith, our life. We're supposed to live by faith.
In that faith, everything centers around Christ.
The apostle Paul says this in Acts chapter 17 and verse 28.
He said, for in him we move and have our being.
Paul reinforces this again and again in his writings.
In Two Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 7 he says, for we walk by
faith and not by sight. And in Colossians chapter 2 and
verse 6 he says, as you therefore have received Christ
Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. A continual theme of the Apostle
Paul's is living for Christ, living in faith.
And this can only be done by faith, surrender and obedience
on our part. So let's talk about these three
things. Let's talk about faith first.
Living for Christ begins with faith, not just believing in
him, but trusting him to saturate our lives in every
part, in every area. The Apostle Paul declares in
Galatians chapter 2 in verse 20 he says the life that I now live
in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and
gave himself for me. Paul reminds us that to live for
Christ is to let faith govern our decisions, our responses and
and priorities, That our lives should be anchored in Jesus.
Our faith in Christ should govern everything in our lives,
the decisions that we make. And then we have surrender.
Living for Christ requires full surrender.
And what is that? It's a daily yielding of our
personal rights, our ambitions and controls to Jesus.
Listen, when we make Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior,
making Him our our Lord means that we put Him over everything
in our lives, everything, absolutely everything.
We surrender our life completely to Him.
And wherever it is that He directs us, whatever it is that
He wants us to do, whatever we give that all to Him, we
surrender our lives to Him. And listen, surrender is not a
bad thing. We know that God's will for us,
Scripture says, is always good and pleasing and perfect.
We know that Scripture says that He turns all things to the good
of those who love Him, right? So when you surrender everything
to him, what are you surrendering yourself to?
You're surrendering yourself to God's perfect will that's always
good and pleasing and perfect in that when you surrender
everything to him, your life, your decisions, your family,
your job, everything to Him, he's going to cause all things
to work for your good, right? Because you love him right and
everyone here loves the Lord, right?
So that means that that God is going to turn all things to your
good. Paul urges us to this in Romans
chapter 12 and verse one. He says in in, in.
So, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your
bodies to God because of all He has done for you.
Let them be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind He will find
acceptable. This is truly the way to worship
Him. Surrender is not passive
resignation, but active submission, where Christ becomes
Lord in every area of our life. As I said, we give Him every
part of us, every corner, every area, every part, complete and
total surrender. And when we do that, we're
tapping into something that is absolutely, truly amazing.
God will never let us down. He's faithful.
Faithful to His Word, faithful to His promises.
And when we surrender our lives to Him, he will cause those
promises, those things in His Word, if we'll believe them,
He'll cause those things to come to pass in our lives, and then
we have obedience. Faith and surrender naturally
lead to obedience. For Paul, obedience was the
outward expression of an inward devotion to Christ.
Because he was was submitted to Christ.
Because he had faith in Christ, it was natural for him to obey
Christ. Because he trusted him, he had
faith in him. He had faith knowing that that
God's will for him was always good and pleasing and perfect.
The same is true for us. The apostle Paul testified to
this in in Acts chapter 26 and verse 19.
He says that I was not disobedient to the heavenly
vision, showing that living for Christ means obedience to
Christ. And listen, obedience is not
legalism. It's love in action.
It's our response to our faith in God's goodness, right?
And obedience is, is something that when we believe God, when
we have faith in him and we surrender our lives to him, it's
important that we obey his word, that we act that out in our
lives, that we do what it is that it says our faith and our
surrender will naturally lead to our obedience to God's word.
When we obey God's word, then he's able to provide for for all
of our need and and perform his his will in our lives.
Well, let's look at our second point this morning, which is
drawing back begins with distance.
Hebrews 1038 says, but if anyone draws back, drawing back is
rarely something that's sudden. Most people don't just make the
decision instantaneously in a moment that they're going to
draw back from from God. It's it's usually something
that's progressive. It it begins quietly.
It begins with distance, then disengagement and then neglect.
And where this is usually first evident is in our attitude
towards the things of God, but also our attitude towards
towards church. When believers begin to
disconnect from the local church, spiritual drift begins
to follow. And that drifting leads
oftentimes to compromise. Compromise of our beliefs,
compromise of, of God's word, compromise of our relationship
with Him, compromise of our, our faith.
And it leads to lukewarmness. It leads to a, a casual attitude
towards God and the things of God.
You know, God designed the church as a place of growing, of
accountability, of encouragement, of protection,
right? We need church.
But listen, we don't just come to church for ourselves.
We need to come to church for ourselves, right?
But we also come to to church for the the person next to us,
the person behind us, the person in front of us.
We all need each other. We're a family, right?
We're a church family. We're a spiritual community and
we need one another and listen, there's times where where one of
us is down and and and the other others of us are are up and and
when we're down, we need those people that can encourage us,
who can give us a hug and say that I love you.
Who can say, listen, God is for you and I'm for you and I'm with
you. Let's believe him together in
this right. We need one another.
A growing tend trend in in Christian circles is that.
Faithfully attending a church has become less and less of our
priority. Christians are increasingly
isolating themselves. This trend was catapulted really
in 2020, though it's something that had been have has been
happening for some time. But in 2020, government shut
shut everything down around the globe and forced people into
isolation. And a massive fallout of this is
that church has fallen as a priority to many believers.
You know, we have these massive fireplaces, these cast iron
stoves in each of our sitting rooms.
We have two sitting rooms and we have one in, in each room.
And a lot of times I, I use coal because it gets really hot and I
put some then, then some wood on that.
But I've noticed, and you can see this if you've ever made a
fire, that when you, when you make a fire with coal, you know,
if you take a, if you, if a piece of coal falls off of the
pile, right, and it's over to the side, it starts to begin to
cool down. You know, all the rest are like
blazing red. They're hot, they're intense,
right? But that piece that's falling
off begins to cool off and it's no longer red.
It's no longer hot. It's no longer putting off the
the same heat that it that it used to, right?
Because it's become isolated. And when we become isolated, we
become easy prey. We know what Peter warns of in
one Peter chapter 5 and verse 8. He said stay alert.
Watch out for your great enemy, the devil, because he prowls
around like a roaring lion looking for whom he may devour,
right? Well, listen, when we, when we
separate ourselves, when we draw back from God, when we draw back
from from his church, when we draw back from our from our
church family, our community, we begin to cool off.
We start to become isolated and that's where we would become
easy pickings for the devil because there's strength in
community. We're looking after one another.
We have each other's back, right?
We're encouraging one another. Iron sharpens iron.
We're pushing each other forward.
But when we isolate ourselves, we become easy pickings for the
devil. I said when I was growing up,
everything was closed on Sundays.
The petrol stations were closed, the grocery stores were closed,
Nearly everything was closed. Sundays were for church and you
had to plan ahead of time. You had to buy groceries for
that. You needed for a Sunday for
lunch and for dinner. If you needed some, some fuel,
some some petrol, you needed to go to the the petrol station on
Saturday. So you because they were closed
on Sunday, right? Even still, when Pastor Amy and
I first moved to Ireland in 2000 in Limerick, it was near the
same then. Most businesses were closed.
If any were open, they closed early.
How many of you remember that? And it was such a lovely time.
But things have changed. Things have shifted in both
society and within the church. Many believers have begun begun
to draw back. There is no longer a a priority
to attend church together, which is a symptom of a much larger
problem. Some people are, are
prioritizing a good lion instead of coming to church and, and
hearing God's worship and, or hearing God's word and, and
worshipping him as a, as a, as a church family.
Some people are instead of coming to, to church to honor
Christ, to honor his church, to honor his word, to honor the
community and what that he's doing, they're choosing to, to
stay home. But Scripture never presents
church gathering as optional for believers in Hebrews chapter 10
and verse 25 is very clear. It says not forsaking the
assembly of ourselves together, as is the manner of some.
Now notice here it states the manner of some.
Even then in the days of the early church, as I said, people
were already drifting. They were already drawing back.
The Holy Spirit addresses this directly because our faith
weekends when our connection to God, when our connection to our
faith community, when our connection to our church fades.
Consistent gathering of believers was never something
that Jesus considered optional in his own life.
And by example, he was faithful to attend the synagogue on the
Sabbath. And Luke chapter 4 and verse 16
it says. And when he came to the village
of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the
synagogue on the Sabbath. Right as usual means that Jesus
had a settled habitual practice of gathering at the synagogue.
It wasn't a, an occasional act. It was something that he did as
usual. He had a habit of that when he
was 12 years old and his parents misplaced him for an entire day.
They lost track of him. They were traveling and you
know, they traveled kind of in a caravan as a, as a small
community back then. So they didn't realize that
Jesus wasn't with them. But when they found Jesus, where
was Jesus at? He's 12 years old.
He's at the synagogue, right? Jesus had a consistent habit, a
priority, that when it was Sabbath, he was at the synagogue
hearing the teaching of Scripture.
The Sabbath was for the Lord for gathering and just as we do each
weekend we like to say Sundays are for church worship.
Scripture and community were non negotiables for Jesus and
honestly as your pastor I would encourage you that this
shouldn't be a negotiable in our lives either.
Jesus was setting an example with His life to faithfully
attend what He built His church. Listen, church attendance
doesn't make you righteous, but righteous people value and honor
the local church because Jesus established it.
Honoring His church honors Him. And listen, I don't want you to
feel bad because you know, you work some Sundays and you're not
able to come into to church because you're working a job.
I understand that. I had to do that at different
times in my life. I alternated Sundays, So every
other Sunday I was having to work on Sunday morning, right?
But the Sundays that I was off, I was at church with my family.
It was important. So I understand that sometimes
we're not able to come to church.
That's not what I'm talking about, OK?
I'm talking about us having a a conviction, us having a a
commitment and consistently gathering with our church family
to hear the word to worship the Lord together.
We need that and others need us. All right, honoring Christ,
Church honors him. Let's finish with my Third Point
this morning, which God takes pleasure in forward moving
faith. Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 38
again says now the just shall live by faith.
But if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him.
Listen, God's not neutral about retreat.
Scripture is clear that God delights in faith that presses
forward. Remember, faith defined is
simply believing that God is telling us the truth.
It's believing His word over every circumstance.
It's believing that God is able to defy natural circumstance.
His supernatural and supernatural just means that
that God is able to alter the natural.
It's His super in the natural. His supernatural is exceedingly
able to overcome any circumstance in your life if
you'll have faith in His Word and surrender to His will and
obey what His Word says. It's no wonder that in Hebrews
Chapter 11 in verse 6 it says this, that without faith it is
impossible to believe Him or in without faith it is impossible
to please Him. Faith is believing God over
everything you see, over everything you feel, over your
emotions, over everything that you experience.
God is greater than all of that. And listen, faith isn't a denial
of circumstances, OK? A lot of we all deal with
circumstances. We all deal.
Sometimes my body is, is speaking to me.
It's not feeling well, right? That's a circumstance, all
right. But faith is a belief in trust
that God can change that circumstance no matter what my
body is speaking to me. That circumstance, no matter
what any bill is speaking to me or that circumstance, right?
I have faith. I have a belief in trust that
God can change that. That is faith.
And the very next verse after Hebrews 1038 gives God's
expectation for believers. And it's this Hebrews 1039 says,
But we are not of those who draw back.
I am not one who's going to draw back.
You are not those who are going to draw back.
But we are going to push forward in 2026, and this is going to be
an amazing and miraculous year because we are pushing forward.
We're not going to draw back. Triumph Church isn't going to
draw back. This church, family and
community is not going to draw back.
You are not going to draw back. But we are going to see as we
draw close to God that He's going to draw close to us.
And we're going to see His word come to pass in our lives.
Those who move forward in faith, well, triumph.
They're going to overcome as they prioritize God and draw
close to Him and as they prioritize his church and be
part of that. So to close out this morning, I
want to encourage you what the Lord is telling us at Triumph
Church in 2026, and it's to continue to move forward what
God has done in your life in 2025.
Let that be the foundation and let God continue to build upon
that. And let's continue to move
forward and refuse to draw back. Don't even give the enemy a
centimeter, don't take a step back, even a centimeter, but
continue to push forward. Continue that all that, all that
into all that the Lord has been building and developing in your
life and allow Him to build upon that.
Living by faith means staying connected to God, connected to
God's people and God's purposes. Today is a call to forward
moving faith, to consistent faith, to committed faith.
And my hope for you in 2026 as your pastor is that you'll
choose to live by faith and let that faith be seen in your
devotion to the Lord and his church.
Amen. Listen, if if that's you this
morning, if you've come to church and you're sitting in
these seats here, if you have, AI would want to encourage you
to make a a commitment to be part of what God is doing and
allow him to continue to build in your life.
You're going to see amazing things if this is you, if you're
going to continue to move forward, if you're going to
continue to have forward moving faith and draw close to God.
I just want you to pray this with me.
Let's pray this all together. Just repeat after me.
Dear Heavenly Father, I commit my life to you.
I commit my 2026 to you. Help me walk in faith, help me
walk in surrender, help me walk in obedience to Your Word, and
help me live my life as a light and an example of a committed
Christian pressing forward in Christ's strength, in Jesus
name, Amen. Thank you for listening to the
Triumph Church Podcast this week.
If it was a blessing to you, share it with someone you know.
For more information on Triumph Church, you can visit us at W
dot Triumph Church dot IE.